Singing Psalm 46 (NKJV)

The above video is a recording from earlier this summer at Church of the Redeemer, where I work in music and have been a member for a long time. We had a psalm-singing workshop by Theopolis Institute where a good friend Paul Buckley came and taught through some different settings of psalm chants. It was delightful. It was his second time to come to our church.

Paul Buckley working & teaching at Church of the Redeemer from earlier this year.

Our congregation has a good bit of experience with chanting Psalms in worship, but this is a different style, and the congregation really took to it. We project the psalm tone in a simplified modern notation on the screens and hand out a copy with the church bulletin each week.

Below are links to two PDFs: A simplified version and an accompaniment version of this Psalm 46. The tone was first introduced to us by Paul Buckley and composed by James Hart of the Webber Institute of Worship Studies.

A Few Observations

Also, you may have noticed that in this version, where traditionally the English psalm text of Scripture would read “The Lord,” we have substituted the Hebrew “Yahweh” for those. Then typically, Psalm chanting will often include either a generic or specific doxology appended at the end. This version has a translation/transliteration of Chapter 41:13 as the doxology. We have been trying out various translations of that in our singing. You could use the “Glory to the Father, and to the Son” doxology if you prefer.

Maturing from Glory to Glory

This is a modern-sounding tone. But it may be just what is needed for many Christians who don’t know the glories of chant from centuries past. Many Christians have not been trained in what it is. They might just be hesitant if you throw them off the deep end of the oldest and most glorious types of tones from centuries past. But something like this may be just the way to introduce and acclimate them to intoning words in the form of chanting. Then, over time, you could joyfully move to more glorious and complex settings of psalm chants. If my church can do this, then your church or Bible study group can too. No doubt you could hear the motley crew of voices singing this Psalm 46. If we add this to our singing repertoire, we will be even more skillful in singing the words of scriptures in the various musical forms that the Church has known throughout the ages.