About the music

Each of the psalms is set to one or more music compositions. The compositions are new and first published here. Please also see the permission to use.

The music for each Psalm could be a congregational hymn, an anthem, or a congregational song.

• Congregational items are written to aid singing, requiring a short duration of familiarisation.
• Anthems are written for choirs and such other uses where there is the capacity to appreciate the quality of musical expression of the Psalm.

There is no intended delineation or exclusion between the “styles”: no one will stop a choir singing a congregational item, nor a congregation singing an anthem!

Where possible, the music composition is provided for the complete psalm. For longer psalms, the Anthem version tends to encompass the text of the psalm, while the congregation version might use most but not all the text.

Some will be interested in how much the “entirety” of each psalm extends to. We are, of course, discussing English translations of original text which might have relied on centuries of oral traditions, in original languages that are long extinct. In this context, being faithful to (English) translations is important to preserve the spirit and textual discipline of each translation.

Translations like the Good News Translations, Modern English Version, New Living Translation and New Revised Standard Version have been used en block for the majority of the text in each music setting for each Psalm, across the 150 Psalms. That is said without any prejudice and malice against other translations, e.g., English Standard Version, Living Bible and The Message have also been used for numerous Psalms.

The honesty of the Psalm texts also poses their challenge in how they should be read today.

• A number of psalms are written in response to “enemies”, calling for God to silent or even eradicate them (enemies), being the end point (ultimatum) of such prayer supplication.
• Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. However, modifying the Psalm text to today’s vocabulary is an editing practice; this is not the aim of ANSWERS. (Many composers have directly or indirectly used the psalm text in many creative ways, again, ANSWERS have a different purpose.)

Some adjustments have been made to the text when, in the context of all the text of that Psalm, a slight “modernisation” is helpful, poses interest, and is noticeable in the sense that it is not an ill-intent change to the meaning of the text. An example is “no, nichts, none found” in verse 2 of congregational hymn for Psalm 14, “Deliverance Against All Odds”.

For those interested in terminology and history, “hymn” originates as a generic term for a song of praise of deities. When used in church, we mean “hymnody” which carries a wealth of methods, traditions and books.

There is a strong claim to traditions of Psalm singing from the Jewish tradition, while “songs” are used as frequently, if not more, than “hymns” in the scripture. We can argue that the English word “hymn” was less used in the scripture because the tradition of congregational sining (i.e. hymns) was a later development during the Reformation period, but that does not mean hymns were inferior or much less used than songs. That argument will continue till our exhaustion! Let’s encourage singing rather than hinder.