bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
"One can almost hear the tumult of joyful sounds, in which the roar of the multitude, the high-pitched notes of singers, the deeper clash of timbrels, the twanging of stringed instruments, and the hoarse blare of rams' horns, mingle in concordant discord, grateful to Eastern ears, however unmusical to ours. The religion of Israel allowed and required exuberant joy. It sternly rejected painting and sculpture, but abundantly employed music, the most ethereal of the arts, which stirs emotions and longings too delicate and deep for speech. Whatever differences in form have necessarily attended the progress from the worship of the Temple to that of the Church, the free play of joyful emotion should mark the latter even more than the former. Decorum is good, but not if purchased by the loss of ringing gladness. The psalmist's summons has a meaning still." - Alexander Maclaren (1828-1910), on Psalm 81
From: The Psalms: Volume 2: Psalms 39-89 by Alexander Maclaren (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1893), pp. 416-417.
From: The Psalms: Volume 2: Psalms 39-89 by Alexander Maclaren (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1893), pp. 416-417.
