INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

LYRIC poetry is the most ancient kind of poetry, and Hebrew poetry is mainly lyric. Neither epic nor dramatic poetry flourished in ancient Israel. Some indeed of the historical Psalms may be said to have an epic colouring, but they belong to the class of didactic narrative: Job and the Song of Songs may be called in a sense dramatic, but they do not appear to have been intended for performance on the stage1. The only independent branch of poetry in Israel was gnomic or proverbial poetry, which in the hands of the 'Wise Men' attained to a rich development, and must have exercised an important influence on the education of the people.

The Old Testament is the religious history of Israel, and the poetry preserved in the Book of Psalms is, as might be expected, religious poetry. Secular poetry no doubt existed, but, with

1 See however Driver, Lit. of O.T., p. 444, for the view that the Song may have been "designed to be acted, the different parts being personated by different characters," or represented by "the varied voice and gesture of a single reciter."

Such as the drinking songs referred to in Amos vi. 5 (R.V.); Is. v. 12: harvest and vintage songs (Is. xvi. 10, 11; Jer. xlviii. 33): parables (Judg. ix. 8 ff.). Solomon's thousand and five songs' were probably of a secular character (1 Kings iv. 32). Poems like Exod. xv and Judg. v are essentially religious. The Book of the Wars of Jehovah (Num. xxi. 14), and the Book of Jashar, i.e. the Upright (Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam. i. 18), appear to have been collections of poems commemorating remarkable episodes of national history, and the characters and exploits of national heroes. In these no sharp line could be drawn between what was secular and what was religious.

the exception of a few fragments preserved in the historical books', it has not come down to us. The Psalter then is a collection of religious lyrics. Lyric poetry is defined as “that which directly expresses the individual emotions of the poet"; and religious lyric poetry is the expression of those emotions and feelings as they are stirred by the thought of God and directed God-wards. This is the common characteristic of the Psalms in all their manifold variety. Some are directly addressed to God, as petition or thanksgiving or praise: some are the communings of the soul with God, expressing its faith, its hope, its love, its needs, its fears, its aspirations, its joys, its triumphs: some celebrate the 'marvellous works' of God in nature and in history: some reflect upon the perplexing problems of life and their relation to the divine government of the world: but God is as it were the sun around which all revolves, and His light and heat illuminate and animate the whole.

The Psalms stand in an intimate relation to the whole of the Old Testament. They are the inspired response of the human heart to God's revelation of Himself, in Law and History and Prophecy and Philosophy.

The Psalmists celebrate the moral law as the guide of human conduct; they welcome the ordinances of worship and rejoice in the privilege of access to the presence of God in the Temple, as the crowning joy of life.

History supplies its lessons of God's goodness and man's ingratitude, thrown into the easily remembered form of didactic poetry. The recollection of the past is a warning for the present, the support of faith in the hour of trial, the ground of comfort in times of calamity.

The Psalms are closely connected with Prophecy. The term 'prophesying' is applied to the expression of religious fervour in chant and hymn (1 Sam. x. 10 ff.; xix. 20 ff.. 1 Chr. xxv. 1—3); and David's chief musicians, Heman, Asaph, and Jeduthun, are called 'seers' (1 Chr. xxv. 5; 2 Chr. xxix. 30; xxxv. 15). Sacred poetry often rises to prophetic foresight, or speaks with pro

1 E.g. Gen. iv. 23, 24; Num. xxi. 17, 18, 27-30; Judg. xv. 16; 1 Sam. xviii. 7.

phetic authority1, while prophecy often passes into lyric poetry. The passion for truth and righteousness, and the unquenchable belief that Jehovah's moral government of the world is working, surely if slowly, towards a glorious consummation in the establishment of His universal sovereignty, animate and inspire Psalmists not less than Prophets.

Several Psalms reflect the influence of the 'Wisdom' or religious philosophy of Israel, both in its practical and in its speculative aspects. The moral lessons for every-day life collected in the Book of Proverbs, and the discussion of the problems of the world in Job and Ecclesiastes, find their echo in the poetry of the Psalter3.

The importance of the Psalter for a just appreciation of the history of Israel is obvious. How meagre an idea of the higher religious life of Israel should we derive from the Historical Books apart from the Prophets: how imperfect still would be the picture drawn from the Historical Books and the Prophets without the warmth of colouring added to it by the Psalms. These alone give us a glimpse into the inner religion of the best spirits in the nation, and bear witness to the faith, the love, the devotion of pious souls, even under the limitations of the Old Covenant.

