Begin small and in the middle of the book: Psalm 23, then Psalms 137, 51, and 121, read in Robert Alter's The Book of Psalms (2007), a poet-scholar's translation with a blunt introduction. The Psalter rewards scattered reading before it rewards cover-to-cover reading. Only then read it whole, in order, once.
How Is the Book of Psalms Organized?
One hundred and fifty psalms, gathered into five “books”: Psalms 1–41, 42–72, 73–89, 90–106, and 107–150. Each book closes with a short doxology, a burst of praise, so the collection as a whole is shaped as praise. The Psalter grew over centuries; most scholars date its final shaping to the Persian period, after the return from Babylonian exile.
One numbering warning: Hebrew Bibles and Greek Bibles count the middle psalms differently, off by one across most of the range. Psalm 23 in a Hebrew-based translation is Psalm 22 in the Greek Septuagint and in Catholic Bibles that follow the Vulgate; Psalm 137 becomes 136. Learn the convention of whichever edition you hold, and citation confusion mostly evaporates.
The exile psalm will show you why the numbering matters less than the voice. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1, King James Version, 1611).
What Kinds of Psalms Are There?
More kinds than Sunday use suggests: laments — the largest single group — hymns of praise, individual and communal thanksgivings, royal psalms, wisdom psalms, creation psalms, and the Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120–134) that pilgrims sang, by tradition, going up to Jerusalem. The cursing psalms sit in plain view and are meant to unsettle.
The lament has an anatomy, and knowing it changes your reading: an address to God, a complaint that is specific and often angry, a petition, and then — not always, but usually — a turn toward trust. The argument is the form. These are poems that assume God can be yelled at, which is a theological position as much as a literary one, and the tradition kept them anyway.
Which Psalms Should a Beginner Read First?
Six, in this order, each chosen for a different reason; read each one twice before moving to the next.
- Psalm 23. The shepherd psalm, funeral-famous to the point of invisibility. Read it as a poem about provision, and notice where it stops talking about the shepherd and starts addressing him.
- Psalm 137. Exile and rage, ending in a curse. The honest one.
- Psalm 51. Confession — the “Miserere” — carrying a superscription that ties it to David and Bathsheba.
- Psalm 22. A lament that turns: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1, King James Version). Christians will hear Good Friday; the poem's own logic is abandonment argued out loud.
- Psalm 104. Creation praised at length and in detail, with animals fed, satisfied, and afraid when God hides his face.
- Psalm 121. An eight-verse Song of Ascent, short enough to memorize on a walk.
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Which Translation of the Psalms Is Best?
Three defensible answers: the King James Version (1611) for a music nothing since has matched; the New Revised Standard Version (1989) for accuracy and its long institutional reach; and The Book of Psalms, trans. Robert Alter, 2007, for the Hebrew's concrete vigor — its hyperbole, wordplay, and abruptness kept rather than smoothed.
Alter's case, argued in his introduction, is that the King James psalms are already an interpretation: the Hebrew poets wrote in jump-cuts. Whether or not you accept every rendering, that introduction is one of the best short primers on biblical poetry in English. Anglicans, meanwhile, still pray Miles Coverdale's sixteenth-century psalter in the Book of Common Prayer — less accurate than any of the three, and impossible to replace in its own liturgy.
How Do You Read the Angry Psalms Honestly?
By not editing them. Psalms 58 and 109, and the last lines of 137, are curses — the wounded saying extreme things to the one they believe can bear it. Readers who doubt are in good company: the laments keep company with absence. A tradition that includes these poems has already conceded that the argument could be had.
The practical advice is to read the cursing aloud, once, in full, and then decide what you think the tradition was doing when it canonized its own protests. Most readers find the honest anger easier to live with than the prettier devotions, and the Psalter seems to have known this would be so.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are the psalms numbered differently in different Bibles?
Hebrew-based and Greek-based numbering diverge by one across most of the middle of the book, a legacy of the Septuagint. Psalm 23 in most Protestant and Jewish editions is Psalm 22 in Greek-based traditions; scholarly citation now often gives both.
Did David write the psalms?
Some; the superscriptions attribute many to him and to others, but the collection grew over centuries and is mostly anonymous. What “of David” means — authorship, dedication, collection — is itself debated.
What is a lament psalm?
A poem of protest addressed to God: complaint, petition, and often a turn to trust. Roughly a third of the Psalter qualifies, which tells you the tradition treated protest as prayer.
How long does it take to read all 150 psalms?
Aloud, an ordinary morning. Many monastic houses chant the whole Psalter across a month, every month, which is one way to learn what the book is for.