Psalms 60 and its inscription

 The question has come up about how to interpret the psalm inscriptions. Are there within them indications of musical forms, melodies, instruments, modes, and so on? And when were they added to the poems?

The easiest answer is that nobody knows for sure. They are old. They appear in the LXX and the Vulgate. So they are not medieval. We have some fragmentary manuscripts from BCE. Below there is an example of a psalm from a useful list here but there is none that I could find that suggested an inscription. There are a lot of broken links and I can't read this kind of ms. (I have asked a FB LXX reading group for input.)

Ps 48-49 Proc Br Acad 43 (1964), 229 (pl) (stich, no abbrevs; notes)[t 2/3ce]

Without getting into extensive detail, I thought it might be useful to compare the translations in the Greek and Latin for the lilies and for the do not destroy psalms.

Do not destroy is rendered in the LXX as exactly that, so the NETS translates as Do not Destroy. That doesn't make it mean anything more than we have already surmised in the earlier post. 

The lily appears four times in the Psalms (45, 60, 69, and 80). NETS has For those that shall yet be changed. This is rendered in the Latin as, pro iis qui commutabuntur. Tate has a very helpful note explaining the reading of the LXX. He suggests that yl-wwnim (it is plural in three of the inscriptions) becomes yl+w+wnh where wnh is interpreted as 'changed' / adjusted in some way.

So neither the Greek nor the Latin seems to think that the lily is a melody or a mode or an instrument. Was the process away from music towards theological abstraction already beginning as Hebrew culture met the Greek and Latin empires?

Here's a little section from Seeing the Psalter 2013 on Psalms 45:

The first thing to note is the inscription, (see also Psalm 69 where this inscription repeats). It is possible that this is the name of a melody. But failing to translate it (as does the KJV) obscures the reality that this poem invites the readers to enter. Here, as in Psalm 69, we read and sing a love song. The lilies are a theme in the Song of Songs (8 occurrences). Realizing that this is a love song, all other aspects of cultural superiority and the will to power are to be suppressed in us or we will miss the point. 

The plain meaning is that of a wedding in old times when the bride is escorted to the king, beautiful and rich, and the two beloved are married for the procreation and rearing of children. The outcome and the motive are largely political. Ah, but the hidden meaning. This is of course of the marriage of the congregation of the many to their King. For Rashi, the lilies are "students of Torah for they are soft and comely like lilies". A student of Torah is married to Torah and is therefore in love with Torah. The great love song is to be read by such a student at Pentecost, when the Torah was given, while identifying with the bride. As Rabbi Akiva notes:

The entire world is unworthy of the day that the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all of Scripture is holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies. (Mishnah Yadayim 3:5)

So Psalms 60 is for the singular lily. Make of it what you may, O student of Torah. The Psalms and the Song are keys to Torah.

	thlim		Psalms
	s		60
a	lmnxk yl-wuwn ydut. mctm ldvid llmd.	1	For the leader on a lily. A witness. A miktam of David, for teaching.
b	bhxoto at arm nhriim vat-arm xobh, viwb ioab viç at-adom bgia-mlk, wnim ywr alf.	2	in his struggle with the Aramaeans of the two rivers and the Aramaeans of Zobah, when Joab returned and struck Edom in the salt gorge, twelve thousand.
g	alohim znktnu prxtnu. anpt twobb lnu.	3	God you have rejected us. You have broken us open. You are angry. Return to us.
d	hrywt arx pxmth. rph wbrih ci-m'th.	4	You have made earth quake. You fracture it. Heal her rifts for she is moved.
h	hrait ymç qwh. hwqitnu iin trylh.	5	You show hardness to your people. You make us drink a staggering wine.
v	ntt liraiç ns lhtnoss, mpni qow't slh,	6	You give a standard to those who fear you, to be a haven, from the face of certainty, Selah,
z	lmyn iiklxun ididiç. howiyh iminç vynni.	7	so that your beloved may be rescued. Save with your right hand and answer me.
k	alohim dibr bqodwo aylozh. aklqh wcm, vymq sucot amdd.	8	God spoke in his holiness, I will exult. I will divide Shechem, and the valley of Sukkoth I will measure.
't	li glyd vli mnwh vapriim myoz rawi. ihudh mkoqqi.	9	Gilead is mine and mine Manasseh, and Ephraim from the strength of my head. Judah my lawgiver.
i	moab sir rkxi yl-adom awliç nyli. ylii plwt htroyyi.	10	Moab my washpot, on Edom I will fling my sandal. To me Philistia, be jubilant.
ia	mi iobilni yir mxor? mi nkni yd-adom?	11	Who will convey me a fortified city? Who will guide me to Edom?
ib	hloa-ath alohim znktnu? vla-txa alohim bxbaotinu?	12	Will not you O God reject us? and not sally forth O God with our hosts?
ig	hbh-lnu yzrt mxr, vwva twuyt adm.	13	Provide for us help from trouble, for vain is human salvation.
id	balohim nywh-kil, vhua ibus xrinu.	14	In God we will deal forcefully, for he himself will tread down our foes.