THE TRUE PSALMODY: Chapter IV.
James Dodson
THE SUITABLENESS OF THE PSALMS FOR NEW TESTAMENT WORSHIP, AND THEIR USE, VINDICATED AGAINST OBJECTIONS.
THE necessity for such a vindication of the inspired Psalms, is certainly to be regretted. The very fact of their inspiration, should be, of itself, an answer to nearly every objection, and their acknowledged excellence (see Chapter I.) should be ample for the refutation of others. Our task here is rather an ungracious one, but must be undertaken, inasmuch as those who use hymns, not satisfied with claiming a license to make and employ uninspired compositions in divine worship, have used no little ingenuity in the discovery of objec-
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tions to the employment of the Psalms of the Bible in celebrating the praises of God in our devotions. Some of these objections may bear more directly upon their exclusive use—some of them may be urged by those who after all admit the propriety of their use with some exceptions and modifications; some of them, as we shall see, go much farther, and assail the Psalms themselves.
I. It is said that the Psalms speak of a Saviour to come, and, hence, are not suitable, nor designed to be used since His advent. We might satisfy ourselves here with the reply, that the use of the Psalms, by almost universal acknowledgment, “passed over to the New Testament Church:” in other words, that they were used in the apostolic church, and, of course, with apostolic sanction. This has already been amply shown: and also, that in the best and purest times, the Psalms have been held in the highest estimation as the matter of the church’s praise in song: and that in every age they have been read and studied with singular satisfaction and edification by the most eminent saints of God. By considerations such as these, we would confute this objection; so far, at least, as it embraces a conclusion adverse to the use of the Psalms under this dispensation. We prefer, however, to meet the objection—premises and all—directly, in the words of Dr. Pressly:—“It is taken for
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granted, in the objection, that if in the Psalms, the church praises God for a Redeemer to come, therefore they are not suitable for the church now, since he has come. But it so happens, that every where in the Psalms, the Redeemer of the church is presented to the view of our faith, not as one who should appear in some distant age, but as already engaged in the accomplishment of his Mediatorial work. In the 22d Psalm, the Redeemer is exhibited before our eyes, as suffering in the garden and on the cross; and we hear him uttering the very words which dropped from his lips while suspended upon the cross:—‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Again, he is presented to our view, as having triumphed over death and the grave, and having ascended on high; angels, principalities and powers, being made subject to him. And the church praises him, not as a promised Saviour, but as an ascendant and triumphant Redeemer:—‘Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.’ (Ps. lxviii. 18.)
Permit me now to call the attention of the objector to a difficulty in which his principle involves him. If it were true that the Psalms speak of a Saviour to come, and therefore are not suited to gospel worship, then those numerous psalms which speak
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of a suffering, risen and ascended Saviour, were not suited to the worship of the Old Testament church, because the Redeemer had not then appeared in human nature. That is, though these psalms were given to the church by the God of infinite wisdom, to be employed in his worship, they were not adapted to the end for which they were given! O vain man, who art thou that repliest against God?
