Is the Psalter an Obsolete Songbook? – 2 – Why and What Should We Sing?
Is the Psalter an Obsolete Songbook? Why Sing All 150 Psalms AND the Best of the Best of All Ages?
Part 2
In the first section I introduced the question of the Psalter as the songbook of an obsolete covenant. Here we deal with two broader questions: 1) Why should we have congregational singing in worship? and 2) What should we sing in congregational worship?
Why Should We Sing?
Where is congregational singing clearly commanded in scripture? Particularly, I would ask, where is the congregational singing of whole psalms/hymns commanded in scripture? Some people point to the Psalms which call all nations to sing praise to the Lord – but it is not clear that this requires congregational singing in a worship service. In fact, when we look at the Jewish evidence for how the Psalms were sung in the temple, it is clear that the Levites did most of the singing – and that the congregation would only sing refrains.[1]
Singing is commanded. Paul says that we are to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to one another (Ephesians 5:18 and Colossians 3:16). But the context there is not public worship. The context is daily life. I admit that I have been puzzled at the practice of advocates of exclusive psalmody – they are willing to sing non-inspired material in daily life, but not in public worship, in spite of the fact that the household is the context of Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3.
In fact, the evidence for psalmody in Jewish and early Christian practice is predominantly found in household contexts – in the context of daily life – rather than in liturgical practice. Justin Martyr describes early Christian worship in great detail (ca. 150 AD), but does not mention any singing. While there is second century evidence for a song in conjunction with communion, the evidence suggests that this Psalm would have been chanted by a cantor or cantors, with the congregation singing a refrain (often the “alleluia” of the Psalm). Certainly this was the common practice revealed in the sermons of John Chrysostom and Augustine at the end of the fourth century.[2]
In the fourth century a tidal wave of Psalmody spread from Egypt and Jerusalem throughout the Roman world. Often the advocates of exclusive psalmody challenge us with the question, “If the apostles sang hymns in worship, why are there so few early Christian hymns?” The proper reply is, “If the apostles sang psalms in worship, why is there so little evidence for early Christian psalmody?” In fact, congregational singing appears to have emerged in the fourth century – and appears to be rooted in the monastic practice of psalmody that began in Egypt, spread to Jerusalem, and was then taken by pilgrims throughout the whole western church. As the psalter spread throughout the Christian church, hymnody followed in the same generation. Ambrose taught his congregation to sing – using both Psalms and his own hymns – in order to combat the Arian heresy.
What then is our biblical warrant for congregational singing? I would suggest that Revelation 15:2-4 provides a clear example/model for congregational singing. The congregation of those who have conquered the beast and its image “sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.” I argued several years ago in New Horizons (June, 2007) that the book of Revelation provides the pattern for biblical worship – indeed, that the pattern of OT worship was modeled after the heavenly worship. I would suggest that congregational singing is a part of that eschatological pattern which we seek to imitate and in which we participate by faith.
What Should We Sing?
What does this have to do with the question of what the Christian church should sing? The songs of the heavenly worship are not simply the Psalms of the Old Testament. The song of Revelation 15 is described as “the song of Moses” and “the song of the Lamb.”
“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
While not a quotation from the Psalms, the language of the Song of Moses and the Lamb is drawn from and builds upon the Psalms.
If the pattern for Christian worship is the heavenly pattern then there is no biblical warrant for exclusive psalmody. Nonetheless, since the Psalms are the God-inspired hymnal of the Old Testament church, they provide the foundation and pattern for the New Testament hymnal. As Paul Westermeyer has said so beautifully:
“In the Psalms we deal with the height and depth of human life, articulated in a most compelling way. We see our struggles against the backdrop of God’s goodness and mercy – our struggles with God and God’s struggles with us in steadfast love and faithfulness. We view the human drama in its savagery and kindness, in its barbarity and finesse, in the specificity of our daily lives and cosmic proportions of life, in the call to treat one another justly and with mercy….The content of the Psalms tells us what we sing about and why it calls forth our song. It tells us why the song is worth singing. It expresses the immensity and power of the song the church has to sing. It also suggests why superficial music simply cannot bear the weight of such a potent and significant song.”[3]
Why should we sing all 150 Psalms? Because it is right and proper to sing God’s word back to him. This is why our congregation sings versions of Deuteronomy 6, Habakkuk 3, Jonah 2, Joel 2, Zephaniah 3, Zechariah 9, Micah 7, and the Songs of Daniel, Zechariah, Mary, Simeon, Hannah, Deborah, and Moses (Exodus 15). Too often we assume that the songs of the church are “prayers” – but in fact, the songs of the church may also be where the church takes up the Word of God on our lips and sings it back to him. After all, many Psalms are not “prayers” but recitations of the mighty deeds of God. Many Psalms are designed to encourage and challenge each other – as Paul says, “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16). Singing is not just the “prayers of the people,” but is also the admonition of the Word of God!
[1] Those who wish to pursue the question of the history of singing in worship can find an almost exhaustive collection of quotations in James McKinnon’s Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge, 1987). His essays in The Temple, the Church Fathers, and Early Western Chant (Aldershot, 1998) are quite helpful. Calvin Stapert provides a wonderful discussion of patristic musical thought in New Song for an Old World (Eerdmans, 2006). Paul Bradshaw evaluates the recent literature in The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship (Oxford, 2002), and a synthetic history can be found in Paul Westermeyer’s Te Deum: The Church and Music (Fortress, 1998).
[2] See the 170 pages of primary source material provided in McKinnon, Music in Early Christian Literature.
[3] Paul Westermeyer, Te Deum, p26.
