Who said sing David's Psalms with David's spirit rather than David's harp?

[NaphtaliPress]

Anyone know where this saying derives? My use of it is from 1606 and goes, "do sing David's psalms not so much with David's harp, as with David's Spirit." Lewis Bayly has the directive in his practice of piety to remember to sing David's Psalms with David's Spirit but that is not quite this and dates to 1611 at the earliest in print.

 

[au5t1n]

Richard Rogers expressed the same sentiment, though I haven't found a harp reference. He's early enough for the date, though, so if you have his works, a search might be fruitful. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Many thanks. That's a good lead and a contemporary of my source. Chris

 

[MW]

Henry Smith, but no reference to David's harp (Sermons 2:152).

Interesting, Greenham mentions singing the Psalms with a merry heart is to sing with David's harp.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Maybe Bownd means David's physical harp and Greenham not?
What work by Smith?

 

[NaphtaliPress]

I say that because Bownd also adduces at one point Calvin's position on musical instruments as typical.

 

[MW]

Both references to the harp would be figurative. Greenham is referring to the affections; hence positive. I would say Bownde is speaking against the mere formal act of singing; hence negative.

Smith's reference is in the First Sermon on the Song of Simeon. Regrettably the 19th c. ed. has not been as thorough as other Puritan reprints and does not supply information on original printing.

 

[MW]

A quick search shows that the Sermons on the Song of Simeon appeared as early as 1592. "Sixe sermons preached by Maister Henry Smith at Clement Danes Church without Temple barre. VVith tvvo prayers of the same author hereunto annexed., Imprinted at London : by R[ichard]. F[ield]. for Robert Dexter, dwelling at the Brasen serpent in Paules Church-yard, 1592."

 

[NaphtaliPress]

1592 would be perfect date-wise but I'm thinking now given the variance that it had some common play and Bownd the author in question put his own spin on it. In fact he adds the "not so much with David's harp" in the 1606 edition while the rest traces to the 1595; thus reading originally in 1595, "do sing David's psalms as with David's spirit". I wonder if it traces to any church father?

 

[au5t1n]

I was actually thinking church father myself.

Sent from my XT557 using Tapatalk 2

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Matthew, do you have a reference for the Greenham; I'd like to track that down. Smith was a student of Greenham at Dry Dayton for a while and there was convinced of Puritan principles

Henry Smith, but no reference to David's harp (Sermons 2:152).

Interesting, Greenham mentions singing the Psalms with a merry heart is to sing with David's harp.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

N.B. It is not good for the likelihood of finding the original source when the query itself now is the first hit on Google.

 

[MW]

Chris, it is in his work on Psalm 119, at verse 92: "In a word are we merrie? here we may sing Dauids Psalmes to Dauids harpe." p. 446, 1612 ed.

 

[Matthew Willard Lankford]

Virginia is for Huguenots: Sing David's Psalms With David's Spirit

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Thanks to all. I think I've got this as far as I can without looking for a lot more needles in a lot more haystacks. I have not found anything in the fathers. As far as the English development, in Beza’s paraphrase of the psalms, which my author cites several times in his 1595/1606 work, the translator Anthony Gilby in his 1579 preface wrote, “… that God our merciful father, for His Christ's sake, would vouchsafe to grant you to read the Psalms of David, and to meditate them by the same spirit with David….” Theodore Beza, The Psalmes of David, translated Anthony Gilby (1590), preface. My author's rendering (less the bit about David's harp from his second edition of 1606) possibly may be the source for later similar sayings, perhaps deriving from Gilby or from the popular sermons of Henry Smith and/or reflect a commonplace admonition of the ‘godly’ (aka the puritans) of the period, who strongly advocated the singing of the Psalms. Smith, the famous nonconformist “silver-tongued” preacher began studies at Cambridge in 1573, but left and came under the teaching of Richard Greenham in his rectory seminary at Dry Drayton (Primus, Richard Greenham, p. 42–43). His sermons were very popular and reached a fourth edition by 1595. “Though you sing all David's Psalms over, and have not David's spirit, it profiteth nothing” (Henry Smith {c.1550–1591}, Sixe sermons preached by Maister Henry Smith (1592); The Sermons of Mr. Henry Smith {1866} 2.152). In a 1609 publication Richard Rogers (1551-1612?) writes “Of singing of Psalmes. How to carry our selves in singing of Psalmes.” “Sing David's psalms with David's spirit; sing with spirit and sing with understanding; regard that more than the tune.” Richard Rogers, A Garden of Spiritual Flowers (1609; 1630) g7v. In about 1612, seemingly borrowing directly from Rogers, Lewis Bayly (d.1631) would greatly popularize this sentiment in his Practice of Piety in “Rules to be observed in Singing of Psalms.” “Remember to sing David's psalms with David's spirit.” The Practice of Piety (first ed. c.1612?), fifty-third edition (London: 1719) 208.