It is the voice of the great company of the holy
souls from the beginning of the world, on earth and beyond the veil.
It is with these that we recite our psalms, with these that we humbly
associate ourselves, it is their righteousness that we seek to make our
own, for it is the righteousness of Christ.

And if the "I" of the Psalter is the {36} self-expression of the
Communion of Saints, still more is it the voice of the King of Saints,
the immaculate Lamb, in whose Name we offer our worship.

But there is still the problem of the Psalms of Imprecation. What can
we say of their apparent fierceness and vindictiveness, their
reflection of the stormy passions and bitter warfare of a primitive
age? There is much indeed that can be rightly urged, here, as in the
other Old Testament writings, from the point of view of the difference
between Hebrew modes of expression and our own, and from the
progressive character of revelation, much that may help to remove
prejudice and clear away apparent inconsistencies. But the larger view
of the Psalter as the book primarily of the Church is of still greater
importance. The imprecations of the Psalms, though expressed in so
vividly personal a manner, are no more personal than the protestations
of innocency. They express rather that age-long passion for
righteousness, that burning belief in a moral Judge of the world Who
must do right, which have always been the Church's saving salt among
the corruptions and indifference of the world. It is this spirit that
inspires them, rather than the thirst for {37} vengeance or the
vindication of self. They express the Church's belief that there is a
world-conflict ever proceeding between the cause of God, the cause of
truth and right, and the passions of men urged on by the powers of evil.

For lo, Thine enemies make a murmuring:
And they that hate Thee have lift up their head.
They have imagined craftily against Thy people:
And taken counsel against Thy secret ones.
(lxxxiii. 2, 3.)

Lay hand upon the shield and buckler:
And stand up to help me.
Bring forth the spear and stop the way
against them that persecute me:
Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
(xxxv. 2, 3.)

This sense of an irreconcilable conflict between the malignity of evil
and the will of God, between the carnal mind and that reflection of
God's will which He has implanted in the human conscience, is much to
seek in our own d