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82-452: Hymnals are omnipresent in churches but are not often discussed; nevertheless, liturgical scholar Massey H. Shepherd once observed: "In all periods of the Church's history, the theology of the people has been chiefly molded by their hymns." Since the twentieth century, singer-songwriter hymns have become common, but in previous centuries, generally poets wrote the words, and musicians wrote

164-945: A Psalm 151 ; a Hebrew version of this was found in the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls . Some versions of the Peshitta (the Bible used in Syriac churches mainly in the Middle East) include Psalms 152–155 . There are also the Psalms of Solomon , which are a further 18 psalms of Jewish origin, likely originally written in Hebrew, but surviving only in Greek and Syriac translation. These and other indications suggest that

246-594: A benediction ). These divisions were probably introduced by the final editors to imitate the five-fold division of the Torah : Many psalms (116 of the 150) have individual superscriptions (titles), ranging from lengthy comments to a single word. Over a third appear to be musical directions, addressed to the "leader" or "choirmaster", including such statements as "with stringed instruments" and "according to lilies". Others appear to be references to types of musical composition, such as "A psalm" and "Song", or directions regarding

328-418: A doxology , or a hymn of praise. There are several types of psalms, including hymns or songs of praise, communal and individual laments, royal psalms , imprecation , and individual thanksgivings. The book also includes psalms of communal thanksgiving, wisdom, pilgrimage and other categories. While many of the psalms contain attributions to the name of King David and other Biblical figures including Asaph ,

410-510: A concert of praise at the end. He concluded that the collection was redacted to be a retrospective of the failure of the Davidic covenant , exhorting Israel to trust in God alone in a non-messianic future. Walter Brueggemann suggested that the underlying editorial purpose was oriented instead towards wisdom or sapiential concerns, addressing the issues of how to live the life of faith. Psalm 1 calls

492-606: A denominational hymnal but was well-received by choirs. Mason's famous hymns, which were also included in Southern tunebooks, appeared later editions or publications: Laban ("My soul, be on thy guard;" 1830), Hebron ("Thus far the Lord hath led me on," 1830), Boylston ("My God, my life, my love," 1832), Shawmut ("Oh that I could repent! 1835") Bethany (" Nearer, My God, to Thee ", as sung in the United States) (1856). In England,

574-404: A focus on their poets and composers. In some hymnals, the front section is occupied by service music, such as doxologies, three-fold and seven-fold amens, or entire orders of worship ( Gradual , Alleluia , etc.). A section of responsorial psalms may also be included. Hymnals usually contain one or more indexes; some of the specialized indexes may be printed in the companion volumes rather than

656-564: A melody recognizable as the tonus peregrinus of church and synagogue. Mitchell includes musical transcriptions of the temple psalmody of Psalms 120–134 in his commentary on the Songs of Ascents. In "The Flow of the Psalms," O. Palmer Robertson posits a thematic progression throughout the five books of Psalms, delineating distinctive characteristics and emphases: Book 1: Opposition - Predominantly attributed to David, these Psalms are perceived as

738-547: A number of minor psalm-types, including: The composition of the psalms spans at least five centuries, from the 10th-century Psalm 29 to others clearly from the post-Exilic period (i.e., not earlier than the fifth century BC). The majority originated in the southern kingdom of Judah and were associated with the Temple in Jerusalem , where they probably functioned as librettos during Temple worship . Exactly how they did so

820-409: A special subset of "eschatological hymns" which includes themes of future restoration (Psalm 126) or of judgment (Psalm 82). Communal laments are psalms in which the nation laments some communal disaster. Both communal and individual laments typically but not always include the following elements: In general, the individual and communal subtypes can be distinguished by the use of the singular "I" or

902-534: A third of the psalms are addressed to the Director of Music. Some psalms exhort the worshipper to sing (e.g. Pss. 33:1-3; 92:1-3; 96:1-3; 98:1; 101:1; 150). Some headings denote the musical instruments on which the psalm should be played (Pss. 4, 5, 6, 8, 67). Some refer to the Levites who sang one of eight melodies, one of which was known simply as "the eighth" ( Hebrew : sheminit ) (Pss. 6, 12). And others preserve

