Voices of the Past on the Psalter

Charles Spurgeon

 “Time was when the Psalms were not only rehearsed in all the churches

from day to day, but they were so universally sung that the common people

knew them, even if they did not know the letters in which they were written.

Time was when bishops would ordain no man to the ministry unless he knew

“David” from end to end, and could repeat each psalm correctly; even Councils

of the Church have decreed that none should hold ecclesiastical office unless

they knew the whole psalter by heart. Other practices of those ages had

better be forgotten, but to this memory accords an honourable record. Then

as Jerome tells us, the labourer, while he held the plough, sang Hallelujah;

the tired reaper refreshed himself with the psalms, and the vinedresser, while

trimming the vines with his curved hook, sang something of David.”

Martin Luther

“The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book, if for no other reason

than this: it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly – and pictures

his kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom – that it might

well be called a little Bible. In it is comprehended most beautifully and briefly

everything that is in the entire Bible... In fact, I have a notion that the Holy

Spirit wanted to take the trouble himself to compile a short Bible and book

of examples of all Christendom or all saints, so that anyone who could not

read the whole Bible would here have anyway almost an entire summary of it,

comprised in one little book.”

John Chrysostom

“Do you wish to be happy? Do you want to know how to spend the day truly

blessed? I offer you a drink that is spiritual. This is not a drink for drunkenness

that would cut off even meaningful speech. This does not cause us to babble.

It does not disturb our vision. Here it is: Learn to sing Psalms! Then you will

see pleasure indeed. Those who have learned to sing with the psalms are easily

filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Andrew Blackwood

“Perhaps our other denominations would have greater love for the Bible if we

sang from the Psalms as often as our fathers did after the Reformation. Many

of those songs came out of the fiery furnace, and so they brought our fathers a

mighty sense of God’s holiness, as well as a keen awareness of his laws.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from

the Christian church. With its recovery will come unsuspected power.”