Writings
תְּהִלִּים
Psalms
A hundred and fifty poems, and more complaint in them than the title admits.
Hebrew nameTehillim, meaning praisesChapters150Position1 of 11 in Writings
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What is in it
The Hebrew name means praises, but a large share of the collection is complaint: poems that accuse, demand, and ask how long. They sit in the book unresolved, next to the hymns, without apology.
It divides into five sections, each closing with a blessing, and it works as a book to live inside rather than to read straight through.
If you read one chapter
Psalm 13
Six verses that go from how long wilt thou forget me to I will sing, with nothing in between to explain the turn.
Passages worth knowing
- Psalm 1The doorway: two ways to live.
- Psalm 22My God, why hast thou forsaken me.
- Psalm 23The best known six verses in the book.
- Psalm 88The one that ends in darkness, with no turn at all.
- Psalm 137By the rivers of Babylon, including the ending most people never quote.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Psalm 88 never resolves. Why keep a poem with no comfort in a book of praises?
- 02
Many psalms swing from despair to trust in a single line. What is that turn doing?