A DIRECTOR OF MUSIC LOOKS AT THE PSALMS FORTHCOMING 2025 A Director of Music Looks at the Psalms is a sequel to my earlier books on the Psalms, The Songs of Ascents (2015) and The Message of the Psalter (1997). In it, I take a few further steps in unearthing how the Psalms really sounded … Read more
THE PSALMS ALBUM The Psalms Album appeared in 1996. Its story began in the early 1990s in Edinburgh. John Bell invited me to Carberry Towers to join the Church of Scotland’s committee for remetricizing the Psalms. When I saw that the committee wouldn’t publish the best of my work, I published my own settings of … Read more
YEARS AGO, I sat at my desk reading my Hebrew Bible. Then I fell into a deep reverie, wondering where the lost music of the Psalms had gone too, and how I could find it. I asked myself, “Who would know this? Would some rabbi or cantor know the answer? Or is it buried in a cave somewhere, waiting to be found, like the Dead Sea Scrolls? Or is it just lost for ever?”
Little did I know that the lost music of the Psalms was lying right there, in front of my eyes. It lies encoded in the cantillation marks of the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible.
THE SECRET OF THE PSALMS IS THE BOOK OF PSALMS just a jumbled collection of ancient religious lyrics? Or does the sequence of its 150 songs contain a secret message? Saint Augustine of Hippo thought so. He said, “The sequence of the Psalms seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, but … Read more
There are fifteen Psalms of Ascents. And there are several very good reasons why there are fifteen of them. Learn all about them in these fifteen facts about the Psalms of Ascents.
Where is the ancient music of the Psalms? Over the last decade, I’ve sought to answer that question, building on the work of the great 20th-century musicologists—Marcelle Duchesne-Guillemin, Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura, Hans Hickmann, and Ernest McClain—as well as on equally-great contemporaries like Leon Crickmore, Richard Dumbrill, and Ann Kilmer. You’ll find some of my writings on … Read more
Hello, everyone! The psalms, hymns, and songs on this page are freely available for use in your church or gathering. But remember that they’re copyright. So when you print or copy them, please keep the copyright line intact. If your church or school is CCLI-registered, please include them in your CCLI return. Please read my … Read more
AWAITING THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM Awaiting the Millennial Kingdom is about the coming end of this age and the dawn of the Sabbath millennium. The Church Fathers and the sages of Israel taught that the world-age would endure six millennial ‘days’ — that is, 6,000 years — from the day of the creation of Adam. After … Read more
Since I published Messiah ben Joseph in 2016 I often get questions about this mysterious Messiah son of Joseph. Here are some of the questions I am asked most often and the answers. This is quite a long video. So, if you want the full info, stay tuned. Or if you want an overview of … Read more
Campbell Publishers is a specialist publisher of theological books and other stuff. Here’s some of our catalogue. A Director of Music Looks at the Psalms (Forthcoming)This is a sequel to my earlier work on the Psalms. If you enjoyed The Message of the Psalter and The Songs of Ascents, I think you’ll like this one … Read more