Old Testament · 150 chapters

Psalms

• No. 26 Psalms 5:1-12

  The Psalms are Israel's prayer book, a hundred and fifty poems for every state the soul can be in, and this is one of the morning ones. The speaker wakes, turns straight to God, lays out his case before the...

• No. 43 Psalms 110:1-7

  This short psalm became the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament, drawn on roughly thirty times. It is a coronation poem, spoken over a king in Jerusalem, and its first line is a small puzzle...

• No. 54 Psalms 99:1-9

  Psalm 99 belongs to a run of psalms proclaiming that the LORD reigns. It is built around a refrain, repeated three times, each time landing on the same two words: he is holy. The structure moves from God's...

• No. 98 Psalms 104:17-35

  Psalm 104 is a long hymn about the created world, and it moves through it like a survey: the waters, the mountains, the trees, and the creatures each place holds. This passage is the second half, and its most...

• No. 102 Psalms 83:1-18

  Psalm 83 is a national prayer under threat, and its opening is a demand for noise. God, do not keep silent, do not hold your peace, do not be still. The complaint is not that God is absent but that he is quiet...

• No. 140 Psalms 105:33-45

  Psalm 105 retells Israel's history from Abraham to the entry into Canaan, and it is built as praise rather than chronicle. This passage covers the last plagues on Egypt, the departure, and the years in the...

• No. 197 Psalms 138:1-8

  Psalm 138 is a short thanksgiving attributed to David, and it opens in an unexpected place. I give you thanks with my whole heart, before the gods I sing your praise. Whatever those other gods are taken to be,...

• No. 198 Psalms 121:1-8

  Psalm 121 is one of the Songs of Ascents, sung by pilgrims walking up to Jerusalem for the festivals. Knowing that changes the first line. I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? The...

• No. 289 Psalms 107:17-32

  Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving song built like a string of rescue stories. It moves through one kind of person in trouble after another, and each story follows the same four beats. This passage holds two of them,...

• No. 326 Psalms 35:17-28

  This is a prayer of someone being wronged, and it is striking mostly for how raw it is allowed to be. The psalmist is surrounded by enemies who gloat over his troubles, who wink at each other, who open their...

• No. 335 Psalms 95:1-11

  This psalm is one of the great invitations to worship, and it starts with pure exuberance. Come, let us sing to the LORD, it says, shout aloud to the rock of our salvation, come into his presence with...

• No. 356 Psalms 107:33-43

  This is the closing movement of a psalm all about reversals, and it piles them up. God turns rivers into desert and springs into thirsty ground, and turns a desert into pools of water and dry land into flowing...

• No. 364 Psalms 80:1-19

  This psalm is a communal cry out of a dark time, and it keeps returning to the same plea. Three times, like a chorus, the people sing: restore us, O God; let your face shine, and we shall be saved. That...

• No. 367 Psalms 23:1-6

  Psalm 23 is so familiar that it is easy to stop hearing it, so it is worth noticing something in its grammar that most readers pass right over. For the first three verses, the psalmist talks about God in the...

• No. 396 Psalms 46:1-11

  Psalm 46 is where the line be still, and know that I am God comes from, and it is worth recovering what that line actually means, because it is almost always quoted as a gentle invitation to quiet meditation,...

• No. 402 Psalms 49:1-20

  Psalm 49 is a wisdom poem addressed to everyone, high and low, rich and poor alike, and it takes on one of our most persistent anxieties: the way we fear and envy people who have more than we do. Why should I...

• No. 422 Psalms 48:1-14

  Psalm 48 is a song about Zion, the city of God, and it swells with confidence in a city God has protected. It tells how hostile kings once gathered against it, took one look, and fled in panic, trembling like...

• No. 426 Psalms 78:49-64

  Psalm 78 is a long retelling of Israel's history, written to teach the next generation, and it does not flatter anyone. This section recounts the great mercies first: the plagues that broke Egypt, God leading...

• No. 432 Psalms 73:1-16

  This psalm begins with a statement of faith, surely God is good to the pure in heart, and then immediately admits how close the writer came to abandoning it. But as for me, he says, my feet had almost...

• No. 464 Psalms 71:17-24

  This is the prayer of an old man. God, you have taught me from my youth, the psalmist says, and to this day I declare your wondrous works. He has had a long life of learning who God is and what God does,...

• No. 475 Psalms 37:33-40

  Psalm 37 is the great psalm for anyone who has ever looked at the world and felt the unfairness of it, the way the ruthless seem to prosper while the honest struggle. And here at its close, the psalmist gives...

• No. 479 Psalms 137:1-9

  This psalm is one of the hardest in the Bible, and it should not be smoothed over. It begins in pure grief. By the rivers of Babylon, the exiles sat and wept, remembering the Jerusalem they had lost. They hung...

• No. 482 Psalms 2:1-12

  This psalm opens with a scene of global uproar. Why do the nations rage, it asks, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, the rulers scheme together, and their aim is to throw...

• No. 535 Psalms 141:1-10

  This is an evening prayer, and it asks for two things most of us would not think to pray for. David begins conventionally enough, asking God to hear him quickly and to let his prayer rise like incense, his...

