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TOM - Were all of the Psalms in the Old Testament written by David? Do we know for sure? If not do we know who?

JOEL - Most people just assume that David was responsible for all of Psalms, but actually he is known to be the author for just seventy-three of the 150 chapters. There were other individuals who were the authors of the rest of them. Here is a list of those who are known to have written some of them:

The sons of Korah (42-49, 84, 85, 87, 88)
Asaph (50, 73-83)
Ethan (89)
Moses (90).

Many of the psalms in the last two sections (90-106, 107-150) have no information of authorship. According to Jewish Talmudic tradition, Adam, Melchizedek, and Abraham authored some of the Psalms. In any case, the book of Psalms is a collection of composite authorship that was assembled over centuries of time, down to as late as 200 B.C.

Some scholars are not sure if all the seventy-three psalms with the title "Psalm of David" were written by David. It is not certain that the preposition "of" (in Hebrew le) means "composed by." The phrase "psalm of David" could also be translated as "psalm to David "(that is, dedicated to David), "psalm about David" (written about an event in his life), or even "psalm like David" (in the style or pattern of David's psalms).



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