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THE DAVIDIC PSALMS

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wrote the Books of Chronicles-the words Mizmor le-David were taken to mean a Psalm written by David.

These Davidic Psalms occur mainly in the first and second collections. In the first collection every Psalm but four bears the Davidic superscription; in the second collection, out of twenty-two consecutive Psalms, eighteen are so superscribed. In the supplement to that second collection there is one. In the third collection, out of a total of sixty-one Psalms, seventeen are Davidic; but these do not form a group by themselves, and are perhaps the most indisputably post-Davidic of all the seventy-three. In their case, as Professor Robertson-Smith said, 'the only possible question for the critic is whether all these titles rest on editorial conjecture, or whether some of the Psalms exemplify the habit, so common in later Jewish literature, of writing in the name of ancient worthies.'

The Davidic Psalms in the first and second collections of the Psalter are in a somewhat different position. They were probably from the first collected together as Davidic Psalms, and perhaps the superscription which each one now bears separately formed originally a title for the whole group. But even in their case the value of the superscription is small. External and internal evidences of various kinds combine to make it excessively unlikely, either that David could have written such poems as these, or that these poems go back anything like as far as the Davidic age. I have briefly indicated in Part I (chapter x) how David's character and work became idealized in later ages, and how, known and celebrated in his own times as a famous singer and musician, he became regarded as the founder and framer of the national psalmody, just as Moses became regarded as the founder and framer of the national laws. Originally the words Mizmor le-David had probably a far closer reference to David as a musician than to David as a poet. Professor Robertson-Smith says rightly that though the old histories do not speak of David as a Psalm-writer, they dwell on his musical skill, and we are told how he danced and played before the ark as it was brought up with joy to Jerusalem. Dancing, music and song were in early times the united expression of lyrical inspiration, and the sacred melodies were still conjoined with dances at the time of the latest Psalms. We have every right, therefore, to conclude that the talents of Israel's most gifted singer were not withheld from the service of Jehovah, which king David placed high above all considerations of royal dignity. On the other hand, a curious passage of the Book of Amos, "They devise for themselves instruments of music like David," makes

David the chosen model of the dilettanti nobles of Samaria, who lay stretched on beds of ivory, anointed with the choicest perfumes, and mingling music with their cups in the familiar fashion of Oriental luxury. These two views of David as a musician are not irreconcilable if we remember that in old Israel' ('old' is inaccurate and unnecessary in this connexion, for in 'new' Israel it has ever been the same) 'religion was not separated from ordinary life, and that the gladness of the believing heart found natural utterance in sportful forms of unconstrained mirth. At a much later date chants for the Temple service were borrowed from the joyous songs of the vintage, and so it was possible that David should give the pattern alike for the melodies of the sanctuary and for the worldly airs of the nobles of Samaria. The sacred music of Israel was of popular origin, and long retained its popular type, and of this music David was taken to be father and great master. The oldest psalmody of the second Temple was still based on the ancient popular and Davidic model, and this seems to be the real reason why the oldest Psalm-book came to be known as "David's." The same name was afterwards extended to the other lay collection of " Prayers of David," while the collections that were formed from the first for use in the Temple were simply named from the Levitical choirs, or in later times bore no distinctive title.' The reference in this last sentence is to the fact that in the second collection eleven Psalms are superscribed 'Psalms for the sons of Korah,' and twelve as 'Psalms of Asaph.' The Korahites and Asaphites seem to have been two hereditary choir guilds, who traced their origin to their two Levitical ancestors. Further details on the subject can be read by the curious in Professor Robertson-Smith's delightful book, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church (p. 204, &c.). The only doubtful point in Professor Robertson-Smith's statements seems to be his description of the Davidic collections as emanating from laymen. I should be far more inclined to think that they too were formed by the superintendents and executants of the musical services at the Temple.

§ 4. Character and contents of the Psalter.-The titles and even the precise dates of the Psalms have only a minor interest from a religious point of view. From that point of view what interests us most and chiefly is the contents of the Psalter, those wonderful contents that have made it, as Dean Church has rightly said, the one unique book of sacred poetry, which has nothing like it or second to it.' 'It expresses,' he goes on to say, 'the ideas and feelings of a religion of which the central

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VARIETY AND GREATNESS OF THE PSALTER 429