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984-517: A virgin market in the Methodist and Baptist revival movement . Singing in these camp meetings was chaotic because multiple tunes were sung simultaneously for any given hymn text. Since he lacked musical training , Wyeth employed Elkanah Kelsey Dare to collect tunes and edit them. Wyeth's Repository of Music, Part Second (1813) included 41 folk tunes, the first printed in America. This was also

1066-569: Is designed not to achieve favor, as such, but rather to inculcate belief in Divine Providence into one's consciousness, consistently with Maimonides ' general view on Providence . (Relatedly, the Hebrew verb for prayer, hitpalal התפלל, is in fact the reflexive form of palal פלל, to intervene, petition, judge. Thus, "to pray" conveys the connotation of "judging oneself": ultimately, the purpose of prayer— tefilah תפלה—is to transform ourselves.) New Testament references show that

1148-589: Is married and has two children. In 1928, he finished at the top of his class at Columbia High School at fifteen in Columbia, South Carolina. Less than four years later, he received both an undergraduate and a graduate degree simultaneously from the University of South Carolina in classical studies. Shepherd was one of the youngest students in the history of the university to achieve two degrees by age 19. In 1937, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from

1230-787: Is still used by the Amish , making it the oldest hymnal in continuous use. The first hymnal of the Lutheran Reformation was Achtliederbuch , followed by the Erfurt Enchiridion . An important hymnal of the 17th century was Praxis pietatis melica . Market forces rather than denominational control have characterized the history of hymnals in the thirteen colonies and the antebellum United States; even today, denominations must yield to popular tastes and include "beloved hymns" such as Amazing Grace and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing , in their hymnals, regardless of whether

1312-675: The Te Deum go back much further. The Reformation in the 16th century, together with the growing popularity of moveable type , quickly made hymnals a standard feature of Christian worship in all major denominations of Western and Central Europe. The first known printed hymnal was issued in 1501 in Prague by Czech Brethren (a small radical religious group of the Bohemian Reformation ) but it contains only texts of sacred songs. The Ausbund , an Anabaptist hymnal published in 1564,

1394-569: The tonus peregrinus melody to Psalm 114. Cantillation signs, to record the melody sung, were in use since ancient times; evidence of them can be found in the manuscripts of the oldest extant copies of Psalms in the Dead Sea Scrolls and are even more extensive in the Masoretic text , which dates to the Early Middle Ages and whose Tiberian scribes claimed to be basing their work on temple-period signs. (See Moshe ben Asher's 'Song of

1476-893: The Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California , and also in the Graduate Theological Union . He was instrumental in the success of the Sewanee Church Music Conference which began in July 1951 at the University of the South at Sewanee , Tennessee . Richard White (who served as registrar for 13 years) related: "He was probably the finest liturgist in the country. He could talk for fifty minutes (the length of

1558-590: The Missouri Harmony (1820) of Allen D. Carden. and the Southern Harmony (1835) of William Walker drew attention to the fact that they contained regional folk songs for singing in two, three, or four parts. A new direction was taken by B. F. White with the publication of the Sacred Harp (1844): whereas others had gone on to produce a series of tunebooks, White stopped at one, then spent

1640-708: The Psalms , or the Psalter , is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible ) called Ketuvim ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament . The book is an anthology of Hebrew religious hymns . In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, there are 150 psalms, and several more in the Eastern Christian churches. The book is divided into five sections, each ending with

1722-612: The University of Chicago and, in 1941, his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Berkeley Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, where he worked closely with its Dean, liturgical reformer William Palmer Ladd , whose work he was to continue. Early in his teaching career he held a faculty position at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For many years, he was a faculty member at

