'My soul declares aloud': A metrical version of Mary's Magnificat

My latest column at Christian Courier is titled: 'My soul declares aloud': A metrical version of Mary's Magnificat. I offer it here to readers of a local Christian periodical for which I've written for nearly 35 years. Although the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) is obviously not one of the Psalms, it is traditionally classified as a biblical canticle and has been sung in the church's liturgy since the very beginning. We should certainly be singing it today as well.

Text © David T. Koyzis, 1987.

RAPT interview

In recent years I've been interviewed on subjects related to my books and other writings, but my new RAPT interview required that I bare my soul in a more personal way. One of the questions posed had me revisiting my work with the Psalms. Here's an excerpt:

Although I changed to political science during my second year, music is more than a sideline for me. My latest obsession is the “Genevan Psalter,” a metrical Psalter completed in 1562, in which several people set the biblical Psalms to verse and composed melodies for them, some of which were based on familiar Gregorian chant tunes. It took me from 1985 to 2021, but I set all 150 Psalms to verse in English meter so they could be sung to these tunes. I hope to publish this collection eventually, and I’ve received funding from two sources for this project. During the past week or so, I have recorded guitar performances of several of these tunes and posted them on my YouTube channel.

Many contemporary Protestants don’t know that their forebears sang the Psalms, but they did — right into the 19th century. Some traditions still do so, but they are a minority, sad to say. My ultimate goal is to revive the ancient practice of singing the Psalms, which should be an integral part of all Christian liturgies.

Do read the entire interview for more.

Ali Ufki's Turkish Psalms

Many years ago I became interested in Ali Ufki, a Polish-born Reformed Christian who in his youth was abducted by Tatars, sold to the Ottoman Sultan, nominally converted to Islam, and became treasurer, translator, and musician to the Sultan's court. Among his brilliant accomplishments, he translated the Bible into Turkish (which is how my late father knew him) and also the first 14 of the Genevan Psalms. 

I have just discovered the Kitab-ı Mukaddes Şirketi (Bible Society of Turkey) YouTube channel, which contains performances of all 14 of Ali Ufki's Psalms: Ali Ufkî Bey’in Bestelediği Mezmurlar. Hearing this seemingly exotic music, one would scarcely believe that it had originated with the Reformation in western Europe. Here is one such performance below:

Intriguing, no? Do listen to the entire playlist. And just imagine if Ali Ufki (born Wojciech Bobowski) had had the opportunity to translate all 150 of the Psalms! Might the history of the eastern Mediterranean have been utterly different? Could the gospel have spread throughout the Ottoman Empire?

Genevan Psalter: guitar arrangements

Over the past few days I have been posting on my YouTube channel videos of my guitar arrangements and performances of the Genevan Psalms. I have created a playlist which allows the viewer to play all of them in order. This can be accessed here: The Genevan Psalter. Here are two of my performances below:

 

I will be posting more such videos in the future. Stay tuned.

The English Bible

Today the church observes the 507th anniversary of the day Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Although many people believe that the Reformation began with Luther, most of the typical doctrines that we associate with that movement had precedents in mediaeval England and subsequently spread to the European continent. In other words, the doctrines of grace, as recovered by Luther and Calvin and so many others in the 16th century, were already understood and believed by Christians centuries earlier, especially among the Lollards, the Hussites, and the Waldensians.

But of course all of this depended on ordinary Christians being able to read the Bible for themselves in their own languages and thereby to discern its true teachings. Today the English language in particular boasts a huge number of bible translations for every conceivable use and occasion. We speakers of the language are singularly blessed by such an abundance of spiritual riches. But there was once a time when most Christians did not have access to the Bible and had to depend on hearing only sections of it read in the liturgy in a language with which they might not be familiar. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century changed all this, laying the foundations for the Reformation.

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalm 151

No, there isn't exactly a Psalm 151, or at least it's not titled such. But an additional one does occur in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation of the Old Testament as a Psalm "outside the number," or a supernumerary Psalm, about which I wrote two years ago. It is known especially in the Orthodox tradition, where it is accorded something close to canonical status. If Protestants are at all aware of it, they consider it part of the Apocrypha, those extra books (Judith, Tobit, the Maccabees, &c.) often included in an appendix after the New Testament or between the two testaments.

