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© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Ensemble:
ONE: Hallelujah!
TWO: Hallelujah!
ALL: Hallelujah!
ONE: Praise God in the holy temple;
(THREE create a temple tableau.)
TWO: praise God in the mighty firmament.
(FOUR circle around the temple tableau, turn outward, and raise their arms to the sky.)
ONE: Praise God for mighty acts;
(One member of THREE steps forward and parts the circle of FOUR as if they are the Red Sea. The remaining members of THREE walk through the “dry ground.”)
TWO: praise God for exceeding greatness.
(FOUR take on various positions of being struck with awe and compelled to worship.)
ONE: Praise God with trumpet sound;
(THREE pretend to play trumpets while making trumpet noises with their mouths.)
TWO: praise God with lyre and harp.
(FOUR pretend to play harps and lyres while the piano does a slide.)
ONE: Praise God with tambourine and dance;
(THREE do various dance moves. A twirl. A leap. A skip.)
TWO: praise God with strings and pipe.
(FOUR pretend to play flutes, recorders, etc. while whistling, if able.)
ONE: Praise God with resounding cymbals;
(THREE mime clashing symbols, complete with vocalized cymbal noises.)
TWO: praise God with loud clanging cymbals.
(FOUR clash their own imaginary symbols, trying to out-do THREE with their volume.
Some from FOUR continue to clang symbols. Others gradually join in with their own motions and sounds of praise until it becomes a worshipful cacophony—cymbals, trumpet, harp, dance, pipes, temple, firmament, mighty deeds, awe, etc. ONE and TWO speak scattered refrains of “Praise the Lord!” All members of THREE and FOUR that do not have an instrument also speak their own “Praise the Lord!” refrain.
Once it reaches full worshipful cacophony, one by one each member begins to slowly breathe in and out until they are breathing in unison as they continue their motions of worship.
When it is time, everyone freezes.)
ALL: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
