NOTES
A. The extent to which the Psalms were used liturgically by the Jews in Temple and Synagogue is not at all fully known. The following list of uses is interesting in itself, but probably does not by any means cover the whole field. And it seems certain, from the free and natural way in which the Psalms are referred to in the New Testament, that, even if a comparatively small number were used in the public services, the Psalter must have been very familiar indeed to the pious Jew of our Lord's time and have formed practically his book of private devotion.
DAILY IN THE TEMPLE (AND PROBABLY ELSEWHERE):
First day. Ps. xxiv. The earth is the Lord's, etc.
Second day. Ps. xlviii. Great is the Lord.
Third day. Ps. lxxxii. God standeth in the congregation.
Fourth day. Ps. xciv. O Lord God, to Whom vengeance belongeth.
Fifth day. Ps. lxxxi. Sing we merrily unto God our strength.
Sixth day. Ps. xciii. The Lord is King.
Sabbath day. Ps. xcii. It is a good thing to give thanks.
THE PASSOVER, AND ON OTHER GREAT FESTIVALS. The Hallel, probably Pss. cxiii.-cxviii.
FEAST OF TABERNACLES:
First day. Ps. cv. O give thanks.
Second day. Ps. xxix. Bring unto the Lord.
Third day. Ps. l. 16. But unto the ungodly said God.
Fourth day. Ps. xciv. 16. Who will rise up with me.
Fifth day. Ps. xciv. 8. Take heed, ye unwise.
Sixth day. Ps. lxxxi. 6. I eased his shoulder. Pss. cxx.-cxxxiv. Songs of Degrees.
Seventh day. Ps. lxxxii. 5. They will not be learned.
NEW MOON OF SEVENTH OR SABBATICAL MONTH. Ps. lxxxi. Sing we merrily.
DEDICATION. The Hallel, as at the Passover.
PRESENTATION OF FIRST-FRUITS. Ps. cxxii. I was glad. Ps. xxx. I will magnify Thee, O Lord.
B. The allusions to the singing of Psalms in the New Testament shew that it was from the first a recognised Christian devotion, both in public and private (Acts xvi. 25; 1 Cor. xiv. 26; Eph. v. 19; James v. 13). This is borne out by the evidence of the Christian Fathers (see, for example, S. Athanasius' Epistle to Marcellinus; S. Aug. Confess. ix. 8; S. Jerome, Ep. xlvi.). But it was no doubt the rise of the monastic life in Egypt and its subsequent spread over the whole Church in the fourth and fifth centuries that led by its disciplined devotion to the systematic arrangement of the Psalter for daily services and to its continuous recitation. Many of the early monks, indeed, recited the whole Psalter daily; but the Western use, settled traditionally by S. Gregory the Great, aimed at a weekly recitation, and this system in theory dominated the Breviary services all through the Middle Ages.
The normal arrangement of the Psalter in the daily offices was, roughly speaking, as follows:
At Mattins, Ps. i.-cix., divided into nine "Nocturns," three of which were said on Sunday, and one on each of the following week-days, beginning each day with the 95th, the Invitatory Psalm.
At Lauds, Pss. lxiii., lxvii., cxlviii.-cl., with certain other varying Psalms.
At Prime, always Ps. liv. and the first four portions of the 119th, and one varying Psalm.
At Terce, the next six portions of the 119th.
At Sext, the next six portions of the 119th.
At None, the last six portions of the 119th.
At Vespers, Pss. cx.-cxlvii., divided into seven portions, omitting the 119th.
At Compline, iv., xxxi. 1-6, xci., cxxxiv.
Thus the bulk of the Psalms were said at the two offices which corresponded most closely to our Morning and Evening Prayer; some few were said daily, the 51st was said at every one of the offices, and the others were said weekly.
But in practice a festival arrangement of the Psalms, in which a much smaller number, and chiefly of the shorter Psalms, were recited, was largely substituted for the normal or ferial use, thus justifying the criticism of our Reformers, "Now of late time a few of them have been daily said and the rest utterly omitted."
The following special uses are also interesting:
THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD:
Vespers (the "Placebo"): cxvi., cxx., cxxi., cxxx., cxxxviii.
Mattins (the "Dirge"): v., vi., vii.; xxiii., xxv., xxvii., xl., xli., xlii.
Lauds: li., lxv., lxiii., cxlviii.-cl., cxlv.
PREPARATION FOR MASS: lxxxiv., lxxxv., lxxxvi., cxvi. 10., cxxx., xliii.
THANKSGIVING AFTER MASS: cl.
C. Antiphons were originally verses sung as a refrain between each verse of the Psalms, one side of the choir taking the former and the other the latter. The refrain varied at different seasons and festivals. An example of this early and more elaborate use survived in the Breviary in the treatment of the Venite as an Invitatory Psalm. But gradually, for the sake of brevity, this method was abandoned, and the normal use of antiphons in the Breviary was simply after (or on festivals before and after) each Psalm or set of Psalms. The advantage of the antiphon lay in the fact that it shewed at once with what particular intention the Psalm was sung, as the same Psalm naturally might be sung on many different occasions and with reference to a different season or festival. But the very complex nature of the antiphons or "anthems" led the English Reformers to abandon them altogether; "many times," as they said, "there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out." The only traces of antiphons left in the Prayer Book are: (1) "O Sapientia," in the Kalendar on December 16, the first words of the first of the "Greater Antiphons" to the Magnificat, which began on that day and continued till Christmas Eve, each commencing with some striking Old Testament title of the Messiah; (2) in the Litany, the repetition of the words, "O Lord, arise," etc., shews that this is the antiphon to the Psalm "O God, we have heard" (perhaps originally the whole of Ps. xliv., but now one verse only); (3) the words "O Saviour of the world," etc., in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick. The last is the best example: the antiphon connects the recitation of Ps. lxxi. with the Passion of our Lord; the intention of the Psalm is thus shewn to be the association of our sufferings in sickness with the Cross of Christ (cf. the second exhortation in the same office).
D. Helps to the study of the Psalter.
Literal Meaning:
Kirkpatrick, in the Cambridge Bible (3 vols.). The Introduction is extremely useful, and an excellent list of the literature bearing on the Psalter is also given.
Perowne, The Book of Psalms.
Cheyne, The Book of Psalms.
Barry, Teacher's Prayer Book.
Mystical and Spiritual Meaning:
Neale and Littledale, Commentary on the Psalms (4 vols.). This has a very valuable Introduction on the Psalms as used in the offices of the Church, and a dissertation (in vol. i.) on the mystical and literal interpretation of the Psalms.
Walpole, The People's Psalter.
General:
Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life.
Marson, The Psalms at Work.
Church, The Sacred Poetry of Early Religions, in The Gifts of Civilisation. The Discipline of the Christian Character, iii.
Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, lect. vii.
Orr, The Problem of the Old Testament, c. xii.
Alexander (Archbishop), The Witness of the Psalms to Christ.