The King James Bible: The Psalms

Explore the major work of poetry of the Bible with this unabridged presentation of The Book of Psalms in the King James Version translation.

The Book of Psalms is the longest book of the Bible and contains 150 psalms. Psalms were songs written as expressions of praise, declarations of emotions, laments of sorrow or guilt, celebrations of events, and more. The Psalms were written by many authors, and many of them are attributed to King David. Whether he did write them is still debated by scholars, but many of the Psalms reference moments in his life and kingship.

While the Psalms were originally written as songs to be played with music, the lyrics themselves are poetic and enjoyable in the written word. Some of the Psalms were even written using poetic devices such as repetition, rhyming, parallelism, acrostics, and more. The King James Version of the Bible is translated into the formal English of the 17th century, which remains a beautiful and formal translation used by many denominations to this day. These songs are used as prayers, meditations, and communal expressions of praise or emotions. They’re also used in Jewish worship as part of religious rituals and recitations.