Notes on the History Behind the Psalms

[Resource Manager]

 

NOTES ON THE HISTORY BEHIND THE PSALMS

 

BY A. M. WALLER

 

WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE

REV. C. H. WALLER, D.D.

 

London

JAMES NISBET & CO., LIMITED

22 BERNERS STREET, W.

 

1907

 

PERSONAL

 

Some years ago, finding myself very deaf, and otherwise unequal to Church going, I began to study the Psalms as a Sunday employment. My husband kindly allowed me to use his note-books and lectures: and I had also access to a good library, so that I could see what others had written.

 

I had no idea of publishing anything, but as I went carefully through each book, I found an internal coherence between the parts, as if some purpose governed the selection. This was new to me. Most commentators treated the Books as if events of many different dates were piled together without order or method. A distinc­tion in the circumstances of each Book was soon clear to me. How far others will agree with me I cannot tell; but my missionary children wished for my little plan for their students. My husband permitted me to incorporate portions of his notes and lectures as I pleased. But the greater part of these “Notes” is his, not mine.

 

Even where, as in Part II. of Book V., I have gone further than he had written, I have “built a house with his bricks,” as the line of thought was suggested to me by what he had said!

 

May the result be a help and not a hindrance to those who “rejoice at the Word, as those who find great spoil.”

 

Mizrachah, Little Coxwell,

July 1907.

[Resource Manager]

CONTENTS

BOOKS I AND 2

The Prayers of David the Son of Jesse
“Bring Me unto Thy Holy Hill”

BOOK 3

The Disruption of the Kingdom

BOOK 4

The Times of the Gentiles

BOOK 5 (Part 1)

The Return, and the Rebuilding of the Temple

BOOK 5 (Part 2)

The Church Triumphant 

[Resource Manager]

BOOK I: THE PRAYERS OF DAVID THE SON OF JESSE

 

The Jews divided the books of the Old Testament into three parts, “Law,” “Prophets,” and “Psalms.” The “Law” includes the Penta­teuch: the “Prophets” begin with Joshua: the “Psalms” begin the third part.

 

Thus it appears that the first chapter of Joshua and the first Psalm are the introduction to the second and third parts respectively of the Old Testament.

 

In view of this fact the resemblance between the two passages is very striking. The Lord commands Joshua to “be strong and of a good courage,” and adds, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night: that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1.8). No man before Joshua had received orders to regulate his conduct by the words of a written book: and in Psalm i. a blessing is pronounced on every man who takes Joshua’s position in relation to the written Law of God. “Blessed is the man that . . . walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly . . . but his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water; . . . and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalm 1.1,2,3). “Thus God’s written word has the authority of Law for those who live under the period of the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets together have the same autho­rity for those who live during the Captivity and Return; and Law, Prophets, and Psalms were alike ‘Law’ to Him who came to fulfil all three, and whose obedience was determined by the predictions and requirements which they contained.”

 

Between Genesis and Revelation there is no Book like the Psalms. All the lines that begin in Genesis and end in the Apocalypse pass through the Psalter, and seem to join there. It is a Book which requires a greater grasp to hold it, and more varied knowledge to fol­low its ramifications, than any other in the whole Bible.

 

Of all human helps to the interpretation of Holy Scripture, to get a clear idea of the plan and structure of a Book takes the highest place. The structure of the Book of Psalms, as finally arranged, is very marked.

 

The composition of the Psalter as it comes to us from the keepers of the Oracles of God, extends over 1000 years. We reckon from Moses in Psalm 90. to the time of Ezra the Scribe, to whom Psalm 119. is generally ascribed. It is divided into Five Books, each of them with a well marked character and purpose; but these are so skilfully used as to be applicable to men under all circumstances, and in every age.

 

The Five Books are—

 

1. Psalms 1-41 inclusive.
2. Psalms 42-72 inclusive.
3. Psalms 73-89 inclusive.
4. Psalms 90-106 inclusive.
5. Psalms 107-150 inclusive.

 

They are easily identified in our English Bibles by the Doxology with which each book closes. The three first books have at the end of the Doxology a twice repeated “Amen.” The Fourth Book closes with “Amen, Hallelujah.” The Fifth Book with “Hallelujah, Hallelujah.”

[Resource Manager]

We take the first Two Books to belong to the time of David, under the name of “The Prayers of David the son of Jesse” (Ps.72.20).

 

The Third Book describes the disruption of the Kingdom under Rehoboam.

 

The Fourth Book is the hymn-book of the Captivity.

 

The Fifth Book belongs to the Return and the rebuilding of the Temple and wall of Jerusalem.

 

The several Books seem to have been put together at the most critical periods of Jewish history.

 

  I and II. God’s choice of a King, and His selection of a “Place.”

  III. The revolt of the Ten Tribes and disrup­tion of the Kingdom.

  IV. Captivity of the whole nation.

  V.  An almost unparalleled return to their own land.

 

These are events which might well call forth prayers and praises to Jehovah.

 

We accept without question the titles of the Psalms in the Hebrew and in our English Bibles, as they were a part of the Psalms, and numbered amongst the verses handed on to us by the Jews themselves. They are a part of the text, and of equal authority. Titles in other versions have not the same authority.

 

Bishop Wordsworth says: “These titles contain independent information which could not have been evolved from the Psalms themselves by later induction, nor have been derived from any extant histories, and which is often of such a high antiquity as to have presented difficulties even in the age when the Septuagint Version was made, and to baffle the endeavours of critical ingenuity to explain them. Consequently these titles were justly regarded by ancient interpreters as of great value.”^[1]

 

But what we most desire to establish is, that there is teaching and method in the arrangement and order of the Books of the Psalter: that each of the Five Books belongs to a well-marked period in the history of Israel: that the Psalms which they contain, even if they were written at an earlier date, are not a confused medley, but are clearly appropriate to the time when they appear in the Psalter, with a coherence of their own. Thus, if Psalms by David occur in each of the Five Books, though we may not be able to say why they did not appear before, we can always find their suitability to the time when they do appear. The Psalms of Asaph in the Third Book could only be­long to him and to his time, as we hope to prove. Many of the Psalms in the Fourth Book, on the contrary, appear to have been brought forth from the Storehouse of the Levites, who had them in their keeping, though they seldom tell us then by whom they were written. We are left to gather that, either from the historical Books or from the New Testament; though we sometimes find traces of the hand of the Prophet Editor in the later version. (Cf. Ps.106.47, with its older version, 1 Chron. 16.35.) Various Psalms by David at the upbring­ing of the Ark to Zion come in with great force when the restoration of the Temple and Temple worship are in view, at the latter end of the Captivity in Book Four. We do not suppose that the use of these Psalms was necessarily begun when they appear in the Psalter. In the case of the Psalms in ques­tion, it was certainly not so. They were sung by Asaph and his brethren on a particular day when the Ark was brought to Zion (1 Chron.16.17). But they were also eminently suit­able to the later occasion. What we deprecate is the taking Psalms which are in Books for certain periods, and ascribing them to sub­sequent events. Thus, if the first Two Books were delivered by David to his choir-masters as “the Prayers of David the son of Jesse” (Ps.72), how can Psalms 45,46 and 50, belong to the reigns of Jehoshaphat, Asa, and Hezekiah respectively, as some have suggested? Simi­larly in Book Three we are limited to the time of David’s choir-masters by the titles of all the Psalms except one by David himself.^[2]

 

_______

^[1] Wordsworth on the Psalms.

