The Psalter.
The Psalter.
§ 141. The Hebrews call the Psalter 
, the “Book of Divine Praises.” The Greeks call it 
, so called from the musical instrument. Hilary (preface to Psalm 1), Chrysostom (homily 1 on Psalm 50), and Lyra (on Psalm 1) claim: “There was not one author, even David, of this book, but there were many other authors, some of whom lived long before David. These latter took their hymns from the schools of the ancient patriarchs and left them untitled and unsigned. Some, on the other hand, lived after David.” Consequently, there are some who divide all the psalms with regard to their authors into three classes. To the first class they assign the 124 psalms that they know David himself wrote. To the second they assign the twelve whose authors are the sons of Korah. And to the third, they assign the twelve whose author is Asaph. Along with these we must count the one psalm of Moses, namely, Psalm 90, and the one by Ethan the Ezrahite, Psalm 89. When all these are collected, they add up to 150. Some say that there were ten authors of this book: David, Solomon, Moses, Asaph, Ethan, Heman, Jeduthun, and the three sons of Korah.
** Jerome (Ad Cyprian.) claims that Moses wrote eleven psalms, that is, from Psalm 90, whose title is “The Prayer of Moses, the Servant of God,” to Psalm 100, which has the title “in confession.” Thirty-nine psalms are untitled, and seven of these are quoted in David’s name in Holy Scripture: Psalm 2 in Acts 13[:33]; Psalm 117 in 2 Kings 22; Psalm 100 in 1 Chronicles 16; and Psalms 105, 106, 117, and 135 in 1 Ezra [3:10-11]. In his Epistle ad Sophronium et Cyprianum, Jerome follows the opinion of Athanasius and claims that those people are wrong who think that all the psalms are David’s and not those in whose names they are written. According to this opinion, therefore, there will be ten authors of this volume whose names are set down in the titles to the psalms: (1) David, (2) Solomon, (3) Moses, (4) Asaph, (5) Ethan the Ezrahite, (6) Heman the Ezrahite, (7) Jeduthun, (8) the three sons of Korah. **
Augustine, however, believes that they should all be attributed to David (De civ. Dei, bk. 17, c. 14). He says:
With regard to the psalms, there are some who want David to have composed those that were written in his name. There are also those who think that he did not write them with the exception of those that are titled “of David.” On the other hand, those that have “to David” [or “for David”] in their titles were written by others who assumed his persona. This opinion the Savior Himself refutes in the Gospel when He says that David himself said in the Spirit that Christ was his Lord because Psalm 109 begins thus: “The Lord said to my Lord.” And, indeed, this psalm does not have “of David” but “to David” in its title, as do many others. It seems to me that those follow a more credible line of reasoning who attribute all 150 psalms to his work and say that he prefixed to some even the names of other men who prefigured something related to the matter. They claim that he wanted the name of no man in the titles of the rest, just as God inspired him with the arrangement of this variety, which, though hidden, nevertheless is not senseless.
Some think32 that after the Babylonian captivity Ezra gathered into a single volume those psalms that had been scattered here and there. In his Synops., Athanasius claims that the friends of Hezekiah did this before the captivity, declaring that they collected only 150 of the psalms of David, which he claims numbered 3,000.
§ 142. In all, there are 150 psalms. What is added in the Greek codices as Psalm 151 is not in the canon, as we shall show in its own place. Regarding the number of the psalms, we have these words of Leoninus: “David sings in order three times fifty psalms. Of these, he sings 1,606 verses.” The Hebrews and Greeks agree on the total number of the psalms, both of whom count 150. But the Greeks (whom the Latins follow) connect two separate psalms: Psalms 9 and 10. Consequently, Psalm 11 according to the Hebrews is Psalm 10 according to the Septuagint translation and the Latin version. Psalms 114 and 115 according to the Hebrews the Latins again connect and, in turn, divide Psalm 116 into two psalms. Furthermore, so that the Latins may complete the number of psalms at 150, toward the end they divide one psalm, which is Psalm 147 to the Hebrews, into two. It appears that this error of the Greeks and Latins stemmed from the fact that Psalm 10 is untitled and that the letter yod, which is the smallest of the Hebrew letters, is the only mark separating it from Psalm 9. Thus because the Greeks did not observe that letter, they drew the two psalms into one, and the Latins followed them. Genebrardus struggles hard to support the numbering of the Latin Vulgate version. He relies, however, on false hypotheses, for he believes that Rabbi D. Kimchi first made this separation in the Hebrew text three hundred years earlier, though we find the same thing in Jerome’s Hebrew Psalter, which is claimed to be of the same time as those psalms, and not without reason. The diversity of the themes in Psalms 9 and 10 shows that they should be separated, for Psalm 9 speaks of foreign enemies and Psalm 10 of native and domestic foes.
