“Few churches sing the Psalms at all. Fewer follow any order which insures the regular use of the entire Psalter…I know of at least one small country church where for years the daily Evensong Psalter has been sung through every month, and the Matins Psalter read. A certain degree of adaptability to conditions, of reasonable flexibility is good but the permissions granted in the rubric have further worked out disastrously in our Offices. Not only our people but some of our clergy, are slowly losing any spiritual knowledge of the Psalter as a whole. The spiritual knowledge has, in every age, been the main sustainer of the soul of man apart from the sacraments and prayer, and the vehicle of the praise of God even in the sacraments.”
What a sorry state of affairs. Douglas wrote this back in the 30's. We Presbyterians should be ashamed; we who claim to value the psalms so highly. Even if we don't revive the daily office we'd be doing well if we had regular contact with the psalms.
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Mark: Howdy from Maryland. Good to see you blogging.
I thought I'd pass along a link to this excellent article related to some of the concerns expressed by Douglas.
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