Psalters of Puritan New England
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The Bay Psalm Book
America's first printed book was a book of psalms, the Bay Psalm Book of 1640. This pioneering collection of metrical psalms served as the cornerstone of worship for the Puritan settlers, shaping their spiritual lives and leaving an indelible mark on American religious history.
The Bay Psalm Book's origins can be traced to the efforts of "thirty pious and learned Ministers", including Richard Mather, Thomas Mayhew, and John Eliot, who sought to provide a suitable metrical psalter for the New England congregations. Guided by a strong commitment to literal accuracy and a deep reverence for the original Hebrew text, these scholars meticulously translated the psalms into English verse, aiming to create a collection that would preserve the integrity and spiritual essence of the sacred scriptures while maintaining a singable meter that would facilitate congregational worship.
"If therefore the verses are not always so smooth and elegant as some may desire or expect; let them consider that God’s altar needs not our polishings (Ex. 20) for we have respected rather a plain translation, than to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrases, and so have attended conscience rather than elegance, fidelity rather than poetry, in translating the Hebrew words into English language, and David’s poetry into English metre; that so we may sing in Sion the Lord’s songs of praise according to his own will; until he take us from hence, and wipe away all out tears, and bid us enter into our Master’s joy to sing eternal hallelujahs."
- Preface, Bay Psalm Book (1640)
The Psalter was revised a number of times over the following century. Cotton Mather produced a version in blank verse, like Milton's Paradise Lost. The Rev. Thomas Prince of Old South Church produced a rhyming update in 1758, expanding the collection by incorporating a selection of hymns and spiritual songs from other sources of the Old and New Testaments.
The 1758 edition can be compared to the timeless prose of the King Jame Bible:
Psalm 1:3 (1640)
And he shall be like to a tree
planted by water-rivers:
That in his season yields his fruit
And his leafe never withers.
Psalm 1:3 (1718)
Sure he shall be like to a tree
planted by streams of water;
which in its season yields its fruit:
its leaf too shall not fade:
Psalm 1:3 (1758)
For he is like a goodly tree
by rivers planted near;
Which timely yields its fruit, whose leaf
shall ever green appear:
It is our hope that America's Puritan psalter tradition will live on in the worship of reformed and congregational churches. The biblical texts here are all in the public domain and suitable for use in church bulletins or presentations.