Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. On this episode

we are talking about Calvin and the Psalter.

The Reformation and the Reformers

reformed all aspects of the church and of church life.

We think of Luther as the Father of Himity, and there in the German

reformation producing hymns in the German language for people to sing in their

worship of God, and Luther also produced a German Psalter. Well, inspired by that, Calvin set his sights

on producing a Psalter for the French people. Calvin, as you know, got to Geneva in 1536. And on January 16, 1537, Calvin and Guillaume

Ferrell produced for the city council there at Geneva what they called the

articles on the organization of the church and its worship. In there Calvin

addresses this very point of singing the Psalms.

He writes, it is a thing most expedient for the edification of the church to sing some Psalms

in the form of public prayers.

By which one prays to God or sings his praises

so that the hearts of all may be roused

to make similar prayers and to render similar praises and thanks to God with common love.

Well, that resulted in the production of the Strasbourg salter in 1539.

You might recall that in 1538,

both Calvin and Farrell were kicked out of Geneva. And so Calvin went to Strasbourg and while he

was there of course he preached to the French refugees that were in at the time

what was a German city of Strasbourg and there Calvin set to work on

the Psalter he was joined by Clement Merrow and Marl-Maro 12 Psalms, Calvin provided six, and that was the publication of the first Salter.

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