The Book of Psalms

The Psalms are the one book of Scripture that the Church does not only read but prays, all of it, every week: other books tell us what God has done, the Psalter gives us the words to answer Him. Every one of the 150 psalms is below, with St Jerome's Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims; this guide introduces the whole book, its author, its divisions and its best-loved psalms.

The Douay-Rheims Bible follows the numbering of the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint, not the Hebrew numbering of the King James Version: the shepherd psalm is Psalm 22 in the Douay and Psalm 23 in the KJV. We give the Douay number first and the Hebrew number in parentheses.

The authors of the Psalms: David and the inspired singers

The Church has always called the book the Psalterium Davidicum, the Psalter of David, and the Council of Trent received it under that name: "the Psalter of David, consisting of a hundred and fifty psalms" (Session IV, 1546). David is its principal author, though not its only one.

The witness of Scripture is plain. David is "the excellent psalmist of Israel" (2 Kings 23:1, 2 Samuel in modern Bibles); he appointed Asaph "the chief to give praise to the Lord with his brethren" (1 Paralipomenon 16:7, 1 Chronicles) and set apart the sons of Asaph, Heman and Idithun "to prophesy with harps, and with psalteries, and with cymbals" (1 Paralipomenon 25:1). Our Lord Himself, quoting Psalm 109 (110), asks: "How then doth David in spirit call him Lord?" (Matthew 22:43). St Peter cites Psalm 15 (16) as David's and adds that "he was a prophet" who "spoke of the resurrection of Christ" (Acts 2:30–31); the Apostles pray Psalm 2 as spoken "by the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of our father David" (Acts 4:25).

The Hebrew titles name David as author of 73 psalms; the Septuagint and Vulgate assign him more. The titles also name other inspired singers: Asaph (Psalm 49 and Psalms 72–82), the sons of Core, Temple singers (among them Psalm 41 (42) and Psalm 44), Heman and Ethan the Ezrahites (Psalms 87 and 88), Solomon (Psalms 71 and 126), and Moses, "the man of God", for Psalm 89 (90).

The Fathers differed on David's share: St Ambrose and St Augustine held that he composed all 150 psalms, while Origen, St Hilary and St Jerome defended several authors, Jerome writing that "they err who deem all the psalms are David's." The Pontifical Biblical Commission settled the matter on 1 May 1910.

It answered that the name "Psalter of David" does not prove David the sole author; that the titles are older than the Septuagint and are not to be doubted without serious reason; that David cannot prudently be denied to be the principal author, nor only a few psalms assigned to him; and that Psalms 2, 15, 17, 31, 68 and 109, which Scripture cites under his name, are certainly his. It also allowed that some psalms were later divided, joined or lightly adapted for liturgical use, with their inspiration intact.

Many modern scholars regard the titles as late editorial notes and David's share as smaller; the Church's teaching remains that given above.

Five centuries of composition, from Moses to the return from exile

The Psalter grew over about five centuries. The oldest psalm by its title is Psalm 89 (90), the prayer of Moses, from the wandering in the desert. The heart of the book belongs to David's reign, around a thousand years before Christ, and many titles fix a psalm in his life: Psalm 3 "when he fled from the face of his son Absalom", Psalm 50 (51) "when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bethsabee", as told in 1 Kings and 2 Kings (1 and 2 Samuel). Asaph and the sons of Core sang in David's and Solomon's Temple.

The last psalms belong to the Babylonian captivity and the return. Psalm 136 (137), "Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept", was sung in exile, and the collection was completed after the return to Jerusalem. The Biblical Commission would not allow that many psalms of the present collection belong to the later age of the Machabees.

What is the Book of Psalms about? A summary

Since antiquity the Psalter has been divided into five books, each closed by a doxology, which Jewish tradition compared with the five books of Moses. St Hippolytus called the Psalter a second Pentateuch.

Book One: the psalms of David (Psalms 1–40)

Psalms 1–40 (41 in the Hebrew numbering) are almost all titled to David. Psalm 1 opens the whole book with the two ways: "Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly", whose will "is in the law of the Lord", against the wicked who are "like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth". Psalm 2 answers it with the King: "The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee."

