Psalm 84
How lovely is thy dwelling place
with
BANGOR
MONYMUSK
HARINGTON
BROTHER JAMES’ AIR
HOMES OF DONEGAL
I. Origins
Possibly the most widely reprinted and imitated paraphrases of Psalm 84 is “How lovely is thy dwelling place,” from The Psalms of David in Meeter (Edinburgh: Evan Tyler, 1650), informally known as The Scottish Psalter. This psalter was an amalgamation of several earlier sources, which have been described in detail in the article on “The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want” (Psalm 23). The 1650 paraphrase is structured in eleven quatrains with a rhyme scheme of abcb, common meter (8.6.8.6). The numbering is according to the biblical division of verses rather than the poetic structure.
Fig. 1. The Psalms of David in Meeter (Edinburgh: Evan Tyler, 1650).
The scriptural model for the editors would have been the King James Version, or Authorized Version (1611), and some phrases come close to being verbatim or are simple inversions. The other antecedant sources are shown below. The opening quatrain, for example, is owed to John Hopkins and Francis Rous.
Fig. 2. Sternhold & Hopkins, The Whole Booke of Psalmes (London: John Day, 1562), paraphrase by Hopkins.
Fig. 3. Francis Rous, The Booke of Psalmes in English Meeter (Rotterdam: Henry Tutill, 1638).
Fig. 4. Zachary Boyd, The Psalmes of David in Meeter, 2nd ed. (Glasgow: George Anderson, 1646).
Fig. 5. [Westminster Assembly], The Psalms of David in English Meeter (London: Miles Flesher, 1646).
Fig. 6. Zachary Boyd, The Psalmes of David in Meeter, 3rd ed. (Glasgow: Heirs of George Anderson, 1648).
Sources of the 1650 Scottish Version:
1. Hopkins 1562, alt. Rous 1638
2. Rous 1638
3a. Scots 1650
3b. Boyd 1646
3c-h. Boyd 1646, alt.
4a. KJV / Westminster 1646
4b. Westminster 1646
4c. Westminster 1646, alt.
4d. Westminster 1646
5-7. Scots 1650
8-9. KJV / Westminster 1646
10a-c. Westminster 1646
10d. Hopkins 1562
11a. KJV / Westminster 1646
11b. Rous 1638, alt. Boyd 1648
11c. Westminster 1646, alt.
11d. Rous 1638
12. Westminster 1646
II. Tunes
1. BANGOR
In its original context, the paraphrase was not meant to be sung to any specific tune; it would have been sung to any Common Meter tune available to congregations at the time, including DUNDEE, NEWTOUN TUNE, or WINCHESTER. In fact, it was not printed with a tune in English tunebooks until much later, when it was included in The Psalms of David in Metre . . . Allowed by the . . . Kirk of Scotland . . . with Twenty-Three Select Psalm Tunes (Glasgow: Alexander Adam, 1773), set to BANGOR.
Fig. 7. The Psalms of David in Metre . . . with Twenty-Three Select Psalm Tunes (Glasgow: Alexander Adam, 1773).
This tune is by William Tans’ur, from A Compleat Melody; or The Harmony of Sion (London: W. Pearson for James Hodges, 1735; 1738 ed. shown below).
Fig. 8. A Compleat Melody; or The Harmony of Sion (1738).
2. MONYMUSK
For many years, the Scottish Psalm 84 was closely associated with a tune called MONYMUSK. This first appeared in Thomas Moore’s The Psalm-Singer’s Delightful Pocket Companion (Glasgow: For the author, [1762]), where it was titled “A Hymn of Praise to the Redeemer” and set to “Come let us join our cheerful songs,” a text by Isaac Watts from his Hymns & Spiritual Songs (1707).
Fig. 9. The Psalm-Singer’s Delightful Pocket Companion (Glasgow: For the author, [1762]).
The name MONYMUSK comes from A Collection of the Best Anthems, Tunes and Chants Used in the Churches of Scotland (Edinburgh: John Campbell, [c.1784]), which also represents the first time this tune was paired with “How lovely is thy dwelling place.”
Fig. 10. A Collection of the Best Anthems, Tunes and Chants Used in the Churches of Scotland (Edinburgh: John Campbell, [c.1784]).
3. HARINGTON
In modern British collections, “How lovely is thy dwelling place” is often associated with HARINGTON, a tune by Henry Harington (1727–1816) from A Companion to the Magdalen-Chapel (London: Henry Thorowgood, ca. 1775), where it had been set to “I love the Lord, he heard my cries” by Isaac Watts.
Fig. 11. A Companion to the Magdalen-Chapel (London: Henry Thorowgood, ca. 1775).
