Psalms Prayer Pockets

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Of course I didn't tell anyone about my outrageous prayer request. Two days later some friends surprised me by handing me that very Bible, brand new, and still in its box! A mutual acquaintance whom I had not seen for a long time had bought one for herself and also decided to buy one for me as well, and asked my friends to give it to me! I took it with me when I visited Japan a few months later on a summer mission trip, and it was a good companion.

That little Bible has travelled in my bag with me everywhere since then, and has flown over the Pacific Ocean many times. I still have it with me here in Japan, and still use it.

You can't find that particular compact Bible in the stores these days, but it has a worthy successor. If you invest in a compact Bible, I highly recommend looking for one with either a zipper cover or snap flap so you won't worry about the pages getting mangled or ripped by other items in your bag. No matter how careful you are, things have a way of ending up inside the pages. A small pouch would also serve to protect your Bible if it doesn't have a flap or zipper. Today most Protestant Bibles have sixty-six books.

Until the s, the Authorized King James Version and all other English Bibles had at least seventy-three books because they included the books which are referred to as the "Deuterocanonical" books by Catholics and the "Apocrypha" by Protestants. Today some very nice compact Bibles which include these books are available including one that has a zipper cover.

It's nice to have the entire Bible handy when you are praying the Psalms because you can go to other passages that pop into your head. Of course, if you are not careful, you may end up chasing a trail through the Bible rather than praying the Psalms as you had intended. For those who are easily distracted, the value of a dedicated psalter is that it only has the Psalms so you can't go off on detours; a psalter is a sharp tool for a specific job.

And they are also a lot of fun! Here's a classy little green pocket psalter produced by Holy Transfiguration Monastery the one in the lower right corner of the photo above, and featured in the photo below. Now you can get one through Amazon, but I got my copy from Orthodox Incense because they ship to Japan at reasonable rates. This psalter is pocket size, with a beautiful design printed in black and red on nice opaque paper.

The text is a new translation done in the s of the Septuagint, , and therefore considered a valuable translation of the Hebrew.

Editorial Reviews

Since the source for the Septuagint was Hebrew manuscripts in the second century BC which have crumbled many centuries ago, it is also a snapshot of what the text of those Hebrew manuscripts looked like, as well as how the words were interpreted by Jews at the time. One important example is found not in the Psalms but in Isaiah 7: The Hebrew almah can mean either "young woman" or "virgin.

The Septuagint indicates they read it as "virgin" because the translators chose the Greek word parthenos which means "virgin. Bible translators dare not ignore the Septuagint, especially since Jesus, the Apostles, and the Church Fathers read it, accepted it as scripture, and quoted from it.

This was the common version of scripture when the apostle Paul wrote that all scripture is inspired by God literally "God-breathed". The Hebrew text of the Bible we have today is from the Masoretic text which gives us a snapshot of what 7th century AD Hebrew manuscripts looked like around years after the ones used for the Septuagint. The earliest Hebrew Masoretic text manuscripts we have now are from the 9th century AD.

Even though it's a modern translation, this Psalter uses the older form of English.

Modern English has lost the distinction between second person singular and plural pronouns unless y'all live in the south or yinz hail from Pittsburgh they really say yinz; I've heard it! One drawback to old translations is that many other English words have become obsolete or have changed their meaning. A modern translation that uses the classic pronouns?

That's wonderful as I'm concerned. The text is more of a dynamic equivalence translation which tries to convey the feeling of the original rather than the exact equivalent of each word. In this psalter and all Orthodox Christian psalters the Psalms are divided into 20 sections called Kathismata. Two Kathismata are to be read in the mornings, and one is to be read most evenings so you can finish all the Psalms in a week. Each Kathisma is divided into three sections called stases, which means there are actually 60 divisions in all. If you want to read through this psalter in one month 30 days just read one stasis each morning and each evening.

A Psalter for Prayer combines so many of the things that I've wanted to see in a Psalter. It's a full size hardbound book which is sewn stitched like all traditional books, and has two gold ribbons and is printed in black and red. It is a dignified, timeless translation, and the perfect choice for public reading and chanting. The Coverdale Psalter has been loved by many generations of Christians since it first appeared in , and it continues to be widely popular today. As a matter of fact, in the 21st century, this version of the Psalms is officially used not only by Anglicans and Episcopalians in the Book of Common Prayer, but also by Catholics in the Personal Ordinariates.

It is also loved by English-speaking Orthodox Christians, for whom this particular Psalter was published. How many English Bible translations can you think of which are used and loved by Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians? The text of the Coverdale Psalms in this Psalter was edited to conform to the Septuagint, and so all the advantages I mentioned above also apply here. It has the twenty Kathismata, all the canticles, and extra prayers including those from the Slavonic Psalter which cannot be found in other English Psalters.

