Three ways to sing the Psalms
Metrical Psalms, Plainsong, and Anglican Chant (and then some...)

	The psalter of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer

The book of Psalms (Tehillim in Hebrew) was the prayer book of the Israelites in their synagogue worship. There are recorded instances in the Bible where Jesus took His words directly from the Psalms -- He even used the Psalms when He cried out in agony on the cross. And later when Jesus appeared to John on the Island of Patmos and told him what to write to the Churches, He still quoted the Psalms!

Many of the Psalms are prayers which we can offer to God. Other Psalms tell us about God and His mighty acts. So we pray some Psalms and reflect on others. The Psalms are a conversation between God and His people. And when we read aloud those Psalms that talk about God, we join God in proclaiming His word to all who are around us, whether visible or invisible.

Martin Luther said this about the psalter, which is another name for the book of Psalms:

The psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book, if for no other reason than this: it promises Christ's death and Resurrection so clearly--and pictures His kingdom and the conditions and nature of all Christendom--that it might well be called a little Bible.

The preface to the Tehillim by the Kehot Publication Society has this quote from Tezmach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe:

If one would only know the power of the verses of Tehillim, and their effect on high, one would recite them continuously. The verses of Tehillim transcend all barriers and ascend higher and higher, imploring the Master of the Universe until they achieve results in kindness and mercy.

Pope Benedict XVI has said that the Book of Psalms can teach people how to pray and is the prayer book par excellence:

These inspired songs teach us how to speak to God, expressing ourselves and the whole range of our human experience with words that God himself has given us.

Praying the Psalms can bring amazing results within you and in the world around you. It can help you and your family in times of disaster (see Psalm 91: God's Umbrella of Protection and Psalm 91: God's Shield of Protection ).

Back in the days when most people could not read, common folk began to pray the Rosary which let them recite the shorter and easy to memorize the Hail Mary prayer 150 times instead of 150 Psalms.

The Hebrew Tehillim, the Orthodox Kathismata and the Anglican Book of Common Prayer have the psalter divided up so people can go through all 150 Psalms every month. The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours (A.K.A. Divine Office) goes through the psalter in four weeks.

Some psalters are arranged to be read through entirely once a week (and twice a week during Lent). Some monastics pray the entire psalter -- all 150 Psalms -- every day!

A daily dosage of Psalms -- even only one Psalm a day -- might sound a bit tedious. That is, unless you sing them. The Psalms were intended to be sung. You may have noticed little notes to the chief musician or choir director at the beginning of some Psalms. In 1 Chronicles 29:31 we read of King Hezekiah ordering the Levites to sing the Psalms, and apparently they already knew the tunes because they just jumped right in and started singing:

Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

The book of Psalms is a song book. Try reading through a book of your favorite songs without singing them and see how dry they are, like cornflakes without milk.

Sing the Psalms, and you will find how gratifying it is, and you will look forward to doing it again.

There are very few clues, and no musical notes in our English Bibles to help us sing the Psalms, but today there are several ways to sing them. This page describes three good ways that I've discovered: Metrical Psalms, Plainsong, and Anglican Chants.

1. Metrical Psalms

In order to sing the Psalms, one has to either edit the words to fit tunes, or create tunes to fit the words.

Metrical Psalms are of the first type, words edited to fit tunes. A standard metrical Psalm is written in Common Meter which is 8.6.8.6. That means in a four line phrase, there will be eight syllables, then six syllables, then eight syllables, and then six syllables.

Here are some familiar tunes in Common Meter:

This is just a fraction of what is out there. Do you see any favorite tunes in this list? Amazing Grace is beloved by many, including myself, but it can seem a bit short when if you've got a good harmony going and don't want to stop. With a metrical psalter you can belt out Amazing Grace with gusto until the cows come home and never repeat a single verse.

Actually, as one reader pointed out, Amazing Grace is the name of the poem written by John Newton in 1779, and that famous tune came fifty years later and was called New Britain. Several hymns in the list are probably the names of poems rather than tunes.

One of my favorite Common Meter tunes is St. Flavian. Here it is in the key of F. Notice the heavy bar in the middle of each line. That tells you where to divide the text. As you can see, eight notes are followed by six in each line of music.

Here are a few verses of Psalm 103 in Common Meter. Try singing these verses to St. Flavian or a few of the tunes listed above (note that "stirred" is two syllables as in "stirr-ed" while "bestowed" is pronounced with two syllables):

O THOU my soul, bless God the Lord; and all that in me is Be stirred up His holy Name to magnify and bless. Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be Of all His gracious benefits he hath bestow'd on thee.

	This psalter comes in a few sizes including 3x5 inch pocket size (center) and even bound in the back of a Bible (left). The language is similar to that of the King James Bible.

If you had psalter arranged in Common Meter, you could have a great time singing the Psalms to a variety of tunes. They are beautiful when sung well in rich four part harmony. There are lots of metrical Psalms performed well on YouTube. Great fun! Of the three ways to sing Psalms, metrical Psalms are probably the most familiar to our ears from a musical standpoint.

The Psalm text above came from the Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650 also called The Psalms of David in Metre. This work is considered a careful translation that is faithful to the original Hebrew text. Some parts are even a closer reflection of the original Hebrew than the prose Psalms found in the English Bible because subtle nuances of the Hebrew text were brought out where extra syllables were needed.

Whether or not the Hebrew is strong in this psalter, the English is clearly a bit strained so it will fit the tune and also make it rhyme. Imagine the incredible amount of work that had to go into this to fit the words to meter and also make them rhyme! Still, it communicates the meaning just fine, and you may come to love it. The slightly unnatural English text of Psalm 23 (and the tune that always goes with it) in this psalter is well known and beloved by many:

The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie In pastures green: He leadeth me the quiet waters by.

Some churches sing metrical Psalms exclusively (no other hymns) which I personally think is a great idea. Why sing hymns written by people when you can sing the powerful Word of God -- especially since you have so many great tunes to choose from, and are free to create more tunes in any musical style?

You can order a copy of The Psalms of David in Metre from the Trinitarian Bible Society. They also sell Bibles with these same metrical Psalms in the back (in addition to the regular Psalms in the Bible, of course). You can also order it through Amazon.

Here is another edition of the same metrical psalter plus a few other metrical psalters at Amazon:

• Scottish Metrical Psalter
• A New Metrical Psalter
• The Book of Psalms for Singing
• Trinity Psalter
• Psalms Reader: For Teaching Twenty-First Century Children to Read Fluently and Worship Their Creator

Some of these have the older form of English which I love, being a fan of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, but the majority of books listed on this page are in modern English.

2. Plainsong

The other way to sing Psalms is to keep the words in their original form, and create tunes to fit the words. Of course, this could result in 150 different tunes with complex and unpredictable melodies. Fortunately there is another option: chanting. Chanting is a combination of speaking and singing. This is the key to singing text without rearranging it; most of the words are spoken in a monotone on the same note, and a small part of the text is sung to specific notes and rhythms, giving the chant its musical quality.

One very old form of chanting is called plainsong, which has been around since the early centuries of the Christian Church, if not earlier. It is possible that parts of plainsong chants we have today came from the synagogue chants which were familiar to Jesus. Plainsong is also called Plainchant. Gregorian Chant is a form of plainsong.

The standard in America for many years was the Plainsong Psalter by Charles Winfred Douglas, and first published in 1932 by the H.W. Gray Company. The text is the classic Coverdale Psalter. It has been out of print since the early 1960s.

Plainsong is especially suited to individual prayer since there are no harmonies or instrumental accompaniment, and the range of notes if relatively narrow and within the range of the average person. You can determine how high or low the chant will be sung, so no chant is ever outside your singing range.

The music for plainsong chant (also called plainchant) comes from nine different basic tunes called Psalm Tones, and there are variations within these nine Psalm tones.

In a plainsong psalter, the text is marked (pointed) to give the reader clues as to how to fit the words to the music. Each psalter has its own system of pointing, but they all follow the same basic principles.

Here is a Psalm tone (number 2 out of the nine, usually identified by a Roman numeral, so it is Psalm tone II) with pointed text from Psalm 103:8 (hint: in Do RE MI terms, the first note in this example is FA, but it has so few notes, you can consider it DO if that makes it easier):

In the text, the slashes separate the string of words that fit one long note (the long bar) from the words (or syllables) that take individual notes. The asterisk marks the division between the first and second section, and corresponds with the bar in the center of the music. In some psalters a colon is used instead of an asterisk for this.

Plainsong was originally written in a form of music notation known as neums, which are the ancestors of modern music notation. Some plainsong psalters still use neums while others use modern notation. Here is the same chant in neums (and in this example the first note really is DO on the DO RE Mi scale):

There are a few other elements of plainsong which aren't covered here, but if you have grasped this much, then you'll have no problem with the rest.

I have created a small card, basically 3X5 inches with 5 of the simplest, most versatile Psalm tones, so I can tuck it into my Bibles for quick reference to use with any of the Psalms. If you would like to try it, I also made a PDF with a sheet of 4 identical cards (since there was extra room on the sheet) and some extra instructions. Someday if I'm brave, I may even record them in order to cut through all the confusion caused by typed instructions.

If you use a plainsong psalter regularly, you will soon have a collection of Psalm chants in your head at your disposal so that even when you open the Psalms in your Bible, you will be able to sing them naturally because the chants will pop into your head.

The Plainsong Psalter of 1932 mentioned above is nearly impossible to find, but Lancelot Andrewes Press came to the rescue by producing Saint Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter, which is mainly based on the Plainsong Psalter of 1932 but expanded to include Canticles and all the elements you would need to chant Morning and Evening Prayer (Matins and Evensong) of the classic Book of Common Prayer. It uses the same Psalm tones from the 1932 Plainsong Psalter, even assigning the same tones to the same Psalms, and adds several more tones to the longer Psalms. While the 1932 Plainsong Psalter was written in modern musical notation, this psalter is done in the original square neum notation which is really much easier to sight read because it is less cluttered. This is an excellent work, and fills a great need. You can get a copy from Lancelot Andrewes Press or Amazon.

Saint Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter

Here is a web site with recordings of various Psalms chanted from The Saint Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter, chanted by Brother Benedict, OSB of St. Augustine Orthodox Church in Denver. Also, recordings of The Compline Service at St. Mark's Cathedral usually include chanting of the Psalms in beautiful Plainsong by a men's choir.

Here are a few other plainsong related materials at Amazon:

• Plainsong Psalter (modern translation of the Psalms with modern music notation)
• Chanting the Psalms: A Practical Guide with Instructional CD

A simple improvised plainsong type of chant

If you don't want to find a plainsong psalter, here is a very simple and versatile chant that will serve as a springboard for improvisation. The first note is written as C, but that is only to show how the other notes relate to it. Simply think of it as DO on the DO RE MI scale, and sing it as high or low as you want.

The long square bar is for singing the majority of the words on one note in a natural reading style. Then you change the note of the final syllable or syllables as indicated in the music: go up a note at the end of the first line and drop down two notes at the end of the second line.

