In the Bible there is the Book dedicated to the 150 Psalms, prayers addressed to the Lord. My question is this: were the biblical psalms all written by King David or even by Asaf or Solomon, also King of Israel? And why does it say 'Psalm 23(22)' when a psalm is recited? I ask him to figure out if the right number is the one written out or inside the parenthesis, that's all.
Marco Giraldi
I would like to address the second question first, which is easier to resolve. In fact, every time it is annoying to find a double numbering in psalms, at least in most of them. This is due to a gap between the Hebrew original and the Greek translation - called the Seventy - of the Jewish psalms themselves. The psalms were all written in Hebrew, but in the 2nd-3rd century BC for the needs of the Jewish diaspora, especially that present in Egypt, which was no longer familiar with Hebrew and to establish a cultural comparison with the Hellenistic world, they were translated into Greek (as well as the other biblical books). Because of this translation, a different numbering of psalms was established because in Greek some psalms were gathered in one (Psalms 9-10 Hebrew became a psalm only, 9, e.g.) and vice versa Greek broke in two a single psalm (e.g. Psalm 116 Hebrew became Psalms 114-115 in Greek). Now, the liturgy of the Church, first in Greek and then in Latin, has followed the Greek numbering, which has still remained in our modern translations today. Thus, double numbering is generally used to signal this divergence, which does not affect the contents of the psalms.
The first question requires a more detailed answer. At the beginning of numerous psalms we find a kind of header with some information, which vary from time to time. They concern the literary genre of the psalm, the mode of musical performance, or the liturgical use that can be made of it, or the historical circumstance in which it was born, and on several occasions also the author of the psalmic composition. In 73 cases (which become 80 for greek translation) the psalm is attributed as an author to King David. In other cases to Asaf (official singer of the Davidic court). Hence the tradition that the psalms were all composed by King David.
Now, the exegetical studies tell us that this davidic attribution of all psalms cannot be accepted without some clarification. Literary studies tell us that if an ancient layer corresponding to the Davidic era is established (and in some cases even earlier), there are instead several psalms of the psalter that have been composed in later times, covering a fairly wide historical arc of almost a millennium. I shall not dwell on this issue, which is complex and extremely controversial. There is, in fact, no unanimous agreement among scholars on the dating of individual psalms, the hypotheses in this regard are wasted. But I think that to say, as scholars suggest, that psalter is not a static composition of a specific era, is a great resource for us too.
The beauty and richness of psalms actually consists in their expressive capacity for the history of a people, that of Israel, which has become paradigmatic of human history. A story that has unfolded over centuries, which has seen alternate events, multiple protagonists, different and varied awareness of fundamental things, of God, of man, of history, of his hopes. Thus the psalter turns out to be significant of this whole story, that is, of the history that God has generated in the life of the world through this particular people. The genius that we find in the psalms in expressing the life of man, the sense of history, the relationship with God, is a literary and symbolic genius that derives from this particular history that God has established with Israel.
The initiator of this poetic and religious tradition together, it was certainly, as different data lead us to think, King David. In his wake several others have aligned themselves giving us an invaluable treasure that is still able to express the essential coordinates of human life facing the Mystery of God.