Friday, June 22, 2018

What does "Psalms" Mean?

Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him,
talk ye of all his wondrous works.
1 Chronicles 16:9

PSALM 5 put to music by the Maranatha Singers
(click on Link)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/vidwjrIJqNA?list=PLT70zxsi10M-5tREKsVMI9eLueLA-Rs9h
"The English title comes for the Septuagint, which entitled the book Psalmoi, meaning “Sacred Songs Sung to Musical accompaniment”. The Hebrew title for the book is tehilim, meaning “praises”.

The entire collection of Psalms was entitled “Praises” in the Hebrew text, and later, rabbis often designated it “The Book of Praises”. The Septuagint (LXX; the Greek translation of the Old Testament), labeled it “Psalms”.
The Greek verb from which the noun “psalms” comes basically denotes the “plucking or twanging of strings”, so that an association with musical accompaniment is implied. The English title derives from the Greek term and its background. The Psalms constituted Israel’s ancient, God-breathed,  “hymn book”, which defined the proper spirit and content of worship.


The superscriptions (part of the Hebrew text before the first version English), name six authors.

Moses, 1 Psalm (Psalm 90);
David, 73 Psalms;
Asaph, 3 Psalms (Psalms 50, 73-83);
Solomon, 2 Psalms (Psalms 72, 127);
Heman, 1 Psalm (Psalm 88);
Ethan, 1 Psalm (Psalm 89).

In addition to these authors, 10 psalms are assigned to “The Sons of Korah”, (Psalms 42, 44-49, 84, 85, 87), though they were most likely performers rather that authors. (See the superscription in Psalm 88). Sixty-one psalms are anonymous."

BooksOfTheBible