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1804-474: The epode are Psalm 14; the two antistrophes are Psalm 70. It is noteworthy that, on the breaking up of the original ode, each portion crept twice into the Psalter: Psalm 14 = 53, Psalm 70 = 40:14–18. Other such duplicated portions of psalms are Psalm 108:2–6 = Psalm 57:8–12; Psalm 108:7–14 = Psalm 60:7–14; Psalm 71:1–3 = Psalm 31:2–4. This loss of the original form of some of the psalms is considered by

1886-400: The ingathering of exiled Israel by a bridegroom-king; his establishment of a kingdom; his violent death; Israel scattered in the wilderness, regathered and again imperiled, and then rescued by a king from the heavens, who establishes his kingdom from Zion, brings peace and prosperity to the earth and receives the homage of the nations. These three views—Wilson's non-messianic retrospective of

1968-481: The morning services ( Shacharit ). The pesukei dezimra component incorporates Psalms 30, 100 and 145–150. Psalm 145 (commonly referred to as " Ashrei ", which is really the first word of two verses appended to the beginning of the Psalm), is read three times every day: once in shacharit as part of pesukei dezimrah , as mentioned; once, along with Psalm 20, as part of the morning's concluding prayers ; and once at

2050-479: The sons of Korah , and Solomon , David's authorship is not accepted by most modern Bible scholars, who instead attribute the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. The psalms were written from the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan to the post-exilic period and the book was probably compiled and edited into its present form during the post-exilic period in

2132-500: The "Ancient" in the title referring to the appearance of Phos Hilaron , translated from Greek by John Keble , and many hymns translated from Latin. This was a game-changer. The Hymns Ancient and Modern experienced immediate and overwhelming success. Total sales in 150 years were over 170 million copies. As such, it set the standard for many later hymnals on both sides of the Atlantic. English-speaking Lutherans in America began singing

2214-468: The 5th century BC. In English, the title of the book is derived from the Greek word ψαλμοί ( psalmoi ), meaning 'instrumental music' and, by extension, 'the words accompanying the music'. The Hebrew name of the book, Tehillim ( תהילים ), means 'praises', as it contains many praises and supplications to God. The Book of Psalms is divided into five sections, each closing with a doxology (i.e.,

2296-628: The Babylonian Tiamat , Canaanite Yam and the Leviathan which also appears in the Hebrew Bible—is "reduced to an aquatic pet with whom YHWH can play". The biblical poetry of Psalms uses parallelism as its primary poetic device. Parallelism is a kind of symmetry in which restatement, synonym, amplification, grammatical repetition, or opposition develops an idea. Synonymous parallelism involves two lines expressing essentially

2378-595: The Book of Psalms. Some psalms are called " maskil " ( maschil ), meaning "enlightened" or "wise saying", because they impart wisdom. Most notable of these is Psalm 142 which is sometimes called the "Maskil of David"; others include Psalm 32 and Psalm 78. A special grouping and division in the Book of Psalms are fifteen psalms (Psalms 120–134) known in the construct case, shir ha-ma'aloth ("A Song of Ascents", or "A Song of degrees"), and one as shir la-ma'aloth (Psalm 121). According to Saadia Gaon , these songs differed from

2460-582: The Catholic Church's Pontifical Biblical Commission (1 May 1910) to have been due to liturgical practices, neglect by copyists, or other causes. Verse numbers were first printed in 1509. Different traditions exist whether to include the original heading into the counting or not. This leads to inconsistent numbering in 62 psalms, with an offset of 1, sometimes even 2 verses. The Septuagint, present in Eastern Orthodox churches, includes

2542-1179: The Church , Seabury Press, 1952). He contributed commentaries on the Gospel According to John and the three Epistles of John to The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible (Abingdon Press, 1971). In The Paschal Liturgy and the Apocalypse he refers to the Revelation to St. John the Divine in parallel to the Last Supper. Shepherd died on February 19, 1990, in Sacramento, California . Psalms The Book of Psalms ( / s ɑː ( l ) m z / SAH(L)MZ , US also / s ɔː ( l ) m z / SAW(L)MZ ; Biblical Hebrew : תְּהִלִּים , romanized:  Tehillīm , lit.   'praises'; Ancient Greek : Ψαλμός , romanized :  Psalmós ; Latin : Liber Psalmorum ; Arabic : زَبُورُ , romanized :  Zabūr ), also known as

