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PSALMS

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Sep 28, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 38.

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PSALMS

By F. D. Starr

BY F. D. STARR.
We now come to what will be acknowledged by all to be a most wonderful and interesting book. It is much the largest book in the Bible and contains the longest chapter to be found in the Bible, namely, Psalm 119.
As to the number of its divisions, the book of Psalms contains one-eighth of all the chapters in the Bible. It is the only book in the Bible concerning which there is any reference made to chapters or separate divisions, and that occurs but once. In Acts 13:33, reference is made to the “second psalm.” This is sufficient to show that the psalms were known by number.
In the Revised Version the book is divided into five books, in harmony with Hebrew usage. Psalms 1-41 constitute the first book; 42-72, the second; 73-89, the third; 90-106, the fourth; and 107-150, the fifth. In Psalm 119 we find the peculiarity of alliteration, the chapter being divided into twenty-two sections of eight verses each, and each verse in each section in the original writing beginning with the letter of the Hebrew alphabet standing at the head of the section. This alliteration shows the psalms to be divided into verses. It is well known that the books of the Bible were not generally divided into either chapters or verses until long after they were written. But the fact that the book of Psalms was thus divided may doubtless have suggested the propriety of so dividing the other books of the Bible, and certainly it is a very convenient and helpful arrangement and consistent with the divine plan, as carried out in the book of Psalms.
The 119th psalm is not the only one in which this peculiarity, alliteration, is found. According to the French translation, we see that the same feature exists in psalms 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, and 145. In some of these shorter psalms the verses are subdivided, having one verse answer to two letters.
The book of Psalms is decidedly a praise book. These productions were not only to be read and studied, but also to be sung. But this need not exclude the singing of other spiritual compositions; “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Eph. 5:19.
How well adapted to family devotion are these beautiful songs! How much benefit we would individually and collectively derive from them if we should, as suggested, speak to each other, and to ourselves, in the language of these heavenly exclamations of prayer and praise! In these we are taught how to commune with God. It seems as if the request, “Lord, teach us to pray,” was quite well answered in these incense-breathing expressions of celestial origin, so completely pouring out the soul unto God. Heaven comes near to man, while thus the spirit of grace and supplication is poured upon him. “I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.”
“While I lay resting on my bed, My soul arose on high. ‘My Lord, my life, my light,’ I said, ‘Bring Thy salvation nigh.’ “I strive to mount Thy holy hill, I walk the heavenly road, Thy glories all my spirit fill, While I commune with God.”
Words are inadequate to describe the rapture of the devout believer as he peruses, and makes these inspired prayers in the psalms his own.
One very prominent feature of this book is, that it is a most able and thorough defense of the Decalogue. The law of God is the golden center around which all its various portions seem to revolve.
Notice a few of these expressions of loyalty to God. Their key-note is struck in the very first psalm itself. Speaking of the man who is walking in the counsel of the Most High the statement is, “His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” Psalm 19 contains this very pointed declaration concerning the law: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” God’s law being perfect, nothing can be added to it or taken from it, and it still remain perfect.
The law has an indispensable part also to perform in true conversion, for it converts the soul. One great defect in many of the so-called conversions of the present day is, that no use is made of the moral law in bringing about these conversions. This tribute is also paid in this psalm, to the excellence of the precepts of Jehovah: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”
But the 119th psalm is the most noted of all inspired productions that set forth the excellencies of the law of God. Every one of the 176 verses seems in some way to speak of the commandments of Jehovah. Of the wisdom that accompanies the keeping of the commandments of God, the writer says, in verse 98, “Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies; for they are ever with me.” Or, as the French version reads, “Thy commandments are ever with me.” If, as James says, we continue to look into the law of God, like Daniel of old, we will be found to be wiser than those who oppose the truth. “I have more understanding than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my meditation.” The illiterate follower of Christ, while keeping the precepts of the Decalogue, will understand more about divine things than the most renowned theologian who transgresses that law, and teaches others to do the same. “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts.” Some place great stress upon the teachings of the Fathers of the Christian church; but he who is numbered among those of whom it is said, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God,” is far in advance, in divine knowledge, of those fathers who teach error and antinomianism. When beset by those who would persuade him to violate the law of God, the psalmist said, “Depart from me, ye evildoers; for I will keep the commandments of my God.” Ps. 119:115. May this be our motto.