Singing the Psalms

In the last few years, I've worshipped a number of times at Free Churches in the Highlands. The practice in the Free Churches and related denominations is for singing only unaccompanied psalms in public worship. Not wishing to dismiss anything out of hand without first hearing the justification for it, I've spent time reading and thinking about what is termed 'Exclusive Psalmody'. Whilst I remain unpersuaded about singing only psalms, I think there are aspects of the argument for exclusive psalm singing which ought to challenge those of us from a broader tradition.

Free church theologians would point to the inspired nature of the Psalms and the fact that these would have been the only hymnal of the Jews. Our Lord and his apostles would have sung the Psalms in the synagogue each Sabbath. We in other churches would agree with all of this and would insist that we do not ascribe the same value or authority to our hymns that we do to the Psalms - so why is it that psalms are sung so infrequently in Evangelical churches nowadays? The status we claim to ascribe to the Psalms seems to be contradicted by our actual practice.

Many Christians, perhaps too used to intellectually and spiritually undemanding 'me-centred' worship songs, seem to view the Psalms as boring and dull. Setting aside other considerations for a moment, I would take issue straight away with the mindset that judges the value of worship material by how it makes 'me' feel. Whatever else we say about the Psalms-only tradition, it is clearly God-centred and its adherents' sole concern is to offer in worship what God himself desires and not what we have decided we should include. We in other Evangelical churches may disagree regarding interpretations of what God has inf fact commanded us to use in worship, but we could certainly learn much from the God-centredness of thinking about public worship in the Free Churches.

I would suggest that the Psalms perhaps only seem dull and boring to those who are spiritually mature or unaccustomed to having to exert mental effort in worship. I do feel, however, that the use of old versions of the metrical psalms has much to answer for, with their impenetrably archaic language, clunky, mediocre poetry and 'one-size-fits-all' common metre tunes which rarely suit the psalms they are used with. I am not sure whether it is the persistent use of these versions which has been partly responsible for the demise of psalm-singing or whether the reverse is actually true - the decline of psalm-singing in certain denominations over the last century meaning there was no demand for newer versions to be written. Whichever is the case, the chances of a revival of psalm-singing would be greatly enhanced by the production of versions in modern English set to beautiful tunes which set off the words well and make it sound, when sung, as if the Psalms really are the most precious items in our hymnals. Whilst the appearance of new editions like 'Sing Psalms' is a step in the right direction , I still find the poetry of many of the versions in it clunky and forced and I personally believe (having something of an interest in hymnwriting and music) that it would often be better to abandon metre altogether and preserve the simple beauty of the original text by setting them  to music verbatim.

In the meantime there are quite enough good versions of the Psalms and other parts of scripture for churches to begin to incorporate more inspired song into their worship. I would suggest that those who are inclined to be disparaging and dismissive of the psalms-only tradition need to be careful that they are not ejecting the baby with the proverbial bath-water, and should stop and consider whether our brethren north of the border might not have something to teach them.

The gospel, plain and simple

I'm in the process of writing a talk for an outreach event our church is holding. In preparing it, I was very struck by a quote I read from Martin Luther:

'No-one can be a good preacher to the people who is not willing to preach in a manner that seems childish and vulgar to some.'

It reminded me that our aim in doing anything like this should be solely to present the gospel as faithfully, in a way that ensures everyone who hears can understand it. We must set aside any desires to be thought well of for our our skills as a speaker, our theological grasp or erudition, and use whatever means to win souls. Our simple, earthy illustrations and plain language without theological terminology might not earn us a reputation as a great speaker, but who cares? Augustine said that 'A wooden key is not so beautiful as a golden one, but if it can open the door when the golden one cannot, it is far more useful.'  This is what Paul meant by 'becoming all things to all men'. He did not care a jot about what others thought of him or his preaching, but only for the glory of his heavenly Father and the benefit of his hearers.