Psalm forms

1. Hymns

2. Lament/Complaint Psalms

3. Royal Psalms

4. Thanksgiving Psalms

5. Wisdom Psalms

6. Smaller Genres and Mixed Type

 Psalm forms or types also include:

Songs of Zion – Psalms 48, 76, 84, 87, 122, 134.
Historical Litanies – Psalms 78, 105, 106, 135, 136.
Pilgrim Liturgies – Psalms 81, 21.
Entrance Liturgies – Psalms 15, 24.
Judgment Liturgies – Psalms 50, 82.
Mixed Types – 36, 40, 41, 68.

 Hymn Genre

Generally these psalms consist of praise and can be subdivided into :

1)Hymns of Divine Kingship “ie Psalm 29.
2) Creation Hymns “ie Psalm 104”.
3) Hymns celebrating divine action in Israel’s history “ie Psalm 105 and 106” . These psalms describe the relationship between the Israelite people and Yahweh and recognizes his power and majesty, a theme that is found in other wisdom literature. Gunkel also described a special subset of Eschatological Hymns which includes themes of future restoration “Psalm 126” or of judgment “Psalm 82” .

Lament Genre

The Lament/Complaint Psalms can be subdivided into two categories :

1. The individual.

2. Communal lament.

 Both types of laments typically but did not always include the following elements nor is there a systematic order in which they appear in body of the Lament Psalm;

1. An address to God.

2. A description of suffering.

3. Cursing of the party responsible for suffering.

4. Protestation of innocence or admission of guilt.

5. A petition for divine assistance.

6. Faith in God’s receipt of prayer.

7. Anticipation of divine response.

8. A song of thanksgiving.

In general, the difference between the two subtypes can be distinguished by the use of the singular “I” or the plural “we”. However, the “I” could also be characterizing an individual’s personal experience that was reflective of the entire community . 

Parallelism

The biblical poetry of Psalms uses parallelism as their primary poetic device. Parallelism is a kind of rhyme, in which an idea is developed by the use of repetition, synonyms, or opposites . Synonymous parallelism involves two lines expressing essentially the same idea. An example of synonymous parallelism:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? “Psalm 27:1”

Two lines expressing opposites is known as antithetic parallelism. An example of Antithetic Parallelism:

The Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. “Psalm 1:6”

Another suggessted way of categorizing the Psalms:

1- Orientation.
2- Disorientation.
3- Reorientation.