The New Coverdale Psalter
A closer look at this beautiful edition of the Psalms from Anglican Liturgy Press.
A few months ago, a reader named Jeremy sent me an email to tell me about a new edition of the Psalms called the New Coverdale Psalter, produced by the Anglican Church in North America as a companion piece for the 2019 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. I am not Anglican, but I’ve had a soft spot for the liturgical rhythms of Anglicanism for many years, and I recently returned from a semester in Oxford where the majority of the students I studied alongside were Church of England ordinands and our daily schedule included worship and prayer in the Anglican tradition, which I found to be quite meaningful.
I suppose I say that to say this: I know many of my readers come from an Evangelical background, but what I have found in recent years is that resources from other traditions (Anglican, Catholic, etc.) have been a blessing to me. My goal is to help you find a Bible that’s right for you; one you will love and enjoy using. In this instance, one of my readers helped me. The New Coverdale Psalter has quickly become a dear companion in my daily routine, and I owe my thanks to Jeremy.
Please watch the video below to see my full review of the New Coverdale Psalter, and keep scrolling for a written overview and more photos.
New Coverdale Psalter – Overview
The New Coverdale Psalter features an updated text of the Psalms from the 1535 Coverdale Bible (more on the translation below), beautifully printed and bound in the Netherlands by Royal Jongbloed. The leather is a tight-grain black goatskin with gold embossing on the front cover and spine. It looks and feels quite timeless.
The New Coverdale Psalter has a 5.4” x 7.5” trim size, and it measures less than one inch thick. As you can see in the photo below, this size pairs well with larger Bibles. The Smyth-sewn text block contains 256 pages of crisp, white paper that is very opaque. The text is a generous 13pt, which creates quite a comfortable reading experience.
The content the New Coverdale Psalter is identical to the Psalter found in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer, with the Psalms organized in a traditional one-month reading cycle for morning and evening prayer, but the layout is slightly adjusted in this volume so that each Psalm starts on a new page instead of following immediately the previous Psalm (a feature that I like very much). There is a short introduction at the front of the volume with information about the translation, and at the back you’ll find a table for the monthly reading cycle as well as a topical index of the Psalms. The overall look and feel of the interior layout matches the exterior: simple, clean, and classic.
FEATURES
• 13pt font
• 5.4” x 7.5” trim size
• 256 thin-print pages
• Smyth-sewn binding
• Goatskin Cover
• Art-gilded page edges
• Gold foil embossing
• Printed and bound by Royal Jongbloed
The New Coverdale Psalter pairs well the NRSV Reference Edition in Burgundy Goatskin from Cambridge.
Something New
The background that shapes the text of the New Coverdale Psalter is quite interesting. The translation of the Psalms from the Coverdale Bible of 1535 (named after its translator, Myles Coverdale) was so widely used in worship during the 16th and 17th centuries that even the King James Bible (1611) could not replace it, and it was the official translation of the Psalms used in the venerable 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The Coverdale Psalter saw several small revisions over the years, including one by a Church of England committee in the 1950s and 1960s that included T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis (this revision was approved by the Church of England, but it never came into widespread use). When the Anglican Church in North America set out to produce the 2019 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, they made the decision to create an update of the Coverdale Psalter that would be faithful to the original while also incorporating the work of more recent revisions. This “New” Coverdale Psalter uses contemporary language while preserving the rhythm and poetic feel of the original.
I’ve found using the New Coverdale Psalter to be a refreshing way to read the Psalms. The phrasing, while familiar, has a newness to it that causes me to slow down as I read and engage more thoughtfully with the words of Scripture.
A Beautiful Companion
The Psalms have been a gift to me at various moments throughout my life, and I feel like the discovery of the New Coverdale Psalter is offering me an opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Psalms in a new way. It’s a simple volume, but it was designed and manufactured with great skill, and the end result is a beautiful companion for daily worship and prayer.
Bottom Line:
Whether you’re someone who uses the Book of Common Prayer on a daily basis or you’re just someone who’d enjoy a beautiful copy of the Psalms, the New Coverdale Psalter is a lovely edition that is definitely worth considering.
BUYING THIS BIBLE*
• The New Coverdale Psalter is available for Anglican House Publishers for $79.95.
*Pricing and Availability subject to change.
