# What shall we sing?



## Pilgrim (Feb 23, 2008)

In my experience, those churches who are into so called "praise and worship" and contemporary music at best rarely sing the psalms. But of course I haven't been to every church. Is this the experience of others as well? Are there churches who have set the psalms to contemporary arrangements the way some have done with hymns? 

The same could be said of churches with more "traditional" worship as well as their practice could be said to practice exclusive hymnody. When those types of churches go to "blended worship" or fully contemporary, it seems to me that the chance they will sing the psalms frequently or at all is even slimmer than before.


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## ChristopherPaul (Feb 23, 2008)

In my experience the Psalter is non-existent in the contemporary and exclusive hymnody services. However the Psalms being sung are present but in a chopped up form. So if you ask a leader of these churches why they do not sing psalms they would most likely reply that that indeed they do. Almost every praise chorus includes something from a Psalm or inspired by a Psalm.

But the _Psalter_ where complete Psalms maintained in the manner they were written with the intent to be sung are not even known of in such churches.

I heard a contemporary praise and worship artist say from the stage one time that writing praise and worship songs are easy, you simply put your prayers to music. That may be likened to the Psalms, but may reveal that the prayers need reformed which in turn may improve the modern songs that are written. I don't know. (This point may have strayed from the topic a bit).

But as far as modernizing Psalms, there have been a few attempts, but in most cases they take too much liberty to the words to actually consider it be a modernized, contemporary psalter selection.


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## jaybird0827 (Feb 23, 2008)

Christopher Paul

We attended services like that up at a PCA in PA. Every now and then we sang the Old 100th, words and music printed on the back of the bulletin. Other than that the closest thing to the Psalms was some chorus that seemed to be taken partly from Psalm 84. Very contemporary.

We even suggested the idea of including more of the Psalms in worship and were mocked out.

We ended up commuting twice a month to the PRC in Northern Virginia.


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## Herald (Feb 23, 2008)

Sorry folks. Maybe I'm just contrary this afternoon. We are a "traditional" church (although we are reforming) that sings hymns _and _psalms. Maybe it's the latte I had this morning. It didn't agree with me so that's why I seem disagreeable.


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## Pilgrim (Feb 23, 2008)

BaptistInCrisis said:


> Sorry folks. Maybe I'm just contrary this afternoon. We are a "traditional" church (although we are reforming) that sings hymns _and _psalms. Maybe it's the latte I had this morning. It didn't agree with me so that's why I seem disagreeable.



Thanks, Bill. I am interested in what others have found. 

Before moving to where I currently am now, my only experiences in Reformed churches (or anything similar) was an EPC that has contemporary worship and the OPC I belong to that sings psalms and hymns from the Trinity Hymnal. I think that experience has spoiled me because it seems somewhat elusive. In my metro area now I have attended three PCA churches, and I think they are representative of what you can find in the PCA. One of them appears to be completely given over to praise and worship. Some of the songs are theologically sound, others border on the stereotypical 7-11 songs. (Their order of worship generally _is_ sound if their song choices Another is what Andy Webb has termed episcoterian. It has what could be called traditional protestant worship with a choir, similar to the United Methodist Church of my youth, although I don't think it has a pipe organ. The third that I am now attending (although it is the furthest of the three) has worship very similar to what my OPC home church has, basically what D.G. Hart and John Muether advocate in _With Reverence and Awe_.


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## KMK (Feb 23, 2008)

Actually there are many Psalm passages set to contemporary music.

Hear My Cry, O Lord (Ps 61)
Give Us Clean Hands (Ps 24)
Psalm 5
Psalm 126 (Christ Tomlin I believe)
O Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down (Psalm 95)
A Shield About Me (Ps 3)
Search Me (Ps 139:23)

These are just a few of my favorite from off the top of my head.

We at Village Community Church sing what most would call contemporary songs and hymns but many of them are Psalms. We also include songs based on other worshipful passages of the Bible.


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## Pilgrim (Feb 23, 2008)

joshua said:


> My church only sings from the Trinity Hymnal (unfortunately). After I suggested adding Psalters, it was decided that a necessity wasn't seen in doing so.



If they sing the psalms frequently from it (they are not all paraphrases) they are way ahead of most. Evidently many PCA churches do not even have the Trinity Hymnal.


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## R Harris (Feb 23, 2008)

joshua said:


> How is one able to distinguish which are Psalms and which are paraphrases in the Trinity Hymnal?


