Rev. Jim Witteveen
Rev. Jim Witteveen was ordained as a missionary in 2007. After serving in Prince George, BC until 2016, Jim was called by the Canadian Reformed Church in Aldergrove for service in north-eastern Brazil. He and his family have recently moved there and Jim now serves in partnership with fellow missionary Rev. Ken Wieske. I caught up with this busy preacher/teacher over email to speak about his involvement in Christ’s Psalms, Our Psalms. Enjoy! Peter Holtvlüwer
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PH: Let me start by thanking you for your contribution to Christ’s Psalms, Our Psalms. Besides being invited, what drew you to participate in this project?
JW: I was excited by the opportunity to contribute to what I think is an important project, that can have a broad positive impact for God’s people. The psalms have been an integral part of the worship and daily life of God’s people for millennia, and there has been a resurgence in interest in them in recent years, and that’s been a very positive development. To be able to play a part in bringing attention to God’s songbook is a great privilege!
PH: Which particular Psalms did you work on? There was some (limited) choice in psalm assignments—was there anything special about this group for you? Please tells us about it.
JW: I worked on Psalms 93-102 as well as Psalm 108. These are psalms that proclaim the reign of the Lord—he is the Great King, and his kingship is universal. I was drawn to this group of psalms because of the power of its message. As the words of God, of course all the psalms share this power, but of the groups that I had to choose from for my assignment, this group had the most immediate appeal, for that reason.
PH – One of the key things you were asked to find were legitimate connections to Jesus Christ in each psalm. How did you find this task? Did your psalms present any distinctive difficulties in this respect? Did you learn of any connections to Christ that were new to you?
JW – One of the challenges was in making certain that the connections to Christ in any given psalm are legitimate and meaningful. But what made this part of the work easier is understanding the number of ways in which the psalms are linked to Christ – they are his words, they are words about him, they are the words of his people, and they are prophetic in nature. There are straight-forward connections that can be drawn, such as in Psalm 93 – the LORD reigns, so we can say that the Lord Jesus Christ reigns. But when you really consider the way that Psalm 93 proclaims Christ, and think about the connections that exist elsewhere in Scripture, the message becomes more profound, and has a greater impact. For example, this psalm proclaims the power of God over the waves and the sea – power that the Lord Jesus himself demonstrated in his calming of the storm. Careful study of each psalm led to considerations like this one.
PH – You are a full-time missionary with plenty of demands on your schedule. How did you manage to work on Christ’s Psalms, Our Psalms alongside of your regular work? Did you encounter any special challenges? What sorts of things did you do to help you complete the assignment?
JW – Thankfully I was able to combine my work on this project with my regular responsibilities. For example, my exegetical work on these psalms was put to use in a series of sermons that I preached in the mission congregation in Prince George—and of course the results of the study I had to do find their way into a lot of different areas of pastoral work. It was a challenge meeting the deadlines, of course, but one of the things that helped was having a definite time-limit, when I accepted the call to do mission work in Brazil. I knew that if I didn’t get the work done before I left, it probably wouldn’t get done!
PH – How many hours (on average) did you put into each psalm? How did your wife feel about your involvement in Christ’s Psalms, Our Psalms?
JW – It’s very hard to put a number on the hours I spent on each psalm, probably because of the way that I work, in bits and pieces here and there – which is how I do pretty much everything! I do know it was a lot of work, more than I had anticipated at the beginning. My wife was a real encouragement in the work, and she put the pressure on to make sure I got it done!
PH – Tell us about one of the most interesting or surprising things that you learned in working on your psalms.
JW – One of the most interesting “discoveries” I made was the connections that exist among neighbouring psalms as well as their connections back to the “gatekeepers” of the Psalter, Psalms 1 and 2. Those opening psalms really lay out the overarching themes of the entire book of Psalms. Our general tendency is to read the psalms individually, and not consider the context – the psalms that come before and after the psalm we’re reading, and the links between them. But once my attention was drawn to those associations, I started to notice them more, and to see how the book of Psalms is, indeed, a unity.
PH – CPOP Study Resource was developed in part with Christian teachers and preachers in mind. In your mind, what stands out as the most useful features for educators? For ministers?
JW – For educators, I think the questions included for each psalm will help stimulate discussion in the classroom that will help students (and teachers) to move beyond a merely surface-level understanding of the psalms. I also think that drawing attention to certain poetic aspects of the psalms will help students to appreciate the beauty and majesty of their content. These are aspects that may not be readily noticeable, but will also, I hope, encourage careful reading and consideration of each psalm, and bring out their richness. I think that for ministers there are many benefits to this project – the suggestions on how each psalm can be used in worship and in pastoral situations should be particularly beneficial.
PH – How do you think people in an average English-speaking Reformed church might use either CPOP’s Study Resource or Devotional? What benefits do you see in this material for ordinary Christians?
JW – The devotional section is ideally suited for family devotions or family worship, and I think the length of the individual devotions is well-suited to the needs of families, especially those with young children. The devotions can also be used in schools as part of the regular school day, perhaps in combination with learning to sing the psalms. It seems to me that the Study Resource would also be helpful for small group Bible studies. There’s a lot of stuff here, and many ways in which it can be used, and that’s one of the great things that I see about this project.
PH – You have served as missionary in northern British Columbia (Canada) and now are a missionary in northern Brazil. Is there a role for Christ’s Psalms, Our Psalms to play in a missionary setting? How about in the wider Christian community in both regions? Please explain.
JW – As a missionary, one of the things that I want to encourage is an appreciation for the psalms. In terms of teaching, theology, understanding of the nature and attributes of God, the history of God’s redemptive work, and a host of other issues, the psalms are a wonderful resource on the mission field. For those who are accustomed to the psalms, psalm-singing can be under-appreciated, kind of “old hat”—something that’s taken for granted. But new believers, and their enthusiasm for the psalms, can encourage us to really appreciate the gift that we’ve received in this collection of God’s songs. I would love to see a project like this being taken on by a group of Brazilian pastors, in the same way this project was done—not simply translating this material into Portuguese, but developing material that is specifically aimed at God’s people here in Brazil. Many people have come out of churches where the songs are emotionally manipulative and devoid of real content, and they are learning to appreciate the depth and beauty of the psalms, in worship, in devotional life, and in prayer. This is very exciting, and my prayer is that the idea of CPOP will be taken over here in Brazil as well.
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