The Praises OF
Israel
AN INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY
OF
THE PSALMS

W.T DAVISON.
M.A..D.D.

With
Appendix

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THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.

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THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.

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THE

PRAISES OF ISRAEL
AN INTRODUCTION
TO THE STUDY OF THE PSALMS.

BY
W. T. DAVISON, M.A., D.D.,
TX'TOR IN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, HANDSWORTH COLLEOE,
BIRMINGHAM.

SEVENTH THOUSAND

fponiron:
CHARLES H. KELLY,
2, CASTLE ST., CITY RD. ; AND 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.
1902

Cottjugi tiuae
©tlecttsstma*

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

rTIHE favour with which this little volume has
-*- been received has made it desirable to add
an index and a somewhat long appendix, con
taining a brief introduction to each psalm. As
now issued, it is hoped that the book will fulfil
somewhat more adequately the object for which
it was written — the furnishing of a popular intro
duction to the study of the Psalter, based upon
the best results of modern scholarship. The
literature of the subject has received several
additions since the previous preface was penned,
but I would draw special attention to two works,
published by the University presses of Oxford
and Cambridge respectively. The Parallel Psalter,
edited by Canon Driver, gives side by side the
Prayer-book version of the Psalms, and a new
translation by the editor, together with very

viii PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
brief but most useful notes. The first instal
ment of a new Commentary on the Psalms, by
the Eev. E. G. King, D.D., combines critical
scholarship with devout insight in no ordinary
measure. Both these works, while interesting
for different reasons to scholars, are especially
intended for English readers, and possess a
distinct and high value for the student of the
Psalter.
W. T. D.
August Srd, 1898.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

THE size and scope of this volume have involved
an appearance of dogmatism upon debated
questions very far from the mind of the writer.
It has often been necessary to give results, with
out the processes that have led up to them. It
has been impossible even to quote, much less
discuss, the views of scholars for whom I enter
tain the highest respect, but whose conclusions I
have not been able to accept. The literature of
the Psalms is portentously large; and it would
take considerable space even to enumerate the
writers to whom I am under obligation. But I
have freely consulted and used very various
authorities, from Augustine and Calvin to Ewald
and Delitzsch, Perowne and Kay, Bathgen and
Sehultz, Driver and Cheyne, Kirkpatrick and
Robertson Smith. The title adopted for this
brief Introduction, which is drawn from the
striking language of Ps. xxii. 3, and is indeed but

x PREFACE.
a literal rendering of the current Hebrew name for
the Psalter, has been used as a sub-title by Canon
Cheyne, in his Booh of Psalms, a New Translation
with Commentary, a work to which I am the more
glad to express a general indebtedness, because I
have been unable to follow its learned author in
many of his critical conclusions as published in his
Bampton Lectures. From the Midrash Tehillim,
recently made more accessible in Wiinsche's
edition, and the "Christian Midrash" from patristic
writers embodied in the pages of Drs. Neale and
Littledale, it is at least possible to learn how the
Psalms have been understood, or misunderstood,
during centuries of Jewish and Christian inter
pretation. Both from "mystical" exegetes on
the one hand, and from " rationalistic " theorists
on the other, not a little may be learned by one
who is anxious to understand the Psalms on their
spiritual and literary sides respectively.
But the Psalter is its own best commentary,
and nothing is more refreshing than to turn from
reading about the Psalms, to ponder the book
itself. If the readers of this little volume lay
it down with any added zest for drinking at
the Fountain-head, its end will be abundantly
answered.
W. T. D.
Handsworth, October 1893.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE
INTRODUCTION . , ... 1
I. THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER . . .10
II. THE AGE AND AUTHOBSH-IP OF THE PSALMS . . 31
III. TJLE_P0EIRXJ1F„THE„PSALMS . . .70
IV. THEOLOGY QF THE PSALTER ~
I. THE PSALMIST'S GOD .... 100
V. THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTER —
II. GOD IN NATURE . . . .130
VI. THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTER—
III. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN . .145
VII. THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTER —
IV. THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD . .174
VIII. THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST—
I. THE PERSON OF THE SAVIOUR . . . 201
IX. THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST—
II. THE COMING SALVATION . . . 235
X. THE USE OF THE PSALMS IN THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH ..... 255
INDEX OF PSALMS . . . . .289
INDEX OF TEXTS . . . 294
xi

THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.

T

INTRODUCTION.
HE Psalter is a Bible within a Bible. It is
-L so, because in it beats the very heart of the
Old Testament and of all spiritual religion. But
perhaps in no respect is the saying more true
than in this, that the Book of Psalms, while itself
a whole possessing a marvellous unity, is at the
same time an organic whole, consisting of a
number of independent and mutually related
parts, and exhibiting all the characteristics of
growth and development. It is not merely a
collection of sacred poems, it is a collection of
collections, an anthology of the flowers of divine
song among the Hebrews during many centuries.
But the selection is not one of a hundred and
fifty gems of literature, — though the judgment of
ages has given to the Psalms an exceedingly high
place as human compositions, — but of the lyric
i

2 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
poems best adapted to express and guide the
religious life of Israel, most suitable for the
worship of God and the instruction of men. They
present a number of sparkling points of light in
the long line of that Revelation of Himself which
God has made to men, always in man and by
man ; and especially in that portion of His pro
gressive revelation by which God spoke to the
world through Israel.
This remarkable book is not merely a Jewish
anthology. More than any book of the Old Testa
ment, it has been " baptized into Christ." In the
music which sounds from the harp of Israel, the
over-tones are Christian. The harmonics or over
tones, by which an endless range of quality is con
ferred on a fundamental tone in music, must not
overpower it, or the note loses both in truth and
sweetness. But the richness and fulness of the
note is due to its over-tones, and the Christian
cannot listen to the strains of the Psalms without
hearing the exquisite vibrations of promises greeted
from afar, and a Voice sounds in his ear telling
how " all things must needs be fulfilled which are
written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets,
and in the Psalms concerning Me."
Moreover, the Psalms speak the language of
universal devotion. The religious poems of the
Vedas and the liturgies of the Zendavesta were

INTRODUCTION. 3
for an age and for a nation, Israel's hymns are
for the world and for all time. When they cease
to be read, man will have ceased to be religious.
Believers in God and the human soul, who grapple
with the problems of this difficult life, who bend
under its burdens and long for emancipation
from its evils, who know the mystic joys of peni
tence and the unspeakable enlargement of the
spirit in its aspirations after righteousness and
its enjoyment of personal communion with a
personal God, will never exhaust the fulness of
the Psalms, nor weary of their repetition.
Such a book deserves study. Rich enjoyment
and spiritual profit are indeed to be drawn from
it without minute and careful study. By virtue
of its intrinsic excellence, the spirit of tender and
fervent religious feeling breathed into it by the
Divine Spirit, it will in and of itself continue to
minister to the devotion of the world as no other
book has ever done. For public worship and for
private meditation it is inestimably precious to
those who have little time and less opportunity
for its close and systematic examination. But if
it is true that to know this book as it ought to be
known, we must love it ; it is no less true that to
love this book as it ought to be loved, we ought to
know it through and through. It cannot be well
known by the mere reader, however devout and

4 THE PRAISES Of ISRAEL.
prayerful. The light which slumbers dully in the
uncut stone, gleams in a hundred sparkling rays
from the facets of the brilliant. Increase of
knowledge need not imply, and ought never to
induce, diminished enjoyment of beauty or abate
ment of devotional feeling. The botanist need
lose nothing of " the splendour in the grass, the
glory in the flower," because he has studied its
history and analysed its parts. The poetry and
beauty of tree and hill and stream are fully open
only to those who know their place in the universe
and understand their significance. The scholar
may allow his religion to evaporate while he is
analysing the book which embodies it, but the
devout student knows how study will deepen
devotion, while devotion enhances the delights
of study. Those who know the Psalms most
intimately can make the best use of them.
Such study needs to be pursued afresh in every
generation, but for some reasons particularly in
our own. Unfortunately it has come to be called
" Criticism," a word with anything but sacred
associations ; and even " Higher Criticism," which
ignorant people take to imply a tone of conceited
superiority towards the sacred Scriptures. It can
hardly be too often repeated that Biblical criticism
means only reasoned judgment concerning the
human and literary side of the Bible, based upon

INTRODUCTION. 5
the most complete investigation. There is nothing
new about it; the oldest traditional opinion was
new once. There is nothing necessarily abstract
and erudite about it; the processes may be for
the few, but the results are little worth if they
are not capable of being understood by the many.
There is certainly nothing necessarily rationalistic
or destructive about it, though to too great an
extent, minute, thorough, exhaustive investigation
of the facts has been left to men with rationalistic
tendencies. It is true there is a Biblical criticism
which is emphatically new, which is nothing if
not erudite, and which has thus far done little but
destroy. It has touched the Psalter, as it has
touched every book of the Bible, and its finger
marks have not improved the page. But it is
both foolish and wicked to create a prejudice
against Biblical criticism, because some eminent
Biblical critics have analysed a literature rather
than expounded a sacred text. There is a great
work to be done in our day by men who can pre
serve the depth of their religious feeling and the
fidelity of their allegiance to God, while keeping
their minds open to new light concerning the
nature and significance of the Revelation which
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has
made of Himself in Nature, in History, and in
Holy Scripture. Methods of Biblical study, as of

6 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
all study, have improved rapidly of late. New
sources of information have opened up, old truth
has been presented in new and improved setting.
The Book of Psalms is inseparably identified with
the religion of Israel, and much has been learned
during the last half-century concerning the history
and significance of that religion which was to
prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord.
If some time-honoured traditional views have to
be set aside, — by no means so many as some would
have us think, for none of them must be lightly
discarded, — much more than compensation will
be gained by a clearer and more accurate under
standing of the facts of history and the nature of
the Scripture record. A fresh reading of the
familiar and beloved Psalms may bring here
and there a ray of new light, a glimpse of new
meaning, a breath of fresh religious inspiration
given by the Spirit who of old moved those holy
men to write. If fresh interest be awakened,
fresh benefit cannot fail to follow.
These pages will be by no means critical in their
character. Where the literary aspect of the Psalms
is concerned, criticism, in the sense of judgment
after careful examination, is necessary, and to avoid
it would be a species of cowardice. But the reader
of the Psalms desires to be introduced as little as
possible to " doubtful disputations." It is difficult

INTRODUCTION. 7
to avoid these altogether in the present state of
public opinion. On the one hand, we are met by
the confident dogmatism of theorists who expect
crude conjectures to be accepted as axioms ; on the
other, by the unintelligent tenacity of some pious
men who damage the defence of the faith by con
tending for details of traditional opinion about the
Bible, as if these formed part of the book itself.
Nothing but good can come of examination, if
it be at the same time thorough and reverent.
Difference of opinion there must be; what St.
Paul calls epis, strife, 6v/iot, ebullitions of temper,
alpeaei?, the organising of parties, there need not
be. It is unseemly to wrangle in the vestibule
of the temple. The measure of uncertainty which
attaches to the decision of critical questions con
cerning the Psalms and the date and circumstances
of their composition, should make it easier to pass
beyond them to the upper air of reverent medita
tion, "to where, beyond these voices, there is
peace." Whoever wrote these sacred poems, and under
whatever circumstances they were written, they
bring us into the presence of God. We stand at
the portals of a sanctuary, and can hear the soul-
subduing strains of heavenly music within. It is
through the Psalms that we learn to dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of our life. " The

8 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Psalm," says Basil in often-quoted words, " is the
rest of the soul, the minister of peace. It stilleth
the stir and swell of the thoughts, it assuageth the
passions and chasteneth the waywardness of the
desires. To this purpose were those harmonious
tunes of psalms devised for us, that they who are
children in years, or as yet unripe in virtue, might,
when they think they sing, learn. 0 the wise
conceit of that heavenly Teacher, who by His skill
hath found out a way that while we sing psalms,
we may drink in knowledge to profit ! "
" What is there," echoes Richard Hooker, more
than a thousand years afterwards, " necessary for
man to know, which the Psalms are not able to
teach ? Heroical magnanimity, exquisite justice,
grave moderation, exact wisdom, repentance un
feigned, unwearied patience, the mysteries of God,
the sufferings of Christ, the terrors of wrath, the
comforts of grace, the works of Providence over
this world, and the promised joys of that world
which is to come, all-good necessarily to be either
known, or done, or had, this one celestial fountain
yieldetL Let there be any grief or disaster
incident into the soul of man, any wound or
sickness named, for which there is not in this
treasure-house a present comfortable remedy at
all times ready to be found." " The Psalms," said
the late Dean Church, "are a pillar of fire and

INTRODUCTION. g
h'ght in the history of the early world." Round
that pure flame clouds and mists, some thick and
dark, others brightly touched with a thousand
pleasing colours of fancy and speculation, are
continually gathering, till the light itself cannot
be distinctly seen. That the light of the Psalter
may be seen more clearly, in order that He
may be seen more clearly of whose celestial
glory it is but a single earthly ray, is the object
of the following chapters.

CHAPTER I.
THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTEK.
A TRUE hymn-book is not made, it grows. An
individual or a synod may collect a number
of poetical compositions, but a book which stands
in living relation with the worship of a living
Church has a life of its own. Favourite hymns
are not made such by the decisions of an ecclesi
astical council. The real hymn-book, with its
roots struck deep in the life and affections of a
spiritual community, will itself exhibit the life
and growth of an organism. And the history of
such a book, where it can be traced, will teach
many lessons concerning the history and religion
of such a community. The history of the hymns
in the Roman and Parisian Breviaries is long,
somewhat intricate, and very instructive. The
book still called "Wesley's Hymns" has a long
history behind it. Its proper title, "A Hymn-
book for the use of the people called Methodists,

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. u
with a new Supplement," takes us back to 1875,
when the new supplement was prepared; to 1830,
when an earlier supplement was added; and to
1780, when John Wesley published the first
edition of a book which itself was but the last of
a long and interesting series of hymn-books put
forth since the issue in 1753 of "Hymns and
Spiritual Songs for Real Christians of all Denomin
ations.'' Furthermore, hymns are specially liable
to alteration and modification. If, as Mr. Stopford
Brooke has lately been showing, early lays like
the Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf, exhibit layers
or strata of verse embedded in them, pointing back
to centuries before the date assigned to the poem,
much more is this likely to be the case with
sacred songs handed down for generations by oral
tradition, and then incorporated with others for
the purposes of public worship. These are
peculiarly likely to exhibit traces of modification
and adaptation, so that hymnology, with the study
of history it implies, has become almost a science.1
A close examination of the Psalter reveals even
such a history. The account of the processes does
not lie upon the surface ; we have not a number
of " editions," each with its title-page and date ;
but some at least of the stages through which
1 Remarkably illustrated in the recent voluminous Diction
ary of Hymnology, edited by Mr. Julian.

12 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
this wonderful book passed before it was handed
on as a sacred heirloom in its present form, may
be traced out by careful research.
We have used the word hymn-book for the
moment as interchangeable with Psalter. This
is not strictly correct, and there are important
differences between the history we are about to
sketch, and that of a Christian hymnary. The
word Psalm (Greek -fyaXijAt, Hebrew mizmor)
indicates by its derivation a composition set to
music. The action implied both in the Hebrew
and the Greek roots, is the touching of the strings
of the harp, then the word comes to indicate the
music thus produced, and lastly, the verses sung
to musical accompaniment. But, properly speak
ing, the psalm is not to be confused with the
hymn. " The psalm might be a Be Profundis,"
says the late Archbishop Trench, "the story of
man's deliverance, or a commemoration of mercies
which he had received; and of a spiritual song
the same might be said ; the hymn must always
be more or less of a Magnificat, a direct address
to the praise and glory of God." x Some of the
Psalms are, according to the title current among
the Jews, literally Tehillim, the praises of Israel ;
others, as the subscription to Psalm lxxii. and the
titles of Ixxxvi., xc, and cii. indicate, are prayers,
1 Synonyms of the New Testament, p. 286.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 13
either from the depths or from the level tablelands
of life, up to those celestial heights from whence
comes man's help; others are songs, like Psalms
cxx.-cxxxiv., with an emphasis laid upon their
being chanted by the human voice. Some are
narrative in character, like lxxviii., cv., cvi. ; some
didactic, like the 50th Psalm ; others elegiac, like
the 6th, the 38th, the 55th. But, whether the
strain be Venite Hxultemus or Miserere Domine,
one Name rules the whole, one spirit pervades it.
" Holiness to the Lord " is written on the door
posts of the house, on the beams of its chambers
and the lily-work of its carved pillars. Any
attempt to analyse or classify these strains accord
ing to their subject-matter breaks down, as we
find rapture blend with pleading, or the night of
sorrow lose itself in the morning of joy, mood
succeeding mood and experience passing into
experience more rapidly than the sunshine and
rain that blend and pass in the sweet confusion
of an April morning. The rehearsal of God's
"mighty acts," which one generation tells to
another, breaks suddenly away into penitence for
national sin or an outburst of thanksgiving which
abundantly utters the memory of His great good
ness. The only key to the unity of the whole is
found in the words with which St. Paul concludes
one of his great arguments concerning God in

14 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
history: "Of Him and through Him and unto
Him are all things. To Him be the glory for
ever ! "
Under what circumstances, then, has the present
collection of Psalms been made, and what signs
are there of preliminary stages through which
the final result has been reached ? The division
of the Psalter into five books, made so clear in
our Revised Version, is very old ; some think it
is to be traced as far back as the time of the
Chronicles, in the fourth century before Christ.
The Midrash Tehillim1 opens with a glowing
comparison between the lawgiver and the king,
the five books of the Pentateuch and the five
books of the Psalms, the blessing of Moses and the
blessing of David. The comparison has since
been a favourite one with commentators, who
have written, like Delitzsch, of "the fivefold book
of the congregation to Jehovah, as the Law is the
fivefold book of Jehovah to the congregation " ; or
like Wordsworth, who calls the Psalter " a poetical
Pentateuch, set to music in Hebrew history,
the subject of the oratorio being Messiah Himself."
This fivefold division is marked by the doxologies
which occur at xli. 13, lxxii. 18, lxxxix. 52, and
cvi. 48, respectively. But it is necessary to ex
amine much more closely in order to understand
1 Ed. AA iinsche, p. 2.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 15
the exact significance and bearing of this obvious
fivefold division.
A clear indication at the outset that the Psalter
as we have it is a collection of collections, not
precisely corresponding with the traditional five
books, is found in the existence of duplicate forms
of the same psalm. With slight variations, the
exact nature of which is worth noticing, Psalm liii.
is identical with Psalm xiv. ; Psalm lxx. with
Psalm xl. 13-17 ; while Psalm cviii. consists of a
combination of lvii. 7-11, with lx. 5-12. Some
of the variations arise from a difference of text ;
others appear to show what we have other reasons
for concluding, that these sacred poems were
modified and adapted for new use in new circum
stances, to express new, though kindred feelings.
A close comparison of the two "editions" of
Psalm xviii., as found in 2 Samuel xxii. and in
the Psalter, is very instructive. Further examples
of the free use made of previous compositions,
the matter-of-fact way in which borrowing and
adaptation was practised, may be found in Psalm
Ixxxvi, which is almost made up of quotations,
and in Psalm cxliv. A striking example of the
way in which psalms might be blended and put
into the mouth of a speaker, as an appropriate
expression of his feelings, is found in 1 Chronicles
xvi. 7-36. The chronicler does not, it is true,

1 6 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
as our A.V. implies, directly attribute this psalm,
which is made up of parts of xcvi, cv., and cvi.,
to David. The seventh verse is translated in
R.V. : " Then on that day did David first ordain
' to give thanks unto the Lord, by the hand of
Asaph and his brethren," and the meaning of the
Hebrew appears to be that David then for the
first time enjoined upon Asaph and his brethren
the duty of leading the formal thanksgivings of
the congregation. It would appear that the words
which follow, which it is impossible to believe
that David composed, are inserted as an appro
priate illustration of his object and aims in
arranging the music of the sanctuary.
Another interesting phenomenon, illustrating
the way in which psalms were edited or adapted,
is the variation found in the names of God used
in different parts of the Psalter. In Book i. the
name Jehovah occurs 272 times, Elohim 15 ; in
Book ii. the case is reversed, Elohim occurring
164 times, Jehovah 30 times. In the 3rd book
the facts are somewhat more complicated, there
being an Elohistic section and a Jehovistic section
discernible ; while in the two last books the name
Jehovah is paramount, occurring 339 times, while
Elohim, used absolutely and of the true God,
occurs but once or twice. The exact significance
of these facts is still in dispute. They cannot be

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 17
accidental. Nor is it likely that some psalmists
used chiefly one name of God, and that the groups
of psalms were arranged accordingly. It may
have been that at certain times or amongst a
certain school of writers the use of one name
predominated; but it is much more probable that
it is due to the hand of an editor. For example,
Psalm 1. 7 is taken from Exodus xx. 2 ; several
verses in Psalm lxviii. from Numbers x. and
Judges v. Psalm lxxi 19 is taken from Exodus
xv. 11, and in each case the name Elohim is
substituted for the name Jehovah. This change
has been sometimes carried out even at the cost
of the true meaning. For instance, in Exodus
xx. 2, " I am Jehovah, thy God," is intelligible ;
but the relation between the names is altogether
lost in Psalm 1. 7, " I am God, thy God." The
supposition that the change of names was due to
a compiler is almost proved by the fact that in
Psalms xiv. and liii. we have what may be
called a Jehovistic and an Elohistic edition of the
same psalm. Sometimes, however, a passage is
borrowed without change of name, as Ixxxvi. 14
from liv. 3, and Psalm cviii. from Psalms lvii
and lx., according to their present style. This is
thought to prove that Psalms liv., lvii., and lx.
were not merely written earlier, but brought
together by this same collector, when Psalms
2

1 8 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Ixxxvi and cviii. were fixed in their present
places.1 It is not easy to explain the significance of
these facts. At one time the hypothesis obtained
that the name Elohim was a mark of antiquity,
and certain theories as to the composition of the
Pentateuch hinged upon its use. But the view
that dates of documents could be determined by
the use of Divine names has been given up. The
names Elohim and Jehovah have, of course, a
distinct theological significance, but it is impos
sible to press this distinction as if it were always
observed in actual use, though some commentators
have attempted to do so. On the other hand, it
is altogether unsatisfactory to ascribe the usage,
as some have done, to " a compiler's whim." We
are compelled at present simply to note the facts
and draw the conclusion that the Psalms, as we
have them, have been edited, and for some reason,
not now clearly traceable, the names of God
regulated or changed.
Is it possible, then, by these and other means
to trace out the process by which we now have
150 psalms arranged in five books ? The first book
contains 41 psalms, all of which are inscribed " to
David," except the four following. The first Psalm
is prefatory. The second at one time seems to have
1 Ewald, Psalms, vol. i. p. 9.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 19
appeared as a continuation of the first. In the text
of Acts xiii. 33 an important MS. styles it the first
Psalm. The tenth is a kind of appendix to the
ninth, forming with it an imperfect acrostic. The
thirty-third is ascribed to David in the LXX.
In the second book Psalms xlii-xlix. are ascribed
to the sons of Korah ; 1. to Asaph ; li.-lxxi. to
David (except lxvi., lxvii, lxxi. anonymous); and
lxxii to Solomon. In the third book we find,
first, a group of psalms, Ixxiii.-lxxxiii. attributed
to Asaph; lxxxiv., lxxxv., lxxxvii, and lxxxviii.
are Korahitic ; one psalm only, Ixxxvi., is ascribed
to David, and lxxxix. to Ethan. In the fourth
book, one psalm, xc, is ascribed to Moses ; two,
ci. and ciii, to David, and the rest are anonymous.
In the fifth book, out of 44 psalms, 15 (only 11
in the LXX.) are ascribed to David, one to
Solomon, and the rest are anonymous.
At the end of the 72nd Psalm, in addition to
the doxology, a subscription is found, " The prayers
of David the son of Jesse are ended." The mean
ing of this in itself is clear enough, as it marks
the end of a collection of Davidic psalms ; but its
position is peculiar. The psalm to which it is
affixed is ascribed to Solomon, while a number of
non-Davidic psalms are found in the second book,
which ends here, and many Davidic psalms, as
we have seen, occur in the later books. It seems

20 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
likely, therefore, that this compiler's note is now
somewhat out of place. Ewald has a somewhat
elaborate theory on the subject, which we need
not transcribe ; while the following account of the
process which has led to the present arrangement
is given by Professor Robertson Smith in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
(as) The formation of the first Davidic collection, with a
closing doxology (i.-xli.).
(6) The formation of the second Davidic collection, with
doxology and subscription (li.-lxxii.).
(c) The formation of a twofold Levitical collection
(xlii.-xlix. Korahitic ; 1., lxxiii.-lxxxiii. Asaphic).
{d) An Elohistic redaction and combination of (jb) and (c).
(e) The addition to (d) of a non-Elohistic supplement
and doxology (lxxxiv.-lxxxix.).
(/) The formation of the third collection (xc.-cl.). l
We can at least follow this scheme so far as
to find in the first three books, consisting of 89
psalms, four groups or collections, two Davidic,
two Levitical, with a brief appendix. What,
then, is the nature of the remaining two books,
which many scholars regard as forming but one
collection ?
It is clear that here also subordinate groups
may be traced out, though it is by no means
certain that they all existed as separate collec-
1 See Old Test, in Jewish Church, 2nd ed., p. 201.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 21
tions. We turn to Psalms cxx.-cxxxiv., and find
a group of fifteen " Songs of Degrees," as they are
called in A.V., more properly " Songs of Ascents,"
R.V., or " Pilgrim-Songs." They are clearly marked
off from the rest by a family likeness in style,
subject and treatment, while the form in which
the title occurs seems to show that they formed
at one time a separate collection. The plural
word " Ascents," given in the title of the separate
psalms, seems to point to a general title, " Songs
of Ascents," from which each separate inscription
has been derived. In any case the Pilgrim-Songs
form a distinct group of psalms well worthy of
separate study.
Another group, each beginning with the word
Hodu, " Give thanks," is found in Psalms cv.-cvii,
and two similar groups of Hallelujah psalms in
cxi-cxiii, cxlvi-cl. With these we may compare
the Maschil groups, xlii-xlv. and lii-lv., and the
Michtam group, lvi-lx. In these latter cases,
however, it is tolerably clear that we find only
the grouping of the compiler; the meaning of
the words Maschil (" didactic " ?) and Michtam
(" golden " ?) being doubtful, and there being little
or no connection in the subject-matter of the
psalms thus designated.
We need not pursue this subject into further
detail, though, taking the collections separately,

22 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
it is interesting to notice the marks of thought
and care in the arrangement of each, and to trace
out indications of the principle or principles
observed. The mode of arranging poems varies.
In the Koran, what appears to us the singular
principle is followed, of placing the longer Suras
first, the shortest last. (It is probable, however,
that we have traces of this in the arrangement of
the Hebrew prophets.) In the Vedas, the poems
which contain invocations to the same divinity,
or prayers of a similar character, are placed
together. In modern times it is almost taken for
granted that the chronological order ought to
prevail, and in the Psalter 'it is true that in the
main the earliest psalms are found in the former
books, those of the middle period in the middle
books, and the latest in the last. So, to some
extent, with the collections severally. But (as,
e.g., in Wordsworth's arrangement of his own
poems) the topical principle is sometimes pre
ferred, and it may be traced in the juxtaposition
of certain psalms. Less appropriate, according to
our modern way of thinking, is an arrangement
by means of 'catchwords,' according to which
psalms containing some word or phrase which has
caught the attention of the compiler are placed
together. So with Psalms i and ii, which the
late Bishop Wordsworth considered were placed

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 23
together because of the occurrence of such words
as way in i. 6 and ii. 12, and meditate in i. 2 and
ii. 1, these phrases being, as the mystical com
mentator delighted to observe, " like the golden
taches which coupled together the curtains of the
tabernacle." Delitzsch makes much of this prin
ciple of connection in a separate pamphlet which
he has written on the subject, and in his Com
mentary. Thus Psalms xxxiv. and xxxv., so
essentially different from one another, are supposed
to be placed side by side, because in these only is
the mention of " the angel of the Lord " ; while the
link between lv. and lvi. is attributed (strangely
enough) to the mention of the " dove " in lv. 6,
and in the inscription of lvi, where the direction
is given that the psalm should be sung to the tune
of " The dove of the distant terebinths " !
Very fanciful have been some of the meanings
read by devout commentators into the arrangement
of the Psalms. Augustine wrote that the order of
the Psalms seemed to him to contain the secret —
magni sacramenti — of " a great and holy mystery."
Chrysostom says that "the more the organic
structure of the Psalms is analysed, the more will
it be recognised that it is pre-adjusted by the Holy
Spirit to the doctrines of the gospel of Christ."
Wordsworth follows, as may be imagined, on the
same track, and the extracts from the Fathers,

24 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
given in Neale and Littledale, exhibit the
same principle, sometimes carried to an almost
absurd extreme. A moderate example is found
in the exposition which makes the position of
Psalms xxii-xxix. to depend upon their reference
to the work of Christ in redemption. Psalm xxii
is understood to refer to the passion of Christ;
xxiii. to His being the Good Shepherd who leads
through the valley of the shadow of death ; xxiv.
to the ascension ; xxv. to His intercession ; xxvi-
xxviii. to His grace in the communion of His
Church; and xxix. to the work of the Holy Spirit,
who blesses His people with peace !
Another writer 1 works out at some length the
supposed principle of arrangement, that " spiritual
affinity, not chronological order, mainly determines
the sequence of the Psalms " ; while yet another 2
ingeniously divides the Psalter into seven books —
three "Amen books" and three "Hallelujah books,"
with one central "Amen-Hallelujah book" between
them. The 89 Psalms of the first three books, he
tells us, are clearly of a Messianic character, a
Messianic psalm (xlv.) being found in the middle of
the whole, with two alphabets (2 x 22) of psalms on
either side ; a psalm of the Messianic King (ii.)
meeting us at the beginning, and another (Ixxxix.)
1 Fausset, Studies in the 150 Psalms, p. 60.
2 Forbes, Studies in the Book of Psalms, pp. 7, 86.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 25
at the end of the whole. These examples are given
simply to illustrate the way in which a devout fancy
has, in almost every generation, delighted to find
its own meanings in this beloved and suggestive
book. It may have been pleasant and profitable to
pious souls thus to trace out what seemed to them
the subtle significance of the curves of beauty
forming the pattern in the embroidered work of
the Psalter. But all these ingenious fancies can
not be right in their attempts to expound the
hidden meaning of the Divine Spirit. It does
not require much examination to see that all are
mistaken. Not in this direction must we look if
we would rightly understand the Book of the
Praises of Israel. A very real testimony, as we
shall see, may be found in the Psalms to the Lord
Jesus Christ, without our allowing devout imagin
ation to take the place of reason. The Psalms
were certainly not thrown together at random, but
in their arrangement no single principle is dis
cernible. The order of time is, within certain
limits, observed; but chronological arrangement
is very greatly modified by other conditions, chiefly
by the circumstances of collection; whilst in
several instances a verbal or a topical connection
appears to have led to the precise sequence adopted.
At what times these several collections were
made, it is not easy to say. We may, however,

26 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
mark out certain limits within which the gradual
compilation took place. If the view which has
so long obtained, that the Canon of the Old
Testament was closed in the time of Ezra, could
be established, the terminus ad quern, or limit on
the hither side, could be easily fixed. It is now,
however, generally held by scholars that, while
the Canon of the Torah, or Law — the first of the
three great divisions of the Jewish Scriptures-
was closed soon after the return from captivity,
that of the Nebiim, or Prophets, was not fixed till
the third century before Christ ; while that of the
Cethubim (Hagiographa), or Writings, was not
finally closed till a century later.1 The Book of
Psalms headed this third section of the Jewish
Scriptures, and, as the question of dates is of con
siderable importance in connection with that of
authorship and the relation of the Psalms to the
religious life of the Jewish Church, we must
linger on it long enough to point out a few chief
landmarks. Without discussing obscure questions concern
ing the Old Testament Canon, it is certain that the
prologue to Ecclesiasticus, the date of which can
be fixed with considerable certainty, gives us one
1 See Professor Eyle's Canon of the Old Testament, and the
article " Canon," in the new edition of Smith's Dictionary of
the Bible, vol. i. p. 500.

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 27
such landmark. The grandson of Jesus, son of
Sirach, author of the Book of Wisdom, which has
come to be called " Ecclesiasticus," translated the
work into Greek B.C. 132, and prefixed a short
introduction, which is of great importance in
our inquiry. Three times over, in the compass
of twenty or thirty lines, this writer divides the
Scriptures into the well-known three parts, in
such phrases as these : " the things which have
been delivered unto us by the Law and the Pro
phets, and by others that have followed their
steps"; " the reading of the Law and the Prophets,
and other books of our Fathers " ; " not only these
things, but the Law itself and the Prophets, and
the rest of the books, have no small difference,
when they are spoken in their own language."
This appears distinctly to imply that the LXX.
translation into Greek of the three parts of the
Old Testament Canon was completed before B.C.
132. The translation of the Law, we know, began
a century earlier, but it is not so certain when the
translation of the " Writings " was finished. A
fair interpretation of this passage, however, leads
us to conclude that the Greek translation of the
Psalter was complete by this date. This is con
firmed by the fact that Psalm Ixxix. is quoted as
Scripture, with the usual formula, in 1 Maccabees
vii. 16, the date of which is about 125 B.C.

28 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
If we may assume that the Greek translation
of the Psalms (the contents of the book being
practically identical with the Hebrew) was com
plete at the date named, the collection in Hebrew
must have taken place at least a generation earlier.
The early part of the second century before Christ
is, therefore, the latest date at which we can fix
the compilation of the whole Psalter, the collec
tion of the psalms contained in the fifth book
being earlier still Some scholars hold that the
division into five books was known to the writer
of 1 Chronicles. They rely upon a comparison of
1 Chronicles xvi 36 with Psalm cvi. 48. It would
certainly appear likely that the chronicler had
before him a collection corresponding to our fourth
book of Psalms, for he interweaves into his song of
thanksgiving portions of the 105th, 96th, and 106th
Psalms successively. It would appear, also, that
he had before him the 106th Psalm, with its doxo
logy. Now this, according to the view of the
doxologies generally accepted, that they did not
form part of the original psalm, but were added by
the compiler, would prove at least that the fourth
book had been compiled by the middle of the fourth
century before Christ. Others do not accept this
view of Psalm cvi. 48, holding that the doxology,
in this instance, formed part of the original
psalm. We cannot, therefore, assert that such

THE COMPILATION OF THE PSALTER. 29
advance in the work of collection had been made
by B.C. 330, though the scanty evidence forth
coming points in that direction.
Turning now to the beginning of the work, may
we assume that the first book was compiled in the
pre-Exilic period? This question, like that we
have just been discussing, is complicated by the
question of authorship, which we have yet to con
sider. But, without entering upon it in detail, it
may be said in general that the presence of the 1st
Psalm, which all allow was added as a preface to a
" Davidic " collection, and the character of which
points very distinctly to post-Exilic times, renders
it unlikely that the collection was made till after
the Return from Captivity. This is confirmed by
the prayer in Psalm xiv. 7 : —
" 0 that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!
When Jehovah turneth the captivity of His people,
Jacob shall rejoice,
And Israel shall be glad."
It is possible, but not probable, that an earlier
than the Babylonish captivity is here referred to.
The 33rd Psalm, again, which has not the "Davidic"
signature in the Hebrew, is almost certainly of
late date. In Psalm xxv., ver. 22 breaks the
acrostic arrangement, and was in all probability
appended by a post-Exilic compiler. These and
other considerations make it tolerably certain

30 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
that the terminus a quo, or the date of the com
mencement of the process of arranging the Psalms
as we have them, is to be found in the period
after the Return from Captivity, probably the
middle of the fifth century before Christ.
Within these three centuries, therefore, or some
where between 450 and 175 B.C., the pious work
of gathering together the prayers and praises of
Israelitish saints was begun, carried on, and
brought to the issue which has given to the world
the Book of Psalms. This does not exclude the
possibility, or probability, that the compilers of
the first and second books had in their possession
not only a number of separate pre-Exilic psalms,
but smaller collections already formed. Nor does
it exclude the possibility that after the forma
tion of a collection, later psalms may have been
added at a later date.1 Further light upon more
detailed questions connected with the compilation
will be shed upon the subject by an examination
into the age of individual psalms, to which we
now turn.
1 To take another illustration from the Wesleyan Hymn-
book, compare the hymns marked with an asterisk, which
" were not in the editions published during the lifetime of Mr.
Wesley."

CHAPTER II.
THE AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS.
THE question as to the date and authorship of
the several psalms is not so important for
the purposes of religious edification as it is some
times represented. The universality, and if on
may so say, the timelessness of the Psalter ar>
amongst its prominent characteristics. The pe:
sonal element which the Psalms contain is soon
lost in the impersonal, the finite in the infinite.
The singer seldoms lingers long amidst the streets
of the city, within the limits of a single nation
or country, among the fields and the homesteads ;
he soon wings his flight into the upper air, from
whence the whole familiar landscape dwindles
to a mere speck. The psalmist, of all men, is
alone with God and his own soul. The name of
a saint does not determine the character of his
religion, and the busiest critic may hesitate to
intermeddle with the secret devotion of the heart.

32 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
But a second glance shows us that this view
must be modified. The writers of these sacred
lyrics are men of Israel ; the occasions of their
poems are known, or may be partly ascertained ;
the poems themselves are often unintelligible apart
from the history of the Jewish nation, and some
of them are inextricably interwoven with it. A
historical background for the Psalms is naturally
sought for, and for many reasons is most desirable,
if it can be supplied. Professor Cheyne thinks
such a background is necessary in order to pre
serve the Psalms in the affections of Christendom.
" Whether we seek this in the life of David and
his successors, or in the larger life of the Church-
nation, seems from the point of view of dramatic
interest, unimportant. But let no one give up
the one background unless he is prepared to adopt
the other. As mere academical exercises, by not
merely unnamed but unknown individuals, the
Psalms will neither edify the Church nor charm
the literary student." x
Now we are not here concerned with " dramatic
interest," nor prepared to admit that if we do not
know the name or even the age of the writer of the
51st Psalm, it sinks to the level of an "academic
exercise." Its value to him who reads it in the inner
chamber, " having shut to the door," is the same,
1 Origin and Contents of the Psalter, p. 276.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 33
whether it expresses the passion of penitence
which shook David's soul after his great sin, or
the collective confession of the Jewish Church-
nation. Some of the chief favourites with the
devout Christian, the 42nd, the 91st, and the
116th, carry with them no distinct historical
associations. There are, however, many other considerations
to be taken into account. The importance of the
subject of this chapter for the history of religion
in Israel is very great. Those who are anxious
to prove a natural development in the history of
Judaism from what is called a " monolatry," but
little removed from Polytheism, to the spiritual
worship of Jehovah, attained only in the latest
stages of Jewish history, obviously find the Psalms
stand in their way. A late date for the whole of
the Psalter becomes necessary, and the question
of its age as propounded by Wellhausen is "not
whether it contains any post-Exilic psalms, but
whether any are pre-Exilic." This question is
answered by Canon Cheyne virtually in the
negative. He admits no Davidic psalms, and
but one, the 18th, with great hesitation, as
written before the Exile. This extreme view is
not shared by many scholars, and it represents a
violent reaction from the tradition of the Jewish
and the Christian Church, which attributes half the
3

34 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Psalms to David's own pen, and regards the first
three books of the Psalter as substantially ex
pressing the religious feelings of the Jews during
the earlier part of the monarchy. Let us examine
the data at our disposal for coming to an approxi
mate decision, remembering that an approximate
decision, based on probable evidence, is all that
we can expect at this distance of time to attain,
in the case of compositions furnishing so few
directly historical references.
Our first business is to investigate the titles
or inscriptions prefixed to the majority of the
Psalms. If these are simply to be accepted as
authoritative, our work is well-nigh done. But a
little consideration will show that this is not the
case. The position of these titles is like that of
the subscriptions to St. Paul's Epistles ; x they do
not form a part of the original text, but they
represent an early, though not contemporary
tradition. That such titles were usual, we see
from the headings to the lyrics in 2 Samuel
xxii. 1 and xxiii. 1, and the ode in Habakkuk iii
We may also compare the titles given to separate
utterances of the prophets, in Isaiah i 1, ii. 1,
1 The analogy is not quite complete, but it must be remem
bered that our comparative nearness to the New Testament
times enables us to perceive the interval between the original
documents and these afterthoughts.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 3s
xiii. 1, etc. It is practically certain that these
inscriptions were not written by the authors of
the Psalms themselves. In some instances the
phraseology may be shown to be taken almost
verbatim from the language of 1 Samuel, which
was written considerably after the time of David,
and the phenomena of the text in relation to
the LXX version show that the titles must be
the work of subsequent collectors or editors. At
the same time, the measure of similarity that
exists, not amounting to identity, between the
Hebrew text and that of the LXX, shows that
we possess in these titles traditions of very con
siderable antiquity, which are not to be lightly
discarded, as they are by some modern critics,
as utterly valueless. That a psalm was at
a certain time attributed to David, even if not
actually written by him, is a fact of some im
portance. If, however, we are not to assume
the correctness of these titles, what amount of
credence is to be given to them ?
When they are examined, we find them to be of
three kinds, referring (1) to the musical setting of
the psalm ; (2) to its authorship or composition ;
(3) to the historical circumstances which gave
rise to it. On the first head, we need say at
present only that these musical expressions are so
ancient that the LXX translators did not under-

36 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
stand them, and have made some curious guesses
as to their meaning. The musical notices are
almost entirely absent in the later books, which
argues a change of some importance with regard
to the music of the temple-worship. If the
Greek translation of the Psalms was made in the
early part of the second century B.C., and the con
tinuity of tradition, was preserved, as we know it
was, from generation to generation in Palestine,
and so to the Jews in Egypt, the fact that Alex
andrian Jews did not understand these musical
notes would seem to point to a" pre-Exilic date
for them, or, at least, shows that we are in the
presence of a very early tradition.
Without, however, pressing this point, which is
disputed by some, and requires more discussion
than we can give it, let us examine the direct
references to authorship, assuming for the moment
that the "of David" (Heb. "to David") implies
that the psalm is ascribed to David as its author.
In the Massoretic, or traditional Hebrew text, 1
psalm is attributed to Moses, 73 to David, 2 to
Solomon, 12 to Asaph, 11 to the sons of Korah,
1 to Heman, and 1 to Ethan, while in 14 cases
historical circumstances are added. The LXX
translators ascribe 14 or 15 to David where the
Hebrew does not do so, while 4 that are attributed
to David in the Hebrew are without a title in the

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 37
Greek. The LXX also add some further refer
ences, usually obscure and often curious. Thus
the 27th Psalm is said to have been written by
David "before his anointing"; the 96th was
written by David "when the house was being
built, after the captivity"; lxxvi. and lxxx. are
said to have reference to " the Assyrian " ; while
a number of the titles in the Greek indicate the
day of the week on which certain psalms were
recited in public worship. In the Hebrew, the
92nd Psalm is shown to have been appointed for
the Sabbath-day, but the Greek gives also the
24th for the first day of the week, the 48th for
the second, and the 93rd for the day before the
Sabbath, when the work of creation and of settling
the earth with its new inhabitants was finished.
Passing by for the moment Psalm xc, which is
attributed to Moses, it will be convenient to test
the value of the titles by examining those in
which psalms are ascribed to David. A super
ficial examination would enable us to divide these
into cases (1) where the evidence for Davidic
authorship preponderates ; (2) those which may
have been written by David ; and (3) those which,
as they stand, could not have come from his pen.
Taking the latter class first, we may say that the
language of Psalm cxxxix. puts Davidic author
ship quite out of the question. The number of

38 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Aramaisms is so considerable, and the peculiarities
of language such that it must be one of the latest
of all the Psalms. It is not often that a linguistic
argument can be used to determine date, but
here its applicability is unquestionable. Equally
strong is the argument against cxliv., as it stands ;
but the psalm is not improbably a composite one,
the latter part of late date, — the mention of David
by name in verse 10 is not conclusive, — while the
former may have been written by David, though
it is more likely to be a later imitation of his
style. Psalms cxxii. and cxxiv., by indubitable
internal evidence, belong to the time of the
Restoration; cxxii. 5 even mentioning "the
thrones of the house of David." In cviii. we
have a composite psalm, post-Exilic, but possibly
embodying an earlier fragment. The 86th Psalm,
beautiful as it is, is little more than a mosaic
of passages found in other psalms, some of them
certainly later than David's time. The 53rd
Psalm, a reproduction of the 14th, contains a
direct reference to the Captivity, as in all proba
bility does li 18.1 In these cases, however, there
1 In the modern Jewish Prayer-book, in the order for morn-
ng service in the synagogues, there occurs a prayer, "that the
holy temple may speedily be rebuilt in our days," and the
Hebrew word for "rebuild" is the same as that used for
"build" in li. 18.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS 39
may have been a liturgical addition affixed to
an earlier composition. In Psalms v. 7, lxiii.
2, and cxxxviii. 2, we have a reference to the
temple, which, in the opinion of most critics,
is fatal to Davidic authorship. A word is used,
the root of which indicates a capacious building,
its proper meaning is "palace," and it is used
scores of times in the Old Testament of the
temple. Some scholars, however, think it may
refer to the Davidic tabernacle, which may have
been splendid in its construction ; and if it were
ever so mean, it was undoubtedly the palace of a
great King x (cf. 1 Sam. i 9, and see Psalm xi
4). Psalms xx. and xxi are not the addresses
of a king to his people, but the prayers of a
people for their king. In other psalms, e.g. xii,
xxv., xxxvii, xxxviii, the circumstances, when
examined, seem very inappropriate to David at
any period of his history; and it is certainly
veTy difficult to match the expressions of Psalms
lv.-lix. with the several circumstances under
which they are said to have been composed.
On the other hand, there is strong evidence for
the belief that David wrote the 18th Psalm. As
this is a crucial point, and much depends on its
decision, it must be examined somewhat closely.
In 2 Samuel xxii. 1 we have a distinct statement
1 So Delitzsch in loco ; see i. 161, E. Tr.

40 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
which confirms the historical title of Psalm xviii. :
"And David spake unto the Lord the words of
this song in the day that the Lord delivered him
out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the
hand of Saul." Some critics will not admit this
as independent evidence, or, at least, as early
evidence, because 2 Samuel xxi.-xxiii. appears
to form a kind of appendix to the book, added
at a later date. The word "appendix" does
not properly describe the nature of this
section. It is, however, distinguished from the
continuous flow of the narrative, which it un
doubtedly interrupts. It consists of certain illus
trative extracts, some historical, some poetical,
inserted from earlier, perhaps contemporary
documents. This was in all probability done by
the compiler of 1 and 2 Samuel, but if due to a
later hand, there is still no ground for saying that
the passage " only proves that the poem was con-
jecturally ascribed to the idealised David not long
before the Exile." The evidence of 2 Samuel
xxii. may not have the force of contemporary
evidence, but it undeniably represents a tradition
which takes us back within a couple of centuries
of David's time, and which not improbably rests
on contemporary documents. Unless there be
some strong antecedent presumption against
Davidic psalms altogether, this evidence must be

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 41
considered conclusive. A close comparison of the
two texts seems to show that the form in 2 Samuel
is the earlier of the two, or both may have been
taken from some earlier authority, such as the
Annals of David, which we know existed, though
they have not come down to us (1 Chron. xxix.
29, 30). The internal evidence confirms the
statement of the title. There is nothing in the
psalm inconsistent with Davidic authorship, and
it is exceedingly difficult to find any one else of
whom such words could have been used, while it
has all the freshness and force of an original and
early composition. An advanced critic,1 who is
very ready to assign the latest possible date to
every psalm, says of this one: "If it was not
written by David, it must have been composed in
his name, and by one who was able to transpose
himself in thought into his situation and mood ;
and who could have been this contemporary and
highly endowed poet ? "
As a matter of fact, no one would hesitate about
admitting the Davidic authorship of the 18th
Psalm, if there were not some powerful ante
cedent considerations at work on the other side.
What arguments can be alleged against it ? The
history of poetry amongst the Hebrews shows
that the art of poetical composition was quite
1 Hitzig, quoted by Delitzsch.

