Our English word s “psalm“ and “psalter“ come from the Greek psalterion, a stringed instrument (similar to a dulcimer but played by plucking the strings rather than by striking with padded hammers) which was used to accompany choirs. In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Psalms is called Tehillim (hymns) and it has been referred to as “the hymn book of the Second Temple“ because its contents were collected for liturgical use in the period after the return of the Jews from exile in Babylon.
This compilation, a slow process, was completed about the third century B.C. First, individual psalms were put together into three main groups. Then these “hymn books` were combined into an official psalter of 150 psalms. The last step was the division of the Psalter I to five books by the insertion of doxologies at the end of each, e.g., at the end of Psalm 41: “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from all eternity and forever! Amen. Amen.“
The numbering from Psalm 19 to 148 varies in different translations of the Bible, depending on whether the Hebrew or Greek Septuagint is followed. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate join Psalms 9 and 10 and also Psalms 114 and 115; both divide Psalms 116 and 147 into two. The enumeration we use here is that of the Jerusalem Bible which follows the Hebrew.
The first collection, Psalms 3-41, is known as the Davidic Psalter because the psalms in it bear the inscription “Of David.“ Although of different types, all have a strong personal tone, as have Psalms 51-70 which are also inscribed “Of David.“ The second collection, Psalms 42-89, is known as the Elhoistic Psalter because at some point the word Yahweh (Lord) was changed to Eloihim (God) almost everywhere it occurred. The psalms, variously inscribed and including hymns, didactic poems, and laments, are less personal than the Davidic. The Anonymous Psalter, the third and largest group, comprises Psalms 90-150 and includes almost all types.
Psalms are of several types: hymns or public praise of God to be sung during religious ceremonies; laments, either public for use on fast days and during times of danger such as famine and defeat in battle or private use of individuals in trouble; thanksgiving, which proclaim God’s goodness and glory but differ from hymns in that they narrate the sufferer’s distress, his appeal for assistance, and God’s answer; psalms of confidence which are model expressions of the virtue of hope and trust in God; and “wisdom” psalms which treat the ethical themes of “wisdom” literature.
In addition, Psalms 120-134, all short and devout in tone, are known as the “Song of Ascent” or the “Pilgrim Psalms.” They are so called because some scholars think that they were chanted by Levites stationed on the fifteen steps in the Temple leading from the Court of Women to the Court of Men and others think that they were marching songs used in the ascent to Jerusalem for the great feasts of the Old Law. One of this group, Psalm 122, was recited by Pope Paul VI on January 4, 1964, upon his arrival at the Damascus Gate to Jerusalem.
Because the psalms were also the prayers of the Old Testament, we know that they were recited by Our Lord and by Our Lady, the Apostles and the first Christians. Forty percent of the quotations from the Old Testament in the New are from them. Christ’s ministry began with Psalm 2:7 and He died with Psalm 22 on His lips. This Psalm plumbs the depths of human despair (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? …tribulation is near, «I have no one to help me!“) but His hearers also knew it as a tremendous hymn of hope.
Just as they did in the liturgy of the Temple, the psalms have always played an important part in the liturgy of the Church to this day.