Singing Worthily

John Calvin wrote in his 1542 epistle to the reader of the Genevan psalter that:

Now what Saint Augustine says is true, that no one is able to sing things worthy of God unless he has received them from him. Wherefore, when we have looked thoroughly everywhere and searched high and low, we shall find no better songs nor more appropriate for the purpose than the Psalms of David, which the Holy Spirit made and spoke through him. And furthermore, when we sing them, we are certain that God puts the words in our mouths, as if he himself were singing in us to exalt his glory.

Now it may be inquired, Where did Augustine say that? Hughes Oliphant Old, The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship, pp. 262-263, points us to Augustine's commentary on Psalm 35, where we find these remarks on the first verse:

The psalm belongs to Him: our heart is His, let our tongue sing appropriate things to Him: if only he shall deign to give that which the tongue should sing. No one sings to Him except he who would receive from Him what he should be able to sing. Finally we are able to sing in this way because He has spoken by his Spirit through the Prophet and in these words we recognize Him also.

Matthew Henry's Family Psalter

In 1694, Matthew Henry published Family Hymns Gathered Mostly Out of the Translation of David's Psalms. It was his attempt to "promote the singing of psalms in families, as part of their daily worship." Most of the ninety-five or so selections that he chose to include were drawn from the metrical Psalms that appeared in the earlier psalters prepared by Sternhold and Hopkins (1562), William Barton (1644), Henry King (1651), Miles Smith (1668), Simon Ford (1688), Richard Baxter (1692), and, in the third edition of Henry's Family Hymns, that of Tate and Brady (1696).

The edition of William Barton (see his entry in John Holland, The Psalmists of Britain, or Henry A. Glass, The Story of the Psalters) was a strong rival to that of Francis Rous, whose psalter was favored by the Westminster Assembly, as well as the House of Commons, while the ministers of London and the House of Lords preferred the edition of Barton. "The result was a deadlock," says Millar Patrick, Four Centuries of Scottish Psalmody, p. 95. Ultimately, Westminster's revised edition, building upon the work of Francis Rous, was approved by the Scottish Presbyterian Church, but Barton's Psalms remained popular in certain circles, including that of Philip Henry, Matthew's father, who bequeathed copies to each of his daughters of "Mr. Barton's last and best translation of the Singing Psalms, requiring and requesting them to make daily use of the same for the instruction, edification, and comfort of themselves, and of their families."

Hughes Oliphant Old writes that "When we look at the contents of Henry's family Psalter we find that almost half the selections are designated for either morning or evening prayer on work days or the Lord's Day" ("Matthew Henry and the Puritan Discipline of Family Prayer," Calvin Studies VII (1994), p. 72). Henry drew mostly, but not exclusively, on the Psalms of David for his material, also including, as he notes in his preface to the third edition, "I have also taken in some of the New-Testament Hymns." Old notes: "Matthew Henry also includes metrical versions of the New Testament canticles, the Magnificat, Benedictus, Gloris, Nunc dimittis, and several of the hymns from the Book of Revelation" (ibid, p. 76). It should be noted, though this writer believes that the regulative principle of worship applies to both public and private worship*, that Henry intended this Psalter to be used for family worship, not public worship. However, only inspired Scripture songs were included, not uninspired hymns. Old observes that this "heavily edited Psalter," while it emphasizes morning and evening devotions, does not follow the liturgical calendar ("there are no psalms for Lent or Advent").

Several things are to be noted about Matthew Henry's use of psalmody. First, one observes that in a number of cases old traditions are maintained. Many of the morning and evening psalms which for centuries have been used for morning or evening are still used in the same way. Another thing to be noticed is that the psalms are not chosen in a lectio continua. Not all the psalms in the Psalter are used, and besides that, Henry carefully selects the portions of each psalm which he finds most appropriate.

It is an interesting study to consider how Henry edited a psalter for the promotion of family worship, but we should give heed to his aim. Henry himself writes:

The performance indeed is but very small, yet the design is honest; and it will be fruit abounding to a good account, if it do but help forward the work of singing psalms, in which the will of God is done on earth, somewhat like as it is in heaven, where singing hallelujahs to him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, is both the everlasting work, and the everlasting felicity, of those glorified beings, that wear the crown of perfection within the veil.

* William Young, “The Second Commandment,” in Frank J. Smith and David C. Lachman, eds., Worship in the Presence of God, p. 75:

The Holy Scripture prescribes the whole content of worship. By this is meant that all elements or parts of worship are prescribed by God Himself in His Word. This principle has universal reference to worship performed by men since the fall. In other words, it has equal application to the Old and the New Testaments. It is also universal in that it is regulative of all types of worship, whether public, family, or private.

Age of Chiaroscuro

Hughes Oliphant Old, "Matthew Henry and the Puritan Discipline of Family Prayer," Calvin Studies VII (Davidson College: 1994), p. 79:

[Matthew] Henry's prayers of confession do not really live up to what our age has been taught to expect from the Puritan. One does not find his dwelling on sin pathological or morose. One finds that his dwelling on sin is well balanced by his dwelling on God's mercy. The seventeenth century was, after all, the age of chariscuro [chiaroscuro]. It was Rembrandt's resonant browns and blacks which made his golds and whites so brilliant. If they could be so realistic about the blackness of sin, it was because they were dazzled by the radiance of God's grace.

