Tehillim - Book of Psalms Tehillim - Book of Psalms, the first book of the section in the Hebrew Bible called Writings, is an anthology of 150 poems attributed to King David and to others. It includes songs of praise to God, laments of communal or personal tragedy, and expressions of anger, despair, hope, and gratitude. Psalms are prevalent throughout Jewish liturgy and commonly recited as an independent form of prayer. They are often sung or chanted. In the Jewish tradition, the book is mainly attributed to King David and other personalities, but a number of psalms are dated in biblical studies to the time of the destruction of the First Temple and the days of the Second Temple. In the Jewish canon there are 150 chapters in the Book of Psalms.