Reading order for Asimov's Robot / Empire / Foundation books

http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html#series6

 

In the Author's Note at the beginning of Prelude to Foundation, Asimov says:

"In any case, the situation has become sufficiently complicated for me to feel that the readers might welcome a kind of guide to the series, since they were not written in the order in which (perhaps) they should be read.

"The fourteen books, all published by Doubleday, offer a kind of history of the future, which is, perhaps, not completely consistent, since I did not plan consistency to begin with. The chronological order of the books, in terms of future history (and not of publication date), is as follows:

"1. The Complete Robot (1982). This is a collection of thirty-one robot short stories published between 1940 and 1976 and includes every story in my earlier collection, I, Robot (1950). Only one robot short story has been written since that collection appeared. That is Robot Dreams, which has not yet appeared in any Doubleday collection. [Robot Dreams (1986) does contain it; see also Robot Visions (1990)]

"2. The Caves of Steel (1954). This is the first of my robot novels.

"3. The Naked Sun (1957). The second robot novel.

"4. The Robots of Dawn (1983). The third robot novel.

"5. Robots and Empire (1985). The fourth robot novel.

"6. The Currents of Space (1952). This is the first of my Empire novels.

"7. The Stars, Like Dust-- (1951). The second Empire novel.

"8. Pebble in the Sky (1950). The third Empire novel.

"9. Prelude to Foundation (1988). This is the first Foundation novel (although it is the latest written, so far).

[9a. Forward the Foundation (1993).]

[9b. Foundation's Fear (1997).] The first novel in the Second Foundation Trilogy, it was written by Gregory Benford. Takes place after the first chapter of Forward the Foundation.

[9c. Foundation and Chaos (1998).] The second novel in the Second Foundation Trilogy, written by Greg Bear. Takes place at the approximate time of Hari Seldon's trial.

[9d. Foundation's Triumph (previously titled Third Foundation and Secret Foundation) (1999).] The third novel in the Second Foundation Trilogy, written by David Brin.

"10. Foundation (1951). The second Foundation novel. Actually, it is a collection of four stories, originally published between 1942 and 1944, plus an introductory section written for the book in 1949.

"11. Foundation and Empire (1952). The third Foundation novel, made up of two stories, originally published in 1945.

"12. Second Foundation (1953). The fourth Foundation novel, made up of two stories, originally published in 1948 and 1949.

"13. Foundation's Edge (1982). The fifth Foundation novel.

"14. Foundation and Earth (1983). The sixth Foundation novel."

Note that this order is slightly wrong, in that Currents of Space actually takes place after The Stars, Like Dust. Also Foundation and Earth was published in 1986, not 1983.

 

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Summer Reading suggestions from Tim Keller

http://www.redeemer.com/news_and_events/ad_detail.html?ad_id=65

SUMMER READING LIST SUGGESTIONS

Nine Non-fiction Christian books (picks by Tim Keller)

On the Bible:
Craig Blomberg's The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (IVP, 2nd edition, 2008.) This makes the case that the Biblical account of Jesus is not legend but historically trustworthy. Blomberg incorporates insights from Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, an important work but much longer and more difficult to read.

On the Cross:
J.I.Packer and Mark Dever, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Crossway, 2007.)
This volume assembles several older essays by J.I . Packer. They are classics and had a profound influence on my understanding of Jesus' death.
John Stott, The Cross of Christ (IVP, 2006)
This volume along with the Packer book will give you a very complete and Biblically rich understanding of the Cross.

On the Resurrection:
N.T.Wright, Surprised by Hope (HarperOne, 2008)
It's always a little dangerous to recommend a book I haven't read yet, but I suggest it because it is basically a shorter and more accessible summary of his bigger classic The Resurrection of the Son of God, which is wonderful but very long and academic.

