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The Book of Psalms



With 150 individual psalms, this is clearly the longest book in the Bible. It is also one of the most diverse, since the psalms deal with such subjects as God and His creation, war, worship, wisdom, sin and evil, judgment, justice, and the coming of the Messiah. Every human emotion is covered in these hymns of aspiration to God.

Most people automatically think of David when they consider the question of who wrote the Book of Psalms. While it is clear that David wrote 73 of the individual psalms, he is definitely not the author of the entire collection. Psalm 90 is a prayer assigned to Moses. Two of the psalms (72 and 127) are attributed to Solomon, David's son and successor. Another group of 12 psalms (50 and 73-83) is ascribed to the family of Asaph. The sons of Korah wrote 11 psalms (42, 44-49, 84-85, 87-88). Psalm 88 is attributed to Heman the Ezrahite, while Psalm 89 bears the name of Ethan the Ezrahite. With the exception of Solomon and Moses, all these additional authors were priests or Levites who were responsible for providing music for sanctuary worship during David's reign. The remainder of the psalms designate no specific person as author and were probably written by many different people.

The Hebrew title for this book is "tehilim", which means "praises". That would certainly qualify to describe this book, since every psalm contains some element of praise. In the original Hebrew manuscripts, this long collection of 150 psalms was divided into five sections, and all five books conclude with a doxology. Psalm 150, the last Psalm of the last book, serves in its entirety as both a doxology for the fifth book, and an appropriate conclusion to the entire Book of Psalms.




Outline of The Book of Psalms:
Book I - Psalms 1-41
Book II - Psalms 42-72
Book III - Psalms 73-89
Book IV - Psalms 90-106
Book V - Psalms 107-150


Book One: Psalms 1-41Book Two: Psalms 42-72Book Three: Psalms 73-89Book Four: Psalms 90-106Book Five: Psalms 107-150




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