May My Tongue Sing of Your Word

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, at 176 verses. It's crazy. The Psalm is fascinating for many reasons. It was written as an acrostic on the Hebrew alphabet. The first 8 verses start with the Hebrew letter 'Aleph,' the next 8 verses start with the Hebrew letter 'Beth,' etc. It's also very focused on one topic: God's word. The Psalmist sings of God's commands, precepts, way, law, decrees, etc.

So it's word play in lyric form about God's word. It's like a BC crossword puzzle poem! I love it.

Verse 171-172 says,

"May my lips overflow with praise,

    for you teach me your decrees. 

May my tongue sing of your word,

    for all your commands are righteous."

I love this idea: that we would sing of God's word, or even sing God's word. Is there anything more helpful to our spiritual formation than to learn to sing God's word? You probably can sing from memory songs you learned in grade school: music and rhyme are powerful tools for memorization. Plato once wrote, "Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its law."* Music is a powerful teacher.

That's why, in case you've ever wondered, we try to put songs through a rubric of questions to make sure it's worth our time singing on a Sunday. The basic question: "Is this song among the best for New Cov to sing?"

We look at 3 areas:**

1.Theological Strength - Are the lyrics true? Do they represent the Bible? Do they tell the story of Scripture well?

2.Lyrical Strength - Is the text well constructed? Is it poetic? Does it connect with our imagination? Does it inspire?

3.Musical Strength - Is it singable? Is the melody memorable? Does the tune fit the text well?

Some songs will be stronger in some areas and weaker in others. But this gives us a method of evaluating any songs we include to sing on a Sunday morning. The closer we get to putting the words of scripture in our praise, I think, the better opportunity we give God to form us into Christlikeness through worship.

* I've also seen this quote attributed to a contemporary of Plato, Damon of Athens, and to Andrew Fletcher, a Scottish philosopher of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

** I learned this method from a book called The Worship Architect by Rev. Dr. Constance M. Cherry. The book has been invaluable for me as a Pastor of Worship.