The Book of Psalms: A Psalter for Seekers in Extraordinary Times

The Book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible, and arguably the most cherished. For centuries people have sought comfort and counsel in its 150 lyric poems, and the 23rd Psalm is perhaps the most well-known and oft-quoted passage in the Bible. When the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, the quote is from Psalms over a third of the time.

The Psalms are the ancient hymnal of the Jewish people. The poetry was often set to music, but not always. They express the emotion of the individual poet about God, and his relationship to God. There are many different types of psalms: psalms of affliction, lamentation, praise, remorse over sin, thanksgiving, gratitude, pilgrimage. There are wisdom psalms, royal psalms, victory psalms, law psalms, and psalms of Zion.

About half the psalms are attributed to King David. The rest are attributed to other psalmists, or the psalmist is not known. Some of the psalms attributed to David have details connecting them with documented events in his life.

Individual psalms were written as far back as the time of Moses-who is credited with writing Psalm 90-through the time of David, Asaph, and Solomon, up to the time of the Ezrahites, meaning the writing of the Book of Psalms spanned a thousand years.

Psalms were an ancient art form, combining poetry and performance. As such, we might imagine "open mic" nights around a fire, sort of a pass the guitar affair, a poetry slam with poets and musicians performing their favorites, as young maidens danced about with timbrels. Poets would try to outdo each other with paeans of praise, and seek to see who could describe the most excruciating dark night of the soul.

Some of these psalms were sung and performed for a thousand years before being included in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible-which became the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. So, for a thousand years they were mainly an oral tradition, undergoing countless changes and variations before being entombed as scripture. Then once they became a part of the Tanakh and the Bible, they underwent myriad translations and versions over ever more centuries, right up to today-including this one!

What, you might then ask, is left of the original psalms? No way of knowing. But does it matter? What has come down to us is of inestimable value. Perhaps some things were lost or distorted as these psalms made their way through the centuries. Or perhaps the waters of time have been kind to them, removing the superfluous and polishing the essence. Again, no way of knowing.

My personal connection with The Psalms began when I used to visit a Trappist monastery and chant psalms at all hours with the monks. Many years later, for no particular reason, I was moved to memorize the 23rd psalm. During the following year I had occasion to recite it at the deathbeds of my father, my mother, and my spiritual mentor as they passed.

This book, The Book of Psalms: A Psalter for Seekers in Extraordinary Times, is excerpted from a larger work-in-progress, The Holy Bible: King James Reader's Version. My method in this work is to start with the King James Version of the Bible, then consult 40 other versions as I create what I believe to be the most faithful and poetic version of each verse, while retaining the lilt and rhythms of the King James Version that we have come to associate with biblical passages.