The first installment of my series on the distinctives of the Presbyterian Reformed Church, or the old Scottish Presbyterian doctrine, worship, government, and discipline. Below is a very lightly edited transcript (special thanks to sister Susan!).
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Psalm 78:5 – Our Testimony, Part 1: Psalm Singing
Turn with me to Psalm 78 and verse 5, in which we read the words, For he [that is the Lord] established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children…
The Seventy-eighth Psalm opens with the words that concern the passing along, the faithful passing along, of the fear of the Lord, the right worship of God, the doctrine that had been revealed to the people of God from one generation to another. It is, as we have not too terribly long ago considered, the way of the Lord to deal through generations. Yes, he saves individuals, and there is none who are saved but individuals; and yet individuals find themselves planted by the hand of God, more oftentimes than not, within families. Indeed, we are all children of fathers and mothers, and so it pleases the Lord that, by and large, within his church there should be families, one generation succeeding the other.
Well, it was commanded Abraham that he should teach his children in the ways of the Lord and the Lord said, I know Abraham that he will command his children after him that they may keep the way of the Lord, that God might fulfill his promise that he had for them. Joshua, that courageous and valiant man, he had become old and gray-headed, and he stood before the congregation at a crossroads, when one generation was to succeed the other and he charged them: If the Lord be God then serve him, or if these other gods of the nations, if they be true, then go your ways, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Well, Psalm 78 is a psalm in which these themes are captured, the concept of the receiving of the the truth, and passing that along to the next generation. We have a responsibility – fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters in Jesus Christ, to hold onto what God has given us; in the words of Psalm 78:5, that testimony, that witness to the truth, and to pass it along to the next generation – which means two things: We must maintain what we have received, and not let it slip though our fingers, not grow lax and careless, and we must then impart them to the next generation, that they may be faithful in the Lord.
Now, I would like, with God’s help, to consider our testimony within our congregations, the Presbyterian Reformed Church, generally speaking, our testimony is that of the old reformed faith, which is, we believe, accurately summarized in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms; but it is oftentimes the case that that is not simply enough in order to maintain a clear testimony, because there are many that do not hold onto those time-honored biblical principles and truths which have become somewhat unique within our congregations. And I would like us to spend some time, not going into exceedingly great depth, we are not going to be abundantly exhaustive, but we are going to, with God’s help, treat various aspects of the testimony that God has given to us as the Presbyterian Reformed Church, and which we would seek to maintain and pass on faithfully to the next generation. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children.
The first dimension of our testimony, the first principle, not necessarily that this is the first in all importance, but it is one that marks us out from many other churches, and that is Psalm singing – the practice of Psalm singing. No doubt, you will notice, if you have not already, that we are different from other churches, in that the particular songs that we sing in praise to God are these one hundred fifty psalms that are found in the midst of our Bible, which for convenience’ sake, have been placed in meter and in rhyme for us to sing. Well, is this biblical? because we do not want to be doing anything in the worship of God, and in the church of God, which does not have a biblical foundation; so what we want to do, we want to go to the source of all truth, to the law and to the testimony and to try this question: Why is it that we sing Psalms in the worship of God? First, to answer that question, Why we sing Psalms; and Second, more narrowly, Why we sing the Psalms exclusively? So First, Why we sing Psalms? as a part of our testimony that we have become convinced of and we seek to maintain and to pass on; and Second, and Why we sing them exclusively. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children.
Why do we sing Psalms? Is it simply because we want to be different? because we like being the odd-man out? Well, there are some Christians who are like that, perhaps that is their predisposition, they are contrarians; they simply like to swim against the stream, they like to pick fights. There is an awful lot of that kind of thing that happens on the internet, people who spend hours upon hours simply engaging in debate; and there are some who would sympathize with us, but they do it, perhaps, because they are just simply interested in debate; But I trust we can say before God that is not our desire, that we do not simply desire to be different for the sake of being different. To be difficult and awkward and strange, it is not easy to be different. And how much easier it might be, one might reason, if we would just simply abandon this strange backward practice. Well, the reason that we do so is because we are not interested in pleasing men but God. And it is our conviction biblically that we sing Psalms because God requires us to do so. That is part of the testimony that God has established in Jacob, that these very words that we are considering as our theme text were meant to be sung along with the rest of the Psalms in the canon of Scripture.
