The Christian Use of the Psalter

by A. R. Whitham

[[1]] Discourses to Mixed Congregations, xvi.

[[2]] i.e. Sheol, Hades, the grave or place of departed souls.

[[3]] i.e. godly or pious, a characteristic word of the Psalmists, implying not only consecration but active devotion to God.

LECTURE III

THE CHURCH IN THE PSALTER

Gloriosa dicta sunt de te:
Civitas Dei.

It has already been pointed out that the personal element in the Psalms, vivid and even passionate as it appears, if they are read as mere lyrics, has been transformed by the Church's use of them as her hymns of worship. The "I" of the Psalter has become the voice of the worshipping community.

The Jews themselves recited the personal Psalms in a national sense. Even such an intensely personal confession of sin as the 51st Psalm becomes through the last two verses (possibly added by a later pen) the confession of national penitence and the voice of national hope: