That there are diverse opinions of very many concerning the book of the Psalms, we know for certain from the very books which they have left in writing. For some hold that they are divided, after the manner of the Hebrews, into five books: so that the first book extends to the fortieth psalm, and from the fortieth to the seventy-first the second book, and from that to the eighty-eighth the third book, and to the hundred and fifth the fourth book — for which reason all these psalms have at their conclusion 'so be it, so be it' — and then the fifth book is concluded at the hundred and fiftieth psalm. But others have thought that the psalms should be entitled thus: 'The Psalms of David,' by which title they would have it understood that they were all composed by David.
But we, according to apostolic authority, both name and write it 'the book of the Psalms.' For thus we recall it said in the Acts of the Apostles: 'For it is written in the book of the Psalms: Let his dwelling be made desolate, and let another take his office.' Therefore neither, according to certain Hebrews, are they to be called five books, nor, according to the simplicity of others, 'the Psalms of David,' but according to apostolic authority it is to be known as 'the book of the Psalms.' Now there are several writers of these same psalms. For to some David is prefixed as author, in some Solomon, in some Asaph, in some Idithun, in some the sons of Korah, in one Moses.
And indeed it is absurd to name them 'the Psalms of David,' since there their authors are commended by the very titles of the inscriptions. And the 'book of the Psalms' would more rightly be so called, the prophecies of diverse authors and diverse times being gathered together into one volume. It has seemed good to some to note down in the superscriptions of certain psalms the names of Jeremiah and Haggai and Zechariah, whereas nothing of these is found so published in the authentic books of the seventy translators — so much so that in very many Latin and Greek codices, without these names, only the simple titles of the psalms are set forth.
Now concerning those which are held without the names of diverse authors under diverse superscriptions, this is the tradition of the ancient men: that from that psalm whose author is placed in the superscription, those which follow thereafter without an author's superscription are to be reckoned to belong to him who is inscribed as author of the preceding psalm, down to that psalm in which the name of another author is set forth: so that if the superscription of some psalm be such, 'A Psalm of David,' the rest which follow without a title are to be believed to be David's, until the name of another prophet is placed in a superscription;
and from that one down to another prophet, those which are in the middle without an inscription are his who in the superscription of the preceding psalm has begun to be set as author. But if perchance anyone should for this reason withdraw credit from this understanding, because in those psalms which follow that psalm to which Moses is set as author — that is, in the ninety-eighth: 'Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name' — it is written, so that it cannot seem to have been prophesied by Moses, since the name of Samuel, who was born so long after Moses, stands recorded in the psalm: to no one ought it to seem strange or difficult that so great a prophet should have uttered the name of so great a prophet, though one to be born afterward.
For in the books of Kings the name of king Josiah was prophesied before he was born, the prophet saying: 'Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: behold, a son shall be born to David, Josiah his name.' Wherefore it ought not to be incredible that Samuel was foretold by Moses, especially since, according to Jeremiah who says, 'Not if Moses and Samuel should stand,' he was named together with Moses and made his equal by the merit of holiness. This tradition, proceeding — as far as is believed — from Ezra, who gathered the psalms into one book after the captivity, if it shall be esteemed false or improbable, then by those who contradict it, the authors of these psalms must needs be demonstrated.
For it is settled that they could not have been prophesied except by prophets prophesying. But it is not to be doubted that those things which are said in the psalms ought to be understood according to the gospel proclamation; so that from whatever person the spirit of prophecy may have spoken, nevertheless the whole of it is to be referred to the knowledge of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his incarnation and passion and kingdom, and to the glory and power of our resurrection. Now all prophecies are shut up and sealed to the worldly sense and the prudence of the age, according to that saying of Isaiah: 'And all these words shall be to you as the words of a book that is sealed. And if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying: Read this, he will say:'
'I cannot read, for it is sealed.' And if the book be given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, and it be said to him: Read this — he will answer: I do not know letters. The inexperience of reading and of understanding the book of prophecy is shown under the person of each kind of man, since the understanding of the learned, not coming to the seal of the closed mystery, is compared to the ignorance of that unlearned man through the common lack of understanding in both. For all things are woven together with allegorical and typical virtues, through all of which the mysteries of the only-begotten Son of God are disclosed — of his being begotten in a body, and suffering, and dying, and rising again, and reigning forever with those glorified together with him, who have believed in him, and of judging the rest.
And because the scribes and Pharisees, not receiving the Son of God born in a body, would deny to all men entrance to the understanding of prophecy, under the denunciation of punishment they are thus reproved by the Lord: 'Woe to you, doctors of the law, who have taken away the key of knowledge: you yourselves do not enter, and those who are entering you do not permit to enter.' For, denying Christ, whose coming is the work of the prophets, they took away the key of knowledge; because the denied faith in the bodily coming forecloses the knowledge of the law, which preached the bodily coming of the Lord.
And this indeed is to be understood as said of every kind of the prophetic scriptures: that, unless they be understood and recognized as pointing to the coming of the Lord, who is to be brought forth from the Virgin into man, the force of their understanding is held sealed and closed. Yet that the book of the Psalms in no way can be understood except through faith in his coming, we are thus taught in the Apocalypse of blessed John: 'And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy and True, who has the key of David, who opens, and none shall shut; who shuts, and none shall open.'
He has, therefore, the key of David, because he himself unlooses these seven certain seals which David prophesies of him in the psalms, concerning his corporeality and his passion and death and resurrection and glory and kingdom and judgement, opening what none shall shut, and shutting what none shall open; because through this prophecy, which was fulfilled in him, he opens what none shall foreclose, and, against the faith of the prophecy fulfilled in him being denied, he shuts what none can open. For none save he, in whom these things were prophesied and fulfilled, shall impart the key of this understanding. Finally, this very thing he taught in what follows, saying: 'And I saw upon the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals.'
And I saw another mighty angel, proclaiming with a loud voice: 'Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seals?' And no one was able, neither in heaven nor on earth nor beneath the earth, to open the book, nor to look upon it. And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, nor to look upon it. And one of the elders said to me: 'Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book and its seven seals.' This book, containing both things past and things to come—those things which were written within and without—is worthy to be opened by no one; and the apostle's weeping arises out of his longing for understanding and his grief at the difficulty. But the lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David has prevailed.
—to open the book and its seals: for He alone loosed those seven seals, of which we spoke above, by which the book is closed, through the sacrament of His incarnation and of His divinity. And the Lord Himself testified to this very thing after the resurrection, saying: 'All things must be fulfilled which are written of Me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms.' Through these, therefore, the whole book of prophecy has been both sealed and closed; because you believe those things which have been fulfilled through Him, all those things which were sealed and closed shall be both opened and loosed. And although we know, by the Lord's own profession, that all these things were spoken by the divine Spirit through David—
—yet the very form of this prophecy also teaches that there existed within it the knowledge of a heavenly and celestial doctrine. For it was prophesied by that instrument called in Greek the psaltery, in Hebrew the nabla; which alone of all musical instruments is the most upright, containing in itself nothing perverse or crooked, nor that which is moved into the sound of musical harmony from lower places; but, being fashioned into the shape of the Lord's body, it is an instrument directed straight without any bending or inclining—an instrument moved and impelled from on high, and animated into the song of a heavenly and celestial teaching, resounding not with a lowly and earthly spirit, as do the other instruments of the earth.
For He did not proclaim lowly and earthly things in that instrument of His body, just as He Himself testified: 'He who is of the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth; but He who comes from heaven testifies of what He has seen and heard.' Through this heavenly Spirit, therefore, God is sung in the psalms, in the form of the Lord's body, in which the heavenly Spirit spoke, being likened also to the form of this earthly and musical instrument that resounds in concert from on high. But it must not be unknown that among the Hebrews the number of the psalms is undivided, and that they were written down without any notation of order. For there the first or second or third or fiftieth or hundredth are not marked, but they are mingled together without any distinction of order or number.
For Ezra, as the ancient traditions relate, gathered them—being unarranged and scattered according to the diversity of their authors and times—into a single volume and set them in order. But the seventy elders, who according to the tradition of Moses remained in the synagogue for the keeping of the doctrine of the law, after the care of translating the whole law from Hebrew into the Greek tongue was entrusted to them by King Ptolemy, understanding the virtues of the psalms by a spiritual and heavenly knowledge, reduced them into number and order, assigning to each several number, according to its efficacy and completeness, the order of the perfect and effective psalms.
And although this very thing may be understood from the virtues of the individual psalms, yet we are most fully taught from the history of deeds and times, namely, that the arrangements of the psalms have been ordered according to the efficacies of the perfect numbers. For the third psalm, according to history, is later than the fiftieth psalm; for the inscription of each is diverse, separated by a great interval of time and age. For the one embraces those things done under Uriah and David; but the other signifies the flight of David when his son Absalom was pursuing him. But the virtue and sacrament of number brought it about that this one and that one are placed according to their fitting and mutually agreeing numbers.
