A new translation of the book of Psalms and of the Proverbs : with introductions and notes, chiefly explanatory

Introduction

I. General Character and Value of the Psalms.

The Book of Psalms has been styled by some of the German critics, in allusion to a portion of Grecian literature, The Hebrew Anthology ; that is, a collection of the lyric, moral, historical, and elegiac poetry of the Hebrews. Regarded in this light alone, it presents a most interesting subject of literary taste and curiosity. Many of these psalms must have been composed some hundreds of years before the period which is commonly assigned to the origin of the Iliad of Homer. But it is not with them as with many of the productions of the classic Muse, of which the antiquity constitutes their greatest claim upon the attention of the scholar, and of which the subjects possess little or no interest for the world in its manhood. It was the privilege of the Hebrew bards to be employed upon subjects possessing an interest as enduring as the attributes of God and the nature of dependent man. Their poetry has the deep foundation of eternal truth. It comes, for the most part, in language the most glowing, from the very depths of the soul, rich in sentiments adapted to the soul's most urgent wants. Hence its living spirit, its immortal freshness. Hence its power of reaching the hearts of all men, in all countries and in all ages. Where, in the whole compass of literature, can one find more of the "thoughts that breathe and words that burn " than in the Hebrew Anthology ? Then, too, what variety is there in the subjects of these ancient compositions ! How diverse the states of heart and fortune that occasioned them ! How various the strains of joy, sorrow, gratitude, love, hope, confidence, fear, remorse, and penitence, which come from the sacred lyre ! There is scarcely a conceivable state of the human soul, in which one may not repair to the Psalter, as it were to a sympathizing friend.

What a sensation would be produced in the literary world by such a collection of poetry as is presented in the Book of Psalms, could it come recommended by the attraction of novelty ! But the truth is, that, in general, the ear is accustomed to these admirable productions, before the mind can comprehend their meaning or fed their beauty ; so that, in maturer life, it requires no inconsiderable effort to give them that attention which is necessary for the ieception of the impressions they are adapted to impart.

Another obstacle to a proper estimate of the poetry of the Scriptures is the very imperfect translation, and wretched arrangement, in which it has been presented to English readers. Let the lover of poetry imagine what impressions he should receive from the odes of Collins or Gray, cut up into fragments like the verses in the common version of the Bible, and he may comprehend what injustice has been done to the Hebrew poets.

The compositions in the Book of Psalms are the productions of various authors and periods, belong to different species of poetry, and possess various degrees of poetic merit. While some of them present the fresh gushes of excited feeling, or the calmer expression of the sublimest sentiments, in the boldest language of poetry, others consist only of moral maxims artificially arranged in a sententious style, or of elaborate and imitative prayers and praises, prepared for the public worship of God.

The Psalms, says De Wette, are lyric poems. This is all that is implied in the name which they bear, i'afy/of, from ipaXXetv, chordas tangere, fidibus canere, signifies the music of a stringed instrument, the sound of the lyre ; then, a song sung to the music of the lyre. This word is used by the Alexandrian translators for the Hebrew SfaTfa, as well as ipcMeiv for the verb ^iftj ; but these Hebrew words, whatever may be their etymology, have the signification of song accompanied with music. Psalter (ipalr^piov) , the name which, in imitation of the Greeks, we give to the collection of Psalms, properly denotes a stringed instrument; and the appellation is to be understood in the same manner as when we give to a collection of lyric poems the title of The Lyre. The Jews call the Psalms b^nfi, songs of praise, and the collection b^Sn&l "ifcD, also, abbreviated, tD^F), an appellation which applies to a part only of the Psalms. The term, D^SfrtE) or D^l^ll), songs, odes, would be more correct.

The Psalms are lyric, in the proper sense ; for with the Hebrews, as in the ancient world generally, song and music were connected, and the titles to most of the Psalms determine their connection with music, though in a manner which is often unintelligible to us. These compositions deserve, moreover, the name of lyric, on account of their character as works of taste. The essence of lyric poetry is the immediate expression of feeling ; and feeling is the sphere to which most of the Psalms belong. Pain, sorrow, fear, hope, joy, confidence, gratitude, submission to God, every thing that moves and elevates the soul, is expressed in these hymns.

