There’s nothing quite like family worship, is there? Or is it just a bad word in your home?
Many psalms start with the words: A Psalm of David, and the word ‘psalm’ is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘mizmor’, meaning a poem set to notes (ie a song!).
It comes from the root word ‘zamar’ (pronounced zaw-mar) which means to make music, to make music in praise of God, especially singing praises.
Interestingly, it doesn’t seem as if sung worship was a big part of the worship in the tabernacle or temple until David commissioned musicians when the ark was brought to Jerusalem (see 1 Chronicles 6:31-32.) It’s possible that the psalms were commissioned by David, but written by these musicians. It’s also possible that many psalms were written later, as they talk about being in exile, which happened long after David’s time.
Whenever they were written, the psalms are a wonderful book of songs which have been used by all God’s people for many centuries. Many of them encourage us to sing praise to God.
If your family were to ‘zamar’, to make music to praise God, what might that look and sound like? There aren’t any rules, so make sure it’s fun and easy and works for your family!
Here are ten ideas you could try:
- Sing along to a music track, perhaps find a worship song you all like
- Enjoy music on your TV by streaming through it or find a worship programme on a Christian channel
- Sing along to a praise song found by Alexa!
- Play along to a track using drums or other percussion instruments – you could make saucepan drums using saucepans and wooden spoons!
- Try singing in harmony together
- Sing together in the car
- Creating your own favourite praise songs playlist to listen to as you get ready in the morning
- Invent a new song – try putting new words to an old tune
- Sing along to one person playing on a piano or guitar or creating a cacophany of praise with lots of different instruments!
- Borrow a song from a film and use it to praise God e.g. Everything is awesome from Lego movie
What other ways work for you?