Songs to Say Out Loud

God’s people had a songbook — a hundred and fifty-one songs, written over hundreds of years by all sorts of people. David wrote a great many of them; some were written by musicians in the temple, and some by people whose names nobody remembers. They are called the Psalms, and they were written to be sung out loud, with harps and drums and cymbals and a great many voices. And they say everything. Some are happy and some are frightened; some say thank you and some say help; some are written by somebody sitting in the dark asking God why he has gone away. They were the words God’s people used when they had none of their own — and they still are. Here are five of them.

A shepherd boy who grew up to be a king wrote the first one about the God who looked after him — and he used the only picture he really knew. The Lord shepherds me, and I will lack nothing. He settles me down in a place of green grass, and he leads me beside quiet water. He brings my soul back to me, and he guides me along right paths, because that is who he is. Even if I walk in the very middle of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of anything — because you are with me. Your rod and your staff are what comfort me. You lay a table for me, right in front of the people who trouble me. You pour oil on my head until it runs over, and my cup is full and spilling. And your mercy will run after me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord for length of days.

The next one is short, and it is what the crowds sang going up the hill to the temple with their offerings. It is a shout. Shout to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence singing. Know that the Lord himself is God. He made us, and we did not make ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his own field. Come in through his gates saying thank you, and into his courtyards singing. Give thanks to him, and bless his name — because the Lord is kind, and his mercy lasts for ever, and he keeps his word from one generation to the next.

This one is a traveling song, sung by people walking a long road with hills all around them, where the road was not always safe. It is a good one for the dark. I lifted my eyes up to the mountains. Where is my help going to come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. The one who keeps you will not fall asleep. Look — the one who keeps Israel will not doze off, and he will not sleep at all. The Lord is the one who keeps you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun will not burn you by day, and the moon will not by night. The Lord will keep you from every evil thing. He will keep your soul. The Lord will keep you going out and coming in, from now on and for ever.

This one was sung with two halves. One person, or one side of the room, sings the first line — and then everybody together answers with the same line, twenty-six times over, until nobody can forget it. Give thanks to the Lord, because he is kind — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* Give thanks to the God of gods — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* Give thanks to the one who alone does great wonders — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* To the one who made the heavens with his understanding — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* To the one who spread the earth out on the waters — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* To the one who made the great lights: the sun to rule the day, and the moon and the stars to rule the night — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* To the one who brought Israel out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* To the one who cut the Red Sea in two and led his people through the middle of it — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* To the one who led his people through the wilderness — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* He remembered us when we were brought low — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* He gives food to everything that lives — *because his mercy lasts for ever.* Give thanks to the God of heaven — *because his mercy lasts for ever.*

And the last one calls on everything there is, one after another, to praise God — and the list is so long and so wide that by the end there is nothing left out. Not one thing. Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise him up in the highest places. Praise him, all his messengers; praise him, all his armies. Praise him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you stars and all you light. Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the sky. Let them all praise the name of the Lord — because he spoke, and there they were; he gave the word, and they were made. Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deep places; fire and hail, snow and mist, and the storm wind that does what he says; mountains and all hills; fruit trees and all cedars; wild animals and all cattle; creeping things, and birds with wings; kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all the judges of the earth; young men and young women; old people and children together — let them praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is lifted high, and his praise is over the earth and the heavens.

There are a hundred and forty-six more, and they are all different. Some of them are hard. There is one that begins, ‘My God, my God, why did you leave me?’ God’s people were allowed to say that out loud, and they wrote it down and sang it in the temple. That is what the Psalms are for. Whatever you have to say to God, somebody already said it.