“But is it true, that the Psalms present the Saviour to the view of our faith, as one who was yet to come? Is it really so, my Christian reader, permit me respectfully to ask,—is it the truth that in the Psalms given to the church under the Old Testament, she praised God for a promised Redeemer, who had not yet come? It is true that these Psalms were composed long before the actual appearance of Jesus Christ in human nature. But it is no less true that these divine songs are the productions of that omniscient Spirit, before whose view all futurity is spread out, and things which were then future, are described by him as now taking place, or already past. For example, in the 22d Psalm, we hear our suffering Redeemer exclaiming, ‘I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.’ Again: This same glorious
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personage is presented to our view, as exalted upon the holy hill of Zion, in the character of God’s anointed King, and proclaiming defiance to the opposers of his kingdom: ‘Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?’ Again, he is described as coming to judgment, and all nature is summoned to pay obeisance to him: ‘Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth; he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.’ If the principle assumed in the objection were well founded, that psalms which exhibit a promised Saviour, who is yet to come, are not suited to gospel worship, it would then follow that a large portion of the psalms are better adapted to the worship of the church now, than they were formerly; for in them, the Redeemer is described as already come, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; as having risen from the dead; as having ascended on high, and as having received gifts for men. But the truth is, there is no force in the objection at all. Ever since the first promise of a Saviour was given to our lost world, Jesus Christ has been the only hope of sinful man. By faith in him, as exhibited to them upon the infallible testimony of God, believers were saved under the Old Testament; and it is by faith in him, as revealed to us upon the
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testimony of God in the gospel, that believers now are saved. The merit of the Saviour’s death was as effectual in securing the salvation of the believer, before he actually laid down his life a ransom for many, as it is now. And those divine songs, in which his Spirit taught the church to praise him, before the period of his incarnation, are, in all respects, as well adapted to the edification of the church now, as they were in the beginning. Not only so—I do not hesitate to say, that they are now better adapted to this end, as, in consequence of the light which the gospel has reflected upon them, the fulness of their meaning may be more thoroughly understood.”*
II. It is said that the Psalms are encumbered and obscured by Old Testament allusions and phraseology. Is this so? Most assuredly it is not. The entire statement is untenable. We take for granted that the objection is not intended to bear against the record which the Psalms contain of God’s gracious providence towards his church of old. The historical Psalms are as suitable now as ever for the service of praise. The facts recorded, and the power, energy, faithfulness and wisdom of God, as the Redeemer and King of his church, which these facts illustrate and magnify, are as appropriate to-
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* Dr. Pressly on Psalmody, pp. 93–96.
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pics of praise in the heart and upon the lips of the New Testament worshipper, as ever they were.
As to sacrifices and offerings, these are rarely alluded to in the Psalms, and in some of these instances they are only alluded to in the way of asserting their inefficacy. Omitting such phrases as “sacrifices of joyfulness,” of “thankfulness,” of “righteousness,” which can give rise to no difficulty whatever, we find but five Psalms—other than historical—in which any reference is made to this part of the ceremonial service—nine, or rather seven allusions in all—some of them being mere repetitions in the same verse. Of these, three or four are introduced accompanied by the assertion of their absolute inefficacy. As to the remainder, we direct the reader to the following remarks from the pen of Dr. Pressly. “What, I would ask, was the meaning of the true worshipper under the law, when he came before God with such language as that employed in this psalm? (the 66th.) Did he depend upon the sacrifices of fatlings, of bullocks or of goats, for acceptance with God? Most certainly he did not. Through the medium of these bloody sacrifices, he, in the exercise of faith, looked to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. He depended for acceptance with God, upon the same great Sacrifice for sin which is now the foundation of the Christian’s hope. If then,
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the ancient believer could approach unto God acceptably in the use of such a song; if, while he had before the eye of his body, a bleeding lamb, he had presented to the eye of his faith, the Lamb of God; if the language of such a song, raised in his breast pious affections, and aided devotion, why should such expressions, and such language ‘sink our devotion and hurt our worship,’ since we have the light of the gospel to render their import more intelligible? If these and similar expressions, did not ‘bedarken the thoughts’ of the ancient believer, and hide the Saviour from his sight, why should they have on us so injurious an effect? If such language served to lead the ancient Israelite to Him who is the (desire of all nations,) why may it not now raise the thoughts of the humble Christian, surrounded as he is with clearer light, to Him who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth?”*
Mention is made, occasionally, of musical instruments used in the Jewish temple service. Similar language is used, moreover, in the Book of Revelation, which speaks (chap. v. 8, xx. 2,) of the redeemed as having “harps in their hands;” Of course this language cannot be taken literally: it must be figurative, and shows clearly that the allusions to
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* Pressly, 105, 106.
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instruments of music in the Psalms may be appropriated by the worshipper now in the same sense in which we explain these of the visions of the Revelation: as expressive of the liveliness which should ever characterize the spiritual emotions and services of the saints of God.
If countries, nations, mountains, &c., are mentioned, as they occasionally are in the Psalms—either these are but specimens, or they are used synecdochically, a part for the whole; or to invest the song with life and spirit, upon a well-known principle, recognised by all the schools of rhetoric—particular objects put for general and abstract statements; while many of these objects, moreover, were typical of spiritual things.
