The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 4, 1916

Assignment for May 7 to 13

May 7: Psalms 12, 23, 28, 29. May 8: Psalms 65, 121, 122. May 9: Psalms 124, 72. May 10: I Kings 1, 2. May 11: I Kings 3 to 6. May 12: I Kings 7, 8. May 13: I Kings 9 to 11.

The Psalter

“The Psalter is a marvelous record of human hearts pouring themselves out from age to age in communion with God.” Here are touched all the vicissitudes of human experience, the depths of human trouble, and the heights of joy. There is a world of tenderness toward God which has never been surpassed. . . .

“The subjects are so many and so varied that it is almost impossible to classify them. They touch upon every human experience and every hope of man; they exploit all phases of Israelitish history and God’s dealings with men.

“The leading themes are Creation, the King, Jerusalem, the Law, the Messiah, the Future, God’s Love, Mercy, Justice, and Goodness.

“The prevailing tone is praise. While some are very joyful, others are sad and plaintive, and still others philosophical.

*“The law showed what the religion ought to be; the prophets tell us very plainly what the religion of their times

was not; the psalms indicate what the religion was to some.” They are animated throughout with the two sentiments of piety and patriotism.”—H. T. Sell.*

The First Book of Kings

“The two books of Kings constitute but one book in the Jewish canon. They are connected immediately with the two books of Samuel as their continuation. They contain the records of the Hebrew nation from the accession of Solomon to the destruction of Jerusalem, comprising a period of about four hundred and twenty-six years; also several prophetic utterances, whilst the writings of the prophets who lived before and during the captivity receive much elucidation from the contents of the two books themselves. The historical details are supposed to have been written by the historians of their respective times, the whole arranged and put together subsequently by Ezra, or, as some think, by Jeremiah. The first book of Kings comprises the history of the Israelites for about a hundred and twenty-six years, and consists of two distinct and separate portions; the first relating to the history of the undivided kingdom under Solomon, and the second the history of the two separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel for about eighty years. The first portion alone comes now in chronological order (chapters 1 to 11), and refers to the latter days of David, the accession and reign of Solomon, the building and dedication of the temple, and many important events connected with the life and times of Solomon. Note especially Solomon’s wisdom, his prayer at the dedication of the temple, his relapse into idolatry, and the typical character of his reign generally.”—Anderson.

The Stones of the Temple

“Great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones” were brought at Solomon’s command to lay the foundation of the house of the Lord. These stones were “of a lime formation, so white that when polished it resembles marble.” Though the mountain on which Jerusalem is built is of this same rock, it was once supposed that the stones for the temple were brought, like the cedar beams from Lebanon, from a distance. It now appears that these “great stones” were hewed out of the rock and chiseled into shape by Solomon’s masons, aided by the skilled workmen furnished by King Hiram, in a great quarry that extended beneath the city of Jerusalem itself. This cavern was unknown to Europeans until 1852. “Its entrance seems to have been a natural cave; but farther on, its broken walls, its tunnel-like recesses, and the rock-hewn pillars supporting the roof, mark it as the work of man. . . . Scattered here and there upon the floor are hewn blocks, just as they were left by the quarrymen; upon them the marks of the chisel still seem fresh.”

From the nature and extent of this cavern, it is supposed that from the time when Jerusalem was first founded, the stone for its walls, temples, and other buildings was obtained here.

The Hittites

Ahimelech, mentioned in 1 Sam. 26:6, was a Hittite; so was Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. Reference is often made in the Old Testament to this people, as in 1 Kings 10:29; yet only a few years ago, because the traces of their ancient cities were unrecognized and the territory they occupied was unknown, scoffers denied their existence. However, when the Rosetta stone had unlocked the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and those on the temple at Karnak were read, men who had sneered at the Bible record were surprised to read of the wars of Rameses with the Hittites. “Still the scholars refused to believe that the Hittites were a people of prominence.”

Then came the finding of the clay tablets of Assyria, with their cuneiform writing, whose secrets the Behistun rock inscriptions had unlocked. When these old relics were read, it was found that the Hittites were often mentioned. “Tiglath-pileser, of 1100 B. C., mentions them; Assur-nasir-apli, of 885 B. C., says that he collected tribute from them; and Sargon boasts that in the year 711 B. C., he captured the Hittite capital city of Karkemish, destroyed it, and brought the Hittite people to an end.

“At length, with all these evidences, the scholars acknowledged that the Hittites did exist. Now we know that this mysterious people once had large, fortified, walled cities, . . . and that their power was scarcely inferior to that of Assyria or of Egypt. . . . Thus a nation which played a prominent part in the history of the early world, but to which the scholar of a few years ago denied an existence, is now resuming a place in history. Another voice from beneath the soil of Asia is now calling out its long-silenced testimony.”