The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-28
Their Authors and Aims.

Remember, then, that the book Of
Psalms. as we have it, consists of five
different collections Of psalms, made at
different times. and probably by differ
ent people. It is quite as in an old
church you sometimes find a hvmn
book which contains the Psalms OF
David as translated by Dr. Watts, to
gether with a collection of hymns made
by one minister. and another collection
Of hymns made by another. OF these
five subdivisions the first ends with
psalm Il, the second with psalm y, the
third ends with the eighty ninth, and
the fourth with the 106th psalm But the
/ first two cannot be said to be the Oldest
/ for some pieces are found among them
| which belong to the period of the cap
tivfty. The collection Of the whole was
probably made as late as the second
/ century before Christ. Every one OF
l these collections has some psalms OF
David; and the psalms Of David, more
than those of any other writer, give
the character to the book. Names OF
! authors given at the beginning of the
/ psalms are not to be considered very
| Important But in some instances
/ which interest US most these names
may be regarded as the names of the
real authors. or instance, the nineteen
psalm may be regarded as really by
/ Moses, though some eminent critics
have tried to show that it was COM
posed in the period Of the captivity
II now the reader, trying to acquaInt
| himself with the Hebrew poetry. viii
| for himself divide the psalms Of David
the shepherd from the psalms written
afterward by David the king, ne VIII
| begin to get some idea of what has been
meant when we have spoken Of the re-
| lation of a poem to the circumstances
| Of it's composition. Take such psalm
| as that beautiful 133Td which describes
/ tl1e friendship between HermOn and
| Zion. The shepherd poet is on some
/ eminence. PROBABLY to the east OF the
/ Jordan. where he can see the clouds
gathering above the forests OF Her
/ mon. and can see them pass south over
! the plain Of Esdrael and see them DIS
| till in the rain over the rocks or Zion.
| Seeing this, as David the shepherd may
] have seen. he writes the lines which
/ most of US remember;
/ II is the dew Of Hermon,
/ That cometh down upon the mountains
| of Zion:
For there the Lord commanded the bless
ing,
| On the other hand. after David is
/ a king. after he has obtained the mas
( terry over the tribes which infested Is
rael with their inroads, ne VIII s-HE
/ a statesman's song:
He maketh wars to cease unto the END
He breaketh the bow and cutteth thC
/ spear in sunder.
/ He bUrneth the chariot in the fire.
And when he praises God, it is not
now because he has lied Us as goats
over the mountains" or strengthened
our hands so that they break an ir01
bow" but because God is king over
/ all the earth"
1t would also be a good exercise care
fully to read the life of David in the
historical books, where you VIII ms
| mare chan one instance where MS
| Doetrv is introduced in the very place
/ where the ode or the poem was com
! posed.
But You may go further than TINS
/ You may read 90 carefully in the MS
tory on the one side and in the book OF
/ Psalms on the other, that you VIII form
for yourselves the impression as 10 tnt
/ Mace where most probably certain
psalm belongs. II has been proposed
( indeed. that for one Of our English ora
[ tories this Connection between the his
tory and the poetry should be traced
/ along and followed out in the hbretJt
for the performance. The songs wOulC
| furnish the specially lyric part of thi
cratorio. and the framework from his
| tory would give additional interest &
the poems as they We're produced ont
by one. There is a composition, no