Singing the Psalms: Recovering the Church’s God-Inspired Hymnbook

Everyone loves the Psalms, but few have experienced them as actual psalms—that is, as songs. Not singing the Psalms is like having a hymnal in your church’s pew rack but only ever reading the words. This article makes a case for singing the Psalms, then tells you how to get started.

Reasons to Sing to the Psalms

Here are a few reasons to recover the ancient practice of Psalm singing.

1. A psalm is a song—it’s meant to be sung. “Sing praises with a psalm!” (Psalm 47:7).
2. The Book of Psalms is God’s hymnbook—a Spirit-inspired hymnal. The Psalms are the songs of the Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16).
3. Jesus and the apostles sang the psalms. “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30). The hymn that Jesus sang with his disciples in Matthew 26:30 was likely the Hallel (Psalms 113–118) or the Great Hallel (Psalm 136), according to Passover tradition.
4. The New Testament church is commanded to sing the Psalms. We are familiar with Ephesians 5:18: “Be filled with the Spirit.” But what about the rest of the verse? “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms” (Ephesians 5:18–19). Again, Colossians 3:16 instructs us to be “singing psalms” in our corporate worship. Julie and Timothy Tennent note, “In both letters, Paul acknowledges that hymns and spiritual songs do not replace the Psalms. Rather, the ongoing flowering of Christian worship is built upon the foundation of the Bible’s prayer book—the book of Psalms.” Wesley comments on Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to each other – By the Spirit. In the Psalms – Of David.”
5. The church has always sung the psalms, and for centuries they were foundational to Christian worship. In the fifth century, Augustine reports that the psalms of David were “sung throughout the whole world” (Confessions 9.4.8).
6. Singing the psalms is a way for the whole congregation to address (teach and admonish) one another with God’s own words. “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms” (Ephesians 5:18–19). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms” (Colossians 3:16). Paul’s vision of a Spirit-filled church is one that passionately sings Psalms with an awareness of how the truth ministers to others! Wow! In most churches, we have some work to do! Ephesians 4 says that the church grows as we speak the truth to one another in love, and one way to do this is by robustly singing God’s word to one another in the Psalms.
7. Singing psalms is a way for the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. Drawing again from Colossians 3:16, we see that the Psalms are the word of Christ. Singing the Psalms is one way for the word of Christ to take root in our hearts and saturate our very being. There’s something about singing that is deeply formative.
8. Singing the psalms is a way to express gratitude to God in God’s own words for God’s own priorities. Colossians 3:16 says that we are to sing psalms “with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Have you ever felt convicted that we need to be more thankful as Christians? The Psalms are filled with words of thanksgiving that help us to appreciate and express thanks for the full range of God’s blessings.
9. The Psalms are sung theology, containing truth about God and Christ that is sometimes missing in our hymns. The Psalms are theologically rich and deep, and they were constantly cited by the New Testament writers as referring to Christ. Singing the Psalms is an act of catechesis!
10. The Psalms are mostly sung prayers, teaching the church the language of prayer. The Psalms are not only the church’s hymnal; they are also the church’s prayer book.
11. The Psalter gives expression to the whole range of human experiences and emotions (e.g., anger and lament), unlike most hymnals. In our hymnals, we sing “I’m rejoicing night and day,” but only in the Psalms do we sing, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?” (Ps. 10:1); “My heart is in anguish within me” (Ps. 55:4); “How long shall the wicked exult?” (Ps. 94:3); “O God, break the teeth in their mouths” (Ps. 58:6).
12. Like anything else that we aren’t used to doing, it takes time to get comfortable with singing the psalms; however, it’s worth the effort. The Tennents write that “the regular, systematic, and congregational singing of the psalms has fallen out of vogue in many Protestant churches. It is our deeply held conviction that by this neglect the church is forfeiting a means of grace that it desperately needs to regain in order to meet the challenges of these days.” They quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian church. With its recovery will come unsuspected power.”

Not singing the Psalms is like having a hymnal in your church’s pew rack but only ever reading the words.

