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1 Chron 6:16-32. Heman takes the prominent place, and at his right hand stands Asaph, and on his left Ethan. History bears witness to the fact that Asaph was also a Psalm-writer. For, according to 2Ch 29:30, Hezekiah brought “the words of David and of Asaph the seer” into use again in the service of the house of God. And in the Book of Nehemiah, Neh 12:46, David and Asaph are placed side by side as ראשׁי המּשׁררים in the days of old in Israel.
The twelve Psalms bearing the inscription לאסף are all Elohimic. The name of God יהוה does not occur at all in two (Ps 77, Psa 82:1-8), and in the rest only once, or at the most twice. Side by side with אלהים, אדני and אל are used as favourite names, and especial preference is also given to עליון. Of compounded names of God, אל אלהים והוה (only besides in Jos 22:22) in the Psalter, and אלהים צבאות in the Old Testament Scriptures generally (vid., Symbolae, pp. 14-16), are exclusively peculiar to them. So far as concerns their contents, they are distinguished from the Korahitic Psalms by their prophetically judicial character. As in the prophets, God is frequently introduced as speaking; and we meet with detailed prophetical pictures of the appearing of God the Judge, together with somewhat long judicial addresses (Ps 50; Psa 75:1-10; Psa 82:1-8). The appellation החזה, which Asaph bears in 2Ch 29:30, accords with this; notwithstanding the chronicler also applies the same epithet to both the other precentors. The ground of this, as with נבּא, which is used by the chronicler of the singing and playing of instruments in the service of the house of God, is to be found in the intimate connection between the sacred lyric and prophecy as a whole. The future visionary character of the Asaphic Psalms has its reverse side in the historical past. We frequently meet with descriptive retrospective glances at facts of the primeval history (Psa 74:13-15; Psa 77:15., Psa 80:9-12; Psa 81:5-8; Psa 83:10-12), and Ps 78 is entirely taken up with holding up the mirror of the ancient history of the nation to the people of the present. If we read the twelve Psalms of Asaph in order one after the other, we shall, moreover, observe this striking characteristic, that mention is made of Joseph and the tribes descended from him more frequently than anywhere else (Psa 77:16; Psa 78:9, Psa 78:67., Psa 81:6; Psa 80:2.). Nor is another feature less remarkable, viz., that the mutual relationship