AUTHORS

The book of Psalms is the largest collection of ancient lyrical poetry in existence. As part of the Bible, this poetry is of course religious; it expresses the emotions of believers as they are stirred by the thought of God and developments in the life of faith. The feelings of joy and pain, fear and security, triumph and tragedy, confidence and doubt, hope and despair are expressed with piety and reverence but honestly and boldly.

The reader is sometimes taken aback by the blunt and powerful words that the psalmists used. But these folk were often in life-and-death situations, attacked by ruthless and cruel enemies, betrayed by friends, or in natural dangers as they traveled the land. Because there was no lasting peace and no sense of security, life was a daily challenge. Yet they were convinced that the Lord reigned over the affairs of men, and so they rejoiced over the law of God as their guide.

Whenever the Lord demonstrated his sovereignty by direct intervention in their affairs, they praised him. When God’s intervention did not seem to be forthcoming, they lamented over their dilemmas and prayed more earnestly. When the affairs of life seemed unfair, they analyzed the wisdom of God’s decisions. But in every case they reaffirmed their hope in his loyal love and their commitment to serving him. That is why the works collected here became the prayer and hymnbook of the temple.

The superscriptions (those little notices that later editors of the collection added to the heads of some psalms to clarify the purpose of the pieces, their melody, or the performers) frequently include notations of authorship. About half the psalms are attributed to David with the brief prepositional phrase “of David.” Critical scholars, wishing to date most of the psalms to a much later period (at least the post-exilic period, if not the Maccabean period, (ca 150 BC), contend that this preposition (lamed) should be translated “for” rather than “of,” because that was its most frequent meaning. The passages would then be dedicated to David but written by others. Of course, many modern scholars simply write off the superscriptions as spurious additions. They may concede that David could have written a number of the psalms, but they say that most of the psalms were written much later and that even the Davidic compositions were heavily edited.

However, there is more than enough evidence to sustain the traditional view that David wrote at least half these psalms, and many of the others were written in the nation’s early period rather than later (although some psalms, such as Ps 126, were definitely post-exilic). First, Scripture attests that David was a singer of songs, a composer, and the primary organizer of temple music (2Sm 6:5; 1Ch 15:3-28; 16:4-43; 23:1-5). Second, the New Testament often cites passages from the Psalter and attributes Davidic authorship to them or uses his name in general for the whole collection. Third, the literary form of the psalms, with its parallelism and meter, common vocabulary, and use of verbal forms, finds identical use in the poetry of Canaan dating from some four hundred years before David. There is no reason to date the book of Psalms later on the basis of style and vocabulary. Fourth, there is ample evidence in the Bible (Hab 3:1) and outside the Bible (see the early Hebrew ostraca) to support the use of the preposition lamed as an indicator of the author or sender of a document.

Certainly, each psalm must be studied in its totality because the preposition can be used in different ways, even within the heading. But if the “lamed of authorship” stands, then we have the ancient traditions that Moses wrote Psalm 90, David wrote seventy-three of the psalms, Psalms 50 and 73–83 came from Asaph or his descendants, Heman the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 88, Ethan the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 89, and Solomon wrote Psalms 72 and 127. The rest are anonymous. At times the preposition is used to indicate that the psalm was “for the choir director” or to be sung by “the sons of Korah,” or for a number of other purposes. The psalms were written over the centuries, then, by different people, beginning with Moses (Ps 90) and culminating with those who returned from the captivity (Ps 126).

The many superscriptions to the psalms, whether notes of authorship, occasion, performance, or musical notations, may not have been part of the original composition. But they record the ancient traditions about the origin and use of the psalms and therefore may be taken seriously as part of the study of the collection.

A BOOK OF PRAISE

The collection is called the book of Psalms based on its Greek title. (A psalm is a composition sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments; the word is mizmor in Hebrew, psalmos in Greek.) The Hebrew title is the book of Praises, or more simply, Praises. This is most fitting for the collection because almost all the psalms include praise one way or another. Even lament psalms progress from prayer to praise, the praise often offered as a vow to be fulfilled in the sanctuary once God answered the prayer. The type of psalm indicates whether the praise is current or vowed; English translation cannot always clarify this.

Because the psalms capture the religious ideas of the Israelites, many of them were given over to the temple for use in the services. Accordingly, they often exult in the privilege of entering God’s courts and drawing near to His altar and celebrate the ordinances of the sanctuary ritual. Many of the psalms contain lines that formed the liturgy of the temple and later of the church. This function of the psalms, as well as their display of personal religious feelings, make them the most powerful expression of the worship of ancient Israel, both of individual piety and of communal celebration at the great festivals.

