A Good Traveling Companion

"Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints." (Psalm 149:1)

The book of Psalms is quite possibly the best known and most loved book of the Hebrew Scriptures, also known as the Old Testament. The Psalms are made up of 150 prayers or hymns, many of which are attributed to King David. Many people know and find comfort in individual psalms which have become especially beloved in human history, such as Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd") and Psalm 121 ("I will lift up mine eyes to the hills"). Collectively, the Psalms make up one of the oldest and most amazing corporate prayerbooks ever composed, made all the richer by the many, many people who have prayed and sung them through the centuries in homes, synagogues, monasteries, and churches.

I love the Psalms for so many reasons. They are a powerful testimony to God's faithfulness in times of trouble, and to the age-old longing and need of the human heart. I am grateful that the Bible is filled with such diverse and rich kinds of literature: prayers, poems, narratives, parables, gospels, prophetic utterances, visions, proverbs. I appreciate the depth and richness of the Scriptures, and the ways in which such a diversity seems to speaks to the Holy Spirit's loving understanding of humanity and our need to hear the word of God in many different and varied ways, ways that speak to different parts of our hearts in different seasons of life.

And I am most grateful for the inclusion of the Psalms in the Scriptures. For through them we find not just poetry and solace but divine sanction for our deepest, more heart-felt prayers. Their inclusion reminds me that it is all right, indeed more than all right, but desirable that individuals and communities lay their thoughts, questions, complaints, laments and praises before God. The Psalms tell me that God wants to hear from me, from us, in every season. More than that, they remind me that all seasons belong to God, that He can found in the midst of each one, and that He will listen and answer to the heart's deepest prayers.

Many translations of the Psalms exist in English (as well as plenty of other languages) and many books have been written about the Psalms. I did a search by ISBN to find this particular entry in the database, because the version I'm specifically recommending today is the Dover edition of the Psalms which contains the unabridged Psalter from the King James version of the Bible, first published in 1611.

The King James Bible is well known to Christians all over the English speaking world, probably more particularly in Protestant circles. It has been widely printed for centuries -- over a billion copies!. King James I of England, who was also James VI of Scotland, followed Queen Elizabeth I to the throne. He's known for many things (like arguing with Puritans and dissolving Parliament, though most of these actions wouldn't come to a real head until the reign of Charles I) but his chief legacy was the fact that he authorized a new translation of the Bible. This 1611 translation which still bears his name was based on many earlier translations, like William Tyndale's, and the work of many excellent scholars of the day. Its language is rich and rhythmic as you might expect of the post-Elizabethan era.

I grew up being taught Scripture from the King James translation. And while today I prefer other translations for their more dynamic translation methods, and for the ease of study such translations provide, the KJV is still, in many ways, the biblical english of my heart. Since my mother taught me to memorize in this translation, I still recall verses and whole portions of passages from its pages. (The only other version of the Psalter that's come close to holding a similar place in my mind and heart is the psalter in the Book of Common Prayer.)

And that's one the main reasons I recommend this slim little paperback edition of the Psalms. Because it's small and inexpensive, it makes a good copy to "travel with" -- you can easily carry it along with a larger version of the whole Bible in another translation. Then you can have the KJV Psalms to read, pray, or memorize alongside your regular study Bible.

It's a "Dover Thrift Edition," a name many students will know because those little Dover paperbacks that cost $1 (or nowadays sometimes $1.50) have often been the most affordable versions of classics students can afford! While the paper quality is not terrific (pages tend to yellow after a while) the binding is strong enough to withstand carrying the book around for a good long time.

In the case of the Dover edition of the Psalms, the presentation is very straightforward. All 150 are included, with each verse printed as a poetic line but with no verse numbers, so they really do read more as the original poetry would have read...verse numbers were a pretty late invention. There are no "headings" or titles for each psalm, which you'll often find in other translations/editions, just the psalm number in bold followed by the psalm itself. Since psalms vary widely in length, with some quite short, you'll sometimes find more than one printed on a page. At the back of the book, you'll find an alphabetical index of first lines, a helpful feature especially if one is memorizing.

To recap (and expand on a few points) this edition of the Psalms is a good traveling companion, because:

*It's compact and can fit easily into a briefcase, backpack, or even a large coat pocket. That means you can easily memorize, read or pray the psalms in this version, even if you usually use another version of the Scriptures for your main study.

*It's inexpensive. If you plan to use it for memorization, you'll have fewer qualms about making notations on the pages than you would a more expensive version printed on better quality paper. (Though I'd only suggest ballpoint or pencil, anything else would likely leak through the page to the other side.)

*It's the King James version, still one of the most beautiful English language versions of the Bible ever produced. Because the Psalms are poetry, they are rendered particularly well into this kind of English, which makes them richly memorable. Even many people who do not consider themselves deeply spiritual, or who don't make a habit of studying the Bible, find themselves more familiar with the language of this Bible than they may realize, in part because it's had such an impact on our language and on western culture in general. Although these are meant to be prayed, they are also rich poetry. Reading them is a wise investment for your heart.

"O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." (Psalm 34:8)


~© 2006, befus~

The Book of Psalms
unabridged text of King James version
Dover Thrift edition, 1993
ISBN 0486275418