Donald Davie, editing The Psalms in English for Penguin Classics, came across versions by Gordon Jackson. He was taken with what he read and encouraged the poet to tackle the entire Psalter. Davie thought him uniquely equipped for the task in terms of verbal and spiritual skills. Jackson obliged, he 're-experienced the experiences of the Hebrew poet,' Davie wrote, he did not just follow 'the run of the Hebrew words. This saves him from the exclamatory, priggish or stroppy voice' that comes through in other modern versions.