Psalm 138

The subtitle wasn’t part of the original psalm. And the possible byline “of David,” isn’t necessarily a byline. The vague phrase could mean the song was written by David, about David, or was inspired by David. Almost half of the psalms are attributed to David in this way, 73 of 150. Ancient Jewish history tells of David playing a lyre and writing songs. For one, he wrote a song of mourning at the battlefield death of King Saul and his sons: “How have the mighty fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19-27 New American Standard Bible). An ancient Jewish scroll from about the time of Jesus, discovered among the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, reports that David wrote 3,600 songs.

Literally “gods,” with no mention of nations. Some translations say “angels,” or “divine beings.” “Gods” possibly refers to the lifeless idols of neighboring nations defeated by God. The Hebrew word is Elohim. It’s translated in the Bible several ways, depending on the context: gods, angels, rulers, judges, divine ones, or God himself.