The Psalms in Christian Worship

Joint Liturgical Studies 66

The use of the psalms in Christian worship is a vast topic, and even within the parameters indicated by the sub-title only an outline can be attempted in a work of this scale. The academic disciplines of biblical and liturgical study have not always been in close contact with each other, and 1 have kept in mind a broad readership with practical experience but limited specialist knowledge. The brief section on further reading makes no attempt to be comprehensive, but simply draws attention to a few books in which different angles of the subject may be explored more fully.

This work is the fruit of a lifetime’s study and use of the psalms. It is my hope that it will stimulate interest in these ancient texts, which continue to resonate so richly with human religious experience to this day, and that it may also do something to stem the decline in the use of psalmody in current practice in many parts of the Church of Enqland.