Mary Herbert

Most of the singing in churches during the late Middle Ages was done by clergy and trained choirs, while the congregation sang only on rare occasions. One contribution of the Reformation was the recovery of congregational singing. The reformers regarded that singing the words of Scripture was an ideal way to internalize the message. Reformers translated the Psalms into singable versions, called metrical Psalms, to use in worship. They singled out the Psalms since they were originally written to be sung, as evidenced by their musical markings. The reformers used simple words and phrases to make it easier to sing.
The Psalms were also written in prose, which is difficult to feature if their primary function is for congregational singing. The Sidney’s were a brother-sister duo who translated the Psalms into more elaborate prose for private meditation and prayer. Philip Sidney (1554-1586) was an accomplished English poet active in recovering the exalted prose of the Psalter. Before his untimely death, he translated forty-three Psalms into more poetical form. He changed the customary words of Psalm 23, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” into “He rests me in green pastures,” and “He leadeth me beside still waters” into “By waters still and sweet, he guides my feet.” After Philip’s death in battle, his younger sister, Mary Herbert (1561-1621), honored her fallen brother by translating the remaining one hundred seven Psalms. She was, arguably, the better poet, known for her celebratory and joyful approach to the Psalms. To illustrate, she changed the words of Psalm 51, “Let thy bones which you crushed rejoice,” to “Let the bruised bones dance away their sadness.” Her lively wordplay was evident throughout her translations, such as her reference in Psalm 107 to storms with surging waves where “stars do drop bedashed with rain, so huge the waves in combat rise.” Her prayer today comes from selected portions of her Psalm 139 translation: