Gleanings
For The
Gleanings

This present issue of the Wicket Gate brings us to a third of the way, numerically speaking, in our series on Gleanings in the Psalms, which began when the magazine itself first appeared in January 1967. In connection with our arrival at this point we want to include some “Gleanings for the Gleanings”.

The Psalms

The form of our English word “Psalms” comes to us from the Greek version of the Old Testament which calls them “Psalmoi.” The literal rendering of this word is “songs to be sung to the music of the harp,” but their name in the original Hebrew Scriptures has the meaning of “Songs of praise.” Although printed in prose in our Authorised Version of the Bible they are out and out Hebrew poetry and were intended for singing as praise to the Lord.

Psalms of Degrees

There is a group of fifteen psalms (Psalms 120 to 134) which bear the title “A song of degrees.” The word translated “degrees” is also translated in other places by the word “steps”, and so, each of these psalms is “A Song of Steps.” There were fifteen steps leading from the Court of the Women to the Court of the Men in the Temple area, and it is thought by some that these songs of “the steps” were sung in connection with these, one song being sung on each step. However, they may simply have been the “favourite” psalms that were sung by the worshippers “going up” to Jerusalem at the times of the feasts – “I joyed when to the house of God, Go up, they said to me.”

The Hallel

Following our Lord's institution of the Lord's Supper in the upper room in Jerusalem we are told that it was “After they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” The “Hymn” that they sung was that group of psalms, 113 to 118, that the Jews had come to call “The Hallel” and which was associated with the Feast of the Passover. The first two psalms of the group, 113 and 114 were sung before the meal, and the remaining four afterwards. Following our Saviour's words, then, “This is my body” etc. He joined His disciples in the words of the Hallel: “Bind ye unto the altar's horns, With cords, the sacrifice.” Blessed Saviour!

Psalm 119

This is by far the longest psalm in the Bible, consisting of one-hundred-and-seventy-six verses. The stories surrounding the psalm are legion; like the one that tells of old William Grimshaw of Haworth and how he used to announce this psalm as the opening item of praise and then, while it was being sung, go out into the village and drive the “stragglers” into the service. The “theme” of the psalm is the Word of God, and it is divided into twenty-two sections. Each section is written under the heading of one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and each section has eight lines, each line beginning with the appropriate letter in the heading. The purpose for writing the psalm in this way was probably to assist the memorizing of it.

Asaph

Psalm number 50, together with psalms 73 to 83 have the name “Asaph” in their title. There is an Asaph associated with David when he is called “the sweet psalmist of Israel” and this man had been placed by David “over the service of song in the house of the Lord” (1st Chronicles 6 verse 31). The psalms involved, then, were either written by him, or in memory of him, or by one of “the sons of Asaph” who are also mentioned in 1st Chronicles.

On Neginoth

Psalms such as the 4th, 6th, 54th, 55th etc. rejoice in a title such as “To the chief musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David.” “Neginoth” is a plural word meaning stringed instruments, and the title is a word of instruction to the chief musician of the Temple that the psalm was to be sung accompanied by these instruments. The words “upon Nehinoth” found in the 5th psalm relates to the “flute” that was to accompany that particular psalm.

Michtam

This word in the title of psalms 16, and psalms 56 to 60, probably means “Golden.” Thus the psalms bearing this title were considered by their authors or singers as “golden psalms” just as we consider some texts today to be “golden texts.”

The Authors

Two-thirds of the psalms are ascribed to some author according to the title at the head of the psalms; they are as follows – Moses, one; David, seventy-three; Solomon, two; Asaph twelve; the sons of Korah, eleven; Heman the Ezrahite, one; and Ethan the Ezrahite, one. Half of the Psalter is, therefore, attributed to David and his name and is very often given to the whole collection as in the Scottish Psalter, “The Psalms of David in Metre.”

The Five Books

In our English Bible the Book of Psalms is one complete unit, but the original Greek version of the Old Testament divided the Psalms into five separate books, each book ending with a doxology or blessing. A casual look at the closing psalm of each section will show this to be the case, with the very last psalm in the book – psalm 150 – forming one great doxology for the whole five books together. This fivefold nature of the book of Psalms has led some to suggest that the whole Psalter has been constructed in a way as a model of the Five Books of Moses, as follows –

Selah

This word occurs about seventy times in the book of psalms and means “to pause” or “to rest.” It is probably a musical term, but has spiritual overtones for the worshippers singing or reading the psalms where it occurs. When God delivers us a great truth that He wants us to lay firm hold upon it is a good thing that we “pause” on that truth and let it find a deep entrance into our hearts. It is not normal to include the word in the public reading of the Scriptures as it is a “direction” for reading or singing rather than part of what has to be read or sung. As we come to this three-quarters stage in our Gleanings in the Psalms we would ask our readers to apply the word “Selah” to their hearts; to pause and ask if they have gone on “to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death” over the years of their Christian calling.

AMEN