The translator is David Mitchell James. The numbering of the Psalms is based on the Septuagint. Here's Psalm 94 Psalm 95 in some Psalters. This Psalm starts out "Come, let us rejoice" which apparently reflects the Septuagint reading rather than "Come, let us sing" as it appears in the Book of Common Prayer. Here is what Psalm 63 looks like Psalm 64 in some Psalters so you can compare the text with the Holy Transfiguration Monastery pocket psalter above:. This Psalter even uses Hebrew characters where they identify Psalms which have sections corresponding to the Hebrew alphabet.

The Latin titles have also been retained. This book is fairly big, and would fit perfectly on the lecturn in a church. For those who need something more portable, there's also a Kindle version and an epub version so you can read it on your smart phone or tablet. Speaking of the Coverdale Psalter, some articles on the web have pointed out that it is not the most accurate version of the Psalms we have today.

But the differences between the Coverdale Psalms and more recently published Psalms are insignificant as far as I can tell. And several editions of the Coverdale Psalter have been edited for more accuracy.

Follow the Author

One of the best edited versions of the Coverdale Psalter is the one found in the the American edition of the Book of Common Prayer. According to the Commentary on the American Prayer Book the editors went over the entire psalter and carefully compared it with the Hebrew text, resulting in over one hundred changes. It is also available by itself in handy paperback form but you may miss it in a web search because the title doesn't mention Coverdale; it is called The Prayer Book Psalter see the photo to the right. But in those places in the American Psalter where the Psalms were edited to conform to the Hebrew text rather than the Greek and the Latin, the Saint Dunstan's Plainsong Psalter restored the original Coverdale wording.

Why would anyone even consider doing such a thing? As I mentioned above, the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate are translations of a Hebrew text which is several centuries older than the Masoretic Hebrew text we have today. In places where the Greek and Latin agree with each other but disagree with the Hebrew, you can bet that the Greek and Latin is the older and more reliable reading.

That one was more thoroughly edited to conform to the Septuagint. Another great pocket psalter is the Tehillim published by the Kehot Publication Society. This one has English and Hebrew on facing pages which makes the book a little thick since it contains two complete psalters. The English is translated from a Hebrew standpoint which one could argue is the original one , and that makes it fascinating and instructive.

Look at the very first two lines of the first Psalm:. I bet you didn't know this was a reference to the Torah, which is the first five books of Moses, from Genesis to Deuteronomy although the word can also be used in a more general sense. Also, a lot of the names in the Tehillim are slightly different from what you may be accustomed to, being in their original Hebrew form. I am very impressed with the apparent accuracy of this translation.

No, I can't read the Hebrew side, but the English wording is extremely close to other translations which are noted for their word-for-word faithfulness to the original texts formal equivalence rather dynamic equivalence translations such as the New American Standard Bible. It stands to reason that this would have to be an accurate translation since the original Hebrew is on the facing pages, and many readers can check it for themselves as they go along.

The pocket edition is paperback, so the pages will not lie flat that's why I used the clip in the photo , but that might not be an issue if you always hold the psalter in your hand rather than rest it on a desk. The cover is really cool and exotic. It's a neat illusion, but the cover is flat. This psalter is divided into seven sections for reading the entire thing in a week.

It's also divided into 30 sections for reading it through in a month. I ordered mine several years ago from Jewish Russian Books , but now it's available at Amazon with a brown cover, but apparently everything else is the same as the one I got. If you like the idea of praying the same Psalms and other prayers with people all around the globe every day, then you might like the Liturgy of the Hours a.

It is mainly used by Catholics, but many Protestants also use it in their personal devotions. Psalms, prayers, Bible passages and hymns are sung or said seven times a day at approximately three hour intervals.

It's a nice system that distributes the Psalms into smaller portions throughout the day. These seven times of prayer are called offices. Lay people are encouraged to do at least Morning and Evening Prayer the two main offices if they can, but if you do all of the offices daily you will go through the psalter in four weeks Daytime Prayer need only be done once a day to acomplish this, and Night Prayer cycles through the same limited set of Psalms every week.

In the older arrangement, there is another morning time slot called Prime , bringing up the total hours to eight. People could pray every three hours around the clock but they had to be awake at midnight, be out of bed at three in the morning, try to get a little more sleep and be ready to pray again at six!