On Church History:
Mark Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity (Baker, 2001, 2nd ed)
This is maybe the best, short, accessible overview of Christian history. It doesn't try to survey every century, but chooses 10 major turning points (the split between the eastern and western church c.1000AD, the Reformation, the Great Awakening, etc)

On faith and culture:
Andy Crouch, Culture-Making: Recovering our Creative Calling (IVP, 2008)
This is coming up during the summer, so order it and read it before Labor Day. It's one of the best books yet on how Christians can integrate their faith with their work.
Philip Bess, Till We Have Built Jerusalem (ISI Books, 2006.)
This is a fascinating set of essays by a Christian architect laying out a Christian vision for a 'new urbanism,' the belief and practice that cities are the best social arrangement for human flourishing. Bess is the Director of graduate studies at the Notre Dame School of Architecture.

Devotional:
John Newton, The Letters of John Newton or Cardiphonia: The Utterance of the Heart (various editions)
Either of these editions of John Newton's letters are classics of spirituality and devotion. He was the former slave trader who was converted and became a minister and wrote the hymn 'Amazing Grace'

General:
C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity (Harper, 1952)
You may not want to admit (around Redeemer) that you have never read this book—so stop being a hypocrite and read it! And if you have already read it, read one of the other big CSL classics: The Screwtape Letters or The Great Divorce or even The Narnia Chronicles.


Beach Books


Series picks to keep you busy at the beach (mostly secular fiction, except Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton, but nothing offensive)

1. Patrick O'Brian's novels of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Features the friendship of Stephen Maturin (physician) and Jack Aubrey (ship's captain) and their adventures in exploration, seafaring, and political intrigue. Also romance and sea battles, sometimes indistinguishable… Written in the style of the period, using contemporary diaries and descriptions of battles, storms, events.

2. The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters
(archeology, mystery, romance, womens' rights and quite a lot of information about the early years of excavation in Egypt. Set in 1885-1920)

3. The Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMasters Bujold, for sci-fi fans. (However, if you haven't read C.S. Lewis's space trilogy [beginning with Out of the Silent Planet] make sure you get that in first.) They're very different: Lewis will have your head spinning, and Miles is, well, unique. Be ready to explore different moral and ethical cultures through an a-Christian world.

4. Anything by Jane Austen.

5. Classic English mystery: Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Josephine Tey. Also, GK Chesterton's Father Brown series of short stories, featuring Columbo's spiritual ancestor, Father Brown.

6. Laurie R. King's recent series featuring the retired Sherlock Holmes and his young wife. The first in the series is The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

7. For fans of historical novels, Dorothy Dunnett's Francis Crawford of Lymond series set in the 16th century. Unquestionably the best historical novels ever written. All have chess themed titles; the first is The Game of Kings. Hang on, it took me a while to get into them.

8. If you just don't think the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is for you, think again. Force it down, it will change your world.


Classic Picks for the Family
By Brent Bounds, Director of Family Ministries

Teens:
1. The Robe - Lloyd C. Douglas
2. Captain Courageous - Rudyard Kipling
3. Anne of Green Gables (series) - Lucy Maud Montgomery
4. The Bronze Bow - Elizabeth George Speare
5. The Hiding Place - Corrie ten Boom
6. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
7. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred Taylor

Children:
1. Summer of the Monkeys - Wilson Rawls
2. The Mixed File of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg
3. The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden
4. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis (obviously)
5. Twenty and Ten - Claire Huchet Bishop
6. The Cay - Theodore Taylor
7. Treasure in an Oatmeal Box - Ken Gire
8. Stone Fox - John Reynolds Gardiner
9. The Day of the Blizzard - Marietta D. Moskin
10. Blue Willow - Doris Gates
11. Treasures of the Snow - Patricia St. John

note: Honey for Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt is a great resource of books for different age groups.


