Psalms

The Book of Psalms, often called the Psalter, is a collection of Hebrew religious hymns.

It is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh, which is the Hebrew Bible. It also serves as a book of the Old Testament. The Hebrew name for the collection means it contains many praises and supplications to God. The English title comes from a Greek word meaning "the words accompanying the music."

This anthology serves as a central part of Jewish and Western Christian religious traditions.

The book is organized into a specific structure of five distinct sections. Each of these five sections concludes with a doxology, which is a hymn of praise or a benediction. These divisions were likely introduced by final editors to mirror the five-fold division of the Torah. The sections are divided as follows: Book 1 contains Psalms 1–41, Book 2 contains Psalms 42–72, Book 3 contains Psalms 73–89, Book 4 contains Psalms 90–106, and Book 5 contains Psalms 107–150. This organized framework helps guide the reader through different spiritual themes.

Within the collection, there are several primary types or genres of psalms. Scholar Hermann Gunkel identified five major categories to help interpret these works. Hymns are songs of praise for God's work in creation or history. These include "enthronement psalms" about God as king and "Zion psalms" about Mount Zion. Communal laments are songs where a nation expresses sadness over a disaster. Individual laments focus on the personal suffering of a single person.

Other types include royal psalms, which deal with coronations or battles, and individual thanksgiving psalms that celebrate deliverance from distress.

Many psalms include superscriptions, which are titles or headings at the beginning. Out of the 150 psalms, 116 have these individual titles. Some superscriptions provide musical directions for a "leader" or "choirmaster." They might suggest using "stringed instruments" or performing "according to lilies." Others note the specific occasion, such as "On the dedication of the temple." Many psalms also carry names of authors. While 73 psalms are attributed to David, modern scholars believe these names link the writings to well-known biblical figures rather than proving historical authorship. Other named figures include Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, and Moses.

The history of the Psalms spans many centuries of composition. Some psalms, like Psalm 29, date back to the 10th century BCE. Others were written during the post-exilic period, which began after the 5th century BCE. Most of these songs likely originated in the southern kingdom of Judah. They were closely associated with the Temple in Jerusalem.

Some texts suggest they functioned as librettos, or scripts, for worship services. For example, mentions of incense and festive processions suggest they were used during Temple sacrifices.

Numbering the psalms can be quite complex because different traditions use different systems. The Hebrew numbering, known as the Masoretic text, is used by most Protestant translations. The Greek numbering, from the Septuagint, is used by many Eastern Christian traditions.

These two systems often differ by one in their sequence. This variance likely occurred because of the way copyists handled the texts or how they were used in liturgy. For instance, Psalms 9 and 10 in the Hebrew text are often viewed as a single poem in the Greek tradition. This shows how the original poetic forms were sometimes split or joined over time.

The collection we know today may have been part of a much larger set of songs. While the standard collection contains 150 psalms, other versions exist. The Septuagint includes Psalm 151, and some versions of the Peshitta include Psalms 152–155. There are also the Psalms of Solomon, which consist of 18 additional psalms of Jewish origin.

These variations suggest that the current Western Christian and Jewish collections were carefully selected from a wider variety of religious writings.