§ 5. CmEF GROUPS OF PsALMS. The chief groups of psalms are, first and foremost, the Davidical ; second] y, the A'saphian; thirdly, that of "the sons of Korah;" fourthly, the Solomonio; and fifthly, the anonymous. The Daviclical group is at once the most numerous a.nd the most impor- tant. It consists of seventy-three psalms or hymns, which are thus distributed among the "books;" viz. : thirty-seven in the first, eighteen in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, and fifteen in the fifth. The compositions appear to cover the greater portion of David's life. Fourteen are assigned with much reason to the years before his accession to the throne; nineteen to tho earlier part of his reign, before the com- mission of his groat sin; ten to the time between that fall and his flight from J er1L~alcm ; ten to the period of his exile; and three or four to the time after his return, the closing period of his long reign. The remainder contain no indications of date. These results of a very careful analysis 1 may be thus tabulated-
PSlllms from the Psalms of nnvid'e Ps:llms of the e•rller tirue of his great ein Psalms of Lhe exile. P•alm• of the la.,t early life. pan of bis reign. to bis flight:"from period of bis reign. Jcrnsolem.
vii. viii.,.ix., x. v., vL iii., iv. xi., xii., xiii, xv., xvi., xviii., :z.vii. :xix., xx., xxi. :z.xii., xxiii. xxiv., xxvi. xxvii., xxviii. xxix. xxxiv., xxxv. xxxvi. xxxii., xxxviii., xxxi. xxxvil. xxxix., xl., xli. Iii., Ii v., Ivi., lviil. Ii., lv. lxi., hiii. lvii., lix. lx., lxviii. lxiv. lxix., lxx. oi., cvii i., ex. cx.lili. ciii., c:uxix.
The AFaphian group is made up of a cluster of eleven psalms in Book III. (Pss. lxxiii.-lxxxiii.), and a single psalm (Ps. 1.) in Book II. rss. 1., lxxi~i., lxxv., lxxviii., h:xxi., lxxxii., lxxxiii., are not improbably the work of tho specified author; but the remainder (I'ss. lxxiv., lxxvi., hxvii, hxix., lxxx., luxi., and lxxxii.) seem improperly assigned to him. They ruay, however, LaYe been written by a member or members of the same sept, and so may have crept into a small collection to which the name of Asaph was attached. "The hi.story of hymnology," as Rishop Perowne observes, "shows us how easily this may have happened." 2
• Seethe arrangement mnde by Canon Cook, in his" Intro,lactiou to th~ Ilook of P,m.lms" ('Spenker's,Commeutnry,' vol. iv. pp. 151-15G), which is, in the main, here followed. • 'The Ilook of Psalms, rol. l. p. 00. INTRODUCTION TO
The Korahite group of eleven or twelve 1 psalms belongs, in part to the second, and in part to the third book. It is best regarded as comprising the first eight psalms of Book II. (Pss. xlii.-xlix.) and four psalms (Pss. lx.xxiv., ln:xv., lxn:vii., and lxxxviii.) in Book III. These psalms are pre- dominantly Elohistic, though the name Jehovah occurs in them occa- sionally (Pss. xlii. 8; xliv. 23; xlvi. 7, 11; xlvii. 2, 5, eto. ). They set forth the Almighty especially a.s King (Pss. xliv. 4; xlv. 6; xlvii. 2, 7, 8; xlviii. 2; h:xxiv. 3). They speak of him by names not used elsewhere, e.g. "the living God" (•r:i ~t:),ll a.nd "Jehovah of hosts" (M1N;:t¥ nin;).8 Their predominant ideas are," delight in the worship and service of Jehovah, and the thankful aoknowledgm.ent of God's protection vouchsafed to Jeru- salem as the city of his choice."' Three of them (Pss. xlii., xlv., and lllx.iv.) are psalms of special beauty. The Solomonic psalms are two only, if we confine ourselves to the indications given by the titles, viz. Pss. lxxii and cxxvii.; but the first psalm is also thought by many to be Solomonic.8 These psalms have not many marked characteristics; but we may, perhaps, note a sobriety of tone in them, and a sententiousness that recalls the author of Proverbs. The anonymous psalms, forty-eight in number, are found chiefly in the last two books-thirteen of them in Book IV., and twenty-seven in Book V. They include several of the most important psalms: the first and second in Book I.; the sixty-seventh and seventy-first in Book II.; the ninety-first, hundred and fourth, hundred and fifth, and hundred and sixth in Book IV.; and in Book,. the hundred and seventh, hundred and eighteenth, hundred and nineteenth, and hundred and thirty-seventh. The Alexandrian school assigned several of them, as already mentioned, to authors,° as the sixty- seventh, the seventy-first, the ninety-first, the hundred and thirty-seventh, and the entire group from Ps. xciii. to Ps. xcix.; but their attributions are not often very happy ones. Still, the suggestion that Pss. cxlvi., cxlvii., cxlviii., and cxlix:. were the work of Haggai and Zachariah is not alto- gether to be rejected. "Evidently they constitute a group of them- selves;" 7 and, as Dean Stanley says, "sum up the joy of the return from Babylon." 8 A very marked group is formed by the "Songs of Degrees "-nti1~ n,';,~:;i-which extend continuously from Ps. cxx. to Ps. cxxxiv. These arv mo~t probably hymns composed for the purpose of being sung by tht. 1 Ps. xliiL can scarcely have proceeded from any other than the w1iter of Ps. xiii. It "bas the same metre, the same refrain, and refers to the eamo circumela11ce3" (' Speu.ker'1 Commentary,' vol. iv. p. 270). With Ps. xlili .. the Korahite psalms are twelve, • See Ps. xiii. 2 and Ps. lxxxiv. 2. 1 See PIIB. xlvi. 7, 11: xlviii 8; l.uxiv. 1, 3, 12,
• Perowne, 'The Book of Pd8.lme,' vol. i. p. 100. • Ibid., p. 108; 'Speaker's Commentary,' voL iv. p. 173, • See above, § 8, p. v. ' Cheyne, 'Book of Psalms,' p. 861. • Stanley,' Lectures on the Jewish Church,' vol. iii. p. 98, THE BOOK OF PSALMS. ix