What is a Psalm Paraphrase?

This Sunday’s worship at Christ Reformed DC is something of a case study on psalm paraphrases.

[Full disclosure, I’m not musically trained, and I’m not an historian of music. I’m just a pastor who loves congregational singing, and celebrates the psalm singing element of our Reformed tradition. These are my reflections as a worship leader and song selector in a Reformed church.]

Our sermon text this week is Psalm 79, and we’ll be singing two different settings of this psalm from the Trinity Psalter Hymnal (TPH). For our Psalm of Confession we’ll be singing “Remember Not, O God” (79B), which is a parphrase, and for our Psalm of Response we’ll be singing “God, the Nations Have Invaded” (79A), which is a literal rendering of the psalm in meter.

We’ll also be singing “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” which is found in the hymn section of our psalter hymnal, but which is in fact a paraphrase of Psalm 87, as the scripture index in the back of the book makes clear.

What is a Psalm Paraphrase?

So, what’s a psalm paraphrase? And why does it mattter?

To paraphrase, obviously, is to restate a text in a different form. Psalm paraphrases are loose translations of psalms that restate them in different terms. They can be close paraphrases, or extremely broad. Often, paraphrases are also partial, which means, they only paraphrase a certain part of a psalm.

Why do they exist?

Well, when you set a biblical psalm to music, you have a few choices.

You can chant it, which requires little or no alteration of a standard translation of the Hebrew text. Chants don’t have to rhyme, and they don’t have to conform to a particular rhythm or meter. These are, arguably, points in favor of chanting psalms.

Much psalm singing since the Protestant Reformation, however, has been metrical. “Meter” is a number that refers to the number of syllables in each line of a hymn. Psalm 79A is set to the meter 8.7.8.7.D, which means that each line of a stanza consists of 8, then 7, then 8, then 7, then D, which is short for “Doubled,” so do it again, i.e., 8.7.8.7.8.7.8.7.

Needless to say, English translations of the psalms don’t consist of a regularly alternating number of syllables in each line. Sometimes the Hebrew text itself has a particular meter, but, depending on who you talk to, this is rather inconsistent through the Psalter, and it doesn’t ranslate into English.

So when we marry a psalm to a hymn tune for the purposes of singing, we have to standardize or regularize the meter. I’ve attempted this once in my life, with mediocre results. I set Psalm 43 to the same meter as the tune Genevan 42, so they could be sung together. It’s not too difficult, but you have to substitute words and syllables to synchronize them with the lines of the tune.

All of which is a rather long way of saying, any psalm sung to a standard hymn tune has been altered somewhat. All English metrical psalms are, to some degree, paraphrases. However, since this process became widespread in the Protestant Reformation — notably, Calvin was an innovator in Geneva — different strategies have been pursued. Some have sought to set psalms to meter with the fewest possible departures from a literal translation, while others have been quite loose and free in this process.

A Case Study on Psalm Paraphrases: Psalm 79

Which brings us to this Sunday at Christ Reformed DC.

My personal bias is toward singing more literal settings of the psalms. A big argument in favor of singing psalms is that you are actually singing the inspired text of Scripture, and thereby familiarizing yourself with it. It is a very practical way of letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly… singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16). The closer the text of the metrical psalm coheres with the biblical text, the more this benefit is enjoyed.

This brings me to one of the great advantages of the TPH. The TPH includes a literal setting of every single one of the 150 psalms in the psalter, and this isn’t necessarily true of all psalm collections available today. If there is a single setting of a psalm, such as Psalm 96, it is always a literal setting. If there are multiple settings of a psalm, such as Psalm 22, then the first setting is always a literal setting. So Psalm 22A, “My God, My God, O Why Have You Forsaken Me,” is a complete, literal setting of the psalm. Psalms 22B, 22C, and 22D are each “partial” settings, which may be more or less literal as well.

In the case of Psalm 79 this week, 79A is a new setting drafted by the OPC/URCNA committee in 2016, which is indicated clearly by the copyright in the lower left corner of the page. The production of the TPH triggered the resetting of a number of psalms, and a great deal of effort was invested in the production of texts that were both faithful to the Hebrew original and wedded to appropriate musical accompaniment. It is quite fitting, indeed, to sing Psalm 79A to the same tune as the hymn “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” (O MEIN JESU, ICH MUSS STERBEN).

Normally, if we sing the literal setting of a psalm, we won’t also sing a paraphrase of the same psalm in the same service. That’s a bit much even for a psalm junkie such as myself, when there’s so much other great music to sing. But in the case of Psalm 79B, “Remember Not, O God,” this paraphrase zeroes in on the second half of the psalm, 79:8 and following: “

Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
    let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
    for we are brought very low.
Help us, O God of our salvation,
    for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
    for your name's sake!

These words are well suited to be sung during our confession of sin, which is a regular feature of our liturgy. Furthermore, this paraphrase is appropriately set to a beautiful and moving tune by Beethoven. According to hymnary.org, The Psalter of 1912 set these words to GORTON, a tune derived from the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23, Opus 57, written in 1807.

According to my (mostly complete) records, in fifteen years of singing a psalm of confession in our service, we have only sung this setting of Psalm 79 once. This is a shame, and reflects the fact that I am a relative neophyte to psalm singing. Hopefully, it will now enter our regular rotation. This is one of the benefits of preaching through the psalter! Listen to these beautiful words that lead us in confession:

Remember not, O God,
the sins of long ago;
in tender mercy visit us,
distressed and humbled low.

O Lord, our Savior, help,
and glorify your name;
deliver us from all our sins
and take away our shame.

In your compassion hear
your pris'ner's plaintive sigh,
and in the greatness of your pow'r
save those about to die.

Then, safe within your fold,
we will exalt your name;
our thankful hearts with songs of joy
your goodness will proclaim. 

While I have a large personal bias toward singing literal settings of the psalms, this is an excellent application of the paraphrase approach, and it illustrates why the editors of the TPH wisely included both. Furthermore, many of these paraphrases are traditional and beloved in our churches. By including both literal and paraphrased psalms, the TPH helps unite multiple generations of our church around a common songbook.

