Want to become smarter? Learn music. Beyond mastering the skills needed to play an instrument or sing in tune, studies associate music education with increased IQ, language development, problem solving, and test taking skills. MRI scanning has shown that musical training literally changes our brains in just a few months’ time. More than a fun hobby, the physical and mental processes involved in learning to make music help us learn more in general.
Accordingly, the Psalms are full of references to teaching. “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths,” David sang in Psalm 25:4-5: “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” Singing these inspired words help God’s people to learn how to be who He created us to be. Psalm 119’s lengthy and beautiful celebration of God’s instruction sings, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end…I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation” (119:33, 99).
Singing psalms clearly impacted Jesus, even shaping how He taught. Matthew summarized Jesus’ most memorable lessons this way: “All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world’” (Mt. 13:34-35). Do you know which prophecy that was? It was Psalm 78.
Jesus’ teaching was heavily influenced by the Psalms. When He preached that He will one day say “depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” to those who call Him Lord but do not do God’s will in Matthew 7:21-23, He was quoting Psalm 6:8. When He said that the Son of Man “will repay each person according to what he has done” in Matthew 16:27, He was quoting Psalm 62:12. The most challenging questions He asked often came from the Psalms (cf. Ps. 82:6 and Jn. 10:31-39; Ps. 110:1 and Mt. 22:41-46).
So, it is only fitting that we as Jesus’ followers are commanded: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). God created us so that music has a major impact on how we learn. If we really want to learn to be more like Jesus, singing will be part of it.
All throughout the Bible, people experience God's presence, power, and joy when they sing together. It's time for us to join the song!