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2624-481: The Davidic covenant, Brueggemann's sapiential instruction, and Mitchell's eschatological-messianic program—all have their followers. However, the sapiential agenda has been somewhat eclipsed by the other two. Shortly before he died in 2005, Wilson modified his position to allow for the existence of messianic prophecy within the Psalms' redactional agenda. Mitchell's position remains essentially unchanged, but he now sees

2706-806: The Episcopal Church. Shepherd was born on March 14, 1913, in Wilmington, North Carolina , the second child and only son of Alice Louise Gladstone Melville and Massey Hamilton Shepherd Sr. He spent many of his younger years in Columbia, South Carolina . He was confirmed in what is now Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, across from the State House in South Carolina's capital city. Shepherd was married to Gabriella Taylor Connor, an artist and watercolorist. They had one daughter, Nancy Lloyd, who

2788-602: The Ezrahite (1), and Heman the Ezrahite (1). The Septuagint , the Peshitta (the Syriac Vulgate) , and the Latin Vulgate each associate several Psalms (such as 111 and 145 ) with Haggai and Zechariah . The Septuagint also attributes several Psalms (like 112 and 135 ) to Ezekiel and Jeremiah . Psalms are usually identified by a sequence number, often preceded by the abbreviation "Ps." Numbering of

2870-548: The Hebrew Psalter proposed—by parallel with other ancient Near Eastern hymn collections—that psalms at the beginning and end (or "seams") of the five books of Psalms have thematic significance, corresponding in particular with the placement of the royal psalms. He pointed out that there was a progression of ideas from adversity through the crux of the collection in the apparent failure of the covenant in Psalm 89, leading to

2952-412: The Psalms concern the subject of death and says "This unatural conclusion to every human life can be understood only in the context of the original threat to the original man: 'in the day you shall eat of it you shall surely die.'" Robertson goes on to say "The anticipation from redemption fom the grave overcomes the inevitability of death. The psalmist is fully aware of his need for total deliverance from

3034-399: The Psalms differs—mostly by one—between the Hebrew ( Masoretic ) and Greek (Septuagint) manuscripts. Protestant translations ( Lutheran , Anglican , Calvinist ) use the Hebrew numbering, but other Christian traditions vary: The variance between Masorah and Septuagint texts in this numeration is likely enough due to a gradual neglect of the original poetic form of the Psalms; such neglect

3116-506: The Psalter. Gunkel divided the psalms into five primary types: Hymns are songs of praise for God's work in creation or history. They typically open with a call to praise, describe the motivation for praise, and conclude with a repetition of the call. Two sub-categories are "enthronement psalms", celebrating the enthronement of Yahweh as king, and Zion psalms, glorifying Mount Zion , God's dwelling-place in Jerusalem. Gunkel also described

3198-425: The Southern and Northern kingdoms. Expressions like "trust in God" diminish. Book 4: Maturity - Notably, with over 10 quotes from Chronicles , indicating a temporal progression beyond the initial three books. Book 5: Consummation - Robertson proposes that the Psalms of Ascent and Hallel Psalms are post-Babylonian exile compositions, portraying a culmination of themes and perspectives Most individual psalms involve

3280-583: The Vine' colophon to the Codex Cairensis). Several attempts have been made to decode the Masoretic cantillation, but the most "successful" is that of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura (1928–2000) in the last quarter of the 20th century. Her reconstruction assumes the signs represent the degrees of various musical scales – that is, individual notes – which puts it at odds with all other existing traditions, where

3362-510: The address to "sons of God" at the opening "[is] best thought of [as] the flickering literary afterlife of a polytheistic mythology" but that "belief in them...is unlikely to have been shared by the scribal circles that produced Psalms ". The contrast between the Psalmist's theology and the surrounding area's polytheistic religion is well seen in Psalms 104:26,<refr> Psalms 104:26 </ref> in which locals' mythical fierce sea-god—such as