But the inscription of the fiftieth psalm is, according to history, later than the inscription of the fifty-first psalm. But the virtue of the number fifty demanded, and the impenitent hatred of Doeg the Idumaean against David required, that the earlier be placed after and the later be set before, so that the remission of sins might be placed in the number fifty, and that the penalty of perfidy, exceeding the number of the established remission, might lack pardon, since it had lost both the time and the number of penitence. For since in the fiftieth—in which are the sabbaths of sabbaths—the remission of sins is established according to the prefiguring of the jubilee year, fittingly this psalm, in which is sought the remission of sins granted upon penitence, is placed in the order of this number.
Now the book of psalms is contained in three fifties: and this arises from the reason and number of that blessed hope of ours. For whoever diligently observes the completion of the first fifty, and then of the second fifty, and again of the third fifty—in which is the end of the book—will understand that the providence of those things arranged in this order of the psalms accords with the dispensation of our salvation.
For since the first step to salvation is to be reborn into the new man after the remission of sins, and since after the confession of penitence that kingdom of the Lord is reserved for the times of that holy city and heavenly Jerusalem, and afterward, when the heavenly glory has been consummated in us, we may advance into the kingdom of God the Father through the kingdom of the Son, in which the whole company of spirits shall proclaim due praises to God: we shall easily understand that in the individual virtues of the psalms arranged under the number fifty is contained the sacrament of this arrangement of the fifties. And that these are sabbaths of sabbaths, the sevenfold number, counted seven times sevenfold, shows;
—yet the ogdoad, because the same day is both the first and the eighth, consummates it, being added at the last sabbath according to the evangelical fullness. And these sabbaths of sabbaths were indeed celebrated by the apostles with such reverence that during these fifty days no one should worship with the body stretched upon the ground, nor should hinder the festivity of this spiritual blessedness by fasting; which same thing has moreover been established externally on the Lord's days, which are added beyond the number of the sabbath through the fullness of the evangelical preaching. For although on the seventh day both the name and the observance of the sabbath are established, yet we rejoice on the eighth day, which is itself also the first, in the festivity of the perfect sabbath.
And it is fitting to behold this perfect virtue of the ogdoad, in its heavenly sacraments, in that psalm which is arranged eighth in number, to which the title 'for the winepresses' is added—for the vessels prepared for the new fruits and renewed for containing the heat of the fermenting new wine. And this number is destined, according to the evangelical ogdoad, for the receiving of the evangelical fruits, these frail vessels of our bodies being reformed. And the text and discourse of this psalm testify to this. The virtue of this ogdoad is also contained, as it were, in the virtue of the sixth psalm and number, in which the prayer stands 'for the eighth'; and the reckoning of number brought this about, that both in the sixth there should be a prayer 'for the eighth,' and in the eighth the title 'for the winepresses' should be added.
Now this superscription of the winepresses is found in three numbers. For both the eighth and the eightieth and the eighty-third psalm have this title, so that in perfect numbers the order of this perfect blessedness might stand fast; yet in such a way that the sacrament of the triad—which by us is called the Trinity—should conclude the simple ogdoad and the decade of the ogdoad. And this perfection of the ogdoad we can also recognize in the hundred and eighteenth psalm. For into the number eight, by eights of verses, the beginnings of the several letters have been gathered according to the Hebrews; but the very virtue of the psalm teaches the sacrament of the ogdoad. And there are in it twenty-two ogdoads.
For eights of verses are assigned to the beginnings of the several letters; and this is effected for this reason: that, because this psalm perfects the perfect man according to evangelical doctrine, we might be instructed through all twenty-two letters of the Hebrew tongue under the sacrament of the ogdoad. And this is the cause why the law of the Old Testament is reckoned into twenty-two books, that they might agree with the number of the letters.
These are reckoned according to the traditions of the ancients thus: that the books of Moses are five, Joshua son of Nun the sixth, Judges and Ruth the seventh, First and Second Kingdoms the eighth, Third and Fourth into the ninth, the two of Chronicles into the tenth, the words of the days of Ezra into the eleventh, the book of Psalms the twelfth, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs into the thirteenth and fourteenth and fifteenth, the twelve Minor Prophets into the sixteenth, then Isaiah and Jeremiah with Lamentations and the epistle, and also Daniel and Ezekiel and Job and Esther, complete the number of twenty-two books.
