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'THE LORD IS MY LIGHT'

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heard. Note how closely the material Temple and the spiritual communion which that Temple has suggested and inspired are fused together. Let us hope that the modern synagogue suggests a similar fusion of the material and the spiritual to many a pious worshipper to-day.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the fortress of my life;

Of whom shall I be afraid?

If the wicked come near to me to eat my flesh,

Even my enemies and my foes, they stumble and fall. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart would not fear:

Though war should rise against me, still would I be confident.

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that do I seek.

To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the graciousness of the Lord, and to contemplate his temple.

For in the time of trouble he hideth me in his booth:

In the covert of his tent he concealeth me;

He setteth me up upon a rock.

So shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me:

I will offer in his tent sacrifices of joy;

I will sing, yea, I will make melody unto the Lord.

The booth and the tent (in lines twelve and thirteen) are not to be taken literally. They are clearly metaphorical. The 'house' and the 'temple' are betwixt and between. It is in the Temple that the Psalmist, as Professor Cheyne says, 'has learned what communion with God means, and he feels towards the Temple as a child towards its mother.' But, like the author of the previous Psalm, what he desires is to be always in God's house, and this can hardly mean anything less than a desire to feel God always near him and about him, even as he has been conscious of his presence within the Temple. The opening words of this Psalm, in their Latin rendering, are the motto of the University of Oxford. God is the author of knowledge as well as the source of love: 'The Lord is my light,' 'Dominus illuminatio mea.'

§ 6. The sixty-third Psalm.-The next Psalm (lxiii) is again a wonderful instance of the purest spirituality suggested or

fostered by a local and material cause. The singer is far from the Temple wherein he had been wont to realize the magic of the divine communion. Here his thirst for God had from time to time been satisfied. Thus to dwell far from the Temple is to him as if he dwelt in a 'dry and thirsty land where no water is.' But as he thinks about God, whose lovingkindness he describes in a strange and striking phrase as 'better than life,' though the consciousness of it is the highest life, he becomes aware that whether he is near to or far from the Temple, he need never be far from God. Therefore he bursts forth into glad exultation as in the realized nearness to God he finds his highest satisfaction.

O God, thou art my God; earnestly do I seek thee:
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee
In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
So have I longed for thee in the sanctuary,
To behold thy power and thy glory.

For thy lovingkindness is better than life;
My lips shall praise thee.

So will I bless thee while I live:

I will lift up my hands in thy name.

My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness;
And my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips.

I remember thee upon my bed,

And meditate on thee in the night watches.

For thou hast been my help,

And in the shadow of thy wings do I rejoice.

My soul clingeth fast unto thee:

Thy right hand upholdeth me.

It is possible that the fourth to the ninth line should rather be rendered thus:

As I saw Thee in the sanctuary,

Beholding thy power and thy glory

For thy lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips do praise thee

So will I bless thee while I live,

I will lift up my hands to call on thy name.

$7. The eighty-fourth Psalm: Quam dilecta.'-The last Psalm in this group is the eighty-fourth. It is in many respects parallel to that Psalm of exile from Jerusalem to which we listened in Group I. As there (xlii) the Psalmist's soul panted after God, like the hart after the water-brooks, so here too his 'soul longs and

'THE COURTS OF THE LORD'

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faints for the courts of the Lord.' But the former Psalm was a cry of sorrow; this seems to be a cry of joy.

It is the song of pilgrims who come up to pay their vows, or to join in the celebration of the high festivals, at the Temple of Jerusalem. It is a great pity that the text of this lovely Psalm should be so uncertain and defective.

How lovely are thy dwelling-places,

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: My heart and my flesh cry aloud unto the living God. Even the sparrow hath found an house,

And the swallow a nest for herself, where she layeth her young,

Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts,

My King and my God. (?)

Happy are they that dwell in thy house:

They will be still praising thee.

Happy is the man whose strength is in thee;

As they pass through the vale of Baca he maketh it full of fountains for them, (?)

The early rain covereth it with blessings. (?)
They go from strength to strength, (?)
And appear before God in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer:
Give ear, O God of Jacob.

Behold, O God, our shield,

And look upon the face of thine anointed.

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God, Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield:

The Lord will give grace and glory:

No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts,

Happy is the man that trusteth in thee.

