The Psalter at a Glance

The Book of Psalms numbers 150 psalms. It consists of five collections of liturgical poems, divided as indicated below.^a Each of the first four sections concludes with a doxology or formulaic expression of praise to God. For example, the first section ends with this typical doxology:

“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.” (Psalm 41:14)

The last section of the Psalter has no closing doxology of its own, probably because the final psalm in that section, Psalm 150, was regarded as a climactic doxology for the entire collection as well as for the final section.

The rabbis saw a parallel between the five books of Moses and the five sections of the Psalter. In a Midrash^b to Psalms, it is said that “Moses gave the five books of the Torah (the Pentateuch) to Israel, and David gave the five books of the Psalms to Israel.”

The first three sections of psalms seem to have existed originally as independent collections. The break between the fourth and fifth section, however, is artificial, with the doxology after the fourth section inserted somewhat arbitrarily into the sequence in order to make five books. Moreover, the first three sections appear to be considerably older than the final two sections.