Musing on God's Music: Forming Hearts of Praise with the Psalms

by Scott Aniol

Why should the Psalms be read like a book, from beginning to end, instead of cherry picking Psalms we like? What are the overall themes of the five sections in Psalms, and how do they build toward a message of great hope? What do the Psalms—even the ones about the Israelites and the ones that invoke curses—mean for Christians today? How is Psalms one of the most important books for Christians living in twenty-first-century society? Find out all this and more inside this book on the Psalms by Scott Aniol! C. H. Spurgeon once bemoaned, “It is to be feared that the Psalms are by no means so prized as in earlier ages of the church.” It is no secret that among evangelicals today the psalms are mostly ignored in corporate worship. This despite the fact that the Psalter is the only book whose contents are singled out by Paul for us to minister to one another in gathered church worship (Col 3:16, Eph 5:19). Numerous factors contribute to the decline of psalm singing among Christians, but one central reason for contemporary neglect of the Psalter may be that most Christians today do not understand this God-inspired collection of songs. In Musing on God’s Music , Scott Aniol explores two central ideas that can help Christians recover the importance of psalm singing the deliberate canonical organization of the Psalter and the purpose and power of poetry. Aniol provides an important corrective that will remedy modern deficiency among contemporary psalm usage by explaining that God has given us the psalms, not merely to find a mood that fits our present state of being, but rather, God has given us the psalms to form us. “God calls his people to sing the Psalms so that we will be conformed to the image of His Son. Believers often treat the Psalms merely as doctrine hidden in poetry or as expressions of personal feelings. But, as Scott Aniol shows, God inspired the Psalter to shape our whole life—mind, heart, and conduct—as we sing the Psalms corporately in the gathered church and individually in daily life. Aniol offers profound reflections on the content and structure of the Psalms in a way that is both formative and informative.” Joel R. Beeke , President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Genres: Nonfiction

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 13, 2023

Reviews

[Christopher Desruisseau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never looked at the psalms this way before, a must read if you are going to study the psalms.

[Andrei Neacsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

O carte excelenta în care autorul prezintă Psalmii ca un întreg. Suntem obișnuiți sa citim psalmii separat, fără o legătură între ei, dar de fapt fiecare carte are o tema și fiecare psalm este un acolo cu un scop. Autorul ne arata cum aceste cărți au o împlinire finala, în Cel ce mosteneste tronul lui David, adică Domnul Isus Cristos.
In ultima parte a cărții vedem cum psalmii ne modelează astfel încât sa avem o inima plina de pocăință, credință, mulțumire și lauda.

[The Book Distiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Throughly exegetes the order of the Psalms, and God’s design for worship. A thoughtful, well-researched approach.

G3 gifted me a copy. All opinions are my own.

[Dorothy Vandezande · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Excellent exposition of the theology and the gospel presented in the Psalms. I want to read this again and study through the Psalms with it.