Presbyterian Polity, Worship, and Sacraments — Unit 7: The Elements of Reformed Worship: Word, Prayer, Praise

Key Verse

"And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." (Acts 2:42, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Describe the Reformed understanding of worship as a meeting in which God speaks through His Word and His people answer.

2. Explain the place of the public reading and preaching of Scripture in Reformed worship.

3. Describe the Reformed teaching on prayer in public worship, including the Lord's Prayer and the debate between set and free prayer.

4. Explain the history and use of psalmody, and state the views of exclusive psalmody and of psalms with hymns.

5. State the main objections to Reformed worship and give the Reformed answer to each.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it or are studying it. It is theologically conservative, holds that Scripture is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and receives the Westminster Standards and the Three Forms of Unity as faithful summaries of Scripture. Where this specialization differs from the general position of Chapala Theological Seminary, the Reformed position governs here. Other Christians see these matters differently. We state their views fairly and then give our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Worship as a Meeting With God

Unit 6 taught that God alone decides what belongs in public worship. This unit asks what He has appointed. The Reformed answer is simple: the Word read and preached, prayer, the singing of praise, and the sacraments, which are the subject of Units 8 and 9. The Westminster Confession (21.3-5) names these elements, and the Directory for the Public Worship of God (1645) shows how they were arranged.

Reformed teachers often describe the Lord's Day service as a meeting between God and His people, in which God speaks and the people answer. God speaks in the reading and preaching of His Word and in the sacraments. The people answer in prayer, in song, in confession of faith and in offerings. This keeps worship from becoming a performance by a few. The apostles' church "continued steadfastly" in these things (Acts 2:42), and Paul told Timothy to give attention to reading, exhortation and doctrine (1 Timothy 4:13).

The Reading of Scripture

Public reading is the first way God's voice is heard in the assembly. In Nehemiah 8:1-8 Ezra stood on a platform and read the Law to the people from morning until midday. The Levites "helped the people to understand," and the people stood to hear. Paul commanded that his letters be read in the churches (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27), and he told Timothy to give attention to public reading (1 Timothy 4:13).

The Reformed churches therefore give Scripture reading a high place. In many Presbyterian services one or two passages are read aloud, often from both Testaments, apart from the text of the sermon. The reader should read clearly and slowly, and the congregation should listen with reverence. The Westminster Directory asked that the Scripture be read in the common language of the people, a break from the medieval custom of reading in Latin.

In Latin America this matters greatly. Many believers cannot read well, and for them the public reading of the Bible in a language they know is how they receive God's Word. A pastor who rushes or omits the reading takes away what God has appointed.

The Preaching of the Word

The Reformed tradition holds that preaching is the center of public worship. Paul writes: "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14). He charges Timothy: "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching" (2 Timothy 4:2).

The Second Helvetic Confession, in its first chapter, teaches that when the Word of God is faithfully preached by lawfully called ministers, the preached Word is itself the Word of God, because the preacher proclaims what God has said. This does not make the preacher's every word infallible. It means that the authority of preaching lies in the Bible, not in the speaker. The Belgic Confession (article 29) names the pure preaching of the gospel as the first mark of the true church.

The Westminster Larger Catechism (Question 155) teaches that the Spirit makes the reading, and especially the preaching, of the Word an effective means of convicting and converting sinners and building up believers. For this reason the Reformed churches have valued a sermon that explains the passage, applies it and calls for faith and obedience. The sermon is not a lecture or a pep talk; it is God's means to bring His people to Christ. Course 5 of this specialization, Reformed Pastoral Ministry, Preaching, and Missions, treats the craft of expository preaching in detail. Here it is enough to say that the preacher is a servant of the text, and the congregation is called to hear with faith.

Prayer in Public Worship

The apostles' church devoted itself to prayers (Acts 2:42). Paul urged "that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2). The Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13). The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that prayer is the chief part of the thankfulness God requires of us (Question and Answer 116), and it gives a full exposition of the Lord's Prayer (Questions 116-129). Calvin treats prayer at length in the Institutes, Book 3, chapter 20, calling it the chief exercise of faith.

