Psalm-Singing on the Rise

Singing the psalms, a tradition that had fallen out of favor in some churches in lieu of using "contemporary" praise music, is starting to make a resurgence, according to worship leaders quoted in a series of articles in the most recent issue of Reformed Worship.

Published by Faith Alive Christian Resources, the publishing ministry of the Christian Reformed Church, the magazine is geared for planning and leading worship. It devotes its most recent issue entirely to the topic of why and how to reincorporate psalm-singing in worship

This issue of Reformed Worship also contains many suggestions and examples of how to use the psalms in worship.

"Psalm singing is not a dying tradition but a revived one," writes Joyce Borger, editor of Reformed Worship. Many materials from the magazine are available on the site. A subscription is required to receive copies of the publication.

Borger says that she believes she is "only one person out of a growing body of Christians for whom the psalms are gaining importance."

The state of the world, especially after the terrorist attacks ofSept. 11, 2001, subsequent wars, and a range of natural disasters, may have played a role in bringing people back to the psalms with their honest approach to questioning God about a world that can seem to have gone awry.

"Our eyes have been opened, and worship leaders have scrambled to find the right words of lament, of comfort, of assurance to utter in our services," writes Borger.

In this renewal, members of congregations, pastors, and worship leaders are once again seeing the divine value in the psalms that Jesus Christ often quoted.

In contemporary culture, church is often seen as part of the consumer movement. People attend a certain church because its style and programs fit the needs of attendees.

But the psalms break through the mentality that focuses on individual preferences and needs and "become a rock for us—a true, objective, and honest expression of human frailty and relationship with God," writes Marty Haugen, a well-known liturgical composer, workshop presenter, and performing and recording artist.

"They [the psalms] are unchanging and faithful texts in a rapidly changing world," writes Haugen.

The psalms are caught in a kind of worship war, pitting modern, upbeat, often rock-style music against the psalms, which were a significant part of the Jewish songbook. Many of them were written by King David, the Old Testament patriarch from whose line of descendants Jesus came.

"Until we start praying, reading, and singing through the psalms again, we will continue to find ourselves at war when it comes to worship," writes Brian Moss, worship and music coordinator for Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

"These are the front lines of the ‘worship wars'—not a style or tradition or contemporary or convergent or whatever—but learning to worship God in the fullness of our humanity."

Granite Springs, a Christian Reformed Home Missions church plant, is located in an upscale suburban area in Lincoln, Calif. Until the recent recession, the community was affluent—expensive cars in every driveway, spacious homes, well-watered and manicured lawns.

But the recession hit the area hard, forcing it to become a national leader in the mortgage crisis in which values plummeted at the same time people had high payments. Granite Springs was right in the middle of spending the year hearing sermons about, studying, and singing the psalms when the recession began.

The authenticity implicit in the psalms, their depth, and the opportunity to converse with God about hard things helped people cope with the crisis.

"The psalms urge us to pray the mess of our emotions as an act of faith. The ancient voices offer wise guides for worship," writes Rev. Kevin Adams, pastor of Granite Springs. "Almost a third of the psalms are laments. Suffering people beg God for rescue or relief."

Petra Verwijs, a Hebrew Bible scholar, grew up in a Reformed psalm-singing church in the Netherlands. "The psalms, I learned, are all about a shared human condition. Singing them helped me listen to others …. The psalms enable God's people to stand with each other in the depths and heights of their lives," she writes.

The psalms help us to take our eyes off of ourselves and to pay attention to the created world in all of its glory and tragedy. They are comprised of words and images that speak to our deepest longings and allow people to sing and pray songs of profound distress as well as affirmation.

"Why are we, as twenty-first century humans, so slow to recognize creation's capacity to praise God directly? And what are the theological and ecological consequences of our blindness?" writes Carol Bechtel, moderator for the General Synod Council for the Reformed Church in America.