Psalms in the Dutch Bible Belt

Last month I spent a week in the Netherlands on a speaking tour related to two of my books, Political Visions and Illusions and Citizenship Without Illusions. On the last two days of my stay, one of my hosts and I twice visited the Grote Kerk in Nijkerk. Here is the story:

What is a Mannenzang? There is a Dutch tradition, apparently not more than three decades old, of mass gatherings of men in churches, and perhaps elsewhere, to sing psalms and hymns together. The sound of huge numbers of tenor and bass voices praising God in song exudes a certain power that has to be experienced first hand for a full appreciation. In the evening of saturday, 19 September, Samuel and I made our way into Nijkerk's historic Grote Kerk for a mannenzang. I would be hard pressed to estimate the number of men present, but the building was completely filled for the event. The assembled men sang six psalms according to the Genevan melodies and six hymns. These were interspersed with commentary by Dr. Paul Jan Visser. Martin Mans was at the organ, Pascal van de Velde on the trumpet, Wibrand van Norel on the timpani, and Jan Verhoef directing from the front.

I recorded two of the songs we sang together, including one that will be familiar to English-speaking Christians. Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven is one of my favourites, written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1834, with accompanying melody by Sir John Goss. The words are loosely based on Psalm 103. In Dutch this becomes Prijs, mijn ziel, de Hemelkoning, whose first stanza I recorded below:

A sister's favourite, continued

Today would have been my sister Pam's birthday. So many people reach an age she missed by just over two weeks. As it happens, her favourite psalm, Psalm 62, is the first Psalm prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer for morning prayer on the 12th day of the month. Accordingly, I prayed this psalm this morning as part of my daily prayer regimen.

 

Pam's California licence plate read: "62PSALM." In her final days she told me that, once she had ordered this plate number, she recognized that she would have to be an exceptionally courteous driver so as not to be a bad witness to those with whom she was sharing the road. And, she said, it worked!

 

I miss you, Pam!

Psalm 62: a sister's favourite

It saddens me to report that my beloved sister Pamela died in the early afternoon of tuesday, 28 July, after a two-year battle with cancer. Pam was an exceedingly kind and generous person who loved God with her whole being. She was a remarkable woman who ended her working life only recently at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Cal Tech. It would be difficult to recount in total all the good things she did for so many people, including family and friends. Our immediate family has several quilts she made for us. When the COVID pandemic started six years ago, she made masks for each of us and sent them by mail. 

Pam's favourite psalm was Psalm 62, a reference to which was in the number of her car's licence plate. Several years ago, I set this psalm to verse as part of my ongoing Niagara Psalter project and dedicated it to her.

A psalm of lament: a personal exercise

I am currently part of a small group at my church studying a book by W. David O. Taylor, Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life, published by Thomas Nelson in 2020. Chapters are devoted to honesty, community, history, prayer, poetry, sadness, anger, joy, enemies, justice, death, life, nations, and creation. At the end of the chapter devoted to sadness the author has given readers the following exercise:

Write out your own psalm of lament, following the basic pattern presented in the chapter on poetry. Write your complaint to God. Write a specific petition of God. Write a resolution to trust that God will hear and heed your petition in a timely fashion, even if it is not according to your timetable (78).

I decided to take up the challenge, using the pattern he describes and the poetic scheme typical of the canonical Psalms, including Hebrew parallelism and three rhythmic stresses in each line. Naturally much of the language draws on scripture itself. This is the result:

Psalm 42: Men Sing Grand Rapids

And here is Genevan Psalm 42 from Men Sing Grand Rapids:

Psalm 116: Men Sing Grand Rapids

There is something powerful about male unison singing. Here is Genevan Psalm 116, sung by Men Sing Grand Rapids. This gathering is inspired by a similar group in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Psalms for All Seasons: a review

Last year I reviewed the 2013 hymnal, Lift Up Your Hearts, which my congregation now uses as its principal worship book. One year earlier, Faith Alive Publications, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and Brazos Press co-published Psalms for All Seasons: A Complete Psalter for Worship. These two volumes are evidently companion collections with some overlap of contents and even similar cover designs. I have now seen a copy of the earlier collection and will review it here.

In my previous review, I noted that the number of complete Psalms in LUYH had been diminished and that the publisher was recommending the current volume for congregations desiring a complete psalter. The arrangement of the metrical psalms in this collection is similar to that of the blue Psalter Hymnal of 1957 and the influential 1912 Psalter of the former United Presbyterian Church of North America. Each Psalm is represented by several alternate renditions among which worship leaders might choose. Each of the 150 Psalms begins with a prose version from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. This is then followed by different ways of singing it, including responsorial settings and chant. The vast majority of the selections are metrical versions, many of which will be familiar to members of the Christian Reformed Church and other churches inheriting the tradition of the 1912 Psalter. Some of these Psalms are are in other languages, including French, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Some are accompanied by extra-biblical prayers and litanies.

Sing a New Song: the companion volume

I would love to have seen this special exhibit at the Morgan Library in New York City, but I was able to experience the next best thing in the companion volume, which my unfailingly thoughtful wife gave me for Christmas. This is an utterly beautiful book, a feast for the eyes and for the spirit. It is edited by Roger S. Wieck, with the assistance and contributions of several other people, and a foreword by Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan Library and Museum. Chapters are devoted to David as Psalmist, Translating the Psalms, Teaching the Psalms, Illuminating the Psalms, Performing the Psalms, and Using the Psalms.

A guitar journey through the Psalms

Christian Courier recently published my article, A guitar journey through the Psalms, recounting a project of which I have kept readers of this blog informed for the past year or so. An excerpt:

For most of 2022 and 2023 I had been unable to play guitar at all due to a painful attack of frozen shoulders following a freak illness contracted during a visit to Michigan. This condition made holding a guitar virtually impossible, and I had begun to doubt that I would ever play again.

But when the last of the symptoms disappeared at the beginning of 2024, I was delighted to recognize that I could once again painlessly hold a guitar in the proper position. However, by that time I had become quite rusty in my abilities. So I persevered and kept at it over the next months, and by November I was ready to add more performances to my channel.

Read the entire article here.