Sing David's Psalms With David's Spirit

Isaac Watts complained that it was needful for himself to "teach my Author [David] to speak like a Christian," and therefore in his hymnbook aimed to

have rather exprest myself as I may suppose David would have done, had he lived in the Days of Christianity. And by this means perhaps I have sometimes hit upon the true Intent of the Spirit of God in those Verses, farther and clearer than David himself could ever discover, as St. Peter encourages me to hope. I Pet.i.11,12.

Puritans, however, often spoke of the need to, as Richard Rogers put it, "sing David's psalms with David's spirit; sing with spirit and sing with understanding; regard that more than the tune."

Lewis Bayly's "Rules to be observed in Singing of Psalms" from The Practice of Piety, p. 154, include:

2. Remember to sing David’s psalms with David’s spirit (Matt. xxii.43.)

3. Practise St. Paul’s rule—“I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with the understanding also.” (1 Cor. xiv.15.)

George Swinnock wrote in The Christian Man's Calling (Works, Vol. 1, p. 342):

Only, reader, be careful to sing David's psalms with David's spirit, and not like a nightingale to sing by rote: 'I will sing with my spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.' Making melody with grace in the heart, is the best tune to set all David's psalms with.

Thomas Ford, Singing of Psalms the Duty of Christians Under the New Testament, pp. 38-39:

Only God's own people have an inward experimental knowledge of the glorious excellencies and attributes of God, (viz.) his power, wisdom, goodness, &c. They only have tasted how sweet the Lord is in his promises and providences. They know, and none but they, what the offices of Christ are, in the power, fruit, and benefit of them. They know what it is to be redeemed from the earth, and from death, and from the nethermost hell. They only have experience of the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord, supporting, supplying them, and ordering all for good to them. And they alone have a lively feeling of their infirmities, sigh and groan under the burden of their corruptions, are troubled for the indisposition and untowardness of their hearts. These and such as these, who are so inspired and affected, can sing David's psalms with David's spirit. Others may sing more pleasingly to the ear, but these alone make melody in the ears of the Lord, who looks at the heart.

Question. That is it we desire to be satisfied in: how we may sing David's Psalms with David's spirit.

Answer 1. It is commonly, truly, and piously said, we must sing David's Psalms with David's spirit, though there is no text in the Bible, to my remembrance that hath those very words; but some speak somewhat to this effect, as Col. 3:16, we must sing with grace in our hearts, that is as much as if he should have said, sing David's Psalms with David's spirit.

2. We grant it is impossible for any to sing psalms so, but one that is a new creature, renewed in the spirit of his mind, as David was.

3. We say in the general, to sing David's Psalms with David's spirit, or to sing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord, there must be not only an habitual, but an actual disposedness; as when a man sets upon any duty, he must stir up the grace that is in him; so it is not enough in singing psalms to have an habit of grace, but we must stir up, and act the gifts and graces of God within us.

Here then this will be the great question: how our spirits ought to be disposed when we are to sing, that we may so do it as to give God the glory, and gain benefit to our own souls? Or, (which is all one) how we may sing David's Psalms with David's spirit? Or how we may sing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord? which is the doctrine in the text.

John Wells resolves the matter for us in his Cripplegate morning exercise ("How We May Make Melody in Our Hearts to God in Singing of Psalms," in Puritan Sermons, 1659-1689, Vol. 2, p. 74):

Singing of psalms must only be the joyous breathing of a raised soul; and here the cleanness of the heart is more considerable than the clearness of the voice. In this service we must study more to act the Christian than the musician. Many in singing of psalms are like the organs, whose pipes are filled only with wind. The apostle tells us, we must "sing with our hearts." (Col. iii. 16.) We must sing David's psalms with David's spirit. One tells us, "God is a spirit; and he will be worshipped in spirit even in this duty."