Chapter 20

PRAISE.

I. The Psalms.

Every part of the Praise portion of the Service has a Praise-Termination. We have already seen that the "intention" of the Lord's Prayer is marked for praise by a Termination, viz. _for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever_.

This praise-termination belongs to the Lord's Prayer, and is not used for anything else. In like manner, other forms of praise have their own terminations. Thus Psalms and Lessons are used for praise and have praise-terminations.

When a Psalm is used for praise, its termination is _Glory be to the father_, &c.

When a Lesson is used for praise, its termination is a Canticle--i.e. one of the Bible songs of praise (from the Latin _canticulum_, a little song, a sonnet).

When the Creed is used for praise, since nothing can be added to the facts of God's Being and Work except the will to recite them devoutly, its praise-termination is _Amen_.

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The first Lord's Prayer.

The Lord's Prayer may be regarded as a brief summary of the acts of worship which come after it. Much care is required in order to use its familiar words with due devotion. When it is used, as here, for Praise, the following may be taken as examples of the thoughts which should accompany its several phrases.

Our Father, God is Love. Which art in heaven, God is a spirit. Hallowed be Thy Name, God's Holiness. Thy Kingdom come, God's Power. Thy Will be done, God's Perfectness. In earth as it is in heaven, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. Give us this day our daily Every good gift is from bread, above. Forgive us our trespasses, The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Lead us not into temptation, Thou art about my path and about my bed. Deliver us from evil, With power He commandeth the unclean spirits, &c.

The Ladder of Praise.

The various parts of the Praise portion of the Service are not repetitions of the same ideas. We {39} have first, in the Psalms, the simpler thoughts about God. The First Lesson, taken from the Old Testament, advances to higher or more complex thoughts in Praise of Him. The next stage is reached in the Second Lesson; and the Apostles' Creed crowns the whole. Thus a _Ladder_ of praise is made whereby we climb up to the thought of God in His Perfect Being, which is the very essence of Real Worship.

The first steps in this ladder are made by the use of the Book of Psalms, which is divided into sections for these daily Services, and so arranged that they supply different Psalms for 30 mornings and 30 evenings. If there are 31 days in the month, those for the 30th day are repeated on the 31st: in February, the (29th and) 30th are omitted.

There are many words which originally meant a Song, but in course of time have come to mean a special kind of song, or the music which belongs to a song. Thus _Cantus_, a song, gives us _Chant_, the music of a psalm verse; and _Canticle_, a psalm after a Lesson. _psalmos_, a song, gives us _psalm_, a hymn, but not metrical, _hymnos_, a song, gives us _hymn_, a song in metre.

Versicles and Psalms.

Before the Psalms begin there is an injunction to praise the Lord exchanged between the Minister and the People. Four other Versicles and Gloria Patri are interposed after the Lord's Prayer--all in the form of Verse and Respond.

{40} Ps. li. 15 is the Psalmist's grateful cry when his sin was forgiven and his praises began to break forth.

Ps. lxx. 1 supplies the second couplet.

The _Gloria Patri_ follows these Psalm verses.

The Venite exultemus Domino, briefly called _Venite_, is the 95th Psalm. The Rubric provides that it is to be said every day, but not twice on the 19th day[1]. It is the first of the Morning Psalms, and formerly was sung with an Anthem (see Chapter XIII.) which was known as the Invitatory, and varied with the Season.

Antiphonal, i.e. alternate, singing dates from the services described in 1 Chronicles vi. 31-33, 39, 44, from which it appears that there were three choirs of singers--one in the centre, and one on either hand. Thus the interchange of replies from either side and a chorus of all the voices were provided, 1 Chron. xvi. 7-9 makes it clear that the Psalms were sung, as indeed the word Psalm (from Gr. _psallo_, I sing) implies. See also Neh. xii. 24.

The Authorised Version (A.V.) of the Bible is a translation made at the beginning of James I.'s reign, after the Hampton Court Conference (Jan. 1604). It was published in 1611 with a title-page stating that it was "appointed to be read in churches." There is, however, no evidence of any formal adoption of it until the statement made in the Preface of the {41} Prayer Book (1662) that "such portions of Holy Scripture as are inserted into the Liturgy," "in the Epistles and Gospels especially, and in sundry other places . . . are now ordered to be read according to the last Translation." It is evident that this "last Translation" is the Version of 1611: for the Epistles and Gospels are quoted from it in the Prayer Book of 1662. The Translation of 1611, then, is that from which are to be taken "such portions of Holy Scripture as are inserted into the Liturgy." This appears to be the _general_ rule of the Prayer Book of 1662. But that Prayer Book gives authority to various exceptions. The most notable of these is the provision, in a footnote to _The order how the Psalter is appointed to be read_, "that the Psalter followeth the division of the Hebrews and the translation of the great English Bible, set forth and used in the time of King Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth."

If it be asked why the words of the Psalms should be sung as in the Great Bible when other translations have superseded it for Lessons, there is an easy answer. Books were not cheap or common in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many people had sung them so often as to know them by heart. A comparison of the Bible and Prayer Book translations will show that there was no large gain to be set against the loss of congregational worship which must have resulted from changes. The Bishops' Bible supplanted the Great Bible in 1568, and the Authorised Version was made in 1611. Both in 1604 and in 1662 the Revisers decided to retain the Version of 1539-40 (the Great Bible) so far as the Psalms and Canticles {42} were sung in the Churches. This is plainly not an oversight in 1662, for the Revisers altered the words of the note in the Preface, without changing the sense.

Psalms in Daily Services.

