The Book Of Psalms In An English Metrical Version

This book is a poetic version of the Book of Psalms from the Bible in English. It compares the metrical English translation with the original Hebrew and includes critical and explanatory notes. This version offers a fresh perspective on the Psalms and is sure to resonate with both religious and secular readers. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from The Book of Psalms, in an English Metrical Version: Founded on the Basis of the Authorized Bible Translation, and Compared With the Original Hebrew; With Notes Critical and Illustrative Highly as the Psalms are generally esteemed in the character of devotional exercises, it may be doubted whether they hold that rank in the character of poetical compositions to which they arc intitled. Yet their excellence in this respect is unquestionable: so that of the Psalms in particular may that be affirmed, which the greatest of our poets hath affirmed generally concerning "those frequent songs throughout the Law and the Prophets," that "not in their divine argument alone, but in the very critical art of composition, they may be easily made appear over all the kinds of lyrick poesy to be incomparable." At the same time I am persuaded, that a due perception and feeling of such excellence is signally conducive to their effect in the higher department of religious and moral improvement, for which after all they were composed, and without which they are no better than "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." With these impressions I undertook, and with the same impressions continually more and more deeply and firmly fixed, I have prosecuted and completed the following version, which I beg leave to introduce to the reader with a few expository observations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

During the Reformation, the Book of Psalms became one of the most well-known books of the Bible. This was particularly true in Britain, where people of all ages, social classes and educational abilities memorized and sang poetic versifications of the psalms. Those written by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins became the most popular, and the simple tunes developed and used by English and Scottish churches to accompany these texts were carried by soldiers, sailors and colonists throughout the English-speaking world. Among these tunes were a number that are still used today, including ‘Old Hundredth’, ‘Martyrs’, and ‘French’. This book is the first to consider both English and Scottish metrical psalmody, comparing the two traditions in print and practice. It combines theological literary and musical analysis to reveal new and ground-breaking connections between the psalm texts and their tunes, which it traces in the English and Scottish psalters printed through 1640. Using this new analysis in combination with a more thorough evaluation of extant church records, Duguid contends that Britain developed and maintained two distinct psalm cultures, one in England and the other in Scotland.

This 1987 book was the first full-scale study of English metrical Psalms to be published in the twentieth century.