There is only one way to offer unblemished sacrifices of worship to God: by singing the songs that He gave us. The songs of praise that He inspired and gave us for use in worship are the 150 Psalms that are found within Holy Scripture.
Exclusive Psalmody is one of the oldest forms of Protestant worship (dating back to the times of John Calvin). Christians who practice Psalmody in worship services today greatly benefit from its beautiful simplicity and its divinely inspired nature.
I hope that these words will reach the eyes of Christians who are not fully satisfied with the typical method of worshiping God. If you are tired of refraining from singing certain stanzas of hymns in order to avoid uttering words of questionable theology, then I have excellent news for you: You don't have to keep worshiping this way! If you're tired of being frustrated while you are trying to worship God, perhaps He has led you to this blog for a reason. I hope you will continue to read the following postings and browse through the provided links...
20 comments:
Thanks for writing.
There are a few eye-opening books about the subject of exclusive Psalmody.
One of these books is found in its entirety (I believe) via my link called "Exclusive Psalmody (An In Depth Defense)". This will link you to a good work by Brian Schwertly on the subject.
Another excellent source is a book called "Songs of Zion" by Michael Bushell. Its published by Crown and Covenant Publications. To check out Crown and Covenant online, see my link called "Want to introduce psalmody to your church?"
You'll find many other good and scholarly works about Psalmody at C&C.
Happy exploring...
I am a student at the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids.
We are Psalm singers as well.
I looked into the RP sem and found it very nice.
You can find some at SWRB.com as well.
Heritagebooks.org has some as well.
Keep reading!
Thanks for writing, Nate;
I am glad to see that there are Psalm singers in Grand Rapids! I grew up in the Kalamazoo area (Portage). I'll check out SWRB.com as well as
Heritagebooks.org......
Are you going to keep this blog running or is it just so that there can be some access to info on exclusive Psalmody?
BTW here in Grand Rapids there are these denoms/churches that are exclusive psalm singers:
Associate Reformed Church
Heritage Reformed Church
Free Reformed Church
Protestant Reformed Church
That is a good amount of Psalm singers for one city!
We do not use the red BOPFS though, we use a blue Psalter that from the United Presbyterians. First published in 1912 and has been published since.
Well, I am not yet sure about what I'll do with this blog. My original purpose was to attempt to teach others about exclusive Psalmody and to provide a source of links about the subject.
I will keep adding to it and maintaining it if it looks like it is helping others learn about true worship (and maybe some other important topics).
Thanks for your list of churches. I hope some people in the Grand Rapids area will be able to take a look at this blog (and other blogs that teach about exclusive Psalmody) and become interested enough to visit a Psalm singing church.
Thanks for your comments;
keep them coming.
Hopefully people who read this blog will click on your link and look at yours as well.
BTW, I like the picture of your link; it emphasizes what you believe in rather than what you look like. Good stuff...
I recently met someone who introduced me to this idea of Psalm singing. I must admit it is completely foreign to me, and I have grown up in the church. I have a few questions for you:
Are all other songs and forms of worship considered unacceptable to God by those of your thought?
Isn't it possible for God to inspire new songs through people like He did through His servant David?
Can a song of worship to God be not a Psalm, but biblically correct?
I am not trying to contradict you, rather I am trying to understand this thinking. I myself have been judged for the way that I worship by those more conservative than myself and it hurt me deeply. I seek to please God and love Him in every way that I can. I am also a worship leader at my church at this time, so the area of worship is very important to me. I love Him with my worship however "unorthodox" it may seem.
I think the idea is great and if people use this as a tool to worship God then great!
I'm with uncon however in that I would prefer modern music.Many of the words to modern music are Biblical.
I believe the form you choose to woship GOD reflects on the gifts, talents, tastes, cultures, nations, etc that he has exposed us to and lets face it. God likes a lot of variety!!! For anyone to suggest their music Glorifies God more than another... well I wouldn't go there.
I love learning new ways to worship him and how others worhip him.
Glorifying His Name above all names!!!!
Ellie,
Thank you for writing.
I think that many of your comments have been answered in my letter to Unconservative Worshipper, but I would still like for you to consider one question.
Does the Bible really say that 'God likes a lot of variety?'
If you think carefully about it, couldn't the opposite actually be said about God?
He has chosen only one way for our salvation (Jesus), only one way for eternally punishing unbelievers (hell), only one way to worship Him ("Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth"), etc.
