PSALMS (Book)
Collection of religious poems, a large number of which were sung in the Temple. The Israelites called them “Hymns of Praise.”
The expression “book of Psalms” (cf. Luke 20:42) comes from the Greek translation. There are seventy-three psalms whose titles Heb. They formally attribute them to David.
Hence comes the general designation of “Psalms of David” (cf. Heb. 4:7).
There are 150 psalms divided into five books, following, it is believed, the model of the Pentateuch.
The Hebrew text marks with rubrics this very ancient division, indicated in the LXX. The comparison of 1 Chron. 16:34-36 with Ps. 106:47, 48 does not allow us to reach Delitzsch’s conclusion that the division into five books already existed during the writing of Chronicles, because this passage from Ps. 106 could proceed from 1 Chr. 16:34-36.
The five divisions begin in Ps. 1, 42, 73, 90, and 107. Each division ends with a doxology.