Monday, April 22, 2024

It is the 22nd of April 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

A very happy Monday to you, I know we are all so confused about Kawhi’s knee… the Clippers are in fact cursed. Ok, let’s head to the mailbag where I’ve got a question from Dave in Tucson, the town with the most unnecessary “C” in all of the geography and one-time home of the wonderfully named basketball player Lafayette Lever, AKA “Fat” Lever (at 6’3” 170 he was anything but that).  

Okay, so Dave first heard the metrical psalms on this show (as I read them occasionally) and was surprised to hear one called out in church recently. He went online and saw that there are many of them and wrote, " Perhaps this question would be apropos for a Monday Mailbag edition, the history, the ‘rhymes’ and reasons.”

Dave—absolutely. As you know, I love poetry. It’s not for everyone, but even if the metaphysical poets aren’t for you, I think we all admit that reading Dr. Seuss is fun. I like rhymed couplets, and I find that when the psalms are written out in these, they can be more easily memorized as well. So, what’s the history here?

Let’s stick to the western side of the church for this one: by the 9th century, the “plainsong” or chanting of psalms and parts of the mass were being written in polyphony, for many voices, and the singing was cordoned off for the professionals only. This made for some beautiful music but less participation from the congregation. At the outset of the Reformation, Martin Luther knew that he wanted the congregation to understand both the preaching and be part of the singing- so he took the Roman Catholic Mass, took out what he objected to, and presented the ‘Deutsche Messe” or “the German Mass” that included new hymns he would write himself. This was the “conservative” Reformation: change as little as possible. But elsewhere, say in the Swiss Cantons, the Reformation went further; the model was to blow it all up and reconstruct something new and biblical in its place. So, should there be singing? Some said, “ok, but no instruments,” and others said, “Yes, but only biblical words.” We are told to sing “psalms” in the New Testament (and yes, Paul says spiritual songs, etc… but those are interpreted by these folk as meaning the same thing as the psalms). Because the congregation was singing, they needed to be simple, and so we see, as early as the late 1520s, Geneva, under John Calvin, put together a psalter written in meter so they could be sung to different tunes. “Meter” is the number of syllables per line- so you might see in a hymnal the numbers 8.6.8.6. This, the common meter, tells you that you can sing these lyrics to any tune that uses that meter- for instance, here is Psalm 42 in the common meter, which happens to fit Gilligan’s island theme:

Like as the hart for water-brooks

in thirst doth pant and bray;

So pants my longing soul, O God,

that come to thee I may.

 

And, as Geneva became a center for reformation refugees when they went back to their home countries of England, Scotland, the Netherlands, etc… they took the tradition with them. In fact, the first book published by the Puritans in the New World was the Bay Psalter (one copy recently sold for 14 million dollars).

There were debates as to how complex they should be, and to what extent paraphrasing was allowed. Isaac Watts famously took Psalms and in translation added the christological dimension- his “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun” is Psalm 72. He would create multiple psalters- some staying close to the text and others adding New Testament theology- and for many in the Reformed tradition this was a bridge too far.

There are some who practice “exclusive psalmody” in worship following the tradition of Calvin and his followers, whereas others use them as they see fit. As for a version- you could go very modern with the Seedbed Psalter- or you could go old school with the early modern English of the Bay Psalter, but my go-to’s are the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter or the Scottish Psalter of 1635. My personal favorite that you will hear from in a minute. Thanks for the email, David. You can email me your questions at danv@1517.org.

 

The last word for today is from the Scottish Psalter of 1635- let’s do the first verses of Psalm 1:

1  The man is blest that hath not lent

         to wicked men his ear,

      Nor led his life as sinners do,

         nor sat in scorner's chair.

 

   2  But in the law of God the Lord

         doth set his whole delight,

      And in the same doth exercise

         himself both day and night.

 

   3  He shall be like a tree that grows

         fast by the river side:,

      Which bringeth forth most pleasant fruit

         in her due time and tide.

 

      Whose leaf shall never fade nor fall,

         but flourish still and stand:

      E'en so all things shall prosper well

         that this man takes in hand.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 22nd of April 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by Christopher Gillespie, a man still wondering how they could invent so many things on that Island but not fix a hole in the side of the boat.

The show is written and read by a man wondering why they brought suitcases and multiple changes of clothes for a three-hour tour. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.