David's compositions are generally distinguished by sweetness, soilness, and grace, hut sometimes, as in Psa. xviii. they exhibit the sublime. His prevailing strain is plaintive, owing to his multiplied and sore trials, both before and after his occupation of the throne. How often was he beset with dangers, harassed by foes, and chastised of God ! Under these circumstances, how was his spirit bowed down, and gave vent to its plaints and sorrows on the saddened chords of the lyre! But in the midst of all he generally found relief, and his sorrow gave place to calm confidence and joy in God. What wonder that a soul so susceptible and devout as his should manifest emotions so strong, so changeful, and BO various, seeing that he passed through the -real- ist vicissitudes of life? God took him from the sheep- folds to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance (Psa. lxxviii, 70, 71). See Herder, Geist der ebr. Poesie, ii. 297 301 : and especially Tholuck (Psalmen, Einleit- h ho gives a most admirable exhibition of the psalmist's history and sen ices. See David.
I In- example and countenance of the king naturally hd others to cultivate poetry and music. It appears from Amos vi, 5 that lovers of pleasure look David's compositions as a model for their worldly Bongs: how much more would the lovers of piety he induced to fol- low him by producing sacred Bongs and hymns! The fine psalm in Hah. iii is an exact imitation of his style as seen in Psa. xviii. The celebrated singers of his day- were men. like himself, moved by the divine afflatus not only to excel in music, hut also to indite hallowed poetry. Of these psalmists the names of several arc preserved in the titles.
2. Asaph is named as the author of twelve psalms — viz. 1, lxxiii-lxxxiii. He was one of David's chief musicians. All the poems bearing his name cannot he hi-, for in I'sa. lxxiv. lxxix. and Ixxx there are mani- fest allusions to very late events in the history of Israel. Either, then, the titles of these three psalms must he wholly rejected, or the name nni-t be h( re taken lor the " sons of Asaph ;" which i- not improbable, as the family continued for many generations in the choral service
( of the Temple. Asaph appear- from Psa. I, lxxiii. and lxxviii to have been the greatest master of didactic poetry, excelling alike in sentiment and in diction. No critic whatever contends that nil these eleven belong to the age of David, and. in real truth, internal evidence is in every single instance in favor ofa Ian r origin. '1 In y were composed, t hen. by the " sons of Asaph" (2 Chron. xxix. 13; xxxv. 15, etc), the members, by hereditary descent, of the choir which Asaph founded. It was to
; be expected that these psalmists would, in superscribing their psalms, prefer honoring and perpetuating tin m< m- ory of their ancestor to obtruding their own | i rsonal names on the Church a consideration which both ex- plains the present superscriptions and also renders it improbable that the person intended in them could, ac- cording to a frequent but now waning hypothesis, he any second Asaph of younger generation and of inferior fame. See ASAPH.
3. The sons of Korah were another family of choris- ters, to whom eleven of the most beautiful psalms are ascribed. The authorship is assigned to the Korah- ites in general, not because many of them could have been engaged in composing one and the same son-, hut because the name of i he particular writer was unknown or omitted. See Korah. However, in Psa. lxxxviii we find, besides the family designation, the name of the individual who wrote it — viz.:
•1. Heman was another of David's chief Btfigt rs i| Chron. xv, li>) : he is called the Ezraite, as being de- scended from some Ezra, who appears to have been a descendant of Korah; at least Heman is reckoned a Kohathite ( 1 Chron. vi. So-oK), and was therefore | roh- ablya Korahite, for the Kohathites were continued Tmd counted in the line of Korah ; see 1 Chron. vi. 22, '■>'. 38. Thus Heman was both an Ezraite and of the sons of Korah. That Psa. lxxxviii was written by him is not unlikely, though many question it. regarding this term likewise as a mere patronymic. See Hf.man.
5. Ethan is reputed the author of Psa. lxxxix. He also is called the Ezraite, hut this is either a mistake, or he as well as Heman had an ancestor named Ezra, of whom nothing is known. The Ethan intended in the title is doubtless the Levite of Merari's family whom
David made chief musician along with Asaph and He- man (1 Chron. vi. 11: xxv, 1, tit. Sic Ethan.
6. Solomon is given as the author of I'sa. lxxii and exxvii. and there is no decided internal eviih nee to the contrary, though most consider him to he the subject, and not the author, of I'sa. lxxii. See Solomon.
7. Moses is reputed the writer of I'sa. XC, and there is no strong reason to doubt the tradition: hut theTal- mudists, whom Origen, and even Jerome, follow, a-, ribe to him also the ten succeeding psalms (xci c). on the principle that the anonymous productions belonged to the last-named author. This principle is manifestly false, since in several of these psalm- we find evidence that Moses was not the author. In I'sa. \cv the forty years' wandering in the wilderness is referred to as past ; in I'sa. xcvii, 8 mention is made ol /ion and Judah, which proves that it cannot be dated earlier than the