God created a world with three environments. At the center of the world was a garden, the sanctuary where Adam and Eve were to worship their Creator. Surrounding the sanctuary was the land of Eden, and outside the land of Eden were other lands like Havilah, Cush, and Assyria. We live our lives in these three environments: in the sanctuary where we worship, in the home land where we rest with our families, in the outlying world where we work.

As Dr Schuler likes to point out, this tripartite division of the world is relevant to our understanding of liturgical music. Different kinds of music are associated with these different environments. What we listen to at home is not the same as what we sing at church. Certain kinds of music are appropriate for the worship of God; others are not.

The church has historically always recognized this. There is a centuries-long tradition of liturgical music in many branches of the church. From the old Catholic church we have Gregorian chant, and the Anglican churches have given the church a particular kind of chant. Presbyterians and the Continental Reformed introduced metrical Psalms, and Luther and his followers wrote chorales. This is music composed specifically for the worship of God, for the sanctuary.

What kind of music is appropriate in worship? First, our music should manifest the Catholicity of the church, catholicity both through time and geographically. If we sung only Scottish metrical Psalms, or 19th-century Wesleyan hymns, or twentieth-century Anglican hymns, we would have a truncated, even a sectarian, diet of church music. Our music should reflect the faith we confess each week: We believe in one holy Catholic church.

Second, Scripture includes its own songbook, the book of Psalms and that should be the center of our singing in worship. We do not believe in what is called ?exclusive Psalmody?Ehere at Trinity: That?s the view that only the Psalms can be sung in the public worship of God. But we do believe in predominant Psalmody, and believe that the hymns we sing in public worship should be rooted in and reflect the concerns of the Psalms.

Third, the Scripture passages we?ll look at in the Psalms make clear that the music of Israel?s temple worship was rich, rhythmical, and loud. 2 Chronicles 20:19 speaks of the Levites standing to praise God ?with a very loud voice,?Eand Psalms and Chronicles include references to a variety of instruments ?Etrumpets, lyres, cymbals, stringed instruments, and pipes.

We all have much to learn about how to sing the Lord?s song in our worship. But whatever specific directions we take, they should be consistent with these principles: Our music should be Catholic, Psalm-based, and vigorous.