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It was almost twenty-five years ago when my initial conversations with Christopher Rowland and John Sawyer resulted in a contract to produce a volume on the Psalms in the Blackwell Bible Commentary Series. It took two years of research to recognise the size of a project which was to examine the Jewish and Christian reception history of the Book of Psalms over two and a half millennia. The first step required setting up a data base, both digitally and in hard copy, which would organise the vast amount of material into time periods and types of reception. Even with the support of several short-term research assistants, and two sabbaticals, I was not able to start writing what would become Volume One until 2004. Very soon I realised that this publication could not be an actual commentary: it was a distinctive cultural history of the Psalter, referring to selected psalms as examples of different types of reception.

Before submitting that manuscript I had to seek permission to extend this work to a second volume which would then become the commentary. Hence the title Psalms through the Centuries: Volume One for the 2008 publication. It then became clear that I could not write any commentary until I had created another data base, psalm by psalm, adapting the earlier prototype. There was no other Psalms Commentary like it to use as a model, so the preparation time, even given two more sabbaticals and several effective research assistants, took far longer than anticipated. The contract for the entire commentary (Volume Two), was mainly achieved through the mediation of the then Old Testament editors of the Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentary Series, John Sawyer (Newcastle) and David Gunn (Fort Worth), but it was ultimately dependent upon the extraordinary support of the then Publisher for Religion, Rebecca Harkin.

Using the general chronological and geographical framework established in Volume One, the commentary required a particular format for each psalm. I start by assessing each psalm as part of the process of compilation of the Psalter as a whole, for this represents the earliest stage of its reception in Hebrew; I then look at corresponding evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls; this leads on to examining reception through translation, especially the Greek and Latin versions, which witness to both Jewish and Christian reception; I then turn to the Christian commentary tradition in the New Testament, Church Fathers, and Medieval and Reformation Commentators, and similarly the Jewish commentary tradition in the Midrash Tehillim, the Mishnah, the Targums, and Medieval Commentators. After this I assess non-verbal reception, especially the vast number of illustrated Psalters from the ninth-century onwards, both in the West and the East, at this point mainly Christian. This is followed by an evaluation of musical reception history, particularly from the fifteenth-century onwards, and thence to an assessment of poetic imitations of the psalms and their use in literature and film. At the final stage I explore the different sorts of discourse which develops from the seventeenth-century onwards—political, ethical, historical, and social.

Although I began writing up this commentary in 2011, I decided at the same time to undertake a more experimental work on just two psalms, looking at their reception history as comprehensively as possible. A Journey of Two Psalms: The Reception of Psalms 1 and 2 in Jewish and Christian Tradition was published by Oxford University Press in 2013. Its length was 140,000 words, and even allowing 70,000 words for each psalm, it was thirty-five times as much as I could allow for each of the 150 psalms in this present project. So for this Wiley-Blackwell commentary I tried to be as selective as possible, but by the time I had reached Psalm 89 the length was well over the limit originally agreed, and by 2015 it became clear that the commentary needed to be extended to a third volume. Understandably, these were difficult negotiations, and again I was extremely grateful to John Sawyer, David Gunn, Christopher Rowland, and Rebecca Harkin (in her new role as Publisher for Humanities) for being so persistent on my behalf. Volume Two was published in 2018, actually finishing at Psalm 72 to achieve the required word count: Psalm 89 would have been a more natural place, coming at the end of Book Three, but this was not a time to argue for niceties.¹

As I gained speed from experience, Volume Three has taken only three years to write. The format is as for Volume Two, except that here I often approach more contentious psalms thematically, selecting two or three key issues arising from their reception, integrating these themes into the template outlined above. This third volume has been supported by two younger editors representing the Wiley Blackwell Commentary Series, Andrew Mein (St. Andrews) and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer (Örebro). Their different skills have vastly improved this present manuscript: Lena has given it meticulous attention to detail and Andrew has brought to it many linguistic, musical and historical insights. I am equally grateful to Catriona King, now Director of the Global Publishing Team at John Wiley & Sons, and also to Juliet Booker, who did so much to promote the publication of Volume Two and prepare the way for Volume Three. Hannah Lee has taken important initiatives in the editorial management of this volume, and to my great relief both the copy-editor for Volume Two (Carolyn Holleyman) and the indexer for that volume (Caroline Jones) agreed to use their skills in this present volume as well.