The truth is, no objection could be more groundless than this one. The Psalms are singularly characterized by their adaptation to all times and lands. They are manifestly designed for all times and lands. They anticipate a time when all lands shall join in the worship of God, Creator, Redeemer, King. They have in them very little of the temple. The New Testament itself, is almost as open to this objection as the Psalms. Mr. Sommerville thus pertinently discusses the matter in this aspect:
“The use of terms borrowed from the ancient economy, is authorized by the example of New Testament writers. They describe the character, duties,
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the worship, and the privileges of Christians in the language of the people of Israel. The consistency of the language of the Psalms with the spirit and the institutions of the present time, will appear from the subsequent parallelism, suggested by a comparison of the terms employed by the penmen of the Psalms with those introduced in the New Testament: unless it should be said that there is something ‘Jewish and cloudy’ in the writings of Christ and his Apostles, which is removed by the more lucid modes of speech which some of their more spiritual followers may teach us to use:—
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Ps. xlvi. 4. There is a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
xlviii. 2. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king.
li. 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
liii. 6. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the
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Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Rom. ix. 6, 7, 8. They are not all Israel which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Gal. vi. 16.
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| Psalms | New Testament |
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(cont.) captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
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Peace be on them, and upon the Israel of God.
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Ps. xxvii. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his Temple.
xlviii. 9. We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy Temple.
lii. 8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
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Jno. ii. 19. Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
1 Cor. iii. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1 Tim. iii. 15. That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.
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Ps. liv. 3. For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul.
cxxxvii. 4. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land!
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Eph. ii. 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
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Ps. cvi. 4, 5. Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation: that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheri-
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1 Peter ii. 9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you.
Col. i. 12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be par-
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| Psalms | New Testament |
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(cont.) tance.
cxxxii. 9. Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness.
cxlviii. 14. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him.
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(cont.) takers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
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Ps. xlii. 4. When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
cxxii. 3, 4. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
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Eph. i. 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.
Heb. xii. Ye are come unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant.
Luke i. 32. The Lord God shall give unto him (Jesus) the throne of his father David.
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Ps. l. 5. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with
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Rom. xii. 1. I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
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| Psalms | New Testament |
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(cont.) me by sacrifice.
lxvi. 15. I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats.
cxviii. 27. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
xliii. 4. Then will I go to the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.
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(cont.) your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.
1 Pet. ii. 5. Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Heb. xiii. 10. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle.
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Ps. cxxxvii. 1, 8. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall HE be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us.
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Rev. xvii. 5. And upon her forehead was a name written. Mystery, Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.
xviii. 20. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy Apostles and Prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
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“Before a comparison of the mode of expression used in the Psalms with that which is found in the New Testament, every objection to the use of the Songs of Zion, on account of the frequent allusions which they contain to the nature and circumstances of the religious institutions of Israel, vanishes. It is not intended to make the impression that there is no allusion to the types in the Book of Psalms, which is not found introduced by
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Christ and his Apostles to describe spiritual things. But we find them using figurative language derived from all the leading and primary characters of the former economy; and in this they furnish an evidence of the correctness and consistency of Christians, putting the name of the type to express the thing typified.” Finally, even Dr. Watts himself—who seems to have originated this objection, and certainly has stated it most strongly, has the following:
“Before thine altar, Lord,
My harp and song shall sound
The glories of thy word.”
III. It is said that the Psalms are not adapted to a season of religious reviving. This objection could scarcely be offered by one acquainted with the Psalms themselves, and with their history. We have already asserted and shown that the Psalms do give expression to the liveliest Christian emotions and affections—that they have been singularly esteemed and loved; habitually read, and studied, and sung, by many of the most spiritually-minded and devoted of the servants and ministers of Christ. Surely, the Apostolic church was a living and active church, but it is acknowledged that the Psalms were then sung; and so far as the evidence goes,
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* Sommerville, pp. 24–27.