In the Psalms we have merely the remains of the lyric poetry of the Hebrews. The productions of this class were undoubtedly far more numerous than would seem to have been the case from these remains, and spread through a wider and more diversified field. The Psalter is chiefly composed of religious and devotional hymns ; but it cannot be maintained, that the lyric poetry of the Hebrews was exclusively devoted to the service of religion and of public worship. The supposition is sufficiently contradicted by those invaluable examples of another species of lyric poetry, which are preserved in other parts of the Scriptures ; such as David's elegy over Saul and Jonathan, the song at the well (Numb. xxi. 17), and especially the Song of Solomon, although the last belongs to a somewhat different branch of poetical composition. In the Book of Psalms itself, there is one production which possesses an altogether secular character, namely, Ps. xlv. For most of the hymns which are extant, we are indebted probably to the religious use to which they were consecrated, rather than to any common poetical sympathy ; and hence so few secular songs have been preserved from destruction.

In respect to their contents and character, the Psalms have been classified in the following manner : * —

* See De Wette's Commentar iiber die Psalmen, p. 3. Biblical Repository for 1833, p. 448.

I. Hymns in praise of Jehovah. 1. Generally as God of nature and of man, Ps. viii., civ., cxlv. 2. As God of nature and of Israel, Ps. xix., xxix., xxxiii., lxv., xciii., cxxxv., cxxxvi., cxlvii., and others. 3. As God of Israel, Ps. xlvii., lxvi., lxvii., lxxv. 4. As the saviour and helper of Israel, Ps. xlvi., xlvii., xlviii., lxxv., lxxvi. ; and of individuals, Ps. xviii., xxx., cxxxviii., and others.

II. National psalms, containing allusions to the ancient history of the Israelites, and to the relation of the people to Jehovah, Ps. lxxviii., cv., cvi., cxiv.

III. Psalms of Zion and of the temple, Ps. xv., xxiv., lxviii., lxxxi., lxxxvii., cxxxii., cxxxiv., cxxxv.

IV. Psalms relating to the king, Ps. ii., xx., xxi., xlv., lxxii., ex.

V. Psalms which contain complaints under affliction and the persecution of enemies, and prayers for succor ; the most numerous class, comprising more than a third part of the whole collection. These psalms of complaint are, — 1. Personal, relating to the case of an individual, Ps. vii., xxii., lv., lvi., cix., and others. 2. National, Ps. xliv., lxxiv., lxxix., lxxx., exxxvii., and others. 3. Personal and national at the same time, Ps. lxix., lxxvii., cii. From these divisions proceed still others. 4. General psalms of complaint, reflections on the wickedness of the world, Ps. x., xii., xiv., xxxvi. 5. Didactic psalms, respecting the condition of the pious and the godless, Ps. xxxvii., xlix., lxxiii. 6. Psalms of thanksgiving for deliverance from enemies, which also pass over into the first class, Ps. xxxiv., xl., and others.

VI. Religious and moral psalms. 1. Odes to Jehovah with special allusions, Ps. xc, exxxix. 2. Expressions of religious conviction, hope, confidence, Ps. xxiii., xci., exxi., cxx\ii., exxviii. 3. Expressions of religious experience, resolutions, &c, Ps. xlii., xliii., ci., exxxi. 4. Development of religious or moral ideas, Ps. i., exxxiii. 5. Didactic poems relating to religion, Ps. xxxii., 1. 6. Collections of proverbs, in alphabetical order, Ps. cxix. The few which cannot be brought under any of the foregoing classes and divisions either constitute new ones by themselves, or possess an intermediate character.

