Now that Donald Poundstone has published his objections to the Psalter Hymnal project (New Horizons, March 2014), I should state that much of my original essay was conceived as a response to Poundstone, since he and I engaged in a friendly dialogue in a seminar on psalmody at First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 2013. There are a few points, however, that I wish to highlight in response to Mr. Poundstone.

Curses, Hostility, and Death

The first area has to do with the interpretation of Scripture. I believe that Poundstone has significantly misunderstood the Psalms (and the New Testament) in the areas of curses, hostility to the nations, and death.

1) He ignores the New Testament use of the invocation of curses or imprecations. I am very disappointed that Poundstone did not deal with my argument from 2 Thessalonians 1 (which I made in Portland). Anyone who wishes to argue that “it is not for us to invoke curses on those who oppose the gospel and us” (p8), must deal with Paul’s invocation of curses on “those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thess 1:8) Further, I pointed out in our discussion that Jesus and the apostles often invoke curses on those who oppose the gospel (e.g., Matthew 23, Acts 13:10, Acts 18:6) — but Poundstone pretends that these verses do not exist in the New Testament. (See my essay for more details).

2) He misrepresents the attitude of the Psalms toward the nations. It is true that the Pharisees viewed the nations with fear, contempt, and hostility — but that was not the attitude of the Psalms! Psalm 87 is perhaps the most famous, with its declaration that the nations are born in Zion, but numerous Psalms call for the nations to praise the Lord (Psalms 47, 65, 66, 67, 72 come to mind immediately). As I pointed out in Portland — and again in my essay — there are only two occasions when the Psalmists call for curses: 1) when the nations are invading and destroying God’s people, and 2) when wicked Israelites are persecuting and destroying God’s people. Anyone who does even a cursory reading of the Psalms will know that the latter is generally seen as a worse problem than the former. The overall trajectory of the Psalms is positive toward the nations — albeit there are particular moments when the nations deserve judgment, just like there are particular moments when Israel deserves judgment. In other words, for the Psalms, “judgment begins with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17).

It would appear that Poundstone believes that the Word of God taught Israel to hate the nations. Poundstone is right to say that the New Testament taught the Jews to have a different attitude than they did — but that was because the Pharisees had misunderstood the Scriptures! His essay would lead me to believe that Poundstone views the Psalms from a Pharisaic standpoint — not from a Christian standpoint.

3) This problem grows far worse in his final objection. With respect to the view of death and a future life in Psalm 6 and Psalm 88, Poundstone says that “However we try to make these gloomy words sound Christian, they in fact differ greatly from the transparent confidence and joy made known to us through Christ’s empty tomb” (p9). Apparently, for Poundstone, God inspired something that wasn’t true. I’m sure that this is not what he means to say — but he has said it so repeatedly (in Portland, in private correspondence, and now in New Horizons) that I do not know how else to take him. Poundstone has claimed to follow Geerhardus Vos’ approach to progressive revelation, but when confronted with Vos’s own approach to the Psalms’ view of death, he has rejected it.

Why Full Psalmody Is Necessary for Christian Worship

This brings me to a more substantial topic. Why insist on metrical versions of all 150 Psalms? Because Poundstone’s approach to how to sing the Psalms is intimately connected to how we understand God, the Scriptures, and ourselves. Let me put it bluntly: I believe that the primary reason why Poundstone thinks that the NT teaches contrary to the Psalms on “cursing, hostility, and death” is because he has spent his whole life singing songs that tell him this.

Poundstone wants the OPC to continue following Watts’ dictum to “give King David a Christian voice” (p9). While I do not object to “Psalm-based hymns” (to borrow Larry Wilson’s phrase), I think that one of the chief dangers of Watts’ approach is demonstrated in Poundstone’s essay — namely, that we start to think that the Psalms are not really Christian. Since our psalm portions and psalm paraphrases tend to avoid the “unpleasant” parts of the Psalms, we start to think that those “unpleasant” parts are not in the New Testament either! Paul may apply the imprecatory Psalms to the Jewish leaders of his day (Romans 11:7-10, using Psalm 69:22-23), but we insist on never imitating Paul because we have deleted Psalm 69:22-23 from our hymnals!

I would be fine with the practice of chanting the Psalms straight out of the English Bible, but since our tradition has a long practice of using metrical translations, I am willing to continue that practice. The important thing is to use all 150 Psalms in the regular worship of God. If we do not, we will wind up recreating god in our own image.

I will freely admit that singing the Psalms is an uncomfortable experience for myself and for my congregation. There are times when I almost wish that God hadn’t said it that way. But that’s the point: I don’t get to decide who God is! As Poundstone illustrates beautifully, if you spend your whole life singing only “Christianized” Psalms, then you will wind up with only part of the NT as well! After all, who gets to decide which parts of the Psalms should be excised? Watts? Poundstone? Me? Whatever we cut out will result in the impoverishment of our doctrine and practice.

After all, what is the purpose of our singing? Some seem to think that the sole purpose is to praise God. But Scripture includes both the vertical and the horizontal — think of Paul’s charge to the Colossians: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16). The point of our singing in daily life has a strong horizontal aspect — a point that resonates with the Psalms as well, since they were designed not merely as sung praise — but included lengthy didactic songs that were designed to teach Israel the history of salvation (think also of the Songs of Moses in Exodus 15 and Deuteronomy 32).

I cannot find a single sentiment in the Psalms that is not also expressed in the New Testament. Certainly there are different emphases, but the doctrines and attitudes that you find in the Psalms are entirely appropriate for NT Christians to sing — when applied correctly in Christ.

Peter J. Wallace