The Cambridge Liturgical Psalter With Notes

The Cambridge Liturgical Psalter With Notes

'The Cambridge Liturgical Psalter' was first published by William Collins in 1977 as 'The Psalms: A New Translation for Worship', and was later used in the Church of England's 'Alternative Service Book, 1980' and bound into many editions as 'The Liturgical Psalter'. It was subsequently incorporated into five national prayerbooks and adopted in whole or in part by a range of Churches throughout the English-speaking world.

The 1977 version of 'The Liturgical Psalter' is to be distinguished from a Roman Catholic publication with the same title published in the United States in 1995, whose imprimatur was revoked in 1998 because of 'concerns about the doctrinal accuracy of the English translation'.

The Cambridge version was meticulously translated over a period of six years by a panel of eight Hebraists from various Christian denominations, and rendered into modern English for public recitation and singing by a single literary scholar who took account of the long history of Psalm translation into English. It is both the most reliable guide in English to the meaning of the ancient Hebrew and was also the rendering chosen by the poet Donald Davie for his anthology in Penguin Classics, 'The Psalms in English', as one of only two versions to represent the best of the twentieth century.

Widely used for public and private devotion, this present e-book version adds for the first time to the translation some scholarly notes prepared by the Secretary of the Hebrew panel to explain their decisions when interpreting the original Hebrew text, where translators over the centuries have sometimes misrepresented what is agreed to be an inspired book of the Old Testament, yet one that makes exceptional demands on any who attempt to render it truthfully.