Why do we sing Psalms? First, because God has provided his church a manual of praise intending that we should use it. It is rather obvious that the psalms were meant to be sung. To the chief musician, says David, and he gave these Psalms that they should be sung; indeed, the very word Psalm means “to sing to a stringed instrument.” Now, we are going to address the question in a subsequent message about the use of instruments, which does, in fact, makes us different as well. But it is very obvious that when we open the Bible, yes, the Psalms are religious poetry, yes, they are inspired by the Spirit for our comfort, for our instruction, our guidance; but they are also there and preeminently there that we should sing them! God has provided his church a book of Psalms to sing; and he intends that these songs should be sung.
Second, and intimately related to this, Why we sing Psalms, is because God has clearly commanded that we should sing Psalms. When we go to the Psalms themselves, it is very obvious, not only are they songs to be sung, but that we are commanded within the Psalms to sing. For example, Psalm 95:1-2: O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. Could that not be more clear? The Lord wants us to sing Psalms! Psalm 105:2, from the psalter itself: Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Why was it that David penned these things? Was it simply to get his religious feelings off his chest? It was so much more than that! Under the inspiration of God, David was a song leader for the people of God, intending that these songs of praise should be sung in the church that would follow him; indeed, some of them coming long before David himself, such as Psalm 90, a song of Moses. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in generations all. Before thou hast form’d the earth, the mountains great or small… God has clearly commanded that we should sing the Psalms.
And the New Testament picks up this thread. James clearly indicated that there is something to be done for those who are merry in heart. What should one do, a Christian who has experienced the joy of salvation, the Christian who knows that he has received the Holy Spirit as the earnest of everlasting life, what should he do when he is feeling full and to overflowing with the joy of the Lord? Is any merry? let him sing psalms. So it is not just simply an Old Testament practice – it is a New Testament ordinance – singing Psalms. This is the testimony that God has given to this congregation, and to these bodies, these congregations, to which the Lord has called us. It is our testimony that at this time when the Psalms are not sung within churches, or they are infrequently sung within churches.
Ephesians 5:18-20: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Again God is clearly indicating to us, if these words mean anything, we must speak to each other using the Psalms. Now, we are going to address the question about what do we understand by the words “hymns” and “spiritual songs”; but it cannot be debated for a moment that very clearly the apostle Paul intends psalm-singing as an ordinance of the Christian Church. And that does not mean just simply the psalms that are so very precious and valuable to us, although it does include them, Psalm 23. and Psalm 100; but all the Psalms, the different varieties of Psalms.
Colossians 3:16 reiterates the very same thing: 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.
The New Testament Christian Church must maintain this testimony and we must maintain it and pass it along to our children: that God commands his people to sing the Psalms. So, Why do we sing Psalms? because God has obviously provided his church with a manual of praise, intending that we should use it; Second, because God has verily explicitly commanded that we should sing Psalms; Third, because the Psalms are a perfect pattern of Christian doctrine. Athanasius said it well when he said that the Psalms are “An epitome of the whole Scriptures.” Or Luther: The Psalms are “A little Bible, and the summary of the Old Testament.” They condense, do they not, the great themes and truths of God’s sovereignty, his power, his majesty, his holiness, his goodness, his love, the covenant that he has made, the grace that he has chosen to show unto his people, the remission, the forgiveness of sins? Does not Paul, in order to defend the great doctrine of Justification, go where? to Psalm 32! What about God’s great purpose for the nations? that God should bless not only the Jews, but all nations, Psalm 67: Let all the people praise thee. Or Psalm 100: All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, Come ye before him and rejoice. The Psalms are a perfect pattern of biblical doctrine.
But they are also so very perfect for the Christian church because they so accurately reflect Christian experience. They so actively give voice to the ups and downs. the twists and turns, the highs and lows, of Christian experience. Can we find better words than, The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want, He makes me down to lie. Or, I waited for the Lord my God, and patiently did bear; At length to me he did incline my voice and cry to hear. He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay, And on a rock he set my feet, establishing my way. He put a new song in my mouth, our God to magnify: Many shall see it, and shall fear, and on the Lord rely. Do these words not express Christian experience?
