Psalms
Psalms consists of one hundred and fifty poems. It is commonly agreed that almost all the psalms were written after the Exile, between 400 and 100 BCE. Although nearly half are ascribed to David in most notated Bibles, no evidence has ever been put forward to sustain this theory. Most of the psalms were probably ascribed to David as a literary device, either written from his point of view or to suggest that they were of the kind of poems he would have sung. The word 'psalm', in its Greek derivation, means 'song'.
There is no historical confirmation of the existence of David (Ref: Hector Avalos).
The psalms are songs of praise to God and appeals for protection, pardon, and judgment of the wicked. The major themes are:
We must obey God. My enemies are wicked; God help me to kill them. Save me from my enemies. God will destroy my enemies and their descendants. Bring violence on the violent. God is great, just, merciful, good, pure, and loving. God abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men. Forgive me of my sins; I have done evil deeds. Vindicate me, for I have lead a blameless life. Atheists are morally deficient. God is my strength in battle, he gives me victory over my foes. People fear me because God is with me. God heals us. God doesn’t answer me. I fear being captured by my enemies. The meek will inherit the land. God’s love is great for those that fear him. God knows us intimately.
In general, the ability of the authors to write poetry is obvious, and the twenty-third Psalm, which begins with ‘The Lord is my shepherd', is a beautiful piece of poetry. The authors, often writing as David, present him as a devout and troubled man under considerable pressure. This is the understandable result of being a military king in a blood-thirsty age, in which David contributed to the mass killings and had many enemies.
Although the psalms are incorrectly ascribed to David they give considerable insight into how the authors perceived him. The following commentary describes how David is imagined in Psalms. It may or may not be an accurate reflection of the actual man, but the nature of the relationship between David and his God, as imagined by the authors, is illuminating.
While David's belief in a God of Israel is comforting, and he uses this belief to explain everything from the rain to victory in battle, contradictions abound. David acknowledges his sins yet elsewhere says that he has ‘lead a blameless life’. He wants to bring violence on his enemies, and does, but says that God ‘brings violence on the violent’, which would include himself. He says that ‘the meek will inherit the land' but David takes others’ land in the usual way - by killing its inhabitants. He talks about how loving his God is, yet says 'He showed his wonderful love for me when I was in a besieged city' showing that God's love means, in this instance and others, victory in war and therefore mass killing. David has the unenviable task of managing a relationship with a God who only loves him when David fears Him. At times David seems to genuinely want to be a good man, then says of his enemies 'Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave.' and 'Break the teeth in their mouths O Lord'. Then there is the racism, 'Rescue me ... from the hands of foreigners, whose mouths are full of lies', and ‘All who say “There is no God” are fools and evildoers’, which makes it acceptable to kill non-believers, which David does, saying 'Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land'. That God justifies this is evident when David says 'Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war.' David lived in fear of his enemies, and fear of his passive-aggressive God. God provided David with the justification for war, and then the means by which he could confess the sins of war and be forgiven.