Produced by Al Haines The English Churchman's Library THE CHRISTIAN USE OF THE PSALTER BY THE REV. A. R. WHITHAM, M.A. _Principal of Culham Training College, and formerly Vice-Principal of Cuddesdan College_ Impleta sunt quæ concinit David fidelis carmine A. R. MOWBRAY & CO., LTD. LONDON: 34 Great Castle Street, Oxford Circus, W. OXFORD: 9 High Street 1909 THE ENGLISH CHURCHMAN'S LIBRARY _One Shilling each net_ The Mysteries of Grace. By T. A. Lacey, Chaplain of the House of Mercy, Highgate. Letters to a Godson. First Series. By Cyril Bickersteth, Priest of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield. First Studies In S. Mark. By G. M. Ireland Blackburne. Spiritual Counsels to District Visitors and others. By the late George Howard Wilkinson, D.D., Bishop of S. Andrews: Primus. The Christian Use of the Psalter. By A. R. Whitham, M.A., Principal of Culham Training College. Our Working Girls and How to help them. By Flora L. Freeman, Author of "Sunshine of Everyday Life." Letters to a Godson. Second Series. By Cyril Bickersteth, M.A. The Practical Religion. By Vernon Staley, Provost of Inverness Cathedral. _Others in preparation._ A. R. MOWBRAY & CO., LTD. CHURCH PUBLISHERS LONDON: 34, Great Castle Street, W. OXFORD: 9, High Street {v} PREFACE This little book, based on three Lectures delivered to the S. Paul's Lecture Society in January, 1908, is not intended so much for the scholar as for the plain man who goes to Church and loves the Prayer Book, but finds the Psalms sometimes puzzling. They are certainly the most difficult, though the most characteristic, part of the daily offices of the Church. What has been attempted in these Lectures is not to explain them in detail, but to suggest the broad lines of interpretation which seem always to have been in the mind of the Church in her use of the Psalter. A few additional helps have been suggested in the Notes. CULHAM, 1908. {vii} CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v _LECTURE I_ PART I.--GENERAL PRINCIPLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PART II.--DIFFICULTIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 _LECTURE II_ CHRIST IN THE PSALTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 _LECTURE III_ THE CHURCH IN THE PSALTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 _APPENDIX_ BRIEF SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE CHRISTIAN USE OF EACH PSALM . 107 INDEX OF PSALMS REFERRED TO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 {1} The Christian Use of the Psalter LECTURE I PART I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES Haereditate acquisivi testimonia tua in aeternum: Quia exsultatio cordis mei sunt.