Or the experience not only of praise, but also of the agony of being desolate; feeling as though I am a pelican in the wilderness all alone; or I am persecuted, I am separated from the people of God, and I long to go back into the courts of the LORD… One day in the Lord’s courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God ; When shall I go back to the house of God? O dear Brothers and Sisters! are not the Psalms meant not just for the triumphs and the glories of the church, but for the season of her great hardship and affliction.
And indeed, the Psalms were meant to be the Psalms of a persecuted church. The French Huguenots, when they were condemned to death by the Roman Catholic church, they would sing the Psalms as they were burning at the stake. And their enemies would take knives and cut out their tongues and they could not sing the Psalms. Or what about the two Margarets in Scotland: the older godly woman, the younger Christian daughter of Sarah: and they sing Psalm 25 to each other as they are tied to those poles, and as the water begins to rise.
The Psalms are a perfect pattern of Christian experience. There are songs of praise to be sure; I joy’d when to the house of God, Go up, they said to me: Psalm 24, Psalm 148, Psalm 68, Psalm 89, Messianic Psalms, as we shall consider. Psalms of thanksgiving, Psalm 136, Give thanks to the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever. Psalms of instruction: How do we make sense of the fact that the wicked prosper and the godly, it seems as though they are stuck in neutral at the very best, if not suffering hardship. Well, there is Psalm 37: Fret not thyself because of [the prosperity of] evildoers [the wicked]. Do not envy the wicked for there will be a day when you will seek his place and you shall not find it. So rest in the Lord; wait patiently for him. God will visit you. The meek shall inherit the earth: The very words of Christ from Psalm 37.
Or what about the wisdom of Psalm 49? Give ear all people that dwell on the earth, both young and old, both rich and poor, my mouth shall teach unto wisdom. Know that your days are limited; do not be as the beasts that perish. And so we sing to each other these songs of wisdom, to give us what? to give us the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
There are Psalms of devotion: As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, O God; When shall I come into your presence? Or Psalm 63. There is such a rich pattern of Christian experience that John Calvin could write that the Psalms are “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul; for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.” The Lord knows how you feel, and he knows that you need this book of Psalms.
Above all, we sing the Psalms because they uniquely testify of Christ. The Psalms were on the lips of the apostles when they first preached the gospel: Why do the heathen rage? and the people [nations] imagine vain things. The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. saying let us throw off their bands and their chains. What did Peter say concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in his grave? David testified, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption [Psalm 16]. Go to the grave of David and you shall find him resting there, but go to the grave of Christ and he is not there! because the Psalms must be fulfilled.
What Psalms were on the lips and flowing from the pen of the author to the Hebrews? Psalms 8 and 110: The Lord did say unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thy foes a stool, whereon thy feet may stand. And did not the Lord Jesus Christ indicate ever so clearly that the Psalms spoke and testified concerning him: Luke 24:44: And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
(Now, incidentally, and this is a very minor point, but it is worth bearing in mind, this helps to explain, in part, why we do not ordinarily dance within church, because our practice of Psalm singing requires that we fix our attention on these consecutive words, which cannot be very easily done unless we have just a few words that we are saying over and over again; but that is not what we have commanded for us in the psalter.)
Well, this is why we sing Psalms, because God has provided, very obviously, his church a manual of praise; Second, because he has clearly commanded that we should sing the Psalms; Third, we find that the Psalms are a perfect pattern of doctrine and experience; and Last, because the Psalms uniquely testify of Christ.
Second, why do we sing the Psalms exclusively? Is this the testimony that the Lord has established in Jacob, and the law that he has appointed in Israel? Well, we answer this: no other material has been provided in the New Testament canon; no other material has clearly been provided, nor is there any clear command for any other material to be used in the praise of God. We do not have examples of other human writings; there are no ancient hymns from the first century. Unarguably, we cannot find any place in the New Testament where such was either commanded or any example. However, one might say, What about those passages in Ephesians and Colossians: Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spritural songs? Does not the hymns and spiritual songs refer to other songs that might be sung alongside the Psalms? Well, first of all, it is not clear that the word hymn or song necessarily refers to songs that are other than the Psalms. We have to be careful when we encounter a certain word to not read our own ideas and our own experience and tradition into those words.