• No. 561 Psalms 22:17-31

  This is the second half of the psalm that begins, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, the words Jesus cried from the cross. Its opening lines here are almost unbearably specific: I can count all my...

• No. 584 Psalms 72:1-20

  This is a psalm for a king, a prayer that the king would rule as God rules, and as it unfolds it paints a portrait of the ideal ruler, ultimately the messianic King. What is striking is what the psalm keeps...

• No. 612 Psalms 67:1-7

  This short psalm begins with a familiar request, an echo of the ancient priestly blessing: may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us. It is a prayer for God's favor, the kind of...

• No. 617 Psalms 16:1-11

  This psalm keeps circling one conviction: that God himself is the psalmist's true good and true joy. Apart from you, he tells the LORD, I have no good thing. The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; the lines...

• No. 620 Psalms 12:1-8

  This psalm opens with a cry that sounds strikingly current. Help, LORD, for the godly are gone, the faithful have vanished from among the children of men. Everyone lies to his neighbor; they speak with...

• No. 633 Psalms 75:1-10

  This psalm gives thanks to a God who judges at his own appointed time, and at its center is a truth that cuts against the whole striving logic of ambition. Speaking to the arrogant and the wicked who lift up...

• No. 658 Psalms 124:1-8

  Psalm 124 belongs to the Songs of Ascents, the short psalms 120 to 134 that pilgrims sang as they went up to Jerusalem. It is a thanksgiving, but it gives thanks in an unusual way, by describing at length the...

• No. 681 Psalms 31:17-24

  Psalm 31 is a prayer of trust worked out in the middle of trouble, and it is known for a line just before this section, into your hand I commit my spirit, the words Jesus would speak from the cross. These...

• No. 686 Psalms 4:1-8

  Psalm 4 is a prayer for the end of the day, the evening companion to Psalm 3's waking. It begins pressed and anxious, asking God for room in a tight place and relief from distress, and it turns on the people...

• No. 694 Psalms 44:1-16

  Psalm 44 is a prayer of the whole people, and it opens by remembering. We have heard with our ears, it says, what you did in the days of old; you drove out the nations and planted our fathers in the land. And...

• No. 708 Psalms 74:17-23

  Psalm 74 is a prayer screamed over the wreckage of the temple. Earlier in the psalm the poet describes enemies swinging axes in the sanctuary, burning it to the ground, and setting up their own banners where...

• No. 721 Psalms 135:17-21

  Psalm 135 is a hymn of praise, and near the end it turns to mock the gods of the nations. They have mouths, it says, but do not speak; eyes but do not see; ears but do not hear; and there is no breath in their...

• No. 771 Psalms 103:17-22

  Psalm 103 has just said the bleakest true thing about a human life. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field, and the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place...

• No. 784 Psalms 102:17-28

  Psalm 102 is the prayer of a man at the end of his rope, his days fading like a shadow, and in the middle of it he says something about how God listens. He has regarded the prayer of the destitute, the...

• No. 800 Psalms 42:1-11

  Psalm 42 is the prayer of a believer in the grip of a heavy sadness, and it is honest about it. It opens with one of the most famous images of longing in the Bible: as the deer pants for streams of water, so...

• No. 824 Psalms 133:1-3

  Psalm 133 is one of the shortest in the Bible, three verses, and it is simply a delight in one good thing: how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. That is the whole subject. And...

• No. 855 Psalms 7:1-17

  Psalm 7 is David's prayer under slander, hunted by people who, he says, would tear his soul like a lion with no one to rescue. And what he does with the false accusation is instructive. He does not spend the...

• No. 949 Psalms 39:1-13

  This psalm begins with David trying to hold his tongue. He resolves to keep silent, to muzzle his mouth so he will not sin while the wicked are watching, but the silence only makes the pressure build. His...

• No. 968 Psalms 89:1-16

  The psalm opens as a soaring song of God's steadfast love and faithfulness. I will sing of the LORD's loving kindness forever, the psalmist declares; love stands firm forever, your faithfulness is established...

• No. 1019 Psalms 33:1-16

  This psalm calls the righteous to praise, and to do it well: rejoice in the LORD, sing a new song, play skillfully with a shout of joy. Then it gives the reasons. The LORD's word is upright and his work...

• No. 1037 Psalms 119:17-32

  This section of the long psalm about God's word is a string of prayers. Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I...

• No. 1039 Psalms 26:1-12

  This psalm is a bold prayer to be examined. Vindicate me, LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, trusting in the LORD without wavering. Examine me, prove me, try my heart and my mind. The psalmist describes...

• No. 1061 Psalms 29:1-11

  This psalm is a storm set to music. It calls the heavenly beings to ascribe glory to the LORD, and then, seven times, it names the voice of the LORD sweeping across creation. His voice thunders over the...

• No. 1071 Psalms 97:1-12

  The LORD reigns, the psalm begins; let the earth rejoice and the coastlands be glad. But the picture of his reign is not all sunlit. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the...

• No. 1092 Psalms 111:1-10

  This psalm is a call to wholehearted thanksgiving. I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, it begins, and then it recounts his works: great, studied by all who delight in them, full of splendor and...