Hymns and Psalm Paraphrases

This brief blog post has already expanded beyond its original scope, but I would be remiss if I failed to mention another song we are singing this Sunday, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” TPH #403, a hymn credited to John Newton. This “hymn” is largely a paraphrase of Psalm 87, and illustrates how fluid these categories are, especially in the 18th century hymn writing of the likes of the Wesleys and Newton.

Normally, I would rather sing a literal setting of Psalm 87, rather than a paraphrastic hymn, in keeping with our church order that gives psalms “priority of place” to psalms in our congregational singing. I look to the psalms first, and to hymns later, in selecting appropriate songs to sing in our corporate worship. However, in this case, neither of the tunes of Psalm 87A nor 87B are familiar to our congregation. Nor are they particularly pleasing to my ear — de gustibus nils disputandem! This is a personal disappointment to me, as I love Psalm 87! However, Newton’s hymn is a wonderful alternative, and a classic hymn that we delight to sing.

Psalm 79 is in large part a lament for the destruction of Jerusalem. The temple is in ruins, the bodies of God’s servants are given to the birds for food, their blood runs in the streets, and there is no one left even to bury them. This is a tragic picture of a dark battle day in the spiritual warfare that God’s pilgrim people are called to engage in. The promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ is, after all, also a promise that they will continually try to do so.

As Jeremiah lamented for Jerusalem, fallen, often we are called to lament for the church, wounded. And at the heart of this is a lament for our sins, which so often lead the church astray. So we confess, with Psalm 79B. We lament, with Psalm 79A. And, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, we celebrate, with Psalm 84B “O Lord of Hosts How Lovely,” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” (Psalm 87), and “The Church’s One Foundation.”

Paraphrase, Psalm, Hymn. What a privilege for the saints to sing within the gates of God’s temple, wherein one day excels a thousand hence.

Catechism Preaching and Psalm Singing

The Reformed Church prominently features in its worship two things that seem odd to American Christians. First, we have a catechetical worship service where teaching and preaching our catechism and doctrinal standards is ordinary. Second, we sing primarily Psalms in our services. This is not a new thing, but as old as the reformation itself, if not older.

As a pastor, this creates an interesting challenge. It might be easy to name a hymn for a given doctrine or Lord’s day, but what about Psalms? Enter this index from Het Boek der Psalmen nevens de Gezangen bij de Hervormde Kerk van Nederland (Amsterdam, 1773). What follows is a keyed index to help a minister, parents, and others choose fitting Psalms to sing with Catechism lessons, when teaching on Doctrinal topics, or when studying through the Apostles’ Creed, Ten Commandments, or Lord’s Prayer.

(Note that in the following historical list, decimals such as “73.2” or “119.4” don’t refer to verse numbers. They refer, instead, to different stanzas or parts of the psalms. The precise reference in modern psalm settings is difficult to determine, but the numbers can still be a rough guide to the section of the psalm that addresses the relevant topic. In general “.2” refers to the second half of the psalm, and decimals for Psalm 119 refer to stanzas in that long acrostic poem.)

---

• Lord’s Day 1 “What is Your Only Comfort?”— Psalm 73.2

Part 1: Misery

• Lord’s Day 2 “Our Knowledge of Misery out of the Law”—Psalm 19.2

• Lord’s Day 3-4 “The Source of Our Misery”— Psalms 51; 5; 49

Part 2: Deliverance

• Lord’s Day 5-6 ”The Mediator”— Psalms 25; 36; 130

• Lord’s Day 7 “What is True Faith?”— Psalm 2.2

Beginning of the Apostles’ Creed

• Lord’s Day 8 “Doctrine of God”— Psalms 139; 145

  • “Trinity”— Psalms 33

• Lord’s Day 9 “The Creation of All things”— Psalms 115.2; 136

• Lord’s Day 10 “The Providence of God”— Psalms 33; 104; 147

• Lord’s Day 11 “The Name Jesus”— The Hymn of Mary

• Lord’s Day 12 “The Name Christ”— Psalms 2; 89

  • “The Name Christian”— Psalms 45.2; 72.2

• Lord’s Day 13 “God’s Only-begotten Son”— Psalms 2.2; 45.2; 72.2

• Lord’s Day 14 “The Savior’s Conception and Birth”—The Hymn of Mary

• Lord’s Day 15 “The Savior’s Suffering”— Psalm 42

• Lord’s Day 16 “The Savior’s Death, Burial and Descent to Hell”— Psalm 22

• Lord’s Day 17 “The Savior’s Resurrection”— Psalms 16; 118.3

• Lord’s Day 18 “The Savior’s Ascension”— Psalms 47; 68.3

• Lord’s Day 19 “The Savior’s Sitting at God’s Right Hand”— Psalm 110

  • “The Savior’s return in judgment”— Psalm 96.2

• Lord’s Day 20 “The Holy Spirit”— Psalm 119.3

• Lord’s Day 21 “The Church”— Psalm 48

  • “The Communion of Saints”— Psalm 133

  • “The Forgiveness of Sin”— Psalm 32

• Lord’s Day 22 “The Resurrection of the Body”— Psalm 49.2

  • “The Life Eternal”— Psalm 73.2

End of the Apostles’ Creed

• Lord’s Day 23 “Justification”— Psalms 32; 103; 130

• Lord’s Day 24 “The Insufficiency of our good works before God”— Psalms 19.2; 143

• Lord’s Day “The Sacraments”— Psalm 111

• Lord’s Day 26 “Baptism”— Psalm 51

• Lord’s Day 27 “Infant Baptism”— Psalms 71.2; 87

• Lord’s Day 28 “Lord’s Supper”— Psalm 23

• Lord’s Day 29 “The Rejection of Transubstantiation”— Psalm 119.4

• Lord’s Day 30 “The Popish Mass”— Psalm 115

  • “The Requirements of Lord’s Supper participants”— Psalms 25.2; 26.2

• Lord’s Day 31 “The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven”— Psalms 15; 24; 65

