Singing psalms in English rhyming, poetic meter dates to the very earliest days of reformation in Geneva. All the first generation reformers found little of the late middle age Catholic mass worthy of bringing into reformed, scripture focused worship.

Luther was calling for hymns in the language of the people by 1523, and those with him quickly moved to make and translate hymns, a number of which Luther wrote. While Lutherans kept instruments in worship, Zwingli was against music in worship nearly entirely, removing instruments and even the barest of melodic music, preferring a very simple forms of call and response chanting.

Calvin and those with him began with a mixture of psalms and hymns, but over this lifetime, through the 5 editions of the Genevan Psalter (first edition, 1539, final and complete edition 1562), a pronounced move towards psalmody was made, and many of those under his influence began to practice exclusive psalmody. Calvin and those with him also had very talented composers produce tunes (ultimately 126 of them) that were suitable for congregational singing. Only one psalm and matched tune from the period remains in common use in English - the Old Hundreth. tune by Louis Bourgeois, set to words from the Anglo-Genevan Psalter, 1561. This is very likely the oldest pairing of words and music still in use by English speakers today. A few tunes still in use today are older, but none paired with English words.

Two Psalters were mentioned in the paragraph above. The Genevan psalter, the direct work Calvin and his associates, was metrical French language psalter. The Anglo-Genevan was the work of English Calvinists who had fled to Geneva to escape persecution. There work contributed much to the greatest of English language metrical psalters — the 1650 Scottish Metrical, which is still published and easily found many places online.

Here are a few highlights in the history of English metrical psalms.

1549 - Sternhold & Hopkins — a widely published metrical psalter that stayed in circulation in England until the early 1800s amongst Anglicans. This version of the psalms was often printed in the Book of Common Prayer and included in some printings of the Geneva Bible.

1612 - The Ainsworth Psalter — The psalter of the original Puritans in America. They disliked the liberties that they thought this psalter took with the text.

1640 - The Bay Psalm Book (formal title: The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre; sometimes called the Bay Psalter). The first book published in America, on a press brought to America for this purpose. It might be a more literal rendering of the Psalms, but it is often irregular in meter, and is thoroughly unsingable. Digital copies are available online. The 11 physical copies (not all are complete) are exceedingly valuable and collectable. https://archive.org/details/The-Bay-Psalm-Book-wdl-3600/3600_dan/

1650 - The Scottish Metrical Psalter (also known as the 1650 Psalter, the Psalms of David in Metre, and the Scottish Metrical Version (SMV)) — seeing the need for a better English psalter, the committees of Westminster that produced the Confession and Catechisms, worked on a psalter by Francis Rous. After numerous reviews and revisions by the English and the Scots alike, little of Rous’ work remained, but a new, full, and certainly the highest quality psalter yet was produced. Most of psalter is set to 8.6.8.6 (Common) meter. This was THE psalter for two hundred years, is easily accessible online, and from several publishing houses. Serious revision efforts began about 1880.

1719 - The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament — Watt’s Imitations (some critics called them Psuedo-Psalms) wanted to use the types and forms of the psalms but to make them more explicitly Christian in language and to be more easy to sing. For many, these were the final replacement of the psalms with hymns. In time, most churches fully replaced psalmody with hymnody. And these Imitation Psalms hymns were themselves replaced with less psalm-like hymns.

For our metrical psalmody today, we are almost entirely dependent on the small minority of Presbyterian churches who held (and an even smaller fraction who still to this day hold) to “exclusive psalmody.” Among these, there are two streams of psalms to note going forward. Metrical Psalms and Bible Songs. “Metrical Psalms” are version or translation of the action Hebrew psalm in a meter and rhyme for singing like English language sounds. “Bible Songs” are (sometimes) looser translations or the psalms, sometime just some portions instead of entire psalms, or repetitions in the songs are not in the original psalms, often to make a portion of the psalm, or part of a different psalm, for use as a chorus.

1901 - Bible Songs (subtitle: A Collection of Psalms set to Music For Use in Church and Evangelistic Services,Prayer Meetings, Sabbath Schools; Young People's Societies, and Family Worship) published by the United Presbyterian Church

1912 - The Psalter (sometimes called the McNaugher, after its chief editor or The Psalter with Responsive Readings) This was a joint effort of most of the largest Presbyterian and Reformed denominations of its time. It is the last full psalter of mainline American Presbyterian churches. Due to it containing some abridgments and paraphrases, as well as treatments of psalms that many would consider “Bible Songs” rather than psalms, it is considered “too free” by the exclusive-psalmody folks and “too literal'“ for many who are hymn-singers. This psalter contains musical notation for its tunes. It is still published, but not widely. https://archive.org/details/psalterwithrespo00unit

1930 - Bible Songs (subtitle: A Selection of Psalms Set to Music, for Use in the Church and the Home) published by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

1973 - Book of Psalms for Singing — RPNCA (Currently published and for sale.)

1994 - Trinity Psalter - a collection of psalms and Bible Songs from the Trinity Hymnal (1961).

2011 - ARP Psalter with Bible Songs — published by The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. It has the psalms from the 1973 Psalms for Singing and a selection of “55 favorite selections” from Bible Songs. (Currently published and for sale.)

2010 - The Book of Psalms for Worship (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America) — RPNCA (Currently published and for sale.)

2018 - Trinity Psalter Hymnal — it has metrical psalms covering about 110 of the 150, and well as partials and paraphrases of the rest, plus over 400 hymns. An update and combination of the 1961 Trinity Hymnal and 1994 Trinity Psalter. (Currently published and for sale.)

Among Churches of Christ very little few, and mostly very small psalters have been published. Most popular hymnals only contain a small handful of Psalms. The tone for this seems to have been set early. In the 1873 publishing of “The Christian Hymnbook, A Compilation of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, Original and Selected by A. Campbell and Others” seems to be completely devoid of psalms.

1974 - Selected Psalms for Church Singing booklet — by Ed Fudge. 40 psalms texts from the 1973 Book of Psalms for Singing set to familiar tunes.

2007 - the Brentwood Oaks Church of Christ is Austin, TX published a 40 psalm collection of metrical psalms and some plainsong in a booklet titled: Rediscovering Praise: Integrating Psalm-Singing into Congregational Worship. This effort is connected to the Timeless Psalter project. https://timelesspsalter.com

2022 - Worshiping With with the Psalms — Matthew Bassford. A psalter with original metrical treatments of all l50 psalms, although a number of psalms are abridged, or even highly abridged. Unlike most modern psalters, this one does not contain any musical notation, and in that way is like the words-only psalters of old. Each psalm contains a suggested familiar tune to use with the text.

current - Tex Chumley’s website PDHymns, which has thousands of hymns in a variety of formats, also has a selection of about 40 metrical psalms. https://www.pdhymns.com/pdh_main_Psalm.htm