In the life of a congregation, transitioning to a new book of worship song is a significant event. For a Reformed Presbyterian congregation that has been using The Book of Psalms for Singing for over 30 years, the change, though welcome, can be painful.

The words that many had committed to memory have changed, and worshipers find themselves with their noses in their books. Some familiar tunes have shifted to other psalms. Even precentors make more mistakes, and this can be distracting in corporate worship.

Getting Started

Dozens of congregations have already made this change, and many of them have only the new Book of Psalms for Worship in the pew.

Pastor Jared Olivetti, of Immanuel RPC in Indiana, says about the 1973 psalter, “Of course, they’re still around in our homes, but we really wanted to be able to make the switch wholeheartedly and with as little confusion as possible between tunes and words.”

In Stillwater, Okla., the congregation has made a similar overnight switch. “We all still have, love and use [the 1973 psalter] on occasion privately or in small groups…. But we are trying to use the new psalter in every setting we can,” says Pastor Bruce Parnell.

Eleanor Duguid of Topeka, Kan., RPC says simply, “We went cold turkey.”

Of course, making the transition has not been without preparations and challenges.

“Through a donation, we were able to purchase enough psalters to not only replace the worship psalters but also give one to each communicant member,” explains Olivetti. “We did this a month before we started using them in worship and asked the congregation to start using it in family and private worship.”

First RPC of Beaver Falls, Pa., also prepared people ahead of time. “We were extremely concerned about our members who have a long history with and great love for the Psalms for Singing. Being one of them, I appreciated that,” says Elder David Schaefer.

After First RPC ordered psalters for their sanctuary, they ordered extra so they could offer them at a discounted price to people to use in their homes. “Before we received the psalters, we spent a couple of weeks in our Sabbath school hour singing through selections, using the overhead in the sanctuary to project the psalms and work through them together.”

Some congregations prepared ahead of time by singing new arrangements in family camps and practicing some of the new arrangements that had been presented at Synod.

“Our congregation built up some anticipation, and have been eager to make use of it,” says Parnell. “Once the psalters arrived we asked some of our talented musicians to help us get comfortable with it by introducing us to some of the changes….We’ve done that regularly since we’ve received them; including meetings in homes and times of psalm practice during our Sunday afternoon service.”

Helpful Adjustments

At First RPC, according to Schaefer, Pastor Bruce Backensto plans the selections for each service ahead of time and publishes them in the bulletin so that families can practice them during the week.

One of the biggest challenges has been keeping worshipers’ noses out of their books, says Matt Filbert, also an elder at First RPC. “It drops the decibels a bit during worship….It is always a challenge to learn something new.”

To help the congregation worship better with one voice, the First RPC session decided to use overheads projected with the music, using PowerPoint. “After the initial weeks, we quickly determined that projecting the ‘portrait’ layout of the psalms made the words too small to read, and we switched to editing the images to change them to landscape for projection,” explains Schaefer.

Covenant Fellowship in Wilkinsburg, Pa., has also made the transition, in part with the help of overheads. The congregation has used overheads with only the words, because the music was too hard to read from a distance in their auditorium. They are doing the same for this psalter. For parents who are holding young children and others who already know the tune, this has been helpful in keeping eyes forward on the psalm leader.

Also to help the congregation worship, Covenant Fellowship has encouraged its members to come 20 minutes early to sing through all the selections that will be used in the service.

“The text changes are quite a challenge, especially for those selections which were memorized from the 1973 psalter,” says Eleanor Duguid. To help, Topeka will continue their Psalm of the Month practice to encourage memorization.

Another concern in Topeka has been the lowered pitch of some of the psalm settings. Even though this is intended to ease the voice of those singing melody, Duguid reports that some of their altos and basses find their notes too low, so they may pitch up psalms more often.

Some Benefits

Pastor Parnell reports two rewards. “First, one member commented, ‘I understand what I’m singing! There were times with the old psalter that I had a harder time. But now I understand what I’m singing.’”

“Second,” adds Parnell, “the introductory essays are excellent!”

Olivetti also reports an increase in the worshipers’ understanding. “Time and again folks in the congregation have remarked that it’s so much easier to understand while we sing, rather than having to go through an extra translation in our head from old English to more typical English. Simply understanding more of the psalms as we sing carries numerous spiritual benefits as well. Personally, our children who read (ages 4 and 5) have found the new psalter so much easier for them to sing!”

Schaefer also has found a benefit in singing the unfamiliar words. “I will probably always remember the words I memorized as a youth, but the challenge of focusing on the words in the new psalter has forced me to focus more closely on the words of the Psalms, and, in many cases, to think about the shades of meaning in the differences between the new words and the words I remember.”

Anticipating a Change?

After his experience with the transition in Stillwater, Okla. RPC, Parnell has some specific advice for those who are anticipating the switch:

“Devote some time to becoming familiar with the new psalter. Remember that there are several classes of changes. First, many psalms use the same tune as the 1973 psalter but with the new translation. These psalms can be sung immediately, noticing the new wording.

“Second, some psalms use tunes from the 1973 psalter but in a different place. For instance, Psalm 1A in the new psalter uses the tune that was used for 21B in the ’73. These can be used immediately, too.

“Third, there are psalms that use very familiar tunes from the broader church and culture that can be easily learned, even in parts.

“Fourth, there are some psalms that will take some practice. Enlist those who are musically gifted to help the congregation.”

New Resources

To help congregations in their transitions, Crown & Covenant Publications is offering support materials. Abundance, an in-studio recording, introduces some of the unfamiliar new arrangements in the psalter. In addition, a new database of tunes and information will be available soon on www.psalter.org.

Another new help is a digital sampler that is available at www.crownandcovenant.com. The package includes PDFs and MP3s of select psalms for congregations to use in their bulletins and in small-group practices. Also included is a list of familiar hymn tunes in The Book of Psalms for Worship. This package is particularly valuable for sharing with non-RP congregations that are interested in singing more psalms, but is also helpful for anyone.

Other people, too, have informally developed spreadsheets on what tunes are familiar and which are harder to learn.

As always, Crown & Covenant will offer a free recorded psalm per month on its web site. All of these recordings are now from the new psalter, and some are not yet available on any CD.

–Lynne Gordon

Lynne is co-director of Crown & Covenant Publications. A publications feature appears semiannually in the Witness.