Psalm 122, Psalm 124, Psalm 133-6, Psalm 138
Ryan: Psalm 136 is a song (or “poem” as the heading in our chronological Bible calls it) that is written in “call-and-response” form. Call and response is one of the oldest forms of music known to man. It involves a leader issuing the “call” and the congregation responding, often with the same phrase, as is the case with “His love endures forever.” I’m confident that many of the psalms we’ve already ready would likely have been sung in this manner, but none of them are so obviously written with that purpose in mind. Call and response singing (often called antiphon, Greek for “opposite voice”) is still the most common form for the Eastern and Greek Orthodox churches, is used substantially in African Christian music (and folk music, for that matter), and responsorial readings (spoken) are still very common among the Catholic and Protestant churches. Many of the restoration churches have moved away from them, not because they are unbiblical in any way, but more as just another way to differentiate themselves. In my opinion, if the restoration churches really wanted to restore the church back to its first-century self, they would include more call-and-response, because I guarantee the early church employed this technique extensively. Stay tuned below for a beautiful performance of an a cappella performance of a Russian hymn, His Love Endures Forever, that employs some call-and-response.
Samantha: Psalm 124 is part of the psalms of ascent that were sung on the way up the steps of the temple. Everyone would have sung it together, led by the priests. The psalm starts out “If the LORD had not been on our side—let Israel say—” (Psalm 124:1). The part “let Israel say” is where the priests are trying to get everyone to sing along together. It is like at a music concert where the lead singer instructs the audience “everybody now!” Then the verses are about all the ways that we could have been lost: swallowed alive, swept away by flood waters, trapped like a bird in a fowler’s snare. The more you talk about the worst case scenarios, the more thankful you are at how you were saved! For those of us who are “lifers” at church, we don’t always appreciate grace to its fullest because we’ve always grown up knowing God and knowing the right ways to follow him. For those who came to the Gospel later in life–especially those people who have dark pasts and made bad mistakes–they understand grace on a deeper level because they’ve seen the worst scenario and can now compare it to the glorious salvation that God provided them.
