38: Singing the Psalms in your Homeschool: An interview with Amy Sloan of Humility and Doxology

Welcome to the Music in Our Homeschool Podcast, your go-to resource for integrating a high-quality music education into your homeschooling journey. Whether you're a seasoned homeschooler or just starting out, host Gena Mayo—a homeschooling mom of eight and a music teacher with over 30 years of experience—brings you inspiring conversations and practical tips designed to enrich your children's musical experiences.

In each episode, we delve into a variety of music education topics, from teaching music theory and history to incorporating instrumental practice and vocal training in your homeschool curriculum. We understand that music plays a vital role in a well-rounded education, and we're here to help you make it accessible and enjoyable.

This episode, "Intro to Singing the Psalms with Amy Sloan," features guest Amy Sloan, a second-generation homeschooling mom of five and blogger/podcaster at Humility and Doxology. Amy shares her passion for singing the Psalms as part of her family's daily devotions. Learn how to integrate the Psalter and metrical Psalms into your homeschool, providing both a spiritual and musical foundation for your children. Amy explains the benefits of singing God's Word, tips for getting started, and resources like the Trinity Psalter Hymnal and the Book of Psalms for Singing.

Key topics covered in this episode:

• Introduction to metrical Psalms and the Psalter
• The history and significance of singing the Psalms
• Practical steps for incorporating Psalm singing into your homeschool
• Books and resources for learning and teaching Psalms and including family devotions

**Find links to all resources mentioned here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/singing-the-psalms-in-your-homeschool/

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Transcript

Singing the Psalms in your Homeschool: Interview with Amy Sloan

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. My name is Gena Mayo, and I'm thrilled to have you here today. And we are welcoming guest, Amy Sloan, a lovely lady. Who's going to be talking to us about using the Psalter, singing the Psalms in your homeschool. So let's head over and take a listen. 

 Well, this is fun. Yeah. 

Thank you so much for being willing to have me on. It's, it's always really fun to be on the other side and get interviewed.

Well, you're actually my first guest. So I'm brand new at this. So if you want to like, help me along. That's great. 

I'm excited. I love talking about singing the Psalms. So because at first I was like, well, I'm not like a music expert more just a music, lover. But like actually the Psalms I get pretty excited about. So, 

Well, that is so awesome. Well, I guess we could just get started [00:01:00] and, if you want to just start with who you are and then I'll ask you about using the Psalms in your homeschool.

Gena, thank you so much for having me today on your podcast. My name is Amy Sloan. I'm a second generation homeschooling mom of five. My youngest is nine and my oldest is 19. He's actually second year of university this year. And my family and I have homeschooled the whole way through and we love reading good books together, memorizing beautiful poetry and Shakespeare, nerding out just a little bit and and singing the songs, which I'm really excited to chat with you about today.

Yes. When I heard that you sang Psalms, I've like, I have never really delved into that. So this is really awesome to learn about this. And I know that a lot of my listeners will love learning about it too. And maybe it's something they can add into their own homeschools. So and being a second generation.

So let me just [00:02:00] ask you, did you grow up singing Psalms? 

So I grew up with a family that loved to sing together in our times of family devotions. There were four of us in my family, and so we would sing in four part harmony. I have many good memories of that, singing a lot of traditional hymns when I was younger.

But it was when I was maybe around 12 or so, we began attending a church that incorporated some Psalm singing into the worship. And so that was sort of my first experience singing the metrical Psalms, although we had sung of course scripture Psalms, already. And since then, it has just developed more and more.

My church now also includes the Psalms in every worship service. And even before we were married, actually, my husband and I were apart for a while. We were in two different towns, but we worked on memorizing one of the Psalms together and we would awkwardly sing it to each other, like with each other on the cell [00:03:00] phone. But yeah, so Psalms have been a part of my life for a long time. 

So you just mentioned something you said the metrical Psalms and what was the other type? 

I think I just said the Psalter possibly.

Okay. Can you explain the difference between those? 

Yeah, so of course your listeners are familiar with the book of Psalms in the Old Testament It has been a song book for God's people Since the Old Testament Church would sing the songs of ascents on their way to the temple you know, all through Old Testament history and and the early church as well. It was a really important part of the congregation worshiping God together. 

But of course, as you know, when you read the Psalms, those are not English poetic forms. Right? It's a unique style. The Hebrew style of poetry is different than what we would maybe be more used to with the English language.

And so if you try to [00:04:00] just sing the Psalm as written in your English Bible, it's going to be a little difficult. It's not going to fit into a tune that you would be familiar with, like a repetitive tune with stanzas. If you're used to, like, a hymn and so, the metrical Psalter was developed. And this was around the time of the Reformation, right at the same time that the Reformers were beginning to put the Word of God into the vernacular so that people could hear the Word of God in their own language.

