This past Fall we preached through the Psalms. During that time we explored the ways in which the Psalms are “the songs of God for the People of God.” They are special songs that we sing with Christ. As St. Augustine of Hippo explains, in the Psalms Christ “prays for us, as our Priest; He prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, as our God. Let us therefore recognize in Him our words, and His words in us” (86.1). God meets us in the Psalter. There, Christ takes up our weakness into Himself and turns it into a song (ex. Ps. 46); in the Psalms also we are gathered into His righteousness and that too becomes in us a song (ex. Ps. 45).
We pray a Psalm each day in the Daily Office. In the coming days we will be putting-out resources to lead and equip families in singing the Psalms. May they be for us the kind of songs that dwell deeply in us, reminding us of who we are when we forget, giving us words when we don’t know what to say, filling us with hope when we feel we can hope no longer.
In the short video below Jonathan, walks us through the basics of Psalm chanting using simple tones. After watching the video, try to sing along at home.
We’ll be sending-out more resources as we go along and will be incorporating more of this into our worship. Contact Fr. Mark or Jonathan with any questions.