^[2] It is not certain, though it seems probable, that Heman and Ethan of Psalms 88, 89, were the choir-masters, but Ethan was contemporary with Solomon (1 Kings 4.31).

[Resource Manager]

Of course there were “Sons of Korah” both before and after that date. But we do not think the “interest of the Book” can “centre in the time of Hezekiah,” nor can the seventy-sixth Psalm “describe the defeat of Sen­nacherib,” as we hope to show in its place.

 

The grouping of some of the Psalms in each Book is worthy of most careful study, as it is full of teaching. It is also a great help in the interpretation of difficult passages. But perhaps it is more often connected with the Prophetical than the Historical basis of the Psalter. Thus 22, 23, 24 have to do with the Death, Resurrection, and Ascen­sion of our Lord; so have 91, 92, 93. But this aspect of the Psalms lies outside our present study.

 

The first two Books come to us under the name of the “Prayers of David the son of Jesse” (Ps. 72.20).

 

But we do not take these words to mean that David was the author of all the Psalms contained in the two Books; still less that they include all his compositions; but that this was David’s hymn-book or service-book, put together by his authority for public worship, and afterwards made use of in the Temple built by Solomon.

 

We have the record of David’s choir in 1 Chron. 15.

 

“Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals; and the number of the workmen according to their service was: of the sons of Asaph . . . (here follow four names) under the hands of Asaph, which pro­phesied according to the order of the king.

 

“Of Jeduthun . . . six, under the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise the Lord.

 

“Of Heman . . . (fourteen names) all these were the sons of Heman the king’s seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king’s order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.

 

“So the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning, was two hundred fourscore and eight ” (1 Chron. 25.1-7).

 

But why should “the Prayers of David the son of Jesse” be a double Book? It comprises the first two Books of Psalms. Psalms 1-41 in­clusive make one Book; Psalms 42-72, inclusive, form a second Book. It seems impossible to doubt that the title includes the two. There does not appear to be any difference of date between them. Both alike refer to events which occurred at the beginning and at the end of David’s life. The first dated Psalm in the First Book is the third, which is en­titled “A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.” The date thus given indi­cates that the First Book of the Psalter cannot have been put together in its present shape, before the last half of David’s reign. And similarly, we find that the first Psalm associ­ated with a distinct historical event in the Second Book is the fifty-first, which is concerned with the great sin of David’s life.

 

Thus there is no particular reason for placing the date of the one earlier than the other. Moreover, there is a curious incidental proof that the First and Second Books of the Psalter are parallel, and that they both belong to David’s life.

 

If we compare the closing Psalms of the two Books, we find many expressions common to them both;^[3]and the last five verses of Psalm 40 in the First Book reappear with but slight change in Psalm 70. in the Second Book. Both Psalms are ascribed to David. Then Psalm 41 is parallel with Psalm 71, which is David’s last in the Second Book.

 

_______

[3] Bishop Wordsworth has an interesting illustration of the parallels in his “Commentary.”

 

[Resource Manager]

Ps.41 is a sick man’s Psalm:

 

Ps.71 is an old man’s Psalm: and they may both fairly suit the time described in 1 Kings 1, when David was in a state of collapse, confined to his bed-chamber. Yet, taking 1 King’s 1 — which describes David’s illness, and his making Solomon king, as parallel with 1 Chron. 23, where, after Solomon was made king, David regulated the affairs of the kingdom—it seems that the King was raised up again in answer to the prayers in the Psalms. Cf. Ps. 71.23, “My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul, which thou hast redeemed,” with 1 Chron. 29.9, “David the king also rejoiced with great joy.” We also hear that “David the king stood up upon his feet” to give his last charge to Israel (1 Chron. 28.2), though he had been confined to his bed in 1 Kings 1.

 

If these two Books do not differ in date, what is the difference between them? And why are they two, and not one? To these questions the history of David in the Chronicles, and the Psalter taken with it, supply the answer. We suppose these “Prayers” to have been put to­gether for public—not private—use. When would Psalms for this purpose have been first required? Clearly when the public use of Psalms began. The occasion is explicitly told us in 1 Chron. It was when David brought the Ark to Zion. “ And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be singers, with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.” “So the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were appointed to sound with cymbals of brass” (1 Chron. 15.16,19). “So they brought the ark of God and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it.” . . . “Then on that day did David first ordain to give thanks unto the Lord by the hand of Asaph and his brethren” (1 Chron 16.1, and ver.7 R.V.). The service is given in 1 Chron. 16.

 

Verses 8-22 reappear Ps. 105.1-15;

 

Verses 23-33 reappear Ps. 96.1-13;

 

Verses 34, 35, 36 reappear Ps. 106.1,47,48 — all in the Fourth Book of the Psalter, just before the restoration of the Temple and its worship at Jerusalem.

 

“So he left there before the ark of the cove­nant of the Lord, Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the ark continually as every day’s work required; . . . and Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests, before the taber­nacle of the Lord in the high place that was at Gibeon, to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord . . . continually morning and evening . . . and with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest that were chosen ... by name to give thanks to the Lord, because his mercy endureth for ever; and with them Heman and Jeduthun, with trumpets and cymbals for those that should make a sound, and with musical instruments of God” (1 Chron. 16.37,39-42).

 

Here, then, we have two choirs—one at Zion before the Ark, at the Tabernacle of David, under the presidency of Asaph, the King him­self also residing there; and another at Gibeon, before the Tabernacle, under Heman the Kohathite and the Sons of Korah.

 

These were the direct descendants of Korah the rebel, for “notwithstanding [the rebellion] the children of Korah died not ” (Num. 26.11). And that they should be brought near to God in a new kind of service, from the time of Samuel the Prophet, seems a singularly beautiful com­pensation for the denial of their mistaken aspira­tions in the wilderness, and for the severity of their punishment there.

 

So far as we know, Samuel—a descendant of Korah—was the first to establish Schools of the Prophets for Psalmody (1 Sam. 11.5,19.20), and Samuel’s grandson was Heman, to whom God gave fourteen sons and three daughters, all “under the hand of their father for song” (1 Chron. 15.5,6).

 

Further, it appears that the Psalms were used both morning and evening as with us; for among the duties of the Levites under David we find “to stand every morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and likewise at even” (1 Chron. 23.30).

[Resource Manager]

Is it possible to say which of the books was formed at Zion and which at Gibeon? We take the First Book of the Psalter to be the Zion Book, and the Second the one for use at Gibeon; because David was himself resident at Zion, and all the Psalms in the First Book that have an author specified in “the Title” are ascribed to David. The Second Book, on the other hand, begins with a group of eight Psalms inscribed, “For the sons of Korah,” and Heman, the father, was in charge of the Psalmody at Gibeon. The most natural thought is that these Psalms were the work of Heman, who was “the king’s seer in the words of God” (1 Chron.15.5), and therefore the most competent of all the musicians to act alone. After this, in the Second Book, a set of Psalms follow that may have been sent from Zion to Gibeon, from Asaph and David, who were at the head of affairs there; the King being “the sweet Psalmist of Israel,” and Asaph the representa­tive of the eldest among the families of Levi.

 

Another point arises for consideration. In the First Book, God is most frequently spoken of by the Covenant name of “Jehovah,” and in the Second He is generally called God—Elohim. This is as it should be; for although the Tabernacle and the Altar were at Gibeon, yet Jerusalem was the city which Jehovah had chosen out of all the Tribes of Israel to “put his name there.” Apparently Gibeon was not the seat of the Tabernacle by Divine choice; but  because in Saul’s reign the Tabernacle was in need of a place of refuge, and found it in the chief city of Benjamin—the Royal Tribe. There was a special reason for marking the Psalms used in Jehovah’s dwelling with the name of Jehovah. It is called “the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there” (1 Kings 8.29). At Gibeon there was no such reason, and therefore the word Elohim sufficed.

 

This is specially to be noticed when the same Psalm, in slightly varying form, occurs in both Books; as the fourteenth Psalm of Book I., which occurs again as the fifty-third in Book 2. David has exhibited the same Psalm in substance, twice over, but with a slight varia­tion, and with Elohim substituted for Jehovah in the second version. Again, the concluding verses in Psalm 40, in the First Book, recur as a whole Psalm—the seventieth—in the Second Book. The change of title is not quite so marked in this place, but it does occur several times. The eighteenth Psalm in the First Book is repeated with some variations from 2 Sam.22, but now both Jehovah and Elohim are used, though Jehovah is most frequently found. But there is not the same reason for the variation.

 

It does not seem necessary to follow in detail each Psalm of the First and Second Books. To do so would be to recount the life of David, which we can read in the history.

 

Some of the Psalms, however, cannot be tied to any historical event that we know of. The language of some of those in each Book, so far transcends any human interpretation, that we can only understand it of our Divine Lord. We know from St. Peter that “ the prophets enquired and searched diligently . . . what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the suffer­ings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ” (1 Pet. 1.10, 11), and we recognise some of His Revelations in the Psalter. Thus the second Psalm looks forward to the final triumph over all opposition, as it is set forth in Rev. 2.27; 19.15. The eighth likewise goes on until death itself is subdued (1 Cor. 15.25, 26). Psalms 22 and 40 in Book I, and 45 and 69 in Book II, again speak of “suffering” or of “glory” beyond all human ken. We do not mean that some Psalms are prophetic, and others not so. They are all prophetic; but some of them go straight to the future, without any primary figure as a type; and we seem only to miss the fulness and depth, if we try to make one. Witness the forty-fifth Psalm, with the inadequate suggestions of interpreters that it refers to the marriage of King Solomon to a heathen princess, daughter of King Pharaoh; though she could not be allowed to dwell in Jerusalem because of her idolatry (2 Chron.8.11); or the marriage of King Joram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab!^[4] But David is a well-known figure of our Lord, who is so often called the “Son of David,” and we see the force of this better in the Psalms than we do in the history itself. Indeed, a very interesting and instructive method of interpreting the Psalter can be found in the citations of particular passages in the New Testament, and their application to the History of the Church of God.

 

In Books I and II these passages point to the preparation of a King, and the search for the place of His Throne; but we are not without many clear intimations as to what experience of life and conflict are needful for the Ruler: what straits men fall into for want of Him: and not­withstanding this, what opposition awaits Him on His way to the Throne, and in His attempts to do judgment and justice among all His people.

 

Note.—The substance of parts of this chapter appeared in a paper by Dr. Waller in “The Thinker,” vol. v., now out of print.

 

_______

^[4] The latest suggestion that I have seen is that it refers to the unknown wife of Jehu!!

[Resource Manager]

BOOK 2: THE PRAYERS OF DAVID THE SON OF JESSE "BRING ME UNTO THY HOLY HILL”

 

We take the Second Book of the Psalter to be the Service Book at Gibeon of David’s two choir-masters, Heman and Jeduthun, who re­mained with the Tabernacle at Gibeon, after the Ark was brought to Zion (1 Chron. 16:39-42).

 

We have in Revelation xiv. a beautiful vision of two choirs, one on earth on Mount Zion, but the praises echo those of the heavenly harpers who sing, “as it were, a new song” before the throne; and these Songs are “poured over the heads” (Hebrew) of the “ransomed of the Lord” who come to Zion (Isa. 35:10). And they alone can learn them (Rev. 14:1-5).

 

The Songs of Mount Zion were collected in the First Book, and songs from thence were sent to the choir at Gibeon; but they were also permitted to produce some of their own, and the chief characteristic of them is the longing for God’s dwelling-place. We are reminded what a blessing it is to God’s people to have a centre of national worship—a place where to meet with God. And that Place means more than a Place, it means a Person. We desire to come not only to “Thy holy Hill, and to thy Tabernacle,” not only to the “altar of God,” but unto “God my exceeding joy” (Ps. 43.3, 4). If there is no One there to meet, why should we gather to meet Him? We follow His Anointed up and down in His wanderings, and we look forward to the time when He shall have a City, and a Palace, and a Throne.

 

That one word in Hebrew which is rendered Palace and Temple combines it all. The Place or Palace is made for the Person, and the Person makes the Palace or Place!

 

How true that is, we shall really know when we find that City of which it is written, “I saw no Temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it” (Rev. 21.22).

 

If space permitted it would not be difficult to show that the first eight Psalms of the Second Book are specially applicable to the Levites of the family of Samuel,^[5] in view of the fact that the God of Israel had now for the first time since the desecration of Shiloh, made choice of a Place to cause His Name to dwell in.

 

Through all the Songs of the Sons of Korah runs the note:

 

“We love the place, O Lord,

Wherein Thine honour dwells.”

 

It is David’s plea against gathering his soul with sinners (Ps. 26.8,9). But if he struck the vein, the Sons of Korah have worked it out.

 

The first two Psalms of the Gibeonite Book (Psa. 42 and 43) express the longing of the pious Levite for a Sanctuary where he might meet with God. The forty-fourth, by its language in many points of detail, recalls the Book of Judges—the book of the time of no-king, with the further aggravation of the time of no-place, which fol­lowed in the days of Samuel, when God with­drew the light of His Presence from Shiloh, and had not as yet revealed Himself elsewhere.

 

Thus the first Psalms of the Second Book express the two great wants of Samuel’s day— the want of the Place, and the want of a Saviour, Judge, or King.

 

_______

^[5] Heman was Samuel’s grandson (1 Chron. 6.33).

[Resource Manager]

In the following Psalms we have the rejoicing of the Psalmists of Israel when the two-fold want is supplied. Ps.45 is the thanksgiving for the King who will reign in righteousness for ever and ever. Psalms 46 and 47 suggest that a Place has been caught sight of, where they may worship Him. Ps. 48 names and calls it “Zion” for the first time in this Book. And the last note of that Psalm, that the God who caused His Name to dwell there, will be our God for ever and ever, and “our guide over [not unto] death,” is the keynote of the “sure mercies of David,” that Resurrection victory, which sup­plies the subject of the following Ps. 49.

 

In Exodus we are told that God spake to Moses on Mount Sinai, asking for an offering from all who gave “willingly with their heart,” to make a Sanctuary for Him, that He “ might dwell among them” (Ex. 25.2,8).

 

The first reason for the choice of a Place where animals might be slain, seems to have been to protect the children of Israel from the danger of eating blood, as “the blood which is the life” was appointed for an atonement, until the type was fulfilled by the outpouring of the blood of Christ on the Cross.

 

We first hear of a place for sacrifice in the command to bring to the door of the Tabernacle in the wilderness all that they would kill, and the Priest should sprinkle the blood upon the altar at the door of the Tabernacle of the Con­gregation, “and they shall no more offer their sacrifice unto devils after whom they have gone a whoring” (Lev. 17.3,4,7,10,11). This law, so far as killing flesh for food is concerned, was relaxed in the land (Deut. 12.11,15).

 

Again, in view of their entrance into the land which God had promised to give them, the com­mands were very explicit in order to preserve them from the idolatry of the Amorites, who “served their gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree.” “Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come” (Deut. 12.2,4,5).

