Ideas about the Psalms

Ideas about the Psalms

1.                  Moses gave Israel 5 books of Torah (Law)

David et. al. gave Israel 5 books of Sepher Tehillim   

2.                  The Division of the Psalter into 5 books is strictly a man made contrivance. 

3.                  The Psalms for the most part are not connected in any real way. 

4.                  David only wrote about half of the Book of Psalms.  (73 in total) 

5.                  The Psalms are the production of many author-poet-musicians-composers. 

            6.                  Psalms with no inscription                 24

             Psalms with David’s name                 74
Psalms with Asaph’s name                              12

Psalms of the sons of Korah                            10

Hallelujah Psalms                                            10

Psalms (or songs) of Degrees                          10

Psalms with Solomon’s name                           2

Heman’s Psalm                                                  1

Ethan’s Psalm                                                    1

Psalms with inscriptions but no name               6

Moses’ Psalm                                                    1

          total      150

7.                  The author of the Book of Psalms is The Blessed Holy Spirit. 

8.                  It is generally believed that the Psalter was formed gradually. 

9.                  Tradition generally considers that Ezra made the final recension of the Psalms about 450 B.C. 

10.              The notion that some of the Psalms were from Maccabean authors is spurious. 

11.              Only the Psalms that were considered divinely inspired were added to the collection. 

12.              The “imprecatory” psalms are probably the most misunderstood. 

13.              The Titles or Inscriptions of the psalms.  Some believe that Ezra added the inscription to the Psalms when he made his recension of the Psalms.  There is no reason to believe that he “made them up” but rather that he found them in the ancient text. 

14.              There have been serious attempts to discredit the inscriptions as spurious additions of an even later date than the time of Ezra.  To my knowledge there is no evidence to support such a theory.   

15.              Inscriptions are of at least three types:

1.                  Those which mark musical or liturgical character

2.                  Those which assign a particular or general author(s)

3.                  Those which designate the particular circumstances under which the     psalm was composed 

16.              The Book of Psalms is the oldest extant collection of mono-thistic poetry in the world today.  

17.              The Book of Psalms (as poetry) is respected by saints and sinners alike.  It is a great collection of poetry. 

18.              The Book of Psalms is the only complete collection of plenarily inspired sacred songs that have ever been given to the Church.