Rev. Iaian Campbell, minister in the Free Church of Scotland in the Back Free Church, Isle of Lewis has posted a sermon dealing with the fact that the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – are all revealed in the Psalms. This sermon came to my attention courtesy of a posting by Carl Trueman who writes for the Reformation 21 Blog.
So many people downgrade the songbook which the Lord has provided for His church. They are sure that the Psalms do not speak sufficiently of Christ and the New Covenant. Man-made hymns are a necessity, they think. What a mistake! The Lord provides for His people, including the songs to be sung in His worship. May God’s truth prevail in His church!
when we were kids we learnd many of the psalms as songs in school. I can recite whole psalms today because I knew them set to music as a child. I want my kid sot know these psalms too.
Does your church sing only Psalms? Do you use musical paraphrases or do you chant them intact? Just curious. 🙂
Thank you for your comment, Mrs. Darling. Our daughter sings any Scripture verse that she wants to memorize, because it just makes it so much easier for her.
Hi, Kerri. Thanks for your question. We currently are attending a church where the preaching of the Word is faithful, the two sacraments are rightly administered, and church discipline by elders is exercised as well. On that basis, we are thankful to have found such a faithful local church. Our own belief is that only God’s songbook should be used in worship. However, the church order of the United Reformed Churches states that Psalms are to have the principle place in worship – not the ONLY place. In family worship we use the Scottish metrical psalter. How about you guys?
Joyce-We are in a church affiliated with the Confederation of Reformed Evangelicals. I am not sure if our denomination has an official statement on this. As to our church we sing Psalm paraphrases at every service with a few hymns in too. We sing some of the more ancient songs of the church such as the Te Deum, Nunc Dimittiis, and usually a creed for communion. I have never heard metrical Psalm singing, but I would like to. We have a responsive reading, but it isn’t sung.
James Jordan in his _Thesis_on_Worship_ says “Ephesians 5:19 says that we are to speak ‘to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.’ We don’t need even to discuss what ‘hymns and spiritual songs’ are because we have not yet mastered the psalms. Once we know all 150 psalms, we can then decide what are appropriate hymns and spiritual songs.”
I guess that would sum up what I think as well. I don’t know if God forbids the use of hymns in worship, but we certainly could do no wrong, and would protect ourselves much better from error if we would learn the psalms and then worry about the rest. 🙂