Biblical Worship.

For reformed Christians, a principle has been identified that regulates both personal and church life - the Scripture Principle.  Whatever we do, especially in church life, must have a clear warrant in the Word of God.  Her life is to be regulated according to this principle.

Some Christians believe in and practice only the singing of the Psalms in the public and private worship of God, the argument being that this is the hymn-book of the early church, and later Christians have no right to move from this.  Now, if this is the rule for faith and practice, then only what was used in the early Christian Church can now be used in the worship offered by the contemporary church.

To be quite correct, we ought to be singing the Psalms in Hebrew - to ensure that we are singing the true Word of God and not human compositions; the moment we translate the Hebrew Psalms in Scottish metre, we have produced a human composition.

Further, ought we not also to sing the Hebrew Psalms to the original Hebrew tunes?  Surely to sing them to any other tune is to use human compositions in the worship of God, and for some Christians this is wrong.

It is a fact that during the days of the early New Testament church, there was no written New Testament; so what the church used for the instruction of her members was the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament.  If this is the Scriptures that were used then, who gives the later church the right to add to the Scriptures what we call the New Testament.

OK, Peter equates Paul's letters with the OT Scriptures, but when preaching was done, it was invariably based on the OT.  Is this what we ought to be doing today?

Similarly with church prayers.

Now I love the Psalms and I love worship where Psalms are sung.  I love to conduct worship where the Psalms are used in the praise of God.  I find it rather odd that many churches that claim to be reformed find no place whatever for the singing of Psalms in the worship of God, including within broad evangelical churches.

But are we to believe that only the OT Psalms, which look forward to Christ, are to be used in the worship of God because the words are of divine origin, yet tunes can be used that are clearly not of divine origin and composition?  Can we claim to be biblical in our understanding of worship when we say that psalmodic words are inspired but psalmodic tunes that were used in the OT are not?  Can we maintain this position when we flout our own cherished practice by introducing metre into the Psalms when they were not written originally in metre?  Can English and Scottish and American and Dutch and Genevan tunes ever be a substitute for Hebrew tunes, when it comes to worshipping God acceptably?

These points raise very real questions for me when considering this exceedingly important matter of how to worship God and with what.  If we can allow for human musical compositions in the worship of God, then we have, by that concession, opened the door for human compositions that are regulated by Scripture to be used in the worship of God.

If all our worship is to be governed by the Hebrew Bible, then let it be so.  But even the advocates of this depart from it in so many other ways.  Indeed, their belief system is controlled by human compositions such as confessions and catechisms.

So those churches and Christians that understand Paul's "Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" as including both the inspired songs of the Psalter and those human compositions that comply with Scripture teaching are closer to the biblical norm for the public and private worship of God than those who adhere to a more restrictive policy.