Hence it is essential to study the Psalms critically and historically, to endeavour to ascertain their original meaning, and to assign them to their proper place in the history and development of revelation; not only in order to give life and reality to the Psalms themselves, and to understand them better; but for the sake of the light which they throw upon the religious history of Israel, and the course of God's dealings with His people.

The inquiry is however one of extreme difficulty. The widest diversity of opinion prevails as to the date and authorship of the Psalms, and we must often be content to acknowledge that a Psalm cannot be assigned to a definite period, still less to a particular author, with any degree of certainty.

1 See Ps. xii. 5; xlvi. 10; 1. 4 ff.; lxxv. 2 ff.; lxxxi. 6 ff.; cx. 1. 2 See e.g. Is. xii, xxv, xxvi; Nah. i. 2 ff.; Hab. iii.

See especially Pss. xxxvii, xlix, lxxiii,

But after all, the critical and historical study of the Psalms is but a preliminary to the higher study of their spiritual meaning and their devotional use. The Psalter has been through all the centuries and will ever continue to be the one unique and inexhaustible treasury of devotion for the individual and for the Church. Through its guidance the soul learns to commune with God: it supplies the most fitting language for common worship.

To some it may seem almost a sacrilege to apply the methods of criticism to such a book. It may be disappointing to find that many Psalms once supposed to be David's must be relegated to a far later age; perplexing to find familiar renderings condemned, and long current interpretations abandoned.

But Holy Scripture conveys divine truth through the medium of human language, and it is our duty to investigate to the full the meaning and the force of that language. Criticism is not

the enemy but the handmaid of devotion. As we learn to understand more of the original meaning of the Psalms for those who wrote and used them, we shall learn more of their true meaning for ourselves.

But that meaning is not limited to the 'original' sense, if by this is meant only that sense which the writers could recognise in their own words. Every true poet's words contain far more than he himself at the moment intends. And the words of these inspired poets were so shaped and moulded by the Holy Spirit that they might grow and expand with the growth of revelation, and "gather wealth in the course of ages." The Psalms belong indeed to the Old and not to the New Testament. They are the product of the Jewish and not of the Christian Church1. But "the Psalter in its spiritual fulness

1 "It is true that not a little of the colouring of the Psalms is derived from the ritual and order of the old dispensation, and has now become antiquated; but practical religion does not refuse those bonds of connexion with the past. The believing soul is never anxious to separate its own spiritual life from the spiritual life of the fathers. Rather does it cling with special affection to the links that unite it to the church of the Old Testament; and the forms which, in their literal sense, are now antiquated, become to us an additional group of figures in the rich poetic imagery of the Hebrew hymnal." Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 191.

belongs to no special time"; and the old words are 'fulfilled' in Christ. The Christian Church may, nay must, use them as they are illuminated by the light of the Gospel. And if the saying, "pectus est quod facit theologum1," is true of the study of the Bible generally, it is most true of the study of that book which has well been called "the Bible within the Bible," the very "heart of the Bible."

I.

CHAPTER II.

THE POSITION, NAMES, NUMBERING, AND DIVISIONS

OF THE PSALTER.

The position of the Psalter in the Old Testament. The Hebrew title of the Old Testament indicates the three great divisions, in which, from very early times, the Canonical Books were arranged by the Jewish Church:-Law, Prophets, Writings. The Book of Psalms belongs to the third of these divisions, the Writings or Hagiographa. But its position in the group has not always been the same3. In the MSS. of the German type, which our printed editions follow, the Psalms

1 "It is the heart which makes the theologian."

? This triple division is recognised in the Prologue to Ecclesiasticus, written about B.C. 132 by the author's grandson, who translated the book from Hebrew into Greek. "Whereas many great things have been delivered unto us by means of (did) the law and the prophets and the others that have followed after them... my grandfather Jesus, when he had diligently given himself to the reading of the law and the prophets and the other books of our fathers (τῶν ἄλλων πατρίων Bißllwr)... was drawn on also himself to write something pertaining to instruction and wisdom." And again, apologising for the imperfections of his version, he says: "For words spoken in Hebrew have not precisely the same force, when they are translated into another tongue: and not only this treatise, but even the law and the prophecies and the rest of the books (τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν βιβλίων) differ in no small degree when they are spoken in their own language." The clear distinction which is here drawn between the Canonical books and Ecclesiasticus, and the reference to the Greek Version of the O.T. as already in existence, should be carefully noticed. See further below, p. xlvi.

See Ginsburg, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, ch. i; Ryle, Canon of the O.T., ch. xii,