Different words break at different places. For example in Psalm 93 (below) the word "majesty" would require an accent on the first syllable but not the final two syllables. If such a word occurs at the end of the first line, go up a note on "ma" and drop back down to the original note for "jesty" (I put this "dropping back down" in parentheses in the music score since sometimes it is needed and sometimes it is not). On the second line, you have a choice, depending on what sounds most natural to your ears. You could drop down a note in the middle of "girded" as I have done, or somewhere else.

The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty: the LORD is robed, he is girded with strength.

Most Psalms are divided into groupings of two lines each. The chant is therefore divided into two sections. If there are three lines grouped together instead of two, just repeat the notes of second measure for the final line.

Yeah, the world is established; it shall never be moved; thy throne is established from of old; thou art from everlasting.

(This is a departure from traditional Plainsong which would have you modify the tune for the first line instead of the last line, but with this improvised method, there is no need to plan ahead or backtrack when you suddenly discover you still have an extra line.)

Note that the words "robed" and "moved" can also be split into two syllables if you are using the traditional way of pronounciation as in the word "wicked." This could result in a change in the melody:

There is no universal agreement on which words should be divided and where. Feel free to improvise and let the words divide naturally according to your own judgement. If you are singing by yourself to God, then there is no need to conform to established formulas.

An even simpler form of chant is called recto tono which is Latin for straight tone. You simply recite the entire Psalm on one note! I once heard a guy behind me in church chanting a Psalm this way and thought he was simply being rebellious or displaying some kind of misguided piety. Now I realize he was chanting in a very old and acceptable form. Try it some time and you might warm up to it. It's probably the easiest form of chant to use with straight text versions of the Psalms; because your chant is on "automatic pilot" you don't have to think about the delivery and can focus more on the content of the Psalms.

3. Anglican Chants

Another way of singing Psalms which conforms the music to the text is called Anglican Chant. This form of chant came from plainsong, and was created to allow Anglican church choirs to chant the Psalms in four part harmony. It first appeared around the same time as the first Book of Common Prayer in the 16th century, so apparently it was intended to be used with the psalter (produced by Miles Coverdale) in that prayer book. Plainsong at the time was in Latin while Anglican Chant was in English. By the way the Coverdale psalter is still widely used, and is printed in several prayer books as well as pointed psalters, both plainsong and Anglican.

The Cathedral Psalter, a classic collection of Anglican Chants in use since the 19th century. The text is the classic Coverdale Psalter.

The original Anglican Chants were simple, and sounded like plainsong. But over the years, Anglican Chant has evolved into beautiful and complex pieces which are wonderful to hear when performed by a choir. If you would like to hear some absolutely beautiful Anglican chants done well, listen to the Psalms sung during Choral Evensong by the Merton College Choir.

A lot of Anglican chants were intended to be sung by choirs in four part harmony, and therefore do not hold up well when sung by an individual. However, there are many simple Anglican chants with solid melodies which are great for chanting alone during your personal prayer time.

Here is the melody (soprano) line of a classic Anglican chant that appears in many old psalters and hymn books. Below it are two lines from Psalm 103 of the Coverdale text with pointing as it appears in the Cathedral Psalter (in that particular psalter a different chant is used with this text). If you need help, the final note is DO on the DO RE MI scale:

Praise the Lord | O my | soul : and all that is within me | praise His | holy | Name.
Praise the Lord | O my | soul : and for - | - get not | all His | benefits .

The upright bars in the text correspond to the bars in the music and the colon corresponds to the heavy bar (it's a good place to pause and take a breath). Usually the whole notes will contain more than one word -- even a string of words, while the half notes are assigned to one syllable each. You may feel tempted to rush through the string of words to get past it and on to the musical part, but just take your time and read the words naturally with feeling. The same goes for plainsong.

Here I have colored the parts to show how they go together:

The great thing about Anglican Chants is that there is one standard pattern so any pointed Psalm will fit any Anglican chant. This makes a text-only point Anglican Chant Psalter like the one below very useful.

Here is a facsimile edition of a psalter from 1858 called The Book Of Psalms, Pointed For Chanting And Adapted To Appropriate Chants by An English Priest. It has only text, so you can match the Psalms to your favorite chants. This copy has a few flaws (and a spooky image of a thumb) which I describe in more detail in my book review at Amazon.

Here are a few other books of pointed Psalms for Anglican Chants at Amazon:

• The Anglican Psalter
• Anglican Chant Psalter

Anglican chants in their most basic form consist of ten notes in seven measures. It would be very easy for anyone to compose new chants based on this forumla, and sing the Psalm texts from one of these pointed psalters. With this form of chant you could add chords and play a guitar or other instrument while you chant the Psalms. David played a harp, you know. It could open up a whole new world of possibilities for you.

Which to choose

While all three forms can be used successfully in any setting, I personally think Metrical Psalms really shine when sung in harmony by a group of people, while Anglican chants are best when performed by choirs and Plainsong is perfect for private prayer time. If I am away from home, and have only a text version of the Psalms with me, I will use the simple improvised plainsong type of chant described above or even recto tono.

Other forms of chanting

Byzantine Chant is a form of chant used in The Orthodox Church. One way it differs from Plainsong and Anglican Chanting is that there is a lot more improvisation involved. The tone (or scale) of each chant is given, which determines the beginning, middle and end notes of each phrase (like a Plainsong Psalm tone)

The Greek Septuagint version of the Psalms has 151 Psalms. Psalm 151 is about David and Goliath.

but the other notes are not confined to a monotone, but go up and down freely within the confines of the particular tone, as the chanter improvises. Apparently this form of chant does not require pointed texts.