Very dedicated religious orders monks, etc did this every day and night, and went through all the Psalms in one week cycles. The current arrangement of hours was created with the laity in mind. There was a time when Latin was the common language of the western world, and the Breviary was prayed in Latin only. But now the Breviary has been translated into many languages, so all the Christians in the world can use it the original "master copy" is still Latin and is called Liturgia Horarum. While the Hebrew, Anglican and Orthodox Psalters have the Psalms arranged in the order they appear in the Bible, the Psalms in the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours are re-arranged to fit to their particular day and time slot and also to allow each time slot to have basically the same number of verses.

They did this so that the laity with day jobs and home responsibilities would be able fit the Liturgy of the Hours into their busy daily schedules. There is a great disparity in the number of verses per Psalm as they are originally published. For example Psalm has only two verses while Psalm has verses.

Those who try to read one Psalm per day are in for a real shock! And many of the really large Psalms are lumped together back to back as are many of the smaller Psalms. So some re-arranging was necessary in a daily Psalm schedule to even it out and avoid big surprises. If you like the idea of using this arrangement of the Psalms in your private devotions, I've made a handy chart of which Psalms are use in each time slot. Here is the same chart in a vertical format which you can print and tuck in your Bible, breviary or psalter.

I've also made a Japanese version. If you want to include all the scripture readings that appear regularly along with the Psalms in the Liturgy of the Hours, I have made a more complete chart. A liturgical calendar is necessary to let you know where you should be in the 4 week cycle, and an online version can be found at the Rosary Shop web site or you can find all the Psalms and readings for the current day on the web at Univeralis , iBreviary or Divine Office.

Three of the more harsh Psalms have been omitted from the current psalter: Psalms 58, 83 and 57, 82 and in some psalter numbering systems. Just make a note of these so you can read them to complete the set if you like. There are over a billion Catholics in the world so you would be in good company if you used this.

Of course not every member prays the Liturgy of the Hours, but clergy and those in religious orders monks, nuns, etc. The Liturgy of the Hours allows the Church to "pray without ceasing" as this world spins around. No matter what time you are praying the Psalms, there are people somewhere in the world praying the same Psalms with you, though not necessarily in English. Since my location on the globe is in Japan, I also have the Japanese version. It's a one volume set called Kyoukai no Inori Prayer of the Church and matches the English version except the text is vertical and reads right to left.

It also has pointing for simple chanting in Morning and Evening Prayer. They still faithfully chant the Psalms in the Catholic Church here, and the form of chant is simplified, similar to one I described above where most of the words of each phrase are on a single note and they last few words on a different note. At least this is how the Psalms are chanted in Japanese. Both have the entire four week psalter plus scripture readings, hymns, canticles and prayers for a very complete private devotion. The book in the photo above with blue edged pages is volume one of the four volume set which is shown at the right.

The main difference between the four and one volume set is the Office of Readings which includes writings from various sources such as the Church Fathers. These are included in the four volume set. These books require a bit of page flipping to find the parts you need at any given prayer time, and it can be confusing at first. There are several helpful tutorials on the web including a PDF called Discovering Prayer which can be downloaded for free the Rosary Shop.

There is also a handy guide published every year which tells you exactly which pages to use for any given date. There is a guide for the single Volume Christian Prayer and a guide for the four volume set. So make sure you get the right guide for your books, and make sure you get the one for the current year! If you want to chant these Psalms there is a beautiful one volume set called the Mundelein Psalter which has all the pointing and notation. There is also an African edition of the Liturgy of the Hours now English language. I acquired a copy and included photos in a separate article. And for Anglicans who want to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in a small book similar to their beloved Book of Common Prayer, there is also a portable edition called A Shorter Morning and Evening Prayer which I have also reviewed in a separate article.

A little technical information for those who are interested in the Japanese breviary: There is no four-volume set in Japanese, so the one-volume is THE breviary in Japan, and is therefore more comprehensive than the American or African one-volume breviary. It includes Daytime Prayer in its entirety between Morning and Evening Prayer plus the Psalms for the Office of Readings which appear before Morning Prayer and a list of Scripture readings from the one-year lectionary.

The handy guide which comes out every year lists the readings from the more comprehensive two-year lectionary. The Patristic readings are published separately in eight volumes. If you want to read and pray the Liturgy of the Hours with no page flipping for free on your computer or download an e-pub or Kindle version or app, there are a few great web sites out there such as Univeralis , iBreviary and Divine Office.

A fun blog dedicated to the Liturgy of the Hours is called Coffee and Canticles. Here is one that is even smaller than the two pocket psalters I mentioned above. It's called The Perfect Prayer Book: Gifting of the Kindle edition at the Kindle MatchBook price is not available. Learn more about Kindle MatchBook. Start reading Psalms Prayer Pockets on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review.

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