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Worship

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › Prayer, Fasting and Worship › Worship

The question

Why do we say "from the Psalms of our father David the prophet and king..." if some of the psalms that we read in the Liturgy or in the Agpeya are not written by David? I understand why we do it from a practical stand point, but it seems like we are wrong if we say that and some of the psalms we read were not written by him.

The answer

David the prophet and king authored at least seventy of the psalms, and probably more, since some do not indicate a particular author or lyricist. For this reason, one of his titles became the Psalmist. We honor him and those who like him praised God through psalmody, but we cluster them under David the prophet because his contribution dominates most of the holy Book of Psalms and the Agpeya.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Related questions

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 1545 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.