This book holds the evening prayer of trust (Psalm 4), the first penitential psalm (Psalm 6), the glory of God in creation (Psalm 8 and Psalm 18 (19)), the Passion foretold (Psalm 21 (22)), the Good Shepherd (Psalm 22 (23)) and the King of Glory entering His gates (Psalm 23 (24)). It ends: "Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to eternity. So be it. So be it" (Psalm 40:14).

Book Two: longing, repentance and the King (Psalms 41–71)

Psalms 41–71 (Hebrew 42–72) open with the sons of Core: "As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God." Here are the wedding song of the King and his Queen (Psalm 44 (45)), the Miserere (Psalm 50 (51)), the cry of the suffering just man who is given "gall for my food" and "vinegar to drink" (Psalm 68 (69)), and the psalm of the peaceful King whose reign reaches to the ends of the earth (Psalm 71 (72)). The book closes with its doxology and the note: "The praises of David, the son of Jesse, are ended."

Book Three: the psalms of Asaph (Psalms 72–88)

Psalms 72–88 (Hebrew 73–89) are chiefly psalms of Asaph and the sons of Core, sung for the nation. They wrestle with the prosperity of the wicked (Psalm 72 (73)), mourn the profaned sanctuary, recall God's wonders in Egypt and the desert, love His dwelling ("How lovely are thy tabernacles", Psalm 83 (84)), and end with the darkest psalm of all (Psalm 87 (88)) and the long meditation on God's oath to David (Psalm 88 (89)), closing "Blessed be the Lord for evermore. So be it. So be it."

Book Four: the Lord is King (Psalms 89–105)

Psalms 89–105 (Hebrew 90–106) begin with Moses: "a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past" (Psalm 89:4). They hold the psalm of God's protection (Psalm 90 (91)), the Invitatory Venite (Psalm 94 (95)), a chain of psalms proclaiming the Lord as King of all the earth, the Benedic, anima mea of thanksgiving (Psalm 102 (103)), the hymn of creation whose verse "Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created" the Church sings at Pentecost (Psalm 103 (104)), and two histories of Israel ending in a doxology (Psalm 105:48).

Book Five: pilgrimage and praise (Psalms 106–150)

Psalms 106–150 (Hebrew 107–150) are the psalms of the people returned and going up to the Temple. Here are the royal and priestly psalm of Christ, Dixit Dominus (Psalm 109 (110)); the Hallel psalms 112–117 (Hebrew 113–118), which the Jews sang at the Passover and which, by the common interpretation, Our Lord sang with the Apostles at the Last Supper ("a hymn being said", Matthew 26:30); Psalm 118 (119), 176 verses in praise of God's law, the longest chapter in the Bible; the fifteen "gradual canticles", the Songs of Ascents, Psalms 119–133 (Hebrew 120–134), sung by pilgrims climbing to Jerusalem; the De profundis (Psalm 129 (130)); the lament by the rivers of Babylon (Psalm 136 (137)); and the final Laudate psalms, ending with Psalm 150, itself the doxology of the whole Psalter: "let every spirit praise the Lord. Alleluia."

Themes and the Catholic reading of the Psalms

Christ in the Psalms. Our Lord said that all things must be fulfilled "which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44). He died with the psalms on His lips: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, from Psalm 21) and "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46, from Psalm 30:6 (31:5)). Psalm 21 foretells the Passion in detail: "They have dug my hands and feet.

They have numbered all my bones... They parted my garments amongst them; and upon my vesture they cast lots." The Epistle to the Hebrews builds its doctrine of Christ's eternal priesthood on Psalm 109: "Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech", and its proof of His divinity on Psalms 2 and 44. The Biblical Commission affirmed in 1910 that several psalms are truly prophetic of the coming, kingdom, priesthood, Passion, death and Resurrection of the Messiah.

The whole Christ praying. St Augustine's Enarrations on the Psalms read the Psalter as the voice of Christ, Head and members together. On Psalm 85 he wrote that Christ "prays for us as our priest; he prays in us as our head; he is prayed to by us as our God." So the Church can make every psalm her own: the cries of distress are the Body suffering, the songs of victory are the Head risen.

