New Psalter: Psalms for the Church

After a dearth of psalm-singing in Protestant churches for some two centuries, more denominations than ever are producing sung psalters for their congregations. However, it is unusual for a single congregation to produce a complete metrical psalter for its members. One of these is Cantus Christi 2020, which I reviewed last year, the work of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho. The most recent is New Psalter: Psalms for the Church, compiled by Grace Music, the music ministry of Grace Immanuel Bible Church in Jupiter, Florida, USA. I am unable to find membership statistics, but, judging from the number of staff the church employs and its ability to create its own sung psalter, I assume it is a fairly large congregation. Furthermore, few churches would be able to support a rhythm band, an orchestra, three voice choirs, and a handbell choir. The congregation is nearly a century old and started out as a Methodist church, although it is now an independent congregation.

Daniel Kreider is the general editor of this collection, which follows the publication of the congregation's hymnal, Sing the Wonders, in 2016. In his preface Kreider writes:

We believe the church ought to sing hymns in corporate worship: songs full of Scripture and shaped by Scripture, yet also informed by human composure and creativity. At the same time, we recognize the profound gift of the psalms to the people of God. They were the divinely-inspired songbook of Israel, including the incarnate Lord Himself. They contain the whole breadth of human emotion and experience, expressed with divine authority and clarity. Psalms stir our hearts to praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession, and rest. And the church should sing them. The church is not required to sing every psalm, or to sing only psalms, or to sing only literal, verse-by-verse psalm settings. But we must not neglect the psalms— in instruction, private devotion, or public worship.

This ringing affirmation of the liturgical use of the Psalms is unusual for an independent evangelical congregation, but we should all hope and pray that this commitment will spread to other similar churches as well. Here is Kreider himself presenting the new psalter:

 

This collection includes a variety of metrical psalms spanning the wide spectrum between the literal and the paraphrastic. All 150 Psalms appear, with many Psalms rendered in more than one versification and setting, making for a total of 341 songs. After the songs we find a tune index arranged alphabetically; a metrical index of tunes; an index of authors, composers, and sources; and an index of titles and first lines. What is notably lacking is a section indicating how the Psalms are used liturgically in the congregation's worship. Is there a systematic plan for singing through the Psalter on a regular basis? Are certain Psalms sung at different points in the service, for example, Psalm 51 for a confession of sin or Psalm 103 as a post-Communion thanksgiving? Perhaps we'd be more likely to find such items in a denominational hymnal/psalter than in one produced by a single congregation. Moreover, if this is the first metrical psalter the congregation has used, it may still be feeling its way as it works to recover this ancient practice.

As for the sources of these sung psalms, fully 69 are from the influential American Psalter of 1912 of the former United Presbyterian Church in North America. The 1912 Psalter formed the basis of the Christian Reformed Church's various Psalter Hymnals, of the PCUSA's The Presbyterian Hymnal, and of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's Trinity Hymnal, from which our family sang when I was a child. New Psalter continues this more-than-a-century-old tradition. Only two songs come from the Scottish Psalter of 1650, including the ubiquitous Psalm 23 (numbered 47 here), which has found its way into many Protestant hymnals over the years. Five Psalms are taken from the Scottish Psalter of 1615, although some of these are tunes rather than texts. One is from Tate & Brady's "New Version" Psalter of 1696 (Psalm 57, numbered 119). Only three are from the Genevan Psalter, but one of these is the venerable Huguenot anthem, Psalm 68 (143). Isaac Watts is the source of 25 texts. Keith Getty and Stuart Townend contribute five texts and tunes each. One was written by my late friend Bert Witvoet (1934-2020), one time publisher of Calvinist Contact, later Christian Courier (Psalm 140, 319), and one is by Bert Polman (1945-2013), former colleague of mine at Redeemer University College (Psalm 58, 122). Kreider himself is the source of 33 songs, mostly musical settings, but also a very few versified texts.

If every Psalm is included in this collection, not every one appears in its entirety. Commendably, Psalm 88, the darkest of all the Psalms, is complete and makes no attempt to end on an upbeat note absent from the original. I would be interested to know how often the congregation sings this and on what occasions. However, Psalm 109 is a partial psalm, omitting the lengthy imprecations in verses 6 to 20, suggesting that the membership may not yet be entirely comfortable singing them. Psalm 59 is similarly abbreviated, but less so Psalm 69, with its messianic references.

Are other congregations using this psalter? Large congregations, even if they are independent, sometimes exercise an influence over other congregations with fewer members and resources. I can imagine that if a smaller congregation decided to recover psalm-singing, its members might consider using New Psalter rather than attempting to compile their own collection. I hope Grace Immanuel's effort will indeed be used in other churches.

I can think of no better way to conclude than with Kreider's own metrical versification of Psalm 150, the grand finale of the biblical Psalter:

Praise the Lord Eternal in His dwelling place!
Praise Him in the heavens, mighty realms of space!
Praise Him for his power, all His works and ways!
Excellent His greatness; give Him highest praise!

Praise Him with the trumpets, heralds of the King!
Lute and harp in chorus, skillful hands will sing!
Praise Him with processions, dance, and timbrel sound!
Strings and pipes, exalt Him; let your praise abound!

Praise Him with the cymbals, softer praise begin;
then with mighty crashing, praise Him once again!
Gather all creation; shout in one accord;
all the living, breathing, let them praise the Lord!