Sabbath the Prophet gives this as a reason of that joyfull solemnity ver. 4. For thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work I will triumph in the works of thy hands The great work and business of the Sabbath is to magnifie God in regard of his great works viz. Creation and Providence but especially the great work of reconciling the world and Redeeming sinners from death and hell by Jesus Christ This great Work was compleated on the day of Christs resurrection which was the beginning of his exaltation and then it becomes us to rejoyce in the Kingdome Power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ singing to the Lord because he hath done marvellous things and saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it I say 't is suteable and seasonable â—…o rejoyce and be merry on the Lords day and therefore to sing and so express our joy in the Lord who hath made us to rejoyce in his salvation God loves not to see us lumpish and melancholy but chearfull and joyfull in his service Let us therefore sing and say The Lord reigneth One gives this as one end and use of our singing of Psalmes viz. That the Spirit dwelling in us may be as it were excited and stirred up to put forth his power more effectually and plentifully and grounds it upon my Text which saith he imports two things First that singing is an effect of the Spirit And secondly That the Spirit is stirred up in us by singing That which he saith to my thinking hath much reason in it For why may not singing excite and stirr up the spirit and the graces of it in Christians as well as the performance of other duties They that have grace therefore do duty that by exercising their graces they may improve them Now let such as have any grace of God in them consider how in doing this duty as it ought to be done the graces of God specially faith and hope may be set on work whilst we seriously meditate on the promises and other passages of David's Psalmes Once more a Psalm is good sometimes to comfort our hearts when we are under affliction as I hinted before how Paul and Silas sang when they were under extream sufferings and Luther would encourage himself and others when he heard any bad news of any attempts against the Gospell and such as profest it saying Let us sing the 46th Psalm and let them do their worst Indeed that 's a Psalm will chear a mans spirits if he can sing it with understanding and grace in his heart So did the Primitive Christians comfort themselves in prison by singing of Psalmes Lastly singing of Psalmes is an excellent way to praise God and speak good of his Name Many Psalmes you know are full of Gods praises and set forth the wondrous works that he hath done so as he may have the glory of them To praise God and bless his Name is the highest and most excellent service we can do on earth it comes nearest to the exercise of the Saints in heaven who are alwayes praising God in the admiration of his infinite and incomprehensible Glory Now singing of Psalmes is an excellent way of praising God One saith that in singing there is a more copious and ample profession of piety Not as if God who is a Spirit were delighted with any sensible thing as Musick or melodious tunes But yet God is as I may say more delighted when we are more ample and patheticall in pouring out our soules to him in praise 2 Sam. 6. David it is said danced before the Lord with all his might and then Michol scorned and flouted him as some do us now adayes for our singing of Psalmes which yet is but a praising the Lord with all our might And indeed to speak as the thing is the glory of God is held forth more illustriously in singing of Psalmes as one observes because the praises of God are celebrated with greater attention and affection than if they were barely recited with a lower voice Wherefore the Levites upon all occasions sung the praises of the Lord and so did all Gods people also No Prince as he saith or great Commander but thinks himself more honoured if the great things they have done be commemorated and set forth in a Song 1 Sam. 18. 6 7. So the women went out to meet Saul with singing and with Instruments of Musick Now our great Champion and Captain Generall hath conquered sin and Satan and all our spiritual enemies we give him not the glory due unto his name unless we celebrate the victory with Songs of deliverance That none of old sung but such as had an extraordinary spirit is false as I shewed formerly Exod. 15. All the children of Israel had not such a spirit though Moses and Miriam had In Hezekiah's time the Levites sung praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the Seer and so no question they did in Jehoshaphat's time also As for the gift of Psalmes in the Primitive Churches it went with the gift of tongues and both are long since ceased so as we may argue as well that we must not say because we have not the gift of Tongues as that we must not sing because we have not the gift of Psalmes Besides we finde no mention in Scripture of any Church-Officer for compiling of Psalmes as for the Ministry of the Word and prayer Nor hath God inspired any with a gift of Psalmistry to sute the occasions of the Churches from Sabbath to Sabbath We finde neither Ordinance appointing nor Providence granting it nor any reason to silence David's Psalmes that others may be attended We know who indited them and we know too which I wish may be duely considered that some of them are proper to Gospell times If any question it let them read the 98th Psalm and see whether it be not more proper for Gods people now than in the times of the old Testament Quaest. But how may we sing David's Psalmes so as to attain those ends Sol. First We must have grace in our hearts or a gracious frame of spirit such as David had Singing praise to God is an exercise becoming Saints who alone can do it so as to please God and profit themselves in it as was shewed before 2. Secondly Sing none but spirituall Songs such as David's Psalmes are and others composed by holy men of God who spake as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost These are altogether spirituall for the Authour for the Matter and for the End and Use of them Quest May we not sing any other Song composed by a common gift so long as it is spirituall for the Matter Ans. It may be of ill consequence many wayes to shut out David's Psalmes and take in our own as First We may mistake even in the Matter whereas we are sure there is no such mistake in David's Psalmes Secondly Some
