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The Book of Psalms in the Hebrew Bible is actually a collection of five different "books" containing a total of 150 Psalms of several different literary genres. The following tables give an overview of several features of each of the Psalms, along with some summary statistics:

• Books I-V: The common division into five separate "books" of Psalms is based on the concluding doxologies and/or "Amens" found in 41:14; 72:18-20; 89:53; 106:48; and the entirety of Ps 150.
  • Note that Book IV is found below Book III in the following chart, since both of these are much shorter than the other three books.
• Ps# - The Psalms are numbered from 1 to 150 in the Hebrew Bible; however, Psalms 9 & 10 really form one longer Psalm, just as Psalms 42 & 43 belong together.
  • An asterisk (*) before the Psalm number marks the eight "Acrostic" Psalms, those in which the first letter of each verse (or group of verses) follows the alphabetical order of the Hebrew alphabet (which is also the main reason we know Ps 9 & 10 belong together).
• #Vv. - The second column lists the number of verses in each Psalm, according to the versification of the New American Bible translation.
  • For many of the Psalms, the number of verses is slightly different in the King James Version, Revised Standard Version, and other translations, due to differences between the ancient Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint, and/or the Latin Vulgate versions of the Bible.
• Type - In the Hebrew text itself, many of the Psalms have a superscription that identifies what type of composition it is: Psalm, Prayer, Song, Praise Hymn, etc.
  • Biblical scholars are uncertain and debate what the "Maskil" and "Miktam" and "Shiggaion" are; there is greater agreement and clarity about those labeled "Song of Ascents" and "Halleluia" (Praise God).
• Attrib. - Many psalms are also explicity attributed to a particular biblical figure, very often (King) David, but sometimes also the Korahites, Asaph, or other individuals.
  • An ampersand (&) in this column indicates those psalms in which the superscription gives further information about the text's historical context (e.g. Ps 102: "The prayer of one afflicted and wasting away whose anguish is poured out before the Lord"), and/or instructions (often explicitly addressed "To the Leader") about what type of musical instruments or tune to use (e.g., Ps 4: "With stringed instruments"; or Ps 46: "According to alamoth [a tune]").
• Category - Modern Scholars classify the Psalms into several different literary categories, including Hymns, Laments, Songs of Thanksgiving, etc., some of which are individual (I/me/my), while others are communal (we/us/our).
• See the second table below for a complete listing of the different types, attributions, and categories of psalms, and the number of occurences of each.