COLLECTION AND ARRANGENIENT.—AS the Psalms are productions of different authors in dif ferent ages, we are led to inquire how and when they were collected. The book has been styled by some moderns the Ailthology of Hebrew lyric toddy, as if it consisted of a selection of the most admired productions of the sacred muse ; but the name is not altogether appropriate, since several pieces of the highest poetic merit are, to our knowledge, not included—namely, the songs of Moses in Exod. xv. and Deut. xxxii. ; the song of Deborah in Judg. v. ; the prayer of Hannah in I Sam. ii. r-ro ; and even David's lament over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Sam. i. 18-27. To these may be added the song of Hezekiah in Is. xxxviii. 9-20 ; and the prayer of Habakkuk in Hab. iii. The truth seems to be, as Ewald and Tholuck maintain, that the col lection was made not so much with reference to the beauty of the pieces as to their adaptation for devo tional use in public worship. This view sufficiently accounts for omitting most of the above pieces, and many others, as being either too individual or too secular in their application. It may account for not including the lament over Jonathan, and for the fact that only two of Solomon's compositior.s (Ps. lxxii. and cxxvii.) are professedly given, though his songs were a thousand and five ' (1 Kings iv. 32, 33). His themes were secular, and therefore not suitable for this collection.
When the Psalms were collected and by whom, are questions that cannot he confidently answered. The Talmudists most absurdly considered David the collector (Cod. Beracoth, c. i. p. 9). It is certain that the book, as it now stands, could not have been formed before the building of the second temple, for Ps. cxxvi. was evidently composed at that period. In all probability it was formed by Ezra and his contemporaries, about B.C. 450 (Ewald's Poet. Biicher, ii. 205), or by Simon the Just, about B.C. 300. But in the arrangement of the book there is manifest proof of its gradual formation out of several smaller collections, each ending with a kind of doxology.
The Psalter is divided in the Hebrew into five books, and also in the Sept. version, which proves the division to be older than B.C. 200. Some have fancied that this five-fold division did not originally exist, but that it arose simply from a desire to have as many parts in the Psalms as there are in the law of Moses. But strong reasons demand the re jection of such a fancy. Why should this con formity to the Pentateuch be desired and effected in the Psalms, and not also in Proverbs, or in the Prophets ? The five books bear decided marks of being not arbitrary divisions, but distinct and inde pendent collections by various hands.
The _first book (i.-xli.) consists wholly of David's songs, his name being prefixed to all except i., x., and xxxiii. ; and it is evidently the first collec tion, having been possibly made in the time of Hezekiah, who is known to have ordered a collec tion of Solomon's proverbs (Prov. xxv. r), and to have commanded the Levites to sing the words of David (2 Chron. xxix. 3o).
The second book (xlii.-lxxii.) consists mainly of pieces by the sons of Korah (xlii.-xlix.), and by David (li.-lxv.), which may have been separate minor collections. At the end of this book is found the notice—' The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended ;' and hence some have though' that this was originally the close of a large collec tion comprising Ps. i.-lxxii. (Carpzov, introa'uctio, etc., ii. 107). But that the second was originally distinct from the first book, is proved by the repe tition of one or two pieces ; thus Ps. liii. is plainly the same'as Ps. xiv., with only a notable variation in the divine name Cod, being used in the former wherever Lord, 711M , is found in the latter.* So also Ps. lxx. is but a repetition of Ps. xl. 13-17, with the same singular variation in the divine name. It is not likely that this collection was made till the period of the Captivity, if interpreters are right in referring Ps. xliv. to the days of Jere miah.