He calls for the heart My son give me thy heart So Chrysostome upon this Text Attending with understanding The meaning of the Apostle is clear and unquestionable That our singing of Psalmes must not be a lip-labour an outward bodily exercise it must not be the pleasing our selves or others with the tune of a Psalm that is not it which God looks for at our hands but we must sing as Mary did Luke 1. 46. My soul doth magnifie the Lord my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour And as David in the 103 Psalm Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name This is that which the Apostle here calls for and it implies these two particulars 1. A sense and understanding of that which is sung I will sing with understanding saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 14 15. that is so as I would be understood by others therefore by himself much more Sing ye praises with understanding Psal. 47. 7. a blinde Sacrifice was an abomination to the Lord 2. It must be an inward feeling and affection of the heart and spirit So David in Psalm 57. 7. My heart is fixed my heart is fixed or my heart is prepared or my heart is disposed When a man's heart is filled with the Spirit as the Apostle speaks when a mans heart is full of holy and heavenly thoughts affections and meditations and so out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks when the frame of a man's heart is suteable to the holy and spirituall matter that is sung this is singing in the heart or with grace in the heart to the Lord who looks at the heart and how a man is affected within Certainly as one sayes grace in the heart is the best tune to any Psalm and without this the sweetest best tun'd voice is but howling and bawling in the ears of the Almighty Yet do we not exclude the voice in singing David used it I will sing and give praise even with my glory awake psaltery and harp I my self will awake early Psal. 57. 8. and 108. 2. Awake up my glory sayes David that was his tongue called his glory because his tongue in singing was an excellent instrument of glorifying God Nor do we exclude all modulation or tuning of the voice according to the lawes of Musick provided there be no affectation of it so as our hearts be wholly taken up with it Provided also there be no empty tautologies or chanting over and over the same things tossing of the Word of God like a tennis-ball from one to the other like that Cathedrall musick intended onely to please the care and no way ordered to the use of edifying in grace and knowledg But for the voyce in singing we plead and also for singing with tunes All the Psalmes were penned in Hebrew meeter with the exactest Art that might be They were penned saith one with exactness and variety of Meeter 1. In such verses as are sutable to the Poetry of the Hebrew Language and not in the stile of such other books of the Old Testament as are not poeticall 2. Many verses together in severall of the Psalmes do also run in rimes as those know that understand the Hebrew and as Buxtorph shews The sau p. 629. But though we plead for singing with the voice yet our chiefest respect in that singing must be unto the heart and spirit to the understanding and to the Affection and inward feeling of what is sung for this is to sing with grace in the heart Hence it follows that none can sing a Psalm as he ought but he that hath grace in his heart and is renewed in the spirit of his minde None could learn that Song Rev. 14. 3. but the hundred fourty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth which was onely the people of God who stood in opposition to Antichrist and by their singing there is meant all spirituall Worship performed by Gods people to him It is said there No man could learn that Song but those that were redeemed from the earth the Antichristian earthly generation had no skill on the spirituall Worship and Service offered to God in the true Christian Church Therefore the Psalmist saith Psal. 33. 1. speaking of this duty Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright it is impossible for others to rejoyce in the Lord Onely Gods own people have an inward experimentall knowledg of the glorious Excellencies and Attributes of God viz. his Power Wisdome goodness c. they onely have tasted how sweet the Lord is in his promises and Providences They know and none but they what the Offices of Christ are in the power fruit and benefit of them They know what it is to be redeemed from the earth and from death and from the nethermost hell They onely have experience of the mercy and loving kindeness of the Lord supporting supplying them and ordering all for good to them And they alone have a lively feeling of their infirmities sigh and groan under the burden of their corruptions are troubled for the indisposition and â—…towardness of their hearts These and such as these who are so inspired and affected can sing David's Psalmes with David's spirit Others may sing more pleasingly to the ear but these alone make melody in the eares of the Lord who looks at the heart Q. That 's it we desire to be satisfied in How we may sing Davids Psalmes with Davids spirit A. It is commonly truly and piously said We must sing Davids Psalmes with Davids spirit though there is no Text in the Bible to my remembrance that hath those very words but some speak somewhat to this effect as Col. 3. 16. we must sing with grace in our hearts that is as much as if he should have said Sing Davids Psalmes with Davids spirit 2. We grant it is impossible for any to sing Psalmes so but one that is a new creature renewed in the spirit of his minde as David was 3. We say in the general to sing Davids Psalmes with Davids spirit or to sing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord there must be not onely an habituall but an actuall disposedness as when a man sets upon any duty he must stir up the grace that is in him so it is not enough in singing Psalmes to have an habit of grace but we must stir up and act the gifts and graces of God within us Here then this shall be the great question How our spirits ought to be disposed when we are to sing that we may so do it as to give God the glory and gain benefit to our own soules Or which is all own how we may sing David's Psalmes with David's spirit Or how we may sing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord which is the Doctrine in the Text Now here I meet with that which is a very great scruple and I beleeve hath taken and kept off many from singing of
