Who is the audience of Book of Psalms?

Answer 1

The psalms were written over a period of more than two hundred years, during and after the Babylonian Exile, so they had many audiences among the Jews, according to the times.

Some of the psalms were written during the dark days under Babylonian rule and reflect the despondency of that time. Others were written following the defeat of Babylon by Persia, or after the Return from Exile and reflect the optimism, even triumphalism of the era.

Psalm 82 is an excellent example of a psalm written for those who still hankered after the old gods of pre-Exilic times. It tells them that those gods are now dead; from now on there is only one God. It begins begins, "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods," and goes on to say how they had all failed El Shaddai (God) and would die as men die.

There were no longer kings of Judah, so Judah was now a theocracy. Many of the psalms were written to guide the Jews along the lines required by their priestly rulers.