INTRODUCTION TO THE PSALMS.

GREAT thankfulness is due to Almighty God for His goodness in inclining the Church of England at the Reformation to appoint the Psalms for the daily use of her people; and manifold are the benefits which may be derived from the increased attention given in the present age to the cultivation of sacred song. But these advantages are not without their temptations. What we use often, we ought to use well. But it sometimes happens, that familiarity with the words of Holy Scripture impairs the sense of its meaning. Some who have spent a large portion of their lives in singing the sweet melodies of the Psalms in choirs of colleges and cathedrals, may still, it is to be feared, have only a superficial knowledge and faint appreciation of the divine virtue of those sacred strains which have been for many years almost daily on their lips.

S. Augustine says in his Confessions that he often heard it related of S. Athanasius,—who has commented on many of the Psalms, and has bequeathed to the world a valuable Essay on their uses, and on the best manner of using them,-that in his Church at Alexandria he ordered the Psalms to be recited in such a tone as to resemble reading rather than singing. And S. Augustine himself, while fully recognizing the spiritual benefits to be derived from choral singing of the Psalms, yet frankly makes this avowal,-" Whenever it happens that the singing of a Psalm affects me more than the words which are sung, then I am guilty of sin, and deserve punishment; and then I would rather not hear the voice of him that sings."

These two Fathers of the Church, and Expositors of the Psalms, were conscious of the perils that might arise from the allurements of sweet sounds, beguiling the mind from the wholesome food of sound words; and they drew back with fear from the sin of affronting and mocking God with the utterance of the lips without the sacrifice of the heart; and they were not forgetful of the need which the Church has ever to bear in the mind the admonition of St. Paul, declaring that the two great purposes of Sacred Song are the teaching of sound Doctrine, and the ascription of Praise and Glory to God; and that therefore the resolve of the devout worshipper ever will be, "I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also "."

It would seem, therefore, to be the proper work of a Commentary on the Psalms, to endeavour to minister help for an intelligent and devout use of them, so that the service of him who uses them may be more profitable to himself, and more pleasing to Almighty God.

S. Augustine, Confess. x. 33.

2 S. Athanasius, Epist. ad Marcellinum, vol. i. p. 783, ed. Pat. 1777. It is also prefixed to the fourth vol. of Breitinger's ed. of the Septuagint, Tiguri., 1730. In that Epistle S. Athanasius has considered the question, why Psalms are sung. The following is a paraphrase of his words:-It may be asked, Why are the Psalms accompanied with music? Not, as some imagine, for the sake of pleasure. No. Scripture does not seek what is sweet, but what is profitable. The musical accompaniment of Psalms is designed to serve two purposes. First, that Holy Scripture may glorify God, not only by continuity of sound, but also by diffusion of it. Scripture glorifies God by continuity of sound in the reading of the Books of the Law and the Prophets, and in all the Historical Books, and in the New Testament. It glorifies Him by diffusion of sound in the singing of Psalms and Hymns: and thus we obey 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, intellectual, and spiritual, into loving and harmonious sympathy and concert in the service of God; so that he who has "the mind of Christ" (as the Apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xi. 16) may become like a

musical instrument, and that following the motions of the Holy Spirit, he may obey Him both in his members and in his affections, and be wholly subservient to the will of God.

3 See Col. iii. 16. "Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Cp. Eph. v. 18. No less than thirteen Psalms have the title maschil, or instruction; an important fact, which may guide our judgments as to the true uses of Psalms and Hymns.

In the Hebrew MSS. the Psalms are entitled Sepher Tehillim, or Book of Praises; a correct title, as describing their design generally, although only one Psalm, Ps. 145, has the name tehillah in its title: but the word itself, tehillah (praise) occurs about thirty times in the body of the Psalms. In the tripartite division of the books of the Old Testament in Luke xxiv. 44, the Psalms are mentioned by Our Blessed Lord as holding a principal place in the Hebrew Chetubim, or Hagiographa. In some Hebrew MSS. of the German family, the Psalms hold the first place; but according to the Masora and the Spanish MSS., they hold the second place in the Hagiographa: cp. Carpzov, Int. p. 87; Delitzsch, ii. 369.

1 Cor. xiv. 15.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PSALMS.

With a view to this end, some introductory remarks may be here offered of a general character; what is more special will be reserved for insertion in the Commentary itself.

It appears to be supposed by some, that the Book of Psalms has been put together without systematic order; and that the Psalms may be regarded as detached compositions, rather than as integral parts of one well-organized whole. But surely such a view of the Psalms is erroneous, and is a fundamental hindrance to a correct estimate of them.

