Battle Psalms

Last Sunday during Psalm sing, as we worked on Psalm 83 which we will sing this morning in worship, someone asked, “Why do we sing songs about old battles?”  And that is a good question because there are a lot of Psalms that sing of old battles.

There are a number of reasons.  First of all, God seems to want us to because He puts many of them in the Psalms, which is His divine hymnbook.  These are songs He likes.  These are topics He wants us to sing about.  Second, as we sing of the battles and the life of Israel, we do so in order to identify with them as the battles of our people, for we are Israel, we are the New Jerusalem, they are our spiritual ancestors.  And third, they inform us to the truth of battles in which we must fight now as the new Israel, they inform us as to how to fight, and they give us the words by which we call upon the God of Armies to rise up and send our enemies to flight.

Psalm 83 briefly highlights several battles and if you do a search, you can find out and read about them.  But as you sing through these names and places, you can imagine both being in those battles and calling on the LORD, and you can bring to mind the enemies of God at work today and our call to faithfulness in the midst of real and growing battles around us.

We must stand for truth and righteousness – not because we are true and righteous ourselves, but because we are in Truth and Righteousness.  Jesus is the Truth and Jesus is our Righteousness.  And in singing these psalms as God’s choir, we join in knocking down the strongholds upon our land and in our day.  Come and worship the Lord.