How to Make Tyrants’ Knees Knock: A Word About the Singing at Our God & Government Conference

One of the reasons the modern church has failed to apply the Word of God to the nations and to civil governments is because the modern church has, by and large, stopped singing the Psalms. To be fair, most modern churches did not actively make the decision to stop singing Psalms, it’s that the Psalter was never handed down to us to begin with. But the mistakes of previous generations does not justify us in continuing to make the same mistakes. It’s time to pick up the Psalm singing mantle again. There are a number of folks in our day modeling this well.

But what does Psalm singing got to do with applying the Word of God to the nations and civil governments? Well, when you start singing the Psalms you’ll begin to sing things that you won’t find in modern worship songs, or even the good old hymns of the Church. When you sing the Psalms you will sing things like the following:

“Arise, O LORD, and save me, God! You punish all my foes.

You smite the face of wicked men, and break their teeth with blows.” (Psalm 3)

And,

“Though the wicked take aim at the righteous, and attempt to bring down the oppressed,

yet their bow will be broken in pieces, and their sword will but pierce their own breast.” (Psalm 37)

And,

“Rise, O God, and come in judgment; justice for the earth command,

for you hold as your possession every race and every land.” (Psalm 82)

And,

“The LORD reigns over all; he’s robed in majesty.

The LORD is robed and wears his belt of strength and dignity.” (Psalm 93)

And,

“The nations he will judge; the dead in heaps will lie.

The mighty chiefs of all the earth he’ll shatter and destroy.” (Psalm 110)

This of course only begins to scratch the surface of the point I’m getting at. The Psalms are chalked full of instructions for the nations and prophecies of the nations in God’s plan of redemption and judgment for the nations. The Psalms call the judges, kings, and rulers of the earth to fear the LORD and honor him under threat of God visiting them with crushing judgment. Many of the Psalms were even written by one of the greatest kings to ever live, King David, praying for God to act in salvation and judgment against other nations, not just individual spiritual beings.

Many of the Psalms are war songs against tyrants and evil rulers. They are songs that call upon the enthroned almighty God of all heaven and earth to act against such wicked ones and bring justice. God certainly responds to and fulfills His Word. As war songs against tyrants, Psalms also put forward hope and prayer for liberty and prosperity under the rule of God and His law (such as Psalm 37) – the only alternative to tyranny under evil men.

When we sing the Psalms congregationally, we are not just singing for our own encouragement and enjoyment, though that happens. We are asking God to respond. We are invoking His own Word that He has given to us to sing to Him, asking Him to act, or as many of the Psalms say, to “arise, O Yahweh.” When we sing the Psalms congregationally, we are participating in something much bigger than ourselves. We are doing something that will bring about change and progress in time and on earth. God responds to the prayers and songs of His people according to His Word.

So when we gather for our God and Government Conference on January 16th, Lord willing, we are going to be doing a lot of singing. There is obviously much very important benefit to hearing sermons, talks, and discussions on these important biblical principles; but we want to make abundantly clear the vital importance of singing the Psalms together. When we rise and sing God’s Word, the foundations of the wicked will be shaken. Tyrants and statists will get mad. But our God will arise. Our hands will be strengthened by His. Things will change.

I believe that simply gathering to sing some Psalms together will be worth the drive and the time to join us, even if that is all we did. So if you want to raise your swords and shields and engage in some spiritual military exercises, please make it a point to join us.

All the Psalms I have quoted a line from above we will sing (3, 37, 82, 93, 110), as well as other great hymns of the church that everyone will know. I am looking forward to this part of the conference as much as any other. We will be working on getting some audio to these Psalms posted in plenty of time for you to hear them and even learn them to come prepared.

If your church does not have good congregational singing, don’t feel out of place. You’re definitely going to want to come to this conference, as I believe the congregational singing will change your life, it did mine.

Once again, my church’s (Hope Baptist Church, Springfield MO) conference on God & Government is on January 16th, that’s a Saturday. It will be hosted at the facilities of Battlefield First Baptist Church, in Battlefield MO (just outside the city limits of Springfield). We will have a light pre-conference breakfast and fellowship beginning at 8am, with the conference beginning at 9am. I look forward to seeing you all there. You can find the event page on FB here: https://fb.me/e/1QMyaZFW1

Lastly, we are happy to make this conference free to you. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost any American dollars. If you feel so persuaded to make a donation to help us foot the bill, you can send a few pennies our way by making an online donation to our Church here: http://www.hopebaptistspringfield.com/giving

For Christendom!

 

ADDITION: We have made some recordings of the Psalms we will be singing at the conference. I will link to them here so that you can listen and become familiar with them beforehand.

Psalm 93: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1321194252

Psalm 3: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1321198416

Psalm 110: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1321197265

Psalm 82: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1321196354

Psalm 37: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1321195323