We probably all have a favorite cover song – you know, a song that exists in an original version but which has been picked up and performed by another singer.
One of my favorites is Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.” It was originally by Nine Inch Nails but Johnny Cash did a cover of it and….well, let’s just say that if Cash covers your song it’s now *his* song. The original has faded from view, and the cover has become *the* version everyone knows.
The original singer of most of the psalms was David. But Jesus has “covered” the psalms. In his ministry he makes them own. He performs them in a vastly superior way. Whatever role the psalms originally played in David’s life, they come into their own and come to fulfillment in Jesus. They are his songs now.
All that to say: Jesus is the true psalmist. The 150 psalms are really his songs. They belong on his lips. Jesus is the “I” of the psalter. He prayed them ahead of time in his forerunners, like David, but they belong to him. He performs them, he prays them, he sings them, he brings them to realization. Jesus has “covered” the psalms and now we cannot think of them in any other way. The psalms are the songs of Jesus.
But Jesus doesn’t want to sing the psalms all by himself. He doesn’t want to sing them solo. He wants every psalm to be a duet, sung with his bride. Jesus wants his bride, his church, to harmonize with him – and in this way, the already glorious psalms reach their ultimate glory.
Jesus is the psalmist. Jesus is the psalm-singer. But he wants his church to be the psalmist and psalm-singer with him.
Sadly, much of the church has neglected the psalter. We have left Jesus to sing solo. It’s not good to sing alone. Jesus never intended to be a solo artist. It ought not to be this way. Take up the psalms and join your voice to Jesus’ voice. That’s what the psalms are for – use them accordingly.
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