§ 143. With regard to the subject matter, we can list seven kinds of psalms. In the first five, God speaks to us, which happens: (1) through information, whence come the informative psalms; (2) through consolation, whence the consolatory psalms; (3) through exhortation, whence the exhortatory psalms; (4) through preaching, whence the prophetic psalms; and (5) through a narrative of the past, whence the historical psalms. When we speak with God, this happens: (1) through prayer, whence the petitioning psalms; and (2) through the giving of thanks, whence the psalms of thanksgiving.
The Hebrews divide the psalms into five 
(“books”) or parts (see Jerome, Epistle 134 ad Sophronium). The first book has the first forty-one psalms; the second has thirty-one, from Psalm 42 to Psalm 73; the third, seventeen, from Psalm 74 to Psalm 90; the fourth, also seventeen, from Psalm 91 to Psalm 107; the fifth, forty-three, from Psalm 108 to Psalm 150.
§ 144. The Nicolaitans and Gnostics formerly used to repudiate the psalms of David and called them “human songs,” as Philaster witnesses (Catal. haeres., c. 127). Regarding [Paul] of Samosata, Eusebius writes (Hist. eccles., bk. 7, c. 25) that “he took those psalms that were being sung to Christ as ideas recently thought up by the Church.” However, the teachers of the early Church with unanimous agreement accepted this book as canonical and honored it with great praises. Athanasius (Epistle ad Marcellin.) calls it “the epitome of all Scripture.” Basil (on Psalm 1) calls it “a compendium of all theology, the common medical office of souls, the common repository of good teachings, useful to everyone according to his will.” Augustine calls it “the teacher of little children, the adornment of youth, the comfort of old age, the register and summary of every page of theology.” Luther calls it “the little Bible and the epitome of the Old Testament.” Elsewhere, he wrote this brief poem on the dignity and usefulness of the Psalter:
What the sun is in the heaven, I think
In all the sacred writings are the Psalms of David, king.
The sun is leader of the planets, repeller of the dark.
It nurtures everything with heavenly light and heat.
Thus the strings of David drive darkness from the mind
And with their living message bring love to souls ….33
The Psalter, then, is a golden necklace, woven and composed of three things: (1) of the gold of doctrine and instruction, (2) of the pearls of comfort, (3) and of the jewels of prayer.
** The Psalter is: (I) The epitome and compendium of all Holy Scripture, which is clear: (1) from the scope and goal of Scripture, which is Christ, and (2) from the distribution of Scripture into Law and Gospel—both are treated in the Psalter.
(II) The catalog and summary of theological commonplaces. In this respect we compare it with a piece of jewelry in which are: (1) the gold of comfort in the truth of doctrine; (2) the silver of proof against the errors of heretics; (3) the gems of admonition to virtues—the love of God, thanksgiving, and a love for one’s neighbor; (4) the pearls of consolation. Babylas, from Ps. 116[:7]: “Return, O my soul, to your rest.”
(III) A repository of illustrations. In this respect it is compared with a highly polished mirror. Set forth in it are: (1) An example of the Church Militant, which is subject to the cross. (2) The example of true repentance. Origen, from Ps. 50[:16]: “To the wicked, God said ….” Mauritius, from Ps. 119[:137]: “Righteous are You, O Lord.” Bernard, from Ps. 51[:17]: “I have lived recklessly. I have nothing to return to the Lord except that He does not despise a contrite heart.” (3) A mirror of faith and constancy.
(IV) It is a manual and handbook. **
The Psalter is: (1) A theater of the works of God, for the things for which we must watch are exhibited within it. (2) A rich meadow filled with roses, where we gaze at the many lovely flowers. (3) A paradise that has not merely the bare fragrance of the flowers but also the fruits. (4) A broad sea in which lie precious pearls that only those can find who endure its tempestuous storms. (5) The school of heaven in which we speak with God, our teacher. (6) The compendium of the entire Scripture. (7) A mirror of divine grace that reflects the pleasant face of our kind Father. (8) A most careful anatomy of our soul that indicates all the states and affections of the soul and the remedies for those affections.