Journal of sacred literature - v. 2 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE YOUTH OF DAVID, ILLUSTRATED FROM THE PSALMS. By The Editor. Seeing how manifestly the Psalms of David are the outpourings of the writer's heart, and h... more »ow numerous are the allusions to his experiences and his circumstances which they afford, it has often surprised us how little they have been used to illustrate his cha- . racter and history. Most judgments concerning him are derived entirely from the circumstances of his career which the history records, and little, if any, use has been made of those beautiful compositions in which he unfolds his whole heart and character to us, so that we may read it like a book. It is also very safe to say that if the history of David had not been recorded in the books of Samuel and Chronicles, the substance of it might be collected from the Psalms alone, with the addition of many circumstances which the history does not embrace. We have of late years been furnished with very ample and interesting biographies of old poets and historians, founded on far scantier materials than the Psalms afford concerning David. It is with the hope of illustrating our meaning, rather than with the intention of supplying the deficiency thus indicated, that we here purpose to inquire what information concerning the youth of David, and the growth of his character, may be derived from his Psalms. We chose this period for two reasons—because it is the period in which the historical information and the biographies founded upon it are most deficient; and because, if it be true that ' the child is father of the man,' this part of David's career is of importance, from the interest we naturally feel in tracing the formation or early developments of one of the most remarkable characters that any age has produced. We know, historically, that David was the son ...« less