A website of Psalms sung a cappella from the Psalter.

http://www.thepsalmssung.org/

Psalm 42 personalized

Based on Psalm 42. Album here. Lyrics: 

I have lost my appetite
And a flood is welling up behind my eyes
So I eat the tears I cry
And if that were not enough
They know just the words to cut and tear and prod
When they ask me “Whereʼs your God?”

Why are you downcast, oh my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
I can remember when you showed your face to me

As a deer pants for water, so my soul thirsts for you
And when I survey Your splendor, You so faithfully renew
Like a bed of rest for my fainting flesh

When Iʼm looking at the ground
Itʼs an inbred feedback loop that drags me down
So itʼs time to lift my brow
And remember better days
When I loved to worship you and learn your ways
Singing sweetest songs of praise

Let my sighs give way to songs that sing about your faithfulness
Let my pain reveal your glory as my only real rest
Let my losses show me all I truly have is you

So when Iʼm drowning out at sea
And all your breakers and your waves crash down on me
Iʼll recall your safety scheme
Youʼre the one who made the waves
And your Son went out to suffer in my place
And to show me that Iʼm safe

Why am I down?
Why so disturbed?
I am satisfied in you

Why I am not Psalms-only acapella

I have been in a few churches that are Psalms-only or acapella (no instruments). While I think the Psalms-only churches may have a leg up on other churches in that their learned worship music is all Scriptural and an aid to learning large chunks of Scripture, I don't believe you can demand from Scripture that everyone conform to that in worship. If I did, I would have to:

1. Ignore Paul's adoption (and implicit support) of early hymns

Any New Testament Greek scholar will tell you the form of Phil 2:5-11 and Col 1:15-20 are in the form of early hymns in the early church, most likely that Paul quotes to affirm their accuracy and help him remind his readers of their truth. The NA27 text arranges it that way. So I would have to get an older Greek text that doesn't do that.

2. Change Col 3:16 and Eph 5:19

These seem to suggest the psalms are in the corpus, rather than the exclusive corpus, of the songs of the church. It has been suggested that these refer to three types of psalms, so to have it make more sense, I would have to change them like so:

Col 3:16- Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns psalms and spiritual songs more psalms, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

3. Edit the Psalms

Now that you are singing the Psalms, you will run into a little problem in that they tell you to use instruments and to sing new songs. So to be super true to the word of God, as it seems David was not, I would have to edit these to:


Psalm 150:3-6 -Praise him with trumpet sound; your voice
praise him with lute and harp! your voice
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; your voice
praise him with strings and pipe! your voice
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; your voice
praise him with loud clashing cymbals! your voice
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

Psalm 149:1-4- Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song, psalm
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
3 Let them praise his name with dancing, standing still,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! your voice
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation.

Thus, I cannot be of the camp that submits that all worship music is to be sung without instruments and only from the Psalms. That said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to sing a Psalm every now and again in worship, especially the whole psalm (not just the praise section) and all the types of psalms (praise, lament, etc).

Lamentable Worship

Recently, I finished Shane Hipps' "The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture." As a work of prescription, it is mostly deeply flawed. However, as a work of analysis, it is extremely helpful. One section I particularly enjoyed:

"Electronic media culture has a natural bias toward efficiency, entertainment and consumption. These three values have become the new holy trinity in our culture - to challenge any one of them is an act of heresy. Taking cues from these biases, worship in the modern church is often equated almost exclusively with joy and celebration. Worship often serves as a kind of pep rally...We have a strong legacy of denying our suffering in favor of celebration...over time it leads to an inauthentic and unhealthy spiritual life.

Authencitiy and integrity in worship will mean employing the pattern of the psalms, which express both lament and praise. Each element completes the other. Without lament, praise is little more than shallow sentimentality and a denial of life's struggles and sin. Without praise, lament is a denial of hope and grace, both of which are central to our faith and to God's promises. To value one over the other is like suggesting that breathing in is more important than breathing out.

