[1] The three movements are performed without break, and the texts sung by the chorus are drawn from the Vulgate versions in Latin.

Unlike many pieces composed for chorus and orchestra, Stravinsky said that it is not "a symphony in which I have included psalms to be sung."

"[2] Although the piece was written for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere was actually given in Brussels by the Société Philharmonique de Bruxelles on December 13, 1930, under the direction of Ernest Ansermet.

The American premiere of the piece was given soon afterwards by Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with the chorus of the Cecilia Society (trained by Arthur Fiedler) on December 19, 1930.

[4] One reviewer wrote, "The choir, throaty, full-blooded, darkly, inwardly passionate, sing with liturgical conviction and intensity in a memorable performance.

"[5] Like many of Stravinsky's other works, including Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, the Symphony of Psalms occasionally employs the octatonic scale (which alternates whole steps and half steps), the longest stretch being eleven bars between rehearsal numbers 4 and 6 in the first movement.

He wrote substantial portions of the piece in fugal counterpoint, which was used widely in the church in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

In the score preface, Stravinsky stated a preference for a children's choir for the upper two choral parts.

The first ostinato section in measure 2, which is played in the oboe and bassoon, could be six notes from the octatonic scale starting C♯–D–E–F, etc., but incomplete sets such as this illustrate the controversial nature of the extent of its use.

[7] If a liturgical character is produced by the use of modal scales even before the chorus's entrance (in measures 12–13, the piano plays an F Dorian scale and in measures 15–16, the piano plays in the E Phrygian mode), it was not a conscious decision: I was not aware of "Phrygian modes," "Gregorian chants," "Byzantinisms," or anything else of the sort, while composing this music, though, of course, the "influences" said to be denoted by such script-writers' baggage-stickers may very well have been operative.

The use of the octatonic scale and the church modes pervade the sound of the movement, contributing to both the ritual feel of the piece and the plaintive setting of the text.

Ne sileas, quoniam advena ego sum apud te, et peregrinus sicut omnes patres mei.

[12] Some analyses interpret the E♭ as being part of an inverted C-minor chord which creates a suitable transition into the third movement in C.[13] Expectans expectavi Dominum, et intendit mihi.

In setting the words of this final hymn I cared only for the sounds of the syllables and I have indulged to the limit my besetting pleasure of regulating prosody in my own way.

[15]The second part of the slow opening introduction, setting the word "Laudate Dominum", was originally composed to the Old Slavonic words "Gospodi Pomiluy", and Stravinsky regarded this as his personal prayer to the Russian Ecumenical image of the Infant Christ with the scepter and the Globe.

When writing music for Sergei Eisenstein's film Alexander Nevsky, Prokofiev needed a Latin text to characterise the invading Teutonic knights.

The nonsensical text, peregrinus expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis, appears in Prokofiev's cantata, based on the film score, for the movements "The Crusaders in Pskov" and "The Battle on the Ice".