forget it,' would seem to imply that the writer was king at the time, and, therefore, that, if written by David, it was composed at a later date than that which the title ascribes to it.

(vi) In Ps.lxiii, when 'David was in the wilderness of Judah,' we have Elohim three times, Jehovah not once.

356. The above are all the Psalms ascribed to David, (with two exceptions, Ps.xxxiv,Ps.cxlii, to be considered presently,) whose early age is distinctly intimated in their titles; and in each instance we see a phenomenon the very opposite to that, which the Pentateuch and other historical books would lead us to

expect. And let it be observed that this is true, supposing that these Psalms were really written by David, whether he wrote them on the occasions mentioned in the titles, or not, and even if they were not written by David at all, but by some other person of that age. But, if the titles can be relied on, (as HENGSTENBERG so strenuously maintains,) we here perceive that in David's earlier days, at a time when he was in close intimacy with the venerable Prophet Samuel, with whom, we are told, he stayed some time at Ramah, 1S.xix. 18, while a fugitive from Saul, and when he must, doubtless, have mingled with the Prophets of Samuel's School,' have heard their sacred hymns, and taken part in their religious services, though he knew the Name Jehovah, yet he was certainly not in the habit of using it freely; he either used it not at all in his compositions, or used it very sparingly, as if he was only now beginning to use it, as if it was somewhat new and strange to him as yet, not so frequent on his lips, not so familiar to his thoughts, as the old and well-known name, Elohim.

357. It is surely inconceivable that a man, so eminently pious as David, should, during a large portion of his life, have been writing not only these Psalms, but, as we shall see, very probably many others also, in which this Name Jehovah is hardly ever employed, if the story of the giving of the Name is really true,-if it was known to David that this Name was first revealed to Moses by the Lord Himself, (as E.iii seems to

imply), and, at all events, had the special sanction and approval of Almighty God, as the Name by which He chose to be addressed, the proper Name of the God of Israel,-"This is my Name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.' E.iii. 15. It seems absolutely impossible that either he, or any other good man of those days, should have done this, if the Name was so common in the mouths of all pious and devout men, even of heathen persons, in his own and all the postMosaic ages, as the history represents.

358. For the Psalms, above instanced, are by no means the only cases in which the same phenomenon occurs, among the Psalms ascribed to David. The above six are all those, (with, as I have said, two exceptions,) about whose early age we are able at once to speak with some degree of confidence, relying partly upon their titles, and partly upon internal evidence from the nature of their contents. But, if we examine carefully all the thirty-one Psalms of the Second Book, Ps.xlii to Ps.lxxii, of which eighteen, marked below with an asterisk, are ascribed to David, we shall have the following very noticeable result:

359. The eighteen Psalms, which are here ascribed to David, include the six which we have just been considering, and which were written, as we have seen, (supposing their titles to be correct), at an early period of his life, when, in fact, he was not yet thirty years old. They include, also, three from the middle part of his life,-Ps.lx (E.5,J.0), when Joab returned, and smote of Edom, in the valley of salt, twelve thousand men,' in the fortyfifth year of David's life,-Ps.li (E.6,J.0), after his adultery

with Bathsheba, in the fiftieth year, — and Ps.lxxii. (E.3,J.1) -or, rather (E.1,J.0), since v. 18,19, are merely the doxology (228), added by the compiler in later days, to serve as a close to Book II of the Psalms, which is entitled 'A prayer for Solomon,' and, if written by David, may have been composed by him shortly after Solomon's birth, in the fifty-first or fiftysecond year of his life.

360. Looking now at the above table, is it conceivable that David should have written the above eighteen Psalms, or any number of them, in which the name Elohim occurs, on the average, seven times to Jehovah once, and in nine of which Jehovah does not occur at all, if the latter name was used so freely, so much more freely than Elohim, and under such high sanction, in the common language of the people when he wrote, as the historical books with one voice imply? Nay, every Psalm in this Book shows the same characteristic preference for the word Elohim. And, supposing as we naturally may before further inquiry, that all or most of them are Psalms of about the same age, as they are found in the same collection, and that age the age of David, as the titles of so many of them imply, it is obvious that the force of the above argument is just as strong, whether such Psalms were really written by David, or by any other pious writer of those days.

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274

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PSALMS OF THE SECOND BOOK.