 

The Place where the Tabernacle of the Con­gregation was set up after they had taken possession of the chief part of the Promised Land was at Shiloh (Joshua 18.1). There seven tribes received their inheritance by lot: there the possessions of the Levites were appointed throughout the land (Joshua 21). There the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel (1 Sam.3.21). But when the people “Pro­voked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their . . . idols he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men” (Ps. 78.58-60). “Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel” (Jer. 7.12).

 

Then He chose “the Mount Zion^[6] which he loved,” and though its brightness is now dimmed, there is a vision yet to be fulfilled, when “ a Lamb stood on the Mount Zion and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand having his Father’s name written in their foreheads ” (Rev. 14.1).

 

Meantime our Lord has come, and true worship­pers may pray everywhere (John 4.21-23; 1 Tim.2.8). “For from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, his name shall be great among the Gentiles: and in every place incense shall be offered unto his name: and a pure offering” (Mal. 1.11). 

_______

^[6] David offered sacrifices in Zion (1 Chron, xvi.1). But the “House of Sacrifice” (2 Chron. vii.12) was chosen in Mount Moriah, in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite (2 Chron. iii.).

 

[Resource Manager]

BOOK 3: THE DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM

 

“What portion have we in David? To your tents, O Israel!”

 

The Third Book of the Psalter represents the Disruption of the Monarchy after the death of Solomon.

 

It would appear that most of the Psalms in this Book were produced during the life-time of David’s great choir-masters: “Asaph,” “Heman,” and “Ethan”—or “Jeduthun”—who led the Psalmody in Solomon’s Temple, and survived the separation of the Kingdoms.

 

They were descended from the three sons of Levi, “Gershom,” “Kohath,” and “Merari”: and their appointment to their office is recorded in the First Book of Chronicles.

 

“These are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after that the ark had rest. And they ministered before the dwelling-place of the tabernacle of the congregation with singing, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem: and then they waited on their office according to their order” (1 Chron. 6.32).

 

They were divided into two choirs after David brought the Ark to Mount Zion—as we found in Books 1 and 2 of the Psalter; but we learn in the Book of Kings that they were again united when Solomon brought the Tabernacle and the Ark into the Temple on Mount Moriah. “Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel . . . unto King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion . . . And the priests took up the ark, and they brought up the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up . . . And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim ” (1 Kings 8.1-6).

 

The leaders of the singers are mentioned by name at the Dedication of the Temple.

 

“Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets; it came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, say­ing, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud” (2 Chron. 5.12-14).

 

Nothing further is recorded about them during Solomon’s reign; but after the disruption of his kingdom the expulsion of all the Levites from amongst the ten tribes was one of the first acts of Jeroboam when he set up the golden calves and made priests of the lowest of the people.

 

The seventy-third Psalm tells the sorrows of the Levites when Jeroboam “cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made priests after the manner of the nations of other lands” (2 Chron. 13.9). The Levites had certain towns and villages throughout the country given them by God, where they were to dwell, and to teach the people around them the Law of God, His ways and His worship. They also taught them Psalms of praise and prayer, and how to sing them. And as they went to Jerusalem by turns to the Temple ser­vice all the year round, they kept up the habit of going to Jerusalem to worship, and made it seem an easy and natural thing to do. Every fortnight there was a fresh set of Levites re­quired for duty at the Temple, who came up from the country and took their turn. But when Jeroboam set up the golden calves, and forbade his people to go to Jerusalem, every Levite had to choose between obeying God’s law or the command of the King. The Levites would not obey Jeroboam, but left their homes like one man, and went up to Jerusalem. “And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to Rehoboam out of all their coasts. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possessions, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the Lord: and he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made ” (2 Chron. 11.14,15).

[Resource Manager]

When the Levites came to dwell in Judah, the revenues of the Temple must have been seri­ously affected. For the tithe of all Israel went to the Levites by law. Of this tithe, the Levites paid tithe to the priests, who were chiefly—though not entirely—supported by it. The priestly cities were, with one exception, in the territory of Judah and Benjamin — thirteen cities with their suburbs (Joshua 21.19). But the cities of the Levites were all amongst the ten tribes—thirty-five cities with their suburbs (Joshua 21.41; Num. 35.7). When the Levites came to dwell in Judah, the tithe of the ten tribes and all the Levitical dwellings remained with Jeroboam; so that all that was left for the support of the Levites would be the tithe of Judah and Benjamin, and the tithe of this tithe would be available for the priests. This disestablishment of the whole Levitical Church in Israel will explain the words of Asaph in Ps.73.10, “Therefore his people return hither [to Jerusalem], and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.”

 

Then comes the question, Why do those who serve God suffer thus? The answer is found “in the sanctuary.” The prosperity is but for a moment, the awakening will be terrible. But to those who have “left all and followed Me,” I give Myself; as He had said before, “I am their inheritance.” And Asaph answers, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? There is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever!” (Psa.73.25).

 

When the Levites left Jeroboam’s kingdom they were not alone; we read, “And after them out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers.” After the coming of these refugees, for three years Rehoboam walked in the way of David and Solomon; but when he had “strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him” (2 Chron.12.1). “And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land; and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel” (1 Kings 14.22-24).

 

But this apostasy could not pass unpunished.

 

“And it came to pass that, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had trans­gressed against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt: . . . and he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.”

 

This invasion by the Egyptian King evidently produced great alarm in Judah, for Shemaiah the Prophet found Rehoboam and all the princes of Judah “gathered together at Jerusalem because of Shishak. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and there­fore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak. Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The Lord is righteous. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled them­selves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance;^[7] and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.^[8] . . . And when he [the king] humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well” (2 Chron. 12.1-12), or as the margin of our Bibles reads it, “and yet in Judah there were good things.”

 

_______

^[7] Cp. Psalm 76.10, “The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”

^[8] Note that it was Shishak who sheltered Jeroboam when he fled from Solomon (1 Kings xi.40), and probably he thought now to help Jeroboam by coming against Rehoboam and Judah.

 

[Resource Manager]

If we may venture to suggest an interpretation of these “good things,” we shall probably find it in the loyalty of the Priests and Levites to the worship of Jehovah and the service of the Temple. It is inconceivable that three years after they had given up so much for God they should have turned aside to the idolatrous prac­tices of Rehoboam and his princes; and the Third Book of the Psalter gives ample evidence of their steadfastness.

 

The invasion of Judah by Shishak, King of Egypt was a terrible thing for the impoverished people of Judah. The capture of all the fenced cities of Judah, of Jerusalem itself, with the plunder of the Temple, and of the King’s house, cannot have been achieved without resistance on the part of Rehoboam’s numerous army; and the Egyptian host, being yet more numerous, there must have been considerable slaughter; but of this no details are given in the Historical Books. The Psalms of the Third Book of the Psalter, which evidently belong to this period, supply these details. The seventy-third Psalm gives the burdens of the expatriated Levites; Psalms 74, 76, 79 give the missing details of the Egyptian war; they tell of the dead and unburied bodies of the slaughtered Israelites; of the damage to the Temple, and the defiling of the sanctuary; of the burning of the synagogue-meeting places; of the prisoners carried away; of the mocking assurance of their enemies that God would not deliver them. “Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses which thou swearest unto David in thy truth?” (Psa. 89.49).

 

Then, on their repentance and humbling them­selves before God, we have the restraining of the wrath of the enemy, and His rebuke to their hosts, and possibly a hint of the means employed in the “judgment heard from heaven” (Psa. 76.8). But the Psalmist warns the Israelites to keep the vows that they made in their extremity, and not to mock the mighty and terrible God.

