The Bay Psalm Book was the first book, that is still in existence, printed in British North America.
The book is a Psalter, first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Psalms in it are metrical translations into English. The translations are not particularly polished, and none have remained in use, although some of the tunes to which they were sung have survived (for instance, "Old 100th.".) However its production, a mere 20 years after the Pilgrim Fathers arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century.
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Famous quotes containing the words bay psalm book, psalm book, bay psalm, bay, psalm and/or book:
“O Give yee thanks unto the Lord,
Because that good is hee:
Because his loving kindenes lasts
To perpetuitee.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“Then did they to Jehovah cry
When they were in distress:
And therupon he bringeth them
Out of their anguishes.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“They that goe downe to ‘th sea in ships:
Their busines there to doo
In waters great. The Lords work see,
I’th deep his wonders too.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CVII (Bay Psalm Book)
“The very dogs that sullenly bay the moon from farm-yards in these nights excite more heroism in our breasts than all the civil exhortations or war sermons of the age.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory:”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm LXXXIV (l. LXXXIV, 9–11)
“What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticized for us!”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)