Troublesome Topic: The Title “Of David” Means More than I Realized

I previously thought that the words “of David” at the beginning of a Psalm meant that the psalm had been written by David. However, the situation is not that simple. The Hebrew basically means “belonging to David,” which in turn can mean “by David,” “about David,” “for David,” “in the style of David,” or “by a descendant of David.”

Other examples of this same usage are times that a psalm is attributed to Asaph, but it had to be one of his descendants who wrote it, or psalm 72 which has the title “of Solomon” (or “for Solomon”). I believe psalm 72 was written by David for his son Solomon and used at the formal coronation of Solomon.

That means that, when we see the words “of David,” all we know for sure is that it had something to do with David. If the psalm shows signs of being written much later than David, such as during or after the exile to Babylon, then it was written by a descendant of David.

However, we also know that David was a prolific song writer and that many of his songs were preserved in writing, unlike the songs composed by peasants and other unknown individuals. Therefore, unless there is a good reason to believe otherwise (and there sometimes is) it is safe to assume that a psalm claiming to be written by David was written by David.