III. Adaptation by Carl Daw
When Carl Daw was on the text committee for The Hymnal 1982 of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he was tasked with crafting a new paraphrase of Psalm 84, using the Scottish paraphrase as a starting point. Some of his process was described in the companion to that volume:
In order to tighten up the somewhat repetitive and rambling style of the seventeenth-century version, the stanza length was reduced from CMD to 86.86.86. Also, because it both allowed a bow to Milton’s version and quoted verbatim the opening clause of the RSV translation, the adjective in the first line was changed from “pleasant” to “lovely.” The subsequent changes necessitated by the reduced scope and revised rhyme scheme are numerous and can be traced by comparing the hymnal text with the Scottish paraphrase, the BCP version [1979], and the translations of the King James Version and the RSV Bibles.
The final two stanzas attempt to preserve the archaic idiom, though they are primarily structured after the translation of the current BCP. The concluding line of the fourth stanza is an intentional blending of the final line of “New every morning is the love” and the last line of the first stanza of “Forgive our sins as we forgive.”[1]
The result was a new paraphrase spanning four stanzas of six lines, rhyming abcbdb. Even though hymnal editors tend to credit the first two stanzas to the Scots, really, only the first two lines and last two lines of the first stanza are taken from the 1650 version, the rest is by Daw. Musically, it was set to BROTHER JAMES’ AIR by James Leith Macbeth Bain, specifically the harmonization by Gordon Jacob, adapted for hymnals by Walter M. Gelton. And in spite of the title of the hymnal, it was not published until 1985.
Fig. 12. The Hymnal 1982 (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1985), excerpt.
In an effort to update the language and remove the archaisms, Daw completely revamped his paraphrase for his Praise, Lament, and Prayer: A Psalter for Singing, vol. 2 (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 2020). His collection includes historical and textual commentary on this piece.
Fig. 13. Praise, Lament, and Prayer: A Psalter for Singing, vol. 2 (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 2020).
Daw wrote a new devotional reflection on Psalm 84 to go with his paraphrase when it was included in Hymns & Devotions for Daily Worship (Louisville: Hymnology Archive, 2024).
IV. Adaptation by Jonathan Asprey
In 1972, Graham and Betty Pulkingham, leaders of the Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas, traveled to England to start a worshiping community in Coventry, which became known as the Community of Celebration, governed under the Community of Celebration Christian Trust and associated with the Church of England. Ministry teams under CCCT were known as Fisherfolk. In 1973, one such group moved into Yeldall Manor in Berkshire. Among the residents was musician Jonathan Asprey, who contributed material to an LP, On Tiptoe (Celebration Records CR 2004, 1975). Asprey’s song was later published in Cry Hosanna (1980), edited by Betty Pulkingham and Mimi Farra. His song has also circulated via a choral arrangement by Daniel Kallman for MorningStar (2018).
Fig. 14a. The Fisherfolk, On Tiptoe (Celebration Records CR 2004, 1975)
Asprey’s version of Psalm 84 uses a tune known as THE HOMES OF DONEGAL. “The Homes of Donegal” is a folk song by Seán Mac Giolla Bhríde (1902–1996), written in 1955. Bhride’s tune is considered to be a variation on an older tune known as “The River Roe.” The history of this tune is not well documented. One version had appeared in P.W. Joyce’s Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1909), where Joyce said it was also known as “Henry the Sailor Boy” (or “Henry and Mary Ann”).
Fig. 15. P.W. Joyce, Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1909)
Another version had been printed in Alfred Perceval Graves’ The Irish Song Book, 2nd ed. (London: T. Fisher Unwin), set to a text by Irish poet William Allingham (1824–1889), “The Winding Banks of Erne.”
Fig. 16. Alfred Perceval Graves, The Irish Song Book 2nd ed. (London: T. Fisher Unwin).
Text-only broadside printings of both “The River Roe” and “Henry and Mary Ann” survive in some archives. Below are undated examples from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Kentucky, respectively.
Fig. 17. Rare Books & Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN.
Fig. 18. Album of broadside ballads, no. 1, W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection, Special Collections Research Center, University of Kentucky.
by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
3 April 2025
Footnotes:
Carl P. Daw Jr., “How lovely is thy dwelling place,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3B, ed. Raymond Glover (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), p. 969.
Related Resources:
“Henry the Sailor Boy,” in John Moulden, Songs of the People: Selections from the Sam Henry Collection, Part One (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1979), pp. 69, 161.
English Folk Song and Dance Society, Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, Roud No. 2284: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:combined/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr:2284
“How lovely is thy dwelling place” (Scottish), Hymnary:
https://hymnary.org/text/how_lovely_is_thy_dwellingplace_scottish
“How lovely is thy dwelling place” (Daw), Hymnary:
https://hymnary.org/text/how_lovely_is_your_dwelling_place_daw
“How lovely is your dwelling place” (Asprey), Hymnary:
https://hymnary.org/text/how_lovely_is_your_dwelling_place_asprey