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Music
God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. (Psalm 47:5) We worship the Lord not only through the ordinary spoken word in prayer, both corporate and individual, but also through sung prayers, elevated speech where the spoken word is beautified through melody and rhythm. Of course the pre-eminent biblical example of elevated speech is the Psalms, the worship hymnal of the people of God from ancient times; and as the hymnal of the people of God, the Psalms provide us not only with actual prayers to sing, but also instruction on how to pray and how to praise God. We are invited not only to sing and pray the content of the Psalms, but to do so with united voices, with antiphonal voices (Ps. 118), with instrumental accompaniment (Ps.150) and even with dance (Ps. 148:3). The Psalms also provide a pattern for the writing of additional non-inspired songs of praise (Ps. 96:1). Reformation
Means Participation
Since the Psalms were designed for singing by
all God's people, their use is not an option but mandatory for God's people.
For many generations the singing of the
Psalms was a staple of the worship of Reformational churches; but within the
last 100 years, this thoroughly biblical practice has fallen into disuse;
and with its disappearance has come the privation of our theology as both
individuals and families, the paucity of our singing as congregations, and
the evacuation of beauty from our music--to be replaced by the trivial, the
trendy and the banal in the worship music of the church.
As a Reformational church committed to the priesthood
of all believers, it is our privilege as the people of God to be able to
sing His praises in worship. God's Word is for God's people, and the musical
heritage of God's people is an aesthetic treasure to be recovered and built
upon. For this reason we emphasize congregational singing as a body and the
singing of Psalms and Hymns in family devotions.
To help recover vibrant congregational singing,
particularly of the Psalms, each month we as a congregation learn to sing
both a new
hymn and a new metrical psalm. We introduce these selections during a monthly
Sunday evening Psalm Sing and encourage our families to
incorporate them into their own family devotions. We then sing the new Psalm
and Hymn of the month each Lord's day during the service. And the sound of
many young voices raised in praise, singing the Word of God back to our
Lord, is glorious!
The Psalm
& Hymn of the Month are also beneficial
for our children, particularly those who cannot read, as it enables our little
ones to be
more fully involved in the corporate worship of God's people. Children can
easily learn 3 or 4 stanzas of a Psalm and Hymn in a month, filling their
minds and hearts with beauty and distinctly Christian content--rather than
some mindless pop ditty. Our prayer is that our children will be
familiar with 100 or more Psalms and Hymns before reaching adulthood.
Here's a sample of our progress thus far:
Musical Resources Cantus Christi (Songs of Christ), is published by Canon Press and is a compilation of Genevan Psalms, Reformation and other time-tested hymns, and Service music. It excels in its recovery of both the text of Reformation hymns and metrical Psalms but also in the tunes that were used with them. A piano accompaniment CD is also available. The Trinity Hymnal, published by Great Commission Publications in Atlanta, has over time gone through several revisions. The text of the entire "old" Trinity hymnal can be accessed online here where you can search for a hymn even if you do not remember the number or the first line. Our thanks to our friends in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) for this resource. The Book of Psalms for Singing, published by Crown & Covenant Publications in Pittsburgh (the publishing arm of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), along with a sister book, The Trinity Psalter, are the two staple metrical Psalters that we use in our congregation. Metrical Psalms, for those who do not know, are essentially versified paraphrases of the original Hebrew text of the Psalms and are to be distinguished from Anglican chant which uses simple melodies without versification or rhyme in order to stick as closely as possible to the word order and sense of the Hebrew original. The Cyber Hymnal Granted, the Cyber Hymnal is not a hymnal per se, but it is a valuable resource for locating obscure hymns or all the hymn tunes of Charles Wesley gathered into one spot. Cyber Hymnal is designed as a resource for all comers, Reformed, revivalist, sentimentalist and in between.
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Psalm
& Hymn of the Month