Standard edition of Luther's works Author:Martin Luther Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PSALMS The Name. In Hebrew there is no general name for the Psalms. Names of parts were applied to the whole. Thus Tephilloth, prayer-songs or prayers from Ps... more »alm 72:20; Tehil- lim, praise-songs, as the element of divine praise pervades all the Psalms; Shir, song, denotes the joyful song of praise; Mizmor, applied to 65 Psalms, means "to adorn to the Lord". The word Psalm is from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, from "psallein", to touch or strike a cord, to play, not to sing, except among those who took its usage from the Septuagint. Stringed music is the natural accompaniment of such poetry as proceeds from an immediate gush of feeling. The Contents, 1st. Here we are throughout on the territory of feeling and on strictly religious territory. 2nd. All the Psalms are Songs of Israel, appointed to be used in the services of the sanctuary. 3rd. They are such songs as had been composed under the special co-operation of the Holy Spirit. They do not present any new doctrine, they rest upon the Pentateuch, the historic Word of God, and are "the heart's echo to the spoken Word of God." Their value consists in that they give us an insight into the heart of the Old Testament saints and into the hidden wonders of the true religion. Their buoyancy and freshness, their simplicity, their consoling and elevating character, from Moses to Nehemiah, and the fact that they compose a part of the Word of God, give them a distinction above our church songs. Their Threefold Division, 1st. Psalms that proceed from a spirit chiefly moved and actuated by joy, in lively admiration of God and in gratitude for his goodness. 2nd. Psalms that proceed from a depressed and mournful frame of mind, variations of the "Lord, have mercy on us," which alternates with the hallelujah in the lives of t...« less