we look at the Psalms in our English Bible we note that the phrase "To the chief

Musician" is always found at the beginning of a Psalm, or, in other words, as a

superscription. We should bear in mind that, in the original manuscript, there was no

break or division between the various Psalms. There is not even a space between the

lines from the beginning to the end of a page. Consequently, when the Psalms were

separated, a division had to be made somewhere and our Bibles follow the Septuagint

who consistently divided and put the phrase "To the chief Musician" at the top of the

Psalm, whereas Hab. 3: makes it clear that this should have been left as the subscription

of the preceding Psalm. In other words some of these titles have got appended to the

wrong Psalm!

No wonder that Bible commentators have been puzzled in the past and could find no

connection in meaning of the title to the Psalm to which it was attached. If we read

Hezekiah's psalm of praise recorded in Isa. 38: 9-20, we find he ends in a similar

way to the phrase "To the chief Musician". He says ". . . . . therefore we will sing my

songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord" (20).

The Psalms therefore had three divisions, not two. (1) The superscription, (2) The

Psalm proper, (3) The subscription, "To the chief Musician". It is good to know that the

Psalm titles have been correctly appended in The Companion Bible, though we do not

know of any other edition of the Bible where this has been done.

Once these titles are in their right position they begin to shed light on the Psalm to

which they are properly attached. They do not solve every problem as, in some cases,

there is not agreement among scholars as to the exact meaning of some of the

Hebrew words. As an example of the help in understanding that Dr. Thirtle's discovery

gives us, we can look at Psa. 55: In our A.V. the phrase "To the chief Musician upon

Jonath-elem-rechokim" stands as part of the superscription of Psa. 56:  Using the key

given to us we should place it as the subscription to the previous Psalm which is 55: The

words mean "the dove of the distant woods" and we shall search Psa. 56: in vain for any

reference either literally or figuratively to a dove. But the moment we connect it with the

55th Psalm we cannot help but notice that in verse 6 David says:

David likens himself to a dove. He was in deep trouble through the rebellion of

Absalom recorded in II Samuel 15:-19:  Like Hezekiah, "he mourned as a dove"

(Isa.xxxviii.14). He tells of his weeping, his fearfulness and trembling and how he

longed to be like a dove, to fly away and be at rest (verses 4-8). Not only did he face the

deep trouble Absalom's insurrection brought, but he was deserted by his close friend

Ahithophel to whom he alludes in verses 12-14:

David knew the bitter experience of being let down and deserted by a close friend.

With all these troubles pressing upon him, no wonder he longed to be like a dove and fly