50 Fun Facts About Psalms

How many psalms are in the Book of Psalms in Jewish and Western Christian Bibles?

Eastern churches keep a few more; the Septuagint adds one and some Syriac Bibles run to 155.

The Book of Psalms is divided into how many "books" or sections?

Each section ends with a doxology; editors probably copied the five-fold division of the Torah.

Which famous line opens Psalm 23 in the King James Version?

The psalm is widely read at funerals and gave English the phrases "valley of the shadow of death" and "my cup runneth over".

Which psalm, at 176 verses, is the longest chapter in the entire Bible?

It is an acrostic: one stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with every verse in a stanza starting with that letter.

Which two-verse psalm is the shortest chapter in the Bible?

It is so short that St Benedict added a fifth psalm whenever it was used at Vespers.

What does the Hebrew title of the book, Tehillim, mean?

The English word "psalm" comes instead from the Greek psalmoi, meaning instrumental music.

Which figure is named in the superscriptions of the most psalms, 73 in all?

Thirteen of those headings tie the psalm to a specific episode in the king's life.

Which psalm is the only one attributed to Moses in its heading?

Its line about a lifespan of "threescore years and ten" is thought to have inspired the opening of the Gettysburg Address.

Psalm 51, a confession written after the Bathsheba affair, is known by which Latin name?

The name is its first word in Latin; the early Church recited it at the close of daily morning service.

What mysterious Hebrew word appears 71 times in the Psalms, possibly marking a pause?

Its meaning was already lost to ancient commentators; it also turns up three times in Habakkuk.

Which psalm opens with the cry "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me"?

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark record Jesus crying out its first verse from the cross.

In Psalm 137, the exiles hang which instruments on the trees and refuse to sing?

Asked to sing the Lord's song in a strange land, they will not; the psalm ends with a notoriously violent curse.

Which psalm does the devil quote to Jesus during the temptation in the wilderness?

Verses 11 and 12, about angels bearing you up, are quoted in Matthew 4 and Luke 4; it is known as a psalm of protection.

Martin Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" is based on which psalm?

It opens "God is our refuge and strength" and is sometimes called "Luther's Psalm".

How does the final psalm of the book urge the congregation to praise God?

It names nine kinds of instruments and has been nicknamed "the musicians' psalm".

Which psalm begins "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands"?

Known as the Jubilate from its Latin opening, it is part of daily Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer.

Psalm 1 opens with which words in the King James Version?

Its Latin incipit, Beatus vir, was often painted as a huge decorated initial in medieval psalters.

In the Bible's longest psalm, how many verses begin with each successive Hebrew letter?

The number of Hebrew letters times eight verses gives the psalm its 176 verses.

Which British politician recited the whole longest psalm walking home from Parliament?

The walk took him through Hyde Park, which is roughly what it takes to get through 176 verses.

The sons of which man are credited with eleven psalms in the superscriptions?

The family name also heads several psalms in the second book of the Psalter.

Whose setting of Psalm 51 did a teenage Mozart famously write out from memory?

The story comes from a single letter by Mozart's father, and some scholars doubt it.

Which group had a 1978 hit with "Rivers of Babylon", adapted from Psalm 137?

The song was written by Jamaican reggae group The Melodians in 1970 and appeared in The Harder They Come.

Psalm 137 inspired "Va, pensiero", the slaves' chorus from which Verdi opera?

The opera tells the story of the Babylonian exile, which is exactly what the psalm laments.

Why do Catholic and Protestant Bibles often number the same psalm one apart?

Psalms 9 and 10 in Hebrew numbering are a single psalm in the Greek Septuagint, shifting most later numbers.

Which extra psalm from the Septuagint also turned up in Hebrew among the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Some Syriac Bibles go further and include Psalms 152 to 155.

Which scholar's form criticism sorted the psalms into types such as hymns and laments?

He grouped psalms by genre rather than by their place in the book, and added minor types like wisdom and pilgrimage psalms.

What is the most common type of psalm according to Gunkel's classification?

They usually open by calling on God, pour out the complaint, and end on a note of confidence.

Psalms 120 to 134 form a group of fifteen known by what name?

They were likely sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem, or by Levites on the Temple steps.

How many psalms are traditionally counted as the Penitential Psalms?

They are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143 in Hebrew numbering; Cassiodorus named the set in the 6th century.

Which psalm begins "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills"?

It is structured as a dialogue, with the opening question answered, perhaps by a priest in the Temple.

Which psalm opens "The heavens declare the glory of God"?

Haydn used it for a movement of The Creation, and Bach opened a cantata with its first line.

Which psalm, opening "O Lord, thou hast searched me", affirms God's omnipresence?

Jewish tradition links it to Adam; verse 16 contains the only biblical use of the root behind the word "golem".

Psalm 118's line about the stone the builders rejected becoming what is quoted by Jesus?

The same psalm supplies "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord", shouted at the triumphal entry.

Psalms 113 to 118, recited on Jewish festivals, are known collectively as what?

Psalm 118 is the last of the six; the group is sometimes called the Egyptian Hallel.

Psalm 110, "The Lord said unto my Lord", is best known in music by which Latin title?

Handel composed his setting in 1707 and Vivaldi set the text three times; it is a staple of Vespers.

Psalm 8 tells the chief musician to perform on the "gittith". What may that word refer to?

The Hebrew root also means winepress, suggesting these were joyful psalms; Goliath came from Gath.

Which psalm, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks", opens Book Two of the Psalter?

Book Two is nicknamed the Elohistic Psalter because it mostly calls God "Elohim" rather than using the divine name.

What main poetic device do the Psalms use, pairing lines that restate or contrast?

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" followed by a near-restatement is the classic example.

In the Orthodox Church, the Psalter is divided into 20 sections called what?

Each is split into three "stases", and the whole Psalter is read every week, twice weekly during Great Lent.

What distinction does the Bay Psalm Book of 1640 hold?

It was a collection of metrical psalm settings for congregational singing, printed in Massachusetts.

In Islam, which scripture was revealed to Dawud and corresponds to the Psalms?

Muslims believe each of the great messengers was sent with a scripture: Moses the Tawrat, Jesus the Injil.

Which composer's 1965 Chichester Psalms set the psalms in Hebrew?

The first movement is built largely on the Jubilate text; the work was commissioned for an English cathedral festival.

Igor Stravinsky's 1930 Symphony of Psalms sets Psalms 38, 39 and which final psalm?

The last movement's Latin text is the same "Laudate Dominum" that closes the whole Psalter.

Early Church candidates for which office had to recite the whole Psalter by heart?

Many had memorized it during years as monks; laypeople later used cords of one bead per psalm to pray the Psalter.

Psalm 145, read three times daily in Jewish prayer, is commonly known by what name?

"Ashrei" is actually the first word of two verses added to the front of the psalm.

The psalm headings "of Asaph" were sung by his descendants using which instruments?

The practice follows 1 Chronicles 16:5; Asaph is named in twelve psalm superscriptions.

Which church's Book of Common Prayer uses Psalm 82 as a funeral recitation?

Psalm 23, now the funeral psalm in English-speaking countries, was not in the Episcopal prayer book for burials until 1928.

What does the heading term "maskil", given to thirteen psalms, mean?

Rashi linked the related term michtam, "gold", to ideas a person should carry at all times.

Which two near-identical psalms does Paul quote in Romans 3 on original sin?

Scholars think the pair are the same poem that crept into the Psalter twice.

Which Hebrew word opens and closes each of the final psalms of the Psalter, 146 onward?

Each book of the Psalter ends with a doxology; the last psalm is the grand one that closes the whole collection.