42 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
sufficiently far advanced for such an ode to be
produced at this time. The triumphant song of
Exodus xv. and the song of Deborah in Judges v.
are admitted, even by extreme critics, to be frag
ments of earlier poesy ; they also allow that David
wrote the elegy over Saul and Jonathan given in
2 Samuel i The religious tone of 2 Samuel i and
2 Samuel xxii. is no doubt different, for an elegy
differs from a psalm, but the man who composed
the one poem was certainly able to produce the
other. There is no allusion in the psalm incon
sistent with the history of the times, as usually
happens in verses idealising a national hero.
Even the mention of David's own name is not a
valid objection to his authorship, though some
think that ver. 50 is a later addition to the
original. Further, it is allowed that for many centuries
David had at least the reputation of being the
founder of psalmody in Israel. In 2 Samuel
xxiii. 1 he is described as being "lovely (or
pleasant) in Israel's songs of praise " ; 1 Samuel
xvi 18 describes his youthful skill upon the
harp; 1 Chronicles xxiii. 5 and 2 Chronicles
xxix. 25 describe his introducing stringed in
struments into the service of the sanctuary to
accompany the psalms that were sung there.
Nehemiah xii. 36 refers to " the musical instru-

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 43
ments of David, the man of God " ; while Amos
vi. 5 shows that much earlier than this David's
musical instruments had become proverbial. It
was not, however, a mere association of David's
name with instruments of music, as many modern
critics assert. The word used in 2 Samuel xxiii. 1
implies more than this, and the single illustration
of the Lamentation in 2 Samuel i. is enough to
prove that David was no mere skilled musical
executant. The early character of the tradition
which constituted him "the sweet Psalmist of
Israel" has been shown, and by the time that
Hebrews iv. 7 was written, and indeed long before
then, the whole Psalter was called after him and
recognised by the simple name "David." Is it
likely that he composed no sacred songs ? If he
did, is it likely that they all perished? The
permanence of songs as literature is well known.
The fragments contained in the early books of
the Old Testament are an illustration of this.
The care with which oral traditions of all kinds
were handed on amongst the Jews and other
Eastern nations is matter of history. But the
memory is especially tenacious of poetry, of
lyrical poetry more than of other kinds of verse,
of sacred lyrics, especially when used in public
worship and often repeated, most of all. Why,
then, should it be assumed that every trace

44 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
of David's sacred compositions has passed away,
when external and internal evidence so markedly
point to Psalm xviii. as his ?
It is said that the personal character of David
renders it unlikely or even impossible that he
should write such highly spiritual compositions
as this and some other psalms attributed to him.
It is coming to be assumed by many modern
critics — for no proof is offered — that our ideas
concerning David must be altogether altered.
Renan sheers at those "pious souls who fancy
they have been in spiritual communion with this
bandit " ; and Canon Cheyne means much the
same thing when he describes David in somewhat
more courtly language as a " versatile condottiere,
chieftain, and king"1 whom later ages have
learned to idealise. But surely it is a shallow
view of history and of human nature which seeks
to "simplify" our ideas of David by explain
ing away the religious aspects of his many-sided
character. Canon Cheyne says, "More easily
could Karl the Great have written St. Bernard's
hymn, than the David of the Books of Samuel
the 51st Psalm!"2 Curiously enough, Charle
magne is the very character selected by Bishop
Alexander as presenting an interesting historical
1 Origin of the Psalter, p. 211.
8 Aids to Devout Criticism, p. 28.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 45
parallel to David. In his establishment of
material order, in the bloodshed which stains
his name, in the sensuous side of his character
which led him into sins of the flesh, in his per
sonal prowess, and the tenderness of his family
affection, Charles the Great often recalls the
generous - hearted and passionate David. The
parallel is made more striking by Charles's in
tense love of church music, psalmody, and chant
ing ; and Bishop Alexander adds, " The most
singular resemblance of the whole is, that an
obstinate conviction of the inner sanctity of the
man, in spite of all drawbacks, pierces through
the scandals that darken round his path, and a
cry goes up in Christian churches to that strange
saint, Sancte Carole, ora pro nobis ! " x The differ
ence between the two aspects of David is obvious,
and has often enough pointed what Carlyle calls
the " shallow " sneer, " Is this your man according
to God's own heart?" The advanced critics of
modern days seem to admit that the sneer is
justified. They explain that " after God's own
heart " means nothing more than fitted to accom
plish a great national task, and that David was
merely one " in whom the God of Israel had
found the qualities of a captain or leader " ; as if
even the national work for the chosen people
1 Witness of the Psalms to Christ, p. 90.

46 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Israel could have been accomplished by a strong
hand without a great heart and a devout spirit.
But even in the historical narrative we have
evidence of David's fine and tender feelings. His
magnanimity, generosity, and affectionateness in
human relations, and the very vehemence of his
feelings when he was wrong, quite prepare us for
the religious susceptibility and nobility of moral
character manifested in the 18th Psalm. The
analysis of the critic fails here in its dealing with
the complexities of the human heart and human
life. Much nearer the mark is Edward Irving
when he comments on the manifoldness of David's
character and the near kinship of strong passions
which to a superficial observer appear inconsistent
or contradictory. "His harp was full-stringed,
and every angel of joy and sorrow swept over
the chords as he passed ; but the melody always
breathed of heaven. And such oceans of affection
lay within his breast, as could not always slumber
in their calmness. For the hearts of a hundred
men strove and struggled together within the
narrow continent of his single heart ; and will the
scornful men have no sympathy for one so con
ditioned, but scorn him, because he ruled not with
constant quietness the unruly host of diverse
natures which dwelt within his single soul V'1 It
1 Works, vol. i. p. 416.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 47
is not a peculiarity of the biblical portraiture of
David that in it are joined " bursts of great heart
and slips in sensual mire." There is a close con
nection between the clauses in the description of
David in his last days, " the anointed of the God
of Jacob and the sweet Psalmist of Israel," and
till evidence of another kind is forthcoming, we
shall prefer to the " two Davids " of the critic's
analysis the description of the son of Sirach, who
blends in a single breath the victories of the
hero and the music of the poet: "He brought
to nought the Philistines his adversaries, and
brake their horn in sunder unto this day. In
all his works he praised the Holy One most
high with words of glory ; with his whole heart
he sung songs, and loved Him that made him." J
Evidence of another kind is supposed to be
forthcoming in the views now gaining currency
concerning the religious history of Israel. This
would lead us into the discussion of questions
quite beyond our scope. It is often assumed by
writers of a certain school that spiritual religion
of a high type was impossible so early as the
time of David. The literary analysis of Old
Testament documents and the analogy of other
nations are supposed alike to point to a develop
ment in the history of Israelitish religion which
1 Ecclus. xlvii. 7, 8.

48 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
makes Davidic psalms impossible. Without en
tering upon a wide field of discussion, we may
be content with pointing to the writings of the
eighth-century prophets Amos and Hosea, and the
prophecies admitted to be written by Isaiah.
The state of religious feeling implied in those
utterances presupposes a long previous history,
such as leaves abundant room for Davidic psalms
two hundred years before. And this without
pressing the indubitable point, that ever in the
history of religion great souls are "before their
time," as the loftiest peaks catch the earliest rays
of the sun-rising. So much may be said by those
who do not believe in the supernatural or the
influence of the Spirit of God fitting a prince like
David for a great and varied work, so that he
manifested qualities not altogether to be accounted
for by a regular " development " traceable by
nineteenth-century canons, and accounted for by
natural laws. All who believe in supernatural
manifestations of a living God must repudiate
oh initio views which would assimilate the history
of religion in Israel to those of surrounding
nations. And, to return to our immediate sub
ject, one evidence of the erroneous character of
such views will, we believe, be found in the Book
of Psalms.
If, then, the 18th Psalm was written by David,

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 49
what follows ? It by no- means follows that we
must accept the evidence of the titles as a whole>
for in many cases these appear to embody a- much
later tradition, and are sometimes clearly contra
dicted by the testimony of the psalms themselves.
But it does follow that the a priori objection
to Davidic psalms is removed. The man who
wrote this psalm might have written any one of
the hundred and fifty, so far as religious insight
and literary ability are concerned. We gain,
moreover, certain criteria of style and subject-
matter, which may help us in inquiring into the
authorship of other psalms. There is a vigour
and energy about the 18th Psalm, a certain dis
tinction or magnificence, what artists would call
" breadth," about the style of this noble ode,
which is fairly recognisable, and quite removed
from the smooth and often tame and conven
tional flow of the mass of post-Exilic compositions.
It by no means follows, however, that every psalm
which exhibits marks of David's style has come
down to us just as it left his pen. The tendency
to adapt and modify hymns is proved to have
obtained in the case of several psalms, by the facts
already adduced. We may expect, therefore, to
find Davidic fragments embedded in later psalms,
and additions or modifications made in undoubted
Davidic compositions.

SO THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
If it were clear that the titles represented an
early tradition, and in every case where David's
name is mentioned were intended to imply
Davidic authorship, the simplest plan would be to
travel carefully through the list, and ascribe to
David every psalm in which there is nothing
strikingly inconsistent with his having written it.
But the facts being as they are, the sifting must
be conducted somewhat differently. If there be
anything in (1) the language, (2) the style, (3)
the historical allusions, or (4) the religious posi
tion of the writer, which does not suit Davidic
authorship, the statements of the titles must be
disregarded. But these canons may be more or
less stringently applied. The first cannot be often
used, for in the state of the Hebrew text as it
has come down to us, linguistic considerations
avail little towards determining date. The argu
ment from style is one on which little reliance
can be placed, though it should count for some
thing. In many psalms historical allusions hardly
occur, and the views of critics differ considerably
concerning the history of religion in Israel. Con
sequently, we cannot be surprised to find con
siderable difference of opinion amongst scholars as
to the number of Davidic psalms that have come
down to us. It is clear, however, that tradition
has estimated that number very much too high.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 51
Canon Cheyne, as we have seen, does not admit
any Davidic psalms. Bathgen specifies three, — the
3rd, 4th, and 18th — though he speaks doubtfully of
the former two. Schultz, in the earlier editions
of his Old Testament Theology, attributed 10 or
12 psalms to David, but now appears to regard the
18th alone as certainly his. Ewald specifies 17,
in the following order: xi, vii, xxiv. 7-10, xxiv.
1-6, xv., ci, xxix., xix. 1-6, xviii, ex., lx. 6-10,
xviii, xxxii, iii, iv., ii., cxliv. 12-15. Delitzsch
includes more than 40 psalms as in all pro^
bability Davidic. These last two scholars, each in
his own way, were giants in the patient and com
prehensive study of the Old Testament, but the
views of the latter altered in some respects
towards the close of his life, and, had he lived, his
estimate of the number of Davidic psalms would
probably have been considerably diminished. It
is impossible, with the evidence before us, to
speak definitely, but perhaps the truth lies some
where between the estimates of Ewald and
Delitzsch. David can hardly have written fewer
than ten, and probably did not write more than
twenty, of the psalms that have come down to us.
We have assumed thus far that the phrase
V David ("of David," literally "to David"), in the
titles, implies strictly Davidic authorship. This
is, however, by no means certain. It may indicate

52 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
authorship; but it is also used in the phrase " For
the Precentor," and can hardly be understood
literally of authorship in the case of the sons of
Korah. We have seen that the general title of
the group of psalms known as " Songs of Ascents "
was subsequently prefixed to each separate psalm
in the collection ; and it is by no means improbable
that the same took place in the first book, which
contains several of David's compositions, so that in
a collection which was primarily and nominally
Davidic, many psalms acquired the title I'David,
though in the first instance it was known that
David did not write them. It is probable, on
several grounds, that this title was used with a
considerable measure of latitude, that the psalms
called " Davidic " were not always understood to
be David's own composition, any more than the
"Korahitic" psalms were understood to be actually
composed by the family or descendants of Korah.1
The title seems to have been prefixed in some
cases where the name of David occurring in the
psalm (see cxxii 5), or some other character
istic, was likely to remind the reader of the great
founder of Israelitish psalmody. The use of the
expression in the New Testament of Psalm xcv.,
which on almost any supposition could not have
1 See the remarks of Canon Driver on this subject, Introduc
tion to Old Testament Literature, p. 359.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 53
been written by David, will illustrate this. It is
quite possible that the phrase I'David was some
times at least used in a sense similar to that
occurring in the title of Psalm cii., which is styled
"A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed
and poureth out his complaint before the Lord,"
and it would then indicate a composition befitting
the character and circumstances of David. With
out discussing the subject in detail, which is
impossible within present limits, it may be said
that in all probability this explanation best suits
the title of Psalm xc, " A prayer of Moses, the
man of God," and of lxxii, which is said to be
"of Solomon." The prayers of the latter psalm,
by whomsoever written, were much more likely to
be written in reference to Solomon as a type of
the Messianic King, than by Solomon as petitions
on his own account, even if his authorship were
admissible on other grounds. It may be said in
favour of this looser interpretation of the title, " A
psalm of David," that in the LXX, Psalm cxxxviii.
(cxxxvii.) is called a " Davidic " psalm of Haggai
and Zechariah, and Psalm cxxxvii. (cxxxvi.) a
" Davidic " psalm of Jeremiah.1 In many cases,
1 In the modern Jewish Prayer-book the title, "A Song of
degrees of David," stands before an evidently modern psalm
compiled for liturgical purposes, the first words of which are
taken from Psalm cxxii. 1.

54 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
however, as in the 34th Psalm, it is difficult to
detect any connection between title and contents ;
and the substitution of Abimelech for Achish, in
spite of the plausible explanations that have been
given of it, appears rather to result from a con
fusion in the mind of the compiler.
Twelve Psalms (1. and lxxiii.-lxxxiii) are de-
described as " of Asaph." Asaph was a Levite,
descended from Gershom, Levi's second son, and
he is named as being set by David " over the
service of song after that the ark had rest ... in
the midst of the tent that David had pitched
for it" in Zion (see 1 Chron. vi 31, xvi 1). In
connection with two colleagues, Heman and
Jeduthun (Ethan), he is said to have ministered
in the same way at the high place of Gibeon
(1 Chron. xv. 17, xvi. 39 f.). He is also called a
Seer (2 Chron. xxix. 30), and several writers have
remarked upon the prophetic character of some
of the psalms {e.g. 1. and lxxiii.) ascribed to him.
It is quite certain, however, that Asaph cannot
have written all the psalms inscribed with his
name. Psalms lxxiv. and lxxix., which describe
the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of
the temple, or, as some think, calamities still
later in date, are said to be " of Asaph," a con
temporary of David. The explanation has been
given that this title includes the descendants, or

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 55
those belonging to the " school " of Asaph (Neh.
xi 22). It is more likely, however, that the use
of the title points, as Bishop Perowne suggests, to
a recognised similarity of- style and coincidence
of thoughts, without any regard being paid to
difference in date and historical considerations
generally. Dr. Perowne adds, as an alternative,
" Perhaps there may have been originally a small
separate collection entitled ' Psalms of Asaph,' into
which others, at a later period, may have crept.
How easily this might have occurred, we see from
the whole history of hymnology." l Others 2 regard
Asaph rather as the founder of a musical school
than as psalmist or seer, and hold that the psalms
entitled V Asaph were delivered to the Asaphic
school to set to music and sing in the public
services, the name Asaph being used generally
for the family of Asaph, as Aaron is for the family
of Aaron in 1 Chronicles xii 27, xxvii. 17. On
the whole, the second of the theories suggested
by Perowne seems the most probable ; it appears
to commend itself to Canon Driver, and if it be
accepted it confirms the view taken in these pages
of the title I'David.
The next group consists of Psalms xlii-xlix.,
Ixxxiv., Ixxxv., Ixxxvii., and Ixxxviii, which are
1 The Psalms, vol. i. pp. 96, 99.
2 So Messrs. Jennings and Lowe, vol. i. pp. ] 1 14.

56 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
inscribed with the name of " the sons of Korah."
These belonged to the Kohathite section of the
Levites, and filled the offices of singers (2 Chron.
xx. 19) and of " door-keepers " or " porters " in the
temple (1 Chron. xxvi. 1), the latter an office
of considerable dignity. As in the case of the
Asaphic psalms, it is matter of debate whether
the sons of Korah were understood to be the
authors of the psalms attributed to them, or
whether the title indicates only a collection of
psalms in the possession of the Levitical guild of
that name in the time of the second temple. A
certain similarity may, however, be detected in
the members of this, as of the last group. The
philosophic, meditative, didactic strain of many
of the Asaphic psalms finds its counterpart in the
brightness, fire, and vehemence of several in the
Korahitic group.1 There are, however, points of
resemblance as well as of contrast in these two
minor collections. Both groups are for the most
part national, not personal, in their character, and
there breathes through them, as seems appro
priate in Levitical psalms, an ardent longing for
the sanctuary and delight in its solemnly joy
ful services. With these psalms may fitly be
1 As long ago as the time of Origen these characteristics were
noticed. He refers to them as remarked upon by " the old
interpreters."

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 57
joined the 88th, which has a double title. It is
ascribed to Heman the Ezraehite, and also to
the sons of Korah.1 The 89th bears the name
of Ethan the Ezraehite, who must not be con
founded with Ethan (Jeduthun), the third of
David's great singers. The 88th Psalm remarkably
violates the character of cheerfulness ascribed
to the Korahitic psalms. It is the gloomiest in
the whole Psalter, the only one in which no single
ray of light — unless it be one gleam in the first
verse, soon lost in gloom — breaks through the
clouds, such as from time to time envelop the
singers of strains sweet, but often sad. Lord
Bacon said, " If you listen to David's harp, you
shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols."
But who can read the Psalter without feeling that
in its music the carols prevail ?
Between the time of David and the Captivity
there appear to have been two periods at which
there was a temporary revival of psalmody — •
during the reigns of Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah.
The chronicler tells us that the former strengthened
the kingdom of Judah both externally and inter
nally, and gives an interesting description of a
kind of royal commission of princes, Levites, and
1 Hence, either Heman was a Korahite, or there has been
confusion in the names, or (most probably) the sons of Korah
were not regarded as authors.

58 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
priests, for the instruction and improvement of
the people. " And they taught in Judah, having
the book of the law of the Lord with them , and
they went about throughout all the cities of Judah,
and taught the people " (2 Chron. xvii. 9). Heze-
kiah appears to have paid special attention to the
temple music. " He set the Levites in the house
of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and
with harps, according to the commandment of
David . . . Moreover Hezekiah the king and
the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises
unto the Lord with the words of David, and of
Asaph the seer" (2 Chron. xxix. 25, 30). His
care for sacred literature is evidenced by the note
in Proverbs xxv. 1 concerning the proverbs of
Solomon, which "the men of Hezekiah king of
Judah copied out." Contemporary evidence of
the state of religion and culture in his time is
furnished by the writings of Isaiah, while the
wonderful deliverance from the power of Assyria
during the invasion of Sennacherib was well calcu
lated to stir patriotic and grateful religious feeling.
There is some evidence, moreover, that in the
northern kingdom of Israel during the eighth
century religious literature was not wholly lacking.
But little trace of the productions of this period is
clearly discernible in the Psalter. The 20th and
21st Psalms belong to the period of the monarchy,

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 59
but whether David or a subsequent king is the
subject of them does not appear. The same may
be said of the 2nd Psalm, which will be considered
later on. The 72nd Psalm was probably written
during the heyday of monarchical power. The
42nd bears clear traces of its North Israelitish
origin (ver. 6), but its date is in all probability
later than the period we are now concerned with.
The 45th Psalm celebrates the nuptials of a prince,
in language which makes it no mere earthly epi-
thalamium, but prepares the mind for the higher
aspects of such an event. What prince is referred
to, however, is a question not easily answered.
Almost every conceivable period has been fixed
on, from Solomon (Perowne and Hupfeld), Ahab
(Hitzig), and Joram (Delitzsch), down to the latest
specimen of critical ingenuity furnished by Pro
fessor Cheyne, who makes the royal bridegroom
to have been Ptolemy Philadelphus ! The little
group, xlvi-xlviii, and perhaps lxxvi, celebrate
the marked interposition of Jehovah in that de
liverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, which
signalised the reign of Hezekiah. The 75th Psalm,
in which the ruler declares his intention of quell
ing arrogant ungodliness amongst his subordinate
officers, may well be placed in Hezekiah's reign ;
while the 82nd, with its reproof of unjust judges,
belongs to the close of the monarchy, or a still

60 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
later period. The 78th may be placed with some
confidence during the period of the monarchy ; the
historical allusions of the 83rd are very difficult
to trace, but a large number of commentators
place the 87th in the time of Hezekiah.
There must have been a close connection be
tween the spirit of prophecy in its golden age and
the spirit of psalmody. The lyric in Isaiah xii
and the ode in Habakkuk iii. strikingly illustrate
this. But it is not easy to trace it out, and tradition
gives us no help. It is noteworthy that no psalms
are attributed to any of the prophets, except that
in the LXX three or four are attributed to Jere
miah, Haggai, and Zechariah. Such psalms as xxii.
and Ixix., if not written by Jeremiah, are charac
teristic of the times in which his lot was cast and
the spirit of his prophecies. The connection in
language between Psalm i and Jeremiah xvii 7, 8,
probably points to a post-Exilic date for the psalm,
but it is often very difficult in such a case of
parallelism to determine relative priority. The
50th Psalm is distinctly prophetic in spirit. The
same may be said of the 62nd, 39th, and 40th, and
several others. The psalms which deal with the
perennial problems of human life, that form the
subject of the Book of Job, and are touched upon
from time to time by certain prophets, — such as
Psalms xxxix., xlix., lxxiii, and Ixxvii, — require

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 61
separate discussion. Some of them probably date
from the decline of the monarchy, while others
cannot have been written till after the Exile.
Sorrow as well as joy finds a natural relief in
music and song. The Exile was a period of
national humiliation, but in many respects it
prepared the way for national regeneration, and,
according to many writers, it marks almost the
birth of true spiritual life among the chosen
people. We are prepared, therefore, to find the
impress of this great crisis upon the psalmody
of the time, and we are not disappointed. The
little Book of Lamentations — called by the Jews
by the quaintly pathetic title Echah (How !), the
key-word of the opening verses — -gives us a speci
men of an elaborate elegy belonging to this period.
By whomsoever written, the date of this long
acrostic poem, so finished in its rhythm and dic
tion, can be approximately fixed ; and it furnishes
a strong argument for the existence of a consider
able body of pre-Exilic poetry. If in the sixth
century before Christ such a poem as this was
possible, it is almost absurd to make all the pre
vious centuries silent as regards psalmody, or to
suppose that while psalms were plentifully com
posed, they have all unaccountably perished.
The psalms which have come down to us from
this period date rather from the Restoration than

62 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
from the Exile itself. Those which have special
reference to the Captivity are such as the 102nd,
when probably the light of deliverance was dawn
ing ; the 80th, with its description of the deserted
and desolated vineyard ; and the 137th, with its
passionate love for Jerusalem, and equally pas
sionate hatred of its enemies. The 120th perhaps
describes the cry of the captives, and the 121st
may have reference to the long journey home
wards; the 126th contemplates a deliverance not
yet complete (ver. 4); while the 85th celebrates
its joyful consummation. The restoration of the
temple is naturally marked by an outburst of
thanksgiving and song. The 118th Psalm (assigned
by Canon Cheyne, on insufficient evidence, to the
time of Simon the Maccabee) appears to give
fitting expression to the feelings of the time,
while a number of psalms are associated with it
(cxiii.-cxviii.) under the name of the Hallel, which
probably belong to the same period. The splendid
group of the Psalms of the Theophany (xcvi-c),
and the Venite Exultemus (xcv.), which for so many
centuries has stood in the forefront of Jewish and
Christian liturgies, together with the Hallelujah
Psalms (cxlvi-cl.), which close the Psalter, repre
sent the liturgical service of the second temple.
We must not linger to attempt the arrangement of
these under the earlier and later Persian periods

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 63
(B.c. 520-330), and the Greek period (330-170),
if indeed that be possible. Our historical infor
mation after the times of Ezra and Neliemiah is
scanty, and the psalms belonging to the later
period of Jewish history contain few historical
references, so that any attempt to be precise in
fixing dates is vain. The psalms mentioned above
are given as specimens only of the sacred min
strelsy of a period which, so far as extant psalms
are concerned, is the most prolific of all.
The question has often been discussed, whether
any psalms are to be assigned to the time of the
Maccabees (circ. 165 B.C.), and a new aspect has
been given to it by the fact of a Bampton lecturer
attributing the whole of the Psalter to post-Exilic
times, and placing a considerable section of it L so
late as the Maccabean period. This question had
previously been answered in the negative by such
scholars as Bleek and Ewald, while a large num
ber of commentators, e.g. Calvin, Perowne, and
Delitzsch, incline to admit three or four psalms
as Maccabean, including xliv., lxxiv., and lxxix.
It is not possible to discuss the question at length
here. It may be enough to say that there is no
thing in the history of the Old Testament Canon,
1 Twenty -five psalms, viz. xx., xxi., xxxiii., xliv., lx., lxi.,
Ixiii., lxxiv., lxxix., lxxxiii., ci., cviii., cxv.-cxviii., cxxxv.-
cxxxviii., cxlv.-cl.

64 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
as now understood, to prevent the inclusion of
psalms of so late a date. But it is remarkable
that those which are fixed upon as most appro
priate to this period occur in the earlier books.
Canon Cheyne, it is true, following Reuss and
Olshausen, assigns the greater portion of the
Psalter to the third and second centuries before
Christ, but his reasoning is speculative in the
highest degree. He names the following as criteria
of Maccabean psalms : 1 (1) " Some fairly distinct
allusions to Maccabean circumstances," which are
hard to find in more than two or three psalms
for those who read with unbiassed eyes ; (2) " a
uniquely strong Church feeling," a test which is
bound up with views concerning the " I " of the
psalms, which will fall to be considered later ;
(3) "an intensity of monotheistic faith," which
cannot be said to be- exclusively characteristic of
Maccabean times; and (4) "an ardour of grati
tude for some unexampled stepping forth of
the one Lord Jehovah into history," as if such
divine interpositions had never been known till
the times of Judas and Simon, or as if the
Jews at this period were grateful and devout
beyond the measure of the prophets and psalm
ists of earlier days. It is possible that Psalm
xliv. must be assigned to this period, on ac-
1 Origin of the Psalter, p. 16.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 65
count of its strong protestations of national
innocence; lxxiv., on account of the mention of
" synagogues " (ver. 8) and the complaint of the
decay of prophecy (ver. 9); and lxxix., because
of the close parallel between many of its expres
sions and the descriptions of 1 Maccabees. But it
is also possible that the calamities and sorrowful
experiences of these psalms may be referred to
an earlier period, while the difficulties arising
from their style and language, as well as their
place in the Psalter, make the supposition of their
Maccabean origin not altogether easy to accept.
Our knowledge of the Maccabean period, and
such literary products of that time as have come
down to us, render it improbable that any con
siderable portion of the Psalter should be assigned
to it. It seems strange, to begin with, if twenty-
five notable psalms were written at this time, that
we have no trace of a tradition to that effect. If
the extra-canonical book known as " The Psalms
of Solomon " were written, as has been supposed,
in the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, this would
be conclusive against the Maccabean origin of any
canonical psalms. The opinion of scholars now,
however, inclines to bring the work down to the
time of Pompey (B.C. 48).1 Even so, the tone and
1 See the recent admirable edition of these Psalms by Pro
fessor Kyle and Mr. James. 1891.
5

66 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
character of these "Psalms of the Pharisees"
makes strongly against a late date for any con
siderable number of the canonical psalms. The
tendencies of religious thought which resulted in
the "Psalms of the Pharisees'' must have been
operative for more than half a century before they
were written. The Messianic expectations, the
views of a future life, and the politico-religious
ideas embodied in these apocryphal compositions,
require a very considerable interval of time to
separate them from the widely differing tone and
spirit of the latest psalms in the canonical collec
tion.1 These are only scattered notes or hints upon a
wide and difficult subject. All that seems to be
quite clear at present is, that the older traditional
view, represented by a literal acceptance of the
inscriptions, seems to be impossible on the one
hand; while on the other, there is no adequate
ground for the views of the extreme critics, who
exclude the possibility of Davidic, or even pre-
Exilic, psalms, and make the Psalter in the most
literal sense "the hymn-book of the Second
Temple." That its arrangement and compilation
are due to the pious care of post-Exilic times, and
1 Professor Kirkpatrick holds this to be a valid argument ;
but it is strongly contested by Canon Cheyne. See Aids to
Devout Criticism, pp. 135, 136.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 67
that a much larger proportion of the Psalms than
has generally been allowed was actually composed
in this period, seems clearly proved. But no
evidence has been alleged to disprove the position
that the Book of Psalms is an anthology of the
best sacred lyrics of Israel during many centuries,
from David onwards. A nucleus of the whole
collection is Davidic, and pre-Exilic strains prevail
in the earlier books. The views concerning the
Psalter which are now fashionable amongst
scholars rest very largely upon views concerning
the history of religion in Israel, which are far
from being proved, and which would revolutionise
a large part of the Old Testament. As a recent
writer well says : '' By one stroke the tongue of
ancient Israel is struck dumb, as the pen is
dashed from its hand, these artless lyrics are
deprived of their spontaneousness, and a great
gulf is fixed between the few, which a niggardly
criticism admits to be of early date, and the full
volume of devotional song which in many tones
was called forth by the shifting situations of
olden times." x To attempt to reduce the varied
strains of several collections of sacred lyrics to
the dead level of one period, which was neither
lofty in its religious character nor vigorously
original in its literature, shows mistaken views
1 Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, p. 474.

68 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
of art, as well as a misunderstanding of the history
of religion.
But having said so much as to the general
character of the Psalter, we must be content to
leave the details of age and authorship in con
siderable uncertainty. Exact historical informa
tion has not come down to us, and the great
majority of the psalms by no means determine
their own date. When external evidence fails,
and critics are left to use their own judgment, we
know what to expect. The diversity would be
amusing, if it were not bewildering. Ewald
ascribes to David a psalm which Cheyne pro
nounces to have been written in honour of Simon
the Maccabee. The 90th Psalm has been assigned
by critics of highest repute alike to Moses and to
a post-Exilic writer, separated from one another
by more than a thousand years. The 68th Psalm
is described at the same time as one of the earliest
and as one of the latest psalms ; Delitzsch refers
it to the time of David, Hitzig to the time of
Jehoshaphat, and Reuss to the pre-Maccabean
Greek age. As Riehm observes,1 who could tell
from internal evidence alone whether a familiar
hymn were by Luther or Paul Gerhardt, Tersteegen
or Angelus Silesius ? Who would have ascribed
the well-known German hymn "Jesus meine
1 Einleitung, ii. pp. 190, 193.

AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PSALMS. 69
Zuversicht " to Princess Louisa of Brandenburg ?
And we might add, what keenly critical hymn-
ologist could discover from internal evidence that
" The God of Abraham praise " was written by
Thomas Olivers, an obscure Methodist shoemaker?
Enough is known concerning the age and author
ship of the Psalms to enable us to read them
intelligently; enough remains still uncertain to
invite our patient study, and to prevent us from
losing in minute considerations of time and place
the fruitful and abiding lessons of spiritual and
eternal truth.

CHAPTER III.
THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS.
THE words " literature " and " poetry " are by no
means adequate to describe the contents of
the Psalter. But they represent one aspect of its
character, and describe the form in which Divine
treasure of highest value has been preserved for
succeeding generations. A study of this form, a
vessel so admirably adapted to hold and transmit
its sacred contents, is indispensable to a proper
understanding of the Psalms.
Hebrew poetry is almost entirely lyric in its
character. Under this head may be included the
varieties of gnomic verse, illustrated by the Book
of Proverbs, elegiac poems like the Lamentations,
and others, clearly distinguishable from the true
lyrics of the Psalms. But epic and dramatic
poetry are alike foreign to the genius of the
nation. The Book of Job is only partially
dramatic in form, and the Song of Songs is an
idyll rather than a drama. 70

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 71
It is well known that rhyme is absent from
ancient Hebrew poetry. In the Middle Ages some
exquisite specimens of Hebrew rhyming poetry
were produced; but we must pass to the tenth
and eleventh centuries a.d. to find verses like
those of Ibn Gebirol and Judah Halevi, who did
for Hebrew what Adam of St. Victor and Bernard
of Cluny did for Latin hymnody. In ancient
Hebrew poetry alliteration is sometimes found,
and more frequently assonance, i.e. the introduc
tion of words having like-sounding syllables.
But metre, in the proper sense of the word, such
as is characteristic of most Western poetry, in
which the lines are of a measured length, and
consist of a definite number of syllables, or " feet,"
is unknown ; x and verbal rhythm, where it occurs,
is irregular and indefinable. Hebrew poetry con
sists in the rhythm of thought and the balance of
sentences. But this implies a true rhythm, or
" beat," though one of a much less regular kind
than in Western classical poetry. "We might
make a rough analogy by comparing the rhythmic
movement of verse to the time beats of a clock or
watch. Other languages divide the verses into
measured feet, as a watch ticks off the seconds ;
1 Professor Bickell claims to have discovered the structure of
Hebrew metre, and bases upon it a reconstruction of the text
of the Book of Job.

72 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
but Hebrew opposes line to line with the longer,
more solemn, and more majestic beat of the
pendulum of a large clock." x Coleridge's " Christ-
abel" is an attempt to introduce into English
verse a less regular rhythm, as well as a less
regular metre, than is customary.
The psalm is divided into lines, which are
approximately and sometimes actually of the
same length, and these are arranged in couplets
or triplets or quatrains, which may be termed
verses. These again may be combined into
strophes or stanzas, a number of stanzas consti
tuting the whole poem. But the balance is one
of thought, not of sound or of measured feet, and
the lines are so arranged that " thought corre
sponds to thought, in repetition or amplification,
contrast or response." The irregularity of the
Hebrew poem, which forms a mean between the
strict order of metre on the one hand, and the still
greater irregularity (itself not without order) of
musical prose on the other, has a beauty and
charm of its own. The thought proceeds not
directly, but as by " the beat of alternate wings " ;
or rather, like the progress of a bird, which
advances by a series of spiral flights, circling in
the air as it rises skywards, or drops gently and
gradually into its nest in the young April corn.
1 Aglen, Poetry of the Bible, § 2, "Parallelism."

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 73
This feature of parallel structure is more or less
discernible in the poetry of all nations. It repre
sents a form of utterance naturally adopted in
most languages to express thought, either with
the added force of increased emphasis, or with
the deepened tenderness of a lingering pathos.
It is especially characteristic of uncultured na
tions, and is appropriately used by Longfellow in
his " Indian Edda " of " Hiawatha," in which the
simplicity of the language is more impressive
than the polished versification of a classical
style,— " Ye who love the haunts of nature,
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries ; —
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this song of Hiawatha ! "
It may be observed, however, that the regularity
of the lines detracts somewhat from the dignity
of the style, and before long palls upon the ear.
But this parallelism is not appropriate only in
the comparatively inartistic productions of early

74 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
times, or poems which imitate them. It is often
found in Shakespeare. There is a combined state-
liness and pathos about its use in the well-known
lines in which Richard II. abdicates his crown, —
" Now mark me, how I will undo myself ; —
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart ;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duty's rites :
All pomp and majesty do I forswear ;
My manors, rents, revenues I forego ;
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me I
God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee ! " 1
It often, appears in the most highly finished verse
of the nineteenth century, perhaps of any century
in the English language, that of Tennyson. In
" Love and Duty " he writes of
' The slow, sweet hours that bring us all things good,
The slow, sad hours that bring us all things ill " ;
where the parallelism is no less impressive than
the lingering, reluctant movement of the long-
drawn-out monosyllables. In the address to the
Queen on the Prince Consort's death, forming the
Dedication of the "Idylls," occur the familiar
lines, — 1 Richard II., Act iv. Sc. 1, 203.

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 75
" His love, unseen but felt, o'ershadow thee,
The love of all thy sons encompass thee,
The love of all thy daughters cherish thee,
The love of all thy people comfort thee,
Till God's love set thee at his side again ! "
But in Hebrew poetry the very absence of art
enhances its sublimity and impressiveness. There
is doubtless more artistic arrangement than
appears upon the surface, but at its best it rises
above the few and simple laws which it has
imposed on itself, and rejoices in a freedom which
yet remains within the bounds of law.
It is unnecessary to describe in detail all the
varieties of structure that have been observed, as
it is indeed impossible accurately to classify them.
Bishop Lowth in modern times has worked out
the subject with a fulness which has left all who
have since laboured in the same field his debtors.
His definition of parallelism is as follows : " The
correspondence of one verse or line with another,
I call parallelism. When a proposition is delivered,
and a second is subjoined to it, or drawn under
it, equivalent, or contrasted with it in sense, or
similar to it in the form of grammatical construc
tion, these I call parallel lines ; and the words or
phrases answering to one another in the corre
sponding lines, parallel terms." This opens the
way for the subdivision into synonymous, anti-

76 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
thetic, and synthetic or constructive parallelism. A
more elaborate classification is suggested by De
Wette,1 who distinguishes four kinds of parallelism
— (1) That which consists in an equal number of
words in each member, which is the original and
perfect parallelism. (2) The unequal form, in
which the number of words is not the same;
divided into a simple, b composite, and other
varieties. (3) Where both members are composite;
with its subdivisions. (4) Rhythmical parallelism,
which lies merely in the external form of the
diction. Other divisions and subdivisions have
been suggested, which it is tedious even to read.
It is poor work to turn a garden into a herbarium.
Turning to examples, which teach us more than
any abstract system of classification, we proceed
from the simpler to the more complex. The
simplest and most frequent of all is the arrange
ment in two lines, of which the second repeats or
echoes the thought of the first, —
" The heavens are telling the glory of God,
The firmament sheweth His handy work." — (xix. 1.)
" In green pastures He maketh me lie down,
By restful waters He leadeth me." — (xxiii. 2.)
" Cast forth lightning and scatter them ;
Shoot out Thine arrows and discomfit them." — (cxliv. 6.)
1 See Dictionary of the Bible, "Hebrew Poetry, "vol. ii. p. 901.

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 77
Sometimes the second line emphasises and
strengthens the first, —
" For thou dost bless the righteous ;
Jehovah, with favour wilt Thou compass him as with
a broad shield."— (v. 12.)
" The waters saw Thee, 0 God ;
The waters saw Thee, they writhed in pain."
— (lxxvii. 16.)
Sometimes the parallelism is in three members, —
" The wicked see it, and are grieved :
They gnash with their teeth and melt away :
The desire of the wicked shall perish." — (cxii. 10.)
" Let all them that take refuge in Thee rejoice ;
Let them ring out their joy for ever, because Thou
defendest them :
Let them also who love Thy name be joyful in
Thee."— (v. 11.)
An example of a quatrain, or verse of four lines,
is found in the 30th Psalm, —
"For His anger is but for a moment,
His favour for a life-time ;
Weeping may come in to lodge at even,
But in the morning (hark !) a ringing cry of joy 1 "
— (xxx. 5.)
Or, with a slightly different relation between the
members, —

78 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
" Jehovah, in Thy strength shall the king rejoice,
And in Thy salvation how greatly shall he exult !
Thou hast given him his heart's desire,
And hast not withholden the request of his lips."
— (xxi. 1, 2.)
Or, arranged, as we should say, with alternate
rhymes, —
"For, as the heaven is high above the earth,
So mighty is His loving kindness over them that
fear Him ;
As far as sunrise from sunset,
Hath He removed our transgressions from us."
— (ciii. 11, 12.)
The so-called "antithetic" parallelism is only
distinguished from the "synonymous" or "cog
nate" by the fact that the lines emphasise a
thought rather by presenting a contrast, than by
way of repetition or echo, —
" For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked perishes." — (i. 6.)
" Some (boast) of chariots and some of horses,
But we will boast of the name of Jehovah our
God."— (xx. 7.)
Or thus, in a quatrain, —
"His mouth was smoother than butter,
But his heart was war ;
His words were softer than oil,
Yet were they drawn swords.1' — (lv. 21.)

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 79
The term " synthetic " or " constructive " parallel
ism implies that the second line does not contain
a repetition of the first, nor a contrast to it, but
in some independent way completes it, and so
builds up the thought of the whole. Here word
does not answer to word, but " the idea is kept in
view by the writer, while he proceeds to develop
and enforce his meaning by accessory ideas and
modifications," —
" One thing do I ask of Jehovah,
That will I seek after;
That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah
All the days of my life,
To behold the pleasantness of Jehovah,
And to meditate in His temple."— (xxvii. 4.)
It is hardly worth while to invent another name
" introverted parallelism," for a slightly different
arrangement of lines, corresponding to one another
in a quatrain like the stanzas of " In Memoriam,"
the first and fourth pairing together, and the
second and third, —
" The earth hath yielded her increase j
May God, our own God, bless us !
May God bless us,
And all the ends of the earth fear Him ! "
— (lxvii. 6, 7.)
Or, in a more complicated form,—

80 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
"Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes, 0 Thou that art
seated in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants are upon the hand
of their master,
As the eyes of a maiden are upon the hand of her
mistress,
S.o our eyes are upon Jehovah our God, till He have
pity upon us." — (cxxiii 1, 2.)
In some of these cases a different arrangement
of lines might be adopted, and in many instances
it is not easy to define the exact relation between
the various members, which are nevertheless
clearly related to one another, and help to build
up one thought : —
"As for me, I am poor and helpless,
Yet Jehovah thinketh upon me ;
Thou art my help and my deliverer,
Make no tarrying, 0 my God." — (xl. 17.)
There is no rule for the length of the separate
lines. Canon Driver says that " upon an average
the lines consist of seven or eight syllables, but,
so far as appears, there is no rule upon the sub
ject ; lines may be longer or shorter as the poet
may desire. . . . The didactic and historical psalms
are more regular in structure than those which
are of a more emotional character." x It is clear
that the shorter the line, the more bright and
animated the strain; while the longer lines and
1 Introduction, p. 343.

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 81
more laboured stanzas approximate to the com
parative dulness and heaviness of prose. Com
pare, for instance, —
"My heart is brimful!,
Goodly is the theme ;
I utter words,
My work is for a king ;
My tongue is a pen,
Yea, a ready scribe." — (xlv. 1.)
with the quotation above given from the 123rd
Psalm, or the following from the 107th : —
"Again, when they are minished and brought low
By the pressure of misfortune and sorrow,
He who poureth contempt upon princes,
And maketh them wander in the wilderness, where
there is no way :
He setteth the needy on high from affliction,
And maketh him families like a flock." — (cvii. 39-41.) ,
In poetry, as well as in prose, variation in the
character of the diction is discernible. Apart
from the steady wave-like flux and reflux of the
alternating clauses, there comes a period of high
tides, and then again of neap-tides, when the flow
of feeling ebbs; and, as Ewald says, there is a
standard rhythm to which the verse returns when
the diction flags from its loftier and more sublime

82 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
heights. But throughout there is variety, anima
tion, change of pace and action. The form of the
verse alters with the mood of the writer and the
strain of his song. There is nothing stiff, wooden,
mechanical : perhaps we should rather say, when
these features do appear, it is a sign of decad
ence, and we pass from the golden age of Hebrew
poetry to an age of silver, or even of copper.
The earlier strains are the more vigorous and
animated; in the later days decay sets in, and
a more artificial and conventional style of verse
prevails. Verses build up strophes or stanzas. Some
scholars have propounded elaborate theories on
this subject. Even the more sober and moderate
theorists undertake to arrange most of the psalms
into regular stanzas, the lines of which observe
regular lengths, thus: 4,6,7,7,6,4; or 6,6,6,6,7,7;
like the modern hymns, the metre of which is
styled 7's and 6's, or 6-8's. On this subject it
does not become those who have not carefully
studied the subject to say much ; but the examples
given suggest ingenuity in the critics rather than
obvious regularity in the metrical arrangement of
the psalm. If, however, the word " strophe " be
understood to imply a poetical paragraph, in which
are arranged with a good deal of irregularity a
number of verses contributing to the working out

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 83
of one leading thought, the existence of this will
at once be admitted. Such a division of a psalm
into parts or stanzas is suggested by the fre
quent occurrence of refrains, such as the well-
known, —
"Jehovah God of Hosts, is with us,
The God of Jacob is our tower of refuge."
— (xlvi. 7, 11.)
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul!
And why disquieted within me ?
Hope thou in God : for I shall yet praise Him
Who is the help of my countenance and my God."
— (xiii. 5, 11 ; xliii. 5.)
The liturgical refrains often recur. The response
in the 136th Psalm occurs twenty-six times, as if
weak and sinful men could hardly tire of repeat
ing " For His mercy endureth for ever." Another
less obvious mark of organic structure in the
Psalms may be illustrated from the exquisite
little group of " Songs of Ascents." It implies a
progress by means of characteristic words or
phrases, a mounting as by steps from thought to
thought ; a form of composition which some have
thought gave rise to the name of the group.
This can only be illustrated by printing at length
one of these short but lovely psalms, italicising
the phrases which are repeated, as in the " triolet,"

84 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
or " rondeau " of mediaeval poetry, though not with
the same regularity : —
" Had not Jehovah Himself been on our side,
Let Israel now say —
Had not Jehovah Himself been on our side
When men rose up against us :
Then they had swallowed us up alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us.
Then the waters had overwhelmed us,
The stream had gone over our soul.
Then had gone over our soul
The proud-raging waters.
" Blessed be Jehovah, who gave us not up
As a prey to their teeth !
Our soul, like a bird hath it escaped
Out of the snare of the fowlers :
The snare was broken,
And we — we escaped.
Our help is in the name of Jehovah,
Who made heaven and earth." — (cxxiv.)
The principle of the -Acrostic is well known,
but few English readers recognise how freely it is
used in the Hebrew Psalter. The example of the
119th Psalm, in which are twenty-two stanzas,
each with eight verses beginning with the same
Hebrew letter, is familiar. But a similar arrange
ment is more or less observed in Psalms ix. and x.,
in which two verses occur to each letter, but the
plan is imperfectly carried out ; also in xxv., with
one verse to each letter, xxxiv., xxxvii, cxi, and

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 85
cxii (in the last two cases only half a verse to
a letter), and cxlv. Psalm cxi. has been thus
arranged in English,1 in order to exhibit the
structure, — " Hallelujah !
A dore will I the Lord with all my heart,
B oth in the meeting of the upright and in the con
gregation.
C onfessedly great are the deeds of the Lord ;
D elighters in them search them out.
E xcellent for honour and majesty is His work :
F or evermore doth His righteousness endure.
G racious and compassionate is the Lord,
H is wonderful works hath He made to be remem
bered," etc.
Leaving the purely literary structure of the
Psalms, we shall do well to remember in all our
study of them that they were made (for the most
part) to be sung. Signs of this appear on every
hand. No fewer than fifty-five psalms are in
scribed " For the Chief Musician," or Precentor.
The nature of his work may be gathered from
1 Chronicles xv. 17-21, where Heman, Asaph, and
Ethan are described as conductors, sounding aloud
with cymbals ; while certain other musicians were
appointed vocally " to lead " the singing, to the
accompaniment of psalteries for the soprano and
1 By- the late Professor Binnie. See his Psalms, their History,
Teachings, and Use, 2nd ed. p. 142.

