Psalters
This area was formerly labeled "The Workshop." We decided to rename it to better indicate its focus, which is still to provide words and music to allow you to sing all 150 Psalms
The centerpiece of The Workshop is our metrical Psalters:
The Entire Book of Psalms, in several metrical versions.
(with tunes to sing them)
(requires frames and is best with at least 800x600 resolution)
We have the following metrical Psalters on this site. At present we have the complete contents of three of them. It is our
intent to provide the complete contents of all of these Psalters, plus others as we have time.
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|
Date | Popular Name | Author |
| COMPLETE | 1562 | The "Old Version" | Sternhold and Hopkins (and others) |
| 1564/1635 | The Scottish Psalter of 1564/1635 | Words of the 1564 Scottish Psalter, music of 1635 | |
| 1640 | The Bay Psalm Book | New England Puritans | |
| COMPLETE | 1650 | The Scottish Psalter | Scottish Reformed Church |
| COMPLETE | 1696 | The "New Version" | Brady and Tate |
| 1719 | Psalms "Imitated in the Language of the New Testament" | Isaac Watts | |
| 1887 | Psalter of the United Presbyterian Church | Various | |
| NEW 6/21/2000 | 1999 | Psalter for Christian Worship | Michael Morgan |
Over the years many poets, ministers and simple lay-members have set Psalms or other
scriptures into rhyme and metre so that they could be sung in English. Many hymns have
been created using these words.
This area contains some of those paraphrases of scripture, as well
as MIDI files of music that can be used with the words. By combining these words with
the music available here you can literally create your own scriptural based hymns, and
it is much easier than you might imagine.
Now you do not need to be limited by the songs you happen to find
in your hymnal. Using the resources here it is possible to "assemble" your own
versions of the Psalms and other scriptures for singing. Here are two
songs for Pentecost that we put together from resources in the Workshop.
How to use the Workshop
The Workshop is designed to help you find words of a Psalm or other scripture that you would like to use for a hymn and then to find music that can be used with those words.
The system is simple: every set of words is marked with the "metre" of the words and also contains a link to a selection of music written in the same metre. You can play MIDI files of each of the possible tunes to see which one fits the words the best.
For a more complete explanation, read: What is Metre
Metrical Psalms are intended to be sung.
Here is a selection of Public domain music that can be
used with many different sets of words
