ON THE VALUE OF CRITICAL STUDY OF THE 

 PSALMS FOR THEIR PRACTICAL EXPOSITION 



THE most interesting way of discussing the questions 

 connected with the separate poetical books of the Old 

 Testament would be to give a history of Hebrew poetry. 

 Such a history would begin with the ancient fragments 

 preserved in the Pentateuch then pass on to the grand 

 song of Deborah, and perhaps some other fragments of 

 the age of the judges, and thereafter introduce us to 

 Samuel, who appears in the Old Testament history as the 

 reviver not only of prophecy, but of religious song among 

 his people. These considerations would carry us on to 

 the age of David, who, according to the whole testimony 

 of the Old Testament, is the father of psalmody proper, 

 then to the reign of Solomon, whose name is as indis- 

 solubly connected with the Gnomic Literature of the 

 Hebrews, and so forth. 



At least one attempt that of E. Meier has been 

 made to write in this way the history of the Old Testament 

 poetic literature. But however interesting the attempt 

 may be, there are good reasons for our declining to imitate 

 it. There is so much uncertainty as to the dates of the 

 various Hebrew poems, and so much discussion even as to 

 the age of such as bear the name of known authors, that 

 we should at every step have to deal largely in conjecture 



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