The Gradual Psalms: a Treatise on the Fifteen Songs of
Degrees. By the Rev. H. T. Armfield, M.A. (J. T. Hayes.)—Mr. Armfield gives us here a very complete work, for the preparation of which he has availed himself largely of the resources of Rabbinical learning, re- sources not by any means easy of access or of application when found. It speaks well for the thoroughness of the study at our theological colleges to find one of their teachers—Mr. Armfield is Vice-Principal of the Theological College of Salisbury—coming forth as the author of a book so full of matter, indeed so exhaustive. It begins with a very valuable and suggestive treatise on 1 Hebrew Interpretation," and then goes on to give a detailed account of the Gradual Psalms. The term " gradual" has been made the subject of no little controversy among commentators. It is represented in our Authorised Version by the term "Songs of Degrees." That they are so called from their struc- ture, the ideas in them mounting by a kind of climax ; that they refer to the "goings-up" for the repairing of the walls of Jeru- salem after the Captivity ; that they were sung by the travellers who came up to the three great yearly festivals ; that they bear reference to the "degrees" which the shadow of tho sun is said to have retraced on the dial when Hezekiah recovered from sickness, are some of the interpretations which have been suggested. But the best- supported view of the matter is certainly that they were psalms sung on the fifteen " steps " of the Temple. These steps seemed to have formed a sort of orchestra, near the great altar. With this interpreta- tion Mr. Armfield is inclined to combine another, which finds a special significance in the words " degrees " or " goings up," as signifying deliverances. He says :—" Songs of the Steps, I believe them to be ; songs of the sacred orchestra, sung with all possible majesty of instru- ment and of voice ; songs of a joy and trust that peep out even through the wail of the De Profundis ; songs not of this going-up or that, but, as the ancient Midrash pointed out, songs of the Deliverances which God anciently accomplished for the Jew, and not loss, songs of the Deliverances which God is accomplishing for the Christian." Each psalm is furnished with a full and close commentary. This must be studied by any one who would see how much may ho done for the interpretation and illustration of this book, which, as some one has said, all priests read so often, and of which most of them know so little. Mr. Armfield's is altogether a most valuable work.—We have a more popular treatise on the same subject, The Pilgrim Psalms, an Exposition of the Songs of Degrees, by the Rev. Samuel Cox (Daldy, Isbister, and Co.) Mr. Cox has adopted that view of the title of these Psalms (cxx.-cxxxiv.) which makes them songs sung by the travellers on their way to Jerusalem. This view has probably less in its favour than Mr. Cox supposes, but much that he takes occasion-to say has a value independent of the truth or error of this hypothesis. Generally this little volume may be said to have a practical and devotional object, and from this point of view Mr. Cox's comments are all that can be desired.--The Psalms, with Introductions and Critical Notes, Books 3 and 4 (Psalms lxxiii.-evi.), by C. Jennings and W. H. Lowe (Macmillan). This volume, it will be seen, does not reach as far as the Psalms that are the subject of the volumes previously mentioned. The most important part of the introduction is its discussion
of the question of authorship. The writers are evidently disposed to be per- fectly candid and just in their estimate of all critical arguments. We are, indeed, inclined to demur to the statement, made in relation to the supposed authorship of sundry Psalms by Asaph, the contemporary of David, that "for any one to place the name of so famous a man over his own compositions, without any qualifying statement to show that ho was not the Asaph, would be little less than a literary forgery?' Ancient feeling among the Jews, as well as among the Greeks and Romans, did not take the modern view of literary forgery," as it is now called. A man was thought to be doing honour to some poet or thinker to whom he conceived himself to owe his own inspiration, by placing that name over his own productiens. It was not that be- sought to pass them for what they were not, but rather that ho put them, as it were, under the protection of a greater name. The notes are very full and valuable, and executed in a spirit of genuine criticism.
—We cannot say so much for The Book of Psalms "of David, theKing and Prophet," by E. F. (Longmans.) Against the author's effort to set forth moro plainly the rhythmical structure of the Psalms we- have nothing to say. On the contrary, we quite appreciate the service- that he has done in thus bringing out their beauty. But his critical powers are evidently small. The first of the three essays which he has included in his volume attempts to prove the Davidic authorship of the whole Book of the Psalms, though the writer grudgingly concedes that "some were probably written by other authors." But what are we to. think of a writer who is not at all sure whether Psalm cxxxvii.—" By the waters of Babylon "—may not have been the work of David ? It may, he suggests, have been a prophecy. It is disheartening to find a man who has really taken pains to study his subject making such gra- tuitous difficulties. In one point certainly we are inclined to agree with "C. F.,"—that the distinction between the Elohistic and Jehoviaticz Psalms is often quite imaginary.
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