Singing the Songs of Jesus by pastor Michael Lefebvre is a book that delivers on its promise to help the church to revisit the Psalms. Modern day evangelicals often ask "what would Jesus do?" More to the point, what did Jesus do? During the days of His incarnation, Jesus worshiped His Father, the God of Israel. One of the ways God is worshiped is through songs of praise. What songs did Jesus sing, when He worshiped the Father? The answer to this question is one of the tasks the author takes on in this book.
Pastor Lefebvre draws attention to Biblical material that is often passed over when studying the history of Israel relating to worship. At every point in the history of redemption, Israel's leaders sang songs before God and the people. The significance of this is often overlooked. Pastor Lefebvre does a remarkable job in chronically how king David was directed by God to oversee the task of creating a song book for the people of Israel to be used in worship. This involved writing songs, overseeing other composers such as Asaph, organizing choirs and musicians. After David, Solomon continued the task of completing Israel's song book.
The preeminence of the king in Israel's worship of God was an important practice. Not only did David direct the people singing songs in worship, this pattern applies to David's Greater Son, who is the Lord. Jesus is our King seated at the right hand of the Father. The apostle Paul, makes the statement that during worship we are seated with Christ in heaven, specifically; "and made us sit together in heavenly places" Ephesians 2:6. Jesus our King is enthroned at the Father's right hand, and we, through our union with Him, are led in heavenly worship by the King Jesus; "Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee" Hebrews 2:12.
The author makes the case that Jesus, our Kingly choirmaster in the heavenly, leads us in singing praises to the Father. Pastor Lefebvre succeeds not only showing that the Psalms are profitable for doctrine, they testify of Christ. They are in fact, the song book Jesus used to worship the Father. The Psalms were composed for Jesus as our perfect King and song leader.
In this brilliant work, Michael Lefebvre calls the church to once again to sing the songs of Jesus. If the church heeds this call, it will be blessed indeed. It should be the heart's desire of every believer to conform to Christ in all of our thoughts and deeds. Surely, this must also involve conforming in how we worship. Hence, the primary song book for the church should be the "Songs of Jesus." The aim of this book is to restore the songs composed for Jesus to their rightful place in His Church. This edifying book should be in the home of everyone who calls themselves Reformed.
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