• No. 1093 Psalms 98:1-9

  Sing to the LORD a new song, the psalm begins, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and holy arm have worked salvation. And then a striking emphasis: the LORD has made known his salvation, openly...

• No. 1095 Psalms 132:1-18

  This psalm remembers David's consuming desire to build a house for God. It recalls his vow: I will not enter my house or get into my bed or give sleep to my eyes until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling...

• No. 1102 Psalms 35:1-16

  This is a psalm of a man under vicious attack. David cries for God to contend with those who contend with him, to take up shield and spear and say to his soul, I am your salvation. He asks that his attackers...

• No. 1107 Psalms 30:1-12

  This is a psalm of thanksgiving after deliverance from a deadly crisis. I will extol you, LORD, for you have lifted me up and not let my foes rejoice over me; you healed me, brought my soul up from the grave....

• No. 1117 Psalms 92:1-15

  This is the psalm for the Sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to the LORD, it begins, to declare his love in the morning and his faithfulness by night, with music. The psalmist marvels at how great God's...

• No. 1146 Psalms 61:1-8

  This is a prayer from far away and far down. From the end of the earth I call to you, the psalmist says, when my heart is faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. He recalls that God has been his...

• No. 1159 Psalms 104:1-16

  This great creation psalm sings of God as the maker and sustainer of the world. He is clothed in light, stretches out the heavens like a tent, rides on the clouds and the wings of the wind, makes the winds his...

• No. 1182 Psalms 106:17-32

  This psalm is a confession of Israel's long history of rebellion. It recounts the earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram, the golden calf at Horeb where they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox, their...

• No. 1205 Psalms 43:1-5

  This psalm is the prayer of a person far from the place of worship, feeling rejected and oppressed, asking God to vindicate him and plead his cause. Send out your light and your truth, he prays; let them lead...

• No. 1234 Psalms 119:81-96

  This section of the long psalm is the prayer of someone worn thin by affliction. My soul faints for your salvation, he says; my eyes fail looking for your word; when will you comfort me? He describes himself...

• No. 1244 Psalms 113:1-9

  This psalm calls God's servants to praise his name from the rising of the sun to its setting, for the LORD is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens. And then it asks: who is like the LORD our...

• No. 1287 Psalms 145:17-21

  The closing verses of David's great psalm of praise gather up several truths about God. The LORD is righteous in all his ways and gracious in all his works. He is near to all who call on him, to all who call...

• No. 1309 Psalms 86:1-17

  This is a prayer of a man who is poor and needy and knows it. He asks God to hear him, preserve him, be gracious to him, gladden his soul, because to God he lifts up his soul. He leans on who God is: good and...

• No. 1321 Psalms 63:1-11

  This is a psalm of thirst. God, you are my God, it begins; earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. The psalmist remembers...

• No. 1447 Psalms 71:1-16

  This is the prayer of one growing old. In you, LORD, I take refuge, it begins; be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always come. The psalmist recalls a lifetime of trust: you are my hope from my youth; I...

• No. 1452 Psalms 8:1-9

  This psalm moves between the vastness of God and the smallness of humanity. LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, it begins, you who have set your glory above the heavens. Then the...

• No. 1479 Psalms 34:1-16

  David's psalm overflows with praise and testimony. I will bless the LORD at all times, it begins; I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant,...

• No. 1480 Psalms 50:17-23

  In this psalm God brings a case against those who keep up religious appearances while living wickedly. You hate my instruction, he charges, and cast my words behind you; you befriend thieves, keep company with...

• No. 1493 Psalms 103:1-16

  This psalm calls the soul to bless the LORD and not forget his benefits: he forgives all your sins, heals all your diseases, redeems your life, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. He is merciful and...

• No. 1498 Psalms 147:1-20

  This psalm calls for praise to the God whose care spans the vast and the small. He builds up Jerusalem and gathers its outcasts; he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds; he counts the number of...

• No. 1522 Psalms 146:1-10

  This psalm sets two kinds of trust against each other. Do not put your trust in princes, it warns, in a son of man in whom there is no help; his breath departs, he returns to the earth, and on that very day...

• No. 1527 Psalms 3:1-8

  This psalm carries the note that David wrote it as he fled from his son Absalom. LORD, how many are my foes, it begins; many rise against me, many say there is no help for him in God. But you, LORD, are a...

• No. 1543 Psalms 115:1-18

  This psalm gives glory to God and mocks the idols of the nations. Not to us, LORD, but to your name give glory. Where is their God, the nations ask; but our God is in the heavens and does as he pleases, while...

• No. 1588 Psalms 24:1-10

  This psalm begins with God's ownership of everything: the earth is the LORD's, and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it, for he founded it. And then it asks a searching question: who may ascend...

• No. 1590 Psalms 28:1-9

  This psalm moves from anxious plea to confident joy. To you I call, LORD, my rock, it begins; do not be deaf to me, for if you are silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit. Hear my cry as I lift my...

• No. 1597 Psalms 33:17-22

  This psalm turns from the folly of trusting in strength to the security of trusting in God. A horse is a vain hope for victory, it says; for all its power it delivers no one. But behold, the eye of the LORD is...

• No. 1631 Psalms 74:1-16

  This is a lament from a time of devastation. The sanctuary has been destroyed and burned, the enemy has roared in the midst of God's assembly and set up their standards, and the people cry out: God, why have...

• No. 1693 Psalms 79:1-13

  This psalm is a raw lament over a devastated Jerusalem. The nations have invaded God's inheritance, defiled the temple, left the city in ruins and the bodies of the faithful unburied, food for birds and...

• No. 1701 Psalms 40:1-17

  The psalm opens with a testimony of rescue. I waited patiently for the LORD, David says, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet on a...

• No. 1788 Psalms 89:33-52

  The psalm has recited God's sworn covenant with David: I will not take my loving kindness from him, nor break my covenant; his throne will endure like the sun. And then the psalm turns, sharply, to lament: but...

• No. 1863 Psalms 128:1-6

  This short psalm pictures the blessedness of the one who fears the LORD. Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways, it begins. Such a person will eat the fruit of his own labor; it will be...

• No. 1878 Psalms 66:1-20

  This psalm calls all the earth to praise God for his awesome deeds, recalling how he turned the sea into dry land and brought his people through. It remembers the testing, too: you tested us, refined us like...

• No. 1932 Psalms 118:1-16

  This psalm of thanksgiving calls again and again on the refrain that God's loving kindness endures forever. Out of distress the psalmist called on the LORD, who answered him with freedom; the LORD is on his...

• No. 1956 Psalms 100:1-5

  This short psalm is a call to joyful worship. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth; serve the LORD with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know that the LORD is God; he made us, and we are...

• No. 1957 Psalms 134:1-3

  This is one of the shortest psalms, a call to worship addressed to those who serve in the night. Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the LORD's house; lift up your hands in the...

• No. 1990 Psalms 37:17-32

  This psalm contrasts the fate of the wicked with the security of the righteous. The arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous. And it gives a promise about those who belong to God:...

• No. 1994 Psalms 145:1-16

  This psalm of praise exalts God's greatness, goodness, and mercy. The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness; he is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his...

• No. 2023 Psalms 125:1-5

  This short psalm gives two images of security for those who trust in the LORD. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, it says, which cannot be moved but remains forever. And then a second image: as...

• No. 2085 Psalms 84:1-12

  This psalm of longing for God's house holds a line about the journey there. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, it says, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. And then: passing through the Valley of...

• No. 2089 Psalms 68:1-16

  This psalm of God's triumphant march exalts him as the champion of his people, before whom his enemies scatter like smoke. But amid the images of power comes a tender picture of the God who cares for the...

• No. 2102 Psalms 85:1-13

  This psalm, praying for the restoration of God's people, contains a line of surpassing beauty about God's saving work. Speaking of the salvation and peace God will bring, the psalmist says: mercy and truth...

• No. 2116 Psalms 139:17-24

  This psalm, which marvels at how completely God knows the psalmist, ends with a bold prayer. Having reflected on God's searching knowledge of him, the psalmist invites that searching in: Search me, God, and...

• No. 2193 Psalms 41:1-13

  In this psalm, the writer, sick and surrounded by enemies who wish his death, comes to the bitterest part of his suffering. It is not the illness, nor even the enemies who whisper against him, but a betrayal...

• No. 2200 Psalms 119:161-176

  Psalm 119, the great psalm celebrating the love of God's law, reaches its end. Through 176 verses the psalmist has praised God's word, rejoiced in it, loved it, obeyed it: those who love your law have great...

• No. 2204 Psalms 60:1-12

  This psalm begins in the pain of defeat. God, you have rejected us, the psalmist cries; you have broken us down; you have made us drink wine that makes us stagger. It is an honest lament in a hard time, when...

• No. 2206 Psalms 68:17-35

  In the midst of this psalm exalting God's greatness and his triumphant march, comes a line of surpassing tenderness. Amid the images of God's chariots and his ascent on high, the psalmist bursts out: Blessed...

• No. 2243 Psalms 76:1-12

  This psalm exalts God as the awesome judge before whom no power can stand. In Zion he breaks the weapons of war; at his rebuke the horse and chariot lie stunned; the strong lie plundered, none of the men of...

• No. 2254 Psalms 50:1-16

  In this psalm, God the judge speaks to his people about their worship, and he corrects a misunderstanding about sacrifice. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, he says; but do not think I need them. Every...

• No. 2259 Psalms 38:17-22

  This psalm is the cry of one in deep distress, weighed down by suffering, sin, and enemies. I am ready to fall, the psalmist says; my pain is continually before me. He does not hide his sin: I confess my...

• No. 2340 Psalms 136:17-26

  This psalm recounts God's great deeds, and after every single one it repeats the same refrain: for his loving kindness endures forever. He struck down kings, gave Israel their inheritance, and, the psalm says,...

• No. 2354 Psalms 106:1-16

  Psalm 106 opens with praise but quickly turns into a confession of the nation's history: we have sinned with our fathers. It recalls how, even at the Red Sea, the rescued people rebelled, and how quickly they...