Parents:
1. Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture - Mary E. DeMuth
2. How and When to Talk to Your Kids about Sex - Stanton Jones
3. Grace Based Parenting - Tim Kimmel
4. Parenting with Love and Logic - Cline and Fay
5. How Children Raise Parents - Dan Allender
6. The Price of Privilege - Madeleine Levine

R. Scott Clark, "The Reformed Doctrine of the “Communicatio”"

http://heidelblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/the-reformed-doctrine-of-the-communicatio/

The Reformed Doctrine of the "Communicatio"

June 11, 2008 in Uncategorized

re-posted and revised from October, 2007 at the old HB

—
Over at the Puritanboard Sebastian asks

I find often that people think the Refgormed undiscrimantely reject(ed) the communicatio idiomatum. However, the 2nd Helvetic Confession is as clear as any in accepting it. However, it does not qualify the way later theological formulations do. The text of the confession is:

"For we accept believingly and reverently the 'communication of properties,' which is deduced from the Scriptures and employed by the ancient Church in explaining and harmonizing seemingly contradictory passages." (Ch. XI,11)

The note in the Schaff edition elaborates:

"'Nam communicationem idiomatum ex Scripturis petitam et ab universa vetustate in explicandis componendisque Scripturarum locis in speciem pugnantibus usurpatam, religiose et reverenter recipimus et usurpamus.' It is an error, therefore, to charge the Reformed Church with rejecting the communicatio idiomatum. It admits the communication of the properties of one nature to the whole person, but denies the communication of the properties of one nature to the other, viz., the genus majestaticum, so called, whereby the infinite attributes of the divine nature (as omnipresence and omnipotence) are ascribed to the human nature, and the genus tapeinoticon, whereby the finite attributes of the human nature are ascribed to the divine. Either of these forms leads necessarily to a Eutychian confusion of natures. The Lutheran Church teaches the genus majestaticum, as a support to its doctrine of the Eucharist, but rejects the genus tapeinoticon."

Is that correct?

Is that a case of comunicatio idiomatum in concreto (Reformed view) versus CI in abstracto (Lutheran view)?

Sebastian,

This is a great point.

We (the confessional Lutheran and Reformed) do have a different doctrines of the communicatio idiomatum (communication of properties). Even if we don't always use the expression our theologians and confessions do teach that what can be said of a given nature can be said of the person. The confessional Lutherans, on the other hand, say that what can be said of the person (e.g., he is ubiquitous - i.e., everywhere) can be said of any particular nature. Therefore, for the Lutherans, his humanity can be said to be ubiquitous.

In short, yes, Schaff is basically right.

Bullinger does implicitly qualify what he means. Notice that he says "Our Lord truly suffered." He goes on to say that "we do not deny that the Lord of glory was crucified for us." When he says "we do not deny" he's responding to the gnesio (genuine) Lutherans who alleged that unless one holds their Christology one necessarily denies that the Lord of Glory was crucified. In other words, the whole discussion is framed with reference to the questions posed by the Lutheran critics. Those critics had been particularly hostile to the Swiss Reformed for 40 years by the time this confession was published.

We can see him positing the Reformed communicatio when he says that "the same Jesus Christ our Lord, in his true flesh in which he was crucified and died, rose again from the dead, and that not another flesh was raised other than the one buried…." This is a direct re-assertion of the Reformed Christology over against the Lutheran doctrine that in his glorification (or before) the humanity began to partake of the properties of the deity. It's also a denial of the claim that the Reformed are rationalist for holding this view. We're not reducing the mystery of the incarnation but we are preserving, per Chalcedon, the true humanity of Jesus. His humanity is consubstantial with ours and the Lutherans cannot really say this. For the Lutherans Jesus has a one-of-a-kind humanity. Notice too that Bullinger stipulated explicitly the creeds to which the Reformed subscribe.

"The Creeds of Four Councils Received. And, to say many things with a few words, with a sincere heart we believe, and freely confess with open mouth, whatever things are defined from the Holy Scriptures concerning the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are summed up in the Creeds and decrees of the first four most excellent synods convened at Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon–together with the creed of blessed Athananasius…."

This is an assertion of the catholicity of the Reformed
communicatio.

And now a word from our sponsor. This post brought to you by Caspar Olevian and the Substance of the Covenant which contains an entire chapter on this very topic.

