The
Public Domain.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER
Geerhardus Vos
There
are certain editions of the New Testament which
by
way of appendix contain the Psalter, an arrangement
obviously
intended to serve the convenience of devotion. It
has,
however, the curious result of bringing the Apocalypse
and
the Psalms into immediate proximity. On first thought
it
might seem that scarcely two more diverse things could
be
put together. The storm-ridden landscape of the Apoca-
lypse has little enough in common with the green
pastures
and
still waters of which the Psalmist sings. For us the
Psalter
largely ministers to the needs of the devotional life
withdrawn
into its privacy with God. Such a life is not
usually
promotive of the tone and temper characteristic of
the
eschatological reaction. This will explain why the ear
of
both reader and interpreter has so often remained closed
to
strains of a quite different nature in this favorite book.
It requires something more strenuous
than the even tenor
of
our devotional life to shake us out of this habit and force
us
to take a look at the Psalter's second face. It has hap-
pened more than once in the history of the Church,
that
some
great conflict has carried the use of the Psalms out
from
the prayer-closet into the open places of a tumultuous
world.
The period of the Reformation affords a striking
example
of this. We ourselves, who are just emerging
from
a time of great world-upheaval, have perhaps dis-
covered,
that the Psalter adapted itself to still other situa-
tions than we were accustomed to imagine. To be sure,
these
last tremendous years have not detracted in the least
from
its familiar usefulness as an instrument of devotion.
But
we have also found that voices from the Psalter accom-
panied us, when forced into the open to face the
world-
1
2 THE
tempest,
and that they sprang to our lips on occasions when
otherwise
we should have had to remain dumb in the pres-
ence of God's judgments. This experience
sufficiently
proves
that there is material in the Psalms which it requires
the
large impact of history to bring to our consciousness in
its
full significance. It goes without saying that what can
be
prayed and sung now in theatro mundi was never meant
for
exclusive use in the oratory of the pious soul. This
other
aspect of the Psalter has not been produced by litur-
gical accommodation; it was in its very origin a part
of the
life
and prayer and song of the writers themselves.
After all, these two uses, the
devotional and the historical,
are
not so divergent as one might imagine. We need only
to
catch the devotional at its proper angle to perceive how
it
forms part of a broader, more comprehensive piety uniting
in
itself with perfect naturalness the two different attitudes
of
withdrawal into the secrecy of God and of intense in-
terest in the unfolding of the world-drama. The deeper
fundamental
character of the Psalter consists in this that
it
voices the subjective response to the objective doings of
God
for and among his people. Subjective responsiveness
is
the specific quality of these songs. As prophecy is ob-
jective, being the address of Jehovah to
act,
so the Psalter is subjective, being the answer of
to
that divine speech. If once this peculiarity is appre-
hended, it will follow that there must be place, and
con-
siderable place, in the Psalms not merely for the
historical
interest
in general, but particularly for that heightened in-
terest which the normal religious mind brings to the
last
goal
and issue of redemption. To the vision of faith that
which
Jehovah will do at the end, his conclusive, consum-
mate
action, must surpass everything else in importance.
Faith
will sing its supreme song when face to face, either
in
anticipation or reality, with the supreme act of God.
Let
Mary's case be witness from whose heart the great
annunciation
of Messianic fulfillment drew that Psalm
of
all Psalms, the Magnificat.
The time when God gathers
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 3
his
fruit is the joyous vintage-feast of all high religion.
The
value of a work lies in its ultimate product. Con-
sequently, where religion entwines itself around a
progres-
sive work of God, such as redemption, its general respon-
siveness becomes prospective, cumulative,
climacteric; it
gravitates
with all its inherent weight toward the end. A
redemptive
religion without eschatological interest would
be
a contradiction in terms. The orthodox interpretation of
Scripture
has always recognized this. To it redemption and
eschatology
are co-eval in biblical history.1 The case
stands
quite
different with unorthodox criticism. By it the re-
demptive content and the teleological outlook of
the ancient
religion
of
prophetic,
Israelite in this respect lived the life of a religious
animal.
Hence for the older period the absence of es-
chatology is characteristic. Still, even from the
standpoint
of
this criticism, the eschatological aspect of the Psalms is
not
affected. For the Psalter is now commonly considered
in
these circles a product of the exilic and post-exilic times,
that
is of a period when through the prophetic channel and
from
foreign sources a flood of redemptive and eschato-
logical
ideas had streamed in upon
singing
Jew was bound to answer to its call in correspond-
ing notes. Besides, the great influx of
eschatological ma-
terial is placed by many of these writers not in the
early
period
of written prophecy, but in the later exilic and post-
exilic
times, most of the material of this kind now contained
in
the older prophets being treated as spurious in its present
environment
and brought down to a much later date. But
this
late dating brings it into close proximity to the time fixed
by
these same critics for the Psalter. Hence criticism has
a
direct and powerful stimulus to search the Psalms for the
presence
of that spirit with which the religious atmosphere
is
supposed to have been charged in that period. And, since
under
the control of God exegetical good not seldom comes
1 In so far as the
covenant of works posited for mankind an absolute
goal
and unchangeable future, the eschatological may be even said to
have
preceded the soteric religion.
4 THE
out
of critical evil, it has happened here also, that a criticism
whose
general methods and results we cannot but distrust,
has
brought to light from the Psalter valuable facts, whose
existence
had not been previously recognized with sufficient
clearness.
It cannot be denied that unorthodox criticism
has
done some valuable pioneer-work in exploring the
eschatological
views of the Psalter.2 And
what is true of
the
Wellhausen school may in a different sense be applied
to
its more modern competitor,—or shall we say successor?
—the
much
the inclination to fit the Psalter into the post-exilic
world
of thought, but rather the desire to assimilate it to
Babylonian
religious ideas that predisposes for the wel-
coming
of eschatological material. For our purpose this
is
even better than the exegetical help received from the
other
quarter. It yields not only acceptable exegesis stim-
ulated by perverse criticism, but has the additional
advantage
of
in certain instances drawing the criticism of the Psalter
back
to a more conservative position from a chronological
point
of view. For, since according to this recent school
there
was an Oriental eschatology in very ancient times,
there
remains no longer any reason for disputing its early
existence
in
any
piece on the sole ground of its occurrence therein. On
the
contrary, other things being equal, the eschatalogical
complexion
of a document speaks rather in favor of the
2 Cfr.
especially Stade, Die
Messianische Hoffnung im Psalter in
Zeitschrift fur Theologie and Kirche, 1892, pp. 369-412. The
scope
of
the article is wider than the antiquated use of the term "Messianic"
in
the title would indicate. It covers the whole eschatological outlook
of
the Psalter, whether the Messiah occupies a place in it or not.
Stade makes extensive use of a comparison between
what he considers
the
later material in the older prophecies and the Psalms.
3 Gunkel,
Schap und and Chaos, in Urzeit
and Endzeit, 1895;
Ausgewahlte Psalmen, 1911; Gressmann, Der Ursprung der israelitisch-
judischen Eschatologie, 1go5; Cfr. Sellin, Der
alttesta.mentliche
Prophetismus; Zweite
Studie: Alter, Wesen and Ursprung der alt-
testamentlichen Eschatologie, 1912; Stark, Lyrik (Psalmen, Hoheslied
and Verwandtes)
in Die Schriften des Alten
Testaments
edited by
Gressmann, Gunkel, a. o.
III, 1, 2, 1911.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 5
older
date than otherwise. As a matter of fact some
Psalms
have on this principle been again recognized as pre-
exilic
possibilities.4
As a third source, from which in
recent criticism the
eschatological
interpretation of the Psalter has received en-
couragement, we may mention the widely-spread
opinion,
that
the speaking subject in the Psalms is in many cases not
a
single person, but the collective mind of the congregation
of
their
religious individuality, nay, that many of the Psalms
were
written outright for liturgical use in the service of
the
second temple.5 It is hard to
tell whether this theory
4 It should be remembered
that critics of the type of Gunkel and
Gressmann remain, so far as the broad literary
issue of Old Testa-
ment criticism is concerned, Wellhausenians.
They do not revise the
verdict
that the law is later than prophecy. In the reconstruction of
the
pre-prophetic religion of
reasoning,
divinatory method as the others. Only they apply this
method
to a subject to which the Wellhausen school had, on
the whole,
refrained
from applying it, the question of pre-prophetic eschatology.
The
general structure of Wellhausenianism implies that
there was no
such
early eschatology worth speaking of, that eschatology was a later
product.
Consequently no inducement exists for it to trace its
origins
in the ancient religion. Gunkel and Gressmann do not share in
this
prejudice. Convinced that the thing must have existed they are on
the
alert for every early indication of its presence.
5 The more recent
literature on this subject consists chiefly of:
Smend, Ueber das Ich der
Psalmen, in Zeitschrift fur
die alttesta-
mentliche Wissenschaft, 1888, pp. 49-147; Theol. Literaturzeitung
1889,
p. 547; Beer, Individual-und Gemeindepsalmen, 1894;
Volksgemeinde and die Gemeinde der Frommen im
Psalter,
1897;
Cobienz, Ueber das betende Ich
in den Psalmen, 1897. The collective
view,
however, is by no means a modern product. For its history in the
earliest
and latest exegesis, cfr.
and Religious Contents
of the Psalter,
Bampton Lectures for 1889,
1891,
pp. 259-266; Beer, pp. xiii-xvii. Early traces are found in lxx;
it
was applied by Theodor of Mopsuestia,
by Raschi, Aben-Ezra and
Kimchi among the mediaeval Jewish expositors, by Rudinger among
the
old-Protestant exegetes. in more recent times by Rosenmiiller,
de
Wette. especially Olshausen,
Graetz. After Smend's
reintroduction of
the
subject, and in part independently of him, the same position has
been
taken by Cheyne, Stade, Baethgen. Criticising, and
restricting
Smend's ideas are Stekhoven
in Zeitschrift far die Alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft vol.
89, pp. 131-135; Stark, ibid. vol. 92, p. 146; Sellin.
6 THE
apart
from its intrinsic merit or demerit, has in its actual
working
out done more good or evil to the cause of Psalter-
exegesis.
For one thing it is often too-closely bound up
with
belief in the post-exilic origin of the Psalms, because
not
until after the exile, it is believed, did a specifically
religious
congregation of
name
such songs could have been sung, exist. Of course,
the
intermarriage of these two views is not beyond the pos-
sibility of divorce. For one who recognizes a
church
nation
of
quite
safe to assume early Psalms of a collective import.