Over this twenty-five year period it is difficult to single out the legacy of particular research assistants on this third volume. John Ritzema (London) and Natasha O’Hear (St. Andrews) deserve special mention, but Holly Morse (Manchester) undoubtedly stands out: she worked on the data base for both Volumes One and Two, and her contribution in matters of art history has been invaluable for Volume Three as well. Danny Crowther (Oxford) has also done sterling work, complementing Holly in his text-critical skills and in his passion for early Jewish reception. He has honed the data-base, making it more easy to access, managed the bibliographical resources, prepared many of the resources psalm by psalm, and has read through the text more times than I can remember. Lucinda Armstrong, undergraduate at Worcester and now a doctoral student, stepped in at the last minute to undertake some final proof-reading. I am grateful she did. Finally, I am also indebted to Eleanor Vivian, another undergraduate student turned graduate, now researching at Birmingham University, for her eagle eye for detail and her work on tedious end-projects such as the Glossary, list of Abbreviations, and the final Bibliography. It is now becoming a cliché, but it is nevertheless sincere: the mistakes that remain are solely my responsibility.

Volume Three was begun in employment and completed in retirement. In 2018 Worcester College and the Faculty of Theology and Religion together granted me one essential, final sabbatical. I owe a huge debt to Peter Groves for having taken on administrative and tutorial responsibilities in my absence: Peter’s insights at the academic level have provided a vital support throughout the entire project. I am also grateful for the use of the Bartlett Sisters’ Theology Fund, supported mainly by alumni from Worcester College, for this has paid for much of my research assistance. Various College Officers and Fellows at Worcester played a major part in launching this third volume: for all their practical support in so many ways my thanks extend to Afifi Al-Akiti, Mark Bainbridge, Coleen Day, Scott Scullion, Elizabeth Smith, Emma Standhaft, Carmy Strzelecki, and Phillipa Tarver.

Post retirement I have been dependent for ongoing funding from the trustees of the St. Luke’s College Foundation, Exeter. David Benzie and his trustees provided for the costs of the permissions and the production of images, and then also for payment of the indexing and other research assistance costs. Their continual support throughout this entire project has been vital.

Academic colleagues in the Faculty of Theology and Religion here at Oxford have provided much specialist advice. Above all I have valued the support of John Barton—mentor, colleague, and friend of over forty years. Other Faculty members who have also given this project their support in different ways include Hywel Clifford, John Day, John Goldingay, John Jarick, Justin Jones, Laura Quick, Frances Roach, Deborah Rooke, Katherine Southwood, and Jenn Strawbridge. Outside my Faculty Matthew Cheung-Salisbury has been a continuous source of encouragement: his unfailing patience has vastly improved my account of the musical and liturgical reception of different psalms. Outside Oxford, Nicolas Bell, Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge, has offered me invaluable advice about various illustrated Psalters: the Eadwine Psalter appears many times in this volume and has been used in two of the Plates.

Two Oxford-based research centres have continued to provide new incentives. The Centre for the Reception History of the Bible has broadened my horizons of what reception is and does, and I am grateful to Chris Joynes, its director, for the opportunity to speak there and to learn from other projects. The Psalms Network which works under the auspices of The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (‘TORCH’) has been a major inspiration, not least through working with my co-founders, Francis Leneghan and Helen Appleton, whose expertise in Medieval English Literature as it impinges on the Book of Psalms has taught me much. Together we have produced a wide variety of events concerned with all aspects of the reception of psalmody, some of which have been incorporated here. Other TORCH members who deserve mention are Elizabeth Solopova (Oxford) who helped with my research on illuminated Psalters, and Beatrice Groves (Oxford) who has been a conversation partner on the psalms in Early Modern literature. Other members have freely allowed their own work to be used in this book: Roger Wagner (Oxford) and Michael Jessing (Peebles) have produced some of the artwork; David Mitchell (Brussels) has produced musical scores intuiting ancient psalmody; Alexander Massey (Oxford) has made invaluable contributions on Jewish psalmody; and Edward Clarke (Oxford) has offered several of his poems. Howard Goodall’s memorable performance and explanation of his own psalm compositions through the auspices of TORCH made me work on the relevant psalms in a new way, and Andy Mackay (Roxy music), also associated with TORCH, prompted me to study the reception history of other psalms in a different context, namely for his performance ‘3 Psalms’ at Southbank.