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3444-580: The birth of the "folk hymn": the use of a folk tune, collected and harmonized by a trained musician, printed with a hymn text. "Nettleton," the tune used in North America to sing "Come Thou Fount" (words written in 1758), first appeared here. Southerners identified with folk hymns of Wyeth's 1813 Part Second and collected more: the titles of Kentucky Harmony (1816) of Ananias Davisson , the Tennessee Harmony (1818) of Alexander Johnson,

3526-566: The classes) on the Prayer Book, the psalms, the structure of the service, etc. with no notes and never searched for a word." Shepherd also served as the head of the Church Historical Society for many years. He was the author of over eighty publications, including The Living Liturgy ( Oxford University Press , 1946), The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary ( Oxford University Press , 1950), and The Worship of

3608-564: The collection bore the imprint of an underlying message or metanarrative , but that this message remained concealed, as Augustine of Hippo said, "The sequence of the Psalms seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, but its meaning has not been revealed to me" ( Enarr. on Psalms 150:1). Others pointed out the presence of concatenation—that is, adjacent Psalms sharing similar words and themes. In time, this approach developed into recognizing overarching themes shared by whole groups of psalms. In 1985, Gerald H. Wilson 's The Editing of

3690-431: The current Western Christian and Jewish collection of 150 psalms were selected from a wider set. Hermann Gunkel 's pioneering form-critical work on the psalms sought to provide a new and meaningful context in which to interpret individual psalms—not by looking at their literary context within the Psalter (which he did not see as significant), but by bringing together psalms of the same genre ( Gattung ) from throughout

3772-407: The earliest Christians used the Psalms in worship, and the Psalms have remained an important part of worship in most Christian Churches. The Eastern Orthodox , Catholic , Presbyterian , Lutheran and Anglican Churches have always made systematic use of the Psalms, with a cycle for the recitation of all or most of them over the course of one or more weeks. In the early centuries of the Church, it

3854-495: The earliest in origin, characterized by a focus on trust in God, with Yahweh as the dominant name. Book 2: Communication - Despite continued opposition, this book reflects an outreach even to enemies of God. The prevalent name for God shifts to Elohim, especially when borrowing sections from Book 1. Robertson suggests Book 2 may have Northern Kingdom origins. Book 3: Devastation - Marked by the overtaking of Jerusalem, this book holds out hope for Jacob and Joseph, possibly symbolizing

3936-625: The entire Book of Psalms prior to the morning service, on the Sabbath preceding the calculated appearance of the new moon . The reading of psalms is viewed in Jewish tradition as a vehicle for gaining God's favor. They are thus often specially recited in times of trouble, such as poverty, disease, or physical danger; in many synagogues, Psalms are recited after services for the security of the State of Israel . Sefer ha-Chinuch states that this practice

4018-415: The fate of the psalmist. By far the most common type of psalm, they typically open with an invocation of God, followed by the lament itself and pleas for help, and often ending with an expression of confidence. In individual thanksgiving psalms, the opposite of individual laments, the psalmist thanks God for deliverance from personal distress. In addition to these five major genres, Gunkel also recognised

4100-487: The growing popularity of hymns inspired the publication of more than 100 hymnals during the period 1810–1850. The sheer number of these collections prevented any one of them from being successful. In 1861, members of the Oxford Movement published Hymns Ancient and Modern under the musical supervision of William Henry Monk , with 273 hymns. For the first time, translations from languages other than Hebrew appeared,

4182-417: The hymnal itself. A first line index is almost universal. There may also be indexes for the first line of every stanza, the first lines of choruses, tune names, and a metrical index (tunes by common meter, short meter, etc.). Indexes for composers, poets, arrangers, translators, and song sources may be separate or combined. Lists of copyright acknowledgements are essential. Few other books are so well indexed; at