So I was surprised—pleasantly so, to be sure—to discover that our friends behind De Nieuwe Psalmberijming have recently posted a Dutch metrical versification of this psalm set to the Genevan tune for Psalm 19: Psalm 151. To be clear, the arrangement is not precisely of the version found in the LXX but of a longer version found at Qumran and thus part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This psalm is unusual in being autobiographical in nature and is written in the voice of David himself. The story recounted is the familiar one in which David slays the Philistine warrior Goliath of Gath (1 Samuel 17).

'O', 'oh': interjections and our English Bible translations

In my work with the Psalms I've noticed a peculiarity in several contemporary English translations. In the King James Version of the Bible, we read the following:

O come, let us sing unto the Lord:
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation (Psalm 95:1).

But in the English Standard Version we read this:

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

And in the New King James Version this:

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.

Anatomy of the Soul: Psalm 28

Our friend Brian Wright has posted another psalm for our edification and enjoyment:

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalm 25

One more psalm from Roeland Scherff and company from the new Dutch versification of the Psalms:

Thinking Christian podcast interview

Some weeks ago I was interviewed by James Spencer on What does it mean to be a Christian citizen?, covering topics in my three books. Not long after that, Spencer and I had a conversation about my work with the Psalms, and this has now been posted on the various media hosting the Thinking Christian podcast episodes: How Can the Psalms Help Christians Worship? A Conversation with David Koyzis. Spencer has a PhD in theological studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and has hosted this podcast for about a year. Topics covered here include the Genevan and Scottish Psalters, my own Genevan Psalter project, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Lutheran use of the daily office.

Lutherans sing through Psalter

I would love to have attended this event. From 9 to 12 July, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) 2024 Institute on Liturgy, Preaching and Church Music met at St. John Lutheran Church in Seward, Nebraska. In the course of lectures, workshops, and worship services, the assembled gathering managed to sing all 150 Psalms, using the chant tones in the Concordia Psalter and other material produced by Concordia Publications in St.Louis. The story is told in this article, which makes for inspiring reading: ‘And they sang’: Worship institute covers entire psalter in four days. Here is an excerpt:

Huguenot Psalter: Psalm 24

Here is an inspiring version of Genevan Psalm 24 sung enthusiastically by a francophone congregation:

Goudimel: Psalm 137

Here is a lovely rendition of Genevan Psalm 137 sung to Claude Goudimel's arrangement by the Ensemble Clément Janequin:

Cithara Sanctorum: Psalmy

Last year I reviewed the wonderful album of Genevan Psalms in Polish produced by Cithara Sanctorum. This was shortly after I had had the privilege of spending time with Andrzej Polaszek, a Reformed pastor in Poland whose wife Agata directs Cithara Sanctorum. Because they live in the city of Poznan, the collection is known as the Psałterz Poznański. In my review, I highly recommended this album but hinted that it might be hard to come by for North Americans and others outside of Poland. However, the entire album has now been posted on YouTube for the entire world to enjoy: Psalmy -- album Cithara Sanctorum. Here is Psalm 11:

Robson goes Genevan

Two days ago, I alerted readers to Sam Robson's just released album of through-composed Psalms. Today he has posted a rendition of the familiar canticle often sung during Advent, Comfort, Comfort Now My People, a metrical versification of Isaiah 40:1-5 set to the tune for Genevan Psalm 42. Very nice indeed!

Cithara Sanctorum: Psalm 46

Our friends Andrzej and Agata Polaszek have just posted on their YouTube channel Psalm 46 from their new album, Cithara Sanctorum: Psalmy, which I reviewed last year. The text is from their collection of Polish-language Psalms, Psałterz Poznański.

Incidentally, I was privileged to spend time with Andrzei Polaszek here in Hamilton last September.

Robson's Psalter

Sam Robson is a gifted British musician who, for several years now, has posted on his popular YouTube channel videos of himself singing all parts to songs he himself has arranged, demonstrating thereby his singular virtuosity. These include popular songs, folk songs, and hymns. Now he has released an album dedicated to the biblical Psalms, three of which he has posted online. These psalms are through-composed rather than metrical and use the English Standard Version of the Bible as text. Here are Psalms 3, 15, and 67:

Psalm 100: thousands sing God's praise

A dozen years ago, a huge congregation assembled for the Reformed Presbyterian International Conference sang Psalm 100, set to the familiar tune, LOBE DEN HERREN.

