Exclusive Psalmody?

Streamed live on facebook – a live Q&A session with Drs. Steven Lawson, Stephen Nichols, and Derek Thomas at Reformation Bible College Winter Conference – January 20, 2020

Transcript:

Question: In light of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture and the regulative principle of worship, how do we answer the question of instruments and uninspired hymns in the public worship of God?

Dr. Derek Thomas: So, in our Reformed tradition instruments are relatively new in New Testament worship. They are not new of course in Old Testament worship. We understand, in Judaism there was the accompaniment of instrumental music in worship.

There are two parts to this question. If you adopt an exclusive psalm singing position (as my son in law would – he belongs to the covenanter tradition and loyally and faithfully have maintained that position to this day) – that means that you can sing about Jesus in pre-fulfillment terms but you can never say the name ‘Jesus.’ You can preach the name ‘Jesus’, you can pray the name ‘Jesus’ but you can’t sing the name ‘Jesus’ and that doesn’t make sense to me. If you only sing the psalms you are always in the shadow. You’re always in anticipation mode. You’re never in fulfillment mode.

So for me, my understanding of instrumental worship is that this will be a continuity of practice from Old Testament into New Testament… that there is a continuity of the manner in which God is to be worshipped and therefore the select and reverent use of instrumentation to enhance congregational singing is like the good and necessary consequence argument.

Dr. Steve Lawson: Yeah, I would add to that, there are instruments in heaven being played, and there are instruments in the Old Testament, and I love the argument of continuity – that it would assume continuity into the New Testament but it is anchored by there are instruments in heaven. I think that would be a strange weird argument that you could not have instruments in the New Testament.

The other thing I would add also, Ephesians 5:19 to ‘sing to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.’ I think the perpescuity of that, the clarity of that –  and Calvin always said the correct interpretation is the plainest interpretation. We are not looking for hidden meaning. What would be the most obvious would the proper interpretation. If I just read “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” I go, ok, you can sing psalms, you can sing hymns and you can sing spiritual songs. And I know the covenanter tradition tries to make those different divisions of psalms. I think that’s eisegesis, that’s not exegesis. That’s reading into the text that doesn’t even say that. You’re forcing your preconceived idea upon a text. That just throws word studies and plain meaning out the window, to me. I mean, you would never just pick up your Bible and read that verse and come up with that conclusion. You would have to go to seminary someplace… seriously.. and come up with a wacky interpretation like that. So even throwing that text into the mix as well.

In addition, I would add, Colossians 1 is known as the Colossian hymn and the way that it is worded gives the appearance with the symmetry and the balance and the cadence, that this was an early hymn sung in the first century Church that Paul has placed into this text and maybe made a few connecting adaptations so it will fit in the flow but there were hymns already being sung that had Christ’s name in it, i.e. Colossians 1. And there are other passages to which we could turn.

When you add all this up, I just wouldn’t want to have to be turning in a term paper to a professor who would grade this and to try to defend “I can only sing the psalms and cannot use musical instruments.” I am having to argue a case, I think, with both hands tied behind my back.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: I just want to make two comments. I totally agree, not exclusive psalmody. But I think sometimes, especially in American Evangelical circles sometimes we go too far the opposite direction and we don’t sing the psalms. So there’s a place for those who are not exclusive psalmody to think about the Psalter as a part of worship.

But I was thinking about what you (Derek Thomas) were talking about, in terms of if you are singing the Psalms you are always singing in anticipation, you’re always in the shadows. And anecdotally, this is Isaac Watts.

The Lutheran tradition we have hymns right from the beginning. One of the things Luther is concerned about is putting a hymnal in the hands of the people of God. So Luther is writing hymns right out of the gate.

Not so with Calvin and the Reformed Church. And that’s the influence over the Puritans and over the Church in England.

And here’s Isaac Watts, young man, walking home as the story has it with his father, saying “why don’t we ever sing about Christ?” And his father saying to him, “well, if you think you can do better than David in the Psalms, go ahead and try.” And something like three weeks later, the congregation is singing the first Isaac Watts hymn. So that there is this sense of hymnody – of bringing out of the shadows – Christ. And I think that is some of the richness of the non-psalmody tradition of singing hymns but there’s something to be said for bringing the hymns .. a mighty fortress is of course Psalm 46.

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