Part III: Gratitude

• Lord’s Day 32 “The Necessity of Good Works”— Psalm 119

• Lord’s Day 33 “Conversion or Repentance”— Psalms 119.9; 119.22

Beginning of the Ten Commandments

• Lord’s Day 34 “God’s Law”— Psalm 1

  • “The First Commandment”— Psalm 81.1

• Lord’s Day 35 “The Second Commandment”— Psalm 115

• Lord’s Day 36 “The Third Commandment”— Psalm 145.2

• Lord’s Day 37 “Oaths”— Psalm 24

• Lord’s Day 38 “The Fourth Commandment”— Psalms 63; 84; 92

• Lord’s Day 39 “The Fifth Commandment”— Psalms 34.1; 78

• Lord’s Day 40 “The Sixth Commandment”— Psalm 5

• Lord’s Day 41 “The Seventh Commandment”— Psalms 50.2; 51.2; 119.5

• Lord’s Day 42 “The Eighth Commandment”— Psalm 62.2

• Lord’s Day 43 “The Ninth Commandment”— Psalm 120

• Lord’s Day 44 “The Tenth Commandment”— Psalm 131

  • “The Necessity of Preaching the Law”— Psalm 19.2

Beginning of the Lord’s Prayer

• Lord’s Day 45 “The Necessity of prayer”— Psalms 65; 145.2

• Lord’s Day 46 ”The Address of Our Prayer”— Psalm 103.2

• Lord’s Day 47 “The First Petition”— Psalm 89

• Lord’s Day 48 “The Second Petition”— Psalm 72

• Lord’s Day 49 “The Third Petition”— Psalm 119

• Lord’s Day 50 “The Fourth Petition”— Psalm 145.2

• Lord’s Day 51 “The Fifth Petition”— Psalm 51

• Lord’s Day 52 “The Sixth Petition”— Psalm 141.1

  • “The Close of Prayer”— Psalm 5.1

Psalm and Hymn Sing || Thursday the 22nd

Psalm and Hymn Sing

Thursday, 7PM

This Thursday, the 22nd, we will host our first midweek event at our new location (Capitol Hill SDA—914 Massachusetts AVE NE). To celebrate God’s faithful provision of a new place of worship and to inaugurate what we hope to be a regular practice, we will have a Psalm and Hymn sing in the evening from 7-8. The doors will be open at 6:30. We look forward to seeing you there. Don’t forget to tell your friends who like to sing.

25 Reasons to Buy the Trinity Psalter Hymnal App

I never buy apps for my iPhone. I’ve probably purchased fewer than five total over the last ten years. 

But it took me all of three seconds to open my virtual wallet and spend $9.99 on the app version of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal (TPH) app. Buy it now.

I didn’t have to run through reasons pro or con on whether to spend the ten bucks. But maybe you do. So here is a list of the reasons I’ve come up with since the app has resided on my phone. Hopefully one or more of them will nudge you to purchase the app if you haven’t already done so. 

And in addition to buying the TPH app, you should also share it on social media, and encourage others in your church to buy it. And for those of you who are not on an Apple device, the Android version should be out this summer. 

1. It fits in your pocket. A portable hymnal is awesome. Having a worship song handy when the mood or the need strikes you is a huge benefit. Ideally, you’d have some songs memorized, so you could sing at crucial moments without a crutch — like the Reformation martyrs who sang psalms as they were burned at the stake. Sadly, few today have more than one or two songs down by heart. Over my first two weeks owning the TPH app, I’ve probably sung a song from it every day or two at unplanned moments. 

2. The app helps you sing more at home. We should sing more worship songs in the home, throughout the week. Modern worship has been professionalized, it has become performance-driven with worship leaders who overwhelm the congregation’s voices in gathered worship. Sadly, this can make singing at home seem even more awkward and lame. The TPH app is a great tool to encourage more singing outside of public worship.

3. The app includes musical accompaniment. We encourage every member of our church to keep a hymnal in the home. But most of us aren’t musical enough to enjoy the sound of our own voices singing a cappella, nor are we musical enough to play an instrument and sing. As a result, I’m willing to guess that the vast majority of print hymnals in the home are under-utilized. The TPH app solves that problem by providing professional piano accompaniment for every single song in the book. 

   You can also set the music to repeat, so it will play for all the stanzas in a song.

4. …and full sheet music. There are two views for each song, either lyrics only, or full sheet music. If you are viewing the lyrics and turn your phone to landscape, the app switches automatically to the sheet music, but you can toggle back and forth. I haven’t yet had a chance to view the app on an iPad, but if it scales well I should think you could use the sheet music for playing a keyboard. 

5. Psalms. There, I said it. The Psalter is an inspired songbook that has been sung by believers for the last three thousand years. It is the definition of intergenerational worship. It is the most chronologically and geographically catholic songbook around. It is great to sing scripture as praise and prayer to the Lord. Yet the psalms are woefully neglected in worship today.

   You don’t have to be a hymn hater to be a psalm singer. The TPH is proof that you don’t have to sing songs exclusively to sing psalms well. By owning a virtual hymnal that incorporates both psalms and hymns, and by reaching a broader audience, the TPH app can contribute to a revival of psalm-singing.

6. Search. The TPH has a search feature that provides a keyword search of every lyric, title, tune name, or composer or author. If you’ve ever struggled to remember the name of that familiar hymn, this search feature is a great way to quickly find the song you’re looking for, even if you can only remember a snippet of a line. And it is a far more comprehensive tool than the subject index in the back of the print hymnal for finding songs that address particular themes. Searching the word “prayer,” for instance, turns up scores of hits. 

7. It helps worship leaders select songs. The TPH Hymn Tune page is the most trafficked page on our website, and I’m sure that much of that traffic is worship leaders trying to decide what songs to sing on any given Sunday. In recent weeks, I have found myself using my TPH app instead, and the combination of the search feature, the navigation, and the music has made it an indispensable tool for selecting songs for worship. Buy it for your pastor today, or share it with him. 

8. Bookmarks. Every church sings a subset of its songbook. At Christ Reformed, we have a psalm of the month, which we sing repeatedly to learn and familiarize ourselves. The bookmark feature in the app makes it easy to keep track of the top 10 or 50 songs in your repertoire and pull them up in a moment. 

9. The app is cheaper than a print hymnal. I love print hymnals, and print media in general (and I have about 80 boxes in storage to prove it). If your church uses a hymnal, you should own a home copy. But the print TPH costs $23.00 from Great Commission Publications (and it’s currently out of stock). 

