Metrical Psalter

A publication in which the psalms are written in regular poetic meters and intended for singing to musical settings in stanzas. The earliest important metrical psalter in English is the “Old Version” or “Sternhold and Hopkins.” The first version of nineteen metrical psalms was published about 1547, followed by a complete version that was published in London in 1562. They were authorized for use before and after services and sermons. The Hymnal 1982 contains William Kethe's version of Ps 100, “All people that on earth do dwell” from the 1562 edition (Hymns 377-378). The “Old Version” was used in England into the eighteenth century. It was generally replaced by the “New Version” of Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate, which was first published in London in 1696. The Hymnal 1982 contains three texts in altered versions from this collection (Hymns 364, 658, 666). The “New Version” was used by English colonists in America before the Revolution and was bound with the first BCP for publication in 1789. The 1832 General Convention substituted selections from the psalms for the whole Psalter. Most of these were from the “New Version,” but sixteen were from other sources. The BCP allows use of metrical versions of the invitatory psalms and of the canticles after the readings at Morning and Evening Prayer (BCP, p. 141).