The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Psalms S 361

are similar poems in other books of the Bible. Compare, for example, Psalm 18 with 2 Samuel 22. There is also an ancient collection of psalms known as the Psalms of S OLOMON . Psalms are not consid ered poetry because they rhyme. Instead, they put together two or occasionally three short statements in a single verse. Often the statements parallel one another. For example, Psalm 145 begins: I will extol you, my G OD and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever. Scholars have tried to group psalms according to their content, but they have come up with differ ent groupings. It may be helpful to say that Psalms includes, among other kinds of poems, hymns of praise, laments, songs of thanksgiving, psalms that recount events from the past, and songs that reflect on the nature of God. The book of Psalms seems to name certain melodies that should be used in the singing of specific psalms. For example, apparently Psalm 56 was to be sung to the tune of “The Dove on Far-Off Terebinths.” It also contains other terms whose meaning has been forgotten but that may be directions for singing. One example is the word selah, which appears frequently in Psalms. Some people speculate that it marks spots for musical interludes. No one knows when the Psalms were first collected. Guesses range from the 400s to the early first century B . C . E . The D EAD S EA S CROLLS — roughly from the time of Jesus—include many scrolls containing psalms. These scrolls show that people at the time still disagreed on the exact number of poems to include in the book. In addition, although the scrolls agree on which psalms belong in Books 1 and 2 (Psalms 1–72), they disagree about which psalms belong in the last three books. But although the text of Psalms may not have been entirely fixed, people at the time still seemed to recognize the book of Psalms as having special status. For example, Jesus refers to the T ORAH , the P ROPHETS , and Psalms (Luke 24.44).

threatened. The population of the country was becoming more plural religiously, and its pub lic culture was becoming increasingly secular. These changes sparked a large response from conservative, evangelical Protestants. They sought to recall the United States to its moral roots. In doing so, they were active in American politics from the local to the national level. In effect, many called for a return to the situation in which Protestantism was the “established” or official religion of the United States in fact, if not in law. Further reading: Sydney E. Ahlstrom, ed., Theology in America: The Major Protestant Voices from Puritanism to Neo-Orthodoxy (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003); Randall Balmer and Lauren F. Winner, Protestantism in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000); Douglas Jacobsen and William Vance Trollinger Jr., ed., Re forming the Center: American Protestantism, 1900 to the Present (Grand Rapids, Mich.: W. B. Eerdmans, 1998); Mark A. Noll, Protestants in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). Psalms A book of the B IBLE that contains ancient Hebrew poems or hymns; more broadly, the kind of hymns or poems that this book contains. Psalms is the first book in the part of the Hebrew Bible known as Ketuvim, “writings.” In Hebrew it is called Tehillim, “Praises.” It contains 150 psalms, divided into five groups called “books.” Some of the psalms are among the best-known parts of the Bible. By the time of J ESUS it was already customary to refer to King D AVID as the author of the book of Psalms. In actuality, however, the psalms in this book seem to have many different authors. Psalms itself refers to different groups of PRIESTS as the authors of some psalms. The book of Psalms does not contain the only psalms that were written in ancient Israel. There THE COMPOSITION AND CONTENT OF PSALMS