Psalms
About this date: Dates are broad scholarly estimates of composition or final editing, not dates of the events narrated. Traditional attributions and scholarly assessments can differ.
Psalms gathers lament, praise, thanksgiving, royal prayer, wisdom, and pilgrimage songs. Its many voices teach readers to bring protest and trust to God; the collection's five-book shape and recurring praise do not erase the unresolved cries within it.
Historical context
The psalms come from multiple settings and periods. Superscriptions, Davidic attribution, the dating of individual poems, and the collection's final arrangement are distinct questions.
Key points
- Lament is speech addressed to God, not necessarily a failure of faith.
- A royal psalm's first setting and a Christian messianic interpretation can be studied without collapsing them.
- Hebrew and Greek psalm numbers often differ; this guide uses the registry's standard English/Hebrew references.
Scripture
- Psalm 22:1-31 — Read the movement from abandonment toward public praise before considering its use in the passion narratives.
- Psalm 51:1-19 — Confession and the plea for a clean heart culminate in a broken and contrite spirit.
- Psalm 110:1-7 — Royal and priestly language becomes central to several New Testament arguments.
- Hebrews 1:5-14 — Hebrews gathers several psalms in an argument about the Son; inspect each quotation's earlier setting.
Primary sources
First Clement 18 quotes David's prayer:
First Clement quotes the penitential psalm as an example of David's humility. Its Greek numbering differs from the Psalm 51 reference used here.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Passage context and translation
The letter quotes the penitential psalm to present David as an example of humility. Psalm 51 in the common English/Hebrew numbering is numbered 50 in Greek editions. The index reference uses the former, not an automatic numbering crosswalk.
Sources and further reading
- Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles: canonical books and Apocrypha
- Catholic Catechism §120: canon and book list
- First Clement 18: penitential prayer and humility
- Orthodox Church in America: canon of Scripture
- Orthodox Church in America: Old Testament historical books
- Psalms: complete public-domain WEB text
- USCCB Bible introductions: historical and literary notes