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 76

 

Some commentators have desired to assign the seventy-sixth Psalm to the destruction of Senna­cherib’s army in the reign of Hezekiah (Isa. 37.36). But that army was not in Jerusalem, or in Palestine, when 185,000 Assyrians were slain by the Angel of the Lord. The Assyrian King was many miles away in Lower Egypt, on his way to fight with Tirhahah, King of Ethiopia, when he met with that great disaster.^[9] Moreover, we read in Isaiah, “Thus saith the Lord con­cerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city [Jerusalem] nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it” (Isa. 37.33). But Psalm 76 tells us that the victory of the God of battles was won at Salem, and at “his dwelling place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword, and the battle,” so that it could not have been the Assyrian host. Also the smiting of the horses is not a feature of the Assyrian defeat, as it is here. Shishak had twelve hundred chariots and threescore thousand horsemen (2 Chron. 12.3). And in the Psalm we read, “At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep” (Ps. 76.6). Besides, this is a Psalm of Asaph “who must have been dead long before the reign of Hezekiah.”

 

The frequent references to Egypt in these Psalms (Psa. 76.14; 78 throughout; Psa. 80.8; Psa. 81.5,10), coupled with the absence of any but the most casual reference to the other great Gentile powers, go far to prove that they belong to a much earlier date than that of the Assyrian invasion, or the Babylonish Cap­tivity, to which they have often been referred. But it is a well-known property of Holy Scrip­ture to present God’s dealings with men on particular occasions, in such a form as to be suitable to subsequent times. Inspired utterances gather such fulness from the added experience of ages, that men have tried to upturn their foundations by an argument which amounts to this: ‘The Psalms cannot have been written in the earlier days of Israel, because they are so suitable to the later days’! As well might they say, ‘the Song of Moses cannot have been written for the Exodus of Israel, because it is even more suitable to the defeat of the Spanish Armada’!” (C.H.W.)

 

There is not any mention of Priests and Levites amongst those who rebelled against Jehovah at that time: and the Third Book of the Psalter proves that there was a “faithful remnant” amongst them, as there had been several times before in the History of Israel. When Aaron made the golden calf at Sinai, and Moses asked “Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come to me,” it was “ the sons of Levi who gathered themselves together unto him ” (Exod. 32.26). A little later Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the Priest, “turned away God’s wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous for his God” (Num. 25.11-13). His descendant^[10] Zadok was faith­ful to King David when Abiathar joined the rebellious Adonijah against him (1 Kings 25, 26).

_______

^[9] Herodotus (Book ii. 141).

^[10] Zadok was descended in a direct line from Phinehas (1 Chron. vi.50-52).

[Resource Manager]

The faithfulness of the “sons of Zadok that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the chil­dren of Israel went astray from me” shall be remembered and rewarded whenever Ezekiel’s Temple shall be built (Ezek. 44.15). Of this particular faithfulness to the charge of the sanctuary, we have no record unless it has to do with the time of Rehoboam and the Third Book of the Psalter. At many critical times in the history of Israel, a man of the Tribe of Levi is the “Saviour.” After Moses and Aaron we have Samuel; and Jehoiada, and Zechariah his son, and Hilkiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Ezra, and John the Baptist, who appeared in times of diffi­culty and danger; and they were all alike teachers of the ways of Jehovah. David’s choir-masters were all Levites, and as they had their dwellings and possessions in the territories of the Ten Tribes, they gave up much for God. If we examine the internal evidence, we shall see that no one but these Levites could have written these Psalms! No one else that we can name had the double interest that is manifested so strongly both in the Temple at Jerusalem, when the Egyptians defiled and injured the dwelling- place of Jehovah, and also in the children of Joseph, and the grief at their rebellion, which is shown to be hopeless, as God had not chosen the Tribe of Ephraim but the Tribe of Judah, and the House of David, and Mount Zion which He loved. The Levites were affected personally, professionally, and nationally by the disruption of the kingdom. Personally, because they lost their inheritance and their home. Professionally, because Jeroboam cast them out from executing their office. Nationally, because they loved to think that the twelve Tribes were God’s chosen people, with whom He would for ever dwell. Their sorrow is expressed in these Psalms. We have also abundant proof that the writers were familiar with their former deliverances, which were written in “the Book ” that was in the keeping of “ the Priests the Levites ” (Deut. 17.18). Especially the Exodus and the deliverance from Egypt are dwelt upon at the tirfte of the Egyptian invasion: the march through the wilderness: the victories over Sisera: and Zebah and Zalmunna: and the Ephraimite destruction of Oreb and Zeeb. Could not their God have delivered them again if they had put their trust in Him, instead of “setting up strange gods”? “Turn us again, O Lord God of Hosts: cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.”

 

The Third Book of the Psalter is begun by Asaph, who was the chief singer at Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16.37). But in order to enter into his deep grief at the disruption of the Kingdoms, and the idolatry and corruption of the Kingdom of Jeroboam, we must remember that the inheritance of the family of Gershom—to which Asaph belonged—was entirely amongst the Ten Tribes (see Joshua xxi. 6), so that in coming to Jerusalem he lost his home and his inheritance. His eleven Psalms represent the double interest of his position. But his terrible grief shows itself in many of his words; some of them even foreshadow the grief of our Lord when He wept over Jerusalem—e.g., “O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways” (Ps. 81.13).

 

We think that Psalms 73, 74, 76, 79 are at Jerusalem, and the region of Shishak’s invasion; 78, 80,81, and perhaps 82 are for the House of Joseph, and express the earnest longing for their return to Jehovah. The other three Psalms by Asaph are less dis­tinctly marked for the ten tribes or the two. Many years afterwards Hezekiah “commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer” (2 Chron. 29.30).

 

Another grief that specially affected the Levites is referred to in Psalm 74: “They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land” (verse 8). The word synagogue is also translated “congregation.” These were the places of assembly for instruction and worship. It is sometimes thought that for an Israelite the going up to the Temple at Jerusalem answered to our going to Church! But this can hardly have been so, as only the males were required to go to Jerusalem, and that but three times a year; the rest of the family would go twice in three years, at the feast of the second tithe! The Israelites must have had meeting places where, on the Sabbath Day, Levites, and perhaps “Sons of the Prophets,” may have led their worship. We know that Jehoshaphat sent princes and Levites and Priests to teach the people in their own cities (2 Chron.17.7-9). And it may be that this was merely the re-estab­lishment of a former system which had fallen into decay. Whether this is so or not, the reference to “synagogues” in Ps. 74.8 need not imply that the later synagogue system had already been elaborated; but only that meeting- places which had been in use were now destroyed.

[Resource Manager]

The burning of all these houses was a very serious matter, and it must have been partly the work of the Egyptians,^[11] and partly that of Jeroboam—if indeed Jeroboam and Shishak, who was Jeroboam’s friend and patron—did not work together in this destruction.

