Worship: Jerome on Singing the Psalms

Jerome (d. 420) advocated passionately for congregational psalm singing. He wrote to the church at Rome: "The plowman at his plow should sing alleluia; the toiling reaper should entertain himself with psalms; and the vine-dresser, while lopping the vine with his curved pruning hook, should sing some of the songs of David." Jerome envisioned a world saturated with the Psalms.…