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On the campus of Calvin University
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
These psalms, hymns and spiritual songs come from a variety of cultural settings that explore contrasting, but complementary ways that music brings to expression Christian faith and hope.
Opening Hymn: Sing a New World into Being
Words: Mary Louise Bringle © 2006 GIA Publications, Inc.
Music (HYMN TO JOY): Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827); arr. Edward Hodges (1796-1867), P.D.
Acceptable to You Psalm 91:14
Words and Music: Eli Wilson, Jr. © 1989 Chenaniah Publications, Inc.
With Hands Lifted Up Psalm 113:1-3
Words and Music: Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6; Refrain, Leon C. Roberts (1950-1999) © 1998 OCP Publications
If It Had Not Been for the Lord on My Side Psalm 124:1-2
Words and Music: Margaret P. Douroux © 1980 Margaret P. Douroux
The Solid Rock (My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less)
Words: Edward Mote (1797-1874)
Music (SOLID ROCK): William B. Bradbury (1816-1868)
Words: Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) © 1971 Hope Publishing Co.
Music (JULION): David Hurd © 1983 GIA Publications, Inc.
My Faith Has Found a Resting Place
Words: Eliza Edmunds Hewitt (1851-1920)
Music: André Grétry (1741-1813); arr. William Kirkpatrick (1838-1921)
Come unto Jesus
Words and Music: Charles H. Nicks, Jr (1941-1988); arr. Brandon Waddles © 2006 Bridgeport Music, Inc.
Words and Music: Walter Hawkins © 1977 Bud John Music, admin. EMICMGPublishing.com
Words: Jennie Wilson
Music: Franklin L. Eiland (1860-1909); arr. Stephen Key © 2000 GIA Publications, Inc.
Closing Hymn: Be With Us All, Lord
Words and Music: Uzee Brown, Jr © 1995 Roger Dean Publishing Co.
Leaders: James Abbington, alumni from the James Abbington Church Music Academy, Debra Perry,
Emmett G. Price III, and Kathleen Turner
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
