The committee that produced Christian Worship in 1993 (CW93) had no idea how their new format of psalm singing would be received.

The Lutheran Hymnal in 1941 (TLH) had psalm verses printed to be read responsively, and a minority of congregations had adopted the practice. The psalm section in TLH had the historical name of Introit, and it came after the absolution before the “Gloria Patri.”

CW93 moved the psalm to the place between the first two Scripture readings. It provided refrains (sometimes called antiphons) for each psalm to be sung at the beginning, after selected verses, and after the “Gloria Patri” at the end of the psalm. That style is called responsorial. Sometimes the words of the refrain came from the psalm being sung, and sometimes not. The refrains and the psalm tones were all of a similar musical style.

The widespread adoption of the style and placement of the CW93 psalms strongly affected American Lutheranism. The newfound practice was widely admired and imitated in other Lutheran denominations. WELS congregations were justifiably proud of the time and effort they took to master the new psalm settings.

There were pockets of the country where WELS congregations decided that they could not use the CW93 psalm settings, mostly because no one in those areas was used to chanting during corporate worship. The committee that prepared Christian Worship in 2021 (CW21) estimated that one-third of WELS congregations did not sing the psalms.

The CW21 committee wanted to provide psalm settings that could be used anywhere in WELS. After some research, they came to the conclusion that more WELS congregations would be willing to sing the psalms if they were offered in a hymn format (also known as a metrical paraphrase). Would that mean doubling the size of the section in the new hymnal, with one responsorial and one metrical paraphrase for every psalm?

The CW21 committee also wanted to freshen the CW93 settings so they would not get stale with repeated use. They wanted to tie the refrains more closely to the texts of the psalms, but they also wanted to preserve CW93 settings that had become familiar and beloved. After some research, the committee discovered that there were WELS choir directors who were already searching for new settings of the existing psalms. Some of the new settings were being sung regularly in WELS congregations. How would all this fit into the front of the new hymnal?

At a certain point it became clear that an entire book of psalm settings, called a Psalter, would be a gift to the English-speaking Lutheran Church. The CW21 committee reviewed 10,000 psalm settings, voted on 5,000 of them, and selected the best 500 for the Christian Worship: Psalter (CWP).

The idea was that WELS worship planners would look at the setting for the appointed psalm in the new hymnal, decide if their congregation could learn that one, and if not, would check the Psalter to see if there was a setting of the same psalm more suited to their congregation.

So in 2025, our survey asked, “Do you usually use Psalter resources to choose a psalm setting?”

About 47% of respondents (450) answered “yes,” and 53% of respondents (505) answered “no.”

The comments that went along with the survey indicated that there were WELS congregations (perhaps 200) who had never sung the psalm in worship and did not begin to sing it even while adopting the new hymnal. Almost all the congregations who adopted CW21 and sang the psalm in CW93 learned how to use the Psalter to choose a suitable new setting for themselves.

It turned out that choosing a psalm setting, something worship planners had rarely done before, was perhaps the most difficult adjustment in switching to CW21. Some congregations kept CW93 in the pew until they figured out how to use the new psalm settings. One worship planner wrote, “We’re still learning and working at difficult melodies from the different psalms. We have a ‘backbone’ choir of young people that help us nearly every Sunday on ‘new’ melodies of hymns and psalms which is helpful.” Another worship planner wrote, “I’m doing my best to like the Psalter. But it is an adjustment. If the ‘old’ red hymnal psalms are available in the Psalter or the Service Builder, I can’t find them.” Others with the same struggle may consult the index on page 832 of the Psalter, in the section “Responsorials from CW93.”

Another resource for congregations learning the new settings is YouTube, where all the psalm settings in the hymnal pew edition are demonstrated completely. Type “CW psalm” in the search bar on YouTube to find that channel. That same channel has collected videos that demonstrate a majority of the settings in the Psalter. By the end of calendar year 2026, we hope to have all the hymnal pew edition videos available at christianworship.com.

Congregations who use The Foundation, a worship planning resource from WELS Congregational Services, may have discovered that since December 2025, they can find a guide to each psalm setting in the Psalter, indicating which ones are easiest, and offering tips for learning more difficult settings. These planning helps are also slated to be found on christianworship.com by the end of 2026.

Sam Eatherton, an LCMS teacher who is now kantor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, wrote an excellent review of the CW21 Psalter on pages 62-75 of the Spring 2023 CrossAccent, a journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. He concluded, “Over the years, it has been a never-ending task to gather the best of what is out there from a variety of sources so that musicians may use them in their churches. The psalmody committee of CWP has put together a superbly curated collection of psalms giving us a single place in which to delve for settings to use in corporate worship and in devotions for home and school. I cannot stress enough the excellence of this resource.”

This article is the third in a series based on the 2025 survey of worship practices in WELS congregations. Next month we will examine answers to the question, “Do you usually print the whole service in a bulletin?”