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4264-407: The hymnal may be part of a coordinated publication project that involves several books: the pew hymnal proper; an accompaniment version (e.g. using a ring binder so that individual hymns can be removed and sit nicely on a music stand); a leader's guide (e.g. matching hymns to lectionary readings); and a hymnal companion, providing descriptions about the context, origin and character of each hymn, with

4346-405: The immediate family, usually in shifts, but in contemporary practice this service is provided by an employee of the funeral home or chevra kadisha . Many Jews complete the Book of Psalms on a weekly or monthly basis. Each week, some also say a Psalm connected to that week's events or the Torah portion read during that week . In addition, many Jews (notably Lubavitch , and other Chasidim ) read

4428-625: The issue as identifying when the historical beginning of the Psalms turns to eschatology. The Psalms were written not merely as poems, but as songs for singing. According to Bible exegete Saadia Gaon (882–942) who served in the geonate of Babylonian Jewry, the Psalms were originally sung in the Temple precincts by the Levites , based on what was prescribed for each psalm (lineage of the singers, designated time and place, instruments used, manner of execution, etc.), but are permitted to be randomly read by anyone at any time and in any place. More than

4510-407: The last great enemy, and attests to expectation of deliverance." Individual psalms were originally hymns, to be used on various occasions and at various sacred sites; later, some were anthologised, and might have been understood within the various anthologies (e.g., ps. 123 as one of the Psalms of Ascent); finally, individual psalms might be understood within the Psalter as a whole, either narrating

4592-540: The life of David or providing instruction like the Torah. In later Jewish and Christian tradition, the psalms have come to be used as prayers, either individual or communal, as traditional expressions of religious feeling. Many authors have commented on the psalms, including: Some of the titles given to the Psalms have descriptions which suggest their use in worship: Psalms are used throughout traditional Jewish worship . Many complete Psalms and verses from Psalms appear in

4674-522: The metrical translations of German chorales by Catherine Winkworth and Jane Laurie Borthwick , and rediscovered their heritage. Although closely associated with the Church of England , Hymns Ancient and Modern was a private venture by a committee, called the Proprietors, chaired by Sir Henry Baker . Massey H. Shepherd Massey Hamilton Shepherd Jr. (March 14, 1913 – February 19, 1990)

4756-468: The morning and evening services. There is a Minhag (custom) to recite Psalm 30 each morning of Chanukkah after Shacharit: some recite this in place of the regular "Psalm for the Day", others recite this additionally. When a Jew dies, a watch is kept over the body and tehillim (Psalms) are recited constantly by sun or candlelight, until the burial service. Historically, this watch would be carried out by

4838-522: The name for ancient eastern modes, like ayelet ha-shachar (hind of the dawn; Ps. 22); shoshanim / shushan ( lilies / lily ; Pss. 45; 60), said to be describing a certain melody; or ʻalmuth / ʻalamoth ( mute ; Pss. 9, 46), which, according to Saadia Gaon, is "a silent melody, nearly inaudible." Despite the frequently heard view that their ancient music is lost, the means to reconstruct it are still extant. Fragments of temple psalmody are preserved in ancient synagogue and church chant, particularly in

4920-492: The occasion for using the psalm ("On the dedication of the temple", "For the memorial offering", etc.). Many carry the names of individuals, the most common (73 psalms—75 if including the two Psalms attributed by the New Testament to David) being 'of David', and thirteen of these relate explicitly to incidents in the king's life. Others named include Asaph (12), the sons of Korah (11), Solomon (2), Moses (1), Ethan

5002-557: The other psalms in that they were to be sung by the Levites in a "loud melody" ( Judeo-Arabic : בלחן מרתפע ‎). Every psalm designated for Asaph (e.g. Psalms 50, 73–83) was sung by his descendants while making use of cymbals , in accordance with 1 Chronicles 16:5. Every psalm wherein is found the introductory phrase "Upon Mahalath" (e.g. Psalms 53 and 88) was sung by the Levites by using large percussion instruments having wide and closed bezels on both sides and beaten with two wooden sticks. O. Palmer Robertson observes that many of

