In the context of a discussion on church renewal, I once heard someone make the claim that it is better to sing contemporary worship songs than the psalms, because the former would be more accessible or familiar for potential visitors in a worship service. While the motivation for making such a statement is well-intended, it is neither wise nor biblical. Leaving aside for a moment the argument about exclusive psalmody, it should be beyond question that the command to sing psalms is repeated numerous times in Scripture (Psalm 95:2; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13). Again, leaving aside the question of exclusive psalmody, those churches which practice exclusive hymnody (or exclusive song-ody) should sincerely ask themselves why they do not sing any psalms, at all, ever.
Mark Jones, in this book God Is, has some insightful things to say about the nature of God that are related to this, and how all this is practical when it comes to the worship of God:
The truth is, then, that God is spirit. But far from being simply a metaphysical declaration about God’s essence, it gets us to the heart of the Christian faith: that God dwells in the hearts of his people, enabling them to offer worship that is acceptable. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). If our worship is not saturated with truth, then we can hardly claim to be worshiping God in the Spirit, for the Spirit works according to the truth.
Thus, the more our human words replace God’s words in corporate worship, the more we are corporately quenching the Holy Spirit. That is not to say that we cannot use human words, such as in our hymn singing. But certainly the Bible should be read corporately, and our prayers should be suffused with Scripture. Exclusive psalmody is not, in my mind, biblically demanded, but excluding the Psalms altogether from our singing is a greater crime than only singing the Psalms. After all, the Psalms give us perhaps the grandest view of God in all his Word, which drives us back again to the Spirit-filled, Word-infused worship appropriate to the nature of our God. (p. 42, emphasis added)
To sing the psalms, therefore, is a way to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Gairney Bridge 
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