What Is Psalm 151? The 'Extra' Psalm Explained

Many people are surprised to learn there is a “Psalm 151” at all. Open most Bibles — including the King James Version and the World English Bible — and the book of Psalms ends at Psalm 150. So where does Psalm 151 come from, what does it say, and why is it in some Bibles but not others? Here is a clear explanation.

Why most Bibles end at Psalm 150

The Hebrew Bible — the collection of Scriptures used in Judaism and the basis for the Protestant Old Testament — contains exactly 150 psalms. This is why Protestant Bibles, including the KJV and WEB, end the book of Psalms at Psalm 150, which closes with the ringing call: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 150:6).

For Protestants, then, there is no Psalm 151 in the Bible. The book of Psalms is complete at 150.

Where Psalm 151 comes from

Psalm 151 does exist — but in a different collection. It appears in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made a few centuries before Christ. There, after Psalm 150, stands a short additional psalm with a heading noting that it is “outside the number” — that is, an extra psalm beyond the standard 150.

A Hebrew version of this psalm was also found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, in a scroll of psalms, which showed that the psalm was genuinely ancient and originally circulated in Hebrew, not only in Greek.

Because of its place in the Septuagint, Psalm 151 is regarded as canonical Scripture in the Eastern Orthodox and some Oriental Orthodox churches. In Roman Catholic Bibles it is generally not included in the main canon. In Protestant Bibles it is treated as part of the Apocrypha or simply omitted — which is why you will not find it in a standard KJV or WEB.

What Psalm 151 says

Psalm 151 is short — just a handful of verses — and it is written in the voice of David, looking back on his early life as a shepherd boy. It tells, in the first person, two well-known episodes from David’s youth:

David the overlooked shepherd. The psalm recalls that David was the youngest and smallest in his family, tending his father’s sheep, when God chose and anointed him — echoing the account in 1 Samuel 16, where the prophet Samuel anoints David though his older brothers seemed the obvious choice.
David and Goliath. The psalm then refers to David going out against the Philistine champion — Goliath — and defeating him, echoing 1 Samuel 17.

The theme of Psalm 151 is that God lifts up the lowly and overlooked. David, the forgotten youngest son, is the one God chooses and uses. In that sense the psalm fits naturally with a major theme running through the whole Bible.

Is Psalm 151 in the Bible?

The honest answer is: it depends which Bible.

Protestant Bibles (KJV, WEB, NIV, ESV, etc.): No — they end at Psalm 150.
Eastern Orthodox Bibles: Yes — Psalm 151 is included as canonical.
Catholic and some study Bibles: Sometimes included among the apocryphal or deuterocanonical writings, not the main canon.

So if you searched for “Psalm 151” expecting to find it in your King James Bible and could not, you were not mistaken — it simply is not part of that canon. The book of Psalms in the KJV and WEB ends at 150.

Why people search for Psalm 151

Curiosity about Psalm 151 is understandable. It is the one “extra” psalm, it is written in David’s own voice, and it touches the famous story of David and Goliath. For readers used to a 150-psalm book, discovering a 151st raises natural questions about how the Bible was put together and why different churches include different books.

That question — how the books of the Bible were collected, and why the canon differs slightly between traditions — is a large and fascinating one. Psalm 151 is one small window into it: a genuinely ancient Hebrew psalm, preserved in Greek, found at Qumran, treasured by some churches and set aside by others.

Reading the Psalms we do have

Whatever one concludes about Psalm 151, the 150 psalms of the standard Bible are more than enough to fill a lifetime of prayer and reflection. They cover every human emotion — praise and lament, trust and complaint, joy and grief — and have shaped Christian and Jewish worship for thousands of years.

If the question of Psalm 151 brought you here, let it send you back to the psalms themselves. Begin with Psalm 1, or the beloved Psalm 23, and read slowly. The book that ends at 150 has not run out of things to say.

Read Psalm 23 or Psalm 91 in full, or browse Bible verses by topic.