Psalms for All Seasons: a review

Last year I reviewed the 2013 hymnal, Lift Up Your Hearts, which my congregation now uses as its principal worship book. One year earlier, Faith Alive Publications, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, and Brazos Press co-published Psalms for All Seasons: A Complete Psalter for Worship. These two volumes are evidently companion collections with some overlap of contents. I have now seen a copy of the earlier collection and will review it here.

In my previous review, I noted that the number of complete Psalms in LUYH had been diminished and that the publisher was recommending the current volume for congregations desiring a complete psalter. The arrangement of the metrical psalms in this collection is similar to that of the blue Psalter Hymnal of 1957 and the influential 1912 Psalter of the former United Presbyterian Church of North America. Each Psalm is represented by several alternate renditions among which worship leaders might choose. Each of the 150 Psalms begins with a prose version from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. This is then followed by different ways of singing it, including responsorial settings and chant. The vast majority of the selections are metrical versions, many of which will be familiar to members of the Christian Reformed Church and other churches inheriting the tradition of the 1912 Psalter. Some of these Psalms are are in other languages, including French, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Some of the Psalms are accompanied by extra-biblical prayers and litanies.

As for sources, 29 are from the Genevan Psalter, only 3 from the Scottish Psalter of 1650, 7 from the 1887 Psalter, 48 from the 1912 Psalter, 11 from Isaac Watts' collection of paraphrased psalms, 4 from Charles Wesley, 5 from my late colleague Bert Polman, 10 from Taizé, 14 from the Iona Community, and 11 from the 1987 Psalter Hymnal. There are even three Byzantine chants and one from Joseph Gelineau, whose unique contribution to sung psalmody has greatly influenced Catholic liturgy over the past seven decades.

An added bonus to this psalter are renditions of the three Lukan canticles, namely, the songs of Zechariah, Mary, and Simeon, plus settings of morning, noon, evening, and night prayer offices, and a service for a meeting, class, or conference. Appendices include general refrains, guitar capo charts, an explanation of guitar chord symbols, a diagram of guitar chords, the three-year revised common lectionary, Psalms in the revised common lectionary, and performance notes.

As I've written before, in reviewing a psalter, I generally look at its treatment of Psalms 88 and 109. Psalm 88 is by far the darkest of the Psalms, ending on a bleak note. Psalm 109 contains the most imprecations, presenting a difficulty for many Christians accustomed to Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." The present volume contains the entirety of Psalm 88 from the NRSV, but it is followed by a poem inspired by the Psalm, a multilingual hymn inspired by a single verse, and the old spiritual, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child. A complete sung version is altogether absent. As for Psalm 109, the whole psalm is rendered once more in the NRSV, followed by a prayer, but once again there is no complete sung version. Instead it is followed by a hymn, Give to the Winds Your Fears. The 1989 grey Psalter Hymnal thus does a better job with respect to these.

This collection is aimed at churches pursuing a deliberate and historically-aware liturgical agenda in the larger Reformed and catholic tradition. Congregations worshipping with this excellent resource will be those most conscious that they stand in a tradition extending back to the early church and even before, making generous use of the biblical Psalms and the resources developed over the course of many centuries. The presence of the ancient Daily Office and the much more recent three-year lectionary offers in a single volume a liturgical treasure of inestimable value.

For such liturgically-sensitive congregations, Psalms for All Seasons will be preferable to Lift Up Your Hearts. Sad to say, however, I fear that your average congregation will opt for the collection that has the more familiar hymns over the one that better represents our shared liturgical heritage. But I hope that they will nevertheless give Psalms for All Seasons serious consideration. In terms of comprehensiveness, however, I would still judge that the grey Psalter Hymnal remains the best option.