In
the next place the theory, when one-sidedly and radically
carried
through, threatens to wipe out all the individual
coloring
which renders many of the Psalms so attractive
to
the Christian reader and so faithful a mirror of his own
individual
experience. All the concrete, plastic, lifelike
self-portrayal
by which the figure of David stands before
our
eyes as the most real of realities, and which plays such
a
role in the New Testament, is at one stroke swept aside,
and
figures like Asaph and Ethan likewise lose for us
their
value
as sources of individual comfort and delight. The
individual
application made by our Lord to Himself of
certain
Psalter-passages has to be artifically justified, if
it
is
justified at all, on the ground that He was entitled to
make
of what was originally meant for
application,
since in Him Israel was summed up. Still
further,
and this is perhaps the most serious element in
the
situation, the collectivistic exegesis now threatens to
swallow
up all the directly Messianic material hitherto found
in
the Psalter. It is seriously proposed that "the Anointed
of
Jehovah," "the King" in several places, where these titles
occur,
shall not be understood of an individual eschato-
logical
figure, but of the people of
heir
of the Messianic promises, the writers of such Psalms
being
even credited with the clear consciousness of the ab-
rogation
of the hope of an individual, Davidic Messiah.
De Origine
Carminum quae primus Psalterii liber continet, 1892, pp.
26
ff ; Rahlfs, ynf und vnf in den Psalmen, 1892, p. 82.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 7
The
nation of
holy
hill of Zion, receiving the nations for his inheritance,
the
uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. Last of
all,
the collectivistic view has contributed toward eliminating
from
the Psalter the expectation of a life after death for the
individual,
the passages where this used to be found being
now
not infrequently interpreted of the immortality of the
people
of
view
under consideration has wrought harm, it should be
remembered
that the several errors enumerated represent
not
necessary corollaries, but only abuses of an otherwise
not
implausible theory. The later liturgical use of the
Psalms
in the Jewish Church certainly supports it, for the
liturgical
is from its very nature collective. The instance
where
"I" and "we" alternate as the speaking subject, and
where
the context puts a national interpretation upon the
"we,"
show how easily the self-personification of the people
took
place in the poet's mind, or at least how naturally
the
collective plural alternated with the individual singular.
The
sudden, abrupt changes in many Psalms from utter
depression
to the most jubilant assurance, which the in-
dividualizing exegesis has found it
is so hard to explain,
are
perhaps more easily accounted for, if the personified
genius
of the people of God, with its indestructible, in-
exhaustible
hope in Jehovah may be assumed to experience
them.
Even what may be called the pathological termi-
nology of the Psalms, sometimes considered a serious ob-
stacle to the collectivistic view, may be turned into
an argu-
ment in its favor, for this reason that the symptoms
of
disease
and distress enumerated could scarcely coexist in
the
state of an individual, whilst metaphorically explained,
as
details entering into the picture of the stricken nation,
they
cease to be subject to the same rigid test of consistency.
That
the nation of
tears"
Ps. vi. 6, may seem an overbold figure to our re-
strained
Western imagination, but we must remember the
richer
and different endowment of
8 THE
prophets,
especially Isaiah and other parts of the Old Testa-
ment, bear witness to the strongly developed habit
of per-
sonification in the Hebrew mind and
supply us with a suffi-
cient basis of analogy. It is not necessary here to
enter
into
the psychological aspect of the problem by enquiring,
whether
conscious and purposeful self-projection into the
mind
of
personality,
or typical generalization of what was first felt
as
an individual experience, will best explain the phe-
nomena.6
Only one feature should be briefly touched upon:
in
certain cases the collective speaker is not the external,
ethnical
spiritual
vocation, or its pious nucleus, the church within the
church,
sharply distinguishing itself from the religiously
disloyal
majority. Such a cleavage of spirits would of
itself
facilitate the absorption of the individual into the
ideal
body.7 Keeping these various
reservations in mind,
we
shall have to acknowledge, I think, that to a greater or
6 Beer would find the
explanation in the general law of lyrical
production
deriving its themes from the common interests and feelings
of
mankind, love, religion, nature, historical happenings affecting the
majority,
pp. lxxix if. But the collective spirit and sentiment
of the
Psalms
are of too concrete and intimate a nature to rest on such a
general
natural basis. If the phenomenon is spontaneous, it will have
to
be explained from the unique cause of the special grace of God
drawing
all its objects into the circle of an experience, which is at once
personal
and alike in all individuals to whom it comes. The intenser
homogeneity
of redemption should be taken into account. This seems
to
us the truth underlying the early patristic efforts to account for the
facts:
Christ was in the Psalms and back of their writers, Christ and
his
mystical body are one, consequently the church spake in
the
Psalter.
In Christian hymnology we can trace the effect of the same
cause:
hymns individual in their origin have become expressions of
communal
feeling, and liturgically intended pieces have been appro-
priated by the individual. The theory of lyrical
expansion has also been
brought
to bear upon the problem of typical Messianism. Delitzsch
identified
the mystery of the consciousness of David with the mystery
of
all poetry: "The genuine lyric poet does not give a mere copy of
the
impressions of his empirical ego." Cheyne, The Origin, pp. 259, 260.
7
Cheyne, makes much of the analogy between the
"servant" in the
Psalms
and "the servant of Jehovah" in the second part of Isaiah.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE PSALTER 9
lesser
extent the mind of the congregation of
itself
in the Psalter.
The sole purpose for which we are
led to mention this
fact
lies in its bearing upon the question of eschatology in
the
Psalter. For, if the great change, the reversal of
destiny,
the deliverance, the victory so often spoken of in
the
Psalms, concern not individuals, but
pious
nucleus of
plex of ideas moves on eschatological ground? What
else
could such a crisis, such a marvelous turn for the better,
nay
for the best, when predicated of
eschatological
transformation? What in the case of the
individual
could be kept within the limits of the present
order
of things and interpreted as a relative change, when
understood
of
and
opens us a totally new prospect, a wholly different mode
of
existence. It is true, the frequent description of the
content
of the hope in earthly, temporal forms, so charac-
teristic of the Old Testament, might seem to
imply a merely
relative
difference between present and future. But this
is
only apparently so. Notwithstanding the retention of
this
form there are two points which clearly mark off the
one
from the other. On the one hand, the truly eschato-
logical
expectation contemplates the fulfilment of all the
promises
of God. It has too large a sweep to be simply
coordinated
with any single good turn in the fortunes of
bears
the stamp of unchangeableness, everlastingness: it
is
no longer, like the present, subject to the vicissitudes of
history.
Paradoxical though it may seem, revelation has
not
shunned here to wed the eternal in point of duration to
the
temporal in point of make-up. The inheriting of the
earth,
the eating and drinking before Jehovah, and what
there
is more of this description, is to be forevermore.
In the form of subjective
responsiveness which the escha-
tological ideas assume in the Psalter lies for us
the greater
part
of their value. So far as the content objectively con-
10 THE
sidered is concerned, the difference from
prophecy is not
perhaps
sufficiently pronounced to justify separate treat-
ment. The general scheme is in both essentially the
same.
On
the dynamic side we meet here as well as there such
ideas
as that of Jehovah's accession to the kingship, the
judgment,
the conquest of the nations, the cup of wrath,
the
recovery of territory, the vindication of
pulsion of the last great assault by the
nations. On the
static
side we encounter the ideas of peace, universalism,
paradise
restored, the dwelling of Jehovah's presence in
the
land, the vision of God, the enjoyment of glory, light,
satisfaction
of all wants, the outlook beyond death towards
an
uninterrupted contact with God and a resurrection.
Only
in the Psalms all this is suffused with the genial
warmth
of religious feeling. We have here a great prov-
ince of objectivity translated into terms of living
religion,
and
that religion at the very acme of its functioning. The
Psalter
teaches us before all else what the proper, ideal
attitude
of the religious mind ought to be with reference
to
its vision of the absolute future. The trouble with
eschatology
in the experience of the church has frequently
been
that it was either dead or overmuch pathologically
alive.
In the Psalter we can observe what is its normal
working.
And through observing this we can learn the
even
more principial lesson, what is the heart and essence
of
all religion, because when eschatologically attuned
the
religious
mind responds to the highest inworking and
closest
approach of God, and therefore operates up to the
full
potentialities of its own nature. To this must be added
something
else of almost equal value. Through the sub-
jective, practical spirit in which these things
are treated
by
the Psalter, we are most profoundly made aware of our
vital
unity with the church of the old dispensation. It is
true,
of course, that, just as we in the consciousness of the
fulfilment of prophecy, make our faith reach back
into the
Old
Testament, so the Old Testament, by means of pro-
phecy, in advance lays its hand upon us: we are sons
of the
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 11
prophets
and of the diatheke
God made with Abraham.
But
this is a purely objective bond; it is the bond between
a
program and its execution; it does not directly enable us
to
feel our oneness with the Old Covenant people of God.
No
sooner, however, do we pass out from the region of
prophecy
into that of psalmody, than we come into touch
with
something that is internally akin to us, a preformation
of
our own living religious embrace of the realities of re-
demption. This must be so all the more, because
our
whole
New Testament life and heritage was, from the Old
Testament
point of view, an eschatological thing. Here,
therefore,
we find ourselves and them occupied with iden-
tical fact; what they eschatologically
contemplated we re-
trospectively enjoy, and the
religious apprehension of it,
while
formally different, is in essence the same. In the
eschatology
of the Psalms we may trace the embryonic or-
ganism of our own full-grown state. We are enabled to
see
how our faith was made in secret and curiously wrought,
when
our substance was as yet imperfect and our members
continually
fashioned before the eyes of God.
When we say that the Psalter is more
practically akin
to
us than prophecy, we must not be led by this to overlook
another
feature well worth our notice. Response to the
work
of God of necessity leads to a more or less reflective
state
of mind. There is a point where the devotional, the
contemplative
and the doctrinal, in its simplest form, touch
one
another. Underneath all the emotion that pulsates
through
the Psalter, there lies a deep water of serious
thought
and reflection. The feeling here is not the sub-
stitute for faith, it is the natural outcome of
faith, the wave-
swell
of the sea, when the wind of the Lord has blown
upon
it. If one will only read and sing with the understand-
ing, he shall perceive that the Psalmists pray and
sing out
of
a rich knowledge of God. It is not for nothing that
they
have "meditated" upon Him and his works. Nor can
it
be accidental that so considerable a part of the New
Testament
faith-fabric is derived from this source. Paul
12 THE
over
and over again quotes from the Psalter, and his appeal
to
it is not less apt and convincing than that to the Torah
and
the prophets.
