Saul attempts to kill David (the harpist of Israel) — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Psalms — The canon's longest book — 150 Psalms edited into five doxology-bookended books, composed across a millennium, attributed to David, Asaph, Korah's sons, Moses, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and anonymous voices. A ''Torah of David''; the Bible's longest continuous liturgical-devotional corpus.
Canon
Old Testament
Author
David principally (73 Psalms + 2 NT-cited); Asaph, Sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses, Heman, Ethan; ~50 anonymous.
Date
Composed c. 1400 BC (Mosaic Ps 90) through the post-exilic period (Ps 126 ''when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion''). Roughly a millennium of composition; editorial compilation likely into the Persian period.
“These are the feet that David washes in spirit when he teaches you how to keep them unsoiled, saying, "Our feet have been standing in your courts, O Jerusalem." Certainly, here "feet" is to be understood not as of the body but as of the soul. For how could a person on earth have his physical feet in heaven?
“. Ver. 2. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem; or, better, "our feet are standing." The words imply present and joyous standing within the walls of the city of peace; or perhaps the pilgrims felt so sure of getting there that they antedated the joy, and spoke as if they were already there, though they were as yet only on the road. If we are within the church we may well triumph in the fact. While our feet are standing in Jerusalem our lips may well be singing.
“Note, (1.) It is the will of God that we should worship him in concert, that many should join together to wait upon him in public ordinances. We ought to worship God in our own houses, but that is not enough; we must go into the house of the Lord, to pay our homage to him there, and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
“Though the city was divided into the higher and lower town, yet the Jebusites being driven out, and it being entirely in the possession of God's people, it is said to be compact together. It was a type of the gospel-church, which is compact together in holy love and Christian communion, so that it is all as one city.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
Word doors
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to…
You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name…
Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.
You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.