One of the arguments that exclusive Psalmodists have used with me is this: if the Psalms were good enough for Jesus to use and sing in the worship of God, then they ought to be good enough for us. The same argument refutes this basic principle: if the Bible that Jesus used to hear the Word of God was sufficient for Him, it ought to be sufficient for us. But exclusivists do not take that argument to its logical conclusion, for they use a part of the Bible that was not even written when Jesus was on earth. His Bible was the Hebrew Bible, our OT.
It is quite interesting that exclusivists will not, on principle, sing anything but the Psalms, yet their own preachers are very free to read out hymns to illustrate a point or to bring an evangelistic service to a fitting conclusion. You can 'say' the hymns, but you cannot 'sing' them!
Any comments?
Exclusivists would be better using much stronger arguments from scripture, than the one you mention. And you are correct in the inconsistency of quoting from hymns(assuming it is a human hymn and not a poem that was later adapted to music). I do trust that any attempts from people like me to explain why we only sing psalms are just an explanation and not in a spirit of pride or "holier than thou". Many of my spiritual heroes like Spurgeon etc would disagree with my conviction. I must add having came through the public worship of Elim, Free Presbyterian of Ulster,missions etc- i am thoroughly satisfied to be an exclusivist.Though the early years of Elim was heavily centred on psalms in the choruses for which i am extremely grateful. Often i read a psalm and the old Elim chorus comes to mind immediately after all these years.
ReplyDeleteThanks Colin. I think that the church has impoverished itself by failing to use a regular diet of Psalms in its worship, and many 'reformed' denominations are dong just that. However, I think that a reasonable position is to use a balance of Psalms and good hymns of praise to our Lord Jesus Christ. I like to sing specifically about my wonderful Saviour, and good hymns facilitate me in doing that. As you know, I enjoy the Psalms immensely, and have no difficulties whatever in singing only these. But I would feel just a bit impoverished if I was told that I could only read from the OT, which, like the Psalms, also testify of Christ. In fact, it is questionable whether such a practice could be described as Christian.
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