Luther speaks thus of the Psalter, which he found inexpressibly precious in the trials and conflicts of his stormy life:

"You may rightly call the Psalter a Bible in miniature, in which all things which are set forth more at length in the rest of the Scriptures are collected into a beautiful manual of wonderful and attractive brevity. From the Psalms you may learn not the works of the saints only, but the words, the utterances, the groans, the colloquies, which they used in the presence of God, in temptation and in consolation; so that though they are dead, in the Psalms they live and speak. The Psalms exhibit the mind of the saints; they express the hidden treasure of their hearts, the working of their thoughts, and their most secret feelings1.”

"This book," says Calvin, in the Epistle to his Readers prefixed to his commentary, "I am wont to call an anatomy of all the parts of the soul; for no one will find in himself a single feeling of which the image is not reflected in this mirror. Here the Holy Spirit has represented to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, anxieties, in short, all the stormy emotions, by which human minds are wont to be agitated. The rest of Scripture contains the commands which God gave His servants to be delivered to us. Here the prophets themselves, in their converse with God, because they lay bare all their inmost feelings, invite or compel every one of us to examine himself, that none of all the infirmities to which we are subject may remain hidden. It is a rare and singular advantage when every secret recess is laid open, and the heart purged from the foul plague of hypocrisy and brought out to light."

One quotation from a modern writer must suffice. With profound insight and unrivalled delicacy of touch the late Dean Church thus describes the Psalms and their work2:

"In the Psalms we see the soul in the secret of its workings, in the variety and play of its many-sided and subtly compounded nature-loving, hoping, fearing, despairing, exulting, repenting, aspiring the soul, conscious of the greatness and sweetness of

1 Works, ed. 1553, Vol. iii. p. 356.

2 The Discipline of the Christian Character, pp. 53 ff.

its relations to Almighty God, and penetrated by them to the very quick; longing, thirsting, gasping, after the glimpses that visit it, of His goodness and beauty-awestruck before the unsearchableness of His judgement, silent before the certainty of His righteousness-opening, like a flower to the sun, in the presence of His light, of the immensity of His lovingkindness"......It has been the work of the Book of Psalms to teach devotion, worship, self-knowledge. "They bring before us in all its fulness and richness the devotional element of the religious character. They are the first great teachers and patterns of prayer, and they shew this side of the religious character...in varied and finished detail, in all its compass and living and spontaneous force....The tongue is loosed to give utterance out of the abundance of the heart, to every mood, every contrasted feeling of the changeful human mind. From all the hidden depths, from all the strange and secret consciousnesses of the awakened and enlightened soul, spring up unexpected and vivid words, in which generation after generation has found the counterpart of its own convictions and hopes and joys, its own fears and distresses and perplexities and doubts, its own confidence and its own sorrow, its own brightest and darkest hours. This immense variety of mood and subject and occasion, with which the reverence and hope of worship are always combined, is a further point in the work of the Book of Psalms. It is a vast step in the revealing of man to man. We know how much we owe of the knowledge of ourselves to the great dramatists, to the great lyrical poets, to the great novelists. Such, in the unfolding to man of all that is really and most deeply involved in the religious character, is the place of the Book of Psalms."

Luther, as we have seen, calls the Psalms "a Bible in miniature"; and the words which Coleridge uses of the whole Bible may most truly be applied to the Psalms. In them we find copious sources of truth, and power, and purifying impulses ; words for our inmost thoughts, songs for our joy, utterances for our hidden griefs, pleadings for our shame and our feebleness. And whatever finds us bears witness for itself that it has proceeded from a Holy Spirit, even from the same Spirit, which

in all ages entering into holy souls maketh them friends of God and prophets1.

CHAPTER XI.

LITERATURE.

The literature on the Psalter is enormous, and only a few of the most important and useful works can be mentioned here. An interesting sketch of the history of the exposition of the Psalms will be found in § ix of the Introduction to Delitzsch's Commentary.

St Athanasius' Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms is worthy of its author. It treats of the character and value of the Psalms, classifies them, and indicates how they may be used in the various experiences of life. The most famous Greek commentary on the Psalms is the Homilies of St Chrysostom. It was complete, but only the Homilies upon 58 Psalms are now extant. The corresponding work in the Western Church is the Enarrationes in Psalmos of St Augustine, expositions of the Psalms for the most part actually delivered, the 32 discourses on Ps. cxix forming an exception. It became the great authority from which subsequent writers drew freely.

Medieval expositors followed in the track of the ancient Fathers. The literal meaning was neglected, mystical and allegorical exegesis was predominant. Dependence on the imperfect Greek and Latin Versions often led them far astray, and the absence of any restraint to the luxuriance of their imagination lays them open to the charge of "making anything out of anything." But the patristic and medieval commentaries are rich in beautiful thought, profound spiritual instruction, and practical application.