It will be perceived, that, in this classification, proposed by De Wette, no place is assigned to psalms relating to the Messiah. This is in accordance with the opinion of the above-mentioned distinguished commentator, and others, who reject the doctrine of a double sense in the Scriptures, that there is not in the Book of Psalms any prediction relating to the Messiah. The question whether any, and, if any, how many, of the Psalms relate to the Messiah is attended with considerable difficulty. At first view, it would be natural to expect, that the lyrical productions of the Jewish poets, as well as the writings of the prophets, would contain allusions to the Messiah. But when we come to examine those which have been chiefly referred to as containing the Messianic hopes, such as the ii., xvi., xxii., xl., xlv., lxxii., ex., we seem to find, on the principles of historical interpretation which are applied to all other books, in some of them no predictions whatever, but only references to the past or the present ; in others, only glowing anticipations, which seem to refer to the writer of the psalm, or to Jewish kings contemporary with him. The question can be decided only by a critical examination of each psalm. But it deserves consideration, whether Christ may not be said to have fulfilled what is written in the Psalms concerning him, when he filled out, or completed, what was valuable in the experience, or precious in the hopes, of David and other servants of God, which are the proper subjects of the Psalms.* His life and sufferings were analogous to theirs, but of a higher character and attended with more glorious results. It is well observed by Stanley, in connection with other valuable remarks on the subject, " The Psalter is especially prophetic of Christ, because, more than any other part of the ancient Scriptures, it enters into those truths of the spiritual life, of which he was the great revealer."f This view is confirmed by the interpretation of the Psalms which has generally prevailed in the Christian church. The ever-recurring remark of the common expositor is, "This psalm in part refers to David, and in part to Jesus Christ ; n or, " This psalm is fulfilled in a lower sense in David, but in a higher and better sense in Christ." But the supposition that the psalm itself contained,

* See Int. to the Prophets, p. lxx. f History of the Jewish Church, vol. ii. p. 161. 1* in the mind of the writer, more senses than one, seems to contradict all just views of the nature of language. In regard to some of the references * made to the Psalms by Paul and Peter, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, it seems necessary to suppose that they were not inspired as critics 'and interpreters, but that they argued according to a mode of reasoning and of interpretation which they held in common with their contemporaries, but which cannot be regarded as valid at the present day.

Now, it is an indisputable fact, that the ancient Jews, without regard to any just laws of interpretation, without any regard to the connection in which words stand, and especially in pursuance of the typical or the allegorical method, applied hundreds of passages of the Old Testament to the Messiah, which no one in modern times can suppose to relate to him.f It would be singular, therefore, if we did not find traces of the same mode of applying Scriptural passages in the writers of the New Testament.

It is probable, that, in some cases, the reference in the New Testament to a passage in the Psalms is merely in the way of rhetorical illustration, or of argumentum ex concessis ; for instance, in John xiii. 18 ; Matt, xxii, 44, &c. But this mode of explanation cannot be applied to such passages as Acts iv. 25, xiii. 33, and several in the Epistle to the Hebrews, without doing violence to language.

These observations are offered for the consideration of those, of whom I am one, who can find no psalm of which, in its primary sense, the Messiah is the exclusive subject. Of recent orthodox commentators, Tholuck finds only four, namely, Ps. ii., xlv., lxxii., and ex., containing a direct and literal reference to the Messiah. So also Hengstenberg applies to him only the same psalms. It seems to me that all four plainly indicate that they refer to kings actually living and reigning in the time of the writers. Nor is any thing ascribed to them, or hoped for them, which, when due allowance is made for the language of Oriental hyperbole, does not belong to the conception of a Jewish theocratic king, the vicegerent of Jehovah. As the ancient prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, &c, predict the Messiah in the char* t See Schoettgen's Horae Hebraicae et Talmudica?, passim.

actor of a perfect Jewish king, it follows, of course, that the representations of actual kings in the Psalms will resemble the Messianic predictions of the Prophets. But why some writers should exert their ingenuity to find predictions^ of a future Messiah, where there are none, it is difficult to say. If the predictions of a Messiah in the Old Testament are regarded as a miraculous attestation of the truth of Christianity, are not the plain and universally acknowledged predictions of a Messianic king in the writings of the prophets Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, enough for the purpose? Why multiply doubtful cases of Messianic predictions, when there are so many beyond doubt ? Truly, it is cause for thankfulness, that God has laid the foundations of the Christian religion deeper than some of its friends imagine.