Snapshots of Family Worship

Hughes Oliphant Old, "Matthew Henry and the Puritan Discipline of Family Prayer," in John H. Leith, ed., Calvin Studies VII: Papers Presented at a Colloquium on Calvin Studies (1994, Davidson College, Davidson College Presbyterian Church, Davidson, North Carolina), p. 69:

What the liturgy of the hours was for monks of the Middle Ages, the discipline of family prayer was for the Puritans. The typical Puritan home of seventeenth-century England may not have looked much like the splendid cloisters of Cluny, but there was something in common. The daily life of both Catholic monk and Puritan family man was ordered by a rhythm of prayer and praise. With Cistercian solemnity, the Puritan household would gather around the dinner table, father, mother, children, a maiden aunt, perhaps servants or an apprentice. A metrical psalm was sung. Then the head of the house would open up a great leather bound family Bible and read a chapter. This finished, the father would lead in prayer. The Puritans, whether on the Connecticut frontier or in the heart of London, whether they were Cambridge scholars or Shropshire cotters, gave great importance to maintaining a daily discipline of family prayer.

Robert Burns, The Cotter's Saturday Night:

The chearfu' supper done, wi serious face,
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide;
The sire turns o'er, wi patriarchal grace,
The big ha'-Bible, ance his father's pride.
His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside,
His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare;
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide,
He wales a portion with judicious care;
And 'Let us worship God!' he says with solemn air.

They chant their artless notes in simple guise,
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim;
Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise,
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beets the heavenward flame,
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:
Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame;
The tickl'd ears no heart-felt raptures raise;
Nae unison hae they, with our Creator's praise.

The priest-like father reads the sacred page,
How Abram was the friend of God on high;
Or, Moses bade eternal warfare wage
With Amalek's ungracious progeny;
Or, how the royal Bard did groaning lie
Beneath the stroke of Heaven's avenging ire;
Or Job's pathetic plaint, and wailing cry;
Or rapt Isaiah's wild, seraphic fire;
Or other holy Seers that tune the sacred lyre.

Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme:
How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed;
How He, who bore in Heaven the second name,
Had not on earth whereon to lay His head;
How His first followers and servants sped;
The precepts sage they wrote to many a land:
How he, who lone in Patmos banished,
Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand,
And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heaven's command.

Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King,
The saint, the father, and the husband prays:
Hope 'springs exulting on triumphant wing.'
That thus they all shall meet in future days,
There, ever bask in uncreated rays,
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear,
Together hymning their Creator's praise,
In such society, yet still more dear;
While circling Time moves round in an eternal sphere.

The Family Altar: Or, The Duty, Benefits, and Mode of Conducting Family Worship (1844), pp. 65-67:

Another, and perhaps better way, is to make the members of the family supply the commentary themselves. This evening, before it is so late that you are all sleepy, you sit round the table, each with his Bible open before him; and the passage selected is Isa 45.

'Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.'

Father. The prophet has been foretelling the fall of Babylon, and here he names its conqueror. Mary, what is his name?

Mary. Cyrus.

Father. Does any one know how long after this it was before Cyrus made his appearance? Can no one tell? George, your Bible has got the date on its margin. Can you tell when Isaiah uttered this prophecy?

George. About 712 years before Christ.

Father. Now if you will look to the beginning of Ezra, you will see the first year of Cyrus set down there.

George. Before Christ 536.

Father. Then how long before had the Lord called Cyrus by his name?

George. Nearly 200 years.

Father. It is not very long since John and Henry finished the Life of Cyrus. Do you remember any facts which illustrate this prophecy?

Henry. The Lord says, 'I have holden his right hand to subdue nations before him.' Cyrus subdued the Lydians with their rich King Croesus, the Phrygians, the Phoenicians, and many more, as well as the Babylonians.

John. Yes; and when he took Babylon, 'the gates were not shut.' For the people were all drinking and diverting themselves, when he dried up the river; and had forgot to shut the gates at the end of the streets which open into the river—so that Cyrus had nothing to do but march down the dry channel, and then climb up the banks into the city.

Father. Very true—but do you remember nothing more about 'opening the two-leaved gates?'

Henry. O, yes! When the King of Babylon heard the uproar in the city, he sent to find out what was the matter, and when they were opening the palace gates, to let out the king's messenger, the Persians rushed in and killed the king.

Try to bring out some lesson that may be needed that very day. You read at morning worship that verse, 1 Cor 10:31.

'Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.'

Father. What does that mean?

John. That every thing, however little, we are to do it so as to please God.

Father. Quite so. It means that you children, when learning your lessons, or at play—that Sarah down stairs, and your father in his counting-room, should all remember that we have a Father in heaven, and should do every thing, the little things and the great things, in the way that pleases Him.

The passage which you mean to read with your family, read carefully over beforehand; and consider what are its most striking points and most useful lessons; and a little practice will make you a good family expositor.