An Overview of Psalms

This week we start our series on the Psalms. Before analyzing individual Psalms, it’s helpful to have an overview of the book for context and clarity.

The book of Psalms is a collection of Hebrew songs, poems, and prayers written by many different authors. It’s the largest collection of poetry in the Bible and vividly expresses the feelings and emotions of poets and psalmists spanning over 1,000 Old-Testament years.

The book is broken down into five sections:

The ‘why’ behind the breaking up of sections leads to many interpretations, so I’ll leave that question alone because I certainly am no scholar. It is worthwhile to mention that the Psalms have been arranged in this specific order not arbitrarily, so reading them from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150 is advised.

Some authors are mentioned, while some remain anonymous. Here’s the breakdown of the 150 Psalms:

• King David - 73

• Asaph (A Levite who was one of the leaders of David’s temple choir) - 12

• Sons of Korah (Also leaders of temple music) - 10

• Moses - 1

• Solomon - 2

• Ethan and Heman the Ezrahites (Also leaders of temple music) - 2

• Anonymous - the remainder

Very generally speaking, these psalms are either laments or praises. They contain beautiful outcries to God of pain and suffering and beautiful songs of worship. Look at David’s lament of Psalm 22:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

So far from my cries of anguish?

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

By night, but I find no rest.”

We can practically hear the suffering of David. And haven’t you felt this before? Haven’t you wanted to cry out, “God, where are you?”

But do these words look familiar? In Matthew 27, Jesus hangs on the cross and cries out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is Aramaic for “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

A deeper look at Psalm 22 reveals crucifixion imagery that stuns me every time I read it. How can a Psalm from David’s time so accurately portray Christ’s sacrifice?

On the other side of the coin, we read brilliant psalms of worship. Psalm 117 is five total lines:

“Praise the Lord, all you nations;

Extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us,

And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord.”

These praises are to be our praises. These laments, our laments. There is great reward in taking your time with the Psalms and reading them over and over. They are written in this Holy Book to become our own songs of praise and cries for help. May we hide them in our hearts and use them to glorify the Lord.