Psalms and Proverbs

Psalms and Proverbs are two neighbouring books of the Old Testament. Psalms comes first, with 150 psalms and 2,461 verses, and Proverbs follows straight after it, with 31 chapters and 915 verses. The Psalms are mostly songs and prayers spoken to God or about him. Proverbs is mostly short sayings about how to live, many of them addressed to "my son." Read together, one gives words for prayer and the other gives advice for daily life.

This page compares the two books from their own text. The counts come from the World English Bible, and every psalm on this site has its own page with the full text in two translations.

The difference is who is speaking to whom. A psalm is usually a person speaking to God: crying for help, giving thanks or praising him, as in Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Proverbs is mostly a teacher speaking to a learner. Proverbs 1:8 opens that voice with "My son, listen to your father's instruction." The Psalms are poems of many lengths, from 2 verses in Psalm 117 to 176 in Psalm 119. From chapter 10 on, Proverbs is mostly short sayings that each stand alone. Both are poetry, and both share some themes, but Psalms is mainly prayer and Proverbs is mainly instruction.

Both books are in the Old Testament. In the book order of the World English Bible, Job comes first, then Psalms, then Proverbs, followed by Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Psalms is the longest book in the Bible by chapters, with 150. Proverbs has 31 chapters. Some pocket Bibles print only the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs. The Gideons, for example, give out copies of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs as gifts to individuals.

Each book names its writers in its own text, and neither names only one. Proverbs 1:1 opens with "The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel." Proverbs 25:1 says the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out more proverbs of Solomon. Chapter 30 gives the words of Agur the son of Jakeh, and chapter 31 the words of King Lemuel, taught by his mother. In Psalms, the headings name several people: David most often, and also Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Moses and Ethan. Two psalm headings name Solomon, Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. Headings and opening lines are attributions, not proof of authorship.

The numbers make a monthly plan easy. Proverbs has 31 chapters, one for each day of a long month. Psalms has 150, so five a day covers the book in 30 days. On day 1 you would read Psalms 1 to 5 and Proverbs 1. On day 2, Psalms 6 to 10 and Proverbs 2, and so on. Some days are much longer than others, because Psalm 119 alone has 176 verses. If that day is too long, split it over two days. This is only arithmetic, not an official plan, and any pace that suits you works.