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5084-530: The plural "we". However, the "I" could also be characterising an individual's personal experience that was reflective of the entire community. Royal psalms deal with such matters as the king's coronation, marriage and battles. None of them mentions any specific king by name, and their origin and use remain obscure; several psalms, especially Psalms 93–99, concern the kingship of God, and might relate to an annual ceremony in which Yahweh would be ritually reinstated as king. Individual laments are psalms lamenting

5166-419: The praise of God for his power and beneficence, for his creation of the world, and for his past acts of deliverance for Israel. They envision a world in which everyone and everything will praise God, and God in turn will hear their prayers and respond. Sometimes God "hides his face" and refuses to respond, questioning (for the psalmist) the relationship between God and prayer which is the underlying assumption of

5248-523: The present day, and Walker's Christian Harmony , published in 1866, with the first convention organized in 1875 (43 all-day singings in 2010); the Kentucky Harmony was republished in altered form as the Shenandoah Harmony in 2010, reviving the world of predominantly minor key melodies and unusual tonalities of Davisson's work. In the North, the " Better Music Boys ," cultivated musicians such as Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings who turned to Europe for musical inspiration, introduced musical education into

5330-524: The psalms" in general, was served by hymnals for West gallery singing imported from England. William Billings of Boston took the first step beyond West Gallery music in publishing The New-England Psalm-Singer (1770), the first book in which tunes were entirely composed by an American. The tune-books of Billings and other Yankee tunesmiths were widely sold by itinerant singing-school teachers. The song texts were predominantly drawn from English metrical psalms , particularly those of Isaac Watts . All of

5412-505: The publications of these tunesmiths (also called "First New England School") were essentially hymnals. In 1801, the tunebook market was greatly expanded by the invention of shape notes , which made it easier to learn how to read music. John Wyeth , a Unitarian printer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , who had apprenticed in Boston during the emergence of the First New England School, began to publish tunebooks in 1810 in German and English for various sectarian groups (but not Unitarians). He saw

5494-482: The reader to a life of obedience; Psalm 73 (Brueggemann's crux psalm) faces the crisis when divine faithfulness is in doubt; Psalm 150 represents faith's triumph when God is praised not for his rewards but for his being. In 1997, David. C. Mitchell's The Message of the Psalter took a quite different line. Building on the work of Wilson and others, Mitchell proposed that the Psalter embodies an eschatological timetable like that of Zechariah 9–14. This programme includes

5576-430: The rest of his life building an organization, modeled on church conventions, to organize singing events, with the result that the Sacred Harp continues as a living tradition to the present. The other tunebooks eventually yielded to denominational hymnals that became pervasive with the development of railroad networks, with the exception of the Southern Harmony, for which there is an annual singing in Benton, Kentucky to

5658-451: The same idea. An example of synonymous parallelism: Two lines expressing opposites is known as antithetic parallelism . An example of antithetic parallelism: Two clauses expressing the idea of amplifying the first claim is known as expansive parallelism. An example of expansive parallelism: Many scholars believe the individual Psalms were redacted into a single collection during the Second Temple period. It had long been recognized that

5740-423: The same poem. The Hebrew text is correct in counting as one Psalm 146 and Psalm 147. Later liturgical usage would seem to have split up these and several other psalms. Zenner combines into what he deems were the original choral odes: Psalms 1, 2, 3, 4; 6 + 13; 9 + 10; 19, 20, 21; 56 + 57; 69 + 70; 114 + 115; 148, 149, 150. A choral ode would seem to have been the original form of Psalms 14 and 70. The two strophes and

5822-443: The same time, few other books are so well memorized. Singers often have the song number of their favorite hymns memorized, as well as the words of other hymns. In this sense, a hymnal is the intersection of advanced literate culture with the persistent survival or oral traditions into the present day. The earliest hand-written hymnals are from the Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity , although individual hymns such as