Psalm 42: Goudimel, Tallis, Palestrina

This is quite lovely. A performance of three settings of Psalm 42, beginning with the Genevan version in French, proceeding to the version from Archbishop Parker's Psalter in English, and concluding with a Latin version composed by Palestrina. This was posted nine years ago, but somehow I managed to miss it until now.

Reformation worship

I recently read a fascinating book by Karin Maag, Worshiping With the Reformers, published by IVP Academic in 2021. Maag is Director of the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies at Calvin University and was one of my hosts two years ago when I lectured there on the Genevan Psalter. Those of us who are heir to the Reformation may be tempted to think of the 16th century as a golden era when Christians were keen on worshipping the Triune God in spirit and in truth, readily discarding the unbiblical accretions of the mediaeval church. Reading Maag will quickly lay this notion to rest. She reminds us that in many if not most places reformation was a movement spearheaded by ecclesiastical and political elites, often compelling reluctant parishioners accustomed to the old ways to conform to the newer and less familiar practices.

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalm 14

Here is Psalm 14, which is a near doublet of Psalm 53. In this versification, stanzas 1, 2, and 4 are nearly identical in the two psalms, while 3 differs. In the Hebrew, Psalm 14 is a Yahwistic (LORD) version of the Elohistic (God) 53 (or perhaps vice versa), although this is not reflected in the new versification, except for two uses of the Dutch HEER in stanzas 1 and 3 of 14.

Psalter review: Trinity Hymnal (1961)

Why review a collection that is more than sixty years old and has now been replaced by a later edition? There's a deep personal reason: I grew up with the first edition of the Trinity Hymnal, published in 1961 by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It is not exactly a psalter, yet it manages to contain metrical versifications for the vast majority, if not all, of the biblical Psalms. These, however, are scattered amongst the hymns, such that, as a child, I had no idea that we were singing the Psalms. I still have in my personal library our family's copy of the Trinity Hymnal, with my mother's distinctive handwriting inside the front cover.

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalm 100

The congregation of the Hervormde Gemeente in Beekbergen sings Psalm 100 according to the new Dutch versification of the Psalms:

Brian Wright: Psalm 81

Our friend Brian Wright has posted a performance of Psalm 81. The text is from the RPCNA's Book of Psalms for Worship, and the tune, NEW MOON, is Wright's own composition.

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalm 5

 And here now is Psalm 5 in the new Dutch versification of the Genevan Psalter:

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalm 121

I've long loved the Genevan tune for Psalm 121, especially Zoltán Kodály's moving arrangement. Here is Roeland Scherf and company singing their own version of this psalm using the text of the new Dutch versification:

De Nieuwe Psalmberijming: Psalms 15 and 87

Singing from the new Psalm versification in the Netherlands proceeds apace. Immediately below is Psalm 15 sung concert style with an upbeat rhythm:

Then we have Psalm 87 sung by a congregation:

Psaume 27

This is not from the Genevan Psalter, but it is in French and uses what would seem to be a standard hymn tune with a 9 8 9 8 4 metre. But I've been unable to find it in my hymnals, and it's not familiar to me. It may be better known in France than in North America. Here is Psalm 27 sung a cappella:

 

 

Addendum: I have new information from my friend Lucas Freire. The tune is by Franz Josef Haydn, and the lyrics are by Henri Abraham César Malan (1787-1864), the Swiss Reformed poet who was converted during the Réveil, the evangelical revival that swept through Europe following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The earliest publication Freire could find was in the fourth edition of Chants Évangéliques, published in 1892 in Lausanne. Incidentally, while this version of Psalm 27 is numbered 55 in this volume, number 38 is Genevan Psalm 103, 52 is Genevan Psalm 116, and 59 is a christological interpretation of Psalm 23. Number 49 is the Magnificat from Luke 1:46-55.

Psalm 25: A toi, mon Dieu, mon coeur monte

You can never hear too many versions of Genevan Psalm 25 en français! Here is a particularly delightful performance of this Psalm: A toi, mon Dieu, mon coeur monte.

Psalm 130: Du fond de ma pensée

Jean-Louis Michard conducts the Ensemble da Camara at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent, Chantelle, France:

Psaumes 25 et 92: Mission Timothée

Mission Timothée, on which I have posted before, offers us two Genevan Psalm performances below. The first is Psalm 25: A toi, mon Dieu, mon coeur monte. The second is Psalm 92: Oh, que c'est chose belle.