 

Excellent question. Most of the "Psalms" in the Trinity Hymnal are paraphrases. There are some Psalms which are pretty good (such as Psalm 146), but most are either not very good or are poor paraphrases.

Arguments against the Trinity Psalter are that it is "words only," but what is wrong with that? Play the tune through one time without singing (takes 10 seconds), and then people get the idea and then sing it. It is also the most practical, since most churches will not throw out their traditional hymnals.

There is no "perfect" psalter, so excuses abound plentifully as to why people refuse to sing God's hymns in their worship services . . . . . . . .


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## panta dokimazete (Feb 23, 2008)

- I get it - I should have stayed away from the rabbit trail!

pursuant to the OP - I asked if it was appropriate Psalmody to only sing a portion of a Psalm.

If so - if that portion was placed into the circumstance of a contemporary praise song (melody, accompaniment and rhythm) is that still appropriate?


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## panta dokimazete (Feb 23, 2008)

oy - I think I will contribute to another thread - this one is too tricky, ta!


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## JBaldwin (Feb 23, 2008)

There are many Psalms set to contemporary music, and as the person who chooses most of the music we sing in our PCA church, I make an effort to include Psalms in some form in every worship service. Many of the contemporary songs we sing are large portions of the Psalms with little or no paraphrase. One of my favorites is a setting to Psalm 25:1-8. 

Though we print the words to hymns we sing in the bulletin, they are taken from the Trinity Hymnal.


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## Pilgrim (Feb 24, 2008)

joshua said:


> Pilgrim said:
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> > joshua said:
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The pastor were I attend now and I were looking at this last week. The information on how to distinguish them is in the preface. If I recall correctly the paraphrases will say "from Psalm x" and the metrical Psalms will say just "Psalm x". I think there was a third category as well, but I can't remember what it was. Most if not all of the Psalms in the revised Trinity Hymnal are from the 1912 Psalter Hymnal of the CRC. I believe the majority are paraphrases.


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## 21st Century Calvinist (Feb 24, 2008)

Pilgrim said:


> joshua said:
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> > Pilgrim said:
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The three categories are:
metrical psalm eg #87 (psalm)
psalm version eg #5 (from psalm)
psalm paraphrase #92 (based on psalm)


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## SueS (Feb 25, 2008)

At our former church we sang snippets of Psalms, a couple of verses sung over and over and over again, to the point of becoming mantra-like - the words eventually lost all significance. I sometimes think back on those P&W songs which used small portions of scripture and realize that we were repeating things by rote that we had no understanding of - it's really a scary thought. I've since made a list of various Psalm fragments we sang and read the Psalms in their entirety - what richness, depth and meaning is lost when a fragment is converted into a 7/11 ditty!


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## JBaldwin (Feb 25, 2008)

SueS said:


> At our former church we sang snippets of Psalms, a couple of verses sung over and over and over again, to the point of becoming mantra-like - the words eventually lost all significance. I sometimes think back on those P&W songs which used small portions of scripture and realize that we were repeating things by rote that we had no understanding of - it's really a scary thought. I've since made a list of various Psalm fragments we sang and read the Psalms in their entirety - what richness, depth and meaning is lost when a fragment is converted into a 7/11 ditty!



Nearly all of the early praise and worship music (1980-1995) was as you describe, snipets of psalms, snipets of Bible verses sung in chorus fashion and repeated over and over again. This format is typical, especially within pentecostal churches (though it leaked into every denomination). In the last 7-10 years, however, there has been an attempt (and quite successful from some composers) to set large portions of the Psalms to music in a contemporary setting, and many of these have found their way into contemporary style worship services. I personally applaud this effort and enjoy singing the Psalms in a fresher setting, though I still love some of the old metrical settings of the Psalms.


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## SueS (Feb 25, 2008)

JBaldwin said:


> SueS said:
> 
> 
> > At our former church we sang snippets of Psalms, a couple of verses sung over and over and over again, to the point of becoming mantra-like - the words eventually lost all significance. I sometimes think back on those P&W songs which used small portions of scripture and realize that we were repeating things by rote that we had no understanding of - it's really a scary thought. I've since made a list of various Psalm fragments we sang and read the Psalms in their entirety - what richness, depth and meaning is lost when a fragment is converted into a 7/11 ditty!
> ...




Too bad our old church isn't aware of that!!


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