Hard as it is to believe, for many years churches did not sing hymns—except for rhymed versions of the Old Testament Psalms.
This was a limited repertoire (there are 150), but some talented people did create some good English poetry from the Pslams. In 1696 a “metrical psalter” was published in England, the work of Nahum Tate (the poet laureate) and Nicholas Brady.
It was popular for many years, and almost every hymnal today contains a few of their versified Psalms. Two found in many hymnals are “As pants the heart for cooling stream” (Ps. 42) and “Through all the changing scenes of life” (Ps. 16).