I'm not familiar enough with it to say much more than this, but there is a Byzantine Chant workshop in podcast form on the web called Glory To Thee with a downloadable PDF text for you to start leaning this style. It can be found at Ancient Faith Radio.

When you cannot use your voice

In the 4th century Saint Augustine wrote about his mentor Bishop Ambrose of Milan and his amazing ability to read without using his voice. Apparently there was a time when nobody read silently or even considered it! But today, sometimes you have to share your devotional space with people who are doing other things, and vocal expression is not an option. You can still elevate your experience of the Psalms by saying them silently and deliberately. A lot of people move their lips when they read; it's not a big deal (unlike in Saint Augustine's time).

One method which I have found very helpful in such situations is to take a breath before every phrase and say that phrase silently while exhaling. It helps you to focus, prevents you from drifting absent mindedly through large sections, and can be very rewarding. By the way, in noisy crowded places, ear plugs can make a world of difference in your ability to concentrate; in noisy crowded Tokyo, I use earplugs a lot.

Having said all that, I still encourage you to sing or say the Psalms out loud when you can. If you are not getting much out of your devotional time, find a time and place where you can use your voice and see if it doesn't make a world of difference; it certainly does for me. If you pray a Psalm mentally, your mind can easily wander, but if you are using your voice, then the Psalm is entering your mind via your eyes and ears for double input. You might forget what you read but remember what you heard.

I often use my voice when I'm walking and praying or reciting scripture, and I usually sing rather than just speak (setting scripture to music helps you to memorize and retain better, by the way). Lots of people sing to themselves when they are walking in public. It's funny actually; people who talk to themselves are considered odd and to be avoided, while people who sing to themselves are considered perfectly normal, and possibly in a more healthy emotional state than others.

Great Fasting food

No, that's not a typing mistake. The Psalms will help you make it through times of fasting, substituting spiritual food for physical food. It is very appropriate, in light of Jesus' words in Matthew 4:4 (which was a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3):

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

At the times when you would normally have a meal, or whenever you feel hunger pangs, just jump up and say "lunch time!" and sing a few Psalms. Having a psalter on hand is like sitting next to a salad bar; just pick it up whenever you like, open to the bookmark, and read the next Psalm or several Psalms, and then get on with your fast with new strength. The Psalms have everything you need, or (to drive the salad metaphor into the ground) all the basic food groups such as prayer, praise, confession, etc.

This is a great time for singing the metrical Psalms, which are a little more fun and musically gratifying than chanted Psalms. If the Psalms were food, the sung metrical Psalms would be the fun food (the level of fun depending on which tunes you use, I suppose). During a fast I will chant some Psalms and sing others. If you have the freedom to do so, belt out those Psalms and leave the hunger pangs behind.

Fasting is not some spooky or super spiritual practice for monastics. It's not supposed to be a sad or gloomy experience. It's simply a discipline which reminds the appetite who is really boss (or in more biblical words, keeps the flesh in submission to the spirit). I'm not skinny by anyone's definition, but I wonder about the role of fasting in the lives of some really obese members of the clergy I've seen. Maybe they need to go to Heaven's salad bar more often.

It was assumed in the Bible that all Christians fasted. Jesus said "when ye fast" rather than "if ye fast" in Matthew 6. Singing Psalms instead of eating a meal is a good way to introduce this practice into your life. Very simple and rewarding! It can be as little as a one or two meal fast, so most people should be able to work a little fasting into their schedules.

The dark side

Just a word concerning some of the "darker" Psalms that ask God to punish our enemies. Remember that no living human being is beyond the transforming power of God's salvation. The apostle Paul who was originally bent on destroying the Church is a good example. No human being in this world can be written off as an enemy of God, or of His people. Our true enemies are described in Ephesians 6:12:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

These enemies assault the Church and its members every day through human agents or directly. You can keep these unseen enemies in mind as you call down God's judgement -- and pray for the salvation of their human agents. This should help with at least some of the dark Psalms.

Make it your own

One thing last thing: As you concentrate on singing the Psalms, it is easy to forget what is really important, namely to make the words of the Psalms your own.

In 2 Samuel 24, King David wanted to build an altar and make an offering to the LORD at the threshing floor of Araunah (also known as Ornan in 1 Chronicles 21). Araunah offered to give David the oxen and wood and everything he needed so he could make the sacrifice. But David insisted on paying for them and making them his own before offering them to the LORD. Otherwise he would be offering something that was not his. When you open the Psalms and make a sacrifice of praise to the LORD, make them your own words. Otherwise you will be offering up somebody else's sacrifice.

I struggle with this almost every day. I'll chant several verses, feel happy that I was successful in combining words with music, and then realize that the words went from the page to my mouth but somehow bypassed my mind. At those times I simply backtrack and chant the lost verses again. I like to think that this makes the devil really angry, who would rather not hear those Psalms chanted over again. Of course, some people don't let it bother them, and simply move on without doing it again, and that's fine, too, of course. As I've said before, the same Psalms will come around again in a few weeks anyway.

Chanting the Psalms brings great blessings. As you make the words of the Psalms your own, you will be forced to conform your attitudes and thinking patterns to God's Word; it will transform you. You'll discover a thrill that you never knew was hidden in the Psalms. In your spirit you will perceive that God has been there with you as you prayed His words back to Him. Even if you were sleepy or tired or uncomfortable as you sang the Psalms and felt you didn't get much out of it, afterwards you may feel like the two men on the road to Emmaus who later realized that their hearts were burning within them simply because they were with Jesus. Your spirit will crave that experience again and again. That alone should be more than enough reason to want to try this!