Let us now endeavor briefly to
review the outstanding
characteristics
of Psalter-eschatology. The first thing re-
quiring notice is the historical background in
the past of
the
Psalter's treatment of the future. True, in this it only
proves
itself a genuine Old Testament product, partaking
of
the specific difference that marks off the biblical escha-
tology from that of the pagan nations. The pagan es-
chatological beliefs have a mythical
or astronomic basis;
they
bear no definite relation to any scheme of historical
progress,
and, with the exception of Parsism, know of no
absolute
final crisis, beyond which no further change is con-
templated. These two defects are closely
connected. Be-
cause
the ideas have their origin within the present world-
process,
they cannot lead to anything beyond it. The world-
cycle
runs its course, obeys its stars, absolves its round, and
then
the end links on to a new beginning, ushering in a repe-
tition of the same sequence. The golden age is bound
to
return,
but it will be no more enduring than it was before.
Old
Testament teaching concerning the end is not born
from
myth and chaos and zodiacal "precession". Its origin
lies
in the realm of history, in the past creative and re-
demptive activity of God, ultimately in the
theistic con-
ception of the character of Jehovah Himself, as
an intel-
ligent, planning, building God, whose delight is ever
in the
product
of his freely shaping hands. And consequently,
what
would
bear on its face the Sisyphus-expression of endless
toil;
it is an absolute goal, consisting in an age of more
than
gold, made of a finer metal beyond all rust and de-
terioration.8
8 It is true, the Old
Testament, and also the Psalter, know the
thought
of a correspondence of the end to the beginning, of the point
of
arrival to the point of departure. The river that makes glad the city
of
God is a reproduction of the streams of paradise. But this is not
intended
as a mere equation of the two. The past paradise is viewed as a
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 13
The Psalter is wide awake to the
significance of history
as
leading up to the eschatological act of God. It knows
that
it deals with a God, who spake and speaks and shall
speak,
who wrought and works and shall work, who came
and
is coming and is about to come. To no small
extent
it is the dignity of Jehovah as Creator and Re-
deemer from which the eschatological necessity
springs.
As
a Psalmist says, Jehovah cannot abandon the work of his
own
hands (cxxxviii. 8); He will perfect that which con-
cerns his people. His work must appear unto his
servants,
his
glory unto their children (xc. 16). The Psalms that
en-
gage
in great historical retrospects were written with
this
thought
in mind. A more concise illustration is offered
by
Ps. cxiv. Here we have first the retrospect:
"When
of
strange language,
his
dominion. The sea saw it and fled;
back,"
and then, as a corresponding prospect, the vision of
the
greater theophany at the end: "Tremble thou
earth at
the
presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of
Jacob."
The references also to the flood, as bound to
repeat
itself, must be interpreted on this principle. Je-
hovah's control for his own purpose of the
primeval world-
catastrophe
is typical of his action in the final upheaval,
when
out of the last judgment a last world will be born.
It
is of importance to notice the sequence of the past and
future
tense-forms in Psalms xciii. and xxix. "The
floods
have
(once) lifted up their voice . . . the floods will lift up
their
waves. Jehovah on high is mightier than the noise of
many
waters, the mighty breakers of the sea." And again:
"Jehovah
(once) sat (as King) at the flood, yea, Jehovah
will
sit as King forever.
There are certain phrases and
figures in the Psalter,
which
are connected with the idea of plan and continuity
in
the work of God and of its destination to arrive at a final
beginning,
that of the future stands in the sign of consummation; that it
will
inaugurate a new process is never reflected upon, far less that what
it
introduces will be a repetition of the ancient course of history.
14 THE
goal.
Most characteristic of these, because most Psalm-
like,
is the phrase "a new song," occurring five times.9 It
receives
light from the idea of the "new things" found in
prophecy,
especially in the latter part of Isaiah. There the
"new
things" mean the great unparalleled events about to
introduce
the future state of
and
the "new song" belong together, as may be clearly
seen
from Isa. xlii. 9, 10: "Behold the former things
are
come
to pass and new things do I declare . . Sing unto
Jehovah
a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth."
This
prediction of the "new things" culminates in the
promise
of the "new heavens and a new earth."10 Here
seems
to lie the root of the later employment of the word
"new"
in eschatological connections, the new name, the new
creature,
the new diatheke,
the new Jerusalem.11 Further,
the
use made of the term "morning," again both in the
prophets
and in the Psalter, is significant. From Isaiah we
are
familiar with the figure of the watchman peering into
the
darkness of the world-night, to, whom the prophet ad-
dresses
the question, "Watchman, what of the night?", and
from
whom he received the answer, "The morning cometh,
and
also the night."12 In the Psalter we find again this
idea
of "the morning" signifying the dawn of the new
great
day of Jehovah, and hence symbolic of all hope and
deliverance:
"God is in the midst of her she shall not
be
moved, God will hear her and that in the morning."
"Death
shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall have
dominion
over them in the morning." "My soul waiteth
for
Jehovah, more than watchmen for the morning: 0
ing, whether the phrase "the day of
Jehovah"' has not some
connection
with this eschatological use of the phrase
9 xxxiii. 3; xcvi. I ; xcviii. 1; cxliv. 9; cxlix. I,
10 Isa.
lxv. 17; lxvi. 22.
11 Isa.
lxii. 2; Jer. xxxi. 31; Mk.
xiv. 24; 2 Cor. V.. 17; Gal. vi. 15;
Rev.
ii. 17; iii, 12; V. 9; xiv. 3; xxi. 2, 5.
12 Isa.
xxi. 6 ff.
13 Ps. xlvi. 6; xlix, 15;
XC. 14; exxx. 6. Cfr. also xvii. 15;
xlviii. 15.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 15
morning,"
so that it would mean the great light-filled day
of
the reign of Jehovah. It is hardly accidental that "the
day
of Jehovah" appears in some passages associated with
the
idea of light.14
Owing to this vivid consciousness of
the historically-
conditioned
appointment of the end, the attitude of the
Psalmists
towards it is, on the whole, one of serene con-
fidence and quiet expectation. Their soul is as
a weaned
child
within them. There are Psalms that have as their
keynote
the question "How long?", but they are few, and
even
in them towards the end the trusting mood regains
the
upper hand.15 There are only three Psalms which con-
tain nothing but complaint.16 Of the
feverish impatience
that
is so apt to inflame the eschatological state of mind and
of
its usual correlate, the apocalyptic calculation of times
and
seasons, there is no trace in the Psalter. "True, with
characteristic
eschatological eagerness they continually
suppose
the end nearer than it actually is, but they do not
attach
their faith to a near parousia in such a way that
it
would be imperilled by disillusionment. . . . When
doubting
thoughts beset . . . they go into the sanc-
tuary."17
The Psalmists know that the end is
not flung upon the
world
out of the lap of chance, but that it proceeds with
stately,
unhastened, unretarded step
from the council-
chamber
of God. The phrase "a set time" marks this con-
viction.18
The connection between prophecy and the Psalms
in
this point may be observed in the statement "to execute
the
judgment written!”19 The
"judgment written" is the
judgment
announced in the prophets; precisely because
written
it cannot fail to come. In a most striking way the
dependence
of the last great hope of redemption upon what
14 Am. v. 8, 18; Rom.
xiii. II If. I Thess. v. 5.
15 PS. Vi. 4 ; xiii. I ; Ixxiv. 10; lxxvii. 8; lxxix. 5; Ixxxv. 6; xxxix. 47;
xc. 13; xciv. 3.
16 Ps. xxxviii (but cfr. v. 16); xxxix. (but cfr. v.
8); lxxxviii.
17 Cheyne,
Origin, p. 373.
18 Ps. cii. 31.
19 Ps. cxlix. 9.
16 THE
Jehovah
has done before is expressed in Ps. lxxiv.: "God
is
my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the
earth;
thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou break-
est the heads of the dragons in the waters: . . . .
thou
didst
cleave fountain and flood; . . . remember that the
enemy
has reproached 0 Lord; 0 deliver not the soul of thy
turtle
dove unto the multitude; forget not the congregation
of
thy poor forever; have respect unto the covenant; . . .
arise
0 God."
A second striking feature of the
eschatology of the
Psalter
consists in the central, dominating position it assigns
to
Jehovah in all that pertains to the coming change. The
prospect
of the future is God-centered in the highest degree.
Of
course, the Psalmists who could say "Whom have I in
heaven
but thee, and none upon earth I desire besides thee”;
"God
is the strength of my heart and my portion forever"
and
"Thou art my Lord, my welfare is naught without
thee,"
might be confidently expected to carry this feeling
with
them, when projecting themselves into the future.20
What
is more characteristic of the Psalter is this, that, be-
sides
eschatology evoking worship, the opposite also takes
place:
The elemental urge of worship summons the last
great
realities to its aid, because it cannot be satisfied with
aught
short of this for expressing itself. The eschatology
of
the Psalter is in part begotten by the praises of
No
doubt the Psalter contains much of what is most
humanly
human in all religious occupation with God: the
need
and desire and prayer for help in distress. In their
extremity
of danger and affliction the Psalmists sustain and
reassure
themselves by the thought of the great deliverance
which
the end must bring. They lift up their heads, be-
cause
their redemption draws nigh. They will not fear,
though
the earth be removed and the mountains be cast in
the
midst of the sea. The absoluteness of the assurance and
the
suddenness of attainment unto it are in many instances
accounted
for by the eschatological import. The appeal
20 Pss.
lxxiii. 25, 26; xvi. 2.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 17
lies
not to second causes or elements of hopefulness within
the
fabric of the present world, but to the great, crowning
interposition
of Jehovah ab extra. At this point especially
we
have occasion to remember, that often not an individual
but
tions of the Old Testament the individual could
scarcely
hope
for himself, that the people of God carried as a sure
faith
in its bosom through the ages. Ploughers might
plough
upon
waters
might overwhelm them, it could not extinguish the
conviction,
that the future and the end belonged to the
chosen
of Jehovah. Specifically the thirst for justice over
against
enemy and avenger quenched itself in anticipation
at
this deep fountain of judgment to be opened up at the
last.
But in the midst of all this soteric motivation the
higher
point of view of the subserviency of
tion to the glory of God is never lost sight of.
