At Trinity we are committed to singing psalms and Bible-based hymns and songs. We love to sing the God-inspired psalms, and we delight in singing biblically saturated hymns and songs.
Historically, psalms have been central to the prayers and praise of God’s people. Sadly, psalm singing has fallen on hard times in recent years, but that’s changing. Christians are realizing afresh the joy of singing psalms. The psalms point us to Christ and describe the Christian life. The psalter is also the hymnbook Jesus grew up singing. And before that, these are the songs believers in the Old Testament sang together in worship. When we sing the psalms, we stand in line with that great tradition going back thousands of years.
Another reason to appreciate psalm singing: they express the full scope of the Christian experience. John Calvin called the psalms an anatomy of the human soul. Contained in the psalms are songs of praise, thanksgiving, repentance, lament, and more. There are songs for every occasion and every emotion. There are psalms of praise and rejoicing as well as songs for broken-hearted, lonely, victimized, and depressed Christians. In the psalms, God has given his people words to express our joy and delight in God as well as the deepest pains and disappointments in the context of worship. If the biblical psalms are to be seen as normative for the Christian life and worship, then there is surely an unhelpful and unhealthy imbalance in many churches where songs of lament have virtually disappeared. As someone recently asked, “What can miserable Christians sing?” The answer is the psalms, a divinely inspired hymnbook.
The hymnal portion of the TPH is also a tremendous resource for singing. It is a slimmed down version of the Trinity Hymnal. Whereas the Trinity Hymnal contained 742 hymns, the TPH has 424. The goal was to keep the best hymns of the past as well as add many newer, contemporary songs. 65 new hymns have been added that were not in the Trinity Hymnal. Because of our commitment to singing the psalms and the best Bible-based hymns from the past and present, the TPH is a ideal resource for our worship.
This is why I am delighted to introduce the Trinity Psalter Hymnal (TPH). It will give us opportunity to sing the Bible’s own hymnbook along with many old and new hymns we enjoy singing together. On Sunday we begin using the TPH in worship. My hope is that we will quickly come to appreciate this resource for worship. May the Lord use this Psalter-Hymnal to help us worship our triune God together!
Pastor Jared
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
- Colossians 3:16