This book is a new edition (as an e-book and in a printed version) of one that has been out of print for over 150 years. ‘The Spirit of the Psalms’, paraphrases of all one hundred and fifty psalms, was last published by the Rev. Henry Francis Lyte in 1836. Lyte was Vicar of Lower Brixham, Devon, England where he strove hard to encourage his flock. ‘The Spirit of the Psalms’ was one of the ways he chose to help them to understand the teaching of Christianity and to encourage their spiritual awareness through music.

‘The Spirit of the Psalms’ differed from other versions that had been published, in that Lyte allowed himself more liberal freedom in interpretation. Rarely did he attempt to keep close to the Biblical text, as he himself said in the second edition 1834 preface, where he states, referring to himself, “… he has endeavoured to condense the leading sentiments of each (psalm) into a few verses for congregational singing.”

While it is faithful to the original, in this 2020 edition there have been some minor spelling and punctuation modifications to Lyte’s work and corrections to inaccuracies in the original index. It is hoped that this version will bring back to public attention the genius of Lyte’s paraphrases and encourage more use of psalms in Christian worship.