William S. Plumer

The Psalms are wonderful. They have been read, repeated, chanted, sung, studied, wept over, rejoiced in, expounded, loved and praised by God's people for thousands of years. The most ancient of these productions is now three thousand three hundred and twenty-six years old. The least ancient of them is two thousand four hundred and fifty-three years old. The difference in date between the most ancient and the most modern of them is eight hundred and seventy-three years. They were all written in Asia, so that we in this Western world can have no national pride respecting them. Yet pious people here and all over the earth have found and can find no compositions more suitable for delineating their devout emotions, and for expressing their pious sensibilities than those of inspired Psalmists. If to any man these songs are unsavory, the reason is found in the blindness and depravity of the human heart. Hengstenberg: "The Psalms are expressions of holy feeling, which can be understood by those only, who have become alive to such feeling." Other things being equal, he who has the most heavenly mind, will be the most successful student of the Psalms. - Introduction.

The word Theology means a discourse concerning God. The word itself is not found in the Scriptures. We have there "the word of God," "good doctrine," "sound doctrine," "form of doctrine," "doctrine of God," "doctrine of Christ," "form of sound words," "the Scriptures," and such like phrases. Theology is divinity, as a theologian is a divine. Theology treats of the being and perfections of God, of his relations to us, his purposes towards us, his promises made to us, his will concerning us, and the right way of pleasing him. We cannot learn theology from other sources, than those which God himself opens to our minds. These are the volume of nature and the volume of revelation. The volume of nature is made up of all God's works. What we learn from it is called Natural Theology. In studying God's works we make use of our reason and of all true science, searching out all that we may know. Natural Theology is the foundation of all true religion. David says, "The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world." Psalm 19:1-4. The other volume from which we learn theology is the Bible. This is the very word of God. 1 Thess. 2:13. It is the word of the living God, that abides forever. 1 Pet. 1:23. In this volume God makes himself known to us in a new and special manner for our salvation. It draws out at length many of the lessons of natural theology, and tells us very clearly many things which nature taught us but dimly. Its peculiar glory is that it teaches the way of salvation to sinners. What we thus learn is called Revealed Theology. - Publisher.