But to some it has seemed good, with Tobit and Judith added, to count twenty-four books according to the number of the Greek letters—the Roman tongue also being gathered midway between the Hebrews and the Greeks; because it is chiefly in these three tongues that the sacrament of the will of God and the expectation of the blessed kingdom is proclaimed: whence came that act of Pilate, that in these three tongues he wrote over the Lord Jesus Christ that He was King of the Jews. For although many barbarous nations have attained the knowledge of God according to the preaching of the apostles and the faith of the churches remaining there to this day, yet in a special way the evangelical doctrine stands fast within the Roman Empire, under which both Hebrews and Greeks are contained.
Now it follows that, according to this eightfold number of twenty-two ogdoads, we should behold that number of psalms which is set forth in the fifteen Songs of Degrees. For after that perfect doctrine of the preceding ogdoads, this Song of Degrees had to be composed into fifteen psalms from two perfect numbers, namely the hebdomad and the ogdoad, that is, the seventh and eighth number. For through the observance of the law, which is established in the hebdomad, and the evangelical progress, which is perfected by the ogdoad both in present religion and in hoped-for expectation, by this Song of Degrees one ascends into the heavenly and eternal things. For also by this number of degrees the chief priests ascended into the temple, into the Holy of Holies:
—so that, because neither the hebdomad of the law without the ogdoad of the gospels, nor the ogdoad of the gospels without the hebdomad of the law, could present a perfect man, whoever had believed perfectly this perfect and true number of the hebdomad and the ogdoad—which is in the Song of the fifteen degrees—he should be placed among these perfect and blessed and holy of holies. But although these things have been said by us according to numbers both accordant with the observance of the law and distributed in the evangelical sacrament, yet we shall attain the virtue of each number absolutely from the superscriptions of the psalms and the understanding of the sayings themselves. Now the titles of all the superscriptions are diverse.
因為除了那些以其作者的名字、或以緣由或時代之表徵為題的以外，還有些題作「達到終極」（unto the end）的；又有些只題作「聖詠的歌」或「歌的聖詠」的：必是那各異的題辭有各異的緣由存在。因為在如此眾多之事的差異中，這題目的次序絕非無故變換，以致有時題「達到終極」，有時題「聖詠」，有時題「歌」，有時題「歌的聖詠」，有時題「聖詠的歌」，安置在其下所屬的詩篇之前，以資分別。
For besides those which are entitled by the names of their authors or by significations of causes or times, there are others which have the title 'unto the end'; others which have only 'a psalm of a canticle,' or 'a canticle of a psalm': and it must be that diverse causes of the diverse superscriptions have existed. For not without cause, amid so great a diversity of matters, is this order of titles varied, so that now 'unto the end,' now 'a psalm,' now 'a canticle,' now 'a canticle of a psalm,' now 'a psalm of a canticle' is set before the psalm that follows, for its distinction.
And although in each several psalm we strive to furnish the causes of each several inscription, yet for the sake of brevity, to aid diligent understanding, we compress the virtue of all the superscriptions into a short discourse. The 'end' is that for the sake of which all other things exist; but it itself furnishes its cause to no other. For all things exist for the end's sake, but nothing else after the end. For toward the end all things tend, and at the end they cease. Thus the end is both the perfection of the things before it, and, stretching out of itself into nothing further, it is the proper possession of its very self. Therefore the psalms which are inscribed 'unto the end' are to be so understood, that they arise from the perfect and complete doctrines and hopes of eternal goods:
—because toward the things which are said in them our course of faith extends itself, and in them, with no further advance, it rests in the very end of its longed-for and attained blessedness. But in the musical arts these are the varieties of functions and kinds. It is a 'psalm' when, the voice ceasing, only the striking of the concordant instrument is heard. It is a 'canticle' when a chorus of singers, using its own freedom and not bound to the accompanying obedience of the instrument, exults in a hymn of the melodious voice alone. But it is a 'canticle of a psalm' when, with the instrument playing first, the voice of the singing chorus is heard following and emulating the instrument, imitating the modes of the psaltery with the measures of the voice.