A mirror of the soul. St Athanasius, in his Letter to Marcellinus, taught that each reader finds in the psalms the movements of his own soul, as in a mirror, and the remedy for each.

Repentance. Since Cassiodorus the Church has set apart seven penitential psalms: 6, 31 (32), 37 (38), 50 (51), 101 (102), 129 (130) and 142 (143). St Paul cites the second of them for the forgiveness of sins: "As David also termeth the blessedness of a man, to whom God reputeth justice without works" (Romans 4:6).

Our Lady. The Church reads Psalm 44 (45), the wedding of the King, of Christ and His Church, and also of His Mother: "The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing." It is prayed among the psalms of Our Lady's feasts in the Breviary.

Famous psalms people search

Psalm 22 (23). "The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing. He hath set me in a place of pasture... For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me." The Douay's "ruleth me" renders the Latin regit me, where the Hebrew reads "is my shepherd". The Fathers, St Cyprian and St Ambrose among them, saw in the prepared table and the inebriating chalice the Eucharist. Read Psalm 22, and our full commentary on The Lord Is My Shepherd.

Psalm 90 (91). "He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob... thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night." Its verse "For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways" is the verse the devil quoted to Our Lord in the desert. It is sung, almost entire, as the Tract of the First Sunday of Lent and prayed at Compline on Sundays; we gather it with other texts in our prayer for protection. Read Psalm 90.

Psalm 50 (51), the Miserere. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy... Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels." David's confession after his sin is the Church's psalm of contrition; its verse "Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop" is sung at the Asperges before the Sunday Mass. Read Psalm 50.

Psalm 120 (121). "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Read Psalm 120.

Psalm 129 (130), the De profundis. "Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice." The Church's prayer for the faithful departed, prayed in the Office of the Dead. Read Psalm 129.

Psalm 118 (119). "Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths" (verse 105), and "Seven times a day I have given praise to thee" (verse 164), the verse behind the seven hours of the Divine Office. Read Psalm 118.

The Psalms in the canon and in the liturgy

The Psalms stand among the wisdom or poetical books of the Old Testament, after Job and before Proverbs and the Canticle of Canticles. The Hebrew title is Tehillim, "praises"; the Greek Psalmoi means songs sung to the strings. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Bibles all contain the 150 psalms; they differ only in numbering, because the Septuagint and Vulgate join Hebrew Psalms 9–10 into Psalm 9 and 114–115 into Psalm 113, and divide Hebrew 116 into Psalms 114–115 and Hebrew 147 into Psalms 146–147. The Septuagint adds a short Psalm 151 "outside the number", which the Church has not received into the canon.

The Psalter of the Vulgate is not St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew but his revision of the Old Latin according to Origen's Hexaplaric Septuagint, made at Bethlehem and called the Gallican Psalter. It is the Latin the Church has chanted for over a thousand years, and the Douay-Rheims translates it.

No book shapes the traditional liturgy as the Psalms do. In the 1962 Missal the priest begins Mass at the foot of the altar with Psalm 42 (43), Judica me: "I will go in to the altar of God: to God who giveth joy to my youth"; he washes his fingers saying Psalm 25 (26), Lavabo: "I will wash my hands among the innocent"; at a solemn Mass he incenses the altar with Psalm 140 (141): "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight". Most Introits, Graduals, Tracts, Offertories and Communions are psalm verses: the Introit of Midnight Mass at Christmas is from Psalm 2, "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee", and that of Easter from Psalm 138 (139), "I rose up and am still with thee."

In the Breviary the whole Psalter is the backbone of the Divine Office. Since St Pius X's constitution Divino Afflatu (1911), all 150 psalms are prayed every week: Matins opens daily with Psalm 94, Vespers sings Psalm 109 on Sundays, Compline closes the Sunday with Psalms 4, 90 and 133. The psalms are also the core of Gregorian chant. You can pray today's hours in our online Breviary.