85 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
harps for the bass— as we should say, with violins
and violoncellos. The LXX, it may be said in
passing, everywhere translate the expression " For
the Precentor" by ih to «aos ("for ever" ?), con
fusing it with a similar Hebrew word and showing
that they did not understand its meaning. In the
passage from 1 Chronicles just quoted two terms
occur, Alamoth, found also in Psalm xlvi. 1, and
Sheminith, Psalm vi. 1, the meaning of which is
now pretty clearly determined as corresponding
to our " soprano " and " bass." The frequently
recurring term Selah has been very variously
understood : it most probably indicates a musical
interlude, not necessarily of a forte or triumphant
character, but varying with the subject-matter of
the preceding or succeeding verses.
The musical instruments chiefly in use were —
amongst stringed instruments, the Kinnor, the most
ancient kind of harp (Ps. cxxxvii. 2); and the
Nebel, usually translated psaltery (Ps. lvii. 8),
probably a larger and improved variety of the
same; amongst wind instruments the Shophar
(Ps. xlvii. 5) and Chatsotserah (Ps. xcviii. 6),
trumpets of different kinds, the former a long
horn turned up at the extremity, the latter a
straight trumpet of silver, terminating in a bell-
mouth, a sacred rather than a martial instrument.
Amongst instruments of percussion we find the

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 87
Toph and the Tseltselim, the tabret or timbrel
(Ps. lxxxi. 2), and the cymbals (Ps. cl. 5), the
latter being of two kinds, one characterised by its
high pitch, and the other used for a loud-sounding
accompaniment. Two general terms occur in the
titles, Neginoth for stringed instruments (see Pss.
iv., vi, liv. etc.; comp. lxi), and Nehiloth, only
in Psalm v., generally understood to mean flutes.
Very probably the Gittith of Psalms viii, lxxxi.,
and Ixxxiv. indicates a harp of some particular
kind, named from the city of Gath.
The names of the tunes to which some of the
psalms were sung have come down to us, but the
names alone. These consist of two or three words,
probably indicating the first words of a well-
known song, or some popular melody, to which,
especially in the earlier days, the psalm might
be sung : e.g. "Death of the Son" (Ps. ix.), "The
Hind of the Morning " (Ps. xxii.), " Lilies " (xlv.
and lxix.; comp. lxxx.), " The Dove of the Distant
Terebinths " (lvi), while four (lvii.-lix., and lxxv.)
are described as set to the air "Destroy not,"
which may perhaps be illustrated by Isaiah lxv. 8 :
"As the new wine is found in the cluster, and
one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it " ;
the words Al-Tashcheth being the opening words
of a vintage-song. This mode of indicating tunes
is intelligible enough to a generation accustomed

83 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to speak of " Sicilian Mariners," " Fertile Plains,"
"Just as I am," or "Pax Dei," as names which
recall familiar tunes, and need hardly be explained
to those who even yet have not given up singing
sacred words to the air of " Ye Banks and Braes,"
or " Robin Adair."
In early times, no doubt, the music and the
singing were comparatively rude. There is no
warrant, however, for the attempt now being
made to bring down the institution of organized
worship to the time of the Second Temple. The
books of Chronicles, which, though late in date,
rest, as we are expressly told, upon earlier docu
ments, trace the beginnings of this organization to
David. At the dedication of Solomon's temple,
and again at the reconsecration of the temple
under Hezekiah, the musical part of the service
is expressly described (2 Chron. vii. 6 and xxix. 26).
But it is quite consistent with the statements of
Scripture, and probable on many other grounds,
that the conduct of worship in pre-Exilic days
was primitive and comparatively unorganized. A
great improvement took place in post-Exilic days.
The Book of the Law was arranged, edited, and
taught as it had never been before ; the writings
of the prophets were gradually collected with
reverent care; and so the fragments of earlier
psalms, and various smaller collections of Davidic

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 89
and other sacred songs, were prepared for use in
the more carefully arranged and more reverently
conducted temple-worship. The outline of ser
vice during the second and third centuries before
Christ is tolerably well known to us, even in its
details. We touch upon it, only so far as it
illustrates the structure and use of the psalms we
are studying.
Some of the psalms were sung antiphonally, or
by priests and Levites with responses from the
congregation. This appears to have been very
ancient (cf. Ex. xv. 20, 21); and the manner is
expressly stated in Ezra iii. 11 : " And they sang
one to another " (A. V. " by course ") " in praising
and giving thanks to the Lord, saying, For He is
good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward
Israel. And all the people shouted with a great
shout, when they praised the Lord." The " two
great companies that gave thanks and went in
procession," mentioned in Nehemiah xii 31 and 38,
evidently sang antiphonally. One of the oldest
psalms in the Psalter is of this kind. The late
Dean Stanley describes,1 with characteristically
graphic power, the scene which took place when
first the latter portion of Psalm xxiv. was chanted.
" The long captivity of the Ark in Philistia . . .
1 Jewish Church, vol. ii. pp. 71, 72. The passage quoted is
condensed.

90 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
was now brought to an end. Accordingly, as the
Ark stood beneath the walls of the ancient Jewish
fortress, so venerable with unconquered age, the
summons goes up from the procession to the dark
walls in front. The ancient everlasting gates of
Jebus are called to lift up their heads, their port
cullis gates, stiff with the rust of ages. They are
to grow and rise with the freshness of youth, that
their height may be worthv to receive the new
King of Glory." I.
[Choir of Priests, approaching the gates.]
"Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates;
Lift yourselves up, ye ancient doors,
That the King of Glory may come in."
[Warders from within.]
" Who then is the King of Glory 1"
[Choir of Priests.]
" Jehovah, strong and mighty ;
Jehovah, mighty in battle."
II.
Priests. "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates;
Lift yourselves up, ye ancient doors,
That the King of Glory may come in!"
Warders. "Who is He, the King of Glory?"
Priests. "Jehovah Sabaoth,
He is the King of Glory."
In the late liturgical psalms we have a number of

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 91
what may be called standard choruses or refrains,
sung as responses, examples of which may be
found in the beginning of Psalm cxviii. and
throughout Psalm cxxxvi
Each day of the week had its psalm. It was
sung at the time of the drink-offering, in three
sections of three parts each, indicated by the
trumpet-blasts of the priests; the Levites sang
the words and the people the responses, falling
down and worshipping. The Sabbath psalm was
xcii.1 (see title) ; that for the first day of the week
was xxiv. ; and there followed in order, xlviii,
lxxxii, xciv., lxxxi., xciii. The principle of selec
tion is not altogether easy to follow. The practice
of the modern synagogue will to some extent
illustrate the method of cantillation employed;
but it is impossible now to trace out the precise
musical significance of the accents found in our
Hebrew Bibles. Dr. Edersheim says : " What
the melodies were to which the Psalms had
been sung it is unfortunately impossible now to
ascertain. Some of the music still used in the
synagogue must date from those times ; and
there is no reason to doubt that in the so-called
Gregorian ' tones ' we have also preserved to us a
1 Said by the Rabbis to have been sung by Adam when
created, on the eve before the Sabbath. See the curious stories
in Midrash Tehillim, ii. 75.

92 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
close approximation to the ancient hymnody of
the temple, though certainly not without con
siderable alterations." x
This must not be viewed as mere antiquarian
lore. A composition that is intended to be sung
can only be half understood and appreciated
when it is read. Music intensifies feeling of all
kinds ; and no one can feel the true responsive
thrill to a Miserere Domine or a Gloria in Excelsis
when he coldly reads them on the printed page.
We cannot reproduce the Jewish music, and we
need not spend much time over the meaning of
ancient Jewish musical notation. But we must,
if possible, bring with us the exalted mood of the
worshipper in the great congregation as we join
in the ringing cry of Psalm cxlviii, " Praise
Jehovah — praise Him — praise Him ! " or plead in
the plaintive prayer of Psalm lxix., —
" Save me, 0 God :
For the waters press in, even to my soul.
I am sunk in deep mire, where is no standing ;
I am come into deep waters, where floods overwhelm
me."
The vivacity and rapid turns of expression which
abound in the Psalms become intelligible when
we remember the rapidly changing moods of even
1 The Temple, its Ministry and Services, p. 57.

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 93
the best man's religious life; but they become
full of meaning when we think of them as alter
nating like the movements in a concerted piece of
music, and, so to speak, mark them with the forte
and piano of a well-arranged chorus. It is the
musician who takes the " two poor bounded words
and makes them new," —
" Page after page of music turn,
And still they live and still they burn,
Eternal, passion-fraught, and free —
Miserere Domine!"
So far as printed words can sway the feelings,
and tune the reader to the strain of thanksgiving
or supplication, teaching him the true note of
penitential pathos or rapturous triumph, it is
achieved by the language of the Psalter. But
each psalm must be read with the heart as well
as with the mind, and, as far as may be, with the
imagination which recalls the scenes and circum
stance under which it was intended to be sung.
Music entirely apart, the note of true poetry
is struck in the Psalms, as at no other point in
the long history of hymnology. The deficiencies
of very bald and prosaic words are covered in
some churches by elaborate music, but perhaps
no music ever composed has been adequate to
render the Psalms of David. If, with Words-

94 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
worth, we define poetry as " the breath and finer
spirit of all knowledge : the impassioned expres
sion which is in the countenance of all science,"
or speak of it as "the first and last of all
knowledge, immortal as the heart of man," it
would be difficult to find in the whole range of
literature a better example of poetry than many
of the Psalms will furnish. If we take Milton's
three characterising epithets, that poetry must be
" simple, sensuous, passionate," again the Psalms
occur to us as wonderfully fulfilling each of these
conditions. The sublime simplicity of the Psalms
needs no comment. The intense feeling, amount
ing to sacred passion, which burns in them is
obvious at a glance. But it may not be so
immediately clear how far the power and value
of the Psalms depends upon what Milton means
by the "sensuous" element, that avoidance of the
abstract and metaphysical, the striking concrete-
ness of the language which represents and em
bodies the most refined and spiritual thoughts.
The God of metaphysics is not the God of the
Bible, and especially not of the Psalms. The
figures used are sotnetimes of the boldest. A
fastidious taste might even carp at some of them
as crude or coarse ; some modern critics have a
great deal to say about a " mythological element,"
as if the Psalmist had not risen above the con-

THE POETRY OF THE. PSALMS. 95
ceptions of the Vedas or the Orphic hymns. But
the language used to express spiritual truth must
always be more or less metaphorical, and in the
Psalter we have happily a large measure of that
mode of speech which always makes its way
direct to the heart of the multitude, while there
is nothing to offend or repel any right-minded
reader. Who that reads the 18th Psalm aright
can hesitate as to the true meaning, or still
less as to the poetical grandeur of the descrip
tion, —
" He rode upon a cherub and did fly,
And flew swiftly upon the wings of the wind ;
He made darkness His covert, His pavilion round
about Him,
Dark waters, thick clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness before Him there passed thro'
His clouds
Hailstones and coals of fire." — (xviii. 10-12.)
The crudity surely is in the critic who con
ceives that these and other descriptions of the
God of Israel are to be construed literally, as if
the Psalmist had hardly passed the stage of
thought in which the primitive Aryan invokes
Agni or Indra, or the Chinaman strives to appease
the uncouth dragon of the storms. In the same
psalm we find the most spiritual conceptions of
God,—

96 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
" Fervently do I love thee,
Jehovah, my strength ! . . .
As for God, His way is flawless :
The word of Jehovah is tried :
He is a shield unto all that take refuge in Him."
—(vers. 1, 30.)
It is not difficult to distinguish symbolic from
mythological language, and it is a Divine yafie^a
characterising the Book of Psalms, that one of
the most spiritual books in the world is one of
the freest and boldest in its use of figure.
"Metaphysic theologies," says Isaac Taylor,
"except so far as they take up the very terms
of the Hebrew Scriptures, have hitherto shown
a properly religious aspect in proportion as they
have been unintelligible ; when intelligible, they
become, if not atheistic, yet tending in that
direction." Much of this boldness of figurative
speech is patent to the English reader, but some
times a most suggestive figure lies behind what
appears a commonplace word. No irreverence
is present in the representation given of the
Divine Being choosing Jerusalem for His own
habitation, when the Psalmist waxes very bold
and uses words elsewhere descriptive of the
covert of the wild beast and the lair of the
lion, —
" In Salem is His leafy covert,
And His rocky den in Zion." — (lxxvi. 2.)

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 97
The free use of metaphor in the ,most ordinary
conceptions of the Psalmist it would, be super
fluous to illustrate. Figures form not the fringe
but the very web of his texture of wrought gold.
The Psalms are in this respect in the Old Testa
ment what the parables of our Lord are in the
New. The didactic strain of the 1st Psalm breaks
away in the third verse into a lovely picture of
the terebinth by the water-brooks ; the wicked,
on the other hand, are like the light chaff on the
mountain threshing-floor (i 4), or like the whirl
ing dust before the wind (lxxxiii. 13). When the
Psalmist prays for forgiveness in the anguish of
his penitence in Psalm li, he uses not one but
half a score of figures to describe the cleansing
for which he longs. The God in whom he trusts
is to the Psalmist a Shepherd and a Guide, Light
and Healing, a Rock of refuge andr High Tower
of defence, a living Fountain of refreshment for
which he longs more eagerly than the wearied
hart pants for cooling streams. The sun is to
him as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
the very pastures " laugh for joy, they also
sing." How fitted the land of Palestine was to supply
an abundance of the most vivid imagery for the
concrete embodiment of religious feeling and
spiritual truth, it is needless to say. " Palestine.
7

98 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
in. the age of its wealth, was a sampler of the
world : it was a museum country, many lands in
one : the tread of the camel in two or three hours
may now give the traveller a recollection of his own
— come whence he may, from any country between
the torrid zone and our northern latitudes. ... In
Palestine, such as it was of old, the soft graces of
a rural scene, the vine-covered slopes, the plains,
brilliant with flowers, the wooded glens and knolls
sparkling with springs, and where the warbling
of birds invites men to tranquil enjoyment — in
Palestine, there is, or there was, ever at hand
those material symbols of unearthly good which
should serve to remind man of his destination to
a world better and brighter than this. It was
thus, therefore, that within limits so narrow as
those of the land occupied by the Hebrew people,
provision had been made (may we not use this
phrase ?) at once for supplying to its poets, in
the greatest abundance and variety, the material
imagery they would need ; and for bringing within
the daily experiences of the people every condition
of the material world which could be made avail
able for the purposes of a figurative literature.
In these adjustments of the country to the people,
and of both to the ulterior intention of a revela
tion for the world, we need not hesitate to recog
nise the Divine wisdom, making preparation in

THE POETRY OF THE PSALMS. 99
a marked manner for so great and peculiar a
work."1 With this thought it will be well to close this
chapter. So long as we are studying the poetry
and artistic form of the Psalms, we are dealing
with that which under the guidance of the Divine
Spirit was only a means to a great end. The
highest flights of imagination, the utmost play of
fancy, the richest wealth of metaphor, the most
exquisite grace of diction, are all here subordinated
to a higher aim and purpose. While lingering
on these subjects, — which well repay diligent and
loving study, — we are but in the outer courts of
the temple. Sights and sounds which transcend
all our imaginings, which defy the power of words
to render them, — such as eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, and which have not entered into the heart
of man, — are open to the Psalmist who "beholds
the fair beauty of Jehovah," who is privileged to
" be a guest in His tabernacle, and abide in His
holy hill." The doors of the inner sanctuary
are open to him, but they will open also to the
trembling knock of the humble and the meek.
Be ours the grace to enter and adore !
1 Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 72, 73, 88.

CHAPTER IV.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTEK — I. THE
PSALMIST'S GOD.
IN entering the inner shrine of this temple of
song, and trying to learn there some of the
lessons it has to teach on the highest themes that
can occupy the thoughts of man, some preliminary
questions suggest themselves.
1. Do the Psalms form a real part of Divine
revelation ? It may be said that they contain
emphatically the thoughts and feelings of men,
rather than the teaching of God; that they
embody the hopes and fears, the complaints and
aspirations, of men, saintly, no doubt, men whose
words may be read even in these latter days with
great profit, but who certainly do not bring to us
directly a Divine message. We cannot listen, it
is said, to the Psalmist praying, as we listen to
the prophet preaching ; the prophet is the spokes
man of Jehovah, the Psalmist at best is only the
representative of humanity. The objection is a
100

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 101
natural one, and contains an element of truth, but
it is superficial, and the distinction drawn is con
cerned with the form rather than the subject-
matter of revelation. The later Jewish theologians
distinguished between Buach hannebuah and Buach
halckodesh, the inspiration of the prophets and the
inspiration of the writers of the Hagiographa ; and
undoubtedly there is a difference between the
message which comes direct from Jehovah and
the indirect reflection of His word and the know
ledge of His will in the minds and lives of Old
Testament saints. But all revelation in Scripture
comes to us through menT and the Psalms are the
echo of God's law in the religious experience of
those who strove to be faithful to it, and as such,
are quite as instructive in their place as the in
junctions of the Law itself, or the message of the
prophets commissioned to declare the mind of
God to His people. The Holy Spirit may be
conceived as operating from without or from
within upon the mind of the inspired writer,
though in both cases through and by means of
the operation of the human mind. If from with
out, the messenger is comparatively passive, and
has to carry the word "Thus saith the Lord";
if from within, an illustration is furnished of what
St. Paul described later in the Epistle to the
Romans : " We know not how to pray as we

102 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
ought ; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." It
is possible to pray in the Spirit and to give thanks
in the Spirit, and the Psalms furnish abundant
illustrations of both. Inspiration may be found
as truly in prayer and praise as in prophecy,
though it be of another kind, and may seem to be
less immediately Divine. But the chronicler
describes Heman as a " seer in the words of
God" (1 Chron. xxv. 5) as well as a singer or
poet (1 Chron. xv. 19); and numerous examples
might be furnished, in which the work of the
prophet merges in that of the Psalmist, or in
which the Psalmist assumes the function of the
prophet. We need guidance in religious feeling
as well as in religious thought and active
obedience, and the form of the Psalms, laying
open the very fountains of religious experience,
brings the operations of the Divine Spirit home
very close to the reader's heart, because here are
the words of God spoken not so much to man, as
in man. Keble, in his preface to the Christian
Year, says that " next to a sound rule of faith,"
there is nothing so important as " a sober standard
of feeling," — a characteristically Anglican utter
ance, for the spirit of Christianity is one of
" power and love," as well as " of a sound mind."
But a standard of religious feeling is given us in

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 103
the Psalter, and, besides this, views of God, and
prayer, and thanksgiving, and utterances of the
soul in the act of communion with God, which
form a real part of Divine revelation, and are
inestimably precious to every devout worshipper.
2. It will not perhaps be seriously objected
that we cannot truly learn from the Psalms,
because the language is poetical, and that to
name the word " theology " in connection with
them is to degrade their free, spontaneous utter
ance, bringing it into unnatural bondage to
scientific system. Within certain limits this is
true enough. The character of the Psalms must
be borne in mind by every student. They are
(happily) not cast in the form of a dogmatic
treatise, though some commentators are apt to
" break a butterfly on the wheel," and build up a
metaphysical system out of a series of metaphors.
But the beautiful, figurative, often highly charged
language of the Psalms surely has a meaning. It
is with that meaning, whether relating to God or
man, Divine truth or human conduct, that we
are now concerned. Theology has often been
embodied in hymns ; evangelical truth owed
much to them in the time of Luther and at the
Methodist revival. Provided we remember the
nature of the book we are considering, it cannot
be objected that we are dealing unfairly with

104 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
these spiritual songs, when we try to educe from
them the spiritual truth they contain.
3. One other preliminary difficulty remains to
be dealt with. May we treat this book as a
homogeneous whole ? If the view were adopted
which would make it entirely a "monument of
, Church-consciousness " of the later Judaism, the
pure product in thought and in construction of
the period extending for two or three hundred
years after the Exile, the book, it is said, might
be regarded as one. But if the Psalms extend
over a period of eight centuries or more, and ex
press alike the feelings of a David and an Ezra,
singers of the early monarchy and scribes of the
second century before Christ, may these composi
tions be treated as one whole ? Is no progress
of religious thought discernible through all that
period? The answer is, that in the main the
religion of a spiritually minded Jew was one
throughout these centuries of Israelitish history.
Varying shades and tones of religious thought are
perceptible, which Biblical theology should not be
slow to recognise. Questions arise during the
later stages which had hardly suggested them
selves to earlier thinkers ; further light of revela
tion was given upon some topics as the centuries
advanced ; but the God of Israel remained essen
tially the same, the mode of service was the same,

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 105
and the guiding principles of the religion did not
vary. There was undoubtedly some progress in
spirituality of conception concerning the Divine
Being, in the idea of righteousness, in the study
of the problems of life, in comprehension of God's
designs, and in the hope of immortality ; though
great care is necessary in describing this progress,
and the evolution of. thought does not proceed
along a few clear and simple lines. Consequently,
in our study, it will be necessary sometimes to
distinguish between the earlier and later psalms ;
but as in the linguistic treatment of the Hebrew,
so in the examination of the thought of the
Psalms, there is sufficient unity for us to treat the
book as one whole, and the spirituality of its con
ceptions for the most part lifts us above considera
tions of time and place and circumstance.
The whole Psalter is the expression of joy or
sorrow, desire or apprehension, in relation to the
life of God in the soul of man. The chief ques
tions, therefore, we ha^ve to ask are, What view of
God is here taken ; what view of man, in his
personal religious life and in the religious life of
the community ? The present part of our subject
falls naturally into three parts, — The Psalmist's
God, the religious life in man as depicted in the
Psalter, and the view therein taken of the Church
and the world. The relation of the Psalms to the

106 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
New Testament, and their witness to Christ, may
be reserved for separate consideration.
The existence of God is here, as elsewhere in
the Bible, not proved, but taken for granted. It
is so in the first chapter of Genesis. The world
needs to be accounted for, not God. He is the
" self-evident presupposition of every beginning."
So is it with what some hold to be the first line
in the Psalter so far as chronological order is con
cerned — "Fervently will I love thee, Jehovah,
my strength" (xviii. 1); so also with the last —
" Let everything that hath breath praise Jehovah.
Praise ye Jehovah " (cl. 6). David does not lay a
metaphysical foundation for this fundamental
article of his creed; he throws it down like a
gage of defiance against the adversaries, chants
it like a psean of battle, "Jehovah liveth, and
blessed be my rock ! " (xviii. 46). It is the " fool,"
the man who carries the unwisdom of his irre-
ligiousness into his theories of life as well as into
his conduct, who " says in his heart, There is no
God" (xiv. 1). There is a reason for this.
Ungodliness in action brings arrogance in
thought; the wicked man holds his head high,
but not high enough to see the Divine judgments,
which are too high in heaven for him to see (x. 5).
Hence "There is no. God — this is the sum of all
his thoughts " (x. 4). This is a matter on which

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 107
the Psalmist will hardly condescend to argue ; if
he lingers on it for a moment, it is to press
home certain unanswerable questions which are
addressed to the arrogant ungodly. These have
lowered themselves till they can hardly claim the
name or dignity or consideration of men, they are
the " brutish " among the people (xciv. 8), —
" He that planteth the ear, shall He not hear ?
He that formed the eye, shall He not see?
He that instructeth the nations, shall not He correct,
Even He that teacheth man knowledge?" —(xciv. 9, 10.)
The modern philosophy of the Unconscious,
and the fundamental scepticism of the agnostic,
would alike have been unintelligible to the
Psalmist, who furnishes in popular language
arguments which are philosophically impregnable,
and which anticipate the doctrines of despair
that have gained such strange currency in the
nineteenth century. In the 94th Psalm they
are destroyed before they are born. Teleological
arguments, cosmological, anthropological, historical
¦ — all lie wrapped up in these cogent questionings,
as the oak in the acorn.
Much is to be learned from the names of God
used in the Psalter. The name to the Jew meant
the revelation of character. It was not a mere
form of speech when David cried, "0 Jehovah

Io8 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the
earth ! " But it is not safe to press on all occa
sions the etymological meaning of each of the
Divine names. The etymology is indeed more or
less uncertain, and, as with ourselves, some Divine
names came amongst the Jews to be used synony
mously and also indiscriminately. There are three
kindred names, El, Eloah, and Elohim, which alike
refer to the Deity as such, and are to be translated
" God." The first of these in all probability
celebrates the might of the "Strong One," the
second and third point to an object of adoration
and worship, but the original meaning of the
roots has disappeared in the general meaning of
" Deity, sublime and adorable." The second of
these words, an artificial, peculiar form, though
frequent in the Book of Job, hardly occurs at all
in the Psalter ; the first occurs some forty or fifty
times, the third, as we have already seen, many
hundreds of times. It is properly a plural, and
while sometimes used in a secondary sense of
angelic powers (see xcvii. 7, " Worship Him all
ye gods"), or of heathen divinities (xcvii. 9,
"Exalted far above all gods") the word is the
standard generic one, in the Psalter as elsewhere
in the Bible, for the Supreme Being. It is not
a proper name of the God of Israel, but " when
the God of Israel is called Elohim, He is thereby

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. , 109
simply described as Deity, as possessor of a nature
which is absolutely sublime, and to which obedi
ence and adoration are due from mortals." l
The word Adonai, which means Lord, and is
translated in E. V. by the word Lord (not printed
in capitals, the latter being reserved as a render
ing for the name Jehovah), is used with some
frequency in the Psalter, but apparently without
special reference to its etymological meaning.
Two archaic names are also found : Shaddai, which
means the Almighty, twice only (see lxviii. 14
and xci 1) ; and El Elyon, God most high, about
twenty times in all. Canon Cheyne, who in his
earlier work on the Psalms, held that this name
was " not a sure sign of post-Exilic date," in his
later writings seems inclined to maintain that it
is. For reasons we cannot now adduce, this seems
hardly tenable. The word is used, as is well
known, in Genesis xiv. 18, where Melchizedek is
said to have been "priest of God most high," but
this passage Professor Cheyne holds to be post-
Exilic In the Psalter this title is found in all
parts, from the 7th Psalm to the 107th, but it is
most frequent in the 2nd and 3rd, or, as they
have been called, the ' Levitical books. A similar
phrase is in use among other Semitic nations,
and if there be any special connotation in the
1 Sohultz, Old Testament Theology, E. Tr., vol. ii. p. 127.

no THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
name, it is well given by the familiar English
translation. The personal name of the covenant God of
Israel was Jehovah.1 Mystery surrounds both
the meaning and pronunciation of this word, but
the prevalent opinion is no doubt the true one,
that it signifies the Eternal, the Self-Existent,
" He who is." No simpler or more sublime title
could be given to God, expressing as it does a
thought given elsewhere in the form " I, Jehovah,
the first, and with the last ; I am He " (Isa. xli 4).
It may very well have been an ancient name of
God, but from the time of Moses onwards it had
a special significance as the personal name of the
covenant God of Israel. Elohim is the God of
heaven and earth, all cosmical action of creation
and preservation is due to Him ; but Jehovah is
the theocratic God, and all Divine activity con
nected with history, emphatically the history of
the chosen people in relation to "the nations"
outside, is properly referred to Jehovah. He is
essentially and inviolably One. " The multi
plicity of Divine powers broken up in polytheism
is already summed up into unity in Elohim, but
it is as Jehovah that God is first fully recog-
1 Strictly speaking, the Tetragrammaton IHVH, with the
vowels supplied from another word. But in English it seems
better to write " Jehovah " than " Jahweh."

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. in
nised as one ; and thus monotheism is one of the
cardinal doctrines of Mosaism — " I am Jehovah,
thy God — thou shalt have none other gods be
side me" (Ex. xx. 2, 3).1 In the Psalter the
distinction between these two great names of
God is by no means lost sight of, but for reasons
already explained, we cannot build upon it, as if
it were always accurately observed and main
tained. It is noteworthy that the last two books
of the Psalter, eminently those of the post-Exilic
period, use the name Jehovah almost entirely,
since that was the time when the chosen people
were most anxious to emphasise their separation
from other peoples; while in the late book
Ecclesiastes and in the usage of the LXX, this
name appears to be avoided, as too sacred for
general use. The only other name it seems de
sirable to mention is that of Sabaoth; the full
title being " Jehovah, Elohim of Sabaoth," i.e.
Jehovah, God of Hosts. The title includes the
three meanings, God of armies, God of the starry
host, and God of the angelic throng. Scholars
are divided as to which of these is the primary
meaning.2 In either case the title is a great and
1 Oehler, Old Testament Theology, vol. i. p. 154.
2 Schrader and Schulz may represent those who advocate the
first ; Ewald and others adopt the last ; the majority, including
Kuenen, Delitzsch, and Cheyne, the second.

112 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
noble one, for to the eye of the Psalmist the hosts
of heaven and earth are but parts of the empire
of Him whose kingdom ruleth over all In -the
same breath the Lord of Sabaoth is spoken; of as
ruling with wisdom and might, above and below, —
" For who in the skies can be compared unto Jehovah,
Who is like unto Jehovah among the sons of God ?
0 Jehovah, God of Hosts, who is a mighty one, like
unto Thee ?
. . . Thou hast broken Bahab (Egypt) in pieces, as
one that is slain,
Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of
thy strength."— (Ixxxix. 6, 8, 10.)
A satisfactory settlement of the whole etymo
logical discussion is found in the words which
follow : " The heavens are thine, the earth also
is thine" (ver. 11). Jehovah is God of the hosts
in earth below and in heaven above. The pious
Israelite in time of danger and sudden calamity
finds double assurance in the triumphant refrain,
" Jehovah, God of hosts, is with us ; the God of
Jacob is our tower of refuge " (Ps. xlvi). Some
times different names are joined together, as in
the description of the solemn appearance of the
Judge, when earth and heaven are to testify
together to His righteousness, —
"El Elohim Jehovah has spoken,
And called the earth from the rising of the sun to
the going down thereof." — (1. 1.)

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 113
The titles here are cumulative, and indicate the
God of sovereign power and universal worship,
who is identified with the covenant God of Israel.
It might appear that in ver. 7 the Elohistic editor
has marred the application of the words, which at
once recall the solemn appeal of Deuteronomy v.,
" Hear, 0 Israel : I am Jehovah, thy God " ; but
the language of the psalm generally emphasises
the truth that the speaker from this august judg
ment-seat is Elohim, God of the whole earth.
That these names were often used interchangeably
we find, for example, in the 86th Psalm, where the
three names are found, Jehovah four times, Elohim
four times, and Adonai seven times; in prayers
where, without perceptibly altering the meaning,
either of these might take the place of either of
the others. The chief point to be borne in mind
is the surpassing excellence of that Being who
unites in His Person the glories to which so many
glorious names severally testify.
Personal religion depends upon belief in a
personal God. It is common in these days to
raise metaphysical difficulties over the question
of Divine personality, whether a characteristic
which implies limitation can be asserted of the
Supreme Being, and the like; but in the Psalms
such questions are never raised. The Psalmist
cannot conceive of a God without consciousness,
8

ii4 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
intelligence, and will. His is a God who thinks,
knows, feels, and loves, who wills and acts, a God
who speaks to men and to whom men can speak,
who reveals Himself to mankind as the eternal
" I Am," and with whom men may humbly but
truly hold communion, echoing an eternal " Thou
art." This feature must not too readily be taken
as matter of course; for, strange though it may
seem, in the history of religions, man has been
unable, apart from the Scriptures,1 to preserve
in its purity belief in a personal God, and to
hold the balance between Polytheism and the
errors of earlier times on the one hand, and
Materialism and Pantheism, with the errors of
later times, on the other. The Bible — and pre
eminent among the books of the Old Testament,
the Psalter — is the stronghold of those who
believe in a personal God. The late Professor
Clifford, with a melancholy realization of the
blank in life created when he felt compelled to
give up belief in Christianity and Theism, used
the striking expression, "I have lost the Great
Companion ! " It is the glory of the Psalms that
they bring us simply, directly, impressively into
the very presence of Him who, though God over
1 Mohammedanism is but a developed Judaism, reasserting
a truth which man owes to Israel, encumbered with errors
belonging to Arabia of the sixth century.

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 115
all, deigns to be the great Companion and Friend
of His creature man. He it is who says to men,
" I will counsel thee, with Mine eye upon thee "
(xxxii. 8); who invites men to "seek Jehovah
and His strength, seek His face evermore" (cv. 4).
The Psalmist replies, —
" [Hast Thou not said] Seek ye my face ?
My heart hath said unto Thee,
Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek." — (xxvii. 8.)
And well he may ; for he is assured that, though
" father and mother have forsaken him, Jehovah
will take him up " (xxvii 10, R.V.). The thoughts
of God are graciously occupied with men, poor and
needy though they be (xl. 17).
" How precious also are Thy thoughts to-me-ward, 0
God !
How great is their sum!
If I should count them, they are more in number
than the sand ;
When I awake, I am still with Thee."
— (cxxxix. 17, 18.)
Hence it is possible for heavily-laden man to
"roll his way upon Jehovah " (xxxvii. 5); to "cast
upon Jehovah the burden" of his own often
anxious or irksome lot, as well as the "heavy
and the weary weight of all this unintelligible
world." If the Psalmist cannot understand the
meaning of the riddle of life, he reasons and

116 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
pleads with a reiterated Why, 0 Lord? How
long, 0 Lord ? (Pss. Ixxxviii and xiii.). It is his
one relief to " pour out his heart " (lxii. 8) before
the God who hears prayer, for
"The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous,
And His ears are open unto their cry." — (xxxiv. 15.)
Such a God is a refuge indeed : one who is " found
exceedingly ! " in time of trouble, (xlvi. 1). If
God could indeed be silent and deaf unto him, he
would " become like them that go down into the
pit " (xxviii. 1), the very light of life as if struck
out. In carrying out this thought, the Psalmist is
not afraid of what in cumbrous modern phraseo
logy are called anthropomorphism and anthropo-
pathism. The Psalmist speaks as a man, because
he thinks as a man, but he does not make God
like a man when he uses terms which are neces
sary if man would vividly apprehend a mode of
being which is above his comprehension. All the
phrases which describe the eye and hand and arm
of God, the wrath and pity and repentance of
God, are used only from the practical point of
view of one who, whatever is said or not said,
will not lose his firm hold of the living God for
whom his soul thirsts (xiii 2). , Sometimes the

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 117
figures are so bold, that if coined now, they would
be held to be blasphemous.
"Awake, why sleepest Thou, 0 Lord?
. . . Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face,
And forgettest our affliction and our oppression?"
—(xliv. 23, 24.)
Not long after the 44th Psalm was written,
John Hyrcanus complained of these words as
unworthy of God, and would not allow them to be
recited in the liturgy. It was but a shallow
criticism. Did the eager soul who cried aloud in
the ears of the God of his fathers, and besought
Him not to leave the children to the hands of the
oppressor, need to be reminded that He slumbers
not nor sleeps ? Was Jehovah to him a Baal who
might be musing, or journeying, or sleeping and
needed to be awaked ? Surely there is little
danger of misunderstanding when we read the
terrible words, —
"He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh,
The Lord shall have them in derision." — (ii. 4.)
Or even the still bolder metaphor, —
" Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine."
— (lxxviii. 65.)
It is easy, from the elevation of modern en
lightenment, to look down upon these " mythic

118 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
elements," and despise the crudity of such views
of God. Let it be remembered that to this day,
among earth's wisest sons, there is no language
which brings God so near without lowering His
majesty, which raises man so high while reminding
him of his frailty, as the language of the Psalms.
The figures of the Psalms, like the parables of the
Saviour, contain spiritual truth for spiritual men.
Others smile at them as Jewish myths, or stumble
at them as gross anthropomorphisms. " To minds
of the metaphysic class there is no conveyance of
theistic axioms; to minds of the captious tem
perament there is none; to the sensual and sordid,
the contumacious or the impious, there is none.
These passages are as a stream of the effulgence
of the upper heavens sent down through an
aperture of dense cloud, to rest with a life-giving
power of light and heat upon the dwelling of
the humble worshipper. Whether this humble
worshipper be one who turns the soil for his daily
bread, or be the occupant of a professor's chair, it
shall be the same theology that he thence derives:
the former will not think to ask, and the latter
will be better trained than to ask, how it is that
the Omnipotent can be said either to be seated
on a throne in the upper heaven, or to make earth
His footstool."1 These are not metaphysical or
1 Taylor, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 19, 20.

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 119
scientific truths, but religious realities ; hence the
perpetual freshness with which we turn to the
sublimely simple figures of the Psalms from the
laborious abstractions which are the product of
the logical understanding, the delight of the
pedant, and the despair of the weary and anxious
heart, athirst for the living God. These " anthro
pomorphisms," as a master of Old Testament
Theology has well observed, " are in no sense a
dimming of the perfect idea of God; but they
contain, although in a popular dress, the really
positive part of the statements regarding Him.
They become the more prominent the warmer
religion becomes. While post-canonical Judaism,
in its emptiness and baldness, shuns them, and
the Alexandrian school, with its intellect dazzled
by the splendour of Hellenic speculation, is
ashamed to own them, Jesus shows them special
favour." x
The peril of mistaking metaphysical abstraction
for reality was little known in the Psalmist's
days. The nations round about Israel were not
in danger of worshipping a soulless Entity, or
making a god of Humanity with a capital H.
They believed in personal gods, whom they had
indeed made like unto themselves; and the religion
of Israel was distinguished from those of surround-
1 Schultz, Old Testament Theology. E. Tr., vol. ii. p. 109.

120 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
ing peoples, not so much by their conception of
personality, as by the character of the Personality
whom they worshipped. Here, again, it is the
very simplicity of the Psalms which makes them
so true and so valuable to religion. Later re
finements of thought have enumerated sundry
"attributes" of God, classified them into natural
and moral, defined their relation one to another,
and, in too many cases, the living God Himself
has vanished amidst the aggregated clouds of an
accumulation of abstract qualities. Nay, these
have even been arranged one against the other, —
love against justice (as if Divine love could be
unjust or Divine justice unloving) and mercy
against righteousness, — till the minds of men have
become bewildered, and their vision of God has
become dim and blurred. There is nothing of this
in the Psalms. What we call natural attributes,
omniscience and omnipresence, are portrayed, not
from a metaphysical, but from a practical point
of view, to indicate God's complete supremacy,
His superiority to our limitations of place and
time, knowledge and ignorance. The moral attri
butes of God are spoken of with the utmost
freedom, in succession or simultaneously, with no
arribre pensie of questioning concerning the exact
nature of these qualities when ascribed to the
Most High, or the way in which they can co-exist

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 121
side by side. The streams which for later genera
tions flow apart in separate channels, for the
Psalmist slumber placidly together in the great
mountain-lake of Divine perfection, from which
all alike take their rise.
The most elaborate description of the eternity
of God ever penned by the most subtle meta
physician does not equal, either for truth or
beauty, the majestic lines, —
" Lord, Thou hast been our refuge
In all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever Thou gavest birth to the earth and the world ;
Even from everlasting to everlasting
Thou art God.
For a thousand years are in Thine eyes
But as yesterday when it passeth,
And as a watch in the night." — (xc. 1, 2, 4.)
And still those who believe in what theologians
call the transcendence and immanence of God in
relation to the universe, turn back for its highest
expression to words which have uttered the truth
once for all, —
"Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?
If I climb into heaven, Thou art there ;
If I make my bed in hell, lo, Thou art there.

122 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
" If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there shall Thy hand lead me,
And Thy right hand shall hold me."
— (cxxxix. 7-10.)
There is no questioning how this can be possible
for Him who "dwelleth between the cherubim"
(lxxx. 1), who " forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
and chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion
which He loved," saying, " This is my resting-
place for ever; here will I dwell, for I have
desired it" (Pss. Ixxviii. 60, 68, cxxxii. 14). For
the spirit of the true worshipper there is no
contrast between the splendours of the God that
rules on high and the tenderness of Him who —
" With scarce an intervention presses close
And palpitatingly, His soul o'er ours."
So at least it is with the Psalmist. He who
" telleth the number of the stars " is He who
"healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up
their wounds '' (Ps. cxlvii. 3, 4). He is " nigh
unto all them that call upon Him in truth." And
through all these centuries — except for the teach
ing of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made the
conceptions of the Psalmist possible and real —
how much nearer have men approached to an
expression of the fundamental truths of religion,
what worthier conceptions of God have they

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 123
attained, how much nearer heaven have they
climbed, than the godly men who, under the
influence of the Spirit, poured out their souls in
the music of the Psalms ?
There is no need to dwell in detail upon the
attributes of God celebrated in the Psalter ; that,
indeed, would mean to transcribe a large part
of its contents. It is worth while, however, to
illustrate the easy and natural blending of Divine
attributes mentioned above, for here later genera
tions have something to learn from the simple
piety of devout Israel. Emphasis is laid continu
ally upon one fundamental ethical quality : —
" Jehovah is righteous ; He loveth righteousness ;
The upright shall behold His face."— (xi. 7.)
But in order to understand what is meant by
righteousness, we turn elsewhere, and find in
beautiful conjunction such celestial constellations
as these : —
" Jehovah, thy lovingkindness reacheth unto the heavens ;
Thy faithfulness unto the clouds.
Thy righteousness standeth like the mountains of God ;
Thy judgments are a great deep :
Jehovah, Thou preservest man and beast.
How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God !
That the children of men can take refuge under
the shadow of Thy wings." — (xxxvi. 5-7.)

124 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
It is a true parallelism when we read, —
" He loveth righteousness and judgment ;
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord."
— (xxxiii. 5.)
He who " is a righteous Judge, a God that hath
indignation every day," — as He looks upon a
world in which is so much every day to rouse the
wrath of the All-Pure, — is the same God whose
" mercy endureth for ever." His immutability is
not immobility. It is revealed in variations
which yet are no changes, though they seem such
amidst the changes of the wayward and fickle
sons of men.
"With the loving Thou shewest Thyself loving,
With the perfect Thou shewest Thyself perfect,
With the pure Thou shewest Thyself pure,
And with the perverse Thou shewest Thyself fro-
ward."— (xviii. 25, 26.)
In these lines stand the very pillars of the
kingdom of truth and moral order ; they explain,
moreover, much of what seems like the irony of
human history. There may lie a secret in them
which every man cannot unravel, but there is no
inconsistency in the Divine character thus limned
with a few strokes. With Him is forgiveness;
with Him is lovingkindness and plenteous re
demption : but not that He may be slighted as

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 125
an easy and too-indulgent ruler, but " that Thou
mayest be feared " (cxxx. 4). True religious
reverence is reserved for Him who can both
create and destroy, both punish and forgive. In
Him, not once, but evermore,
"Mercy and truth are met together,
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
—(Ixxxv. 10.)
Hence the paradox, which is none to him who
reads with care, —
" Thine, too, Jehovah, is lovingkindness,
For Thou renderest to every man according to his
work."— (Ixii. 12.)
Do men call this quality justice ? The Psalmist
teaches a deeper lesson. As Canon Cheyne
says in one of the many admirable notes of
his Commentary, — a book less known than it
deserves, through the attention attracted by the
extreme utterances of his Bampton Lectures, —
"Lovingkindness is that gracious quality which
knits together the members of a community and
the parties to a covenant; it is therefore not
inconsistent with justice : indeed, it is one form
of justice. Such a quality in its highest degree
alone can unravel the tangled skein of human
responsibility, and determine how much in each
human life is the 'work' of the man, and how

126 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
much that of other members of the community." '
The point of view of the Psalmist here is one
from which the moralist may learn a much-needed
lesson. There are two qualities ascribed to God in the
Psalms, each of which it is difficult to render by
a single word. The first of these is the one just
referred to, chesed, best translated "lovingkind
ness " ; the other is anavah, " gentleness," or " low
liness." The first indicates both the covenant-
love of God to His people, and the response
made to it by men who are faithful to the terms
of that gracious covenant. This mutual relation
clothes the various uses of the word with great
beauty and suggestiveness, but it makes it particu
larly difficult to translate. Of it the Psalmist
speaks when he says, "I have trusted in Thy
lovingkindness"; explaining the word in the
next verse — " For Jehovah hath dealt bountifully
with me" (xiii. 5, 6). But it is often closely
joined with faithfulness, as in Psalm xcviii. 3,
and can only be understood as the Divine side in
a mutual relation between God and those who
are called chasidim — translated "saints" (1. 5),
"godly" (Ixxxvi. 2) — the faithful, loving ones
whose names stand in the covenant-bond, and
1 The Booh of Psalms: A new Translation, with Com
mentary, p. 172.

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 127
who seek to perform their part of its gracious
requirements. The other word, anavah, is best
defined by such a passage as this, —
" Who is like unto Jehovah our God,
Who dwelleth on high,
That humbleth Himself to regard the heavens and
the earth?"— (cxiii. 5, 6.)
He who is high " hath respect unto the lowly "
(cxxxviii. 6) ; He " thinketh on " the poor and
needy (xl. 17); and David at the height of his
earthly career says, in words that the lofty ones of
earth are slow to repeat, " Thy gentleness (lowli
ness) hath made me great" (xviii. 35). Humility
in the Most High ? It is an anticipation of New
Covenant revelation, manifested in yearning pity
over weakness and frailty (ciii. 13, 14), in special
care for the lonely, the helpless, the bowed down
(cxlvi. 8, 9), in the patient sympathy which marks
the wanderings of the homeless, which counts and
treasures the tears of the sorrowful (lvi. 8), and
binds up the wounds of those who through mis
fortune or foolish wilfulness have suffered in the
severe battle of life. The binding of wounds needs
the most tender and delicate touch ; but the Lord
of all does not disdain such gentle ministering.
He supports the sufferer upon his couch of
languishing, He " makes all his bed in his sick-

128 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
ness," or restores him to health. Mi c'Adonai
Elohenu ? Who is like unto the Lord our God ?
Bishop Westcott, in his exposition of St. John's
Gospel, dwells very instructively upon certain
pairs of words, such as "truth" and "witness,"
"judgment" and "life," which are characteristic
of the evangelist's style. Such a pair of words is to
be found in the Psalter — " Holiness " and " Glory."
" Holiness," says Oetinger, " is hidden glory, and
glory disclosed holiness." x Holiness is not a
name for the perfection of God in general, but
indicates rather that unique splendour of perfect
moral character, which sets Him apart from the
universe, and which claims the worship and
devotion of a people, likewise set apart, bidden
to be holy because He is holy. This forms the
refrain of the 99th Psalm, He is the Holy One
(vers. 3, 5, 9). The prophetic title " The Holy One
of Israel " is found several times in the Psalter ;
while at the same time He is the King of Glory
(xxiv. 7), the God of Glory (xxix. 3), His servants
tell of "the glory of His kingdom" (cxi v. 11), and
" the whole earth shall be filled with His glory "
(Ixxii. 19). His glory is the clear and splendid
radiance of a character, the distinguishing feature
of which is holiness. "To be holy and to be
.glorious, to be hallowed and to be glorified,
1 Quoted in Oehler, i. 160.

THE PSALMIST'S GOD. 129
correspond exactly, because in both cases the
majesty of the self-revealing God is displayed
and maintained before the world."1 Such is the
Psalmist's God, Who is like unto Thee, 0 Lord ?
1 Schultz, ii. 172.

CHAPTER V.
THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTEK — II. GOD IN NATTJKE
THIS subject deserves separate consideration,
though in reality it belongs to that we have
just completed. The Psalmist would hardly under
stand the distinction. The very use of the word
"nature" separates our point of view from his.
Nature and history both mean to him — God.
Both are a part of His " works," in which God
Himself is said to rejoice (civ. 31), which make
the heart of the Psalmist glad, and in which he
has learned to "triumph" (xcii 4). There is no
trace in the Psalter of that worship of the sepa
rate powers operative in parts of the great whole
of nature, which is characteristic of the mytho
logy of ancient Greece. There is no word in
Hebrew corresponding to the modern Nature,
which is the personified sum and order of cause
and effect in the universe of which man forms
a part. The attitude of modern physical science
-which investigates the links of sequence in the
130

GOD IN NATURE. 131
material constitution of the universe, the atti
tude of philosophy, and the kindred though loftier
attitude of theology, which search into the deeper
causes of things, and strive to penetrate the secret
of a higher order, are foreign to the attitude of
the Psalmist, as he looks out upon the world. His
is the attitude of Religion.
This does not mean, however, that what we call
the poetic appreciation of nature is absent. In
some sense this is a modern sentiment. The self-
conscious pursuit of the picturesque over land and
sea, the science of aesthetics, which teaches what
fair sights it is proper to go into raptures over,
and why, were unknown in the childhood of the
world. But there was something far better. The
frankly gazing eye of Wonder is the heritage of
the child, too often forfeited by the man, and it is
worth volumes of aesthetics. Iris is the child of
Thaumas, said Plato ; the keenest appreciation of
beauty is born of wonder. "In wonder," said
Coleridge, "all philosophy began; in wonder it
ends; and admiration fills up the interspace."
We have forgotten how to wonder, and only
admire — a very different thing. The Psalmist
will teach us the neglected lesson. The wonder
ing, awestruck, delighted gaze with which he
looks out upon natural beauty is visible, not only
in the delicate and lingering touch with which

132 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
he paints the pictures of the 104th Psalm, the
flashes of light which illumine certain verses of
the 19th and the 29th, but in passing touches
innumerable, which, because they are but touches,
are apt to escape notice. Who but a poet, glancing
from east to west, could have written, " Thou
makest the outgoings of morning and evening to
rejoice with ringing cries " ? (lxv. 8). In the 7th
verse of the same psalm the deep murmur of the
sea sounds in the music of the verse, and is echoed
by the multitudinous tumult of the peoples; while
both are stilled by God. It is a poet, as well as
a saint, who looks out upon the refreshing rains,
and cries, "The river of God is full of water!"
Keen appreciation of the manifold beauty of a vast
world is marked by the very choice of words and
their collection in the apostrophe, —
" Praise Jehovah from the earth,
Ye dragons and all ye ocean-deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and vapour,
Stormy wind fulfilling His word." — (cxlviii. 7, 8.)
The magnificent description of the storm in xviii.
7-15 is not more perfect of its kind than the
exquisite glimpses of beauty, small and perfect
as miniatures, found in Psalms cxxvi. and cxxix., —
"Weeping a man goeth on his way
Bearing his handful of seed ;
With ringing cries of joy shall he come home,
Bringing his sheaves with him." — (cxxvi. 6.)

