The New Book of Praise
George van Popta
At long last, the new Book of Praise is printed and ready for
shipment to the churches. Orders are being sent in to the publisher, and soon
we will all be singing from the 2014 version. This is the third complete
edition, after the 1984 and the 1972 editions, and the hope is that it will serve
the churches for many years.
The committee is thankful for the
tremendous amount of feedback, encouragement, and cooperation it has received
from the churches throughout the past thirteen years, as well as the good
guidance and leadership given by the General Synods convened during this time.
Above all, praise and gratitude is due to our heavenly Father for providing the
churches with a songbook that will be used weekly and daily, in church, school,
and home, to praise his most holy Name.
Roots
The Book of Praise is rooted in our Reformed past. The first complete
Genevan Psalter was published in French in 1562, and since then versions have
appeared in many languages used by churches throughout the world. When our parents and grandparents landed on
these shores with the waves of immigration from the Netherlands after the
Second World War, and felt obliged by the Lord to establish the Canadian
Reformed Churches, they also felt strongly led to produce an English version of
the Genevan Psalms. They had been singing them in Dutch all their lives and
were not inclined to give them up. Acting in faith, some may say, audaciously,
the far-flung federation of a handful of churches set out in the 1950s to
produce an English Calvinistic songbook where the Psalms were to be set to the
beloved Genevan tunes and which would also include hymns faithful to scripture.
We are the heirs of our fathers’ vision.
2001 to 2013
The Standing Committee for the
Publication of the Book of Praise of
the Canadian Reformed Churches (yes, that is its real name; “SCBP” for short)
received from recent synods the mandate to add some more hymns to the 65 of the
1984 Book of Praise, to revise and
improve the Psalms, and, recently, to amend all the Biblical text references to
the ESV (from the NIV). From the perspective of the SCBP it was an interesting
task. It could be said that the whole federation was turned into a huge
super-committee as the work progressed over the years from Synod 2001 to Synod
2013.
The most significant part of the
work was the revision of the 150 Psalms. About fifty of them required little
revision, about fifty needed some revision, and about fifty were completely
redone. The SCBP was able to engage Dr. William Helder for this work. Many will
know that Dr. Helder has been involved with the Book of Praise for many years. In his work, Dr. Helder did not
especially use any one English translation of the Psalms; rather, he used a
large number of English, Dutch, German, French, Latin, and other translations.
At times ministers on the committee would give him a literal translation of the
Hebrew from which he would then work, and the Hebrew scholars at CRTS were
always ready and willing to help.
In 2010 Synod Burlington
instructed the SCBP to publish an Authorized Provisional Version (APV) which
the churches were then to use for three years and submit comments on to the
committee. The result of this three year “test-drive,” comments to the
committee, the report of the SCBP to Synod 2013, and the decisions of the
Synod, is the new edition of our songbook.
APV to 2014 edition
To become more particular, the
differences between the APV, 2010, and the new, 2014, edition can be summarized
thus:
1.) Changes to the Psalms:
a. In about 20 stanzas in the
Psalm section some words, or a couple of lines, have been changed as
compared with the APV.
b. In Psalm 17 significant
changes were made to the text of stanza 5.
c. Psalm 25:6 was replaced with
entirely new text.
d. Psalm 81:6 was also replaced
with entirely new text.
e. In Psalm 90 the first stanza
has been changed back to the 1984 version and the second stanza has been
deleted. Consequently this Psalm is significantly different from that found in
the APV.
2.) Changes to the text of the hymns:
a. In about five stanzas some
words, or a couple of lines, have been changed as compared with the APV.
b. The lyrics of Hymns 58 and 77
have received significant and substantial changes.
3.) Changes to the melodies of
the hymns:
When the SCBP, in the APV, returned
many of the melodies to their original composition, some churches objected to
the changes. The Committee, being sensitive to these objections and not wanting
the music of the Book of Praise to be
a divisive issue, recommended to Synod 2013 that some of the corrections be
undone. Synod adopted these recommendations and added others as well.
Undoubtedly, the local organists will point these out to their respective
congregations.
Incompatibility
Once a church has decided to
adopt the new edition for use in the worship services it will not be possible
for members to continue using the APV. The significant changes to the text of
the Psalms and hymns as well as to the melodies of the hymns make it impossible
to use the two versions together without creating confusion in the worship
service. Using both songbooks at the same time to sing would be
unedifying for the worship service because of the difference in
some lyrics. Similarly, the changes to music, rests, and fermatas in some
of the hymns would also be a cause for unnecessary confusion.
Further, due to content and formatting changes in the 2014 Book of Praise, the page numbering in
the two editions is no longer the same. The APV and the new edition
are not compatible.
Digital
Premier Publishing has also
produced a digital version (a tagged PDF) which can be bought and downloaded
from http://bop.premierprinting.ca.
This version is suitable for tablets and smartphones.
A few churches project the text
of the Psalms and hymns in the worship service. While the SCBP had originally expected
that the tagged PDF would be suitable for this use, some have indicated that
this may not be the case. The SCBP will be discussing this at its Fall meeting and
is committed to accommodating the needs of the churches that make use of
projectors.
Thankfulness
The SCBP is thankful that the Book
of Praise continues to be a blessing to the church of Christ. Above all,
may our God be “enthroned on the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3) also through
the use of our songbook. To him alone be all glory, now and forever!
Rev. George van Popta has served as chairman of the SCBP since 2001 and
is due to retire from the committee in 2016.
