The Book of Psalms so beautifully encompasses the human experience on earth through song, poetry, and prayer. From psalms of praise, joy, and thanksgiving to psalms of lament, desperation, and longing, there truly is a psalm for every day and each season of our lives.

In Hallow’s new Summer with the Psalms prayer challenge, you’ll dive deep into all 150 psalms in 30 days alongside Bishop Robert Barron from Word on Fire. Join the challenge below, and continue reading to learn more about the Book of Psalms and how you can pray with the psalms, allowing the same words Jesus prayed with, and millions of Christians throughout history, to move through you in prayer.

Join: Summer with the Psalms

Table of Contents

Background: Authors and Origin of the Psalms
- Who wrote the Psalms?
- Types of Psalms
Why pray with the Psalms?
When to pray with the Psalms?
How to pray with Psalms
Related reading

Indeed the Psalms teach how to pray. In them, the word of God becomes a word of prayer — and they are the words of the inspired Psalmist — which also becomes the word of the person who prays the Psalms.
Pope Benedict XVI

Background: Authors and Themes of the Psalms

Who wrote the Psalms?

The Book of Psalms was written by a variety of authors, known and unknown, and composed and compiled over many centuries. In total, there are 150 psalms in this incredible work of Scripture, often referred to as “The Psalter.”

Almost half of the Psalms are attributed to David, the anointed King of Israel whose line Jesus descended from – 73 of the total 150. Some Dead Sea Scroll scholars believe David composed 3,600 psalms as noted in the ancient text, though these writings are lost or perhaps undiscovered perhaps. Evidently, they’re not included in the modern Bible.

The USCCB reports that “there is no sure way of dating any Psalm,” but all were written before 165 B.C., well over a century before the birth of Christ. Some of the Psalms were written before the exile of the Jews to Babylon in 597 B.C. (“pre-exilic”), while others were written after the Babylonian captivity, which ended in 538 B.C. (“post-exilic).

Psalm 90 – “Lord, you have been our refuge through all generations” – is attributed to Moses, who lived around 1400 B.C. This attribution of the famous psalm has led historians to believe it is the oldest.

We also know that Asaph, Korah, Solomon, Ethan, and Heman were psalmists in addition to David and Moses.

The Types of Psalms

While the Book of Psalms encompasses the infinitude of emotions which we hold in our hearts, theologians have identified many “types” among the 150 psalms in the Bible. Among the many types, scholars also often distinguish between communal and individual psalms as well.

“… the whole complexity of human life is distilled in the complexity of the different literary forms of the various Psalms: hymns, laments, individual entreaties and collective supplications, hymns of thanksgiving, penitential psalms, sapiential psalms and the other genres that are to be found in these poetic compositions.”
Pope Benedict XVI

Not all scholars of the Psalter agree on a set list or nomenclature of the psalm types, though generally, we see 7 repeating types in researching the Psalms:

Hymn: psalm-songs of praise (ex. Psalm 8)
Thanksgiving: psalms of gratitude for God’s assistance, mercy, or goodness (ex. Psalm 30)
Lament: psalm expressing struggle or distress of some kind, asking God for help (ex. Psalm 44)
Praise: psalms of exaltation (ex. Psalm 145)
Royal: psalms that address a pre-exilic Israelite king, often interpreted messianically (ex. Psalm 18)
Divine enthronement: psalms that affirm God is the true King (ex. Psalm 93)
Wisdom: psalms that teach us to live morally and toward an eternal life with God (ex. Psalm 37)

Why pray with the Psalms?

The Book of Psalms is arguably the most read and prayed book of the Bible. Beyond this, here are three reasons why we pray with the Psalms:

To pray with the same words that Jesus did.

It’s so powerful to know that Jesus prayed with the Psalms. One of His last words before dying on the cross comes from Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Psalm 22:2

The Psalms teach us how to pray.

And they have for centuries. Taking on the psalmist’s words, we pray alongside many other Christians seeking to know and love God better. As we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church,

God tirelessly calls each person to this mysterious encounter with Himself. Prayer unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation as a reciprocal call between God and man.”
CCC 2591

Find solace in the shared human experience.

Encompassing the wide range of human emotions, the Psalms help us to pray through the difficulties and the joys of life as so many others have before us and will do after us. While we do not all experience the same hills and valleys of life, it can be so comforting to know that our hearts hold the same longings as others.

In the Psalms are expressed and interwoven with joy and suffering, the longing for God and the perception of our own unworthiness, happiness and the feeling of abandonment, trust in God and sorrowful loneliness, fullness of life and fear of death. The whole reality of the believer converges in these prayers. […] Since the Psalms are prayers they are expressions of the heart and of faith with which everyone can identify and in which that experience of special closeness to God — to which every human being is called — is communicated.
Pope Benedict XVI

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When to pray with the Psalms?

Because of the Psalms’ inherent thematic variety, you really can pray with them at any time. Many pray with the Psalms at the beginning of the day or right before bed. We also pray with the psalms during Mass with the Responsorial Psalm, read or sung between the first and second readings.