Origin of psalms

Just as the origin of the Doukhobors is shrouded in mystery, so it is with the origin of the psalms. Some theories suggest that the elongated words and phrases were formed deliberately so they were incomprehensible to government spies who were ferreting out heretics, a crime punishable by hanging. This punishment later evolved into a more convenient penalty of exile to the far reaches of the empire. By the late 1700s The Living Book emerges with a flexible collection of psalms and hymns, as opposed to the Bible which was considered as static and frozen. The Living Book, in the oral culture, was based on memory and thus, on day to day use, and children were encouraged to begin learning the psalms, prayers and hymns from an early age. Various elders and members of the community contributed to this collection. An early psalm explains the role of the singing of prayers and hymns within the commune:

In the years immediately following their 1899 arrival in Canada (Assiniboia Territory as their first 'home' destination), the Doukhobors endured many hardships. In just a few years though, after the over 7,500 Doukhobors had cultivated their hard-worked lands(and coincidentally right after these lands had become profitable and rich in harvest), the Dominion of Canada abandoned the Hamlet Clause, the initial condition of immigration, and proceeded to enforce the Homestead Act. The new Minister of the Interior, Frank Oliver, successor to the sympathetic Clifford Sifton, insisted that the Doukhobors not only cease communal life as they were previously guaranteed, but according to the Homestead Act, each must take out individual homesteads and must swear an oath of allegiance to the King and thus become Canadian citizens. Not only were these new dicta contrary to the preceding government's guarantees, but they were contrary to the very religious principals to which the Doukhobors so devoutly adhered.