Have you ever been puzzled by the inscriptions that are attached to some of
the Psalms? This has puzzled scholars for centuries, and yet the key may
have been in the Biblical text all along.
There are 34 psalms without inscriptions. There are 52 psalms with
simple titles such as "A Psalm of David," "A Psalm of Asaph," etc. There
are 14 psalms explaining their historical connection, such as "A Psalm of David
when he fled from Absalom, his Son," etc. There are 39 psalms that include
a special word inscription, presumably a musical annotation or
instruction. There are four psalms designated for a special purpose, such
as the Sabbath day, etc. And there are 15 psalms specifically designated
"Songs of Degrees."
| Psalms without inscriptions |
34 |
| Psalms with simple inscriptions |
52 |
| Psalms with historical inscriptions |
14 |
| Psalms with inscriptions denoting
purpose |
04 |
| Psalms entitled "Songs of Degrees" |
15 |
| Psalms with special word inscriptions |
|
| (39, less 8 included in the 14 above) |
31 |
|
150 |
The antiquity of these inscriptions is well recognized. They were
already in existence when the Septuagint translation was made in the 3rd century
B.C., and since the translators let them stand untranslated it seems that their
significance had been obscured even back then.
The Puzzle
It is an admitted fact that the key to these inscriptions has been lost for
over 2,200 years. Bishop Jebb, who issued a monumental work on the Psalms
in 1846 regretted that "so great are the difficulties attending this enquiry,
that in many instances little more than conjectures can be offered."1 The late Dr. E. W. Bullinger said: "No
subject of Biblical Study has appeared to be more incapable of solution."
That great Hebraist, Franz Delitzsch, said of these so-called psalm "titles":
"The Septuagint found them already in existence, and did not understand them...
The key to their comprehension must have been lost very early."2
A Solution Discovered?
In the ancient Hebrew manuscripts there were no breaks or spaces separating
the psalms as there are in a modern Bible. The only mark of division
between them is the number in the margin. The inscriptions, therefore,
have always been assumed to be the titles of the psalms following them;
however, they could just as well be footnotes to the psalms preceding
them. Are there any clues to Hebrew practice within the Biblical text
itself?
In the third chapter of Habakkuk we find a psalm with both a superscription
and a subscription that is illuminating:
- A Superscription: "A Prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, upon
Shigionoth" (Hab 3:1);
- The Prayer or Psalm itself
(3:2-19a);
- The Subscription: "To the chief Musician upon Neginoth" (Hab 3:19b).
We find the same arrangement in Hezekiah's Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving
for his recovery from sickness, recorded in Isaiah 38:
- The Superscription: "The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when he
had been sick and was recovered of his sickness" (Isaiah 38:9);
- The
Psalm itself (Isaiah 38:10-20a);
- The Subscription: "Therefore we will sing my songs to
the stringed instruments, all the days of our life, in the house of
YHWH" (Isaiah 38:20b).
These two examples give us a key to the ancient stylistic practice regarding
the inscriptions. It seems apparent that the precedent superscription was
a title, and the closing subscription an amplifying instruction regarding its
performance.
As an outcome of the Babylonian exile, detailed knowledge of the original
Temple worship became obscured, and by the middle of the 3rd century B.C., when
the Septuagint translation was made from Hebrew into Greek, there was nothing to
tell the translators whether the inscriptions between the psalms belonged to
what went before or what came after. Our English Bible continued their
presumption that the inscriptions always related to what followed.
An Example
Psalm 9 has the superscription: "To the chief Musician upon
Muthlabben, A Psalm of David." What does this mean?
Muth means death; and ben would seem to mean son, but
that seems obscure to say the least. Let us also recognize that this first
part appears to be a subscription to Psalm 8 rather than a superscription to
Psalm 9.
Furthermore, it could be beyn, written without the long vowel (the
omission of the vowel sign being frequent in Hebrew): thus,
muth-labbeyn, which means "death to the one coming between." This
is how the inscription reads in the ancient Jewish Targum: "To praise, relating
to the death of the man who went out between the two camps." This appears
to be a reference to Goliath, who is actually called the "man between the two
hosts (1 Samuel 17:4, 23)." Our English version misses this and has the
translation as "a champion."
Read Psalm 8 again now in the light of this as a subscript and see in it, the
celebration of David's great victory over Goliath.
* * *
These comments have been excerpted from Learn the Bible in 24 Hours,
featured as part of our new Berean Study Course.
