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Psalms: Introduction

David, and the Style of the Psalms

David wrote about the Lord while writing about himself.

Lord 44. He who knows that the Lord is meant by David, may know why David so frequently wrote about the Lord in his psalms while writing about himself; as in Psalm 89....

Psalm 89

I have cut a covenant with My chosen,

I have promised to David My servant:

Even to eternity I will establish thy seed,

And build up thy throne to generation and generation. Selah.

And the heavens shall confess Thy wonders, O Jehovah;

Thy faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.

Then Thou didst speak in vision to Thy merciful ones, and didst say,

I have bestowed help on one who is mighty;

I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

I have found David My servant;

With the oil of My holiness I have anointed him,

With whom My hand shall be established;

Yea, My arm shall encourage him.

But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him,

And in My name shall his horn be exalted.

And I will set his hand in the sea,

And his right hand in the rivers.

He will call to Me: Thou art my Father,

My God, and the Rock of my salvation.

I also will make him the firstborn,

Highest of the kings of the earth.

My mercy will I keep for him to eternity,

And My covenant shall be constant for him,

And his seed I will set up forever,

And his throne as the days of the heavens.

Once have I promised by My holiness;

I will not lie to David:

His seed shall be to eternity,

And his throne as the sun in My presence.

As the moon it shall be established to eternity,

And as a faithful witness in the ether. Selah.

The four styles of the Word

AC 66. There are in the Word, in general, four different styles. The first is that of the Most Ancient Church. Their mode of expression was such that when they mentioned earthly and worldly things they thought of the spiritual and heavenly things which they represented. Therefore they not only expressed themselves by representatives, but also formed them into a kind of historical series, in order to give them more life; and this was to them delightful in the very highest degree.... Such representatives are called in [the psalms of] David, “Dark sayings of old” (Ps. 78:2-4). Moses had these particulars concerning the creation, the garden of Eden, etc., down to the time of Abram, from the descendants of the Most Ancient Church.

[2] The second style is historical, which is found in the books of Moses from the time of Abram onward, and in those of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings. In these books the historical facts are just as they appear in the sense of the letter; and yet they all contain, in both general and particular, quite other things in the internal sense, of which, by the Lord’s Divine mercy, in their order [more will be said] in the following pages.

The third style is the prophetical one, which was born of that [style] which was so highly venerated in the Most Ancient Church. This style however is not in connected and historical form like the most ancient style, but is broken, and is scarcely ever intelligible except in the internal sense, in which are deepest arcana, which follow in beautiful connected order; and they relate to the external and the internal man; to the many states of the church; to heaven itself; and in the inmost sense to the Lord.

The fourth style is that of the Psalms of David, which is intermediate between the prophetical style and that of common speech. There the Lord is treated of in the internal sense, under the person of David as a king.

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