PSALMS (from Gk. itaXp.6c, psahnos, psalm, hymn, song ) BOOK ta,'. According to the Jewish camel, the first book of the third division of the Old known as Kcllifibini or Hajio grapha: iii the Christian canon the second book of the seethm. The arrangement of the latter was allopted from the Septuagint, which placed the hooks of doh, Psalms, and Proverbs in what was .1:wised to be the chronohigical order of their nutter the influence of the tradition ascribing the first to Moses, the second to David, and the third to Solomon. The Hebrew title of the book is of praise the English 'psalms is from the Septuagint rendering of Tail/ha, ifraXaol. The Book of Psalms is properly a collection of hymns which became a manual of the• temple service at Jeru salem in the post-exilic period. The eollection consists of 150 compositions, divided in the Hebrew Bible like the Pentateuch into tire books: (1) Psalms i.-xli.; (2) (3) lxxiii.-1xxxix.; (4) xe.-cvi.; (.3) The date of the final compilation, which, it must be borne in mind, is independent of the question of composition, is now brought down :lose to the beginning of the Christian Era; but long ere this time there existed collections of psalms. and abundant remains of such collections are found in the hook which has been preserved to our time.
In reality, however, a threefold division. (1) i.-xli.. (•?) xlii.-1xxxix., (3) would be more rational. Of these ilivisious, again. it is only the first, in which all psalms except the first two are ascribed to David (exeIuding the tenth, which is a ee•ntimuatiou of the ninth, and the thirty-third. which the Septuagint ascribes also to • David), that may be said to consti tute a uniform group. The second division has as a distinguishing mark the use of Elohim as the name of God instead of Yahweh in the main part of the division (xlii.-1xxxiii.). Tak ing up these Flohim psalms, it is to be observed that they consist of (a) psalms ascribed to David. and (b) psalms ascribed to Levitical i'it'cics, viz. to Asaph or to sons of Korah. The Davidic psalms arc I placed between a single Asaphite psalm (1.) and the main Asa phite collection (1xxiii.-Ixxxii.), while the Ko rahite collection is represented by xlii.-xlix. Lastly, lxxxiv.-Ixxxix. appear to be an appendix of a miscellaneous character, attached to the division. The third division ineludes Books IV. and V.. which have so many features in common as to give evidence of having once formed a single collection.
Of the three divisions, the first appears to be the oldest. and in the gradual formation of the Psalter, w•e may distinguish the following steps: (I) a Davidic collection. Book I.; (2) a second Davidic collection. li.-lxxii. (Ixxii. being an addi tion) ; (3) a two-fold Levitical collection. (a) xlii.-xlix., (b) 1., lxxiii.-Ixxxiii.; (4) a combina tion of the second Davidic with the Levitical collections; (5) a supplement to this collection, lxxxiv.-Ixxxix.: (ii) a third collection. xe.-el. The last step consisted in the combination of the three collections, to whieh the anonymous Psalms i. and ii. were prefixed; a division into five sections was then made in imitation of the 'Books of Moses,' each section provided with a doxology at the close. The purpose of the
various collections is evident—to bring together religious hymns; the ascription of groups to members of the Levitical guilds may be regarded as sufficient evidence that the collections were to be used in the ritual. But while this may be mhuitted, it does not follow that all of the hymns 'minded in the collections were composed for the temple ritual, nor do the considerations above set forth touch the core of the problem as to the date of composition of the hymns themselves.
The natural starting point for the investigation of this problem is the headings in the traditional Hebrew text and in the Greek translation. Al though we are obliged to pass beyond the data furnished by these headings, they cannot be altogether set aside, even though their late origin admits no doubt. These headings appear to ascribe the authorship of 73 psalms to David; 49 are anonymous; and the remainder are di vided among a variety of authors as follows: two are associated with Solomon, one with Moses, eleven with the sons of Korah, twelve with Asaph, one is attributed to Heman, one to Ethan. But the Hebrew preposition which is translated 'to' is an ambiguous particle, and it by no means follows that the expression a 'Psalm to David' means necessarily a psalm composed by David. It may mean that, but the same preposition would be used to convey the idea that the psalm was a 'Davidie' composition, that is to say, belonging to a class of compositions called for one reason or another after David. In such an instance as the psalms of 'the sons of Borah,' it is quite evident that the preposition 'to' can not indicate authorship, since it is highly im probable that an entire family or guild should have composed any particular hymn. The same conclusion follows from the occurrence of several names at the head of a psalm, as e.g. xxxix. and lxii., which have the names David and •Jeduthun attached. or cxxxvii., which in the Septuagint bears the heading David and Jeremiah; or exxxviii., which has three names, David. Haggai, and Zechariah, attached to it in the Septuagint text. The assumption. therefore, is justified that when the headings were first attached to the psalms, it was not done exclusively with the jimpose of indicating authorship, but also to specify the character of the collection to which they belong, and indeed this may very well have been the original meaning of the preposition in this connection. To be sure, only in the case of the series of psalms bearing the name 'sons of Korah' can we be certain that we actually have a collection by several authors, but it is plausible to assume that there was also a `Davidic' collec tion designating not a series of hymns written by David, but for some reason called after him. It is natural that a later unscientific age which has created for itself a traditional David who differed largely from the historical one (see DAVID) should have seized upon the existence of a Da•idie collection as a support for its tradi tions and converted David into the author of the 73 psalms hearing his name.