Chanting the Psalms

There are two common ways to sing the Psalms: chant and metrical form. I recommend that most people start singing the Psalms in metrical form (see below), but it’s worth taking some time to understand chanting. You may hear the word “chant” and immediately think of monks and Gregorian chants, but chanting has been a major part of church history, even in the Protestant tradition. There are some compelling reasons for its use:

1. Chanting allows the text of Scripture to be sung exactly as it is written.
2. Chant tones are usually very simple and easy to sing once you catch onto them.
3. Chant tones can be used with many different texts.
4. Chanting lends itself to meditation, since the simple tones allow you to focus on the words instead of the music.
5. Once people get past the “weird” factor, many find chanting to be very beautiful, soothing, and conducive to deep spirituality.
6. Chanting helps many people to feel connected to their spiritual roots and deepens their appreciation for the communion of saints.

For an example, listen to the following chant of Psalm 1: “Psalm 1 with words (Anglican Chant).” At first, just listen all the way through the video. Notice a few things:

1. Two tones are used. A joyful tone is sung four times for the verses about the righteous. Then a more solemn tone is sung twice for the verses about the wicked. Then the joyful tone is sung again for a final verse about the righteous.
2. Each tone begins by singing the same note over and over. In the first verse, the same note is sung for 22 syllables. In the second verse, the same note is only sung for 7 syllables.
3. After singing the same note for a while, there is a shift. On the word “way” in verse 1 and the word “law” in verse 2, there is a shift (indicated by an accent mark), and the rest of the syllables are sung using a fixed tune.
4. After the Psalm, the Gloria Patri is sung, as is common practice.

That’s it! It’s actually quite simple! Once you’ve listened to the entire Psalm chanted, play the video again, and try chanting along. Try it a few times. Anything new takes practice.

Chanting allows the text of Scripture to be sung exactly as it is written.

Theopolis Institute is one organization that is working hard to recover Psalm chanting among Protestants. They have published a Theopolis Liturgy and Psalter and offer regional courses on how to sing the Psalms. James B. Jordan has an article on “How to Chant the Psalms” and Brian Motes has a Youtube video on the same topic.

If you find it meaningful, and have enough open-minded or eccentric people at your church, you might just be able to convince others to try chanting with you. But for most churches, the most edifying way to start singing the Psalms is in metrical form.

Singing the Psalms in Metrical Form

Another way to sing the Psalms is to slightly rewrite them in metrical form—in a regular pattern of rhythm, with a fixed number of syllables in each line, and often rhyming. Protestants have produced many metrical Psalters—for example, the Genevan Psalter (1551–1562); the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter (1562); the Scottish Psalter (1650); the Bay Psalm Book (1640); and the Dutch Psalter/Datheen Psalter (1566). Our church uses Julie and Timothy Tennent’s Metrical Psalter: The Book of Psalms Set to Meter for Singing, and sings a Psalm in meter every Sunday.

For most churches, the most edifying way to start singing the Psalms is in metrical form.

To understand how metrical form works, consider Psalm 1:1–2 in the ESV:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

The Tennents rewrite these verses in metrical form:

Bless-ed is the one who does not walk within the wicked way,
Nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit where the scoffers stay.
But he takes delight in foll’wing what the Lord’s law says is right,
On that law he meditates both in the day and in the night.

Each line is 16 syllables, so this stanza can be sung to several tunes with the meter 87.87 D (8 + 7 = 16, 8 + 7 = 16, Doubled). For example, it is easily sung to the same tune as “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (Nettleton) or “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” (Ode to Joy).

Visit https://psalms.seedbed.com/psalm-1/ and try singing Psalm 1 in metrical form to each of the four tunes that it is paired with. In my experience, some tunes work better than others, but by varying the tune, you can experience the Psalm in different ways (e.g., “Ode to Joy” helps draw attention to the theme of the blessedness/joy of the righteous).

This past Sunday, for Pentecost, our church sang Psalm 104:24–35 to the tune of “The Church’s One Foundation.” We used the video at the bottom of this article: “Pentecost Sunday Service Liturgy.”

Getting Started

Regularly singing the psalms has completely transformed the way that I read and experience them. Consider using psalms.seedbed.com to sing a Psalm every day at morning or evening prayer. In our church’s Bible reading plan, we have a daily Psalm. I was encouraged to receive a text this morning from a lady who wants to start singing the psalm.

Paul’s vision of a Spirit-filled church is one that passionately sings Psalms with an awareness of how the truth ministers to others.

While the Psalms are great for personal use, they were meant to be sung corporately. If you are a pastor, consider teaching the first section of this article to your congregation, then try leading your church in a metrical Psalm. You can have your musicians play the tune, or, if it helps, you can use one of the videos here or here (scroll to the bottom of each article). Make sure to practice the Psalm yourself several times so that you can lead with a strong voice.