Some things are hidden in plain sight.

Such is my copy of the 1650 Scottish metrical version of the biblical Book of Psalms. It sits beside my chair and is one of the most influential books of the Bible, simply because I use it every day.

Many Christians overlook the Psalms. The advantage of a metrical version is that you can sing the Psalms every day and learn to recite them. The theology is divine and it covers the wide range of Christian spiritual experience, more so than man-made hymns.

The Scottish metrical version is composed in such a way that one can sing any one of the 150 Psalms to any common metre tune, to Amazing Grace or even to Auld Lang Syne, if one knows very few tunes. Martin Luther saw no reason why the devil should have the best tunes. 150 Psalms amounts, in practice, to about 750 selections for singing. The Rev. Donald MacLean, my mentor in Glasgow, used to say that if one cannot find a Psalm to suit one’s sermon, then change the sermon.

Family worship

I use my Psalmody every day at morning and evening family worship. It is so worn from daily use that my good friend Neil Maclean, now in heaven, gave it a new leather cover with a gold-leaf title. Neil will feature again when I write about future books. He was for a while the manager of the Free Presbyterian Bookshop and he was well-versed in current religious literature, the American scene and Scottish ecclesiastical history.  I owe a lot to him and he deserves a well-merited mention in my series of influential books.

John M. Brentnall

In the providence of the Most High, I came under the musical tutelage of the Rev. Dr John Michael Brentnall in the early 1970s at the very time of my conversion to faith in Jesus Christ. He was a music teacher called into the Christian ministry and studying in Glasgow at the time. He took a psalmody class in my local congregation and I discovered that I was a tenor singer. I purchased my first Scottish split-leaf Psalter on 21/9/1973.

I had learned Sol-fa over a decade earlier in my first primary school, Dunard Street School, Glasgow, little realising how much it would feature in my later life.

Divine Psalmody

I learned my tenor-part singing from Brentnall’s class in 1973-74, which created a life-long interest in psalmody. So every day of my life I have him to thank for this. It supplanted my playing of the Highland bagpipes, and for about a decade I was part of the Highland Harmony Singers, singing the praises of God from the Book of Psalms in and around Inverness. Brentnall also had a psalmody class in Inverness during his year there as a divinity student.

My first publication, after my son James prompted me for a copy, was What’s that Tune? A Melody Index of Sol-fa Tunes, published in 2009. It is a unique index to Scottish Psalmody tunes occurring in all the Psalters produced in the 20th century, while also teaching the reader how to use Sol-fa.

Many people in Highland Harmony Singers purchased it in 2009 but the Free Presbyterian Bookshop failed to stock it upon three requests. Kenneth MacLean, Gairloch, of the Highland Harmony Singers wrote an appreciative one-page review in the rival ecclesiastic publication by the Associated Presbyterian Churches, and John Brentnall, of course, also wrote a review in Peace & Truth magazine. In the 1990s I had inserted my own “mini-copy” into my pulpit copy of the Scottish Psalter. When my son James saw it, he wanted a copy for himself, which prompted my making it available by publication.

A familiarity with the Book of Psalms will demonstrate how godliness operates in society, particularly as the composer of so many Psalms was David, King of Israel, “the sweet Psalmist of Israel”, “a man after God’s own heart”. His godliness while ruling Israel at a difficult time is the God-given guidance for our own lives, and his life gives the lie to the mantra that “religion and politics don’t mix”. They mixed very well in King David, and in many others since. Daily singing of the Psalms reinforces God’s mind for us as individuals and as nations. The recovery of Psalm-singing will go some way to the recovery of true Christianity in families, churches and nations.

Yea, all the mighty kings on earth
before Him down shall fall;
And all the nations of the world
do service to Him shall.
Now blessed be the Lord our God,
the God of Israel,
For He alone does wondrous works,
in glory that excel.
And blessed be His glorious name
to all eternity:
The whole earth let His glory fill.
Amen, so let it be.

Psalm 72:11,18-19

Links to other influential books:

22 Feb 2026: The Christian Bible and The Mother’s Catechism.