The Book of Psalms is accepted by all Christians as the classic par excel­lence, even in the canon of Scripture, of the devotional life, but it has been all too common to give lip homage to the excellence of the psalms, and to lay them aside as not quite adequate to express the praises of the worship­ping people of God in these latter days. For that reason it may not be out of place to consider here the claims of the book of Psalms to exclu­sive use as the hymn-book of the Christian Church. It is to be under­stood that we are here referring chiefly to congregational praise, such as was introduced into the public wor­ship of God by our Reformers. In the centuries immediately preceding the Reformation there was practically no congregational song in the Church, apart from the choral singing of monks and nuns. The voice of the people was not heard in the worship of God till the Reformation stirred hearts and touched the springs of praise, and then the Reformers turned instinctively to the Psalms, prepared metrical translations in the language of the people, and encouraged the practice of congregational song. In this, as in many other reforms, they were but going back to New Testa­ment principles and to the practice of the Apostolic Church. That the Psalms held a place of honour in the early church may be seen in that of 283 quotations from the Old Testa­ment which appear in the New Testa­ment, not less than 116 are from the Book of Psalms. As we have already indicated, the Book of Psalms was the only hymn book of the early church, and the very fact that it alone of the books of the Old Testament has not its counterpart in the New, would seem to indicate that it not only be­longs to both Testaments, but that it was designed of God to be the hymn­book of the universal church. That being so, it is only right that we should pass under review its claims to meet the spiritual needs of men universally, and its sufficiency to give expression to the praises of the pilgrim church of God in all the world and through all the ages.

The Place of God⤒🔗

The Psalms are pre-eminent in their unveiling of God as Creator of the ends of the earth, and the Covenant God of His people. The transcendent majesty of Jehovah and His immanent presence with His people are the two great thoughts that ring through the Book of Psalms, giving to it height and depth that have not been paralleled by any other book of praise. Inasmuch as the Psalms call upon us to ‘sing praise with understanding’, so the glory of God, His nature, His charac­ter, His purpose, is proclaimed in the sublimest strains of inspired poetry that appeal to the intelligence and understanding of people of all climes and all ages. And God’s government in the world is but the manifestation of His nature and character so that amidst earth’s turmoil and sorrows we can give thanks ‘upon every remem­brance of His holiness’.

Yet to the Hebrew psalmists God’s omnipresence was as real as His om­nipotence and, though His throne was above the flood, His presence was within the flood, restraining, guiding, over-ruling, comforting. How con­scious they were of the shadow of His wings, the scrutiny of His eye, the sound of His footfall, the pressure of His hand all-comprehending, all-pervading, all-embracing! What com­fort they found in the holiness of His character, the righteousness of His rule, the justice of His law, the tender­ness and compassion of His grace, the certainty of His judgment! His holy character was the sheet-anchor of the universe and the haven of ref­uge of the weary and oppressed soul! How readily the Psalms come into their own in times of national peril, in hours of personal sorrow and perplex­ity, amidst the clamour of the world’s hatreds and strife, because they re­veal a God whose character is eter­nally relevant to man’s deepest need and the unfolding of whose purpose gives meaning to the tangled skein of the world’s history! Little wonder that men fall back upon them where there is anything serious on hand, for they fit into every human situation and pre­sent God as the answer to every human problem!

Honest about Men←⤒🔗

The Psalms are unrivalled, too, in their utter fidelity to man’s true na­ture and condition. Elsewhere we may find a false optimism regarding man’s inherent powers or an equally false pessimism regarding man’s position in the universe and his final destiny. The Psalms harbour no illusions about man. They strike a note of realism that surveys man’s position as a creature of God and a child of His purpose, yet a rebel and a sinner in the presence of his Maker. Man’s dignity as ‘made a little lower than the angels’ is not allowed to obscure his position as a transgressor of the central law of his own being and in revolt against the law of his God.

Man’s sin is throughout related to God as a personal affront, an act of defiance, for which every man shall give account of himself unto God. It is this placing of sin in the light of God’s presence that gives to the Psalms their peculiar insight into the nature of sin and the feelings of the penitent sinner that is absent from any merely human composition. What may be resplendent righteous­ness in the eyes of men can be folly of sin in the eyes of God. The man who can, with truth, say ‘They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head’ can add in the next breath, with perfect con­sistency, ‘O God, Thou knowest my folly, and my sin is not hid from thee’. Thus there is no groveling subjection at the feet of man when there is abject prostration at the feet of God. Where else is the balance between man’s dignity as a creature of God and his condition as a sinner before God so exquisitely pre­served? Certainly nowhere outside the inspired volume. Thus the Psalms that foster reverence to­wards God foster humility and de­pendence in man.

