You know when you get a song stuck in your head and nothing seems to be able to get it out? Every thought you have is tainted by the song, and the worst part is that it’s usually just a small snippet of the song. Rather than being able to focus on your work, you can’t help but sing Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” for the hundredth time…today. That’s not to mention when you listened to it yesterday in the car or when you first heard the song and couldn’t stop singing it.
The Psalms aim for the same concept: to get the ways of God stuck in our heads through song and poetry. They are based on a combination of the Torah (Psalm 1) and personal catastrophes or life lessons. As David was on the run from Saul (Psalm 22), or lamenting over his sin in the aftermath of Uriah’s death (Psalm 51), or as Asaph was wracked with guilt over his desire for unrighteous living (Psalm 73), the composers took what they knew to be true from the Torah and set their feelings to music. In doing so, they passed on their experiences to future singers, that these singers might know solidarity with others who have felt similar feelings before.
These Psalms became an integral part of the worship of Israel as David reconstituted temple liturgy around the Psalms and sacrifices. Israel would bring their firstfruits of the harvest and their sacrifices to the temple where they would sing to Yahweh. In these songs, alongside the sacrifices, Israel would be fully ritualized into the worldview of the Yahwist. The Psalms have a similar function today. As we pray through, sing, and reflect upon the Psalms, we are brought into the thought world of our Jewish ancestors who knew God and his Law better than we do today. Not only do we gain the wisdom of our spiritual ancestors, but we pray the Psalms on the other side of the Cross, knowing that God’s unfailingly faithful love is made most apparent to us in the cruciform life of his Son. Christian theology, especially Christology, is based heavily upon Israel’s worship. As we today struggle with issues of justice, and God’s role in justice, the Psalms are incredibly important in forming our response to injustice.
First, and most importantly, the Psalms orient our focus around God’s Son, the King who will reign with righteousness and justice. This Son will also act in such a way to bring about justice now and in the future as he has been known to do before. God’s Son is a King who laughs at the feeble attempts of the nations (that is, anybody who sets up an empire against the Kingdom of God) to rage against Yahweh and rule the world on their own terms (Psalm 2). Not only will this Son be a refuge to those who stand behind Him, but He will also break the oppressive reign of those who do not rule wisely (Psalm 2). This King rides in majesty for the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness; He is one who does mighty deeds to save his people. Because of this, and God’s faithful promise to Him, He shall reign forever (Psalm 45). The King will be exalted over all of the earth because He will make wars cease and break the weapons of the warrior (Psalm 46). Not only that, but God Himself stands behind this king in His efforts to break the oppressive powers of the nations (Psalm 110).
Secondly, the Psalms are effective in conforming our minds to the image of this King. The first Psalm joins the rest of the Old Testament in lifting up wisdom as it praises the man who walks in wisdom according to the way of God: he meditates on the word of God day and night, and because of that, he does not stand among the council of the wicked and is like the tree planted beside a flowing river. By praying through the Psalms, we are given the wisdom to stand apart from the wicked generations around us and to have a mind transformed by the ethics of Torah. In that, we become more like the king who stands against oppression. When the Psalmist teaches us that God hates the wicked and stands against those who oppress His righteous people, we learn how we should act in accordance with who God is (Psalm 5). When we learn how much God values unity, we are challenged to live as one people united in the Son (Psalm 133). We also desire to be conformed to the image of the King when we learn the futility of other paths besides the way of wisdom, paths that end up ultimately leading to death and destruction (Psalm 73). When we’re made into the image of the King, we learn His heart and begin to love what the King loves and hate what He hates. This formational process equips us with the tools and desires needed to begin to fight injustice more effectively.
Not only is our focus reoriented on the Son as we are taught how to live like him, the Psalms also help us remember how God has previously acted in history to bring about salvation over oppressive systems. When we are overcome by oppression, we remember the God who judges the earth and remembers His covenant forever; He protected His holy ones by appointing Joseph, bringing the plagues, and enacting an exodus (Psalm 105). We remember that we became God’s people when Israel was brought out of Egypt to become a people designed for God’s name and glory (Psalm 114). We remember that even in our unfaithfulness, God is faithful and continues to extend a hand that we don’t deserve (Psalm 95).
Finally, by being made into the image of the Son who is the King who will judge the world, while remembering what God has done in the past, the Psalms reshape our eschatological hope for the future. In our immediate context, we remember that the King who brought Israel from Egypt will protect us from our enemies (Psalm 56). We know that He will rescue those who cry out for help (Psalm 18). We know that we can call on Him to be faithful as He was before (Psalm 4; 7; 18; 93), assuring that our future is guarded by the faithful Lord who is going to act in our favor. We know that He offers us peace, both now and later (Psalms 4 and 5), with the ultimate goal being man’s exaltation (Psalm 5). Because God will act in our immediate circumstances to bring about our good for the glory of His name, we can be hopeful for future vindication. This vindication is known to us as the time in which God’s anger will melt away, and we will know only His favor forevermore. More than that, we will personally know no more tears and only know the joy of complete union with Christ (Psalm 30).
Just as easy as it is to get Justin Bieber stuck in our heads, God has given us His songbook with the goal of getting His plan for the world ingrained into our ways of thinking. When we seek to end injustice by turning to the Psalter, we are given more tools than we could imagine. God introduces us to his Son, the King who will fight for His righteous saints and destroy those who oppose Him. The Psalms change our patterns of thinking in such a way that we start to look more like this King, enabling us to join in His fight. It gives us the narrative of God’s redemptive plan for history so that we might remember what He’s done in the past, thereby helping us avoid despair today. Finally, the Psalter gives us a more hopeful eschatology that we may learn how to hope for a better today and a better future, where justice and righteousness reign.