To the Jewish commentators of the Middle Ages we owe a great debt. They preserved the tradition of the meaning of the Hebrew language, which had been entirely neglected

1 Coleridge's Letters on the Inspiration of the Scriptures, Letter i.

in the Christian Church, and to them the scholars of the 16th century turned when the study of the original text was revived. Chief among them were Raschi (R. Solomon Isaaki) of Troyes (d. A.D. 1105), Aben Ezra of Toledo (d. A.D. 1167), and David Kimchi of Narbonne (d. about A.D. 1235)1.

The most important works of the Reformation period were those of Luther, who lectured and wrote much on the Psalms, and Calvin, whose Commentary (1567) marked a new departure in the combination of sound exegesis with practical application. Poole's Synopsis Criticorum, an abridgment of the Critici Sacri published in 1660 in London under the direction of Bishop Pearson and others, is a convenient summary of the opinions of scholars of the 16th and 17th centuries. Martin Geier's voluminous work (1668) is one of the best productions of the 17th century.

Rosenmüller's Scholia (1798–1804, 2nd ed. of the Psalms 1821-23) may be said to mark the transition to the modern period. It is mainly a compilation from older works, and is still valuable, especially for its copious citation of Jewish authorities and for its comments on the renderings of the LXX and other Versions. Among modern German Commentaries those of H. Ewald, H. Hupfeld, F. Delitzsch, and F. Baethgen, are the most generally useful. Ewald's Commentary in The Poets of the O.T. (1836, 3rd ed. 1866, translated in the Theol. Transl. Fund Library, 1880) is distinguished by "intense poetic and religious sympathy, and by a keen and discriminating historical imagination." Hupfeld's work (1855-62, 2nd ed. with additions by Riehm, 1867-71, 3rd ed., revised by Nowack, 1888) is serviceable for its careful investigation of the meaning of the language. Delitzsch (1867, 5th ed. 1894, translation from the 4th ed. by Eaton, 1887), if sometimes fanciful, is always reverent, and constantly penetrates to the deeper meaning. Baethgen, in the Handkommentar zum A.T. (1892, 2nd ed. 1897), represents a newer school of critics, without the extravagances which unfortunately disfigure the work of some of them.

1 The commentary of Raschi is accessible to those who do not know Rabbinic Hebrew in the Latin translation of J. F. Breithaupt (1710); that of Kimchi in the Latin translation of A. Janvier (1566).

Other German commentaries are those of F. Hitzig, 1835, completely revised edition, 1863-5; A. Tholuck, Uebersetzung und Auslegung der Psalmen für Geistliche und Laien der christlichen Kirche, 1843, 2nd ed. 1873; J. Olshausen in the Kurzgef. exeg. Handbuch, 1853; H. Grätz, Kritischer Commentar zu den Psalmen, 1882, (gives much interesting information from Jewish sources, but emends the text too freely): F. W. Schultz in the Kurzgef. Kommentar, 1888, replaced by that of H. Kessler, 1899; B. Duhm in the Kurzer Hand-Commentar, 1899 (trenchant and often suggestive, but shewing little appreciation of either the poetical or the religious worth of the Psalms).

Among French commentaries may be mentioned that of E. Reuss, 1879, Le Psautier, ou le Livre de Cantiques de la Synagogue (strongly advocating the national interpretation of the Psalms).

At the head of English commentaries stands that of Bishop Perowne, The Book of Psalms, a new Translation, with Introductions and Notes, explanatory and critical (1864, 8th ed. 1892), which marks an epoch in the exegesis of the O.T. in England. W. Kay, The Psalms with Notes, 1871, 2nd ed. 1874, contains much that is instructive. T. K. Cheyne, The Book of Psalms, A new Translation with Commentary, 1888, is fresh and suggestive. A. Maclaren's Exposition, in the Expositor's Bible, 1893-94, is vigorous and practical.

Among many other commentaries the following may be mentioned: J. M. Neale and R. F. Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Medieval Writers, 4th ed. 1884 (useful for the dissertation on The Psalms as employed in the Offices of the Church, and as giving an insight into the methods of patristic and medieval interpretation which have exercised such a wide influence)1: The Psalms Chronologically arranged, by Four Friends, 1867, 2nd ed. 1891 (based upon Ewald): F. C. Cook, G. H. S. Johnson and C. J. Elliott, in The

1 The Dissertation on The Mystical and Literal Interpretation of the Psalms at p. 429 of Vol. i should not be overlooked by those who wish to understand, if they cannot follow, a method of interpretation which has had such a wide currency and still has a strong attraction for many