The Psalms are divided into five books or volumes; and this not by external marks only, but by internal distinctions full of interest. The first closes with Psa. 41 where a conclusion is manifest; the second, with Psalm 72, the last three verses marking closure; the third, with Psalm 89, of which verse 52 is the end; the fourth, with Psalm 106, with verse 48 concluding; the fifth to the end of all. (Psalm. 107-150) The internal characters which distinguish these five books will appear as we pass on.
There is no part of scripture more evidently inspired of God, none more frequently cited by the Holy Spirit throughout the N.T., none more important for the believer to understand by divine teaching, so as on the one hand to enjoy truth needful, fertile, and strengthening for the affections, and on the other hand to keep clear of mistaken applications which might darken and even destroy all right sense of our proper relationship as Christians. The latter danger is not a mere apprehension; in fact it has caused ruinous mischief since the second century, and is no less rife in our own days, and nearly as prevalent among Protestants as among Romanists and others who profess to represent the ancient Catholic church. On scarce any question is Christendom more at one than the assumption that the Psalms compose the most fitting help for Christian comfort and devotion, and the best, because divinely purposed, expression of church worship. The evil result of what is miscalled spiritualizing is the handle it gives the Romanists. If Judah and Israel, if Zion and Jerusalem point to the church, men logically infer that the righteous destruction of the enemies, wicked, etc., warrants the office of the inquisition, and the punishment of heretics even to death.
Yet one may fairly suppose that no believer has ever used them thus, privately and publicly, without finding himself face to face with unanswerable difficulties, to escape which he is continually exposed to the evil of “accommodating” and perverting God's word. Compare Psalm 5:10; 7:6; 10:2,12,15; 17:13, 14; 18:37-42; 28:4; 31:17, 8; 35:1-8; 40:14, 5. In the second book are portions no less energetic for the destruction of enemies, as Psalm 68:12, 23; 69:22-28; 70:2,3; 71:13. Nor is it otherwise in the third book: see Psalm 74:11; 79:6,10-12; 83:9-18. So, yet more sparingly, in the fourth book, as in Psalm 94:1, 2; 104:35. So, to say nothing of 109, the last book, as Psalm 129:5,6; 137:8,9: 1378 8,9, 140:9,10; 10; 143: 12; 144:6; 149:6-9. Thus uniformly earthly judicial righteousness is the atmosphere, not heavenly grace according to which the Christian is called now to feel, and pray, and walk. Far be it to say that all is not right. It was what characterized the saints in Israel of old; it will be so once more in their midst when the former dominion shall come still more gloriously in the day of the Lord, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. But we, called out meanwhile from Jews and Gentiles, and composing the one body of Christ, have the privilege and the duty of showing forth His grace Who suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. We are not Jews, even if once we had been, but members of His body Who is rejected by the world, exalted at God's right hand, and Who sends the gospel to His foes, all the time of our calling. Communion with Him thus is Christianity, and hence the church and the Christian (objects and channels of grace, in His energy Who rests on us as the Spirit of glory and of God) make and sing their own suited psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). For it is demonstrable that these mean Christian compositions, and in no way the Psalms of David.
Is it meant that the Psalms are not most precious to the believer? If divinely inspired, as indeed they are, how could it be otherwise? No part of the Bible is more redolent of Messiah; and this too, not so much facts and doctrines, as His heart's experience in all circumstances, and His innermost feelings not only about His people, but about and to God Himself. The Psalms not infrequently present His entering into earthly sorrows like His own, besides that in which none could be found but Himself, suffering for our sins; and in both His absolutely perfect affections and expressions, not merely those of Moses, David, Asaph, or any other. This is an inestimable boon for us who, besides what is peculiar, have our earthly path of trial and sorrow, and know His sympathy in this intimate way, as Israel will another day. But it is Modified by the relations to the Jew supposed throughout, and by no means rises up to the unfolding of what is distinctly heavenly as in the Gospels and N.T. in general.
Hence Bp. Home labors in vain, and indeed to his own loss as well as that of all swayed by his thoughts, in seeking to mitigate the spirit of imprecating vengeance in many Psalms. He says that “the offense taken” at this ceases immediately if we change the imperative into the future, and read, not “let them be confounded,” etc., but “they shall be confounded,” etc., of which the Hebrew is equally capable! In this unwarrantable boldness he follows Dr. Hammond, as the latter no doubt was led by others. He is compelled to allow that the N. T. preserves the imperative form, instead of changing it into the future. For this he tries to account, as well as to explain away the impression, as no more than a solemn ratification of God's just judgment. But the criticism is as bad as the doctrine; and the phraseology undoubtedly stands in Hebrew as in English, and no doubt in all other languages. It is the difference in divine dealing which clears all up without violence. When God is judging enemies as of old and by-and-by, His people share it in measure. Now He is displaying sovereign grace, and another spirit of action becomes them, as the N. T. conclusively proves as to the Christian and the church. For all that the Psalms are a rich treasure to the believer. The Spirit of Christ ever speaks therein, though it be not Christ personally save in such as 2, 8, 16, 18, 22, 40, etc.