Psalm Shaped Liturgy

This morning I worshiped with the saints at Grace Church in Gibsonia, PA. One of the things about the worship service that stood out to me was the congregational singing. We sang Psalm 104. We sang all of Psalm 104. If you're not familiar, this is a long Psalm. It is 35 verses in length; five separate selections from the Book of Psalms for Singing. It took the whole worship service to sing it. When I think about it, though, this is appropriate. Here are some thoughts:

Psalm 104, like the many wonders of Hebrew poetry, has a great structure to it.

1-4 - God is majestic, exercising dominion over the elements.

5-9 - God has appointed the foundations and boundaries of the earth that cannot be thwarted.

10-15 - God sustains his creation from necessities of food and water to extravagances of wine and oil.

16-18 - God has provided shelter particular to the needs of each of His creatures.

19-23 - God marks the time for seasons and days; setting the sun and moon in their orbits.

24-30 - God is praised for the variety of His creatures and their continual dependence upon Him.

31-35 - A declaration of praise to God; He is to be feared.

I recall interacting with a friend who was taking a ministry of worship class at a local Southern Baptist Seminary. He said that the professor was instructing them in what I will call "Psalm Shaped Liturgy". Basically in class they studied the structure of a Psalm. They looked to each part and tried to supply a corresponding worship element. For example, if the Psalmist is expressing repentance then a corporate confession of sin might be read in unison. If the Psalmist is expressing praise to God, then a sermon on that topic would be appropriate. These ideas that my friend experienced in his class impressed me. It really reminded me that the Psalms are tools God has given to meditate and ultimately to lead our hearts to worship. My friend made a good point, 'it's not just some arbitrary order of service; it's a reflection of how God wants us to worship Him. The worship leader is submitting to God's instruction through the Psalm.'

Anyway, this morning's worship service reminded me of this concept. As we returned to the same spot in our Psalters 5 times it really impressed me that the Psalms are each a literary whole. We gain more from them by seeing their progression, their structure. In Psalm 104 in particular, the Psalmist moves from point to point underlining again and again God's majesty as creator and sustainer of the world. By the end we can do little else than praise Him!