"Ordo Psalmorum" (says S. Augustine') "mihi magni sacramenti videtur continere secretum;" the order of the Psalms appears to me to involve a great mystery. Not only are the Psalms inspired, but the arrangement of them was not without the guidance of the Holy Ghost. The Psalms have been well likened to pearls strung together in a beautiful necklace; but this comparison does not adequately represent the connexion by which they are held together. Some evidence of this mutual contact and conjunction may be offered here, and it will be one of the designs of the present commentary to keep it steadily before the eye.

Let us open the Psalter. It commences, like the Sermon on the Mount, with a declaration of blessedness. The first Psalm begins with "blessed," the second Psalm ends with "blessed." Thus these two Psalms are linked together as a pair; and in this pair of Psalms we have an announcement of the Judgment to come, like the voice of the Baptist the herald of the Gospel". We have a view of the two classes into which the World is divided; first, that of those who meditate on the law of the Lord, and do it, and bear fruit; and secondly, that of those who meditate* vanity, and who rebel against the Lord, and are scattered like chaff, and dashed in pieces like a potter's vessel. This view is extended from Sinai to Sion; from the giving of the Law to the preaching of the Gospel, and to the Second Coming of Christ.

This pair of Psalms is, as it were, a spiritual epitome of all history. Well may it be placed in the forefront of the Psalter.

The first and second Psalms are joined together by what we may venture to call catchwords*, as well as by internal connexion of thought. It will be shown in the notes on the several Psalms", that such catchwords as these are discernible throughout the Psalter'. They are like golden threads which weave the Psalms together into a beautiful tissue. They are like the golden taches which coupled together the curtains of the Tabernacle so as to "make one Tabernacle "." Or, if we may presume to use another figure, derived from modern inventions, and descriptive of the mode in which these catchwords connect the Psalms with those which precede and with those which follow them, so that together they form one grand procession, they are like the couples used for linking carriages together in a railway convoy, so that they move forward simultaneously in their career, as it were, in one body animated by one soul.

But we may ascend to a higher level.

10

The connexion of the Psalms is not merely an outward one of language, it is also an inner one of mind and spirit. We need not dwell on evidences of internal congruity afforded by such facts as these, that all the fifteen "Songs of Degrees "," as they are called, although belonging to different periods of time, are arranged together in the Psalter in one group; and that all the five Psalms at the close of the Psalter begin and end with the word "Hallelujah." As Eusebius observes 1o, the Psalms are not placed in chronological order, but are disposed according to a law of inward affinity. And we may proceed to affirm that this law of inward affinity is grounded on their relation to Christianity. We need not hesitate to assert with S. Chrysostom", that the more the organic structure of the Psalms is analyzed, the more it will be recognized to have been pre-adjusted by the Holy Spirit Himself to the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ.

This is a view of the Book of Psalms which imparts fresh interest and beauty to it, and affords

of the Psalms, p. 334.

8 Exod. xxvi. 6.

" Or "Songs of the Up-goings," see Ps. 120.

10 Eusebius, in Psal. 63, in Montfaucon Coll. nova, i. p. 300. 11 It is a profound remark of that great Expositor, that the Psalms are evidently not arranged in chronological order, but are disposed with a prophetic reference to the actions and sufferings of Christ. See S. Chrysostom, in Ps. 58, in Corderii Catenâ, tom. ii. p. 152. This remark of S. Chrysostom may be coupled with that golden rule of the great Western Commentator on the Psalms, S. Augustine, "Whenever a man feels any doubt or difficulty in his mind, on hearing any portion of Holy Scripture, let him not depart from Christ; and when Christ is revealed to him in that portion of Scripture, let him understand that he has caught its meaning." S. Aug. in Ps. 96.

INTRODUCTION TO THE PSALMS.