The psalms are written in a more concentrated form of discourse than other literary forms, with more consciously artistic elements—images, symbols, figures of speech, emotive vocabulary, and multiple meanings. Often the reader has to become familiar with the way their poetic discourse works in order to gain the full and intended meaning of the texts. Figurative language is used to express more than straightforward propositional statements can express, for it conveys both emotional and intellectual connotations and draws on the culture and history with allusions and references. To understand the psalms and their impact, one must try to live in that culture and sense Israel’s experience among pagan neighbors who usually sought to destroy them. Then one will better understand the hope of the psalms for the Lord to reign over all the nations and more greatly appreciate their praise for what the Lord has done.

Being a hymnbook, Psalms is filled with references to music and musical instruments. Some of these are in the superscriptions to the psalms; others are in the text, where the psalms themselves call for praise with all manner of instruments (some of which we know and some of which we do not). The reader must recognize that these are not simply contemplative poems to be studied but hymns and prayers to be sung and prayed. Accordingly, meter and musical accompaniment served to fix the words in the minds of the people more than any other form could do.

THE RELIABILITY OF THE PSALMS

Over the years, the book of Psalms has been approached in different ways. For a long while the psalms were studied for dogma without much consideration given to what they revealed about Israelite worship, even though they were sung in liturgical services. After the Reformation, with the development of higher criticism, studies began to appear that applied the same critical approach that was used for other books of the Bible, focusing on philology, poetic structure, and theological ideas; this led to dating the psalms much later. On the more traditional side, scholars tried to identify the historical settings out of which the psalms had come, even if there was little to go on.

In the early 1900s, form critical studies provided a somewhat more positive approach to critical studies, making the reader aware of ancient literary forms and their functions, especially in conjunction with the ritual acts of Israel’s worship. Form critical scholars also sought to determine the setting out of which each psalm grew, depending more on the form and function than on the occasional historical reference. Such an identification is not often possible. But the approach did distinguish types of psalms—laments, declarative praises, descriptive praises, royal psalms, pilgrim psalms, enthronement psalms, and wisdom psalms, as well as a number of others based on these. Many form critical scholars, however, have tried to trace the development of each psalm to its final form, a task that is probably impossible (there is no evidence) and certainly unnecessary (the final form of the text is the canonical text we study and expound). Attempts to decide what was written earlier and what came later in a psalm have not been convincing.

Modern studies have focused on the biblical theology of the psalms. The main theme running through the collection is the reign of the Lord and how that reign is established over all creation. The praises of Israel celebrate every step in the establishment of that reign; they pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Within the psalms the hope of the great coming King begins to take shape, not often, but rather dramatically in places. Thus, the psalms not only express the faith of ancient Israel as it sought to live in this world but also point to the One who would perfectly fulfill the divine Word and establish the kingdom of God.

For the Christian who reads the psalms, many of the passages about the kingdom speak clearly of the person and work of Jesus the Messiah. Moreover, many psalms point to him as indirect prophecies of his suffering, death, and resurrection or as appropriate descriptions of his obedient life in the midst of enemies. Many of these so-called messianic passages were recognized as such by Jewish interpreters before Jesus was born and thus cannot be explained away as Christian readings of the texts. The Spirit of God was so directing the hearts and minds of the psalmists, especially David, that the words they used to express their own experiences were designed by God not only to fit the historical occasion but also to be fulfilled perfectly in the person and work of the Son of God, not only in his first coming but also in his coming in glory to reign.

There is also substantial agreement about the original text of the psalms. The Hebrew original is largely preserved in the Masoretic Text, clearly the superior text type due to its marks of authenticity. The Greek translation is a serviceable work, capturing for the most part the meaning of the verses in the contexts. But rather than preserving the rugged original, it often smoothes out the difficulties, using familiar words, or general words for specific ones, and clarifying difficult constructions. The Dead Sea Scrolls have confirmed that the text preserved in the Masoretic tradition is much earlier than the Masoretic manuscripts we have. In short, we can be fairly certain we have the original text of Psalms preserved for us in the manuscripts. When there are variant readings, the proper use of textual criticism almost always determines the correct text.

Whenever the New Testament quotes the Psalter, it is usually from the Greek translation (or translations) because it was easier for communicating to the widening Greek-speaking world. Frequently the Greek text is not precise in its translation, but its wording captures the sense of the context and provided the New Testament writers with a biblical text to use in their expositions and instructions. On a few occasions the Greek wording appears to be significantly different. Therefore, each case of a Greek citation from the intertestamental period has to be studied on its own merits to see its meaning and how it is being applied in the New Testament.