it would be tedious, dearly beloved, were I to recount every episode from the history of the Psalms, especially since it is necessary now to offer something from the New Testament and confirmation of the Old, lest one think the ministry of psalmody to be forbidden inasmuch as many of the usages of the Old Law have been abolished. For those things that are carnal have been rejected, circumcision for example, and the observance of the [Jewish] Sabbath, sacrifices, discrimination among foods, as well as trumpets, citharas, cymbals, and timpana (all of which are now understood to reside in the bodily members of man, and there better to sound).
Niceta of Remesiana, On The Benefit of Psalmody in Oliver Strunk and Leo Treitler, ed. Source Readings in Music History (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1950, repr. 1998), 130.
“For those things that are carnal have been rejected, circumcision for example, and the observance of the [Jewish] Sabbath, sacrifices, discrimination among foods, as well as trumpets, citharas, cymbals, and timpana (all of which are now understood to reside in the bodily members of man, and there better to sound).”
LOL. The citharas sound better outside of my lung pipes! 🙂
Scott, I haven’t read all your posts about instrumentation, but how do you explain the fact that many psalms are set to instrumentation?
Also, what do you think of Lee Iron’s exegetical response to exclusive psalmody from Colossians 1 and 3?
Ken,
1. Please take a look at the resource page on instruments. There is a fair bit of source material there and it’s instructive however one comes out on the issue.
2. The Psalms are set to instrumentation (though we are not given the music or even the meter). Ps 149 also commands holy war against the pagans. Niceta of Remeisana (posted today) summarizes the Patristic consensus: the instruments were types and shadows. They were fulfilled by Christ just as holy war was fulfilled by Christ. The same Levites who sacrificed bulls and goats also played instruments. The instruments we brought back into the church, first c. 757 AD (1 organ in Spain) and then much more broadly after the 17th century, were all, as it were, covered with the blood of bulls and goats. See 2 Chron 29:20ff.
3. I am not now nor have I ever argued for exclusive psalmody. On this see Recovering the Reformed Confession. Thus, I have no case to answer. I would be perfectly happy to sing the Psalms only should the church decide to do it but I’m with Beza and those who wanted to sing the songs of the NT and the songs of Scripture outside the Psalter. My principal ground for this is the sufficiency of Scripture. If Scripture is sufficient for anything, it is sufficient for worship. Would that my hymn singing brothers would trade “The Church’s One Foundation” for a Psalm or some other canonical song.
Fred,
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The Management.