Sing the Psalms
In the last few days, I have been engaged in a discussion board thread with some individuals regarding the commands in the Bible about singing. The general debate (which comes up regularly with these folks) is over whether God commands us to only sing the Psalms (the hymnal of the Bible) or whether "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" in Ephesians really means three different categories of songs. Personally, it seems clear to me that God is commanding us to sing all sorts of songs in our worship, and our music is to teach and admonish.
While I believe my exclusive psalmody brothers and sisters are missing out on an entire world of wonderful hymns and spiritual songs that teach and admonish, I also believe that those on my side of the debate often forget about the command to sing psalms. Since I have the privilege of choosing the music we sing in our Sunday morning worship, I am seeking to remedy this problem by choosing at least one Psalm or portion of a Psalm to sing every week along with the other music we sing.
Clearly, the Psalms are worth singing, because they are God's inspired words. He gave them to us to sing. That reason alone would be enough reason to sing the Psalms, but there are other reasons as well. The Psalms give us a model of how to sing to God, both our praise and our lament. John Calvin, the reformer, was so persuaded of the importance of singing the Psalms that he had the entire book of Psalms put into metrical settings and hired musicians to write tunes for them. "Old Hundreth" the tune most of us know as "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" is the tune written by Louis Bourgeois for his setting of Psalm 100.
I am currently compiling a list of contemporary settings of the Psalms and am looking forward to trying some these with our congregation. I encourage you to join me in reading through the Psalms and singing them Psalms. After all, God commands that we do as much.
While I believe my exclusive psalmody brothers and sisters are missing out on an entire world of wonderful hymns and spiritual songs that teach and admonish, I also believe that those on my side of the debate often forget about the command to sing psalms. Since I have the privilege of choosing the music we sing in our Sunday morning worship, I am seeking to remedy this problem by choosing at least one Psalm or portion of a Psalm to sing every week along with the other music we sing.
Clearly, the Psalms are worth singing, because they are God's inspired words. He gave them to us to sing. That reason alone would be enough reason to sing the Psalms, but there are other reasons as well. The Psalms give us a model of how to sing to God, both our praise and our lament. John Calvin, the reformer, was so persuaded of the importance of singing the Psalms that he had the entire book of Psalms put into metrical settings and hired musicians to write tunes for them. "Old Hundreth" the tune most of us know as "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" is the tune written by Louis Bourgeois for his setting of Psalm 100.
I am currently compiling a list of contemporary settings of the Psalms and am looking forward to trying some these with our congregation. I encourage you to join me in reading through the Psalms and singing them Psalms. After all, God commands that we do as much.
Comments
I'm also a homeschooling mom, a writer, and a church musician. I'm going to add your blog to my blog reader line-up.
Thanks for your comments and the link. That's a great article. I enjoyed looking at your blog page, and if I could ever figure out how to make a list of links, I'll add your blog page to mine.
Sounds like we have a lot in common, though you seem to be a bit further along in your writing career than I am. I started my first real writing job (articles for the religion page of the local paper) this year.
My goal is to write an historical fiction novel based on my husband's family history which is fascinating.