   The app is much cheaper than six print hymnals. Because the TPH app supports “Family Sharing” on iOS, it can be used by up to six connected accounts with a single purchase. So even if you have a print hymnal in the home, the TPH app makes it easier and more cost-effective for your whole family to sing together. At $9.99, it is 93% cheaper than owning 6 hymnals. 

10. Better yet, it’s FREE for URCNA pastors. OK, so this is kind of inside baseball, but if you are a pastor in the URCNA, a kind donor has offered to reimburse the $10 purchase price. If you want the details, contact us. 

11. It’s also FREE to all members of OPC and URCNA churches. OK, technically, this isn’t true. But it can be if your deacons agree to subsidize the purchase price for anyone who wants to download it. If your people aren’t singing at home and don’t own hymnals, this might be a reasonable investment for a local church to make. 

12. The TPH is ecumenical. The TPH is a joint publication of the United Reformed Churches of North America (URCNA) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Working with a sister church requires compromises, and a few were made. But there is always wisdom in many counselors, and this worship tool was greatly enriched by bringing together the strong psalm-singing tradition of the URCNA and the English language hymnody of the OPC. The print version is perhaps the first hymnal ever printed to include the confessions of both traditions in one volume, the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards. The app makes the best music of these two traditions to a huge audience of folks who would never attend one of these churches.

13. The TPH is not just for the OPC and URCNA! I know of one local Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) congregation that uses the TPH in their worship (and since writing this post I’ve heard of a few more). It is the prayer of our songbook committee that this hymnal will be a resource to other churches as well, and by creating a lower-cost, virtual version, we increase the chances that the use of the TPH will spread. 

14. Buy it for your children. By creating and promoting the TPH in our churches, we are building a shared tradition of reformed worship. The more the URC and OPC adopt and promote a shared songbook  — and sing from it at home — the greater the odds are that our kids will find a familiar and faithful place of worship when they go off to college or move away to take their first job. The songs we sing in worship unify us and bind us together, and singing the songs of the TPH is a beneficial part of catechizing and raising our kids to be faithful church members in the future. 

15. It’s evangelistic. Lex orandi, lex credendi — The law of prayer is the law of faith. It is our prayer that by exposing believers to a rich worshiping tradition, new believers will seek out and join biblical, confessional, Reformed churches such as the OPC and URCNA (and others). When members of OPC and URCNA churches invest in the TPH app, promote it, and share it with their friends, they help grow the brand of these faithful, confessional churches. 

16. It’s green. Singing from an app reduces paper waste.

17. The app encourages singing in-home study groups. Every Wednesday night we close our weekly study by singing a psalm or a hymn, but to do so requires us to leave a bunch of hymnals at our elder’s house. This is far more convenient if members all have the apps on their phones. 

18. It’s great for the mission field. If you are a part of a church plant or other mission work where folks have access to phones or iPads, it is an easy way to introduce the songs of the church to your group before it is feasible to purchase or store hymnals — or ship them around the world.

19. It’s available offline. While the music doesn’t currently play when your device is offline — perhaps in a future upgrade or premium edition, it will? — the lyrics and the sheet music are available offline. 

20. The app bridges the gap to our virtual world. Let’s face it, hymn singing is passé. It’s even more passé if the only way you can do it is by holding a big fat print hardcover in your hands. The TPH app can introduce great church music to churches and individuals who are not inclined to use hymnals. 

21. Be prepared for the next pandemic. Sadly, many of us have been locked out of our houses of worship over the last year. It may happen again. Having a songbook in your pocket is a great encouragement during times of isolation, and aid in maintaining family worship or streaming services. 

22. TPH brings great worship music to a broader audience. Contemporary worship music is abysmal, with a few exceptions. And there are a lot of believers interested in being broadly reformed who will never pick up a hymnal. The TPH app is a way to expose this massive audience to 500 years of great worship music.

23. Paying for the app is better than getting it free. Ten bucks is a good investment in a lasting resource. The committee overseeing the hymnal invested significant resources in building a top-notch resource for both Apple and (in time) Android, and the proceeds from the sale will help maintain and improve the project over time. I have already submitted feedback to the creators of the app and received a reply indicating that work is underway on an update. Updates and maintenance that ensure the TPH remain a lasting resource are well worth the investment. 

24. Redeem the time. Ever pull out your phone and look at social media to fill a few minutes while you’re standing in line or waiting for a bus? Maybe you play a quick game. Why not pull up the TPH app and sing a psalm or a hymn instead? No, you don’t have to sing out loud — that could be weird. But you can still worship by singing a song silently in your head. 

25. You too can be shouted down for singing church music at your next party! We found out the TPH app was released during a recent church cigar night. We all quickly downloaded it and proceeded to sing a few boisterous songs. Perhaps it was a little too late for singing, and perhaps the singing was a little too boisterous. We were promptly shouted down by a neighbor in the apartment building, presumably the same neighbor who posted the note below the following day. 

    What could be more counter-cultural than singing hymns at your next gathering? 

With the TPH app, you too can upset your neighbors with a late-night hymn sing at your next party.

Thanks to Kyle Lee and Luke Gossett for their contributions to this list.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Trinity Psalter Hymnal Official Website

• Trinity Psalter Hymnal Tunes

Preaching the Psalms Sequentially: 8 Practical Benefits

This article was originally published at Christian Renewal Magazine.

The Psalms series referenced in this article is available in our sermon archive.

I became a Calvinist in the Religious Studies Department at Stanford University. That’s my favorite proof for the sovereignty of God… and also one of my excuses for why at age 46 I’m still learning anew many of the remarkable contours of my adopted theological tradition. Most notably, the power and beauty of the Psalms in Christian worship.

Baptized and educated as a Roman Catholic, I migrated with my family out of the Roman church when I was about twelve years old, into the wild west of evangelical Christianity. By the time I reached college my interest in the philosophy and theology of Søren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth left me wondering what the boundaries of evangelical faith were, or if there even were any. A related interest in questions about free will and predestination led my undergraduate thesis adviser to direct me to Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will and John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. I never looked back.

