Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 305. David and the Psalms

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 305. David and the Psalms


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II



David and the Psalms



No problem seems so easy, and few are in reality so difficult, as that of determining the ultimate origin of the individual psalms. Many of the superscriptions seem to contain information, as precise as it is welcome, with regard to the origin and occasion of the psalms to which they are attached. But it is quite certain that the superscriptions are not original and integral to the psalms themselves, for the superscriptions of the Greek version do not quite agree with those of the Hebrew; sometimes they assign to David (cf. Psa_95:1-11) or to other authors (for example, Haggai and Zechariah; cf Psa_146:1-10) a psalm which is anonymous in the Hebrew; and sometimes they add information which is not warranted by the Hebrew text (cf. Psa_144:1-15, where to “David” the Greek version adds “touching Goliath”). The Syriac version again differs both from the Greek and from the Hebrew. Had the titles been original to the psalms, such variety would have been impossible. Therefore it is fair to conclude that the titles are no part of the psalms, but were added afterwards. The time when they were added cannot be exactly determined. Some would be prefixed at the time of the earlier compilations, others when the collections were made. Several of the titles in the LXX show, what one or two psalms in the Hebrew exhibit, a combination of inconsistent traditions as regards both author and occasion. As a whole, the titles represent an early but far from contemporary tradition, and are for the most part uncritical in character.



Further, the superscriptions are sometimes at variance with the explicit statements of the historical books. A curious illustration of this is found in Psa_34:1-22, whose superscription calls the Philistine king before whom David feigned madness Ahimelech instead of Achish (1Sa_21:14). Again, the superscriptions are sometimes at variance with the contents of the psalms themselves. For example, Psa_59:1-17 contemplates a situation in which certain cruel and blasphemous men go about the city, whereas the superscription assigns it to the occasion when David's house was watched by Saul's emissaries. In the same psalm, the enemies of the singer are described as the nations, that is, the heathen.



By the titles seventy-three psalms are assigned to David, the principal groups being Psa_3:1-8; Psa_4:1-8; Psa_5:1-12; Psa_6:1-10; Psa_7:1-17; Psa_8:1-9; Psa_9:1-20; Psa_10:1-18; Psa_11:1-7; Psa_12:1-8; Psa_13:1-6; Psa_14:1-7; Psa_15:1-5; Psa_16:1-11; Psa_17:1-15; Psa_18:1-50; Psa_19:1-14; Psa_20:1-9; Psa_21:1-13; Psa_22:1-31; Psa_23:1-6; Psa_24:1-10; Psa_25:1-22; Psa_26:1-12; Psa_27:1-14; Psa_28:1-9; Psa_29:1-11; Psa_30:1-12; Psa_31:1-24; Psa_32:1-11; Psa_33:1-22; Psa_34:1-22; Psa_35:1-28; Psa_36:1-12; Psa_37:1-40; Psa_38:1-22; Psa_39:1-13; Psa_40:1-17; Psa_41:1-13 (omitting 10 and 33) and 51-70 (omitting 66 and 67). In the LXX the number is somewhat larger, the title “to David” being added to fourteen more (including 93-99 Heb.), but omitted in some MSS from three or four others. The following special occasions are named in the Hebrew titles: 3, when he fled from Absalom; 7, concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite; 18, when Jehovah delivered him from his enemies and from Saul; 30, at the dedication of the House; 34, when he changed his behaviour before Ahimelech; 51, after his rebuke by Nathan; 52, when Doeg denounced him to Saul; 54, when the Ziphites betrayed his hiding-place; 56, when the Philistines took him in Gath; 57, when he fled from Saul, in the cave; 59, when Saul's messengers watched the house to kill him; 60, after the defeat of Edom in the Valley of Salt; 63, in the wilderness of Judah; 142, when he was in the cave.1 [Note: H. A. White, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, i. 571.]