How to read the Book of Psalms

Read them slowly and aloud, as they were written to be sung. Begin with those the Church prays most (Psalms 1, 22, 50, 90, 94 and 129), then read one book of the Psalter at a time, or follow the Church's own order by praying an hour of the Divine Office. Read each title, ask how the psalm speaks of Christ, of the Church and of your own soul, and end it, as the Office does, with the Gloria Patri.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Book of Psalms?

King David is the principal author of the Book of Psalms, which the Church calls the Psalter of David. The Hebrew titles give him 73 psalms and the Vulgate more; others are titled to Asaph, the sons of Core, Heman, Ethan, Solomon and Moses. The Pontifical Biblical Commission (1910) taught that David cannot prudently be denied to be the chief author, and that the psalms Scripture cites under his name, such as Psalms 2, 15 and 109, are his.

When was the Book of Psalms written?

Over about five centuries: from Moses, to whom Psalm 89 (90) is titled, through David's reign around 1000 BC, which produced most of the book, to the Babylonian exile and the return, when Psalm 136 (137) was sung. The collection was completed after the return to Jerusalem.

What is the Book of Psalms about?

It is the Old Testament's book of prayer: 150 inspired songs of praise, thanksgiving, repentance, lament and trust, with royal and prophetic psalms that foretell Christ's kingdom, priesthood, Passion and Resurrection. Our Lord said that the psalms speak of Him (Luke 24:44), and the Church prays them every week in the Divine Office.

How many psalms are in the Book of Psalms?

There are 150 psalms, as the Council of Trent states in receiving "the Psalter of David, consisting of a hundred and fifty psalms." Each psalm is one chapter. The King James Version counts 2,461 verses; the Douay and Vulgate count a few more, because they number many psalm titles as verse 1.

What are the 5 books of Psalms?

The Psalter is divided into five books, each ending in a doxology: Book One, Psalms 1–40 (Hebrew 1–41); Book Two, Psalms 41–71 (42–72); Book Three, Psalms 72–88 (73–89); Book Four, Psalms 89–105 (90–106); Book Five, Psalms 106–150 (107–150). Jewish tradition compared them with the five books of Moses.

Why are the psalm numbers different in Catholic Bibles?

The Douay-Rheims follows the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, which divide a few psalms differently from the Hebrew text used by the King James Version. From Psalm 10 to 147 the Douay number is generally one lower: Psalm 22 in the Douay is Psalm 23 in the KJV, and Psalm 50 is Psalm 51. The text is the same 150 psalms.

Is the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament?

Yes. The Psalms belong to the wisdom or poetical books of the Old Testament, placed after Job and before Proverbs. It is among the Old Testament books most often quoted in the New, and every Christian Bible contains it.

What does "Selah" mean in the Psalms?

Selah is a Hebrew word found in many psalms, of uncertain meaning, most likely a musical direction such as a pause or interlude. The Septuagint renders it diapsalma. The Douay-Rheims, following the Vulgate, does not print it in the text.

Where can I read the Book of Psalms?

On this page, psalm by psalm, in the Douay-Rheims beside St Jerome's Latin Vulgate, starting with Psalm 1; every other book is in our online Bible, and the psalms of today's hours are in the Breviary.

Read the Book of Psalms verse by verse, in Latin and English, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. The Book of Psalms, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), with Challoner's notes; Biblia Sacra Vulgata (Psalterium Gallicanum); 2 Kings 23; 1 Paralipomenon 16 and 25; Matthew 22 and 27; Luke 23–24; Acts 2 and 4; Romans 4; Hebrews 1 and 5; St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus; St Ambrose, Explanatio Psalmorum; St Hilary, Tractatus super Psalmos; St Jerome, Prefaces to the Psalter; St Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos; Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum; St Robert Bellarmine, Explanatio in Psalmos; Council of Trent, Session IV (1546); Pontifical Biblical Commission, response on the authors and date of the Psalms, 1 May 1910; St Pius X, Divino Afflatu (1911); Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Psalms"; Missale Romanum (1962); Breviarium Romanum (1962).