Genevan Psalter

Definition and Meaning

The Genevan Psalter is a songbook of metrical psalms, that is, psalms rendered as song texts with regular meter and rhyme. The sixteenth-century church of Geneva published it so that the congregation could sing together. The French texts were divided between the poet Clément Marot and Theodore Beza, the successor of John Calvin. The completed edition of 1562 contains all 150 Psalms and is generally said to include about 125 tunes. Louis Bourgeois is among those credited with composing or arranging the tunes.

Biblical and Historical Background

Calvin placed great importance on the congregation itself singing the Psalms, the word of God, in worship. He grounded this practice in passages that call believers to sing psalms and hymns, such as Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19. In the Roman Catholic Mass of the time, singing was done mainly by choirs in Latin. The Reformation churches, by contrast, adopted congregational singing in the vernacular.

In 1539, while in Strasbourg, Calvin published a small songbook containing several psalms. After returning to Geneva, he issued successively expanded editions based on Marot's translations. After Marot died in 1544, Beza translated the remaining psalms, and the psalter was completed in 1562. The tunes are generally simple melodies that assign one note to each syllable, so that even an untrained congregation could sing them. In Genevan worship of the period, the psalms were sung in unison without accompaniment.

The Genevan Psalter spread widely among the French Huguenots and was translated into several languages, most notably German and Dutch. It is still sung in worship today in the Reformed churches of the Netherlands and in churches influenced by them. Some Reformed churches have maintained the principle of exclusive psalmody, limiting the songs of public worship to the Psalms. Most Protestant churches, however, sing ordinary hymns alongside metrical psalms.

Practice in the Korean Church

Most Korean Protestant churches, regardless of denomination, use a common interdenominational hymnal. The Genevan Psalter is rarely used as a separate resource in worship.

Nevertheless, some Genevan Psalter tunes are already familiar through the hymnal. A prominent example is "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow," widely sung as the Doxology. Its tune, OLD HUNDREDTH, is generally understood to derive from the Genevan Psalter's tune for Psalm 134.

Some Presbyterian and Reformed churches, seminaries, and organizations that emphasize the Reformed tradition have sought to revive the psalter. Some have reportedly translated and published the Genevan Psalter in Korean or sing it in worship services and gatherings.

Views on the psalter also differ by denomination. Even within Presbyterianism, some value the psalter highly as a recovery of the Reformed worship tradition, while others consider the current practice of using hymns together with gospel songs sufficient. Methodist, Holiness, Baptist, and Full Gospel churches generally do not treat the psalter as a distinct principle of worship; these churches tend to regard psalm settings as simply one kind of hymn among others.