The Preface, "Concerning the Service of the Church," states that "the ancient Fathers have divided the Psalms into seven portions, whereof every one was called a Nocturn," and that "the same was . . . ordained . . . of a good purpose and for a great advancement of godliness"; but "of late time a few of them have been daily said and the rest utterly omitted." A writer of the ninth century says that S. Jerome, at the bidding of the Pope on the request of Theodosius, arranged the Psalms for the Services of day and night in order to avoid the confusion arising from variety of uses[2]. S. Ambrose was a contemporary of S. Jerome but died more than 20 years before him. There are considerable differences between the plan which S. Ambrose gave to his diocese of Milan, and the plan which we may believe was generally given at the same time to the Churches of the rest of Western Europe. But they are similar in many respects. In both, a division was made between the first 109 psalms,--which were mainly allotted to the night services, i.e. to those which were afterwards called Mattins,--and the rest which were mainly allotted to the Evening Service (Vespers). We suppose that the division, mentioned in the {43} Preface, "into seven portions" refers to those 109 Psalms.

Of these 109, 18 were used at other Services, leaving 91 for Mattins, viz. 19 on Sunday and 12 each for the week days. The Ambrosian arrangement of them was for a fortnight.

The Greek Church divides the whole Book into 20 portions and takes them, two portions at Mattins and one at Vespers, beginning on Saturday night, omitting Sunday Vespers, and taking, on Friday, the 19th, 20th and 18th portions.

Thus we see that a weekly singing of the Book of Psalms is derived from a very ancient time, when the division of the Eastern and Western Churches of Europe had not occurred.

The Sarum order, which we suppose was that which is referred to in the Preface as having been "corrupted" by omissions, had the 109 Psalms allotted to Mattins, as above described. For Vespers, there were five each day from cx.-cxlvii., omitting the 118th and 119th, 134th, 143rd and, as explained below[3], reckoning the 147th as two. All these were taken in order as they stand in the Bible. Those which were left out were allotted to other Services, as, for instance, iv. to Compline, lxiii. to Lauds, &c., &c. Psalm cxix. was to be said through every day, 32 verses at Prime, and 48 verses each, at Terce, Sext and None.

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Lauds was the great Praise Service of the day, and had a very beautiful arrangement of its Psalms which always ended with one of the O.T. hymns followed by Psalms cxlviii.-cl. The O.T. hymns on the seven days of the week were _Benedicite_: Isaiah xii.: Isaiah xxxviii. 10-20: 1 Sam. ii. 1-10: Exodus xv. 1-19: Hab. iii.: Deut. xxxii. 1-43.

The beauty of many of these arrangements is undeniable: but they were rather intricate; and in practice they broke down.

Our revisers retained the underlying principles. By spreading the course over 30 days they made it possible to use it all. They retained the 95th Psalm as the first Psalm of every day; and also the principle of having two daily Services at which Psalms occupied an important place.

There are Special Psalms for six days in the year--the four great Festivals, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsun Day, and the two great prayer-days, Ash-Wednesday and Good Friday. The Preface explains that these Special Psalms are to be sung instead of the ordinary Psalms on those days; and authorises the use of Special Psalms approved by the Ordinary on other days.

In using the Book of Psalms as a book of worship we must remember what was said of the _Intention_ of our minds in respect to parts of the Services. There are many Psalms which supply us with the best Prayers in trouble, penitence or any anxiety. But when using them in these Services our Intention is not Prayer but Praise, and the thought of God must inspire our devotions.

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It will often help us if we remember that God's Righteousness is infinite, as well as His Mercy. It is impossible for man in his present state to reconcile perfect Righteousness and perfect Mercy: for Righteousness will have nothing to do with sin, while Mercy forgives it. These two characteristics of God are revealed to us through Christ in Whom Righteousness and Peace are united; cf. Ps. lxxxv.

The Psalms, composed by various people at different times, very frequently are the utterances of men in trouble: and they often sketch the thoughts or actions of the Ideal Man, in one or other of the four characters which answer to God's Righteousness and God's Mercy. For, in response to God's Righteousness, man must be (1) perfectly _penitent_, and (2) in imitation of God, must _detest sin_: in imitation of God, (3) he must be perfectly _forgiving_, and in response to God's mercy, (4) he must have _trust and peace_. The Psalmists exhibit human nature at its best, but it is human nature all the time--human nature finding God and associating itself with the Ideal Man.

Thus the Psalms often rise to the conception of the Messiah; and, even when that is not their thought, they proceed from other thoughts to Rest in God and Praise of His Holy Name.

The most difficult Psalms for worship are those which regard sin with horror, but express the horror without mercy. Man is unable to hold the two qualities of Righteousness and Mercy simultaneously. We find it difficult in these days to detest sin because we are learning the quality of mercy.

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Much of the poetic force of these songs depends on the local incidents of Israel's history and the scenery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. While we use the words, we must also use our imaginations to transfer the great thoughts to our own experience: for those local colours are the clothing of thoughts which belong to all men in their relation to God.

Over all these endeavours to use the Psalms properly in the Praise part of our Services, the ruling idea is that which we have already stated, viz. that God in these things is to be glorified.

[1] A practice is found, in some churches, of singing this Psalm on Sundays but not when it is read in the ordinary course of the Psalms. We believe that this is due to a misinterpretation of the Rubric. There is just as much reason for singing it on the 19th as on any other day.

[2] _Dict. of Chr. Antiq_. "Psalmody." H. J. Hotham.

[3] The "division of the Hebrews" (see Note in Preface on the Order of the Psalter) is followed in our Prayer Book and Bible. The Septuagint and Vulgate unite Psalms ix. and x. and divide cxlvii. into two psalms, viz. _vv._ 1-11, _vv._ 12-20.

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