1 March 2025

Prior to the Reformation, the Latin language of worship and the musical forms which were used inhibited the participation of ordinary people in the worship of the Church. The use of the vernacular, the simplicity of the rhyming patterns and the syllabic melodies made it much easier to sing the metrical psalms.

When the first Psalter was published, the General Assembly declared ‘that every Minister, Exhorter and Reader, sall have one of the Psalme books latelie printed in Edinburgh’. The reading, learning and singing of these metrical psalms was quite an undertaking. Calvin had an original idea.

He thought  the best way to teach the congregation was by ‘selecting children and teaching them to sing in a clear and distinct fashion, so that the people, listening with attention, and following with the heart what was sung by  the mouth, might little by little, become accustomed to sing together’. And a little child shall lead them …

Psalm 148 makes it clear that it is not only the occupation of the angels, the sun, moon and stars to sing God’s praises but also the creatures on earth – fire, hail, snow and frost, mountains, fruit trees, majestic cedars, wild and tame animals and all human beings irrespective of status, sex or age!

And so Calvin’s initiative and the response of the thrawn worshipper in the kirk make this clear. She was so determined to play her part when the precentor and choir appeared to be taking over the kirk’s praise. ‘Na, na,’ she said, ‘I will not be silent, but will praise the Lord wi’ a ma’ micht, whether I ken the tune or no.’