Singing Some Psalms

By David Alexander

This is a collection of 35 Biblical Psalm selections set to tunes for singing. Most are my own compositions, but a few are translations from Taiwanese. A handful were written by foreign missionaries in Xiamen, China in the 19th century, and only saw English translations in the 21st. Links to online audio files are included so users can "click and sing". For those who don't want to sing, the contents serve as devotional poetry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Alexander
• Release date: Nov 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463797006

David Alexander

Originally from Los Angeles Vietnam Veteran (18th Engineer Brigade, 577th Engineer Battalion) Undergraduate degree in Spanish Graduate degrees in Theology (MA) and Education (EdM) Clergy (Reformed Church in America and Presbyterian Church in Taiwan) 39 years of life in Taiwan. Took citizenship there in 2018 and promptly retired to Holland, MI. Life in Taiwan included college campus ministry, parish ministry, publications work and theological education. Finished career as a lecturer in practical theology and director of the language center of Tainan Theological College.

Book preview

Acknowledgments

The grace of God

The love of a good woman

The fellowship of colleagues

The wonder of Taiwan

Introduction

In 2004 I was assigned to advise the international students at Tainan Theological College. It wasn't long before I noticed that they weren't singing in the chapel. I asked, and one told me that, even though the Taiwanese hymnal had both Taiwanese (in characters and in romanization), he did not know how to pronounce it, so he was not singing lest he say something incorrectly. I decided to produce an English version, thinking that everything was available through the wonder of the internet. It wasn't.

The first 49 selections in the hymnal were from the Psalms. Some of the hymns were, indeed, translations of English metrical settings, and even sung to the same tunes. But others werent. I had to go to work on both translation and versification. Within six months I had a very faulty, but rather comprehensive version for students to use. That process set me to versification of texts directly from the scriptures. From 2007 to 2009 I wrote all of the assigned lectionary texts for the Sundays and festivals from Reign of God through Epiphany for singing in English. Those included not few Psalms. As years passed, more got added to the collection here and there as I translated newly written Psalms set for singing, found others in old volumes of Taiwanese songs, or wrote new