Introduction to Psalms
Part 1: General Introduction
Outline of Psalms
Book One (Psalms 1–41): Psalms of David
Book Two (Psalms 42–72): Mostly psalms of David
Book Three (Psalms 73–89): Psalms of Asaph, the Korahites, Ethan
Book Four (Psalms 90–106): Mostly anonymous psalms
Book Five (Psalms 107–150): Mostly anonymous, several psalms of David
What is the book of Psalms?
The book of Psalms is a collection of songs that are addressed to God or that speak about God. The word “psalm” comes from a Greek term that described a song that a person would sing while playing a stringed instrument. In many languages, the word now refers to the songs in this collection in the Bible. (All of the songs were written in Hebrew, but they are now called by a Greek name because at one point many Jews became speakers of Greek.) People often call the writers of these psalms “psalmists.”
What title should translators use for this book?
Translators may use the traditional title of this book, “The Book of Psalms,” or just “Psalms.” Another possible title for this book is “Songs for Worship,” which expresses the meaning of the term “psalms” as it applies to the songs in this book. Translators may use a title that expresses that meaning in their own language, or they may choose to transliterate the term “psalms,” that is, to use that word and spell it the way it sounds in their own language.
Why were the songs in this book written?
The psalmists composed these songs for a variety of reasons. In some psalms, they expressed their praise to God. In other psalms, they asked God for help and expressed confidence in his love and power. In still others, they confessed their sins and begged for mercy. The Israelites wrote some psalms to ask Yahweh to defeat their enemies. Other psalms celebrated the event of a new king beginning his reign. They wrote some psalms to instruct people on how to be wise by honoring Yahweh and obeying his law. Pilgrims sang some of the psalms while traveling to Jerusalem to worship there. Psalms written for all of these reasons became songs that people sang to worship Yahweh at his temple. Many songs that people found especially meaningful and enjoyable to sing in temple worship were collected together into this book, which has become part of the Bible.
When were the songs in the book of Psalms written?
The psalms were written over a long period of time. Moses probably wrote the earliest psalm around 1400 B.C. David and Asaph wrote their psalms between 1020 and 975 B.C. The Korahites may have written their psalms before Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews were exiled to Babylon in 587 B.C. Psalm 126 appears to come from the period after the exile, which ended in 538 B.C.
Why do some versions number the psalms differently from others?
From ancient times, people have numbered the psalms in different ways. The Jews numbered the psalms in Hebrew in one way. When the psalms were translated into Greek, they were numbered in a different way. Also, the people who compiled and transmitted the book of Psalms seem to have wanted a round number of 150 psalms, and they divided and combined individual psalms in order to achieve that total. This was done in different ways in different versions. For example, in the traditional Hebrew text, Psalms 42 and 43 are presented as separate psalms while Psalm 116 is presented as a single psalm. In the ancient Greek version, Psalms 42 and 43 are a single psalm and Psalm 116 is presented in parts as two different psalms. The Hebrew and Greek numbering and the divisions and combinations of some psalms were passed down through the centuries, and a variety of systems are in use today. If a translation of the Bible exists in your region, you may wish to use the system that it uses. If a translation of the Bible does not exist in your region, you may wish to use the system that the ULT uses.
Part 2: Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Book
Most of the psalms were written in one of a few basic forms that were common in ancient Hebrew songwriting. These forms allowed the biblical songwriters to structure a creative expression of the powerful emotions and intense spiritual sensations that arose from their deep experiences with God. Psalmists used specific forms for specific purposes.
Notes to individual psalms will suggest what form they use. (Some psalms combine or adapt the basic forms.) Recognizing from the form the type of situation that the psalmist was addressing will help translators understand and appreciate each psalm as a whole in order to translate it effectively into their language.
Psalms of supplication (laments)
The most common type of psalm in this collection is a plea for God’s help in a time of trouble. About one third of the psalms fit this type. These are often called “psalms of supplication” or “laments.” Many begin with a cry for help. The psalmist calls out to God, begging for rescue in urgent and emotional tones. The psalmist may then describe the troubles he is experiencing, but he may also make a statement of trust, expressing his confidence in God’s goodness and power despite these difficulties. He may ask God to do something specific to help him. He may say that God should do this because he is innocent of any wrongdoing. He may promise to praise God publicly once he has received his help. Not every psalm of supplication has all of these elements, and the elements that are present may appear in a variety of orders. Nevertheless, in these psalms of supplication, there is a recognizable basic pattern of calling for help from a standpoint of trust.