 

Moreover, the King and the Princes of Judah were told by Shemaiah the Prophet that the men of Judah should “know the service” of Shishak (2 Chron.12.8). “The, sorrowful sighing of the prisoners” is the Psalmist’s ver­sion (Prayer Book Ver.). A curious confirma­tion of this is found to-day in Luxor (Thebes) in the ruined temple of Ammon. “Among the numerous historic sculptures of this temple are some that commemorate the successful campaign of Shishak (or Sheshonk) against Rehoboam king of Judah.”^[12] “There Shishak is depicted on the wall. In his hand he holds about ten strings, which are twisted round the necks of long rows of Jews. The tops of these figures have Jewish heads, with long hair, large noses, and pointed beards. The lower parts are rounded off, and contain in hieroglyphics the names of the cities of Judah which Shiskah took in Jero­boam’s reign.”^[13]

 

“How perilous unchecked literary criticism may be is seen ... by the repudiation of a conquest of Judaea by Shishak, and the inven­tion of a reading of ‘Cushi’ in the face of Shishak’s own sculpture of his conquest.”^[14]

 

Is it possible that the eighty-eighth Psalm, by Heman the Ezrahite in the Third Book, is written by one of these captives? It is like the cry of our Lord upon the cross. God is still the “God of his salvation,” like the “My God” of the twenty-second Psalm; but the present suffering has no other glimpse of the “glory that should follow,” unless the next Psalm is accepted to make a pair with it, and answer its perplexities with the mercy and faithfulness of God!

 

But to return to the Psalms of Asaph and the calamities of the war with Shishak. In Psalms 74 and 79 we hear how the sanctuary itself was defiled, its “carved work” (see 1 Kings 6.18-32) hewn down; its treasures despoiled. Then the slaughter was tremendous, till it seemed as if no one was left to bury the dead; and the heathen reproached the great Name of Jehovah as if He could not deliver His own people or His Place. But in the seventy-fifth Psalm he sees that the Lord has a full answer to all that is done or spoken against Him. The dregs of His wrath shall be “wrung out” to His enemies, and the righteous shall be exalted.

 

Asaph does not, however, limit his distress to the desecration of the Temple and the failure of Judah; he is quite as much grieved at the revolt of the ten tribes from the worship of Jehovah and the rule of the House of David. In the seventy-eighth Psalm he sets forth all possible arguments to persuade Ephraim to return; and he shows at length how God led them through the wilderness and fed them, yet they turned away from Him. Then He punished them, but they partly repented and returned to Him, and were forgiven because! He was “full of compassion.” Yet again they “provoked him with their high places,” and then He “for­sook the tabernacle of Shiloh,” and “refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim; but chose the tribe of Judah and mount Zion,” and David His servant to be their king. Asaph longed that Ephraim should share these blessings, and he prays that God would “save us” and “we shall be saved”: and that He would “turn us,” and he speaks of “our neighbours” and “our enemies,” and identi­fies himself with the sorrows of the revolted tribes. In the eightieth Psalm Asaph appeals to the “Shepherd of Israel” to bring back His flock; reminding Him how He led all the children of Rachel, “Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh,” in the wilderness, where these three tribes marched and encamped together in the third division. Now Benjamin is in one King­dom; Ephraim and Manasseh in another. But God, the “Lord God of Hosts,” can “turn them”; and He can “return to them himself, and visit the vine that he had planted,” and “we shall be saved.”

_______

^[11] That Egypt is referred to there can be no doubt. “Dragon,” ver. 13; “Leviathan,” ver. 14.

^[12] The “Popular Encyclopedia.”

^[13] Letter written from Luxor, January 30, 1902, by Mrs. F. O. Lasbrey (nee E F Waller)

^[14] “Researches in Sinai, 1906,” by Professor Flinders Petrie.

 

[Resource Manager]

Again, in Psalm 81, Asaph reminds the Ten Tribes that God ordained for the first day of the seventh month, a memorial of “blowing of trumpets,” and on the fifteenth day the “ feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord ” (Lev. 23.24,34). But Jeroboam had ordained a feast in the eighth month, “ even the month which he had devised of his own heart,” and he offered upon the altar sacrifices unto the calves that he had made” (1 Kings 12.32,33). “But my people would not hearken unto me, and Israel would none of me.” . . . “O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their enemies. . . . He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the stony rock should I have satisfied thee” (Psalm 81.11-13).

 

In the eighty-second Psalm Asaph tells of judgment to come. God has already taken His place, and those who held themselves as Gods should “die like men”: but God should Himself inherit all nations.

 

We have not any historical background to suggest for the eighty-third Psalm, but we do not think the Jehoshaphat solution offered by some writers is a satisfactory one (2 Chron.20). Several of the nations named in the Psalm are not mentioned amongst Jehoshaphat’s opponents, and “Jahaziel, a Levite of the sons of Asaph,” is not “Asaph,” to whom the Psalm is ascribed in the title. But we are told several times that there “was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days” (1 Kings 14.30). “And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam” (1 Kings 15.7). If we think of the disruption of the Kingdoms, and all that it meant to the historic Twelve Tribes, we can see that the occasions of war must have been endless, and that it was only when the kings of Judah left off the worship of Jehovah and became calf-worshippers like the Ten Tribes, that any semblance of peace could exist between them.^[15]

 

Asaph is still mindful of his desire for the return of the Ten Tribes to the worship of the true God; and the aim of all his prayers is “that they may seek Thy Name, O Lord” (verse 16).

 

The eleven Psalms by Asaph in the Third Book, are followed by Psalms 84 and 85 for the sons of Korah. Psalm 86 is by David, 87 and 88 again for the sons of Korah. We saw in the eight Psalms in Book 2 for the sons of Korah, that the de­sire of these Levites was for the Place where God would meet with His people. They still dwell on this aspect of the Divine favour. These Psalms may have been composed before the dis­ruption of the Kingdom, and produced by the Levites afterwards, like the Psalm of David (the eighty-sixth). On the other hand, some of the words in Psalm 84 gather force if they be­long to a time when Jeroboam forbade the Ten Tribes to go up to worship God at Jerusalem. The office of the sons of Korah was to keep “the gates of the tabernacle” in their turns (1 Chron. 9.19; 1 Chron. 26.12-19); and the Psalmist says he would rather be a door-keeper there, than remain in “the tents of wickedness.”

_______

^[15] See Notes on Hosea and Amos by Dr. C. H. Waller.

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 85

 

The historical background of the eighty-fifth Psalm is probably to be found in the reign of Asa, the grandson of Rehoboam, who came to the throne twenty years after the death of Solomon. It was a time of great peace and hope. The King put away the idols, and renewed the altar of Jehovah, and “gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon; for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him; So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month . . . and they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart, and with all their soul. . . . And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them” (2 Chron. 15.9-15). This is the only place in the history of the Kingdoms where we find mention of the keeping of the feast of Pentecost. The Psalmist might well say, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other,” in the associations of that day with the giving of the law, and the promise of the “Prophet like unto Moses.”^[16] This feast was afterwards crowned by the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).

_______

^[16] Compare Exod.20.19, Deut. 5.28, and Deut. 18.15-18.

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 86 − A PRAYER OF DAVID.

 

Commentators seem to be impressed with the correspondence of petitions in this Psalm with those to be found elsewhere. But a fresh setting often adds force to words: and we may be assured that Scripture does not contain any “vain repetitions.” And here we find the pro­phecy—not yet fulfilled—that “all nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.” The words are taken up and sung by those who stand upon the sea of glass in Rev. 15. after the “victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark.”

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 87

 

Again the Sons of Korah are rejoicing over Mount Zion and the excellent things that are spoken of her.

 

In Psalm 86 David prophesies that “all nations shall come and worship before the Lord” (ver. 9); but now God Himself names Egypt and Babylon, and others who had been the enemies of His people as “among them that know me” (ver. 4). It reminds us of the time when Jacob was to go down into Egypt to Joseph, and God spoke to him, saying, “I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again” (Gen. 46.3,4).

 

If Jeremiah and Baruch and the “good figs” remembered this Psalm, surely it must have given them comfort to know that the countries where they went to sojourn in captivity would one day “know God.”

