What the book is
The book of Psalms gathers 150 poems that were sung and prayed in ancient Israel. Some praise God as creator and king; some cry out to him from sickness, betrayal or exile; some give thanks for rescue, celebrate the king in Jerusalem, recall Israel’s history or reflect on the way of wisdom. Their honesty is part of their power: the same book that says “the LORD is my shepherd” also says “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Many psalms open with a title naming a person, an occasion or a musical direction:
A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I will never be in need.
Who wrote them, and when
The psalms come from many hands and many centuries. In the Hebrew titles, seventy-three are linked with David, Israel’s shepherd king and musician, and others with Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and Moses. The phrase usually translated “of David” can mean written by David, belonging to a collection named for him, or written for him or in his manner, so how many he wrote himself is debated. Some psalms come from the time of the kings; some, like Psalm 137 (“By the rivers of Babylon”), from the exile in the sixth century BC or after it. The book reached its present shape after the exile, as the songbook of the rebuilt temple.
How the book is laid out
The Psalms are gathered in five books, each ending with a short blessing of God:
- Book 1 (Psalms 1–41), mostly psalms of David, opening with the two ways of Psalm 1 and the king of Psalm 2.
- Book 2 (Psalms 42–72), with the psalms of the sons of Korah and Psalm 51, the great prayer of repentance; it closes, “Here end the prayers of David son of Jesse.”
- Book 3 (Psalms 73–89), many of them by Asaph, darker in tone, ending with Psalm 89’s question about God’s promise to David.
- Book 4 (Psalms 90–106), opening with a prayer of Moses and proclaiming that the LORD is king.
- Book 5 (Psalms 107–150), with the songs of ascents sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem (120–134), Psalm 119’s long meditation on God’s word, and a closing burst of praise. The last line of the book is “Let every creature that breathes praise the LORD!”
How Open Word Bible translates the Psalms
Lines of poetry. Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas, not sounds: a line is answered by a second line that repeats, extends or contrasts it. The text keeps each psalm in its lines, at every level and in every language. See Hebrew poetry and parallelism.
Verse numbers. Open Word Bible numbers the verses as the Hebrew text does, so a psalm’s title is verse 1. Where a title is a verse of its own, the verse numbers are one or two higher than in most English Bibles: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” is 22:2 here and 22:1 in most English Bibles. See Chapter and verse numbers, and Selah and the psalm headings for the titles and their musical terms.
The divine name. God’s personal name appears more often in the Psalms than in any other book. The text writes it “the LORD” in small capitals, and a reader setting shows “Yahweh” instead; “Praise the LORD” is Hallelujah. See the divine name.
Loyal love. The Hebrew word hesed, God’s faithful, covenant love, is one of the Psalms’ great words, and no single English word fits it. The draft says “loyal love” (“faithful love” at the Readable level): “his loyal love lasts forever” (136:1). See Hesed.
Psalm 23. The valley of 23:4 is “a valley of deepest darkness”; the familiar “the shadow of death” is given in a footnote, since the Hebrew word can be read either way.
Psalm 22. In the verse numbered 22:17 here (22:16 in most English Bibles), the Hebrew text as it has come down to us reads “like a lion” at my hands and my feet. Ancient translations read a verb instead, which many Christian Bibles give as “they have pierced my hands and my feet”, and the New Testament reads this psalm as fulfilled in Jesus’s death. The draft follows the Hebrew text, marks the decision uncertain, and gives “pierced” and “bound” in a footnote, so that readers can see both.
Psalms of the king. Psalms 2, 45 and 110 speak to and about Israel’s king in words the New Testament applies to Christ: “Kiss the son” (2:12), “Your throne, God, lasts for ever and ever” (45:7), and “The LORD declares to my lord” (110:1). The draft translates the Hebrew as it stands, and decisions explain each hard line; where the New Testament quotes the psalm, as Hebrews does Psalm 45 and the Gospels, Acts and Hebrews do Psalm 110, a decision says so.