At the time this remarkable transformation in my faith was taking place, I knew very little about the Psalms. To my mind, Reformed theology was roughly identical to the doctrines of grace and the sovereignty of God. Gradually I discovered the means of grace, ecclesiology, and catechesis. I suppose I had read the psalms as much as any part of the Bible, probably more because of their bite-sized beauty. But they held no special place in either my old evangelical faith and worship or my newly adopted Reformed faith. 

I learned in seminary as a matter of church history that psalms had a special place in the worship of the Reformed churches, and I learned to love the close study of Hebrew poetry. But it was only as a minister and worship leader over the last eleven years that I have finally begun to appreciate the power of the Psalms to shape Christian prayer and worship; the prominence of the Psalms in the Reformed tradition; and as a result, the extent to which the Psalms have shaped the Reformed tradition in particular. 

Early in my ministry, I preached a series of 20 sermons through the Psalms. The idea was to introduce my congregation to the Psalter, preaching on psalms from each of the five books and illustrating the various forms of praise, confession, lament. Naturally, I preached on many of the best-known psalms, 1, 22, 23, 32, 110, 119, 150. 

A few years later, I was struck by the idea of preaching through all 150 Psalms sequentially, and in January of 2013, I began doing so. Obviously, one downside of preaching all 150 Psalms in order is that the series can run to three years in length — or more if you take your time with Psalm 119. While there’s nothing wrong with a long sermon series, lack of variety in the sermon diet can be challenging for some congregants. 

Thus, I decided to preach an annual set of about 10 – 15 sermons. This year I preached Psalms 42–51 over the summer months, the opening of Book II. Lord willing, I’ll finish preaching through the psalter in about another decade or so. It’s one of my small personal goals in ministry. 

I have no data to back this up, but I suspect that preaching through the psalms in order is fairly rare. The longer I do it, however, the more I’m convinced that this should be a more common practice. Here are a few advantages I have found:

1. Preaching the whole Psalter teaches us how to Praise God. The Hebrew title for the Psalter is “The Book of Praises,” despite the fact that we find more songs of lament and confession than songs of praise in the Psalter. In fact, as you read through the Psalter, you see a progression from more lament to more praise, with a climax of Praise in Psalms 146 – 150. In a sense, the Psalter teaches us how we can move from lament to praise in our own lives, how we can Praise God in the midst of life’s struggles. 

2. Understanding the argument of the whole Psalter deepens our knowledge of God’s word. Recent decades have seen a flowering of both academic and lay literature that views the psalter as a unified collection with an argument that progresses from Introduction (Psalm1-2) to Conclusion (Psalm145-150) through each of its five books. Understanding this unity and flow add greatly to the understanding of individual psalms, and can bring great pleasure to even the most experienced psalm readers. This summer, we accompanied our series with a mid-week study through W. Robert Godfrey’s Learning to Love the Psalms, which our congregation thoroughly enjoyed. 

3. Reading Psalms in their individual context enlarges our appreciation for each psalm. Most Christians read each psalm as an isolated unit. However, when you begin to read the Psalter as a carefully structured collection, you see that there are often interesting relationships between neighboring psalms. This summer, I noted that Psalm 42-43 (I agree with those who believe they are originally a single composition) and Psalm 44 deal with dark seasons in Israel’s history, first individually then corporately. Then Psalm 45 was a royal marriage song, shifting our attention to the beauty and glory of the Lord’s anointed — quite an answer to Israel’s darkness. Likewise, Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm warning the rich and powerful of their pride, and Psalm 50 was a song of God’s coming judgment. This pair is followed of course by Psalm 51, David’s great song of confession following his sin with Bathsheba, made all the more poignant when you see that the King had as it were been warned by the preceding psalms.

4. Preaching rare, unfamiliar, or difficult Psalms broadens our perspective on the Psalter. It’s natural for preachers to gravitate to more familiar, more beautiful, or more “important” Psalms when selecting texts to preach. But in preaching the psalms selectively we tend not to preach the whole counsel of God, and we overlook many psalms we’re just not very familiar with. Often in wrestling with these unfamiliar psalms you can see beautiful facets of God’s revelation.

5. Preaching the entire psalter connects us with the people of God through history. Reading through the entire Psalter in a regular cycle (weekly for many monastics, or monthly) has been a regular practice in Synagogue and church. It is a discipline that, if practiced regularly, deeply enriches our vocabulary for prayer and song in church and home. Modeling this through a consecutive sermon series is a great way to introduce the practice to God’s people. 

6. Preaching the whole Psalter helps us sing the Psalter with understanding. When I preach a psalm, we always try to sing that psalm. Some are more difficult to sing, with unfamiliar music than others. But gradually we are exposed to more psalm tunes and broaden our selection of familiar psalms to sing. And when we return to them in subsequent services, we can sing them with a deeper anchor to their main points, which ultimately makes the sung worship of God’s people more significant for them. 

7. Preaching the Psalter sequentially improves our prayer life. The psalms are inspired prayers, and the more of them we are familiar with, the better. As a pastor and a student of God’s word, I often don’t “get” a psalm until I take the time to study it deeply and preach it to God’s people. Likewise, God’s people may not get the thrust or logic of many of these prayers without hearing a well-constructed sermon. Our prayer language is weak, and we can always use more biblical instruction in how to pray. 

8. Preaching the whole Psalter lends balance to our view of the Christian life.  The preponderance of laments in the Psalter reminds us that the life of the faithful in this world is a life of pilgrims and sojourners, often filled with difficulty and struggle. Modern Christians are often drawn to the cheerful and upbeat; we desire optimistic sermons, even if we’re not listening to Joel Osteen teach us how to have “Our Best Life Now.” If we preach the Psalter selectively, we may naturally gravitate to preaching more positive, upbeat Psalms. The discipline of preaching the entire Psalter selectively, however, ensures that we cover the whole inspired range of emotions in the psalms, and serves as a corrective to the view that the church is full of “shiny, happy people.” 

I’m sure there are more benefits to be found in preaching through the entire psalter, and I’m sure that after another 99 sermons (including Psalm 119) I’ll have unearthed a few more of them. The Psalter is a rich resource, too often neglected in the Christian church. Thankfully, its place has been well preserved in our Reformed tradition, and I believe we should do a better job of proclaiming this part of God’s word to those who have largely forgotten it.

Celebrating the Hymns in the Trinity Psalter Hymnal

In two recent columns, I celebrated the joint URCNA / OPC publication of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal (TPH). First, I looked at how significant this cooperative effort is from missional, ecumenical, and confessional standpoints. Then in the subsequent column, I dug deeper into the Psalm collection in particular, seeing how the new psalter reflected a broader swath of the Reformed psalm-singing tradition.

In this column, I want to look a little more closely at the hymn collection, and then offer some practical suggestions about we might harvest the fruit of this project. The caveat from my last column remains in force: I’m no musicologist, and my analysis is based on a very cursory exam, mostly based on the tables of contents of the two collections. Caveat lector. 

Hymn Collection By the Numbers

The first thing to grasp about the hymn section of the TPH is that it is much larger than what many URC members may be accustomed to in the Blue Psalter Hymnal (BPH). The BPH contained 183 hymn settings in addition to 310 psalm settings, for a total of 493 songs. The TPH, in contrast, has 428 hymn settings to go along with 279 psalm settings, for a grand total — and I mean grand — of 707 songs. Put differently, the TPH has over twice as many hymns as the BPH, and 43 percent more songs total.

Parenthetically, this expanded song section — and the great space it occupied — was one reason why it was necessary to publish a separate book for the URC-specific liturgical forms that comprise the back section of the BPH. While all of our confessional documents are included in the TPH (Ecumenical Creeds, Westminster Standards, and Three Forms of Unity), a separate volume of liturgical forms and prayers is being published for URCNA churches. This volume will also contain the Ecumenical Creeds and Reformed Confessions. 

The good news for those who may be apprehensive about adopting a new songbook is that a healthy majority of the BPH hymn collection has found its way into the TPH. My very cursory examination suggests that of the 183 BPH hymn settings, at least 132 (or 72%) are in the TPH. The actual number may be a bit higher, as some songs come over with slightly different titles.

What are we to say of the 51 or so hymns from the BPH we are leaving behind when we adopt the new hymnal? No doubt, some of my readers might have a favorite song or two on that list. And that is precisely why I am so grateful for the labors of the Psalter-Hymnal committee, wrestling for years with the worship practices of our church, providing for an open selection process, and welcoming feedback. They are to be commended for this decades-long effort.

However, in any collection of 183 songs, there are songs that don’t rise to the top. We wouldn’t expect every single song to be retained in a new collection — whether their musical beauty doesn’t prove to be timeless, or their lyrics speak to the concerns of an earlier age. Furthermore, it seems as though the songs that were cut were not frequently sung in our churches; many of their names are relatively unfamiliar. 

Do We Need This Many Hymns?

On a typical Sunday at Christ Reformed in Washington, we sing one or two hymns. Most of those hymns we sing at least a couple of times a year. So on average, we sing maybe fifty different hymns a year. Even if we committed to singing our way through the hymn collection in the TPH — we probably won’t — it would take us six to eight years to do so. If we only sang hymns, it would still take us over two years to sing them all even if we only sang each one once. 

Do we need this many hymns?

Probably not. There is a school of thought that it is better for a congregation to really master the singing of about one hundred songs — more if you include psalms — rather than singing 200 – 300 less-familiar songs infrequently. I think there is a lot of truth to that. 

Arguably, we have gotten by with only 183 hymn settings in the URCNA in part because of our prioritization of singing Psalms. We frankly don’t need 428 hymns, given the role of Psalms in our worship. A collection this large is probably more reflective of a tradition where singing a majority of psalms is not the norm.

The advantage, however, of the size of this collection is that it serves to bridge and unify diverse worship traditions. I am more than willing to embrace a larger song collection for the sake of drawing Presbyterian and Reformed churches into closer relation. Members move between Presbyterian and Reformed churches more frequently in our day, and there is a real benefit to making us feel more at home in a new sister church.

One benefit of a larger collection is that there is a greater likelihood of finding songs our whole church is familiar with. Take, for example, Christmas songs related to Advent and Birth of Christ. A Christmas “Lessons and Carols” service has become a favorite tradition in our young church. While the BPH had approximately 15 songs in this category — many of which were less common — the TPH has 33. A partial list of those found in our new hymnal and missing from our old includes: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence; Angels We Have Heard on High; As With Gladness Men of Old; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen; Good Christian Men, Rejoice; Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming; O Little Town of Bethlehem; Once in Royal David’s City; Savior of the Nations, Come; and What Child is This?

There are some profound and beautiful Christmas songs on this list. While we couldn’t have sung our Lessons and Carols from the BPH, we can easily do it from this new collection The expansion of this section alone will enrich our congregational singing at this season of the year. 

How Should We Celebrate the TPH?

God has given the OPC and URCNA a great gift in the TPH. However, like all of God’s good gifts, it is necessary for us to make the proper use of them. Here are a few practical suggestions to help ensure that we take advantage of this gift that we have been given.

First, let’s sing together. I would encourage URC and OPC churches who adopt the TPH to seek out neighboring congregations for ecumenical hymn sings. This is a very simple suggestion, but it could take some real effort and sacrifice to execute well. Let’s find a way to make it work, if not in our churches, then on a smaller scale in our homes.

Second, our churches should strive to adopt the book. This is of course not a mandate, but it may well be a matter of gospel wisdom. Granted, investing in new hymnals may not make sense for every congregation, financially or otherwise. Perhaps our Presbyteries and Classes could remove financial obstacles to adoption by offering subsidies for congregations that want to adopt it but can’t afford to do so. 

Third, I believe we should work hard to produce a state-of-the-art electronic version of the TPH. Here I’m openly advocating for a position that is pending before our 2018 Synod. However, I think it is undeniable that we can drastically extend the reach of this publishing effort by making them available in a format that is readily accessible both in our homes and on mission fields. We should have these hymns — along with musical accompaniment — in the pockets of as many members of our churches as possible. Also, many churches no longer interested in print hymnals would be able to benefit and use electronic resources, so it broadens the potential impact of the TPH outside the URC and OPC. Electronic publishing or mobile app development may require us to get out of our comfort zone and invest in web technology and development in a way that we haven’t done before, perhaps even creating subscription or sale sites. However, this is well worth the investment. 

