25 July 2003

Continued influence of the 1912 Psalter

My parents-in-law are longtime members of Christ Church of Oak Brook, a large independent congregation with Reformed leanings. (Its founding pastor, Arthur DeKruyter, graduated from both Calvin College and Calvin Seminary.) For many years they sang from the OPC's Trinity Hymnal. But a few years ago they produced their own hymnal, the Christ Church Hymnal, undoubtedly making them one of a very few congregations to undertake such a project on their own. Not surprisingly perhaps, this hymnal contains a number of metrical psalms, and these come largely from the 1912 Psalter. The most surprising of these has the metrical text of Psalm 46 set to the tune for "America the Beautiful," a juxtaposition that many would likely find slightly jarring.

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