GOD IN NATURE. 133
The companion picture is not so pleasing, but it
is quite as graphic. On the ill-compacted Eastern
roofs grass will often spring up into a brief and
purposeless existence, and Isaiah uses it to sym
bolise the short-lived prosperity of the wicked.1
But it is the poet's hand which gives the added
pathetic touch, recalling the happy scenes of hay-
time and harvest in fields of grass and corn, —
" Let them be as the grass of the housetops,
Which withereth before it be unsheathed ;
With which the mower filleth not his hand,
Nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom ;
And they that go by say not,
The blessing of Jehovah be upon you !
We bless you in the name of Jehovah ! "
— (cxxix. 6-8.)
Order, with its attendant utility, is constantly
observed by the Psalmist. The Hebrew has no
word corresponding to Koa-fMO';, the universe in
the beauty of its ordered arrangement; but the
singer of Israel could perceive that order both
in the starry heavens above him and the shining
landscape around. He can comment, from time to
time, on " the grass that grows for the cattle, and
the herb for the service of man." He can discern
the power displayed in the storm, the sublimity
which belongs to the sterner aspects of nature;
1 Isa. xxxvii. 27.

134 -THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
but we need to be reminded of all these very real
characteristics of the Psalms, because, as we read,
they are all thrown into the shadow by the Vision
of God. Truth and beauty and order are visible
to the Psalmist, but only as a translucent veil
through which shines the Divine glory. The
raiment fashioned at the " whirring loom of time "
can hardly be seen for the brightness of the coun
tenance of Him who wears it.
The Psalms stand alone in the simplicity and
directness with which they represent nature as
but the garb of God. Nature may intoxicate with
sensuous passion, or kindle intellectual enthu
siasm, or soothe into a moral slumber ; its highest
function is to minister to spiritual insight. But
this has been only too rarely illustrated in the
history of humanity. In modern times, man, even
when learning spiritual lessons from nature, looks
upon her with sophisticated eyes. Two examples
from modern poets will illustrate our meaning.
When Wordsworth would describe the religious
ecstasy of the Highland shepherd watching the
sunrise amongst the splendours of the hills, he
says,— "In such access of mind, in such high hour
Of visitation from the living God,
Thought was not ; in enjoyment it expired.
No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request,

GOD IN NATURE. 135
Rapt into still communion that transcends
The imperfect offices of prayer and praise,
His mind was a thanksgiving to the Power
That made him ; it was blessedness and love ! " '
But how little does "the living God" shine
forth from these lines. The poet is occupied
wholly with man, with a human state of mind,
which might be little more than the reverie of
a Pantheist. Coleridge's hymn in the valley of
Chamonix, on the other hand, is explicit in its
recognition of that Unseen Presence to which
green vales owe their beauty, and icy cliffs their
majesty : —
" Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts I
Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven
Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun
Clothe you with rainbows ? Who, with living flowers
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet 1
God 1 let the torrents, like a shout of nations,
Answer, and let the ice-plains echo, God 1
God ! sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice !
Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds :
And they too have a voice, yon piles of snow,
And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! "
But how artificial and self-conscious is this
apostrophe, compared with the simple grandeur
of the 19th Psalm! To pass from one to the
other is like passing from an elaborate painting
1 Excursion, Book i.

136 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to the fresh reality of the fields on a summer
morning. The Psalms speak to us all the more
impressively of the Divine in the world about
us, because, while clear and unmistakable in
their testimony, they are not too explicit. Nature
is half picture and half curtain ; it partly hides
what it partly reveals. It hints, suggests, but
discloses its inmost secrets only to those who
watch the gleams of spiritual light which break
for a moment through the clouds of the material
universe, glance upon the trembling water, and
vanish almost as soon as they appear. The
charm and the spiritual lesson both lie in this
partial revelation. "The cipher is not unin
telligible; it lets out something. The Great
Spirit, speaking by dumb representation to other
spirits, intimates and signifies to them something
about Himself, for if nature is symbolical, what
it is symbolical about must be its author." x The
Psalmist teaches more about nature's God than
others who profess more, because, guided by the
Spirit Himself, he sees directly, immediately,
truly, and is content to let the rays of the
Divine Revelation shine simply and directly
through his words. The painted window may
be gay with many colours, but it intercepts much
of the light. The so-called Psalms of Nature are
1 Mozley, University Sermons, on "Nature," p. 135.

GOD IN NATURE. 137
not really such. They illustrate the Psalmist's
way of viewing the universe, they are full of
light as to the true meaning of nature, but that
is not their primary subject. Take, for instance,
the 8th Psalm. It ranges from the splendours
of the nightly sky to the creatures that people
the earth with animated life, and the fishes " that
pass through the paths of the seas," and it cele
brates, at the head of all animate creation, the
dignity of man. But it is not a psalm of nature,
nor even a psalm of humanity. As the first
and last verses show, in the keynote struck at
the opening, and struck again in octave at the
close — it is a psalm of the glory and excellence
of God in what He has done for His frail creature,
man. Much, however, is to be learned from these
few lines concerning the true significance of
nature, man's place in nature, His true dignity,
the way in which it is to be realized, and the
place of nature and man alike in relation to Him
who created both.
"Jehovah our Lord,
How glorious is Thy name in all the earth ! "
The 19th is more truly a psalm of nature — the
first part of it, that is, including verses 1-6. For
the Psalm is probably a composite one ; the two
parts being different in rhythm and style, as well

138 THE. PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
as in tone and general character. Not that there
is any reason in the juxtaposition of subjects to
make us suppose that two fragments have been
joined together ; most appropriate and instructive
is their combination, and well may the psalm be
studied as one whole. The Psalmist does not
stand alone in finding the glory of God both in
the starry heavens above, and the moral law
within ; but the language used concerning the
statutes and precepts of the written Law is most
probably of later date than the time of David.
The opening verses are full of the freshness and
elasticity which marks David's style, and genera
tions since have echoed their music, —
" There is no speech nor language,
Their voice cannot be heard.
Their strain has gone out through all the earth
And their words to the end of the world."— (xix. 3, 4.)
But perhaps the most perfect expression of the
Psalmist's view of God in nature, is found in that
Psalm of the Storm, the 29th. It should be
studied as a whole, for it is not a description of
a thunderstorm, but an anticipation of the advent
of God,— 1.
" Give unto Jehovah, 0 ye sons of God,
Give unto Jehovah glory and strength I
Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name,
Worship Jehovah in holy apparel 1

GOD IN NATURE. 139
II.
The voice of Jehovah is over the waters :
The God of glory thundereth,
Even Jehovah over the great waters.
The voice of Jehovah is in power ;
The voice of Jehovah is in majesty.
The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars,
Yea, Jehovah breaketh in pieces the cedars of
Lebanon.
He maketh them to skip like a calf;
Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild-ox.
The voice of Jehovah cleaveth out flames of fire :
Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve,
And strippeth the forests bare ;
And in His palace every one saith, Glory !

Jehovah sat as King over the Flood,
Yea, Jehovah sitteth as King for ever.
Jehovah will give strength unto His people,
Jehovah will bless His people with peace."
This grand psalm consists of Prelude, Theme,
and Conclusion. Each part is artistically con
structed, from the opening summons to the
heavenly host to adore the King of Glory, who
is about to appear in the majesty of the storm
which heralds His approach, down to the
triumphant serenity of the closing stanza, in
which the hoarse roar of the thunder dies away

140 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
into silence, and He who is enthroned above all
earthly storms blesses His people with peace.
The keynote in the body of the psalm is " Hark
— Jehovah ! " His voice it is which fills the
air and well-nigh stuns the ear, the glance
of His lightnings which strips the forest and
cleaves the strong cedars of Lebanon. The
picture of the thunderstorm among the moun
tains could hardly be more vivid or impres
sive; yet who in reading the psalm thinks of
thunder and lightning ? The voice of Him who
sitteth King for ever drowns all other notes,
and in that great Temple-Palace of His which
we call Nature, the only other sound audible
is that echo which peals from every part and
corner, —
" Everything in His temple saith, Glory ! "
The most complete of these nature-psalms is
of course, the 104th, which is indeed " an inspired
oratorio of creation." No one can miss seeing
that its groundwork is the first chapter of
Genesis, — a theme on which it provides sublimely
appropriate musical variations, from the Fiat lux
of Genesis i. 3 echoed in the 4th verse, down to
the mention of the brooding Spirit, Lord and
Giver of Life (cf. Gen. i. 2 with Ps. civ. 30), and
the joy of God in His creation (Gen. i 4, 10, 18,

GOD IN NATURE. 141
31) reflected in the 31st verse. The order of the
days of creation is observed in the psalm,1 while
it contains a number of striking pictures of the
scenery with which the writer was acquainted.
The whole subject is treated with independent
power, but with the same spirit of devout and
lowly adoration which marks the first chapter of
Genesis. Whether it be more truly a psalm of
nature or a psalm of God, let the careful reader
judge. It is not the sublimity of the figure that
should chiefly strike us when we read the words, —
" Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment,
Who stretchest out the heavens like a tent-curtain;
Who layeth the beams of His chambers upon the
waters,
Who maketh the clouds His chariot,
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind,"
but the presence of Him in comparison with
whose transcendent glory the loftiest imagery is
low and poor, and the boldest flights of earthly
speech tame and inadequate. The twenty-fourth
verse contains what it is prosaic indeed to call the
Psalmist's definition of nature, but it represents
in brief compass the true thought of all these
singers of Israel concerning nature, from David,
1 There is only one exception ; in the mention of the sea and
marine animals (ver. 25) after those of the dry land. But the
reason is not far to seek, when the psalm is closely studied.

142 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
the leader of the choir, down to the most obscure
member of the chorus in post-Exilic days.
" How manifold are Thy works, Jehovah !
In wisdom hast Thou made them all :
The earth is full of Thy creatures."
The whole Psalter is full of suggestion to the
devout student of nature. Dante in his Paradiso
cannot rise beyond the thought that light is but
the shadow of God, and sacred poets of all gene
rations have but enlarged the pictures which the
inspired psalmists have painted in small panels
with such exquisite skill. Let the Psalter be our
companion on the summer holiday, as well as in
the winter gloom, and we may learn afresh lessons
which neither the nineteenth nor any century can
outgrow. Let us " look up towards the higher hills,
where the waves of everlasting green roll silently
into their long inlets among the shadows of the
pines; and we may, perhaps, at last know the mean
ing of those quiet words of the 147th Psalm: ' He
maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.' " x
The confines of a large subject have been barely
skirted. There is no need in the devout thought
of modern days to try to return absolutely to the
simple views of the Psalmist; that would be both
impossible and undesirable. But we may learn
the spiritual lesson which the Psalter so sweetly
1 Kuskin, Modem Painters, iii. Part iv. ch. xiv.

GOD IN NATURE. 143
and graciously teaches. We need not lay aside —
we cannot, if we have made it our own — the
knowledge which geology has given us of the
strata of the earth and the processes of their
formation, or that which astronomy has taught us
of the movements of the orbs of heaven. We may
understand more than the ancients of the growth
and fertilization of the flowers, of the tides and
currents of "this great and wide sea," and look
with very different eyes upon the " things creeping
innumerable," and "leviathan whom Thou hast
made to take his pastime therein." But the growth
of knowledge furnishes no reason for the diminu
tion of reverence. Shall we banish God from the
universe because we have discovered more minute
marks of Mind in one corner of it than the
Psalmist could discern in a whole landscape ?
The Psalmist with his scanty knowledge sums up
thus : " In wisdom Thou hast made them all."
The modern student could write a longer and
more elaborate commentary on that great text;
but, when all has been said, the wisest can but
rest in the same conclusion : —
" God is Law, say the wise ; 0 soul, and let us rejoice,
For if He thunder by law, the thunder is yet His
voice."
The climax of the whole Psalter is found in the
words : " Let everything that hath breath praise

144 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
the Lord." But the refrain is added, " Praise ye
the Lord." If man, the high priest of creation,
be silent, and the notes of his music be dumb in
the great chorus of praise, surely the stones them
selves would cry out to shame the folly of the
creature who can find in God's great universe the
tokens of no Being greater than himself.

CHAPTER VI.
THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTER— III. THE
RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN.
THE task of portraying in a few pages the life
of God in the human soul, as reflected in
the Psalms, is obviously difficult, if not impossible.
It is not an easy thing to photograph the waves
of an ever-changing sea. But it is not only that
the Psalms express for the most part moods, no
one of which is adequately representative of the
whole religious state of the writer, and that the
variety of religious experience expressed in these
lyrics is so great. A greater difference is to be
discerned between the earlier and later psalms as
regards personal religious life than was traceable
in the subjects of the last two chapters. The
religious life of David's time, though essentially
the same as that of the post-Exilic period, differed
in some important respects from it. Yet the
scantiness of our knowledge makes it dangerous
to lay down canons of distinction, and refer
all psalms containing certain religious ideas to a
10

146 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
late date. There is considerable danger in this
connection of arguing in a vicious circle. Some
critics press the argument, without perceiving its
fallacy, that such a psalm cannot have proceeded
from David, because such ideas cannot so early
have been in the possession of Israel. Moreover,
detailed help from outside the Psalter is not forth
coming to enable us to fix the epoch of psalms by
the thoughts they contain. If, as most scholars
are now disposed to believe, the Pentateuch, in its
present form, was not completed till after the
Exile, it is nevertheless clear that the essential
principles of the Mosaic law had been the heritage
of Israel from the beginning, though the worship
and life of the people had been all too little
influenced by them. The utterances of the
prophets in the eighth century B.C. presuppose
a long religious history. Hosea and Amos speak
not as innovators but as reformers, appealing to
a religious knowledge which Israel possessed, but
did not rightly use. We are unable to determine
exactly the extent of that knowledge, and the
actual condition of religious life in Israel at
each successive stage. But the main features of
spiritual life and experience, as understood by
the Psalmist, can be traced in broad outline, and
to these we now turn.
One of the first things that strikes us in pass-

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 147
ing from the teaching of the Psalms about God to
their doctrine of man, is the ease and confidence
with which the Psalmist divides mankind into
righteous and wicked, and the extent to which
he claims for himself a place with the "godly."
There is an appearance of self-righteousness both
about the way in which the Divine regard appears
to be claimed as a right, and in the expectation
of the overthrow of adversaries, who are assumed
to be as evil as the Psalmist himself is upright.
The whole subject of righteousness appears to be
regarded with a less spiritual and discriminating
eye than we might have expected. But we must
look below the surface. It would, of course, be a
great mistake to import into the Old Testament
ideas of law and views of sin and righteousness
derived from the New Testament. Close examina
tion, however, will show us that the appearance of
Pharisaic self-righteousness in the psalmists is
altogether deceptive, though it is true that the
Psalms exhibit a certain simplicity of conception
which belongs to their age, and a less deep and
-thorough appreciation of the roots of evil in
human nature than became possible in later days.
We may be startled, for example, to read, —
" Jehovah judgeth the peoples :
Judge me, 0 Jehovah, according to my innocence
And mine integrity that is in me.

148 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
"My shield over me is God,
Who saveth the upright in heart." — (vii. 8, 10.)
Or, again, —
" I was also perfect towards Him,
And kept myself from iniquity ;
So Jehovah recompensed me according to my right
eousness,
According to the cleanness of my hands in His eye
sight."— (xviii. 23, 24.)
The language of the 101st Psalm may perhaps
be described as that of aspiration and lofty pur
pose rather than actual attainment, yet it savours
of a self-confidence which seems to us hardly
consistent with true righteousness for a man to
say, " I will walk within my house with a perfect
heart," or to claim that he has walked in his
integrity and trusted the Lord without wavering
(xxvi 1). Nor can it be said that this is merely
the language of a Jew who is contrasting himself
with the heathen round about him ; that the
Psalmist is only claiming what might be called
the formal or official righteousness implied in
being a worshipper of Jehovah and one of God's
chosen people. The distinction between righteous
and wicked does not correspond to that between
Jew and Gentile, but often clearly refers to those
within the borders of Israel.
Something must be allowed, no doubt, for a

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 149
possible misunderstanding of the words used.
Such words as " perfect," " pure," " righteous,"
" godly," convey to our ears a meaning which the
Psalmist hardly intended. We cannot readily
divest them of a deep spiritual meaning. But the
Psalmist meant little more than to claim the
honesty of intention and general uprightness of
purpose which characterises the man who is
devoted to God and sincerely anxious to serve
Him. This might easily be illustrated at length,
but it is almost proved by the language of the
32nd Psalm, in which the writer confesses grievous
sin before God, yet substantially claims, as regards
his general character, a place among " the godly "
(ver. 6), those " in whose spirit there is no guile ''
(ver. 2), and the "upright in heart" (ver. 11).
Still it remains true that under the Jewish dis
pensation even the most spiritual men to some
extent rested, and were right to rest, upon God's
covenant-love to Israel ; so that if with an honest
heart the Psalmist was striving to be faithful to
the covenant, even though with many conscious
errors and imperfections, he might justly use such
language as has been quoted and claim his place
in Jehovah's regard. A deeper sense of sin
cleaving to the inmost nature may or may not
be present ; very frequently there is no sign of it ;
but in any case it is not to the immediate purpose

150 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
of the writer, who wishes to rank himself — a
Christian would add, " however unworthy " —
among the sincere followers of Jehovah and those
who are seeking to fulfil their part in the gracious
covenant He has made with Israel.
The standard by which judgment is pronounced
is also simple and easily recognizable. For the
most part there is no reference to the written law
in its detailed precepts. In certain psalms such
reference is very explicit, but these we have other
reasons for supposing to be late in date, e.g. the
1st, the latter half of the 19th, and the whole of
that remarkable hymn in praise of the law, — the
119th Psalm. In these and a few other cases we
find expressions which show that the Psalmists
knew, studied, and had learned to love God's
written word. In xix. 11, 12 the study of the law
is expressly connected with the conviction of sin ; a
kind of anticipation of St. Paul's " I had not known
coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not
covet"; and in the 119th Psalm the "exceed
ing breadth" of the commandment, its purity,
preciousness, and illuminating power are dwelt
upon with all the fulness inspired by deep affec
tion. But for the most part this is not the case ; the
written word is not appealed to as the standard,
nor named as the cause of conviction of sin. The

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 151
outline of duty is simple. The 15th and 24th
Psalms propound the searching questions, who
may be considered fit to be guests of the pure and
holy Jehovah, and to dwell with Him in His holy
place ? The answers are the same in both cases, —
" He that hath clean hands and a pure heart,
Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity,
Nor sworn deceitfully." — (xxiv. 4.)
Simple, but by no means superficial, is the
morality of the Torah that the Psalmist follows.
It is not an easy thing in any generation to " walk
blamelessly, work righteousness, and speak truth
in the heart" (xv. 2). Mark the searching
simplicity of that last test. How many there
are who claim all the privileges of " evangelical "
righteousness, of whom, alas ! it could hardly be
said that they " speak truth in their heart." We
have the authority of St. James for saying that
whoever satisfies the conditions which follow in
ver. 3 as to the use of the tongue, is " a perfect
man, and able to bridle the whole body." Very
characteristic, moreover, of the ethics of the Psalter
is the often-repeated phrase, " upright in heart."
Rectitude of character, according to the revealed
standard of right and wrong, tested by a man's
words and actions towards his fellows, and main
tained in all good conscience in the sight of that
God whose " eyes behold, whose eyelids try, the

152 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
children of men," is by no means a low standard
of moral and spiritual life in any age. Happy
those who can appeal with similar simplicity and
confidence to the judgment of Him who sees and
tries the hearts.
It must not be supposed, however, that the
Psalmist aims only at what some are unwise
enough to call " mere morality." Expressions of
deep penitence are not common, especially in the
earlier psalms. But they are found, and the
language of contrition in the Psalms is as tender,
fervent, and heart-stirring as the language of
thanksgiving is buoyant and triumphant. If the
32nd and 51st Psalms were written by David,
they both express sorrow for a gross and aggra
vated transgression. But the man whose " bones
had wasted away" through his grief, his " moisture
turned into the drought of summer," or who
humbles himself in the dust before God, and
acknowledges, whatever his offence in the sight of
men, " Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and
done this evil in Thy sight," is a man who has
entered into the true spiritual meaning of sin,
and whose deep penitence is acceptable with
God and a pattern to men. How does such a
man approach the Most Holy God, and on what
grounds does he expect to be heard and forgiven ?
Not, assuredly, on the score of sacrifices and

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 153
burnt-offerings diligently presented to God. Not
that these are slighted in the Psalter, or that the
ceremonial element in religion is disparaged or
discarded. There are not (relatively) many refer
ences to sacrifice, as there is no systematic refer
ence to the written law; but it is not to be
inferred that the writers of the Psalms were
ignorant of, or ignored, either law or sacrifice.
Occasionally we find direct mention of ceremonial
observances. " I will go into Thy house with burnt-offerings,
I will pay Thee my vows,
Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath
spoken,
When I was in distress.
Burnt offerings of fatlings I will offer unto Thee,
With the sweet smoke of rams ;
I will offer bullocks with goats." — (lxvi. 13-15.)
"Bind the sacrifice with cords," chants the
thankful Church in the 118th Psalm, " even unto
the horns of the altar." These rites had their
place in the religious life of Israel ; they are so
recognised in such passages as Psalm xx. 3, xliii.
4, li. 19, and were needful in order to preserve'
covenant-order and covenant-relationship under
certain conditions. But nowhere do we find, as
is so common in the Vedas and other ethnic
scriptures, the fidelity and regularity with which
sacrifice has been offered used as a plea with

154 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
God for forgiveness. The prophetic tone con
cerning sacrifice a is echoed in some of the psalms,
and its efficacy with God as pertaining to the
conscience distinctly disclaimed. "In sacrifice
and offering Thou hadst no delight," says the
40th Psalm, "but open ears didst Thou make
me," that I might hear and obey Thy will, and
learn to find in it my delight. The 50th Psalm
is conceived in the very spirit, almost the lan
guage of Isa. i, —
"Would I eat bulls' flesh,
Or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving"
when things go well with thee, for in time of sin
and sorrow —
" The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit :
A broken and contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt
not despise." — (li. 17.)
Everywhere the Psalmist in his need casts him
self upon the mercy of God. This cannot fail.
The doctrine of atonement does not figure largely
in the Psalter ; faith is often mentioned, but it is
not identical with the justifying faith of the New
Testament. Yet the germ of evangelical teach
ing on these subjects is found in the Psalms, and
a real preparation is made for it when its time
1 See e.g. Isa. i., lviii. ; Micah vi. ; Hos. vi. 6 ; Jer. vii. 21.

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 155
should come. Everywhere the holiness, the
spotless purity of Jehovah are recognised; He
"executeth judgment," "loveth righteousness,"
but "the wicked and him that loveth violence
His soul hateth." Yet the plea of the sinner
rests ever upon the mercy of God, who " will not
always chide," but with whom is "forgiveness"
and " plenteous redemption." His plea is —
" Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy
lovingkindness :
According to the multitude of Thy tender mercies,
blot out my transgression." — (li. i.)
The mercy of the Lord is "from everlasting to
everlasting upon them that fear Him," and He
must evermore be praised who not only "healeth
all thy diseases," but "forgiveth all thine
iniquities." The way in which these two classes
of statements are reconciled, the Psalmist does
not stay to consider ; but in asserting with equal
and oft-repeated emphasis the inviolable righteous
ness and the inexhaustible mercy of the God in
whom he trusts, he prepares the way for that
Saviour, who alone could light up both with
infinite meaning, and seal them both with eternal
assurance in the gift of Himself as a Sacrifice for
the sin of the world. Man is " born in sin, and
shapen in iniquity," in God's sight "no flesh
living is justified"; yet the psalmist who cries,

156 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
"Iniquities prevail against me," can add with
confidence, " As for our transgressions, Thou shalt
purge them away." It is clear, therefore, that
for the full solution of the problem of sin and
forgiveness, the generations must be content to
wait. The joy of assured forgiveness, however, the
Psalmist does know. The brightest beatitude of
the Old Testament is that pronounced upon the
man "whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered."
" Waiting I had waited for Jehovah ;
And He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
He brought me up also out of the pit of destruction,
Out of the miry clay ;
He set my feet upon a rock, and established my
goings.
And He hath put a new song in my mouth,
Even praise unto our God." — (xl. 1-3.)
This may possibly refer to deliverance from
trouble, but neither the language itself, nor the
context, points in this direction. It may be well,
however, to notice that frequently in the Psalms
it is not altogether easy to distinguish between
spiritual and temporal trouble and deliverance.
That essentially " Pauline " psalm, De Profundis
(cxxx.), has been interpreted by many of the
depths of sorrow, rather than of sin. Here again

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 157
what seems the simplicity or absence of dis
crimination in the Psalms commends itself to the
experience of humanity. In how many a crisis
of life does trouble bring to mind our sinfulness
as we have never felt it in prosperity ; and again,
how does wrong-doing lead to a miry " slough of
despond," a " pit of destruction," such as yawns
unseen for those whose feet persist in seeking
the crooked way. Spiritual deliverance is often
expressed in figurative language, and those who
feel the need of salvation for body and soul alike,
who need to be rescued both from evil within and
from the trouble without which it so constantly
entails, find the language of the Psalms furnish a
most appropriate litany.
There is no need to illustrate at length the joy
of these saints of old time in communion with
God; it is written on almost every page of the
Psalter. But, considering the scantiness of revela
tion given them, considering also the character of
the Law that had been given, its sternness against
evil, and the emphasis laid upon the separation
between a holy God and sinful man, it is remark
able to find language expressing such intensity of
personal devotion, such closeness of spiritual com
munion, such confidence of access to God, and
such tenderness of filial affection and inter
course.

158 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
" 0 God, Thou art my God ; earnestly do I seek Thee :
My soul thirsteth for Thee,
My flesh longeth for Thee,
In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. . . .
For Thy lovingkindness is better than life (itself) :
My lips shall praise Thee.
'For Thou hast been my help,
In the shadow of Thy wings I shout for joy.
My soul followeth hard after Thee :
Thy right hand upholdeth me."— (lxiii. 1, 3, 7, 8.)
Sometimes the longing is expressed for the wor
ship and ordinances of God's house, but the desire
is always spiritual, and it is the presence of God
which is the fountain of delight. The phrase in
xiii. 2 and elsewhere, " appear before God," is the
recognised expression for joining in the worship
of the tabernacle or the temple (see Ex. xxxiv. 23).
The recollection of these gatherings does the
Psalmist's heart good.
" Let me remember these things, pouring out my soul,
How I went with the throng,
Leading them in procession to the house of God,
With cries of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude
keeping holy-day." — (xiii. 4.)
The 84th Psalm has long stood as a standard
expression of holy delight in public worship. The
joys of the sanctuary overflow all the later psalms.
It is difficult to find words to render the variety
of phrases which describe the "joyful noise," the

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 159
" ringing cries," the " singing with melody," the
" high praises," and thanksgivings with harp and
psaltery and "high-sounding cymbals," in the
worship of Israel's God.
But our immediate subject is the religious life
of the individual, not of the community. The
personal note both of joy and sorrow is often very
intense. "The secret of Jehovah is with them
that fear Him " (xxv. 14) ; He " keeps them
secretly in His pavilion," hides them "in the
covert of His tent" (xxvii 5). In times of
trouble the Psalmist's faith individualises and
appropriates the Divine promises. "Our God"
becomes "my God," whether it be to express a
fervently tender affection for " Jehovah, my
strength" (xviii. 1), or a passionate clinging to
One who seems to have forsaken him (xxii. 1).
There is ho need to fill these pages with the
figures of speech in which God is described as a
Rock and High Tower, a Helper and Deliverer,
a Shield of defence, an abiding Refuge for His
people. The figures are so familiar that they
have almost ceased to be such, and all the devout
imagination of succeeding centuries has failed to
improve upon them.
These are the commonplaces of the Psalms.
But let it not be forgotten that current coin was
once molten metal. How brave and strong was

160 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
the faith of these tried and tempted sons of men,
who could so hold fast truths amid sore distress
and dire calamity as that in time they should
become truisms. The pioneer in the forest makes
the way easy for those who follow him ; at length
men tread a beaten road, and exclaim over the
ease and smoothness of the journey. To under
stand some of these psalms we must pray over
them in bodily or spiritual anguish, not casually
read them while lounging in an easy-chair, or
sauntering down a grassy path. Some of them
were written in bodily torture, others within the
shadow of overmastering fear, others under the
cruel lash of oppression. Here is no " idle ore," —
" But iron dug from central gloom,
And heated hot with burning fears,
And dipped in baths of hissing tears,
And battered with the shocks of doom
To shape and use."
A collection of poems cannot be read through
at a sitting, nor a hundred pictures viewed in a
single visit to a gallery. Each poem and picture
has a history ; it is, or should be, a fragment of a
human soul. The agonies and the triumphs of
the Psalms can only be fully understood by those
who have passed through agony to triumph, but
all can give to the several compositions patient
and sympathetic study, as part of a history of a

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. • 161
human; soul, so that each shall be like the face of
a beloved and familiar friend.
Take the 71 st Psalm, for example, which, to a
superficial reader, opens so tamely, —
" In thee, Jehovah, have I put my trust,
Let me never be put to shame."
Only " a cento of phrases from other psalms," says
the critic ; but a sympathetic study brings out a
touching history. True, the opening words are
quoted from the 31st Psalm, and the 22nd, 35th,
and 40th are freely used. But when we examine
the quotations, we find that the writer has woven
them into a context of his own, and given to them
quite a new character, casting them into his own
mould, and penning for himself "A Prayer for
Old Age." The tone is plaintive but trustful, as
becomes the physical weakness, the apparent
afflictions, and the matured experience of an aged
saint; but it ends in gladness, and expresses in
its mingled supplications and thanksgivings, a
pathetic history of blended joy and sorrow
through an anxious, but patient, and, at last,
triumphant life. So with the rest. Whoever
will take the pains to study even a familiar psalm
afresh will find in it, as in a portrait by a master,
some new significant trait or feature ; and no
mood of religious experience can fail to find
n

163 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
somewhere in the Psalter its appropriate ex
pression, its congenial strain of sacred music.
The outline of religious life presented in the
Psalms is, we have seen, a simple one. But the
facts of life are complex, and it could not be long
before the faithful in Israel were brought to face
some of the standing enigmas of human life. It
may be some time in the history of an individual
or a nation before these are felt to press keenly
and severely, and to call for an immediate answer.
The belief that God loves righteousness and hates
iniquity, that He will punish the wicked and
protect or deliver His servants, is seen ere long
to be subjected to considerable strain. In actual
fact, this seems often not to be the case. Retribu
tion is not visible ; if the righteous Judge does —
as the Psalmist is sure He does — judge righteously,
He does not make this by any means evident.
But to question the fact of righteous retribution
seemed to strike at the foundation of faith : to say
that God " will not require it " was almost the
same as to say "There is no God" (x. 4, 13).
Still questioning does arise. The Psalmist does
not check it as impious, but, with the spirit of
true religion, brings his difficulty to God Himself,
and pours out his heart in prayer. He pleads, in
words that John Calvin was often heard to mur
mur, and which have often risen to the lips of

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 163
God's suffering and perplexed servants, Quousque,
Domine ? How long, 0 Lord ?
"How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou forget me for ever?
How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?
How long shall I keep anxious cares in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?"
—(xiii. 1, 2.)
But the question " Why ? " is even more urgent
and perplexing than the question " How long ? "
To see " the wicked in great power, spreading him
self like a green tree in its native soil," irresistibly
suggests not only the question, How long is this
to last ? but, Why is it permitted at all ? This is
the great problem of the Book of Job. It cannot
be argued out in a brief lyric as it is in a pro
tracted dialogue, but the sharp pain of the
religious difficulty is evidently felt quite as keenly
by the man who utters only a single cry of ex
postulation. The difficulty is sometimes felt as
national, sometimes as personal and individual ;
sometimes it takes the form, Why should the
wicked prosper ? sometimes, Why do the righteous
suffer ? Sometimes it is a question of fact which
torments the inquirer, Will the balance ever be
redressed ? sometimes a question concerning the
purpose or meaning of affliction, Why is this
apparent injustice permitted meanwhile ? But the

164 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
fact that moral character and lot or condition in
life by no means always correspond, was specially
impressed upon Israel in the later portion of its
history, and has left its mark upon several of the
psalms. The solution of the problem reached is not final.
This was not possible to theX)ld Testament saint.
But peace of mind was from time to time attained,
by means of partial solutions, or glimpses of the
truth. This may be traced in two main directions
Let us examine the cases where the process of
mind is described, through which peace and
satisfaction was reached, as given in the 73rd and
77th Psalms.
The former noble psalm opens, characteristically
enough, with what is really the conclusion :
"Truly God is good to Israel." The first word
is one not easy to translate ; it implies the result
of a long process of mental debate, and might be
rendered " Yet surely," " And yet after all." It
is a particle of tried and anxious, but ultimately
victorious faith. The bitter heart - searching
through which God's servant passes, and which
had almost ended in the persuasion, "Verily, in
vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my
hands in innocency," has seldom been more
graphically described. He pauses before allowing
his feet to slip farther; "If I had said, I will

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 165
speak thus, I should have been a traitor " to God
and to GodJs people. But how does relief come ?
"When I considered this, to understand it,
It was labour in mine eyes ;
Until I went into the sanctuary of God
And considered their latter end."
The solution in the main is : the prosperity is
but for a time, the feet of the wicked are in
slippery places, ere long they will stumble and
fall utterly ; while God will hold the hand of His
faithful servant, guide him wisely, and afterwards
receive him with honour. This is also the
solution of Psalm xxxvii. (vers. 35 and 36, cf.
24 and 25) and of xcii. (7 foil). It represents
a true act of faith, inasmuch as the Psalmist
possesses such confidence in the God of righteous
ness as to be convinced, in spite of all appearances
to the contrary, that retribution is certain, and
righteous judgment is only delayed for a time.
There is, however, a glimpse of another kind of
solution given in the 73rd Psalm. It is implicitly
contained in the triumphant exclamation of verses
25 and 26 : " Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? "
If God Himself be the strength and portion of the
failing heart, the Psalmist need not, will not com
plain; He can put true gladness into the heart
even of the sorrowing, " more than they have when
their corn and wine increase." "Verily, I say

166 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
unto you, they have received their reward." This
thought, however, is not worked out, though in
many passages we can see that it brought to the
perplexed sufferer its own Divine consolation.
In the 77th Psalm both the difficulty and the
solution are somewhat differently expressed. But
the case is parallel throughout. The Psalmist
passes through a night of anguish, for God seems
to have forsaken and forgotten him. His doubts
border upon despair. Is infinite mercy exhausted,
and can the inviolable promise fail ? Can a man
trust in God and be deserted, and will his prayer
be allowed to return like a vain echo into his own
bosom ?
" Then I said, This is my infirmity :
Let me remember the years of the right hand of
the Most High !
I will make mention of Jehovah,
For I will remember Thy wonders of old."
The recollection of the mighty deliverance
wrought out for Israel at the Exodus comes to
his mind. He tunes his harp to sing once more
in the words of Miriam's song, "Jehovah hath
triumphed gloriously." God's footsteps were in
the very sea which seemed to threaten destruction.
He rode upon the storm, and though by unknown
ways, still He ever led His rebellious but beloved
people like a flock by the hand of Moses and

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 167
Aaron. Abruptly the song ceases, but the clouds
have passed, the victory is won. There was no
need to add the lesson that the same God rules
still, and that a heart thankful for the past should
be trustful for the future. Another kind of Red
Sea deliverance has been effected in the Psalmist's
personal history, and henceforth the pillar of
cloud and of fire will guide his soul, emancipated
from a worse than Egyptian bondage.
Precious are records such as these. But it is
impossible to help feeling that more is needed.
The triumph of faith is enough for the individual ;
but the perplexed spirit, anxious to justify the
ways of God to men, asks for more, for others'
sakes, if not for its own. The problem is not
solved by the fresh exercise of faith, only post
poned. Is there no glimpse in the Psalter of
light beyond ? Was it given to old-time singers
to see, if only for a moment, beyond the veil;
and, when judgment in this life appeared to be
so long delayed as practically to disappoint all
his hopes, did the Psalmist here and there be
come a Seer, and anticipate a life to come in
which the balance, so long awry, should finally
be adjusted ?
No revelation of a future life had been made
to Israel The current conception of Sheol, the
vast Under-world, was that of a doubtful, pre-

l68 ; THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
carious, shadowy existence, not deserving the
name of life in comparison with the brightness
and vigour of these realms of day. The gloomy
way in which death is often spoken of in other
books of the Bible finds its echo in the Psalms.
" For in death there is no remembrance of Thee :
In Sheol who shall give Thee thanks ? "—(vi. 5.)
" What profit is there in my blood when I go down
to the pit?
Shall the dust praise Thee? shall it declare Thy
truth V— (xxx. 9.)
" Wilt Thou perform wonders for the dead,
Or shall the shades arise and praise Thee?
Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave,
And Thy faithfulness in Abaddon?
Shall Thy wonders be made known in darkness,
And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetful-
ness ? "—(Ixxxviii. 10-12.)
The strain of the 39th and 90th Psalms, which
are plaintive without being melancholy, shows
that the words above quoted were not the mere
utterance of gloomy moods. The picture may be
darkly painted because of the afflictions pressing
at the time upon the Psalmist, but his view of
what lay beyond death must be taken as it stands.
He had no sure ground of hope beyond the grave,
no clear declaration of a future life at all, still
less any promise on which he could rest of joy

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 169
and blessedness for God's people surpassing the
highest hopes of earth.
Yet here and there, faintly, occasionally, by
no means prevailingly, hope does arise. It
springs, not from speculation, from vague sur
mise, from passionate desire, — all such hopes
would be vain, — but from the high privileges
God has already bestowed upon His servants,
from His assured character, and from the nature
of that gracious relation into which He has con
descended to enter with His people. The Psalmist
does indeed occasionally anticipate that profound
reasoning which our Lord used to the Sadducees,
and which He intimates they ought to have been
prepared to find in the Scriptures they professed to
revere — "God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living." But so brief and occasional are the utter
ances, so ambiguous the language, and so trembling
appears to be the hope entertained, that some
interpreters have doubted whether it exists at all.
" For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol,
Nor suffer Thy beloved one to see the pit.
Thou wilt show me the path of life :
In Thy presence is fulness of joy,
In Thy right hand are pleasures for ever."
—(xvi. 10, 11.)
"As for me, let me behold Thy face in righteousness,
Let me be satisfied, when I awake, with Thine
image !" — (xvii. 15.)

170 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
When and how did the Psalmist expect to "awake"
and be satisfied with the vision and presence
of God ? Did he expect to be saved from the
grave, or saved out of it and beyond it ? When,
as in the 73rd Psalm, the writer rejoiced that
though heart and flesh should waste away, yet
God would be his portion for ever, did he mean
the words as the modern poet meant them, —
" Truth for truth and good for good ! The Good, the
True, the Pure, the Just,
Take the charm For ever from them, and they
crumble into dust"?
The 49th Psalm might seem more explicitly to
answer this question. It opens with a descrip
tion of the inevitableness of death. The rich
cannot buy immunity ; such redemption of a life
from the power of the grave is too costly, and
however much men may boast of handing down
their names to posterity, they must still go the
way of all flesh.
" Like sheep, they are folded in Sheol :
Death shall be their shepherd :
And the upright shall tread them down in the
morning.
Their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,
Till there be no dwelling for it.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of
Sheol,
For He shall receive me." — (xlix. 14, 15.)

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 171
The last lines seem conclusive, yet the gleam of
celestial light fades as suddenly as it appeared,
and the psalm closes with a reminder that the
richest and most honourable are but like the
brutes that perish. So slight and transient are
these expressions of hope, that many have been
disposed to explain them in terms of the present
life. To do so, however, would be, we are con
vinced, mistaken exegesis and false psychology.
The words, fairly interpreted, certainly point to
a future state and to complete fruition in a life
to come, though nothing is said of the mode in
which it will be attained, and little of its character
when attained. The argument that because a hope
of future blessedness was not generally entertained
in Israel, and that writers whose views of life
were in the main what we know the psalmists'
to have been could not rise to the height of such
hopes, is untenable, even if the influence of
supernatural revelation and insight be not taken
into account. It is certain that the horizon of
the psalmists' spiritual sky was for the most part
dark on the side of the future life. It is certain
also that gleams of light here and there illumine
it. They are rays, but only scattered and passing
rays, of a light that was afterwards to shine forth
in unclouded and unfading splendour, and banish
the night of ignorance and fear for ever.

172 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
The reasons for this reserve in revelation may
not be entirely intelligible to us, but some of
them are not far to seek. As regards the Psalter
we may at least perceive that it better answers
its end as a liturgy of the spiritual life on earth,
and as a discipline of the spirit in worship and
communion with God, because it is concerned
with the hopes and fears, the prayer and praise,
the trials and deliverances of earth, without being
irradiated by bright but perhaps distracting
glimpses of glory to come. It is well for the
soul to think of God, rather than heaven. Even
when life and immortality were brought to light
through the gospel, revelation is marked by re
serves concerning a future state which it is not
altogether difficult to explain. The faith of the
psalmists who trusted in God and were not con
founded, though oppressed by persecution, and
unsupported by an assured prospect of ever
lasting life, should have a bracing and tonic
effect upon our often languid and enervated re
ligious life. The words which have strengthened
the faith, animated the hope, and sustained the
courage of so many generations, were written by
men who were content to fight out their spiritual
battles on the arena of the present life. They
entered the lists and were not afraid ; they
fought and did not yield. In hope they believed

THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN MAN. 173
against hope. If the light of revelation which
illumines our pathway is so much fuller than
that accorded to the psalmists, it follows surely
that our faith should be not less courageous,
our victory not less assured and complete than
theirs.

CHAPTER VII.
THEOLOGY OF THE PSALTER — IV. THE CHURCH
AND THE WORLD.
THE Psalmist's personal life was but a part,
perhaps a small part, of his life as a whole.
He was a member of a community, one in which
the uniting bonds were of a specially close
and sacred character. It becomes therefore an
interesting and by no means unimportant ques
tion, how far each psalmist wrote as an individual,
and how far merely in the name of the Church-
nation of which he formed a part ? It is a ques
tion easier to ask than to answer. On the one
hand, it probably never occurs at all to the
majority of readers ; so that what we may call the
natural and obvious interpretation is to under
stand the " I " of the Psalms, wherever it occurs, as
referring to the writer alone. There is, however
at present a tendency amongst some scholars to
go to the other extreme. It is said that " in most
cases, even when the Psalmist uses the first person
174

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 175
singular, the speaker is really either the Church
or a typical pious Israelite." The Psalter is said
not only to belong altogether to the worship of
the Second Temple, but to be " a monument of
Church-consciousness," intelligible only on the
ground that " Hebrew psalmists rarely disclose
their personality, having their own private joys
and sorrows, but not making them the theme of
song."1 It is not very difficult to show that neither of
the extremes is tenable, whether the attempt be
made to exclude the individual or the collective
element from the psalmody of Israel; but it is
by no means easy to draw a line between the
instances in which the personal element prevails
and those in which it is merged in the national.
In many cases probably no such line can be
drawn. But we shall miss much of the meaning
of the Psalms if we fail to apprehend the distinc
tion, and we shall run the risk of misinterpretation
if we put the individual in place of the nation, or
the nation in place of the individual. Our view
of the so-called " Messianic " psalms, also, will be
affected by the decision of this question. In any
case, it is one in which the student of the Psalms
must at least be able to see his bearings, and it
claims attention therefore at this stage.
1 Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, pp. 258, 265.

176 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
In reading the Old Testament it is necessary
always to remember that the principle of human
individuality — -the appreciation of the powers,
privileges, and responsibilities of the individual
— is much more fully developed in modern than
it was in ancient times. This might be illustrated
from the power given under Roman law to the
father as head of the family, and from the fact
that in Rome and Greece religion could hardly be
called personal, but rather depended on national
custom or formed a part of the political con
stitution. But in Oriental countries, and in still
earlier times, the sense of common life, whether
of family, tribe, or nation, was even stronger.
Mozley has pointed out, in- connection with the
story of Abraham's intended sacrifice of Isaac, the
" habitual sense of ownership " which pertained
to the father in patriarchal times, as if wife and
children were literally part of a man's property,
their individual life being merged in his.1 And
when Israel was constituted a nation by the
covenant of Sinai, the national bond then formed
was no ordinary one. This nation had a special
vocation, and was set apart for a special purpose.
They were to be " a peculiar treasure " to Jehovah
" from among all peoples ... a kingdom of priests,
an holy nation " (Ex. xix. 6). This special charac-
1 Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, p. 49, etc.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 177
teristic was conserved by all the provisions of the
Law, it was fostered by the teachings of the
prophets, and by the many promises given, not
to separate individuals, but to the nation as a
whole. It has been said that it was only in the times
of Jeremiah and Ezekiel that the importance of
individual life began to be appreciated. It is
certain that then attention was specially drawn to
the subject, as Jeremiah xxxi. 29 and Ezekiel xviii.
clearly show. Greater stress is laid upon individual
responsibility, and the ethical problem implied in
the punishment of the children for the sins of the
fathers is by those prophets distinctly raised. But
throughout the history of Israel the religious rela
tion of the individual to God was undoubtedly
very closely involved in the religious relation of
the community with which each member was
identified. It would not, perhaps, be easy to find
a parallel to this in modern times; for the
principle of individualism in these later centuries
has been pushed to an extreme, while in the
present generation a reaction in favour of collec
tivism is discernible. But we are accustomed to
say, that in some representative men the whole
spirit of a nation, or of an age, is embodied, so
that they speak not so much for themselves as
for their country or their generation. In such
12

178 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
cases, how far was Dante, or Milton, or Tennyson
speaking for himself, and how far was he a
spokesman for others ? To answer that question
is to penetrate further into a poet's consciousness
than is possible to others, perhaps even to the
poet himself. Sometimes, however, there is a
conscious effort, in an orator for example, to speak
not for himself only, but to merge personal feel
ing in that of the community. "This may be
said, in its measure, of every writer, or speaker,
or artist. The secret desire of his heart is to
be at once individual and generic, both in one;
his deepest, though it may well be an uncon
scious ambition, is to gather up in himself and
be the mouthpiece of the thinking and feeling of,
at any rate, his circle, and the wider the circle
the greater satisfaction does he experience." J
The use of the singular pronoun to represent
a nation is not uncommon in Scripture. Edom is
represented as saying to Israel : " Thou shalt not
pass through me, lest I come out with the sword
against thee " (Num. xx. 18). Moses speaks simi
larly in the name of Israel, " Let me pass through
thy land" (Deut. ii. 27). The song of thanks
giving in Isaiah xii. is undoubtedly put into the
lips of the nation : " And in that day thou shalt
say, I will give thanks unto Thee, 0 Jehovah " ;
1 Simon, The Redemption of Man, p. 137.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 179
while in a similar passage " I " and " We " alter
nate, showing that they are interchangeable. " We
have waited for Thee; to Thy name, and to
Thy memorial is the desire of our soul. With
my soul have I desired Thee in the night," etc.
(Isa. xxvi. 8, 9). Perhaps the most striking ex
ample, however, and that which best illustrates
our immediate subject, is found in the Book of
Lamentations. The interchange between " we "
and " I " in the first and third chapters of that
book is very instructive. The speaker is certainly
the despoiled and weeping nation, the desolated
city : " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ?
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto
my sorrow, whom Jehovah hath afflicted in the day
of His fierce anger. . . . For these things I weep ;
mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water. . . .
The Lord is righteous ; for I have rebelled against
His commandment. . . . Remember my affliction
and mine expulsion, the wormwood and the gall. . . .
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not con
sumed. . . . Let us search and try our ways, and
turn again to Jehovah " (i 12, 16, 18, iii. 19, 22, 40).
In the Psalms themselves the same alternation
is sometimes observed. " For I will not trust in
my bow ; nor shall my sword save me. But Thou
hast saved us from our adversaries '' (xliv. 6, 7).
" Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads. . .

180 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
I will come into thy house with burnt offerings "
(lxvi. 12, 13).
It is quite clear, therefore, that the national
" I " is of tolerably frequent occurrence ; the' ques
tion is, how far its use is to be admitted. It is
possible that some psalms which were written as
personal were so readily capable of wider use, that
they were taken up and used in the national
worship. This was not improbably the case with
Psalm xxx., if we rightly understand the meaning
of the title — "A Psalm: a Song for the Dedication
of the House ; [a psalm] of David." The order of
words here is peculiar. It is difficult to fit the
psalm into the life of David, either on the occasion
of the consecration of Araunah's threshing-floor
(which was not a house), or of his own palace on
Zion. The probable explanation is that the psalm
was used at that notable " dedication " of the
temple after Judas Maccabeus had driven out the
Syrians (1 Mace iv. 52), in commemoration of
which the festival of the " Dedication" (Chanuccah,
the same word) has been held ever since. It is
certain that this very psalm has for centuries
formed part of the liturgical service used by the
Jews at that annual festival. It was held, how
ever, by. the compiler to have been " Davidic,"
either as composed by David, or as belonging to
a collection called by his name. If this be so, the

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 181
character of the psalm, which appears to be
strongly personal, evidently commended itself in
the second century before Christ as suitable for
the community, and language which might seem
to apply only to an individual recovering from
sickness was held to be appropriate in the lips of
the congregation giving thanks to God for the
restoration of their fallen fortunes.
Be this as it may, the personal, national, and
liturgical currents of feeling in the psalms certainly
flow very close together, and sometimes mingle
their waters. Professor Kirkpatrick says : " There
are numerous exceptions, but it is in the first
division (Book i) that personal prayers and thanks
givings are chiefly to be found; in the second
(Books ii. and iii.) prayers in special times of
national calamity and thanksgivings in times of
national deliverance ; in the third (Books iv. and
v.) psalms of praise and thanksgiving for general
use in the temple services." x This generalization
certainly holds good in the main. Some psalms
may at once be set down as belonging to one or
other of these categories. The 3rd and 4th, for
example, which refer to the Psalmist's sleep and
waking ; the 6th, with its mention, not only of
sickness, but imminent death ; the 18th, with its
unmistakable notes of personal devotion and
1 Psalm.s (Cambridge Bible), vol. i., Introd. p. xliii.

1 82 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
triumph ; the 27th, which speaks of desertion on
the part of father and mother; the deliverances
recorded in the group liv.-lix. ; the 103rd, with its
combination of personal and united thanksgiving ;
the 116th, the warm glow of which is chilled and
lost if it be understood of an abstract Church-
nation: these, with many others, clearly belong
to the first class. On the other hand, the 44th
is as clearly the cry of the nation in distress, as
the 46th, 48 th, and 76th are the anthems of the
nation rescued from great peril. The liturgical
element is quite as obvious in the groups of
psalms xcv.-c, cxi-cxv., and cxlv.-cl.
On the other hand, it is certain that in many
cases the Psalms are neither distinctly personal
nor distinctly national. The Psalmist writes as
representative of a community in the sense that
he refers only to such circumstances of trouble or
joy as are common to him with the Church-nation
to which he belongs, yet he uses the first person
singular. There are times when "the separate
resonance of any one breaker cannot be distin
guished from the multitudinous murmur of the
whole sea." We cannot draw lines of distinction
by saying that the mention of sickness, or deliver
ance, or the confession of sin necessarily indi
vidualises a psalm ; or that the personal element is
excluded from such as refer to national calamities,

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 183
or united worship. The life of the individual in
Israel was so bound up with that of the commun
ity in all its various occupations and experiences.
that distinctions which would seem inevitable to us
have little place in the Psalms. Sometimes, as in
the Acrostic Psalms, the " I " is used in a vague,
impersonal way, and the language of experience
is not to be literally pressed (comp. Ps. xxv., cxix.).
The 31st and 86th Psalms are examples of those
in which personal language is used, but the
writer may be speaking as a typical Israelite. In
the Songs of Ascents, on the other hand, it is pro
bable, in spite of the frequent recurrence of the
word " I," that the personal element must be kept
quite in the background. The 118th Psalm is
almost certainly national in its character, and its
significance is enhanced, instead^ of being dim
inished, by a reference to the circumstances of
the newly restored people after the return from
captivity. But the tendency to " nationalize " the Psalms
may be carried to an extreme. Eminent modern
scholars, like Professors Driver, Cheyne, and
Robertson Smith, take this course in relation to the
51st Psalm, thereby altering its whole character.
The latter, for example, says that " from the Old
Testament point of view, in which the experience
of wrath and forgiveness stands generally in such

I S4 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
immediate relation to Jehovah's actual dealings
with the nation, the whole thought of the psalm
is most simply understood as a prayer for the
restoration and sanctification of Israel in the
mouth of a prophet of the Exile." The question
cannot be argued here ; but to mention one point
only, it seems very unnatural to regard the " de
liver me from blood-guiltiness" of verse 14 as
meaning " mortal sin, such as, if it remains un-
atoned, withdraws God's favour from His land
and people " ; so that a prophet might offer the
prayer, fearing that he " may have the guilt of lost
lives on his head," or collective Israel, because " it
was the guilt of blood equally with the guilt of
idolatry that removed God's favour from His
land."1 The evidence of verses 18 and 19 is,
of course, the great argument in favour of a post-
Exilic date, but these may, with Ibn Ezra,
Delitzsch, and Perowne, be regarded as a liturgi
cal addition to a psalm which otherwise might
appear to disparage sacrifice.
We cannot pursue the subject further. Just as
in Romans vii, in the description of a man under
the bondage of sin, it is not easy to decide how
far St. Paul is speaking from his own past experi
ence, and how far he is describing a typical case,
so it will be found in many of the Psalms. The
1 Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 2nd ed., Note E, p. 441.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 185
Psalmist's consciousness, at once individual and
generic, refuses to be analysed by the scalpel of
the acutest critic. Sometimes, as in the case of
the well-known hymn, " When all Thy mercies, 0
my God," a personal thanksgiving may be appro
priately used by a community, except that here
and there a verse betrays the individual character
of its origin, and is unsuitable for liturgical use.
But the more fully a writer is under the influence
of the Spirit of God, the more completely his lan
guage is likely to lose what is minutely and incom-
municably personal, and the more aptly and fully
it will embody the experience of those who, like
himself, are servants of God. Hence the combined
individuality and universality of the Psalms, which
forms one of their best-known characteristics.
What has been called the " Church-conscious
ness " appears very notably in the historical psalms.
The use of history which is discernible in the
Psalter cannot be paralleled outside Israel. We
have already seen, in the case of the 77th Psalm,
how an Israelite in personal trouble and per
plexity found relief in recalling the national
deliverance at the Exodus. The 114th Psalm, In
exitu Israel, is not only a monument of God's
goodness in the past, but a standing reminder of
His continued presence with His people. The
same thought may be traced into a number of

1 86 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
minute allusions in the Psalms and in the pro
phets. But upon occasion, the Psalmist launches
out into lengthened historical reminiscences. The
78th Psalm is a good example of a blending of
history, poetry, and religion, which is peculiar to
IsraeL The exordium gives a somewhat unex
pected character to the composition, as we read, —
"Give ear, O my people, to my teaching,
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a poem,
I will utter riddles of the ancient time."-
The Torah, or teaching of the lawgiver, the Mashal,
or metrical utterance of the poet, and the Chidah,
or wise, enigmatical saying of the philosopher, are
here combined. We pass on to the poem thus
introduced, and we find a risumi of history ! But
such a review of the past is possible only to a
writer who was imbued with a strong conviction
of the calling of Israel as a people, and who was
guided by the Divine Spirit to present such a
view of history as would help to preserve and
hand on to later generations a deep sense of that
high calling. So did Stephen in later days, " full
of faith and the Holy Ghost," summarise for a
still higher purpose the history of God's dealings
with His people of old times, from the " Church
in the wilderness " onwards, and he would have
crowned that masterly summary of history with

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 187
its divinely-appointed top-stone, had not the fury
of his hearers cut short his address. The 105th
and 106th Psalms present similar matter specially
arranged for liturgical purposes, beginning with
Hodu, Give thanks, and ending with Hallelujah,
Praise ye Jehovah !
This national consciousness, which blended so
subtly and inextricably with the individual con
sciousness of the Israelite, affected his whole view
of present, past, and future. The promises made
by God to the nation are from time to time
pleaded in the Psalms with a touching insistency.
The 89th Psalm is a poetical plea of great beauty
and fulness, based upon the message given to
David through Nathan, 2 Samuel vii 8-16. The
language of promise is echoed and amplified, now
cast into the mould of prayer, now dwelt upon
for the encouragement of a later generation, when
the bright hopes of happier days had been well-
nigh lost in desolation and despair (verses 38-45).
The blending of personal and national feeling
could hardly be better brought out than in the
closing verses, —
" Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants ;
How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all
the mighty peoples ;
Wherewith thine enemies, Jehovah, have reproached,
Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of
Thine anointed." — (Ixxxix. 50, 51.)

1 83 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
These promises are recalled at one time for
the city's sake, at another, for the temple's
sake. A good example of the latter is found
in Psalm cxxxii, which beautifully illustrates
what we may call the music of an echoed
and re-echoed promise. It descends like a
celestial message from the distant skies, but is
Caught up by the rocks and hills of earth, which
re-sound and re-echo it again and yet again, un
willing to lose a single note of the gracious
announcement till all its fulness of blessing has
Deen realized.
It was impossible, however, that prophet and
Psalmist should help feeling that Israel had not
been faithful to the covenant, and that the original
promises could not be fulfilled as they might have
been. The " finest of the wheat " had been refused
(lxxxi. 13-16) ; and it is of a part of Israel itself
that the Psalmist often speaks, when he complains
of being surrounded by the ungodly and the evil
doers, and those who forget Jehovah. He had
discovered in bitterness of soul that " they are
not all Israel which are of Israel," and a spiritual
idea of the nation, the purified "remnant" of
which Isaiah so often spoke, by whom salvation
was to come, figures largely in many psalms. So
marked is this in some cases, that upon it the
theory has largely been based which attributes

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 189
many of the psalms to Maccabean times. It is
true that the term "godly" {chasidim) came in
those later days to be the name of a party, sup
posed to be specially jealous of national honour
and zealous for Jehovah, who organized them
selves for political action. But a long previous
history had prepared the way for this. It would
be an anachronism to drag down to so late a date
every psalm which dwells upon this fundamental
spiritual difference between two classes of men.
It was rather a caricature of an earlier spiritual
distinction, when men began to divide themselves
into parties, and when the term "godly" was
used as a badge of partisanship, or the nickname
of a sect.
The separation of Israel to the service of God
necessarily led to a separation from surrounding
nations. Israel was the Church, all outside it the
world. But the way in which this relationship
was to be carried out was very differently appre
hended at different periods of the history of the
Jews ; often it was altogether misapprehended.
From the time when the children of Israel were
bidden to wage a war of extermination against
the Canaanites, down to the time when St. Paul's
mention of the Gentiles to a Jewish audience
raised such a storm of indignant rage, the ex-
clusiveness of the Jews was matter of history.

1 90 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
But in the days of the Judges and the Kings,
the people were by no means anxious fully to
separate themselves from the nations around.
They copied their manners, fell into their sins,
and worshipped their gods. Still, throughout this
whole period the idea of a special vocation was
not lost sight of; and it was a source of national
pride that Jehovah extended special favour to
Israel, and the blessings of salvation were limited
to those who belonged to the chosen people. It
was only after the Captivity, however, that theory
and practice began fully to coincide. That which
all the teaching of the prophets had been unable
to effect was learned in the school of humiliation
and exile. Idolatry was never really hated among
the people till after the Captivity in Babylon.
Zeal for the observance of the law then came to
be joined with an almost fanatical spirit of national
exclusiveness. Israel's lesson was being effectively
learned, but to a great extent in a wrong spirit.
Permission was refused to the Samaritans to take
part in rebuilding the temple. Mixed marriages
were denounced as a heinous sin. Spiritual pride
was fostered as well as loyalty to the law and
to Jehovah. Consequently, the anticipations of
the prophets who foretold the conversion of the
nations faded out of sight, whilst the prophecies
which described the overthrow and destruction of

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 191
God's enemies were eagerly dwelt upon. Israel
had no doubt suffered much at the hands of the
Gentile, but in strength and bitterness of feeling
she more than repaid all in kind. The Book of
Esther is one monument of a feeling which grew
with the growth of the later Judaism, and formed
a main characteristic of its life.
To a certain extent this severance was a historic
necessity, and justifiable as an attempt to carry
out the commands of God. These enjoined a
complete separation in spirit from the customs
and religious usages of heathen nations, and this
could hardly have been carried out without a
large measure of actual external separation. But
bitter, narrow, revengeful feeling was by no
means absent. Such a spirit, while natural enough
under the circumstances, was in itself wrong, it
was forbidden in set terms by the Law, and it
helped to prevent the carrying out of the designs
for which the " sanctification " of Israel had been
enjoined. That Israel should be "a third with
Egypt-and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the
earth" (Isa. xix. 23-25), was by no means in
accordance with the mind of the later Judaism
which preferred to dwell upon the "new sharp
threshing-instrument having teeth," with which
the nations were to be scourged. The fierce zeal
which marked the Maccabean period prepared the

192 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
way for the Pharisaism of our Lord's day, and for
the fanaticism which heralded the downfall and
" casting away " of the nation that had failed to
realize God's high purpose for them, and for the
world through their means.
These various shades of feeling towards the
world of surrounding nations find their reflection
in the Psalter. Sometimes the nations are repre
sented as banded together against Jehovah, and
as certain to incur punishment and overthrow.
The 2nd, 9th, 21st, 68th, and many other psalms,
will illustrate this. Sometimes a great ingather
ing of the nations is anticipated, as in the 22nd,
G7th, and 87th Psalms. The last of these gives a
remarkable picture of a great enrolment, in which
the inhabitants of Egypt and Babylon, Tyre and
Philistia, are to have their names registered in
the roll of the citizens of Zion, Jehovah's favourite
abode. In all probability this indicates a feeling
which was more or less prevalent in the time of
Hezekiah. But in some other psalms a very
strong feeling of resentment and antipathy is
expressed. The terrible language concerning
Edom in the 137th Psalm is familiar. One
of the arguments for a Maccabean date for
the 74th and 79th Psalms is drawn from the
character of the national feeling displayed in
them.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 193
"Pour out Thy wrath upon the heathen that know
Thee not,
And on the kingdoms that call not upon Thy
name.
And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their
bosom
Their reproach wherewith they have reproached
Thee, 0 Lord.
So we, Thy people and sheep of Thy pasture,
Will give Thee thanks for ever :
We will show forth Thy praise to all generations."
—(lxxix. 6, 12, 13.)
This brings us to the consideration of a feature
in the Psalms which has always been felt to be
a stumbling-block — the presence of what are
called Imprecatory Psalms, and the frequent
use of language which seems to countenance a
vindictive spirit towards the enemies of Jehovah
and Israel. The attempts which have been made
to explain away the obvious meaning of these
passages have not been successful. In the 109th
Psalm, for example, an old explanation recently
revived is that vers. 6-16 should be understood as
the language of the adversary, the word " saying "
being prefixed to show that the curses pro
ceed from him, not from the servant of Jehovah.
Apart from the anomaly of filling the greater part
of a psalm with another's blasphemies, this device
could be but of very narrow application, and it
does not remove the difficulty. Others have come
13

194 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to the conclusion that only spiritual enemies are
here intended, an interpretation which obviously
fails in almost every case. Others have contended
that the optatives expressing a wish or a prayer
should rather be translated by futures, and the
Psalms understood as prophecies of the calamities
which are sure to come upon the wicked. But
grammar will hardly admit of this, and even if
it did, it would have to be conceded that the
Psalmist se'ems to delight in the prospect which
he so minutely describes. Laying aside, then,
these well-meant but unavailing attempts at
explanation, we are compelled to recognise the
existence of a feature which markedly charac
terises Psalms vii, xxxv., lxix., and cix., and
others in a less degree, that seems to form a blot
upon the fair surface of the Psalter. In order
that our appreciation and enjoyment of the Psalms
be not altogether marred by it, it is needful to
understand the true meaning of this language,
and its place in the whole teaching of Revelation.
Let it be said, in the first place, that the strong
feeling here depicted is not personal, but national.
The fact that an individual speaks, often in the
first person, gives a tone to the language in our
ears which was not intended. Vindictive personal
feeling was directly forbidden by the Law towards
"strangers" as well as towards "neighbours"

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 195
(Lev. xix. 17, 18, 33, 34). The feeling towards
Edom in the 137th Psalm is clearly national
(ver. 7). If in some instances national dis
tinctions are not referred to, the Israelites who
are denounced are viewed even more directly as
enemies of God. It is a virtue in the eyes of
the writer of the 139th Psalm, who has just been
describing so impressively the omniscience of God,
that he cherishes these feelings of resentment.
" Do not I hate them, Jehovah, that hate Thee ?
Do not I loathe those that rise up against Thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred,
I count them mine enemies." — (cxxxix. 21, 22.)
This close identification of the speaker with the
cause of God is only intelligible when we bear in
mind what has been said in the earlier part of
this chapter. It is perfectly true that the enemies
of Israel were the enemies of Israel's God, and that
a prophet or psalmist speaking not of his personal
and private feelings, but in the name of the com
munity, might desire and pray for their utter
overthrow. As the 83rd Psalm expresses it,
" They have said, Come, let us cut them off from
being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no
more in remembrance. . . . Against Thee do they
make a covenant. 0, my God, make them like
whirling dust, like stubble before the wind."
It may be said, however, that it is not a

196 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
spiritual, but a material overthrow that is desired.
The reply is obvious, that under the Jewish dis
pensation, and by reason of the very conditions
of the conflict, a purely spiritual overthrow was
inconceivable. No revelation of a future life and
future judgment had been given. Retribution
must be inflicted in this life, or not at all.
Judgment was imperatively called for, none can
deny this; in what other way was it to be
manifested? But it is said further that the
language used in many cases is unnecessarily
severe and even repulsive. Something may be
allowed for the manners and habits of the time ;
something for the idea that the Psalmist con
templates the completeness of the deliverance
achieved, rather than the greatness of the suffering
inflicted; something for the fact that we invol
untarily read a deeper meaning into some of the
harsh phrases used than was intended : and it
must be added that in some of the very psalms
complained of there is evidence of the existence
of lofty and unselfish thoughts (vii 3-5, xxxv.
13, 14, cix. 4, 5), which shut out the possibility
of the Psalmist's entertaining merely cruel and
savage feelings in his breast.
But when all this has been said, it remains that
the language spoken of cannot be justified in the
light of later revelation. It is not certain that

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. itf
all of it can be justified according to the standard
of the Old Testament. Here and there personal
feelings may have alloyed the purer zeal for God's
cause, or in the phrases used a tone more severe
and bitter than even under the circumstances was
warrantable may be detected. But the main
answer to objections is that in the education of
the human race and the development of Divine
purposes by stages, a state of things was permitted
by Providence confessedly imperfect and unsatis
factory, which must be condemned in the light of
the higher and purer law of Christ. When James
and John desired to call down fire from heaven
upon the Samaritan village which refused to
receive Christ, they exhibited the very spirit of
these psalms. It was not personally vindictive,
but it indicated a state of mind which it was one
of Christ's main objects to supersede by one better
and nobler. For a time it might seem almost to
be necessary that the victories of truth should be
won through war and bloodshed; and for the
hardness of men's hearts, the lower standard
needed to be enforced before the higher could
be reached. But " among you it shall not be so " ;
and those who would be true children of the
Father in heaven have a higher lesson to learn
than even the Psalms can teach, one which in
eighteen hundred years has been imperfectly

193 ' - THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
apprehended, and is far indeed from being learned
yet. Let it not be supposed, however, that Christians
can afford to look down with anything of Pharisaic
contempt upon the low standard of morality of
benighted psalmists. The feeling which prompted
the Imprecatory Psalms was not a lofty one ;
when compared with the teaching of the Lord
Jesus Christ, it is low and narrow. But it is not
wicked. It contains the saving salt of great moral
earnestness and zeal for the right at all costs.
This is not a feeling that any generation can
afford to disparage. It is by no means too
common to-day. The moral languor and laxity
which goes by the name of "toleration," may be
less acceptable in the sight of God, and less
beneficial in the history of men, than the fierce
feeling which stirs the whole soul to resentment
at the sight of successful wrong-doing. It cannot
be right now to wish that evil-doers should be "cut
off" in the literal sense of the word; we wish
rather that they may have full time for repent
ance. But the Psalmist who, two thousand five
hundred years ago, prayed that God would destroy
the wicked men who were hindering the truth
and oppressing the righteous, stands in relation
to his times only where one apostle of Christ stood
for a later generation when he wrote, "Abhor that

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. 1-99
which is evil, cleave to that which is good"; and
where another stood when he said, Such a man
"receive not into your house, neither bid him
God speed : for he that biddeth him God speed is
partaker of his evil deeds." It may not be an
easy thing to "hate the sin with all the heart,
and yet the sinner love." But the difficulty is
certainly not met by the moral inertia which
professes to do both, but in reality does neither.
Dante, says Browning, "Loved well because he hated,
Hated the wickedness that hinders loving."
This is the only sense in which the Christian
can adopt the language of the Psalmist who calls
for Divine vengeance upon his enemies. If here
and there the language appears to indicate that a
personal and less worthy feeling has mingled with
the higher and purer, let it be remembered, not
in excuse but in extenuation, that, to be rightly
understood, words should be read as they were
written. In times of cruel oppression, when the
saints of God have been driven from their homes,
hunted, harried and exiled, robbed and imprisoned,
tortured and slain, the language which proves
such an offence to those who worship in cushioned
pews, has been rightly entered into and under
stood. Such psalms have been dear to Huguenots,

200 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Camisards, and Covenanters. English Christians
for the most part echoed, not condemned, Milton's
indignant denunciation of " the late massacre in
Piedmont," " Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ! "
It is said that the very error of the Puritans was
that their spirit savoured more of the Old Testa
ment than the New. But both in the Psalmist
and the Puritan there burned the flame of a
passion for righteousness which in an evil world
is always needed, and must never be suffered to
die out. It will burn all the more clearly and
ardently when it is no longer obscured by the
acrid smoke of desire for personal vengeance, or a
zeal in which the fierceness of man is at least as
prominent as desire for the glory of God. In this
as in much else, the very excellence of the Psalms
points us to a still more excellent way. The
child thinks as a child, feels as a child, speaks as
a child, but " when that which is perfect is come,
that which is in part shall be done away." The
only perfectly righteous Spirit that ever was
clothed with mortal flesh is the only one in which
love for sinners and patience with them has had
its consummate and perfect work.

CHAPTER VIIL
THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST — I. THE
PERSON OF THE SAVIOUR.
IT may perhaps seem strange that little or no
reference has thus far been made to the
New Testament, and the place which the Psalms
occupy in a Christian's Bible. This method,
however, has been purposely pursued. Whilst
for the purposes of edification, it is important to
put in the forefront the Christian aspects of Old
Testament truth; for the purposes of study, it
is necessary first to understand the Old Testament
books themselves, and afterwards to examine into
the relation of each to the whole of Revelation.
We gain nothing by confusing prophecy with
fulfilment, type with antitype, and reading New
Testament thoughts into Old Testament utter
ances. If we begin with the Christian standpoint,
or try to occupy it simultaneously with the his
torical, we fail to apprehend the true meaning of
history, the true nature of prophecy, and the true
201

202 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
significance of the course through which the
Divine education of the race is carried on. To
the Christian, however, the subject of this chapter,
at length reached in what is seen to be its true
order, is of primary importance and of specially
sacred interest.
The method of the early Christian Fathers —
and within certain limits the traditional method
of the whole Church Catholic for many centuries
— was to treat the whole Psalter as Messianic,
and make Christ the subject of every psalm.'
They " found Christ everywhere " in the Psalms,
in the sense that in every psalm the Spirit of
Christ was understood to be the speaker, human
individuality not being indeed entirely excluded,
but overruled, so that the true meaning of every
verse was primarily Christian. The method of
Augustine was to interpret each psalm — (1) Of
Christ the Head ; (2) of the whole Christ, in
cluding the Church His body ; (3) of the private
Christian. The 3rd Psalm may be taken as an
illustration. The 5th verse, " I laid me down and
slept: I awaked, for the Lord sustaineth me,"
was understood of Christ's death and resurrec
tion, not only by Augustine, but by Aquinas
representing the whole mediaeval period, by Bede,
Bonaventura, and very emphatically by Luther.
He refuses to admit an historical interpretation,

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 203
and comments on the Hebrew of "I awaked,"
saying that the word means "I roused myself,"
and could only properly apply to our Lord's
resurrection. In the case of the 34th Psalm,
Augustine tells us that the true meaning of
" David changed his behaviour before Abimelech "
is that the true David came in a way that was
not expected before " the kingdom of His Father "
(so Abimelech is incorrectly translated), that is, the
Jews. A later writer improves upon this by say
ing that our Lord has done this twice, once for all
in the Incarnation, and again from time to time
in the Holy Eucharist. Chrysostom says that the
38th Psalm, which speaks of sickness and death,
and the corruption of the sufferer's wounds, is to
be understood of Christ's Passion, Death, and
Burial. Cassiodorus, who interprets viii 6 of the
dominion of Christ, finds in the " sheep " of verse
7 those whose business in Christ's Church is not
to teach, but to learn, and in the " oxen " those
who labour in the word and doctrine, while the
" fowls of the air " are the saints who rise above
the world, and the fishes are ordinary Christians
born of water and the Holy Ghost ! l
We smile at such exaggerations, but it must
1 Almost any number of such illustrations may be gathered
from the Commentary on the Psalms, collected by Drs. Neale
and Littledale from primitive and mediaeval writers.

204 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
be borne in mind that the same principle of in
terpretation is still maintained by devout writers
of various schools, including such universally
respected divines as Bishops Wordsworth and
Alexander on the one hand, and Mr. Spurgeon on
the other. Modern writers avoid the more extreme
applications of the principle, but they find the
main current of teaching throughout the Psalter
to be Christian, and delight chiefly in mystical in
terpretations, whilst those who insist upon a more
literal treatment are apt to be styled shallow,
cold, unfruitful, and " rationalistic." The Speaker's
Commentary, for example, closes its Introduction
with these words : " The Psalter emptied of
Christ would still be a collection of lyrical poems
of admirable beauty, breathing a pure and lofty
devotion, representing in vivid colours the events
and persons of the most remarkable people in the
world's history. . . . But to the Christian as such,
it would have no voice, no meaning." J No true
Christian interpreter is likely wittingly to " empty
the Psalms of Christ." But it becomes very im
portant to know in what sense Christ fills them.
Many of this school do not hesitate to ascribe
to our Lord language in which the Psalmist
humbly confesses his sins, interpreting the words
of Christ as the great Sin-bearer of the world.
1 Vol. iv. p. 168.

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 205
Nay, Bishop Alexander even ventures to put the
strongest language of the Imprecatory Psalms into
the lips of our blessed Saviour, holding that as
spoken by Him such words "are Divine; they
belong to Him in whose hands are life and death ;
the load is lifted off and laid upon One whose
love is strong enough to bear the burden of their
reproach." x Is this a legitimate way of dealing
with the " load " which the apparently vindictive
character of some psalms imposes? Surely the
load laid upon faith by such a supposition is made
tenfold greater.
On the other hand, in opposition to the extreme
views of this devout but mistaken school, many
modern writers seek to exclude from the Psalter
all reference to the New Testament. For them
the Psalms become a number of highly interesting
fragments, illustrating the religion of the Hebrews
at a period which historical science must deter
mine. Either expressly or tacitly they exclude
all consideration of supernatural influence ; either
explicitly or implicitly they deny the reality of
prophecy. They find in the Psalms the expression
in various forms of national hopes, some of which
were never realized in any form, others of which
were realized, but in a remote and unexpected
way, in the abolition of Judaism and the found-
1 Witness of the Psalms to Christ, pp. 40 and 48.

206 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
ing of Christianity upon its ruins. Whilst Bishop
Alexander as Bampton Lecturer for 1876 laid
down the high doctrine we have just quoted, Canon
Cheyne, when filling the same office in 1889,
hardly admits the application of the term
Messianic even to a few psalms, adding that they
are so only in a sense which is "psychologically
justifiable," and that in his opinion they are
"neither typically, nor in the ordinary sense,
prophetically Messianic." 1 The phrase " psycho
logically justifiable " is apt to mean only that
which can be justified by our ideas of psychology
and the ordinary workings of the human mind,
and so shuts out the possibility of inspiration as
a power to lift man above himself. And if we
shut out type and shut out prophecy from the
Psalms, what of Christ remains ?
Are these, then, the only alternatives before
us ? Either to strain the meaning of language in
order to read a New Testament meaning into Old
Testament words, or to shut out all connection
between the Psalms and Christianity except such
as may be traced in a parallel between certain
Jewish ideas of the second century before Christ
and the language of the New Testament ? Must
we choose between being irrational and rational
istic ? Hardly. A sound method of interpretation
1 Origin of the Psalter, p. 340.

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 207
bids us in the first instance examine each psalm
in itself, interpreting its meaning as we would
that of any other document written at a given
period and for a given purpose. The first question
to be asked is, What did the Psalmist mean, and
what would be understood from his words by
those amongst whom they circulated and by whom
they were sung? A second and quite distinct
question is, What did the Spirit of God mean, who
guided these men to write thus and thus at a
certain period of time, and so to take their part
in the whole history of Revelation ? Only when
the revelation is completed can the position and
function of each part of the record be properly
understood. We must distinguish between inter
pretation and application. The meaning of the
words themselves is one thing, an application of
them, which may well be larger and fuller, wider
and deeper than the original utterance, is quite
another. The Divine meaning will appear none
the less clearly and impressively if we deal with
the historical meaning first. An attempt to
anticipate the times and seasons of revelation
does not honour God, and confuses our under
standing of Scripture.
We cannot be better guided in this matter than
by turning to the New Testament. A large
number of quotations from the Psalms are found

2p8 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
in it, and our Lord Himself and His apostles will
prove our best teachers. We have Christ's own
words to show us that there is a witness to Him
self of some kind in the Psalter, for He had been
in the habit of telling His disciples that "all
things must be fulfilled which were written in . . .
the Psalms concerning me " (Luke xxiv. 44). In
the course of His ministry on several occasions
He made references to the Psalms as well as to
other portions of the Old Testament; the evan
gelists do the same, and the apostles, both in
sermons and epistles, freely follow His example.
Now, in examining these quotations, we find that
the sacred writers never enter upon historical, or
what is now called critical discussion. That did
not come within their scope, and would not have
helped the great purpose they had in view. The
Psalms are not quoted as " documents " ; there is
no inquiry as to their authorship; enough that
they form part of a sacred book, to which appeal
was wont to be made, whose authority was undis
puted by those immediately addressed. Further,
the passages quoted are adduced for the sake of
the subject-matter, and in their bearing upon
some facts or truths of the gospel as the message
of salvation to men. In nearly all instances some
fresh light is shed upon the Old Testament text,
or some fuller exposition of it becomes possible

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 209
in view of that new Christian revelation which it
was their main business to unfold.
So it was with our Lord's reference to "the
stone which the builders rejected " (Matt, xxi 42 ;
cf. Ps. cxviii. 22), in which He was followed often
by His apostles (Acts iv. 11, 1 Pet. ii. 6, etc.);
so with the disciples when on the occasion of the
cleansing of the temple, they "remembered that
it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath
eaten me up " (John ii. 17, Ps. Ixix. 9) ; and so
with the evangelist St. Matthew, who, in view of
Christ's frequent use of parables, says He so spoke
" that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in
parables" (Matt. xiii. 35, Ps. Ixxviii 2). The
expression "that it might be fulfilled" was, it
must be borne in mind, a common formula of
quotation from Scripture amongst the Jews, by
no means always applied to what we call the
fulfilment of prophecy, and it is often used where
an Old Testament passage receives a larger and
deeper illustration from some event or teaching
in the New. The relation subsisting between
such passages is various, and cannot be reduced
to a few rules, but there are some leading prin
ciples which it is easy to perceive and bear in
mind. Sometimes we find in the Old Testament a
14

210 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
direct prophecy of New Testament times, implying
no reference at all to the immediate circumstances
of the prophet's own time, but immediately antici
pating the promised glories of a new age. Some
times the relation is one of type and antitype,
which implies a primary reference in psalm or
prophecy to the historical circumstances of the
time in which it was composed, but also an
indirect reference to Christ, inasmuch as the
whole Jewish dispensation was in a sense typical
and preparatory, ordained by God's providence
to make ready for the " bringing in of a better
hope." In the latter case there seems to be
implied what has been called a " double sense " in
the words used, one having reference to the earlier
and the other to the later dispensation. The
phrase is a natural, but not a happy one. Pro
perly speaking, there can be but one meaning to
any sentence, and what is intended by this some
what ambiguous phrase is that an application of
the words transcending their obvious meaning as
traced out by critical and historical exposition,
may very justly be given to many passages of the
Old Testament. Yet this higher meaning is not
arbitrarily superinduced ; it rests upon the histori
cal meaning and arises out of it. It rests upon
no " allegorical " system of interpretation, such as
Jewish Kabbalists and Christian mystics have

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 211
drawn from the text of Scripture, and by means
of which any words might be clothed with almost
any conceivable meaning. The deeper meaning
of the Old Testament passage rests upon the fact
that there is a close relation between the Old
and New Covenants, so ordered, that the Divine
thoughts which were revealed but dimly and
imperfectly to the Old Testament saints were at
last fully and clearly made known in Christ. In
Him is the goal of all the Old Testament history,
the explanation of Old Testament problems, the
culmination of Old Testament hopes and aspira
tions. Hence, while there is but one meaning to
the words as they stand, which it should be the
business of the interpreter first clearly to ascer
tain, a far larger and more complete realization of
them is constantly to be found in Christ and the
kingdom which He, according to promise, came
to set up on earth. Augustine's saying that " The
Old Testament is patent in the New, the New is
latent in the Old," must not be understood to
mean that the teaching of the New Testament is
in some mystical, indefinable way wrapped up in
the phraseology of the Old, but that the same
principles are operative in both Covenants, while
what is dark, vague, and incomplete in the earlier
becomes in the later dispensation bright, clear, con
summate, and final A writer who is by no means

212 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
disposed to favour what is super-naturalistic says:
"There is positively not one New Testament
idea that cannot he conclusively shown to be a
healthy and natural product of some Old Testa
ment germ, nor any truly Old Testament idea
which did not instinctively press towards its
New Testament fulfilment."1 But it is in the
study of the fully developed plant, not in the
examination of the seed, that we come to under
stand the construction and significance of the
seed itself.
This perhaps needlessly long explanation pre
pares us to approach the study of what are called
Messianic psalms from a right point of view. The
Psalms are not primarily prophetic, though they
contain a prophetic element. We must not look
in them, however, for a mention of the "Messiah"
by name. The word is not used in the Old
Testament — with the doubtful exception of the
difficult passage, Daniel ix. 25, 26 — in the accepta
tion current in later days. It is used of David
and his successors, "Jehovah's Anointed One,"
and even of Cyrus in Isaiah xlv. 1, but it is not
found in the canonical Scriptures as a recognized
name of the coming Saviour. In the " Psalms of
Solomon," on the other hand, we find not only the
expression "all shall be holy, and their King is
1 Schultz, Old Testament Theology, vol. i. p. 52.

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 213
the Lord Messiah," 1 but a full description of the
character and work of the expected King. In
the Psalter the testimony is not definite and
explicit, but it is real, pervasive, and in a few
passages very striking. Different methods of
arranging and classifying the passages which
directly or indirectly refer to Christ have been
adopted by scholars. Delitzsch divides them into
five classes, the directly eschatological, the typical
Messianic, the typico - prophetical, and some
others. Bishop Alexander speaks of (1) the
subjectively Messianic, (2) the objectively Messi
anic, and (3) the ideal Messianic psalms.
Discarding as far as possible all technical
phraseology, we may say at once that it does
not appear to us that there are any psalms of
Bishop Alexander's first class,2 i.e. in which the
suffering or glorified Saviour is Himself the
speaker. There is no warrant for assuming,
without very strong evidence, that any psalmist
was so carried out of himself by the Spirit that
his own individuality was lost, and the words
1 xvii. 36. Many hold, however, that ~s.fntrh Kupms is a mis
translation of the original Hebrew. See Ryle and James,
p. 142.
2 Including " the 16th, 22nd, 40th, 69th, and perhaps the
109th. Many others, pre-eminently xxiii. , xxviii. , xxx. , xxxv. ,
Ixxi., cxx., cxlii., have been generally received by the Church
in this sense until recent times. " Op. cit. p. 34.

214 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
spoken through him are to be understood as in
reality the language of Christ Himself. Many
scholars of high rank and devout spirit have
gone so far as to deny the existence of " object
ively Messianic '' psalms, i.e. psalms in which the
Lord Jesus Christ is directly referred to in the
spirit of prophecy. There is, however, at least
one psalm in which this view appears to give
the only satisfactory explanation of the words,
the primary thought of the Psalmist being
concerned not with the present but the far future.
There are several more in which the primary
reference of the Psalmist is to David or one of
his successors, or to some event of Jewish history,
but which contain higher flights of anticipation,
couched in language that could not be intended
for a mere monarch of Israel. And there is a
still larger class which may well receive a
Messianic or Christian application, since they
are written in an idealizing strain, and the true
goal of all the hopes of Israel and of mankind
is to be found in Christ and His kingdom, to
which psalmists and prophets dimly looked for
ward, and for which they were for the most part
unconsciously preparing the way.
It will be impossible to do more than examine
a few of the psalms, to show the general nature
of the testimony to Christ which many offer, and

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 215
the way in which these should be understood by
the devout Christian.
Foremost on many grounds stands Psalm ex.,
chiefly because of our Lord's own use of it in
argument with the Jews of His day. And first
let it be said, that whilst of course as Christians
we accept at once as final every declaration of
our Lord where He explicitly pronounces upon
a question, the colloquy recorded in Matthew
xxii. 41-45 does not necessarily imply, as at first
it may seem to do, that Christ gives the sanction
of His authority to the Davidic authorship of the .
psalm. It was enough for His purpose that
those whom He addressed believed the psalm to
be written by David,1 and of the Messiah, and
His probing question — which neither in form nor
in substance is an argument — seems intended
to arouse the Pharisees and the multitudes to
consider the real character of the Christ as
portrayed by their own sacred Scriptures. " The
inspired psalmist," so He would say to them,
"attributes to the Christ for whom you are look
ing a far higher position than that of David's son,
a mere prince of Israel, who, as you suppose, will
establish a kingdom on earth like that of David,
enlarged and glorified. If a sacred writer, under
1 "In the New Testament 'Hymn of David' and 'Psalm'
are synonymous terms." — Delitzsch, i. 117.

216 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
the influence of the Spirit, can speak, according
to your own admission, of the Christ as David's
Lord, sitting at Jehovah's right hand and ruling
for ever as an exalted Priest-King, how comes it
that you are still looking for a mere son of David,
one who might fulfil in an earthly and material
sense the promises given to David's house in 2
Samuel vii ? " Christ may have meant no more
than this, just as in addressing the young ruler
He said, " Why callest thou me good ? There is
none good save one, that is God," without thereby
disclaiming Divinity for Himself.1
So much it seemed desirable to say, lest the
Davidic authorship of Psalm ex. should be
considered as a kind of article of faith, to give
up which implies either disowning our Lord's
authority, or questioning His accuracy or know
ledge. But it is undeniable that the words as
they stand do apparently point to a Davidic
authorship and a direct Messianic reference for
this psalm. And, quite apart from New Testa
ment considerations, there is not in the whole
Psalter one psalm the internal evidence of which
so strongly favours an immediate reference to the
1 This view is held by a number of orthodox writers, amongst
whom may be mentioned Neander, Orelli, the late Bishop
Thirlwall, Mr. Gore (Bampton Lecture, p. 136), and Dr.
Milligan {Thinker, vol. iii. p. 502.)

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 217
Messiah as the one before us. By several high
authorities it is regarded as the only psalm of
this kind. It opens thus, —
" Oracle of Jehovah to my Lord :
Sit Thou enthroned at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies a stool for Thy feet.
Jehovah shall stretch forth the rod of Thy strength
out of Zion :
Rule Thou in the midst of Thy foes 1
Thy people are a willing sacrifice on Thy muster-day ;
In holy apparel, [like] dew from the womb of the
morning,
Thy young men [gather] to Thee."
Now, whether this were written by David him
self, or by Nathan„ or other poet-seer of an early
age, it must be regarded as a distinct prophecy.
If language and style mean anything, it bears the
marks of high antiquity. It contains not the
mere expression of a Psalmist's hopes, but a
direct message from God. It speaks of the
Conquering King in words which could hardly
have been suggested by any but the Davidic
monarchy, yet which pass far beyond even the
ideal conceptions of that monarchy. This Anointed
One is to take his seat by the very side of Jehovah,
sharing His glory, and triumphing over all enemies.
His people are to offer a willing service ; the young
men, bright in holy, festal attire, and countless as
the drops of dew in the early dawn, are devoted

218 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to him. But this monarch is to be a priest, and
of no transient Aaronic type. Religious as well
as secular supremacy is to be his. Conflict will
be necessary before the final victory is won, but
God Himself fights by his side, and the battle in
which the Conquering Hero shares the toil and
fatigue with his soldiers, drinking refreshment
from the wayside stream, will be crowned with
ultimate and abiding triumph.
Surely a remarkable utterance this, even
amongst the roll of prophecies delivered by
inspired seers. How impossible, it might well
have been said, that the various elements in such
a forecast should meet in the person of any son
of David. How strikingly they find their meet
ing-place in the Person of David's Son and Lord,
Priest-King over an abiding kingdom with an
unfailing priesthood, man with men in their toil
and battle, God with God in His majesty and
glory, there is no need at length to describe. If
prophecy be altogether a dream and illusion, this
must be counted such ; but if ever the Spirit of
God lifted a seer of old time above not only the
facts but even the hopes and expectations of his
age, giving him a vision of One whose true glory
he himself could not understand, it was in the
case of the writer of the 110th Psalm. If the
Psalter contained no further witness to Christ

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 219
than these few lines furnish, its testimony would
be distinguished and memorable.
The distinction between psalms which are
directly and those which are typically Messianic,
depends upon the degree in which we can distin
guish between words which speak directly and
'expressly of a coming King,, transcending any
actual son of David, and words which view the
future only through the medium of the existing
monarchy, idealized and glorified. Such a dis
tinction is obviously a very fine one, and it is not
to be wondered at if sometimes it is impossible to
observe it. In the psalms next to be examined
the best commentators differ as to the most
appropriate designation; the majority, however,
regarding them as typical, rather than directly
prophetic. The 2nd Psalm is one of the most striking of
these. Happily the abiding value of the psalm
does not depend upon our being able to fix the
time and circumstances of its composition. In
the New Testament it is spoken of as Davidic,
and it is not easy to find any period of Israelitish
history to which the words would be more appro
priate. But, as matter of fact, the psalm is most
easily interpreted if we understand that the Mes
sianic King is contemplated from the outset. In
any case the earthly type is very slightly adverted

220 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to, and the Psalmist portrays with bold strokes,
and, as it would seem, by means of direct pro
phetic vision, a picture of the triumphs of that
scion of David's house to whom the promises of
2 Samuel vii. were given. If Psalm ex. depicts
the glory of the King who was also a Priest, this
describes the glory of the King who was emphati
cally a Son of God. Its dramatic force is obvious.
The scene opens upon a vast crowd of angry and
excited peoples, eagerly massing themselves to
gether in revolt, under the proud leadership of
" the world-rulers of this darkness," taking bold
and hurried counsel together against Jehovah and
the King who is one with Him, —
" Why do the nations tumultuously throng together,
And the peoples meditate — vanity ?
The kings of the earth take their stand,
And the rulers take counsel together
Against Jehovah and His anointed — (saying),
Let us rend asunder their bonds,
Oast from us their cords.
He who sitteth throned in the heavens laughs,
The Lord derides them."
The rage of the revolting peoples is like the roar
of the gathering storm. But like a single flash
of lightning from above comes the terrible line
describing the laugh of the Almighty, the Divine
irony with which the senseless and impotent

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 221
raging of a whole world of nations is regarded,
when they set themselves in puny rebellion
against Him who rules above. His simple word
is enough ; it will stand in calm and unmoved
strength against all the fury, all the counsel, all
the passionate resolve of the rulers and their
assembled peoples, —
"But I— I have established My King
Upon Zion, my holy mountain."
[The King speaks :]
" I will announce the decree :
Jehovah said unto me, Thou art My Son,
This day have I begotten Thee."
This keynote of Sonship prevails to the close.
Victory is assured through the might of Jehovah
solemnly pledged to the King, whose dignity and
sovereignty depend on this, that He is God's Son
and vicegerent. Lordship of the whole earth is
to follow, and the kings of this world are warned
to be wise in time, to bow down in homage before
the Ruler who represents Jehovah, no less terrible
to His enemies than gracious and benign to all
who " take refuge in Him."
That the writer of this psalm did not even
glance at the position of the earthly king of
Israel, to whom the glorious promises of 2 Samuel
vii. had been given, is incredible. But it is

222 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
barely a glance that he gives. The field of the
picture is occupied by another figure. This figure
is wholly unlike even the best of the actual kings
of Israel and Judah. Some of these possessed a
measure of excellence ; but the kind of excellence
here described transcends their very aim and
ideal. It is the picture of a king who is a true
Son of God, marked out as such upon a definite
occasion, " a Messianic birthday," when the dignity
of Son was either for the first time conferred, or
first revealed and understood, or first openly
realized. What wonder that St. Paul, in his
sermon in the synagogue at Antioch, and in
writing to the Christians of Rome, saw in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that
great To-day in which the true Son of God was
declared to be such with power ; that the writer
of the Epistle to the Hebrews exclaims: "To
which of the angels said He at any time, Thou
art My Son, this day I have begotten Thee ? " and
that Peter and John, when threatened by the
rulers, rallied their confidence, and poured out
their hearts in prayer to that God against whose
Son Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and
the peoples of Israel, had gathered together in
vain, seeing that Jehovah's decree had been
authoritatively pronounced concerning Him, and
assurance of this had been given to all men, in

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 223
that God had raised Him from the dead ? The
2nd Psalm takes its rank as witness side by side
with a well-known prophecy of Isaiah. Even the
rebellious nations and kings are bidden to rejoice
together, though with reverence and holy awe,
because " Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
is given • and the government shall be upon His
shoulder." In two other psalms the figure of the earthly
monarch is more clearly visible. In the 45th
Psalm the events of his life, his marriage, pomp,
and posterity, are depicted ; in the 72nd the grace
and beneficence of his extensive sway; but in
both there is the idealizing touch which shows
that whatever royal personage was in the first
instance thought of, he was not viewed in and of
himself. He possesses a dignity not his own ; he
is representative of a Royalty such as neither
Israel nor any earthly nation had ever seen, such
as Promise had pictured, and devout Hope might
long for, but one upon which the poor reality fur
nished only a sad and ironical commentary. To put
the marriage of Solomon with Hiram's daughter,
or that of Joram of Judah with Athaliah of Israel,
side by side with the epithakmium of the 45th
Psalm is to indulge in a kind of mockery of Israel's
greatness. The picture of Solomon's self-indul
gence with his many wives and concubines, or

224 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
scenes descriptive of the Baal-worship which
Athaliah introduced into Judah, or a representa
tion of her wholesale massacre of the princes of
the royal house, would form a dark foil to the
gracious words of the 45th Psalm. The title, " To
Solomon," inscribed before the 72nd Psalm breathes
the very irony of history. If these psalms did
nothing else, they would suggest the crying need
of another kind of kingship than that which Israel
and Judah knew, even in their best days; and
happily, they do much more. Prayers or devout
forecasts in their form, both are, in the light of
the future as Christians can see it, prophecies
and witnesses before the time. There is no need
to strain the laws of exegesis in order to obtain
from these psalms a real testimony to Christ.
Psalm xlv. 6 has often been quoted as a proof
from the Old Testament of the Divinity of Christ,
and the Revisers have been censured for admit
ting into their margin a rendering which seems to
cast doubt upon this. The language of the verse,
if the text be sound, is indeed peculiar. Either
(1) the word Elohim is to be understood as a
vocative, which is the simplest grammatical con
struction and the ordinary translation adopted —
" Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever." But
in this case either (a) a direct address to Jehovah
is intended, which is very unlikely; or (6) the

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 225
king is addressed as God in one line, while in the
next we read of " God, thy God," which, as Bishop
Westcott says in his note on Hebrews i 8, is
scarcely possible ; or (c) Elohim must be used in
a secondary sense, and illustrated by such passages
as Exodus xxi 6, xxii. 8, and Psalm Ixxxii, a view
which Delitzsch and Perowne appear to favour.
Or (2) another construction must be found for
Elohim. We need not recapitulate those which
have been suggested, and each of them is open to
objection. A large proportion of modern scholars,
however, are convinced either that the text must
be faulty or that one of these constructions must
be adopted, so that the meaning would be as given
in R.V. margin, —
" Thy throne is a throne of God for ever and ever,
A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of thy kingdom."
In any case this verse remains as a witness in some
sense to Christ. Whether the person or the throne
be spoken of as divine, and whatever the precise
sense of " divine " be determined to be, an ideal
king and kingship are here described, immeasur
ably above the highest attainments of Israelitish
kings, but realized in a remarkable way in the
Lord Jesus Christ. His own argument in John
x. 34-36 concerning the judges who were called
Elohim, but who proved such inadequate vice-
15

226 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
gerents of God, might well be applied to the 45th
as it actually was to the 82nd Psalm.
Psalm lxxii. is part prayer, part prediction.
How much of it the petitioner ever expected to
see realized in the monarch for whom he prayed,
it would be hard to say. As we read, it seems as
if the Psalmist had entirely forgotten the king
and the king's son with whom he began, and
though he does not soar so far above earth as the
writers of the 2nd and 110th Psalms, "the light
that never was on sea or land " illumines his whole
picture. The witness to Christ here is the witness
of need, of longing, of ardent hope, rising at last
into confident expectation and assured proclama
tion. Such a King man needs and eagerly desires ;
may He come ; — He will come ; — He is coming !
" May abundance of corn be in the land,
On the top of the mountains may it wave ;
It shall rustle with its fruit like Lebanon,
And the people out of the city shall bloom like grass
of the earth.
Let His name abide for ever ;
As long as the sun let His name sprout forth.
And men shall be blessed in Him,
All nations shall call Him happy."
Where more suitably than after such words as
these could come the doxology to Him " who alone

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 227
doeth wondrous things " ? Where except in the
kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be found
such a monarch and such an empire ?
Another note, however, is struck in other psalms.
It may not seem very remarkable that a Hebrew
poet and patriot should pray for his king, and
launch forth into anticipations of royal greatness
only equalled by royal beneficence, using the
hyperbole which is permitted to all poets laureate,
and which finds its home in the current language
of the East. Even so, it would not be difficult to
show how high the 72nd Psalm soars above the
highest flights of uninspired imagination when
inditing royal odes. But the music of the Psalter
contains other strains, unlike those of court musi
cians. Regal psalms stand side by side with
Passion-psalms. These latter seem to descend as
much lower than the depths of ordinary human
suffering as those rise above the summits of human
glory. The 22nd Psalm is ascribed in the title
" to David," but it is difficult to believe that David
wrote it, and in all probability it dates from the
time of Jeremiah or the Exile. The language is
personal in the sense that the speaker himself
•keenly feels the pangs which language seems
hardly strong enough to describe. At the same
time it is representative, it cannot be bounded by
the limits of a mere individual life, a solitary

228 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
human heart. He who wrestles with his pain,
and cries aloud in agony to the God who seems
to have forgotten him, cries out from the depths
of no mere individual grief. The words remind us
of the unspeakable sorrows of the Lamentations.
There is the same bold impersonation, the same
vivid representation of actual physical sufferings,
and the use of no less vivid figures to image forth
the still more poignant sorrows of the heart. The
speaker is scorned, mocked, threatened, persecuted,
tortured, till he stands alone, an emaciated skeleton,
amongst cruel foes hungering for his death. Yet
such is his confidence in God that already the voice
of thanksgiving breaks forth from his parched lips
and stiffened tongue. God, who may appear to
have forsaken His servant, has " not despised nor
abhorred his affliction." Not only will he himself
be delivered, and the congregation of the faithful
give thanks, but all nations shall hear, and fear,
and turn to the Lord, generation after generation
shall pay their tribute to the God of his salvation.
A sufferer who descends to such depths of misery,
whose inmost heart vibrates with music of such
piercing intensity, yet whose confidence in God
is so invincible, whose triumph even in the midst
of anguish is so complete, and who anticipates,
not merely personal and national deliverance, but
a universal chorus of the nations to celebrate the

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 229
praises of his Deliverer, is no ordinary man.
Who speaks here, and of whom ?
To Christians this psalm is, sacred ground. The
sign of the Cross is upon it. Its opening words
were uttered by the Saviour of the world, as He
passed into that horror of thick darkness through
which His soul must needs travel who Himself
bore the sins of the whole world. The mockers
who stood around His cross levelled at Him the
taunt of the 8th verse. The 14th and 15th de
scribe, with strange exactitude, the intolerable
thirst of the crucified. The meaning of the 16th
verse is not certain, but the picture of verses
16-18, including the exposure, the painful nailing
of hands and feet, the heartless eagerness of the
persecutors casting lots for his raiment, and cal
lous to his sufferings, could hardly have been
more complete, had it been drawn by one who
stood by the cross of Jesus of Nazareth.1 Some of
the expressions may be considered proverbial, such
as any one suffering extreme outrage might use,
but it is impossible to help seeing in the psalm
a record divinely moulded to set forth, by means
of a prophetic type, the sufferings of Him who
saved others because Himself He would not save.
1 The expression was used more than a thousand years ago :
" Ut non tarn prophetia quam historia videatur." — Cassio-
dokus.

230 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
For if the first twenty verses had stood alone,
it might have been possible to set down these
details as nothing more than a remarkable coin
cidence. But they stand in close connection with
a remarkable passage which anticipates the con
version of nations. True, the connection is not
so clearly marked as in Isaiah liii ; the psalm
does not say in so many words that through the
suffering comes the salvation. But it is irre
sistibly suggested. It trembles as it were upon
the lips of the speaker, and almost escapes him in
the last verse. But at the least it must be said
that this remarkable turning to Jehovah is a
sequence, if not a direct consequence, of the
suffering, faith, and deliverance of him who began
by being God-forsaken and ends by bringing a
world to acknowledge God's righteousness. It is
inevitable that in this case the light of the New
Testament should pierce through the thin veil of
Old Testament form and circumstance, and that
the thought of the unknown psalmist who, amidst
unknown sufferings, thus poured out his soul to
God, should be quite overborne by the thought of
that Sufferer in whom alone these words found
their full meaning and realization. To adapt a
phrase of Bishop Alexander, " the golden key " of
this psalm assuredly " lies in a pierced Hand."
The same cannot, in our judgment, be said of

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 231
another psalm which is often, joined with the
22nd, the 69th. Surely the exegesis must have
a serious flaw in it which puts into the mouth
of the holy Jesus, even as Sin -bearer, the
words, —
" 0 God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
And my trespasses are not hid from Thee."
—(Ixix. 5.)
Equally abhorrent is the thought that He who
on the cross prayed, "Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do," should be supposed
in any remote sense to utter the words, —
" Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not ;
And make their loins continually to shake. . . .
Add iniquity unto their iniquity ;
And let them not come into Thy righteousness.
Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
And not be written with the righteous."
—(Ixix. 23, 27, 28.)
Nothing but an erroneous preconceived theory
could bring any interpreter to such a pass ; it
may serve as a warning to those who unduly
identify the Old Testament with the New Testa
ment standpoint, showing to what straits a mis
taken and violent exegesis may lead. It was
natural that the apostles should recall the words
of the 9th verse of this psalm when Jesus drove
the money-changers from the temple ; it is

232 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
beautifully appropriate that in Handel's passion-
music the 20th verse should express the Saviour's
lonely anguish ; it is inevitable that a Christian,
when he reads the 21st verse, should lift his
eyes to the Sufferer upon Calvary, who drank
indeed of the " vinegar," but would not touch the
anodyne which in deadening pain would confuse
the mind and becloud the spirit. As we read
this 69th Psalm, we do indeed find a number of
scattered links which help to bind Old Testament
and New together, but we find also much that
shows the contrast between the two dispensations.
This psalm is no prophecy. The writer is not
lifted out of "the multitude of his anxious
thoughts within him," though in the midst of
them Divine " comforts delight his soul." Before
the psalm closes, the sufferer for righteousness'
sake obtains a garland instead of ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness. He gladly anticipates the
time when Zion shall be delivered from her
bondage, and the cities of Judah rebuilt, that God
may dwell in them for ever. Glimpses of blessed
ness were granted to this sorely tried servant of
God, but glimpses only. Some light from beyond
shone in upon his soul, but much was as yet
hidden from his eyes.
Of the psalms just passed in review, the 69th

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 233
cannot be termed Messianic, though it contains
some interesting parallels with New Testament
incidents and teaching, as well as many lessons
concerning the suffering servants of God in all
ages. In the 110th certainly, and the 2nd
most probably, we have found psalms of the
prophetic type, which directly contemplate a
Messianic age and the person of a Messianic king.
The 22nd, 45th, and 72nd are not prophetic in
the same sense. They may be termed typically
Messianic, if it is held that they contain anticipa
tions of a coming anointed one, whose special
work in accomplishing God's purposes for His
chosen people, is contemplated only through the
medium of existing circumstances; an actually
reigning king or a severely persecuted servant of-
God. If the 45th and 72nd Psalms, for instance,
merely contain addresses to and prayers for certain
actual rulers, couched in very lofty language, they
cannot be termed Messianic at all. Thus many
scholars regard them ; but we have seen reason to
take a higher view of their meaning, in which
we have the support of the instructive passage,
Hebrews i. 8, 9. The 22nd Psalm, again, we have
classed as typically Messianic, because the writer,
starting from his own personal sorrows, is led by
the Spirit to pass beyond them, and to describe
sufferings and resulting salvation which altogether

234 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
transcend the position of any individual Old Testa
ment saint or even that of the ideal collective
Israel. We are far from having exhausted the witness
of the Psalms to the Person of the coming
Redeemer. But enough has been said to show
the form in which that testimony is given, and
the limits within which it may be legitimately
gathered. It will be convenient to reserve for
another chapter a few more illustrations of
the way in which the Psalter foreshadows
and anticipates the nature of the coming
Redemption.

CHAPTER IX.
THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST —
II. THE COMING SALVATION.
IT would be a mistake to narrow the meaning
of the word " Messianic " to such passages of
Scripture only as contain a more or less explicit
reference to the person of the Messianic King.
It may be applied with perfect propriety to all
that concerns the future kingdom of God, and the
blessings which its coming would bring to God's
people. In the prophecies of the Old Testament
it is often impossible to separate between the
promises which refer to " David's greater Son " in
person, and those which describe the glory and
blessedness of the kingdom He was to establish
on the earth. The psalms which refer to the
personality of the king are comparatively few;
those in which coming salvation is eagerly antici
pated, in which prayer is offered for its speedy
realization, or some aspect of its glories is
described, are many. In addition to the psalms
235

236 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
already enumerated, there are others, like the
89th and 132nd, in which the promises made to
David and his seed are urged as a plea for the
fulfilment of the Divine promises, either in the
restoration of national prosperity or in the build
ing of a house of God in which His presence
might continually be manifested. But the person
of the Messianic King was not so important in
the view of the Israelite, in the period of which
we are speaking, as the Christian naturally
imagines it to be. Christ in Christianity means
infinitely more than Messiah in Judaism. Hence
the Messianic element in the Psalms cannot by
any means be properly understood so long as the
person of the Deliverer only is in question.
The faith of the Jew depended to a very large
degree upon the confident expectation that the
righteousness of God would be manifested by
some striking exhibition of His power, by the
overthrow of the nations with their idolatrous
worship, and the vindication of the faithful,
obedient, and often cruelly oppressed Israel. The
hope of such deliverance was the very stay and
staff of prophets and psalmists and people for
centuries before Christ. The name "Messianic"
kingdom in Ha'Olam habba, the glorious "Coming
Age," is only a name for the time when all
wrongs should be- righted, all evil-doers put to

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 237
shame, and all the ideals of an often disappointed,
but still hopeful nation be at last triumphantly
realized. Now, in Christianity, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the centre of all faith, the goal of all
hopes, the realization of all ideals. Hence, in many
passages of the Old Testament in which there is
no mention of the Messiah, the New Testament
writers, with perfect justice, trace a reference to
the Lord of both covenants.
The 8th Psalm, for example, is not Messianic.
It dwells upon the dignity of man, and the glory
of God, who has put such high honour upon a
creature in himself so frail and unworthy. The
psalm does not pass outside the circle of these
thoughts. But the Psalmist must have felt what
the writer of the Hebrews expresses with so
quiet a pathos, "We see not yet all things put
under him." So far, indeed, from this, that in the
Book of Job the Psalmist's exclamation, " What is
man that Thou shouldest magnify him ? " is
uttered by the sufferer in a tone of bitter irony.
Job would fain God let him alone (vii. 19),
and did not honour him with so much notice.
Despoiled of substance, friends, and health, he did
not find himself in a position to rejoice in the
dignity of man, as head and high priest of
creation, "all things put under his feet." It is
by no forced or arbitrary exposition, therefore, that

238 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
the Epistle to the Hebrews (ii. 6) finds the key
to the realization of the 8th Psalm in " Manhood
crowned in Jesus." We see not yet all things sub
jected to him, " but we behold Him who hath been
made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus,
because of the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honour." Not thus did the Psalmist
anticipate that his words would be realized.
Glory through shame, life through death, — these
thoughts were not familiar to him as they have
become in later days. None the less it is true
that every one who would realize the true glory
and dignity of man as the 8th Psalm described it,
must seek it in the way Jesus the Christ has
marked out once and for ever.
The 16th Psalm lends itself, with some differ
ences, to a similar interpretation. The writer has
been expressing in the strongest terms his joy and
confidence in God. God is his portion and his
stay ; so long as He is at his right hand, he shall
not be moved. This present support leads the
Psalmist to express a confidence with regard to
the future, which goes beyond the actual revela
tion at that time made to Israel. In and beyond
the dark and unknown world of Sheol, God will
preserve him, so that he shall tread the path of
life, enter into fulness of joy, and be satisfied with
pleasures for evermore. The phrase " Thine holy

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 239
[or godly, or beloved] one " is such as we find used
constantly in this book for the Psalmist himself,1
and does not convey the idea suggested by the
printing of " thine Holy One " with capitals in the
Authorised Version. So far, then, we have only
the expression of a pious hope on the part of the
Psalmist. But was it realized ? In one sense,
no. " The patriarch David," as St. Peter reminds
us in his Pentecostal sermon, " both died and was
buried, and his tomb " testified to the fact that he
saw corruption. And yet the words were fulfilled
in a higher and more glorious fashion in David's
Son and Lord, and in and through him to David
himself and all the sons of men. St. Paul in his
sermon at Antioch (Acts xiii. 33) points the same
lesson. David, indeed, " fell on sleep," but, " being
a prophet," his words contain the germ of a higher
truth than he himself could fully understand, one
which was only fully developed in the Resur
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If the
true dignity of man in this life can only be
rightly understood and actually reached through
the Christian redemption, so assuredly have life
and immortality only been fully " brought to life
through the gospel." The hope of the Psalmist
1 See supra, p. 126. The alternative reading in the plural,
"beloved or devoted ones," though not to be accepted, shows
in what sense the words were probably understood at first.

240 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
becomes the faith of the Christian, the confident
assurance of those who behold a Risen Saviour
triumph over death and the grave. The 16th
Psalm contains the seed, the 28th chapter of St.
Matthew the glorious flower, and the 15 th of
1 Corinthians points to the rich and abiding fruit.
As with the individual man, so with the
Church. There are numerous anticipations scat
tered throughout the Psalms of the things that
God has prepared for them that love Him.
" Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of
God." Recent expositors J have shown a disposi
tion to find a Messianic reference in many places
where we have not been accustomed to look for it,
e.g. in the individual Psalmist's prayer for deliver
ance (vii, xxxv., etc.), and in the many songs of
thanksgiving which belong to the worship of the
Church-nation (cxiii, cxxxv., etc.). It is certain
that the psalmists neither knew at what time, nor
in what way, the promised deliverance would
come, and it may well be that the hope of the
coming Golden Age was often with them when
we have not been in the habit of recognising it.
In other cases the hope is clearly expressed, and
the end is that for which Christians also look and
long; the coming salvation is the same, but the
1 For example, Stade, in a paper published in 1892
(Zeitschrift fur Theol. u. Kirche. No. 5).

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 241
method by which it was to be attained was for
the most part hidden from the psalmists' eyes.
The 47th Psalm, for example, is a well-known
hymn of praise in which the triumphs of the
future are represented as if already attained.
" Olap your hands, all ye nations ;
Shout unto God with ringing cries.
For Jehovah is most high and terrible,
A great King over all the earth.
He subdueth the peoples under us,
And nations under our feet.
He chooseth our inheritance for us,
The excellency of Jacob whom He loveth.
God is gone up with a shout,
Jehovah with the sound of the trumpet."- (1-5.)
The psalm has been used for centuries in the
Christian Church as appropriate to Ascension
Day. But it is poor exposition to fasten upon the
phrase " gone up," and leap to the conclusion that
in the going up of God's presence, as represented by
the ark going up to Jerusalem, there is a prophetic
reference to the Ascension of our Lord.1 The 5th
verse, in all probability, represents by a bold
figure the return of God to the heaven from
which He had descended to achieve a great victory
for Israel All that the psalm, as it stands, does,
1 So Bossuet : " Asoendit Deus ; ascendit Area prophetice ;
ascendit Christus in cceluin." Quoted by Wordsworth in loco.
16

242 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
is to celebrate in unusually triumphant notes this
victory — perhaps over Sennacherib, see Pss. xlvi.
and xlviii. — as a pledge that Israel's God will
triumph at last over all nations. In the exultant
figure of the last verse, —
"The princes of the peoples are gathered together
To be the people of the God of Abraham ! "
The last words of all are an abrupt "He is
highly exalted ! " as if the music which has been
proceeding crescendo from bar to bar ends fortis
simo upon a high, sustained note, to express the
glory of God and the triumph of Israel. The
psalm is undoubtedly an anticipation of the
Messianic kingdom; and the appropriateness of
applying it to the Ascension of Christ lies in this,
that just as the Jew pictured God descending to
fight for His people, and when the victory was
won, returning to His high throne to reign for
ever over the nations ; so — though little the
Psalmist guessed at the truth — the establishment
of the Messianic kingdom was actually due to
the descent of the Most High God to dwell with
man in mortal flesh, and in due time return to
His throne on high, "from henceforth expecting
till His enemies be made His footstool."
The same idea meets us in the 68th Psalm, a
splendid ode, deserving closer study than can here

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 243
be given to it. It is essentially a war-song or
hymn of victory. The opening words are from
the chant with which the children of Israel set
forward on their march with the Ark, and the
first strophe is in praise of God the Leader of
armies. His glorious manifestations of Himself
in the wilderness journeys are described in the
next stanza, and subsequent victories in which
God has intervened on behalf of His people are
then pictorially, though somewhat enigmatically,
described. In ver. 18 we read, —
" Thou hast ascended on high,
Thou hast led away Thy captives ;
Thou hast received gifts among men, yea, the re
bellious,
That Jehovah God might have a dwelling among
them."
The use made of this passage by St. Paul is
instructive. In Ephesians iv. 8 he applied it to
the Ascension of Christ in a way which is seen
to be most appropriate and suggestive, while at
the same time it is a perfectly free adaptation
of the original words. God is the Victor in the
wars of Israel ; when He goes up in triumph, as
if with the spoils of war, receiving homage from
all, even those most opposed to His rule, He
receives only in order that He may give. He
takes up His abode amongst a reconciled and

244 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
peaceful people, and where He abides, blessings
abound. " Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burden,
Even the God who is our salvation." — (lxviii. 19.)
St. Paul, swift to discern spiritual analogies, marks
how Christ had gone up on high, after His lowly
descent " for us men and for our salvation," but —
with a freedom of touch which marks the master-
hand that does not copy line for line, but deserts
the exact outline that he may better reproduce
the spirit of the whole picture — he notes that
when our Saviour took His place above, He
liberally gave instead of receiving, pouring out
His Spirit and imparting spiritual gifts to His
newly-founded Church, that God might indeed
take up His gracious abode amongst the rebel
lious sons of men.1
The anticipations of deliverance and glory for
Zion in the Psalms are very numerous ; but, as
we have already seen, the horizon from time to
time widened before the eye of the Psalmist, and
the " nations " are represented as brought within
the scope of Messianic blessings. The Psalter is
the most catholic book of the Old Testament.
When St. Paul is undertaking to prove that the
1 For another interpretation of the passage in the psalm and
its use by St. Paul, see Professor Findlay's admirable Com
mentary on Ephesians, pp. 229, 230.

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 245
gospel message was but a confirmation of the
promises made unto the fathers, "that the Gentiles
might glorify God for His mercy," half his proofs
are from the Psalms. The first of these is from
the 18th, one of the earliest of all, and shows that
even when David was giving thanks to God for
personal mercies and the establishment of his
kingdom, his outlook, enlarged by the spirit of
prophecy (which is the testimony of Jesus), in
cluded the nations in its scope, and in the last
two verses of the psalm the Davidic kingdom loses
itself easily and imperceptibly in a foretaste of
the kingdom of Messiah. The other is taken
from the shortest of psalms (cxvii); — only four
lines in length, and not strikingly distinctive in
character, one thinks that it might have been
passed over in the formation of a collection. Yet
it strikes its own characteristic note in the chorus
of thanksgiving, and stands in honourable associa
tion with the other scriptures which St. Paul quotes
in Romans xv. to establish his great thesis.
"0 praise Jehovah, all ye nations,
Laud Him, all ye peoples.
For His loving kindness is mighty over us,
And the truth of Jehovah endureth for ever !
Hallelujah ! "
Such music was sung in the Second Temple ; but
who of those who worshipped could understand

246 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
how such praise to Israel's God was to be drawn
from Greece and Egypt, Persia and Rome ? How
could Jehovah's praise indeed be sung in Antioch
and Alexandria and that far Macedon from whence
the European conqueror had set out to overrun
the world of Asia ? Especially, how were such
triumphs to be brought about while Jehovah's
worshippers were becoming more and more
narrow, bigoted, and spiritually selfish? These
questions the Psalmist did not ask, and it was by
the power of a spirit lifting him far above the
prejudices and limitations of his time and nation,
that he sang in concert with his countrymen,
" Praise Jehovah, all te nations ; laud Him, all
YE PEOPLES ! "
There is another class of psalms in which clear
reference is made to the Messianic kingdom,
though the absence of any mention of the Mes
sianic King prevents many readers from noticing
them. Some may, perhaps, have been surprised
by two quotations in the first chapter of the
Epistle to the Hebrews. In proving the excel
lence and dignity of the Son, and His superiority
to the angels, the writer quotes seven passages
from the Old Testament, of which six are from
the Psalms. In the case of two of these the
careful reader will be sure to ask the question,
How comes it that the readers of this Epistle

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 247
could be satisfied with such quotations, seeing
that in both cases the psalm speaks not of Mes
siah, but of Jehovah ? The first is from the, 97th
Psalm,1 which opens with the words " Jehovah
reigneth"; and. the Psalmist in the 7th verse
exclaims, "Worship Him, all ye gods" (LXX,
" all ye His angels "). By what law of exegesis
can these words be applied to Jesus Christ?
Again, in Hebrews i. 10-12 there occurs a long
quotation from the 102nd Psalm. It contains a
sublime address on the part of " the afflicted one,"
who in the early part of the psalm has poured
forth the bitterness of his soul, and described the
desolation and sorrow of the apparently deserted
Church-nation. But his theme changes as (ver.
12) he exclaims, " But Thou, Jehovah, sittest as
King for ever," and with a chastened gladness he
anticipates the deliverance which the Eternal will
accomplish for His people in His own good time.
" Of old Thou didst lay the foundations of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Thy hands.
They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure :
Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ;
As a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall
be changed ;
But Thou art the same,
And Thy years shall have no end." — (cii. 25-27.)
1 If the Old Testament passage in view be Deuteronomy
xxxii. 43, the above argument is not substantially affected.

248 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Noble and tender consolation for afflicted Jeru
salem ; but how does it prove the dignity of
Messiah ? The answer in both these cases is to
be found in that enlargement of ideas concerning
the Messianic kingdom of which mention was
made above. All those passages which speak of
the manifestation of Jehovah in the latter days
for judgment upon earth should be understood,
and were understood by the Jews, of the Mes
sianic era. God manifest, — the Jew did not add
in the flesh, but the thought was latent in his
Scriptures, — that is, Messiah. " Jehovah is King
upon earth'' is the keynote of the 97th Psalm,
and it is enough to transport the thoughts of the
pious Jew to that Kingdom which formed the
crown and centre of all his national and personal
hopes. The group of psalms xcvi-c. are psalms
of the Theophany, the appearance of Jehovah.
And these represent, no less than psalms which
point to the reign of a superhuman hero, one
aspect of the work of Messiah, described, though
without mention of the name, in the Old Testa
ment. How these distinct aspects', as well as
many others, were to be combined in one Person
the Jew did not ask, or asking, failed to find an
answer. This is one of the characteristics of
prophecy, one of the marks of its Divine origin.
Man can hope, and long, till longing breeds a

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 249
kind of eager expectation ; but he cannot indulge
at various times in apparently quite discordant
and inconsistent hopes, which yet in time blend
themselves harmoniously in one inconceivable
and consummate fulfilment. Such work belongs
to Him whose name is Wonderful. It bears the
impress of God.
A similar explanation must be given of the use
of the 24th Psalm to celebrate the joy of the
Christian upon Ascension Day. The majority of
the Fathers agree with the exposition of Theo-
doret:1 "In the 22nd Psalm we beheld Christ
suffering ; we now see Him ascending into heaven,
and we hear the choirs of angels singing, Lift up
your heads, 0 ye gates — those gates which were
never before lifted up to receive man within them,
but are now opened to all through Christ, Very
man as well as Very God, who has passed through
them at the Ascension." According to this view
as expressed by Bishop Wordsworth, whatever
the consciousness of David in writing the psalm,
the Holy Spirit intended us to see in it a distinct
prophecy of the Ascension. Such a view, how
ever, implies a bewildering exegesis and an
unsatisfactory theory of inspiration. Christ may
be found in this psalm without any artificial and
unwarranted methods of interpretation. It has
1 Quoted by Wordsworth, in loco.

250 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
been said that " to post-Exilic faith the dawn of
the Messianic kingdom and the entrance of
Jehovah into His temple are the same thing."
In other words, just as the Jews of a later tinre
found in the ancient song which announced the
entrance of the King of Glory into the palace He
had chosen for His abode, a fit representation of
the appearance of that Deliverer for whose pres
ence upon earth they longed, so most truly may
Christians find in the words fit expression for
their joy in the triumph of the Saviour. The
same Divine thought is realized, but in a more
perfect way. The 24th Psalm is not a prophecy,
but its lofty words may receive a yet more lofty
application as by faith we see the heavenly gates
thrown open to admit the Ascended King of
Glory. But the Apocalypse reminds us that
not even yet is the Divine thought completely
realized. Not yet has the time fully come when
" the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will
dwell among them." But it is coming. And
when that golden hour strikes, and He appears
again, " thousand thousand saints attending," many
sons brought unto glory and made like their
Lord, well may the ancient words be chanted once
more : " Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates ; even lift
yourselves up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King
of glory shall come in." To understand the true

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 251
meaning of the original words is to understand
their manifold application to the end of time.
The scattered references in the New Testament
to separate verses of the Psalms are so many, that
it is only possible here to draw attention to one
feature which should be remembered in dealing
with them. The use of a single phrase or verse
or thought from a psalm to express a New
Covenant truth, by no means warrants the
application of the whole psalm to Christ. The
principle seems too obvious to "need mention.
But for want of remembering it, wise men have
gone astray. What can be more appropriate,
for instance, than for the writer of Hebrews to
quote the 40th Psalm, when he is expounding the
true meaning of Old Testament sacrifice and its
fulfilment in Christ ? How suggestive the words,
especially as found in the LXX : " Sacrifice and
offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou
prepared me. . . . Then said I, Lo, I come, to do
Thy will, 0 God." But are we therefore to put
into the mouth of the Saviour the words, " In
numerable evils have compassed me about, so
that I am not able to look up " ; or " He brought
me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry
clay " ? To ask such a question is to answer it.
But the only principle on which it is justifiable
to apply a portion of a psalm to Christ without

252 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
the rest, is the very simple and sound one, that
we may make such an application where the same
Divine idea is expressed both in psalm and gos
pel, the faint and wavering lines of the one having
become firm and bold in the other, the shadowy
outline of the psalm "fulfilled" into a glorious
gospel-picture that cannot fade away.
It would be almost absurd to say that St. Paul
in 2 Corinthians iv. 13 meant to adopt more of
the 116th Psalm than the phrase "I believed,
therefore have I spoken." He quotes these words,
and these only, for his purpose. Why, then,
should an elaborate and untenable structure of
psalm-interpretation be built up upon the fact
that the Saviour at the Last Supper quoted most
appositely the words of the 41st Psalm : " He that
eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me " ? The treachery of the faithless
Israelite of early days became, when full-blown,
the base betrayal of a Judas Iscariot. The same
is to be said of the quotation of Psalms Ixix. 25
and cix. 8 in Acts i 20. The summary of the
109th Psalm prefixed in the Authorised Version
begins thus : " David, complaining of his slander
ous enemies, under the person of Judas devoteth
them " ; and a long line of interpreters have found
this meaning in the tremendous curses of that
psalm, accumulating them on the head of the

THE WITNESS OF THE PSALMS TO CHRIST. 253
man whose terrible title in history is " the
Traitor." But to confuse text and application is
simply to understand neither. The psalm once
properly understood, the meaning of the dire
parallel in St. Peter's address is plain, and the
fate of Judas furnishes an awful commentary
upon awful words. But Judaism and Christianity
must be kept distinct, or we shall fail to under
stand -either God's revelation to Israel, or His
revelation in Christ, or the way in which the
former prepared the way for the latter.
We close the treatment of a large subject
before we have fairly entered upon it. The mine
is a rich one for those who bring the right tools
for excavation. The reverence and devoutness,
the faith and Christian spirit of the " mystical "
interpreters is so admirable, and there is so much
to be learned from them, that anything like dis
paragement of them is painful But devotion to
Christ, a reverent appreciation of the close bonds
which bind the Covenants together, and an
implicit faith in the Spirit of revelation who
inspired the sacred psalmists, can be better illus
trated by sound methods of interpretation than
by mistaken ones. Christ must shine through
the Psalter to any Christian who thoroughly
understands it. He is not only " the end of the
law," but the goal of the Psalms. If the Law is a

254 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
•7rat8aya)y6<;, a slave-tutor, to conduct us to the
school of Christ, the Psalter is the handmaiden
who graciously leads us to His sacred Presence,
and shows us the way to His very feet, making
His lessons easier than ever to learn. Those who
thus read the sacred minstrelsy of David and
David's psalmist - choir can understand the
"memorable words which Mr. Coleridge wrote
upon the margin of his Prayer-book: "As a
transparency on some night of public rejoicing,
seen by common day, with the lamps from within
removed, even such would the Psalms be to me,
uninterpreted by the gospel.'" So interpreted,
however, they are as Alpine peaks, already flushed
by the rosy light of the dawn, which did but
glimmer in beauty upon them, but for us has
broadened out into the glorious noon of gospel
day.

CHAPTER X.
THE USE OF THE PSALMS IN THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH.
THE Book of Psalms is the oldest and the only
universal Christian hymn-book. The Lord
Jesus Christ and His disciples sang Psalms cxiii-
cxviii. at the Last Supper, before " they went out
unto the mount of Olives." When Paul and
Silas " sang hymns unto God " in the dungeon at
Philippi, their backs sore from the Roman rods,
and their hearts glad because " they were counted
worthy to suffer dishonour for the Name," there
can be little doubt from what book their midnight
songs were taken. St. James gives advice to
Christians for all moods and states, and those who
are " cheerful " he bids to sing the praises of the
Giver of all joy to the accompaniment of the harp.
What " psalms " they would be likely to sing it is
not hard to guess. St. Paul, in writing to the
Colossians, names three kinds of praise, " psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs," which the Church
255

256 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
was to sing " in grace " unto God. He mentions
at the same time a less obvious use of such united
singing, bidding the Colossian Christians thus to
"teach and admonish one another," or, as the words
may mean, " themselves," — as matter of fact, prob
ably both together. The apostle, who knew the
human heart as well as the mind of God, perceived
that psalm-singing, rightly conducted, would tend
to mutual edification as well as the Divine glory.
A better commentary upon such words could
perhaps hardly be found than the words of
Augustine : " Oh, what accents did I utter unto
Thee in those Psalms, and how was I kindled by
them towards Thee, and on fire to rehearse them,
if possible, through the world, against the pride of
mankind. . . . How I would that they [the Mani-
chaeans] had then been somewhere near me, and,
without my knowing that they were there, could
have beheld my countenance and heard my words,
when I read the 4th Psalm in that time of my
rest, and how that psalm wrought upon me:
'When I called, the God of my righteousness
heard me; in tribulation Thou enlargedst me.
Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, and hear my
prayer.' " 1
Even more strikingly is the place of the Psalms
in early Christian worship set forth in 1 Cor-
1 Confessions, Bk. ix. § 4.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 257
inthians xiv. Both prayer and singing are to be
engaged in, not only to3 irvev/j,aTi} under the
overmastering influence of the Divine Spirit lead
ing captive the human spirit, but ra> vol; with the
calm and self-possessed exercise of the intelli
gence which truly is a Divine gift. When the
Corinthians gathered for worship, we are told,
"each one hath a psalm," reminding us of Ter-
tullian's description of the Love-feasts of a century
later : " After washing of hands and the bringing
in of lights, each is asked to stand forth and sing,
as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the
Holy Scriptures, or one of his own composing." 1
When the earliest Christian hymns were com
posed, it was on the model of the Psalms. The
birth of the Saviour was ushered in by an out
burst of such music. The Gloria in Excelsis
of the angels is a kind of Christian Hallelujah.
The Magnificat of the pure and meek Virgin-
Mother, the Benedictus with which Zachariah un
locked his closed heart and silent tongue, were
both echoes of the Psalms of the Old Testament.
If, as many have thought, 1 Timothy iii. 16,
1 Timothy vi. 15, 16, 2 Timothy ii. 11, 12, are
fragments of early Christian hymns, they are
notable examples of the setting of new words to
ancient music. 1 Apolog. § 39.
17

258 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Glimpses into early Christian interiors show us
the saints, whether in praise or prayer, with the
words of the Psalms on their lips. It was very
early in the second century (a.d. 109) that Pliny
described in his letter to Trajan the worship of
the Christians in Bithynia, who "assembled on
an appointed day at sunrise and sang responsively
a song to Christ as God." Half a century after
wards, Justin Martyr gives a similar description
of the Sunday x gatherings, and Ignatius exhorts
the Romans to " form themselves into a choir in
love, and sing praise to the Father in Christ
Jesus." 2 In private, Christian hymns began very
early to be used, but in public worship only the
Psalms of the Scriptures were permitted up to
the middle or end of the fourth century.
Athanasius, in one of his letters,3 asks in detail
why the Psalms are sung. Not, he answers, for
pleasure, but partly to glorify God by diffusion of
sound in the singing of psalms and hymns, thus
obeying the precept to love God with all our
strength. " And secondly, this musical and vocal
accompaniment of the Psalms serves the purpose
of bringing all our faculties, bodily, rational, intel-
1 t»J tou 'H\iov Xsyapevy tipepa, Apol. chap, lxvii. The psalms
and hymns are mentioned in chap. xiii. See also Euseb.,
H. Eccl. v. 28.
2 Ad Rom. § 2.
3 Ad Marcellinum, referred to by Wordsworth, Intr. p. iii.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 259
lectual, and spiritual, into loving and harmonious
sympathy and concert in the service of God, so
that he who has the mind of Christ may become
like a musical instrument, and, following the
motions of the Holy Spirit, may obey Him both
in his members and in his affections, and be
wholly subservient to the will of God."
It has often been noticed that the Christian
Church has grown repeatedly weary of her own
hymns, even though for a time they have enjoyed
great popularity, but that it has never tired of
the Psalms of David. Assuredly, if repeated
use could have worn the Psalms threadbare, they
would have been worn out centuries ago. For
hundreds of years the Psalter was literally chanted
day and night without ceasing throughout the
Catholic Church. In the fourth century, Chry-
sostom describes how at night " all other men are
overpowered by natural sleep; David alone is
active, and, congregating the servants of God into
seraphic bands, turns earth into heaven and men
into angels." We have the authority of Dr.
Neale for saying that from the sixth century to
the sixteenth, not only was the whole Psalter
recited throughout every week by every ecclesi
astic, but a number of psalms in addition equal
in bulk to the 150 psalms, all told.1 The canons
1 Comm. on the Psalms, vol. i. pp. 4 and 5.

260 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
of the Eastern Church appear to' have enjoined
such a measure of recitation that; were it fully
carried out, the daily portion could not have been
accomplished in the twenty-four hours. In the
fifth century the Patriarch" of Constantinople
refused to ordain any cleric who could not -repeat
"David" by heart. : In the seventh century this
was made an ordinance by the eighth Council of
Toledo. In the Roman use, the recitation of the
Psalter commences at Matins on Sunday. In
the first Nocturn, after the 95th, which always
commences the service, twelve psalms are said,
in the second Nocturn three, in the third three,
at Lauds five psalms. At Prime four, at Tierce,
Sexts, and Nones, Psalm cxix. in portions, at
Vespers five psalms, and at Compline four. The
arrangement for week days, Sundays, and feast
days ordinary and special, was most elaborate and
complicated, so that it was not to be wondered
at that our Reformers were so perplexed at " the
number and hardness of the rules called the Pie,"
as to complain in the Introduction to the Prayer-
book that " many times there was more business
to find out what should be read, than to read it
when it was found out."
Thus the mechanical arrangements of formal
eeclesiasticism reverse the saying of the Psalmist,
"Thy statutes have been my songs," and deter-

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 261
mine even its songs by statute. , It is possible "to
turn even a delight into drudgery. But the delight
both of individuals and of congregations in the
singing of psalms is traceable century after
century. Ambrose, complaining of the noise in
church when the lessons were read, tells how
silent the congregation became at the sound of
the psalm. Theodoret says that, while most
men knew nothing of the Scriptures generally,
even uneducated people would repeat the Psalms
by heart in the course of their common life.
Jerome writes to Paula in words that have often
been quoted: "The labourer while he holds the
handle of the plough sings Alleluia; the tired
reaper employs himself in the Psalms; and the
vinedresser, while lopping the vines with his
curved hook, sings something of David. These
are our ballads in this part of the world ; these
(to use the common expression) are our love-songs."
Nothing but a spirit of intense affection could
have prompted the close study of the Psalter
which is implied in the arrangements for its use
in churches. The baptism of the Psalms into the
spirit of Christ and Christianity was carried out
in various ways, amongst the rest by a remarkable
and interesting system of antiphons. The anti-
phon is the intercalation of some fragment or
verse between the verses of the psalm which was

262 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
being sung ; one choir taking the psalm, the other
the antiphon. Sometimes these were taken from
the psalm itself, but often, not.1 In the recitation
of the 2nd Psalm, for instance, the antiphon would
be used, "The Lord said: Thou art my Son; this
day have I begotten Thee." What an enrichment
and emphasis is given to this psalm of Messianic
Sonship by the twelvefold repetition of these
characteristic words! What character again is
given to the 21st Psalm by the intercalation at
the end of every verse of the words, " Blessed art
Thou, 0 Christ, our God " ! The invitatory is but
a modification of the antiphon; the words, "0
come let us worship ! " for example, being repeated
nine times during the recitation of the 95th Psalm.
These antiphons and invitatories varied with the
Christian seasons, so that an Easter character
might be given to a psalm through the antiphon,
"The Lord hath risen indeed; Alleluia!" or an
Advent character by the continual repetition of
"The King, the Lord cometh!" As Dr. Neale
says, the same psalm "could not at all these
seasons be recited with the same feelings, in the
same frame of mind. Its different emphases
required to be brought out. The same sun-ray
1 One of the best known of these, "In the midst of life we
ate in death," sung to the 22nd Psalm, has often been taken
for Scripture language.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 263
from the Holy Ghost rested indeed at all times on
the same words, but the prism of the Church
separated that colourless light into its component
rays ; into the violet of penitence, the crimson of
martyrdom, the gold of the highest seasons of
Christian gladness."1 The only relic of this
beautiful but too highly elaborated usage which
survives in Anglican worship is the repetition of
the Gloria Patri at the end of each psalm. While
the study of the precise usages of the various
rituals may be left to ecclesiologists, the spirit
which prompted such reverent study of the
Psalms, the unwearying repetition of them in
private and public worship, and the steeping of
every stanza and every line with meaning in a
profoundly Christian spirit, may well remain the
heritage of the Church continually.
A copy of the Psalter marked with notes of the
occasions on which a single devout soul has read
it with profit, would form an interesting record ;
how much more if it were possible to gather the
notices of all the saints whom its words have
refreshed with the water of life ! A single col
lection of such notices forms a considerable
volume; and Dr. John Ker's The Psalms in
History and Biography, from which some of the
following incidents have been taken, makes a
1 Vol. i. pp. 34, 35.

264 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
most interesting companion to the Psalter. So
great is the wealth of illustrations of the part
which the Psalms have fulfilled at important
points in the history of devoted men, that it is
difficult to know where to begin, more difficult
still to know how to come to an end. Take, for
example, the conversion of Augustine and John
Wesley. Augustine tells us that before that
memorable scene in which the voice came to him,
Tolle, lege, Take up and read, he had just been
pouring out his heart in prayer in words taken
from the 6th, 13th, and 79th Psalms: "And
Thou, 0 Lord, how long ? How long, Lord, wilt
Thou be angry for ever? Remember not our
former iniquities"; adding words which Charles
Wesley echoed fourteen hundred years afterwards
in a well-known hymn, " Why not now, my God,
my God ? " The incidents of John Wesley's con
version are generally known He has himself
described the scene in Aldersgate Street on May
24, 1738, while " one was reading Luther's preface
to the Epistle to the Romans," when he felt his
heart "strangely warmed," and was led to trust
in Christ alone for salvation. It is not, however,
so generally known that the impression produced
by the Pauline Epistle had been preceded by a
deep impression produced in the afternoon by a
"Pauline" psalm, the 130th. The anthem at

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 265
St. Paul's Cathedral was taken , from that psalm :
" Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, 0
Lord. . . . For with the Lord is mercy, and with
Him is plenteous redemption."1 Wesley fpund
it, we are told, " full of comfort."
It is touching to remember that Robert Burns
composed a metrical version of the 1st Psalm,
which describes the fruitful tree by the stream
lets and the "rootless stubble tost before the
sweeping blast." Less well known is his version
.of the 90th Psalm, which gives, could he but have
learned it, the true secret of stability in tempta
tion. "0 Thou, the first, the greatest Friend
Of all the human race ;
Whose strong right hand has ever been
Their stay and dwelling-place ! "
The 3rd Psalm was used by the Huguenots in the
time of their persecutions for stationing their
sentinels; when they could worship in safety,
they sang Psalm cxxii. ; and their war-song was
Psalm Ixviii. The 39th and 40th verses of the
18th Psalm, when sung as an anthem in church,
decided Clovis in the sixth century to undertake
that campaign against the Visigoths which pro
bably changed the fortunes of Europe. The
117th was known by the Puritans as the " Dunbar
1 Journal, vol. i. p. 103.

266 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Psalm," sung by Cromwell and his army after
the victory at Dunbar, September 3, 1650. The
76th was the Drumclog Psalm, in which the
Covenanters overthrew Claverhouse and his
troopers. Dr. Ker says that "the tune was the
plaintive but lofty Martyrs''
"There arrows of the bow He brake,
The shield, the sword, the war :
More glorious Thou than hills of prey,
More excellent art far."
The 27th Psalm has brought comfort to many a
downcast heart. The wife of Sir John Lawrence
was obliged in 1858 to leave her husband to
encounter the terrible dangers of the Indian
Mutiny alone. She wrote afterwards of the day,
January 6, 1858 : " When the last morning of
separation arrived, we had our usual Bible reading,
and I can never think of the 27th Psalm, which
was the portion we then read together, without
recalling that sad time." How full of meaning the
2nd and 3rd verses, the 5th and 6th, the 10th
and 11th, at such a moment ! When Livingstone
first went out as a missionary to Africa, his
sister wrote of the occasion : " On the morning of
November 17, 1840, we got up at five o'clock.
David read the 121st and 135th Psalms, and
prayed. My father and he walked to Glasgow to
catch the Liverpool steamer."

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 267
The words of Psalm xxxiv. 10, " The young
lions do lack and suffer hunger ; but they that
seek the Lord shall not want any good thing,"
were the last words written by Columba ere he
died on the far island of Iona, on Sunday, June
9, 597. The 103rd Psalm was read every day
in the family worship of the late John Angell
James ; and Izaak Walton gives a touching account
of the comfort it brought to Bishop Sanderson on
his deathbed. He tells us also that " 'Twas Dr.
Sanderson's constant practice every morning to
entertain his first waking thoughts with a repeti
tion of those very psalms that the Church hath
appointed to be constantly read in the daily
morning service, . . . and if the first fruits of his
waking thoughts were of the world, he would
arraign himself for it." How the Anglican bishop
here joins hands with the ancient Rabbis, and
with the Jewish king whose words were the guide
and teacher of both ! The Midrash, on Psalm
lvii 8, plays in its characteristic fashion upon the
theme of David's awaking the morning with harp
and lute, and adds, " R. Levi said, ' A harp used to
hang opposite David's window, so that when the
north wind arose about midnight, and blew upon
it, it played of itself.' Thus when the Scripture
says, 'And the minstrel played' (2 Kings iii. 15),
we should rather read, 'When the instrument

268 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
played,' for the harp played of itself." x It was
in order that his own heart should be just such
a harp, responsive to every breath of Divine influ
ence, that David sang, anticipating the morning
hours with music. To this end have his words
echoed down the aisles of the Christian Church
for centuries, and from many a secret chamber
and many a sick bed besides that of the saintly
Bishop Sanderson, have risen to heaven the strains
of David's morning hymn, —
" My heart is fixed, 0 God, my heart is fixed ;
I would fain sing and make melody.
Awake up, my glory ; awake, lute and harp,
I would awake the morning dawn ! "
The Psalms associated with the latest hours of
dying saints have a charm and significance of their
own. Men of the most widely differing tempera
ment and history meet here. " Thy rod and thy
staff they comfort me," were the last words of Sir
William Hamilton, and almost the last of Edward
Irving. They prompted one of the last poems of
that arch-scoffer with the tender heart, Heinrich
Heine. The 30th Psalm has proved a similar
comfort to many in their extremity. The last
words in Bishop Hannington's diary, the ink
hardly dry when he was led out to death by
Mwanga's men, were : " Thursday, Oct. 29 (1886).
1 Ed. Wiinsche, i. 324.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 269
Eighth day's prison. I can hear no news, but was
held, up by Psalm xxx., which came with great
power, A hyena howled near me last night, smell
ing a sick man, but I hope it is not to have me
yet." The blessed Saviour uttered, as one of His
last words from the cross, Psalm xxxi 5, putting
His own stamp upon it, by prefixing a single most
significant word, " Father, into Thy hands I com
mend my spirit." It would be hard to say how
many of Christ's followers have used the words
after Him. The case of Stephen is recorded in
Scripture Dr. Kay mentions Poly carp, Basil,
St. Bernard, St. Louis, Huss, Columbus, Luther,
Melanchthon, as having uttered the same words
with their latest breath. Bishop Alexander adds
the names of Silvio Pellico and the Princesse de
Conde. Dr. Ker mentions, in addition, "that it
was the parting word of John Knox, Jerome of
Prague, . . . and of countless more."
But time would fail to tell how faithfully and
abidingly the words of the Psalms have been
embalmed in the sacred memories that gather
round the life and death of Christian saints. They
have been the stay and succour of faithful Chris
tian men in the most diverse scenes. It is a far
cry from Hyde Park Corner to the steppes of
Mongolia. But there meets us, on the one hand,
an extract from the diary of William Wilberforce,

270 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
quoted by Mr. Spurgeon, in which he records how,
at the height of a political crisis in 1819, the
statesman "walked from Hyde Park Corner, re
peating the 119th Psalm with great comfort."
And on the other hand is the record from a
biography, but lately published, recording the
experience of James Gilmour the missionary,
alone (with Christ) in the filthy huts of the
Mongols, self- banished from the comforts and
advantages of civilization, and labouring for years
with little or no encouragement. " When I feel I
cannot make headway in devotion, I open in the
Psalms, push out in my canoe, and let myself be
carried along in the stream of devotion which
flows through the whole book. The current always
sets towards God, and in most places is strong and
deep." x The strength and swiftness of that clear
stream — one of the tributaries of the river that
makes glad the city of God — has carried many a
frail bark, many an anxious and weary spirit, God-
wards and heavenwards to a haven of peace.
The versions of the Psalms into various lan
guages are well-nigh innumerable. It is one of the
first books of the Bible which the pioneer mis
sionary undertakes to render into the vernacular.
After the Gospels, the Psalter. Many of the ver
sions have been notable. Some of the renderings
1 Life ofOilmour of Mongolia, p. 281.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 271
in the Latin Vulgate have passed into the language
of Christendom. If Luther's words were "half-
battles," none better deserves the name than his
famous rendering of the 46th Psalm, Ein feste
Burg ist unser Gott. The French version of Cle
ment Marot has been consecrated a thousand
times by the pious affection of the Huguenots,
who baptized it with their tears, laid it up in
their memories, sang it in their mountain sanc
tuaries, where they gathered in peril of their lives,
and chanted its strains as their battle-cry, when
turning to bay against their cruel persecutors.
The version of Miles Coverdale in the Anglican
Prayer Book, inaccurate as it is in details of trans
lation, is yet so faithful to the original in spirit,
so musical in expression, and has so endeared
itself to the memories of generations of wor
shippers, that it has survived many subsequent
translations, and is likely to live as long as an
English Psalter is used.
Metrical versions have not for the most part
been successful. The poorer the attempt, the
greater the success. The very ruggedness of the
old Scotch version is one of its chief recommenda
tions. Probably the task of rendering the Psalms
into metre is, as has been said by one of the most
distinguished of those who have made the attempt,
strictly speaking, impossible. The very structure

272 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
of the psalm favours a rhythmical, forbids a met
rical version. " The more encouragement it gives
to versions merely rhythmical, such as those of
the Septuagint, the Vulgate, or the English
Prayer -Book, the less chance does it leave of
success in any modern metre, the form and tone
of the two being not only different, but, generally
speaking, irreconcileable." 1 The old version of
Sternholcl and Hopkins, published in Geneva in
1556, amidst the hottest fires of the Marian per
secution, passed, we are told, through 309 distinct
editions before it gave way, in 1698, to Tate and
Brady. But Tate and Brady has disappeared, and
the older version lingers yet in many memories.
This is not much to be wondered at, if, in order
to gain a certain superficial smoothness, the spi
rited old rendering of Psalm xviii. 10, —
" On cherub and on cherubim
Full royally he rode ;
And on the wings. of all the winds
Came flying all abroad,"
— was supposed to give way to
" The chariot of the King of kings,
Which active troops of angels drew,
On a strong tempest's rapid wings
With most amazing swiftness flew."
But the task of composing an adequate version
1 Keble, Preface to The Psalter in English Verse, p. viii.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 273
was difficult, if not impossible. The genius of
Milton could not surmount it. His "Psalms,
done into metre, wherein all, but what is in a
different character, are the very words of the
text, translated from the original," contain as many
words in the "different character" as there are
words in the ordinary type, inserted, often not very
happily, to eke out the lines. A later poet, Keble,
achieved somewhat better success in a version
which is, however, very little known, and seems
likely to pass into oblivion. As a specimen of his
style may be quoted his rendering of the same
verse from Psalm xviii.
"He bowed the heavens, the Lord came down,
Deep night His pathway covering,
On cherubs wafted He hath flown,
On wings of wind far hovering;
The dark His hiding-place He made,
Dark waters round, His curtain shade,
Dim air in darksome pillars."
The accuracy of Keble's version in rendering the
Hebrew, and in the choice of appropriate epithets,
can only be appreciated by careful examination.
But Homer refuses to be bound with the chains
of Pope's heroic couplets, and the vigour of the
Psalms disappears in " Common Metre." The
most successful attempts at what may be called
the acclimatization of the Psalms in English verse
18

274 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
have been those in Which the writer has striven
rather to adapt than translate. Amongst them
may be mentioned Watts' 90th Psalm, " 0 God, our
help in ages past " ; 146th, " I'll praise my Maker
while I've breath " ; and 100th, " Before Jehovah's
awful throne." The familiar form of this last
hymn, however, contains several improvements by
Wesley, and even now hardly competes with the
older rendering in Sternhold, " All people that on
earth do dwell." The same may perhaps be said
of the versions of the 23rd Psalm. Watts' " My
Shepherd will supply my need," and the old Scotch
version, " The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want,"
have beauties of their own ; Charles Wesley's
adaptation, " Jesus the good Shepherd is," is of
another order, equally "beautiful in its time."
Lyte's rendering of the 84th Psalm, and exquisite
little fragment of the 31st, furnish good illustrations
of this method of using the Psalms, as do Wesley's
beautifully Christian adaptations of the 3rd Psalm
and the 121st. But from the versions, as from the
commentaries, we turn back to the book itself.
The secret of its power is not very far to seek,
though it is difficult to compress into a few words.
It lies partly in the central character of the theme
— God and the human soul Church and priest
do not stand in the foreground here, nor even the
law and the sanctuary. The restless soul draws

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 275
immediately near to Him for whom it was made,
and in whom alone it can find rest, But in
the treatment of this great theme the Psalter
exhibits a blending of attributes which lift it dis
tinctly and incomparably above all mere human
compositions. There is a union of the broadest
universality with the most intense individuality.
There is a blending of joyousness with sorrow,
sometimes bitter, sometimes tender, which moves
the human heart that knows so much of both.
There is a combination — such as marks only the
works of highest genius, and none of these in the
same profound, religious way — of complete sim
plicity with marvellous depth ; the water is clear
as crystal, but too deep for the longest line to
fathom. The Psalter exhibits not only the " fresh
ness of the early world " in which the latest chil
dren of civilization delight, but the freshness of
the skies, without which all that is earthly soon
grows stale and weary. It came from God, and
it leads to God.
(1) The combination of universality with indi
viduality is very striking. These two qualities are
usually mutually exclusive. To realize catholicity
without vagueness, and the intensity of personal
feeling without the narrowness of personal limita
tions, and to combine these qualities for use both
in public and in private worship, alike for the

276 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
purposes of praise and prayer, — this is the distinc
tion of the Psalms. It is a remarkable fact that
it should be possible still to debate the question
whether the "I" of the Psalms is personal or
national. That so much may so well be said on
both sides is proof positive of the combination of
qualities now referred to. The secret lies partly
in the enlargement of personal desires and affec
tions accomplished in the heart by true religion,
partly in the notable unity of the Jewish Church-
nation in the first instance, and of the Christian
Church, of which it was a prototype, in the
second. Each has been chosen by God for a
special purpose, and in the Divine favour bestowed,
the perils passed through, the suffering endured, the
supplications offered, and the deliverance effected,
has been one in character, purpose, and destiny,
like no other community on the face of the earth.
But the real cause of these and other charac
teristics named has been the operation of the
Divine Spirit upon the minds of the psalmists.
The Spirit makes free. " Where the Spirit of God
is, there is liberty" from fetters of which man
could not otherwise rid himself. Many limitations
doubtless remain. The Spirit was bestowed ac
cording to the measure of the time; much was
hidden from the psalmists, many obstacles shut
them out from the full freedom with which the

USE OF PSALMS /n CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 277
Son makes free. But no influence but that of the
Divine Spirit, exercised in a measure beyond that
which saints in other ages have known, could
have enabled these Jews, in many respects narrow
and prejudiced, to produce a hymnary for the world
and for all time. St. James says, " Is any among
you merry ? Let him sing psalms." For what
mood of any truly religious soul is there not to be
found an appropriate song in the Psalter? The
apostle might indeed have said, "Is any among
you afflicted ? Let him make the Psalmist's prayers
his own." Every kind of affliction and tempta
tion that is common to man seems here to have
been anticipated. If the sufferer is crushed by a
heavy blow, so that he can hardly ask for relief,
but only moan Godwards, the 6th and 88th Psalms
will speak for him. If he is bold, Job-like, to
reason out his difficulties before the Most High,
he will find more consolation in the 77th Psalm
than in the dialogues of the patriarch with Eliphaz
and Zophar. Sometimes petitions are poured out
in rapid succession, as in Ixxxvi 1-6, and cxliii
7-12; sometimes a brief ejaculation, as in the
119th Psalm, speaks volumes. " I am Thine, save
me," is short enough for the child to learn and
understand ; comprehensive enough for the thought
and feeling of the wisest, sufficient in its scope for
life, for death, and all that lies beyond.

278 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
The Psalter is a book of prayers, especially if
prayer be not limited, as it should never be, to
actual petitions. " The prayers of David, son of
Jesse," contain "much besides supplication. Yet
prayers in the narrower sense form a large part
of the book, and help to make it universal, for all
men meet in the expression of deep need. The
prayers of the Psalms are "prayers which, when
once they have been learned, mingle with the
memory in other years like the music of a nursery
song, prayers which, like some mysterious vest
ment, fit every human soul in the attitude of sup
plication, — prayers for every time, place, and cir
cumstance ; for the bridal and the grave, the storm
and the battle, the king and the peasant, the harlot
sobbing on her knees on the penitentiary floor, and
the saint looking through the lifted portals into
the city of God ; from the solitary soul on the hos
pital stretcher, and the thousands crowded in the
great minster; prayer for the seasons when the
Church looks upon the Crucified, and for those
when He bursts the bars of the tomb, and ascends
to His Father's throne. Such prayers the world
has never seen but once." J They not onfy meet
the felt need of the suppliant, but they prepare
and purify his heart in the very act of offering
them. To pray over the prayers of the Psalms is
1 Bishop Alexander, Witness of the Psalms, p. 146.

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 279
a spiritual education. The very desires are win
nowed, the longings are chastened, yet intensified.
The voice of the petitioner changes its tone, as he
schools it to utter, not his own crude requests, but
the Spirit-taught pleadings of the Psalmist. Hence
such prayers pass, as many do not, far beyond the
walls of the chamber, the roof of the church, into
the ears of the Most High. They form an accept
able sacrifice. The Psalmist prays, —
" Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening
sacrifice." — (cxli. 2.)
In Psalm v. 3 the figure suggested by the trans
lation of the Authorised Version is that of the
archer setting his arrow well upon the string, and
raising his eye upwards ere he sends it flying to
its mark. But the meaning of the Psalmist,
who knew more of sacrifice than archery, un
doubtedly is, —
" Jehovah, in the morning Thou shalt hear my voice ;
In the morning will I set in order my [sacrifice of]
prayer before Thee,
And will keep watch,"
The Christian who learns to pray in the school
of Christ, and breathes the thoughts which the
Spirit of Christ suggests, in the words of the Psalms,
will not keep watch in vain for an answer of peace.
(2) There is no need to illustrate the buoyant

280 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
joyousness of the Psalter, or its notes of deep and
poignant sorrow. But these are not days, if ever
days were, in which men indulge in too much
thanksgiving. Not many "cut short their peti
tions that they may be longer in praise." The
habit of repeating the Psalms regularly, provided
devotion be not lost in form, preserves the balance
of the soul, and teaches the unthankful heart its
deficiencies. . But the feature which best deserves
attention is the subtle blending of joy and sorrow.
The fountains of tears and smiles are near together
in human life. And the godly man, especially,
finds his highest raptures tempered by the recol
lection of sins and unworthiness, while in his
deepest sorrows he holds the key which will
unlock the gate of joy. This might seem to
imply that the Christian knows neither pure joy
nor unmitigated sorrow, that his day is " neither
clear nor dark." On the contrary, it is both.
Nowhere in devotional literature is such exuber
ance of joy as in the Psalter, nowhere such sobs
of anguished sorrow. But the blending of the
two in a single psalm is often very wonderful.
It is a shallow criticism that would separate the
27th Psalm into two parts simply because in it
"triumph turns trouble." On the other hand,
how delicately, naturally, yet gloriously .does the
" How long, 0 Lord, wilt thou forget me ? " of the

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 2S1
13th Psalm pass into "I Will sing unto the Lord,
for He hath dealt bountifully with me." It is
this blending of moods which makes the 30th
Psalm so full of comfort to the mourner, and
enables him to pass with the Psalmist from the
Weeping which comes in as a guest during the
night of trouble, to the Joy which enters with a
glad shout in the morning.
(3) That simplicity and depth should be joined
in the Psalms is perhaps not in itself remarkable.
The deepest truths are the simplest, and the
simplest are the deepest. Men are driven to
simplicity in the great moments of life, however
much they wrap themselves in the folds of cum
brous conventionalism whilst dealing with its
surface details. The speech which pierces deep
to the heart's core is that which comes direct
from the heart's core, without the sophistications
and affectations which encumber and obscure much
of our mutual intercourse. But in the Psalter
this union of depth and simplicity finds a supreme
illustration. What can surpass the clear depth
of such words as these, —
" With Thee is the fountain of life :
In Thy light do we see light." — (xxxvi. 9.)
The Rabbis have a striking saying: "Do God's
will as if it were thy will, and thou shalt find

282 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Him doing thy will as if it were His will." But
the aphorism is second-hand. It is drawn from
the profoundly simple utterance, —
" Delight thyself also in Jehovah,
And He shall give thee the petition of thy
heart." — (xxxvii. 4.)
A whole philosophy of life is condensed into
the pregnant metaphor, "Light is sown for the
righteous" (xcvii. 11); and a complementary
truth is given in the equally brief and compre
hensive words, — •
" Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee,
The residue of wrath shalt Thou gird upon Thee."
— (lxxvi. 10.)
In times of great and varied need the simplest
words are the most suggestive. What a world
of meaning lay in the prayer of Psalm xliii. 3,
when, at the time of the great Disruption of the
Church of Scotland in 1843, Chalmers rose in the
midst of the dense congregation in Tanfield Hall,
and gave out the words, —
" O send Thy light forth and Thy truth,
Let them be guides to me,
And lead me to Thy holy hill,
Even where Thy dwellings be."
How better can the perplexed ask for guidance

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 383
than in the condensed phrase of Psalm v. 8,
" Make Thy way plain before my face " ? There
is material for half a dozen homilies in the
word "Thy"; for man's prayers usually run
"Make my way plain, 0 Lord." Horatius
Bonar expands the thought aptly and beautifully
in his hymn, "Thy way, not mine, 0 Lord",
but the simplicity of the text makes it more
catholic and abiding than the details of the
commentary. The subject, however, is an endless one; we
have but touched on some aspects of it, and those
illustrations are the best which each man finds
for himself. It remains only that we close with
a few sentences as to the Christian method of
using the Psalter for the purposes of devotion,
etc. All good Christians realize that while, on
the one hand, the Psalms rise far above the level
of the ordinary religious life, yet, on the other,
the loftiest height on which the psalmists stood
was lower as regards knowledge of God, wealth of
religious privilege, and scope of religious duty,
than that attainable by the humblest Christian
" He that is least in the kingdom of heaven " is,
or may be, greater than they. The spirit of the
Psalms is nearer that of the New Testament
than any other Old Testament book, because the
Psalmists, more than any other writers, entered

2S4 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.-
into the depths of those spiritual truths which
Christ came to reveal. But the whole horizon of
spiritual truth has been indefinitely enlarged by
the birth of David's Son and Lord, the coming of
the Saviour of David and of all mankind. It is
only when Christ dwells in the heart by faith
that men become "strong to apprehend what is
the length and depth and breadth and height"
of that Divine love which to the psalmists was
a dimly discerned and unknown sea. Instead,
therefore, of reading prematurely a New Testa
ment meaning into Old Testament words, the
Christian interpreter brings all Old Testament
words into the light of New Testament truth.
Often he will find that the saints and seers of
old time had, under the guidance of the Spirit,
reached much nearer the high-water mark of the
New Covenant than he had supposed possible.
But in some points they fall conspicuously short ;
and in all points their teaching has been enriched,
deepened, and explained by the fuller Revelation
which prophets and psalmists alike " waited for,
and sought, but never found." Christ is Lord of
the Psalter, as He is of the whole Scripture, and
the whole Revelation of God in nature and in
man. " In Him all things consist or hold to
gether " ; and there are many truths in the Book of
Psalms which could by no means " hold together,"

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 285
did they not find their unity and their true con
summation in Him.
The Christian cannot dwell upon the teaching
of the Psalms concerning the righteousness or the
mercy of God, especially when the two are con
joined, without turning to the New Testament
to explain the mode of that which the Psalmist
.only knew as a fact. The comparatively super
ficial character of the teaching of the Psalms
concerning sin and forgiveness has already been
noticed. Yet even on this subject there are hints
— as in xix. 12, li. 4-6, cxliii. 2 — which show that
it is quite possible to underestimate the view of
the Old Testament concerning sin. But only in
the glowing light of the revelation of Divine
Love in its fulness, only in the light of the Cross
and Him who hung upon it, can the true heinous-
ness of sin be seen, or the full depth of mercy be
revealed. So it is only in the same light that the
meaning of " sanctification " — a word often upon
the lips of Old Testament saints — can be under
stood. That which the Psalmist could hardly
comprehend while he prayed for it, the " willing
spirit" of li. 12, the "princely heart of inno
cence," as Keble calls it, the ability to rise by
grace above even the power of temptation, — this,
in its fulness, is a y^dpiafia of the New Covenant.
So with every virtue and all spiritual discipline.

286 THE PRAISES OF. ISRAEL.
The writer of the 131st P#alm gives an exquisite
little picture of humility and resignation, unsur
passed perhaps in the Scriptures.
" Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul ;
Like a weaned child with his mother,
My soul is with me as a weaned child."
But for the only abiding source of that humility,
for an explanation of its true character and the
power to attain it, we must turn to the New
Testament, and learn to sit at His feet who said,
" Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest to your souls." The " godly
sincerity " of the Old Testament saint is a price
less gift, but it pales in lustre before the eiki-
jcpivei.a, the flawless crystal purity, of the New.
And there is a whole range of virtues beyond the
ken of the Psalmist, not comprised in " it was
said to them of old time," which belong to the
very alphabet of duty under Him whose " I say
unto you" brings with it indefinitely increased
privilege, and imposes indefinitely increased obli
gation. But the Lord of the Psalmist and of the
Christian is One. Both Psalmist and Christian
form a part of the one great family in Him who
"hath made both one, and broken down the
middle wall of partition" between them. Both

USE OF PSALMS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 287
have had to face the same foes ; both have con
quered in the same strength; both trusted in
the same Redeemer, whom the one saw but
dimly in the twilight, while the other has been
privileged with unveiled face to behold Him in
His glory. Both Psalmist and Christian breathed
the same prayers and sang the same songs of
thanksgiving below ; and both shall join in the
new song before the throne, in praise of Him who
is the Root and Offspring of David as well as the
Bright and Morning Star — Worthy is the Lamb
that hath been slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory,
and blessing. Alleluia: for the Lord God
OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH !

INDEX OF PSALMS.

Psalms.
PAGE
i.-xli.,  20
i., . 18, 22, 29, 60, 97, 150, 265
i. 2  23
i. 3, 4,  97
i. 6,  23, 78
ii., . 18, 22, 24, 51, 59, 192,
219, 220, 221, 222,
223, 226, 233, 262
ii. I,  23
ii. 4,  117
ii. 12  12
iii., . 51, 181, 202, 265, 274
iii. 5  202
iv., ... 51, 87, 181, 256
v  87
v. 3  279
v. 7,  39
v. 8,  283
v. 11, 12  77
vi., . 13, 87, 181, 264, 277
vi. 1  86
vi. 5,  168
vii., . . .51, 109, 194, 240
vii. 3-5,  196
vii. 8, 10,  148
viii.,. . .87,137,237,238
viii. 6, 7, 8, . . . . 203
ix  19, 84, 87, 192
19 2

Ps A ms— continued. PA8E
j.  19, 84
x. 4, 5,  106
x. 4, 13  162
xi.  51
xi. 4  39
xi. 7,  123
xii  39
xiii., . 116, 264, 280, 281
xiii. 1, 2,  163
xiii. 5, 6  126
xiv.,  15, 17, 38
xiv. 1,  106
xiv. 7  29
xv.,  51, 151
xv. 23,  151
xvi., .... 213, 238, 240
xvi. 10, 11, ... . 169
xvii. 15,  169
xviii., . 15, 33, 39, 40, 41,
44, 46, 48, 49, 51,
95, 181, 245, 273

xviii. 1,
xviii. 1, 30,
xviii. 7-15,
xviii. 10, .
xviii. 10-12,
xviii. 23, 24,
xviii 25, 26,
xviii. 35, .

106, 159
. . 96
. . 132
272, 273
. . 95
. . 148
. . 124
. . 127

2<JO

INDEX OF PSALMS

Psalms — continued. PAGE
xviii. 39, 40, ... . 265
xviii. 46, . . .106
xviii. 50  42
xix., . 132, 135, 137, 150
xix. 1,  76
xix. 1-6  51, 137
xix. 3, 4, . ... 138
xix. 11, 12, . . . 150
xix. 12,  285
xx.,  39, 58, 63
xx. 3,  153
xx. 7,  78
xxi., . . 39, 58, 63, 192, 262
xxi. 1, 2,  78
xxii.-xxix., . . .24
xxii., . 24, 60,87, 161, 192,
213, 227, 228, 229,
230, 231, 233, 249,
262
xxii. 1,  159
xxii. 8, 14, 15, 16-18, . 229
xxii. 3, . . Preface, p. vii.
xxiii  24, 213, 274
xxiii. 2,  76
xxiv., . 24, 37, 89, 90, 91,
151, 249, 250
xxiv. 1-6,  51
xxiv. 4,  151
xxiv. 7-10, .... 51
xxiv. 7,  123
xxv., . . 24, 39, 84, 183
. xxv. 14,  159
. xxv. 22,  29
xxvi.-xxviii., .... 24
xxvi.,  24
xxvi. 1  148
xxvii., . . 37, 182, 266, 280
xxvii. 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 266
xxvii. 4,  79
xxvii. 5,  159
xxvii. 8, 10, . . . . 115

Psalms—

-continued.

PAGE

. . . 24, 213
xxviii. 1,
. ... 116
XXIX., .
24,
51, 132, 138,
139, 140
xxix. 3,
. . . . 128
XXX.,
77,
180, 213, 268,
269, 281
XXX. 1, .
. ... 274
.77
. ... 168
XXXI.,
161, 183, 274
XXXI. 0,
... 269
XXXII., .
51, 149, 152
xxxii. 2, 6,
11
... 149
xxxii. 8,
... 115
. 19, 29, 63
xxxiii. 5,
... 124
xxxiv., .
23, 54, 84, 203
xxxiv. 10,
... 267
xxxiv. 15,
... 116
XXXV. , .
23,
161, 194, 213, 240
xxxv. 13, 1
4,
... 196
xxxvi. 5-7,
... 123
xxxvi. 9,
... 281
XXXVII.,
. 39, 84, 165
... 282
... 115
xxxvii. 24,
25
35, 36, . 165
XXX vm.,
. 13, 39, 203
. .• 60, 108
xl., . 60,
15
4, 161, 213, 251
xl. 1-3, .
... 156
xl. 13-17,
... 15
xl. 17, .
80, 115,127
xli., . .
. . 20, 252
xl. 13, .
... 14
xlii-xlix. ,
. 19, iO, 55
xiii.,
.... 33, 59
. . 116,158
INDEX OF PSALMS

291

Psalms — continued. PAGE
xiii. 4,  158
xiii. 5, 11,  83
xiii. 6,  59
xliii. 3,  282
xliii. 4,  153
xliii. 5,  83
xliv., . . 63, 64, 117, 182
xliv. 6, 7, . . . 179
xliv. 23, 24, . . . . 117
xlv., . 21, 24, 59, 87, 223,
224, 226, 233
xlv. 1,  81
xlv. 6,  224, 225
xlvi.-xlviii. , .... 59
xlvi., . 112, 182, 242, 271
xlvi. 1, . . . 86, 116
xlvi. 7-11, . . . . 83
xlvii., . . 241,242
xlvii. 1-5, ... .241
xlvii. 5,  86
xlviii., . 37, 59, 91, 182, 242
xlix., . 19, 20, 55, 60, 170
xlix. 14, 15, ... . 170
1.,, . 13, 19, 20. 54, 60, 154
1. 1, . . . . 112
1. 5  126
1. 7,  17, 113
li.-lxxi., . ... 19
li.-lxxii.,  20
li., . . 32, 44, 97, 152, 183
li. 1,  155
li. 4-6  285
li. 12,  285
li. 14,  184
li. 17,  154
li. 18,  38
li. 18, 19,  184
li. 19,  153
lii.-lv.,  21
liii., .... 15, 17, 38
liv.-lix.,  182

Psalms — continued. PAGE
liv.,  17, 87
liv. 3,  17
lv.-lix.,  39
lv  13, 21, 23
lv. 6,  23
lv. 21  78
lvi.-lx  21
lvi.,  23, 87
lvi. 8,  127
lvii.-lix.  87
lvii.,  17
lvii. 7, 8  268
lvii. 7-11,  15
lvii. 8, . . . . .86, 267
lviii.,  87
lix., .... 39, 87, 182
lx., .... 17, 21, 63
lx. 5-12,  15
lx. 6-10, ... .51
lxi  63, 87
lxii.,  60
lxii. 8,  116
lxii. 12,  125
lxiii.,  63
Ixiii. 1, 3, 7, 8, . . . 158
lxiii. 2,  39
Ixv. 7, 8,  132
lxvi.,  19
lxvi. 12, 13, ... . 180
lxvi. 13-15  153
lxvii.,  19, 192
lxvii. 6, 7,  79
Ixviii., . 17,68,192,242,265
Ixviii. 14,  109
Ixviii. 18  243
Ixviii. 19,  244
Ixix., . 60,87,92,194,213, 231 232
Ixix. 5, 9, 23, 27, 28, . ' 231
Ixix. 9,  209
Ixix. 20, 21, ... . 232

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INDEX OF PSALMS

293

Psalms — continued. PAGE
cii  12, 53, 62, 247
cii. 12, 15-27, ... 247
ciii., . . . . 19,182,267
ciii. 11, 12, ... . 78
ciii. 13, 14, .... 127
civ., . . 132, 140, 141, 142
civ. 4, 30, 31,
civ. 24, 25,
civ. 31, .
cv.-cvii.,
cv., . .
cv. 4, .
cvi., . .
cvi. 48, .
cvii.,cvii. 39-41.
cviii., .
cix.,cix. 4, 5,
cix. 6-16,
cix. 8,
ex.

13
13'

140, 141141
. . 130
. . 21
, 16, 28, 187
. . 115
16, 28, 187
14, 28
21, 109
. 81
. 15, 17, 18, 38, 63
193, 194, 213, 252 196193
252
51, 215, 216, 217, 218,
220, 226, 233
cxi.-cxiii.,  21
cxi.-cxv  182
cxi  84, 85
cxii.,  85
cxii. 10  77
cxiii.-exviii., ... 62, 255
cxiii  21, 240
cxiii. 5, 6  127
cxiv.,  185
cxv.-cxviii  63
cxv.,  182
cxvi., ... 33, 182, 252
cxvii.  245,265
cxviii., . . 62, 63, 91, 153,
183, 255
cxviii. 22,  209
cxix., . 84, 150, 183, 260, 270

Psalms— 1
cxix. 94, .
exx.-exxxiv.cxx.,
exxi. ,
cxxii. ,
cxxii. 5,
exxiii. 1, 2,
exxiv., .
cxxvi. 6,
cxxix. 6,
cxxx. , .
cxxx. 4,
exxxi., ,
cxxxii., .
cxxxii. 14,
cxxx v., .
exxxvi.,cxxxvii.,
cxxxvii. 2,
exxxviii. ,
exxxviii. 6,
exxxix.,exxxix. 1-10,
exxxix. 17, 18,
exxxix. 21, 22,
cxii. 2, .
cxlii., .
cxliii. 2,
cxliv., .
cxliv. 12-15,
cxliv. 6,
cxi v., .
cxiv. 11,
cxlvi.-cl.,cxlvi. 8, 9,
cxlvi., .
cxi vii.. .
cxlvii. 3, 4,
cxi viii.,
cxlviii. 7. 8

53,

continued. PAGE
. . 277
. 13, 21
. 62, 213
266, 274
38, 53, 265 5280
38, 84
132
132
156, 264 125286188122
240, 266 91
192, 195 86
39, 53
127 37
122115
195279
213 285 38517685
128
62, 182127
274142122 92
132

.21

INDEX OF TEXTS.

Genesis.
PAGE
i. 2, 3, 4, 10, 18, 31, . 140
xiv. 18  109

EXODUS.

xv., . .
XV. 11, .
xv. 20, 21,
xix. 6, .
xx. 2, .
xxi. 6, .
xxii. 8, .
xxxiv. 23,

. 4217 89
. 176
17, 111
. 225225
. 158

Leviticus.
xix. 17, 18, 33, 34, . . 195

Numbers.
x  17
xx. 18,  178
Deuteronomy.
ii. 27,  178
v  113
xxxii. 43,  247

Judges.

v.,

PAGE
17, 42

1 Samuel.
i. 9,  39
xvi. 18,  42

2 Samuel.
i  42, 43
vii  216, 220, 221
viii. 8-16,  187
xvi. 18  42
xxi. -xxiii., .... 40
xxii., .... 15, 40, 42
xxii. 1,  34, 39
xxiii.,  40
xxiii. 1, . . . 34, 42, 43

2 Kings.

iii. 15,

1 Chronicles.

vi. 31, .
xii. 27, .
xv. 17, .
xv. 17-21,
xv. 19, .

267

545554 85
102

INDEX OF TEXTS

295

1 Chronicles — contd.

xvi. 1, .
xvi. 7-36
xvi.' 36, .
xvi. 39, .
xxiii. 5,
xxv. 5, .
xxvi. 1, .
xxvii. 17,
xxix. 29, 30,

2 Chronicles.

vii. 6,
xvii. 9,
xx. 19,
xxix. 25
xxix. 26
xxix. 30

Ezra.

iii. 11,

xi. 22, . .
xii. 27, 38,
xii. 36, . .

Job.

vii. 19,

Proverbs.

PAGE 54 152S 54
42
102 5655 41

. 58
. 56
42, 58
. 88
54, 53

Nehemiah.

xxv. 1,

89

558942

237

58

Isaiah,

PAGE

i. 1 

34, 154

ii. 1, . .

. . 34

... 35

xix. 23-25, .

... 191

. . . 179

xxxvii. 27,

... 133

xii. 4  110
xlv.,  212
Iviii.,  154
lxv. 8,  87

Jeremiah.
vii. 21,  154
xvii. 7, 8,  60
xxxi. 29,  177

Ezekiel.

177

Daniel.
ix. 25, 26,  212
HOSEA.
vi. 6  154
Amos.
vi. 5,  43

MlCAH.

154

296

INDEX OF TEXTS

Habakkuk.

111.,

Luke.

xxiv. 44

PAGE 34

Ecclesiasticus.
xlvii. 7, 8, .... 47

1 Maccabees.

180

Matthew.

209
xxi. 42, ....
209
xxii. 41-45 . . .
. 215
208
John.
ii. 17,  209
x. 34. 36,  225
Acts.
i. 20  252
iv. 11,  209
xiii. 33, .... 19, 239
1 Corinthians.
xiv. , .
2 Corinthians.
PAGE 257
IV.
Ephesians.
iv.
8,  1 Timothy.
243
iii. iv.
16, 
15, 16, ... .
. 257
. 257
2 Timothy.
ii. 11, 12  257
Hebrews.
i. 10-12,
ii. 6, . .
iv. 7, .
233247 238 43
1 Peter.
ii. 6,  209
PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
APPENDIX.

The following notes are given as an attempt to furnish an
introductory description of each psalm in the smallest possible
compass. It will be understood that the indications of
opinion thus summarily given are to be regarded as approxi
mate and probable only. In the great majority of cases
it is impossible, -with our present information, to speak
definitely concerning the authorship or date of the several
psalms ; but in many instances the views of some of the
most eminent scholars are indicated by the use of initials
—Delitzsch (D), Ewald (E), Cheyne (C), Perowne (P),
Kirkpatrick (K). The author's own notes must not be
considered as dogmatic utterances of opinion, but as brief helps
for readers unable to consult larger works.
BOOK I.
Psalm i. The Righteous and the Wicked contrasted in
Character and Destiny. — A prologue to the first book of
Psalms, and a suitable introduction to the whole Psalter ;
probably prefixed in the earliest period after the Exile.
Earlier than Jeremiah (K and P), see Jeremiah xvii. 5-8. The
fact that the second Psalm is quoted as the first, according i

ii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to some MSS., in Acts xiii. 33, indicates that at one time our
first Psalm was regarded as a preface only. The whole Psalter
forms a commentary on the text as here furnished.
Psalm ii. The Kingdom of the Lord's Anointed. —
Vers. 1-3 describe the mustering of rebellious nations ;
vers. 4-6 announce that Jehovah reigns ; and vers. 7-9
solemnly decree that the King is His adopted Son, and
that to Him the nations are given for a possession. They
are therefore exhorted submissively to yield to God's vice
gerent (vers. 10-12). The occasion of the psalm has been
found in the time of David (Acts iv. 25 does not prove this,
since in the New Testament the Psalter and "David"
are synonymous), the time of Solomon (E and K), the
time of Ahaz (D), and the period of the Persian rule (C).
The ideal character of the psalm makes its language peculiarly
applicable to Christ, and it is frequently quoted in the New
Testament as Messianic.
Psalm iii. The Saint's Morning Hymn, Courage in God. —
Ascribed to David during his flight from Absalom (see
2 Sam. xv.-xviii.). God's servant has slept safely amidst
tumult and alarms ; his confidence in the protecting arm of
Jehovah is strengthened, and already he anticipates complete
triumph for himself and all who trust in the Lord. The cry,
"Up, Lord, and help me!" with which the psalm opens,
passes joyfully into " Thou hast helped, and wilt help me
evermore." Psalm iv. An Evening Hymn, Rest in God's Favour.
(With musical accompaniment on stringed instruments.) — A
companion psalm to the last, speaking of less personal peril,
and adversaries now rendered harmless. David can calmly
exhort the rebels to reconciliation and acceptance of the one
source of safety and happiness. Sleep for the body, rest for the
mind, are both alike the gifts of Jehovah alone (ver. 8, E.V.).

APPENDIX. iii
Psalm v. A Morning Prayer before going to the Sanctuary.
(To be sung with accompaniment of wind instruments.) —
Assigned to various periods from David (D and P) to the
Persian domination (C). The chief reason for giving to the
psalm a date later than David is the use of the word for
' ' temple " in ver. 7. Vers. 1-3 contain a prayer for
acceptance ; vers. 4-7 describe the only conditions of admission
into the presence of the King ; and in vers. 8-12 the Psalmist
prays for the overthrow of evil, and the triumphant vindication
of those who put their trust in Jehovah. It is the Psalm of
Holy Resolve and Devout Allegiance.
Psalm vi. A Sufferer's Miserere. — The writer of this psalm
groans under severe bodily sickness and a measure of mental
and spiritual anxiety. In vers. 1-7 he pleads for help and
mercy ; in vers. 8-10 the answer comes, the clouds vanish,
faith realises that prayer is heard and deliverance is at hand.
David may have written the words himself, but more probably
they are an utterance of a godly man in less exalted position,
and with less power to help himself. This is the first of the
seven Penitential Psalms recognised by the Church Catholic.
Psalm vii. An Appeal to the Righteous Judge of all. —
"Shiggaion" means a dithyrambic or ecstatic song, and the
psalm is to be ascribed to David during the period when he was
being hunted for his life by Saul. To be read in the light of
1 Samuel xxiv. and xxvi. " Cush, a Benjamite," is not other
wise known, but one whom the king persecutes is sure to have
many lesser enemies. Vers. 1-9 contain an urgent appeal
based upon dire needs and conscious integrity. In vers. 9 and
1 0 the Psalmist passes to a statement of his assured confidence
in the righteous judgment of God, and the impending overthrow
of his wicked adversaries. Prayer ends in praise (ver. 17).
Psalm viii. The Glory of God seen in the True Dignity of
Man. (To be sung to the harp. ) — Written by David (so D, E)

iv THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
either in his early shepherd-days, or in later life, when the full
meaning of thoughts cherished in the freshness of youthful feel
ing had become clear to him. The glory of Nature is here, but
still more the glory of man, wholly attributed to the condescend
ing grace of God who crowns him with undeserved honour, and
thereby adds to His own incomparable glory. Man is God's
vicegerent, but as yet is all unworthy of the name ; the ideal is
realised only in and through the Son of Man (Heb. ii. 8, 9).
The Incarnation explains the Creation : manhood is crowned —
in Jesus.
Psalm ix. A Thanksgiving for the Overthrow of Enemies.
(To be sung to the melody of Muth-labben, ' ' Death of the Son " ?)
— An irregular acrostic, successive pairs of verses beginning with
the earlier letters of the Hebrew alphabet ; the arrangement
being continued, though with unaccountable breaks, in Psalm x.
It is the language of a king, either David (D) or one of the kings
of the later monarchy (E). The sovereignty of Jehovah has
been vindicated in a notable discomfiture of the powers of
evil. The Psalmist rejoices (vers. 1-8), and expresses his
confidence in God for time to come (vers. 9-16). The con
cluding verses (17-20) contemplate an ultimate and complete
victory of righteousness.
Psalm x. A Prayer of the Oppressed. — The connection
between this psalm and the preceding is unquestioned, but
not easy to explain. In the LXX., Vulgate, and other versions,
the two psalms form one, and an original unity seems to be
indicated by the alphabetical arrangement of the verses, the
similarity of phraseology, and the absence of any inscription to
the 10th Psalm. But the condition of the Psalmist is different,
the strain wholly different, and the acrostic at best is irregular.
This psalm is best understood as an imperfect continuation of
the ninth, by a later writer, or the same writer after a long
interval. He expostulates with God for apparent neglect of
His people (vers. 1-3), inveighs against the tyranny of the

APPENDIX. v
wicked (vers. 4-11) ; but commits himself with confidence to
Him that judgeth righteously (vers. 12-18).
Psalm xi. The "Song of the Steadfast."— Ascribed to
David, and appropriate in his lips. It may be illustrated by
1 Samuel xviii. and xix. Amidst the suggestions of flight made
by timid counsellors and the threatening preparations of open
foes, the staunch and loyal servant of Jehovah holds his post
unmoved. Jehovah is righteous, He loves righteous deeds, and
righteous men shall stand, strong in His presence and defence.
Psalm xii. Prayer of the Faithful amongst the Faithless.
(Sung to the bass-viol. ) — One of the Davidic collection of psalms,
but hardly likely to have been written by him. It is the
lament of a good man almost alone in a wicked court. He
believes in the truth of God's word and the reality of God's
government ; but the prevailing corruption is so gross that his
words of confidence (vers. 5-7) are lost in recollection of the
present predominance of evil (ver. 8).
Psalm xiii. How long, 0 Lord? — The opening words of the
psalm describe its character, but the plaintive cry which forms
its keynote is lost in praise before the short lyric is ended.
David may so have prayed ; Calvin often did, and many another
saint whose wistful How long ? has passed into a triumphant
Hallelujah. Psalm xiv. A Protest against Infidelity. — Probably a late
psalm, unless ver. 7 is understood to be a liturgical addition.
Psalm liii. is a duplicate, with the name Elohim instituted for
Jehovah, and some minor variations. The ungodly are in
power, denying God in heart and life, and the Psalmist can
only lament and protest, and pray for better days.
Psalm xv. Conditions of Access to God's House. — Closely
related to Psalm xxiv. 3-6, and probably belonging to the same

vi THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
period. David propounds a solemn question, Who are fit to be
God's guests ? and gives a searching answer. To be admitted
into the Divine Presence, much more to abide in it, implies a
purity few can boast. To enter into God's earthly courts, or
into His spiritual presence, requires holiness, ' ' without which
no man shall see the Lord."
Psalm xvi. Life in God here and hereafter. (A golden
psalm.) — We are told that either David wrote this psalm con
cerning fellowship with God in this life, or it implies a belief
in the resurrection, in which case it is post-Exilic. The alter
native remains that David wrote it under the influence of the
Divine Spirit, enabling him to rise above the level of the
religions faith of his own time, and, "being a prophet," was
able to discern what was hidden from his contemporaries and
from generations afterwards. See Acts ii. 30, xiii. 35. The
main theme of the psalm, however, is not a future life, but the
joys of fellowship with God now, leading to perfect confidence
regarding the future. He who has God for his portion treads
the path of life which leads to fulness of joy at God's right
hand for evermore.
Psalm xvii. Refuge in God from, the Paths of the Destroyer.
—Whether David wrote this psalm (D, P, K), or whether it
must be brought down to post-Exilic times (E, C), it describes
circumstances in which David more than once found himself,
and a resolute confidence worthy of the man "after God's own
heart." The writer appeals to God on the ground of his integrity
(vers. 1-5) ; others pray for protection (vers. 6-9), drawing a
contrast between the earthly greed of his enemies (vers. 10-14)
and his own supreme joy in fellowship with God, and the
prospect of likeness to Him (ver. 15).
Psalm xviii. A Royal Retrospect of a Life crowned with
God's Mercies.— David stands here upon the summit of earthly
triumph and happiness, and pours out his heart to God in

APPENDIX. vii
thanksgiving. Another form of the psalm, differing but
slightly from it, is found in 2 Samuel xxii. At the zenith of his
prosperity, his enemies subdued under him, David ascribes all
victory to God, who had visited him in time of peril (vers. 4-19),
a God faithful to those who are faithfnl to Him (20-27), who
has enabled David to triumph over his enemies (28-45), and
will continue His goodness to his seed for ever (46-50). It
would be difficult to find in all Jewish history another period
which would fit this psalm so well as that described in
2 Sam. vii. 1.
Psalm xix. God in His Works and in His Word. — The
two parts of this psalm (vers. 1-6 and vers. 7-14) are two brief
poems or fragments of poems which may have been composed
by the same writer and intended to accompany one another, or
not. The probability is that the first part is Davidic, and the
second post-Exilic. The subjects of the two lyrics blend admir
ably, though their style is very different. God reveals Him
self in Nature, and the same God utters a different message in
" that law " which is the reflex of His moral character. The
Psalmist rejoices in both, and prepares the way for the full
revelation in the Divine Word incarnate.
Psalm xx. Intercession for tlie King going out to Battle. —
Referring either to David's time, in which case David himself
was probably not the author, or to some monarch of David's
line. Vers. 1-5 and ver. 9 are probably to be sung by the con
gregation ; vers. 6-8 is the utterance of " a priest, a prophet, or
possibly of the king himself" (K). The last verse should read,
"The Lord save the king ; and answer us when we call," and
this gives the substance of the psalm.
Psalm xxi. Thanksgiving for a Royal Victory. — A com
panion to Psalm xx. ; the praise which follows upon answered
prayer. The lofty language of part of the psalm has caused
both Jewish and Christian interpreters to apply it to the

viii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Messiah. It is one of the psalms proper for Ascension Day in
the Christian Church.
Psalm xxii. Passion-Psalm. (Set to the melody, "Hind
of the morning.") — Whoever wrote this psalm, whether David
(D and P), or a sufferer shortly before the Exile (E), or long
after it (C), it is certain that the author, beginning with his
own personal anguish and sorrow, is carried far beyond himself.
A Jew may find in it an ideal Israel in suffering ; to the
Christian it speaks of Christ who made its language His own
upon the cross. In vers. 1-10 the Psalmist pours 'out the cry of
the forsaken and desolate ; in vers. 11-21 he prays for help ; in
vers. 22-31 he anticipates a more than personal, more than
national triumph, in the universal extension of the kingdom
of God. The agony and the triumph of the Cross are alike
here anticipated.
Psalm xxiii. Hymn to the Good Shepherd. — This psalm, so
inseparably associated with the name of David, the shepherd-
king, cannot be certainly ascribed to David's pen. Its perfect
serenity of faith, its devout personal appropriation of Divine
love and care, give this exquisite lyric a character of its own,
which has made it the favourite of successive generations. The
beauty of the figure of vers. 1-4 should not blind us to the
picture in vers. 4 and 5 of Jehovah as host, who will protect
and provide for His favoured guest for evermore.
Psalm xxiv. Consecration of a House for the King of Glory.
— The psalm has been held to be composite (E) ; vers. 7-10
forming a fragment of an ode written by David on his bringing
the ark to Zion. There is no reason, however, why the whole
psalm should not be assigned to this occasion. Vers. 1 and 2
form an appropriate introduction ; vers. 3-6 describe the con
ditions of access to God's house (see Ps. x v. ) ; while in vers.
7-10 we have a triumphal chorus, to be sung antiphonally as

APPENDIX. ix
the procession made its way up to and within the ancient
gates of the fortress.
Psalm xxv. An Alphabet of Devout Prayers. — A late
psalm, acrostically arranged. The last verse, which is super
fluous alphabetically, may be a liturgical addition. The
petitions are simple, various, and do not follow any recognis
able order of thought.
Psalm xxvi. Appeal from u, Man of Integrity. — Probably
belongs to a period much later than the time of David. The
writer protests that he loves God's house, walks in God's ways,
hates God's enemies, and celebrates God's glory. He pleads,
therefore, that he may be vindicated by God's justice and pre
served by God's grace from the calamities which are overtaking
the wicked.
Psalm xxvii. Joyful Confidence in God, whether in Weal or
in Woe. — Another psalm, the two parts of which blend admir
ably together, but seem to have been written separately. In
vers. 1-6 the Psalmist exults in victory either already won or
as good as gained. All his triumph comes from God, and is
enjoyed in God. In vers. 7-14 he is bereft of friends, exposed
to foes, ready himself to faint and fall ; but his confidence in
God remains unshaken, and he who began with "God is my
light," ends with "God is my strength." The second part of
the psalm does not come appropriately from David's lips (see
ver. 10, R.V).
Psalm xxviii. Prayer and Thanksgiving of the Righteous
among lite Wicked. — If the last psalm presented us with praise
passing into prayer, this shows us prayer (vers. 1-5) passing
into praise (vers. 6-8). The Psalmist may have been David,
during his flight from Absalom (D and K), or some later saint
before the Captivity (E), or after it (C). In any case, the

x THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
sudden note of deliverance struck in ver. 6 is noteworthy, as is
the beautiful closing prayer that God would "shepherd His
inheritance, and bear them up for ever."
Psalm xxix. The Voice of God in the Storm. — For an
analysis of this psalm, see pp. 138-140. It has been ascribed
to David (E) and to the period of the Exile (C) ; but its
character and significance are entirely independent of its
authorship. The voice of God is to be heard in it, not the
voice of man.
Psalm xxx. Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death. —
It is difficult to harmonize the title of the psalm, said to have
been composed " at the dedication of the house," with its con
tents, describing the Psalmist's personal experiences — his
prosperity, his sickness, his prayer, his deliverance from fatal
disease and death. The most probable explanation seems to be
that a personal psalm received a national application at the
time of the dedication of the Second Temple (Ezra vi. 16), or at
the feast of the dedication instituted by Judas Maccabeeus in
B.C. 165, referred to in John x. 22. Its words maybe devoutly
used of many a crisis in the life of the individual and of the
Church. The same God gives to both prosperity, chastise
ment, and deliverance.
Psalm xxxi. Prayerful Surrender into the Hands of God. —
In this psalm declarations of confidence (vers. 1-8) blend with
urgent prayer (9-18), and thankful acknowledgments of help
(13-24). There are several coincidences with the language of
Jeremiah, and the prevailing tone and spirit of the psalm would
befit a devout writer of that period of Jewish history. Most
earlier commentators interpret it of David during Saul's perse
cution, comparing ver. 22 with 1 Samuel xxiii. 26, and ver. 23
with 1 Samuel xxiii. 27. The whole strain of the psalm, how
ever, breathes of a later period, and vers. 10-12 are hardly
intelligible in the mouth of David.

APPENDIX. xi
Psalm xxxii. The Joys of Penitence and Forgiveness. —
The second of the seven Penitential Psalms, telling its own story
of sin, sorrow, confession, pardon, restoration, guidance, deliver
ance, and triumph. As written by David (D, E, P, K), it
expresses his later experiences after his great sin in the matter
of Bathsheba and Uriah. It is truly a " Pauline " psalm ; and
as "one touch of nature makes the whole world kin," so these
touches of grace unite in one common experience all who have
sinned, confessed, and been forgiven. See Romans iv. 6, 7.
Psalm xxxiii. A Song of National Deliverance. — In two
respects this psalm is exceptional in its place in the first book ;
it has no inscription (though the LXX. assigns it to David), and
its tone is national rather than personal. It is almost certainly
a liturgical psalm of comparatively late date, and its presence
shows that in the final redaction of the Psalms, date was not
the only element considered. The main body of the psalm
consists of a recitation of the grounds upon which Jehovah, the
people's God, is to be praised.
Psalm xxxiv. Personal Thanksgiving to God and Exhorta
tion of Men. — " The first ten verses of this psalm are a hymn, the
last twelve a sermon." It is alphabetic in structure, but with
a double irregularity which, curiously enough, is precisely
paralleled in Psalm xxv. There is nothing in the psalm to
harmonize with its supposed occasion ("of David, when he
changed his behaviour before Abimelech ") ; and it is probably
of much later date ; either of the Exilic period (E), or written
by a "poet-sage, who thought of that perilous episode in
David's life as one of the most striking illustrations of the
truth which he wished to enforce " (K),
Psalm xxxv. A Plea against Persecutors. — If written by
David, m"st be assigned to the time of his persecution by Saul ;
but many characteristics point to a later period. The Psalmist
has many enemies, who scorned as well as persecuted him ; and

xii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
if we are to judge by phraseology, vers. 15, 16, 18, and 20 are
out of place in David's lips. The ingratitude of the persecutors,
the indignation of the Psalmist, the appeal to Jehovah and
confidence in His interposition, are common to this psalm with
many others. Vers. 4-6 cause it to be ranked with the Impre
catory Psalms.
Psalm xxxvi. The Curse of the Godless and the Loving-Kind
ness of God. — The two parts of this psalm are strongly con
trasted, both in matter and style. In a few terse, rugged
sentences (vers. 1-4), the Psalmist paints the evil security of the
ungodly, who not only practise evil, but delight in it for its
own sake. Then in a series of lovely metaphors and deep,
memorable sentences, he describes the gracious excellence of
Him whom the evil-hearted ignore or defy (vers. 5-9). He
closes with a prayer and an assurance that evil will be over
thrown and righteousness triumph. Probably much later than
the time of David.
Psalm xxxvii. Waiting for the Lord. — A "mirror of
Providence" and "an antidote to murmuring," bringing as
its message, ' ' Let patience have her perfect work. " Wait,
wait, and when thou hast waited, wait. The psalm is an
acrostic. Each pair of verses, as a rule, beginning with the
letters of the Hebrew alphabet in regular succession. The
date of the psalm may well be fixed in the later days of the
monarchy or the early days of the Exile. The problem raised
by Psalm lxxiii. and the Book of Job is not touched here.
Psalm xxxviii. A Sufferer's Penitential Plea. (A memorial
psalm.) — The Psalmist is suffering under chastisement, which
he recognises as deserved. His pain is one of mind, of body,
and of estate ; he does not complain, but prays for pardon and
relief. He is "ready to halt " (ver. 17), but one who offers such
confession and prayer as this (vers. 18, 20, 22) is not far from
deliverance.

APPENDIX. xiii
Psalm xxxix. Man's Frailty and True Hope. — A dirge,
but a soothing and helpful one. The Psalmist is tempted to
murmuT when he sees the prosperity of the wicked (vers. 1-3),
but finds relief in prayer, staying his own sadly felt weakness
upon God, his only hope (vers. 4-11). He pleads for relief on
the very ground of the frailty of his flesh, and the transiency of
his abode on earth (vers. 12, 13).
Psalm xl. The Thankful Consecration of the Redeemed. —
Such a description characterises only vers. 1-1 1 of this psalm, the
remaining verses appear not to have formed part of the original
composition. Not only is the condition described in them
essentially different, but a different strain seems to point to
another author. If a similarity in certain phrases indicates
the same hand in the two parts, the latter must have been
written at some interval and under changed circumstances.
The " evangelical " character of the former part is obvious,
and its application to Christ in Hebrews x. most instructive.
The words are to be read, however, as the record of the
Psalmist's personal experience.
Psalm xli. Restoration from Sickness and Deliverance from
False Friends. — Ascribed to David, and fitting well the period
of Absalom's rebellion, if an illness be supposed, that is not
mentioned in 2 Samuel xv., xvi. (So D and K ; C and E
place the psalms much later. ) ' ' Such an illness would account
for David's remissness in attending to his official duties, which
Absalom's words seem to imply (2 Sam. xv. 3). It would
account also for the strange failure of David's natural courage
which his flight from Jerusalem at the first outbreak of the
rebellion appears to indicate " (K).
The first book of Psalms ends with a doxology and double
Amen (xli. 13).

THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.

BOOK II.
Psalms xlii. and xliii. Longings of an Exile from the
Sanctuary. (A skilful psalm, of the sons of Korah.) — These
two psalms form one whole ; as is clear, not only from the
general structure and recurring refrain, but from the tone and
language of the two parts. The author was probably a Korah
itic Levite, accustomed to take part in the services of the
temple, who finds himself detained in the north of Palestine,
surrounded by alien and godless foes. He may have lived in
the time of David (D), while the date of the psalm has been
placed as late as B.C. 198 (C). It is more likely that it dates
before the Exile, either in the earlier (K) or later (E) monarchy.
The beauty and spirituality of the poem are independent of time
and place. The Psalmist longs for God's house, because he
longs for closer communion with God Himself. The wistful
sadness of the yearning heart finds renewed expression, only to
be again and again surrounded by the joys of memory, the
assurance of faith, and the triumph of unquenchable hope in
his "stronghold God" (xliii. 5, literal rendering).
Psalm xliv. A Prayer in National Humiliation. — Many
critics assign this psalm to the Maccabean period (166 b.c).
It is, however, difficult on this supposition to account for its
place so early in the Elohistic collection, and the spirit of
national confidence and piety manifested under defeat and
humiliation, which the Psalm so earnestly breathes, is not
peculiar to the time of the Maccabees. Some place it before
the Exile (D, K) ; others connect it with Psalms lxxiv. and
lxxix., and assign it to the Persian period, about 350 B.C.
Though not without its difficulties, this theory is perhaps
the most probable. The national appeal is full of spirit and
earnestness, and is notable for its strenuous contention that
the calamity is undeserved (vers. 17-22).
Psalm xlv. A Royal Marriage- Song. (A song of Loves,

APPENDIX. xv
set to the melody of "The Lilies.") — The sacred poet celebrates
the nuptials of a king with a king's daughter. But he deals
with his theme in no mere conventional or courtly strain ; he
rises above the occasion which inspired his song, and describes
an ideal marriage, an ideal king, and an ideal kingdom. It
matters but little what the original occasion of the poem was,
and in any case nothing more than conjecture is possible. Solo
mon and the king of Egypt's daughter, Jehoram and Athaliah,
Ahab and Jezebel, Alexander or Ptolemy Philadelphus — there
is no satisfaction in attaching these lofty words to the occasion
of the marriage of any king of Israel or Judah before the Exile,
or any prince nameable afterwards. That which gives the
psalm its interest is that which makes it possible for a nuptial
ode to be included in the Psalter — its picture of an ideal prince
entering with the Divine approval upon a reign which is to be
marked by righteousness, victory, and the blessing of God in the
present and nearer and farther future. The Christian knows
only one such King and one such kingdom (Heb. i. 8).
Psalm xlvi. God the Nation's Stronghold. (A song for
maidens' voices.) — This and the two following psalms may be
connected together as an outburst of national thanksgiving on
the occasion of a signal Divine deliverance. Not the time of
Jehoshaphat (D), nor the time of Ahaz, nor the Persian period
(C) seems the most appropriate ; but the overthrow of Sen
nacherib in the time of Hezekiah. The language of this psalm
and the 48th, the miraculous character of the Divine inter
position on that occasion, and the national sentiment known
to have been evoked by it, all point to the date which has been
traditionally assigned to the composition. The refrain gives
the leading thought — God's presence with His covenant-people
is their one source of help and safety.
Psalm xlvii. Triumph in a Victory divinely Gained. — For
the occasion, see Psalm xlvi. Originally applied to a national
victory, the words of the psalm so directly attribute the conquest

xvi THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to the King Jehovah that they are appropriately applied to the
ascension of Christ, and the psalm has been used on Ascension
Day for many centuries.
Psalm xlviii. The Security of the City of God. — For the
occasion, see Psalm xlvi. The beauty and glory of Zion are
celebrated here, but these do not form the chief subject of the
psalm. It is the safety of the city, of which it may be said
that God has made it His abode, and defends it as His strong
hold. Hence the language of the psalm is naturally applied
to the Church in all ages.
Psalm xlix. The Vanity of Riches. — The Psalmist moralises
over the condition of perishing mortals, unable to deliver them
selves from the reign of death, or ward off the doom which
awaits even the wealthiest and most powerful. The only hope
for frail man is in the mighty God, who is stronger than death,
and will care for His own (ver. 15).
Psalm l. True Sacrifice and Worship. — This psalm is
dramatic in form, though, like the last, didactic in subject.
God appears in majesty to judge His people (vers. 1-6) ; He
explains the kind of sacrifice with which He is well pleased as
spiritual, not material (vers. 7-15) ; rebukes the formalist and
hypocrite (vers. 16-21) ; and the Psalmist closes with the moral
lesson of the whole (vers. 22, 23). The language of the pro
phets (Isaiah i., Micah vi.) may be studied in connection with
the psalm, which probably belongs to the Isaianic period.
Psalm li. Prayer of the Returning Penitent. — Touches upon
the subject of the last psalm, but is strongly personal in
character. The psalm contains the most touching and earnest
expression of penitential pleading with God to be found in any
language. It is ascribed in the title to David, and has been
associated for centuries with his repentance after his great sin.
If not written by David, it may well be understood to embody

APPENDIX. xvii
his feelings, and those of the truly penitent in all ages. But
in any case it is probable that vers. 18 and 19 form a liturgical
addition to a psalm essentially personal and private in its
character. The deep sense of the significance and hoinousness
of sin, only equalled by the deep sense of God's mercy and
readiness to forgive and renew the contrite and trustful soul,
mark the psalm as a precious spiritual possession for all ages.
Psalm lii. Protest against the Slanderous and Evil. — An
indignant denunciation of some person in power, who had been
abusing his position by calumniating aud oppressing those who
had little power to resist his malice. But the righteous need
not fear, his day is coming, the righteous God will vindicate
his cause. The occasion mentioned in the title — David
informed against by Doeg — suits ill with the language of the
psalm. Psalm liii. See Psalm xiv. — The chief difference between
the two recensions is found in the addition in liii. 5 of the
words, "For God hath scattered the bones of him that en-
campeth against thee " ; illustrating the practice of modifying
the language of a current psalm to suit some later occasion.
Psalm liv. Supplication and Confidence in the midst of
Peril. — Referred by the title to David, when betrayed by the
Ziphites. See 1 Samuel xxiii. 19 and xxvi. 1. The phraseology
of ver. 4 hardly harmonizes with this occasion, which is other
wise suitable.
Psalm lv. The Prayer of one basely Betrayed. — Referred
to David in the title, but in several respects unsuitable to his
betrayal by Ahithophel. The writer is not a king, he is still
in the city, scorned, oppressed unable to escape. Plaintively
he appeals to God, longing for quiet and peace (vers. 1-8);
indignantly denounces the malice and treachery of his enemies,
and invokes wrath and destruction upon them (vers. 9-15)

xviii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
confident that in the end God will vindicate his cause, and
bring the wicked to a violent end.
Psalm lvi. Faith Victorious over Fear. (Set to the melody
of "The dove of the distant terebinths.") — The refrain in this
psalm is also its theme — "I will trust and not be afraid"
(see vers. 3, 4, 10, and 11). The writer was a fugitive, and
surrounded by enemies ; there were fightings without and fears
within, but his trust in God enables him to conquer the weak
ness of his own heart, and rest assured that his life will be
spared and his course made clear. The title refers to the
incidents in David's life narrated in 1 Samuel xxi. 10.
Psalm lvii. Confidence in the Presence of Danger. (Set to
the melody, "Destroy not.") — A companion psalm to the last,
similar in subject and style. It contains an element of prayer
(vers. 1-5) and thanksgiving (vers. 6-11). Vers. 7-11 occur
again in Psalm cviii. Attributed to David "in the cave," either
of Adullam (1 Sam. xxii.) or Engedi (1 Sam. xxiv.). Ver. 9
appears hardly in place in David's mouth under the circum
stances ; but there is no doubt that the historical notes pre
fixed to each psalm in the group (liv.-lx.) represent an early
tradition. Psalm lviii. Prophetic Rebuke of Unjust Rulers. — The psalm
includes remonstrance (vers. 1, 2) ; an unsparing characterisa
tion of the wicked (vers. 3-5) ; and a, mingled prayer and
prophecy, forecasting their overthrow (vers. 6-11). The vigour
of the style is conspicuous both in the directness of the denun
ciation and the multiplicity of figures used to describe the
sudden destruction that will overtake those who defy God
(vers. 7-9).
Psalm lix. Believing Prayer amidst Sore Perils.— To be
grouped in subject with lvi. and lvii., and, like these, attributed
to David at a critical period of his life. The mention of ' ' the

APPENDIX. xix
nations" (vers. 5 and 8), of the Psalmist's enemies as surround
ing the city (vers. 6 and 14), and of God ruling in Jacob (ver.
13), seems hardly consistent with the circumstances referred to
in the title. The features which this psalm has in common
with others are — (1) the danger to which the Psalmist is
exposed, (2) his trust in God, (3) his resort to prayer, (4)
his confident assurance of triumph. It exhibits, however,
distinctive notes of its own. Notice how the tremulous prayer
of the first verse ends in the triumphant song of the last.
Psalm lx. After a lost Battle. (Set to the melody of " The
lily of the testimony.") — What battle is referred to, it is hard to
say. The title points to the events narrated in 2 Samuel viii.
13, but no calamity is mentioned there to account for the
language of vers. 1-4. Various conjectures have been made by
those who do not accept the title, ranging from the time of
David to that of the Maccabees. Vers. 5-12 occur again in the
composite Psalm cviii. Some authorities hold that this psalm
also is composite, embodying an early fragment from the time
of David ; a supposition which has much in its favour.
Psalm lxi. A King's Prayer for Support and Restoration.
— The former part of the psalm contains supplication, the
latter part thanksgiving as of one who knows his prayer is
heard. Ver. 6 is best understood of the king speaking of him
self in the third person, and the circumstances of David after
Absalom's rebellion, but before his recall to Jerusalem, fit in
very well with the language of the psalm.
Psalm lxii. God the only Sure Defence. — The emphatic
Hebrew particle rendered "only" occurs six times in this
psalm, and gives it a character of its own. Vain is the help
of man, rich or poor, high or lowly ; but in the God alike of
might and mercy (vers. 11 and 12), who has both the power
and the will to bless, and in Him only, is safety and peace.

xx THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Psalm lxih. Morning Orisons. — This psalm, with xiii. and
Ixxxiv., expresses the yearning desire for the sanctuary and
the God of the sanctuary, which absence and danger combine
to render poignant. It is a morning psalm, and the first eight
verses are amongst the most beautiful in the Psalter. The
closing verses exhibit what seems to us an abrupt transition
from lofty spiritual communion to unworthy desire for material
vengeance upon the writer's enemies. The fervour of the
Psalmist's feelings is shown in both parts of the psalm, but the
flame of the former portion burns clear and pure, whilst the
fiery zeal of the closing verses is clouded with smoke.
Psalm lxiv. Judgment to come upon the Unrighteous
Persecutor. — The enemies of the Psalmist in this case are
secret, and belong to his own community. They work their
mischief in secret, and flatter themselves that none shall trace
them out ; but "Ho that seeth in secret" shall requite them
openly, and all shall acknowledge the righteous judgment of
God. Psalm lxv. A Harvest Thanksgiving. — Whilst the pre
vailing strain of this psalm is praise to the God of nature for
the "kindly fruits of the earth," there seems to be an allusion
in ver. 5 to a national deliverance, and it has been conjectured
that this beautiful song of worship was composed for the pre
sentation of the first-fruits at the Passover in the third year
(Isa. xxxvii. 30) after the departure of the Assyrians in the
time of Sennacherib (D and K). Sun and rain, ridge and
furrow, corn and wine, flocks and herds, mountains and
seas, morning and evening, all appear in this lovely picture of
a. year crowned with the goodness of God. Praise of such
a God waits, ready to leap forth, upon the lips of grateful
worshippers. Psalm lxvi. Thanksgiving to the God of Providence. —
Attributed with some probability to the same period and

APPENDIX. xxi
occasion as the last psalm (K). In this case the somewhat
sudden transition from the plural in vers. 1-12 to the singular
" I " in vers. 13-20, would be explained by placing the former
verses in the lips of the coiigi'egation, the latter in those of
Hezekiah. Such transition, however, is not infrequent in the
Psalms ; and beyond the fact that the people, now by their own
voice, now by a leader and representative, praise God for a
recent striking and impressive deliverance, which is compared
to the great deliverance of the Exodus, we have no definite
clue to the time of composition. The devout and suggestive
language of the psalm is suitable alike for the community and
the individual.
Psalm lxvii. A Festival Thanksgiving. — Combines acknow
ledgment to the God of providence and the God of grace ;
blends praise and prayer, recognition of God's glory and man's
welfare, in a short, joyful lyric of carefully constructed order
and great beauty.
Psalm lxviii. Hymn of War and Victory. — One of the
finest and most elaborate, but, as regards its occasion, most
perplexing songs in the Psalter. It has been assigned to all
periods, from David to the Maccabees ; the language, style,
literary affinities, and historical references of "the psalm having
been variously used to point to the most various conclusions.
Perhaps the period of the second Isaiah, just before the Return
from Captivity, is on the whole the most likely. The prelude
celebrates a coming triumphal manifestation of Jehovah, for
which the people are to prepare (vers. 1-6) ; vers. 7-18 recount
the past proofs of God's power and goodness in the history of
Israel ; in the present need and throughout a glorious future,
God will display His power, and cause the nations to acknow
ledge Israel's God. The use of the psalm on Whitsunday was
probably suggested by the language of ver. 18 (see Eph. iv. 8).
But there is a wider appropriateness in the chanting of this
favourite psalm of war and triumph— used by Crusaders and

xxii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Huguenots and Puritans, and many other valiant servants of
God— on the Church's birthday, in anticipation of the estab
lishment of Christ's kingdom, and the bloodless triumphs of
the cross.
Psalm lxix. The Deep Affliction of the Servant of God
ending in glorious Salvation. — A cry out of deep waters, in
some respects parallel with Psalm xxii. , and containing many
expressions appropriately applied to the passion of the Lord
Jesus Christ (vers. 7, 9, 20, 21). But other verses (5, 15,
and especially 22-28) are out of place on the Saviour's lips,
and the psalm cannot be considered Messianic. It presents
many points of coincidence with the language and circum
stances of Jeremiah, and may be best understood as of
Jeremiah, or a similarly afflicted servant of God, who is a,
type of Christ. The anticipated triumph of the closing verses
(29-36) is very remarkable.
Psalm lxx. A Cry for Help. — A repetition of Psalm xl.
13-17, with a change in the name of God, and some other
slight variations.
Psalm lxxi. Prayer of an Aged Saint. — A tender and
beautiful psalm, and, as becomes the prayer of an old man, full
of quotations and reminiscences of other psalms. It is not
forcible, vigorous, and original, but it blends familiar phrases
with a devout beauty all its own. Part of the phraseology
may be understood of the suffering nation, but the language
is mainly personal, and probably dates from the period of the
Exile. Psalm lxxii. The Dominion of the Lord's Anointed— a
Prayer and a Prophecy. — There is one central figure in this
psalm, the theocratic king in his ideal beauty and splendour.
The tenses used lend themselves sometimes to the view that
the Psalmist is praying for the king, sometimes that he is

APPENDIX. xxiii
foretelling the glory of the king and his kingdom. The name
of Solomon occurs in the title, and Solomon is regarded by
some (D) as the author. More probably some inspired poet or
prophet is praying for a king, perhaps Hezekiah (K), perhaps
Josiah (E), or for some king who proved unworthy of his name
and office. In any case, the Psalmist moves in the region of
the ideal, and his lofty words found no fulfilment in the case
of any king of Israel or Judah. The language of the psalm has
been freely applied by the Christian Church to ' ' great David's
greater Son, " but it is noteworthy that it is never quoted in the
New Testament.
Vers. 18 and 19 form the doxology which closes the second
book of the Psalter, and ver. 20 is an editorial note, applic
able only to the smaller collection of psalms to which it was
probably at first appended.

BOOK III.
Psalm lxxiii. Faith Tried and Triumphant. — The first
of a group of eleven "Asaphic" psalms, one other only (Ps. 1.)
being found in the Psalter. The title probably refers to the
collection and grouping of the psalms, rather than to author
ship. Psalms "of Asaph "are for the most part national and
prophetic in character, some being directly didactic, others
historical. The present psalm is one of the finest examples of
the victory to be obtained by faith over the temptations caused
by the spectacle of the suffering of the righteous and the pro
sperity of the wicked. Vers. 1-14 describe the temptation,
which had well-nigh proved successful ; vers. 15-17 form a
transition ; vers. 18-28 describe the solution of the problem in
which the Psalmist finds relief and rest. The passage (vers. 23-
26) contains the core of the Psalmist's faith— fellowship with
God, the only true blessedness of man. The psalm cannot be

xxiv THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
exactly dated, but it probably belongs to the late pre-Exilic
period. Psalm lxxiv. An Appeal of the Desolate Nation to God. —
If there are any Maccabean psalms in the Psalter, this is one of
them. The language of the psalm suits that period best, and
most scholars (D, P, C) assign it to about 166 B.C. The chief
argument on the other side is drawn from the early place of
the psalm in this Elohistic collection ; hence others (E and
K) assign it to the period after the destruction of Jerusalem,
in 586 B.C. Much depends upon the way in which the word
translated "synagogues" in ver. 8 is understood. The descrip
tion of the havoc wrought by the enemy in God's holy place
(vers. 1-9), and the renewed expostulations and arguments of
the Psalmist, pleading for God's people (vers. 10-23), are alike
powerful and impressive.
Psalm lxxv. Thanksgiving for Divine Judgment upon
Enemies. — A recent Divine interposition, probably the over
throw of Sennacherib, calls for acknowledgment on the part of
God's people. The Psalmist, in prophetic vein, gives thanks
(vers. 1, 9, 10), and warns all presumptuous enemies of God and
His people that He is indeed Judge in the earth. Vers. 2 and
3 would be better understood if they were prefaced in the
English Version with the explanation [God speaketK].
Psalm lxxvi. Praise of the Divine Conqueror. — The subject
of this psalm is the same as the last, probably the occasion
also. Vers. 1-9 describe the deliverance wrought out for His
people by the God of battles ; vers. 10-12 point the appropriate
moral. This warlike psalm was often sung by Huguenots and
Covenanters, and was a special favourite of Charles Kingsley.

Psalm lxxvii. Consolation in Trouble. — May be compared
with Psalm lxxiii. as regards subject, though the calamity in the

APPENDIX. xxv
present case is national rather than personal. Vers. 1-9
describe the Psalmist's brooding sorrow ; in ver. 10 is a transi
tion ; and in vers. 11-20 he finds comfort in the thought of
God's past wonderful deliverances, especially the Exodus from
Egypt. The resemblance of this psalm to Habakkuk iii. is
noteworthy ; the Psalmist is more likely to have been the
borrower than the prophet, but the strain is one which psalm
ists and prophets frequently employ. The individual believer
will find the language quite appropriate in the struggles of
personal faith.
Psalm lxxviii. God in History. — A fine example of versi
fied sacred history. The writer, after an impressive exordium
(vers. 1-8), recapitulates the history of Israel from the Exodus
(ver. 12) to the reign of David (ver. 72). The application of
the sermon is continuous, and might suit any period of Jewish
history ; the period of the later monarchy being a probable
date. If we could fully understand ver. 9, the date might be
more exactly fixed.
Psalm lxxix. Prayer amidst National Desolation. — To be
associated in time and subject with Psalm lxxiv. The psalm
describes either the devastation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar
or the sack of the city by Antiochus Epiphanes. The honour
of God's name is the Psalmist's chief plea as he prays for deliver
ance (ver. 5), and promises thanksgiving (ver. 13).
Psalm lxxx. Prayer for Jehovah's Vine. (Set to the
melody, "Like lilies is the testimony.") — AnExilic or post-Exilic
psalm, which, like the last, pleads for a restoration to God's
favour of His humbled and apparently deserted people. The
trouble, however, is neither so great nor so recent as in Psalm
lxxix.; the allegory of the vine (vers. 8-15), and the recurring
refrain (vers. 3, 7, 19), give to this psalm a poetical beauty of
its own. It forms a tenderly appropriate plea for the Church
in times of depression.

xxvi THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Psalm lxxxi. Song for the Feast of Trumpets. — The Feast
of Tabernacles was held in the middle of the month of Tisri,
and the first day of that month was a, day of special rejoicing
marked by blowing of trumpets. See Leviticus xxiii. 23-25.
This psalm may probably be associated with that particular
day, though its language is general and suitable for any of the
great festivals. The goodness of God to Israel from the time
of the Exodus (ver. 6) onwards is celebrated, and the recollec
tion of the past disobedience and unfaithfulness of the people is
used to point a much-needed moral lesson (vers. 11-16).
Psalm lxxxii. God's Judgment of Unjust Judges. — A pro
test against oppression and wrong, either on the part of foreign
rulers, or princes and judges within the nation itself, or both.
The evils complained of obtained at many periods of Israel's
history, and it is not clear on whom the blame of maladmini
stration mainly rests. A belief in God as the one Judge and
Governor in the earth here finds powerful expression. The use
of the term " gods " in vers. 1 and 6 (referred to by our Lord
in John x. 35) is to be understood of magistrates who ought to
rule righteously as God's vicegerents.
Psalm lxxxiii. A Battle-Cry against Assembled Nations. — ¦
It is characteristic of the psalms which contain historical
allusions, that these are for the most part couched in language
which makes it difficult to attach them to definite events. It is
hard to say what confederacy of adversaries is here alluded to.
The most probable suggestions are, the invasion in the time of
Jehoshaphat, described in 2 Chronicles xx. (D and K), and the
opposition to the rebuilding of the city on the part of associated
enemies mentioned in Nehemiah iv. (E). In any case, the
phraseology of the psalm requires a measure of adaptation to
suit the supposed occasion.
Psalm lxxxiv. The Joys of the Sanctuary. — It is natural to
compare this psalm with Psalm xiii. Both dwell upon the privi-

APPENDIX. xxvii
leges of God's house, but this celebrates with joy what the
earlier psalm contemplates with pathetic longing. It can
hardly be Davidic (D), but is probably pre-Exilic (K), though
E and C place it later. The free use of graphic figures, the
tenderness and delicacy of feeling, the fervour of deep and
enthusiastic devotion, the joy in the presence and service of
God, which this psalm expresses, have naturally made it a
favourite with pious souls in all generations.
Psalm lxxxv. Past Mercy the Ground of Hope. — A psalm
of the Return from Exile, when the people were rejoicing in
the tokens of God's favour recently shown, yet felt the need of
further help and blessing. Vers. 1-3 contain thanksgiving ;
vers. 4-7 breathe earnest prayer; vers. 8-13 anticipate salva
tion and glory to come. The time may be that of Haggai and
Zechariah, the spirit is Messianic, the fulfilment belongs to the
Church of Christ.
Psalm lxxxvi. Prayers of a Humble Believer. — Probably
a late, certainly a beautiful and touching psalm. Like Psalm
Ixxi., it contains many expressions common to other psalms,
but it is no piece of servile plagiarism. " It is the composition
of some pious soul whose mind was steeped with the Scriptures
already in existence, and who recast reminiscences of them into
a prayer to suit his own particular needs" (K). In ver. 2 the
writer does not claim personal purity, but pleads his covenant-
relation to Jehovah, and this spirit is characteristic of the
whole psalm.
Psalm lxxxvii. Zion the Mother of Nations. — One of the
noblest of ancient prophecies, rivalling in grandeur of concep
tion even the loftier utterances of Isaiah. It was probably
written in his times, the period of Hezekiah being marked by a
growing universalism. See Isaiah xix. 24, etc. E and K, how
ever, place the psalm shortly after the Return from Captivity,
C much later still. Zion is here represented as so enlarging

xxviii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
her borders that citizens are enrolled in her census from Egypt,
Babylon, Tyre, and Ethiopia. The fulfilment of the prophecy
is to be found only in the Zion of the future, the consummated
Church of Christ.
Psalm lxxxviii. A Wail of Hopeless Sorrow. (Sung to
the melody of "Sickness to afflict.") — A personal psalm,
written by one who was suffering in body (vers. 4, 15) ; in mind,
through loneliness and desertion (vers. 8, 18) ; in spirit, under
the felt wrath of God (vers. 6, 7, 14) ; who is near death (vers.
3-6), and sees no hope in the grave (vers. 10-12). He prays
(vers. 1, 9, 13), but to the end no gleam of light comes. Yet
one who can pray.and call on the "God of my salvation" will
not be left in the darkness with which his dirge closes. ' ' Light
is sown for the righteous," and will spring up in due time.
Psalm lxxxix. Prayer for the Fulfilment of Covenant
Promises. — A psalm of the Exile, in which the writer contrasts
the rich promises made to God's people with their humiliating
and desolate condition. After an introduction, the Psalmist
celebrates the righteousness of God and His fidelity to His
promises (vers. 3-18), specifying at length the covenant-pro
mises made to David (vers. 19-37) ; after which he pleads that
God would visit His people in their shame and distress (vers.
38-51). The psalm and the third book close with a doxology
(ver. 52).

BOOK IV.
Psalm xc. The Frailty of Man and the Eternity of God. —
The title does not necessarily imply that Moses wrote this
psalm, aud it is to be ascribed to him much in the same sense
that the titles " Song of Moses " and "Blessing of Moses " are
given to Deuteronomy xxxii. and xxxiii. The style, however, of
this ' ' hymn of eternity " is so lofty, that it stands in some sense

APPENDIX. xxix
apart from other psalms in the Psalter, and some scholars
(D and P) assert its Mosaic authorship. In vers. 1-6, man's
weakness is contrasted with God's power ; in vers. 7-12, sin is
deplored as the cause of God's wrath and man's suffering and
death. The psalm closes with a prayer for the return of the
Divine favour.
Psalm xci. Safety under God's Protection. — The Psalmist
encourages his soul to rest secure in the thought of God's
favour and care. His words breathe the spirit of chastened and
deepened piety manifested after the Return from Captivity. It
is called in the Talmud a "psalm of accidents," and has been
continuously used in the Christian Church as an appropriate
evening psalm.
Psalm xcii. Praise to God as Moral Governor. — The first
of a group of liturgical psalms, dating from the post-Exilic
period. Vers. 1-3 describe the joys of praise in general, while
the body of the psalm is occupied by celebrating especially the
righteousness of the Ruler who will in His own time destroy the
wicked, and crown His faithful people with blessing. As the
title indicates, it has been in use for more than two thousand
years in the synagogue as a Sabbath psalm.
Psalm xciii. The Throne above the Floods. — Compare with
Psalm xxix. , which is, however, a psalm of Nature, while this is
a psalm of Providence. In both a storm is grandly depicted ;
but in the earlier psalm the thunderstorm breaking over the
landscape is described as the voice of God, while here a furious
sea-storm symbolises the tumults of the nations, above which
God sits as King for ever. It is the Jewish psalm for Friday,
the day before the Sabbath, when creation was finished.
Psalm xciv. Prayer under Oppression and Wrong. — This
psalm, of whose date we can say little but that it is post- Exilic,
is divided into three parts. In vers. 1-7, the Psalmist appeals

xxx THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
to God against the violence and cruelty of certain oppressors ;
in vers. 8-15 he warns the ungodly rulers that there is a
Higher than they ; in vers. 16-23 he strengthens his own soul
in God, as the one refuge of the godly in distress.
Psalm xcv. A Call to Worship. — This and the five following
psalms are essentially liturgical, and form one group in subject
and in style. The present psalm combines an invitation to
praise (vers. 1-6) with a warning against unbelief and dis
obedience (vers. 7-11). God's praise is celebrated as the Maker
ind Ruler of the universe, whilst His special dealings with His
people prove Him to be at the same time merciful and
righteous, punishing wayward and disobedient people, who are
admonished to learn wisdom from their forefathers' errors.
The psalm has been used for centuries in the Christian Church
as appropriate to the morning worship of the Lord's day.
Psalm xcvi. Jehovah the Judge of the Nations. — The world
of nature and the world of nations are called upon to praise
their common Lord. Jehovah is coming in majesty to judge
the earth and establish His kingdom in righteousness ; there
fore, let all " kindreds of the peoples " stand in awe of Him, and
join in lowly worship, while heavens and earth, fields and
woods and seas, rejoice and join in the chorus of praise. As a
psalm of the Theophany, or approaching manifestation of
Jehovah, it possesses a missionary character.
Psalm xcvii. Joy in Jehovah as King. — A kindred psalm
to the last. The terror of the Lord is somewhat more pro
minent in it, but the joy of the righteous prevails over the fear
which God's judgments rightly inspire in the wicked ; and the
announcement that "Jehovah is King " inspires the exhortation,
" Let the earth rejoice."
Psalm xcviii. The Joyful Worship of Jehovah.— Tins psalm
pairs off with xcvi. as xcvii. does with xcix. The opening words

APPENDIX. xxxi
and prevailing theme in Psalms xcvi. and xcviii. are substan
tially the same. The note of joy, however, predominates in
this psalm more than in any other of this group, and God's
deliverance of His people is strongly emphasised (vers. 1-3).
Psalm xcix. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts. —
Whilst this psalm is in several respects similar to the rest of
the group, it is marked off from the rest by the thrice-repeated
refrain, "Holy is He." See R.V., vers. 3 and 5 ; in ver. 9,
Jehovah our God is holy. It is " an earthly echo of the
seraphic Trisagion " (D). God's power over all the earth is
glorious (vers. 1-3), but more glorious still His holiness and
holy manifestation of His will and word (vers. 4-9),
Psalm c The Thanksgiving of the Nations. — No descrip
tion of the " Old Hundredth " psalm is needed. God is praised
in it as Creator and Father of all mankind, and this noble
psalm furnishes one of the most complete illustrations of
the " universalism " into which Judaism would have broadened,
had it been faithful to its best traditions, and the guidance of
its inspired seers and psalmists.
Psalm ci. Royal Vows.' — This psalm may have been written
by David (E and P), or by a later writer in David's name and
spirit. When it is read, we think perforce of David at his best,
and of that ideal monarchy which remained all through Jewish
history never perfectly realised. The psalm as it stands is a
"mirror for kings," and all godly householders in their degree.
Psalm cii. A Prayer of the Afflicted when he is overwhelmed
and poureth out his- Complaint before the Lord. — This title has
stood before the psalm for more than two thousand years, since
the closing period of the Captivity in Babylon (D and P), or
somewhat later. The prayer is partly personal, partly national,
and may be compared with some passages of the Lamentations
for its blending of deep sorrow with hope in God's mercy.

xxxii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Vers. 1-8 seem chiefly personal, while in vers. 9-15 the
Psalmist's thoughts centre in Jerusalem. In vers. 16-28 he
comforts himself in God, especially in the thought of His
eternity and faithfulness to His promises.
Psalm ciii. Praise of God the All-Compassionate. —
Amongst the many notes of praise which the Psalter contains,
this is the deepest and tenderest. It celebrates many excel
lences of the glorious God, but chiefly His merciful readiness to
forgive sins (vers. 8-12), and the pitiful loving-kindness of His
fatherly love towards His frail children (vers. 13-18). The
personal relation between God and His people hardly finds such
full recognition anywhere else in the Old Testament. The
psalm cannot be Davidic, except so far as David stands as
representative of filial relationship to God under the old
covenant. Psalm civ. Praise of God the Creator. — This sublime psalm
challenges comparison with the sublime first chapter of Genesis,
and does not suffer in the process. It would be difficult to
adduce higher proof of its inspiration. The heavens (vers. 1-4),
the earth (vers. 5-9), the dry land with beasts and plants (vers.
10-18), the heavenly bodies (vers. 19-23), the sea and all that
therein is (vers. 24-26), are successively the subjects of the poet's
admiration, but all as showing forth the glory of God, who is
the giver of all life (vers. 27-30), and deserves praise for evermore
(vers. 31-35). Humboldt wondered to find the whole Cosmos
depicted in a lyrical poem of such brief compass as this, and
in many respects the psalm is a masterpiece of literature. But
it holds its place in the Psalter and in the regard of the
Christian Church as an inspired aid to the human mind in
passing from nature to nature's God.
Psalm cv. God manifest in the History of Israel.— One of
the Hodu or "0 give thanks" psalms. In this instance the.
ground of thanksgiving is " the marvellous works which He

APPENDIX. xxxiii
hath done " for His people Israel. These are traced from the
covenant made with Abraham (ver. 8), to the entry into
Canaan (ver. 44). The ground covered is to some extent the
same as in Psalm Ixxviii., but each psalm has a character of its
own. Psalm cvi. Israel's Unfaithfulness and God's goodness. —
Another historical psalm commencing with Hodu, in this case
preceded by a Hallelujah, repeated again in' the doxology. The
retrospect of history in this case takes the form of a confession
of national sin. The strain of contrition marks off this psalm
decidedly from Ixxviii. and cv. The 5th and 47th verses give
the historical standpoint of the writer — after the Captivity,
it is hard to say how long. The opening and closing verses
are quoted in 1 Chronicles xvi. 34-36. It is doubtful what
relation the doxology (ver. 48) bears to the composition,
whether it be an integral part of the psalm, or not.

BOOK V.
Psalm cvii. A Psalm of Providential Deliverances. — The
keynote is thanksgiving, the grounds for it are described in a
series of pictures, representing deliverances from different kinds
of calamity, and at the end of each stanza occurs a character
istic refrain (see vers. 8, 15, 21, 31). The Psalmist describes
God's redeemed people as like a band of travellers who have
lost their way and been guided safe home (vers. 4-7) ; like
captives set free from their prison-house (vers. 10-14) ; like the
sick restored to health (vers. 17-20) ; like mariners delivered
from the fury of the storm (vers. 23-30) ; while in vers. 33-42
God's chastisements for sin and restoration of the repentant to
favour is described in more general language. Vers. 2 and 3
seem to show that the whole psalm was inspired by the remem
brance of one special deliverance, probably the Restoration
after the Exile. 3

xxxiv THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Psalm cviii. A Morning Song of Victory. — This is a com
posite psalm. The two parts are found in Psalms lvii. 7-11
and lx. 5-12. To our eyes the combination seems hardly appro
priate, the former part being a morning hymn of personal
devotion, the latter a kind of national battle-song. This shows
that we must hot judge of the psalms by modern ideas only.
Psalm cix. A Prayer for Divine Vengeance. — The fiercest
of all the Imprecatory Psalms. If vers. 6-13 be not the
language of the Psalmist's adversary, to be understood by
prefixing to them the word saying, the curses here invoked by
a godly man are very terrible, and hardly intelligible as pure
zeal for God's cause and the overthrow of evil. It must be borne
in mind that the Psalmist himself does not breathe a revenge
ful spiritT(see vers. 3 and 4), but represents himself as'poor and
despised (vers. 20-24), and rather as humbly trusting in God
(vers. 25-30) than arrogantly revengeful.
Psalm ex. The Triumphant Priest-King. — This psalm is
discussed somewhat fully on pp. 215-218. Its contents, style,
and the use made of it by our Lord in Matthew xxii. 43, etc.,
all associate the psalm with the name of David. No other suit
able period for its composition has been suggested. In form, the
psalm is best understood as proceeding from the lips of a prophet
who promises the help of Jehovah to the priest-king, going
forth at the head of a devoted army to victory over God's
enemies and his own. But the language soars far above any
conceivable earthly occasion, and both Jews and Christians
have viewed it as primarily Messianic. The psalm is frequently
quoted in the New Testament (see Acts ii. 34 ; Heb. i. 13 and
v. 6).
Psalm cxi. Alphabetical Psalm in Praise cf God.
Psalm cxii. Alphabetical Psalm in Honour of those who
Trust in God.

APPENDIX. xxxv
Detailed description of the contents of these psalms is need
less, as the acrostic arrangement determines the order of the
clauses. They contain, however, some memorable sentences,
and admirably represent the devout spirit of later Judaism.
Psalm cxiii. Praise of the Lofty One who Cares for the
Lowly. — -With this psalm begins the group called by the Jews
the great Hallel, sung at the Passover. Psalms cxiii. and cxiv.
were sung before the second cup at the Paschal meal, and Psalms
ex v. -cxviii. after the fourth cup. This particular psalm forms
a kind of Old Testament Magnificat, its use giving a national
significance to words which are primarily personal in character.
Psalm cxiv. Song of the Exodus. — Esteemed by good judges
as one of the finest lyrics in literature, this psalm is notable
chiefly for its deep religious feeling. Its so-called "fragment
ary " character is one of its excellences ; in lyric flight it soars
direct into the sky, and drops suddenly to earth again. The
inspired poet is not composing an orderly treatise, and his
imagination makes laws for itself. It is used in the Christian
Church on Easter Day, and under the name In exitu Israel
has for centuries been used to celebrate the departure of the
soul from the bondage of earthly corruption to the freedom of
eternal glory.
Psalm cxv. Song of Allegiance to the One True God. — A
late liturgical psalm, in which the religious lessons learned
during the Captivity are embodied. Idolatry is vehemently
denounced, and all glory is given to Jehovah, the helper and
deliverer of His people.
Psalm cxvi. Thanksgiving on Recovery from Sickness. — As
the last psalm is national in its primary significance, this is
primarily personal, though it lends itself easily to liturgical
use. The description of the Psalmist's suffering (ver. 3), his"
prayer (vers. 4 and 5), his deliverance (vers. 6-9), his thanks-

xxxvi THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
giving in private and in public (vers. 12-19), is appropriate both
to spiritual and temporal deliverance, and has been used alike
by individuals and congregations in all generations and in all
languages. But the personal element predominates and gives
character to the psalm.
Psalm cxvii. A Doxology. — The shortest chapter in the
Scriptures, and the central portion of the whole Bible. It is a
song of praise for all nations to God, ever merciful and true.
Psalm cxviii. A Festival Psalm. — The jubilance of this
psalm is notable even among the many joyful songs of the
Psalter. Whether it was originally designed for the laying of
the foundation-stone of the Second Temple by Zerubbabel (D),
or for the time when Nehemiah brought the work to conclusion
(E), or generally for some festival after the Return from Cap
tivity (P), or for the purification of the temple by Judas
Maccabaeus (C), cannot now be determined. The first of these
occasions is in many respects the most probable. A close study
of this noble ehoric song will show its antiphonal character, and
the way in which its parts were probably distributed amongst
the priests, people, leader, and choir. It is best understood as
a processional hymn.
Psalm cxix. An Acrostic in Praise of the Word of God. —
The most complete specimen of an alphabetical psalm in the
Psalter, and the most elaborate eulogy existing in any language
of " God's word written." Though highly formal in structure,
every strophe of eight verses beginning with the same Hebrew
letter, the psalm is full of glow and life. Its beauty can only
be appreciated by close study.
Psalms cxx.-cxxxiv. The Pilgrim Psalms. See p. 21.—
This group of fifteen psalms, each styled in our version "A
song of ascents," is probably to be understood as a small collec
tion embodying the thoughts and feelings of the nation return
ing or returned from Exile, and going up with gladness to the

APPENDIX. xxxvii
city and sanctuary of Jehovah. There is a beautiful family
likeness between them ; they are alike in style and rhythm, in
sweetness and tenderness, in thankful recognition of deliverance
from trouble and in dawning hope and gladness. Their
separate themes may be thus briefly characterised : —
Psalm cxx. — A Cry for Help among the Ungodly.
Psalm cxxi. — The Keeper of Israel : a Traveller's Psalm.
Psalm cxxii. — The Journey to Jerusalem.
Psalm cxxiii. — A Longing Upward Glance to God.
Psalm cxxiv. — The Exiles Delivered.
Psalm cxxv. — The Divine Bulwark of Israel.
Psalm cxxvi. — The Rapture of Freedom and Joy of Harvest.
Psalm cxxvii. — Sole Dependence upon God's Blessing.
Psalm cxx viii. — Family Religion and Happiness.
Psalm cxxix. — Deliverance from Oppression and Overthrow
of Oppressors.
Psalm cxxx. — De Profundis; a Song of Plenteous Redemption.
Psalm cxxxi. — A Song of Childlike Resignation to God.
Psalm cxxxii. — Prayer for the House of God and the House
of David.
Psalm cxxxiii. — The Blessings of Unity.
Psalm cxxxiv.— Greeting of the Night- Watch in the Temple.
Psalm cxxxv. Praise of the God of Israel. — A liturgical
psalm, parts of which are found in Psalms cxxxiv., cxv., and
elsewhere. It forms, however, one harmonious whole, very
suitable for public worship.
Psalm cxxxvi. Thanksgiving to the Ever-Merciful.— The
roll of the refrain at the end of each verse of this psalm marks
it out from all the rest. It repeats with special emphasis the
characteristic note of praise which sounds from end to end of
the Psalter.
Psalm cxxxvii. Tits Sorrows of Exile.— The ardent love of

xxxviii THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Jerusalem awakened or strengthened during the Captivity had
a better and a less noble side. The people became more fer
vently attached to the service of God, and averse to idolatry ;
but their patriotism was in danger of becoming narrow, exclusive,
even harsh. Both feelings find expression in this psalm, the
close of which to our ears mars the beauty of its opening. But
perfidy, cruelty, and violence awaken a righteous indignation,
which is justifiable if kept within its due bounds.
Psalm exxxviii. God the Deliverer and Perfecter of His
People. — Exhibits the chastened and strengthened religious
feeling of later Judaism at its best. Those who had learned
the lessons of sorrow and exile, without becoming formalists
or narrow in their sympathies, speak in this tender and beau
tiful psalm. It is full of " evangelical " spirit.
Psalm cxxxix. God Omniscient and Omnipresent. — In
elevation of thought and diction one of the loftiest, in date
one of the very latest of the psalms. Vers. 1-6 dwell on the
Divine Omniscience ; vers. 7-12 describe the Omnipresence of
God, in language never surpassed for dignity and sublimity.
Vers. 13-18 describe God's merciful care of the individual
man from birth, and even before it ; His mercy towards the
righteous is as sure as His hatred of evil (vers. 19-22). The
Psalmist closes appropriately with a prayer that the All-seeing
God will cleanse the inmost thoughts of his heart from im
purity (vers. 23, 24).
Psalm cxl. Prayer for Preservation from Violence. — Attri
buted in the title to David, probably, like many other psalms,
an imitation of David's manner and an adaptation of language
such as David used in earlier psalms, to the troubles and
dangers of a later time.
Psalm cxli. An Evening Prayer of the Tempted.— The
temptation in this case was to be a fellow-guest and partner

APPENDIX. xxxix
with evil men in their wickedness. The Psalmist prays for
grace to resist, that he may escape the retribution which awaits
all workers of iniquity.
Psalm cxlii. Prayer of the Lonely. — One of the group of
eight psalms in the last book attributed to David. He may
have written one or more of them, and this amongst the rest ;
though it is much more probable that some ' ' hunted soul " of
later days poured forth plaints similar to those of David "in
the cave." Ver. 4 gives the keynote of this psalm.
Psalm cxliii. Cry for Help and Direction in Perplexity. —
A late psalm, containing many "reminiscences" of earlier
compositions. But as in similar instances (see Psalms Ixxi.
and Ixxxvi.), the prayers it contains are singularly beautiful,
and by no means commonplace. The series of prayers in vers.
8-11 is full of character and significance.
Psalm cxliv. Taking Courage in Jehovah. — Considered by
some to be a composite psalm, the last three verses being a
fragment embodied in a later composition. It is unnecessary,
however, to consider vers. 12-15 to be a quotation, if the
connection of thought be followed as in R.V. The transition
from ver. 11 to 12 is abrupt, hut such sudden changes are not
unusual in Hebrew poetry.
Psalm cxl v. Praise of the All-Bountiful King. — An alpha
betical psalm of lofty spirit and rich subject-matter, intended
for use in public worship. It celebrates God's providence over
the whole creation, and His loving-kindness towards His people
in simple but noble language, such as belongs not to Israel
only, but to all nations and all time.
Psalms cxlvi.-cl. Hallelujah Psalms. — The Psalter closes
with a group of fine chorales intended for liturgical use, called

xl THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL.
Hallelujah Psalms, because each begins and ends with the
words ' ' Praise ye the Lord. " They may be severally described
thus : —
Psalm cxlvi. — Hallelujah to the Only True Helper.
Psalm cxlvii. — Hallelujah to the God of Nature and Revela
tion.
Psalm cxlviii. — Hallelujah from the whole Creation.
Psalm cxlix. — Hallelujah to the Giver of Victory.
Psalm cl. — Let everything that hath breath say,
HALLELUJAH !