• No. 2360 Psalms 142:1-7

  Psalm 142 is a prayer from a cornered place; its heading ties it to David hiding in a cave. He does not open with composure. He pours out his complaint, tells God his troubles, and names the worst of it...

• No. 2375 Psalms 119:129-144

  These stanzas of Psalm 119 keep circling one love, the word of God, from the vantage of someone low and hard-pressed. The writer says the entrance of God's words gives light and understanding even to the...

• No. 2381 Psalms 18:17-32

  David sings of a rescue from enemies stronger than he was, and he keeps circling one surprising reason for it. He was in the day of his calamity, hemmed in, and God brought him out into a large place. Why? The...

• No. 2393 Psalms 127:1-5

  This short psalm undercuts the myth of the self-made life. Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain; unless he guards the city, the watchman stays awake for nothing. It is pointless, it...

• No. 2406 Psalms 59:1-17

  David prays under siege, enemies prowling the city at evening like a pack of dogs, spewing threats, sure that no one hears them. He asks God to deliver him, and then his tone lifts. But you, LORD, laugh at...

• No. 2414 Psalms 143:1-12

  This is a prayer from the floor. The enemy has crushed David's life to the ground, his spirit faints, and he begins by asking God not to enter into judgment with him, since no one alive is righteous in God's...

• No. 2427 Psalms 27:1-14

  David opens with defiance against fear: the LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Even if an army encamps against him, his heart will not be afraid. And then, in the middle of all these...

• No. 2431 Psalms 135:1-16

  This psalm calls the servants of the LORD to praise, and grounds the praise in who God is and what he does: the LORD is great, above all so-called gods; whatever he pleases he does, in heaven and earth and...

• No. 2467 Psalms 117:1-2

  This psalm runs only two verses, and it wastes no words. Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. And then the reason, just as compact: for his loving kindness is great toward us, and the...

• No. 2483 Psalms 9:1-20

  David's song of thanks moves between celebrating God's righteous judgment and pleading from his own affliction. God sits enthroned judging rightly, he says, and here is what that means for the small and...

• No. 2515 Psalms 91:1-16

  This psalm promises deep safety to the one who lives close to God: whoever dwells in the shelter of God rests under his wings, and finds him a refuge and fortress. It speaks of protection from terror by night...

• No. 2561 Psalms 107:1-16

  Psalm 107 opens with a summons: give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, and let the redeemed of the LORD say so. Then it tells their stories in turn, wanderers lost in the desert, hungry and fainting;...

• No. 2562 Psalms 87:1-7

  Psalm 87 sings of Zion, the city of God, and does something unexpected with the roll of its citizens. God records the peoples, and among those written down as born in Zion are Rahab, a name for Egypt, and...

• No. 2586 Psalms 56:1-13

  David prays while enemies hound him all day long, trampling and twisting his words, watching his every step. His refrain is defiant trust: when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you; in God I trust, I will...

• No. 2592 Psalms 73:17-28

  Asaph had nearly lost his footing, envying the prosperity of the wicked until it made him bitter, until, he says, I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Looking back on his own envy, he...

• No. 2601 Psalms 119:97-112

  This stretch of the long psalm is a love song to God's word. Oh, how I love your law, it begins; it is my meditation all day. The psalmist calls God's words sweeter than honey to his mouth, and then gives a...

• No. 2613 Psalms 20:1-9

  Psalm 20 is a prayer for a king going out to battle, and its most quoted line names two ways of facing a threat. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. The...

• No. 2628 Psalms 89:17-32

  The psalm rehearses God's covenant with David, the anointing, the promises, the pledge that his throne will endure. And it comes to a clause that is easy to miss but full of comfort: if his children forsake my...

• No. 2631 Psalms 123:1-4

  This short psalm is a picture of patient dependence. To you I lift up my eyes, it begins, you who are enthroned in the heavens. And then the image: as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as...

• No. 2648 Psalms 25:1-16

  David lifts his soul to God and asks to be taught his ways, to be guided in truth. And then he does something bold with his sin. He does not minimize it to make it forgivable; he names it plainly and prays,...

• No. 2650 Psalms 55:1-16

  David pours out a prayer of anguish, restless and moaning, wishing he had wings like a dove to fly away and be at rest. But the wound that cuts is not from an enemy. It was not an enemy who insulted me, he...

• No. 2662 Psalms 130:1-8

  Out of the depths I cry to you, this psalm begins, from the lowest place a voice reaching up. And it names the thing that would sink anyone: if you, LORD, kept a record of sins, who could stand? No one. But...

• No. 2708 Psalms 108:1-13

  This psalm is stitched together from two earlier ones, and it opens on a high note. "My heart is steadfast, God. I will sing and make music with my soul." The singer means to wake the dawn with praise and to...

• No. 2772 Psalms 149:1-9

  This psalm bursts with joyful worship. Sing to the LORD a new song, rejoice in your Maker, praise his name with dancing and tambourine and harp, for the LORD takes pleasure in his people and crowns the humble...

• No. 2777 Psalms 34:17-22

  This is a psalm of steady trust, and it is honest about pain even as it promises rescue. The righteous cry, and the LORD hears and delivers them from all their troubles. He is near to the brokenhearted and...