My membership of two societies has also been invaluable in this long-term project. The Society for Old Testament Study, for which I served as President from 2018 to 2019, has been an important resource in bringing together colleagues with distinctive sorts of expertise; they include James Aitken (Cambridge), Margaret Barker (Borrowash), Richard Briggs (Durham), David Clines (Sheffield), Katharine Dell (Cambridge), Graham Davies (Cambridge), David Firth (Bristol), Bill Goodman (Sheffield), Charlotte Hempel (Birmingham), Alastair Hunter (Glasgow), Philip Johnston (Cambridge), Paul Joyce (London), Shioban Dowling-Long (Cork), Heather McKay (Edge Hill), Jonathan Magonet (London), Sean Maher (Carlow), James Patrick (Oxford), Cat Quine (Nottingham), David Reimer (Edinburgh), David Shepherd (Dublin), Rebecca Watson (Market Harborough), Jenni Williams (Oxford), Hugh Williamson (Oxford) and Paul Winchester (Oxford). The Psalms Section of the Society for Biblical Literature has also been an ongoing resource: I am grateful for the support of Karl Jacobson (Minneapolis), Rolf Jacobson (Minnesota), Chris Jones (Jefferson City), Joel LeMon (Atlanta), and Brent Strawn (Durham, NC), and most especially Melody Knowles (Alexandria).

The legacies of †Erich Zenger, †Klaus Seybold, †Peter Flint, and †Frank-Lothar Hossfeld have been considerable, as my footnotes amply testify. Between the publication of Volume Two and Volume Three I have participated in various psalms projects globally, some in memoriam of these extraordinary colleagues, and hearing and giving papers and producing articles have offered me further insights in writing up the commentary. Colleagues who have been especially important include Johannes Bremer (Bochum), Alma Brodersen (Bern), Susan Docherty (Birmingham), Christian Frevel (Bochum), Erhard Gerstenberger (Marburg), Friedhelm Hartenstein (München), Bernd Janowski (Tübingen), Corinna Körting (Hamburg), Beate Kowalski (Dortmund), Dominik Markl (Rome), Nancy Rahn (Bern), Jonathan Schnocks (Münster), Till Steiner (Jerusalem), Åke Viberg (Stockholm), Beat Weber (Liestal), David Willgren (Örebro), and Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg (Marburg). My greatest debt, however, is to Hermann Spieckermann (Göttingen) for his insights, friendship, good humour, and continuous support. Collaborative work with American colleagues especially through the Society of Biblical Literature has also been important over these years, especially with Debra Band (Washington DC), Bill Bellinger (Baylor), Joseph Blenkinsopp (Notre Dame), William Brown (Columbia), Walter Brueggemann (Decatur), Dennis Tucker (Baylor), Clinton McCann (Saint Louis), Jamie McClung (Georgia), and Nancy deClaissé-Walford (Atlanta). I have been associated with Pro-Psalms, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria SA for nearly fifteen years, when I first became a research associate, and I acknowledge the continuing support of Dirk Human, Alphonso Groenewald, and Philip Botha. Finally, in giving named papers for Stefan Attard (Malta), and Giovanni Barbiero (Rome) I have gained invaluable insights from their advice and friendship.

Retirement meant a slight shift from academic community to church, not least because of my ordination to the Permanent Diaconate in 2018. Reception history is very much about performance as well as a written script, and the congregation at St. Barnabas’ Church have received, especially through Zoom during Lockdown, more papers on the Psalms than they probably would have chosen, but their support through conversations in the church and pub has been immeasurable. I am enormously grateful to Fr. Christopher Woods, who has trained me as a Deacon whilst understanding that I needed much time and space for academic work. In these latter stages he has been an exceptionally supportive colleague and friend. At the Diocesan level, +Steven, Bishop of Oxford, also the holder of a doctorate in the psalms, has been a seminal influence in challenging me to view the reception history of psalmody in a contemporary setting, especially during Lockdown. The community of Benedictines at Mucknell Abbey has been an important reminder of psalmody and the Opus Dei. I have also given several papers on the psalms before and during the Covid-19 pandemic at Exeter Cathedral, where I am Canon Theologian, and equally significant have been conversations with +Robert, Bishop of Exeter, Jonathan and Pamela Greener, Christopher Palmer, Morwenna Ludlow, and Clare Bryden.

Family members have grown old since the inception of this project. Volume One was dedicated to my long-suffering husband, Dick Smethurst, and I am as grateful now as then for his unfailing practical love and patient support. Volume Two was dedicated to my daughters, Abbie and Esther, who in their earlier years earned money to travel by working on the ever-expanding data base, and up to the present day their loving encouragement has kept me going. It seems appropriate to maintain family interests, and so in a work about reception through the centuries I am dedicating Volume Three to the next generation—to my three lovely grandchildren, Sophia and Noah Boutayeb, and Ayaan Gillingham-Ahmed.

1 ¹ John Sawyer sadly died in January 2022, so never saw the final publication of Volume Three, despite his ongoing investment in it. I owe him a good deal.