Neglect of Psalms is ‘crazy’

A leading Anglican thinker has described popular charismatic “worship songs” as impoverishing Christian liturgy.

Tom Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, is concerned that contemporary Christian music neglects the Psalms, something he describes as “crazy”.

Wright, now research professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews, argues that many of the growing churches in the charismatic movement do not use the psalms in daily and weekly worship.

“The enormously popular ‘worship songs’, some of which use phrases from the Psalms here and there but most of which do not, have largely displaced, for thousands of regular and enthusiastic worshippers, the steady rhythm and deep soul-searching of the Psalms themselves,” he writes in a new book, Finding God in the Psalms.

“This, I believe, is a great impoverishment,” Wright, a leading New Testament scholar, continues. “By all means write new songs. Each generation must do that. But to neglect the Church’s original hymn book is, to put it bluntly, crazy.”

Worship songs set to pop-style music are often played in churches such as Holy Trinity Brompton, London, which has close associations with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and is home to the successful Alpha course.

They are also played by the fast-growing Hillsong Church, a Pentecostal “megachurch”, and Soul Survivor, which runs Christian ­festivals. The songs are often sung as part of a half-hour set of worship music.

But Wright argues: “Good liturgy, whether formal or informal, ought never to be simply a corporate upsurge of emotion, however ‘Christian’, but a fresh and awed attempt to inhabit the great unceasing liturgy that is going on all the time in the heavenly realms.

“To worship without the Psalms is to risk planting seeds that will never take root,” he writes, adding that he finds it impossible to imagine a “growing and maturing” Church without the Psalms. A spokesman for Holy Trinity Brompton said it was passionate about the Psalms, with one being said every day. He added that Wright was a speaker at its theological college.