Jonathan Bonomo, "Some Basics of Calvinist Sacramentology"

http://evangelicalcatholicity.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/some-basics-of-calvinist-sacramentology/

Some Basics of Calvinist Sacramentology

February 20, 2008 by Jonathan Bonomo

Given recent discussions around the blogosphere regarding the Calvinist doctrine of the holy Eucharist, I thought it might be beneficial to briefly highlight some concepts which seem to me to need frequent clarification whenever discussing the matter with others.  This is by no means anything ground breaking, but I think these are some basic points which are essential to a proper understanding of Calvinist Eucharistic thought.

1. Sacrament/Eucharist– It is vital to keep in mind with regard to these terms that the Reformed do not define a sacrament as, or equate it with, the sacramental elements.  The sacraments consist of the entire rite, which includes, but is not limited to, certain essential things: the minister, the congregation, the Word, the sacramental elements (bread, wine, water), the presence of the reality signified by the elements.  Thus, the Reformed will often speak of a presence of Christ in the sacrament, by which we do not mean to indicate a presence localized within the elements, but rather within the rite.  Likewise, when we deny that Christ is physically present within the elements, we emphatically are not denying his real presence in the sacrament, taken as a whole.

2. Spiritual–When the Reformed speak of a "spiritual presence" of Christ in the Eucharist, we emphatically do not mean a presence of Christ's Spirit, as though Christ is present in some sort of disembodied sense, which would run us into something akin to a Nestorian separation of Christ's natures.  Rather, what we mean to point out by speaking of a "spiritual presence" of Christ in the Eucharist is that the whole Christ–divinity and humanity, body and spirit–is really and truly made present in the Eucharist by the operation of the Holy Spirit. 

3. Eating and Drinking–For the Reformed, the eating and drinking of the reality signified (Christ's body and blood) by the Eucharistic elements is by faith.  Thus, while Christ is truly present and objectively offered to all, those who refuse the gift by unbelief refuse the reality offered them in the sacrament, and therefore do not partake of the substance of the sacrament: Christ's body and blood.  They receive only the signs, to their own judgement.  Those who receive the elements in faith, however, are truly united to Him, and thereby partake of the substance of Christ's very body and blood, having their whole persons nourished and vivified by the life-giving substance of Jesus Christ himself.  Christ is therefore in the Eucharist objectively present and truly offered to all, but only received by faith.

Tony Reinke, Quote, "Calvin on the Cross"

http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2008/06/07/calvin-on-the-cross/

Calvin on the Cross

Note to self: buy a 1912 Dutch Psalter

http://sacramentalpiety.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/1912-dutch-psalter/

1912 Dutch Psalter

May 25, 2008 in Uncategorized

It recently came to my attention that 1912 versions of the Dutch Psalter are available at Reformation Heritage Books.  I ordered my copy and received it on Friday.  It's a beautiful hardcover book with various metrical versions of all 150 Psalms, it contains the three forms of unity, the Dutch liturgy, prayers for private and family worship, metrical versions of other Scripture like the Magnificant and the song of Zacharias, and a wonderful historical introduction to Psalmody.  The great thing about it is that its only $9.00!  For those seeking to acquaint themselves with Psalmody, I heartily recommend this particular Psalter. The Dutch Psalter has a rich heritage in the Reformed tradition, and has been utilized by Dutch Reformed Christians for centuries.  I'm not musically trained in any way, but the layout of the Psalter makes it easy to use for even the most musically illiterate people like myself!  You can purchase this Psalter in either small or standard sizes here. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Also, from Joe Holland's Reformation21 article on Psalms:]

I own three Psalters. The Trinity Psalter (Crown and Covenant) was developed for my denomination for use in congregational worship. It provides a single suggested tune for each psalm and breaks long psalms up into suggested portions. The Book of Psalms for Singing (Crown and Covenant) also suggests tunes for each psalm but provides multiple settings for each psalm taken from different historic Psalters. This method provides you with more options--helpful if you don't know a particular tune or prefer a different versification. The third and most used psalter I own is The Psalms of David in Metre (Trinitarian Bible Society). This is the version that follows the 1650 Scottish Psalter. It provides each psalm in the common meter. While lacking in musical sophistication this version is imminently singable.

