Dear Mr. Phillips, I recently attended the Father/Daughter Retreat in St. Louis, MO — we (my daughter and I) had a wonderful time. I attend a church that sings psalms exclusively and as you speak much regarding ‘desert island challenges’ — would this not also apply to what should be sung in worship to God? What would you sing if all you had was the Bible? Please let me know your thoughts. Warmly, R.D.

Dear R.D: The tradition of exclusive psalmody has a long, rich, and respectable history. The arguments in favor and against exclusive psalmody are extensive. Many of my greatest heroes held to this view. Although I do believe in regulative worship, I do not hold to exclusive psalmody. To be specific, “if all I had was the Bible,” I would learn from the pattern of Scripture itself that the Christian is allowed to: (1) do more than quote the Bible when preaching and teaching and talking one to another. He may actually formulate independent sentences and preach messages, the goal of which is to explain the message of the Bible; and (2) the same principle is applied to music. Even as we may use non-inspired words to bring a message about the inspired Word, so too may we sing non-inspired words to communicate a message about the inspired Word. The fact that the New Testament church practiced hymns and spiritual songs (in addition to psalms) is known not only by direct command, but by pattern, as in the knossos passage of Philippians 2, which is widely regarded as a popular spiritual song used by the New Testiment Church. In my view, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are different categories of musical expression. In my local assembly, we have both a psalter and a hymn book which allows us to do all of the above. Blessings, Doug