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no other religious songs. The Waldenses sang the Psalms and nothing else in their Alpine valleys; and in their seasons of persecution found in these inspired Psalms, strength and hope. The French church, and the churches of Switzerland, used nothing else in song, during the palmiest days of their religious life; while these sacred songs contributed no little to the spread of the gospel.* These Psalms constituted the only Psalmody of the Scottish church in her first and second Refor-
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* The following is taken from Lorimer’s “Protestant Church in France,” p. 19, Phila. ed. “In 1535, the Scriptures were translated into the French language, by Olivetan the uncle of the celebrated Calvin, and shortly after the Psalms of David were turned into verse by one of the popular poets of the day, and set to melodious music. This last undertaking was attended with remarkable success. There had been nothing of this kind before, and so the whole music of the people was perverted to sinful and superstitious purposes. Now, the national genius was enlisted on the side of truth. “This holy ordinance,’ says Quick, ‘charmed the ears, heart and affections of court and city, town and country.’ This one ordinance alone, contributed mightily to the downfall of Popery and the propagation of the gospel. * * * No gentleman professing the Reformed religion would sit down at his table without praising God by singing. Yea, it was an especial part of their morning and evening worship to sing God’s praises.”
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mations. These were the songs whose melody was heard in the cottages, in the glens, in the moors, and on the mountains, and often on the scaffold and at the stake, in the dark days of Scottish persecution. In these Psalms, the multitudes who waited upon the preaching of Livingston, celebrated God’s praises in that day of the Lord’s power when five hundred souls were converted by means of one sermon at the Kirk of Shotts. The thousands who turned to the Lord, flocking as “doves to their windows” during the season of genuine and extensive reviving subsequent to that day, used none but Bible Psalms. These Psalms were the sacred songs of the revived church in Ireland, in the days of the Bruces, the Welshes, the Blairs, the Cunninghams, and Livingstons, when large districts were aroused and turned, almost as one man, to God.* The early Presbyterians of this country, used none other, during those “golden days, when souls were enlightened with such a knowledge of Christ, as if the light of the sun had been seven fold, as if the light of seven days had poured at once on the worshipper with healing in every beam.”†
The Bible Psalms are adapted to any season of
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* Reid’s History of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
† Webster’s History, p. 124.
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genuine reviving of religion. They have been tried. They have never been found wanting. The revival to which these Psalms are not adapted, should itself be suspected.
IV. It is said that the Psalms are difficult to understand; and, perhaps, it may be insinuated that this is virtually acknowledged by some who use them, inasmuch as they formally explain them in their public exercises. This is an objection which we would not be surprised to find in the mouth of a Papist, who on this alleged ground, refuses the Bible to the common people, and refers them to what he styles the plainer and safer teaching of a priest: but we would hardly have looked for it from any one, who, as a Protestant, holds that the Bible is not an unintelligible book. We admit, indeed, that the Psalms, in common with other scriptures, are characterized by an inexhaustible fulness of meaning: but we deny that they are, in any peculiar degree, hard to understand. The truth is, they are much more intelligible than many other portions of the Bible.—They present fewer difficult passages—scarcely any in fact; and in the main, are singularly clear. They have ever been favourite reading: the pious have enjoyed them with a special relish. They have found none of this asserted obscurity in these sacred songs, but rather an unusual, and, generally, transparent clearness,
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while the less studious, or thoughtful, or spiritual, alone complain that they are obscure. We quote with satisfaction the following judgment of the distinguished Dr. Horsley: “Of all the books of the Old Testament, the book of Psalms is the most universally read; but, I fear, as little as any understood. This cannot be ascribed to any extraordinary obscurity of these sacred songs; for of all the prophetic parts of the Scriptures they are certainly the most perspicuous. But it is owing, partly, I fear, to some dulness of the faculties of the natural man upon spiritual subjects.—There is not a page of this book of Psalms in which the pious reader will not find his Saviour, if he reads with a view of finding him; and it was but a just encomium of it that came from the pen of one of the early Fathers, that it is a complete system of divinity for the use and edification of the common people of the Christian church.”* Scott the distinguished commentator says, “There is nothing in true religion, doctrinal, experimental and practical, but will present itself to our attention while we meditate upon the Psalms. And hardly an occasion of praise and thanksgiving can be conceived, to which some portion of them, faithfully rendered in poetical versions, may not be ap-
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* Quoted by M‘Master, p. 131.