[Resource Manager]

PSALM 89

 

The historical background of Psalm 89 is the same as that of the earlier Psalms in the Book:—the invasion of Judea by Shishak and his hosts, when he “ brought his strongholds to ruin” (cf. 2 Chron. 12.3,4), and inflicted so much damage on the Temple and on Jerusalem, that even the haughty spirits of Rehoboam and his Princes were humbled before God.

 

It is interesting to compare this last Psalm in Book 3 with Psalm 72—the last Psalm in Book 2 of the Psalter. The promises to the anointed King are cited in both Psalms: God’s covenant with him to give him large dominions and an everlasting kingdom. But the later Psalm repeats—what the earlier one leaves out—the chastisement that disobedience would surely bring, as God had told David by the mouth of Nathan the Prophet (2 Sam. 7.14). Now the Psalmist implores a renewal of former loving-kindnesses which were sworn unto David, and that the Lord would remember the reproach “wherewith thine enemies . . . have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.”

 

Note by Dr. Waller on the Topics and Titles of the two last Psalms in Book 3:

 

“If a Book of the Psalter belongs to a period of darkness followed by a return of sunshine, it is natural that the closing Psalm should furnish some intimation of the change in pros­pect. The close of David’s reign was some­what overclouded by his illness and the troubles that preceded it. But the coronation of Solomon (twice) in his father’s life-time, the determination of the site of the Temple, and the distinct Divine intimation that Solomon was to begin by build­ing it, shed considerable brightness on the cloud, if they did not absolutely dispel it. The close of the Second Book of the Psalter with Psalm 72, a poetic version of Solomon’s prayer for the wisdom needed for his reign, is so appropriate as to need no comment. The Third and Fourth Books, as we point out in these pages, belong to periods of decline and disaster, leading to re­covery. The decline of the Kingdom in Book III., and the captivity and desolation of the Place in Book IV., alike require a ray of light at eventide to break the darkness. In the Fourth Book this is manifest in the prayer for the Return with which the Doxology presents us (Ps. 106), and ‘the time to favour Zion’ clearly indicated in Psalm 102, as well as the thanksgiving that anticipates it (Ps. 103), and the reminiscences of Israel’s going out and coming in (Psalms 105, 106).

 

“It seems not unsuitable to pay some attention to the closing Psalm of Book 3, wherein the light of the ‘sure mercies of David’ on which the continuance of his Kingdom rests, is so beautifully set forth, and for the last time in the Canon of the Old Testament.

 

“The brightness of the prophetic prospect in Psalm 89 is the more effectively presented in contrast to the dense gloom of the cloud above it, in Psalm 88, which is unrelieved by a single gleam of sunshine. We see the blackness of the storm above, but the sun is clear below for a brief space, in which it finds just enough room for setting. Heman and Ethan record the deepest depression of the decline of the throne of David, and the brightest antici­pation of its return to glory—Heman in the darkest Psalm of the Psalter (Ps. 88), and Ethan in the glorious anticipation of the sure mercies of David in Psalm 89, which finishes the Third Book.

 

“I see no reason why the eighty-eighth Psalm may not have been written in Captivity in Egypt (see page 42). That Captives were taken, the pictures of Shishak testify to this day. Heman may have been among them. The dis­grace to the Royal Tribe of Judah and to the ministers of the Temple would press more keenly on a Levite of the family of Judah than on another man.

 

“And when we come to Psalm 89, we find the promise of sure mercy to David drawn out at greater length than in any other passage.

[Resource Manager]

Recorded in 2 Samuel 7 and in 1 Chronicles 17, mentioned by Isaiah (Isa. 55.3) as open to the Gentiles, and brought out by St. Paul in his first recorded sermon to both Jews and Gen­tiles at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13.34), it is expressly interpreted of the resurrection from the dead. For it is only in a life that has passed beyond the reach of death, that any ‘mercies’ can be ‘sure.’

 

“But the application of this truth to David and David’s son (both Solomon and our Lord), and to his successors on the throne, and his children generally, is drawn out in Psalm 89.19-52, at such a length, and in such fulness of exposi­tion, as is not found anywhere else in Holy Scripture. The force and point of all this in this particular Psalm—the last of the Third Book—when once noticed, is obvious and very striking.” C.H.W.

 

The Doxology at the end of the Third Book does not mention “the Lord God of Israel,” as do Books 1 and 2 (Psalm 41.13; Psa. 72.10). But we are reminded that the Ten Tribes had separated themselves from the House of David, saying “they had no portion in him”; “To your tents, O Israel;” “and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves” (2 Kings 17.16). And as time went on, they departed still further from God, until He removed them from their land. Then they must have learned in Captivity to cast away their idols, and return to God, for “ It is a matter of express record that in the return the inhabitants of Jerusalem included not only the children of Judah and Benjamin, but also of Ephraim and Manasseh” (1 Chron. 9.3, with Neh. 11.1. See also Ezra 7.7; Ezra 3.1). And “the sacrifices recognise the twelve tribe community” (Ezra 6.17,21; 7.3-5; Neh. 7.46). So that again at the close of Book 4 we find “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlast­ing, and let all the people say Amen, Hallelujah ” (Ps. 106.48).

 

We have, then, in the Third Book of the Psalter the “hymn book” of a disestablishment and disendowment such as the world has never seen again. There is not only the disruption of the Twelve Tribes, but a deliberate intro­duction of idolatry; not only the spoiling of the revenues of the Priests and Levites, but a cessation of all support of religion by the State. Coupled with this, a foreign invasion, a pollution of God’s Temple, disaster in war, and apostasy at home. Truly these are not themes which appeal only to Judah and Israel. While the Church is the Church Militant she is beset ever by dangers like these; and therefore these Psalms must ever be appropriate to her.

[Resource Manager]

NOTE BY DR. WALLER.

 

It so happens that the titles of the last two Psalms (Psa. 88,89 ) are at once among the most complete and the most difficult of all the titles in the Psalter. Perhaps a few words on this much disputed subject may be allowed here.

 

THE TITLE OF PSALM 88

 

“A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. According to their Precentor. Upon (or to) Mahalath leannoth—a Maschil by Heman the Ezrahite.”

 

There are six points in this title which I understand thus:—

 

1. The Psalm is “a song”—possibly intended for a solo.
2. It belongs to the collection of the “Sons of Korah,” the Kohathite choir, and is from their book. Thence the Editor of Book 3 had it.
3. It has the imprint of the Master of that particular choir; the setting has his approval.
4. It is upon Mahalath leannoth, whatever that may mean. It is probably a musical direc­tion; but I should certainly not venture (with the Revisers of the Old Testament) drily and concisely to translate by “set to” Mahalath Leannoth, as the question “How do you know that?” is one that no mortal can answer.
5. It is a Maschil. This again has no certain interpretation. The only conjecture I can offer is, that Maschils in the Psalter are not Michtams. Michtams in the Psalter are often accompanied by the direction “al-taschith,” “Do not alter or change anything.” I fancy that Maschils are in some sense adaptable or not unalterable, in which Michtams are not. But this is only a guess, and may be wrong.
6. The Author of the Psalm was Heman the Ezrahite.

 

One other observation I would make upon the words of the title. The phrase “according to the Chief Musician,” or Precentor, may have a spiritual meaning, as Jerome saw. He translates it by victori, for a Conqueror, or, as in Revela­tion, “To him that overcometh.”

