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of Jahve to Israel is set forth under the figure of the shepherd and his flock rather than any other (Psa 74:1; 77:21; Psa 78:52, Psa 78:70-72; Psa 79:13; Psa 80:2). Moreover these Psalms delight in other respects to vary the designations for the people of God as much as possible.
In Ps 50, Psa 73:1, we have before us a peculiar type of Psalms. The inscription לאסף has, so to speak, deep-lying internal grounds in its support. But it does not follow from this inscription that all these Psalms were composed by the aged Asaph, who, as Psa 78:69 shows, lived until the early part of Solomon's reign. The outward marks peculiar to Asaph were continued in his posterity even into the period after the Exile. History mentions Asaphites under Jehoshaphat (2Ch 20:14), under Hezekiah (2Ch 29:13), and among the exiles who returned (Ezr 2:41, cf. Ezr 3:10, one hundred and twenty-eight Asaphites; Neh 7:44, cf. Neh 11:22, a hundred and forty-eight of them). Since down to the period after the Exile even the cymbals (מצלתּים) descended to them from their ancestor, the poetic talent and enthusiasm may also have been hereditary among them. The later “Psalms of Asaph,” whether composed by later Asaphites or some other person, are inscribed לאסף because, by whomsoever, they are composed in the style of Asaph and after Asaphic models. Ps 50, however, is an original Psalm of Asaph.
After the manner of the prophets the twofold truth is here advanced, that God has no delight in animal sacrifice without the sacrifice of prayer in which the heart is engaged, and that the confession of His word without a life that accords with His word is an abomination to Him. It is the very same fundamental thought which is expressed in Psa 40:7-9; Psa 69:31., Psa 51:18., and underlies Psa 24:1-10 (Psa 1:1) and Psa 15:1; they are all echoes of the grand utterance of Samuel (1Sa 15:22), the father of the poetry of the Psalms. It cannot surprise one that stress is laid on this denunciation of a heartless service of works by so many voices during the Davidic age. The nothingness of the opus operatum is also later on the watchword of the prophets in times when religious observances, well ordered and in accordance with legal prescription, predominate in Judah. Nor should it seem strange that Asaph the Levite, who was appointed to the sanctuary on Zion, expresses