First, in contrast to the spontaneous prose prayers found in biblical narratives, the Psalms are tightly woven poetic compositions. Even prayer psalms reflecting life or death distresses (such as Psalms 13 and 22) exhibit intricate literary echoes and structures. While their references to singing imply oral performance, their intricate wording implies that psalms were literary compositions, not spontaneous ad hoc cries of help or praise.

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Second, the identities of “I,” “we,” and “they” (usually the enemies) are open-ended. Unlike the narratives of biblical history and even the poetic oracles of the prophets, the speaker’s opponents in the Psalms are rarely identified. Moreover, the circumstances reflected in the Psalms are portrayed with a variety of impressionistic images. The images applied to the opponents in Psalm 35, for example, reflect metaphors from a variety of social spheres: the battlefield, agriculture, hunting, robbery, legal accusation, carnivorous beasts, and social mockery. The generic nature of psalms becomes apparent when we compare them to David’s poetic lament in 2 Samuel 1, which names its subjects (Saul and Jonathan), their enemies (the Philistines), the location (Mount Gilboa), and the circumstances of battle. It is significant that this poetic lament has been transmitted to us, not in the book of Psalms, but in “The Book of Jashar.” The open-ended language of the Psalms implies they were written for typical, recurring occasions in the life of God’s people.

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Third, while each of the 150 Psalms is unique in its own right, most of them follow regular literary patterns, as seen in the psalmic genres described below. This is not to suggest that the biblical psalmists had to follow anything like the style guide of the Jerusalem temple publishing house, but clearly traditional conventions of poetic expression prevailed over individual invention, as in “free verse.”

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Fourth, many psalms contain liturgical and ritual allusions. Most hymns begin with plural imperatives that serve as a “call to worship” to a congregation (such as, “Hallelu-Yah!,” which means, “Ya’ll praise Yahweh!”). Changes of address (from addressing God directly, “you,” to referring to Him in the third person, “He”) and speaker (evident, e.g., from a question-answer format) suggest a congregational setting. Many psalms refer to the temple on Mt. Zion and to ritual processions (e.g., Psalms 24 and 68) and sacrifices that accompanied the performance of the psalm. References to lyres and other musical instruments imply musical performance.

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These observations imply that the psalms were not spontaneous, free verse, written for singular occasions, but were carefully crafted liturgies written for recurring, typical human needs and for services of worship. In other words, the psalms formed a kind of ancient prayer and hymn book.

An analogy with Christian hymn books and especially denominational prayer books may be helpful. As The Book of Common Prayer contains regular liturgies in which all worshipers participate during the liturgical year, such as Morning Prayer, the Lord’s Supper, and Easter Sunday, so the Book of Psalms contains liturgies, such as hymns and the Songs of Zion, that were performed at annual pilgrimage festivals, such as Passover, Feast of Weeks, and Tabernacles. As the back of the prayer book contains special prayers and thanksgivings for particular groups and needs (such as governments, schools, the unemployed, and the sick), so the Book of Psalms contains Royal Psalms reserved for the king’s coronation and prayer psalms for individual needs as they arise. These individual prayers may have been invoked in local, private ceremonies and even at the bedside of the sick.

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Psalms are not autobiographical, reflecting the poet’s feelings; they are liturgical, leading the worshiper’s experience.

Recognizing that most psalms were originally set prayers, intended to guide worshipers in articulating their cries of distress and their celebrations of God’s goodness and power, means that it would be inappropriate to read them simply as autobiographical poems expressing the feelings of their composers.

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Rather, they are meant to lead the worshiper’s experience of God through times of trial and times of worship. As set prayers, the psalms put words in the worshiper’s mouth, thus encouraging each to reflect on and to incorporate healthy dependency on and acknowledgment of God. They thus implicitly have educative and behavior-modifying functions. As the psalms were hammered out over generations of people living with God, they are deeply personal, not as expressing an individual’s experiences, but as evoking the experiences that should typify the people of God.

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Throughout their biblical history we shall discover that the psalms have been transformed to fit a variety of functions: (a) liturgies, (b) meditative literature, (c) “Davidic” prayers (see the sidebar, “David and the Psalm Superscripts”), and (d) prophecies (especially the royal psalms).

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History of Psalms and Their Traditions

The genres of poetic hymns and prayers were ancient even before the first biblical psalm was written, as evidenced by their long history in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Enḫeduanna, the daughter of Sargon, king of Akkad (ca. 2300 BC), and a priestess herself, had compiled 42 temple hymns from Sumer and Akkad (see Sparks, “Hymns, Prayers, and Laments,” 86). The feature of poetic parallelism is attested in Egypt a thousand years before it appears in Israel.

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Pre-Monarchic Hebrew Poems

Attempts at dating individual psalms is problematic. We have seen that they are, by their very nature, generic and thus intentionally avoid ties to particular events or experiences. The best we can hope, at this point, is to look for clues that associate a particular psalm with one of the three general periods of Old Testament history, namely the pre-exilic, exilic, and postexilic eras.

Probably the oldest texts of the Hebrew Bible are ancient poems found outside the Psalter. Two are tribal blessings: the blessing of Jacob (Gen 49:2-27) and the blessing of Moses (Deut 33:2-29). Two are victory songs: the Song of the Sea (Exod 15:1-18) and the Song of Deborah (Judg 5:2-31). There are also the Song of the Ark (Num 10:35–36) and the songs in “The Book of the Wars of the Lord” (Num 21:14), among others. The four Balaam Oracles (Num 23–24) and the Song of Moses (Deut 32:1-43) may possibly be pre-monarchic, or at least early monarchic. “The book of Jashar” also contained poems that are at least early monarchic (Josh 10:12–13; 2 Sam 1:17–27).

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First Temple Psalms

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