Joe Holland (Reformation21) on "Rediscovering the Psalms"

http://www.reformation21.org/articles/rediscovering-the-psalms.php

Rediscovering the Psalms

Article by Joe Holland  June 2008

Psalm singing is experiencing a renaissance. A national worship conference being held this year is entitled "Rediscovering the Psalms". Websites are providing resources for people who would like to learn more about psalm singing. Churches are making strategic plans to train their members in psalm singing. Blogs and internet bulletin boards buzz with excitement over the Psalter. It is undeniable that the church is waking up to that which once marked it--the passionate singing of psalms. I am a child of this movement. I've tracked my growth in psalm singing by three major milestones.

The first milestone was planted in the RTS, Charlotte bookstore. I stood looking at the blue sign that said NTGreekIntro as it hung over neatly stacked volumes awaiting the next batch of seminary students.  I was one of those students and it was my first visit to the bookstore.  I read the list.  Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek--check. UBS Greek New Testament--check. Trinity Psalter--huh?

 

I thought I was signing up for a class on New Testament Greek. Why was I being asked to purchase an Old Testament book in English? The words "required text" overpowered my confusion and I purchased my first psalter. I would soon discover that Dr. Cara's Greek class, and all of his classes for that matter, began with the mandatory singing of a psalm. I became a psalm singer by requisite.

 

My second milestone occurred in the two churches where I've served as an assistant pastor. In both churches the senior minister saw great benefit in private and congregational singing of the psalms. Almost every worship service that I have lead has had at least one congregational psalm. I gradually became aware of different psalms, Psalters, and available tunes. I became a psalm singer by ordination.

 

My third milestone is set somewhere in the Peruvian mountains. I lead a group of students on a short term mission trip. Our task was to dig a ditch around a church under construction. It was manual labor--pick ax work. Our Peruvian host was a minister in the Peruvian Presbyterian Church. In our brief conversations about ministry in Peru I discovered that his churches sang only psalms in corporate worship.

 

Between pick ax swings I asked him why he sang only psalms. He gave three reasons. First, he was convicted that psalm singing was the biblical pattern of New Testament worship. Second, he was fighting heresy in his churches. False teaching slipped into his churches through folk songs slightly adjusted for worship. Psalm singing was his attempt to guard his people from heresy sung to a familiar tune. Third, he said, "I sing psalms because they are militant." He wanted to teach his people that Christians daily engage in spiritual warfare. The psalms provided a war-time mentality to his young churches. Reflecting on that conversation I realized I became a psalm singer through missions.

I became a psalm singer by requisite, ordination, and missions. But my growth in psalm singing was not over. Following the three milestones mentioned above I've continued to learn how to use the Psalter in private, family, and corporate worship. Mine is a testimony of someone who didn't grow up a psalm singer or really a singer of any kind. But by God's grace I rediscovered the psalms. And in the rediscovery of those psalms I found a deep reservoir of gospel riches.

 

Maybe you have noticed the resurgence of psalm singing in Reformed evangelicalism. Maybe you are a pastor toying with the idea of including psalms in corporate worship. How does someone set about the task of rediscovering the psalms? First, you must have before you the benefits that God attaches to worship in psalm. Second, you must decide practically how you will begin singing psalms in private, family, and corporate worship.

First, what benefits should you expect from psalm singing?

 

When you sing psalms you literally sing the Bible. The hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" is a moving meditation on the cross of Christ. No hymn matches "For All the Saints" in its contemplation on the communion of the saints. But neither of these hymns are the actual words of the Bible. They are reflections on it. Forgetting for a moment that we are not singing the psalms in Hebrew, we are still singing the very words of God. The versification, themes, and content of the psalms are the inspired word of God for his church in every age. When you sing a psalm you sing the Bible.