an additional argument in behalf of Christianity. That the Psalms testify of Christ, Christ Himself affirms'; that Christ' Himself speaks in them, and that they prophesy of Him, His Apostles assume as a most certain truth 3, and the whole system of the ancient exposition of the Psalms rests upon this foundation. Tertullian *, S. Jerome, and S. Augustine' declare the sense of all Christian Antiquity when they say that almost all the Psalms represent the person of Christ; and S. Augustine thence takes occasion to remind his Christian hearers, that they, who have the Gospel, may derive more pleasure from the Psalms than was derived by those who first heard them, or than by David himself, who was employed by the Holy Spirit to write them. And S. Jerome says, "David, the king and prophet, foretells Christ and His Church. David, who is our Simonides, Alcæus, and Horace, celebrates Christ with his lyre." And S. Hilary says, "We must not entertain a doubt, that those things which are spoken in the Psalms are to be understood by the light of the Gospel ; and that by whomsoever the Holy Spirit there utters His words, they are to be referred to the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Incarnation, Passion, and Kingdom, and to the glory of our Resurrection." The Universality of the Psalter is evident from this consideration:-Every other Book of the Old Testament has its counterpart in the New. The Books of Moses and the other historical Books have their correspondents in the Gospels and the Acts; the didactic Books have theirs in the Epistles; the Prophets have theirs in the Apocalypse; but the Psalter has no echo in the New Testament. It is its own echo. It belongs to both Testaments. It speaks of Christ, and Christ speaks in it. It is the Hymn-book of the Universal Church.

But this is not all. This divine foresight of Christ, which animated and guided the composers of the Psalms, regulated also the order in which the Psalms are arranged. Why is it that the third Psalm, which describes the rebellion of Absalom, is placed next after the second Psalm? On chronological grounds it has no claim to such a position; for the rebellion of Absalom was at a late period in David's life, and long subsequent to the event which is the subject of the fifty-first Psalm. The reason doubtless was, because the second Psalm had described the rebellion of the World against Christ, and because David was a figure of Christ; and because the Holy Spirit, Who guided the arrangement of the Psalms, would suggest to us, by this juxtaposition, that we ought to see in Absalom's insurrection against David a prophetic figure of the unnatural rebellion of unthankful men against Christ, his Divine Antitype 1o.

10

Single examples of this kind of pre-adjustment cannot do justice to the principle here affirmed.

The reader's consideration is therefore craved to the numerous exemplifications of it which will be pointed out in the following notes ". By way of specimen, he may be requested to consider, whether it can be by chance, that, after the wonderful prophecy of the Passion of Christ in the twenty-second Psalm, we are led in the next Psalm to contemplate Christ as our Shepherd going before us, and leading us through the dark valley of the shadow of Death; and that in the next Psalm we are brought to behold Christ Risen from the dead, and Ascended into heaven; and in the next Psalm we are encouraged to lift up our hearts to Christ sitting in heaven, and to pray to Him for pardon and peace through His powerful Intercession; and in the three next Psalms to seek for grace in communion with Him in His Church; and in the next Psalm,-the twenty-ninth,-to behold the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, sent by Him to abide for ever with His people, and to give them the blessings of peace.

It is hardly possible to read or hear this octave of Psalms without meditating on the great Articles of the Christian Faith, not only separately, but conjointly, and as harmoniously connected together in the Psalter, in a definite order and sequence, as they are arranged in the Creed of the Church; "I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord-Who Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified, Dead, and Buried-He Ascended into heaven and Sitteth on the right hand of God

1 Luke xxiv. 44. Cp. Matt. xvi. 27; xxi. 16; xxv. 41; xxvi. 23. Luke xx. 42. John x. 34; xv. 25; xvii. 12.

2 See Acts ii. 29-34. The bearing of this truth on what are called "The Imprecatory Psalms," is of great importance. See below, on Ps. lxix. 22-28; and on Ps. cix. 6-20.

3 Acts i. 16, 20; ii. 25, 31, 34; iv. 11, 25; xiii. 22. Rom. iii. 4, 10; viii. 36; x. 18; xi. 9; xv. 3, 9, 11. Heb. i. 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, &c.

4 Tertullian, c. Praxeam, c. 11.

5 S. Jerome, Epist. 103.

6 S. Augustine, De Civ. Dei. xvii. 14; and throughout his Commentary on the Psalms.

7 See S. Augustine, in Ps. 101: "Quando scribebantur hæc, non ita proderant eis inter quos scribebantur; scribebantur

enim ad prophetandum Novum Testamentum inter homines qui vivebant ex Vetere Testamento."

8 Cp. S. Augustine, in Ps. 21: "Quocunque te verteris, Christus est;" and on Ps. 59: "Vix est ut in Psalmis inveniantur voces, nisi Christi et Ecclesiæ." Compare S. Chrysostom's Summary of the Prophecies concerning Christ in the Psalms, in Ps. 50, tom. i. p. 711, ed. Savil.; and S. Athanasius, ad Marcellinum, near the beginning; and see his words, below, p. xiv.