There had been a shift where, you know, worship. was no longer something that the congregation could participate in. Although for most of the early church, the congregation had been singing the Psalms. So they took the Psalms, And they translated them into the vernacular of the people, so German and English and all these other languages, French, but they put them in a [00:05:00] format that would fit a simple, often already familiar tune that the people would know.

So, you know, if you look in the back of your hymnal, you have often an index of titles and first lines, but you'll also have another index, and it'll have, it'll look a little strange. It might say something like 8. 6. 8. 6. And that's just a way of measuring the syllables in each line of the music. And so basically, the metrical Psalter takes the Psalms, tweaks them just a little bit to fit them into that English poetical form so that we can sing them with many of the hymn tunes we're already familiar with. 

Okay. That is really neat. Yes. I do understand how hymns are metered. I just didn't realize that there was a metrical Psalter. So that is really fun. So you, you seeing those types, you don't actually take the Psalm 150 from the Bible and [00:06:00] just put that to a tune. 

Right? So there are some chants that you can do. We do not personally incorporate that as much in our family, although I have done that. I've been at other folks homes and we've done that.

And that would be more taking the original chapter and kind of putting it into more of a chant form so that it can fit. But yes, what, what we do in our family is we sing the metrical Psalms. So it is just like singing a hymn, only you're singing the word of God. 

So tell me what you love about that.

There are so many things I love about. the Psalms in general or the, the Psalter, which we can use that term to both refer to just this book of Psalms, but often to refer to the, the book of Psalms set to music. And I think there are maybe at least three things I love about the Psalms. You know, one is I love [00:07:00] that I am able to participate in prayer and worship that covers the whole gamut of human emotions, right?

It's, if you are happy, there is a Psalm that is a prayer about happiness. If you are in deep despair, there's a Psalm there. And so I love how the Psalter gives us a pattern and teaches us how to pray. It teaches us that God is not, worried by hearing how we're feeling as humans. And yet, those Psalms may begin in despair, but almost always are going to end with, "Yet, I put my trust in you", you know, "Yet, I hope in the Lord, I will still praise him." so I think it really gives a good pattern for us and then our children teaching us how to deal with the big emotions of life. 

I also really love how the whole Psalter just like the whole Bible is about Jesus. And so you have these themes of the King. [00:08:00] And of course, many of the Psalms were written by David, but David himself points to Jesus, right?

We see that in the New Testament. And so as you're reading about this King, sometimes you think David, I don't think you were this perfect King that's being described. I've read first and second Samuel. I know what you did. And so it reminds us that no, these things are actually pointing to. the greater King, David's greater Son.

And so we can see Jesus and point our children to the gospel, to how these are pointing us to Jesus as we go through. And then I think, yeah. And I just, and I also just love that. I mean, I, we love hymns as well. We incorporate hymn singing in our church and family devotions as well. But I do love that when we're singing the Psalms, we're singing God's words back to Him.

And so we know that they are free from any error or yeah, potential human mistakes in there. And so there's something really [00:09:00] beautiful about being able to sing God's words back to Him and help my children hide His words in their heart in this sort of unique way. 

Yes. I was just thinking about that.

What an easy way to memorize scripture by singing it. We already know that that makes it easier. Yeah. So is there an easy way for people to see a Psalter? Is there one online or how do you get those? 

Yeah, so for anyone who is watching right now, I did bring just two Psalters. We have a couple more, but there are many different options.

This is the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. This is a great resource. The first 150 or so songs are the Psalms themselves. Okay. Metrical Psalms set to hymn tunes, and then there's hymns in there as well. So this is a great option. And then another one our family has enjoyed is the Book of Psalms for Singing.

And these are both easily accessible, but I will say that hymnary, [00:10:00] I believe it's dot org. I should have checked that. I have seen that. Yes. It is a good resource. You can find a lot of these actual Psalms, these actual hymnals I just showed you there. I know the Trinity Psalter Hymnal has a website as well.

Lots of things available for free. And on many of those websites, you can actually click the tune. So if it's not one you're familiar with, you know, you can click and it'll play. Not the greatest music in the world, but if you don't have a piano. Yeah, but if you don't have a keyboard at home, it can be a way to help you kind of learn, learn the tune.

Although I would suggest maybe starting with a hymn tune that your family is already familiar with and maybe choose that Psalm as your first one cause you're already going to know the tune really well. But there's lots of great, great ones to start with. 

Could you open up one of those books?

I just [00:11:00] wanted to see what the, the notes look like. 

So it looks musical notation. It looks just like just like a regular hymnal. 

Okay. So they do it in four parts. 

Yes. So it looks just like you would expect if you opened up to, to see, you know, "Amazing Grace" or something like that. But the words, for instance, this one is Psalm 23a.

