How much attention do you pay to the superscriptions in the book of Psalms? There are 150 psalms in the psalter, and 117 of them have a superscription note before the actual psalm. They have always fascinated me. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are inspired. It doesn’t mean that they are important.

But their presence can’t be ignored.

They are there in every manuscript we have of the psalms. Scholars debate when they first became attached to the psalms. They suggest they are not original or that they are. But honestly, no one knows, and no one has definitive and persuasive arguments for their various postulations. They are there, and they can’t be ignored, but how much weight should we give them when we are interpreting the Psalms? 

That’s the question I always wrestle with when I am looking at a psalm with a superscription, especially [but not exclusively] the ones that give some historical notation. For example: Psalm 51

“To the choir director. A Psalm of David,
when Nathan the prophet came to him,
after he had gone into Bathsheba.”

If that historical note was penned by David, it would tell us something important. If it were penned much later by someone else, it might be accurate, but perhaps not inspired; it might mean that, but maybe not. Inspired or not, it could be both important and helpful if it is historically accurate. Again, how much weight should the interpreter put on the information in the superscription?

And then there is that Hebrew lamed. In Hebrew, it is a preposition attached to the noun “sons,” as in “sons of Korah.” Generally, depending on context, it is translated as “of.” 

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לִ

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But it could be translated in other ways. For example, when attached to another noun in the superscriptions, like [ נָצַח nâtsach, naw-tsakh´] (Choir director or chief musician), the attached lamed there is usually translated as “to” or even, “for” (See Psalm 4-6, 8, 9, 11-14, 18-22 and others).

In the Authorized King James Version, all of the “sons of Korah” psalms, the lameds are routinely translated as “for the sons of Korah,” which suggests they are written for the sons of Korah to perform rather than by the sons of Korah as a group. (Cf. Psalms 42, 44-49, 84-85, and 87-88) 

Personally, I think the KJV leads us in the wrong direction. All of these would be better rendered as “of” (authorial). On the other hand, in Psalm 48, the mistake of the KJV led me to an application of the Psalm that I do not think is inappropriate. 

I was using the Psalms 1-72 volume of the 17:18 Journible Series, a personal journal that allows the user to copy the text of the Psalm on odd-numbered pages and to take observational notes on the corresponding even-numbered pages. I have been alternating between the ESV, NASB95, and the LSB in my daily journaling. In Psalm 48, I started a deeper dive into the superscriptions, checking them in as many translations as I could, and against the Hebrew text (BHS), when I noticed that the KJV used “for” rather than “of” to render the lamed. 

Thought:

“What if this psalm was written for the sons of Korah, to help them prepare for ministry as worship leaders? Even if it wasn’t, the content of the psalm would make a great seminar for training worship leaders or helping worship leaders to prepare their own hearts to lead worship.”

And with those thoughts . . .

“If I were called to preach a message to a conference of worship leaders, this would be a great psalm to use to train worship leaders to prepare their hearts to lead worship.”

Some observations following that train of thought:

• Remind yourself that God is great. (vs. 1)
• Remind yourself that He is worthy of praise (vs. 1a)
• Remind your heart that He has proven Himself a stronghold (vs. 3)
• Reexamine how He has protected Israel (vs. 4-7, 12-13)
  • Take a walk around the walls of Zion and see the security that God has given.
  • For our own time:
    • Take a walk, “around your life” and see the hand of God in all His provisions.
• Remember what you have been taught and seen (vs. 8)
  • Remember that your experience has confirmed the things you were taught (vs. 8a)
• Meditate on the lovingkindness of God (vs. 9)
• Remember that God is skillful in working righteousness (vs. 10)
• Rejoice that the daughters of Jerusalem can rejoice in His judgments (vs. 11)

Remember that all these things teach you
that this is the God you are entrusted
to lead the congregation to worship.
(vs. 14)

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Read Psalm 48:1-14
An Offering for the Poetry Project

Great is Yahweh

I looked at the translation of the superscription
and saw a surprising thing.
A preposition I’d never seen led me 
down a path I never saw before.

[Not finished]