Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 61:244 (Oct 1904)
Article: New Light On The Psalms
Author: Robert Cameron

BSac 61:244 (Oct 1904) p. 689

New Light On The Psalms

Rev. Robert Cameron

The writer has just read an advance copy of one of the most remarkable books1 that have come from the press during the past hundred years. Unless one is laboring under a misconception of its importance, this book will create a greater sensation amongst the scholars of Christendom, and will become a greater factor in securing a return to sane thinking, than any event since the modern methods of the destructive critics have “had the floor,” and have secured the ear of the Christian public. And yet, the fundamental facts upon which the book is based, are so simple, so self-evident, and in such harmony with every phenomenon in the Psalter, that one can only wonder why the discovery had not been made by others during the past two thousand years. The achievement of the author illustrates what a small amount of careful research and independent thinking there is amongst men of reputed learning, after all the boasting made in behalf of modern scholarship.

It is well known amongst all students of the Scriptures, that the titles of the Psalms—that is, their superscriptions and subscriptions—have been a source of great perplexity to the commentators and expositors. This is true amongst the Jewish scholars as well as amongst those of the Christian faith. In fact, one part of the titles has been given up in despair. In

BSac 61:244 (Oct 1904) p. 690

general terms these titles may be ranged under three heads: (1) the authorship and character of the psalm; (2) the historical circumstances out of which the psalm had its growth; (3) the place of the psalm in the service of the temple as indicated by such words as “To the Chief Musician.” As to the first two classes of psalms, the only difficulties that have arisen have had their origin in the prejudices and preconceived notions of the expositors; but, when we come to the last class of titles, the case is entirely different. Everything is inconsistent, contradictory, and confusing. Neither Jew nor Christian, neither narrow evangelical nor broad latitudinarian nor spiritualizing mystic, has been able to thread his way through the jungle. Neither the reverent student who believes in the consistent unity of the Bible as a whole, and of the Psalms as a part of that whole, nor the flippant sciolist who talks about “sources” for which he had no evidence, and scraps and redactors and editors that never had an existence outside of his mental conceptions, could solve the problem. The difficulties have existed for more than two thousand years—they defied the ingenuity of the greatest scholars two hundred years before the days of our Lord. Dr. Delitzsch, speaking of these titles, says: “The LXX....