Musing on God’s Music: Forming Hearts of Praise with 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 today: 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.
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“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
“The past thirty years have been an intensive period of recovery of the magnificent doctrines of the Reformation. It is high time that all who delight in these doctrines give serious consideration to the importance of the Psalms since they were central to the reformation of worship. Scott Aniol does a wonderful job tracing the structure and themes of the Book of Psalms. Musing on God’s Music will help bring the Psalms to life for modern Christians! May God give this work much usefulness!”
Sam Waldron, President and Academic Dean, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary
“In Musing on God’s Music, Scott Aniol calls the church to return to Psalm singing. He explains why. He shows how the Psalms equip us to experience the blessed life in every circumstance, through hardship, adversity, loss, lamentation and complaint. He unveils the structure of the Psalms which assist us in singing about the whole range of our experience. This is a wonderful guide for singing the Psalms. Out of the deep mine of the Psalms, Scott brings the treasures to the surface. He will help you see the Psalms with new eyes. He shows us how they paint pictures of reality—even hard realities. He shows us why we need to sing about those hard realities.”
Scott Brown, Pastor at Hope Baptist Church and Director of Church and Family Life
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Scott Aniol, PhD, is Executive Vice President and Editor-in-chief of G3 Ministries and Professor of Pastoral Theology at Grace Bible Theological Seminary. He is a teacher of culture, worship, aesthetics, and church ministry philosophy, he lectures around the country in churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries, and he has authored several books and dozens of articles.
Scott holds a masters degree in Theological Studies (SWBTS), a masters degree in Aesthetics (NIU), and a PhD in Worship Ministry (SWBTS).
Specifications:
Page Count: 228
Binding: Softcover
Dimensions: 5.5 × .502 × 8.5 in
Weight: 0.6875 lbs
ISBN: 9781959908036