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plied with peculiar energy and propriety: and indeed the Christian’s use of them in the closet, and the minister’s in the pulpit, will generally increase with the growing experience of the power of true religion in their own hearts.” A correspondent of the “Presbyterian Magazine,” bears like testimony. “The very excellence of the book of Psalms has—in this—its effect. Their depth of matter, their spirituality, their sublimity, their transcendent elevation of devotion, raise them above the comprehension, and above the standard of devotional feeling of ordinary Christians. It is a fact, that Christians of deficient attainments often find themselves more edified in reading other books than the Bible, and really relish them more. But the higher Christians rise in gracious experience, the higher is their esteem for the pure word of God, until at length, every human production becomes insipid in comparison therewith. As it certainly can have no good effect to promote in the public mind, a preference of other books, to the Bible, so it is conceived there can no good effects arise from promoting in the public taste a preference of other compositions to the Psalms the Holy Spirit hath inspired.”†
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* Preface to Psalms.
† Presbyterian Magazine, July 1822, quoted by M‘Master.
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As to the exposition of the Psalms, if this is an acknowledgment of such obscurity in the Psalms as is impenetrable to ordinary intellect, why not apply the same principle to other Scriptures? to the Sermon on the mount? to the Ten Commandments? to the Lord’s Prayer? These are explained—and re-explained, in every pulpit; but who imagines that he is confessing, while engaged in such an exercise, that the Bible is unintelligible? These expositions are all “helps:” they aid the reader; the inquiring; the Christian. And so with the “Explaining of the Psalms:” it is designed as a help to the better understanding of the Psalms, and to quicken the mind and heart, as the worshipper is about to enter upon the exercise of praise. Yet, even this is entered upon but rarely, compared with the whole number of times the Psalms are sung. Finally, if there be in the Psalms a depth of meaning—if there be some parts of them requiring investigation, this is a reason for the careful study of them—a reason for endeavouring to bring up the Christian intelligence to a higher level, and not a reason for degrading the exercise of praise to the level of the heedless and uninquiring capacity.
V. It is said, that the Book of Psalms is unsuitable for the use of children. If so now, it must have been fully as much so, at the least, when God gave it to his church. Besides, what-
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ever force there may be in this objection, the Psalms share with the rest of the word of God. Part of both are intelligible, not to infants, but to children of some development and education; and as they grow in ability and wisdom, and, of course, more capable of understanding the scriptures, they become better acquainted also with the Psalms. The children of the Jews, of the Apostolic church, of the French, Swiss and Holland Reformed, of our Scottish forefathers—were not comparatively deficient in Christian knowledge: nor are the children of the Psalm-singing churches now. None of them have lost anything by the want of little religious songs. Instead, their minds were and are strengthened by early familiarity with songs so superior in acknowledged excellence.
We go further. We deny that the Psalms are uninteresting to the young. Many of them—as thousands can testify—are highly attractive, and become, from an early age, imprinted upon the hearts of the children of the church. This is all that we can fairly ask. It were a singular principle to apply to the worship of God, that every thing in it, must be adapted throughout, or even mainly, to the easy comprehension of the very young. Must we have a “child’s Bible as well?”
VI. It is said that the Psalms are not adapted to the condition and experience of every worship-
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per. If this be an objection, it must have been, as some we have already noticed, an equally solid reason why the Psalms never should have been sung in the worship of the church, either in Old or New Testament times. The objection is, moreover, equally good against any hymn book whatever: for the special circumstances, the experiences, &c., of all the worshippers, will scarcely ever be identical in any worshipping assembly. And, finally, this objection leaves out of view the fact, that in singing Psalms, God is praised. And, hence, the joyful Christian may praise Him for deliverances wrought for the sad and afflicted: the sad and afflicted may praise Him for the promises and tokens of his favour which fill the heart of the emancipated believer with joy and gladness. Both can celebrate his works of power and of mercy in behalf of His church and kingdom: while both may see in the tones of grief and sorrow, and again, in the notes of exultation and triumph, the heart of a Saviour once suffering, now exalted.
VII. It is said that churches which use hymns are more prosperous—grow more rapidly—than those that do not. It might be enough to reply, that mere statistics settle no principle of moral or religious truth. Rome reasons in this very way. Few Christian communities have grown as rapidly as the Mormons or the Spiritualists. But does the ob-
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jection state the fact? It may be that, in some localities and times, the assertion of the objector may be true. But it is not true when we regard the matter as we should, in a more comprehensive spirit. When has there been a more rapid increase in numbers than in the Apostolic age? or in the era of the Reformation? If Psalm-singing churches do not grow so rapidly now, it must be owing, not to their Psalmody, but to other causes.