When the
Psalmists
make eschatology the anchor of salvation, this
is
not done in a self-centered spirit. The very fact of the
anchor
being cast into such deep water implies a com-
parative estimate of human and divine help, which
in itself
cannot
but be honoring to God.21 The prayer for salvation
inevitably
embodies praise of the Saviour. That at least no
individual
selfishness underlies it, appears from the way
in
which clearly individualistic Psalms join together the
deliverance
of the suppliant and the salvation of
The
Psalmist succeeds in forgetting his own woes for the
woes
or for the hopes of the people as a whole. But it is
even
more important to notice that he is able to forget them
for
the overwhelming thought of the glory of Jehovah.
The
gloria in excelsis
which the Psalter sings arises not
seldom
from a veritable de profundis
and, leaving behind the
storm-clouds
of its own distress, mounts before Jehovah
in
the serenity of a perfect praise.22 Nothing reveals more
clearly
the innate nobility of the Psalter's religion than this
quality
of its praise. But even where this highest altitude
21 Pss.
xx. 7; xli . 6; xlix. 6; cxviii. 8, 7; cxlvi. 3, 4.
22 Cfr.
18 THE
is
not reached, where the thought of salvation remains con-
sciously present to the end, the closing note of
praise is sel-
dom wanting.23 Praise and prayer are
inseparable, because
God's
very divinity is in his saving habit.24 In the phrase
"for
thy name's sake" the recognition is expressed that the
ultimate
purpose of salvation lies in the glory of God.25
Where
the prayer assumes the form of a desire for vindica-
tion and deliverance through judgment and
destruction of
the
enemy, it might seem as if the center were shifted from
God
to man. Still on closer examination this appears not
to
be so. When the praying subject is
ing party the hostile pagan world, the conflict
between these
two,
of course, coincides with that between Jehovah and the
world,
between light and darkness. And when the two
parties
belong both to
again
due to the fact that the party praying represents the
cause
of Jehovah and the true faith, whilst the party prayed
against
has aligned itself with the other side and becomes
apostate
from Jehovah and his people.26 So that in either
case
the self-interest is identical with the interest of God.
Of
personal rancor or party-animosity not religiously
motived there is no trace in the Psalter. While
it is true,
therefore,
that the eschatological pressure is heightened,
as
it usually is, by fierce conflict and strife, this does not
detract
in the present case from its purity and God-cen-
tered character.27
Cheyne
offers the suggestion that an unselfish religion
was
easier for the Psalmists than it is for us, because the
sense
of individuality was less developed at that time.28
23 Pss.
xxxii. 17; 1. 15; lXxx. i8, 19.
24 Cheyne,
Origin, P. 344.
25
26 Ps. lxxiii. 15, 27, 28.
27 Cfr.
stand
over against each other; Cheyne, Origin, p. 293.
28 Origin, p. 265; cfr. Cheyne's
own striking statement at a later
point:
"that the people of
the
earth and do this with such utter self-forgetfulness, that each of
its
own successes shall but add a fresh jewel to Jehovah's crown,"
P.
340.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 19
But
this would apply only over against man and not over
against
God. And it is hardly in accordance with his own
dating
of the Psalms. The collectivism of the post-exilic Jews
was
not of the naive, instinctive kind, a sort of primeval,
semi-physical
sense of solidarity; it partakes far more of the
intelligent
affectionate surrender to an ulterior object of de-
votion. Here collectivism is but another name for un-
selfishness.
The awakening of the sense of individuality lies
not
beyond but back of it. It is spiritual loyalty, not ethnic
coherence
that binds the members of
same
is true of the still closer bond uniting the pious
within
the larger body.
The acknowledgment that in the
future salvation all is
for
the glory of God is not of the nature of a mere formal
acknowledgment.
Owing to the character of psalmody
as
the instrument of responsiveness, and owing to the
uniqueness
of the eschatological situation upon which it
works,
it develops a peculiar fervor and attains a degree
of
sympathetic projection into the interest of God scarcely
equalled elsewhere. The Psalmists sometimes
succeed in
transporting
themselves into the midst of the joy and
blessedness,
wherewith Jehovah himself contemplates the
consummate
perfection of his work. This faculty for enter-
ing into the inner spirit of God's own share in the
religious
process
represents the highest and finest in worship; it closes
the
ring of religion, and in Scripture, as we might expect,
it
is peculiarly the Psalter that illustrates it. If even the
Psalm
of nature, after enumerating the wonders of crea-
tion, closes with the exquisite note, "The
glory of Jehovah
shall
endure forever, the Lord shall rejoice in his works.
.
. . I will sing . . . as long as I live . . . my meditation
of
Him shall be sweet, I will be glad in Jehovah," could we
expect
less where the Psalmist's mind turns to the greater
wonders
in redemption?29 "Sing unto Jehovah a new song,
his
praise in the congregation of saints, for Jehovah takes
pleasure
in his people, He will beautify the meek with sal-
29 Ps. civ. 31-34.
20 THE
vation." And again, "Jehovah takes pleasure
in them that
fear
him, in them that hope in his mercy; Praise Jehovah,
0
deeper
in this than the spontaneous welling up of gratitude
from
the heart that has received favor. It is the devotion
of
a mind able to lose itself in the very inward grace of
God
which is greater and more satisfying than even its
greatest
and final gift.31
The theocentric
character of Psalter-eschatology appears
also
in this that it is prevailingly kingdom-eschatology. By
this
is meant a form of statement representing Jehovah as
becoming,
or revealing, Himself in the last crisis the
victorious
King of Israel. Certain Psalms may be called
specific
kingdom-Psalms. Pss. xciii,
xcvii, xcix, open with
the
words "Jehovah is King." The context shows that this
is
declared from the standpoint of the eschatological future,
when,
after the judgment, his universal dominion shall be
established.
Into this future the Psalmist projects himself.
The
situation is the same in Ps. xcvi. 10, "Say
among the
nations,
Jehovah is King; the world also is established, and
it
cannot be moved."32 It will be remembered that the shout
"Absalom
is King" was the shout of acclaim at his assump-
tion of the kingship.33 Still in the
Apocalypse this mode of
30 Pss.
cxlix. 1, 4; cxlvii. II,
12.
31 Cfr.
Cheyne, Origin,
p. 343. "Precious as is the sympathy of
God
for us, still higher is the ability put by Him into us to enter into
his
thoughts and feelings."
32 Cfr.
Ex. xv. 17; Isa. xxiv. 23; hi. 7.
33 2 Sam. xv. 30. Cfr. Gunkel, Ausgewahlte Psalmen, pp. 186-192;
324;
Gressmann, Ursprung, pp. 294-301. According to Gunkel
such
accession-hymns
might have been first sung for human rulers and
afterwards
transferred to the eschatological enthronement of Jehovah.
Gressmann seeks to meet the difficulty that
Jehovah's kingship is rep-
resented
as purely future, by the suggestion, that the background is
polytheistic,
Jehovah's universal dominion being conceived as beginning
with
the conquest of the other gods, and that this mode of speaking
was
retained in the (no longer) polytheistic Psalms. The simple
solution
seems to, lie in this that "kingship" is in the O. T. more a
concept
of action than of status. Jehovah becomes King=Jehovah
works
acts of deliverance.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 21
speaking
is employed with eschatological reference, xix. 6
"Hallelujah,
for the Lord God, the Almighty reigneth."
In
other cases the act of enthronement is described and the
accession
is identified with an ascension. Thus Ps. xlvii.
5-8
"God is the King of all the earth . . . God reigneth
over
the nations. God sitteth upon his holy throne."34
The
ascension-feature might be explained from the elevation
of
the throne-seat, to which the king mounts by steps, or
from
the going up to the height of
return
from war, in which Jehovah, as present in the ark,
would
participate and lead. Pss. lxviii.
18 and xxiv. 7-10
suggest
the possibility of another explanation. In the
former
passage we read: "Thou hast ascended on high,
thou
hast led away captives." The Psalm is at its opening
escatologically-prospective, but vss. 7-20 seem to be his-
torically-retrospective, so that the statement
about Jehovah's
ascent
is not directly eschatological. It does, however, de-
scribe
a real ascent into heaven,, and not a mere going up
unto
the earthly sanctuary.35 In Ps. xxiv the language
might
more easily remind of the earthly dwelling-place of
Jehovah
(cfr. vs. 3), but even here in the second part of
the
Psalm the "everlasting doors" point to the higher
habitation.36
The idea of Jehovah's glorious return into
heaven
after accomplished victory, must have existed, and
if
so, would influence directly-eschatological representa-
34 Besides the shout of
acclaim the blowing of the trumpet and the
clapping
of hands accompanied the enthronement, Ps. xlvii. i;
I Kings
i. 34-45; 2 Kings ix. 13; xi. 12.
35 Cfr.
Baethgen, Die Psalmen, who observes that Mvrm is always
used
of the height of heaven. The N. T. adaptation to the ascension
of
Christ has, therefore, a good support, so far as the local concep-
tion is concerned. Gressmann
also argues in favor of what he calls
the
“mythical-eschatological" view of Ps. xlvii. 6 from the use of the
verb
hlAfA, which according to him
is not used of ordinary throne-
ascension,
the proper term for this being bwayA. But the two acts of
"ascending"
and "sitting down" are obviously distinct, and the idea of
ascent,
might, as stated above, have arisen from the elevation of the
throne.
36 For the idea of the
doors being opened by "lifting up" cfr. Gress-
mann, Ursprung, p, 295, note a.
22 THE
tions, like that of Ps. xlvii. 5-8. In Ps. xxiv. this
seems to
be
actually the case.37
It is obvious that a representation
which thus throws the
emphasis
on the future enthronement of Jehovah intends to
magnify
what the end means for God and for
relation
to its God. The core of the belief is that there must
come
and will come a time, when God will visibly take his
place
as the end and focus of all the glory of the world pro-
cess. As the antique idea makes the state subserve the glory
of
the king, so the ripened ages will be made to yield their
accumulated
fruit to Him who is their King. Although the
kingdom-idea
has also its soteric aspect, the Psalter shows
that
side by side with this, and as even in a sense superior,
the
manifestation of the glory of Jehovah is expressed by it.
The
thought is not merely that Jehovah becomes King in
order
to save, but that through the salvation, as well as in
other
acts, He arrives at the acme of his royal splendor.
In still another way we can trace
the same principle by
observing
the mode of Jehovah's activity in the coming
crisis.
