Psalm structure
Most psalms consist of 3 parts: a superscription, the song
itself, and a subscription. Perfect examples of this order may be seen in Hab
3:1-19 and Isa 38:9-20; in these places the psalm is isolated from other psalms
-- so there is no question to which psalm the superscription and subscription
belong.
The Hebrew text of the Psalms carries no distinctive breaks
between the psalms, only a number in the margin; and in the AV translation the
mistake was often made of placing the musical direction at the beginning of the
next psalm, instead of at the end of the preceding psalm. Consider Psa 68: The
superscription is "a Psalm or song of David". ("To the chief musician" belongs
to 67.) The subscription is "To the chief musician upon Shoshannim". ("A Psalm
of David" belongs to 69.)
A good general rule is that the historical or other
introduction belongs to the psalm following it; the musical instruction often
appearing at the beginning of a psalm is properly the subscription to the
previous psalm.
"The so-called musical titles have come down to us, alike in the Massoretic
recension of the Hebrew text (copies c AD 900) and in the Greek and other early
versions (codices dating c AD 400) in a form that has, even to the present day,
caused great confusion. Yet all down the ages, the Canonical Scriptures have
supplied us a psalm, which, standing by itself, claimed to be studied as a model
in all its various features, literary and musical. That psalm appears in Hab
3..." (JWT).
