"Praise Him with loud cymbals"--Don't even think about it

There is a wonderful arrangement of Ps. 150 in the RPCNA's The Book of Psalms for Singing. If the congregation sings well, it can be quite beautiful. But here's the rub. The psalmist says to praise God with the trumpet, harp, lyre, timbrel and cymbals. Even dancing is mentioned. But yet no trumpet, no harp, no lyre, no timbrel and no cymbals are allowed. As a kid, I wanted to rush downstairs into the church kitchen, get the pot lids and bang them together right when the cymbals were mentioned. Didn't do it. So obviously the RPCNA's hermeneutic is not literalism. Or is it? Well, it depends. At some time I'll talk about the RP's view of women's roles in the church. Interestingly enough there the hermeneutic shifts to a more literal view. Convenient.