The second collection of the Psalms begins here and closes with Psalm 72. It is characterized by the prevalence of “Elohim,” as the first by that of “Jehovah:” not of course that Jehovah is absent from Book 2 or that Elohim is lacking in Book 1, for both occur where they are required in these books; but that the predominance of each divine name appears as just stated. Of this a comparison of Psalm 14 with Psalm 53 is a striking illustration to the sober enquirer. Yet in Psalm 14 “God” is used thrice appropriately; in Psalm 53 it is uniformly and with no less propriety “God,” and in no case Jehovah. But they go far to evince the folly of distinct authors according to the baseless hypothesis or rather mere fancy of Astruc.
The reason underlying this difference is not the superficial assumption of two authors thus distinguished, which Psalm 14 dissipates as but windy talk, but that the second book contemplates the Jews as driven from Jerusalem, and the house of God then in possession of His enemies both Gentile and Jewish. Those whose cry to Him is given in these psalms of Book 2 are no longer in the enjoyment of the ordinary privileges of the covenant through the apostasy of Jewish as well as the oppression of Gentile foes. Hence they are cast on the unfailing faithfulness, mercy, and goodness of God. Thereby a deepening work goes on in their souls, as they learn more of what God is intrinsically, when His outward blessings are cut off and the worst evil seems to prosper; and this most painfully to them, in the circumcised then in Jerusalem, under the man of sin seating himself as God in the temple of God, all there defiantly lawless.
Hence we may notice that the sons of Korah appear first in the inscriptions, though there are many of David, that most fertile of singers and with the most varied experience expressed in his songs. Yet Asaph is not wanting, though abundant in Book 3 where a few psalms for the sons of Korah come in before the end. It suffices here to recall the awful crisis in Israel’s history when Korah’s sons were saved so as by fire. Compare Numbers 16 with Numbers 26:1111Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not. (Numbers 26:11). Mercy that day gloried against judgment, as it will in the future when the power of evil appears so overwhelming that judgment might appear the sole possible issue. If testimony fails to Jehovah for the present, God cannot cease to be God and infinitely good; and who more suited to sing than the delivered sons of the rebellious Levite? So it was in a measure in David’s time, when most clouded; so it will be in future days, when all things come out definitively and fatally for man on earth, and the Jewish apostates in particular, before the Man of Peace reigns over all publicly in power.
In harmony with this peculiarity even Messiah is acknowledged in this book as “God,” and His throne as for ever and ever, Psalm 45:77Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. (Psalm 45:7) (6); yet the same psalm both before and after fully shows His manhood, and consequently both blessing and anointing by God. This may be a difficulty to an unbeliever; it is the essential truth of His person to every Christian’s heart. But as a whole it is a clear anticipation of His Messianic victories and reign, yet suitably to the book of which it forms a part. So Most High occurs in Psalm 46; for His supremacy is before the heart at that fearful time when God is the sole refuge, no matter what the desolations, no matter how the nations rage. In the psalm following, Most High is coupled not with El but with Jehovah, and this a call to all the peoples, though “God” is still the prevailing term.
So it is even in the touching psalm of Messiah’s sufferings (69): He begins with “God” and ends with “God,” though Jehovah occurs with the usual fitness. It is even so in the closing psalm “of Solomon,” the beautiful melody for the millennial day, when the “prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” Christ had sorrows set forth in. Pa. Nix., no less than in Psalm 22 which is the characteristic psalm of His sufferings suitable for Book 1. As Christians we are entitled to enter into His mind in both; but it ought to need no argument to prove that the latter has a closer application to ourselves (especially in verses 22-24, A. and R. Vv.); whereas Psalm 69 passes by our present blessing, and anticipates the judgment of His foes, and God’s saving Zion and building the cities of Judah, when heaven and earth praise Jehovah, the seas and everything that moveth therein. The death and the resurrection of Christ do not appear in this book; but in Psalm 68 is His exaltation on high that He might dwell among the “rebellious:” what grace to them! what glory His!