Preached as a sermon for the annual 'Be a Boy Chorister for the Day' event at Croydon Minster on Sunday 26 January
+
‘Sing to the Lord a new song: sing praises lustily
unto him with a good courage’ (Psalm 33.3)
Those
are words that our choristers, and aspiring choristers, sang earlier. It’s from
the Book of Psalms, which is sometimes known as the hymn book of the Bible.
Psalms
were traditionally composed by King David and Christians share them with the
Jewish people. In Islam the Psalms, known as Zabur, are understood to be, along
with the Gospels, as one of the texts revealed by God.
The
psalms are rooted in the human experience of God. They express lots of
different moods and emotions: sadness and lament; joy and celebration;
adoration, worship and praise; some tell the stories of God’s people and some
of individuals. There is a psalm for all occasions.
Jesus
knew the psalms well. The psalms are his most quoted book of the Bible. Even as
he died on the cross Jesus’ spoke words from Psalm 22, ‘My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?’
I love
singing the psalms, which are the backbone of the daily prayer of the Church.
Sometimes they are sung to the ancient tones of plainsong; sometimes, like
tonight, in what is known as Anglican Chant, a particular style in the Church
of England for some five centuries now; sometimes they are sung by a worship
band; sometimes they are whispered quietly.
When a
choir sings the psalm we have a chance to engage with the text in a different
way from when we say it ourselves. But always remember that everyone present makes
up the choir of a Church: we all sing praises to God. The singers we call the choir are like yeast in dough or the
fizz in a drink, they use their God-given skills of singing and making music to
lift us all in our praise of God.
The
psalm that we sang tonight reminds us why we sing and make music to God. First
of all, it is just plain good to sing praises to God who made us, loves us and
saves us! As the beautiful language of the Book of Common Prayer puts it, ‘it
becometh well the just to be thankful’ (Psalm 33.1).
As it continues
the psalm encourages us again, ‘Sing
to the Lord a new song: sing praises lustily unto him with a good courage’
(Psalm 33.3) and then it gives the second reason why we sing psalms: ‘For the
word of the Lord is true: and all his works are faithful. He loveth
righteousness and judgement: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.’
(Psalm 33.4,5)
That is why we sing to God and praise God’s Holy Name:
because he is our hope and our salvation.
As St
Paul writes, ‘sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God, making melody
to the Lord in your hearts’ (Ephesians
5.19).
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment