A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisations. The composition of metrical psalters was a large enterprise of the Protestant Reformation, especially in its Calvinist manifestation.
Congregational singing is the practice of the congregation participating in the music of a church, either in the form of hymns or a metrical Psalms or a free form Psalm or in the form of the office of the liturgy (for example Gregorian chants). It is contrasted with music being sung exclusively by a choir or cantor(s). Congregational singing was largely the invention of the Protestant Reformation. Before then, singing in churches, especially in larger urban churches, was largely left to professionals. The reformers in Strasbourg, in particular, reduced the church service largely to a sermon bookended by congregational singing and prayers.
The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre, commonly called the Bay Psalm Book, is a metrical psalter first printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Colony of Massachusetts Bay. It was the first book printed in British North America. The psalms in it are metrical translations into English. The translations are not particularly polished, and none have remained in use, although some of the tunes to which they were sung have survived. Its production, however, just 20 years after the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, represents a considerable achievement. It went through several editions and remained in use for well over a century.
In November 2013, one of eleven known surviving copies of the first edition sold at auction for $14.2 million, a record for a printed book.