1.02.01.04 The Psalms
IV. THE PSALMS.
Among Christian readers the Psalter is the favorite and most familiar book of the Old Testament, and naturally and rightly so; for here we touch those deep regions of personal religion where church and sect, where creed and rite, where race and place and time, are all lost sight of, merged in the common experience of the human soul all the world over, when once it truly lives in the very presence of God. In this part of the Bible, then, it might be thought, at all events, local and temporary matters could be disregarded and the sacred words read in their natural simplicity as always available for the devout man’s meditation. But a little thought will teach us that even in the reading of the Psalms we cannot afford to neglect that indispensable key to the interpretation of Scripture, the historical method. The Psalms are the sacred lyrics of Israel. Two important considerations spring from this fact, one touching the poetical form, the other the historical setting, which even here is found to be present.
1. Hebrew Poetry,— In reading the Psalms we must always bear in mind the distinctions between prose and poetry. What is called “the poetic license” allows of expressions in the freer imaginative literature that would not be tolerated in grave narrative or severe argumentation. This does not imply that we are not to look for truth in poetry. The obligation of sincerity is as imperative here as anywhere else. Indeed, it is possible by means of poetry to reveal deeper truth and to paint it more vividly than in prose. But then, the form of expression must be recognized. Poetry allows of a wealth of metaphor that is not permissible in good prose, and in Oriental poetry especially there is a daring employment of imagery which goes beyond anything we meet with in good Western literature, the best of which is guided by the restraints observed in the classic severity of the Greeks. Thus, as nature is supposed to rejoice at the deliverance of Israel, it is said: The mountains skipped like rams,
The little hills like young sheep.— Psa 114:4.
We are bound to recognize this exuberance of lively metaphor in obvious instances; but for a just interpretation of Hebrew poetry we should be on our guard when it is not so apparent. It is here that a dull literalism plays havoc with the fancies of the inspired writers. Verses from some highly poetic psalm are cited side by side with grave laws in Leviticus or argumentative passages from St. Paul’s epistles, as though all belonged to the same category and all required the same rules of exegesis. But poetical things must be poetically discerned. This rule, of course, applies to poetry in other parts of the Bible— in the prophets, for instance.
2. The Imprecatory Psalms.— Just in proportion as the literature we are studying is subjective and emotional it becomes necessary for us to take account of the life and character and outlook of the writer. This applies with great force to the imprecatory psalms.
Nothing is more confusing to the conscience than the idea that the horrible utterances of these psalms must be justified, and. even appropriated by Christians under certain circumstances, for no other reason than that they are found within the covers of the Bible. Only evil can come from attempting to defend such words as these:
O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed;
Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee
As thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones
Against the rock.— Psa 137:8-9.
It is horrible to think that the crusaders under Godfrey deBouillon— Christians as they thought themselves — performed this very barbarity on the children of the Saracens after the siege of Jerusalem. Read absolutely, and taken to be part of the sacred oracles, the imprecatory psalms attribute to God as the divine Author of the Bible sentiments that are quite contrary to His character. If we met them anywhere else than in the Bible, what could we say but that they were wild, wicked words? Are they to be justified simply because they are found in the Bible? To say “Yes” would be to admit a most dangerous doctrine. It is not the function of inspiration to make wrong right. The honest thing is to say that these words should never have been written. And yet we may do a cruel injustice to the psalmist if we, with our Christian light, and living in ease and calm security, sit in judgment on a Jew of the old times, driven frantic with his people’s wrongs, and condemn him by our own standard of right and wrong. The dreadful words show how the milk of human kindness may be turned to gall in a patriot/s heart, wi’ung by the sight of the outrages done to his oppressed nation. When we study the whole situation a fuller comprehension of it may lead us to pause before we pass too severe a sentence on the offender; his offense was but in words, while that of the people he hated so intensely consisted of the very deeds that he was wishing to come upon them and their children. So much may be said in mitigation of the horror of this language; but even after all allowance has been made that can be made from the historical standpoint, a dark shadow rests on these psalms. It must be a most improper thing to repeat them in Christian worship. Let us be thankful that they are quite rare exceptions to the general tenor of the Psalter. Taking the Psalms as a whole, we may well be amazed and awed at the elevation of soul that marks them as among the choicest fruits of inspiration. In studying any particular psalm it is desirable to begin by inquiring when it was written. The titles of the psalms are very misleading, and not to be relied upon, for they are late additions to the Psalter; therefore the date of any given psalm can only be fixed by its contents. For example, some psalms evidently refer to the Captivity and must be dated about the same time.
Those written in praise of the law, such as the one hundred and nineteenth, must come after Ezra’s publication of the Pentateuch. When we have obtained all the light that is to be got in this way we shall feel the more strongly that it is the unique merit of the Hebrew Psalter to be the expression of the language of devotion for all ages.
See Lowth, “The Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews”; Perowne, ’’The Book of Psalms”, Cheyne, “The Book of Psalms.”