David the King : with a study on the location of the Psalms in the order of David's life

Introduction

It is my conviction that the best method of studying or. of teaching the Bible is by biographical centres. The doctrinal and abstract books should live and move in the very life of their author. They were so connected in the minds of the original readers. The epistles of St. Paul are new letters to one who has read them as a part of the active magnetic career of the great apostle. The dry chapters of Leviticus and Numbers will be instinct with vitality, when they move in the person of Moses and in the Hebrew and Egyptian society which surrounded him. The greater part of the whole Scriptures really revolves around the few lives of Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, St. Paul, St. John, and our Lord. Whoever can infuse into these more abstract doctrines the real spirit which they had to living men when they were written, by making them flow along the thought, feeling and action of the life which produced them, does a valuable service. I have tried to do this in respect to David and his Psalms, in pursuance of a plan which includes the leading biographical centres of the Scriptures and the doctrinal, legal, devotional or prophetical books which surround these centres.

It is remarkable that no modern exploration of the land

and of the history of Palestine has been made consecutively

along the line of David's life.' It is of course impossible

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i v " INTRODUCTION.

to give an exact location to every Psalm, but enough may be suggested to show how full of fresh power the Psalms were when first written. Any probable arrangement will make these wonderful songs of the Sweet Hebrew Singer, start into livelier action and into stronger command of our spiritual feeling. I have freely taken many suggestions from other writers than those whom I have quoted.

This life of the King was principally written in the midst of the busy cares of a pastor's work, and doubtless will appear in many places hasty and defective, to the more critical student. It is designed, however, for the people, and especially for the young — in Bible-classes, colleges, schools, and families, and I hope may help them to a clearer conception of the great Psalmist, Warrior, Priest, and Ruler.

Bloomfield, N. J., November, 1875.