Psalm 92:1-3 It is good to praise(Yadah) the Lord and make music(Zamar) to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.
Psalm 147:7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise(Towdah); make music(Zamar) to our God on the harp.
Psalm 98:5-6 Make music(Zamar) to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King.
If you speak your praise to God it is not Zamar. You must sing accompanied by instruments to express this type of praise.
The third most prolific word for praise in the Old Testament is Zamar, which is used 44 times. Stringed instruments are described as being played when offering praise, which means a Fender guitar qualifies. The idea of accompanying our singing in worship with instrumentation can clearly be seen in the use of the word Zamar. It is defined as a “pluck” of a string. What is also important to note is that instrumental music all on its own can be praise! We already see in the Psalms that cymbals and trumpets are used as well. This word inspires our praise to be more than a vocalization at times. The praise of God is special enough when we gather that the creation and skill of instrumental music is valued in the Scriptures. Singing and vocalizing our praise with the added sounds and rhythms makes our praise even greater.
Zamar inspires synchronized and orderly singing–adding precision to our worship. We can sing the same melody better with the accompaniment of an instrument or group of instruments. The lyre is just an example of what they would have used. It took skill to play such an instrument, as how our guitar does today.
My prayer is that in our gatherings, angels will sing and we will all hear them. The whole neighborhood will hear them to the glory of our King Jesus. Whenever the song is coming from the throne of God, and not from a list, it lifts the hearts of the people. Even in our quiet time with the Lord or during our daily activities, God can wake us up with a song, and we can be hearing bands of angels singing and playing musical instruments, we just have to join them in their singing.
