has been suggested that the pathetic picture in the last paragraph, of the anxious waiting mother, shows sympathetic sorrow, but the truth is that these lines are spoken in scorn, they make a lively and bitter taunt song.

Seir. Often used to name the whole of Edom. Edom. The land southeast of Palestine. The highways were unoccupied. The oppression of the Israelites was so bitter and cruel that the people dared not travel the public roads. Was there a shield or a spear? For fear that they might raise an insurrection against their conquerors the Israelites had been deprived of all their weapons and were allowed to keep no smith among them. Ye that ride on white asses. The princes. Ye that sit on carpets. The merchants. In the places of drawing water. Where the women would be found. All these shall rehearse the great deeds of the warriors of Israel and speak the praises of Jehovah. Machir. A clan of Manasseh. Taanach, Megiddo. Two fortified towns on the border of the plains of Esdraelon where the battle was fought. The stars in their courses fought, etc. The stars controlled the destinies of the Canaanites and destroyed them by sending the fearful storm of wind and rain. Meroz. Supposed to be a village not far from the battlefield.

CHAPTER XII

THE BOOK OF PSALMS

The Hebrew title of the Book of Psalms is a word meaning "praise songs." We get our modern word Psalms from the Greek word Psalmoi by which the Hebrew title was translated into the Greek of the Septuagint or Greek version of the Bible.

The Book of Psalms is divided into five separate books; this division is indicated plainly in the Hebrew Bible and in the English Revised Version. The divisions are as follows: Book 1, Psalms 1 to 41; Book 2, 42 to 72; Book 3, 73 to 89; Book 4, 90 to 106; Book 5, 107 to 150. The end of the first four books is marked by a doxology; in the fifth book the place of such a doxology seems to be taken by the whole of Psalm 150. These doxologies are found in the Septuagint translation, which shows that the division of the Psalter into five books was earlier than the second century B. C.

The number of psalms according to the regular Hebrew text is one hundred and fifty, and the Septuagint agrees except that there is inserted the 151st Psalm which is declared to be "outside the number.” To this psalm is appended the explanation that it was written by David with his own hand when he fought in single combat with Goliath. Some ancient Jewish authorities reckon the number of psalms to be 149, others 147. The Jewish Talmud says that the number is 147, "according to the years of our father Jacob.' There is a difference between the Hebrew and the Septuagint texts in the numbering of the psalms, though the totals are the same. Taking the Hebrew text as the standard, the Septuagint makes one psalm out of IX and X, also of CXIV and CXV, and divides CXVI and CXVII into two each. The Vulgate and the older English versions follow the

Septuagint numbering, but the later English versions follow the Hebrew. Thus while the total number and the order are the same, the number of any particular psalm in the Septuagint version is one behind that of the Hebrew version in most parts of the Psalter. For example, David's Shepherd Psalm is number 23 in the Hebrew and 22 in the Septuagint version.

The Hebrew Psalter was formed by a gradual growth. It appears that even the individual psalms gradually grew from a few lines to the length of stately songs. There is plain evidence that there existed originally a number of smaller collections of psalms, and that these were brought together in the five books which make up the Psalter. It was probably a process like the accumulation of the individual songs into the different parts of the modern Gospel Hymns, first number one, then number two, and so on to number five; and then a combination of the five parts into one volume. The titles of the psalms indicate that those of them attributed to the same author were placed consecutively in the larger collections. For example, book three consists of two minor collections, one attributed to Asaph and the other to the sons of Korah; and book five consists of a group of pilgrim songs and a group of hallelujah songs, each apparently at one time a distinct song book.

To most of the individual psalms are prefixed titles or inscriptions designating their poetical, musical, or liturgical character, their authorship or origin, or the historical occasion for which they were written or which they illustrate. One title may include two or more of these matters. The greatest scholars and most persevering translators have been puzzled by the titles relating to the poetical, musical, and liturgical character of the psalms. The inscriptions referring to historical events are said to be inappropriate in many instances, and those referring to authorship are not always counted trustworthy. Evidently many of these titles and inscriptions are no essential part of the psalms.

Tradition says that David wrote seventy-four out of the one hundred and fifty psalms of the Psalter. An interesting study might be made of those psalms which,

in the Authorized Version, are assigned by introductory inscriptions, to certain experiences of David or to particular periods of his life. It seems clear that Psalms 8, 19, 23, and 29 reflect the thoughts, emotions, and aspirations of his early years. In Psalm 8 he humbles himself before the great Creator when he thinks how he has been exalted by being made the humble helper of the great Saul with his harp and his sling. In Psalm 23 his shepherd life furnishes the symbolism for the expression of his understanding of the kindness and gentleness of God. The eloquent orbs and spaces above him, as he lies with his sheep, show to him the greatness of God, and he, with a poet's inspiration, proclaims it to the world in Psalm 19. Psalm 29 is a vivid picture of one of the many storms David must have looked upon from his sheltered retreat among the mountains. Psalm 59 is doubtless his prayer for deliverance as Saul's men have surrounded him and are eager for his blood; and Psalm 56, his cry for divine help when as a fugitive from Israel, his life is threatened at the Philistine court of King Achish. In Psalm 52 he upbraids Doeg for causing the death of those who befriended him, and predicts the utter destruction of this cruel, mischief-making Edomite. Psalm 57 is a cave song, or a hymn from the stronghold of Adullum where David's enemies roar about him like fierce lions; and Psalm 54 is a cry to Jehovah for help when the people of Ziph were planning to betray him into the hands of his enemy Saul.

All the psalms here referred to belong to the youth of David and to the strenuous years when he was a fugitive with a price set on his head. Two songs, Psalms 24 and 68, clearly belong to the prosperous period of David's life, to the ceremonies of the greatest event of his history-the placing of the sacred ark on Mount Moriah. The first was sung as the procession of priests and people marched up to the gates of the sacred enclosure and demanded that they be opened in the name of the Lord of Hosts. The second presents, obscurely, however, the whole checkered career of Israel as the nation has fought with its enemies under the

guidance and protection of Jehovah. It is plainly a processional hymn used in the ceremonies of this great celebration.

STUDIES OF INDIVIDUAL PSALMS

To illustrate a method which may be used in the mastery of the individual psalms, there are here presented interpretations of the first, twenty-fourth, nineteenth, and twenty-ninth Psalms, all poems of different types.

PSALM I

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, Nor standeth in the way of sinners,

Nor sitteth in the seat of the scoffers:

But his delight is in the law of the Lord;

And on his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also doth not wither;

And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The wicked are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous;
But the way of the wicked shall perish.

This psalm is introductory to the Book of Psalms. It is a development in poetical language and imagery of the thought repeated many times in the Book of Proverbs, that it is well with the righteous and ill with the wicked. It proclaims the superiority of the man occupied in meditating upon the divine law, to the worldly man who is without seriousness, stability, accomplishment, or security for the future. A suggestive title might be "The Tree and the Chaff."

Development of the theme: The first stanza of five lines contrasts the man of pious meditation to three grades of bad men:

1. The one who walketh in the counsel of the wicked. 2. The one who standeth in the way of sinners. 3. The one who sitteth in the seat of the scoffers.