• No. 2818 Psalms 105:17-32

  The psalm retells Israel's story, and it reads Joseph's suffering in a startling way: God sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave, his feet bruised with shackles, his neck in irons. It stayed that...

• No. 2834 Psalms 45:1-17

  This is a royal wedding song, sung first for the marriage of an Israelite king. It praises the king as excellent among men, grace on his lips, and calls him to ride out for truth and righteousness; then it...

• No. 2856 Psalms 77:1-20

  The psalmist is in deep trouble, crying out to God through the night, his soul refusing to be comforted. He asks the questions that terrify anyone in a long dark season: Has the Lord rejected us forever? Has...

• No. 2860 Psalms 119:33-48

  This stretch of the long psalm on God's word is one prayer after another to be taught and transformed. Teach me the way of your statutes. Give me understanding. Direct me in the path of your commandments....

• No. 2867 Psalms 57:1-11

  David wrote this psalm hiding in a cave from Saul, and you can feel both the danger and the resolve in it. Be merciful to me, God; in the shadow of your wings I take refuge until the storms of destruction...

• No. 2900 Psalms 37:1-16

  This wisdom psalm keeps circling one command: do not fret. Do not fret over evildoers or envy the wicked, for they will soon wither like grass. Instead, trust in the LORD and do good; delight in him and he...

• No. 2902 Psalms 114:1-8

  This short psalm bursts with images of creation reacting to God. When Israel came out of Egypt, the sea saw it and fled, the Jordan turned back, the mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like lambs....

• No. 2909 Psalms 53:1-6

  The fool says in his heart, there is no God, and the psalm traces the corruption that follows from it: they are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on all...

• No. 2929 Psalms 90:1-17

  This psalm of Moses holds human frailty up against the eternal God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations; before the mountains were born, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God....

• No. 2943 Psalms 25:17-22

  This is a short and unguarded prayer. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction, forgive all my sins, look at my many enemies. Guard my soul and deliver me;...

• No. 2946 Psalms 6:1-10

  This is a psalm of anguish. LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger; have mercy on me, for I am faint; heal me, for my bones are troubled and my soul is in deep anguish. How long? Every night I flood my bed with...

• No. 2960 Psalms 13:1-6

  This short psalm travels a long way in six verses. It opens in raw anguish: How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face? How long must I carry sorrow in my heart and watch my...

• No. 2984 Psalms 105:1-16

  This psalm calls for thanksgiving and then fuels it with memory. Give thanks, call on his name, tell of his wonderful works, remember what he has done. And at the center is the reason it all holds together: he...

• No. 2985 Psalms 122:1-9

  This is a pilgrim's song. I was glad, it begins, when they said to me, let us go to the house of the LORD. Now our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem, the city where the tribes go up to give...

• No. 3004 Psalms 21:1-13

  This royal psalm celebrates the king, but look closely at where his joy and strength lie. The king rejoices in the LORD's strength; God has given him his heart's desire, set a crown of gold on his head,...

• No. 3021 Psalms 69:17-36

  This is a psalm of deep suffering that the Gospels apply to Christ. Reproach has broken my heart, the psalmist says; I looked for pity and found none, for comforters and found none; they gave me poison for...

• No. 3027 Psalms 106:33-48

  This is a hard, honest confession of Israel's history. They did not drive out the nations as commanded, but mixed with them, learned their ways, served their idols, and fell even to the horror of sacrificing...

• No. 3064 Psalms 78:17-32

  The psalm recalls how Israel kept sinning in the wilderness, testing God in their hearts by demanding food. Even after he struck the rock and water gushed out, they sneered: can God spread a table in the...

• No. 3065 Psalms 47:1-9

  This psalm bursts with joyful worship of God as King. Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy, for the LORD Most High is a great King over all the earth. God has gone up with a...

• No. 3069 Psalms 139:1-16

  This is the great psalm of God's intimate knowledge of us. LORD, you have searched me and known me; you know when I sit and when I rise; you discern my thoughts from far away; before a word is on my tongue,...

• No. 3082 Psalms 11:1-7

  In the LORD I take refuge, the psalm begins; so how can you say to me, flee like a bird to the mountains? The wicked bend their bows to shoot in the dark at the upright, and the question rises: if the...

• No. 3085 Psalms 51:1-19

  This is the great prayer of repentance in Scripture, David's cry after his sin. Have mercy on me, God, according to your steadfast love; wash me thoroughly from my iniquity; against you, and you only, have I...

• No. 3092 Psalms 78:33-48

  The psalm recalls Israel's fickle repentance in the wilderness. When God struck them, they sought him, remembered that he was their rock and redeemer. But, the psalm says, they flattered him with their mouths...

• No. 3111 Psalms 109:1-16

  This is the psalm of a man falsely accused. They repay me evil for good, he says, and hatred for my love; in return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. And then comes a long, fierce string...

• No. 3155 Psalms 94:1-16

  This is a cry for justice. O LORD, God of vengeance, rise up; how long will the wicked exult? They crush your people, kill the widow and the foreigner, murder the fatherless, and say, the LORD does not see....