of most concerning the nature end and Use of this Duty hath given the greatest advantage unto others to seduce and draw them away from it If that which hath been spoken upon this occasion may convince or confirm or direct any I have my end and let God have the glory Only hear what Mr Cotton a reverend man saith in this case It is saith he the misery of this present age that those Ordinances which men have used either without the knowledge of their true grounds or without any sense of comfort in by them or without love to them in the hour of temptation they have cast them aside and so forsaken the holy Institutions of God to please themselves in their own imaginations Suppose the 3d Psalm is to be sung what a word of Admonition is there to act faith in a God Almighty as David did and so to possess our soules in patience and confident exspectation of deliverance in Gods time and way though our distress and danger be never so great If a man have grace in his heart the singing of that Psalm may provoke and put him on to offer up the prayer of faith whatever his condition be And so it is very proper to any good Christians case And that 's the scope of the 4th Psalme viz. to express the confidence that David had in God when he lay under the hard and heavy hands of cruel enemies who insulted over him Why may not any good Christian in singing that Psalme act faith as David did However he may learn his duty and what he ought to do when there is the like occasion Besides there is a word of Admonition not to look after comfort in any creature but to preferr the light of Gods countenance above all worldly accommodations though in never so great abundance If we would rejoyce in the Lord notwithstanding the insolency and outrage of cruell enemies and encourage our hearts to expect an end of them and all their wicked designes and devices how pertinent is the 9th Psalm And suppose we are not in such a sad condition yet it is I hope no hurt for us to meditate on such matter thereby to furnish our selves with provision against a time of need Sure I am we read many Psalmes and other portions of Scripture that out of them we may gather and lay up somewhat in store for our selves against a time of need if there were no more But there is more in the matter than so as hath been shewed in the foregoing Sermons What singular expressions of our desires have we in the tenth Psalm when we have occasion to bewail the miseries and sufferings of Gods people through the craft and crueltie of unreasonable and wicked men And when have not Gods people occasion so to do The eleventh Psalme is nothing else but a profession of David's confidence in God and his taking comfort thereupon when there was no help nor any hope of it from men but as he there saith v. 3. All the foundations are destroyed and what can the righteous do Is there not much to be learnt from the 14th Psalme concerning the folly and madness of prophane ones that fear not God and regard not men As also concerning Gods watchfull eye observing all their wayes and doings when they go on to vex and oppress his people against the light of conscience shining within them And yet there is more to be learnt from it concerning the sad and miserable condition wherein all men are by nature and the only means of their deliverance How usefull is it to meditate on the blessedness of such as are true Citizens of Zion which we may do in singing the 15th Psalme and so learn what manner of men we ought to be in all conversation and godliness as ever we hope to enjoy communion with the Lord both here and hereafter What a lively description of Christ's death and resurrection have we in the sixteenth Psalme wherein the Lord professeth his delight in the Saints on earth as his portion and the lot of his inheritance and proclaims to all the world that idolaters and all despisers of his grace have no part nor lot in the precious fruits and benefits of his death and resurrection Doth it not become Christians to sing that Psalm so to rejoyce in the glorious conquest of Christ over death and the grave by vertue whereof they have cause to triumph as the Apostle directs them 1 Corinth 15. 55. Or is there any thing that can minister occasion of rejoycing in God more than the glorious victory we have in Christ Jesus over all our spirituall enemies When I consider these things I cannot sufficiently wonder at the peevishness of some people quarrelling as they do at the singing of this or other the like Psalmes which is in effect to say they would not have Christians to rejoyce in Gods salvation Sure I am that very many of David's Psalmes set forth the glory of Christs Kingdome and the beauty of his grace and providence in the administration of it as whosoever hath any sence of such spirituall things cannot but be ravished with the meditation and the remembrance of them I may perhaps weary some Readers with so many particular instances However for the satisfaction of others I shall crave leave to adde a few more The 17th Psalme was penned as it is probable upon occasion of David's persecution by Saul Now though we are not in the same condition yet we may be in somewhat a like case Or if not so yet we may sing it to very good purpose whilest we thereby take occasion to consider that our innocency and uprightness is a singular argument of consolation in times of affliction that when we are under any sufferings our greatest care must be to keep our selves from sinning and that the comfort of the godly arising from the sense of Gods favour and gracious presence is better by farre and rather to be chosen than the present condition of wicked men flourishing in all worldly wealth and having more than heart can wish The Eighteenth Psalme teacheth us that God alone is to be acknowledged and honoured in all our mercies and particularly in deliverances from enemies or any dangers It sets forth the condition of Gods people in all ages both as to their sufferings and their safetie and gives us fit occasion of meditating on the glorious victories of the Lord Jesus of whom David was a type in all his sufferings and the glory that followed after them The Nineteenth Psalme shews that however the glory of God is to be seen in his works yet his Word is that which makes us wise unto salvation and that this word of God is so perfect as by comparing our lives and conversations with it we have cause to bewail our many infirmities and with all earnestness and fervencie of spirit to beg grace and strength of God against the grossest evills since we have that corruption within us