5. The character of the religion of the Psalms.— If a sine quad non of all true religion is a sincere
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confession of sin, then the religion of the psalmists has undoubtedly a firm basis. In addition to the ready admission of the general guilt of the people, of which we have already spoken, there are not a few testimonies to the impossibility of all attempts of one’s own to attain to a righteousness which can bear to be tested by the eye of a holy God (38!° 518A. 1301#- 143°, La 158-14 18. 22°330m. 46 516) as well as evidences of a tenderness of conscience which feels concerned even about unconscious sins (Ps 19° 908) and sins of youth (257), and prays God to forgive them. It is only rarely that we still meet with outbursts of self-righteousness, showing itself in a disposition to boast of one’s minute observance of the Law (17° 1871. 4416), and even to complain that God, notwithstanding all this, delays to help His people (441°). No less surprising, and quite opposed to the usual language of the Book of Lamentations, is the complaint of La 5’ ‘The fathers sinned, and we bear their guilt.’
More than once we meet with an almost evan- gelical perception in what is said about the forgive- ness of sin. The Apostle Paul was thoroughly justified (Ro 4°) in using Ps 32) as a Scripture proof that the blessedness of a conscience at peace with God is based not upon any merit of works, but upon the fact that God in His grace does not impute guilt (cf. also Ps 103°, esp. v.8).
To those, again, who are ever mindful of their constant need of fresh grace, who are ‘of a broken heart and contrite spirit,’ Jahweh is near (34195119), and creates in them—for an actual new creation is needed—a clean heart and anew, right spirit (51). He teaches them to recognize in God the highest, yea the only, good (167), the source of all true spiritual life and all real light (36); He awakens in them an inextinguishable longing for blessed peace in God and the closest fellowship with Him, and provides for the full satisfying of this longing. Sayings like those of 16° §* 427% 632 732! 143%, and, above all, the noble words of 131%, have found a perfect echo even in Christian hearts all through the centuries.
(a) A fruit of such fellowship with God is a life of prayer (supplication, thanksgiving and adora- tion) of inexhaustible variety and intimacy. Ex- amples of this it is all the less necessary to quote, since the whole Psalter is one witness to this fact. A single remark may, however, be made. How petty and empty appear all those philosophical and theological discussions about prayer as an attempt to interfere with the unalterable pre- determination of God, when compared with the grand simplicity and inward certainty of the pray- ing psalmists! Their hearts have no room for such considerations. No doubt they, too, feel the manifold mysteries of the course of things in this world, and are plunged by them into doubt and unrest. Nor are they strangers to impatience, nay, at times, even displeasure, on account of the delay of Divine aid and the seeming silence of God in presence of violence and injustice. But in the end the certainty forces its way that the omni- potence, the wisdom, and the righteousness of God must triumph over all unreason and unright- eousness. And the conviction that prayer, the indispensable nourishment of the soul, is more precious than aught else (92°), and that God is ever near to them that call upon Him (145'**), is placed at last beyond the reach of doubt.
(6) A further fruit of this spiritual life in and with God shows itself in the disposition which recognizes all the actions and the whole lot of the godly to be absolutely dependent upon the wise and gracious will of God, and which is therefore prepared in all things to give the glory not to man but to God alone (115), and to expect all things from His blessing alone (1271). The Psalm pas-
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sages, in which an inflexible confidence in the wise and loving guidance and protection of the godly - finds touching and often typical expression (¢.9. 348 512 934 971 911f- 1186 1911"), have in all ages retained their place even in Christian hearts as forms of prayer which possess inexhaustible living power. ;
6. Morality.—After what we have had to say about the attitude of the Psalmists to the cultus, and about the character of their religion, we could not but expect that their moral disposition would show itself in a corresponding form. The testi- monies to this can hardly be called numerous, if we leave out of account the endless complaints against the heathen and against faithless fellow- countrymen [the latter being for the most part referred to in the term D’yy or depen 7.) (he contents of these complaints point of themselves to the opposite as constituting what is right and moral. Of more importance, however, are the passages in which we find positively, as it were, set up an ideal of the life that is truly moral and well-pleasing to God. It is noteworthy in this connexion that in almost all these passages (151% 2431. 3413! 10]1f- 5 in a negative form in 50'*) the strongest emphasis is laid upon those requirements, inattention to which had furnished the main occa- sion for the denunciations and complaints of the prophets: honesty and truthfulness, above all in judicial cases which might issue in endangering the rights of the poor and the weak.