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Psalms
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE BOOK OF
P S A L M S.
We have now before us one of the choicest and most excellent parts of
all the Old Testament; nay, so much is there in it of Christ and his
gospel, as well as of God and his law, that it had been called the
abstract, or summary, of both Testaments. The History of
Israel, which we were long upon, let us to camps and council-boards,
and there entertained and instructed us in the knowledge of God. The
book of Job brought us into the schools, and treated us with profitable
disputations concerning God and his providence. But this book brings us
into the sanctuary, draws us off from converse with men, with the
politicians, philosophers, or disputers of this world, and directs us
into communion with God, by solacing and reposing our souls in him,
lifting up and letting out our hearts towards him. Thus may we be in
the mount with God; and we understand not our interests if we say not,
It is good to be here. Let us consider,
I. The title of this book. It is called,
1. The Psalms; under that title it is referred to,
The Hebrew calls it Tehillim, which properly signifies Psalms
of praise, because many of them are such; but Psalms is a
more general word, meaning all metrical compositions fitted to be sung,
which may as well be historical, doctrinal, or supplicatory, as
laudatory. Though singing be properly the voice of joy, yet the
intention of songs is of a much greater latitude, to assist the memory,
and both to express and to excite all the other affections as well as
this of joy. The priests had a mournful muse as well as joyful ones;
and the divine institution of singing psalms is thus largely intended;
for we are directed not only to praise God, but to teach and admonish
ourselves and one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual
songs,
Col. iii. 16.
2. It is called the Book of Psalms; so it is quoted by St.
Peter,
It is a collection of psalms, of all the psalms that were divinely
inspired, which, though composed at several times and upon several
occasions, are here put together without any reference to or dependence
upon one another; thus they were preserved from being scattered and
lost, and were in so much greater readiness for the service of the
church. See what a good master we serve, and what pleasantness there is
in wisdom’s ways, when we are not only commanded to sing at our work,
and have cause enough given us to do so, but have words also put in our
mouths and songs prepared to our hands.
II. The author of this book. It is, no doubt, derived originally from
the blessed Spirit. They are spiritual songs, words which the Holy
Ghost taught. The penman of most of them was David the son of Jesse,
who is therefore called the sweet psalmist of Israel,
2 Sam. xxiii. 1.
Some that have not his name in their titles yet are expressly ascribed
to him elsewhere, as
and
and
One psalm is expressly said to be the prayer of Moses
(Ps. xc.);
and that some of the psalms were penned by Asaph is intimated,
where they are said to praise the Lord in the words of David and
Asaph, who is there called a seer or prophet. Some of
the psalms seem to have been penned long after, as
at the time of the captivity in Babylon; but the far greater part of
them were certainly penned by David himself, whose genius lay towards
poetry and music, and who was raised up, qualified, and animated, for
the establishing of the ordinance of singing psalms in the church of
God, as Moses and Aaron were, in their day, for the settling of the
ordinances of sacrifice; theirs is superseded, but his remains, and
will to the end of time, when it shall be swallowed up in the songs of
eternity. Herein David was a type of Christ, who descended from him,
not from Moses, because he came to take away sacrifice (the family of
Moses was soon lost and extinct), but to establish and perpetuate joy
and praise; for of the family of David in Christ there shall be no
end.
III. The scope of it. It is manifestly intended,
1. To assist the exercises of natural religion, and to kindle in the
souls of men those devout affections which we owe to God as our
Creator, owner, ruler, and benefactor. The book of Job helps to prove
our first principles of the divine perfections and providence; but this
helps to improve them in prayers and praises, and professions of desire
towards him, dependence on him, and an entire devotedness and
resignation to him. Other parts of scripture show that God is
infinitely above man, and his sovereign Lord; but this shows us that he
may, notwithstanding, be conversed with by us sinful worms of the
earth; and there are ways in which, if it be not our own fault, we may
keep up communion with him in all the various conditions of human life.
2. To advance the excellencies of revealed religion, and in the most
pleasing powerful manner to recommend it to the world. There is indeed
little or nothing of the ceremonial law in all the book of
Psalms. Though sacrifice and offering were yet to continue many
ages, yet they are here represented as things which God did not desire
as things comparatively little, and which in time were to vanish away.
But the word and law of God, those parts of it which are moral and of
perpetual obligation are here all along magnified and made honourable,
nowhere more. And Christ, the crown and centre of revealed religion,
the foundation, corner, and top-stone, of that blessed building, is
here clearly spoken of in type and prophecy, his sufferings and the
glory that should follow, and the kingdom that he should set up in the
world, in which God’s covenant with David, concerning his kingdom, was
to have its accomplishment. What a high value does this book put upon
the word of God, his statutes and judgments, his covenant and the great
and precious promises of it; and how does it recommend them to us as
our guide and stay, and our heritage for ever!
IV. The use of it. All scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is
profitable to convey divine light into our understandings; but this
book is of singular use with that to convey divine life and power, and
a holy warmth, into our affections. There is no one book of scripture
that is more helpful to the devotions of the saints than this, and it
has been so in all ages of the church, ever since it was written and
the several parts of it were delivered to the chief musician for the
service of the church.
1. It is of use to be sung. Further than David’s psalms we may
go, but we need not, for hymns and spiritual songs. What the
rules of the Hebrew metre were even the learned are not certain. But
these psalms ought to be rendered according to the metre of every
language, at least so as that they may be sung for the edification of
the church. And methinks it is a great comfort to us, when we are
singing David’s psalms, that we are offering the very same praises to
God that were offered to him in the days of David and the other godly
kings of Judah. So rich, so well made, are these divine poems, that
they can never be exhausted, can never be worn thread-bare.
2. It is of use to be read and opened by the ministers of Christ, as
containing great and excellent truths, and rules concerning good and
evil. Our Lord Jesus expounded the psalms to his disciples, the gospel
psalms, and opened their understandings (for he had the key of David)
to understand them,
3. It is of use to be read and meditated upon by all good people. It is
a full fountain, out of which we may all be drawing water with joy.
(1.) The Psalmist’s experiences are of great use for our direction,
caution, and encouragement. In telling us, as he often does, what
passed between God and his soul, he lets us know what we may expect
from God, and what he will expect, and require, and graciously accept,
from us. David was a man after God’s own heart, and therefore those who
find themselves in some measure according to his heart have reason to
hope that they are renewed by the grace of God, after the image of God,
and many have much comfort in the testimony of their consciences for
them that they can heartily say Amen to David’s prayers and
praises.
(2.) Even the Psalmist’s expressions too are of great use; and by them
the Spirit helps our praying infirmities, because we know not what to
pray for as we ought. In all our approaches to God, as well as in our
first returns to God, we are directed to take with us words
(Hos. xiv. 2),
these word, words which the Holy Ghost teaches. If we make David’s
psalms familiar to us, as we ought to do, whatever errand we have at
the throne of grace, by way of confession, petition, or thanksgiving,
we may thence be assisted in the delivery of it; whatever devout
affection is working in us, holy desire or hope, sorrow or joy, we may
there find apt words wherewith to clothe it, sound speech which cannot
be condemned. It will be good to collect the most proper and lively
expressions of devotion which we find here, and to methodize them, and
reduce them to the several heads of prayer, that they may be the more
ready to us. Or we may take sometimes one choice psalm and sometimes
another, and pray it over, that is, enlarge upon each verse in our own
thoughts, and offer up our meditations to God as they arise from the
expressions we find there. The learned Dr. Hammond, in his preface to
his paraphrase on the Psalms (sect. 29), says, “That going over a few
psalms with these interpunctions of mental devotion, suggested,
animated, and maintained, by the native life and vigour which is in the
psalms, is much to be preferred before the saying over the whole
Psalter, since nothing is more fit to be averted in religious offices
than their degenerating into heartless dispirited recitations.” If, as
St. Austin advises, we form our spirit by the affection of the psalm,
we may then be sure of acceptance with God in using the language of it.
Nor is it only our devotion, and the affections of our mind, that the
book of Psalms assists, teaching us how to offer praise so as to
glorify God, but, it is also a directory to the actions of our lives,
and teaches us how to order our conversation aright, so as that,
in the end, we may see the salvation of God,
Ps. i. 23.
The Psalms were thus serviceable to the Old-Testament church, but to us
Christians they may be of more use than they could be to those who
lived before the coming of Christ; for, as Moses’s sacrifices, so
David’s songs, are expounded and made more intelligible by the gospel
of Christ, which lets us within the veil; so that if to David’s prayers
and praises we all St. Paul’s prayers in his epistles, and the new
songs in the Revelation, we shall be thoroughly furnished for this good
work; for the scripture, perfected, makes the man of God perfect.
As to the division of this book, we need not be solicitous; there is no
connexion (or very seldom) between one psalm and another, nor any
reason discernible for the placing of them in the order wherein we here
find them; but it seems to be ancient, for that which is now the second
psalm was so in the apostles’ time,
The vulgar Latin joins the 9th and 10th together; all popish authors
quote by that, so that, thenceforward, throughout the book, their
number is one short of ours; our xi. is their x., our cxix. is their
cxviii. But they divide the 147th into two, and so make up the number
of 150. Some have endeavoured to reduce the psalms to proper heads,
according to the matter of them, but there is often such a variety of
matter in one and the same psalm that this cannot be done with any
certainty. But the seven penitential Psalms have been in a particular
manner singled out by the devotions of many. They are reckoned to be
vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., cxliii.
The Psalms were divided into five books, each concluding with Amen,
Amen, or Hallelujah; the first ending with
the second with
the third with
the fourth with
the fifth with
Others divide them into three fifties; others into sixty parts, two for
every day of the month, one for the morning, the other for the evening.
Let good Christians divide them for themselves, so as may best increase
their acquaintance with them, that they may have them at hand upon all
occasions and may sing them in the spirit and with the
understanding.
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