Book IV of the Psalter · Psalms 90 to 106 · 17 psalms

The LORD reigns

The book opens with the oldest voice in the Psalter. Moses prays here before Israel had a king, and the book answers the crisis of Psalm 89 by turning from the throne in Jerusalem to the throne of God.

Sealed by: Psalm 106:48
Where it stands in the argument: Gerald Wilson (The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter, 1985) read the enthronement psalms here as the deliberate answer to Psalm 89: when the human throne fails, God is still King.
Who the headings name: Moses in Psalm 90 and David in Psalms 101 and 103. The rest carry no name.

Every psalm in Book IV

17 doors, coloured by the kind of psalm

Penitential 1
Historical recital 2
Royal 1
Wisdom and Torah 1
Thanksgiving 1
Lament and trust 2
Praise 9

The colour is the psalm's primary kind, following the form-critical categories of Hermann Gunkel (Einleitung in die Psalmen, 1933) as set out in C. Hassell Bullock, Encountering the Book of Psalms (2001). A psalm that carries more than one kind is filed under one of them, and every type is explained on the Psalms page.

The collections inside it

3 gathered groups, in the order they stand

Of MosesPsalms 90
A prayer of Moses the man of God, on the shortness of a life before an everlasting God.
The enthronement psalmsPsalms 93, 95 to 99
The psalms that say the LORD reigns, and call the whole earth to sing a new song.
The recitalsPsalms 105 to 106
Two histories set side by side: what God did, and what Israel did with it.

The name of God in this book

The LORD, and the book says the name as a claim: the LORD reigns, over against every throne that has fallen.

What the kinds of psalm come to here

Penitential 1
Historical recital 2
Royal 1
Wisdom and Torah 1
Thanksgiving 1
Lament and trust 2
Praise 9

The same nine kinds colour every psalm on this page and on the four other books of the Psalter.

The doxology that seals it

Psalm 106:48, Berean Standard Bible

48Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!
Psalm 106:48, the closing blessing that marks the seam of the book.

Why the seam is marked

The doxology belongs to the collection rather than to the psalm it closes, which is how the five books can be seen in the text itself. The other four seams stand at Psalms 41:13, 72:18-19, 89:52 and 106:48, and the whole of Psalm 150 closes the Psalter.