Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/604

 PSALMS

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PSALMS

Just as the New Testament, the Council of Trent, and many Fathers of the Church speak of "David", "the Psalter of David", "the Psalms of David", not in truth to infer that all the psalms are David's, but because he was the psalmist par excellence, so the titles of many psalms assign them not so much to their authors as to their collectors or to the chief author of the collection to which they pertain. On the other hand, some of the longer titles go to show that "of David" may mean authorsliip. Take an instance: "Of the Director, to the tune 'Destroy not', of David, a chosen piece (Mikhtdm), when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave" (Ps. h-ii). The historical occa- sion of the Davidic composition of the song, the lyric quality of the song, its inclusion in the early collec- tion "of David" and later in the Director's hymn- book, the tune to which the psalm was either written by David or set by the Director — all these things seem to be indicated by the very composite title under consideration. Of a sort with the Davidic titles is the ending subscribed to the first two books of the Psalms: "Amen, Amen ; ended are the praises of David, son of Yishai" (Ps. Ixxii, 20). This subscription is more ancient than the Septuagint; it would be altogether out of place were not David the chief author of the psalms of the two books whereto it is appended.

Further Old-Testament evidence of Davidic author- ship of the Psalms, as suggested by the Biblical Com- mission's recent Decree, are David's natural poetic talent, shown in his songs and dirges of II Kings and I Par., together with the fact that it was he who insti- tuted the solemn levitical cantilation of psalms in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant (I Par., xvi, xxiii-xxv). The songs and dirges attributed to David are significantly alike to the Davidic psalms in spirit and style and wording. Let us examine the opening lines of II Kings, x.xii: —

" And David spoke to Jahweh the words of this song in the day that Jahweh saved him from the grasp of his foes and out of the hands of Saul, and he said:

2. Jahweh is my CUfI, my Fortress, my Way of

Escape,

3. My God, my Rock to Whom I betake me, My Shield, the Horn of my salvation, my Tower. My Refuge, my Saviour, from wrong dost Thou

save me.

4. Shouting praise, I cry to Jahweh, And from my foe I get salvation".

This undoubtedly Davidic song it were well to com- pare, part for part, with Ps. xviii (x\^ii). We shall cite only the title and opening lines of this Davidic psalm: "Of the Director, of the servant of Jahweh, David, who spake to Jahweh the words of this song in the day that Jahweh saved him from the grasp of his foes and out of the hands of Saul, and he said:

2. Heartily I love Thee, Jahweh, my Might,

3. Jahweh, my Cliff, my Fortress, my Way of

Escape, My God, my Rock to whom I betake me, My Shield, the Horn of my Salvation, my "Tower!

4. Shouting praise, I cry to Jahweh, And from my foe I get salvation"!

The two songs are clearly identical, the slight differ- ences being probably due in the main to different liturgical redactions of the Psalter. In the end the writer of II Kings gives "the last words of David" (xxiii, 1) — to wit, a short psalm in the Davidic style wherein David speaks of himself as "Israel's sweet singer of songs", "egregius psaltes Israel" (II Kings, xxiii, 2). In like manner the Chronicler (I Par., xvi, 8-36) quotes as Davidic a song made up of Ps. cv, 1-13, Ps. xcvi, and a small portion of Ps. cvi. Finally, the Prophet Amos addresses the Samarians: "Ye that sing to the sound of the psaltery; they have thought themselves to have instruments of miisic like David" (vi, 5). The poetic power of David stands out as a characteristic of the Shepherd King. His

elegiac plaints at the death of Saul and Jonathan (II Kings, i, 19-27) reveal some power, but not that of the Davidic psalms. The above reasons for Davidic authorship are impugned by many who insist on the late redaction of II Kings, 21-24 and upon the dis- crepancies between the passages we have paralleled. The question of late redaction of the Davidic songs in II Kings is not within our scope; nor does such late redaction destroy the force of our appeal to the Old Testament, since that appeal is to the Word of God. In regard to the discrepancies, we have already said that they are explainable by the admission that our Psalter is the result of various liturgical redactions, and does not present all the psalms in the precise form in which they proceeded from their original writers.

(2) Asaph: Asaph is accredited, by the titles, with twelve psalms, 1, Ixxiii-lxxxiii (xlix, Ixxii-lxxxii). These psalms are all national in character and pertain to widely-separated periods of Jewish history. Ps. Ixxxiii (lx.\.xii), although assigned by Briggs ("Psalms", New York, 1906, p. Ixvii) to the early Persian period, seems to have been written at the time of the havoc wrought by the Assyrian invasion of Tiglath-pileser III in 737 b. c. Ps. Ixxiv (Ixxiii) was probably written, as Briggs surmises, during the Babylonian Exile, after 586 B. c. Asaph was a Levite, the son of Barachias (I Par., vi, 39), and one of the three chiefs of the Le\'itical choir (I Par., xv, 17). The "sons of Asaph" were set aside "to prophesy with harps and with psalteries and with cymbals" (I Par., XXV, 1). It is probable that members of this family composed the psalms which later were collected into an Asaph psalter. The features of these Asaph psalms are uniform: frequent allusions to the history of Israel with a didactic purpose; sublimity and ve- hemence of style; vivid description; an exalted con- ception of the deity.

(3) The Sons of Korah: — The Sons of Korah are named in the titles of eleven psalms — xlii-xlix, Ixxxiv, Ixxxv, lx.xxvii, Ixxx^dii (xli-xlviii, Ixxxiii, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvi, Ixxxvii). The Korahim were a family of temple singers (II Par., xx, 19). It can scarcely be that each psalm of this group was jointly composed by all the sons of Korah; each was rather composed by some member of the guild of Korah; or, perhaps, all were gathered from the various sources into one liturgical hymnal by the guild of the sons of Korah. At all events, there is a oneness of style to these hymns which is indicative of oneness of Levitical spirit. The features of the Korahite psalms are: a great love for the Holy City; a yearning for the public worship of Israel; a supreme trust in Jahweh; and a poetic form which is simple, elegant, artistic, and well-balanced. From their Messianic ideas and historical allusions, these psalms seem to have been composed between the days of Isaias and the return from exile.

(4) Moses: — Moses is in the title of Ps. xc (Ixxxix). St. Augustine (P. L., XXXVII, 1141) does not admit Mosaic authorship; St. Jerome (P. L., XXII, 1167) does. The author imitates the songs of Moses in Dcut., xx-xii and xxxiii; this imitation may be the reason of the title.

(5) Solomon: — Solomon is in the titles to Pss. Ixxii and cxxvii (Ixxi and cxx^^), probably for a similar reason.

(6) Ethan: — Ethan, in the title of Ps. l.xx.\ix (Ixxxviii), should probably be Idithun. The Psalter of Idithun, or YedHth'tln, contained also Pss. xx.xix, Ixii, Ixxvii (xxxviii, Ixi, Ixxvi).

C. Witness of the New Testament. -To Catholics, believing as they do fully in the Divinity of Christ and inerrancy of Holy Writ, New Testament citations render Pss. ii, xvi, xxxii, xxxv, Ixix, cix, ex (ii, xv, xxxi, xxxiv, Ixviii, cviii, cix) Davidic without the shadow of a doubt. When the Pharisees said that the Christ was the Son of David, Jesus put them the question: "How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying: