My name is William Shea, I'm
a retired seminary professor.
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Welcome to Faith Chapel.
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I'm going to study an
introduction to the Psalms with
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today, lets pray as we begin.
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Loving heavenly Father we thank
you for the wisdom that you have
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given your servants of old
to compile and bring together in
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these beautiful texts and as
we struggle to understand how
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these texts have been put
together and used through the
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centuries we ask the blessing
of Your Holy Spirit to lead us
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and guide us. In
Jesus name. Amen.
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I want to introduce the
subject of the Psalms to you by
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referring to a
modern church hymnal.
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The hymnal in the church
I worship in has the fifth
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addition of the
hymnals that my church has had.
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That over a period of 160 years.
Five hymnals in 160 years.
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What we have in the Psalms
is the hymnal of ancient Israel.
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The hymnal of the temple
and it went through a number of
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additions and we want to
look at those individually.
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Now its true as you study
the Psalms you will get the best
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spiritual value out of the
individual Psalms themselves
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but sometimes its helpful to see
how all this was but together
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how God guided His word through
the ages, and what we have here
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is a hymn book that was
put together over more than
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5 centuries.
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If you think of the time of
David about 1,000 B.C. and the
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time of Ezra probably the last
one adding to the Psalms, he
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lived about 450 B.C., you have
a period of about 5 and a half
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centuries and that's they way in
which this hymnal for the temple
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grew, actually what we have
in the Psalms is not one book
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of Psalms but five books
of Psalms and the text itself
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actually divided its different
sections up by use of a doxology
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A doxology, a closing
benediction for each one of the
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books of the Psalms so we're
going to look at those first
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and then when we get these
five sections of the Psalms
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outlined then we can think a
little bit more about what went
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into each one of these books.
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The first book of the
Psalms ends with Psalms 41.
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So I'm going to turn to
Psalm 41 and read the doxology.
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Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel from everlasting to
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everlasting amen and
amen. Sounds a little bit like a
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doxology that we might use
in church today and some of you
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may have an English Bible which
says immediately after that
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Book 2, and so this doxology
in Psalm 41:13 is a signal that
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this is the end of one section
of the sulter or we can refer to
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it as Book 1. Book 2
goes over to Psalm 72.
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You may notice something a
little unusual here, it says the
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prayers of David the son
of Jesse are ended but lets go
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for example to Psalms 86 which
is in this section and in Psalm
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86 the label at the top calls
it a prayer of David and if we
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had time we could go through
many more texts which have in
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the titles to the
Psalms attributed them to David
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So this shows that the
book 2 of the Psalms was closed
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to the particular time and
at that time they remarked that
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they had concluded the Psalms of
David the son of Jesse at that
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point in time but lets go on to
Psalm 89 and we have another one
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of these doxologies,
it's very brief Psalm 89:52,
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Blessed be the Lord
forever amen and amen.
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You may notice
the similarity between
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the doxology at the end of Book
1 we found at the end of Psalm
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41, the next section of the book
Book 4 as it reads many English
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Bibles have beginning with Psalm
90, above Psalm 90 it'll read
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Book 4 and then we go over
to Psalm 106 and at Psalm 106
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we read another doxology verse
48 of Psalm 106 Blessed be the
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Lord the God of Israel from
everlasting even to everlasting
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and let all the people say
amen praise the Lord. And then
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the beginning of Psalm 107
we not only have the designation
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Psalm 107 but we have up above
it says Book 5, so we have 5
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books of Psalms. Now why
would we have 5 books of Psalms?
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Well because at different times
different sections were added
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successively and we may identify
some of those periods of time
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in which these additions were
made. Now the first 32 Psalms
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first 41 Psalms I should
say Book 2 starts Psalm 42
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in the title to the Psalms and
we'll talk a little about the
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title to the Psalms virtually
all of those first 41 Psalms
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are attributed to David and
they're attributed in this way
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they use the Hebrew preposition
el which means according to
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in other words its an indication
of authorship. Now in the titles
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to the Psalms there are
also references not only to the
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author but to the musical
instruments that were played
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in accompanying them to the
pieces of music to with they
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were chanted or sung, to
the experience of a person in
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particular David there are
a number of Psalms that have a
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particular reference to an
experience of David that we can
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find in the historical books
of Samuel and then it has a
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reference commonly to the
type of Psalm and so there are
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different classifications of
Psalms for instance I'll just
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give you a couple of words a
maskil is the word used for a
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wisdom Psalm or a michtam
is a Psalm of atonement and so
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we have these bits of
information in the titles to the
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Psalms now the question would
be how accurate historically are
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they. Obviously when David wrote
a Psalm he didn't put up at the
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beginning and say I David
wrote this Psalm but apparently
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the attribution to David is
found early enough that they
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knew who wrote the Psalm it
was specified in the titles.
