According to Mounsey, "A Song to David" and Smart's "Psalms" is an attempt to "Christianize" the Old Testament through writing an 18th-century psalter. However, the "Psalms" perform a secondary function: they allow Smart to relate to the suffering of David and to reinforce his own religious convictions by following his Biblical model. As part of Smart's "Christianizing" of the "Psalms", Jesus becomes a divine form of suffering, and Smart becomes further juxtaposed with his Biblical model as both praise God for Jesus's ultimate sacrifice and for the beauty of all creation. The "Hymns" and "Psalms" form their own sort of liturgy and attempt to reform Anglican liturgy by emphasising God's place in nature.