My father lived for five years with a severe head injury after his accident. Even after he had trouble recognizing his own children, I could say to him, “Show me thy ways, O Lord, thy paths O teach thou me.” And he would reply, “And do thou lead me in thy truth, therein my teacher be.” That’s Psalm 25 from the Scottish Psalter. He grew up in Scotland singing the Psalms, and those songs stayed with him even when he couldn’t remember much else. I was an adult when the Lord called me to Himself; and it was my father who later, in an indirect way, introduced me to the psalm singing that would revolutionize my Christian faith and life.

My parents divorced while I was young, and I moved with my mother to Miami. I can’t remember my second grade teacher, or my second grade classmates, or the usual things that people recall about second grade. However, there’s one thing I remember well: attending University Baptist Church, where I heard about God and His grace and forgiveness through His Son Jesus. Shortly after that, I professed faith and was baptized.

I was very excited about being a young Christian, and I have many wonderful memories about my time in that church with my friends. Though I did not follow the Lord as I grew up, it was the Word of God that I heard as a second grader that brought me to the only Savior many years later.

This encourages me now as I speak to people. Even if they don’t immediately believe the words I say, they have heard of Christ. Who knows when God might bring those words back to them? I later read about a man named Luke Short who’d heard John Flavel preach when he was a boy. Eighty-five years later, the Lord brought Flavel’s words home to that man with power, and he was born anew in Christ. I am very glad the Lord didn’t wait that long in my life, and I hope that you are encouraged to speak to people of the Lord, who works in His own time.

Jesus told a story to illustrate how many people start out well in their faith, until the cares of this world choke out their love for God, withering their faith. That is what happened to me. As I went through elementary school, high school, and college, I thought less and less about God. I cared less and less about what God thought about me. I didn’t become an atheist, but I became a practical atheist. I lived as though God didn’t exist. I tried instead to enjoy myself as much as possible and put thoughts of God and eternity out of my mind, though my conscience and the fear of death still haunted me. Many people never recover from such hardening of heart; but while I was doing my best to forget God, God kept reminding me.

At age 22, the Word I had heard as a young boy came back to my heart and mind with supernatural power, with conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. One particular sermon on the Prodigal Son kept returning to my mind. Nobody came and talked to me about the Lord during this time. No crisis happened in my life. What did happen was this: the truth I had heard as a second grader was still alive in my heart. God says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). It is the Lord who takes away our heart of rebellion and gives us a heart that loves and delights in Him. That is what happened to me.

I was later surprised to learn that some Christians had trouble believing that God is sovereign in salvation, renewing our hearts through His Holy Spirit so that we love and trust in the Lord. I never had trouble with this biblical doctrine because it describes exactly what happened to me. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). Once God was someone I feared. Now He is someone I love. Once I was afraid to die. Now I look forward to being with the Lord forever. Once I lived for myself, but now I live for Him who loved me and gave Himself for me. God Himself made all the difference.

I went to many different churches for the next year, and I read and read and read the Bible. I visited a Presbyterian church and afterward was invited to lunch at the house of an elder who became a father to me in the Lord. Every week he hosted dinner and a Bible study on Saturday night, lunch and a Bible study on Sunday after church, and dinner and a short devotional every Sunday night. He also shepherded people during the week. I soon took advantage of all of these. The example that this man provided me of a wholly consecrated Christian life meant more to me than all the good teaching I received. I don’t know where I would be in my Christian walk without his teaching and especially his example.

Another elder in the church had a few of us single guys over to his home early on Saturday mornings for a Bible study. We jokingly called it Christian Boot Camp because it started at 6:30 a.m. We memorized Scripture, read books that I still think are some of the best books ever written, and prayed together. Afterward the rest of the family came downstairs, and we had breakfast at the table together and visited for an hour or so.

This time at the breakfast table was even more instructive to me than the Bible study. I saw how Christians really lived and loved and enjoyed each other. I saw how a Christian husband talked to the woman he loves. I saw how they raised their children, and how Christian children behaved and enjoyed being with their parents. I needed the Bible study. I needed the prayers. I needed to read and memorize Scripture. But I especially needed people to show me what God’s grace looks like in human life.

I hope that those who read my testimony will be encouraged to put this biblical principle of discipleship into practice: “We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.…You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:7-12).

Christian discipleship needs to be a matter of show and tell. There are many like me who don’t know how to raise godly families, don’t know how to pray, don’t know how to treat their spouses, and don’t know what God’s grace is supposed to look like. So much of Christianity is caught and not taught, and I thank God for those faithful men who shared with me not only the gospel but their own lives, and who could say, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).

It was then, as a new Christian, that the Psalms changed my life. After my dad’s accident, he gave me his old Bible. In the back, I was amazed to find the Scottish Psalter. I didn’t know that anyone ever sang the Psalms, and certainly they were nothing at all like I was used to singing. But I started to learn the words by heart. A year later, I came across an advertisement by Crown & Covenant Publications offering psalm recordings for sale, and I bought every title they offered. It was an utter revolution in my Christian faith and life. I was so powerfully moved and influenced by singing God’s praise, I didn’t listen to any other music for two years; and I learned every word by heart. I can’t tell you how much these songs have taught me and changed my life, my understanding of God, of Christ, and of His kingdom and glorious reign. This book of Psalms brought the whole Bible together for me in a wonderful way.

 I now have a wife and eight children, and we live together under the roof of God’s love. Eleven years ago, I was ordained to the gospel ministry in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church and began planting a church in Blacksburg, Va. While I was chairman of the ARP Synod’s Committee on Worship, I was privileged to work closely with Crown & Covenant to edit and publish the new ARP Psalter, a complete psalter with selections taken entirely from The Book of Psalms for Worship with an appendix from selections of our old psalter.

What we learn to sing has a remarkable power in the mind and in the soul. Music, said Luther, is “a fair and lovely gift from God… next to the word of God the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart.” Or, in the Apostle Paul’s words, it is a great blessing to us when the word of Christ dwells in us richly as we teach and admonish one another in psalms. I have surely found it so in my life; and through our partnership with our dear friends in the RPCNA, a new generation of ARPs are now joining me in experiencing the joy of singing a new song to the Lord.

David Vance is pastor of Redeemer ARP Church in Blacksburg, Va., which was planted in 2003. He received his M.Div. at Reformed Theological Seminary in 2001 and his Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at Virginia Tech in 2012, researching field education and practical preparation for ministry with the gracious assistance of RPTS and other seminaries.