Again, mere growth in numbers is no criterion of a church’s real prosperity. Growth is, indeed, eminently desirable. It is a ground of rejoicing—high and holy—when multitudes flock to Zion; but we must look beyond this: we must have regard to other elements of true and lasting prosperity. If mere additions to the numerical strength constitute any argument in behalf of doctrines and practices, then Presbyterianism is less worthy of acceptance than Methodism, for the latter has grown the most rapidly: Methodism less worthy of acceptance than the Baptist views and system, for the latter grows most rapidly of all. Does the Most High endorse all these varying doctrines by blessing with increase those who hold them? And is His approbation, in the degree of it, to be measured by this increase? The fact is, the Most High may and does bless his own truth, even when it is presented intermingled with some error: to ascertain what is
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truth, we have but one resort—“the law and the testimony.”
Still, we do not admit that the growth of the Psalm-singing churches is even in this day so much less than the growth of others, as the objection requires. We believe they will bear scrutiny well on this point. Most of them, so far as we can judge of statistics, are not far behind any of their contemporaries. And should there even be some ground for the objection, may it not be owing rather to the fact that the use of the Psalms has generally been found associated with a closer adherence to scriptural requirements in the admission of members, and a more careful discipline exercised over those within?
VIII. It is said that the spirit of some of the Psalms is inconsistent with that of the New Testament—in fact, that some of them are unchristian. This objection is thus stated by Dr. Watts, “I have been long convinced, that one great occasion of this evil arises from the matter and words to which we confine all our songs.* Some of them are almost opposite to the spirit of the Gospel; many of them foreign to the state of the New Testament, and widely different from the present circumstances
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* In 1712, Songs of Presbyterian Churches “confined” to the Psalms.
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of Christians. Hence it comes to pass, that when spiritual affections are excited within us, and our souls are raised a little above this earth, in the beginning of a Psalm, we are checked on a sudden in our ascent toward heaven, by some expressions that are most suitable to the days of carnal ordinances, and fit only to be sung in the worldly sanctuary. While we are kindling into divine love, by the meditations of the loving-kindness of God, and the multitude of his tender mercies; within a few verses, some dreadful curse against men is proposed to our lips, which is so contrary to the new commandment of loving our enemies.”
To this we reply,—(1.) That assertions of this kind would be altogether consistent—coming from those who deny the inspiration of the scriptures; or rather, from those who go farther, and condemn the Bible as a bad book: but we cannot understand how such an objection can be offered, or thought of, by any one who believes that the Psalms are a part of the inspired word of God. It does appear to us very like the language of blasphemy, if it be not the language of infidelity. (2.) It is a fact sufficiently remarkable, that those very Psalms which are styled pre-eminently “cursing psalms”—the 69th and the 109th—are among the number of those Psalms which we can on the most unquestionable testimony, identify as directly appropriated
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to the betrayer of our incarnate and suffering Saviour. They are both quoted, and in the most striking manner, in the New Testament—Acts 1. 20,—and are spoken of as “scripture—which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David, spake before concerning Judas.” (3.) Our Saviour himself used these very Psalms: they are his language. In proof of this we have but to examine the Psalms themselves, taking with us the above inspired interpretation of them. It will be seen that the speaker is no other than Jesus Himself. It is He that speaks of the traitor in the terms of fearful but just denunciation, which Dr. Watts, and many since his day, have ventured to denominate unchristian?*
(4.) Finding these and similar utterances in the Psalms, it would be wisdom in the objector, to study carefully their import, and then, seek to have his mind and heart brought into conformity with the Spirit of Christ speaking in them—a spirit of eternal justice and holiness.
(5.) If we must do so, however, let us inquire, whether the Spirit of Christ in David did really move him to utter unchristian sentiments? Here we quote from Sommerville: “If the Psalms have been dictated by the Holy Ghost—if by the Spirit
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* Let the reader turn to these Psalms and satisfy himself in this respect.
