Praise Psalm


Literary Form

Psalms are technically lyric poems.

Praise psalms have three main parts (introduction, development, and resolution). The introduction is the call to praise, possibly an exhortation to praise God, the naming of the person or group to whom the command is directed, and identifying the mode of praise. The development is usually built on the principle of a catalog of praiseworthy acts or attributes of God, though occasionally the portrait technique appears. They end with a note of finality, often a brief prayer or wish.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Bible as Literature by Leland Ryken, Page 113, 140)