Introduction to the Holy Zabur (Psalms)
The Holy Zabur is a collection of ancient hymns and spiritual songs. They were originally written to be sung, not just to be recited or read. The Zabur was the worship book used in Sulayman’s Holy House in Jerusalem. Often it is called Dawud’s Zabur (or the Psalms of David). This is not intended to imply that Dawud (pbuh) wrote all of the Zabur, because there were actually several prophets and holy men who contributed to the Zabur. However, Prophet Dawud (pbuh) wrote more of the Zabur than anyone else. Other contributors include Prophets Musa, Uzair, Sulayman, Ethan, Heman, and Asaph (peace be on them all). Many of the chapters state at the beginning who wrote that particular chapter. The Zabur contains 150 chapters or songs which are broken down into 5 sections as follows:
First Section — chapters 1 to 41
Second Section — chapters 42 to 72
Third Section — chapters 73 to 89
Fourth Section — chapters 90 to 106
Fifth Section — chapters 107 to 150