Michael Morgan, author of Psalter for Christian Worship, will share the tradition of singing the Psalms during a weekend of events Oct. 24-25 at Westover Hills Presbyterian Church in Little Rock.
Morgan, who serves as musician at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., and has served as an organist in churches around the country, including at Westover Hills in the late 1980s, will lead the church's Psalmfest. The event will include discussions, a historical Bible exhibit and a worship service focused on congregational singing of the psalter.
A psalter is a collection of psalms or sacred songs, such as those found in the Book of Psalms.
"The largest book in the Bible is that wonderful collection of songs, the Psalms, which saw the people through captivity in Egypt and brought them to the promised land. There are songs to celebrate the joys in their lives, to recognize their weaknesses and laments," Morgan said. "There's such a wealth there."
Morgan said the tradition of congregational singing during the Reformation started with the singing of the Psalms.
"John Calvin said the only songs worth giving back to God were the words he gave to us in the Psalms," Morgan said.
The tradition gradually died out as new songs were written to reflect the Gospel message of the New Testament and denominations began developing their own hymns and singing traditions.
"It was a remarkable change and something that was really needed in Christian churches, but that made the singing of the Psalms sort of die away over a couple hundred years," Morgan said.
In the last 20 years or so, some have tried to revive the practice, including Morgan. His version in the Psalter for Christian Worship is a paraphrasing of the Psalms -- a metrical, poetic version that can be sung to the tunes of familiar hymns or sacred songs.
He said the key to success is "making them seem very familiar" so congregations will be more receptive to learning them.
"One of the problems of singing Psalms is they have very difficult rhythms to sing, but if you are singing a new set of words to something like 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,' they can sing without really thinking about the music and hear the words speaking to them without being bothered with notes and sharps and flats," Morgan said. "That really makes a difference."
During the Psalmfest Festival of Psalms worship service at Westover Hills, Morgan said, the music will be familiar even if the words might not be.
"Everything we'll be singing, they could sing blindfolded," he said. "We'll take the seasons of the church year, like Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Friday, Easter and celebrate or reflect on them in these Old Testament Psalms," Morgan said.
Morgan said incorporating the Psalms in congregational singing "is a wonderful way to blend the Old Testament with the New, to bring something we can really sense from our heart."
"Most of the Bible consists of either telling us stories or giving us laws and ways we should behave in God's presence or relating histories," he said. "But the Psalms really engage us in conversation with God. They are more of a dialogue. We are speaking to God and God is speaking to us and that's a unique feature of the Psalms. Being able to sing that just adds another dimension."
The Psalmfest program will feature an exhibit of historical Bibles from 1-5 p.m. Oct. 24 in the fellowship hall. The display will include selected rare and original Bibles from Morgan's personal collection, including a first-printing copy of the King James Version of 1611. Morgan has been collecting Bibles for years and now has about 4,600 volumes. His collecting focus is English translations.
During an informal lecture at 3 p.m., Morgan will discuss English Bible translations from 1382 through 1611, when the King James Version was completed. The event will be in the fellowship hall.
"I'll focus on all those Reformation English Bibles that so much shaped not only our English religion, theology and worship, but also our whole culture," Morgan said. "What people read in the English Bible carried over into the laws and their whole way of life."
On Oct. 25, Morgan will lead a discussion class at 9 a.m. on the tradition of congregational singing and the Psalms and will include an exhibit of English and Scottish versions of the Psalms from the 16th century to the present. The Festival of Psalms worship service will be at 3 p.m. and will focus on the Psalms and how they can be used to sing throughout the Christian church year.
Morgan said choir members will share a short reflection on a church holiday, which will be followed by singing of a Psalm reinforcing the message.
"I've done this a lot of times and they do leave with a renewed appreciation of the place that singing the Psalms once held in our churches and can see how they can be brought back," Morgan said. "It all of a sudden lets you relate in a different way to our whole tradition of church."
Westover Hills Presbyterian Church is at 6400 Richard B. Hardie Drive, at the junction of Kavanaugh Boulevard, McKinley Street and Pine Valley Road in the Heights. Information on Psalmfest is available online at westoverhills.org or by calling (501) 663-6383. All events are free.
Religion on 10/17/2015