The Psalms. Introduction. 66 Although all Scripture breatheth the grace of God, yet sweet beyond all others is the Book of Psalms." This is the ancient witness of Ambrose. And Luther said You might rightly call the Psalter a Bible in miniature." Hundreds of similar testimonies could be added. The Psalms have always been one of the choicest portions of the Word of God for all Saints, Jewish and Christian. The ancient Jews used the Psalms in the Temple worship. The so-called “Great Hallel" consisting of Psalms cxiii-cxviii was sung during the celebration of Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. Daily in the Temple Psalms were sung in a prescribed order. The Jews still use them in all their feast days and in the synagogue. The Psalms are mentioned in connection with praise in the New Testament (Col. iii: 16; James v: 13). The Church from the very start has used them in public and private devotion. All branches of Christendom use them today; Protestantism, Romish and Greek Catholicism make use of them in responsive reading or chanting. And even more so are they used and have always been used by individuals, because the heart finds in these songs and prayers, the different experiences of human life, and the different emotions. The sufferer steeped in sorrow finds in this book the experiences of suffering and sorrow; he finds more than that, encouragement to trust God and the assurance of deliverance. The penitent soul finds that which suits a broken and contrite heart. The lonely one, helpless and forsaken, reads of others who passed through the same experience. Then there is comfort, joy and peace, as well as hope. They stimulate faith and confidence in the Lord and are breathing a spirit of worship and praise which produce reverence and praise in the heart of the believer. The Lord Jesus and the Psalms. But there is another reason why believers love the Psalms. The Lord Jesus is not only revealed in this Book as nowhere else (as we shall show later) but He used the Psalms throughout His blessed life on earth and even in glory. Here are His own prayers prewritten by the Spirit of God. The expression of sorrow, loneliness, rejection and suffering describe what He passed through in His life of humiliation. The praise and worship, the trust and confidence in 205 God, express likewise prophetically that life of obedience and trust. We believe when He spent nights in prayer to pour out His heart before His Father, on the mountain or in the desert, He must have done so by using the Psalms. He used the Psalms speaking to His disciples; with Psalm cx He silenced His enemies. Gethsemane is mentioned in the Psalms; and in the suffering of the Cross He fulfilled all that the Psalms predict. In resurrection He used the xxii Psalm: "Go and tell My Brethren." He opened to His disciples the Scriptures "that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me" (Luke xxiv: 44) as He had before told the two on the way to Emmaus "6 'Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. When He ascended on high and took the seat at God's right hand, and God welcomed Him to sit down and to be the priest after the order of Melchisedec it was according to the Psalms. And in His messages from the throne in speaking to the churches He uses the Psalms (Rev. ii:27). And when He comes again the Hallelujah chorus of the ending of this Book will be sung by heaven and earth and all the predicted glory, as given in the Psalms, will come to pass. This Book then ought to be precious to us, because it was precious to Him and makes Him known to our hearts. The Spirit of God also quotes the Psalms more frequently in the Epistles than any other Old Testament book. The Title of the Book. Our English word Psalms is taken from the Greek word employed in the Septuagint translation - "Psalmoi"; this means 66 - songs." It is also frequently called Psalter. This word is also Greek, from "Psalterion," a harp or any other stringed instrument. The Hebrews call this Book "Tehillim," which means to make a joyful sound, or praises. It is in the Hebrew Bible in the third division, the "Kethubim" section. It is the great poetical Book of the O. T. We refer the reader to our remarks on Hebrew poetry in the introduction to the Book of Job. The poetry of the Psalms is of a lyric character. The real great beginning of lyric poetry is with King David. He was remarkably gifted and yet it was not natural gift which produced these wonderful utterances but it was the Spirit of God who tuned his harp. Our space is too valuable to pay much attention to the Critical School with their denials of the Davidic authorship of different Psalms, and that which is worse, the denial of the Messianic predictions of the Psalms. If these Critics were but seekers after the fine gold, the precious gems of truth and divine knowledge, so richly stored in this mine, they would cease criticising and become worshippers. |