Terrence,

That is a truly amazing way to look at the Psalms.

For years, I used to wonder how David, in the Psalms that he wrote, knew all those things about the LORD.

Considering that David possibly only read from a few books.

He read from the five books of Moses, probably also Joshua, and maybe even Judges.

When I was young, I remember thinking that so much of them was boring, like Leviticus, Numbers, and the tabernacle description in Exodus.

Also, so much seemed so negative, and reflective of the sins of all the people.

Then, there was a time, when the LORD allowed me to begin finding Jesus in passages that I never would have dreamed of.

That was exciting, and I wanted to read like that more.

So before starting to read, I would pray from Psalm 119:18, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."

Then, I began to find pictures and types of Jesus, and his crucifixion, in all the different sacrifices in Leviticus.

Then I began to also find pictures and types of Jesus, in the various articles of the tabernacle.

Suddenly, what used to boring, was now exciting.

Then I began to see that the descriptions of the people of Israel in the wilderness, and in Judges, were pictures and types of me.

In my heart were the tendencies to murmur & complain, to rebel, and to drift away from the LORD.

However, then I saw the continual mercies and forgiveness of the LORD, and that also is a for me, today, in Jesus.

But, eventually I saw something else, what the LORD said about himself.

Moses was on the mount, again, in Exodus 34, after the golden calf incident, and after he had asked the LORD to show him his glory.

Exodus 34:5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

  6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

  7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

At first I wondered why the LORD would proclaim his own name, as he first said, "The LORD".

But it was in that very proclaiming of his name, followed by his own description of himself, that was the most wonderful and glorious.

Were not those very words, proclaimed by the mouth of the LORD, about himself, more glorious than Moses seeing his back parts, after he passed by?

The LORD revealed that he is merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth!

This is what he wanted Moses to hear, to write down, and to be read by everyone who would read the word of God for thousands of years afterwards.

And no doubt David had read those very words, over and over again, and saw the truth of that revealed, in the record of how the LORD was with Israel.

Israel continued to sin, yet the LORD was always forgiving, and restoring,

There was an unconditional promise that the LORD had made to Abraham, which predicated this relationship with Israel, that no other nation had.

So, I concluded that this is how David could write of the compassion, tender mercy, lovingkindness, and graciousness of the LORD.

The more David read, the more wonderful and beautiful he realized that the LORD is.

To the point that he couldn't contain himself, as he would always be worshipping the LORD.

That he would so worship, that no matter what trouble he went through, he would immediately stop to write a Psalm about what the LORD had just done for him.

Apparently he saw the LORD as so wonderful, that he couldn't help but to be always singing to the LORD.

And this is why I believe that David was able to write all those amazing things about the LORD.

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