 |  |
". . . . . Jesus asked them (the Pharisees), saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son
is He? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David
in spirit call Him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand,
till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool?" (Matthew 22: 41-44; Psa. 110: 1 and see
Luke 20: 41-43).
In Mark's account the Lord Jesus adds the fact that in saying the words of Psa. 110: 1,
David spoke by the Holy Ghost, so we have a doubly divine guarantee of the human
authorship of this Psalm. Those who reject this are deliberately flouting the Holy Spirit
and the One Who said, "I am the Truth" (John 14: 6). Not only this, but the book of the
Acts asserts that David spoke before concerning the treachery of Judas and did so "by the
Holy Ghost" (Acts 1: 16-18; Psa. 41: 9; John 13: 18). In Acts 4: 25 we are assured
that David wrote Psa. 2:
Again, the Apostle Paul in Rom. 4: 6, 7 stated:
"Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered" (Psa. 32: 1, 2).
Also in Rom. 11: 9:
"And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block,
and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and
bow down their back alway" (Psa. 69: 22, 23).
In addition we have the testimony of Hebrews that David is the author of Psa. 95::
". . . . . Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Heb. 4: 7).
This same context dealing with Psa. 95: is quoted more fully in Heb. 2: 7-11 and
declared to be the words of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 3: 7), so once more God has given a
double testimony to the truth and human authorship of this Psalm and this will never be
questioned by any who revere the Word of God as the Word of Truth.
If Hezekiah's "My songs" (Isa. 38: 20) were ever incorporated into the Psalter,
they will surely be the ten anonymous Songs of Degrees, for reasons that will be given
later in this series of studies. There is no doubt that the foundation of the Psalms is
Davidic. A. F. Kirkpatrick says:
"with the son of Jesse a new era of religious poetry commenced. He also was the
originator of the Temple liturgy (I Chron. 25:). His skill as a poet and musician,
and his interest in the development of religious music are attested by the earliest
records. The leaders of the return from the exile believed themselves to be
restoring his institutions" (The Book of Psalms).
However, we must remember that the Psalms were not the earliest hymns. We have
the song of Moses (Exod. 15: 1-19); of Miriam (Exod. 15: 20, 21); of Deborah
(Judg.v.1) and of Hannah (a prayer, but surely praise as well, I Sam. 2: 1-10).