Should We Sing Only Psalms?

November 19, 2009 Posted by David NcloseAuthor: David N Name:
Email: dvnilsen@gmail.com
Site: http://reasonfromscripture.blogspot.com
About: In 2003 I graduated from high school with no set direction for my life. I spent a year in Iowa before returning to California to attend Junior College. I changed majors 3 times; from Physics to Business to Film (as you can see, no direction). I was a Christian, attending church regularly, but furthering the cause of Christ in this fallen world was not a high priority. In 2005 I picked up an issue of TableTalk magazine, and I was re-introduced to the work of R. C. Sproul (whom I had read once in high school). Later that year, while taking a biology class with an ardent atheist professor, I picked up a copy of Lee Strobel's "The Case For A Creator." In the Fall of 2006 I came to Biola University and was introduced to the works of J. P. Moreland and John Mark Reynolds. My fate was sealed. Just a few years ago, I was passionless. Now I have two passions: Studying the Word of God and engaging in the task of Apologetics. 1 Peter 3:15 exhorts all Christians to be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. My goal is to be able to give my answer articulately and powerfully, but even more importantly, in love. There are many purposes for apologetics, but by far the most important is the opening of minds and the softening of hearts for the work of the Holy Spirit. If we don't care about and pray for those with whom we engage in apologetics, we fail to fulfill this purpose. As a wise man once said, "Take a stand for the Truth, but do it in love fool!" Education Info: --Currently: M.A. in Historical Theology student, Westminster Seminary California --2008: B.A. in Philosophy, Biola University --2006: A.A. in Liberal Arts, Palomar CollegeSee Authors Posts (75)

The earliest Protestant churches (the Reformed ones, not the Lutheran ones) sang only Psalms in their worship services, and they did so a capella (with no instrumental accompaniment). Here is a wonderful quotation from John Calvin on this subject (HT: The Heidelblog):

As for public prayers, there are two kinds: the one consists simply of speech, the other of song…And indeed, we know from experience that singing has great strength and power to move and to set on fire the hearts of men in order that they may call upon God and praise him with a more vehement and more ardent zeal. It is to be remembered always that this singing should not be light or frivolous, but that it ought to have weight and majesty…Now, what Augustine says is true, namely that no one can sing anything worthy of God that he has not received from him. Therefore, even after we have carefully searched everywhere, we shall not find better or more appropriate songs to this end than the Psalms of David, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And for this reason, when we sing them, we are assured that God puts the words in our mouth, as if he himself were singing through us to exalt his glory.

A minority of Reformed Protestants today lament the gradual decline of this form of worship in favor of hymn-singing with an organ or piano, and then the further decline into chorus-singing with guitars and many other instruments. They believe that this is not simply an issue of singing “popular” music instead of “sacred” music, but rather an issue of moving away from a view of worship in which every aspect is instituted by God. In theological terms, this is usually called the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW): We may only do in worship that which is prescribed by God in Scripture. Luther, in contrast, held to the principle that we may do in worship whatever is not forbidden in Scripture. Despite the fact that most evangelicals today find their heritage in the 16th Century Reformed rather than Lutheran churches, they certainly follow Luther in their worship practices.

I don’t know what I think about this yet. I’m not convinced that instruments should be forbidden in worship, and many good Reformed scholars argue that instruments are merely a “circumstance” (like time, place, language, all of which can be changed without affecting the substance of worship), not an “essential” of worship. However, I see a lot of merit in the argument that we should try to only sing “inspired lyrics.” This includes more than Psalms, but also other poetry in the Bible, including the songs in the New Testament (such as those recorded in Luke, in Philippians 2, etc). And theoretically, any passage of Scripture could be worked into the form of a song.

On the other hand, the problem with this is that as soon as you change the format of the words of Scripture to make them actually work as a song, you have paraphrased, and paraphrasing is one of things that traditional RPW folk are objecting to (as one of my seminary profs told us, it was Jonathan Edwards’ paraphrases of the Psalms that were a “gateway drug” to uninspired hymns!). You can’t avoid this problem by going with only Psalms, because the Psalms were written in Hebrew. So, not only is every English translation a kind of paraphrase to begin with (to greater and lesser degrees, of course), but even the English translation cannot be taken straight out of most Bibles and set to music, they must be further re-phrased.

Still, Calvin makes a great point in the quote above, and we cannot deny that as hymns and praise songs have taken root in modern churches, Psalm-singing has almost totally disappeared. This is a sad thing, especially considering that the book of Psalms was the hymn book of the early church. If for no other reason, we should take these arguments very seriously, and not simply dismiss them out of hand.

Related posts:

1. O Holy Night (11) – Let All Within Us Praise His Holy Name
2. CD Review: Awesome God
3. Whom Do You Worship?
4. Worshiping as the Body of Christ
5. The Worship Palette (EC BIOLA #5)
6. Introduction to “O Holy Night”

Posted in Apologetics, David's Posts, Poetry/Scripture/Liturgy/Etc., The Christian Life, Theology