utterance to his deepest experiences and emotions of joy and sorrow,
primarily with the interpretation of the lyric psalms, which constitute by far the greatest part of our collection.
1. NATURE OF THE PSALMS. In these psalms, the poet gives utterance to his deepest experiences and emotions of joy and sorrow, hope and fear, gladsome expectation and bitter disappointment, childlike confidence and grateful recognition. He expresses his innermost feelings and lifts up his soul to God. It is often said that, while in other parts of Scripture God speaks to man, in the psalms the relation is reversed, and man speaks to God. But, while there is an element of truth in this statement, and the psalms are far more subjective than other portions of the Bible, this does not imply that the psalms are not an essential part of the Word of God. In order to understand how God reveals himself in these sacred songs, it will be necessary to have some knowledge of lyric poetry and of lyrical inspiration.
Lyric poetry contains, in the first place, an individual element. The poets sing of their own historical circumstances and of their personal experiences. This is quite evident from the superscriptions of the psalms. Cf. Pss. 3, 6, 7, 18, 30, etc. It is also apparent from the contents of many psalms. But these experiences, though personal, yet have a representative character. In the innermost recesses of his soul, the poet is conscious of his solidarity with mankind as a whole, and feels the pulse of the communal life of man. And the song that is born of this consciousness is a song which, in its crescendoes and diminuendoes, interprets the joy and sorrow, not only of the poet, but of man in general. And in view of the fact that this communal life has its fountain-head in God, the lyrical poet descends to still greater depths, or mounts to ever loftier heights, until he rests in God, in whom the life of humanity originates and who controls its joy and sorrow. Arising out of these depths, his song is, as it were, born of God.
This general principle must be borne in mind in the interpretation of the psalms. They are in a sense universal, and transcend the personal