In public worship the pastor commonly leads the congregation in several kinds of prayer. The Directory for Public Worship describes prayer of praise and thanksgiving, confession of sin, petition for the church, the nation and the needs of the people, and prayer before and after the sermon. The prayer of confession is followed by the assurance of pardon read from Scripture, so that the people hear the gospel.

Set prayer or free prayer? Here Reformed churches have not always agreed. Calvin's order of worship in Geneva contained written forms of prayer. The Puritans, however, rejected the required forms of the Church of England and favored free prayer, guided by Scripture, for the minister to pray in his own words. The Westminster Directory gave direction and content for prayers but did not give a fixed text. Today some Presbyterian churches use written prayers for part of the service, and others rely on free prayer. Both can be faithful. Written prayers teach the people good words and guard against rambling, and free prayer allows the pastor to speak to the needs of this congregation today. The best pastors prepare their prayers with as much care as their sermons, filling them with Scripture.

Praise: The Singing of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Singing is a command. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16; compare Ephesians 5:19). The Westminster Confession (21.5) calls for "the singing of psalms with grace in the heart." The Reformers believed that the whole congregation, not a choir alone, should sing. This was a great change from the medieval custom, where the people mostly listened.

The Psalter in Reformed history

Calvin loved the Psalms. He published a small collection of psalms in Strasbourg in 1539, and in Geneva the work of putting the Psalms into rhymed verse for singing grew into the Genevan Psalter, completed in 1562. The poets Clément Marot and Theodore Beza had a large share in the work. The Psalter passed to the Huguenots of France, the Dutch, the Germans of the Palatinate, and to many other lands, and was translated into many languages. In Scotland and England the metrical Psalms were the chief songbook of Presbyterians and Puritans in the seventeenth century.

Exclusive psalmody and the singing of hymns

Reformed believers hold two views.

Exclusive psalmody. Some Reformed and Presbyterian churches sing only the 150 Psalms (in metrical form). They reason that the Psalter is the songbook that God Himself inspired, and that under the regulative principle the church has no command to sing uninspired songs. They add that the three words in Colossians 3:16 are also used in the Greek Old Testament for the Psalms and their titles, and that the Psalms are rich in Christ, and the Lord Jesus said that the Psalms spoke of Him (Luke 24:44).

Psalms and hymns. Most Presbyterian and Reformed churches today sing psalms and also hymns. They read Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19 as naming three kinds of song and say that Christians may sing the truths of the New Testament, including the full revelation of Christ, in words which are faithful to Scripture. Many scholars think that parts of the New Testament, such as Philippians 2:6-11, may be early Christian hymns, though this is debated. The great English hymns of the early 1700s onward, such as those of Isaac Watts, were written in this spirit. They hold that the principle is kept when the songs are faithful to Scripture.

Both views take the regulative principle seriously, and both agree that what is sung must be fully biblical. Neither calls the other unfaithful. A church which uses hymns should include the Psalms, and a church which sings only the Psalms should sing them well and with understanding.

Instruments

Another question is whether to use instruments. Psalm 150 calls for praise with stringed instruments, flutes and cymbals. Some Reformed teachers, with Calvin, thought that instruments belonged to the Old Testament temple and were not required in the church. Many early Reformed congregations sang without instrumental accompaniment. Others understand the instruments as helps to a congregation, a circumstance like the hymnbook, and use organs, pianos or guitars. In the Reformed family the matter has usually been left to the wisdom of each church. Whatever the practice, the singing of the people, not the performance of a band, should be heard.

Other Parts of the Service

Public worship has other parts. The offering is the people's gift to the Lord and His work (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). The benediction pronounces the Lord's blessing on His people (Numbers 6:24-26; 2 Corinthians 13:14). Many Reformed churches also recite a creed such as the Apostles' Creed. Churches vary in the order of these parts, since order is a circumstance, but a common pattern begins with a call to worship, moves to praise and confession of sin, hears the Word read and preached, and closes with a prayer, a song and the blessing.

