History Literature / BookOfPsalms

* ToTheTuneOf: Many of the psalms have introductory lines indicating that they were possibly set to preexisting music; the titles "Do Not Destroy", "The Doe in the Morning", "Upon Lilies" and others each appear several times. Unfortunately, what exactly those tunes would have sounded like is lost to history.[[note]]The wording of the instructions is also a bit ambiguous, leading some scholars to believe they were more performance instructions or modes than specific melodies.[[/notes]]

The Book of Psalms is the first book of the Ketuvim ("Writings"), the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and thus a book of the Christian Old Testament. It is a rich collection of poems, hymns, and prayers that express the religious feelings of the Jews throughout many periods of history. With each of its 150 poems (151 in Eastern Christianity) having its own chapter, it has more chapters than any other book of the [[Literature/TheBible Bible]].

The Book of Psalms is a rich collection of poems, hymns, and prayers that express the religious feelings of the Jews throughout many periods of history. With each of its 150 poems (151 in Eastern Christianity) having its own chapter, it has more chapters than any other book of the [[Literature/TheBible Bible]].

* WeddingDay: Psalm 45 celebrates the marriage of the king [[AltarDiplomacy to a princess of Tyre]].

Wartburg Project. Holy Bible (EHV): Evangelical Heritage Version (Kindle Locations 29076-29080). Northwestern Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: Psalm 90:10 says that our years of living are numbered:

* BrownNote: From Psalm 29:4-9:
-->''The voice of the Lord is powerful;''
-->''the voice of the Lord is majestic.''
-->''The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;''
-->''the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.''
-->''He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,''
-->''Sirion like a young wild ox.''
-->''The voice of the Lord strikes''
-->''with flashes of lightning.''
-->''The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;''
-->''the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.''
-->''The voice of the Lord twists the oaks''
-->''and strips the forests bare.''
-->''And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”'' (NIV 2011 edition)

* KarmaHoudini: The writer of Psalm 73 wondered how the wicked could go to their death in peace and without problems in their lives while he himself is constantly afflicted, until God made him understand that He had set them on slippery slopes to perish.

* MaliciousSlander: David in Psalm 101:5 sings "Him who slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy."

* ConflictingLoyalty: "I hate people with divided loyalties, but I love your law." (Psalm 119:13, NET Bible)

----

-->''"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."''

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Many of the religious traditions that use the Psalms in worship leave the [[PrayerOfMalice Imprecatory Psalms]] out of regular rotation, reasoning (not unfairly) that the ValuesDissonance of the psalmist asking God to smite his enemies requires more contextualizing than a face-value congregational reading would allow.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: According to Christians, Psalm 22 foretells the crucifixion of Christ. Christ while suffering on the cross cries out the opening line, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It then foretells how the crowds mocked him while he was on the cross and that Roman soldiers would cast lots for his garments.

* MoodWhiplash: Most of Psalm 137 is a beautiful, haunting lament of the loss of Jerusalem and the tragedy of the Hebrews made captive in Babylon. Then the second-to-last verse promises a bloody and terrible revenge upon the Babylonians, before the last verse then promises to ''[[WouldHurtAChild brutally kill all of their children by smashing them against rocks]]''. Unsurprisingly, most of the many musical adaptations of this psalm omit the last line.