04.01. Chapter 1
THE PSALMS THE Jewish Psalms have furnished the bridal hymns, the battle songs, the pilgrim marches, the penitential prayers, and the public praises of every nation in Christendom, since Christendom was born. They have rolled through the din of every great European battlefield; they have pealed through the scream of the storm in every ocean highway of the world. Drake’s sailors sang them when they clave the virgin waters of the Pacific; Frobisher’s, when they dashed against the barriers of Arctic ice and night. They floated over the waters on that day of days when England held her freedom against Pope and Spaniard, and won the naval supremacy of the world. They crossed the ocean with the Mayflower pilgrims; were sung round Cromwell’s camp fires, and his Ironsides charged to their music; whilst they have filled the peaceful homes of England with the voice of supplication and the breath of praise. In palace halls, by happy hearths, in squalid rooms, in pauper wards, in prison cells, in crowded sanctuaries, in lonely wilderness-everywhere they have uttered our moan of contrition and our song of triumph; our tearful complaints, and our wrestling, conquering, prayer." * * Rev. Baldwin Brown
About one-third of the Psalms are anonymous. Seventy-three bear the name of David, "the sweet Psalmist of Israel." Twenty-four are attributed to the minstrels of his reign, and to subsequent singers; some of whom may have lived in the glorious period of Ezra’s restoration. Two are attributed to Solomon; and one to Moses, "the man of God." The inscriptions of the Psalms have given rise to much discussion. Some of them indicate the musical accompaniment, which had been carefully selected-whether with flutes, as the 5th; or with stringed instruments, as the 6th. Others express the intentions of the Psalms-to TEACH; to BRING TO REMEMBRANCE; to GIVE THANKS. Others again commemorate the circumstances under which the Psalms they head were penned; as for instance the 56th, which is entitled, "The silent dove in far-off lands," and commemorates the time when David was an exile in the land of the Philistines. The Hebrew Title for this precious collection of Sacred Hymns is PRAISES; and rightly so, for the most prominent feature in them is Praise. The rendering of this word into Greek gives us our title PSALMS.
There are FIVE BOOKS embraced in this collection:- THE FIRST, including 1-41; ending with the doxology and a double Amen. THE SECOND, including 42-72; ending in the same way, and with the further addition that: "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." THE THIRD, including 73-89; ending with a somewhat different doxology and a double Amen. THE FOURTH, including 90-106; ending with doxology, amen, and hallelujah. THE FIFTH, including 107-150; ending with repeated hallelujahs. There are three ways in which the Psalms may be studied. We may look at them, first, as recording the inner heart-history of those who wrote them, and especially of David. We cannot understand his life merely by reading the historical books; but when we compare the outer with the inner, and listen to his own musings on the varied episodes of his changeful career, we are able to form an altogether new and realistic conception of that rich and many-chorded nature. It was good that he should be afflicted: that he should extract from the wine-press of his sorrows a cordial to cheer all weary and aching hearts till time shall be no more.
Next, we should study the Psalter in its bearing on our blessed Lord. He said Himself, "It is written in the Psalms concerning Me" (Luke 24:44); and He expressed some of his deepest emotions in words borrowed from that marvellous vocabulary. There are some Psalms that are entirely Messianic, for they can have no useful reference but to the Lord Jesus; others have a primary reference to some figure or event in Hebrew story, from which, however, they soon pass on, to find a richer and wider fulfilment in Him to whose person and work all the rays of Scripture converge. It is the Spirit of Christ which breathes throughout the Psalter; and we cannot be surprised if it often rises into tones and expressions of thought which may be uttered by human lips, but certainly emanate from a higher than mortal source. In this sense David’s Son is also David’s Root.
Lastly, we may study the Psalms for ourselves, nourishing our spirits with their rich expressions of experimental religion. Few men have reached such heights of joy, or touched such depths of penitential grief, as David. Nor is there a note in the entire gamut of the experiences of the religious life, which does not speak beneath his marvellous touch. When language fails us, these Psalms will often express our deepest selves; our yearnings for God; our contrition for sin; our inexpressible joy. They are like some marble staircase, trodden by myriads of feet, yet unworn and clear-cut still, up which we too may pass from the blessedness of the initial verse, to the ringing hallelujahs that peal out their inspired anthems in the closing sentence of this Golden Book of the inner life. May He, who is expressly said to have been their Author (2 Samuel 23:2; Acts 1:16; Acts 4:25; Hebrews 3:7-8), give us his own divine and blessed help as we seek to open up their sacred and blessed treasures!