Psalms of thanksgiving
People who had promised to praise God publicly for his help sang another kind of psalm in order to do that. Those psalms are often called “psalms of thanksgiving.” They too are composed from a number of common elements. There may be an opening summary statement that God helped the psalmist when he was in trouble. The psalmist may call others to join him in praising God for this. He may describe the trouble he was in and state specifically that he asked God to help him. He may then depict, often through vivid imagery, how God helped him, and he may conclude with an expression of praise and thanks. Once again, not every psalm of thanksgiving has all of these elements, and the elements that are present may appear in a variety of orders, but a basic pattern is recognizable.
Psalms of praise
The third basic type of song in this book is often called a “psalm of praise.” Its focus is not on the writer and his situation but on God and his worthiness to be worshiped. In a psalm of praise, the writer calls other people to worship God with him, and he gives reasons why they should do that. The essential dynamic of psalms of praise is alternation between calls to worship and reasons to worship (though some of them consist almost entirely of a call to worship). A reason to worship is typically introduced with the term “for.” Psalm 47:5–6 say, for example, “Sing praise to our king, sing praise! For God is the king of all of the earth.” One particular type of praise psalm is a “song of Zion,” which celebrates Mount Zion and the city of Jerusalem and the temple there as the center of God’s presence and rule over the earth.
Psalms of trust
A psalmist may sometimes expand one element of a basic form so that it fills all or most of a psalm. For example, psalmists who asked God for help often expressed their trust in him. Some psalms consist almost entirely of an expression of trust. The troubles of the psalmist may be dimly perceptible in the background, but these psalms are essentially calm, stately affirmations of reliance on God. They are therefore called “psalms of trust.”
Penitential psalms
Sometimes a psalmist recognizes that the trouble that he is experiencing is the result of sin that he has committed. In addition to difficulties that are consequences of his sin or punishments for it, he is deeply troubled by guilt. He asks God to forgive him and restore him. Expressing sorrow for doing wrong is sometimes called “penitence,” and so such psalms are sometimes called “penitential psalms.” They are a specific kind of psalm of supplication.
Imprecatory psalms
Sometimes psalmists who are troubled by wicked enemies become concerned not only for their own survival but for God’s reputation for upholding justice. If treacherous people succeed and prosper, others may question whether God is good and powerful enough to vindicate the righteous and punish the wicked. Those others may then choose to act wickedly themselves, and the entire society will become violent and corrupt. So a psalm of supplication for deliverance from enemies may include a call for God to destroy the wicked. That kind of request is sometimes called an “imprecation.” When this call expands and becomes the major element of a composition, that psalm may be called an “imprecatory psalm.” Christian readers of such psalms, knowing that Jesus told his followers to love their enemies, are often troubled by the call for God to destroy wicked people. It is important to appreciate that psalmist is not asking for revenge. He is asking God to demonstrate his justice.
Wisdom psalms
Some psalms make a practical application of the truth about God’s justice. They teach their listeners about the two very different fates that await wicked people and righteous people. These psalms urge their audiences to cultivate wisdom (the ability to choose the right course in life) by fearing God, that is, by having great reverence for God and obeying him. While some wisdom psalms present their teaching within the framework of one of the basic types, other wisdom psalms are different. They are addressed to people, rather than to God, and they consist essentially of teaching rather than of supplication, thanksgiving, or praise. One type of psalm that is similar to a wisdom psalm depicts God assembling and addressing the Israelites, commending those who are faithfully obeying his covenant but warning those who are acting wickedly.
Royal psalms
God’s power and goodness can be questioned in a psalm of supplication, vindicated in a psalm of thanksgiving, and celebrated in a psalm of praise. Some praise psalms celebrate how God is enthroned as king above all the earth and how, from that position of authority, he exercises his power on behalf of justice and helps needy people. The description of God’s enthronement as a reason to worship can expand to fill an entire psalm of praise. When it does, the psalm may be known as a “divine enthronement psalm” or “royal psalm.” Another type of royal psalm is a prayer for God to help the Israelite king uphold justice and help needy people as God’s representative on earth. This type of royal psalm, a specific kind of psalm of supplication, may also ask God to defeat the king’s foreign enemies so that he can continue to rule. Some such psalms celebrate the occasion of a new king beginning his rule.
Styles of psalms
The background information that the book of Psalms provides about many of the songs in this collection (see the discussion of “superscriptions” in Part 3 of this introduction) sometimes includes a description of the style of a psalm.
In several cases, a psalm is identified as a “maskil.” Biblical scholars have different understandings of what that term means. Some say it means “to instruct,” while others say that the word refers to the skill used in creating the psalm. Still others think it means that meditation should be used in reading this psalm. Since the meaning is not certain, in your translation, you may wish to represent this word in its Hebrew form, as the ULT and UST do, and spell it the way it sounds in your language.