9 S. Hilary, Prolog. in Psalm, § 5.

10 See above, Prelim. Note, 2 Sam. xv.; and the notes to Ps. 3, Prelim. Note.

11 See, for example, Psalms 8. 15. 19. 20. 23. 24. 32. 38. 42. 45. 46. 47. &c.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PSALMS.

the Father Almighty. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of Sins, the Resurrection of the Body, and the Life Everlasting."

The Psalms are a prophetical Creed. And in proportion as we proceed in our course through the Psalter, we find that the great doctrines of Christian Truth are gradually revealed with greater clearness and fulness. For example, we have a view of Christ's Passion in the twenty-second Psalm; but it is not till the forty-fifth Psalm, that the Church of Christ is revealed as the Bride and Queen at His right hand; and it is not till the sixty-eighth, that we have a distinct vision of the graces and glories of Pentecost. And the "Songs of Degrees" or "Up-goings" in the latter portion of the Psalter prepare the Church for her own Ascent, after her pilgrimage in this world, to the heavenly Sion; and the Hallelujah-Psalms, with which the Psalter ends, are a prelude to the everlasting Hallelujahs of the Church glorified before the Throne of God.

The Book of Psalms, viewed in this light, may be likened to some noble ship, rigged in gallant trim, and riding majestically over the waves. Its sails are filled with the breath of the Holy Ghost, and at its helm sits Christ, and steers it in its course.

Other evidence of the harmonious arrangement and unity of the Psalter may be derived from the following considerations:

The Psalms form one Book; they are called "the Book of Psalms" by our Blessed Lord and His Apostles in the New Testament'; and, as the Hebrew and Christian Expositors agree, they are composed of five parts, sometimes called five Books.

3

The Psalter is a poetical Pentateuch. It extends over a thousand years, from Moses to Malachi. In it the Hebrew History is set to music; and this Oratorio in five parts might be entitled the "Messiah," for He is the subject of it.

Analyze its structure, and this will clearly appear. After the prologue, or overture, formed of the first two Psalms, we have a description of the insurrection of Absalom against David, in the third Psalm, placed next to a Psalm which (as explained in the New Testament') describes the rising of the World against Christ. The First Book of the Psalter ends with the forty-first Psalm, which pourtrays a later and more formidable insurrection against David-that of his son Adonijah, leagued with Joab, the captain of David's host, and Abiathar the priest, when David was old and enfeebled, and was laid "on the bed of languishing;" and this, as our Lord Himself has taught us, was also prophetic of the conspiracy of Judas and the Jews against Christ.

The Second Book of the Psalter ends with a pair of Psalms, the seventy-first and seventy-second, which, by a process of repetition, recapitulation, and enlargement with ampler detail—(a process familiar to the student of Scripture prophecy)—brings us to the same period of David's life as the forty-first Psalm had done; and exhibits him praying that he may "not be forsaken" when he is old and grey-headed'; and displays him rising up from that "bed of languishing," and going forth in the strength of the Lord God," from that chamber of sickness, on which we had seen him laid in the forty-first Psalm, and reviving as it were in the freshness of youth in Solomon his son and successor, and forming, conjointly with Solomon, a magnificent composite type of Jesus Christ, Who is the True David and the Divine Solomon, the Lord of battles and Prince of Peace, the Preparer for the Temple of the Church, and the Builder-up of that Temple; and Whose Victory, Resurrection, and Eternal Kingdom were symbolized by this rising up of David, and by his "showing God's strength to that generation";" and by his going forth from his sick chamber, to the confusion of his enemies and to the joy of Israel, whom he had convoked to that great national Assembly which he then addressed, and to whom he presented his son Solomon, and showed the pattern of the Temple; and by the succession of his son Solomon to the throne of Israel and Judah, in David's lifetime; so that there was no break in the Hebrew monarchy 10. The divine promise of the monarchy of the Messiah from the tribe of Judah " and lineage of David "2, was the anchor of the

12

1 Luke xx. 42. Acts i. 20.

2 S. Ambrose, in Ps. 40: "In quinque libros divisum videtur esse Psalterium." He then states what Psalms are included respectively in each book; and S. Jerome ad Cyprianum (ii. 695): "Aiunt Hebræi uno Psalmorum Volumine quinque libros contineri ;" and S. Hippolytus, and S. Epiphanius (De Mens. c. 5), call the Psalter a Pentateuch (Carpzov, Introd. p. 131. Cp. Delitzsch, ii. p. 382).

The 90th Psalm was written by Moses; and many of the Psalms in the last Book of the Psalter belong to the age of Malachi.

Acts iv. 25, 26.