And I'll probably, I should explain that in a minute but yes, it's the Lord is my shepherd. And so this is Psalm 23 so the words are, are the words of Psalm 23. So I guess that's something, since I brought up the 23a, I'll explain, cause that might be a little confusing if it's your first time going through a Psalter.

So, you will have, say, Psalm 23a, let's see, this particular one has Psalm 23a, 23b, and 23c. 

Can I guess? Yeah. Can I guess? [00:12:00] So if we did it with scripture and they said ABC, it would be the different parts of the verse or the chapter? Like did they divide the chapter into three parts? 

Yes. Yes. So. There's two different reasons. Now, that's not the reason for Psalm 23, but you can better believe that's the reason for 119. Okay. No matter how much we love the Psalms, most of us don't have time to sing all of Psalm 119. 

That's a long one. 

Yes. Longest chapter in the Bible. So, for one like that, it'll say at the top, which verses, which section of the Psalm are included in that particular tune.

Sometimes, though, there's more than one tune, or sometimes even more than one metrical version. Like, the actual meter might be different, which means the poetry is slightly different, the wording, or the wording may be the same. But maybe there's a couple of common tunes that are used for [00:13:00] that song. So in this case, there are actually three different tunes that go along with the full chapter.

And they actually leave out one of my favorites. So we have to get that one in a different Psalter. 

Do they try to make it rhyme? 

Yes, it is going to, if you just read it. So let me open back up to 23a.

If I read this to you, you would notice, since Psalm 23 is familiar, you'll recognize that it's a little different than what you've memorized, but very close, and it sounds more like English poetry. 

Okay. 

The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie. In pastures green, he leadeth me, the quiet waters by.

Okay that's so beautiful. I love that. Is there anything else that you wanted to share with us about singing the Psalms? [00:14:00] 

There are a couple things I wanted to mention. And that is that if you're new to studying the Psalms or thinking about how they point to Jesus with your kids, I really recommend the book, Wonder Full by Marty Michalski, he also wrote the book, Theology he's written a lot of great books for, for families, but this one is wonderful because it goes through each Psalm and gives you like a little summary of the theme and helps you see how they connect to the ones around them. So it's not specifically designed for the singing part, but I do think the more we understand what we're singing the better it will be. 

And then in our family, we've done it different ways, different times. Sometimes we set it as a goal for ourselves. Let's sing through, say if we have a new, a new Psalter, let's try to learn. all of the new tunes. So we'll start with Psalm 1 and, you know, Monday night [00:15:00] family devotions is Psalm 1 and Tuesday night is Psalm 2. And we just sort of like go through as a big, big picture approach, I guess. 

And do you play the piano?

I do. So if it's a new to us tune, I can play it so that we can hear it and, and learn the tune. But often for our devotions, we're just kind of sitting and singing acapella. 

All right. 

And then times when we've really wanted to. go down and actually learn a particular Psalm, then we'll just take that one Psalm and we'll sing it every night for a month or a week. Just like you would any other hymn you're trying to learn as a family. 

And to memorize it, do you try to teach parts in your family? 

We do, somewhat. So we have a range of musical, natural abilities in our homes. So sometimes, it is 

As most people do. 

Mm hmm. Many times it's making a joyful noise. There are times where, if it's especially a simpler [00:16:00] tune and one that's more familiar. A couple of us who do sing parts, we'll, we'll get everybody started and then we'll, we'll bring in our parts. But that hasn't been a huge focus for our family just yet, for reasons. 

And so the main focus for you is to sing the Word of God and to make a joyful noise. 

Exactly. Yes. 

I love that. I will definitely link to the books that you shared, the two Psalters and that children's book for the listeners to find.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with us, where people could find you online and maybe do you sell resources? 

Yeah, so you can find me at HumilityandDoxology.com, and if you're a podcast listener, you can find the Homeschool Conversations with Humility and Doxology podcast in your podcast app or on YouTube.

And I would love for you to come and listen to those and come to the website. I actually [00:17:00] if you're interested in learning more about the Bible with your family, I do have a free download that has a memory verse suggestion from every book of the Bible and other resources to help families with that.

And I would especially point to the podcast interview I did with my husband, John, about getting started with family devotions. If you're like, this sounds great, but you're talking about this. You're singing Psalms and family devotions or family worship. Like, what is this? That was a really wonderful, encouraging talk I did with my husband.

That sounds wonderful. Well, I'll link to that as well so that everyone can look into it. Thank you so much, Amy, for joining us today on the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. And I hope that our listeners will try out the Psalms because I think they will really enjoy it. I know I will. 

Oh, yes. Thank you, Gena.

**Find links to all resources mentioned here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/singing-the-psalms-in-your-homeschool/