What is the book of Psalms?
Psalms is a collection of religious poems employed for the public worship of God. It could be called God’s hymn book. It is possibly the most widely used book in the Bible and is the foremost book in the Bible which shows men speaking to God. it is therefore primarily a book for devotions and worship. It is one book – a unified whole. Jesus tells us this in Luke 20:42 “Now David himself said in the book of Psalms”. In Hebrew it is called “The Book of the Songs of Praise”. The name Psalm comes from the Greek version of the Old Testament title,where the book is called “Psalmoi”. There are 150 Psalms. They are divided into 5 books:
1 to 41
42 to 72
73 to 89
90 to106
107 to 150
Each book closes with a doxology.
Who wrote the Psalms?
All of them of course were inspired by God. Jesus often quoted from the Psalms and quotes them as the Word of God. We know who wrote 100 of the Psalms, usually from the heading. The oldest was written in around 1400 BC and the latest around 550 BC.
Name |
Who are they? |
Psalms |
Total |
Approximate Date |
Moses |
Led Israelites out of Egypt |
90 |
1 |
c 1450 BC |
David |
King of Israel |
1-41, 51-72, 86, 101, 103, 108-110, 124, 131, 133, 138-140 |
73 |
c1000 BC |
Asaph |
Music Director under David & Solomon |
50, 73-83, 141-145 |
12 |
c1000 BC |
Sons of Korah |
Levites who served in the Temple |
42-49, 84, 85, 87 |
11 |
Probably around 950 BC |
Heman |
A Levite at the time of Solomon |
88 |
1 |
c 950 BC |
Ethan |
A Levite at the time of Solomon |
89 |
1 |
c 950 BC |
Solomon |
King of Israel |
72, 127 |
2 |
C 950 BC |
The Bible says that Solomon composed 1005 songs (1 Kings 4: 32) so he may have composed some of the remaining 50. Scholars think that David also composed many of the rest.
What are the main themes?
There are different types of Psalms:
Teaching. A good example is Psalm 15
Praise. These are psalms of praise, beginning and\or ending with "hallelujah" or "praise Jehovah". Psalm 113
Historical. A review the history of God's dealings with His people. Psalm 106
Imprecatory. These are psalms which invoke God to bring evil upon one's enemies. Psalm 69
Messianic. Those psalms pertaining to the coming Messiah. Psalm 2
Penitential. Psalms expressing sorrow for sins committed. Psalm 51
Songs of Ascent. Psalms sung by pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem to observe the feasts. They are grouped together: Psalms 120-134
Suffering. These psalms are cries of those suffering affliction. Psalm 102
Thanksgiving. These are psalms of grateful praise to Jehovah for blessings received. Psalm 100
There are three great themes in the Psalms:
Cries for rescue from sin and misery
Songs commemorating deliverance
Hymns of praise and gratitude
How should we interpret the psalms?
We need to understand four important things about the book of Psalms
1) We must remember that they are poetry. C S Lewis said “The psalms are poems and poems intended to be sung. They are not doctrinal treatises or even sermons. They must be read as poems if they are to be understood.” Now the form of poetry that we are most used to in English is rhymes. A well-known example by A.A Milne is:
When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three,
I was hardly Me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.
Now the problem with rhymes is that they are very difficult to translate into another language.The poetry of the Psalms is of a type called parallelism. In parallelism the same thought is repeated two or three times, each time in a slightly different way. Sometimes what is repeated is the opposite thought.
Here is a famous modern example:
We shall fight on the beaches
We shall fight on the landing grounds
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets
But we shall never surrender.
The main thought is this: We shall fight everywhere we find the enemy. But it is expressed in three different ways. The wonderful point about parallelism poetry is that it does survive translation into another language. How great is God’s planning! We have to look no further than Psalm 1 to see examples of this' in
verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, verse 5 and verse 6. How amazing that God would cause Jewish poetry to have the one form that does translate into any other language! The Psalms do use other poetic devices (rhyme, wordplay, acristics), but these are secondary. This means that when we are reading and interpreting the Psalms we can often understand the meaning better by looking at how the same thought is expressed twice.
2) They deal with real people facing real situations and record their real feelings. The Psalms were often written in response to situations that believers were facing – good or bad. We are told this in the headings that many contain. Look at Psalm 3. These headings are in fact part of the psalm, as is often indicated in French Bibles, where they are numbered as verse 1. Often the Psalmist will pour out their heart to the Lord (Psalm 3:1). This means that we can associate very much with what is written. I think in fact that whatever our situation, however we feel, there is a Psalm for that moment. This is why we love them so much.
3) They are a Bible within a Bible In spite what I said about them being poetry, the Psalms are FULL to overflowing with doctrine. In fact Malcolm Watts says that in one sense the Psalms are a complete systematic theology:
Creation and providence – Psalm 104
Sovereignty of God – Psalm 33
Law of God – Psalm 119
Christ and His work – Psalms 2, 16, 22
Depravity – Psalms 14, 51
Regeneration – Psalm 40
Adoption – Psalm 103
Assurance - Psalm 23
Church – Psalm 122
Last things – Psalm 16
4) We can expect to find Christ in some way in every Psalm. All evangelicals know agree that some Psalms are messianic. This is because the New Testament writers quote from them! Examples are
Psalm 2:7 – Acts 13:33
Psalm 8:6 – Hebrews 2: 6 to 10
Psalm 16:10 – Acts 2: 27
Psalm 22:8 – Matthew 27: 43
Psalm 40: 7&8 – Hebrews 10:7
Psalm 41:9 – John 13:18
Psalm 45:6 – Hebrews 1: 8
Psalm 69:9 – John 2: 17
Psalm 110:4 – Hebrews 7:17
Psalm 118:22 – Matthew 21:43
But we can find Christ in all the others as well as in all the Old Testament. Look at what Jesus said to the disciples after his resurrection: Luke 24:44 In every Psalm, as in every chapter of the Bible, we can find some reference or allusion to Christ and his saving work for us.