Objections and Answers

Objection 1: Reformed worship is too intellectual and sermon-heavy. It leaves little room for the heart.

Critics, including many Pentecostal and charismatic Christians and some Roman Catholics, say that Reformed services stress the mind, with long sermons and few expressions of feeling.

Our answer. We admit that some Reformed churches have been dry, and we do not defend dryness. But a true knowledge of God leads to the heart. The Psalms, the church's songbook, are full of joy, sorrow, fear and love. Paul prayed that the Ephesians would know the love of Christ which passes knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). The Reformed preaching of the Word aims at the whole person: mind, heart and will. Warm worship is not the same as loud worship. Real reverence and real joy belong together (Psalm 2:11).

Objection 2: Exclusive psalmody is too narrow. The New Testament church sang about Christ's work in new songs.

Critics, including most evangelicals, say that Colossians 3:16 shows more than the Psalter, that the Bible calls for "a new song" (Psalm 96:1), and that the church should sing of Christ's death and resurrection by name.

Our answer. Many Reformed churches agree with the critics and sing hymns. Those who hold to exclusive psalmody answer that Christ is in the Psalms and that the Psalter has served the church for centuries. All Reformed believers agree that the Psalms must not be neglected, and that the songs we sing must teach sound doctrine.

Objection 3: Worship should be shaped by the surrounding culture so that visitors and the young feel at home.

Critics say that a simple order of Word, prayer and psalms is unfamiliar in many cultures.

Our answer. We want the visitor and the young to understand, and Paul teaches that the assembly must be intelligible (1 Corinthians 14:23-25). That is why the Reformers insisted on the common language. But the mission of the church is to bring people to what God has appointed, not to remold the worship to what they already like. A visitor who hears the Scripture read, the gospel preached, sincere prayer and the people singing may be convicted and worship God, as Paul said (1 Corinthians 14:25).

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a small rural Presbyterian church in Jalisco has no musician. A few members want to sing only the short choruses they hear on the radio, and an older elder wants only the Psalms. The church has one guitar, and many members cannot read music.

First, the pastor does not treat this as a fight. He gathers the session and shows from Colossians 3:16 and Psalm 100 that the aim is a church that sings the Word with grace in the heart.

Second, he teaches the congregation a few Psalms in Spanish, using simple tunes that the people can learn by ear, and he explains each Psalm before it is sung. He also chooses a few hymns that are faithful to Scripture, so that those who love the choruses can see that the church is not against joy.

Third, he asks the elders to keep the Scripture reading slow and clear, so that members who cannot read can hear it.

Fourth, he is patient. Good congregational singing grows over years. He prays with the church and teaches the people why we sing.

Summary

Reformed worship is a meeting in which God speaks through His Word and His people answer in prayer and praise. The public reading and preaching of Scripture are central, because they are God's appointed means to convict, convert and build up. Prayer in public worship includes praise, confession, petition and the Lord's Prayer. Reformed churches have used both set prayers and free prayers. The congregation's singing grew from Calvin's psalm singing in Strasbourg and the Genevan Psalter of 1562. Some Reformed churches sing only the Psalms, and most sing both psalms and hymns. The use of instruments has been left to each church. Objections say that Reformed worship is too intellectual, that exclusive psalmody is too narrow, and that worship should follow the culture. Reformed teachers answer that true knowledge reaches the heart, that Christ is in the Psalms and that hymns must be faithful to Scripture, and that the church exists to bring people to what God has appointed.

Further Reading

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646-47), chapter 21.

• The Directory for the Public Worship of God (1645).

• The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 155.

• The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 116-129, on prayer.

• The Belgic Confession (1561), article 29.

• The Second Helvetic Confession (1566), chapter 1.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book 3, chapter 20.

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