We should read it not as an assortment of poems and songs but as a single rhapsody on God’s covenant promises. Late in the fourth century, a man named Palladius of Galatia left his home (somewhere in ...

Editor’s note: This article was first published in the Aug. 2, 1997, issue of America, titled “Praying the Psalms: Some Notes.” For some years I have been keeping rather extensive reading notebooks.

The singing of psalms spans thousands of years of church tradition. Today’s songwriters and worship leaders mine these texts for words and inspiration as they craft new songs for the church. For the ...