Exclusive Psalmody

As of last week, the Dallas RP Church (RPCNA) has a new meeting location. The group is meeting at the school facility at 2525 East Trinity Mills Road, Carrollton, TX. Morning Worship is at 10:30 am and afternoon worship is at 2:00 pm. Visit the church website for more details: www.dallasrpc.org

The History of Psalm Singing

Contra Musical Instruments in Worship

Commentaries on the Psalms, 90+

A fine list of online Psalters over at Reformed Books Online

60 online Psalters!

A new website defending the singing of Psalms. King and Kirk is the work of RPCNA pastor Daniel Kok. Here is a selection from the site:

“This project reflects the many months I studied the subject of psalmody in the church, particularly with respect to its application in worship. In the end I concluded that the songs that Jesus wants his church to sing in worship are the biblical Psalms and that no other songs are warranted.

I have compiled quotations from the major works I read with attribution given. The reader may consult the bibliography for a full list of the books, essays and articles that are cited, including the webpages of those resources found online.

Use the menu above to navigate to the main sections. Subsections are included as links on every page (where applicable).

My prayer is that through such projects as these the church will once again regain her voice in the prophetic songs that so intimately and reverently reflect the person and work of her King.

In Christ’s service,

Daniel Kok (2017)”

From a recent communication to update the EP site:

Last summer at the Presbyterian Reformed Church (PRC) presbytery meeting it was decided to relocate the PRC from Matthews North Carolina and rename the local congregation “The Presbyterian Reformed Church of North Carolina.”

Here is new information from the PRC website:

PRC of North Carolina Info

Morning Worship: 10:00a
Evening Worship: 6:00p

Location:
2188 Chestnut Grove Road
King, NC 27021

Phone: (336) 710-0219
Jeff George, Deacon

Email:
Jeff – jgeorge@providenceindustrial.com

The Presbyterian Reformed Church of North Carolina (formerly PRC of Charlotte) was formed in 1998. Timothy J. Worrell, a graduate of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, was inducted as our first pastor. Rev. David Douglas Gebbie is currently serving as Moderator. The pulpit is open presently.

 

Please consider giving your support to the Sunrise Christian School in Glasgow, Scotland.  Here is a recent communication from Stephen McCollum, a teacher at Sunrise and a licentiate of the RP Church of Scotland and an elder in Airdrie RPC.

“Our school began in August 2014 and I was the first and only teacher. The school is overseen by a Board with representation from the Reformed
Presbyterian Church, Free Church (Continuing), and Reformed Baptists. All teachers must subscribe to a Reformed confession of faith, such as the Westminster Standards or Three Forms. During our assembly when we worship, we exclusively sing from the Psalter, although we obviously sing other songs at other times in the day. This practice of singing from the Psalter is protected in our constitution. At present, we sing from the Scottish Psalter to promote unity. We now have three teachers, two from the Reformed Presbyterian Church and one from the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The children learn the Westminster Shorter Catechism as well as learning all subjects from the Reformed worldview.

“Although Scotland has a heritage of Reformed worship, this has died away largely. We also had a heritage of Reformed schools, but this is long gone. Scotland is a secular country with an aggressively liberal Government. Sunrise Christian School is one of only a handful of Christian schools in Scotland, but there is only one other Reformed school besides us. Since the Reformed church is so small in Scotland we have had to struggle financially, receiving no support from the Government. We began not thinking we could pay salaries. That being said, our school has developed tremendously in the past two and half years. We see this as a sign of the Lord’s blessing. My first day in August 2014 had only three pupils, but we now have 26 pupils!

“Although we are a Reformed school that sings the psalms in assembly, most of our families do not come from a Reformed background and very few of the children sing the psalms in their churches or families. Some of our children even come from non-Christian backgrounds. We are so excited that we can train up the next generation in the ways of the Lord, and especially that we can instil in them a love for the Psalter at this young age. We memorise a metrical verse each week and the children are always so excited when I tell them that they have memorised another chapter of the Bible!