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of Christ, who speaks not of himself, but speaks what he hears, the character of the author determines the character of the Book. An unholy person may assume the character, and speak the words of purity; a man of cruelty may write a book and transcribe in it the language of clemency and mercy; but a holy and a merciful man never can be supposed, without supposing a contradiction, to employ language impure and malicious, and calculated to excite or cherish impurity and revenge in the hearer or the reader. Whoever, therefore, thinks he discovers cruelty and revenge, or any other antichristian principle, set forth and encouraged in the Book of Psalms, must either deny that it has been given by inspiration, or admit that he totally misunderstands its spirit, its language, and its tendency. If the objection before us be founded in truth, the Book must be expunged from the Bible. Its pretensions are spurious, and its presence is a stigma upon the character of God. But we have already seen that its claims are supported by the same authority which sanctions the other Scriptures, and that the denial of its inspiration involves the rejection of the Old Testament and the New. If God, the author, be holy, there is nothing unholy in the Book of Psalms, or calculated to encourage unholiness; if God be merciful, there is nothing in it inconsistent with mercy, or calculated to en-
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courage cruelty; if God be love, there is nothing in it contrary to the spirit of love, or calculated to encourage hatred or revenge; in one word, there cannot be anything in the Book opposed to any perfection of the Divine character, or failing to recommend conformity to God upon the part of man. Whoever, therefore, quarrels with the spirit or matter of the Psalms, sets himself in opposition, not to man, but God, for he implicitly imputes to God whatever he charges upon his word.
“Or again. The inspiration of the Psalms and of the New Testament being taken for granted, if the Psalms do not manifest the same spirit, inculcate the same doctrines, enjoin the same moral duties, prohibit the same sins, which are set forth in the New Testament, it follows that the Holy Ghost is inconsistent with himself. But it would be no difficult matter to show that the spirit, the doctrines, the precepts, the prohibitions—in a word, the design and tendency of both are the same. And we know that the Old Testament saints—we know that David possessed and exemplified that very character which the Gospel of Christ recommends. Will any man venture, upon mature consideration, to set declarations from the pen of David, especially remembering that it was guided by the Spirit of God, the expression of whose inflexible justice, of whose detestation of sin, of whose de-
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termination to punish it,—to all which holy men of God have been enabled—to which David was enabled to say, Amen,—he may have mistaken for the language of unforgiving cruelty;—will any man venture to set declarations, the spirit and design of which may be misunderstood, in opposition to facts? Are malignity and revenge rashly to be imputed to the man, who found his enemy in a cave,—his enemy who had attempted his life, who was at that moment in pursuit of him, attended by three thousand men, that he might overtake and kill him,—and would not put forth his hand against his person, though urged by his followers? Will we attribute malignity and revenge to him who, coming into the camp of his adversary by night, and finding him and his men asleep, neither injured him nor would permit another to do it, though solicited, and could show the sword and cruise of water which he had carried away from his head, a testimony at once of his own power to have taken revenge, and of the simplicity and ingenuousness of his temper and conduct? Was the man malignant and revengeful, who, when an ungrateful rebel in the day of adversity cursed him and vilified his character, could say, profoundly resigned to the award of Heaven, ‘Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him.’ And shall we join with the many who have conspired to vilify the character
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and the words of the sweet singer of Israel, even at the hazard of charging the Spirit of Christ with want of consistency? God forbid. * * * Once more, and I dismiss this branch of the inquiry: Is such language as this cruel? ‘Cut them off in thy truth.’ ‘I will bring again from the depth of the sea; that thy foot may be dipped in the blood of enemies, the tongue of thy dogs in the same.’ ‘Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.’ Is it inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel, to use it with the character of the Christian? Mark the consequences. Then the words of Paul, moved by the Holy Ghost, not merely writing to the church, but to a bishop of the church, must share in the same condemnation. ‘Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works.’ (2 Tim. iv. 14.) If the spirit manifested in such portions of the Psalms as those quoted be unchristian, by what spirit shall we say the Apostle was actuated? If the Psalms be inconsistent with the Gospel, then Paul must be inconsistent with himself, for in the sixteenth verse we read, ‘At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.’ Let him who is straitened in the use of some portions of Zion’s songs, explain the consistency of the fourteenth
