Who wrote Psalms, and when?
David wrote about half; also Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses and unnamed writers. Composed over roughly a thousand years, from Moses to after the exile; collected by about 400 BC.
The Psalms were written by many people over many centuries. Headings in the Hebrew text credit David with seventy-three of them, about half. Others are attributed to Asaph and the sons of Korah, who were temple musicians, and a few to Solomon, Moses (Psalm 90) and Ethan. Around fifty carry no name. Scholars debate how much the headings tell us about actual authorship, since the Hebrew phrase can mean written by David, written for David, or written in his style. The earliest psalms may go back to the time of Moses; the latest, such as Psalm 137, come from the exile or after. The whole collection was arranged in its present five books by about 400 BC, perhaps a little later.
Who was Psalms written to?
God’s people gathered for worship, and every individual who needs words for prayer.
The Psalms were written first for Israel at worship. Many were sung in the temple with instruments and choirs, some by pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem (Psalms 120 to 134), some by a king before battle, some by a single person in a sleepless night. After the exile they became the hymn book of the synagogue, and they were the prayers Jesus grew up with and quoted, including from the cross. But the audience was never only the crowd. Psalm after psalm speaks in the voice of one person who needs words for grief, fear, guilt, gratitude or joy. Christians of every tradition have prayed them daily for two thousand years, which makes the Psalms the most widely used book of the Bible.
What was happening at the time?
The Psalms were sung in the temple and later the synagogue, and they were the prayer book of Jesus and the apostles. The 150 psalms are arranged in five books, echoing the five books of Moses, and move broadly from lament to praise. They include royal psalms about David’s line that the New Testament reads as pointing to Christ.
Why was Psalms written?
To give God’s people words to bring everything, from grief to joy, honestly before him.
The Psalms exist to give God's people words for everything. Praise is here in abundance, but so is complaint, doubt, anger at enemies, confession of sin and the long silence of waiting. The book wants readers to bring the whole of life before God rather than the tidy parts, and to keep doing so until lament turns, as it usually does in the Psalms, toward trust. It also teaches: the first psalm sets God's law at the door, and the royal psalms about David's line kept alive the hope of a king who would rule justly forever. In the wider story of the Bible, the New Testament quotes the Psalms more than any other book and reads them as pointing to Jesus, the son of David and the one who prayed Psalm 22 from the cross.
How to read Psalms today
Do not try to read the Psalms straight through like a story. Take one a day, or one a week, and read it more than once. Start with the familiar ones: Psalm 23, Psalm 1, Psalm 51, Psalm 103, Psalm 139. Then try a lament such as Psalm 13 and notice the turn near the end. Watch the shape: many psalms move from trouble to trust, and the whole book moves from lament in the early books to praise in the last five psalms. Do not force yourself to feel what a psalm feels; pray it anyway, for yourself or on behalf of someone else who feels it. The psalms that curse enemies are hard; read them as honest cries for justice handed over to God. As you read, pray the psalm back to God in your own words, and ask him to teach you to pray.
The key verse in Psalms
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Passages worth knowing in Psalms
- Psalm 1
The two ways
The gateway to the whole book: delight in the law of the LORD.
- Psalm 22
My God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus prayed it from the cross.
- Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd
The most loved psalm of trust.
- Psalm 51
Create in me a clean heart
David’s repentance after Bathsheba.
- Psalm 103
Bless the LORD, O my soul
His mercy is as high as the heavens.
- Psalm 119
The longest psalm
Twenty-two stanzas of love for God’s word.
- Psalm 139
You have searched me and known me
God’s intimate, inescapable presence.
The main themes of Psalms
- Praise
- Lament
- Trust
- God’s kingship
- The Messiah
- God’s word
An outline of Psalms
| Section | Chapters |
|---|---|
| Book One | 1–41 |
| Book Two | 42–72 |
| Book Three | 73–89 |
| Book Four | 90–106 |
| Book Five | 107–150 |