361. In order, however, to make sure of our ground, we must now examine carefully, one by one, the Psalms of the Second Book, and see if they contain sufficient internal evidence to enable us to fix them, either upon David himself as their author, or else upon the age of David. Only let it be distinctly observed that our argument does not in the least depend on the accuracy of the titles, which for our own purposes we should rather at once set aside altogether, and try to make out the age of any particular Psalm from its internal evidence. But as HENGSTENBERG, one of the chief defenders of the ordinary view, is so very decided in maintaining their correctness, it seems best, with DAVIDSON, ii.255, to assume the alleged Davidic authorship; as being possibly true, 'till internal evidence proves the contrary.'

362. The first eight Psalms, Ps.xlii-xlix, are inscribed, 'Of or for the sons of Korah,' except Ps.xliii, which has no inscription, but is plainly a continuation of Ps.xlii. It is disputed among critics what this expression means, whether that they were written by members of the 'Korah family,' or composed by David or others, perhaps, in different ages, for their use as a choir, or (which seems most probable) only collected and preserved by the sons of Korah.' On either of these suppositions, some of these 'Psalms of Korah' may have been written by David himself, or his contemporaries.

363. Ps.xlii (E.13,J.1), and Ps.xliii (E.8,J.0), which evidently are parts of one single Psalm seem, at first sight, to refer to the Tabernacle or Temple (318) on Mount Zion in xlii.4, xliii.3, and in that case they must have been written in or after the time of David. And the tone of these Psalms is considered by some to

indicate that point of time when, 'David, by Absalom's rebellion, was driven beyond Jordan,' (Bishop HORNE,) in the sixty-fourth year of his life. If this were true, it would follow that, even at that age, he could still write a Psalm with Elohim occurring in it twenty-one times, and Jehovah only once.

364. It may be questioned, however, if the tone of these Psalms is exactly that which suits the circumstances of Absalom's rebellion. They seem, rather, to express the same state of feeling as Ps.lxiii, where also we find him uttering his ardent longings for the place where he might appear before God, just as he does here. The expressions in xliii.3, ‘Thy holy hill,' and 'Thy tabernacles,' find their parallel in lxiii.2, where he speaks of the holy place;' and that in xlii.4, the House of God,' may refer to the Sanctuary at Nob. I quote in support of this view the following extract from STANLEY'S Sinai and Palestine, p.187:

'The Mount of Olives was also, in the earlier times of Jewish history, when elevation and sanctity of position were almost identical, the sacred place of the vicinity of Jerusalem. Long before the conquest of Jebus by David, the northern summit of Olivet had, it would seem, under the name of Nob, been selected as the seat of the Tabernacle (?), after the destruction of Shiloh and the loss of the Ark. Close within sight of the unconquered fortress of the Jebusites, the worship of Israel was there conducted during all the earlier years of Saul; and, even after the destruction of the Sanctuary by his violence, the sanctity of the summit of Olivet was still respected. David, before the Temple was built, was wont to worship God at the top of the Mount, 28.xv.32. Solomon, when, in his later years, he tolerated or adopted the idolatrous rites of his foreign wives, made 'high places' of the three summits on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption,' 1K.xi.7, 2K.xxiii. 13, apparently the same northern summit of Nob.'

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365. There appears to be no real ground for the above supposition of Canon STANLEY that the Tabernacle of Moses was set up at Nob. At all events, the Chronicler says it was set up at Gibeon, 1Ch.xxi.29, 2Ch.i.3, though we shall sec good reason for doubting this statement also, when we come to consider hereafter the question of the history and fate of the Tabernacle. But, that there was a 'holy hill' and Tabernacle' for divine worship at Nob, on the summit of the Mount of Olives, is highly probable: and it has been ingeniously suggested that as Goliath's sword was deposited at this Sanctuary, so David may be represented to have carried thither his head also, when he went to return thanks to God after his victory and that this is the meaning of the otherwise perplexing statement in 18.xvii. 54, that 'David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem,' (which

* The Psalmist, indeed, speaks of nipp, 'tabernacles,' Ps.xliii.3, xlvi.4, lxxxiv.1, which conveys rather the idea of a group of tents, a kind of Priestly encampment, distinct from the solitary of Shiloh, Ps.lxxviii.60, and Gibeon, 1K.ii.28, with its central, and the vessels inside the ; and the same plural form is apparently used in Ps.cxxxii.5,7, of the Temple, with its chambers, 1K.vi.10.