PURITAN FELLOWSHIP

GOD'S CALL FOR PSALMODY IN HIS WORSHIP

Music is an important element in religious worship employed to glorify God. Since God has regulated his worship in the Bible (see A Defense of the Regulative Principle of Worship ), it is not surprising then that he has regulated the music in our worship to him. God has indeed provided an inspired hymn book for his people in worship: the book of Psalms.

Henry Beets, a stated clerk of the Christian Reformed Church in the 1920s, summarized the reasons for exclusive psalmody well:

There is divine authority for this use of the Psalms, as shown by I Chron 16:4,7; II Chron 29:30; Ps 105:2;95:1,2; and Neh 12:24.
Our Lord and his apostles used them to praise God. The "hymn" of Matt 26:30 and Mk 14:26 refers to Ps 113 to 118, the great 'Hallel' of the Passover celebration.
The hymns, songs, and psalms of Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 evidently do not refer to New Testament compositions but to Old Testament Psalms which in the Greek version bear the titles above given.
The psalms meet the great requirements of praise, exalting God in His being and work and containing confessions of our unworthiness, our faith, our gratitude, our needs. In depth of spirituality the psalms excel the hymns. "In the psalms we hear the abiding, eternal, fundamental note of the pious heart resounding."

Click An Examination of Exclusive Psalmody to read a more thorough and comprehensive defense of exclusive psalmody. Click An Examination of Musical Instruments in Worship to read a comprehensive scriptural explanation of why there should not be instrumental accompaniment to the psalmody in the public worship of God.

A psalter you may want to consider using is "The Psalms of David in Metre: According to the Version approved by the Church of Scotland and appointed to be used in worship" in the 1640s. This psalter is published and distributed by Trinitarian Bible Society. When one reads and compares it to the King James Version Bible, one will be impressed by how close the two are. It seeks to be a faithful translation of the words of the scriptural Hebrew text. Another unique feature of this psalter is that all the psalms in it are written in common meter. This means any worship tune which is written in common meter can be used to sing the psalms of this psalter. (Here are some hymns written in common meter that you can therefore use the tunes to the psalms in this psalter: "Amazing Grace", "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing", "God Moves in a Mysterious Way", "How Sweet and Awful is the Place", "When All thy Mercies, O My God, My Rising Soul Surveys", "Crown Him with Many Crowns", "My God How Wonderful Thou Art", and "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past".) Finally, this psalter is not cluttered by musical notes, so it reads just like scripture text. In order to purchase this psalter (which is hardbound and costs only around $5 each) you can call the Trinitarian Bible Society office in the U.S. at #(616)735-3695 or write Trinitarian Bible Society, 1600 Leonard Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504.

Click to return to Home Page of the Puritans' Network . If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, e-mail us at info@puritans.net.