Review: Musing on Music by Scott Aniol

***Disclaimer: We received this book from G3 Press in exchange for an honest review.

If you’re like us, music has always been a big part of our lives. It was secular music before. Now we love music that honors and praises the Lord. Also, I have always loved the book of Psalms. It was actually the first book of the Bible I ever read through entirely. I have always leaned on it for comfort, learning, and help with prayer. I knew that the Psalms were technically songs, but I had never heard anyone ever sing them.

As we have grown in our Faith, we have become more particular about music. We have little love for what is passed off as “worship music” today. By and large it is shallow, self-centered, repetitive, and not edifying. It doesn’t teach anything. All it does is allow the hearer to experience an emotional high, give the “praise team” an opportunity to perform, and let people think they have worshiped God when in reality they are usually worshiping themselves.

We love old Hymns and modern ones, though there are few people today who are biblically sound that write truly God-glorifying modern hymns. We are thankful that the Lord has raised up a few to continue the tradition of creating a new song to praise Him and teach us.

But, I have lately begun to wonder why we don’t sing the Psalms more often? Or at all for that matter. Sure, some hymns are based on the Psalms. But why not sing the Psalms themselves? God gave us a song book right in the middle of the Bible. It’s the largest book. It teaches so much. It’s quoted so often. You would think we as Christians would recognize that the Psalms help teach us how to worship God in the way He wants.

As we all know, music is becoming a hot button issue in a lot of Christian circles. Many believe music isn’t a hill to die on, but we would disagree. It is a part of worship that is supposed to teach and be edifying to the body. That means it is just as important as the sermon. Then that means songs and hymns require vetting by the elders before they should ever be sung in their churches. A stranger wouldn’t be allowed to just walk in and begin teaching; They would be vetted first to find out what they believed and taught. It is foolish to not hold music to the same standard.

But isn’t it funny that God already provided the answer. He vetted and provided us with a perfect song book right in the Bible. It requires no additional work on the elders part to just use the Psalms. You could also argue that, for the most part, old hymns have been vetted for centuries as well and so we can generally trust that the old hymns are edifying and safe to use. So why have we deviated so much from what is both simple and God honoring?

These were some of the thoughts I was having about the current state of worship in the church at large. And I kept coming back to the Psalms and why they weren’t being used in church today as they use to be. Why had we given up the Psalter? It was a mainstay in most churches up until more modern times. So what has changes.

Thankfully, someone else was thinking about these things too, and had answers to these questions and more! Scott Aniol. We have benefited from his teaching and writings before, so we were excited to see his new book. We have learned a lot from it and it has thoroughly fleshed out our arguments for singing the Psalms in worship in ways we never expected. It has also answered many of our questions—those we knew we had and those we didn’t. We are now much better prepared to argue for this cause thanks to his new book Musing on God’s Music.

Musing on God’s Music is so much more than I originally thought it would be. I knew it would be a book arguing for the singing of Psalms, but I learned so much more about the Psalms themselves. I also learned—and now absolutely in favor of—singing the Psalms in the order in which they are organized in Scripture.

The book explains that there was a purpose to why the Psalms are arranged the way they are, which I confess I had never even given thought to before. The fact that the Psalms flow in the way that they do, creating a five part cantata—to use a phrase from the book—to mold our hearts and minds to truly praise and worship God.

Musing on God’s Music also takes a look at the poetic nature of the Psalms and how we have largely stopped using our imaginations and hearts to be formed in a biblical manner by Scripture. Now-a-days most people seem to get either the emotional high from singing songs, but don’t want to involve their brains. Or they just look at it from an intellectual standpoint and don’t engage their emotions or imaginations when it come to the things of God and worship. Christians have historically been a singing people. We are commanded to sing in God’s Word. He even provides us with a book of songs to get us started. But most believers today don’t understand how to worship, much less the importance of what the Psalms have to teach us about praise and worship.

But the best takeaway from this book for me was how the Psalms are meant to form us in so many different ways, but especially to praise God in all circumstances. This is something we don’t see in modern Christian music. To be honest, it may be something we hear about from a sermon, but that doesn’t have quite the same effect as music. When you hear music or poetry praising God in the worst of times as well as the best of times, going from lament and despair to praise, it truly makes a profound impression on your mind and heart.

It is a very sad thing to consider that we as Christians have lost our understanding of the Psalms. That also includes us, as we had very little understanding of the importances of the Psalms and the arrangement until reading this wonderful book. I’m thankful that Scott Aniol took the time to write this book to help us rediscover their purpose.

I could go on and on about this book! But I want to encourage you to read it for yourselves. And if you are convinced, as I am, that the Psalms are a treasure of songs that every Christian should know and sing, take this to your elders and encourage them to re-introduce the Psalms and the Psalter back into the church.

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