I mentioned previously my appreciation of a paper given by Terry Johnson, pastor of Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, GA, at Erskine Seminary’s conference on Psalm singing. Terry’s paper, titled “The History of Psalm Singing in the Christian Church”, is now available at the church’s website.
I commend the article to you.
We had a wonderful visit from Ray and Jani Ortlund as the Psalms Project continued yesterday. Dr. Ortlund preached in chapel from Psalm 1, noting that the Psalter, as the divinely inspired worship guide, begins with attention to Scripture. The Ortlunds also held an informal Q&A with students on a wide range of topics concerning doing ministry. They were very encouraging.
Mrs. Ortlund’s address to the ladies, “Fearlessly Feminine,” was recorded and should be available soon. An interview discussion with Dr. Ortlund, Tim Ellsworth and myself on pastoral ministry should be available soon as well.
It is impossible for me to capture all the impact of the day here. At the close of the day, and old quote came to mind about a man who had the chance to hear the great Scottish preachers of his day. Here is the quote:
“An Englishman who had come to Scotland about the time the Standards were adopted by the Scottish Church and who had never shown any sense of religion before, being asked on his return what news he had brought from Scotland, replied, “Great and good news. I went to St. Andrews where I heard a sweet majestic looking man (Robert Blair) and he showed me the majesty of God. After him I heard a little fair man (Samuel Rutherford) and he showed me the loveliness if Christ. I then went to Irvine where I heard a well favoured, proper old man with a long beard (D. Dickson) and he showed me all my heart. ”
(from The Original Secession Magazine)
I thought of how I have been impacted by not just the preaching but the presence of some key men of God today. When I met and talked with C. J. Mahaney I felt like I truly understood the power of real humility. When I hung out with Ray Ortlund yesterday I felt like I gained a real appreciation of genuine graciousness and generosity towards others. In both cases I was convicted by my lack of these virtues and was drawn to more deeply desire these virtues.
This scene between elves and dwarves in The Fellowship of the Ring
“And the Dwarf, hearing the names given in his own ancient tongue, looked up and met her eyes; and it seemed to him that he looked suddenly into the heart of an enemy and saw there love and understanding. Wonder came into his face, and then he smiled in answer.” (Book 2, Chapter 7)
This should be happening regularly among believers, and then the watching world will see the reality of the gospel.
This week at Union the Psalms Project continues with chapels on Wednesday and Friday (10am). On Wednesday Dr. Ray Ortlund will preach from Psalm 1 on the place of the Word in worship. His wife, Jani, will be with him and she will be speaking to ladies at 3pm on the topic, “Fearlessly Feminine: Boldly Embracing God’s Plan for Womanhood.” Dr. Ortlund was a favorite professor of mine when I was at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville and writes the blog “Christ is Deeper Still.”
On Friday we will have Douglas Bond author of numerous books, including the Crown & Covenant Trilogy, the Faith & Freedom Trilogy & Mr. Pipes Series. I have previously reviewed many of his books at my children’s literature blog. Mr. Bond will be speaking on the topic, “Biblical Poetry in a Post-Biblical, Post-Poetry World.” At 3pm Mr. Bond will continue the conversation by speaking further on how the Psalms should shape our hymns.
Both of these are wonderful opportunities. I am excited about the opportunity of hosting the Ortlunds and Douglas Bond here at Union.
It has been sometime since I commented on this, though I continue to get emails from church members who have discovered that this is what their pastors are doing.
I was just informed of this amazing video (from this post and my friend Jrazz) illustrating two speakers who are telling the same story as personal experience. This sort of example comes down to a simple issue of integrity.
I had a great time the last part of this week at the Psalmody conference at Erskine. The plenary lectures by John Witvliet, Terry Johnson, Mark Ross and Robby Bell were excellent. Witvliet in an address similar to the one given earlier at Union argued for the formative use of the Psalms. Johnson gave a strong survey of Psalm singing in the history of the church showing how the singing of the Psalms was common in the church until more recently (since the Civil war). Mark Ross gave a compelling and inspiring argument for the use of the Psalms in our singing from a theological perspective. Robby Bell, who has recently endured much personal suffering, lectured on the place of the laments.
Johnson and Ross specifically argued clearly that we should sing complete psalms (rather than just snippets) and the whole Psalter. It is certainly true that the overall movement of the Psalm needs to be seen to fully appreciate the message of the psalm.
I was pleased to hear that the lectures will be posted at the school’s site soon. When they are available I will post the link.
I also had two wonderful opportunities to talk with Dr. Hughes Oliphant Old, certainly one of the giants in the land in regards to the history of worship practices in the church. One evening I had the opportunity to sit with Dr. and Mrs. Old, Terry Johnson, and James Hering at the Old’s guest house for a couple of hours discussing psalm singing. Johnson and Old were kind enough to think with me about how to introduce this practice to Baptist churches (James Grant has done this at his church and will be sharing his insights at Union on May 5). We also discussed Dr. Old’s forthcoming visit to Southern Seminary to deliver the Mullins lectures. For any near Louisville this will be a great opportunity. Dr. Old also mentioned that he will be giving an additional lecture on leading the church in prayer. I would love to hear this myself. In our tradition the idea of preparation or careful thinking about leading the congregation is very rare.
At my other blog I have commented recently on “The Psalms Project” that I am a part of at Union this semester. It started very well last week with an address from John Witvliet the Director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, whose Worship Renewal Grant is funding this project.
I mention Dr. Witvliet’s address at this blog because it is rich in application in training children. Dr. Witvliet uses training his children as an example of how the Psalms teach us to relate to God properly. Then, his argument that the Psalms are “formative speech”- speech that teaches us how to speak, think, relate and feel- is a strong encouragement for us to be leading our children in memorizing Scripture and to expose them to Scripture so consistently that it shapes our speaking and thinking.
I encourage you to listen to the full address. Dr. Witvliet is good speaker so it is also an enjoyable listen.
The Psalms Project got started in a wonderful way with Dr. John Witvliet yesterday. The audio should be available soon (you can check here). Dr. Witvliet made the point that the Psalms teach us the language we need to relate with God much as parents do as we teach our children to say “Thank you,” “Please,” “Excuse me,” and “I am sorry.” We must learn to say these basic things (and they don’t come naturally!) in order to have decent human relationships. We also need to learn to say these things to God and the Psalms give us language for this. I really encourage you to listen to the audio.
Then, tomorrow, Dr. Craig Blaising will continue the discussion with a talk titled, “The Psalms in Early Christian Worship”. Drawing from his work on the recent Ancient Christian Commentary Series volume on Psalms 1-50
Update: the Witvliet audio is now available.
I have some catching up to do with commenting on books, but various things are conspiring against this at the moment!
So, I thought I would post this video to make the point of the value of teaching substantive hymns to our children. At our church teaching hymns to our children is a part of the curriculum, and then of course many parents do this as well.
This video is of a young boy in the church who stopped by our house one evening with his grandmother. On the way out he decided to use our little piano to play and sing some of his favorite hymns. We only captured this one verse.
My Founders’ Day address on Charles Williams is now available online. I was challenged and encouraged by studying him, so I hope others will be by this attempt to summarize his life and work.