Part two: Some psalter reviews

There are well over a hundred English translations of the Bible out there now, plus several prayerbooks which contain the Psalms. There are several great stand-alone psalters to choose from, such as the Coverdale psalter, Orthodox translations of the Greek Septuagint, Catholic psalters and the Hebrew Tehillim.There are also a few metrical psalter versions in print. The photo at the right shows part of my collection of psalters which contain only the Psalms.

In this second part of the article I'd like to shift gears and introduce you to some of the psalters that are out there, in addition to the ones already mentioned above. Some are pointed for singing or chanting, and some are straight unadorned text which require a little improvisation on your part if you want to sing them. If you love the Psalms, you will probably end up with several beloved psalters. I never planned on collecting psalters, but I ended up with quite a pile of them all the same.

There is one caveat, however, if you find your book shelf is starting to bulge with psalters: if you are singing through the psalms regularly, especially if you go through the entire collection every month or every week, the words will stay with you and come to mind later when you need them. You can memorize Psalms without even trying. But if you keep jumping from one version to another, you could lose that benefit. It's fun to collect a bunch of versions for reading and comparison, but if memorizing the Psalms is important to you, then stick to one version for daily chanting, such as the translation your church uses.

Regular Bibles and many stand-alone psalters don't have the benefit of pointing (those markings that divide the text to fit the chant) but after you've been at this for a while, you will discover you really don't need any pointing at all, at least if you are chanting simple Plainsong (Anglican Chants are a little more complicated). Most Psalms are clearly divided into two or three parts. A quick glance at the end of each part is usually all you will need. And you will be surprised at how much of the Psalm remains with you from the times you chanted it in the past.

Pocket New Testaments with Psalms

Since I rely on a crowded public transportation system and also do a lot of walking between stations, I think tiny pocket psalters are a great idea. Too bad they are so rare! After much searching I've found only a few and you can read about them below.

Fortunately there is no shortage of pocket New Testaments which include the Psalms, and they can be found everywhere. Of course, you have to find one with readable text since the extra contents requires a smaller type size, and the text in some of these can be a bit tiny for older eyes. When I was a teenager I always carried a very small King James New Testament with the Psalms. That little book lived in the back pocket of my jeans and nearly fell apart after several years. In later years I carried a pocket NASB New Testament with Psalms until it vanished during my travels.

Now I have a very nice Pocket English Standard Version (ESV) New Testament with Psalms. It is in the photo on the right. Mine has a nice leather cover and guilded edges, but there is also a synthetic cover available which some people prefer. The text is not too small for my eyes.

The New Testament portion is in double column format, but the publisher apparently had a special reverence for the Psalms, and laid them out in a single column format with each verse on its own line just like real poetry; very classy and easy to read and chant! I'm shouldn't be surprised since J.I. Packer was one of the main forces behind this translation, and he happens to be an Anglican. As you have probably gathered from the article above, the Psalms hold a special place in the hearts of most Anglicans, who hold them in the highest regard.

You may notice some letters penciled in the margin with a blue pencil. Those are my own divisions of the Psalms into small portions of fairly uniform length, which are distributed over several time slots during the day for a 30 day period. This page has 18NP, so it schedules Psalm 91 for Night Prayer on the 18th day of the month. Actually, I recite Psalm 91 from memory every night because of all the earthquakes we've been having, and predictions of a devastating quake to hit Tokyo in the next few years. We are walking through the valley of the shadow of death and need to cling to God now more than ever.

The ESV is a revision of the RSV (Revised Standard Version) which was was very popular when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, and is now widely used by Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, making it a truly ecumenical Bible version. If you prefer the RSV, another recently published pocket paperback New Testament with Psalms is the Orthodox Youth Edition which is in the photo on the left. I have written review of this one in a different article.

There are situations where it really helps to have quick access to the Scriptures. Not long ago I was taking a walk at lunch time, and for some reason started feeling depressed. Perhaps it was because of the old and dying neighborhood I had passed through. Anyway, I pulled out my tiny pocket New Testament and started to quietly chant some Psalms which I had scheduled for the day, and suddenly my spirit was lifted up and I was filled with incredible joy. I can't explain the amazing change except to say it must have been the Holy Spirit working through these powerful words. The content of the particular Psalm I had chosen was not particularly unique or uplifting, but I later recalled another passage in the letter of James that said "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." I'm so glad I had this treasure in my pocket!

I can sometimes be seen walking around the neighborhood with a little book open, singing by myself, oblivious to my surroundings. My students are very amused when they see this. But someday I might get hit by a car if I'm not careful.

Just a note about Psalm reading schedules: I've spent a lot of time and energy compiling all kinds of Psalm reading schedules that will take you through the Psalms in 30 days or four weeks, and several can be found linked from this article. They are really helpful, but they're not for everyone. There's a lot to be said for simply plowing through the Psalms at your own pace with a bookmark to keep your place. If you don't feel the need to finish the Psalms in one month, why restrict yourself that way?

Don't forget good old portable Bibles

I carry about a dozen e-book Bibles on my Kindle, but it is still my habit to always carry a compact Bible everywhere in my bag. One thing I can't easily do with an e-book Bible is whip and flip, in other words, whip it out quickly and flip directly to the passage I'm looking for. I often visit an old church near my work at lunch break to pray the Psalms in the quiet sanctuary. I'm sure that anyone who happens to drop in would be more comfortable seeing a Bible in my hands rather than some electronic device.

The practice of carrying a Bible in my bag started back when I was a student at Malone College in Ohio. I had a big heavy New American Standard Reference Bible that was wonderful but not exactly portable (but that didn't stop me from carrying it around all the same). At that time I fell in love with a particular pocket version of the NASB I had seen in the hands of a visiting missionary speaker. One of my friends also had the exact same Bible. It was small, made of leather, and had a snap flap. The idea of carrying something that small and portable in my bag had me very excited (this was many years before Japanese subways would force me to to keep everything small and portable).

That Bible cost around forty dollars, which was a lot of money back then, especially for a poor college student. So my dilemma was that even if I had been given the money to buy such a Bible, I couldn't justify the purchase because there were other things I needed to buy even more; back in those days I was so poor that after I wrote a letter I had to pray for money to just buy postage stamps! So one day I entered a prayer in my prayer journal (dated February 16, 1983) asking God to send someone who would buy me that particular Bible as a gift. I didn't really think this would happen, but I prayed for a lot of very specific things in those days, just to have all bases covered. Of course I didn't tell anyone about my outrageous prayer request.

Two days later some friends surprised me by handing me that very Bible, brand new, and still in its box! A mutual acquaintance whom I had not seen for a long time had bought one for herself and also decided to buy one for me as well, and asked my friends to give it to me!

So that day I promised God I would try to carry Bible with me wherever I was. I took it with me when I visited Japan a few months later on a summer mission trip, and it was a good companion. That little Bible has travelled in my bag with me everywhere since then, and has flown over the Pacific Ocean many times. I still have it with me here in Japan, and still use it. You can't find that particular compact Bible in the stores these days, but it has a worthy successor.

If you invest in a compact Bible, I highly recommend looking for one with either a zipper cover or snap flap so you won't worry about the pages getting mangled or ripped by other items in your bag. No matter how careful you are, things have a way of ending up inside the pages. A small pouch would also serve to protect your Bible if it doesn't have a flap or zipper.

Until the 1820s, the Authorized King James Version and all other English Bibles included the seven Deuterocanonical books which are also called the Apocrypha. Today some very nice compact Bibles which include these books are available including one that has a zipper cover.

It's nice to have the entire Bible handy when you are praying the Psalms because you can go to other passages that pop into your head. Of course, if you are not careful, you may end up chasing a trail through the Bible rather than praying the Psalms as you had intended. For those who are easily distracted, the value of a dedicated psalter is that it only has the Psalms so you can't go off on detours; a psalter is a sharp tool for a specific job. And they are also a lot of fun!

An Orthodox Psalter

Here's a classy little green pocket psalter produced by Holy Transfiguration Monastary (the one in the lower right corner of the photo above, and featured in the photo below). Orthodox Christians usually refer to it as the HTM Psalter. Now you can get one through Amazon, but I got my copy from Orthodox Incense because they ship to Japan at reasonable rates.

This psalter is pocket size, with a beautiful design printed in black and red on nice opaque paper. The text is a new translation (done in the 1970s) of the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old testament that Jesus, the Apostles, and the Church Fathers read and quoted, and therefore considered a valuable translation of the Hebrew.

Even though it's a modern translation, they used the older form of English. Modern English has lost the distinction between second person singular and plural pronouns unless y'all live in the south or yinz hail from Pittsburgh (they really say yinz; I've heard it!) so the old pronouns (thee, thou, and ye, etc) make the text more precise. One drawback to old translations is that many other English words have become obsolete or have changed their meaning. A modern translation that uses the classic pronouns? That's wonderful as I'm concerned. The text is more of a dynamic equivalence translation which tries to convey the feeling of the original rather than the exact equivalent of each word.

In this psalter (and all Orthodox Christian psalters) the Psalms are divided into 20 sections called Kathismata. Two Kathismata are to be read in the mornings, and one is to be read most evenings so you can finish all the Psalms in a week. Each Kathisma is divided into three sections called stases, which means there are actually 60 divisions in all. If you want to read through this psalter in one month (30 days) just read one stasis each morning and each evening.

The Hebrew Tehillim

Another great pocket psalter is the Tehillim published by the Kehot Publication Society. This is slightly under 3 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 inches, and is 3/4 inches thick. This one has English and Hebrew on facing pages which makes the book a little thick since it contains two complete psalters. The English is translated from a Hebrew standpoint (which one could argue is the original one), and that makes it fascinating and instructive. Look at the very first two lines of the first Psalm:

Fortunate is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the path of sinners, nor sat in the counsel of scoffers. Rather, his desire is in the Torah of the Lord, and in His Torah he meditates day and night.

I bet you didn't know this was a reference to the Torah, which is the first five books of Moses, from Genesis to Deuteronomy (although the word can also be used in a more general sense). Also, a lot of the names in the Tehillim are slightly different from what you may be accustomed to, being in their original Hebrew form.

I am very impressed with the apparent accuracy of this translation. No, I can't read Hebrew, but the wording is extremely close to other translations which are noted for their word-for-word faithfulness to the original texts (formal equivalence rather dynamic equivalence translations) such as the New American Standard Bible. It stands to reason that this would have to be an accurate translation since the original Hebrew is on the facing pages, and many readers can check it for themselves as they go along.

Of course, if you can't read Hebrew, then half of this book just takes up extra space.

The pocket edition is paperback, so the pages will not lie flat (that's why I used the clip in the photo), but that might not be an issue if you always hold the psalter in your hand rather than rest it on a desk. The cover is really cool and exotic. And in case you were wondering, the Word TEHILLIM is not really embossed. It's a neat illusion, but the cover is flat. This psalter is divided into seven sections for reading the entire thing in a week. It's also divided into 30 sections for reading it through in a month. I ordered mine from Jewish Russian Books.