 

When you sing the psalms you interact with a wealth of theology. Martin Luther said of the Psalter, "that it might well be entitled a Little Bible, wherein everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended." The 150 psalms cover the span of theology. To learn the psalms is not just to learn a specific topic of theology. It is to learn about every area of theology. Anthropology, theology proper, a theology of Scripture, Christology, soteriology, eccleisiology, and eschatology are all covered in the Psalter. Take for example Psalm 19 and its two part contemplation of God's revelation in creation and in the Bible. Or consider John Calvin's observation of God's attributes in Psalm 145, "in which the sum of all his powers is so precisely reckoned up that nothing would seem to have been omitted." The psalms provide a thorough exposure to the fullness of theology.

 

When you sing the psalms you are memorizing Scripture. An important part of Christian maturity is the ability to recall passages of Scripture at need. Educational circles have long advocated the use of music to aid memorization. Music has a way of impressing truth into the mind in ways that reading alone cannot. This is no accident; it is the providential hand of our Creator God. He wants you to memorize his word and has provided a mnemonic for easy memory--the Psalter as Scripture set to music.

 

When you sing the psalms you guard against heresy. Andrew Fletcher said, "Let me write a country's songs, and I care not who writes its laws." He was on to something. Songs drive information deep into our hearts. However, this power can be used for ill means. As long as the church has existed, songs have been used to inculcate heresy. There is an assumption that if you can sing it then it must be true. How shall we guard against sung-heresy? Sing psalms.

 

When you sing the psalms you engage a collection of songs that address the full range of human emotions. Godly anger, heart-wrenching sorrow, dark depression, effulgent joy, honest questioning, and exuberant praise are just a sampling of the emotional range covered by the psalms. Most churches sense the burden of teaching their people how to think. Very few consider their responsibility to teach their people how to feel. Christians do not struggle with feeling. Feeling just happens. But our feelings must be trained by the gospel as much as our minds must. The psalms serve as the class room of our affections.

 

When you sing the psalms you praise the person and work of Jesus Christ. One of the most ignorant statements a Christian can make against psalm singing is, "I don't sing psalms because they aren't about Jesus." Too many evangelicals--having unwittingly drunk deep of the Marcionite heresy--have ceased to see the Old Testament, and especially the psalms, as a masterpiece of redemptive history telling in types, shadows, and rituals the person and work of Jesus Christ. When the earliest Christians wanted to sing praise to God for the redemption wrought by Jesus' atoning death they turned to the psalms. It is sheer biblical ignorance and chronological snobbery to assume we can write better songs about Jesus than are provided in the psalms through the lens of the New Testament. To sing the psalms is to sing of the person and work of Christ.

 

When you sing the psalms you are training for spiritual warfare. As my Peruvian friend insisted, the psalms are militant. They are filled with images of war, divine conquest, and righteous triumph. Are those themes no longer needed in our day? As we watch men leave the church in droves dismayed at the feminization of worship is their no need for masculine, militant spirituality? As we watch Satan and his legions pillage congregations and hold Christians captive in doubts and error do we not need songs of war? J. C. Ryle understood this crucial element of Christian worship when he said, "true Christianity is the fight of faith." What songs will the armies of God sing to steel courage and embolden spiritual warfare? When we sing the psalms we sing the songs of war against sin, the world, and the devil.

 

When you sing the psalms you are engaging the communion of saints. The psalms were composed over a certain period in Israelite history. But they are not relics. They have been sung by the covenant people of God in each successive generation up to today. They will be sung until Christ's return. This touches on the doctrine of the communion of the saints. There is a solidarity in Christ for all who have been bought by his blood. That solidarity extends across cultures and generations. The psalms are rooted in the covenant identity of all God's chosen race. To sing them is to confess the communion of saints.

If those are the benefits of psalm sings, how then can you go about learning to sing them?