• No. 3173 Psalms 54:1-7

  Save me, O God, by your name, the psalmist prays; hear my prayer, for strangers and violent men have risen against me and seek my life, men who do not set God before them. And then the psalm pivots on a single...

• No. 3211 Psalms 69:1-16

  This is the prayer of one drowning in trouble. Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck; I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold; I am weary with my crying, my throat is parched. Those who...

• No. 3255 Psalms 22:1-16

  This psalm gives voice to a soul's anguish: my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And Jesus made these very words his own from the cross. Yet even in the cry, the psalm...

• No. 3272 Psalms 65:1-13

  This psalm moves outward in widening circles of praise. It begins with forgiveness, you atoned for our transgressions, then turns to the God who hears prayer and is the hope of all the ends of the earth, then...

• No. 3285 Psalms 78:1-16

  This teaching psalm is about handing faith down. We will not hide them from their children, the psalmist says, telling to the coming generation the praises of the LORD, his strength, and the wonders he has...

• No. 3393 Psalms 140:1-13

  This is the prayer of someone hunted, surrounded by violent men who plot in their hearts, sharpen their tongues like serpents, and lay snares along his path. He cries out for their schemes to fail and recoil...

• No. 3395 Psalms 101:1-8

  This psalm is a series of resolutions for a life of integrity, made especially by one in a position of authority. And notice how personal and practical they are. I will walk with integrity of heart within my...

• No. 3423 Psalms 109:17-31

  This is among the harsh imprecatory psalms, full of cries against a treacherous enemy who loved to curse. But look where the psalmist himself stands and where he finally turns. He is poor and needy, his heart...

• No. 3438 Psalms 64:1-10

  The psalmist prays for protection from a hidden, verbal assault: enemies who sharpen their tongues like swords, aim bitter words like arrows, and shoot from ambush at the innocent, plotting in secret and...

• No. 3554 Psalms 14:1-7

  The psalm opens with a stark diagnosis: the fool says in his heart, there is no God, and the result is corruption, for a life lived as if God does not see leads to abominable deeds. And the psalm's verdict is...

• No. 3586 Psalms 112:1-10

  This psalm paints a portrait of the person who fears the LORD and delights greatly in his commandments, and it is a beautiful picture. Such a person is gracious, merciful, and righteous; he deals generously...

• No. 3598 Psalms 55:17-23

  The psalmist, under attack and betrayed by a close friend, gives us both a rhythm of prayer and a great promise. He cries out to God evening and morning and at noon, a discipline of turning to God again and...

• No. 3601 Psalms 118:17-29

  This psalm rings with resurrection hope and thanksgiving. I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD. Though the LORD had disciplined him severely, he did not hand him over to death....

• No. 3603 Psalms 131:1-3

  This short psalm is a picture of humble contentment and rest. My heart is not lifted up, the psalmist says, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for...

• No. 3629 Psalms 120:1-7

  This short psalm is the cry of someone worn down by living among the hostile and the deceitful. In my distress I cried to the LORD, and he answered me; deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful...

• No. 3653 Psalms 148:1-14

  This psalm is a great symphony of praise, summoning all creation to worship its Maker. It begins in the heights, angels, sun, moon, stars, and moves down to the earth, sea creatures, weather, mountains, trees,...

• No. 3672 Psalms 136:1-16

  This psalm has a simple, memorable structure: after each line, the refrain returns, for his steadfast love endures forever. Again and again the psalm names something God has done, made the heavens, spread out...

• No. 3674 Psalms 78:65-72

  After recounting Israel's long faithlessness, the psalm ends with a picture of God's grace: he chose Judah, established Zion, and chose David his servant, taking him from the sheepfolds, from tending the...

• No. 3690 Psalms 126:1-6

  This psalm remembers the joy of restoration: when the LORD brought his people back from captivity, it was so wonderful that it felt like a dream, and their mouths were filled with laughter and their tongues...

• No. 3706 Psalms 19:1-14

  This psalm celebrates two ways God speaks. First, creation: the heavens declare the glory of God, day and night pouring out a wordless speech that reaches to the ends of the earth. The whole cosmos testifies...

• No. 3707 Psalms 62:1-12

  This psalm is a great statement of trust in God alone. For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation; he only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. The...

• No. 3731 Psalms 93:1-5

  This short psalm is a majestic declaration of God's kingship: the LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty and strength; his throne is established from of old, and he is from everlasting. And it paints a vivid...

• No. 3733 Psalms 150:1-6

  The book of Psalms ends where it always tends, in praise, and Psalm 150 is one great crescendo of it. Praise God in his sanctuary and in his heavens; praise him for his acts of power and his surpassing...

• No. 3756 Psalms 116:1-19

  This psalm opens with a warmth rare even in the Psalms: I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. The psalmist recalls a time when the cords of death encompassed him, when he was...

• No. 3761 Psalms 18:1-16

  David begins this psalm with a rush of images for the God who has rescued him: I love you, O LORD, my strength; the LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my...