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Now since Book 1 has the
attribution of all these Psalms
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to David you may say that they
were composed by David collected
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in the time of David and so
Book 1 would end perhaps with
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death of David. He lived until
about 970 according to the dates
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for the Hebrew kings and so from
there Solomon took over and we
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would expect since Solomon was
the great temple builder that
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he would have needed or wanted
a hymnal, an expanded hymnal
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so Book 2 we might attribute to
Solomon in fact its interesting
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to see that the nature of
the Psalms changes. Book 1 the
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Psalms of David are basically
an individual type of Psalm.
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Were David is reflecting upon
an experience of his either good
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or bad sometimes his enemies
are chasing him sometimes he's
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praising God for something
good that's happened to him
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There basically four types of
Psalms. Now there are exceptions
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there are special Psalms we
might mention, 4 types of Psalms
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They're easy to classify.
They're either individual
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like David's or congregational
like we now read in Book 2
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and I'll discus those a little
bit more and then they come in
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two different types either
its good or its bad either its a
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lament or mourning for something
bad that has happened or it a
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praise and you might know that
the word for halleluiah that we
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so commonly use comes from the
root hallel from Hebrew which
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means praise and so the
name for Psalms in Hebrew is
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atahila is the singular
or tehillim is the plural.
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And so this word for praise
is the title to these books
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of praises and its rather
interesting to see that today we
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have traditional hymns and
praise songs the Hebrews didn't
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make that distinction. They were
all praise songs all 150 of them
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were all praise songs. So when
we move into Book 2 we run into
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something different, we run into
congregational songs and they
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are congregational songs
that are written by a particular
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groups of people and
I'm looking at the title
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for Psalm 42.
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Directions to the choir director
a maskil or a wisdom Psalm
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of the sons of Korah. Now
who were the sons of Korah?
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They're listed in 1 Chronicles
6 as the temple singers.
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And so as we continue as I just
scan through Psalm 44 songs of
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Korah Psalm 45 sons of Korah,
and it goes all the way to Psalm
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49 so here's a block of hymns
written by the sons of Korah
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written by the temple singers
from Psalm 42-49 this group
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that the temple singers as the
temple is now being used in the
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temple which Solomon has
constructed the temple singers
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now come into play and bring
to for their hymns now there's a
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another interesting one here
Psalm 50 and this is not a Psalm
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by the sons of Korah but a song
by the sons of Asaph and who
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were the sons of Asaph? They too
were temple singers in fact if
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anything they were more
prenominate temple singers
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then the sons of Korah. The sons
of Asaph and Asaph are mentioned
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four times in the historical
books 1 Chronicles 6, 15, 16,
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and Ezra 2. You may remember
that Ezra 2 gives a list of the
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people who came back from the
Babylonian exile and their on
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the list as the ones who
came back and continued their
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occupation of temple singers in
the second temple that was built
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by Zerubbabel and Joshua
the high priest according
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to the book of Zechariah.
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So now we have these
congregational type hymns and so
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Book 2 continues with these and
then come another collection of
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Psalms of David and its
interesting to see the last book
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we said Psalm 72 divides
of this section of Psalms
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We have the long doxology
which we already read but you'll
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notice at the beginning in the
title of Psalms 72 its a Psalm
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of Solomon. Solomon of course
was also known for his literary
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activity and so here's a Psalm
of Solomon which ends the second
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book which probably was
collected in the time of Solomon
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for use in the temple. Now when
we come to Book 3 we have more
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of these congregational type
hymns written by the sons of
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Asaph, and there are more
than ten of them, they run from
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Psalms 73 to 83. And so the sons
of Asaph are mentioned in the
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title of the rest of
these Psalms and so these were
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congregational hymns used in the
temple. Its also interesting to
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notice that occasionally we
will run into Psalms that have
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the names of the hymn
tunes. You know in our hymnal
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We can use a poem, you can take
that poem and use it to sever
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different kinds of
music if the meter is correct.
