By Clement Harrold

July 24, 2025

The word “Psalm” comes from the Greek word for a “song” (psalmos), which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word for a song or melody. In Jewish tradition, however, the book of Psalms is known simply as the “Praises.” Here we’ll explore ten different facets of this extraordinary collection of hymns and prayers.

1) The Psalms are split into five books. In their book A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, Scripture scholars John Bergsma and Brant Pitre offer the following breakdown:

• Book 1: Introduction and Laments of David (Ps 1-41)
• Book 2: The Rise of the Davidic Kingdom (Ps 42-72)
• Book 3: Fall of the Davidic Kingdom (Ps 73-89)
• Book 4: Reflections on the Fall of the Kingdom and Exile (Ps 90-106)
• Book 5: Rejoicing and Restoration of the Temple (Ps 107-150)

2) The Psalms have multiple authors. While King David wrote the largest number of psalms, many were written by other authors such as King Solomon, a figure named Asaph, or a group known as the Sons of Korah. Even Moses is credited with having written one of the Psalms (Psalm 90).

3) The Psalms frequently use parallelisms. The Psalms are works of Hebrew poetry, but they don’t rhyme in the way that English poetry does. The metrical patterns in the Psalms are also unclear to modern scholars. But what we do find repeatedly in the Psalms is the literary technique of parallelism. Very frequently the Psalms are organized so that two or more verses are supposed to be read either as complements or as contrasts.

4) There are different categories of Psalms. Sub-genres within the book of Psalms include Psalms of Lament, Thanksgiving (or todah) Psalms, Royal Psalms, and Messianic Psalms. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Whether hymns or prayers of lamentation or thanksgiving, whether individual or communal, whether royal chants, songs of pilgrimage or wisdom meditations, the Psalms are a mirror of God’s marvelous deeds in the history of his people, as well as reflections of the human experiences of the Psalmist” (2588).

5) The Psalms are the most important book in the Old Testament. At the very least, there’s a good case to be made for this! Of all the Old Testament books, the Psalms are the most quoted in the New Testament, and the most commonly used in the Church’s lectionary. In the introduction to his commentary on the Psalms, St. Thomas Aquinas made the remarkable claim that “this book has the general material of theology as a whole.”

6) The Psalms are the prayerbook of the Jewish people . . . and of the Church. The Catechism describes the Psalms as “the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament” (2585). These songs of praise which were so important to Old Testament Israel continue to be prayed every hour of every day by the universal Church both in the readings at Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours. As the Catechism affirms, “Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time” (2597)

7) The Psalms are full of prophecy. One of the most amazing aspects of the Psalms is the way they continuously point forward to Christ and His Church. Perhaps the most famous example of this is in Psalm 22, which describes the Davidic figure being stripped of his garments and pierced through his hands and feet. On the Cross, Jesus explicitly identifies with this Psalm when He makes its opening words His own: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). Although it begins in desolation, the Psalm goes on to prophesy a time of future fulfillment when “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord” (Ps 22:27).
 

8) The Psalms are always relevant. Despite being written thousands of years ago, the Psalms remain perennially relevant to the people of God. This is partly because so much of the imagery in the Psalms is prophetic: King David points forward to Christ; Jerusalem points forward to the Church; Zion points forward to heaven; the Ark of the Covenant points forward to Mary; and so forth. But it’s also because the Psalms so powerfully capture the depth and breadth of human experience. This was a point made by St. Athanasius in a letter to a friend:

And, among all the books, the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with others, it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed, and seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given.

9) The Psalms unite us in prayer. The Catechism offers the important observation that the prayer of the Psalms “is inseparably personal and communal; it concerns both those who are praying and all men” (2586). When we pray the Psalms, we aren’t just praying for ourselves. Rather, we are united with the whole body of believers across time (with all the Christians and Jews who have gone before us who prayed these same words) and space (with all the Christians around the world who are praying the Psalms at this very moment).

This means that even when the Psalm we’re reciting doesn’t seem to apply to our particular circumstances or situation—for example, I find myself praying a Psalm of Lament, but I actually feel very happy in this moment—the beautiful reality is that we are praying with and for the whole Body of Christ. Even if the Psalm I’m reciting doesn’t describe my current emotional state, it does apply to somebody else in Christ’s Body, and I get the privilege of uniting my prayer to theirs.

10) Christ Himself speaks through the Psalms. The Catechism highlights the fact that Jesus, as a devout Jew, prayed with the Psalms. As John Bergsma and Brant Pitre point out, this makes the Psalms a totally unique form of prayer, since they are the only prayers we possess which were inspired by the Holy Spirit and prayed by Jesus Himself during His time on earth. Reflecting on this mystery, St. Augustine asked how Jesus, who is sinless and divine, could still have prayed the parts of the Psalms which express fear, or sorrow for sin, or other negative emotions. Augustine’s solution was simple: Christ identifies with the words of the Psalmist in order to pray on our behalf. John Cavadini explains:

This means that now, whenever we invoke God out of fear, at the very same moment that we are telling God we are afraid, we are speaking Christ’s words. In speaking his words, we know we are having the same experience he was having. But in speaking Christ's words, we are also speaking not only our fear, but also his love, for Christ’s fear is a function of his love for us in the first place. . . . This is the “wonderful exchange”! Christ takes on our fear, and we get Christ’s love!

By self-identifying with our frail humanity, Christ took on our humble words so that we might in turn identify with the Word who became flesh for our sake.

Further Reading

John Bergsma, Psalm Basics for Catholics: Seeing Salvation History in a New Way (Ave Maria Press, 2018)

John Bergsma and Brant Pitre, A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament (Ignatius Press, 2018)

About Clement Harrold

Clement Harrold earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2024, and his bachelor’s from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021. His writings have appeared in First Things, Church Life Journal, Crisis Magazine, and the Washington Examiner.