Psalm 118: Rendez à Dieu l'honneur suprême

During this Paschal week it is appropriate to sing Psalm 118:

Psalm 23: Grail/Gelineau

This is perhaps the best known of the Grail/Gelineau Psalms sung in Roman Catholic churches:

Psalm 42: The Ambassadors

The Ambassadors Christian Male Chorus have been singing together since 1969 here in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Here they are performing Genevan Psalm 42 in a recording made in 1985:

Psalm 130: Psałterz Poznański

Our friends Andrzej and Agata Polaszek have posted a new psalm performance during this Holy Week. However, this one is not from the Genevan tradition, but the Lutheran. Martin Luther published his metrical version of Psalm 130, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, in 1524. The tune is in the phrygian mode and has since been arranged by Bach and other composers. Here it is sung in Polish: Z GŁĘBOKIEJ NĘDZY. In addition to this Lutheran version, the Polaszeks have also posted the Genevan version here: WZNOSZĘ DO CIEBIE MÓJ GŁOS.

Psalm 138: Het Urker Mannenkoor 'Hallelujah'

Urk is a village of 21,000 in the Dutch province of Flevoland. Prior to the 1940s, Urk was an island with its own peculiar dialect. After that point, it ceased to be an island and became part of a polder, or land reclaimed from the sea. Urk is part of the Dutch bible belt and boasts an unusually large number of churches. Here in one of these we find Het Urker Mannenkoor ' Hallelujah' singing Genevan Psalm 138. With their sturdy voices, it would be difficult to imagine a starker contrast to those of the Kampen Boys Choir.

Psalms 121 and 122: Kampen Boys Choir

There is a certain quality we associate with the English choral tradition best embodied in the boys choir. Here the treble and bass voices are distributed amongst pre-pubescent and adolescent boys, giving the overall tone an ethereal lightness popularly ascribed to the angels in heaven. Choral evensong in the great cathedrals well exemplifies this tradition.

But to find this heritage carried on in the Netherlands is something of a surprise. One might expect the Kampen Boys Choir to be called Kampen Jongenskoor, but so committed is the ensemble to the English choral tradition that even its name is English. Dress the boys up in red cassocks and white surplices and parade them around the Bovenkerk, and you'd think you were in Oxford or Cambridge rather than in a city of 50,000 in the Dutch province of Overijssel.

Here is the Kampen Boys Choir singing Psalms 121 and 122, not from the Genevan Psalter, but from Miles Coverdale's prose psalter to Anglican chant:

Psalm 46: Nijenhuis

Here is Psalm 46 as arranged by our Hamilton neighbour Tim Nijenhuis, locally known musician and visual artist:

Psalternatif: Psalms 1 and 2

Our friend Roeland Scherff has posted two more videos of performances of the Genevan Psalms. These are the first two Psalms, Psalm 1 being in a jazz style and Psalm 2 in a rock and roll style:

Parker's Psalm 68

In addition to Psalm 1, The Cardinall's Musick has also posted Archbishop Parker's versification of Psalm 68. Again, the tenor soloist sings the tune once before the choir joins in.

Parker's Psalm 1

Here is Archbishop Parker's rendition of Psalm 1, set to Thomas Tallis' tune, performed by The Cardinall's Musick, under the direction of Andrew Carwood. This particular video was posted not quite two months ago. It is good that the tenor soloist sings the melody first, because it is easy to lose track of the melody in a full choral performance.

Here is Parker's full versified text. Note once again the internal rhymes in the odd-numbered lines, as in his Psalm 2 text.

The midnight office

The March issue of Christian Courier carries my most recent column, The Midnight Office, continuing from last month's piece on daily prayer. An excerpt:

Last month I recounted my youthful discovery of the discipline of daily prayer, also known as the daily office. According to this pattern, whose origins almost certainly extend back to God’s people of the old covenant, the entire day is divided up into approximately three-hour intervals punctuated by the several prayer offices. The number varies between five and seven, and sometimes more.

However, one of these offices puzzled me, because it occurred in the middle of the night when I assumed most normal people would be sleeping. If we are sleeping an average of eight hours per night, wouldn’t rising to pray in the middle of this period be a huge disruption? Perhaps that’s why the daily office was relegated to the monks, who were accustomed to cultivating heroic disciplines for the sake of their Saviour.

More than ten years ago, I learned something that solved the puzzle.

Read the entire article here.

