Scottish minister Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) put the Psalms of David in order. As many as he could, that is. He took the Psalms he thought were written by David, and he put them into their historical context.
How old was David when he lost his kingdom? He was in his 60’s at least. His son Absalom had turned the people against him and had taken his throne.
David didn’t really fight back. He fled into the wilderness. He allowed himself to be cursed as he fled. He took it all as a chastisement from God.
But in the wilderness he found himself again. He regained his vision and strength of spirit. The trial that should have broken him, only woke him up.
That’s what it looks like when we read the psalms that were probably written during this time.
The Psalms show us the aftermath of David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.
(That sin: He got one of his soldier’s wives pregnant and then orchestrated to have that soldier killed in battle.)
Psalm 51 shows us David’s repentance: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”
Psalm 32 may also refer ot the same event: “I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
These two psalms speak beautifully of repentance and forgiveness. But the same prophet who pronounced David’s forgiveness (2 Samuel 12:13) also warned of future consequences: “‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.”‘” (2 Samuel 12:11)
So, in the years that followed, David lived with both the blessing of forgiveness and the dread of coming evil.
Alexander Maclaren saw other psalms as fitting into that period. They also give us insight into David’s experience.
At first, Psalm 110 might not seem to offer any clues about when it was written. Yet when Alexander Maclaren sought to put the Psalms of David into chronological order, he was confident about where to put this one.
When Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) wrote The Life of David As Reflected in His Psalms, he tried to find all the psalms David wrote and put them in order.
He had to decide which psalms David wrote and when he wrote them. Some he could decide with greater certainty than others.
Psalm 22 is one of David’s, but we don’t know when he wrote it. Maclaren included it with what he called the exile psalms.
Do we have any Psalms from David’s teenage years, from his time as a shepherd?
When Alexander Maclaren studied the issue, he found none that he could say for sure were written so early. But he did find some that might have been. If not, they were at least “echoes of his thoughts in those first days.”
The psalm probably had political baggage in Jesus’ day. Hebrews 7 is remarkably non-speculative about Melchizedek. And there was that time Jesus stood up.
