Complete List of Psalm Renditions
Read through all the Psalm renditions written so far.
Psalm 1
Blessed is the one
Who does not walk in the path of the guilty,
Nor makes his stand with the rebels,
Nor dwells with those who deride the Lord;
But all his desire is on the torah,
It growls through him day and night.
He is like the Tree
That God planted by Eden’s split streams,
The gift of its fruit is never late,
Its leaves are changeless and costless.
All his work flourishes.
Not so the rebels,
They are withered already, like dead leaves.
They carry their exile within them,
Pursuing the wind.
When the Lord judges all things,
They will not rise.
When the Lord gathers the family of the just
They will not be found.
God knows those who cherished his way,
And gives to the wicked the perishing they sought.
Psalm 8
O Lord, our Lord,
How bright and vast is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the sky and stars and heavenly heights.
Out of the mouths of children and infants,
You have made a fortress against those who would lay siege,
To make the enemy and avenger cease.
When I consider your heavens,
The things even your fingers have done,
The moon and the stars which you have set in place,
I wonder: “What are humans that you remember us?
And the son of man that you care for, seek, and watch over him?”
Yet you have made him a little lesser than the beings of the heavenly realm,
And crowned him with glory and splendor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen
And also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea,
And all things that pass along the paths of the sea.
O Lord, our Lord,
How bright and vast is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 14
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They have done horrors of injustice; they are corrupt.
There is not one who builds up and multiplies
The rich goodness God gave the world.
God looks down from the heavenly realm
On the children of humanity
To see whether there are any who are wise,
Who seek after God.
They have all fallen away;
Together they have become corrupt.
There is none who does good,
Not even one.
Do those who fashion evil instead of good know nothing?
They devour my people as they devour bread.
They do not call out to God.
They are in terror where there is none to fear.
They are in flight when none pursue.
God scatters the bones of those
Who set themselves against you.
They are put to shame, for God rejects them.
Who will bring the gift of salvation from Zion?
When God restores the captives,
Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad.
Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The dome of the sky displays the works of his hands.
The created world pours out speech by day,
And reveals wisdom by night.
Though there is no speech, nor are there words—
For their sound cannot be heard—
Yet their gospel goes out through all the earth,
And their voice to the end of the world.
He has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
It comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber
And runs its course with joy and strength
Like the men of renown of ancient days.
It springs from the mouth of the sky
And its circuit spans the whole of the heavens.
Nothing is hidden from its heat.
God’s torah is whole and unmarred,
Drawing back all people to life;
The word of the Lord is faithful,
Giving wisdom to fools;
The law of the Lord fits perfectly,
Bringing joy to the inmost place of human beings.
The commandments of God are pure,
Opening the eyes of those who hear them;
The fear of the Lord is clean,
It will remain forever;
The justice of the Lord is true,
And able to justify completely.
God’s ways are more to be desired than gold,
And are sweeter than honey.
There is great consequence in keeping them,
And by them God’s servants are enlightened.
Who can understand his own errors?
I want to be declared innocent of all my hidden faults.
Lord, hold me back from all my pride;
Do not let it rule over and devour me.
I long to be done with it,
And empty of all my rebellion.
Let my words and the music of my heart
Bring you delight
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why am I left?
Why are you distant, my deliverer, from all my groaning?
O my God, I call out to you by day, but you do not answer,
And by night, but I find no rest in the silence.
Yet you are holy,
You abide in the praises of we who struggle with you, your people.
In you our fathers trusted;
They trusted you and you saved them;
They called out to you and you rescued them;
They believed and they were not disappointed.
But I am a worm, not a human,
Scorned by everyone, disdained by all.
Everyone who sees me ridicules me.
They whisper about me; they shake their heads.
They say, “He has fallen in with the Lord, let God deliver him;
Let God snatch him from danger, for he seems to delight in God.”
Yet you, Lord, are he who drew me from the womb;
You made me trust you at my mother’s breast.
