mind, and having waited for some one better prepared for the work to undertake it, I at last determined to do what I could to supply them ; and the result has been the publication of the present Plain Commentary on the Psalms. In writing this Commentary, I found that my great difficulty lay, not in the scarcity, but in the abundance of materials. The Psalms themselves are so full of deep and holy meanings, and they have suggested so many divine thoughts and heavenly musings to good men in all ages of the Church, that the labour was not one of collection, but of selection. I soon saw that if my Commentary was to be of much use, I must quite lay aside the larger plan upon which I had at first begun to work, and must bring it into as small a compass as might be. I have therefore omitted all critical dissertations upon the meanings of disputed passages, and have merely given that sense which, upon due comparison, appeared to be the best ;-I have omitted the references to the works of the Fathers, which would have been but of little use to those for whom the Commentary was intended; and in many cases, where two or three different lines of spiritual interpretation have been given by the earlier commentators, I have confined myself to the one which seemed most edifying, or most in accordance with the general tone of the whole. In doing this, I am no doubt open to many very just criticisms. It may be said, perhaps, that on Psalms which are in themselves very plain, more has been said than was needed; while in the case of others which are harder to understand, clearer and more probable explanations might have been given than those which are given. It is probable that it may be so; for the object I have always had in view was not to produce a work of literary perfection, which might stand the criticism of accomplished theologians, but only to bring before my reader, who might be poor, young, and unlearned, in plain, and even homely, language, some of the deep and mighty thoughts which the Psalms had suggested to St. Athanasius, to St. Chrysostom, to St. Augustine, to St. Jerome, and the holy men who followed in their track; and to leave these thoughts to work their own way by their own grandeur, their own power, their own truth, and their own beauty. As this Commentary is professedly founded on the Fathers, a question may also arise in the minds of those who are acquainted only with the English translation of the Scriptures, as to why selected passages of the Fathers could not in all cases have been given, without any additions or alterations, and thus a Catena have been formed which would have been a running Commentary in the very words of the Fathers. Those, however, who are acquainted with the writings of the Fathers, know that they followed always either the Greek version of the Seventy or the Latin Vulgate, both of which differ in very many places from the Hebrew, and from our translation, which is made directly from it; and that, therefore, if the words of the Fathers only had been taken, a very large proportion of the verses of the Psalms in our translation must have been left without any comment whatever. This is the difficulty which the writer of a Commentary on the Psalms has always to contend with that while on plain passages there is a richness and copiousness of teaching which embarrasses him to select from, in those places of real difficulty where he is truly in need of an interpreter and helper, the Fathers cannot help him, because they comment always on the Greek and Latin versions, and not on the original Hebrew. I have therefore, in this Commentary, followed in the footsteps of the earlier interpreters. I have taken their very words, wherever it was possible to do so; in fact, a half of this Commentary at least is in the very words of the Fathers. But where they left me to find my way alone, I naturally looked for help to the teachers of our own Church, particularly to the divines of the reigns. of Charles I. and Charles II.; and whenever, in them or in other religious writers, I found an apt illustration or a pious thought which threw light upon a Psalm, I set it where it seemed best to stand. Still, all through, St. Augustine has been my chief guide: his Commentary, which is made up of his sermons on the Psalms, has been my constant model; and if at any time this Plain Commentary seem to be too like a sermon,—if I have sometimes preached as well as explained,— I can only say that St. Augustine has done the same, and that in many cases the words of exhortation and of warning are his. The attempt, then, has been, not to make a perfect Commentary which should supersede all other Commentaries, but to write, or to gather from the best and holiest sources, such plain explanations, spiritual improvements, and interpretings, as should form a running Commentary upon the Psalms throughout,―a Commentary which any member of the Church of England, however young or unlearned, might take up, and after he had read it might feel that he knew somewhat more of the meaning and entered somewhat more into the spirit of any Psalm before him in his Prayer-book, than he had been able to do before. It is for such readers to judge how far this has been accomplished in this Plain Commentary. The Prayer-book version of the Psalms was obviously the best for the text of the Commentary, both on account of its own intrinsic majesty and beauty, and because the use of it is so familiar to Church-people in their devotions. Where it differs much from the Hebrew, a literal rendering of the original has been generally given, and translations from the Septuagint have also been added, wherever they were likely to give assistance in understanding the meaning of difficult passages. I am indebted to the ability and the patient kindness of a very dear friend and brother in the priesthood for many striking thoughts and apt Scriptural illustrations, as well as for a careful correction of the whole work throughout. I end what I have said and done with an expression of hearty thanksgiving to Him through Whose assisting grace I have brought this work to its completion. He has blessed it to me in the writing it may He in like manner bless it to others in the reading it! Amen. : |