[Avodah] Format of Tehillim

[Alan Rubin]

The tehillim generally have a verse form whereby almost all verses
consist of two, sometimes 3 phrases. The way that these phrases
parallel each other is an important part of the poetry of the psalms
and being able to appreciate this can only enhance our understanding
of them.

Why do the vast majority of siddurim print most tehillim as if they
were prose? Doesn't this obscure the poetry of the tehillim? An
honourable exception to this is the de Sola Pool siddur which I only
saw for the first time on a recent trip to the States. And even this
siddur ignors the verse structure for most of the tehillim in pesukei
dezimra.

Many of the tehillim are prefaced with words like mizmor or shir.
Shouldn't they be printed like a song?

Alan Rubin