Old Testament

Psalms

Psalms is Israel's songbook and prayer book: 150 poems of praise, complaint, thanks, confession, and instruction, gathered over centuries for worship. It is in the Bible to give God's people words to speak back to him in every condition of life, from the pit to the festival. It also keeps their eyes on the King God promised to send from David's line.

Author: David is traditionally the chief psalmist, and seventy-three Hebrew superscriptions carry his name; others name Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and Moses (Psalm 90), while around fifty have no named author. Christians confess the Holy Spirit as the author behind every human voice.
Audience: Israel gathered for worship at the temple, and ordinary Israelites praying in trouble and in joy. The finished collection was shaped for later generations, especially the community rebuilding after the exile.
When: The psalms were written across many centuries, from David's reign around 1000 BC (and, by its title, Moses' time for Psalm 90) to after the Babylonian exile (Psalms 126 and 137). The final collection was most likely completed in the Persian period, though no one knows exactly when or by whom.
Where: Most psalms belong to Jerusalem and its temple on Mount Zion. Some carry the marks of wilderness flight (Psalm 63), a cave (Psalm 142), or exile beside the rivers of Babylon (Psalm 137).
Genre: Psalms is Hebrew poetry: lyric songs and prayers meant to be sung, prayed, and memorized. Its basic building block is parallelism, where a second line echoes, sharpens, or contrasts the first, so meaning grows as the lines lean on each other. Its pictures (God as rock, shepherd, shield, a tree planted by streams) are images to be felt, not technical statements. Its emotions are honest, even raw. Most psalms fit a few recognizable types: laments, thanksgivings, hymns of praise, royal psalms about the king, and wisdom psalms that teach. The book is meant to be prayed as well as studied; it teaches you how to talk to God by giving you words to borrow.

Shape of the book

The Gateway: The Way and the King · ch 1–2Two untitled psalms open the book together, one on the blessed person who delights in God's instruction and one on God's anointed King set against the raging nations.
Book One: David Under Pressure · ch 3–41Mostly psalms of David, many of them laments from danger and betrayal, closing with the doxology of Psalm 41:13.
Book Two: Longing, Repentance, and the Royal Hope · ch 42–72Psalms of the sons of Korah and David, including the confession of Psalm 51, ending with a prayer for the ideal king and the note that David's prayers are ended (72:20).
Book Three: The Crisis of Temple and Throne · ch 73–89The darkest book, mostly Asaph and Korah, mourns a ruined temple (Psalms 74, 79) and ends asking where God's promises to David have gone (89:49).
Book Four: The LORD Reigns · ch 90–106Opening with Moses and featuring the 'The LORD reigns' psalms (93 to 99), this book answers the crisis by reminding Israel that God was King before David and still is.
Book Five: Gathered Home to Give Thanks · ch 107–145Beginning with the redeemed gathered from the lands (107:2 to 3), it holds the King-Priest of Psalm 110, the Passover Hallel (113 to 118), the great Torah psalm 119, the pilgrim Songs of Ascents (120 to 134), and a last collection of David.
The Final Hallelujah · ch 146–150Five psalms that each begin and end with 'Hallelujah' bring the whole book to a crescendo of praise from everything that has breath.

Themes

Two Ways of Life. sets the choice: a tree planted by streams of water or chaff the wind drives away. The blessed person is not marked by grim effort but by delight in God's instruction, murmuring it day and night. and 119 return to the same joy, calling God's word sweeter than honey (). The whole book is read from this doorway.
The LORD Reigns, and His Anointed King. God is King over creation and the nations (, 97, 99), and he rules through a chosen king from David's line (; to 4). prays for a king who defends the poor and rules to the ends of the earth. When David's throne collapses (), the book does not drop the promise; it leans harder on God's own reign and waits for a greater King ().
Honest Prayer: Lament That Turns. Lament is the most common type of psalm. 'How long, O LORD?' () is spoken to God, not about him, and that is itself an act of faith. Most laments turn toward trust, as does in verse 5. does not turn and ends in darkness, yet it stands in Scripture, showing that God makes room even for prayers without a resolution.
Loving Devotion That Endures. The Hebrew word hesed, God's loyal covenant love, runs through the book like a spine. repeats 'His loving devotion endures forever' twenty-six times. echoes God's self-description to Moses in . This steadfast love is why the guilty can ask for mercy () and the afflicted can keep hoping.
Zion and the Presence of God. The psalmists long for God's house as a deer pants for water () and would rather be a doorkeeper there than live anywhere else (). The Songs of Ascents trace pilgrims climbing to Jerusalem. Zion matters because God has chosen to dwell there among his people ( to 14), and from there blessing flows to the nations ( to 2; 87).
From Tears to Hallelujah. The book moves, unevenly but surely, from lament toward praise. Its Hebrew title, Tehillim, means 'praises,' even though so many psalms are cries for help. It ends with 'Let everything that has breath praise the LORD' (), a picture of where all prayer is finally headed.

Where Christ is

Jesus said the Psalms were written about him (), and the New Testament quotes them more than almost any other Old Testament book. They point to Christ chiefly in two ways: the promised King from David's line who will rule the nations, and the righteous sufferer whose cries Jesus himself prayed on the cross. Many Jewish readers hear these psalms as about Israel's historical kings; here we read them as the New Testament does, first sung for David's sons and then fulfilled in David's greater Son.