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If the meter of the poem
and the meter of the music match
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you can make them interchange
so we have some songs that are
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sung to different pieces of
music or a piece of music that
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maybe used for several songs
and they did the same thing in
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ancient Israel so let me just
take one example if we look at
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Psalm 57, 58, and 59 the reason
these 3 Psalms are of interest
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is because they were all sung
to the same song the same music
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and let me read an introduction
here. The title of Psalm 57
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For the choir director set
to Altaschith a Michtam of David
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when he fled from Saul to
the cave. Notice the historical
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reference there in the
title. There are only historical
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references to the experiences of
David nobody else's historical
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experiences are found in the
titles. Now we know these Psalm
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titles were old because when
they came to translate the old
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testament into Greek in the
3 B.C. a knowledge of what some
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of these musical terms meant
had already been lost so this
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shows that these are quite old
and therefore probably go back
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to times shortly after the
original composition alright so
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here's Altaschith for the music
of Psalm 57 then Psalm 58 to the
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choir directors set to
Altaschith a Michtam of David
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a Psalm of atonement and Psalm
59 for the choir director set to
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Altaschith a Michtam of David
when Saul sent his men and they
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watched the house in
order to kill him. So here we
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have three Psalms and right in
a row that were set to the same
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music. So we have the names of
the hymn tunes let me take one
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interesting Psalm which is
one of these exceptional Psalms
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It doesn't fall into the
usual four categories which I
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mentioned. The label in English
is the song celebrating the
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king's marriage specifically
the marriage of Solomon.
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And it says for the choir
director according to Shoshonean
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that's the Hebrew word for
lilies that was the name of the
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tune a maskil of the sons
of Korah a song of love, well
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here's a wedding song and here's
their wedding march and so
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what I want you to notice
in particular about this is the
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same music was used for Psalm 69
and Psalm 80 so lets just turn
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to those two quickly. Psalm
69, and it says for the choir
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director according to Shoshonean
a psalm of David. So here's the
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musical piece which the gave
the label of lilies. You know we
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have titles for our music
too. Even when we use it with
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different poems for instance a
famous hymn tune in the English
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hymnal is Old Hundred and
so you can use that to several
00:17:03.42\00:17:07.08
different poems. Now there
are some interesting indications
00:17:07.11\00:17:12.97
of how these collections were
done and I want to go back to
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Book 1 and I want to go to
Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 because
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originally these two Psalms were
all one Psalm. How do we know
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that? We can only see
this in Hebrew because there is
00:17:29.90\00:17:34.13
something in Hebrew
called an acrostic which is the
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use of the successive
letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
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And to make it simple in Psalm 9
the verses start with the letter
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Alph or 'A' and they go to
Kaph or 'K' in Psalm 10 they
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begin with 'L' or Lamed and
they go to Tow or'T' so half of
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the Hebrew alphabet is in Psalm
9 and half more is found in
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Psalm 10 so obviously to have
this anacrustic or alphabetic
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Psalm it would have originally
belonged together. Another
00:18:06.08\00:18:11.89
interesting aspect in
the use of the divine names.
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The divine name that is common
as God's personal name is,
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we would say Jehovah or perhaps
a better pronunciation would be
00:18:22.10\00:18:25.81
Yahweh and its interesting to
note that in the first 40 Psalms
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that were written by David, he
very prone to use that personal
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name of God. In Book 2 in which
we now have the congregational
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hymns for the temple by the
temple singers its much more
00:18:38.39\00:18:45.39
common to use Elohim which is
generic word of God. And outside
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of ancient Israel anybody
in any country would understand
00:18:50.80\00:18:54.00
Elohim as a word for god. But
Yahweh was the name of the God
00:18:54.01\00:18:58.10
of Israel only. Its His personal
name. Just as Kimosh was
00:18:58.13\00:19:01.67
the god of the Moabites and
Marduk was the god of Babylon
00:19:01.70\00:19:04.70
and so on and so forth each
country and city had there own
00:19:04.73\00:19:09.00
god and there were names and
Yahweh or Jehovah was the name
00:19:09.03\00:19:13.63
of the God of Israel and now
another aspect of the Psalms is
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the reuse so I wanted to
give you an example of that,
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This is Psalm 14 let me read
a little bit of that. The fool
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has said in his heart, there is
no God, they are corrupt, they
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have committed a
abominable deeds.
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There is no one who does good
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watch carefully now, The
Lord has looked down from heaven
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upon the sons of men to see if
there are any who understand who
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seek after God, they have all
turned aside together they have
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all become corrupt. There's is
none that does good not even one
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Alright now lets turn to Psalm
53 and you may notice something
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similar and then you may
notice something different.
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The fool hath said in his heart
there is no God they are corrupt
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they have committed abominable
injustice there is no one who
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does good. God has looked down
from heaven upon the sons of men
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to see if there's anyone
who understands anyone who seeks
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after God. Everyone of them has
turned aside together they have
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become corrupt. There is no
one who does good not even one.
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If you listen carefully you may
have noticed that those verses
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from Psalm 14 are repeated
in Psalm 53 but there was one
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tiny little difference and I
don't know if a careful listener
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caught it. In Psalm 14 it
uses the name of the Lord or the
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Hebrew word behind this is
Yahweh. Yahweh looks down from
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heaven to see if there's
anyone righteous and Psalm 53
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it uses the term God or Elohim
so its the same Psalm reused in
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Book 2 but now with a
different name for God.
