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Exclusive psalmody is the practice of singing only the biblical Psalms in congregational singing as worship. Today it is practised by several Protestant, especially Reformed denominations. Hymns besides the Psalms have been composed by Christians since the earliest days of the church, but psalms were preferred by the early church and used ...
For example, Calvin initially allowed the use of instruments in worship music, but “advocate[ed] a careful and skillful use” of them. [33] In fact, he later banned instruments from being used in his congregation, claiming that they were too strongly tied to antiquated and unorthodox methods from before the Reformation. [ 34 ]
Instead of hymns, Biblical psalms were chanted, most often without accompaniment. This was known as exclusive psalmody. Examples of this may still be found in various places, including the Churches of Christ and the "free churches" of western Scotland. An early printing of Martin Luther's hymn "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"
The regulative principle of worship is a Christian doctrine, held by some Calvinists and Anabaptists, that God commands churches to conduct public services of worship using certain distinct elements affirmatively found in scripture, and conversely, that God prohibits any and all other practices in public worship.
Having been originally formed by a merger of two denominations holding to exclusive psalmody, this was the practice of the ARP Church until 1946, when its synod allowed the use of hymns other than the Psalms; each congregational session has right of discretion concerning the matter of music in worship. At the 207th General Synod, a new ARP ...
Calvin, who took over the leadership of the Reformed Church after Zwingli's death, had encountered psalm singing in Strasbourg. He put communal singing again under strict musical and lyrical conditions, now called exclusive psalmody: Only psalm texts were allowed to be sung. Versified psalms had to lean closely on the biblical text.
In contrast to exclusive psalmody, it does permit the singing of certain hymns, but not in worship services. The PRC believes that preaching is the most important part of a worship service. The PRC believes that preaching is the most important part of a worship service.
The reasons given for leaving the Reformed Church were the use of hymns (versus Exclusive psalmody) during worship, allowing free access to communion, lax interpretation of grace, permitting membership in Freemasonry, and failure to provide catechetical instruction to young people. For the two years, the denomination had no corporate name.