Bible Study # 19 of 67
Prior Studies:
Bible Study # 19 of 67
Prior Studies:
Now is it a "coincidence" that this book came up for study today, or what?
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I wonder how many left wing controlled churches are not reading PSALMS in their PC services?
These books were deliberately compiled with a special purpose in view
There are many who view the book of Psalms
as the history of His Chosen People
from 1900 to 2050
Each for the designated year:
e.g. Psalm 104 for the year 2004
and Psalm 105 for the year 2005.
It looks as if Israel will be favored next year
much like the Exodus
NAsbU Psalm 105:1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples. 2 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Speak of all His wonders. 3 Glory in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad. 4 Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually. 5 Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth, 6 O seed of Abraham, His servant, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones! 7 He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. 8 He has remembered His covenant forever, The word which He commanded to a thousand generations, 9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac. 10 Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel as an everlasting covenant, 11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan As the portion of your inheritance," 12 When they were only a few men in number, Very few, and strangers in it. 13 And they wandered about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people. 14 He permitted no man to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes: 15 "Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm." 16 And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread. 17 He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18 They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; 19 Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested him. 20 The king sent and released him, The ruler of peoples, and set him free. 21 He made him lord of his house And ruler over all his possessions, 22 To imprison his princes at will, That he might teach his elders wisdom. 23 Israel also came into Egypt; Thus Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 24 And He caused His people to be very fruitful, And made them stronger than their adversaries. 25 He turned their heart to hate His people, To deal craftily with His servants. 26 He sent Moses His servant, And Aaron, whom He had chosen. 27 They performed His wondrous acts among them, And miracles in the land of Ham. 28 He sent darkness and made it dark; And they did not rebel against His words. 29 He turned their waters into blood And caused their fish to die. 30 Their land swarmed with frogs Even in the chambers of their kings. 31 He spoke, and there came a swarm of flies And gnats in all their territory. 32 He gave them hail for rain, And flaming fire in their land. 33 He struck down their vines also and their fig trees, And shattered the trees of their territory. 34 He spoke, and locusts came, And young locusts, even without number, 35 And ate up all vegetation in their land, And ate up the fruit of their ground. 36 He also struck down all the firstborn in their land, The first fruits of all their vigor. 37 Then He brought them out with silver and gold, And among His tribes there was not one who stumbled. 38 Egypt was glad when they departed, For the dread of them had fallen upon them. 39 He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to illumine by night. 40 They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven. 41 He opened the rock and water flowed out; It ran in the dry places like a river. 42 For He remembered His holy word With Abraham His servant; 43 And He brought forth His people with joy, His chosen ones with a joyful shout. 44 He gave them also the lands of the nations, That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples' labor, 45 So that they might keep His statutes And observe His laws, Praise the LORD!
His willing bondslave
chuck
Bump for further reading. Thanks for posting!
Bump for further reading. Thanks for posting!
A Puzzle and Its Solution:
Psalms Mislabled?
Have you ever been puzzled by the inscriptions that are attached to some of the Psalms? This has puzzled scholars for centuries, and yet the key may have been in the Biblical text all along.
There are 34 psalms without inscriptions. There are 52 psalms with simple titles such as "A Psalm of David," "A Psalm of Asaph," etc. There are 14 psalms explaining their historical connection, such as "A Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his Son," etc. There are 39 psalms that include a special word inscription, presumably a musical annotation or instruction. There are four psalms designated for a special purpose, such as the Sabbath day, etc. And there are 15 psalms specifically designated "Songs of Degrees."
| Psalms without inscriptions | 34 |
| Psalms with simple inscriptions | 52 |
| Psalms with historical inscriptions | 14 |
| Psalms with inscriptions denoting purpose | 04 |
| Psalms entitled "Songs of Degrees" | 15 |
| Psalms with special word inscriptions | |
| (39, less 8 included in the 14 above) | 31 |
| 150 |
The antiquity of these inscriptions is well recognized. They were already in existence when the Septuagint translation was made in the 3rd century B.C., and since the translators let them stand untranslated it seems that their significance had been obscured even back then.
The Puzzle
It is an admitted fact that the key to these inscriptions has been lost for over 2,200 years. Bishop Jebb, who issued a monumental work on the Psalms in 1846 regretted that "so great are the difficulties attending this enquiry, that in many instances little more than conjectures can be offered."1 The late Dr. E. W. Bullinger said: "No subject of Biblical Study has appeared to be more incapable of solution." That great Hebraist, Franz Delitzsch, said of these so-called psalm "titles": "The Septuagint found them already in existence, and did not understand them... The key to their comprehension must have been lost very early."2
A Solution Discovered?
In the ancient Hebrew manuscripts there were no breaks or spaces separating the psalms as there are in a modern Bible. The only mark of division between them is the number in the margin. The inscriptions, therefore, have always been assumed to be the titles of the psalms following them; however, they could just as well be footnotes to the psalms preceding them. Are there any clues to Hebrew practice within the Biblical text itself?
In the third chapter of Habakkuk we find a psalm with both a superscription and a subscription that is illuminating:
We find the same arrangement in Hezekiah's Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving for his recovery from sickness, recorded in Isaiah 38:
These two examples give us a key to the ancient stylistic practice regarding the inscriptions. It seems apparent that the precedent superscription was a title, and the closing subscription an amplifying instruction regarding its performance.
As an outcome of the Babylonian exile, detailed knowledge of the original Temple worship became obscured, and by the middle of the 3rd century B.C., when the Septuagint translation was made from Hebrew into Greek, there was nothing to tell the translators whether the inscriptions between the psalms belonged to what went before or what came after. Our English Bible continued their presumption that the inscriptions always related to what followed.
An Example
Psalm 9 has the superscription: "To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David." What does this mean? Muth means death; and ben would seem to mean son, but that seems obscure to say the least. Let us also recognize that this first part appears to be a subscription to Psalm 8 rather than a superscription to Psalm 9.
Furthermore, it could be beyn, written without the long vowel (the omission of the vowel sign being frequent in Hebrew): thus, muth-labbeyn, which means "death to the one coming between." This is how the inscription reads in the ancient Jewish Targum: "To praise, relating to the death of the man who went out between the two camps." This appears to be a reference to Goliath, who is actually called the "man between the two hosts (1 Samuel 17:4, 23)." Our English version misses this and has the translation as "a champion."
Read Psalm 8 again now in the light of this as a subscript and see in it, the celebration of David's great victory over Goliath.
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These comments have been excerpted from Learn the Bible in 24 Hours, featured as part of our new Berean Study Course.