To pray the Psalms singing or sing the Psalms praying

The aim of this paper is to investigate the singing of the Psalms, during the church service in the light of the fact that the Psalter is viewed as a prayer book. Firstly, the psalm as prayer is discussed and it is shown that the Psalms play an important role in the Christian church and its liturgy. The views of Calvin and Luther on prayer in general and the singing and praying of the Psalms in particular, are discussed. The views of a few other researchers are highlighted. The conclusion is made that the singing of a psalm in the church service is a public, but personal conversation with God. With regard to this conclusion, the singing of the Psalms in the church service today is discussed and recommendations are made. The use of the Psalms as liturgical song places a very big responsibility on the preacher to ensure that the prayer character of the psalm as personal public conversation with God is recognised in the liturgy. Care must be taken to ensure that the singing of the Psalms in the liturgy does not degrade to a thoughtless, unrespectful custom.