On the relation of the literature and history of the Jewish Commonwealth to the Christian dispensation, Dean Stanley * has a passage, which we cannot help citing for the benefit of those who cannot have access to his expensive work : " I may be allowed to express by an illustration the true mode of regarding this question. In the gardens of the Carthusian Convent, which the Dukes of Burgundy built near Dijon for the burial place of their race, is a beautiful monument, which alone of that splendid edifice escaped the ravages of the French Revolution. It consists of a group of prophets and kings from the Old Testament, each holding in his hand a scroll of mourning from his writings ; each with his own individual costume and gesture and look ; each distinguished from each by the most marked peculiarities of age and character, — absorbed in the thoughts of his own time and country. But above these figures is a circle of angels, as like each to each as the human figures are unlike. They too, as each overhangs and overlooks the prophet below him, are saddened with grief. But their expression of sorrow is far deeper and more intense than that of the prophets whose words they read. They see something in the prophetic sorrow, which the prophets themselves see not ; they are lost in the contemplation of the Divine Passion, of which the ancient saints below them are but the unconscious and indirect exponents.

* Lectures on the Hist, of the Jewish Church, part ii. pp. xii.-xv.

" Tins exquisite mediaeval monument, expressing, as it does, the instinctive feeling at once of the truthful artist and of the devout Christian, represents better than any words the sense of what we call, in theological language, ' the Types ' of the Old Testament. The heroes and saints of old times, not in Judea only, — though there more frequently than in any other country, — are indeed 4 types, 1 that is, * likenesses,' in their sorrows of the Greatest of ail sorrows, in their joys of the Greatest of all joys, in their goodness of the Greatest of all goodness, in their truth of the Greatest of all truths. This deep inward connection between the events of their own time and the crowning close of the history of their whole nation, — this gradual convergence towards the event which, by general acknowledgment, ranks chief in the annals of mankind, — is clear, not only to the all-searching Eye of Providence, but also to the eye of any who look above the stir and movement of earth. It is part, not only of the foreknowledge of God, but of the universal workings of human nature and human history. The angels see, though man sees not. The mind flies silently upwards from the earthly career of David or Isaiah or Ezekiel to those vaster and wider thoughts which they imperfectly represented. 4 The rustic murmur ' of Jerusalem was, although they knew it not, part of ' the great wave that echoes round the world.' It is a continuity recognized by the Philosophy of History no less than by Theology, — by Hegel even more closely than by Augustine.

But the sorrow, the joy, the goodness, the truth of those ancient heroes is notwithstanding entirely their own. They are not mere machines or pictures. When they speak of their trials and difficulties, they speak of them as from their own experience. By studying them, with all the peculiarities of their time, we arrive at a profounder view of the truths and events to which their expressions and the story of their deeds may be applied in after-ages than if we regard them as the organs of sounds unintelligible to themselves, and with no bearing on their own period. Where there is a sentiment common to them and to Christian times, a word or act which breaks forth into the distant future, it will be reverently caught up by those who are on the watch for it, to whom it will speak words beyond their words, and thoughts beyond their thoughts. * Did not our heart burn within va while He walked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures ? ' But, even in the act of uttering these sentiments, they still remained encompassed with human, Jewish, Oriental peculiarities, which must not be explained away or softened down, for the sake of producing an appearance of uniformity which may be found in the Koran, but which it is hopeless to seek in the Bible ; and which, if it were found there, would completely destroy the historical character of its contents. To refuse to see the first and direct application of their expressions to themselves is like an unwillingness — such as some simple and religious minds have felt — to acknowledge the existence, or to dwell on the topography, of the city of Jerusalem and the wilderness of Arabia, because those localities have been so long associated with the higher truths of spiritual religion."

