Psalms have traditionally been an important part of Presbyterian Worship. Until the end of the 19th century, they were the only songs used in our churches. In other contexts (and particularly at times of revival) hymns, songs and choruses would also have been used in worship. When hymns were introduced to presbyterian worship with the Church Hymnary of 1898 it was published along with the Irish Psalter of 1880. Subsequent revisions of this book in 1927 and 1973 as well as the Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook of 2004 included the 1880 Psalter with its unique split pages in the music edition.
However, during the latter part of the 20th century as contemporary worship became more common in our churches, the singing of the metrical psalms with what was perceived to be their old-fashioned language and four-square tunes declined and today in some case they have all but disappeared.
However, more recently there has been something of a resurgence in psalm singing and new contemporary versions of the psalms are being written. Recognising that sourcing these contemporary version of the psalms can often be difficult, below you will find a link to tables of some versions of each of the 150 psalms as downloadable documents. Most of them are metrical and are linked to well-know hymn tunes that will be familiar to most congregations, while others are versions with new tunes. Some are complete Psalms, many just use selected verses.
There are also links to downloadable words only versions of The Portglenone Psalms and Sing Psalms (Free Church of Soctland) as well as lists of songs and hymns which have been inspired by psalms, books of psalms in modern English and useful links to websites from which psalm versions can be downloaded.
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