By RajeshG on
Forum category
Church & Ministry

Pastor Mark Minnick preached an excellent message today on the Psalms: “Why a Series on Psalms?”

Listening to this message and heeding what is brought out from the Bible in this message would greatly profit anyone who wants to have God’s mind about the importance of the Psalms.

Discussion

Mon, 03/09/20

One of the key problems that Pastor Minnick speaks of is that “human compositions have displaced the singing of the Psalms.” This is a grievous matter that we must rectify in our corporate worship.

Mon, 03/09/20

I’m sure our church is far from unique in this area, but we sing a Psalm every week as part of our service. We certainly do have many other songs we sing each service, but the Psalms have not been displaced.

Dave Barnhart

Mon, 03/09/20

[dcbii]

I’m sure our church is far from unique in this area, but we sing a Psalm every week as part of our service. We certainly do have many other songs we sing each service, but the Psalms have not been displaced.

It’s good to hear that your church sings the Psalms regularly. The (limited) experience that I have had in different churches and the conversations that I have had make me think that your church may be more the exception than the rule. It would be good to learn objectively that is not the case.

Mon, 03/09/20

I think there are other, far more grievous matters to attend to! If your church has the skills, abilities and knowledge to pull off leading the congregation to sing the psalms competently, then have at it. It may be beyond the range of many smaller congregations.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Mon, 03/09/20

[TylerR]

I think there are other, far more grievous matters to attend to! If your church has the skills, abilities and knowledge to pull off leading the congregation to sing the psalms competently, then have at it. It may be beyond the range of many smaller congregations.

Tyler, while I also wouldn’t consider it a “grievous” matter, it’s actually not that difficult to do, and our congregation is in the 80-100 range. The psalm texts we use come with metrical numbers that you can compare with familiar tunes in the hymnbook, since most hymnbooks also have a metrical index. We put the words on the screen, and the hymn tune chosen each week is one that is familiar to the congregation. The one this past week used the tune to “Joyful, joyful we adore thee.” Then no one needs to concentrate on the tune, but rather the words. It actually works very well.

Dave Barnhart

Mon, 03/09/20

[TylerR]

I think there are other, far more grievous matters to attend to! If your church has the skills, abilities and knowledge to pull off leading the congregation to sing the psalms competently, then have at it. It may be beyond the range of many smaller congregations.

In the message that I link to in the OP, the case for the divinely chosen importance of singing the Psalms is brought out in great detail. From the perspective of what God’s will is concerning what His people should be singing to one another, I believe it is a grievous matter to God that vast numbers of His people very likely are not ministering the Psalms to one another very much at all with any regularity.
Singing the Psalms in a small congregation does not need to be a difficult matter at all, even as Dave explained. What’s most important is that it be done regularly among God’s people, regardless of the skill level of the congregation.

Mon, 03/09/20

[JohnBrian]

We sing a Psalm at the beginning of our service and use The Book of Psalms for Worship.

David Paul Regier writes new tunes for the Psalms. You can find him on YouTube, or Twitter.

There may be others who are writing new tunes for the Psalms as well

It’s great to hear of another church that sings Psalms regularly. Quite a few people in my church are writing new settings of the Psalms and new tunes as well: Psalm Singing

Tue, 03/10/20
Visited First Baptist of Rockford, Il a couple moths ago and we sang a hymn. I really enjoyed it and believe it’s a good thing to aspire towards. That being said, I believe some of the language here, and some of the arguments for exclusive psalmnody can be a little strained. Good thing to do though!

Tue, 03/10/20

Singing the Psalms doesn’t even register on my list of things to do as a pastor. If the lady (yes, lady) who volunteers to coordinate the music wants to do it, then I’ll certainly have no problem with it. I’ll mention it to her.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Tue, 03/10/20

[TylerR]

Singing the Psalms doesn’t even register on my list of things to do as a pastor. If the lady (yes, lady) who volunteers to coordinate the music wants to do it, then I’ll certainly have no problem with it. I’ll mention it to her.

If you have not listened to the message linked to in the OP, I urge you to listen to it and profit from it. How can a shepherd of a flock be lukewarm about having his people profit from the singing of perfect songs written by God Himself?

Tue, 03/10/20

I am perfectly ready to stand before Jesus Christ and confess that, indeed, I did not lead my flock to sing the psalms. I will look into it, though. What are the best resources for doing this? I will listen to the sermon on my way to work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I get off work in 48 minutes and will go directly to do marriage counseling at a church couple’s home!

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Tue, 03/10/20

[TylerR]

I am perfectly ready to stand before Jesus Christ and confess that, indeed, I did not lead my flock to sing the psalms. I will look into it, though. What are the best resources for doing this?

Meanwhile, I get off work in 48 minutes and will go directly to do marriage counseling at a church couple’s home!

I am not an expert on this subject by any means. My church uses the hymnal Hymns of Grace and Glory, which has quite a collection in the back of it that are sung to tunes that are mostly familiar. As I said earlier, a number of people in my church are also writing new material for the singing of the Psalms. There is a long history of Christian churches that have sung the Psalms so I’m sure that there is a lot of other good material out there.
My desire in this thread is to encourage many in our day to do so. You can access some of our new settings here, both PDFs and audio: https://www.mountcalvarybaptist.org/pages/resources/detail/1/4

Wed, 03/11/20

No Christian church should refrain regularly from ministering the Psalms to one another in corporate worship because of perceived or even actual inability to sing them. If a church is convinced that they actually cannot sing the Psalms regularly to one another in corporate worship, they could still recite the words of the Psalms corporately to God and to one another:
Psalm 18:1 who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,> I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
Such mutual ministry of the Psalms would be in keeping with key NT revelation as well:
Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Wed, 03/11/20

I listened to the sermon for 15 mins, but stopped when Minnick said God had providentially placed Psalms at the exact center of our English, KJV bibles. Because the Tanakh is, in fact, ORDERED DIFFERENTLY than our English bibles, I rolled my eyes and shut it down and listened to a mystery novel the rest of the way home.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Wed, 03/11/20

[TylerR]

I listened to the sermon for 15 mins, but stopped when Minnick said God had providentially placed Psalms at the exact center of our English, KJV bibles. Because the Tanakh is, in fact, ORDERED DIFFERENTLY than our English bibles, I rolled my eyes and shut it down and listened to a mystery novel the rest of the way home.

You should have kept listening because he acknowledges in the message itself (14:28-14:32 of the message) that it is not in the center of the Hebrew Bible. Surely, you know that he knows such basic differences between our English Bible and the Bible in the original languages, right? You should go back and listen to the rest of the message.