Troublesome Topic: Where Are the Psalms that Were Composed By Solomon?

We are told in I Kings 4:32 that Solomon composed 1005 psalms, but the Psalter is made up primarily of the psalms of David and a few others. So, where are the psalms that Solomon wrote?

I believe that when Solomon turned away from God at the end of his life the high priest at that time was furious and decided that none of the songs written by Solomon would be placed in the Psalter.

Allow me to explain what is going on with those that bear Solomon’s name (72 & 127), or ones that are thought of as possibly written by him.

In my opinion, psalm 1 was written by Solomon as an introduction to the psalms of David, but since it did not bear Solomon’s name and since it was done in honor of his father, David, it was left in the Psalter or added to the Psalter later by one of its organizers (the arrangement of the Psalter went through many changes and did not come into its final form until about 300 years before the arrival of Jesus, well after the last book of the Old Testament had been written). There are several other opinions about who could have written psalm one.

Psalm 72 has the words “of Solomon” in the title. Doesn’t that mean it was written by Solomon? Not necessarily. The phrase can mean “by Solomon, for Solomon, or related to Solomon in some way.” I believe that in this case “for Solomon” fits best. It reads like a song written specifically for the inauguration of the king; Solomon would not write such a song for his own inauguration because it sounds like it was written by someone other than the new king. I believe it was written by David for Solomon’s inauguration. It is in the Psalter because it was written by David (in my opinion) and because Solomon started out as a good king who was trying to do things the right way.

I believe Psalm 127 is the only exception. Its title says “of Solomon” and it sounds like him. My opinion is that it was written by Solomon, removed from the collection of acceptable songs for worship by the high priest of his day because of his apostacy, then put back into the Psalter centuries later by those who were making changes to its arrangement.

Psalm 45 is a wedding song, one which I am convinced was written by a priest or Levite for Solomon’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter. It is specific to the wedding of a king and the one he is marrying is of foreign birth (v. 10). I Kings 3:3 tells us that Solomon was faithful to God and faithful to fulfill all the Law of Moses except for one thing – he worshipped God at the high places. The implication here is that he was worshipping the true God, but violating the regulation that said they needed to worship at the tabernacle (which by this point was over 400 years old, which is a very old for a tent!). There are a number of Bible scholars who think that Pharaoh’s daughter was told by Solomon that she had to become a proselyte to the Jewish religion in order for them to get married. I agree with this. I also think he made all his foreign wives become proselytes. I am convinced that Pharaoh’s daughter would not have had a psalm written about her if she were not a convert to Judaism.

I find two psalms that appear to have been written for the dedication of the temple that Solomon built, but neither of them appear to have been written by Solomon. These are Psalm 30 (by David), and psalm 132 (probably by a priest or Levite, for the dedication of the temple). Psalm 122 seems to have been written by a “pilgrim” who travelled to the new temple in Jerusalem for the required feasts.

Then there is psalm 49 which I think was written after Solomon’s death and reminds us of some of the lessons we can learn from the sad account of Solomon’s life.

I am convinced that the final version of the Psalter included only two Psalms written by Solomon, and only one of them bears his name, Psalm 127.

(This is the last lesson in this set of topical lessons about the Psalms. Thank you for reading.)