Since we were first planted, Parish Presbyterian has been a church that has prioritized singing the psalms. The section of our worship service called “God speaks to His people through His Word” usually includes at least one psalm, and often we’ll sing several more psalms throughout the morning (this week, we sing from Psalm 32 in response to the Assurance of Pardon). During the current sermon series covering Psalms 24-33, the closing musical piece of the morning will be the psalm that was preached earlier in the service. Psalm 28 is not a text that we have sung many times at Parish, so the setting this week is not very familiar. Lord, I Call On You—Psalm 28 is taken from the Book of Psalms for Worship, a publication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) in 2010. The text is quite faithful to the psalm, with each eight-bar phrase corresponding roughly to a verse in the original. The editors of the psalter chose to set this psalm to the tune Amadeus, an adaptation of the melody from the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata no. 11 in A major, K. 311. The lilting melody is delicate, even frail, but also quietly hopeful—qualities that pair well with the sentiments David communicates in Psalm 28. Though it may take a little more work this week, because both the words and music are new to us, I pray that singing God’s Word back to Him will drive the truths we have just heard preached deeper into our hearts.
—Henry C. Haffner
