AS A youth, newly shoehorned into the choir by a very perceptive music teacher, I can remember being fascinated by singing the psalms. What on earth was a potsherd? What does “peradventure” mean? I hadn’t a clue; so I needed to come back for more to find out.

Christians have used the book of Psalms right from the beginning: it was, after all, the Lord’s prayer book; so it should be the Church’s, too. Anglicans were particularly lucky to have the baffling and wonderful translation of Miles Coverdale in the Book of Common Prayer — almost a literary genre independent of its Hebrew original — and generations of clergy were soaked in its language and spirituality by the daily recitation of Morning and Evening Prayer.

We live in more prosaic times, sadly; so it is good to have this work by the mother-and-son team Clare and Micah Hayns. Micah, an artist based in Oxford, came across the book of Psalms almost by chance, and has been deeply affected by its variety and honesty before the reality of God. The backbone of Garden Song is a series of paintings (very well reproduced) that are a kind of visual response to a selection of 30 psalms. These are grouped according to their theme (worship, grieving, joy). Each painting is accompanied by a reflection by Clare (a parish priest), a short scripture reading, a suggested piece of music to listen to, and a prayer.

There is so much here that reading at a single sitting is unthinkable. This is a work to savour slowly and prayerfully, that we might come to these ancient prayers and hymns with eyes and ears renewed the next time we hear them sung in church.

The Revd Peter McGeary is the Vicar of St Mary’s, Cable Street, in east London.

Garden Song: Exploring the psalms through paintings, reflections and prayers
Clare Hayns
Micah Hayns, illustrator
BRF £14.99
(978-1-80039-237-3)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49