What are the Psalms and who actually wrote them?

The Book of Psalms is a collection of poems that were originally set to music and sung in worship to God. The Psalms were not written by one author but by at least six different men over the course of several centuries. Moses wrote one of the Psalms and two were written by King Solomon some 450 years later.

Who wrote the psalms?
One hundred psalms identify their author with an introduction along the lines of "A prayer of Moses, the man of God" (Psalm 90). Of these, 73 nominate David as a writer. Fifty of the Psalms do not mention their author, but many scholars believe that David may also have written some of these.

David was king of Israel for 40 years, chosen for office because he was "a man after the heart of God" (1 Samuel 13:14). His road to the throne was long and rocky, starting when he was still so young, he was not yet allowed to serve in the army. You may have heard the story of how God defeated a giant through David, a giant that the grown men of Israel had been too afraid to fight (1 Samuel 17).

When this feat naturally got some David fans, King Saul became jealous. David served faithfully in Saul's court as a musician, calming the king with his harp and in the army as a courageous and successful leader. Saul's hatred of him only increased. Eventually, Saul decided to kill him and pursued him for years. David wrote some of his Psalms while hiding in caves or in the wilderness (Psalm 57, Psalm 60).

Who were some of the other authors of the Psalms?
While David was writing about half of the Psalms, other authors contributed songs of praise, lamentation, and thanksgiving.

Salomone
One of David's sons, Solomon succeeded his father as king and became world famous for his great wisdom. He was young when he took the throne, but 2 Chronicles 1: 1 tells us "God was with him and made him extraordinarily great."

Indeed, God made a stunning offering to Solomon at the beginning of his reign. “Ask what you want me to give you,” he told the young king (2 Chronicles 1: 7). Rather than wealth or power for himself, Solomon required wisdom and knowledge with which to rule God's people, Israel. God responded by making Solomon wiser than anyone who ever lived (1 Kings 4: 29-34).

Solomon wrote Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. In both, he recognizes that God is the source of the king's justice, righteousness, and power.

Ethan and Heman
When Solomon's wisdom is described in 1 Kings 4:31, the writer says that the king "was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahita, wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol ...". Imagine being wise enough to be considered the standard by which Solomon is measured! Ethan and Heman are two of these extraordinarily wise men, and a psalm is attributed to each of them.

Many psalms begin with a lament or lament and end with worship, as the writer is comforted by thinking of God's goodness. When Ethan wrote Psalm 89, he turned that model upside down. Ethan begins with an overwhelming and joyful song of praise, then shares his grief with God and asks for help with his current situation.

Heman, on the other hand, begins with a lament and ends with a lament in Psalm 88, often referred to as the saddest psalm. Almost every other obscure song of lament is balanced by bright spots of praise to God. Not so with Psalm 88, which Heman wrote in concert with the Sons of Korah.

Although Heman is deeply grieved in Psalm 88, he begins the song: "O Lord, the God who saves me ..." and spends the rest of the verses asking God for help. He models a faith that clings to God and persists in prayer through the darker, heavier and longer trials.

Heman has suffered since his youth, feels "completely swallowed" and can see nothing but fear, loneliness and despair. Yet here he is, showing his soul to God, still believing that God is there with him and hearing his cries. Romans 8: 35-39 reassures us that Heman was right.

Asaf
Heman wasn't the only psalmist who felt this way. In Psalm 73: 21-26, Asaph said:

“When my heart was hurt
and my embittered spirit,
I was foolish and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by the right hand.
Guide me with your advice
and then you will take me to glory.

Who do I have in heaven but you?
And the earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart can fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and of my portion forever “.

Appointed by King David as one of his chief musicians, Asaph served in the tabernacle before the ark of the Lord (1 Chronicles 16: 4-6). Forty years later, Asaph was still serving as the head of the cult when the ark was taken to the new temple built by King Solomon (2 Chronicles 5: 7-14).

In the 12 psalms credited to him, Asaph returns several times to the theme of God's justice. Many are songs of lament that express great pain and anguish and implore God's help. However, Asaph also expresses the confidence that God will judge justly and that eventually justice will be done. Find comfort in remembering what God did in the past and trust that the Lord will remain faithful in the future despite the bleakness of the present (Psalm 77).