In several other cases, a psalm is identified as a “miktam.” The exact meaning of this term is also uncertain. Some scholars think it may refer to a kind of writing or musical style, while others suggest it describes the psalm’s tone or purpose. It may mean that a psalm is a prayer for protection or a song of confidence. Since the meaning is not certain, you may wish to represent this word as well in its Hebrew form and spell it the way it sounds in your language.
Fifteen short psalms, collected together as Psalms 120–134, are each called a “song of ascents.” Most interpreters understand this title to mean that they were customarily sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the great festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. (The term “ascents” is used because going up to Jerusalem involved a climb of about 3,000 feet up Mount Zion.) These songs are written in a variety of forms, and while many of them refer directly to the journey and the festivals, they also speak about a broad range of other experiences. So this description refers as much to the occasion of these psalms as their style, although they are generally short and communal.
Several of the psalms follow a pattern in which the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet begin each poetic line, each half-line, every second line, or even every eight lines in a row. This pattern is known as an “acrostic,” from a Greek term that describes the start of a line of poetry. The alphabetic pattern may be used as an aid to memory, and it may also depict a composition as speaking comprehensively about a subject. The background information that the book of Psalms provides does not identify these psalms as having been written in this style, since this would have been obvious to the original Hebrew audience, but notes to these psalms will identify them as acrostics.
Part 3: Translation Issues in This Book
How should translators represent the poetry in the book of Psalms?
The psalms, as the words to songs, are poetry. Hebrew poetry was based on the repetition of ideas. Typically the first part of a line would say something, and the second part of that line would repeat the same idea in different words. (In some cases, the second part of a line may elaborate on the idea in the first part or state something contrasting.) Translation teams must decide how to represent the lines in which both parts express the same idea. Readers may think that the psalmist is saying something different in the second part of the line but not be able to figure out what that is, since the psalmist is actually not doing that. So one approach is to combine the two parts into a single statement of the idea. However, to show readers the character of Hebrew poetry, it may be preferable to include both phrases in your translation rather than combining them. (This can be valuable in many cases because the second part, while restating the idea, often advances or intensifies it in some way.) Often the term “and” connects the two parts, and it may be clearer in your language to connect them with a different term in order to show that the second part of the line is repeating the idea in the first part, not saying something different. For example, Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens are declaring the glory of God, and the sky is proclaiming the work of his hands.” A translation might say, “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; indeed, the sky is proclaiming the work of his hands.”
Translation teams must also decide whether to try to represent the poetry in the Psalms in a poetic form that is characteristic of their own language. This is often difficult to do, since poetic forms vary so much from one language to another. Unless poetry in the translators’ language happens to be very similar to Hebrew poetry, a common approach is to represent the psalms as prose, that is, as ordinary language, but to format them in a way that shows they are poetry in the original language. The ULT and UST do that by setting each line farther to the right on the page than regular text. They indent the second part of a line (and a third part, if there is one) farther to the right than the first part of the line. Translators may have conventions in their own languages and cultures that will allow them to translate the psalms as ordinary language but display them as poetry.
However translation teams decide to represent the poetry in the Psalms, it is valuable to retain the images that the psalmists use, such as God being like a shepherd or like a huge rock. These images reflect the original cultural and historical context of the Bible, which is helpful background for readers to have in order to understand what the Bible is saying. In many cases the images are used in various parts of the Bible with similar meaning but significant shades of difference, and it is helpful for readers to see how the biblical writers are using images in these different ways. So if an image communicates well in your language, please use it in your translation. If not, consider expressing it as a comparison. For example, for the statement in Psalm 23:1, “Yahweh is my shepherd,” you might say, “Yahweh cares for me as a shepherd cares for his sheep.” For the statement in Psalm 18:2, “Yahweh is my rock,” you might say, “Yahweh to me is like a high rock that I can climb up to reach safety from danger.”
How should translators represent the introductions that many psalms have?
In many cases, information about a psalm is provided before the beginning of the psalm. This information is sometimes called a “superscription.” That term describes something that is written above something else.
Some versions do not give verse numbers to the superscriptions, while other versions do. If a translation of the Bible exists in your region, you may wish to do what it does. If a translation of the Bible does not exist in your region, you may wish to do what the ULT does. Whether or not translators give the superscriptions in the Psalms verse numbers, they should consider them as part of the divinely inspired biblical text. They may wish to use special formatting to show that they are not part of the original composition of the psalm. The ULT does this by putting them in italics.