The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours

If you like the idea of praying the same Psalms and other prayers with people all around the globe every day, then you might like the Liturgy of the Hours (a.k.a. the Divine Office) of the Catholic Church. Psalms, prayers, Bible passages and hymns are sung or said seven times a day at approximately three hour intervals. It's a nice system that distributes the Psalms into smaller portions throughout the day. These seven times of prayer are called offices.

• Morning Prayer (some time around sunrise) A.K.A. Lauds
• The Office of Readings (no fixed time slot in the current system) formerly known as Matins
• Daytime Prayer (at mid-morning, noon and mid-afternoon) A.K.A. Terce, Sext and None
• Evening Prayer (some time around sunset) A.K.A. Vespers
• Night Prayer (before retiring for the night) A.K.A. Compline

Lay people are encouraged to do at least Morning and Evening Prayer (the two main offices) if they can, but if you do all of the offices daily you will go through the psalter in four weeks (Daytime Prayer need only be done once a day to acomplish this, and Night Prayer cycles through the same limited set of Psalms every week).

The book (or set of books) which contains the Liturgy of the Hours is called a breviary.

The Psalms are re-arranged to fit to their particular day and time slot. If you like the idea of using this arrangement of the Psalms in your private devotions, I've made a handy chart of which Psalms are use in each time slot. Here is the same chart in a vertical format which you can print and tuck in your Bible, breviary or psalter. I've also made a Japanese version.

If you want to include all the scripture readings that appear regularly along with the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours, I have made a more complete chart.

A liturgical calendar is necessary to let you know where you should be in the 4 week cycle, and an online version can be found at the Rosary Shop web site or you can find all the Psalms and readings for the current day on the web at Univeralis, iBreviary or Divine Office.

Three of the more harsh Psalms have been omitted from the current psalter: Psalms 58, 83 and 109 (57, 82 and 108 in some psalter numbering systems). Just make a note of these so you can read them to complete the set if you like.

There are over a billion Catholics in the world so you would be in good company if you used this. Of course not every member prays the Liturgy of the Hours, but clergy and those in religious orders (monks, nuns, etc.) all around the globe are required to pray it every day and many of the laity pray all or parts of it as they are able. The Liturgy of the Hours allows the Church to "pray without ceasing" as this world spins around. No matter what time you are praying the Psalms, there are people somewhere in the world praying the same Psalms with you, though not necessarily in English.

Here it is with the paper jacket, which looks very different from the book inside.

Since my location on the globe is in Japan, I also have the Japanese version. It's a one volume set called Kyoukai no Inori (Prayer of the Church) and matches the English version except the text is vertical and reads right to left. It also has pointing for simple chanting in Morning and Evening Prayer. They still faithfully chant the Psalms in the Catholic Church here, and the form of chant is simplified, similar to one I described above where most of the words of each phrase are on a single note and they last few words on a different note. At least this is how the Psalms are chanted in Japanese.

The Liturgy of the Hours comes in a Four volume Set, or a one volume set called Christian Prayer. Both have the entire four week psalter plus scripture readings, hymns, canticles and prayers for a very complete private devotion. The book in the photo above (with blue edged pages) is volume one of the four volume set which is shown at the right. The main difference between the four and one volume set is the Office of Readings which includes writings from various sources such as the Church Fathers. These are included in the four volume set.

These books require a bit of page flipping to find the parts you need at any given prayer time, and it can be confusing at first. There are several helpful tutorials on the web including a PDF called Discovering Prayer which can be downloaded for free the Rosary Shop. There is also a handy guide published every year which tells you exactly which pages to use for any given date. It's called the Saint Joseph Guide for the Liturgy of the Hours. There is a guide for the single Volume Christian Prayer and a guide for the four volume set. So make sure you get the right guide for your books, and make sure you get the one for the current year!

If you want to chant these Psalms there is a beautiful one volume set called the Mundelein Psalter which has all the pointing and notation.

There is also an African edition of the Liturgy of the Hours now (English language). I acquired a copy and included photos in a separate article.

If you want to read and pray the Liturgy of the Hours (with no page flipping) for free on your computer or download an e-pub or Kindle version or app, there are a few great web sites out there such as Univeralis, iBreviary and Divine Office.

A fun blog dedicated to the Liturgy of the Hours is called Coffee and Canticles.

A Catholic Pocket Psalter

Here is one that is even smaller than the two pocket psalters I mentioned above. It's called The Perfect Prayer Book: My Daily Psalm Book arranged by Father Frey. It's a paperback, and as you can see by the clip in the photo, it does not lay flat. I wish I had known about this little book a few decades ago when it was available in morocco leather!

It's 3.5 X 5.25 inches and half an inch thick (88mm X 133mm x 14 mm) and really fits in the back pocket. This first came out in 1947 and is sort of a classic now.

It is full of line illustrations done in a classic style which I love. I don't think I'll ever tire of looking at these wonderful pictures.

The translation is based on the Latin Vulgate, and I have read that the translators made sure it also conforms to the Hebrew text. I have found that it is very close to my other favorite translations which are famous for their accuracy. I'm personally very stubborn about sticking with accurate translations based on the original language texts (formal equivalence rather dynamic equivalence ), and I have come to the conclusion that I can trust this one just fine. The text has thees and thous (which I have already mentioned is a good thing for accuracy) and is easy to follow since it was actually translated in the 20th century. It also has simple pointing in the form of asterisks which break each line into two parts. I have used it for chanting Psalms, and I love it.

The Psalms are arranged according to the older system of the Liturgy of the Hours called the Roman Breviary which goes through all the Psalms in one week and has eight offices a day (the current four week breviary with five offices a day came into use in the late 1960s after the Second Vatican Council). But there is also an index so you can find any Psalm quickly.