and absorbing object of faith is One who is believed to be the absolute, universal, Living God, the one God of the world and all things, Almighty, All-Holy, Supreme. It not only expresses this religion, but, as a matter of fact, it has been one of the most certain means of maintaining unbroken the tradition or fullest conviction of it. From age to age this book has been its companion and its minister. And there is this to be observed about it. It has been equally and in equal measure the prayer-book of public and common worship, and the chosen treasury of meditation, guidance, comfort to the individual soul. To each of these two purposes, in many respects widely different, it has lent itself with equal suitableness; and it has been to men of the most widely different times and ideas [and races] what no other book has been. Whenever the Book of Psalms began to be put together, and whenever it was completed, from that time in the history of the world the religious affections and the religious emotions, the object of which was the one living God of all, found their final, their deepest, their unsurpassed expression. From that time to this there never has been a momentary pause, when somewhere or other the praises of His glory and the prayers of His worshippers have not been rehearsed in its words.' What the late Dean of St. Paul's has so well said at the opening of his fascinating lecture on the Psalms is true both of the Christian Church and of the Jewish Synagogue. The Jews have ever deeply loved and cherished their own great hymn-book, and they have found in it the adequate response and the satisfying expression for every spiritual aspiration and need, whether in times of sadness or in times of joy, whether as individuals or as a community. Nor can this intimate familiarity and abiding affection surprise What may more justly be called surprising is the wealth and variety of the hymnal itself. For in the Psalter we find almost every mood satisfied and cared for. Do we want to express our gratitude to God for deliverance and prosperity; do we want to pour forth our prayers to him in days of darkness and gloom; do we seek to strengthen our faith in his goodness, our conviction of his final and unquestionable wisdom; do we desire to praise him as the Lord of nature, to extol him as the Ruler of man; do we wish to utter aspirations for the coming of his kingdom upon earth, when all men shall know him as he on earth may best and most truly by us men be known;-where can we find another hymnal in which our would-be prayers, praises and aspirations are more movingly expressed, and on the whole more adequately satisfied, than in the Book of Psalms ? National in one sense as the Psalms may be, they nevertheless respond to the fundamental spiritual needs and yearnings of the human heart and soul; and even if the speaker in

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every Psalm were proved to be a personification of Israel or the community of believers, these very Psalms would be none the less suitable for individual_worshippers and for their own separate relation to the divine Father of all.

It is pleasant too to be able to believe that the Psalter was composed by many hands. It is a truly national book; with its strength and its weakness (for, like all things human, it is not perfect), a genuinely popular product. Here we find a great and notable result from the long teaching of the prophets and the lawgivers. Surely Jeremiah did not live and die in vain! For in the Psalter we find the community possessed by that complete faith in one supreme, spiritual God, all-holy, all-righteous, for which prophet and law-giver had laboured so earnestly and so long. And it is not the mere assertion that such a God exists which the Psalter contains; it is no mere cold intellectual belief which pervades it. This faith in the God of righteousness and mercy is a trust and a joy; it dominates life and gives to it its meaning. It sustains in trouble; it adds significance to prosperity. For even in trouble there may be peace if it is believed that God has sent it, and prosperity is spiritualized if God be the giver. In the Psalter communion with God is described in brief touches

of wonderful felicity. And this communion with its rapture is the response of the community to the prophetic teaching As a great scholar has finely said, if the highest words of the prophets are the revelation of God to man, the Psalter, with its prayer and praises, with its spiritual faith and spiritual joy, is the answer of man to God. And in the words of another distinguished scholar: In the Psalms the community answers to the demands imposed upon it by God in the Law, and confesses its faith in his promises. Thus the Psalms are the echoing response of the community to the Law and to the Prophets. To the divine command, Thou shalt,' it answers, 'Lord, I will, I have pleasure in thy statutes;' to the divine promises, it replies, 'Lord, I wait for thee.'

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Prophet and lawgiver had denounced idolatry; they had enjoined a belief in the one true God. The writers of the Psalter do not merely believe in God-that were but little-but to believe in him is their joy, to praise him is their privilege. With them the law is graven on their hearts. Within their limits they all know the Lord,' and to serve him is their delight. Nor are the highest aspirations of the prophets without their echo in the Psalter. All nations shall praise God, even as Israel praises him. As we have already heard in that pure lyric of universalism: Concerning Zion, it shall be said, each and every one was born in her.'

PROPHET, LAWGIVER AND PSALMIST

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§ 5. Arrangement of the present section.-We have seen that the Psalter, with its 150 separate Psalms, is made up of three distinct collections. Within each of these collections the order of the individual Psalms appears, as Professor Driver says, 'to have been often determined by accidental causes,' though sometimes 'the juxtaposition of two Psalms seems to be due to community of subject, and sometimes also to the occurrence in them of some more or less noticeable expression.' There are even certain small groups of consecutive Psalms in the three collections which can be more or less clearly distinguished through similarity of contents or subject-matter. Moreover, the three main collections themselves have upon the whole certain predominant characteristics of their own. I do not, however, propose in the selections which I shall give from the Psalter in this volume to follow the existing order, or to go through each of the original collections separately. I shall treat the Psalter as a whole, but group the Psalms according to a rough division of subjects. Only one group will be kept as it now exists: it is the group known as Songs of Degrees or Ascents, pilgrimage songs, probably written for worshippers who came up to Jerusalem at the great festivals or on other special occasions. Of the 150 Psalms I shall give about I20. But I shall not always quote all these Psalms in their entirety. I have said that the Psalter, as a great national and communal hymn-book, reflects not only what was best and greatest in the national and communal religion, but sometimes also its weaknesses and errors. Now we know that one weakness of the Jewish religion in this post-exilic period was its occasional narrowness of vision towards those who were beyond its pale, its fierceness of antagonism towards its enemies, whether within or without the community. This defect is reflected and expressed in the Psalter. Prayers for the ruin of enemies (apostates within or foes without) frequently accompany prayers for aid and deliverance. Curiously enough, these Psalms have often been favourites with pious warriors in all later ages. Where the Psalms are to be historically treated and their value critically assessed, all such passages must be taken into full and fair consideration. But my main object here is to present what is best and most permanent in the Psalter for religious and devotional purposes. Therefore I have occasionally omitted verses which lower the religious value and use of an otherwise noble and excellent Psalm. Let us gain as much as we can from the Psalter; let its greatness shine forth as purely as possible.

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