Translators should use care in translating the phrases in superscriptions that associate a psalm with a person. For example, about half of the psalms are called a “psalm of David” or simply “Of David.” This may mean that King David wrote them. However, it could also mean that someone else wrote the psalm for David, or that the psalm was written in the same style that David used when he wrote songs. Translators can be more confident that this expression means that David wrote the psalm when the superscription describes a historical situation in David’s life as the occasion of its composition. The UST models various ways to translate the phrases that associate a psalm with a person, sometimes with expressions that could allow a range of meanings (“A psalm of David”) and sometimes with more specific expressions (“David wrote this psalm when …”).
Some superscriptions give instructions about how a psalm should be played and sung. They may tell which instruments, singers, or melodies should be used for that psalm. The superscriptions to about a third of the psalms indicate that they are “for the chief musician.” This suggests that while they were originally composed in a variety of life situations, they have been collected for use in temple worship. The ULT and UST model how the technical terms in the superscription about performance can be translated in either a form-based or meaning-based way.
Some biblical scholars suggest that these musical instructions apply to the previous psalm rather than to the psalm that immediately follows them. For example, the current superscription to Psalm 4 reads, “For the director, with stringed instruments. Of David.” The phrases “For the chief musician; with stringed instruments” may belong at the end of Psalm 3, so that the superscription to Psalm 4 would be just “Of David.” Similarly, the superscription to Psalm 5 may be just “A psalm of David,” and the musical instructions “For the chief musician; on the flutes” may belong at the end of Psalm 4. This suggestion is a matter of ongoing scholarly debate, and Bible publishers have so far not adopted it, so these resources treat the entire traditional superscriptions as applying to the psalms that immediately follow them. However, you may wish to consider the merits of this suggestion and make your own decision about it as a translation team.
“Selah” and “Higgaion”
The terms “Selah” and “Higgaion” occur within many psalms. They seem to be musical terms inserted as directions for singers and musicians. Scholars do not agree as to their exact meaning. For this reason, rather than try to translate them, translators may decide to include the Hebrew words and spell them the way they sound in their language or leave them out.
How should translators represent passages in the psalms that look forward to the Messiah?
New Testament writers quote many passages from the psalms as prophecies about the Messiah, Jesus Christ. The psalms that contain these prophecies are therefore sometimes called “Messianic psalms.” In translating them, translators should take care not to limit the potential meaning only to the original writer. For example, David says in Psalm 16:10, “You will not hand over your godly one to see the pit.” In speaking to Yahweh, he is referring initially to himself in the third person as “your godly one.” In some languages, a speaker would not refer to himself in the third person in this way, and translators of the Bible into those languages might ordinarily use an expression such as “me, your godly one.” However, Peter cites this statement in Acts 2:27 as a prophecy of the Messiah. So it would be preferable to translate the phrase “your godly one” with a phrase such as “any godly person who belongs to you.”
“shall”
The ULT represents the Hebrew instructional verb form with the English helping verb “shall.” For example, when Yahweh said, as quoted by Asaph in 81:9, “There shall not be a strange god among you.” he was instructing the Israelites how to act. Other ways to say this are “You are not to have a strange god among you,” “You should not have a strange god among you” “I want you not to have a strange god among you,” or “Do not have a strange god among you.” Translate this form with the most natural way in your language for giving instructions.
“let” and “may”
The ULT uses the English helping verbs “let” and “may” to show that a speaker is expressing a desire that something happen or that someone do something. It uses the verb “let” for more assertive expressions, and it uses the verb “may” for more deferential expressions. For example, when David says in 69:34 “Let the heavens and the earth praise him,” he means “I want the heavens and the earth to praise him.” Languages that do not have a volitional form might say “The heavens and earth ought to praise him,” or they might use an imperative, “Praise him, heavens and earth!” When David says in 70:5 “Yahweh, may you not delay,” he is being more deferential, even though his wish is urgent, because he is addressing a superior. Languages that do not have a volitional form might say “Yahweh, I desire that you do not delay,” or they might use an imperative with an indication that it is a polite request, “Yahweh, please do not delay.” Translate this volitional form in the most natural way in your language to indicate that the speaker is expressing what he wants someone to do or what he wishes someone would do.
“your God,” “my God,” and “our God”
Throughout this book, the psalmist refers to Yahweh with possessive forms such as “your God,” “my God,” and “our God.” By using these possessive forms, he is not saying that the Israelites possess or control Yahweh. Rather he is using these words to indicate that Yahweh is the God whom the Israelites worship. Also, when the psalmist says, “your God,” he is referring to the same God that he also worships. He is not distinguishing between the God of the Israelites and his own God.