Even the sparrow.' If the text is not incomplete, the meaning is, The Temple is so desirable a place that the very birds have

built their nests in the sanctuary. Some scholars for metrical and other reasons think that a few words have fallen out, and would render thus:

(So Cheyne.)

:

Even the sparrow finds a house
And the swallow a nest,

Where she lays her callow brood,

[So have I found, even I,

A home] by thine altars,

O my king and my God.

The second stanza is very obscure. It seems to refer to the pilgrims' journey to Jerusalem. The vale of Baca' (weeping) is puzzling. It seems to be a particular place which the pilgrims pass through. To the casual passer-by it was arid and waterless, but being on the road to Jerusalem-the goal of desire-it was as if God had filled it with blessings and changed its very look.

'From strength to strength' is also doubtful. If the text and punctuation be correct, it must mean that 'fatigue is banished by the prospect' of Zion.

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"Thine anointed.'

Either the high priest, or more probably the whole people of Israel. The prayer, however, seems to come awkwardly between the second and fourth stanzas. Perhaps it has been inserted here by mistake. At any rate, the noble verse 'A day in thy courts' follows well after the stanza which brings the pilgrims to their goal at Zion.

Notwithstanding all these obscurities, how beautiful the Psalm is! How easily it adapts itself to our modern moods, so that we are able to give, if we will, a spiritual meaning to those courts and altars of God which the Psalmist praises so sweetly. And for this there are two reasons: first, our Psalm is a true lyric, 'occasional' in origin, and yet capable of wide application; and secondly, the Temple was no mere material building to the Psalmist, but rather a vehicle or stimulus for spiritual religion. Hence the spirit transforms the letter. His words grow plastic and pliable. We may put a meaning into them somewhat different from that intended by their author, and yet what they suggest to us is essentially the same as that which suggested them to him. He is to us a true spiritual ancestor.

§ 8. Once more the 'I' of the Psalter.-I may take this opportunity of saying a few more words on this question, for the idea that the Psalmist is often speaking not merely of or for himself but also for the community or the nation may seem to many readers to rob the Psalms of their religious value. But such a

INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY

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supposition would be a grave mistake. The bearing of the communal 'I' may be perhaps most easily realized by substituting the plural for the singular. It would not destroy the religious value and truth of the twenty-third Psalm if, instead of reading 'The Lord is my shepherd,' we were to read, 'The Lord is our shepherd; we shall not want.' It would not impair the greatness and spirituality of the fifty-first Psalm if the words ran: 'Purge us with hyssop, and we shall be clean; wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow. Cast us not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy presence from us.' It would even bring

out the full meaning of the twenty-second Psalm more clearly if it said: 'We will declare thy name unto our brethren; in the midst of the congregation we will praise thee.' Rarely if ever does a Psalmist, when he uses the first person singular,' say anything which is not true of himself as a unit of Israel, which is not the outcome of his own experience, which he has not realized in his own religious life. All or almost all that the communal or national 'I' means is that the sufferings, petitions, aspirations and joys recorded in the Psalter are those of Israel, and therefore of every Israelite whose heart beats in unison with the heart of his people. (The Israel may be the nation as a whole or the 'true Israel' within the nation, but for the present argument this makes no difference.) Just as Aristotle shows that logically and ' according to nature' the state is prior to the individual, so in the same sense is Israel prior to the Israelite, the community to the members which compose it. Each individual enters into the communal consciousness; he carries it on, and perhaps he strengthens and purifies it, but what he receives in almost every case is more than what he gives. The Israelite's religion was sustained and vitalized by his being a member of the community. He shared and experienced its joys and sorrows, its hopes and fears. It is these which are recorded in the Psalter, recorded by men who expanded, strengthened and purified the religion of their community, but at the same time stood in the closest relation to it, receiving from it their own religious sustenance and seeking to give vocal expression to it in their songs. I do not therefore believe that the national or communal interpretation of the 'I' (if properly understood) impairs the religious significance of the Psalter. Rather does it add to it a peculiar poetical and religious distinction. Here is the religion not so much of isolated men but of a community. The community is nothing outside its members; it does not exist without them or beyond them. The religion of a community is either the religion of its members or it is nothing at all-a dead letter, a series of written propositions, an echo of

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