Recognizing genres in the Psalms

In the first three psalms, we discovered the rich diversity within the Psalter:

• A wisdom psalm promised blessing on those who walk in the Lord’s ways (Psalm 1).
• A royal psalm enthroned the Lord’s anointed to represent his reign (Psalm 2).
• A lament voiced the king’s struggles to the one who rescues him (Psalm 3).

It helps to recognize the different kinds of psalms (genres). They’re generally categorized into these types:

• Laments present problems to God when things aren’t working right (59 psalms)
• Praise psalms bring honour to the Lord (41 psalms)
• Hymns celebrate the character of God (17 psalms)
• Royal psalms (like Psalm 2) celebrate the king who represents God’s reign (10 psalms)
• Wisdom psalms (like Psalm 1) call God’s people to walk in his ways (9 psalms)
• Thanksgiving psalms celebrate what God has done for his people (8 psalms)
• Trust psalms declare their reliance on God’s faithfulness (6 psalms)

So how do you quickly discover the genre of any Psalm? The screenshot above is from the Psalms Explorer, an interactive tool in Logos Bible Software. You can ask it to slice and dice the Psalms by genre, attribution, book, structure, or theme.

The tool has a navigation pane on the left. Hover over “Book 1” and it highlights the Psalms from Book 1 (Psalms 1–41). They’re mostly laments, with just three praise psalms and two hymns:

But look what happens by the time we reach Book 5:

Fifteen hymns? Fifteen praise songs? What happened along the way to bring this transformation?

That’s just one example of how appreciating the genres enrichens your understanding of the Psalms.

So, what did happen as the journey through the Psalms unfolded? That’s the story of the Psalms.

Adapted from “Formed in God’s Story: Psalms.” Full notes and podcasts here.

Related posts

• The Lord’s Law (Psalm 1)
• The Lord’s reign (Psalm 2)
• David’s enemies (Psalm 3)