Out of due regard for the principle that true worship is only that which God has commanded, Reformed and Presbyterian Churches originally used the psalms as the praise book for divine worship. The Westminster Assembly declared ‘the singing of psalms’ one of the ‘parts of the ordinary worship of God’, (West. Conf. XXI, 5), and supervised the preparation of a psalter version for this purpose. The Synod of Dordt had also virtually excluded uninspired compositions of men from divine worship. And this was not only the original practice of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, but as Dr. George W. Robinson says, ‘the singing of Psalms continued to be the general practice of the Reformed Churches until well on into the eighteenth century, when the hymns began to be introduced, and, in time, practically superseded them in most of these Churches’. (The Psalms in Worship, p. 511.) The question then is this was the original position of the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches correct? Or is the present day practice better, that is, more scriptural, than that of former days? It has been recognized that ‘the (Westminster) Confession does not provide for the use of any materials of song other than psalms in the worship of God’. (O. P. Min. I3, P. IO5.) Does the scripture require revision of our historic Confession at this point?- G.I Williamson The Singing of Psalms in the Worship of God
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:09:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015