Psalmody is practiced in Reformed & Presbyterian church worship (and during family worship) because it upholds the regulative principle, offering God only what He has authorized in Scripture. The Psalms, inspired by the Holy Spirit, form the church’s complete and perfect songbook—free from human error—allowing congregations to obey New Testament commands to sing psalms with God-breathed, Christ-centered words. This guards worship’s purity, unites believers across generations, and honors God’s provision of a sufficient manual of praise rather than human inventions.
The 1650 Scottish Psalter, commonly used, is a metrical paraphrase of the Book of Psalms, authorized by the Church of Scotland after revision by the Westminster Assembly and Scottish ministers, designed for congregational singing in common metre.* It remains a foundational text for exclusive Psalmody in many Reformed and Presbyterian traditions.
*Common metre (or called ballad meter) is a traditional poetic form consisting of quatrains with alternating lines of iambic tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables)—typically notated as 8.6.8.6—and a rhyme scheme of ABAB or ABCB. It produces a steady, song-like rhythm that has long been popular in English ballads and hymns, such as “Amazing Grace.”