Quite a number of the books of the Old Testament are called in English by their Greek names. We have got used to this - words like genesis and exodus have passed into the language, and "Exodus" tells us more about that book than the German "Second Book of Moses" or the Hebrew "Names" (which just happens to be the first significant word in the book). In the same way, everyone knows what a psalm is, don't they?
The word psalm comes from the Greek word psallein, to pluck the strings of a musical instrument - a lute, a harp or a lyre. A psalma was therefore a tune played on a stringed instrument, or a song sung to this tune. The Hebrew name for the book, tehillim, Praises, is a good reminder that the psalms were not only musical songs, but also, even in some of the darker songs, where the psalmist is surrounded by pain and grief, God is always present, and is always to be praised. We all know the opening line of Ps. 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", but do we all realize that by verse 22, the tone has turned to "in the midst of the congregation I will praise you."
Some, but not all, of the psalms are "of David". Although the Old Testament tells us that David, the shepherd boy turned king, was skilled with the lyre, we should not put two and two together and make five - the Hebrew expression could just mean "for David" or "about David." David is closely linked to the psalms - some of them, or their headings, recall incidents in his life. But other songs are ascribed to "the sons of Korah" (probably a group of Levites who sang in the temple), to Asaph, and even to Solomon (Ps. 72) and Moses (Ps. 90). Other headings indicate how the psalm is to be sung - which tune or what style: though we have no clear idea what these tunes sounded like.
At some stage after the Exile, the Psalms were gathered together out of earlier collections: our modern Bibles break them into five books, with short doxologies at the end of Psalms 41, 72, 89 and 106. Different translations combined a few of the psalms (9-10, 114-115 are single psalms in the Greek Old Testament, which divides 116 and 147 into two - and if you look at Pss 42 and 43, you can see that it is not always clear where one psalm ends and other begins!) Most versions agree that there were 150 of them, though.
To a normal reader, the Psalms often follow one another in no obvious order, except that in the fourth and fifth books, there are blocks (e.g. 111-117, 146-150) which begin or end "Praise the Lord!" (the "Hallelujah Psalms"), and another (120-134) where each psalm is entitled "A Song of Ascents" - from their content, it seems that these were used by pilgrims, or groups of pilgrims, on their way up to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Other psalms were probably associated with Temple festivals: Ps 24, with its "Lift up your heads, O gates!" must have been written for some kind of procession. And a number of psalms referred to the king, celebrating his accession, his wedding (Ps 45) or a victory (Ps 18).
A common theme is lamentation - either on a national level (a drought, a defeat in battle, a general breakdown in society), or more often on a personal level (sickness, or persecution by some enemy). In these psalms, the psalmist normally recalls God's unfailing goodness, and tells with confidence of God's ability to come to the rescue. The lamentation never ends in despair, but always in the assurance that God's goodness and mercy will prevail. This kind of psalm leads to psalms of thanksgiving, and to hymns of pure confidence, like the best-loved Psalm 23.
Most psalms flowed directly from the heart, but a few came from the head. Commentators talk of the wisdom psalms, often contrived so that each of 22 verses began alphabetically (the Hebrew alphabet had 22 letters) - the most contrived being Ps 119, where each of the first eight verses began with an a, the next eight with b, and so on for 176 verses.
The wisdom psalms are less memorable than many of the others, which rely partly on rhythm (partly preserved in translation), but also on parallelism - a way of bringing words to life by echoing them in a slightly different form: "O God, make speed to save me; O Lord, make haste to help me" (Ps 70:1), "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Ps 51:7). We all should read the Psalms more, for even if their date sets them in the Old Testament, their confidence and their faith points forward to Christ. Jesus often had a psalm on his lips, and we would do well to do likewise!
HD