1. It may be questioned whether the Hebrew phrase rendered “Psalm of David” was originally intended to imply authorship, though undoubtedly this must have been the view taken by the time the historical notices, which appear chiefly in the second book, were added. But there are cases where the idea of authorship is altogether excluded by the simple fact that the psalm is assigned not to a man but to a guild, namely, the sons of Korah, that is, the Korahitic guild of temple-singers (cf. 42-49). The psalms so superscribed form a collection which, for some reason that we are left to infer, was associated with this particular guild. In other words this title, together with the kindred title “Psalm of Asaph,” appears to be a liturgical designation, the clue to which is now lost. Possibly the title “Psalm of David” is to be similarly explained, especially as it is often accompanied by the certainly liturgical direction rendered “For the Chief Musician” in our English Bibles, and the Hebrew preposition rendered by “of” and “to” is in both cases the same. It is easy, of course, to see why later ages should have believed in David as the author of the psalms with which his name, for whatever reason, was associated. He was known to be a great minstrel and poet (cf. 2Sa_1:1-27), an ardent worshipper of Jehovah, and earnestly bent upon building Him a temple; and so he not unnaturally came to be regarded not only as the father of religious song, but as the composer of much of the Psalter.



But the majority of the psalms ascribed to David cannot be his; for (1) many are of unequal poetical merit, and, instead of displaying the freshness and originality which we should expect in the founder of Hebrew psalmody, contain frequent conventional phrases (e.g. Psa_6:1-10; Psa_31:1-24; Psa_35:1-28; Psa_40:13 ff.), and reminiscences of earlier psalms, which betray the poet of a later age. (2) Some have pronounced Aramaisms, the occurrence of which in an early poem of Judah is entirely without analogy, or other marks of lateness. (3) Others have stylistic affinities with psalms which, upon independent grounds, must be assigned to an age much later than that of David: though the alphabetical arrangement (Psa_9:1-20; Psa_10:1-18; Psa_25:1-22; Psa_34:1-22; Psa_37:1-40; Psa_145:1-21), for instance, cannot be proved to have been unused as early as David's day, the known examples of it are much later (Lam_1:1-22; Lam_2:1-22; Lam_3:1-66; Lam_4:1-22, Pro_31:10-31); and at least Psa_25:1-22; Psa_34:1-22; Psa_37:1-40; Psa_145:1-21 are shown by their general tone and style to belong to the later products of Hebrew poetry. (4) Many are unadapted to David's situation or character. (5) Not infrequently also the psalms ascribed to David presuppose the circumstances or character of a later age. Psa_69:35 f. implies an approaching restoration of Jerusalem and Judah; Psa_68:4 (“Make a highway for him that rideth through the deserts”) points to the same historical situation as Isa_40:3; Psa_22:27-30; Psa_65:2; Psa_68:31; Psa_86:9 presuppose the prophetic teaching (Isa_2:2-4, etc.) of the acceptance of Israel's religion by the nations of the earth.



Many also of the same psalms, it is difficult not to feel, express an intensity of religious devotion, a depth of spiritual insight, and a maturity of theological reflection, beyond what we should expect from David or David's age. David had many high and honourable qualities: he was loyal, generous, disinterested, amiable, a faithful friend, a just and benevolent ruler; and the narrative in the Books of Samuel show that his religion elevated and ennobled his aims, and, except on the occasion of his great fall, exerted a visible influence upon the tenor of his life. Still, as we should not gather from the history that he was exposed to quite such a succession of trials and afflictions as are represented in the psalms ascribed to him, so we should scarcely gather from it that he was a man of the deep and intense spiritual feeling reflected in the psalms that bear his name. Every indication converges to the same conclusion, namely, that the “Davidic” psalms spring, in fact, from many different periods of Israelitish history, from the time of David himself downwards; and that in the varied moods which they reflect-despondency, trouble, searchings of heart, penitence, hope, confidence, thankfulness, exultation-or the various situations which they shadow forth-distress, sickness, oppression or persecution, deliverance-they set before us the experiences of many men and of many ages of the national life.