Moses
Called by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and during 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses often prayed on behalf of his people. In harmony with his love for Israel, he speaks for the entire nation in Psalm 90, choosing the pronouns "we" and "we" throughout.

Verse one says, "Lord, you have been our home for all generations." Generations of worshipers after Moses would continue to write psalms thanking God for his faithfulness.

The Sons of Korah
Korah was the leader of a revolt against Moses and Aaron, leaders chosen by God to shepherd Israel. As a member of the tribe of Levi, Korah was privileged to help take care of the tabernacle, the abode of God. But this was not enough for Korah. He was jealous of his cousin Aaron and tried to wrest the priesthood from him.

Moses warned the Israelites to leave the tents of these rebellious men. The fire from heaven consumed Korah and his followers, and the earth engulfed their tents (Numbers 16: 1-35).

The Bible does not tell us the age of Korah's three sons when this tragic event occurred. It seems they were wise enough not to follow their father in his rebellion or too young to be involved (Numbers 26: 8-11). In any case, Korah's descendants took a very different path from that of their father.

Korah's family still served in God's house some 900 years later. 1 Chronicles 9: 19-27 tells us that they were entrusted with the key to the temple and they were responsible for guarding its entrances. Most of their 11 psalms pour out a warm and personal worship of God. In Psalm 84: 1-2 and 10 they write about their experience of service in the house of God:

"How beautiful is your home,
O Lord Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courtyards of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh call upon the living God.

It's better one day in your backyards
than a thousand elsewhere;
I'd rather be a porter in my God's house
than to dwell in the tents of the wicked ”.

What are the Psalms about?
With such a diverse group of authors and 150 poems in the collection, there is a wide range of emotions and truths expressed in the Psalms.

The lament songs express deep pain or a burning anger at sin and suffering and cry out to God for help. (Psalm 22)
The songs of praise exalt God for his mercy and love, power and majesty. (Psalm 8)
Songs of thanksgiving give thanks to God for saving the psalmist, his faithfulness to Israel or his kindness and justice to all people. (Psalm 30)
The songs of trust declare that God can be trusted to bring justice, save the oppressed and care for the needs of his people. (Psalm 62)
If there is a unifying theme in the Book of Psalms, it is praise to God, for His goodness and power, justice, mercy, majesty and love. Almost all the Psalms, even the most angry and painful, offer praise to God with the last verse. By example or by direct instruction, the psalmists encourage the reader to join them in worship.

5 first verses from the Psalms
Psalm 23: 4 “Though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me. "

Psalm 139: 14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and beautifully made; your works are wonderful; I know it very well. "

Psalm 27: 1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I be afraid of? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, who will I be afraid of? "

Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is near to those who are brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Psalm 118: 1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love lasts forever. "

When did David write his psalms and why?
At the beginning of some of David's psalms, notice what was happening in his life when he wrote that song. The examples mentioned below cover much of David's life, both before and after he became king.

Psalm 34: "When he pretended to be mad in front of Abimelek, who drove him away, and went away." By running away from Saul, David had fled into enemy territory and used this trick to escape the king of that country. Although David is still an exile without a home or much hope from a human point of view, this Psalm is a cry of joy, thanking God for hearing his cry and delivering him.

Psalm 51: "When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bath-sheba." This is a song of lament, a sad confession of his sin and a plea for mercy.

Psalm 3: "When he fled from his son Absalom." This song of lament has a different tone because David's suffering is due to someone else's sin, not his own. He tells God how overwhelmed he feels, praises God for his faithfulness and asks Him to stand up and save him from his enemies.

Psalm 30: "For the dedication of the temple." David likely would have written this song towards the end of his life, while preparing the material for the temple that God had told him his son Solomon would build. David wrote this song to thank the Lord who had saved him so many times, to praise him for his faithfulness over the years.

Why should we read the psalms?
Over the centuries, God's people have turned to the Psalms in times of joy and in times of great difficulty. The grandiose and exuberant language of the psalms offers us words with which to praise an unspeakably wonderful God. When we are distracted or worried, the Psalms remind us of the powerful and loving God we serve. When our pain is so great that we cannot pray, the cries of the psalmists put words to our pain.

The Psalms are comforting because they bring our attention back to our loving and faithful Shepherd and to the truth that He is still on the throne - nothing is more powerful than Him or beyond His control. The Psalms reassure us that no matter what we are feeling or experiencing, God is with us and is good.