Wednesday Bible Study: Who are these guys?

Fortunately we now have a few relatively short psalms. A " maschil " probably means an instructive or didactic psalm, according to some authorities, but that would not seem to describe Psalm 42. It could instead be a musical form. The " sons of Korah " are a rather surprising attribution, however. (In the KJV it appears to be addressed to them, in the RSV they seem to be credited as authors. It isn ' t clear.) As you likely will not recall, in Numbers 16 Korah organizes a rebellion against the hegemony of the Levites.  Yahweh responds by causing the earth to open and bury Korah and two of his lieutenants alive, and then sends fire from heaven to burn their remaining 250 followers. Evidently some of his descendants survived and now constitute a distinct group that someone thought it worthwhile to write psalms for. Exegetists have expended much ink trying to explain this, but who really cares? Forty-three seems to be a continuation of 42. Forty-four, also addressed to or authored by Sons of Korah, appears to refer to a time when the Israelites were defeated, perhaps specifically set in the Babylonian exile, although it is not specified. In general, the psalms come with sketchy documentation - we don ' t know who originally wrote them, or when, or why, although the compilation most likely did happen during the exile, along with the compilation of the rest of the Bible.To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.42 As a hart longs    for f...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs