The Life of David: As Reflected in His Psalms

by Alexander MacLaren

Excerpt from The Life of David: As Reflected in His Psalms: Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the life of David is its romantic variety of circumstances. What a many-coloured career that was which began amidst the pastoral solitudes of Bethlehem, and ended in the chamber where the dying ears heard the blare of the trumpets that announced the accession of Bathsheba's son! He passes through the most sharply contrasted conditions, and from each gathers some fresh fitness for his great work of giving voice and form to all the phases of devout feeling. The early shepherd life deeply influenced his character, and has left its traces on many a line of his psalms.
"Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;
His daily teachers had been woods and rills;
The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills."

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Religion, Biblical, Biography, Faith

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Maclaren was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of David Maclaren, a merchant and Baptist lay preacher. In 1836, his father went to Australia where from 1837 to 1841 he served as Resident Manager of the South Australian Company, leaving his family in Edinburgh. During his father's absence, Maclaren was converted and publicly baptized into the fellowship of the Hope St. Baptist Church, Glasgow, sometime between the ages of eleven and thirteen. He was educated at the Glasgow High School, and Glasgow University, and on the return of David Maclaren from Australia, the family moved to London. In 1842, at the age of sixteen, Maclaren entered Stepney College, a Baptist institution in London.

Reviews

[Delalorm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic eye-opener and beautiful language for any psalmist who seeks to understand the mind of God's 'sweet psalmist of Israel'. Got me looking for more works by Alexander Maclaren.

[Philip Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read and worship.

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful way of looking at David's life through the Psalms, and thinking about how his life experience which he had at different points in his life shaped the Psalms he wrote. I enjoyed the reflection on how the creation pictures in Psalms 8 and 19 and the shepherd language in Psalm 23 drew from his early life as a shepherd and lover of God and His word. Similarities in substance with some of the untitled Psalms of David suggest that they could have been written at a similar time in his life. Unfortunately his style is quite dry throughout, so a project that could be devotionally very helpful often felt strangely dispassionate. Good content, but not such good delivery.

[Brandon Fertig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little hard to follow the flow of this book; yet an edifying read.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A biography of sorts pulling directly from the Book of Psalms. MacLaren is a historical legend in the field of theology. There is a bunch of repetition here, but it is good repetition.

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Worthy of a reread.

[Hannah Laws · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the first half, but the second half is pretty dry.

[Jacob Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a super good book with an interesting concept. It gives a beautiful insight into the interior life of David as he goes through the different major events of his life. Only four stars because some of the theology is pretty faulty, so it’s important to filter the information as it’s coming through.

[Liam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be an extremely dispassionate read. I had little desire to continue throughout the book. I got about 60% of the way through, and probably should have set it down sooner as, more or less, a waste of my time.

The book isn’t necessarily bad, it was just almost a sleeper for me to get through. Maclaren’s writing was too quasi-devotional to be a biography, yet too coldly factual to be much of a devotional. Throughout, he waxes on and on about random things mentioned in each Psalm. I think he’s trying to be poetic or profound - but I just wanted to hear the biography of David. He gives several sentences at a time describing, in long pointless prose, clouds, or trees, or grass, or mountains. I don’t know, I just honestly got really tired of it. He does this all, in a somewhat cold and lifeless way. It’s a strange combination of an attempt at poetic description - but being very matter of fact. Just hit me weird.

This was all a bit odd - because I’ve read some of Maclaren’s sermons, and from what I can remember, they were not like this at all. perhaps my memory is off.

All in all, I just found this one to be a fairly lifeless and pointless read. Probably a 2.5, but rounded down to a 2.

[John Sheehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry but worth the journey

A dry difficult read but worth the journey finding some golden nuggets along the way. You will find a lot of re-reads to understand the authors point of view

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great commentary. There’s a lot of Bible history. A biography of king David is pieced together out of various OT passages. The Davidic psalms are matched up with that information, with commentary. I plan to give it another read in the future.

[Dany]

I have read the first chapters. Hard to continue, it's a bit slow and maybe too poetic for me?

[Valerie Romero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got so much more out of this this time around...