The fundamental conception is that of the theo-
phany. It may seem at first a trite thought, that
Jehovah
must
appear on the scene before He can interpose. But the
theophany does not occur as the mere prerequisite
or pre-
cursor
of the divine action, it is the vehicle of the action
itself.
This is facilitated by the realistic conception of the
judgment,
as a judgment of execution, rather than a formal
forensic
procedure. In a forensic procedure the bare ap-
pearance of Jehovah could figure only as the
initial act,
after
which further steps would be indispensable. The
realistic
idea, putting sentence and execution in one, con-
denses the whole into a single act and this act is the
super-
natural
arrival of God upon the field. While, however,
fitting
into this view of the judgment, the epiphanic char-
acter of Jehovah's action has not been exclusively
produced
by
it. At the basis lies again the motive to exalt the majesty
and
power of Him, who by his mere entrance into the crisis
37 Acording
to Stade, Zeitschrift f. Theol. u. Kirche, II. p. 407,
the.
scene
of Ps. xxiv is eschatological.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 23
decides
the issue and thus centers all attention and interest
upon
Himself. Here lies the source of that technical es-
chatological phrase "the coming
of the Lord," which like an
unbroken
thread runs through both testaments.38 He comes,
Jehovah
comes, the Messiah comes, from Genesis to Revela-
tion this is the import of the message in which
ultimately
the
eschatological hope embodies itself. And the imagery
of
the theophanic representation is wholly in accord
with
this
intent to make God the central figure. No matter
whether
Jehovah's coming be linked with or compared to
the
thunder-storm, or the tempest, or the flood or the vol-
canic eruption, in each case the sudden, inavertible, over-
whelming
nature of the event is emphasized.39 Precisely
for
this reason the impression is sometimes most vivid
where
every attempt at the use of concrete imagery is
abandoned,
because the figures threaten to break down
under
the sheer weight of the reality signified. Nothing
could
be more effective than the studied avoidance of all
intermediate
apparatus, nay even of the mention of Jehovah
Himself
in a passage like Ps. xlvii. 4, 5, "For, lo the kings
assembled
themselves, they passed by together. They saw
it,
then they were amazed; they were dismayed, they
hastened
away." It need not so much as be said, that
Jehovah
appears; it suffices that He exists: his being God
brings
the crisis to its inevitable issue.40
38 Cfr.
Sellin, Der alttestarnentliche Prophetismus,
p. 181.
39 For the reason stated
the description of the eschatological scene
has
an inherent tendency to turn into a, description of the theophany
as
such, even to the extent of the purpose of the latter being for the
moment
lost sight of. This is a feature observed also in prophecy,
eft.. Isa. ii. The Psalm
in Hab. iii. and also the opening part of
Ps.
xviii illustrate this. For an enunciation of the principle involved
by
Jehovah Himself, cfr. Ps. xlvi. io
"Be still and know that I am
God.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the
earth."
40 Stade,
Zeitschrift f. Theol. u. Kirche, pp. 393-398 finds the escha-
tological theophany in a
number of recurring phrases in the Psalter.
He
enumerates as such "to arise"; "to be exalted" or
"lifted up"; "to
awake";
"to be not silent"; "to hasten"; "to be not far";
"to stir up
might";
"to restore"; "to heal"; "to quicken"; "to
redeem"; to save";
24 THE
One more observation may be made
under this head.
The
profoundly religious state of mind with which the end
is
contemplated appears in this that it imparts the same
coloring
to the Psalmist's mood in view of its retardation
as
does the prospect of impending death by itself. As has
been
often remarked the attitude towards to latter fur-
nishes a gauge for the depth of religious attachment
to
Jehovah.
There is much in death to terrify the creature
regardless
of religious considerations. We find that with
the
Psalmists the chief cause of solicitude and perplexity is
the
problem of their future relation to Jehovah. Will there
be
in these strange shadowy regions remembrance of Je-
hovah, experience of his goodness, praise of his
glory?
"What
profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the
pit,
shall the dust praise thee, shall it declare thy truth?"41
What
they most feared was not death as such, nor that they
might
lose themselves in death, but that they might lose con-
tact
with Jehovah. Now the same state of feeling asserts
itself
in regard to the great future coming of Jehovah.
"How
long, 0 Jehovah? Wilt thou hide thyself forever?
.
. . 0 remember how short my time is. For what vanity
hast
thou created all the children of men! What man is he
that
shall live and not see death? That shall deliver his soul
from
the power of Sheol? Lord, where are thy former
loving
kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy
faithfulness
?"42 Here the bitterness of death is measured
by
the danger that it may sweep out of reach the vision of
Jehovah
and the enjoyment of his glorious reign at the end.
To
lose touch with Him in Sheol would be painful, to
miss
Him
at his final epiphany intolerable, it would be the su-
preme tragedy of religion. This is convincing proof
that
the
eschatology of the Psalter seeks and loves nought
above
Jehovah
Himself.
"to
be gracious"; "to snatch out"; "to do justice."
Although many or
all
of these terms find eschatological employment, it cannot be proven
that
all or any of them had become technical in that sense.
41 Pss.
xxx. 9; cfr. vi. 5; lxxx.
5.
42 Ps. lxxxix. 46-49. A new Testament parallel is I Thess. iv. 13-18.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 25
From a specific point of view we can
observe the same
principle
in the universalistic statements of the Psalter.
Here
as in the prophets the subjection of the nations to
Jehovah
and their conversion form part of the great future
change.
In both cases this remains a hope and does not
become
a challenge to missionary activity. It is only
through
the gateway of eschatology that universalism and
the
missionary idea come in. More particularly it is, the
greatness
and majesty of Jehovah from which they spring.
Jehovah
is so great that the nations must come and worship
before
Him. This is of itself a certainty. But when the
idea
is raised to the eschatological degree, when He is con-
templated in the overpowering majesty of his final
appear-
ance, then a super-certainty results, that all the
earth will
be
flooded with the knowledge of his glory.43 While, how-
ever,
with the prophets this remains, like so many other
things,
a matter of mere futurity, in the Psalter, owing to
the
entrance of the subjective element something more re-
sults. The mind of the Psalmist is not satisfied with
hold-
ing the idea at the distance of objective
contemplation, but
translates
it into an eager desire for witnessing the fulfil-
ment of the prospect. Thus a real missionary urge is
born
out
of the eschatological vision of Jehovah and his kingdom.
This
desire projects itself into the future and breaks out
into
a direct missionary appeal conceived as addressed to
the
Gentiles from that standpoint." The world at large is
summoned
to acknowledge and praise Jehovah. Of course,
this
is not actual missionary propaganda.45 Yet, at bottom,
in
its spiritual motivation, it is not different from the latter;
perhaps
one might even say that the impulse back of it is
stronger
than the fervor wherewith the Church seizes her
present
possibilities. The closest analogy to this is again
43 Ps. ix. 19, 20; xviii.
47 ff.: xxii. 27, 28; xxiii. 8; xlvi. to; xlvii. 1-3,
8,
g; lxxxvi. 8-to; xcvii. 1,
6; xcviii. 2, 3. 9; cii.
15, 21, 22.
44 Ps. lvii. 8-11; lxvi. 1-4; lxvii. 2-5; xcvi. 3, 7-13; xcix. 3 (in the
form
of prayer) ; c. 1-3; cviii. 3; cxiii
3, 4; cxvii. 1, 2; cxlv.
21.
45 Rhetorically it may be
put on a line with the prophetic summons
to
nature to "clap hands" and "sing."
26 THE
found
in the hymnodic portions of Isaiah. The remem-
brance of these things may afford us help in ever anew
attuning
the strain of our missionary-enthusiasm to its
highest
God-centered key. When we profess to mission-
arize, not in the last analysis, to improve the
world, but to
glorify
God in the eternal salvation of sinners, this expresses
not
merely a theological conviction, but it is also eminently
true
to the principle inherent in the birth of the mission-
ary idea itself. For this the missionary idea was
born and
for
this cause came it into the world, that it should con-
tribute
to the glory of God. It was for Him and not for
man
alone that it was conceived in the womb of the Old
Testament.
The question next claiming attention
concerns the de-
gree of spirituality in the eschatological outlook
of the
Psalter.
This degree is often placed low, because for
their
descriptions of the future age the Psalms are depend-
ent on earthly, material, time-bound forms, The
future
theocracy
is a replica of the present one. The expected state
is
a state in which the eschatological people of Jehovah,
dwelling
in the holy land, with
forever
enjoy without measure the blessedness afforded by
to
prove, that all this was understood by the Psalmists with
a
clear consciousness of its symbolic, typical significance,
as
we, on the basis of the New Testament, believe it lay in
the
mind of God, the author of revelation. But, while this
is
true, and should not be covered up in the interest of un-
historical
allegorizing, it should not, on the other hand,
close
our eyes to the profound spirituality with which in
the
Psalter even this ostensibly material content of the
future
is approached and apprehended. The main question
is
after all not what forms and colors enter into the picture,
but
what is the subtler atmosphere that pervades it to the
eye
of the pious Israelite, what with his finer religious
sensibilities
he sought and loved and admired in it. When
the
question is put in this way there can be no doubt as to
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 27
the
answer. The very fact of the intense concentration of
the
hope in God Himself supplies it in advance. The escha-
tological state is before all else a state in
which the enjoy-
ment of Jehovah, the beatific vision of his face,
the pleasures
at
his right hand, the perpetual dwelling with Him in his
sanctuary,
form the supreme good. "Satisfy us in the
morning
with thy loving kindness, that we may rejoice and
be
glad all our days, . . . and let the beauty of Jehovah
our
God be upon us," these and other similar strains are
characteristic
of the future-music of the Psalter.46 Whether
the
familiar passages in Pss. xvi., xvii., xlix., lxxiii, where
the
confidence of uninterrupted fellowship with Jehovah is
expressed,
are based on the belief in a future blessed life
after
death, as we think they are, or whether, on the
ground
of the collectivistic theory, the statements in ques-
tion are interpreted of the imperishable life of
on
either view the underlying sentiment is clearly that
of
the supreme absorption of the religious life in the things
of
God.47 And it will be noticed that this sentiment finds
readiest
expression in view of the future state. If only
care
be taken to exclude every idea obliterative of the
sense
of
human personality, there is ground for speaking of a
certain
group of Psalms as mystical in their complexion,
as
in fact a mystically-inclined type of piety has shown a
46 Ps. xc. 14, 16. Cheyne, perhaps, goes
too far in spiritualizing the
language
of the Psalmists when he assumes the theophanic
statements
to
have been meant as .pure symbolism. This would hardly agree
with
the parallel drawn between the eschatological and the earlier,
historic
theophanies. The latter were certainly in part
realistically
understood.
