Who Wrote the Psalms?

No single person wrote the Book of Psalms. Of the 150 psalms, 100 have a heading that names an author: David in 73, Asaph in 12, the sons of Korah in 11, Solomon in 2, and Moses and Ethan in one each. The other 50 name no author. Psalm 88 names both the sons of Korah and Heman, and it is counted here with the sons of Korah. The headings are old, but they are not proof of who wrote each poem, and scholars debate authorship.

The lists below group every psalm by the name in its heading. Of the 50 psalms with no named author, 34 have no heading at all. The other 16 have a heading that names no writer, such as Psalm 100, which reads only "A Psalm of thanksgiving."

David is the name that appears most often. 73 headings name him, from Psalm 3 to Psalm 145. That is just under half of the book, not all of it. The Bible also presents David as a musician. In 1 Samuel 16:23 he plays the harp for Saul, and 2 Samuel 23:1 calls him "the sweet psalmist of Israel." The New Testament quotes some psalms under his name, including two whose headings do not name him: Acts 4:25 gives the words of Psalm 2 to David, and Hebrews 4:7 speaks of Psalm 95 as said "through David." Modern scholars do not accept David's authorship as a historical fact. For that reason this site says a heading names David, not that he certainly wrote the psalm.

After David, the names that recur most are Asaph and the sons of Korah. Asaph is named in 12 headings: Psalm 50 and the run from Psalm 73 to Psalm 83. In 1 Chronicles 15:17 the Levites appoint an Asaph, son of Berechiah, among the singers, and 1 Chronicles 16:7 says David first ordained giving thanks to the LORD by the hand of Asaph and his brothers. The sons of Korah are named in 11 headings, in two clusters that begin at Psalm 42 and Psalm 84. Korah himself appears in Numbers 16, where the earth swallows his company. Numbers 26:11 adds that the sons of Korah did not die.

One heading names Moses: Psalm 90, "A Prayer by Moses, the man of God." Two name Solomon: Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. Psalm 89 names Ethan the Ezrahite, and Psalm 88 adds Heman the Ezrahite to the sons of Korah. Jeduthun appears in three headings, Psalms 39, 62 and 77, but always beside David or Asaph, so he is not counted as an author here. Do not confuse the two Solomon psalms with the Psalms of Solomon. That is a separate collection of 18 psalms, found in Greek and Syriac copies, and it is not part of the 150.

50 psalms name no author. 34 of them have no heading at all. They include Psalms 1 and 2, which open the book, and Psalms 146 to 150, which close it. Another 16 have a heading that names no one. Most of these are Songs of Ascents not given to David or Solomon, such as Psalm 121 and Psalm 130. Psalm 102 has a heading that describes its speaker instead of naming one: "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the LORD." For all of these, the honest answer to who wrote them is that the text does not say.