The literary excellence of the Psalms cannot be measured by the standard of Greek and Roman lyrics.  It is not seen in any of our present forms of metrical composition.  It is the mighty soaring of an exalted soul which makes the Psalms so dear to us, and not their artificial structure.  They were made to reveal the ways of God to man and the life of the human soul, not to immortalize heroes or dignify a human love.  We may not be able to appreciate in English form their original metrical skill; but it is impossible that a people so musical as the Hebrews were kindled into passionate admiration of them, had they not possessed great rhythmic beauty.  We may not comprehend the force of the melodic forms, but we can appreciate the tenderness, the pathos, the sublimity, and the intensity of the sentiments expressed.  “In pathetic dirges, in songs of jubilee, in outbursts of praise, in prophetic announcements, in the agonies of contrition, in bursts of adoration, in the beatitudes of holy bliss, in the enchanting calmness of Christian life,” no one has ever surpassed David, so that he was called “the sweet singer of Israel.”  There is nothing pathetic in national difficulties, or endearing in family relations, or profound in inward experience, or triumphant over the fall of wickedness, or beatific in divine worship, which he does not intensify.  He raises mortals to the skies, though he brings no angels down.  Never does he introduce dogmas, yet his songs are permeated with fundamental truths, and are a perpetual rebuke to pharisaism, rationalism, epicureanism, and every form of infidel speculation that with “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”  As the Psalter was held to be the most inspiring poetry in the palmy days of the Hebrew commonwealth, so it proved the most impressive part of the ritual of the mediaeval Church, and is still the most valued of all the lyrics which Protestantism has appropriated in the worship of God.  And how potent, how lasting, how valued is a good song!  The psalmody of the Church will last longer than its sermons; and when a song stimulates the loftiest sentiments of which men are capable, how priceless it is, how permanently it is embalmed in the heart of the world!  “Thus have his songs become the treasured property of mankind, resounding in the anthems of different creeds, and carrying into every land that same voice which on Mount Zion was raised in sorrowful longings or ecstatic praise.”

What a mighty power the songs of the son of Jesse still wield over the affections of mankind!  We lose sight at times of Moses, of Solomon, and of Isaiah; but we never lose sight of David.

     Such is the tribute which all nations bring,
     O warrior, prophet, bard, and sainted king,
     From distant ages to thy hallowed name,
     Transcending far all Greek and Roman fame! 
     No pagan gods thy sacred songs invoke,
     No loves degrading do thy strains provoke.