Furthermore, a very good case can be made that all three of those terms refer to the body of songs that are left for us in the 150 Psalms of David. When one looks at the titles of the Psalms, specifically the titles that are left to us in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, (that was the Bible translation that Paul and the other apostles were using), and we find that all three of these terms are used in the titles of these Psalms. For example, Psalm 98 and verse 1, we have simply, A Psalm. In Psalm 30 and verse 1, for example, we have both of these words, psalm, and song occuring: Psalm 30, the title, A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David. Psalm 65 and verse 1 gives another instance in which Psalm 65 is a psalm and song. The title reads, To the chief musician, A Psalm and Song of David. In Psalm 76, verse 1, in the Septuagint translated into English, we have all three terms – hymn, song, and psalm: For the end among the Hymns. a Psalm for Asaph, a Song for the Assyrian.
And so, it seems quite likely that Paul had in mind simply three different ways of expressing the same material, as sometimes happened in the Old Testament Scriptures; For example, in Psalm 119, what words does David use for the Word of God? Well they are many: statutes, precepts, commandments, ordinances, testimonies: are these all discreetly different things, or are they so many different ways of saying the same thing?
Furthermore, it has been contended that “spiritual song,” the adverb “spiritual” does not modify song, but modifies all three terms: psalm, song, and hymn – that is, spiritual hymns, spiritual psalms, spiritual songs. Warfield writes: “The appropriate translation for it in each case is spirit-given, or spirit-led, or spirit-determined”; that is “breathed out by the Spirit of God.” And that explains how Paul is saying, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, or spiritual psalms, hymns, and songs because this is the Word of Christ.
Now, even if that case is not absolutely conclusive to you, it is not absolutely clear that other material was meant to be sung in the praise of God, which leads us to the final point: Why we sing Psalms exclusively, and that is the Regulative Principle of Worship. Again, Deuteronomy 12:30-32: Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee [ that is the heathen]; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
So this is what he is saying, Do not introduce into my worship what I have not given you. So, if I give you bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, you are not free to add lettuce, or asparagus. We laugh, it seems silly, and yet the Roman Catholics will add to the ordinance of baptism, to the water they will add “holy oil”; Well, that is not what God commanded; that is adding to what God has commanded. The Roman Catholics take away the cup from the common Christian in the Lord’s Supper in their Roman Catholic mass, they only give the wafer, to the believer, the cup of wine is reserved for the priest, so they take away something that belongs to the people. When we baptize, are we free to subtract or add to the words, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ? No, we are not free to do that; whatever God commands, we do in the worship of God; or whatever he does not command, we say, we must not do it.
So, is it absolutely clear that we should sing Psalms? Yes! Is it absolutely clear that we should sing other material than the Psalms? I do not think the case has been made. And if that is the case, then we must abstain and we must stick to what the Lord has clearly required of us.
Well, this is the testimony, a part of the testimony, that the Lord has given to us. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel. Let us follow the good old paths of our forefathers and sing the Psalms. To sing the Word of Christ, to be filled with the Spirit, that the Word of Christ may dwell in us richly in all wisdom; May we teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. Amen!
Let us close in prayer, please rise. O Lord, we rejoice in being given this manual of praise. It does make us different, but, O God, we would be faithful to the Lord, we would sing these songs of praise inspired by the Spirit of God, and we pray that we might maintain this practice and our young ones would come to appreciate the rich heritage of psalmody, even as our forefathers understood from Scripture, and sought to translate into singable material for us. And we pray, Lord, that thou would spread these principles among brothers and sisters who do not as yet see eye to eye with us, grant us patience with them knowing that we also received light at a time when things were not clear to us. Grant us now thy favor and thy mercies and continue to send us away with thy mercy and thy blessing through Jesus Christ.
Let us now sing from Psalm 95, verse 1-6, to the tune Irish, tune #73:
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord:
come, let us ev’ry one
A joyful noise make to the Rock
of our salvation.
2 Let us before his presence come
with praise and thankful voice;
Let us sing psalms to him with grace,
West Port Experiment 
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