§ 6. VALUE OF TIIE BOOK OF PSALMS. The Psalme have always been regarded by the Church, Jewish as well as Christian, with a special affection. The "Psalms of Ascents " were probably used from the actual time of David by the worshippers who thronged to Jerusalem on. the occasions of the three great festivals. Other psalms were either originally written for the service of the sanctuary, or were introduced into that service at an early date, and thus made their way into the heart of the nation. David early acquired the title of "the sweet psalmist of Israel" (2 Sam. xxiii. 1) from a grateful people who delighted in his utterances. It was probably a feeling of special affection for the Psalms that produced the division into five books, by which it was made into a second Pentateuch. In the Christian Church the Psalms won for themselves a place even above that which for centuries they had held in the Jewish. ::Horning and Evening Service each commenced with a psalm. In Passion Week, Ps. xxii. was recited every day. Seven psalms, selected on account of their solemn and mournful character, were set apart for the special additional services appointed for the season of Lent, and became known as "the seven peni- tential psalms." Tertullian, in the second century, tells us that the Christians of his day were wont to sing many of the psalms in their. agapre. 1 St. Jerome says 2 that "the psalms were continually to be heard in the fields and vineyards of Palestine. The ploughman, as he held his plough, chanted the Hallelujah ; and the reaper, the vine-dresser, and the shepherd sang something from the Songs of David. Where the meadow:i were coloured with flowers, and the singing birds made their complaints, the psalms sounded even more sweetly." 8idonius Apollinaris represents boatmen, while they worked their heavy barges up the waters, as singing psalms till the banks echoed with "Hallelujah," and applies the repre-- sentation to the voyage of the Christian life- " Hore the choir of them that drng the boat, While the banks give bnck responsive note, • Alleluia I' full nnd calm, Lifts nnd lets the friendly bidding float- Lift the psalm. Christian pilgrim I Chdstian boatman! each beside his rolling river, Sing, 0 pilgrim I sing, 0 boatman I lift the psalm in mn.ic ever." 1 The primitive Church, according to Bishop Jeremy Taylor,• "would 1 Quoted by Bishop l'erowne, in his comment on the Poalms (vol. i. p 23) 1 See Dishop Alex1mder's 'Dampton Lectures,' pp. 235, 23G. 1 Ibid., p. 236. Compnre the original- " Curvoruru hino chorus heloiariorum Rcsponsnntibus Alleluia riple Ad Christum levat amnioum celeusma, Sic, sic psnllite, nauta et viator I " • Seo the I Sermon on the Whole Duty of the Clergy,' in his 'W urk3,' eJit. C. P. E l.:ri (vol. viii. p. 507). xii INTRODUCTION TO
admit no man to the superior orders of the clergy unless, among other pre-required dispositions, be oould say all David's Psalter by heart." The Fathers generally delighted in the Psalms. Almost all the more eminent of them-Origen, Eusebius, Hilary, Basil, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Ambrose, Theodoret, Augustine, Jerome-wrote commentaries on them, or expositions of them. "Although all Divine Scripture," said St. Ambrose, in the fourth century,1 "breathes the grace of God, yet sweet beyond all others is the Book of Psalms. History instructs, the Law tEiaches, prophecy announces, rebuke chastens, morality persuades; in the Book of Psalms we have the fruit of all these, and a kind of medicine for the salvation of man." '' To me it seems," says Athanasius,' "that the Psalms are to him who sings them as a mirror, wherein he may see himself and the motions of his soul, and with like feelings utter them. So also one who hears a psalm read, takes it as if it were spoken concerning himself, and either, convicted by his own conscience, will be pricked at heart and repent, or else, hearing of that hope which is to Godwards, and the succour which is vouchsafed to them that believe, leaps for joy, as though such grace were specially made over to him, and begins to utter his thanksgivings to God." And again, "In the other books of Scripture are discourses which dissuade us from those things which are evil, but in this has been sketched out for us how we should abstain from things evil. For instance, we are commanded to repent, and to repent is to cease from sin; but here has been sketched out for us how we are to repent, and what we must say when we repent. . . . Again there is a command in everything to give thanks; but the Psalms teach us also what to say when we give thanks. . . . We are enjoined to bless the Lord, and to confess to him. But in the Psalms we have a pattern given us, both as to how we should praise the Lord, and with what words we can suitably confess to him. And, in every instance, we shall find these Divine songs suited to us, to our feelings, and our circumstances." Abundant other testimonies might be added with respect to the value of the Book of Psalms; but perhaps it is more important to consider briefly in what its value consists. In the first place, then, its great value seems to be that it furnishes for our feelings and emotions the same sort of guidance and regulation, which the rest of Scripture furnishes for our faith and our actions. "This book," says Calvin,8 "I am wont to style an anatomy of all parts of the soul, for no one will discover in himself a single feeling whereof the image is not reflected in this mirror. Nay, all griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, anxieties-in short, all those tumultuous agitations wherewith the minds of wen arc wont to be tossed-the Holy Ghost hath here represented to the life. The rest of Scripture contains the commands which God gave to his servants to be delivered to us; but here the prophots themselves, holding
• •Opera.' (Venet., 1748), vol. ii., comment on Ps. L 1 'Epist. e.d Marcell.,' §§ 10-12. 1 Preface to ' Commentary on the Psalms.' THE BOOK OF PSALMS. xiii