Another instance of the same nature is, where Cheyne
credits
the Psalmists who believed in spiritual sacrifice with the idea
of
a purely-spiritual sanctuary. But is there not some difference be-
tween these two? The spiritual sacrifice remains
objective, the
spiritual
sanctuary would be a subjectivizing conception. Cfr. Origin,
pp.
344, 387.
47 Writers who deny the
presence of the idea of personal blessedness
after
death in such passages, yet do not deny that the Psalmists expect
participation
in the Messianic era. Cfr. Beer, p. 70. Can this be
entirely
due to an acute sense of the nearness of the event?
28 THE
marked
preference for them in all ages.48
But there is only
a
difference of degree between these and the Psalter in
general.
It is Jehovah's rest which the Psalmist desires
How
pervasively and intensely spiritual the atmosphere of
the
eschatology of the Psalter is, can best be appreciated by
remembering
to what an extent our Lord has reproduced it
in
his teaching. Most of the second clauses of the beati-
tudes are to all intent a description of the
eschatological
kingdom
in Psalter-language. "The poor in spirit," "the
pure
in heart," "the meek," "the merciful," "the
peace-
makers,"
together with their respective predicates, the en-
dowment with the kingdom, the inheritance of the
earth, the
obtaining
of mercy, the vision of God, the adoption into
sonship, these are all Psalter-types and
Psalter-hopes, found
fit
to enter into a most highly spiritualized description of
the
future by the Psalter's greatest interpreter. The way
in
which the sanctuary is spoken of, the comparatively rare
references
to ceremonial sacrifice, the peculiar tenor of these
references,
where they do occur, which has led some to
speak
of a class of Puritanical psalms, the deritualisation
of
heaven,
the emphasis on the nearness of Jehovah in the
sanctuary,
all these plainly show where the center of the
interest
lies.50 Add to this the total absence of the weird
apocalyptic
element, and the predominance of a truly spirit-
ual atmosphere, can not fail to be recognized.51
Here also,
however,
we should note how this fine spirituality is closely
interwoven
with the fundamental character of the Psalter,
as
that of subjective responsiveness to the divine approach
and
embrace in religion. Devotion, worship, the giving
answer
to God, cannot but spiritualize. It is, as it were, the
projection
into the objective sphere of the intrinsically trans-
48 Cfr.
Cheyne, Origin,
pp. 387, 388; Beer, p. 62, refers in connection
with
Ps. Ixxiii. 28 to the Jewish Kirbath
Elohirn, the unio mystica, as
eschatologically ,approached ; Montefiore, Mystical
Passages in the
Psalms, Jewish Qurterly Review 1889, pp. 143-161.
49 Ps. xcv. 11; xlvi. 4; xlviii. 1.
50 Cheyne,
Origin, pp. 314-327; Beer, p. 47.
51 Cheyne,
Origin, p. 428.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
:PSALTER 29
lucent
essence of the religious soul itself. And it is called to
enter
into the direct presence of and lay hold upon Jehovah
Himself,
in doing which it grasps the root of all spirituality.
Truly,
the new invisible throne of God, in distinction from
the
ark, rests in a yet higher sense upon the praises of
Israel.52
In conclusion we may briefly
consider the Messianic element
in
the eschatology of the Psalter. Here also the subjectively
responsive
and appropriative attitude has left some traces.
To
be sure, before speaking of such matters, one is at pres-
ent compelled to raise the question whether in the
old,
familiar
sense there is a "Messiah" in the Psalter at all.
Belief
in "typically-Messianic" Psalms has practically dis-
appeared
from contemporary critical exegesis. But not
only
this, the Psalms which used once to be quoted as
directly-prophetically
Messianic are now frequently under-
stood
as relating to the people of
ointed of Jehovah." The curious fact results that
on such
a
view the title "Messiah" in its technical sense, as the
designation
of the individual eschatological King, disappears
from
the Old Testament, for it is in the Psalter and in the
Psalter
alone, that, on the old interpretation, this title is
found.53
In this situation little comfort can be taken from
the
quasi-rehabilitation which the idea of typical Mes-
sianism has undergone at the hands of Babylonianizing
interpreters
such as Gunkel. Calling attention to the fact
that
in Babylonian and Assyrian documents the reigning
king,
especially at his accession, was invested by courtiers
and
court-poets with superhuman or eschatological predi-
cates, they have found this custom back in certain
Psalms,
52 Cheyne,
Origin, p. 327.
53 This leaves out of
account Dan. ix. 25, 26, of doubtful interpreta-
tion. Cheyne, Origin, p. 340 and others, can, of
course, continue to
speak
of "Messianic psalms," since the term "Anointed" is in a
more
or less technical sense, with eschatological associations, bestowed
upon
the people. Still, in view of the long traditional usage, it would
be
better for those adopting such exegesis to avoid the term.
30 THE
notably
Pss. ii., xlv., lxxii, cx.54
On this view the users of
such
language might be said to have seen their present ruler
in
the mirror of the conception of the great eschatological
King,
which would involve a certain resemblance to the
old
typological scheme. Now, if this adaptation of Oriental
court-style
to the case of an Israelitish king could be taken
as
sincere and naive in its intent, something might be made
out
of it, in connection with the fact, that at first no one
knew
which of the Davidic descendants would fulfill the
promises,
each new accession being capable of giving rise to
new
hopes. We are not allowed, however, to impose such
a
meaning upon the custom. These phrases formed a reg-
ular court-style; they were no more than "loyal
hyperboles"
to
which no one, least of all those who flatteringly spoke
them,
attached any real significance. The only useful pur-
pose
which the discovery of this ancient ceremonial may
serve
to the conservative exegete consists in this, that it
may
prove the early existence of eschatological belief and
eschatological
interest in these pagan circles and so furnish
an
argument against the theory of a late emergence of such
belief
and interest among Israel.55 If,
refusing to assume
such
a style in the Psalter, and finding here not the insin-
cerities of court-life, but a solid typical
groundwork in-
54 Cfr.
Gunkel, Ausgewahlte Psalmen, under the head of Pss.
ii.,
xlv.,
cx. He does not discuss Ps. lxxii.
55 Acording
to Gressmann, Ursprung, p. 252, note 4, Gunkel
is mis-
taken
in assuming a transfer of Messianic-eschatological language to
the
human king. The extravagant language, then, would have noth-
ing to do with eschatology. It would be court-style
pure and simple:
"Der Messias hat hier nichts zu
suchen." We do not see how this is
to
be reconciled with the later statements on pp. 236-293 where we
read
that "the contemporaneous prince or dynasty is celebrated as
the
introducer of the golden age, as once the first King. This ex-
plains
the chief activity of the Messiah, etc." According to this
"mythical-paradise
elements" have been received into the court-style.
Gressmann further believes that the ceremonial
must have originated
in
the great empires of the East, the
too
small for aught else than snobbish imitation. He compares the
reproduction
of the customs of the court of Louis XIV. in the courts
of
the little principalities of that period. This would emphasize the
utter
emptiness of the custom in
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 31
wrought
by the Spirit of God in the religious experience of
David
and others, it will be obvious how significant this is
for
the nearness and intimacy which the figure of the Mes-
siah had acquired for the religious consciousness.
No mat-
ter what peculiar philosophy or psychology of the
typical
relation
be adopted, this much will be common to all, that
the
thought of the Messiah must have had a vital existence
in
the hearts of the Psalmists in order to make this pre-
figuration
of him in themselves more than an empty, un-
real
show. The David, who could speak of himself in Mes-
sianic terms, must have held the Messianic concept in
a
warm
religious embrace.
So much for the typical side of the
matter. The other
question
had reference to the directly-Messianic element
in
the Psalter. Here the phenomena are so peculiar that
modern
criticism, though obviously shrinking and moving
away
from the old, solid Messianic ground, has not suc-
ceeded in finding a satisfactory substitute. The chief
peculiarity
of the passages in question is, that they speak
of
the King or the Anointed as a present, existing figure.56
To
account for this three possibilities offer themselves. If
one,
with Gunkel and Gressmann,
applies the court-style
hypothesis,
the King spoken of or addressed is simply a
contemporary
ruler and has nothing to do with the Mes-
siah.57
Or, if one has recourse to the collectivistic theory,
56 The Psalms
constituting this group of so-called "King-Psalms"
are
the following: ii; xviii. 50; xx ; xxi; xxviii. 8; xlv; lxi.
6, 7; lxiii.
ii;
lxxii ; lxxxiv. 10; lxxxix. 38. 51; cx; cxxxii. Cfr. Buchanan Gray,
The references to the
King in the Psalter in their Bearing on Questions
of Date and Messianic
Belief in Jewish Quarterly Review, vii. pp.
658-686.
The only exception to the above
statement about the present exist-
ence of the King or Messiah is Ps. ii., on the view
that this Psalm
from
beginning to end, with all the speakers in it, the writer in-
cluded, is projected into that point of the future,
when the last great
attack
of the nations against
the
existence of the King at the actual time of writing would not be
necessarily
implied.
57 Here what was once
supposed to be directly-Messianic is turned
into
the quasi-typical, i.e. into the embellishment of the character
32 THE
the
King or Messiah fades away into the figure of
Again,
if one is prepared to attach the extraordinary lan-
guage employed in such Psalms as ii. and cx. to one or the
other
of the Maccabaean rulers, he may yet save the
directly-
Messianic
character at the expense of having it connected
with
an unworthy figure. But on all three views the present
existence
of the "King" is explained. It would require,
however,
a combination of at least two of them to cover all
the
facts,. In the case of Pss. xlv.; lxxii.
and cx. the col-
lectivistic exegesis is, of course, excluded, and
the attempt
to
carry it through in Ps. ii. is open to most serious objec-
tions.58
Here then it will be necessary to fall back upon
either
the one or the other or both of the two other pro-
posals. We believe orthodox exegetes will find it
difficult
to
get rid of the feeling, that neither of these two is in keep-
ing with the dignity of revelation. Subjectively
the in-
sincerities
of a court-ceremonial, and objectively the char-
of
an existing king with originally eschatological traits. Gunkel
ad-
mits that, contrary to the intent of the writers,
very early readers of
such
Psalms found in them a direct-Messianic import, Ausgewahte
Psalmen, p. 18. "So ist also dieser Stoff, der ursprunglich
escha-
tologisch war, schliesslich
auch wieder eschatologisch verstanden
worden."