But even with the index, there is one major drawback: the numbering of the Psalms is based on the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. Most modern Psalters are numbered based on the Hebrew Masoteric text. This means that Psalm 23 becomes Psalm 22, and Psalm 51 becomes Psalm 50. So I could not find most of the Psalms in this book based on their numbers! This was such a serious problem that I could not use the Psalter at all with my daily devotions when I first got this book. So I came up with a solution.

I made a reference chart. It's on the left half of the above photo. It lists each Psalm according to the Hebrew (Masoretic) numbering system along with the page number (you may also want to write the Hebrew system numbers on the pages with each Psalm so you can verify you made it to the right place). The right half is a small chart to show you which Psalms are read during the Liturgy of the Hours. Click on the link for a PDF you can print out if you would like to use these charts. Print it out at actual size and it should fit perfectly in your copy of My Daily Psalm Book. Then just glue it inside the front cover. If gluing pages into your book seems like a heavy commitment which is a bit too permanent, you can always use removable restickable glue sticks. Since I discovered these, I've glued lots of prayers and scripture portions to the end pages of my psalters.

As I mentioned above, these Psalms are arranged according to the traditional one week Roman Breviary which many traditional Catholics still prefer. All Catholic clergy in the Latin Rite are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, but they are allowed to choose between the current arrangement or the traditional Roman Breviary.

If you want to stay with the traditional order of the Psalms in this book and simply move a ribbon marker ahead every time you use it but don't have the time to pray all 150 Psalms in one week, here's a chart which divides this Psalter into four weeks with Morning Prayer, Day Prayer, and Evening Prayer every day. Just mark the divisions in the margin of your book; the chart uses the same numbering system as the book.

Of course, if you have the time, you can just use this little prayer book as it was intended and pray all 150 Psalms every week.

This pocket size psalter will let you have devotions throughout the day, and these charts let you pray the same Psalms that are being prayed all around the world each day. Carry this powerful little treasure in your pocket like a concealed weapon and go out fully prepared, ready to hunt bear.

Another Catholic Psalter

This one is called The Psalms, New Catholic Version, a St. Joseph Edition.

I had bought it in hopes of finding another pocket psalter, but it turned out to be over 4 X 6 inches and nearly an inch thick, and I don't have any pockets that big. It's a conservative, fairly literal translation in contemporary English, and very readable (and singable).

The unique feature of this book, however, is its extensive footnotes. For example, the first verse of Psalm 1 appears by itself at the top of the page, and the rest of the page is filled cross references and commentary. Very helpful for really digging into the background and meaning and alternate readings of each Psalm.

There is also a great introduction to the Psalms in the beginning of the book, plus charts in the back with references for all the responsorial Psalm readings in every Sunday mass of the two year cycle, plus the Psalms for the 4 week Morning and Evening Prayer cycle in the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office). It's a paperback book with glued binding like most paperbacks, so the pages will not lie flat when open. A great addition to the book shelf if not the hip pocket.

A modern pointed psalter

If you like the idea of using a pointed psalter with the Psalms in modern English, there is a new psalter called the Revised Grail Psalms which just came out in 2010. It is a revision of the 1963 Grail Psalms which are used in the Liturgy of the Hours mentioned above, and stays closer to the original Hebrew text with consideration given to the Greek Septuagint and Latin text (remember these old translations were used by the early Church, and were based on ancient Hebrew manuscripts which no longer exist, and must be taken seriously.)

This is the official liturgical psalter of the Catholic Church for all English language liturgy all over the world including the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, so one of the translation goals was to make it suitable for singing. That apparently means keeping the stanzas fairly consistent in length, and keeping the musical meter in mind when choosing suitable English words.

This psalter comes in a text version and a singing version which has pointing in the form of accent marks over the text. The singing version is shown in the photo. These Psalms were composed in what they call "sprung rhythm" which according to the introduction, "imitates natural speech patterns, designating a certain number of major accents per line, while having an unfixed number of unstressed syllables, with no more than four syllables between each foot."

This is wonderful news for anyone who is interested in singing the Psalms, which I presume includes readers of this article. The paperback edition pictured above is not available on Amazon, but you can get it from GIA Publications. You can also read the text of these Psalms at their web site. This one will not fit in your pocket; its dimensions are 4.25 inches wide, 7 inches tall and .75 inches thick.

A slightly smaller deluxe edition with with blue cover and ribbon is also available but without accent marks in the text. It's a step up and looks a bit nicer than the paperback version and the pages have round corners which is a nice touch, but the binding is still glued rather than sewn, so the pages do not lie flat, although there is more flexibility than a paperback and I am able to fold the covers back and hold it with one hand when out on a prayer walk.

Even in the edition that does not have accents for singing, the layout of the text has generous spacing between stanzas and makes this very singable (and readable).

I wrote a more detailed review over at Amazon with more photos if you would like more information. I also have the same review text and photos here on my web site.

A Japanese Psalter

The Revised Grail Psalms mentioned above is the official psalter of English speaking Catholics. Here is the official psalter of Japanese Catholics. All 150 Psalms are here with footnotes, and the holy name of God (often represented in English as Yahweh) is indicated by the kanji for kami (God) in bold face type or spelled out when the context requires it. It does not have pointing for chants, though.

The gold kanji read "SHIHEN" (shee-hen with the accent on the first syllable) which is what the Psalms are called in Japanese.

If you find yourself coasting absent-mindedly through the Psalms, try a more challenging translation that forces you to slow down (whether it's old English or an entirely different language). I usually get more out of the Psalms when I pray them in Japanese instead of English. If I don't have time to look up an unfamiliar word, I can consult an English version to get the meaning and keep moving.