5904-559: The school system, and emphasized the use of organs, choirs, and "special music." In the long term this resulted in a decline of congregational singing. On the other hand, they also composed hymns that could be sung by everybody. Mason's The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music (1822) was published by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston while Mason was still living in Savannah ; nobody else would publish it. This never became

5986-485: The signs invariably represent melodic motifs; it also takes no account of the existence of older systems of notation, such as the Babylonian and Palestinian systems. Musicologists have therefore rejected Haïk-Vantoura's theories, with her results dubious, and her methodology flawed. In spite of this, Mitchell has repeatedly defended it, showing that, when applied to the Masoretic cantillation of Psalm 114, it produces

6068-614: The song texts conform to sectarian teaching. The first hymnal, and also the first book, printed in British North America , is the Bay Psalm Book , printed in 1640 in Cambridge , Massachusetts , a metrical Psalter that attempted to translate the psalms into English so close to the original Hebrew that it was unsingable. The market demand created by this failure, and the dismal nature of Calvinist "lining out

6150-505: The start of the afternoon service . On Festival days and Sabbaths, instead of concluding the morning service, it precedes the Mussaf service. Psalms 95–99, 29, 92, and 93, along with some later readings, comprise the introduction ( Kabbalat Shabbat ) to the Friday night service. Traditionally, a different "Psalm for the Day"— Shir shel yom —is read after the morning service each day of

6232-712: The three sons of Korah . According to Abraham ibn Ezra , the final redaction of the book was made by the Men of the Great Assembly . Some of the psalms show influences from related earlier texts from the region; examples include various Ugaritic texts and the Babylonian Enūma Eliš . These influences may be either of background similarity or of contrast. For example, Psalm 29 shares characteristics with Canaanite religious poetry and themes. Not too much should be read into this, however. Robert Alter points out that

6314-537: The tunes. The texts are known and indexed by their first lines ("incipits") and the hymn tunes are given names, sometimes geographical (the tune "New Britain" for the incipit " Amazing Grace , how sweet the sound"). The hymnal editors curate the texts and the tunes. They may take a well-known tune and associate it with new poetry, or edit the previous text; hymnal committees are typically staffed by both poets and musicians. Some hymnals are produced by church bodies and others by commercial publishers. In large denominations,

6396-572: The week (starting Sunday, Psalms: 24, 48, 82, 94, 81, 93, 92). This is described in the Mishnah (the initial codification of the Jewish oral tradition ) in the tractate Tamid . According to the Talmud, these daily Psalms were originally recited on that day of the week by the Levites in the Temple in Jerusalem. From Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshanah Rabbah , Psalm 27 is recited twice daily following

6478-643: Was an American priest and scholar of the Episcopal Church . A prominent liturgist, he was one of the few American members of other Christian churches honored with an invitation to observe the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s. He served on the Episcopal Church's Standing Liturgical Commission from 1947 to 1976 and was a leading figure in developing the 1979 Book of Common Prayer used by

6560-472: Was expected that any candidate for bishop would be able to recite the entire Psalter from memory, something they often learned automatically during their time as monks . Christians have used Pater Noster cords of 150 beads to pray the entire Psalter. Paul the Apostle quotes psalms (specifically Psalms 14 and 53 , which are nearly identical) as the basis for his theory of original sin , and includes

6642-596: Was occasioned by liturgical uses and carelessness of copyists. It is generally admitted that Psalms 9 and 10 (Hebrew numbering) were originally a single acrostic poem, wrongly separated by Massorah and rightly united by the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Psalms 42 and 43 (Hebrew numbering) are shown by identity of subject (yearning for the house of Yahweh), of metrical structure and of refrain (comparing Psalms 42:6, 12; 43:5, Hebrew numbering), to be three strophes of one and

6724-517: Was unclear, but there are indications in some of them: "Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar" suggests a connection with sacrifices, and "Let my prayer be set forth before you as incense" suggests a connection with the offering of incense. According to Jewish tradition , the Book of Psalms was composed by the First Man ( Adam ), Melchizedek , Abraham , Moses , David , Solomon , Heman , Jeduthun , Asaph , and

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