The Five Books of the Psalms

The book of Psalms comprises five books, and those five books parallel the first five books of the Bible: the Pentateuch, or Torah. The Good News of April 1984 featured an article titled “Psalms and Salvation.” It explains how the book of Psalms is a powerful prophecy about salvation.

Book i is Psalms 1-41. “In the book of beginnings called Genesis, God records that He presented two ways of life to Adam and Eve in the form of two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” the article says.

Book ii, Psalms 42-72, highlights God’s relationship with His Church. “In Psalms, David portrays the theme of the Church from a personal perspective. He captures the feelings and thoughts of Christians in every age. David yearns for God’s calling and truth: ‘Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!’ (Psalm 43:3). The psalmist desires to be in God’s Church: ‘Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle’ (verse 3)” (ibid).

Book iii, Psalms 73-89, parallels the book of Leviticus. These psalms were mostly written by Levitical priests. Like Leviticus 26, they include prophecies of the coming destruction of Israel in the Great Tribulation.

Book iv, Psalms 90-106, links with the book of Numbers, which “records Israel’s journey through the wilderness, dwelling in tabernacles (temporary dwellings),” as God’s people do at the Feast of Tabernacles. “Living in temporary dwellings teaches us that our physical bodies are temporary; we should seek eternal life in God’s Kingdom” (ibid). Psalm 90 was written by Moses, who led Israel to the Promised Land, a type of God’s Kingdom. This book of Psalms tells a story of the peaceful, prosperous reign of God’s Kingdom on Earth.

Book v, Psalms 107-150, parallels Deuteronomy. The theme is complete salvation for man. Deuteronomy literally means “the second law,” concluding and summarizing the first four books of the law, just as book five of Psalms concludes the plan of God.

The first five books of the Bible are the foundation of the whole Bible. In Deuteronomy 17:15-20 is a law for kings. It says the king must write out a copy of the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Bible. “And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God”—we must learn to fear God—“to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them” (verse 19). That is not just the Ten Commandments: That is the whole law, all five books, the foundation of the whole Bible! And God inspired David to pattern his books of the psalms after them.

That law says the king must “turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left”—no compromise; do it exactly the way God says—“to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel” (verse 20). That king would have a copy of the law in his own handwriting—a powerful witness against himself if he ever rebelled against God! God was essentially saying, You’ve written it down—you say you agree with it. All right, now, do it!

That is how kings are developed. God’s people today are kings, and this instruction is for us most of all. In writing and organizing the psalms, David really drove that home. The book of Psalms is also very foundational. In it, David showed us in a very emotional, moving and stirring way how to become a king for God!

When you dig into this study, you realize that no man could write this. That is why David made clear at the end of his life that he did not give us those words in the Psalms; they came right out of the mind of God (2 Samuel 23:1-2).