How the Psalms have been central to worship through history
by Neil Rees, Christian Today:
The Psalms have played an important role in Jewish and Christian tradition from ancient times until today. It is the oldest continually used songbook in human history. This is the story…
Origin of the Word
The English term Psalm is from the Greek word for a song accompanied by a musical instrument. This name comes from the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew word tehillim meaning songs of praise.
Authors
The “Book of Psalms”, is also often called the “Psalms of David”, although only about half were written by David. Some of them were written in response to particular events in David’s life. The other psalms were written by, or attributed to, Asaph, the Sons of Korah, David’s son Solomon, Ethan the Ezrahite, and some are anonymous. Psalm 90 is even attributed to Moses.
Books of Psalms
Although known today as the “Book of Psalms” the Psalms were sorted into five books. They were not sorted in the historical order they were written but, as the songbook of the Temple, they were sorted by theme.
The first book of psalms consists of Psalms 1 to 41, which are mainly Psalms of David. Book 2 consists of Psalms 42-72, including Psalms 44 to 50 which were by the Songs of Korah. Book 3 has Psalms 73-89, which includes the Psalms of Asaph. Book 4 has Psalms 90 to 106, which includes Psalms 93 to 100 which have the refrain “The LORD reigns”. Book 5 has Psalms 107 to 150, Psalms 120 to 134 known as the “Songs of Ascent”, and ends with the last five Psalms known as the Hallelujah Psalms.
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