Finally, let’s give thanks to God for this gift he has given the church, for the many hours of faithful labor that have been invested in this day. I can’t wait to get to Synod in Wheaton and sing with our OPC brothers and sisters, especially songs of thanksgiving for this great gift he has given us to sing of his many glorious works. Praise God. 

Chronological Snobbery: Celebrating the Trinity Psalter Hymnal

This article originally appeared in Christian Renewal magazine.

In my last column, “Celebrating the Trinity Psalter Hymnal,” I argued that we should celebrate and embrace the new Trinity Psalter Hymnal (TPH) on missional, ecumenical, and confessional grounds. In short, this songbook gives us the opportunity to sing songs that are more familiar and more widely sung, to make our worship more accessible to guests and visitors, and to sing songs that are more frequently sung in sister Reformed churches. 

It gives us the opportunity, in short, to think about the preferences of those who aren’t yet sitting in our pews, but those whom we pray will be through our evangelistic and missionary efforts. It gives us an opportunity to be outward facing, not inward facing, in our worship choice. And, just to be clear, this “outward facing” stance isn’t about bending to cultural whims. The TPH is about embracing the best of five hundred years of Reformed hymnody. 

But still, that’s a hard decision for a church to make. Music is a communal experience. When we sing a familiar tune, it makes us feel as though we are a part of something bigger than ourselves, the body of Christ not only today but also down through the ages. To adopt a new songbook invariably means abandoning some familiar songs and learning some new ones. This is where conservatism in Christian worship is so important, it connects us to the past.

In my last column, I claimed that “much of the music we love to sing… can be found in the new book.” Since I’m a bit of an amateur numbers guy — and a very amateur student of music — I figured I’d attempt to quantify how many songs from the Blue Psalter Hymnal (BPH) carry over into the TPH, and look at a few other statistical elements. 

First, a caveat. I’m not an expert in music; the following statistics are by my own count, and I certainly could have made a mistake here or there. I haven’t served on the Psalter Hymnal Committee, and I don’t have any access to solid data. Also, I’m going to focus on the psalter portion of the TPH and set the hymn collection to the side, because I think introducing the psalms to a new generation in the church should be one of the most important goals of the TPH. 

How Much Has Changed?

The new songbook has 279 psalm settings in it, with every psalm having at least one full-text setting, with the exception of Psalm 119, which has a full-text setting for each of the 22 stanzas. In addition, there are 40 partial settings and 32 paraphrases. While I’m focusing on the music in this article, the texts in the TPH are generally far more faithful to scripture than the BPH.

The BPH had 310 psalm settings, 31 more than the TPH. Of these 310, 81 psalm settings are carried over into the TPH, or about 25% of the whole collection. While 1 in 4 might not seem like a great deal of overlap, it is worth noting that these are distributed over 74 psalms. In other words, half of the psalms in the psalter will be represented by a tune that is familiar from the older collection. 

Of course, most congregations don’t sing all 150 psalms with any regularity. Given that the committee sought to preserve the best and most frequently sung psalms in the old collection, the odds are good that this 49% of the psalms represents far more than half of the psalms that were actually sung out of the old book. 

Chronological Snobbery? 

In Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, T. David Gordon noted that one of the flaws of “contemporary Christians music” is that it elevates “contemporaneity” itself to a musical virtue. Newer music is de facto better music. 

Of course, we don’t believe that. But it has always struck me that the BPH had a heavy bias toward a single period in church history, namely, the 19th century. While the dates of tunes can be a bit misleading — sometimes traditional folks tunes are first publish at a much later date — a count of dates of tunes and/or composers bears out this fact. Fully 76% of the tunes in the BPH are from the 19th  or early 20th century (61% and 15% respectively). The nearby chart shows the relative percentages of tunes in the collection from each century.

While many fine tunes were written in the 19th century, I confess to harboring a bias against much 19th century American church music, much of which was infected by the revivalistic spirit of that age. The pre-1800 songs in the BPH (23% of the collection) have stood the test of time. They are the cream of the crop. The same can’t be said for the tunes from the 19th century, a whopping 186 of them, or 61% of the collection. Reflecting on the fact that the BPH contained such a thick slice of a narrow band of the church’s music, I once overheard someone say that the BPH is contemporary Christian music from a hundred years ago.  

Though it is a newer collection, including a number of tunes from the 21st century and later 20th century, the TPH manages to slide the average date of its collection back about ten years. The average date in the TPH is 1806, versus 1814 for the BPH (if you throw out the 21st century songs, the average drops back to 1799). Both collections draw about the same share of their tunes (13%) from the 16th century, mostly Genevan settings. But the TPH has three times as many tunes from the 17th century (6% vs. 2%) and almost twice as many tunes from the 18th century (14% vs. 8%).  

As the accompanying chart makes clear, the TPH represents a much broader swath of Protestant sacred music, with 33% of its tunes coming from pre-1800, 50% from the 19th century, and 17% coming from after 1900. Many of these new tunes are drawn from English and Welsh sources, and will sound familiar to God’s people from popular hymns. The collection of psalm tunes is therefore more mainstream, more relatable, and less eccentric, while also being more historic. That’s quite an accomplishment, and those who assembled this work are to be commended.

All of these numbers exclude the hymn collection, but by incorporating much of the hymn music from the widely used red Trinity Hymnal, there will most likely be a similar broadening effect. 

Conclusion 

Of course, none of this should be read as a condemnation of the BPH. It has served the churches well, and many of its tunes are beloved by our people. There will invariably be some loss in moving to a new songbook. Furthermore, this frustration will disproportionately fall upon those who have sung from this book for the longest, and we should always be slow to cause our senior church members any unnecessary sorrow. I speak as a convert to the tradition with barely 20 years experience, and the last thing I’d want to suggest is that newcomers should cast off the tried and true ways.

And yet, we must not forget the “benefit” side of the ledger. A new collection that preserves the best and most beloved of the old, while incorporating a broader sweep of church history can make the singing in our churches more attractive to a new generation of Psalm singers. Lord willing, the TPH can help re-introduce some of our Presbyterian brethren to the benefits of psalmody. And unity in song across the OPC and URC — as well as any other Reformed churches that adopt the TPH — is for the good of an increasingly mobile membership of our churches.

