January 29, 2024
The Alligator Interview Series
Ryan Stewart, retired United Airlines pilot, spent 24 years writing The Psalms in Meter, with Accompanying Bullet Point Commentary.
Ryan’s grandfather carried a pocketsize 1910 printing of the 1650 Scottish Psalter.
That Psalter was commissioned in the 17th century by the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Way back in the day, the church assigned three men to re-construct the Psalms in a way useful for their contemporary worship.
Those men were from Renfrew, the village in Scotland near Glasgow. Ryan Stewart’s ancient family had called Renfrew home.
The 1650 Psalter was used with musical accompaniment in worship services for hundreds of years.
Because Ryan’s grandfather had carried the Psalter, Ryan became interested in it. Ryan is also a musician, and saw the Psalter as a vehicle for modern worship.
As a hobby, he undertook to modernize that archaic Scottish rendition of the Psalms into something more friendly to modern ears.
In 2020, after more than two decades working on his Psalms in Meter, Ryan finished the project. He had transformed the original 1650 Scottish Psalter into readable, rhyming 21st century English.
Then, he made a shocking discovery about who one of those original authors of the 1650 Scottish Psalter might have been.
Listen to his fascinating story.
Ryan’s book is available at Barnes & Noble and at Amazon in both hard cover and eBook versions.
You may also find the book at www.psalmsinmeter.com, and you may contact Ryan there.
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