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Old Fashioned Christian Radio Music Store
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Scottish Festival Singers -- Psalms Of The Trinity Psalter (Volume 2)
The message inside the CD cover reads... THE PSALMS: GOD'S HYMNBOOK FOR HIS PEOPLE When I was a mere Child, a freshman in college, the minister leading our Bible study asked us to turn to Psalm 92, which he then began to lead us in singing to the tune of "If I Were A Rich Man": It is good to give thanks, Get it? In my California Christian way, I thought that it was "neat." The Psalms were meant to be sung, and we are singing them -- or, at least one of them. What could make more sense? What a great way to memorize scripture, I thought. That for me was the beginning of a fascination with the Psalms that has continued to the present. Nearly five years passed before I received any more encouragement. In March 1978, I rode British Rail from Bristol to Edinburgh to begin a one month internship at the St. David's Broomhouse Church as part of my degree requirements for Trinity College, Bristol. The first Sunday there I learned that more Psalms than just the 92nd had been put to music. The hymnal of the Church of Scotland had nothing but Psalms in the first 190 pages -- all 150 were rhymed and metered for singing. I was amazed. Where had these been hiding all my life? Why didn't Americans churches use them? It seemed odd to me. Why would Bible Believing Christians in America not care about singing the Psalms? For me singing the Psalms was what we would later call a "no brainer." God wrote the Psalms. He wrote them to be sung. Therefore, we ought to sing them. The Psalms are the 800-pound gorilla of evangelical worship. There they sit in the middle of our Bible, the book which provides the content of our worship. They make up the longest book in the Bible. They are the only canonical hymn book. Yet they are mostly unappreciated and unsung even by those with high views of Scripture. This second volume of the Psalms Of The Trinity Psalter CD is produced to promote further the cause of Psalm singing. Eight years have now passed since since the Trinity Psalter was produced combining every verse of all 150 Psalms with familiar and singable tunes. The first volume of the Psalms Of The Trinity Psalter CD was produced in 1999. The Trinity Psalter: Music Edition was published in 2000.(1) The whole Psalter and its music is now easily and inexpensively accessible to hymnal-using congregations. Nearly 30,000 copies of the Trinity Psalter have been sold, and nearly 3000 CD's. We are eager that the 800-pound gorilla be ignored no longer. Toward the end of his life Dr. James Montgomery Boice, pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, complained with increased volume of the replacing of the great hymns of the church "with trite jingles that have more in common with contemporary advertising ditties than with the Psalms."(2) In his last written work (published posthumously) the direction of this thought is clear. There he notes that the "praise songs of the Psalter" do not fall into the trap of narcissism which characterizes so many "contemporary praise songs." Instead of self-absorption, the Psalms are focused on God, and for that reason, he argues, "They are good models for our worship and...should be used in worship more often than they are" (3) (my emphasis) It is upon this conviction voiced by Dr. Boice that we continue to build. The Psalms "should be used (i.e. sung) in worship more often than they are." Come "taste and see' that they are as good for the church today as they have been for most of its 3000 year history. . Our fervent hope is that this beautiful sample of "Psalms For Singing" will simulate in those who hear it and irrepressible desire to restore congregational Psalm-singing to the regular worship of the Church. Terry L Johnson, Senior Minister Independent Presbyterian Church, Savannah, Georgia
FOOTNOTES (2) James Montgomery Boice, Reformation in Doctrine, Worship & Life, In Here We Stand! A Call from Confessing Evangelicals, ed. by James M. Boice & Benjamin E Sasse (Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, 1996), 187. (3) James Montgomery Boice, Whatever Happened to the Gospel Of Grace (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001), 181
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