The Psalter Small

History of the Psalter
Metrical psalmody was embraced in all the churches and lands influenced by Calvin. Reformed Christians from Europe brought their metrical psalters to the New World in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For Scottish Presbyterians, the version of choice was The Psalms of David in Metre, known today as the Scottish Psalter of 1650.
This version was prominent until the early years of the nineteenth century, when Psalm-singing churches in North America began working on psalters of their own. Several versions came into use. At the same time, psalmody was giving way in many churches to a rising tide of man-made hymns.
To provide a uniform metrical version of the Psalms for North America's churches, and to win back territory for the cause of Psalmody, a bold initiative was launched by the United Presbyterian Church of North America in 1893. Representatives of nine denominations in the United States and Canada worked together to produce a new metrical version first published in 1905. Heavily reworked, the final text was published as the Joint Committee's Version of 1909. Furnished with a rich array of tunes, The Psalter was finally published in 1912.
The Christian Reformed Church adopted The Psalter in 1914 for use in its churches and bound it together with its doctrinal standards, liturgy, and church order. Smaller Dutch Reformed denominations also adopted The Psalter for worship. Wm. B. Eerdmans of Grand Rapids, Michigan began publishing it in 1927. The original collection of 413 numbered selections was augmented with a Chorale Section in 1948, which with later additions brought the total to 450.
Thanks be to God for this priceless part of our heritage as Reformed Christians in North America. This new edition is sent forth with the prayer that The Psalter may long continue to serve the needs of all who desire to 'worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh' (Philippians 3:3) and who delight to sing 'the songs of Zion' (Psalm 137:3) in our land.

-from the preface by Joel R. Beeke and Ray B. Lanning

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