Psalms is unique in the Bible because it gives us songs to sing to God and follows the thought process of a Godly man under different circumstances. Hence, we are blessed that David authored so many of the psalms, showing us his thinking. In The Life of David as Reflected in His Psalms, Alexander Maclaren links the Biblical story of David with the psalms describing his inner thoughts. Since David was a type of Christ, we learn of our Lord’s mind. This book goes sequentially through four phases of David’s life:
- His early days at peace with Saul
- His exile fleeing from Saul
- His reign as an upright King
- His adultery with Bathsheba and subsequent suffering
Maclaren tells the story of David’s life based upon his deep knowledge of the Biblical narrative and works it together with key psalms written during the events being described. The psalms are used to understand David’s mindset as the event was playing out. On what was he focused? What was his attitude? Sometimes the psalms give us an insight to the situation that we would not get from the historical passages alone. For example, the psalms show that David was in poor health during the last years of his reign as he suffered rebellion for his sin with Bathsheba.
This book can be used for several purposes:
- It is good as a read and teaches about the life of David.
- It can be a guide for study. Study the historical books and use this for extra insight. Study the psalms and use this to better understand the setting of a psalm.
- It can be used for a psalm singing guide. Sing your way through the psalms listed in this book while reading the context in which they were written. If you are not familiar with psalm singing, I would recommend reading my book The Great Joy of Singing Psalms and using the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter.
- It could be used as the basis for a daily Bible study. One could work his way through the life of David by reading a passages about him, then singing the psalms that he wrote at that time period.
There are several additions to and modifications of the original text in this edition:
- Roman numerals have been changed to Latin numbers. It was very difficult me to read the original work with Roman numerals.
- An author biography taken from Wikipedia has been added.
- In the original work many of the chapters had the same title. The chapter titles were expanded to provide more information about their contents. The key psalms in the chapter are listed a subheading.
- The formatting and scripture references were improved for readability.
- An appendix with key dates from David’s life was added. The information was drawn from The Chronology of the Old Testament by Dr. Floyd Nolan Jones.
It is my prayer that you find this work both entertaining and educational. As with all my books it is available as a free download from 150songs.com
Benjamin Leonard
November 2024
150 Songs 