“Even yesterday some older pupils asked if they could sing some psalms during break and it wasn’t long before others came and joined them. You can check out a video of it here:
https://www.facebook.com/SunriseChristianSchoolGlasgow/videos/ and you can listen to some of our psalm singing on soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/user-736031721
Further information can be found on our webpage
www.sunrisechristianschool.org.uk

“Should any be willing to donate to our school, this can easily be done online at here. We have been able to increase our income in various ways so that we are financially stable. But due to our quick growth we must soon employ a part-time administrative assistant and we have also outgrown our current building which we rent. We hope to be able to buy our own building as soon as possible and look for all the help from those who are supportive of the Reformed faith. These factors mean that we will have to stretch a little bit more financially. However, we are so pleased to have come to this extent.

“If you would be interested in more information, please feel free to get in touch with me.”

Every blessing,
Stephen McCollum
Teacher, Sunrise Christian School
www.sunrisechristianschool.org.uk
Registered Scottish Charity: Charity Number SC045287

From the church website:

Who we are
Immanuel Chapel is a ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America – a Bible-believing, Christ-centered Reformed and Presbyterian denomination with a heritage that goes back to 1798 in America and even further back in Scotland, with roots in the Scottish Reformation (John Knox) and later the “Covenanter” (a term used to identify the Scottish Presbyterians) era, in the latter 1600s, the Protestant church of Geneva Switzerland of the 1500s, and ultimately from the apostles of Jesus Christ as ordained and set forth in the New Testament. See the website reformedpresbyterian.org for more information. As a group, we have been meeting together since 2011.

Oversight
We are under the oversight of the Southern Church Extension Committee of the Presbytery of the Great Lakes-Gulf of the RPCNA.

Rev. HP McCracken, Chair.

Contact
Dr. Kevin L. Clauson
Phone: (423) 775-8852 or (434) 444-0344
Email: immanuelrpchurch@gmail.com

Directions
We meet at the Dayton Community Chapel, 184 Mulberry Ave, Dayton, TN 37321. This is on Hwy 30 east of Hwy 27, second road on the right after the old entrance to Bryan College.

184 Mulberry Ave, Dayton, TN 37321

 

Adding Reformation Church of Blue Bell, PA to the directory. The church is a member of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) and it sings predominantly Psalms. This church would be a good one to add to your contacts if you are traveling in the area.

From their website:

We cordially invite you to join us for worship or at our regular mid-week meeting

1215 Union Meeting Rd
Blue Bell, PA 19422

Morning Service

Morning worship begins at 10:00am

Evening Service

Evening worship begins at 4:00pm

Mid-week Meeting

7:00 p.m. Wednesdays at the church

Our Worship

Worship of the Triune God is central to the practice of a true, living faith. Serving God in worship is so serious that the Christian may not exempt himself from meeting with the God of his deliverance together with the congregation once called through the officers of the church. The operations of the church are all to be done decently and in good order and, much more, the elements and ordering of corporate worship (liturgy) are to be done in accordance with God’s Word, the Bible. The elements of worship include the reading and preaching of the Word, confession of sins, prayers of adoration and supplication, Psalm singing, baptism and the Lord’s Supper and various acts of covenant renewal (as defined by Scripture). Worship is covenantal dialogue between God and the congregation; that is, God speaks and His people respond accordingly. It is both a joyful privilege and a solemn obligation to come before our loving Father and Almighty God. It is not an interaction between equals and the congregation must give vigorous attention to the acts of liturgy. Any concession to novelty—no matter how sincere — or being entertained or being merely a spectator has no place in Christian worship.

Reformation church sings out of the “Book of Praise,” an Anglo-Genevan Psalter. This Psalter contains all 150 Psalms set to music, as well as 65 Hymns. Visitors may find extra copies of these Psalters in the cupboard immediately to the right when entering through the main front door.

To assist in following along with the liturgy of the worship service, “bulletins” for both Lord’s Day services can be found immediately to the left when entering through the front door of the auditorium. These bulletins include the prayers that the congregation reads out loud and indicate when the congregation stands and sits at various points throughout the worship service.

