Before the Church · c. 63–40 BC
The Psalms of Solomon
Anonymous
What it is
Eighteen psalms written after Pompey took Jerusalem, mourning a sanctuary trampled by Gentiles and a throne usurped by men with no right to it — and asking God to raise up the son of David to purge Jerusalem, shatter unrighteous rulers with a rod of iron, and gather a holy people.
Why it lasted
The clearest picture of what a first-century Jew meant by Son of David: a righteous king who cleanses the land without an army, by the word of his mouth. It is the expectation the gospels were written into.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next