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:

In the first part of his two-part keynote . . . Dr. Charles Brown spoke about the centrality of singing to Christian worship as it unites the faithful across time and space around shared devotion to God’s Word. Brown, who serves as professor of music and chair of the arts division at Concordia University Chicago (CUC), River Forest, Ill., highlighted multiple examples from Scripture, including Jesus and His disciples at the Last Supper, noting: “You can just see how Jesus is heading to the cross on our behalf. And they sang.”

Sing they did. And so did some 530 LCMS pastors, musicians and laity who attended the institute July 9–12 under the theme “Songs of Deliverance: Psalms in the Great Congregation.” Hosted at Concordia University, Nebraska (CUNE), Seward, Neb., the event was a smorgasbord of music, worship, study and fellowship centered around the Book of Psalms. In fact, over the course of four packed days, participants sang through the entire psalter, including Psalm 119 — at 176 verses, by far the longest psalm in the Bible. Gathering on July 11 in the atrium of CUNE’s new music building, the Borland Center for Music and Theatre, attendees listened to instructions from Director of LCMS Worship Rev. Sean Daenzer.

“All right, everybody, this is it. Don’t lock your knees. Lean on your friends if you need to,” Daenzer said to some laughter. For the next 37 minutes, the group took turns singing a variety of different chant tones in various combinations of soloists, women, men, children and upper/lower levels of the atrium. They were supported by piano accompaniment as they periodically returned to the refrain, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). For Annika Johanson, who serves as organist and choir director at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Lawrence, Kan., it was the highlight of the conference. 

“Singing the whole thing all together … was so fun,” she said.

How encouraging to read of a Lutheran gathering devoting so much attention to the biblical Psalter! As I said, I wish I could have been there.