Reformation church celebrates communion once each month in the afternoon service. Visitors from sister congregations, if desiring to participate in the celebration, must provide a written attestation of being a member in good standing from the officers of their home congregations to an officer of Reformation church prior to the worship service (preferably, prior to the Sunday they visit).

I found a great review of this book from The Original Secession Magazine January 1873-1874, Vol XI, Publisher J. Maclaren, p 387-388 and there is historical context provided below as well. As you will see, the students in the church were gradually carried along to reject a cappella singing. “Most of the students sympathized with the party of liberty, which, year by year, grew stronger as these young men were licensed and ordained.” It was in this context that Glasgow wrote Heart and Voice.

“Heart and Voice: Instrumental Music in Christian Worship not Divinely Authorized” By James Glasgow, D.D., Irish General Assembly’s Professor of Oriental Languages. Belfast: C. Aitchison.

“This is a learned and laborious work. Indeed, from the amount of textual criticism it contains, we fear that superficial readers will be disposed to vote it dry. They may insinuate, too, as one critic of the book whose notice we have seen actually does, that so much digging about Hebrew and Greek roots is not productive enough to repay the labour. But the ready and sufficient answer to such shallow and flippant animadversions is, that the real teaching of Scripture on any subject can only be ascertained by a critical investigation of its meaning; and that, particularly, when the advocates of instrumental music betake themselves to the original text of Scripture, and profess to find an unanswerable argument for the organ in the meaning of this and that Hebrew and Greek word, it becomes absolutely necessary to follow them there, and to shew that their philological argument is as baseless as any and every other argument they employ.

The learned professor does all this, and more. Anxious to get to the very bottom of this important and recently much-debated question, he goes through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and subjects to a thorough critical examination every passage which bears, or may be supposed to bear, on the subject of instrumental music. Then, gathering up and summarizing the results, he makes it plain beyond all reasonable question that, while instrumental music was sanctioned under the Davidic dispensation, and in connection with the ritual and symbolic worship of the temple, the whole testimony of Scripture combines to shew that it is no part of moral-natural worship, that it passed away with the old ceremonial system of which (for a time) it formed a part, and that it is simple Judaism to attempt to re-introduce it into the spiritual worship of the gospel day. In the concluding chapters, he reviews and refutes the leading arguments for the use of instruments in public worship; states some subordinate objections to it; and gives a very valuable summary of opinions against it, from the testimonies of the early Fathers and of the Reformers down to those of recent writers on the subject.

On the whole, this is not a book to gallop through at a sitting. Nor is it a book which critics of the calibre who think it enough to ask you, “Does not David say, ‘Praise the Lord with a harp'”? are capable of judging. But all who are competent to follow the author through his inductive investigation of the teaching of Scripture on the subject, and who are prepared to accept of Scripture as the sole and sufficient rule of worship as well as of faith and morality, will rise from its perusal, feeling that he has proved the use of organs in the public praise of a Christian congregation to be as purely a piece of will-worship as the incense and the images of Romanism.”

——-

The sad historical context of the book is found in A History of the Irish Presbyterians by William Thomas Latimer:

“The growth of an emotional form of worship in the Irish Presbyterian Church was now exhibited by the introduction of instrumental music to the public services of the sanctuary in some town congregations which boasted of their culture. This matter came before the Assembly in 1868, by a reference from the Synod of Armagh and Monaghan regarding the use of a harmonium in the congregation of Enniskillen.

Presbyterianism had, at one time, been strong in County Fermanagh. Under Captain M’Carmick and the Rev. Robert Kelso, a movement was originated by the leading Presbyterians which saved Enniskillen from King James, and rendered it possible to defend Londonderry. Burdy, in his life of Skelton, admits that in the middle of the next century Presbyterians were still a substantial body in County Fermanagh; but the Synod failed to establish a number of churches sufficient for their accommodation, and they were gradually absorbed by Episcopacy. Even when a revival came, it was Methodism which annexed that district. From 1837 the Rev. Alexander Cooper Maclatchy had been in charge of our Enniskillen congregation, and being somewhat Episcopal in his tendencies, he introduced a harmonium to improve the congregational psalmody. Mr. Maclatchy’s action was opposed in Presbytery, Synod and Assembly, by the Rev. James Gardner Robb, an exceedingly ready and logical debate. When this matter came before the Assembly in 1868, it was proposed to refer it to a commission, but an amendment of Dr. Cooke was carried to the effect, that ” the common law” of the Church excluded the use of instrumental music in the public worship of God, and that Presbyteries should be instructed to see that congregations conform to this ” law.”