58 The subject of the
equation
ing one, but too large to be handled in the present
connection. There
can
be no a priori objection to the investment of
the
predicate of "anointed," but even with the title of "The
Anointed
One."
The anointed king and the people are closely related, and the
parallel
case of the attribution of sonship to both, suggests
a common
possession
by both of the anointing. In the New Testament the
anointing
is bestowed upon both Christ and believers. Besides, the
anointing
was not strictly confined to the kings. It is quite plausible,
therefore,
to understand the term of
Hab. iii. 13; Ps. xxviii. 8, where the parallelismus membrorum
favors
it.
The serious objection to the theory arises from the concrete way
in
which it is applied, viz. that the Messianizing of
the nation shall
have
been an intentional substitute for the hope of a Davidic individual
Messiah.
Usually Isa. 1v. 3 is cited as furnishing either an
instance,
or
the original precedent of the replacement of the Messiah by
But
the passage does not require this interpretation, and in view of
the
fact that it calls the mercies of David "sure" i.e. unalterable, re-
liable,
it is absurd to find in a statement emphasizing this very thing the
idea
of their abrogation or even transfer.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 33
acter and life of the later Maccabaean
leaders seem unfit to
be
the bearers of such a high and sacred conception.59 As
compared
with these, there is at least a kernel of attractive
truth
in the collectivistic idea. Not as if the Messiahship
of
the Davidic prince could have been abrogated and the
Messiahship of
that
in certain Psalms a strong sense of the close appurten-
ance of the Messiah to
reveals
itself. It is not identity, but identification of life
that
creates the appearance as if
to
the exclusion of the personal figure. These Psalmists,
when
they call
cause
they realize the significance of the Messiah's office
for
the religious life of
that
in a representation, like that of Ps. ii. the Messiah and
tification is after all what may and must be
expected, if
the
root-idea of the Messiahship is taken into account.
The
deepest
motivation of the Messianic conception lies in the
absolute,
concrete, palpable assurance it affords of Jehovah's
permanent
presence among his people as the supreme bliss
of
the future.61 He is sacramental in the profoundest sense
of
the word. Consequently it cannot be indifferent which
59 The Maccabaean reference is, even in the case of Ps. cx. where
it
might seem to be most plausible, rejected by Gunkel, Ausgewaahlte
Psalmen, p. 223. Cfr. Sellin, Der Alttestamentliche Prophetismus,
pp.
168,
169.
60 The Book of Psalms in Sacred
Books of the Old and New
Testaments, 1898, p. 164:
"The Messiah is the speaker, and the whole
Psalm
is composed in his name . . . the Messiah is the incarnation of
matters
little whether we say, that
we
cannot agree with the clause "It matters little," for, as above
stated,
the
Messiah has his whole significance in this, that he stands as the
God-given
pledge of
become
itself the Messiah would be thrown back upon itself, and the
whole
concept would be useless. Baethgen. Die Psalmen,3 p. 4 well ob-
serves
that while the name "son" might fittingly apply to
can
not be said of the title "king (over
61 Cfr.
Cheyne, Origin,
pp. 338, 340.
34 THE
of
the two is considered the prius, the Messiahship of the
people,
or that of the eschatological King. There is in this
respect
a difference between the joint-application of the idea
of
sonship to
application
of the idea of Messiahship to the same two
subjects.
In regard to the sonship, the sonship
of
comes
first in order of revelation; in regard to the Messiah-
ship
the anointed character of the Davidic heir has the pre-
cedence.
The
question involuntarily occurs whether such a close
religious
embrace as seems indicated by the facts is con-
ceivable with regard to a mere concept, a person
purely
seen
through the medium of futurity. To speak of the pre-
existence
of the Messiah in the Psalms may sound pre-
posterous in many critical ears, but there is no
escape from
the
force that draws in that direction, once the actual occur-
rence of the individual Messianic figure in the
Psalter is
recognized.
The Messiah leads, as it were, a mysterious
life,
that is somehow woven into the life of his people.
After
all those who place the Psalter in so late a period,
have
least reason to ridicule such a view. Will it not
be
necessary to assign to a date older than most of the
Psalms
the mysterious statement of Micah according to
which
the "goings forth" of the great coming ruler in
are
"from of old, from everlasting"?63 If we might as-
sume that in this way the Messiah, apprehended as a
present
reality,
played a vital part in the piety of the Psalmists, this
would
furnish another illustration of the penetrating sub-
62 The analogy of the
collective "Servant of Jehovah" in Isaiah is
often
quoted to support the collective Messiahship of
Israel. But this
would
be an analogy only if the individual idea of the Servant were
entirely
absent from these prophecies, as Giesebrecht and
others
contend.
Criticism, however, seems to be well on the way of receding
from
this extreme position. And, if "the Servant of Jehovah" be
both
individual and collective, and the two closely united, the
individual
Messiah will have to be recognized in the Psalter also, and
that
in close union with the people in order to make a true parallel
with
Isaiah. Cfr. Sellin, Das Ratsel des deuterojesajanischen Buches,
1908.
Gressmann, Ursprung, pp. 301, 333.
63 Mic.
v. 2.
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 35
jectivity with which the truth of revelation is
appropriated
here
and enable us to feel more strongly than at any other
point,
how profoundly at one the Christian's Messianic ori-
entation of faith is with that of those who could
say: "Be-
hold
0 God our shield, and look upon the face of thine
Anointed."64
In concluding our rapid survey of
the eschatology of the
Psalter,
a few words may be added in regard to its prac-
tical bearing on present-day conditions in the
religious and
social
world. Perhaps our study of the Psalms can be of
some
help to us in taking our bearings in the midst of the
loud
and universal demand for what is called "reconstruc-
tion." It cannot be denied that the
eschatological teaching
of
the Psalms, and Old Testament eschatology in general,
bear
a certain striking resemblance to the desires and ideals
of
this eminently modern drift of life. In the Psalter we
meet
not only with the conception of a reconstruction of
things
on the grandest of scales, but this is actually pro-
jected on the stage of earthly existence. Here, then,
an
opportunity
is afforded for testing, and, if necessary, cor-
recting the ends and methods with which the
modern move-
ment for world-reconstruction occupies itself. This
is all
the
more timely, since the Church herself is invited to lend
a
helping hand in the making over of things, and to let
herself
be registered as one of several coequal and coopera-
tive forces making ready for this gigantic
enterprise. Now
it
is plain from the eschatological teaching of Scripture in
general
and from the Psalms in particular, that the Church
has
already in advance an outlook and a program towards
an
absolute and ideal future, which is governed by certain
distinct
and definite principles, to such a degree bound up
with
her very essence of belief, that to ignore these prin-
ciples or to cease insisting upon them in any line of
altruistic
work,
would mean self-abdication and disloyalty to her
charter
as the
principles
is that the end of existence for all things lies in
64 Ps. lxxxiv. 9.
36 THE
God,
and that, therefore, to religion must be assigned the
highest
place in every ideal condition contemplated as a goal.
It
is the special function of the Church to speak unceasingly
and
unfalteringly for this one supreme aspect of the future
world,
to insist in season and out of season that in it God
and
the service of God are to the highest good and satis-
faction
of mankind, that without which all other desirable
things
will lose their value and abiding significance. To
work
for the amelioration of the world without putting at
the
top of its program the bestowal upon this world of the
baptism
of religion as the primal requisite, should be im-
possible
for the Church so long as she retains a clear con-
sciousness of her own specific calling. Nor is this
merely
one
or the foremost of the tasks of the Church, it is in such
a
unique sense her "business," that every other activity in
order
to legitimatize itself as a church-function should be
able
to prove its vital connection, direct or indirect, with the
service
of God and of religion as her one unique mission
in
the world. For the Church to indulge in the advocacy of
social
and economic programs, without taking the time or
the
trouble of deriving these from her religious root-con-
sciousness, and subordinating them to the glory of
God, is a
precarious
undertaking, not only because in so doing the
Church
would speak without authority, but also because by
every
form of experimentizing in such a field she endangers
the
authority, which within the sphere of strictly-religious
principles
is properly hers. Undoubtedly the Church even
so,
will do her royal share in making the world better, and
that
more effectually than she could possibly do in any other
way.
The by-product of the genuinely-religious activity
will
be more abundant and more valuable, than any scheme
to
substitute it for the main product could possibly make it.
For
the Church, to keep this in mind is not to be indifferent
to
the lesser and secondary needs and distresses of mankind;
it
is in reality to obey the conviction that in no other way
her
deep solicitude for the sinful world, and the resources
she
carries within herself for its healing, can be successfully
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 37
brought
to bear upon it. There can be no doubt that the
Church
owes the success with which in the past she has con-
tributed to the progress of the world in
civilization to her
fidelity
to this fundamental principle and the self-limitation
it
imposes upon her; through it mainly she has become and
remained
the antiqua mater out of whose blessed womb
the
liberties and reforms among mankind have been born
and
reborn. When measured by this standard of a
genuinely-religious
and God centered consciousness, it will
have
to be confessed that, taken as a whole, the modern
reconstruction-movement
is sadly deficient. It appears to be
more
humanistic than religious, to derive its motives and
ideals
from man rather than from God. In the vision of
the
land to be reached there seems to be little of the wor-
ship
and enjoyment of him who is the center of every hope
worth
cherishing for man. God is enthroned but seldom
in
these Eutopian palaces. And the fear is not
altogether
groundless,
that the Church, in her pragmatic desire to
accomplish
concrete and speedy results, has opportunis-
tically fallen in line with such humanitarian
efforts, and for
the
moment waived the consciousness of her unique and
privileged
position, as voicing the specific claims of God upon
the
service of man. A compromise of this kind born from
opportunism
is serious enough; far more serious would the
situation
be, if internal doubt as to the reality or primacy
and
efficacy of the God-ward side of religion within the
consciousness
of professed Christians should underlie this
tendency.
That would mean not merely the death of
religion
as such, but would result in the utter sterility, so
far
as lasting, deeper results are concerned, of all uplifting
work
conducted in its name. Christianity can make the
world
better in the sign of religion; that standard abandoned
she
will not only fail of success, but face actual defeat.