This is not only an issue of authenticity and integrity. It cuts to the heart of hospitality and pastoral sensitivity. For those coming to a worship service immersed in the depth of pain and suffering, celebratory praise takes on a mocking tone that excludes those who are suffering. They are unable to join honestly in these choruses. By incorporating expressions of sorrow, pain and grief into our worship, the hurting are ushered into God's presence with honesty. At the same time, the rest of the congregation is reminded of the suffering community gathered in their midst. Here they are invited to weep with those who are weeping."

-Shane Hipps. The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture. pg 160-161 [emphasis added]

Hymn of Confession

A great hymn based on Psalm 51.


God Be Merciful to Me

God, be merciful to me,
On Thy grace I rest my plea;
Plenteous in compassion Thou,
Blot out my transgressions now;
Wash me, make me pure within,
Cleanse, O cleanse me from my sin.

My transgressions I confess,
Grief and guilt my soul oppress;
I have sinned against Thy grace
And provoked Thee to Thy face;
I confess Thy judgment just,
Speechless, I Thy mercy trust.

I am evil, born in sin;
Thou desirest truth within.
Thou alone my Savior art,
Teach Thy wisdom to my heart;
Make me pure, Thy grace bestow,
Wash me whiter than the snow.

Broken, humbled to the dust
By Thy wrath and judgment just,
Let my contrite heart rejoice
And in gladness hear Thy voice;
From my sins O hide Thy face,
Blot them out in boundless grace.

Gracious God, my heart renew,
Make my spirit right and true;
Cast me not away from Thee,
Let Thy Spirit dwell in me;
Thy salvation’s joy impart,
Steadfast make my willing heart.

Sinners then shall learn from me
And return, O God, to Thee;
Savior, all my guilt remove,
And my tongue shall sing Thy love;
Touch my silent lips, O Lord,
And my mouth shall praise accord.

Singing Psalms, and only Psalms, on Sunday

I had a unique experience recently. I attended my first Psalms-only service in Scotland. The church was a Free Church of Scotland that has been exclusive in singing Psalms without instruments and no hymns for nearly a hundred years. I had set a post on Luther to hit that commented that I could never be a Psalms-only puritan. However, the experience was unique and enlightening.

Our choir came to the Free Church early, leaving behind their hymns and songs that they often sing by themselves to adopt Psalms sung by the whole congregation. Then, they practiced in a small building that was very unforgiving to those that sang off key. Then, as the practice wrapped up, a few early congregants filtered in. Mostly the older crowd getting their usual seats. But I watched the members as the choir finished preparing. As the choir sang, I saw an elderly woman singing along, knowing every word to Psalm 127. I knew none of the words. But this woman heard the first few lines and could join right in. The next Psalm they sang, she joined in again. The fact hit me: This lady probably knows all 150 Psalms from singing them every Sunday! I know Psalm 1, 8, 23 and parts of 51. My opposition to Psalms-only missed an important virtue of Psalms-only singing: The congregation begins to memorize the book of the Bible that Calvin called “an anatomy of the soul.” Laments, praises, confession, all in this rich book.

Such a fact does not change my mind that there are good reasons not to be Psalms-only. First, one must feel hypocritical every time you sing Psalm 150, that commands instruments to be used in the worship of God. Second, one has to be stricter than Paul who quotes from early new hymns in his epistles (Phil 2:5-11, Col 1:15-20). Finally, one must do interpretive gymnastics to get around the command to “sing a new song.”

Yet, the choice today seems to be between singing Psalms-only and singing no Psalms. We may sing a song that lifts a few lines from a Psalm, but never the whole thing. We sing the line “Your love endures forever,” in tons of songs, but barely touch the parts that show specific instances of God's love. Though I think being Psalms exclusive is not warranted by Scripture, I do think they have a richer experience and diet of worship than we Christians who rarely, if ever, sing Psalms at all. Somehow, I don't think God will chide the Psalms-only people in heaven as much as the no-Psalms Christians. Our music director at PCPC has a vision for a new Psalter with new music and updated metric words, to re-introduce the Psalms to a Church that has forgotten them. Few things, in my opinion, could be better for the diet of the Church in worship in America.

An example of Scottish Psalms singing: Psalm 23 sung by the congregation mp3.