What are the Psalms (Zabur)?
The Psalms are a collection of 150 poems of prayer and song in the Old Testament; in Turkish and in Islamic tradition the book is known as the "Zebur" (Zabur). A large portion is attributed to King David, while the headings also mention other names such as Asaph, the sons of…
The Psalms are a collection of 150 poems of prayer and song in the Old Testament; in Turkish and in Islamic tradition the book is known as the "Zebur" (Zabur). A large portion is attributed to King David, while the headings also mention other names such as Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and Moses. The Psalms were not written at one time; they took shape over centuries and were gathered as songs used in temple worship. Their content spans a wide range: psalms of praise and thanksgiving, laments crying out in distress, psalms of repentance, royal psalms and wisdom poems. Among the best known, Psalm 23 is a poem of trust that pictures God as a shepherd, while Psalm 1 opens the collection by contrasting two ways of life. What makes the Psalms distinctive is how they carry the full range of human emotion — joy, fear, anger, regret, hope — into the language of prayer, which is why they have been read in both personal and communal worship for centuries. The Psalms are among the most quoted books in the New Testament; Luke's Gospel records Jesus speaking of what was written "in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me." The hallmark of Hebrew poetry is not rhyme but parallelism: a thought stated in one line is deepened in the next with different words, a structure that largely survives translation. The whole book can be read chapter by chapter on this site, and the "30 Days in the Psalms" reading plan offers an introductory route through the most-read psalms.