Psalternatief: Psalm 1

Now this is delightful. I've often thought that the melodies of the Genevan Psalter, especially those in the Dorian and Phrygian modes, could easily lend themselves to jazz or blues treatment. Well, this one is in the Ionian mode (equivalent to our major scale), but our friends at Psalternatief in the Netherlands have posted what appears to be an improvised jazz arrangement for Psalm 1, and it works very nicely indeed. Gefeliciteerd, onze vrienden!

Parker's Psalm 2

Earlier in the month, I posted about Archbishop Matthew's Parker largely forgotten metrical psalter of 1567, which included nine tunes by the incomparable English Renaissance composer Thomas Tallis. Here is a recording of most of Psalm 2 as set to Tallis' THIRD MODE MELODY or THIRD PSALM TUNE. The full text in pre-standard spelling follows the video. Note the internal rhymes in lines 1 and 3.

Daily prayer

My latest contribution to Christian Courier is titled, Daily Prayer, subtitled, "Devotions as daily practice taken from ancient patterns." Here is an excerpt:

When I was in my early twenties, I visited the bookstore of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and purchased a copy of The Daily Office, edited by Herbert Lindemann and published by Concordia in 1965. A small volume, it nevertheless runs to nearly 700 pages and includes liturgies for morning and evening prayer organized according to the church calendar. This ancient practice, usually associated with monastic communities, was unfamiliar to me, but it transformed my prayer life. . . .

What impressed me most about the daily office was the generous use of the Psalms.

Read the rest of the article here.

Matthew Parker's Psalter (1567)

Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-1575) played a minor role in the development of English metrical psalmody during the Reformation era. He managed to survive Queen Mary's brief reign (1553-1558) and reluctantly accepted appointment by Queen Elizabeth to the See of Canterbury. While occupying this office, Parker presided over the convocation that developed the Thirty-Nine Articles, the principal confession of the Reformed English church.

In 1567, he published a Whole Psalter translated into English metre, which contayneth an hundreth and fifty Psalmes. The texts were set to eight tunes composed by the renowned Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). On the fate of Parker's texts, Timothy Duguid writes:

Psalm 141, auf Deutsch

Our new friend Detlef Korsen has just posted a video of Genevan Psalm 141, which he sings while accompanying himself on guitar. Danke sehr, unser Freund. Sehr schön!

Incidentally, as I have pointed out before, the proper Genevan melody for this Psalm appears to borrow from the ancient hymn, Conditor Alme Siderum:

Psalm 85: Anatomy of the Soul

Our friend Brian Wright is at it again. He has just posted his own rendition of Psalm 85. The text is from The Book of Psalms for Worship from which members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America have sung since 2009.

This is Wright's description at his YouTube channel:

This is Psalm 85:8-13 set to “Shepherds,” a tune I wrote last year. In the verses before this, the authors, the Sons of Korah, wrestle with how long God’s people have been suffering. They ask God, “Will you be angry with us forever?…Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” And then the authors write the words I’ve sung here—confidence that God will restore, that grace and truth and righteousness and peace are the future of everyone who trusts in Him. A thousand years later, Jesus came speaking that peace, suffering in the place of sinners like me so that we might have peace with God. If you are asking God, “How long?” right now, believe these words and put your trust in the One who makes them true.

More such Psalms can be found at Anatomy of the Soul, a link to which I have put in the right sidebar of this blog.

A Presbyterian Prayer Book?

I have recently discovered an historical oddity that merits mention due to the role it played—or might have played—in the liturgical controversies in 17th-century England and Scotland. While the 1662 Book of Common Prayer remains the standard for the Church of England, few people are aware of an edition supposedly drawn up the previous year: The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, as amended by the Westminster Divines in the Royal Commission of 1661. Presbyterians are familiar with the Westminster Assembly, consisting of clergy and parliamentarians meeting between 1643 and 1653 to push the Church of England in a more explicitly Reformed direction. The Assembly produced a new form of church government that would replace bishops with pastors, teachers/doctors, elders, and deacons. It produced the Westminster Confession of Faith, a Larger and Shorter Catechism, and a Directory of Public Worship, which consisted more of rubrics than of a set liturgy.

Oremus Metrical Psalter

Our friend Steve Benner informs us that the online Oremus Metrical Psalter is now complete. Each Psalm offers a musical score, followed by an organ recording of the music, then the lyrics, and finally the sources. The tunes are mostly familiar ones easily sung by most congregations in the English-speaking world. The Psalms are organized according to the 30-day schedule found in the Book of Common Prayer.

