How Instruments Enhance the Singing of the Psalms

Abstract

Instruments have played a significant role in the history of the church’s songs by helping people sing praises to our God. From ancient times, instrumentalists accompanied people to sing the Psalms — the Bible’s hymnbook. However, what happens when churches do not have an organist or a pianist to lead worship, especially to lead the singing of the Psalms? How can we enhance the singing of the congregation? To address this issue, we explore the Psalms and ask, do the Psalms inform us of specific instruments to use when singing the Psalms? And how do we apply the principles we learn from the Psalms as we sing them with modern-day instruments? The paper will answer these questions by 1) reviewing the instruments mentioned in the Psalms, 2) exploring the history of the use of instruments within the church, 3) examining the present-day knowledge about how music was performed in Bible times, 4) investigating whether the Psalms inform us of specific instruments we can use to accompany our singing of the Psalms, and 5) exploring other musical instruments one can use to enhance our singing of the Psalms.