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In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore,
David first reigned in the earthly Jerusalem as a shadow of that which
was to come. Now David was a man skilled in songs, who dearly loved
musical harmony, not with a vulgar delight, but with a believing
disposition, and by it served his God, who is the true God, by the
mystical representation of a great thing. For the rational and
well-ordered concord of diverse sounds in harmonious variety suggests
the compact unity of the well-ordered city. Then almost all his
prophecy is in psalms, of which a hundred and fifty are contained in
what we call the Book of Psalms, of which some will have it those
only were made by David which are in scribed with his name. But there
are also some who think none of them were made by him except those which
are marked "Of David;" but those which have in the title "For
David" have been made by others who assumed his person. Which
opinion is refuted by the voice of the Saviour Himself in the
Gospel, when He says that David himself by the Spirit said Christ
was his Lord; for the 110th Psalm begins thus, "The Lord said
unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine
enemies Thy footstool." And truly that very psalm, like many more,
has in the title, not "of David," but "for David." But those
seem to me to hold the more credible opinion, who ascribe to him the
authorship of all these hundred and fifty psalms, and think that he
prefixed to some of them the names even of other men, who prefigured
something pertinent to the matter, but chose to have no man's name in
the titles of the rest, just as God inspired him in the management of
this variety, which, although dark, is not meaningless. Neither
ought it to move one not to believe this that the names of some prophets
who lived long after the times of king David are read in the
inscriptions of certain psalms in that book, and that the things said
there seem to be spoken as it were by them. Nor was the prophetic
Spirit unable to reveal to king David, when he prophesied, even
these names of future prophets, so that he might prophetically sing
something which should suit their persons; just as it was revealed to a
certain prophet that king Josiah should arise and reign after more than
three hundred years, who predicted his future deeds also along with his
name.
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