The Anointed King and Priest (promise and fulfillment). presents God's anointed king as his Son, and has the LORD tell David's Lord to sit at his right hand. The apostles apply to Jesus' resurrection, Jesus uses to show the Messiah is more than David's son, and Hebrews draws on to name him a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. (; ; ; ; )
The Suffering Righteous One (type and fulfillment). David's laments of betrayal and abandonment become the words of Jesus' passion. He cries from the cross, soldiers divide his clothes as describes, and he dies praying . What David felt in part, Jesus experienced in full. (; ; ; ; )
Raised from the Grave, the Rejected Stone (fulfillment). trusts that God will not abandon his holy one to decay; Peter argues that David died and was buried, so he spoke of the Messiah's resurrection. 's stone rejected by the builders becomes the cornerstone, a verse Jesus applies to himself. (; ; ; ; )
The True Human Given Dominion (fulfillment). marvels that God crowned frail humans with glory and put all things under their feet. Hebrews notes that we do not yet see this, but we do see Jesus, crowned with glory after suffering death, as the true man in whom humanity's calling is fulfilled. (; )
God Himself on the Throne (fulfillment). Some psalms speak of the king in terms that reach beyond any human ruler. Hebrews applies ('Your throne, O God, endures forever') and to 27, a psalm addressed to the LORD as Creator, directly to the Son. (; ; ; )

Voices

Basil of Caesarea (quoted by Keil and Delitzsch). Basil saw the Psalter as a storehouse holding the whole of Scripture's riches in one place, with everything gathered 'as in a great and common treasury.' Read the full commentary ↗
John Calvin. Calvin argued that whoever collected the psalms, whether Ezra or another, deliberately placed at the front as a preface urging the godly to meditate on God's law. That reads the book as an arranged whole with a front door. Read the full commentary ↗
Matthew Henry. Henry contrasted the histories, which lead us to camps and council rooms, with Psalms, which brings us into the sanctuary and into communion with God. He also passed on the old description of it as the summary 'of both Testaments.' Read the full commentary ↗
Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon preached 387 sermons from the Psalms, more often from than any other, followed by and 103. Sermon titles such as 'The People's Christ' on show him reading the promises to David as fulfilled in Jesus. Read the full commentary ↗

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Watch the parallel lines. The second line usually echoes, sharpens, or answers the first. In Psalm 1:1 John Wesley noticed a progression from walking to standing to sitting, a picture of how drift into evil becomes settled.
Ask what kind of psalm you are reading. A lament has a shape (complaint, request, turn to trust), a thanksgiving retells a rescue, a hymn praises God for who he is, and a wisdom psalm teaches. Knowing the type tells you what the poem is trying to do.
Use the superscriptions as ancient guides. Titles like Psalm 51's link to David's sin with Bathsheba invite you to read 2 Samuel 11 to 12 alongside it. Their authority has been debated, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note, but they are very old and worth heeding.
Read a psalm with its neighbors and its place in the five books. Matthew Henry thought the psalms were set together without dependence on one another, but Calvin already saw Psalm 1 placed as a preface, and many modern readers notice deliberate seams, such as the despair of Psalm 89 answered by Psalm 90's 'Lord, You have been our dwelling place.'
Check the numbering if you compare Bibles. The Greek and Latin tradition joins Psalms 9 and 10 and makes other adjustments, so most psalms from 10 to 147 carry a number one lower in many older Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, and Orthodox Bibles also include a Psalm 151.

Key terms

Blessed אַשְׁרֵי ʾashrê — Not a wish but an exclamation, roughly 'Oh, the happiness of...'. It opens the book (1:1) and marks those who take refuge in the King (2:12) and whose sins are forgiven (32:1).
Law, instruction תּוֹרָה tôrâ — More than a rulebook: God's whole teaching, the way a parent instructs a child. That is why the psalmists can delight in it (1:2; 119:97).
Loving devotion, steadfast love חֶסֶד ḥesed — God's loyal, covenant-keeping love that does not let go. English versions translate it many ways: mercy, lovingkindness, unfailing love.
Anointed מָשִׁיחַ māšîaḥ — The king set apart by anointing with oil (2:2; 18:50). Translated into Greek as christos, it gives Jesus the title Christ.
Selah סֶלָה selâ — Appears about seventy times, mostly in the Psalms. Its meaning is uncertain; most likely a musical or liturgical pause, a cue to stop and let the words sink in.
Praise the LORD הַלְלוּ־יָהּ hallelû-yāh — A command to a group: 'All of you, praise Yah.' The book's Hebrew title Tehillim, 'praises,' comes from the same root.

Easy to misread

Reading the curses in psalms like 109 and 137:9 as permission for personal revenge. Better: these are prayers of victims who bring their rage to God instead of taking up the sword, handing judgment to him. Christians read them in light of Jesus, who prayed for his enemies (Luke 23:34), while still longing for God's justice (Revelation 6:10).
Treating Psalm 91 as a guarantee that believers will never be hurt. Satan quoted Psalm 91:11 to 12 to tempt Jesus to jump from the temple, and Jesus refused to test God (Matthew 4:5 to 7). The psalm promises that those who shelter in God are finally safe in him, not that they escape all suffering (compare Psalm 44:22 in Romans 8:36).
Assuming that complaint and doubt mean weak faith. The psalmists accuse, question, and weep, and they do it to God's face. Psalm 13 and even the unresolved Psalm 88 show that honest lament is a form of trust, not a failure of it.
Reading Psalm 1 as a portrait of the self-made moral achiever. The blessed person is marked by delight in God's word and by refuge in God's King (2:12), and Psalm 32:1 calls blessed the one whose sins are forgiven. The book's righteous are those who depend on God, not those who never need mercy.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video