[434] Concerning the Book of Psalms. That the penman of the Psalms did pretend to speak and write by the inspiration of the Spirit of God as much as the prophets when they wrote their prophecies, the following things do confirm:
1. Singing divine songs was of old one noted effect of the inspiration of the Spirit of God in the prophets, insomuch that such singing was called by the name of prophesying. 1 Sam. x. 5, 6. “Thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place, with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy, and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them.” See also 1 Chron. xxv. 1, 2, 3. This seems to have been the most ancient way of prophesying. Inspired persons of old used to utter themselves in a parable, as sometimes it is called, or a kind of song. Thus it was that Miriam uttered herself when she did the part of a prophetess, Exod. xv. 20, 21. “And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances, and Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” She, in the 12th chap. of Numb. ver. 2. boasts that God had spoken by her as well as by Moses. She seems to have reference to this time, for it does not appear that God ever had spoken by her at any other time, and it is probable that it was from her being inspired at that time, (or at least chiefly,) that she was called a prophetess. And this was the way that Moses delivered his chief and fullest prophecy concerning the future state of Israel, and the church of God, and the world of mankind, in that song in the 32nd of Deut.; the words were all indited by God, as appears by Deut. lxxi. 19, 20,21. And Moses’s blessing of the children of Israel, and his prophecy of their future state, in Deut. iii. is delivered song-wise, which especially appears in the beginning and ending. And so are Balaam’s prophecies, or parables. Jacob’s blessing and prophecies concerning the future state of the posterity of his twelve sons, Gen. xlix. is delivered in a like style, as may be plain to any one that observes. Zechariah is said to prophesy in uttering a song, Luke i. 67.
2. Singing these very psalms in the sanctuary by the musicians that David appointed, is called prophesying, 1 Chron. xxv. 1, 2, 3. And Asaph is called a seer, or prophet, and represented as speaking as such in uttering those psalms that he penned, 2 Chron. xxix. 30.
3. We are expressly informed of David in an eminent instance, wherein he uttered himself in a remarkable manner as the sweet psalmist of Israel, that he did proress himself to speak by the immediate inspiration of the Spirit of God. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2,. &c. “Now these be the last words of David.”(And then in what next follows David’s words begin, as may be confirmed by comparing them with Num. xxiv. 3, 4, 15, 16.) “David, the son of Jesse, hath said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said: The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me.” In its being said that these are the last words of David, it is implied that there had been many other words; that he, as the sweet psalmist of Israel, had uttered many things before; and when David, in these his last words, says, “The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,” it must be understood of all these words spoken of in this place, whether mentioned or referred to, all the words that he had uttered as the sweet psalmist of Israel. And there can, perhaps, no other good reason be given why he should be mentioned under that character of the sweet psalmist of Israel here in the introduction of these his last words, rather than all other places of his history, but only because these were the last words that David had uttered as the sweet psalmist of Israel, and as it were the sum of all those preceding records referred to, expressing the main drift and substance of those holy songs he had sung by the inspiration of the Spirit of God all his life-time, and the ultimum, the chief thing, he had in view in those psalms.
4. It is evident that the penman of the Psalms did pretend to speak by a spirit of prophecy, because the Psalms are full of prophecies of future events, as Psal.xi. 6. Psal. xxii. 27,. to the end. Psal. xxxvii. 9,10,11. Psal. lx. 6, 7, 8. Psal. lxiv. 7., to the end. Psal. lxviii. 31. Psal. lxix. 34, 35, 36. Psal. lxxii. Psal. lxxxvi. 9. Psal. xcvi. 13. Psal. cii. 13-22. Psal. cviii. Psal. cxxxviii. 4, 5. Psal. cxlix. 7, 8, 9. And many other things in the Psalms are uttered in a prophetical manner and style.
5. It is also most manifest that the penman of the Psalms did pretend to speak by the Spirit, and in the name of the Lord, as the prophets did. By this, that God in the Psalms is very often represented as speaking, and the words are evidently represented as his words, in like manner as in the prophets, as Psal. xiv. 4. Psal. 1. 7-14. Psal. lxxxi. 6-16. Psal. lxxxii. Psal. liii. 4. Psal. lxxxi. Psal. lxxxvii. Psal. xci. 14, 15, 16. Psal. xcv. 8, 9, 10, 11. Psal. cxxxii. 14,. to the end. Psal. xlv. 16,. to the end. Psal. ii. 6,. to the end. Psal. xxxii. 8,. to the end. Psal. lx. 6, 7, 8. Psal. lxviii. 13. Psal. lxxxix. 3, 4, 19-37. Psal. cviii. 7, 8, 9. Psal. cx. 1, 4.