 

Our Lord’s repeated use of this phrase in Revelation, and the fact that the Hebrew word for Precentor or Chief Musician means literally “conqueror,” and is recognised as a title of the Messiah by Jewish interpreters, seem to help us in this direction. I have no doubt that historically “Choir-Master” or “Precentor” is what the word means. But it is undeniable that spiritual meanings may underlie historical expressions in Holy Scripture, without destroying the literal sense.

[Resource Manager]

THE TITLE OF PSALM 89

 

“Maschil, by Ethan the Ezrahite”

 

This title pairs with that of Psalm 88 Heman and Ethan appear as brothers in the Tribe of Judah among the posterity of Zerah, the brother of Pharez (1 Chron. 2.6).

 

It is noticeable that while the family of Pharez is traced through many branches and noted for its increase and multiplication—“Let thy house be like the house of Pharez” (Ruth 4.12)—the descendants of Zerah are disposed of in three verses. Achan—the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah (Joshua 7.1,18), who troubled Israel, and the wise contemporaries of Solomon, Ethan, Heman, and Chalcol and Darda, sons of Mahol (1 Kings 4.31), with one eon of Ethan, Azariah, are the only persons named before the time of Ezra as belonging to the family of Zerah.

 

Ethan precedes Heman in the genealogy in Chronicles and the reference in Kings. Heman precedes Ethan in the Psalms. And in the Levitical Order, Heman as a Kohathite takes precedence of Ethan, who is a Merarite. This little fact supports the view of the Jewish com­mentator Kashi, that the Heman and Ethan of these Psalms are really the same Ethan and Heman the Ezrahites who are mentioned in Kings and Chronicles. The Psalter calls them Ezrahites, as do Kings and Chronicles. But it reverses the order of the two names, and gives them, not according to their birth, but according to their Levitical seniority.

 

I incline to think, therefore, that this is one more instance of persons of the family of Judah becoming Levites by intermarriages between members of the two tribes, as Aaron’s wife Elisheba was the sister of Nahshon the Prince of Judah in the wilderness (Exod. 6.23); Mary the mother of our Lord was a kinswoman of Elisabeth, the wife of Zacharias and one of the daughters of Aaron; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was a Levite of the family of Judah (Judges 17.7). C.H.W. 

[Resource Manager]

BOOK 4: THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES

 

We take the Fourth Book of the Psalter to be­long to the latter end of the Babylonian Captivity, when the Restoration was full in view.

 

The raising up of Zion from its stones and dust is spoken of in Psalm 102 as close at hand. It refers directly to the ruins; and to the restoration, at a “set time,” of Zion. But there was not a “set time” until the Prophet Jeremiah had foretold it, and Daniel had under­stood it (Jer. 25.11,12; Dan. 9.2).

 

Psalm 106.44 is almost a prophecy of mercy in Captivity and Return. “He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them cap­tive.”^[17] The Doxology at the close of the Book (Ps. 106.47,48) contains a prayer for the gathering of the Captives “from among the nations.” The first Psalm of the Fifth Book begins with the answer to this Prayer, and their Return. The form of the prayer is slightly altered from the service which David prepared when he brought up the Ark from Gibeon to Zion (1 Chron. 16). In David’s dedication God is addressed as the “God of our salvation,” a word constantly associated with victory in David’s time. The days of Israel’s victories were over at the close of the Exile, but the Lord did not change. Even in defeat and exile, He was still their God. But now the keynote of the prayer is changed. “Gather us from among the nations.” For Israel and Judah had alike been taken into Captivity, and “divided among the nations, and scattered in the lands.”

 

We find another suggestion of Captivity in the fact that this is the only one of the Five Books of the Psalter which does not contain any inscription to “the Chief Musician,” any “Selahs” or “Maschils.” There is not anything to prove that the Psalms were sung by Priests and Levites, though the special commandments with regard to the “Singers” at the restoration does not look as if they were altogether silent in Babylon. But they tell us themselves that they could not sing “the Lord’s song in a strange land ” (Ps. 137).

 

More than one-third of the Book is made up of earlier songs, as though a partial silence had fallen upon the Singers of Israel. One theme, however, still finds voices old and new, to set it forth in all its fulness, and it makes a most forcible argument for the date of the Book. It is the message that God gave by the Prophet Jeremiah to the Captive Israelites, which they were to deliver to their captors. It is given in Chaldee, that their ignorance of the language might not delay its utterance. “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens ” (Jer.10.11). This message has a splendid ex­pansion in the Fourth Book of the Psalter. “Jehovah reigneth” is to be said among the heathen (Ps.96.10), and told to all people (97.1; 99.1). The might and the majesty of Jehovah: His providential care of His people, and of all created things, are spoken of in many places. Psalms 90.2; 92.5; 93.1; 94.5; 95.4,5; 97.1-5; 99.1; 102.25; 103.19; 104 throughout, refer to the Lord as the Creator and Preserver of all things.

 

The vanity of idols is shown in Psalms 96.5,10; 97.7; 99.8; 106.35-37.

 

Even Nebuchadnezzar himself proclaims to “all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth” that “. . . the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom­soever he will . . . All whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase” (Dan. 4.1,17,34,35,37).

_______

^[17] Cf. also verse 23, about Moses standing in the gap, with words by Ezekiel, a prophet of the Captivity (Ezekiel 13.5; 22.30).

[Resource Manager]

In order to realise the purpose of God in send­ing His own people into Captivity in Babylon, we must consider His plan for the spread of the knowledge of the true God among all mankind. The Kingdom of the Lord over Israel was to be expanded into a Kingdom of the Lord over the whole civilised world. The nations in general were to be brought into distinct relation to the Divine Government.

 

This truth is presented to us in the Divine license granted to the King of Babylon in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, to rule all nations.

 

God commanded Jeremiah to send bonds and yokes which he had first worn upon his own neck to the Kings of Edom and Moab; the King of the Ammonites; and the Kings of Tyrus and Zidon, with this message, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my out­stretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come; and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand” (Jer. 27.1,11).

 

This sovereignty was proclaimed through Jeremiah at Jerusalem, and through Daniel at Babylon at very nearly the same time—scarcely a year’s interval separated the two proclamations. Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, in giving the interpretation of his dream, “Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold” (Dan. 2.37,38).^[18]

 

But Nebuchadnezzar had also to learn by a personal and painful experience that he held his kingdom under the “High God,” the “King of heaven, who doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ” (see Dan 4).

 

The Fourth Book of the Psalter is quite in accordance with this state of things. The five Psalms from 96 to 100 inclusive, dwell upon the salvation that is now offered to all people, whether Jew or Gentile; and upon the righteous­ness and equity of the King who would reign over them. We learn that God’s purpose in calling out the chosen people was, that they might be the leaven to each of the great world empires in turn. Long before this time God gave Moses the song in which these words occur: “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut. 32.8), or, as St. Paul interpreted it to the men of Athens, “He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of; the earth, and hath determined the times before , appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord if haply they j might feel after him and find him ” (Acts 17.26,27).     

 

The opportunity for Babylon was when Nebu­chadnezzar carried away to his own capital the; best of the Tribes of Israel, who had God’s law and the writings of the Prophets. During | twenty years of his reign, he had for his prime ί minister the Prophet Daniel, who secured, with the aid of his three friends, the necessary distinction between Jew and Gentile (Dan. 1 and 3). Before the captivity of Jehoiachin and of the “good figs” (Jer. 24.5), these men had gained two absolutely indispensable privileges for the Captives. The first was the right to abstain from food forbidden by the Law of Moses.       

 

_______

^[18] This universal dominion was given to Cyrus after the downfall of Babylon (Ezra 1.2; 2 Chron. 36. 23).