• No. 3772 Psalms 144:1-15

  David praises God as his rock and strength, the one who trains and sustains him, and then pauses in wonder at a humbling thought: LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?...

• No. 3793 Psalms 18:33-50

  This section of David's psalm of victory is full of strength, God arming him for battle, steadying his feet, giving him triumph over his enemies. But at its center is a line of surprising tenderness: your...

• No. 3831 Psalms 31:1-16

  This psalm moves through deep distress, the psalmist wasting away with grief, slandered, plotted against, forgotten like the dead, treated like broken pottery. And yet running through it is a thread of steady...

• No. 3836 Psalms 88:1-18

  This is a psalm of unrelieved darkness, and it ends without resolution. The psalmist is overwhelmed by trouble, feeling near death, abandoned by friends, weighed down as if by God's own wrath, and its final...

• No. 3845 Psalms 17:1-15

  David prays for God's protection from those who surround him, using two images of tender care: keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. He asks to be guarded as one guards a...

• No. 3867 Psalms 10:1-18

  This psalm gives voice to a painful question we sometimes feel but hesitate to say: why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? The psalmist looks at the wicked prospering,...

• No. 3904 Psalms 102:1-16

  This psalm of the afflicted begins in the depths of personal suffering. The psalmist's days are consumed like smoke, his bones burn, his heart withers like grass; he is so distressed that he forgets to eat,...

• No. 3912 Psalms 38:1-16

  This is a psalm of a soul crushed by the weight of its own sin. The psalmist feels God's hand heavy upon him, his body sick, his wounds festering because of his foolishness; my iniquities have gone over my...

• No. 3955 Psalms 36:1-12

  This psalm sets two things starkly side by side. First, the wickedness of those who have no fear of God, who flatter themselves, deceive, and do not even hate their own sin. But then, as if lifting his eyes...

• No. 3966 Psalms 96:1-13

  This psalm is a call to worship that reaches out to the whole world. Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth; declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the...

• No. 3971 Psalms 119:145-160

  This section of the great psalm on God's word overflows with a passionate love for it and a deep dependence on it. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words, the psalmist says; my eyes are...

• No. 3993 Psalms 52:1-9

  This psalm confronts a boastful, evil man who trusts in his own wealth and cunning, whose tongue plots destruction and who loves evil more than good. Of such a man the psalm says, God will break him down...

• No. 3995 Psalms 1:1-6

  The book of Psalms opens by setting two ways of life before us. Blessed is the one, it says, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners, but whose delight is in the law of...

• No. 4034 Psalms 44:17-26

  This psalm gives voice to a hard experience: suffering while remaining faithful. All this has come upon us, the psalmist says, yet we have not forgotten you or been false to your covenant; our heart has not...

• No. 4059 Psalms 15:1-5

  The psalm asks a searching question: LORD, who shall dwell in your sanctuary? Who shall live on your holy hill? Who may come near to the holy God and abide in his presence? And the answer is not about ritual...

• No. 4074 Psalms 119:1-16

  The longest psalm opens with the blessedness of those who walk in God's law, and within it comes one of the practical verses about the power of Scripture in our lives: I have stored up your word in my heart,...

• No. 4106 Psalms 70:1-5

  This short psalm is a cry of urgent need, and it does not stand on ceremony. Make haste, O God, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me, it begins, and it ends with the same urgency: I am poor and needy;...

• No. 4128 Psalms 119:113-128

  This section of the long psalm on God's word overflows with love for it and with the security it brings. You are my hiding place and my shield, the psalmist says; I hope in your word. And later: I love your...

• No. 4160 Psalms 82:1-8

  This psalm pictures God standing to judge the rulers and judges of the earth, those given authority to administer justice, and his charge against them is pointed: how long will you judge unjustly and show...

• No. 4170 Psalms 81:1-16

  This psalm, a call to joyful worship, turns into a heartfelt lament from God over his people. He recounts how he delivered them from Egypt, and he makes a generous promise: open your mouth wide, and I will...

• No. 4212 Psalms 94:17-23

  The psalmist looks back on a time when he was near collapse. Unless the LORD had been my help, he says, my soul would soon have dwelt in the land of silence. He was slipping, sinking, nearly gone. And he...

• No. 4224 Psalms 119:65-80

  The psalmist makes a startling confession about his suffering. Before I was afflicted, he says, I went astray, but now I keep your word. And more startling still: it is good for me that I was afflicted, that I...

• No. 4262 Psalms 58:1-11

  This is a hard psalm, a cry against corrupt judges and violent, wicked people who plot injustice and spread their poison. The psalmist's outrage is raw; he calls on God in vivid, even shocking terms to break...

• No. 4300 Psalms 32:1-11

  David describes two states of soul, and the contrast is vivid. First, the misery of unconfessed sin: when I kept silent, he says, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long; God's hand was heavy on...

• No. 4313 Psalms 119:49-64

  In the midst of affliction and mockery from the arrogant, the psalmist finds his comfort in one place: God's word. This is my comfort in my affliction, he says, that your promise gives me life. When he is...

• No. 4318 Psalms 129:1-8

  This psalm gives voice to God's people looking back over a long history of affliction: greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, let Israel now say, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they...