Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

was accompanied with notes, explaining the
Psalms in a Protestant sense, and, like a hand-post,
directing the readers eye to a Greater than David,
whose sufferings and resurrection and ascension to
heaven are gloriously celebrated in these Divine
odes. The Psalms soon displaced the ballads which
had been sung till then. They were heard in the
castles of the nobles; they were used in the
assemblies of the Protestants. While singing them
the worshippers saw typified and depicted the new
scenes which were opening to the Church and the
world, the triumph even of Messiah's kingdom, and
the certain and utter overthrow of that of his
rival.[8] Long had the Church's harp hung upon the
willows; but her captivity was now drawing to an
end; the fetters were falling from her limbs; the
doors of her prison were beginning to expand. She
felt the time had come to put away her sackcloth, to
take down her harp so long unstrung, and to begin
those triumphal melodies written aforetime for the
very purpose of celebrating, in strains worthy of
the great occasion, her march out of the house of
bondage. The ancient oracle was now fulfilled:
"The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come
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