Celebrating the Trinity Psalter Hymnal

This article originally appeared in Christian Renewal magazine.

I am excited for the impending release of the Trinity Psalter Hymnal in the summer of 2018, or TPH, as it’s coming to be known.

Contrary to the spirit of the age, our churches believe that conservatism in worship is a good thing. We don’t go rushing about for the latest fad, and we don’t believe that novelty or contemporaneity is itself a virtue. There is good reason why many of our churches may be less than energized about adopting new hymnals when the old hymnals are serving our purposes just fine, thank you very much.  

So perhaps it runs against type a little bit for confessionally Reformed folks to get excited about a new songbook. But I am, and I think we should. I understand that not everyone will adopt this new songbook immediately, but I think we should all pray for its success, and pray that the great cost and labor that has gone into its production will be used for the greater glory of God. 

So, why should constitutionally conservative worshipers be excited about a new psalter hymnal?

We should be excited for its use on the mission field, both at home and abroad. As a church planter, the vast majority of those who have worshiped in our church in Washington, DC over the years have had little or no previous experience with the United Reformed Churches. Our prioritization of psalm singing has been a new experience, and many of the tunes that our churches have treasured for generations are foreign to them. 

In short, our special mix of worship has numerous obstacles baked in for newcomers. Without changing any of our historic commitments, the TPH removes or mitigates many of those obstacles. I am not a musicologist by any stretch of the imagination, but in my experience over the last number of years, the music of the TPH represents a much broader historic swath of Christian hymnody, both geographically and chronologically While many of the most beloved tunes of our tradition remain in the book, there are a whole host of tunes that are more accessible to a broader audience. 

Buying the TPH was a no brainer for our church in DC, as we’ve never owned any hymnals before, singing from photocopied bulletins each week. We are thrilled to be able to put an attractive new psalter hymnal in our pews that immediately sends the message to guests and visitors that we are not only committed to the best of historic Christian hymnody but also committed to the continued maintenance of that tradition for the coming generations. That’s the implicit message this songbook will send. 

I am just a single data point, but I represent a believer who didn’t grow up in the URC and never stepped into a Reformed church until I was out of college. The psalm tunes in the TPH are hands down more inviting, more accessible, and easier for me to sing than the psalm tunes in the blue psalter hymnal. By making that claim, I am in no way judging the blue songbook as musically inferior, nor am I demanding that longstanding URC members give up the music that they love to sing. Indeed, I believe much of it can be found in the new book. But I am speaking as an outsider to the Reformed tradition, and I see a great opportunity for our churches to introduce a new generation of believers to the riches of singing the psalms. 

For the sake of mission, all of our churches should think seriously about adopting this book. 

I’m also excited for the partnership between the United Reformed Churches of North America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Obviously, it is this very partnership that has given the book a musical appeal beyond any one reformed tradition, drawing upon the best of Presbyterian and Reformed worship. But it is also an excellent example of sister churches working together in a practical fashion. This is the best of ecumenism in action, pooling resources to address a need in our churches. A joint OPC-URCNA hymnal doesn’t mean that our churches will merge any time soon, or that they should. But it certainly increases the likelihood that we will grow closer together. 

While OPC and URC folks are often justifiably proud of our rich theological heritage, I think we sometimes to forget just how small we are. Membership in our two bodies is around 60,000, combined. We could have a joint worship service for all of us in a decent sized college football stadium (conveniently, they are free on Sundays). For the sake of comparison, two of the biggest churches in America — Lakewood and Second Baptist, both in Houston — boast more members than all our congregations combined. 

In many ways, we are a cultural and statistical blip. 

Given our small size, and how much we share in common, as well as the shared independent seminaries that many of our ministers have in common, it would be malpractice for us not to work together on a project of this nature. And I praise God that in his providence the men in charge of these projects in their respective churches were led to that same conclusion and joined forces to make the cooperative effort work. 

We live in an increasingly liquid, mobile society. Members of our churches change jobs and change cities with some regularity. Our children are educated in distant cities. We often visit each other churches when moving about, and we often consider joining a church in this small fraternity, before looking at others. It may seem a small thing, but it is a good thing if you can pull a familiar book out and sing from it in an unfamiliar church. It is another bit of glue that can help us all stick a little closer together — and help us keep from losing our wandering flocks — in a time of great fragmentation. 

The sooner we adopt these songbooks, and adopt them widely, the sooner we can enjoy this fruit of growing together. 

Finally, I am excited to have a hymnal in our church pews which contains both the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards. There are few novelties in the publishing world, so I am sure such a book exists, but to my knowledge this is the first hymnal to contain the confessional standards of continental and English speaking reformed churches in a single volume. While I am decidedly partial to the Three Forms — what URC minister isn’t — the Westminster standards complement them beautifully and form a delightful counterpoint. Stretching over eighty years and four languages, the combined confessional collection speaks from a wide diversity of social and political circumstances, and reflects a breadth of our tradition that each one on its own lacks. The warmth of Heidelberg is supplanted by the precision of Westminster. The Belgic was written by a persecuted martyr, Westminster by an assembly commissioned by parliament. 

It is a delight for the members of both our churches to be more frequently exposed to the other church’s confessional documents. For ministers and teachers to refer to them. To grow in our understanding and appreciation of global Calvinism, as these standards have spread across the world and embrace believers on every continent. I’m not usually a proponent of formally adopting additional confessions for one’s church — I think this ecumenical effort often results in overload, such that no single confession is truly used or appreciated. But having them present in our hymnals is a great opportunity for our churches to learn, and grow, and grow together. 

Our conservatism in worship is a good thing. It has kept us faithful through many years, and it is unique in our age of faddish worship. But I hope that conservatism doesn’t stand in the way of every church giving serious consideration to adopting the new TPH. By gathering the very best of the Presbyterian and Reformed worshipping tradition in a single volume, I believe this songbook has the potential to pass down to a new generation our commitment to biblical worship, while at the same time making it more inviting to newcomers. May the Lord establish this work of our hands, and use it to adorn his bride with song.