A Puritan Preface to the
Scottish Metrical Psalter
Below is the text (with some modernisation of
spelling and punctuation etc.) of a letter to the reader affixed to an
edition of the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter printed for the Company of
Stationers at London in 1673. The title page bears the words: “The
Psalms of David In Meeter. Newly Translated and diligently compared with
the Original Text, and former Translations: More plain, smooth and
agreeable to the Text, than any heretofore.”
Good Reader,
’Tis evident by the
common experience of mankind, that love cannot lie idle in the soul. For
every one hath his oblectation [way of enjoyment] and delight, his
tastes and relishes are suitable to his constitution, and a man’s
temper is more discovered by his solaces than by any thing else: carnal
men delight in what is suited to the gust [taste] of the flesh, and
spiritual men in the things of the Spirit. The promises of God's holy
covenant, which are to others as stale news or withered flowers, feed
the pleasure of their minds; and the mysteries of our redemption by
Christ are their hearts’ delight and comfort. But as joy must have a
proper object so also a vent: for this is an affection that cannot be
penned up: the usual issue and out-going of it is by singing. Profane
spirits must have songs suitable to their mirth; as their mirth is
carnal so their songs are vain and frothy, if not filthy and obscene;
but they that rejoice in the Lord, their mirth runneth in a spiritual
channel: “Is any merry? let him sing psalms,” saith the
apostle (James 5:13). And, “Thy statutes have been my songs in the
house of my pilgrimage,” saith holy David (Ps. 119:54).
Surely
singing, ’tis a delectable way of instruction, as common prudence will
teach us. Aelian (Natural History, book 2, chapter 39) telleth us
that the Cretans enjoined their children to learn their laws by singing
them in verse. And surely singing of Psalms is a duty of such comfort
and profit, that it needeth not our recommendation: The new nature is
instead of all arguments, which cannot be without thy spiritual solace.
Now though spiritual songs of mere human composure may have their use,
yet our devotion is best secured, where the matter and words are of
immediately divine inspiration; and to us David's Psalms seem
plainly intended by those terms of “psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs,” which the apostle useth (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). But then
’tis meet that these divine composures should be represented to us in
a fit translation, lest we want David, in David; while his holy
ecstasies are delivered in a flat and bald expression. The translation
which is now put into thy hands cometh nearest to the original of any
that we have seen, and runneth with such a fluent sweetness, that we
thought fit to recommend it to thy Christian acceptance; some of us
having used it already, with great comfort and satisfaction.
Thomas
Manton D.D Henry
Langley D.D. John Owen
D.D.
William
Jenkyn
James Innes Thomas
Watson
Thomas
Lye Matthew
Poole
John Milward
John
Chester
George Cokayn Matthew Meade
Robert
Francklin Thomas
Dooelittle Thomas Vincent
Nathanael
Vincent John Ryther William
Tomson
Nicolas
Blaikie
Charles Morton Edmund
Calamy
William
Carslake James
Janeway
John Hickes
John
Baker
(The
letter to the reader affixed to an edition of the 1650 Scottish Metrical
Psalter printed for the Company of Stationers at London in 1673 was
published in The Presbyterian Standard.)
Several points ought
to be noted.
(1) The twenty-six
signatories make up a small galaxy of English Puritan divines, including
John Owen (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, author of a 7-volume
commentary on Hebrews and The Death of Death in the Death of Christ,
and possibly Britain’s greatest theologian), Thomas Manton (author of
some 20 volumes and “Mr. Thomas Manton’s Epistle to the Reader”
prefixed to many editions of the Westminster Standards), Matthew
Poole (famous Bible commentator), Thomas Watson (noted especially for
his oft republished sermons on the Westminster Shorter Catechism),
Thomas Vincent (author of The Shorter Catechism Explained from
Scripture), William Jenkyn (author of a fine commentary on Jude) and
Charles Morton (head of a Puritan academy and teacher of Daniel Defoe,
author of Robinson Crusoe).
(2) The names indicate
that Psalm singing is by no means an exclusively Presbyterian heritage,
for Episcopalians (Calamy) and Congregationalists (Owen and Meade) are
represented here.
(3) The Scottish
Metrical Psalter is not a mere paraphrase of the Word of God. It is a translation
from the Hebrew, as the 1673 edition declares on its title page:
“Newly Translated and diligently compared with the Original Text, and
former Translations.” The title page also declares its faithfulness
to the inspired Hebrew, for it is “More plain, smooth and
agreeable to the Text, than any heretofore.” To this the signatories
agree: “these divine composures [are] represented to us in a fit
translation … The translation which is now put into thy hands cometh
nearest to the original of any that we have seen ... that we thought fit
to recommend it to thy Christian acceptance.”
(4) Owen, Poole,
Vincent etc. have no truck with the notion that the Psalms speak
insufficiently of Christ and so are deficient for the church’s sung
praise. “The promises of God's holy covenant, which are to
others as stale news or withered flowers, feed the pleasure of [godly]
minds; and the mysteries of our redemption by Christ are their
hearts’ delight and comfort,” they write. “Joy,” they continue,
“must have a proper object so also a vent: for this is an affection
that cannot be penned up: the usual issue and out-going of it is by singing.”
Singing what? “They that rejoice in the Lord, their mirth runneth in a
spiritual channel: 'Is any merry? let him sing psalms,' saith the
apostle (James 5:13).” Clearly singing the Psalms is the vent
for the Christian’s joy in Christ’s redemption, which it could not
be if it spoke insufficiently of Him.
(5) The Puritan
signatories make a striking argument for Psalm singing from the new
nature of the elect, regenerate child of God. The new nature delights in
Psalm singing as a means of comfort, profit and spiritual solace. As the
Puritans declare, “surely singing of Psalms is a duty of such comfort
and profit, that it needeth not our recommendation: The new nature is
instead of all arguments, which cannot be without thy spiritual
solace.”
(6) A common criticism
of Psalm singing—that it is boring—is plain contrary to our Puritan
forefathers. Note the words they associate with singing the Scottish
Metrical Psalms: love, relishes, pleasure, hearts’ delight, joy,
affection, merry, profit, spiritual solace, devotion, fluent sweetness,
great comfort and satisfaction. As they say, "spiritual men
[delight] in the things of the Spirit."
(7) The decided opinion
of these Puritan worthies is that the “psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs” which we are commanded to sing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) refer to
the scriptural Psalter.
(8) Since, as Owen, Manton, Watson, etc., argue,
“our devotion is best secured, where the matter and words are of
immediately divine inspiration,” they “recommend [the Psalter] to
[our] Christian acceptance,” quoting James 5:13: “Is any merry? let
him sing psalms.”
