The Psalms In Common Meter is a rendering of the entire Biblical book of Psalms into gentle and accessible verse. It is an entirely new verse-by-verse translation that follows a centuries-long tradition of metrical Psalters that God's people have used in their devotions and worship. This is not a text to be studied, but a collection of Biblical prayers that give voice to the emotions. From suffering and anger to joy and praise, the Psalms lift up our souls to God. For I am faint and feeble, Lord, my body aches and groans; O heal me from my maladies and pain within my bones. (Psalm 6:2) O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful Your name in all the earth; The splendor of the heavens shows Your glory and Your worth. (Psalm 8:1) There is a river known as joy that flows through streets of gold; It brings the city of our God delight and bliss untold. (Psalm 46:4) My soul finds rest in God alone because of grace He shows; My hope and rescue come from Him, for I'm the one He chose. (Psalm 62:1) Awake my soul and rise with me, awake O harp and strings; For I will wake the dawning day as all creation sings. (Ps 108:2)

The Whole Booke of Psalmes was one of the most published and widely read books of early modern England, running to over 800 editions between the 1570s and the early eighteenth century. It offered all of the Psalms paraphrased in verse with appropriate tunes, together with an assortment of other scriptural and non-scriptual hymns, and was rapidly (if unofficially) adopted by the established English Church. Yet, despite the significant impact of the Whole Booke of Psalmes upon English culture and literature, this is the first book-length study of it, and the first sustained critical examination of the texts of which it comprises. By tracing the ways in which historical contingency, religious fervor and the print marketplace together created and were changed by one of the most successful books of English verse ever printed, this study opens a new window through which to view the intellectual and ecclesiastical culture of Tudor England.