The injunction was disobeyed, and, as an excuse for their disobedience, the “liberty” party asserted that no “law” had been passed by the Assembly, either then or previously, which prohibited an instrumental aid from being employed in the congregational psalmody. Thus the controversy was continued. Year by year resolutions were passed by the Assembly ordering disobedient congregations to abstain from using instruments in the service of the Sanctuary; but these resolutions were disregarded, and the “purity” party, although able to carry prohibitions, were unable to induce the Church to punish those who disobeyed her orders.

In these debates and in the war of pamphlets and newspaper articles, the Revs. Dr. William Dool Killers, John Macnaughtan, Henry Wallace, Dr. Robert Watts, Dr. H. B. Wilson, Dr. Thomas Y. Killen, and Dr. R. Workman, were among those who advocated the principle of permitting congregations to introduce an instrumental accompaniment in the service of praise; while the Revs. Dr. Nathaniel M. Brown, Dr. Corkey, Dr. Glasgow,* Dr. John Kinnear, George Magill, Dr. Petticrew, Dr. Robb, Dr. Robinson, and Dr. James Maxwell Rogers, advocated the principles of purity in the worship of God, and obedience to the injunctions of the Assembly. The great majority of elders were on the same side, but Mr. Thomas Sinclair lent his powerful aid to those who advocated what they termed “liberty.” Most of the students sympathized with the party of liberty, which, year by year, grew stronger as these young men were licensed and ordained.

When the purity party had a majority in the Assembly, they might have easily passed a law, with penalties annexed, prohibiting any congregation from employing an “instrument” except for the defined purpose of aiding the congregational psalmody, and only when sanctioned by a very large majority of voters. But the opportunity was neglected, and “instruments” are now introduced by “Sessions” when often there is a considerable proportion of the people against the innovation.

When Dr. Johnston was moderator, he carried a resolution pledging the Assembly, in 1873, to pass no law on the question, and binding the congregations which employed instrumental music to give up its use. But this resolution failed to settle the matter in dispute. Several of the offending ministers denied that they had entered into any agreement, and they continued to defy the authority of the Assembly.”

* Rev. James Glasgow, D.D., appointed Missionary to India in 1840, and Assembly’s Professor of Oriental languages in 1865, died in 1890. Dr. Glasgow was modest, kind-hearted, and possessed of great learning.

Vancouver Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
Burnaby Community Room
3605 Gilmore Way,
Burnaby, BC
Canada V5C 4S8

Vancouver Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland

We are a Reformed church in Vancouver, BC, Canada, adhering to the original Westminster Confession and Standards with its covenanted uniformity in doctrine, worship and government. Our church has joined the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, a direct descendant of the historic Church of Scotland of the Reformation.

We cherish:

Puritan piety
Worship regulated by the Word of God with a Capella singing and exclusive psalmody
Calvinistic doctrines of Grace
The Presbyterian form of governance

Service Times: Lord’s Day 9:30 a.m. & 6:30 p.m.

Location: We are currently reviewing public meeting places. In the meantime, are worshiping at different locations in Greater Vancouver.

Please contact us to find out our current meeting location.

Here is what you can expect when you come to one of our services:

We aim for reverence in our worship.
The preaching of God’s Word and prayer are central components of our worship.
We use the Scottish Metrical Psalter for our singing (without instrumental accompaniment).

Our standard order of service is as follows:

Opening Psalm
Prayer
Scripture Reading
Psalm
Sermon
Prayer
Closing Psalm