The second principle with which the
biblical prospect of
a
better order of affairs is inseparably bound up is that
of
supernaturalism. The Psalter expects the marvelous
future
from no other source or cause than a God who only
38 THE
doeth
wonders. Whatever there may be in it of teaching and
learning
and meditating upon the law, these human en-
deavors or performances are not credited with
bringing on
the
world-change. It is not through evolution from be-
neath, but through descent and theophany
and interposition
from
above, that the face of the earth is to be renewed. The
comparison
with and the appeal to the supernatural past
is
sufficient proof of this. That the help of man is vanity is
a
conviction deeply inwoven into the consciousness of
the
Psalmists.
Their true help is in the name of Jehovah
who
made heaven and earth. Here again a sad difference
is
to be observed between this frame of mind, and that in
which
much of the reconstructive effort of the present time
is
being applied. The latter often cherishes a most doctri-
naire and tenacious belief in the inherent and endless
per-
fectibility of human nature, a humanistic optimism
which
manages
to thrive, no one knows how, in the face of the
most
discouraging circumstances. It is a faith and has
some
of the noble characteristics of faith, its imperviousness
to
discouragement, its sovereign indifference to obstacles,
its
resiliency under apparent defeat, but it is after all a
faith
in man rather than in God, and since faith in the last
analysis
can be glorified only through its object, it lacks
the
supreme glory of the faith of Christianity. It cannot
overcome
the world, because it has its resources in the world
itself.
Even much of its unshakable confidence in man is
due
to this that it feels itself shut up within the sphere of
the
purely-human, and so tied down to man and his natural
potentialities,
that to doubt of man would mean to despair
of
itself and its own mission. And unfortunately at this
point
also there is observable a certain tendency in the pro-
cedure of the Church to bend and lend itself to this mode
of
thinking. Some of its educative and reformatory work
does
not at least scorn the appeal to it as a motive force ,and
gives
the impression, if not by direct avowal, at least in-
directly
and through the assent of silence, that much can be
made
of man, if only his better nature is cultivated and his
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 39
environment
improved and his evil propensities repressed.
True,
this may seem a mere matter of temporary accommo-
dation, an innocent shifting of the emphasis. Even as
such,
however,
it is serious enough. The idea of God and his
indispensable,
all-determining part in the transformation
of
the world, and central place in the world as transformed,
is
not a thing that, like some secondary factor, can be for a
while
ignored or neglected with impunity. The Christian
who
allows himself to be drawn into this mode of thought,
can
not escape in the end having his whole religious con-
sciousness deflected by it from its original and
proper
center.
A dualism which reckons with God in the inner
life
of the soul and takes no account of Him in its outward
activities
for reclaiming others, is in the long run impossible.
Moreover,
the tendency in question minimizes and virtually
denies
the fact of sin as the primal element in the situation
to
be met. The slighting of the thought of God has for its
inevitable
correlate the weakening and ultimate loss of the
specific
consciousness of sin. But, serious as all this may
be,
there is sometimes reason to fear that the things en-
umerated are not simply consequences of a drift
of thought
superficially
followed, but are the deeper-lying causes of
an
inclination to fall in with the drift. The humanitarian
movement
in its most pronounced and specific form, not
seldom
has for its background a weakened or tottering
faith
in the dependableness of God and the supernatural.
Where
this shows itself the Church should be on her guard.
lest
by countenancing it she deny herself and her Master
and
renounce the most precious heritage of power she has
received
from Him. To withdraw herself from participating
in
such action is not abandonment of the world to itself;
it
is the simple refusal to encourage a huge system of
quackery,
and, that, if for no higher reasons, in the interest
of
sinful, suffering humanity itself.
Finally the third lesson to be
learned from the eschatology
of
the Psalter is the importance of the strand of other-
worldliness
in our Christian thought-fabric and love-service
40 THE
with
reference to the future. It might seem, to be sure, as
if
the Psalter were ill-adapted to instruct us here, because
its
own outlook is confined to the earthly state, because
while
expecting another world-order, it postulates no other
milieu
for this than the terrestrial one already known. And
so
it might seem as if both the Psalter and Old Testament
eschatology
in general lent real support to the view that it is
this
lower earthly sphere, that must be transformed, and
that,
leaving the question of a higher sphere to itself, the
Christian
can be contented with directing his reclaiming
effort
to it alone. But this is only apparently so, and the
Psalter
is, of all biblical books, the best adapted to correct
this
impression, because it gives us a glimpse not merely of a
higher
future world objectively, but gives us a glimpse of
the
subjective psychological process by which the revelation
of
such a higher world was carried home to the minds of
the
Psalmists, and consequently of the depth to which it is
rooted
in the very heart of the religious consciousness itself.
It
was because they could not conceive of the communion
between
themselves and their God as other than endless, that
the
Psalmists projected it into a future life. It was the
challenge
of death flung into the face of religion that led
to
this supreme victory of faith. It was this that opened the
gates
of brass and broke the iron bars in sunder. Thus
religion
reached the consciousness of the inadequacy of the
present
life to meet its most instinctive and deepest de-
sires,
and threw its anchor into the greater, eternal beyond.
And
from that moment onward there could be no more
doubt
as to where the emphasis in biblical religion would
finally
lie. The New Testament has, of course, added to
this
the clearer and more principal knowledge, that not
merely
will God not withdraw himself from the believer in
death,
but that first on the other side of death the perfectly
normal
and satisfying, the true life can begin. It has
brought
life and immortality to light in their most positive
self-evidencing
aspect. This revelation is so rich and over-
whelming;
it shows such a tremendous disproportion be-
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 41
tween what religion can mean and bring to us here,
and
what
it will mean and bring to us hereafter, that merely to
believe
it is bound to make other-worldliness the dominating
attitude
of the Christian mind. This is so much the case
that
the slightest shifting of emphasis here may justly be
considered
the symptom of some religious abnormality.
The
gauge of health in the Christian is the degree of his
gravitation
to the future, eternal world. The Christian
train
of thought in this respect is the reversal of that of
the
Old Testament: the eternal is not so much a prolonga-
tion of the temporal, but the temporal rather an anticipa-
tion of the eternal. And what is true of life is
true of the
ministering
and self-propagating function. The Church
of
Christ in all its complex service to the world can never
forget
that its primary concern is to call men into and pre-
pare
them for the life eternal. Now, if one compares
these
obvious facts with the spirit in which the modern
humanitarian
movement estimates this life and the future
life
in their relative importance, it can not be denied, that
the
Christian point of view is not only not always consist-
ently maintained, but that sometimes it is openly
scorned and
rejected.
The taunt of the masses, who feel themselves dis-
criminated
against in the treasures and comforts of this
world,
is that religion seeks to reconcile them to their spoil-
ing of the present with the promise of an illusory
or at best
doubtful
future. The temptation is strong to overcome this
prejudice
through giving greater prominence to the secular
advantage
connected with the Christian life and promoted
by
Christian activity. There is some warrant for this, for
we
are taught that godliness is profitable unto all things,
having
promise of the life that now is and of that which is to
come.
At the same time the danger should not be underes-
timated that out of this strategic concession to
the demand of
the
age, may spring an actual compromise with the spirit that
would
secularize and terrestrialize Christianity as to its
essence.
Leaving for a moment higher things out of
account,
it is obvious that from the Christian standpoint no
42 THE
greater
injury can be done to the true progress and healing
of
humanity in this present evil world than to make it
promises
and offer it remedies which have no vital connec-
tion with the hope of eternal life. For this hope
alone can
in
the long run feed and keep flowing every stream, of
altruistic
activity that deserves the name of religion. The
life
of this earth as a mere passing episode in time is not
worth
the aeonian toil expended upon it. Precisely be-
cause
the Christian other-worldliness is inspired by the
thought
of God and not of self, it involves no danger of
monastic
withdrawal from or indifference to the present
world.
The same thirst for the divine glory which is the
root
of all heavenly-mindedness, also compels the consecra-
tion of all earthly existence to the promotion of
God's king-
dom.
Here also the by-product cannot continue, if the main
object
of pursuit is lost sight of or neglected. But, what is
most
serious of all, the vanishing of the belief in the
transcendent
importance of the world to come would most
surely
spell the death of the Christian religion itself.
Whatever
may have been possible under Old Testament
conditions,
in the beginnings of revelation, it is absolutely
impossible
now with the New Testament behind us to con-
strue a religious relationship between God and man on
the
basis
of and within the limits of the present life alone. A
religion
which touched only the little span of consciousness
between
birth and death would be a pseudo-religion and
its
God a pseudo-God. A God who treated the fugitive
generations
of the race as so many passing acquaintances,
content
to see them afloat in and float out of the luminous
circle
of his own immortal life, could not continue to evoke
the
worship of his creatures. Pagan cult He might receive,
but
Christian service not. Men would become, and in a
far
more tragic sense than the Psalmist meant it, strangers
and
sojourners with Him. The Psalter bears eloquent
witness
to the truth that a hope of indefinite perpetuation
for
the collective body is not enough. It requires the as-
surance of the eternity of religion in the
individual soul to
ESCHATOLOGY OF THE
PSALTER 43
secure
the permanence of religion as such. The Psalmists
had
their faces set towards this and through wrestlings
of
prayer
with Jehovah won their way to the light. The
modern,
humanistic movement prefers to cultivate the
secular
and earthly in part because it has come to doubt the
heavenly
and eternal; its zeal for the improvement of the
world
often springs not from faith, but from scepticism.
The
Church by compromising and affiliating with this
would
sign her own death-warrant as a distinct institution.
When
religion submerges itself in the concerns of time and
becomes
a mere servant of these, it thereby renders itself
subject
to the inexorable flux of time. Kronos has eaten
all
his children and he will not spare even this noblest of
his
offspring, once it passes wholly into his realm and
closes
behind itself the doors of eternity. On the other
hand,
in a pure and firm eschatological conviction, which
keeps
eternal hopes and interests well to the front, lies the
safeguard
and pledge of the perpetual vigor of Christianity.
It
cannot lose its youth here, because it knows eternal youth
is
promised in the hereafter. Through faith in this promise
alone
it defies the attrition of time and history. Its es-
chatology is its greatest religious glory, for in
this the
Church
expresses her faith in a future when all the
accidents
and externals of religion shall drop away, a great.
purging
of the world-stage, which shall leave only the per-
fect and ripe fruitage of all God's intercourse with
man
from
the beginning. The Gospel of the life to come is the
Gospel
of a Church sure of herself and her own endless
destiny.
No other creed can bring it, and the Christian
Church
can bring nothing less. In it lies the believer's own
portion
and it is the only portion he should think it worth
while
to offer to a spiritually empoverished and starving
world.
It is moreover the portion which has the promise
that
all other things shall be added to it.
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