The hearts of the pious for ages have felt the value of the Psalms as helps to devotion, and many have labored for expressions in which to set forth their praise. For its truth, as well as beauty, we quote the following description by Bishop Home, who yet saw some things in them which modern views of interpretation will not permit us to find : —

"In them," says he, "we are instructed to conceive of the subjects of religion aright, and to express the different affections which, when so conceived of, they must excite in our minds. They are, for this purpose, adorned with the figures, and set off with all the graces, of poetry ; and poetry itself is designed yet farther to be recommended by the charms of music thus consecrated to the service of God ; that so delight may prepare the way for improvement, and pleasure become the handmaid of wisdom, while every turbulent passion is calmed by sacred melody, and the evil spirit is still dispossessed by the harp of the son of Jesse. This little volume, like the paradise of Eden, affords us in perfection, though in miniature, every thing that groweth elsewhere, — 4 every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; ' and above all, what was there lost, but is here restored, the tree of life ir. xhe midst of the garden. That which we read as matter of speculation in the other Scriptures is reduced to practice when we recite it in the Psalms ; in those, faith and repentance are described, but in these they are acted : by a perusal of the former, we learn how others served God ; but, by using the latter, we servo him ourselves."

" The hymns of David," says Milman, "excel no less in sublimity and tenderness of expression than in loftiness and purity of religious sentiment. In comparison with them, the sacred poetry of all other nations sinks into mediocrity. They have embodied so exquisitely the universal language of religious emotion, that (a few fierce and vindictive passages excepted, natural in the warrior-poet of a sterner age) they have entered, with unquestioned propriety, into the ritual of the holier and more perfect religion of Christ. The songs which cheered the solitude of the desert caves of Engedi, or resounded from the voice of the Hebrew people as they wound along the glens or the hill-sides of Judea, have been repeated for ages in almost every part of the habitable world, in the remotest islands of the ocean, among the forests of America, or the sands of Africa. How many human hearts have they softened, purified, exalted ! Of how many wretched beings have they been the secret consolation ! On how many communities have they drawn down the blessings of Divine Providence, by bringing the affections into unison with their deep devotional fervor ! n

Luther, in his preface to the Psalter, has the following just remarks: "A human heart is like a ship on a wild sea, driven by high winds from the four quarters of the world. Here rush fear and anxiety on account of future calamity, there press affliction and sorrow, caused by present evil ; here blow hope and confidence in future prosperity, there come security and joy in present good. These high winds teach a man to speak with earnestness, to open his heart, and pour out the bottom of it. For he who is in fear and distress speaks of trouble very differently from one who is in joy ; and he who is in joy speaks of joy very differently from one who is in fear. It comes not from the heart, it is said, when a sad man laughs, or a joyful man weeps ; that is, the bottom of his heart stands not open, and nothing comes forth. But what is the greater part of the Psalter but such earnest speech in the midst of high winds of every kind ? Where do we find a sweeter voice of joy than in the psalms of thanksgiving and praise ? There you look into the heart of all the holy as into a beautiful garden, —as into heaven itself. What delicate, sweet,' and lovely flowers are there springing up of all manner of beautiful, joyous thoughts towards Go J and Ins goodness ! On the other hand, where do you find more profound, mournful, pathetic expressions of sorrow than the plaintive psalms contain ? The^e again you look into the heart of all the holy as into death, — yea, as into the pit of despair. How dark and gloomy is it there, in consequence of all manner of melancholy apprehension of God's displeasure ! So also when the psalmists speak of fear or hope, they use such words, that no painter could so delineate, and no Cicero or eloquent orator so describe them."

We will add two passages more from the highly valuable work to which we have already referred : * —

* ' The Psalter has further become the Sacred Book of the world, in a sense belonging to no other part of the Biblical records. Not only does it hold its place in the liturgical services of the Jewish Church, not only was it used more than any other part of the Old Testament by the writers of the New, but it is in a special sense the peculiar inheritance of the Christian Church through all its different branches. * From whatever point of view any Church hath contemplated the scheme of its doctrine, by whatever name they have thought good to designate themselves, and however bitterly opposed to each other in church government or observance of rites, — you will find them all, by harmonious and universal consent, adopting the Psalter as the outward form by which they shall express the inward feelings of the Christian life.' It was so in the earliest times. The Passover psalms were the * Hymn ' of the Last Supper. In the first centuries, psalms were sung at the Love-feasts, and formed the morning and evening hymns of the primitive Christians. ' Of the other Scriptures, 1 says Theodoret in the fifth century, * the generality of men know next to nothing. But the Psalms you will find again and again repeated in private houses, in market-places, in streets, by those who have learned them by heart, and who soothe themselves by their divine melody.'