2. On the other hand, a real basis of fact seems to underlie the Jewish tradition which links the beginnings of psalmody with David. David was first introduced to Saul as a minstrel; as a deviser of musical instruments he is named in Amo_6:5. The Lament over Saul and Jonathan, a secular song, reveals to us David's poetic power; as a composer of sacred poems he appears in the appendix to Samuel (2Sa_22:1-51; 2Sa_23:1-7) and in Chronicles (esp. 1Ch_16:7-36). How much older this representation may be it is hard to say; but it points to a tradition that David was the father of Hebrew psalmody, and it would be rash to deny the possibility that some psalms or portions of psalms of Davidic authorship are to be found in the Psalter. In the complex personality of David the emotional sensibilities that make the poet formed a rich element. He had a true genius for friendship, and celebrated the noblest of his friendships in immortal verse. But the soul that was knit in such bonds of tender affection was inspired by no less pure a passion for his God. His zeal for Jehovah led him to dance in prophetic ecstasy before the ark. And the same ardent enthusiasm can hardly have failed at other times to express itself in song. In this varied, many-sided, strangely-chequered life, with its startling vicissitudes, its religious aspiration and endeavour, its heights and depths of experience of good and evil-with its love of music and gift of lyric song-with the incitements to the use of that gift springing from the companionship of prophets like Samuel and Nathan, from the promises they gave, and the hopes they inspired for the future of the kingdom-can any one say that there is not abundant material for psalm-composition, or sufficient motive or skill to engage in it? Had the anointing to be king, the trials at Saul's court, the vicissitudes of the wilderness persecution, the bringing up of the ark, the promises of Nathan, the rebellion of Absalom, the sin with Bathsheba itself and the penitence that followed, no power in them to draw forth such psalmody?



It is allowed that for many centuries David had at least the reputation of being the founder of psalmody in Israel. In 2Sa_23:1 he is described as being “lovely (or pleasant) in Israel's songs of praise” (R.V.m.); 1Sa_16:18 describes his youthful skill upon the harp; 1Ch_23:5 and 2Ch_29:25 describe his introducing stringed instruments into the service of the sanctuary to accompany the psalms that were sung there. Neh_12:36 refers to “the musical instruments of David the man of God”; while Amo_6:5 shows that much earlier than this David's musical instruments had become proverbial. It was not, however, a mere association of David's name with instruments of music, as many modern critics assert. The word used in 2Sa_23:1 implies more than this, and the single illustration of the Lamentation in 2Sa_1:1-27 is enough to prove that David was no mere skilled musical executant. The early character of the tradition which constituted him “the sweet Psalmist of Israel” has been shown, and by the time that Heb_4:7 was written, and indeed long before then, the whole Psalter was called after him and recognized by the simple name “David.” Is it likely that he composed no sacred songs? If he did, is it likely that they all perished? The permanence of songs as literature is well known. The fragments contained in the early books of the Old Testament are an illustration of this. The care with which oral traditions of all kinds were handed on amongst the Jews and other Eastern nations is matter of history. But the memory is especially tenacious of poetry, of lyrical poetry more than of other kinds of verse, of sacred lyrics, especially when used in public worship and often repeated, most of all.1 [Note: W. T. Davison, The Praises of Israel, 42.]



3. It was the gracious thought of God to provide for His people a book of worship which should cultivate their personal association with Himself, and thus lift them out of sin and misery, and one that should abide through all time, more clearly understood and more highly prized with the advance of years. In order to accomplish this He first produced the men, appointed their circumstances of temptation and suffering, accompanied by such timely manifestations of His grace as should enable them to write psalms that would stir the hearts of men to their depths-psalms on the face of which genuineness should be inerasably stamped. David, the father of all who cultivated sacred song in Israel, He brought up from the pastures and sheepfolds, to wear a crown indeed, foreshadowing the Messiah, but to find no comfort or rest until he had been hunted like a wild beast through deserts and mountains, until he had passed through a furnace seven times heated in the treachery of his friends and the malignity of his enemies, until his own son, his pride and joy, had basely turned against him, and had driven him from his home and from the altars of God, until his heart had been wrung by the untimely and violent death of that son, whom in all his wickedness he had loved more than his own life, until a combination of great powers had threatened to wipe him and his children off the face of the earth. David, the author of a number of these psalms, so suffered that he might initiate for the world this truly Divine book.



The poets of Israel did not make their national heroes, however great, the subjects of their verse, or if they did, no works of this kind have come down to us. Designed to be the great teachers of a pure faith to men, chosen of God to speak His words, to utter the yearnings and the hopes of men's hearts towards Him, they were not suffered to forget this their higher vocation, or when they did, their words perished. Even the fame of Solomon could not secure for his thousand and five songs, which were probably merely of a secular kind, the meed of immortality. Hence it is that we have no Hebrew Poems on the life of David; and hence also it is that the perils and adventures through which he passed are not described in David's songs as they would have been by more modern poets. We are often at a loss to know to what particular parts of his history, to what turns and circumstances of his fortunes, this or that psalm is to be referred. Still it is impossible to read them and not to see that they are coloured by the reminiscences of his life.1 [Note: Bishop Perowne, The Psalms, vol. i. p. xxi.]