Singing the Psalms vs Reading Only -- (Not a Strictly EP Post)

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Ed Walsh

Puritan Board Senior
Greetings, fellow believers who are and have eternally been loved of God,

Singing the Psalms vs. Reading Only -- (Not a Strictly EP Post)
Subtitle:
A Personal Experiential Evaluation of Singing the Psalms
versus
Reading Only

This post will be short. I feel compelled after singing Psalm 27 this morning to say that for me, for the past 7 or 8 years, singing the Psalms, as opposed to reading only, has benefited my soul somewhere in a range from 5 to 10 times in magnitude, the former versus the latter.

That pretty much ends my post, except to add a silly example to test yourself on the value of singing versus reading the lyrics to any song.

Here's a song that I'm personally not too crazy about, but I still see the benefit of singing it over saying the words only. Give it a try. Try maybe humming a line or two of the song below. Pretty dull, I know. But go ahead. Now, as passionately as you can, read all four lines of the song. Is it just me? Or do you notice a difference too?

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear so and so,
Happy birthday to you.

Finally, I'm hoping that this stimulates a discussion of my observation and motivates some who have never learned how, or for whatever reason, sung the Psalms put to music. They are, after all, songs, aren't they?

Now let's see if this goes anywhere.

Ed
 
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Ed,

Thanks for the post. I don’t know by the same experience, but I think you are on to something.

Does your church use psalms in worship?
 
Ed, I have noticed the same for myself when singing and remembering the Psalms, however with the proviso that we have to be really careful with what versions/text we sing, as it may lodge an inaccurate version of the Psalm on our mind.

A classic case is Stuart Townend's version of Psalm 23 which omits "for your name's sake", and so is in the hymnal section of my church's Psalter Hymnal.

I love the Metrical Psalms, but remember being confused as a child trying to read along in the Scottish Psalter while the minister read from the Bible. It is brilliant to learn the Metrical Psalms as a child, but I think I've had to separate them in my mind from the KJV's translation, to get them both to stick!

I think the Church of England traditionally sung or chanted the Great Bible's Psalter, and if my memory serves me correctly, they didn't update it in the BCP when the KJV was released as it was too deeply loved, and too deeply stuck in the minds of the congregants (despite its textual flaws).
 
Does your church use psalms in worship?

Hi Will,

I worked for seven years to get my church willing to give it a try. As a compromise, I offered to donate 100 copies of the Trinity Psalter/Hymnal. I say a compromise because the TPH is not in any way a pure Psalter. It contains the good, bad, and the ugly, but the good is worth the effort. Even for free, it took another three years and a changing of the guard to get them to accept my offer FOR FREE. Finally, while we were without a pastor, kicking and screaming, the gift was accepted and now used some of the time.

In my private devotions, I stick to the Scottish 1650 Psalter, which I have fallen in love with. This is not to say that singing from even the 1650 replaces the need to read and study the Psalms in a good translation (or two or three) and several trustworthy commentaries. I do all three.

Take a look at the preface to the 1650:
~~~~~~~

Good Reader,

Tis evident by the common experience of mankind, that love cannot lie idle in the soul. For everyone hath his oblectation* and delight, his tastes and relishes are suitable to his constitution, and a man’s temper is more discovered by his solaces than by anything else. Carnal men delight in what is suited to the gust of the flesh, and spiritual men in the things of the Spirit. The promises of God’s holy covenant, which are to others as stale news or withered flowers, feed the pleasure of their minds; and the mysteries of our redemption by Christ are their hearts’ delight and comfort. But as joy must have a proper object, so also a vent: for this is an affection that cannot be penned up: the usual issue and out-going of it is by singing. Profane spirits must have songs suitable to their mirth; as their mirth is carnal, so their songs are vain and frothy, if not filthy and obscene; but they that rejoice in the Lord, their mirth runneth in a spiritual channel: “Is any merry? let him sing psalms,” saith the apostle (Jas. 5:13); and, “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage,” saith holy David (Ps. 119:54).

Surely singing, ’tis is a delectable way of instruction, as common prudence will teach us. Aelian telleth us that the Cretians enjoined their children, τοὺς παῖδας τοὺς ἐλευθέρους μανθάνειν τοὺς νόμους ἐκέλευον μετά τινος μελῳδὶας, to learn their laws by singing them in verse.† And surely singing of Psalms is a duty of such comfort and profit, that it needeth not our recommendation. The new nature is instead of all arguments, which cannot be without thy spiritual solace. Now though spiritual songs of mere humane composure may have their use, yet our devotion is best secured, where the matter and words are of immediately divine inspiration; and to us David’s Psalms seem plainly intended by those terms of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” which the apostle useth (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). But then ’tis meet that these divine composures should be represented to us in a fit translation, lest we want David, in David; while his holy ecstasies are delivered in a flat and bald expression. The translation which is now put into thy hands cometh nearest to the original of any that we have seen, and runneth with such a fluent sweetness, that we thought fit to recommend it to thy Christian acceptance; some of us having used it already, with great comfort and satisfaction.

Thomas Manton, D.D.
Henry Langley, D.D.
John Owen, D.D.
William Jenkyn
James Innes
Thomas Watson
Thomas Lye
Matthew Poole
John Milward
John Chester
George Cokayn
Matthew Mead
Robert Franklin
Thomas Doolittle
Thomas Vincent
Nathanael Vincent
John Ryther
William Tomson
Nicholas Blaikie
Charles Morton
Edmund Calamy
William Carslake
James Janeway
John Hickes
John Baker
Richard Mayo

NOTES:
* oblectation: The act of pleasing highly; delight (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary); Delight, pleasure, enjoyment; an instance of this (OED).—Ed.
† Claudius Aelianus (c. 175 – c. 235), Variae Historiae, lib. 2, cap. 39
 
Ed, I have noticed the same for myself when singing and remembering the Psalms, however with the proviso that we have to be really careful with what versions/text we sing, as it may lodge an inaccurate version of the Psalm on our mind.

Hi Peter, @pmachapman

I was thinking of you too as I wrote to Will, @Imputatio , in the post before this one.
Good stuff all.

Thanks for writing,

Ed
 
A classic case is Stuart Townend's version of Psalm 23 which omits "for your name's sake", and so is in the hymnal section of my church's Psalter Hymnal.
We have sung this version during our celebration of the Lord's supper but to my mind it is rather 'watered down' compared to Psalm 23 in the Scottish Psalter.
 
Hi Will,

I worked for seven years to get my church willing to give it a try. ..
Finally, while we were without a pastor, kicking and screaming, the gift was accepted and now used some of the time.
In recent months I’ve been gently seeking this for my church. It’s encouraging to read that your church has adopted Psalm singing, I’m just hoping and praying it won’t take 7 years for me!
 
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