The noble poetry of the Psalter has set from the
very beginning the devotional standard of Christianity ; and entered deeply into the liturgic and spiritual life of the Church.
But those who still use the Psalms and love them, and the other very considerable class of persons‘,who are moved by over- finiiliarity or indifference to ignore them, have as a rule but
the vaguest idea of the original meaning of these poems. or the purposes for which they were composed. In Homes of the Psalms (S.P.C.K., Os.) Mr. Stacy Waddy has illustrated from his intimate experience of Palestine; and from the results of Modern scholarship,- the relationship of the Psalms' to the religious and secular life of. the Hebrews, and also to the ritual worship of Judaism. Many of theM are now seen to be complete orders of service. Others are meant to be sung in pro- cession ; and necessary rubrical and even topographical direc- tions occur between the different sections of the song. Our translators, ignoring this, have frequQntly made nonsense of their text, e.g., in Psalm 84, where a description of the pro- cessional route to be followed is treated as a part of the poem, with confusing results. Nearly every page of Mr. Waddy's book, which is simply and freshly written and plainly a labour of love, makes us see the Psalter in this new light ; and thus reveals more beauty and meaning in familiar thing:.
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