I have put a link to the Oremus Psalter in the right sidebar of this blog.

O Legado Litúrgico de Cranmer

The Brazilian web publication Lecionário has republished my recent post on Cranmer's liturgical legacy in Portuguese: O Legado Litúrgico de Cranmer.

A publicação brasileira Lecionário republicou minha postagem recente sobre o legado litúrgico de Cranmer em português: O Legado Litúrgico de Cranmer. Um trecho:

Havia algum propósito por trás do trabalho de Cranmer que escapou aos reformadores litúrgicos do século passado? Isto nos leva ao livro de Hicks, uma análise fascinante da gramática teológica que condicionou o trabalho do Arcebispo.

Psalm 150: Kodály

Cantemus Choral Institute recently posted this compelling performance of Zoltán Kodály's arrangement of Genevan Psalm 150 by the Pro Musica Girls' Choir conducted by Dénes Szabó:

Psalm 24: Sweelinck

So many of us love to hear Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck's arrangements of the Genevan Psalms. Here is the Semper Reformanda Vocal Ensemble of Gáspár Károli University of the Hungarian Reformed Church performing his arrangement of Psalm 24:

Psaume 25: A toy, mon Dieu, mon cœur monte

Here is the Ensemble Lamaraviglia of Winterthur, Switzerland, singing Claude Goudimel's arrangement of Psalm 25. The tenors sing the melody line.

Cranmer's liturgical legacy

Last month I acquired two fascinating books which I strongly recommend to Christians from a variety of traditions interested in the church's liturgy: Alan Jacobs, The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, and Zac Hicks, Worship by Faith Alone: Thomas Cranmer, The Book of Common Prayer, and the Reformation of Liturgy. Although both writers take on the same subject, they approach it in quite different ways. Both volumes made for pleasurable reading over the Christmas holidays, and they prompted me to reflect further on the relationship between how we worship and how we live our lives before the face of God.

Jacobs' book recounts the history of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), beginning in Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's library at the archiepiscopal palace at Croydon, south of London. The holder of the see of Canterbury was and remains the premier hierarch of the English church, and Cranmer ascended to that position at a time of great political and religious instability. Initially serving the mercurial King Henry VIII and then his devout son Edward VI, who died before reaching adulthood, Cranmer would be martyred for his evangelical faith under Henry's eldest daughter, Queen Mary I, who violently sought to drag England back to its previous Roman allegiance. During the years he led the church, Cranmer became persuaded of the truth of the doctrines of grace and embraced the Reformation. Church reform became possible after the King declared himself head of the church and severed it from Rome in 1534.

Liturgical standards and living faith: the case of the Evangelical and Reformed Church

My latest post in Kuyperian Commentary can be found here: Liturgical standards and living faith: the case of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. An excerpt:

So what was this Evangelical and Reformed Church? It was created by the merger of two predecessor bodies, the (German) Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) and the (German) Evangelical Synod of North America. The German Reformed were the descendants of Reformed Christians who had immigrated from German-speaking Europe, especially Switzerland and the Palatinate, the latter of which was once ruled by Elector Frederick III “the Pious” (1515-1576), who commissioned the Heidelberg Catechism in 1563. The German Reformed began in 1725 and were initially under the care of Classis Amsterdam of the Dutch Reformed Church until 1793. During the late 19th century, efforts to unite with the (Dutch) Reformed Church in America were unsuccessful.

Read the entire article here.

The Grail/Gelineau Psalter: Psalm 23

Thirty-five years ago I published an article in Reformed Worship titled, Straight from Scripture, in which I treated briefly Gelineau psalmody, a method of singing the Psalms using The Grail translation. Roman Catholics have sung the Psalms in this way for nearly seven decades, beginning in France with the publication of La Bible de Jérusalem. Here is an excerpt from my article:

One of the more interesting ways of singing the psalms was developed by Joseph Gelineau of France. Of all the methods of singing the psalms, Gelineau's chant best preserves the Hebrew poetic style, retaining both the parallelism and the metrical structure of the original. Ancient Hebrew meter is somewhat like early English meter (e.g., nursery rhymes) in that it focuses on the number of stresses within a line rather than on the number of syllables. Gelineau psalmody is often sung to the Grail translation, which was produced specifically for this purpose. The following passage (again from Psalm 54) is "pointed" to indicate the regular rhythmic stresses in each line: