converse with God, inasmuch ae they lay bare all their inmost feelingR, invite or impel every one of ue to self-examination, that of all the infirmities to which we are liable, and all the sine of which we are eo full, none may remain hidden." The portraiture of the emotions is accompanied by sufficient indications of which of them are pleasing and which displeasing to God, so that by the help of the Psalms we may not only express, but also regulate, our feelings as God would have us regulate them. Further, the energy and warmth of devotion exhibited in the Psalms is suited to stir up and inflame our hearts to a greater affection and zeal than they could otherwise readily attain to, and thus to raise ue to spiritual heights beyond those natural to us. Ae flame enkindles flame, eo the fervour of the psalmists in their prayers and praises passes on from them to us, and warms us to a glow of love and thankfulness which is something more than a pale reflex of their own. Without the Psalms, without the constant use of them, Christian life tends to become dead and dull, like the ashes of an extinguished fire. Other uses of the Psalms, which add to their value, are intellectual. The historical psalms help us to picture to ourselves vividly the life of the nation, and often add touches to the narrative of the historical books which are of the highest interest. Those rightly ascribed to David fill out the portrait faintly sketched in Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, turning into a living and breathing figure what, apart from them, were little more than a skeleton. The Messianic psalms address themselves in great part to our reason, and furnish an argument, second to few others, for the truth of Christianity. The whole Psalter is instinct with those truths which are felt on all sides to be of the essence of the Christian religion-its "theistic ideas are those which we find in our Creeds ; " its Christology "unlocks many [ OQ_scure J passages; " its "view of the mystery of man's conception, birth, ancl destiny is precisely that which has commended itself to Chi istian thought" 1 as most reasonable. As St. Basil says, "The Psalms contain a perfect theology." 2 In reading them, studying them, saturating with them our hearts and minds, we indoctrinate ourselves with the purest religious ideas expressed in language of the most perfect beauty.
§ 7. LITERATURE OF THE PSALMS. "No book has been so fully commented on ae the Psalms," says Canon Cook, in the 'Speaker's Commentary;' "the literature of the Psalms makes up a library." 8 Among the Fathers, as already observed,' commentaries on the Psalms, or expositions of them, or of some of them, were written by Origen, Eusebius, Basil, Chrysostom, Hilary, Ambrose, Athanasius, Theo- doret, Augustine, and Jerome; that of Theodoret being, perhaps, the best, 1 See Bishop Alexander's 'Bampton Leotures,' p. 220. 1 'Ev 'f!r,J,.µois rv, 8,oll.o-yl.. nll.,l<&. • 'Spenker's Commentary,' vol. iv. p. 147. • See above,§ 6, pp. xi., xii. INTRODUCTION TO
but that of Jerome having also a high value. Among Jewish commentators of di:,tinction may be mentioned Saadiah, who wrote in Arabio, Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kimchi, and Rashi. At the era of the Reformation the Psalms attracted great attention, Luther, Mercer, Zwingle, and Calvin writing commentaries, while other expository works were contributed by Rudinger, Agellius, Genebrard, Bellarmine, L01inus, Geier, and De Muis. During the last century or so, the modern German school of criticism has laboured with great diligence at the elucidation of the Psalter, and has done some- thing for the historical exegesis, and still more for the grammatical and philological exposition of the Psalms. The example was set by Knapp, who in 1780 published at Halle his work entitled, 'Die Psalmen iibersetz' -a work of considerable merit. He was followed by Rosenmiiller not long afterwards, whose' Scholia in Psalmos,' which made its appearance in 1708, gave at once "a full and judicious presentation of the most important results of previous labours," 1 including the Rabbinical, and also threw fresh light on several subjects of much interest. Ewald succeeded to Rosenmiiller, and in the early portion of the present century, gave to the world, in his 'Dichter des alt. Bundes,' those clever, but somewhat overbold, speculations, which elevated him into the leader of German thought on these and kindred subjects for above fifty years. Maurer lent his support to the views of Ewald, and helped greatly to the advance of Hebrew scholarship by his grammatical and critical researches, while Hengstenberg 2 and Delitzsch,8 in their able and judicious Comments, toned down the extravagances of the Berlin professor, and encouraged the formation of a more subdued and reverent school of criticism. More recently Koster anil Gratz have written in a similar spirit, and have helped to vindicate German theology from the charge of rashness and recklessness. In England, not much was done to elucidate the Psalms, or facilitate the study of them, till about eighty years ago, when Bishop Horsley's son published his father's work, entitled, 'The Book of Psalms, translated from tl:ie Hebrew, with Notes explanatory and critical' (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1815), with a dedication to the Archbishop of Canterbury. This publica.- tion ga,e a stimulus to Hebrew studies, and especially to that of the Poalter, which led in a short time to an issue from the press of several works posse~sing considerable value, and not even yet wholly superseded Ly the productions of later scholars. One of these was a 'Key to the Bouk of Psalms' (London, Seeley), published by a Rev. Mr. Boys, in 1825; and auother, still more useful, was " c•';,;,n "l!:lC>, The Book of Psalms 1 See the "Introduction to the Book of Psalms," by Canon Cook, in tho 'Speaker's