What comedy would befall the traditionalists and contemporaneists if they only knew their quibble over musical genre put them in the same camp when the scope of history is extended beyond their current generation! Perhaps they would choose to lay down their arms, forge a ceasefire to the great Worship War that has raged for nearly fifty years, and focus their attention on a common enemy. This may happen if they recognized that there are only three Biblically defined genres of music that are to be used in the church. Those being the Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs Paul references in his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians.

That is of course not to say that these two groups don’t battle over other important facets of music in worship. But perchance they could link arms for a day or two against a combatant that would launch an attack on both of them if it still had any vitality in it. That dying adversary was known in years past as exclusive Psalmody.

There is a good chance that you consider yourself a member of the traditionalists or contemporaneists and have never even heard of exclusive Psalmody. In truth, we’ve nearly liberated our musical corporate worship from the Psalms altogether! We’ve relegated the inspired words of David, Moses, Asaph, and the sons of Korah to mere inspiration for our own compositions. We may mine their poetry for interesting phrases that resonate with modern hearers. But we deem those Hebraic texts in full, inspired structure, lamentation, and imprecatory language to be irrelevant to modern day believers - at least in terms of their musical use.

Let it be known that this has not been the case throughout ecclesiastical history! Before Christian worship, it was certainly not the case.

Be transported to the age before Christ came. Feel your feet pounding on the Israeli ground as you ascend the mount - up you go to worship in the mighty temple of God! It’s a steep seven-hundred yard journey to the summit. And what songs do you sing in humble worship and anticipation as you amble towards the copy of heavenly realities? The Songs of Ascent of course! Psalm 121 flows from you and your journeymen’s lips.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

Climbing the summit, the hulking temple in front of you, you join the chorus around you in the words of Psalm 24 as the gates are opened:

Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And lift them up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
he is the King of glory!

Entering the gates, the time for the immolation eventually comes. As the stench of sacrifice assaults your nostrils, the singing of Levites fills the courts (Psalm 26):

I wash my hands in innocence
and go around your altar, O LORD,
proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,
and telling all your wondrous deeds.

O LORD, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
Do not sweep my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
in whose hands are evil devices,
and whose right hands are full of bribes.

But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity;
redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.

A few centuries later, Jewish worship had been expanded to synagogues. While no sacrifices took place there, the Psalms still persisted. Psalm 145 through 150 were sung on the weekdays while Psalm 95 through 100 filled the weekend services.

And then the Messiah came and dwelt among man for thirty-three years. In that thirty-third year, on the Passover, what song did He sing with His disciples before making His way to the Mount of Olives to be betrayed by him whom Satan had entered? The words of Psalm 118:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
The LORD is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!

And finally, that glorious prophetic Psalm having found it’s fulfillment in Christ, did the new believers abandon the Psalms? No! Using synagogal worship as their template, for it was what they were accustomed to, they continued in their Psalm singing.

Now, lest you think I set out to make a case for exclusive Psalmody, I assure you it is not so! For I will remind you again of those foundational texts from the pen of Paul. Ephesians 5:19 commends the use of Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs - as does Colossians 3:16.

Moreover, those exclusive Psalmody advocates find difficulty in the very fact that the early Christians had already started writing their own hymns before the New Testament epistles were even finished. These hymns written more than likely mere years after Christ’s death were passed down and even found their way into the very Scripture we hold in our hands today.

Which hymnal can we find these selections in? Philippians and Colossians. For Paul inscripturates that great kenotic hymn for us in the second chapter in verses five through eleven of Philippians:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

While these words may not tickle our ears the way modern poetry can, I have been assured that in the Greek to native ears they are most moving.

And what of that hymn of Colossians? Why we find it in chapter one starting in verse fifteen:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

It is clear that from the very beginning of the Christian movement believers set out to pen their own compositions - some so rich as even to be confirmed as God-breathed.

These are but the Biblical examples one may use to conversate of Psalmody and hymnody. What are we to say of the debate as it has raged through history? Hymnal upon hymnal has been compared to psalter upon psalter. While Luther found remarkable benefit in hymnody as he retrieved corporate singing from the priests and returned it to the people, Calvin found that there were no words more glorifying to God than those He had breathed out Himself.

And what are we to say in mention of Watts? What of Wesley? What of Newton? What of Toplady? What of modern day hymnists or as they’re simply known “contemporary music artists?” I assure you some of these “artists” will one day join the ranks of Watts and Wesley but will be considered far from contemporary should the time be stretched far enough into the future. For contemporaneity always has a way of ceding ground to some new age and in the end finds itself jealous of newer, younger, more attractive forms. Everything that is at the present considered “traditional” was at one time considered “contemporary.” And everything that is at the present considered “contemporary” shall one day be considered of the same ilk of that which it once heartily mocked as out of date.

Now, the question has been begged by that poor beggar Curiosity, “Where shall the modern church land on the pendulum of these melodic genres?” A brief examination of the benefits of both is necessary to find the answer.

Psalmody does indeed have multitudinous benefits - none of which those who reject it’s exclusive use would deny. For one finds it hard to argue with Calvin’s agreement with Augustine that the very words God’s Spirit has inspired are of utmost worth and beauty. Do you not recall that this is the same Spirit who testifies to our spirit that we are children of our God and allows us to cry out, “Abba, Father!” Would we not want that Spirit to testify to us every Lord’s Day reminding us of the matchless promises we have in Christ? What’s more, would we not want to use these words to teach and admonish one another in our melodizing? For what words could we find that are more filled with truth? What language applies more positive pressure on our conscience insisting that we choose what is best than that which is theopneustos (God-breathed)? I wager a guess that most who still hold to even the slightest form of Biblical inspiration would be hard pressed to find speech that is more edifying to the body.

