The contested legacy of singing God’s inspired songs in the Reformed Churches in South Africa: The regulating role of the Word from Dordrecht to Totius and into the present

Simon N Jooste,Johannes C Potgieter

doi:10.4102/ids.v54i2.2579

Simon N Jooste, Johannes C Potgieter

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4102/ids.v54i2.2579

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Abstract

This article is a historical–theological inquiry into the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) and the doctrine behind her historic practice of essentially singing only God’s inspired songs. The catalyst for this investigation is the 2012 RCSA Synod decision to revise Article 69 of the church order – an order based on the one formulated at the 1618–1619 Synod of Dordrecht – to allow for the singing of free hymns. Such a decision marked a significant break with the early Reformed and confessional tradition of singing only God’s inspired songs, as well as a driving reason for the formation of the RCSA in 1859. This article challenges the 2012 revision of the Dort-modelled Article 69 on historical and theological grounds. In addition to failing to reckon adequately with her pre-formation history, the RCSA did not give appropriate attention to her rich legacy of singing predominantly Psalms only. More specifically, this article contends that within her own history the RCSA has a confessional and theological category that can help re-establish continuity with the best of her Reformed liturgical past. This category is the scriptural or regulative principle of worship (S/RPW) – a doctrine that has encouraged the reformation of public worship across the globe and one at least latent in the historical RCSA theological discourse. This essay commends its recovery for the future reformation of worship for the glory of God.

Highlights

The question of driving concern in this article is whether there are historical–theological reasons to critique the 2012 Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) Synod decision to revise Article 69 of the church order to read as follows (RCSA 2012):[I]n the churches only the 150 Psalms and the rhymed versions of the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostolic Confession, and the Hymns of praise of Mary, Zacharias and Simeon shall be sung
It assumes and builds upon a body of historic Reformed scholarship congruent with the main argument of this essay: that is, what fundamentally lies behind the historic Reformed practice of singing only God’s inspired songs in worship – preand post-1859 in South Africa – is the scriptural or regulative principle of worship (S/RPW)
At the 1876 RCSA Synod, an important decision was made regarding the application of the historic Article 69 of Dort, namely, that only the 150 Psalms of David and limited hymns expressly derived from the text of Scripture may be sung in corporate worship

Summary

Introduction

The question of driving concern in this article is whether there are historical–theological reasons to critique the 2012 Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) Synod decision to revise Article 69 of the church order to read as follows (RCSA 2012):[I]n the churches only the 150 Psalms and the rhymed versions of the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostolic Confession, and the Hymns of praise of Mary, Zacharias and Simeon shall be sung. At the 1876 RCSA Synod, an important decision was made regarding the application of the historic Article 69 of Dort, namely, that only the 150 Psalms of David (found in the 1773 psalter) and limited hymns (like the ‘Ten Commandments’ and the ‘Lord’s Prayer’) expressly derived from the text of Scripture may be sung in corporate worship.21 This decision seems to be a reformation back to the 1619 Dort Church Order, but even beyond, to the earlier Dort Synods and Calvin himself.

Results

Conclusion