Why I am so vehemently opposed to Exclusive Psalmody (EP)

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panta dokimazete

Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Those that are familiar with me on PB know I am very staunchly against EP. It is definitely not because I am against Psalm singing. I love the Psalms and hold them in highest regard. They should be frequently sung in worship.

That being said, among the many issues I have with EP, there are 2 that preeminently stick out in my mind (all emphasis mine):

1. EP does not allow the "whole council of God" to be included in sung worship, vs allowing it in all other elements.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. [Acts 20:26-28 ESV]

2. EP diminishes the glory due the name of Jesus from His loving church by both omitting His New Testament (NT) revealed name in sung worship, as well as not singing of all His wondrous works and deeds as faithfully recorded in the NT.

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. [Psalm 5:11 ESV]

Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! [Psalm 105:2 ESV]


I keep harping on this to hopefully dissuade any brethren that are practicing or considering EP from doing so and maybe, just maybe, bringing to light arguments EP church leadership may not have considered.

I do not consider EP as heresy, but it is a significant error, therefore I feel a sense of responsibility to speak out against it. I know I may seem obsessive or harsh in terms of my approach, but I genuinely care that the Bride is given the opportunity to practice Her right to fully sing praises to, and in the revealed name of, Jesus.

How can we have pure worship without including all of the Lord's revealed Word as a source in every element?

The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. [Psalm 12:6 ESV]

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. [Philippians 1:9-11 ESV]

I abjectly apologize for the times I have been uncharitable and promise to do a better job of tempering my responses.

-JD
 
Since I know I'll have to spell this out:

Premise 1: the benediction is an element of worship

Premise 2: the benediction does not declare the whole counsel of God

Conclusion: the whole counsel of God is not declared in each individual element of worship.
 
Does the church that you belong to hold to EP? If so, I could understand the frustration. If not, I would just let it go as it doesn’t pertain to your immediate brethren or your family. What other churches do in their house is their business in my opinion.

It’s always a productive thing to debate matters of worship to a point, but at some point it can become not applicable enough to your own church life to be expending so much focus on it.
 
In contrast, hear what Carl Trueman says in relation to brothers like the OP.

"Then, in our church practice, we need to take the Old Testament more seriously. It astounds me, given the overwhelming use of psalms as central to gathered worship in the first four centuries, the absolute importance given to psalmody for the first two centuries of the post-Reformation Reformed churches, and the fact that the Book of Psalms is the only hymn book which can claim to be universal in its acceptance by the whole of Christendom and utterly inspired in all of its statements – it astounds me, I say, that so few psalms are sung in our worship services today.

Moreover, often nothing seems to earn the scorn and derision of others more than the suggestion that more psalms should be sung in worship. Indeed, the last few years have seen a number of writers strike out against exclusive psalmody. Given that life is too short to engage in pointless polemics, I am left wondering which parallel universe these guys come from, where the most pressing and dangerous worship issue is clearly that people sing too much of the Bible in their services. How terrifying a prospect that would be.

Imagine: people actually singing songs that express the full range of human emotion in their worship using words of which God has explicitly said, ‘These are mine.’ Back here on Planet Earth, however, there is generally precious little chance of overloading on sound theology in song in most evangelical churches as the Marcion invasion is pretty much total and unopposed in the sphere of worship. Yet I for one prefer Athanasius to Marcion as a patristic thinker and, in his letter to Marcellinus, he gives one of the most beautiful and moving arguments for psalms in worship ever penned. It is a pity more have not taken his words to heart."
 
The moderator/admin consensus of those that have been online and opined is to leave this closed given the demeanor and approach and piling up and repeating of threads on simply the same subject. The theses have had enough airing for a while. Some moderators believe EPs may be too quick to cry foul to close threads against EP down and should engage or simply ignore such threads. There was not a consensus on that, but we report it nevertheless for consideration. Moderators and Admins genuinely try to handle these things impartially, but we have strong views too and that is why we have a mixture of paedo/credo, ep/nonep folks doing this moderating work. Personally, and I harp on this a lot, please review and or keep in mind that the primary function on PB, as in all things, is to be edifying to the members and readers of this board.
 
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