- Rubric: Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs
- Title: The Sweet Psalmist of Israel
- Publication: Volume 1 Issue 4 (May 6, 2023)
Today we must take a close look at David the son of Jesse.
Why David the son of Jesse, you ask? Because we are searching the scriptures for the keys to the book of psalms that will unlock all its treasure. We are listening to the scriptures with attentive ears to hear the heavenly tunes that will carry all the beauty of the psalms to our hearts.
God gave us such a key and a tune last time. He took us to the first words of the first verse of the first psalm—the headwaters of all the psalms. There God showed us the blessed man, and there God showed us Jesus Christ. Blessed is the man! Blessed is Jesus Christ! At the beginning of all the psalms we learned the interpretation of all the psalms: the psalms are about the blessed man, and the blessed man is Jesus Christ.
There is another key to the book of psalms in David the son of Jesse. The book of psalms is known as “The Psalms of David.” When Jesus and his apostles quoted the psalms, they often referred to David. “And David himself saith in the book of Psalms” (Luke 20:42). The Reformed fathers knew the psalms as “the 150 Psalms of David” (Church Order 69). In David, then, there must be a key to unlock his psalms.
So today we must take a close look at David the son of Jesse.
David the Son of Jesse
David had something to say about himself and the psalms. So important was David’s declaration about himself and the psalms that he called that declaration his “last words.” Not last in the sense of his deathbed confession but last in the sense of his firm and abiding testimony—his last will and testament—in which testimony he would live and die.
Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. (II Sam. 23:1–2)
That is something of great significance. David the son of Jesse was not merely David the son of Jesse. Rather, David the son of Jesse was three things that are one thing. David was “the man who was raised up on high.” David was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” David was “the sweet psalmist of Israel.”
What does this mean?
First, David was “the man who was raised up on high.” This means that God gave David a position of authority. God “dwelleth on high” (Ps. 113:5). God is “high and lifted up” (Isa. 6:1). When God raised David up on high, God gave David authority over men. God made David king. David commanded the armies of Israel and the captains of the host. David commanded the priests and the Levites in their service. David commanded the people. David commanded the mighty men and the lowly servants. God raised David up on high to exercise authority over the children of Israel.
God alone raised David up on high. David had no authority of his own over men. David was not the son of a king. David was the son of Jesse. David was not mighty even in his own family. David was the youngest son. David kept watch over his father’s flock. When his older brothers went to war, David stayed home. When Samuel came to Jesse’s house to anoint the next king of Israel, no one even imagined that it might be little David. David could not raise himself up on high. God came to David. God raised up David to authority. By God’s exaltation of him, David was “the man who was raised up on high.”
Second, David was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” This means that God ordained David to office. Anointing with oil was a symbolic ceremony in which specially prepared oil was poured over a man’s head. The ceremony of anointing was God’s declaration that God by his Spirit had separated the anointed man to office.
The matter of holding office in Israel was a holy matter, whether it was the office of prophet, priest, or king. Holding office was such a holy matter because God went among his people through the office. The officebearer in Israel did not hold his own place. He held God’s place. The officebearer in Israel did not do his own work. He did God’s work. The officebearer in Israel did not speak his own words. He spoke God’s words. The officebearer in Israel did not exercise his own leadership. He exercised God’s leadership. God was among the people through the office. David, being “the anointed of the God of Jacob,” went among the children of Jacob in God’s name and doing God’s work.
Third, David was “the sweet psalmist of Israel.” This means that David was the bringer of psalms to Israel and the singer of psalms in Israel. David was the psalm bringer. Before David Israel had songs. She had the song of triumph at the shores of the Red Sea (Ex. 15). She had the song of witness to teach her children (Deut. 32). Before David Israel even had some psalms. She had the psalm of Moses (Ps. 90). She had the psalm of the ark (68:1). Yes, before David, Israel had songs. But God sent David to Israel to bring her many psalms. David brought psalms to Israel by writing his own new psalms. David brought psalms to Israel by directing other men—Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun—who wrote their own new psalms. David brought psalms to Israel by incorporating Israel’s old songs into new psalms. Israel never stopped singing the song of triumph or the song of witness; she continued singing them in the psalms of David. David truly was “the sweet psalmist of Israel.” David truly was the psalm bringer. Israel’s sweet psalmist gave Israel a psalm book.
And David was the psalm singer. He delivered his psalms into the hands of the chief musicians. Through the chief musicians David taught the words of his psalms to the Levitical choirs. Through the chief musicians David taught the playing of his psalms to the orchestras of cymbals, psalteries, harps, cornets, trumpets, timbrels, and all manner of musical instruments. With his voice David led the singing. “David spake unto the Lord the words of this song” (II Sam. 22:1). With his voice David cried his psalms unto the Lord (Ps. 141:1). With his voice David called upon the Lord with his psalms (17:6). With his voice David made supplication to God with his psalms (28:2). Truly David was the psalm singer. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (22:22).
