PSALM (from the Gr. word * hXAew, to

See also:

• PLAY

play the

See also:

• HARP (Fr. harpe; Ger. Harfe; Ital. arpa)

harp)  , the name used to designate the religious poems of the Hebrews, which are contained in the Psalter (see PSALMS, BOOK OF) . Modern collections of religious poetry sometimes bear the title of Psalms and Hymns, but these are always more or less directly connected with the actual Psalms of David . Longfellow wrote " A Psalm of Life (1839), which was an intimate confession of the religious aspirations of the author . The Psaumes of Clement Marot (1538) were curious adaptations of Hebrew ideas to French forms of the epigram and the madrigal . But it is doubtful whether the psalm, as distinguished from the Hebrew Psalter, can be said to have any independent existence . It is loosely used to describe any exalted strain of devotional melody .