Christ Pictured←⤒🔗

The Psalms must be accorded a unique place in the praises of the church because of their portrayal of Christ as Redeemer and Lord. The objection has frequently been raised that the Psalms belong to the Old Testament dispensation and are therefore not adequate for expressing the praises of the New Testament church. Here it is apparently forgotten that the New Testament church throughout its entire course used only the psalms in worship and apparently found no difficulty in reconciling them to the New dispensation. It is also forgotten that our Lord Himself not only used the Psalms in His private devotions, but made them His text­book both before His death and after His resurrection in instructing His fol­lowers in the mystery of His Person and work. It is not surprising, there­fore, to find that the Apostles made similar use of them in their earliest preaching after the Resurrection. It is, therefore, obvious that the Old Testament Church and those who had known Christ intimately in the days of His flesh had no difficulty recognising Him in the Book of Psalms. It is often pointed out that the Psalms have a serious inadequacy in that they merely pointed forward to the coming of Christ, while the New Testament outlook is that of realisation and fulfil­ment. This is to ignore the very sig­nificant fact that prophecy in the Psalms, as elsewhere in the Old Tes­tament, had the vision of redemption as accomplished fact. The Psalmists, in words so graphic that they might in very reality be eye-witnesses, por­trayed the humiliation, sufferings, death, resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and in almost every instance the matter was dealt with as history rather than as the mere foretelling of events. 

The truth would seem to be that as the New Testament writers behold by faith the finished work and the living Lord, so the existence of a like faith, given the vision of revelation and the certitude of inspiration, enabled the Old Testament writers to behold the incarnation and redemption as events that had taken their place in world history as they already had their place in their own spiritual history. Thus it is that the Psalms view the Lord as hav­ing passed through the bitterness of death and risen triumphant over principalities and powers.

And it cannot be forgotten that Christ in the days of His flesh sang the Psalms as expressive of His own in­most experiences, and gave fulfilment audibly on the Cross to many of their prophecies. In such a case, it was the Author singing His own songs, and singing them, need we add, with an understanding and significance that no other could give them! In truth, as we read the Psalms in the light of the Gospel narrative we come to realise how accurately and fully they represent the inner thought and heart of the Divine Sufferer, so that we can say that if the Four Gospels are His biography, the Psalms are His autobiography. For that reason no man can say that the Psalms do not constitute fit material for expressing the praises of the New Testament Church.

The Depth and Variety of Spiritual Experience←⤒🔗

One thing more remains to be said: it is that the Book of Psalms deals with the depth and variety of spiritual ex­perience as no other hymn book does. It is with this in view that Calvin called the Psalms ‘an anatomy of all parts of the soul’, and Athanasius ‘a mirror of the soul of everyone who sings them’. They do, indeed, seem to touch the spiritual experience of man at every point and give expres­sion to the deepest yearnings and the loftiest hopes of the soul. Augustine states with profound emotion what the Psalms had been to him at the time of his conversion. ‘How did I then’, he said addressing God, ‘converse with Thee when I read the Psalms of David — these songs full of faith, those accents which exclude all pride! How did I address Thee in these Psalms, how did they kindle my love to Thee, how did they ani­mate me, if possible, to read them to the whole world, as a protest against the pride of the human race? And yet, they are sung in the whole world’, he adds, ‘for nothing is hid from their heat’. It matters not what our experiences may be; we discover that they find adequate expression somewhere or other in the Psalms; it matters not where we may be, we find that the Psalmist has been there before us! In this, the Book of Psalms is absolutely unique.

We feel, therefore, that there are good and sufficient reasons why we should accept form the hands of the Church the hymn book that God’s Spirit has given to her, and in doing so we are confident that we may well exclude from the public sanctu­ary all the productions of men. They are, at their highest, but sec­ond best, a mere shallow stream that receives thoughts and aspira­tions that trickle into it from the ocean of the Divine Song Book. Indeed we agree with the saintly Hooker in asking: ‘What is there necessary for man to know which the Psalms are not able to teach?’