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And so people have said well the
reason David uses this personal
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name of God is because of his
close personal association with
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God and because of the
individual nature of the Psalms
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speaking out of his experience
whether it was mournful
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or whether it was praise
speaking to God as a friend
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which is what these Psalms are
just to do, where as in worship
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in the temple its a
more transcended or a more
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over arching experience and
so they used the name for God
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that was used for example
in Genesis one, so here we have
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the same Psalm repeated now
we have some other cases of this
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which I wont bother you
with but I want to notice some
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special collections. Lets go to
Psalm 120 this now would be in
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in Book 4. Psalm 120 which is
right after the longest Psalm of
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all Psalm 119 which is
an acrostic incidentally the
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letters of the Hebrew alphabet
are used all the way through
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in order in Psalm 119.
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This Psalm and praise
of the law a wisdom Psalm
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but starting with Psalm 120
if you look at the title it says
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Song of a sense. Psalm 121
a song of a sense, Psalm 122 a
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a song of a sense of David,
Psalm 123 a song of a sense and
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that goes on until Psalm 134.
So here's a collection. You know
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we have collections in our
hymnal. We have songs about
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Christ songs about His suffering
songs about His birth Christmas
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songs, we have songs
about God songs about the church
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and we collect those in
different sections so they did
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that here. Now what
were songs of the sense?
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Songs of a sense were songs
which people sang or chanted
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as they ascended to
Jerusalem to go to the festivals
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you may remember the 6
festivals of the Jewish calendar
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three of which at Pentecost,
Passovers, and tabernacles
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all the males of Israel were
required to attend and since
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it was a fairly long walk
or a fairly long donkey ride
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they needed something to pass
the time of day so they would
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sing and they would chant
with these Psalms and you can
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see this quite clearly in
Psalm 122 I was glad when they
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said to me let us go to the
house of the Lord our feet are
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standing in are gates
oh Jerusalem and so forth.
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The tribes go up even the tribes
of the Lord so here we have
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a psalm of a sense that speaks
rather clearly to the idea of
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these marching people going
to these festivals. Now there's
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another section here if we
go back to Psalm 11 that uses a
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word with which you are very
familiar even if you don't know
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Hebrew and the word is
halleluiah and halleluiah
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is the word to praise in the
imperative form and the 'iah'
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is a short form of the name
of God so basically when you say
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halleluiah your saying
praise Jehovah or praise Yahweh.
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And you may notice that Psalm
11 begins with praise the Lord
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Psalm 112 begins with praise
the Lord, Psalm 113 begins with
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praise the Lord and
ends with praise the Lord.
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And Psalm 115 ends with
praise the Lord and so forth.
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So here's a little book, a
little collection of Psalms that
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were collected around the word
halleluiah. Halleluiah at the
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beginning or halleluiah at the
end or halleluiah at the both.
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And so this is called the hallel
this is a collection known as
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the praise of the praises.
Now we have late Psalms and you
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might expect them to occur
in Book 5 and sure enough we'll
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turn to one that very
characteristic Psalm 137.
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This is a tragic Psalm but its
very well known and here we have
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the experience of the exiles.
By the rivers of Babylon there
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we sat down and wept. When
we remembered Zion upon the
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willows we hung our harps for
there our captors demanded of
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us songs and our tormentors
murth saying sing us one of
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the songs of Zion. How can we
sing the Lords song in a foreign
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land if I forget you oh
Jerusalem may my right hand
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forget her skill, may my tongue
cling to the roof of my mouth
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if I do not remember you, if I
do not exalt Jerusalem above my
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chief joy. So here are
the people in exile bemoaning
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their fate and bemoaning the
fate of Jerusalem with now lay
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in ruins and destruction
and they are reflecting back
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and so here is a Psalm which
could only have been written
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during the Babylonian exile and
so it was collected let us say
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later after they got back to
their homeland after they were
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sent back by Siris and it
makes to Book 5 we have a Psalm
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And so we come to the final
section of the Psalms and we
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might say that Book 3 was
probably collected in the time
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of Hezekiah. There was
much literary activity going on
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in the time of king Hezekiah.
Proverbs 25 refers to the
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collection of Proverbs made
in the time of king Hezekiah
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Book 4 probably collected just
before the Babylonian conquest
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and Book 5 at the end of
the exile and so we come to the
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last five psalms and you may
remember them cause they're all
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very musical psalms that once
again use the word halleluiah
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halleluiah at the beginning
halleluiah at the end over and
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over again and you may remember
Psalm 150 which is the praise
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of God on all the instruments
that have been mentioned
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in the titles of the Psalms that
have gone before. Let me close
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by reading that Praise the
Lord praise God in the sanctuary
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praise Him in His mighty
expanses praise Him for His
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mighty deeds praise
Him according to His
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excellent greatness.
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