* When other parts of Scripture are used,' says St. Ambrase,

* there is such a noise of talking in the church, that you cannot hear what is said ; but, when the Psalter is read, all are silent.

* Stanley: Lectures on the Hist, of the Jewish Church, ii. 162-4; 170-4.

They were sung by the ploughmen of Palestine, in the time of Jerome ; by the boatmen of Gaul, in the time of Sidonius Apollinaris. In the most barbarous of churches, the Abyssinians treat the Psalter almost as an idol, and sing it through from end to end at every funeral. In the most Protestant of churches, — the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Nonconformists of England, — ' psalmsinging' has almost passed into a familiar description of their ritual. In the Churches of Rome and of England, they are daily recited, in proportions such as far exceed the reverence shown to any other portion of the Scriptures.

If we descend from churches to individuals, there is no one book which has played so large a part in the history of so many human souls. By the Psalms, Augustine was consoled on his conversion and on his death-bed. By the Psalms, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Savonarola, were cheered in persecution. With the words of a psalm, Polycarp, Columba, Hildebrand, Bernard, Francis of Assisi, Huss, Jerome of Prague, Columbus, Henry the Fifth, Edward the Sixth, Ximenes, Xavier, Melancthon, Jewell, breathed their last. So dear to Wallace in his wanderings was his Psalter, that during his execution he had it hung before him, and his eyes remained fixed upon it as the one consolation of his dying hours. The unhappy Darnley was soothed in the toils of his enemies by the 55th Psalm. The 68th Psalm cheered Cromwell's soldiers to victory at Dunbar. Locke, in his last days, bade his friend read the Psalms aloud ; and it was whilst in rapt attention to their words that the stroke of death fell upon him. Lord Burleigh selected then, out of the whole Bible as his special delight. They were the framework of the devotions and of the war-cries of Luther : they were the last words that fell on the ear of his imperial enemy, Charles the Fifth."

' ' But there are three points in which the Psalms stand unrivalled : —

" The first is the depth of personal expression and experience. There are doubtless occasions when the psalmist speaks as the organ of the nation. But he is for the most part alone with himself and with God. Each word is charged with the intensity of some grief or joy, known or unknown. If the doctrines of St. Paul derive half their force from their connection with his personal struggles the doctrines of David also strike home and kindle a fire wherever they light, mainly because they are the sparks of the incandescence of a living human experience like our own. The patriarchs speak as the fathers of the chosen race ; the prophets speak as its representatives and its guides. But the psalmist speaks as the mouthpiece of the individual soul, of the free, independent, solitary conscience of man everywhere.

" The second of these peculiarities is, what we may call in one word, the perfect naturalness of the Psalms. It appears, perhaps, most forcibly, in their exultant freedom and joyousness of heart. It is true, as Lord Bacon says, that, * if you listen to David's harp, you will hear as many hearselike airs as carols ; ' yet still the carols are found there more than anywhere else. ' Rejoice in the Lord.' — * Sing ye merrily.' — ' Make a cheerful noise/ — • Take the psalm, bring hither the tabret, the merry harp, with the lute.' — * O praise the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God.'- — 'A joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful. 1 This, in fact, is the very meaning of the word * psalm.' The one Hebrew word which is their very pith and marrow is * hallelujah. 1 They express, if we may so say, the sacred duty of being happy. Be happy, cheerful, and thankful, as ever we can, we cannot go beyond the Psalms. They laugh, they shout, they cry, they scream for joy. There is a wild exhilaration which rings through them. They exult alike in the joy of battle, and in the calm of nature. They see God 1 s goodness everywhere. They are not ashamed to confess it. The bright side of creation is everywhere uppermost; the dark, sentimental side is hardly ever seen. The fury of the thunder-storm, the roaring of the sea, are to them full of magnificence and delight. Like the Scottish poet in his childhood, at each successive peal they clap their hands in innocent pleasure.