Scripture commands: “[S]ing Psalms” (James 5:13).  The Spirit-filled saint is singing “psalms” as well as hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:18-21).  If you are a believer, you have the obligation to sing God’s inspired psalms.  You have the blessed privilege to sing the inspired psalms.  You have the glorious blessing to sing to the Father the same words that the Lord Jesus sang to His Father on earth.  What a blessing this is!

I am very thankful that recently Bro David Cloud wrote a valuable article commending psalm singing.  Our church has sung from the 1650 Scottish Psalter, a literal psalter, for many years.  My wife and I have sung through the 1650 Psalter numbers of times in our family devotions–we sing the same psalm every day for a week, and then the next week go on to the next psalm. (We also sing hymns from the Trinity hymnal, Baptist edition–as does our church–and from the Metropolitan Tabernacle’s hymnbook.)

Unfortunately, the edition of the 1650 Psalter that our church and our family worships with–a version which includes conservative tunes, rather than being words-only, called the Comprehensive Psalter–is not in print.  The people who have the copyright are planning to reprint it, I have heard, so feel free to reach out to them if you would like physical copies for your church and home.  However, if you are not able to get a physical copy, I am delighted to let you know that a quality app has been designed which includes the text and tunes of the 1650 Scottish Psalter.  The app also plays the tunes so people who do not know how to read music can easily learn to sing the entire psalter.  I would definitely recommend that you download the app, add it to your electronic devices, and joyfully obeying God’s command to sing the songs Christ sung in worship, the inspired, infallible, inerrant Psalms.

There are other metrical psalters (versions of the psalms that can be sung), but, in my view, the 1650 Psalter is the best, because it is one of the most literal of the singable psalters.  Probably, in my experience, The Book of Psalms for Singing is my second choice.

I added links to both the Apple and Android version of the 1650 Psalter app on my website here in the ecclesiology section, where you can also find other useful helps for psalm-singing.  Here are direct links to the apps:

1650 Psalter App for Apple devices

1650 Psalter App for Android devices

The price is right for the apps–100% free.  That also makes it a great price for people who wish to obey God’s command to sing the psalms in foreign lands.  Anyone, anywhere in the world, can download the app and sing the psalms using his electronic device.  Churches who want to get physical copies of the 1650 Psalter can have everyone sing from his phone until physical copies are in print again.

God commands you to sing the psalms.  Why not start today?

If you do sing the psalms, how has it been a blessing in your life, in addition to glorifying the Lord?  Feel free to explain in the comment section.

–TDR