Psalms
The 19th book in the Bible that has many authors. King David wrote 73 out of 150 Psalms. Asaph wrote 12, the sons of Korah wrote 9, Solomon wrote 2, Heman, Ethan and Moses each wrote 1. 51 Psalms are anonymous. The NT credits 2 of the anonymous psalms (Ps. 2 & 95) to David (see Acts 4:25 & Hebrews 4:7). This posting serves as the introduction to the longest book in the Bible.
The Purpose of writing this book was to provide poetry for the expression of praise, worship, and confession to God.
The Setting of the book: For the most part, the psalms were not at all intended to be historical narrations; however, the often parallel historical events, such as David’s flight from King Saul and his adulterous sin with Bathsheba.
Interesting Fact: The Psalms follow a specific blueprint in that it is broken up into 5 Books. Book One includes Psalms 1:1 - 41:13, Book Two includes Psalms 42:1 - 72:20, Book Three includes Psalms 73:1 - 89:52, Book Four includes Psalms 90:1 - 106:48 and Book Five includes 107:1 - 150:6. Over the next 5 days we’ll be looking at the 5 books one at a time.
Important Points found in this book:
1) The Psalms are poetry, generally meant to be put to music, though the translations out of their original and beautiful language often makes that hard today.
2) Individual psalms were written as early as Moses’ time, around 1450 BC. More were added thru the time of David and Solomon around 1000 BC. Additions continued after the Babylonian captivity around 500 BC. This all means that the writing covered nearly 1,000 years.
3) The Psalms have always been quite popular because they apply to each and every situation and circumstance and every person in creation. Psalms of sorrow, psalms of praise, prophetic psalms, and words of encouragement still make this one of the most popular books in the Bible.
Key Verses:
“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.” - Psalm 23:4
“Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” - Psalm 37:4
“Let everything that breathes sing praise to the Lord! Praise the Lord!” - Psalms 150:6
Next time we will look at the Book 1 of Psalms, but until then walk with the King and be a blessing.
In His Name & for His glory,
Rich Keller
Bread of Life Ministries
Resource: Books of the Bible at a Glance; published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 18, 2018); The Life Application Study Bible. Note: I took my information from this lengthy compilation of bible book information for all 66 books of the Holy Bible & the margin notes from the study bible.
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