But it is a 'psalm of a canticle' when, the chorus singing first, the art of the concordant instrument is fitted to the hymn of human song, and the psaltery is modulated with equal sweetness to the measures of the leading voice. To these four kinds, therefore, of the musical art, the superscriptions befitting each several psalm have been fitted. And from the virtues of the psalms, and from the very diversities of musical doctrine, the cause of each superscription is shown. For in that psalm in which 'a psalm' only is inscribed, the doctrine or the confession of faithful works and religious deeds is contained, when the prophet, by recalling what he has done, instructs us in the doctrine of like deeds, the motions of our bodily instrument being tempered to the pious uses of our duties.
But when 'a canticle' only is set before in the title, there exists in it a spiritual knowledge and an understanding of the heavenly mystery, which one attains through the recognition of wisdom: when, without commemorating the works of faith, it shows the sole doctrine of the perfect knowledge concerning God. For not immediately is all knowledge in a good work; nor again does every good work attain to true knowledge. On which account there is also that which is in the third kind of superscriptions, 'a canticle of a psalm,' when the doctrine of knowledge is joined to the efficacy of good works. For first one must live in good works, so that that knowledge of the divine sacrament, which afterward will follow, may be perfect, according to that which is said: 'Have you desired wisdom?
—keep the commandments, and the Lord will furnish it to you.' The Lord, therefore, furnishes wisdom to those who through the merit of works attain the grace of understanding. From these zealous pursuits, therefore, of works and doctrine, the cause of that psalm which is superscribed 'a canticle of a psalm' will have to be known. But where there is 'a psalm of a canticle,' there through the knowledge of understanding the practice of good work is treated, since the prior knowledge attained concerning God furnishes to us the desirable efficacy of faithful deeds. This fourfold diversity of the musical art, therefore, is fitted to the diversities of the psalms: so that a 'psalm,' through the motion of the bodily instrument, consists in the commemoration of deeds; but a 'canticle,' through the knowledge of wisdom, has in itself the knowledge of doctrine;
—but a 'canticle of a psalm' is when, the merit of deeds going before, the knowledge of understanding is furnished; then a 'psalm of a canticle,' when through the knowledge of attained understanding the works of faithful deeds are begun and carried out. Through these properties of the superscriptions, therefore, the understanding of the psalms must be sought, because to each kind of prophecy, in the property of the titles, each kind of musical comparison has been fitted.
But those which are held without any inscription of any signification—as are the first and second and several others—must be understood to have been sung, by the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, for the spiritual knowledge of a general understanding, so that each one from among these might seek, according to the sincerity of his own faith, the reasoning of spiritual understanding. But other superscriptions, which either signify deeds done according to history, or times, or days, or embrace something else, show—either from the interpretation of names, or from the comparison of deeds, or from the appearance of things alike—out of what matters the psalm consists:
—so that, wherever there is 'for the sabbath day,' or 'concerning the hidden things of the Son,' or 'for the eighth day,' through the corporeal signification of the superscriptions the spiritual edition of the psalm may be understood; or, when 'of that David,' or 'to that David,' or 'Absalom,' or 'Saul,' or 'Doeg' are noted in the title under the history of deeds, in this we may attain the prophecy which is in the psalm, either through the qualities of the pronouns, as 'to that' or 'of that David,' or through the virtues of the names, as it is in Absalom and Saul and Doeg. But the Diapsalma, which is interposed in very many psalms, must be recognized to begin a change either of person or of sense under a turn of the musical mode:
—so that, wherever a Diapsalma has intervened, it must be understood that either something else is said, or that it is even said by another, or that it is sung in another mode of the musical art. And concerning the persons and senses, wherever we find a Diapsalma intervening, we shall attempt to bring forward the reasoning. For the rest, the Greek and Latin translation could not preserve the discipline of the musical mode. But this discourse, hastening to the very exposition of the psalms, has gathered these things into a compendious brevity. Now a diligent and weighed judgment must be furnished to the exposition of each several psalm, that it may be known by what key of understanding each one of them is to be opened.
For every book is like a beautiful and great city, which has many and diverse dwellings, whose doors are shut with their own several keys: and when these have been heaped and mingled together into one place, they bring the greatest difficulty to one who is ignorant and wishes to open each dwelling, that he may find the key of each several dwelling; and it is a matter either of familiar knowledge to choose quickly the known key out of that abundance of variety heaped into one, or of enormous labor to find the fit and fitting key for opening the entrance of each; because reason and quality do not permit keys not their own to be fitted to unmatched locks.