One might say "can't we worship Him 'in spirit and truth' via a wide variety of forms?" I believe that the Bible says "no, we can't". (See the links on this site for more research about why the Bible says that we cannot worship Him in a variety of forms; there isn't enough room to speak about it in this small amount of space).
The Bible makes it clear to us that God actually REJECTS some types of worship. In Isaiah 1:12-17, we read about God rejecting worship from His people because they were not doing it HIS way; they were doing it as they saw fit. They thought that they could just offer up sacrifices without paying attention to the condition of their hearts, so God said that worship became a trouble and a burden to Him (1:14)!
Yes. I know, this isn't regarding the FORM of worship, but the condition of the worshipper. I am only illustrating that God actually rejects a lot of worship.
To see how God feels about worshipping Him with the wrong FORM of worship, read Numbers 3:4, where the sons of Aaron made a burnt offering to God in a way that was not prescribed by God. (I mentioned this in the letter above). They wound up dying before Him.
Ellie, my main point in all of this is simply to urge you to consider that the Bible doesn't teach us that God likes a lot of variety. It can actually be argued that He demands some very exclusive things from us.
esto es genial
Good stuff. I'm a communicant member of Springs Reformed Church (RPCNA), and have held to unaccompanied exclusive psalmody since I was 17. I hope to one day attend RPTS.
A couple days ago, I received my copy of the Bible (AV) with the Scottish Metrical Psalter (1650) appended, from the Trinitarian Bible Society. I highly recommend it.
www.trinitarianbiblesociety.org
EP is extrabiblical legalism. That's my two cents.
"There is only one way to offer unblemished sacrifices of worship to God: by singing the songs that He gave us."
While I salute your zeal - this is false - ALL our righteousness is as filthy rags - including ANY form of worship.
I reject EP for a simple reason - Jesus is the name by which we are saved and the name by which every knee shall bow - we are not required to exclusively sing of things referred or prophesied or with "new" understanding - we have heard the name of the revealed "christos" and can praise that name with joy!
I disagree with the tagline. I will readily admit that many songs written for worship have some unscriptural phrasing in them. But rather than arguing against using any songs other than from the book of Psalms, I think the argument should be to double and triple check the wording of all songs.
After all, Paul does not limit Christian worship to the Psalms, but says "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." (Eph 5:19) In fact, I would argue from that very passage that Exclusive Psalmody is an error, nay almost a heresy. After all, no Psalm in the book of Psalms calls Jesus by name. No Psalm specifically mentions the cross by name. No Psalm spells the resurrection out as a historical fact. To worship with only the Psalms seems tantamount to rejecting Christ in favor of Judaism. Now, one may argue that Jesus is shown forth in the Psalms, and of course he is. However, it is in type and figure, and shadow, not in explicit clearness. Just as Paul contrasted his preaching of Christ with that of Moses, saying, "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face," (2 Cor 3:12-13) so also since we have such a hope we ought not to sing about Christ only as Moses would have, in veiled and shadowing figures, but with great plainness of speech. Now, I'm not against singing the Psalms, but I have yet to see any song book that sets all of them to music in a singable manner. Do those who command exclusive Psalmody just think you can take the KJV and set every Psalm to the tune of Amazing Grace and run with it, or what? Why are no song books produced exclusively from the Psalms?
I don't know how far exclusive psalmody is taken in practice. Would Isaac Watts' "The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament," be acceptable to exclusive psalmists? http://www.cgmusic.com/workshop/watts/
For example, he paraphrases Psalm 2,
1 Why did the nations join to slay
The Lord's anointed Son?
Why did they cast His laws away
And tread His gospel down?
2 The Lord, that sits above the skies,
Derides their rage below;
He speaks with vengeance in His eyes
And strikes their spirits through.
3 "I call Him My Eternal Son,
And raise Him from the dead;
I make My holy hill His throne,
And wide His Kingdom spread."
4 "Ask me, My Son, and then enjoy
The utmost heathen lands:
Thy rod of iron shall destroy
The rebel that withstands."
5 Be wise, ye rulers of the earth,
Obey the anointed Lord,
Adore the King of Heav'nly birth,
And tremble at His word.
6 With humble love address his throne;
For if He frown, you die:
Those are secure, and those alone,
Who on His grace rely.
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