[Isaac Watts]
The fifth of eight reasons why we should sing the psalms regularly, intentionally and methodically.
When you sing the psalms you engage a collection of songs that address the full range of human emotions.
Godly anger, heart-wrenching sorrow, dark depression, effulgent joy, honest questioning, and exuberant praise are just a sampling of the emotional range covered by the psalms. Most churches sense the burden of teaching their people how to think. Very few consider their responsibility to teach their people how to feel. Christians do not struggle with feeling. Feeling just happens. But our feelings must be trained by the gospel as much as our minds must. The psalms serve as the classroom of our affections.
[Another thought to Joe Holland's wonderful summary (a PCA church-planting pastor in Virginia). See him here. -- We'll only touch the full range of human emotions when we start singing through the psalter intentionally. It's just too easy, otherwise, to pick out the praise stuff and forego all that lament and sorrow. Even the wisdom/torah psalms (e.g. Ps 1, 119) are seldom sung.]
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