One of the most well-known books of the Old Testament is the Book of Psalms. In the Christian world, it is used as a separate book to worship God.
There is not a single book of rites or rituals in which psalms are not included. It has always been one of the most beloved books for religious people. Priests have always learnt the psalms by heart. This ranks psalms among the most frequently observed phenomena in religious life. In Hebrew texts, the Book of Psalms is called Tehillim, which means, “Glory to God in highest”. The word “psalm” is borrowed from the Septuagint. In Hebrew it is mizmor, in Greek psalmos. The latter means “melody” – proving by itself the presence of a musical instrument. Thus the Hebrew name of the book signifies the subject of psalms, i.e. glorifying the Almighty, while the Greek title emphasises the way they are performed. It should be mentioned that in different psalms (especially those that glorify God) we come across the Hebrew names of musical instruments: asor, kitit, kinor, nepel, nhilot, shoshan, tseltselim, ugav. The words mentioned above are sometimes replaced with other words or with different descriptive expressions. The reason is that, for centuries, musical instruments had been rejected by the Armenian Apostolic Church. However, we suppose that all musical instruments in different languages had had their equivalents, and in Armenian as well.