by the emperor for no set period of office, unlike the proconsul of a senatorial province, who normally served for only one year. Felix was replaced as governor of the imperial province of Judea by Festus.—Acts 25:1.

PRUNING SHEARS

See FARMING IMPLEMENTS.

PSALMS, BOOK OF

A book seemingly consisting of five collections of sacred songs ([1] Pss. 1-41; [2] 42-72, [3] 73-89; [4] 90-106; [5] 107-150), each collection ending with a blessing pronounced on Jehovah. According to their place in the book, the individual psalms were evidently known by number from ancient times. For example, what is now called the “second psalm” was also designated as such in the first century C.E.—Acts 13:33.

STYLE

The poetry of the book of Psalms consists of parallel thoughts or expressions. (See HEBREW, II [Hebrew Poetry].) Distinctive are the acrostic or alphabetic psalms. (Pss. 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145) In these psalms the initial verse or verses of the first stanza begin with the Hebrew letter ʼaʹleph, the next verse(s) with behth, and so on through all or nearly all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This arrangement may have served as a memory aid. For the terminology found in the book of Psalms, see ALAMOTH; ASCENTS; GITTITH; HIGGAION; MAHALATH, II; MASKIL; MIKTAM; MUTH-LABBEN; NEHILOTH; SELAH; SHEMINITH.

SUPERSCRIPTIONS

The headings or superscriptions found at the beginning of many psalms identify the writer, furnish background material, provide musical instructions or indicate the use or purpose of the psalm. (See the superscriptions of Psalms 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 30, 38, 60, 92, 102.) At times the superscriptions provide the needed information for locating other scriptures that illuminate a particular psalm. (Compare Psalm 51 with 2 Samuel 11:2-15; 12:1-14.) Since other poetic parts of the Bible are often introduced similarly (Ex. 15:1; Deut. 31:30; 33:1; Judg. 5:1; compare 2 Samuel 22:1 with the superscription of Psalm 18), this suggests that the superscriptions originated either with the writers or the collectors of the psalms. Lending support to this is the fact that as far back as the writing of the Dead Sea Psalms Scroll (dated between 30 and 50 C.E.) the superscriptions were part of the main text.

WRITERS

Of the one hundred and fifty psalms, seventy-three are attributed to David, eleven to the sons of Korah (one of these [Ps. 88] also mentioning Heman), twelve to Asaph (evidently denoting the house of Asaph; see ASAPH No. 1), one to Moses, one to Solomon, and one to Ethan the Ezrahite. Additionally, Psalm 72 is “regarding Solomon.” From Acts 4:25 and Hebrews 4:7 it is evident that Psalms 2 and 95 were written by David. Psalms 10, 43, 71 and 91 appear to be continuations of Psalms 9, 42, 70 and 90 respectively. Therefore, Psalms 10 and 71 may be attributed to David, Psalm 43 to the sons of Korah, and Psalm 91 to Moses. This leaves over forty psalms without a specific composer named or indicated.

The individual psalms were written over a period of about one thousand years, from the time of Moses until after the return from Babylonian exile. (Ps. 90 [superscription]; 126:1, 2; 137:1, 8) Since David composed many of them and organized the Levite musicians into twenty-four service groups, it is reasonable to conclude that he started a collection of these songs to be used at the sanctuary. (2 Sam. 23:1; 1 Chron. 25:1-31; 2 Chron. 29:25-30) Thereafter other collections must have been made, as may be inferred from the repetition found in the book. (Compare Psalms 14 with 53; 40:13-17 with 70; 57:7-11 with 108:1-5.) Numerous scholars believe that Ezra was responsible for arranging the book of Psalms into final form.

COMPILED AT AN EARLY DATE

There is evidence that the contents of the book of Psalms were fixed at an early date. The order and content of the book in the Greek Septuagint Version basically agree with the Hebrew text. Reasonably, therefore, the book of Psalms must have been complete in the third century B.C.E., when work on this Greek translation began. A fragment of the Hebrew text dating from the latter part of the first century C.E. and containing Psalm 150:1-6 is immediately followed by a blank column. This appears to indicate that this ancient Hebrew manuscript ended the book of Psalms there and thus likewise corresponded to the Masoretic text.

ACCURATE PRESERVATION OF TEXT

The Dead Sea Psalms Scroll provides evidence of the accurate preservation of the Hebrew text. Although about nine hundred years older than the generally accepted Masoretic text, the contents of this scroll (forty-one canonical psalms in whole or in part) basically correspond to the text on which most translations are based. Noted Professor J. A. Sanders: “Most of [the variants] are orthographic and important only to those scholars who are interested in clues to the pronunciation of Hebrew in antiquity, and such matters. . . . Some variants commend themselves immediately as improvements of the text, especially those that offer a clearer Hebrew text but make little or no difference in translation or interpretation.”—The Dead Sea Psalms Scroll, p. 15.

INSPIRED OF GOD

That the book of Psalms is part of God’s inspired Word there can be no question. It is in complete harmony with the rest of the Scriptures. Comparable thoughts are often found elsewhere in the Bible. (Compare Psalm 1 with Jeremiah 17:5-8; Psalm 49:12 with Ecclesiastes 3:19 and 2 Peter 2:12; Psalm 49:17 with Luke 12:20, 21.) Also, many are the quotations from the psalms found in the Christian Greek Scriptures.—Ps. 5:9 [Rom. 3:13]; 8:6 [1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22]; 10:7 [Rom. 3:14]; 14:1-3; 53:1-3 [Rom. 3:10-12]; 19:4 [Rom. 10:18]; 24:1 [1 Cor. 10:26]; 32:1, 2 [Rom. 4:7, 8]; 36:1 [Rom. 3:18]; 44:22 [Rom. 8:36]; 50:14 [Matt. 5:33]; 51:4 [Rom. 3:4]; 56:4, 11; 118:6 [Heb. 13:6]; 62:12 [Rom. 2:6]; 69:22, 23 [Rom. 11:9, 10]; 78:24 [John 6:31]; 94:11 [1 Cor. 3:20]; 95:7-11 [Heb. 3:7-11, 15; 4:3-7]; 102:25-27 [Heb. 1:10-12]; 104:4 [Heb. 1:7]; 112:9 [2 Cor. 9:9]; 116:10 [2 Cor. 4:13]; 144:3 [Heb. 2:6] and others.

With reference to himself David wrote: “The spirit of Jehovah it was that spoke by me, and his word was upon my tongue.” (2 Sam. 23:2) Such inspiration is confirmed by the apostle Peter (Acts 1:15, 16), the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (3:7, 8; 4:7) and other first-century Christians. (Acts 4:23-25) Most outstanding is the testimony of the Son of God. (Luke 20:41-44) After his resurrection, he said to his disciples: “These are my words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms [the first book of the Hagiographa or Holy Writings and hence designating this entire section] about me must be fulfilled.”—Luke 24:44.

Messiah’s experiences and activities foretold

An examination of the Christian Greek Scriptures reveals that much was foretold in the Psalms concerning the activities and experiences of the Messiah, as the following examples will demonstrate.

When presenting himself for baptism, Jesus signified that he had come to do his Father’s “will” in connection with the sacrifice of his own “prepared” body and with reference to the doing away of animal sacrifices offered according to the Law, as written at Psalm 40:6-8. (Heb. 10:5-10) Jehovah accepted Jesus’