Perhaps the only question is what should this Psalmody sound like? A word for word rendering does not sound beautiful to our modern ear. And why should it? We have translated it from it’s original language and in doing so have no doubt lost some of it’s natural beauty. (At the same time, I whole-heartedly affirm that we have lost none of it’s truth!) For in how many of our daily devotional times have we failed to recognize the intentionality of the acrostic structure of Psalm 119? And I am quite certain that there are many other nuances we miss in the texts that would add to their beauty if only we understood Hebrew.

The good news? Nearly no one who claims the title of Exclusive Psalmody Advocate would hold that we must sing these pieces word for word. Rather, the Psalms can be rewritten in a way that is pleasing to our modern ear. However, present day Psalm re-composers must be careful to lyrically translate the original creations in a way that does not damage their verity while perhaps restoring some of their former musical beauty. We must be reminded that while the words of the Psalms have been inscripturated, God saw it fit that their musical accompaniment was not. Therefore, we have leeway in our musical presentation of them in melodic form but not in content. All the while we must fully acknowledge that the question of to what extent a composer may re-present the Psalms before it ceases to be considered Psalmody is a delicate balance. Isaac Watts found himself teetering on the fulcrum of this imposing scale as he was accused of Psalmic paraphrasing. But one can hardly complain if they are to be found in the same measuring plate with him!

Luckily the balance need not be so black and white, for it is my insistence that our compositions for corporate worship can stretch beyond the bounds of exclusive Psalmody. As already discovered in earlier paragraphs, hymnody has had a rich and vibrant history throughout the church age. It’s heritage has brought much enrichment to the believers who have utilized it to great effect in their services. While this seeming effectiveness of teaching and edification is not the coup de grâce to exclusive Psalmody (pragmatism is not the end-all-be-all for the Church), it does lend credence to hymnody when coupled with the argument already made prior. That argument being that hymnic work had already been created before the end of the writing of the New Testament.

What are the benefits of this hymnody that cannot be achieved through exclusive Psalmody? Well for one, it helps fulfill the commandment to “sing a new song to the Lord.” Was it not common for the children of Abraham to compose musical compositions when God had worked in their life? Should the present children of Abraham not do the same when God acts on their behalf? It is not as if God has been convinced that the viewpoint of deists is now favorable and has left His creation alone until that final return of Christ. If God still acts, do we not have anything to praise Him for? Do we not have our own melodies hidden within our souls? Do we not burst forth in jubilant rejoicing at the current work of His hands? As Spurgeon reminds us, “We have new mercies to celebrate, therefore we must have new songs.”

Secondly, hymnody allows us to express the fulfillment of Christ’s work as prophesied in the Psalms. It is no secret that those Psalms of old were written by faithful musicians who awaited a future fulfillment. Glory be! The fulfillment is here! Shall we not celebrate it, not just in allusions, but in full understanding? Shall we not rejoice in the prophetic word more fully confirmed? Or shall we continue to worship in types and shadows, never explicitly recognizing the tremendous truth that has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus? Of course, some would say that it is still Psalmody to recognize the richness of Christ in the Psalms but where shall we draw the line in our expositing versus our Psalmody? If we can only sing that which is inspired, should we exposit at all? I am aware that this is a very extreme argument but I pen it in hopes that it will help us recognize the extremes so often pointed out in the pendulums we examine. It seems to me that it takes but a mere millimeter of a step away from the nucleus of exclusive Psalmody for the whole concept of only singing that which is inspired to collapse altogether.

So, where should this pendulum find it’s resting place? I will simply say this: It is with regretful disdain that I find the wider evangelical corporate worship landscape virtually barren of Psalmody. (Mind you, I stand beside you equally implicated as a card carrying member of this club!) You may find traces of it over hills in the depth of dales under some mossy rock of tradition. But any more it is rare to find. Check the charts, streaming statistics, and radio airplay and you will be hard-pressed to find a Psalm among them. This has been to our grand detriment. The inspired Psalms serve as a guide for proper emotion in worship. Thumb through the middle of your Bible and you will find a song for nearly every season of life. You will learn how to rightly celebrate in times of triumph. You will discover how to properly lament in times of sorrow. You will be taught how to repent in times of sinfulness. You will be reminded of how to rejoice and what to rejoice in.

And what has a sizeable portion of our modern worship become? A collection of emotion poured out in the heat of the moment, that which we can hardly trust to be properly ordered. We may pat ourselves on our collective back praising ourselves for what we call authenticity. But be warned, the authentic man is sinful. To be true to ourselves and our emotions while in the flesh is to allow our fleshly desires to flourish instead of mortifying them. Pick up your sword, Christian warriors. Get to work mortifying your fleshly desires. Do it not by giving expression to that which you consider to be your authentic self - our sanctification is not found in therapeutic venting sessions. Accomplish sin’s mortification through the Spirit by wielding that double-edged blade of Truth that has the sharpness to pierce to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Allow those ancient words to reorder your “authentic-self” until your “authentic-self” is the “self” God has created you to be in your new life in Christ. For we do not seek an “authentic-self” but a Christ-like self. Seek authenticity and you will be shaped more into your own image. Seek Christ and you will be conformed more into His.

In short, our modern days need no reminder of hymnody. We have that well covered and are in danger of verging on it’s exclusivity. What we are lacking in is Psalmody and all the benefits thereof.

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