 

First, find a Psalter you can sing. Notice I didn't simply say, "find a Psalter". Just as the best Bible translation is the one you read so the best Psalter is the one you sing. Different Psalters are suited to different musical abilities--congregational and personal. Some set each psalm to a particular tune while others simply provide the suggested meter allowing you to choose the tune. Don't buy a Psalter you can't sing.

 

I own three Psalters. The Trinity Psalter (Crown and Covenant) was developed for my denomination for use in congregational worship. It provides a single suggested tune for each psalm and breaks long psalms up into suggested portions. The Book of Psalms for Singing (Crown and Covenant) also suggests tunes for each psalm but provides multiple settings for each psalm taken from different historic Psalters. This method provides you with more options--helpful if you don't know a particular tune or prefer a different versification. The third and most used psalter I own is The Psalms of David in Metre (Trinitarian Bible Society). This is the version that follows the 1650 Scottish Psalter. It provides each psalm in the common meter. While lacking in musical sophistication this version is imminently singable.

 

Secondly, you must know your Bible. Devote special study to the background of the Psalms. Ask your pastor to suggest good commentaries on the Psalms. Purchase a Bible with cross-references and note where Psalms are quoted in the New Testament. Let the authors of the New Testament teach you how to apply the psalms to Christian worship and life.

 

Let me also add the suggestion that you read a good book on redemptive history. Graeme Goldworthy's According to Plan is a great place to start. A good foundation in the Bible's overarching plan of redemption and how it culminates in Jesus Christ is essential to singing the psalms well. For example, what are you singing about when you ask God, "to let you dwell in the house of the Lord forever" (Psalm 27:4)?  Should you set up a cot in your local church? Or, what does it mean to praise God for his protection of Jerusalem (Psalm 51:18)?  By Jerusalem, do you mean geographic Jerusalem or the Christian church? A good background in redemptive history--sometimes called biblical theology--is essential to answering these questions and others as you seek to sing the psalms with understanding.

Third, to sing the psalms well you must understand how the psalms direct us to the person and work of Jesus Christ. Again, a Bible with cross references is valuable in this type of study. Many psalms are directly fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus. The authors of the New Testament regularly draw on the psalms to describe what was accomplished on the Cross. The beauty of the psalms is magnified as they are placed in the setting of God's redemptive work in Jesus Christ. The psalms are thoroughly Christian--being centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.  We sing the psalms at the foot of the Cross.

The fourth thing you will need is the willingness to try something new. Psalm singing can be difficult for someone who has been raised solely on a diet of Reformation and post-Reformation hymns. Psalm singing can be downright alien for someone who has only known modern praise songs. But the promised benefits--briefly mentioned above--are immense. It is not easy work but it is good work. It is not quick work but it provides long-term, lasting joys.

In conclusion, let me say a word about hymns. To this point, I've mentioned very little about them though they constitute the bulk of Reformed evangelical singing. There are generally two views on how hymns should be used in worship. The exclusive psalmody position--advocated by my Peruvian friend--only permits the singing of psalms in worship. The inclusive psalmody position sings hymns in addition to psalms in worship. The inclusive psalmody position in worship is the bare minimum for Christian worship. A church that refuses to sing the psalms places itself on a restricted spiritual diet that will result in spiritual malnutrition. Psalm singing is a staple in Christian worship no matter what your view on hymns. If you want to read more on the interface of hymns and psalms throughout the history of Reformed worship let me suggest to you chapter 4 of Hughes Oliphant Old's book, Worship: Reformed According to Scripture.

 

There was a point in the history of the church when a government official--on another errand--stumbled across a long neglected book hidden in the rubble of a temple. Sure of its importance he brought it to king Josiah. The king in terror and joy read the book realizing that it was the very word of God. His response to this rediscovery was a plan of radical obedience designed to plead God's covenant mercy and praise his long forgotten redemptive works. This is what it looks like to rediscover the Bible and on a smaller scale to rediscover the psalms. It is this radically renewed worship that is spreading throughout the church today. It has deeply encouraged my soul as so many others have joined me in rediscovering the psalms.