[Dialogue] 4/30/09: Spong: The Origins of the Bible, Part XXV: The Book of Psalms

[David Walters]

As I child like spong, I too went to an Associate Reformed Research when we visited my grandfather. Except that had a different experience to singing the Psalms than Spong did. I found it to be a very different, yet delightful experience. Much different from the Southern Presbyterian Church my family normally attened. It opened for me a whole new way of relating to the Psalms. My next new experience was at a Summer Research program in Fifth City (I think '71). I am presently trying to put together a Psalms study in my local church. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who may have some of the materials we used that summer.
David Walters

The Origins of the Bible, Part XXV:  The Book of Psalms
When I was a child I went with my mother from time to time to Chalmer's Memorial ARP Church, the church in which she had grown up. Those letters "ARP" identified that church as belonging to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian tradition, an ultra-fundamentalist branch of the most rigid form of Calvinism. What was most unusual to me about this church was that they did not sing any hymns. Hymns, they argued, were made up of human words written by human authors and as such they were considered unfit for use in worship where only "the words of God" were meant to be heard. Instead of hymns, the members of this church set to music the 150 psalms from the Bible, which they claimed were "God's words." So the Book of Psalms became the hymnal of this church. For all of the strange literalistic theology that was reflected in this reasoning process, this church had understood correctly the original purpose of the Book of Psalms. It was in fact the hymn book of Judaism, created for use in worship, first in the temple and later in the synagogue. Once this insight is grasped, the language of the Book of Psalms makes sense. There are numerous liturgical references and directions found in the psalms: imploring people "to sing to the Lord a new song," frequently mentioning the choirmaster and refer ring to a variety of instruments traditionally used in Jewish worship, such as the trumpet, harp and lyre. The psalms also refer to things like sacrifices, processions, altars, burnt offerings, thanksgivings and sacred vows, all of which are liturgical acts. 
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