| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | David | | By Alter Abelson |
| | | DO you wonder why such longing | |
| Transport, pain and love impassioned | |
| In the psalms are interwoven? | |
| Listen how God’s bard was fashioned. | |
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| Murmurings of brooks and fountains, | 5 |
| Passion of tempestuous seas, | |
| Solemn sounds of winds and forests, | |
| The lorn nightingale’s love-pleas. | |
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| And the pæans of men who triumphed | |
| Over grief and tempting glee— | 10 |
| All these divers notes God gathered | |
| From the fount of melody. | |
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| And He fused them in one anthem, | |
| Bade the music live, and lo! | |
| David rose, he who to mankind | 15 |
| How to speak with God did show. | |
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| Therefore lives there such a yearning, | |
| Such a rapture, exultation, | |
| In the songs that David chanted | |
| For the heart of every nation. | 20 | | | |
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