we have, as we might expect, Elohim nine times, Jehovah

once.

426. Again Ps.cxlii is entitled 'Maschil of David, a prayer when he was in the cave;' and it contains Jehovah three times, Elohim not once.

On this I remark :—

(i) There is nothing whatever in the contents of this Psalm, which helps to fix it to this occasion.

(ii) We have here also a Psalm composed by David while in the cave,' Ps.lvii, and this, as we might expect, contains Elohim seven times, Jehovah not once.

(iii) It is most unlikely that, on the very same occasion, David should have written two Psalms, in one of which he never uses the word Jehovah, while in the other he never uses Elohim.

(iv) As we are sure that in the earlier part of his reign he did write Psalms without Jehovah, we conclude, until other evidence is produced to the contrary, that the title of Ps.lvii is most likely to be genuine, and that of Ps.cxlii fictitious.

427. And so writes HENGSTENBERG, the great defender of the genuineness of the Titles, iii.p.517.

That the situation indicated in the superscription was not the proper occasion of the Psalm, but that David here only applies what he then experienced for the edification of others, appears not simply from the expression 'an instruction,' in the front of the superscription, out of which the following words, 'when he was in the cave,' derive their more definite import, but still more from the fact, that the Psalm stands in close contact with the rest of the cycle of which it forms a part.

David sees in his desperate condition, 'when he was in the cave,' a type of the future condition of his race and of the Church. His cave-reflections he sets before them as an instruction. When it might come with them to an extremity this is the posture of affairs contemplated-(and such must come, for it cannot go otherwise with the son than with the father, they too must have their Saul to withstand,)—they should still not despair, but pour out their complaint before the Lord.

428. In short, the very circumstance, that these two Psalms contain the name Jehovah so often, to the absolute exclusion of Elohim, is to my own mind, after what we have already seen, a clear indication that they cannot be ranked with the Psalms which we have been hitherto considering, and which were written at an earlier period of David's life. If written by David at all, of which there is no sign whatever, they must have been written towards the close of his life.

For it cannot be said that the peculiarity, which we have noticed in the earlier Psalms of David, arose from some idiosyncrasy of his own mind, so that, while his predecessors and contemporaries and successors used freely the name Jehovah, David himself, for some reason, refrained from using it as frequently as the name Elohim all his life long. At all events, we shall find that certain Psalms, composed by him, according to their title and contents, towards the end of his life, exhibit a phenomenon the exact reverse of that which we have already observed, and are decidedly Jehovistic, so that sometimes the name Elohim does not even occur at all in them.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE REMAINING ELOHISTIC PSALMS.

429. THAT the reader may have the whole case before him, we shall now give a table of the five books of Psalms, marking, as before, with an asterisk those Psalms which are ascribed by their titles to David. We use also, as before, the letters E. for Elohim, God, J. for Jehovah, LORD, and A. for Adonai, Lord: but we do not reckon any instances, where Elohim is evidently used for 'gods' or 'princes,' or where Adonai is used of a mere man.

430. We obtain the following results from the above Table:(i) In Book I, almost all the Psalms of which are ascribed to David, the use of Jehovah is, in every instance, very much more common than that of Elohim. The former occurs 274 times in the book; the latter, 65 times: that is, Jehovah occurs more than four times to Elohim once.

.

(11) In Book II, in every instance, the reverse is the case; Elohim is very much more common than Jehovah. The former occurs, in the whole book, 214 times, the latter, 33 times: that is, Elohim occurs more than six times to Jehovah once.

(iii) In the first eleven Psalms of Book III, which form together one small collection, being all entitled Psalms of Asaph, the use of Elohim also preponderates over that of Jehovah, but not so decisively. The former occurs 59 times,

the latter, 14 times: that is, Elohim occurs more than four times to Jehovah once.

In the remaining Psalms of Book III the reverse is the case : Jehovah occurs 32 times, Elohim, 20 times: that is, Jehovah occurs about three times to Elohim twice.

(iv) In Book IV the use of Jehovah preponderates decidedly in every instance. It occurs altogether 111 times, Elohim 27 times: that is, Jehovah occurs more than four times to Elohim

once.

(v) In Book V the same is the case, but much more remarkably, except in one instance, Ps.cviii. Omitting this Psalm, Jehovah occurs 268 times, Elohim 40 times: that is, Jehovah occurs nearly seven times to Elohim once.

431. We may collect the above briefly into one view, as follows:

It is plain that the above results cannot be accidental. 432. We have already seen that of the Psalms of Book II, all of which are so decidedly Elohistic, eighteen are ascribed to David, of which three were certainly, and all were very probably, written by him. These three were composed in the middle part of his life; and others are assigned by their titles, probably with reason, to a yet earlier time. We have seen also good ground for believing that all the Psalms of Book II, which are all Elohistic, may all belong to the age of David. Let us now consider the eleven Elohistic Psalms of Asaph in Book III.

433. We have already (383) examined one 'Psalm of Asaph,' Ps.1, and shown that it may, very possibly, be referred to the age of David. But expositors usually assume that many Psalms