Psalms

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Historians divided the psalms into five primary types:

Hymns, songs of praise for God's work in creation or in history. They typically open with a call to praise, describe the motivation for praise, and conclude with a repetition of the call. Two sub-categories are "enthronement psalms," celebrating the enthronement of Yahweh as king, and Zion psalms, glorifying Mount Zion, God's dwelling-place in Jerusalem. Gunkel also described a special subset of "eschatological hymns" which includes themes of future restoration (Psalm 126) or of judgment (Psalm 82).
Communal laments, in which the nation laments some communal disaster. Both communal and individual laments typically but not always include the following elements: 1) address to God, 2) description of suffering, 3) cursing of the party responsible for suffering, 4) protestation of innocence or admission of guilt, 5) petition for divine assistance, 6) faith in God's receipt of prayer, 7) anticipation of divine response, and 8) a song of thanksgiving. In general, the difference between the individual and communal subtypes can be distinguished by the use of the singular "I" or the plural "we". However, the "I" could also be characterizing an individual's personal experience that was reflective of the entire community.
Royal Psalms, dealing with such matters as the king's coronation, marriage and battles. None of them mentions any specific king by name, and their origin and use remain obscure; several psalms, especially ps.93 - 99, concern the kingship of God, and might relate to an annual ceremony in which Yahweh would be ritually reinstated as king.
Individual laments lamenting the fate of the particular individual who utters them. They are by far the most common type of psalm. They typically open with an invocation of Yahweh, followed by the lament itself and pleas for help, and often ending with an expression of confidence. A subset is the psalm of confidence, in which the psalmist expresses confidence that God will deliver him from evils and enemies.
Individual thanksgiving psalms, the obverse of individual laments, in which the psalmist thanks God for deliverance from personal distress.
In addition to these five major genres, Gunkel also recognised a number of minor psalm-types, including: communal thanksgiving psalms, in which the whole nation thanks God for deliverance; wisdom psalms, reflecting the Old Testament wisdom literature; pilgrimage psalms, sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem; entrance and prophetic liturgies; and a group of mixed psalms which could not be assigned to any category.

Seventy-three of the 150 psalms in the Hebrew Bible are attributed to King David. One of the Dead Sea Scrolls (11QPsa) attributes 3600 tehilim (songs of praise) plus other compositions to him. Nevertheless, Roland E. Murphy holds that there is no hard evidence for Davidic authorship of any of them. "Davidic authorship is not accepted as historical fact by modern scholars," note Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler in the Jewish Study Bible, who see this type of ascription rather as ancients linking them to well-known biblical figures as a means of canonization. Others concede that "David's reputation as a musician makes it reasonable to associate him with the Psalms", and Jewish tradition indicates that he is the author, and note that the information we have about David suggests he was a prolific writer and musician who set many of his writings to music and called them Psalms.