Over the past couple of weeks, I have been showing how particular issues related to worship theology and practice–namely, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the… Read More »Psalmody and Hymnody as appropriate unifiers
Studying the inspired psalms can certainly teach us much about hymn texts, but can they also teach us about what makes a good hymn tune?… Read More »What can the psalms teach us about good hymn tunes?
In the second book of The Marrow of Theology, William Ames’s (1576-1633) classic Post-Reformation work, Ames deals with a number of matters related to practical theology. The ninth… Read More »William Ames on the connection between prayer, singing, and outward expressions
I’m writing a brief series recommending different recordings of excellent sacred music in English. Last time I introduced several thoughts and recommended more than a… Read More »Recordings: Choral Psalms
There is a narrow way of worship that walks between two great gulfs of peril. One one side you have terror, on the other you… Read More »Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling
I appreciate Joel Beeke, the pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids and the President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics… Read More »Handled with reverence and care
The singing of psalms has all but disappeared from many congregations, unless you count the “As the Deer” chorus as a singing of a psalm.… Read More »Some Things to Consider Including in Your Worship – Singing the Psalms
When Martin Luther (1483—1546) sparked a Reformation of the Church by nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the Church door at Wittenberg in 1517, he challenged… Read More »Reformation Hymns
When Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 with the Edict of Milan, and Christianity soon became the religion of the entire empire, the cultural conditions… Read More »Medieval Hymns
The hymnody of the early church was naturally an extension of Hebrew hymnody.1 Therefore, we can expect the hymnody of the early church to have the… Read More »Early Church Hymns
The Beginning The first mention of music in the Bible is in Genesis 4. Verses 17—22 list Cain’s descendants, and specifically those who began the… Read More »Hymnody in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
On the wall in my study I have three portraits. All three are portraits of theologians who were also heavily involved with music. They are… Read More »The Watts Controversy
There seem to be a lot of hymns being written today, and a lot of them are really pretty good. One of the reasons for… Read More »A potential danger in writing hymns in an age of mass media