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May 31, 2005 The way many Christians go about arguing the case for the divine nature of the inspiration that moved King David to pen the psalms is to open the Book of Psalms and read aloud one of their favorite psalms, confident that its poetic beauty and immense wisdom will settle the case. If a question about the life and times of King David arises, they will get out a guide to the Bible published by Moody Bible Institute or Zondervan Publishing House. This guide will retell the Biblical story of King David in very simple English, not questioning or contradicting anything, but perhaps merely clarifying a dubiety or two. This paraphrase may be accompanied by fine drawings or photographs of famous artworks like the statue of David that stands in town square in Florence, Italy, or King David’s tomb in Israel. Somewhere in the midst of all this hullabaloo and hoopla, this pageantry and pomp, you are supposed to see the face and hear the voice of God. As for the poetic beauty and divine inspiration of the psalms, such a loyal Christian, already convinced that they are the word of God, even before he opens the Book of Psalms for the very first time, can hardly be expected to read them critically, either as a matter of checking facts, as few as the stated facts may be, or as a matter of rendering an honest aesthetic judgment. They are the word of God; therefore they are supremely beautiful. They are supremely beautiful; therefore they are the word of God. Such a Christian would probably hardly be aware of the fact that the psalms, in addition to being murderous, angry and vengeful, are boring, monotonous and stupid. But I’m digressing a little. The first thing one should question when he looks at something like the Book of Psalms, which I have read twice—once in Hebrew—is whether King David was a real person. Only once it has been established that King David was indeed a real king, should one question the ascription of the authorship of the Psalms to him. Did King David or someone merely pretending to be King David write them? Did someone finding the Psalms already written add the name of King David? Only if and when it has been confirmed that David did write the Psalms, should the inquirer ponder whether divine inspiration was present when he wrote them or whether David or his adherents were just claiming divine inspiration. If we cannot get conclusive answers to these questions, there is no point even in reading the psalms unless you just like the word play. In that case, you may as well read Petronius, Poe, Sarah Teasdale or Baudelaire. It’s all about style and diction; content doesn’t matter. I’ve always considered the story of David, unlike the story of Moses, Joshua or Samson, to be plausible, saying to myself that he was probably a real person. But there was absolutely no physical evidence of the historicity of King David until 1993, when a stone with the legend “BYT DWD” was discovered in the Levant. In Hebrew, a language that has no written vowels, this could stand for “BAYT DAWID” (The House of David). This could also be read “BAYT DOWD” (The House of Uncle…). So it hardly proves that David existed at all, and even less that his story unfolded just as it is told in the Bible. On August 4, 2005, Israeli archaeologist Ms. Eilat Mazar announced that she may have found King David’s palace, as can be seen at the following URL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilat_Mazar What the article from Wikipedia doesn’t fully clarify is that the group that funded the archaeological project consisted partly of Americans who were looking for the very thing, as a matter of adding substance to the argument that Israelis have a historical claim upon Palestine, as if land titles are still valid after 3000 years. It verges on the miraculous that Mazar should go right out and find exactly what she was looking for. Here’s a question that I posted on Eilat Mazar’s talk page on February 26, 2006. No one has answered. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Eilat_Mazar Therefore, even though I’m willing to concede that King David was probably an historical figure, the matter is really still “up in the air”. So we have no satisfactory basis for reading the Book of Psalms as the divinely-inspired wisdom of a genuine king of Israel. Might as well read Sir Walter Scott or Yevgeni Yevtushenko. If you like the Book of Psalms, go for it, but don’t make a federal case of it! ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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