MARTIN LUTHER’S PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS. Many of the old and godly fathers have highly extolled the Book of Psalms, above all the other books of the Scripture, and have testified their exceeding fondness and partiality for them. And indeed this book, though small, deserves to be recommended above all others, (if a difference may be made): though the Psalms of David do not want the aid of borrowed encomiums, for they carry with them an abundance of self-recommendation; and in them is the old proverb verified, which says ‘The work proves the workman.’ Therefore, I have not put my hand to this book for the purpose of parading before the world an encomium upon it, since it so amply commends itself; but that I might, according to the best of my ability, present those that fear God with my judgment upon its all-excelling contents. In the years that are past we have seen an infinity of books handed about in the world, but all most insipid and worthless; which, behind an apparently honest and plausible title, (for they were prefaced with the sentiments and examples of the saints) contained the most nugatory fables, and the most barefaced lies. The world, therefore, was everywhere so filled with writings of this kind, the most foolish, and at the same time the most impious, that the Psalms themselves were disregarded and thrust into darkness, and we had not one Psalm rightly interpreted or understood. And yet, as this sweet book of David continued to be sung in all our churches, and to be chanted over so many thousand times in these incessant rounds and forms of prayer,—even by this frigid use of the Psalms, bad as it was, some small savor of life was diffused abroad among many that were of an honest and good heart; and from these words themselves only, though not understood, those that feared God drank in some little sweetness of the breath of life, and some small taste of consolation, like the faint fragrance which is found in the air that is not far from a bed of roses. Their experience was like also unto a simple man passing through a flowery and sweet-smelling meadow, who, though he knew not the peculiar nature and properties of the flowers and herbs, yet found his senses regaled with the general fragrance.