God’s Hymn Book by J. S. Washburn

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jun 3, 1915

God’s Hymn Book

By J. S. Washburn

J. S. WASHBURN

God has not only provided for his people a book for reading, study, and divine guidance, but he has also provided for them an inspired hymn book. By far the largest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms. In this book are one hundred and fifty inspired songs to be sung by God’s people. This is the only book of the Bible originally divided into chapters. All other books were divided by men.

That the psalms were originally divided by the Lord himself, is evident from Acts 13: 33, where the apostle Paul refers to the “second psalm,” and in verse 35, to “another psalm.”

So then here are one hundred and fifty songs God gave his people to sing. Surely the fact that by the order of God the largest book in the Bible is devoted to singing proves the importance of music in the worship of God. In the Hebrew language the psalms are all metrical; not all in rhyme, but all are poetry, and in real meter. Whoever has heard the Hebrews chant the psalms can imagine dimly what must have been the musical rhythm and the wonderful beauty of God’s own music, in God’s own language; for remember Hebrew is the language in which God anciently spoke and wrote to his people.

The 119th psalm is a remarkable example of divine poetry; for in this psalm are twenty-two divisions, eight verses under each one of the Hebrew letters. In the Hebrew, each one of the eight verses begins with the letter under which it is divided; that is, the first eight verses of the psalm begin with the letter “aleph;” from 9 to 16 inclusive, each verse begins with “beth;” from 17 to 24 inclusive, with “gimel;” and so on through all the divisions of the 176 verses of this most remarkable chapter, or song, of all the Bible.

It is impossible to tell whether any part of the music as sung by David’s great choir has been preserved, even by the Hebrews in their majestic chants of today. But the fact is very clearly taught that the singers, both men and women, were an honored and respected class, and must have had special training for the rendering of sacred music, which was their life work. Even to this day the Hebrews are a very musical people. In every age, past as well as present, some of the greatest composers, singers, and musicians have been Hebrews. Nineteen hundred years of darkness, and sorrow, and exile have not robbed them of the skill and musical ability so wonderfully bestowed upon God’s chosen people.

When the Lord inspired the wonderful psalms, and the sweet singer of Israel led the mighty chorus, there must have been a solemn beauty, a divine power, in the music, which we can scarcely imagine today. The words and music of those songs were divinely inspired, and the singers were led by King David, that wonderful man of such varied gifts, whose inspired musical talent banished demons and brought down the divine Spirit, that man whom God himself calls the sweet singer of Israel; and later the music was led by other kings and prophets and by men divinely chosen.

For nearly nineteen centuries that beautiful temple of God, the most wonderful hall of music the world has ever known, has been only a sad memory. Its mighty walls, which once trembled with the glorious psalms of praise sung by the great choirs of God’s chosen singers, have fallen and vanished forever. That

heavenly music is today but a mournful memory of a dead and darkened past, whose glory is departed forever. And over the chosen city, the holy Jerusalem, is settled the shadow of death, its joy and music hushed forever. The children of kings and prophets and divinely chosen singers are exiles in every land, as wrecks of the mighty past, strewn on every foreign shore. And where in glorious Jerusalem were heard the pealing anthems of praise and joy, a few sad exiles return to wail beside its ancient, broken walls.

But though Jerusalem of old is a sad memory, and its people a race of wanderers, yet, thank God, its blessed old hymn book is still ours; the inspired hymns still live, bringing comfort and joy and hope to God’s people. How could we live through the sorrows and perils and agonies of these terrible days if there were no book of Psalms? I must read them every day. I must live in them and by them. But I truly believe the psalms were given us, not only to read, to study, and to pray, but first of all to sing. Christ sang a psalm with his disciples the night before his death. Matt. 26: 30, margin. The inspired command of God for all time is not only to sing hymns and spiritual songs, but also to sing psalms. Eph. 5: 19; Col. 3: 16.

My brief experience in singing the psalms and other words of Scripture just as written, is that, beyond any hymn or song singing, there is a peculiar power and blessing in singing the inspired hymns written by the Lord himself for his people to sing. A brief experience in singing psalms 23 and 46, also the Lord’s Prayer, Isa. 60: 1-3, and other scriptures, exactly as written, encourages me to hope that the modern true Israel of God will yet sing many of the glorious, inspired hymns sung by ancient Israel, which God has written and kept for us.

The words of the Lord have a creative, redeeming, almighty power. Let us not only read and teach them, but let us sing them also as God has commanded. What a mighty appeal would the singing of the psalms be to the Hebrews of today! and what a power would the singing of the psalms and other Scripture words have upon all who hear them! For more than a year we have sung at the opening of our Sabbath service in Philadelphia either the Lord’s Prayer or the twenty-third psalm, and with the singing of these sacred words has seemed to come at the very opening of our meeting, the blessing and the peace of God.

One may ask, “Where shall we find the music with which to sing these Scripture words?” The music is in the words; and if the words are carefully studied, it is not difficult to write music to express the Scripture words. With what appealing power, beyond any humanly written hymn, if set to sympathetic music, would that most pathetic psalm of David’s penitence, the song of his broken heart, sung in a revival meeting, pierce and break the hardest heart! Psalm 51, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” O, the spiritual power of these words, written by the Holy Spirit, when sung with the spirit to appropriate music! How glorious would be the great Adventist psalms,—Psalms 46 and 91,—with music inspired by their inspired words. One of these psalms, at least, will be sung by the Lord’s people in the last days. See “The Great Controversy,” page 639.

Philadelphia, Pa.