The Book of Psalms, which is generally believed to be the most widely read and the most highly treasured of all the books in the Old Testament, is a collection of poems, hymns, and prayers that express the religious feelings of Jews throughout the various periods of their national history. The intrinsic beauty of the poems and the sentiments that they convey have contributed toward their appreciation. Especially adapted for use in worship services, the psalms have been used in Christian churches, as well as in Jewish temples and synagogues. The Book of Psalms has a special significance for understanding the religious life of ancient Israel. The prophets and the sages provide some insight concerning what the Hebrews thought, but the psalms give the clearest indication of what the Hebrews felt. Here, we find a revelation of the hopes, the joys, the sorrows, the loyalties, the doubts, and the aspirations of the human heart.
The psalms are difficult to classify because of the wide variety of experiences and sentiments reflected in them. A further difficulty is trying to reconstruct the background or historical situation from which the different ones were produced. In the case of the prophets, this reconstruction can usually be done with a fair degree of accuracy, but not so of the psalms. They represent the inner life of individuals who lived under differing circumstances and who reacted in various ways to the critical situations that developed throughout the entire course of Israel's history. These individuals did not think alike, nor did they feel the same way about the rites and ceremonies that they observed. It would be helpful if we could know the exact circumstances that are reflected in the different psalms, but the best we can do in this respect is to find the particular occasions for which the individual psalms seem to be most appropriate. As a whole, the Book of Psalms may be regarded as a kind of epitome of the entire range of the Hebrews' religious life. It has been said that if all the rest of the Old Testament were lost, the essential faith of the Israelite people could be recovered from this single book.