As the psalm bringer and the psalm singer, David was the sweet psalmist of Israel. That he was the sweet psalmist means that his psalms were pleasant. Certainly they were pleasant to the ear and the soul. Can you imagine it? There is the gentle glissando of the harp. There is the triumphant toll of the cymbal. There is the bright voice of the cornet. There is the haunting bay of the shofar trumpet. There is the melody of the psaltery, plucked out on well-tuned strings. And above all are the voices of four thousand well-trained Levites with a timbre as rich as thunder and a resonance as full as the waves crashing against the Mediterranean shore. What it must have been to hear the sweet psalmist and his ensemble singing the psalms of David!
Ah, but the sweetness of the psalmist was not primarily his pleasant voice upon the ear, however moving that sound might have been. The psalmist was a sweet psalmist because his psalms were pleasing to the heart. And what was—and is—so pleasing to the heart about the psalms? This one thing: God! The psalms are full of God. God the creator (Ps. 33:6). God the sustainer (Ps. 104). God the living (42:2). God the judge (50:6). God the blessed (34:1). God my God (63:1). God the good (107:1). God the deliverer (120:2). God the glorious (19:1). God the king (145:1). God the merciful (118:1). God the strong (21:1). God our dwelling place (90:1). God our salvation (79:9). God our shepherd (23:1). God of hosts (80:7). God of Jacob (76:6). God the forgiver (130:4). God the home builder (127:1). God the oath swearer (110:4). God the excellent of name (8:1). God the refuge (62:7). God the only God (86:10)! The psalms are pleasing to the heart because they abound with God. One could even say it this way, reverently and with understanding: the psalms set God to music. The psalms are God’s songs given to God’s singer to sing God to God. The sweet psalmist cried to the living God as the servant of God with the words of God about God amidst the people of God. Ah, pleasant psalms! Ah, sweet psalmist!
And so David the son of Jesse was three things. David was “the man who was raised up on high.” David was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” David was “the sweet psalmist of Israel.” And these three things are one thing. All together they identify David the son of Jesse as the worship leader of the congregation of Israel. David had authority over men to lead their worship (“the man who was raised up on high”). David represented God in leading men’s worship (“the anointed of the God of Jacob”). And David was the bringer and the singer of men’s psalms in worship (“the sweet psalmist of Israel”). Yes, David the son of Jesse was the worship leader of Israel. I have not understood the depths of that truth before, and perhaps you have not either.
The Son of David the Son of Jesse
For a moment now we must look closer yet at David the son of Jesse. For there is more to David than David. David was the son of Jesse, but there is also a son of David. God had told David about this son when it was in David’s heart to build God a house: “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (II Sam. 7:12–14a).
David sang about this son: “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne” (Ps. 132:11).
David prophesied about this son: “For David speaketh concerning him…Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh…” (Acts 2:25, 30).
And who was this son of David? None other than Jesus Christ! “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David” (Matt. 1:1).
Now here is where there is more to David than David: David was this son of David. That is, David was a type of his own son. In David one could see the outline of Christ, the son of David. David’s son was the body that cast a shadow named David upon the pages of the Old Testament scriptures (Col. 2:17). When one understands David the shadow in those scriptures, then one understands Christ the body that cast the shadow. David was a type of Jesus Christ.
What does this mean for the psalms? It means that what David the son of Jesse said about David and the psalms was really the words of Jesus the son of David about Jesus and the psalms. When David identified himself as “the man who was raised up on high,” Jesus is that man. When David identified himself as “the anointed of the God of Jacob,” Jesus is that anointed. When David identified himself as “the sweet psalmist of Israel,” Jesus is that sweet psalmist. All of that to say: Jesus Christ is the worship leader of his church.
How beautiful this is! Jesus Christ is the sweet psalmist of Israel! The psalms of David are the psalms of Christ. And because the entire book of psalms is known by the name of David, all the psalms are the songs of Christ. And listen: you can hear him singing. He sings his birth: “Lo, I come” (Ps. 40:7). He sings his ministry: “I delight to do thy will, O my God” (v. 8). He sings his suffering: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (22:1). He sings his death: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit” (31:5). He sings his resurrection: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life” (16:11). The sweet psalmist of Israel sings! The psalms are his songs!
How especially beautiful this is when one combines it with what we have already learned about the psalms. First, Jesus is the blessed man of Psalm 1, and thus all the psalms are about Jesus Christ. Now add to that that Jesus is the sweet psalmist of Israel, and thus all the psalms are the songs of Jesus Christ. Do you see? Jesus is both the content of every psalm and the singer of every psalm. The psalms are both about Jesus and by Jesus. Jesus is the subject of the psalms and the object of the psalms. In the psalms Jesus is both the singer and the song. How lovely!
Second, God is the sweetness of the psalms. The psalms set God to music. Oh yes, the psalms are about the blessed man, Jesus Christ. But the psalms are about the blessed man as he reveals the Lord God. Do you see? From beginning to end the psalms declare Jehovah as he is known in Jesus Christ. And with this the first words of the first verse of the first psalm are tied to the last words of the last verse of the last psalm.
Blessed is the man! (Ps. 1:1)
Praise ye the Lord! (Ps. 150:6)