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and sixteenth verses of the fourth chapter of the second epistle to Timothy, and he shall find himself near an enlargement. Another consequence follows. The saints enter into the regions of love and peace, with all the cruelty and revenge of earth about them. ‘And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’ Finally, God must delight in carnage, and be chargeable with encouraging cruelty in his people. The great God has a supper, to which the fowls of heaven are invited, that they may ‘eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, both small and great.’ ‘I heard,’ says John, ‘another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people.’ This must be the voice of God himself, for who else claims the saints for his own? And what does the voice proclaim in addition to a call to come forth from among the children of mystical Babylon? Reward her even as she has rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her
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double. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.” (Rev. vi. 10; xviii. 4–6; xix. 17, 18.*)
(6.) Finally, we affirm, that it is one of the true and godlike excellencies of these Psalms—whatever sentimentalists may say—that they do celebrate the awful justice of God, the most righteous Lawgiver and Judge, “to whom belongeth vengeance”—his justice in vindicating his truth, his people, and the claims of his Son, and in visiting as they deserve, the malignant and impenitent enemies of the Person, the throne, the grace of Jesus Christ. Let us hear Tholuck. “In modern times the opinion seems to obtain, that love to enemies is enjoined as a duty in the New Testament only. The gratuitousness of that opinion is apparent from consulting correct translations of Lev. xix. 18; Ex. xxiii. 4, 5; Prov. xxiv. 17, 18. 29; xxv. 21, 22; Job xxxi. 29. To form a right estimate of the misgivings alluded to, we should consider the end contemplated by punishment. The common view is that with God and the pious, punishment springs from love and contemplates the improvement of man. But what is to be done if you have to deal with an incorrigible sinner? The end of improvement therefore cannot exhaust
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* Sommerville, pp. 43–49.
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the purpose of punishment. Philosophy agrees with Christianity, that the specific purpose of punishment is retribution; i. e., the welfare of the individual is to be disturbed in the same measure as he has disturbed or infringed upon the law of God or the state. Hence it appears that to deny the punishment of a hardened sinner (not on personal ground, but from a sense of the holiness of the divine law,) is as little to be regarded as evidencing moral imperfection, as it would be to desire that those who are susceptible of improvement, should by means of correctives be brought to their senses. The objection is met, if it can be shown that the imprecations and prayers for Divine punishment do not flow from the vindictive disposition (viz., personal irritability and passion) of the Psalmists, but from the motives just now alluded to. Those supplications would then correspond to the earnest desire of a good monarch or a just judge to discover the guilty that justice might be administered, and the expressions of David, the private individual, ought to be referred to those noble motives which developed the principles he uttered when a king. (Ps. ci. 8.)
“The Psalmists frequently state sentiments like the following as the motives of their prayers for the punishment of their enemies: that the holiness of God and his righteous government of the world
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should be acknowledged, that the faith of the pious should be strengthened, that they should praise God, that the haughtiness of the ungodly should be brought within bounds, that they should know that God is the righteous judge of the world, and that the fulfilment of his glorious promises should not fail.”*
IX. It is said that if we sing the Psalms we must also sing the titles to the Psalms: and as some of these titles allow the use of instruments, that we must also use them. It is added, that, in the Hebrew Bible, the title is often marked as the first verse. To this we remark: (1.) That at best, this can be no argument against using the Psalms. If the titles were really meant to be sung, or if the Psalms were designed to be always sung in connexion with the instruments referred to—this much would be gained by the objector, but no more. (2.) Does any one believe that the title “Psalm of David,” &c., was ever meant to be sung? or ever was sung? or that no Jew was allowed to sing these Psalms in the ordinary services of religion without using the “harp,” &c.? (3.) As to the division of Psalms into verses, as these are marked in our Bibles—this is a modern affair altogether. (4.) The authenticity of these titles is not universally
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* Tholuck on Psalms, p. 42, 43.
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acknowledged. Let this point be settled first. (5.) We follow, in omitting the titles, the example of our prose version, which never marks the title as being part of the Psalms. (6.) When the objector can tell us precisely what these instruments were, it will be time enough to inquire about their claims. In fact, they belonged to the temple, and were not used in the ordinary worship even of the Jews.
In fine, we repeat: as to many of these objections, there is a spirit in them so adverse to a scriptural faith, and a true piety, that the very fact that they are adduced on behalf of the use of hymns, constitutes a distinct, and, by no means, feeble argument against them. A cause which resorts to such a course of reasoning, is not a good one. We should fear and eschew it.