I was flung on you from birth,
And from my mother’s womb, you have been my God.
Do not forsake me,
For my trouble has come,
And there is none to help.
The beasts surround me;
The creatures of the dark gods circle around me;
They open their mouths,
They hunger and scream.
I am spilled like water,
My bones are pulled apart;
My heart is wax;
It melts inside me;
My strength is like broken pottery,
My tongue sticks in my mouth.
You have put me in the dust of death.
Monstrous men encircle me;
I am at the center of an evil congregation.
Like lions, they gnaw my hands and feet.
I can count all my bones—
They stare at me, they measure me with their eyes;
They divide my clothing among them,
And cast lots for my garments.
But you, Lord, do not forsake me!
You are my help, come to my aid!
Snatch me away from the sword,
Deliver my precious life from the hand of my enemies.
Save me from the mouths of the lions.
Hear me! Save me from the power of these creatures.
I will tell your name to my family;
In the assembly I will praise you, saying
“You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you children of Jacob, glorify him,
Stand in awe of him, children of Israel!
He neither despises nor detests
The affliction of the afflicted,
Nor has he hidden his face from him.
He always hears those who cry out to him.
I will praise you in the midst of all your people;
I will give you all I have to give alongside those who revere you.
The afflicted will eat and be filled.
All those who seek God will praise him;
They will live forever.
The ends of the earth will remember him
And return to the Lord,
All the families of the earth
Will join in worship before God.
For God is king,
And he reigns over all the earth.
Psalm 29
Come, sons of God.
God is glory and abundance and weight,
Give him the honor due his name.
Wrap yourselves in his holiness as a garment
And bow before him.
The voice of God hovers over the waters;
The glory of God thunders over the sea.
The voice of the Lord is power itself;
The voice of the Lord bears its own honor.
The voice of the Lord shatters trees,
God breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip and dance like a calf
And Sirion shake like a wild ox.
The voice of the Lord gouges out flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
And makes the wilderness of Kadesh twist and tremble.
The voice of God makes the deer writhe in birth,
And fells the forests,
And all in his temple cry, “Glory!”
The Lord dwells in the flood.
He is enthroned as king forever.
May the Lord give strength as a gift to his people.
May he bless them with peace and flourishing.
Psalm 32
Blessed is the one whose broken trusts are mended,
Who obtains a covering for his failures.
Blessed is the one in whom God finds no guilt,
And in whose spirit there is no falsehood.
When I kept silent, my body wasted away;
My groans wracked me all day.
Day and night your hand pressed down upon me;
I sizzled and blackened inside your heat.
I revealed my sin to you,
And I did not hide my wrongs;
I said, “I will cast my guilt down before the Lord.”
And you took up and bore
The marks of my misbegotten pleasures.
Therefore, let all who would keep faith with you,
Lift prayers to you while you may be found;
Surely the flood will not reach him.
You are a shelter for me, a hiding place;
You watch over me in my distress;
You encircle me with your deliverance.
You say, “I will teach you to walk in my way;
I will be your counselor and will always watch over you.
Do not be like a horse or mule who have no understanding,
But must be brought about with bit or bridle.”
The sorrows of the wicked multiply,
But God’s unfailing commitment surrounds the one who trusts in him.
Be glad, people of God!
Shout for joy, you whom God has saved.
Psalm 34
Lord, you are my hallow and hope.
I tell of your marvels.
My life is your boast.
May those who are cast off
Take comfort and consolation.
May the rumor of God grow great among us.
I sought the Lord and he found me.
My fears were shadows that fled
For he shone. I forgot
All the things my shame had given me.
I shook inside his grip and slipped,
But I was still safe.
The Lord encamps around those who fear him.
He remains their deliverance.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
He keeps all who make him their refuge.
He is the Fear that hallows his holy ones.
He is the feast the hungry lack.
He is the goodness that draws them back.
Come, children, listen.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
If you want life and you love your days,
Come take his goodness.
Do not let your mouth make evil,
Nor your tongue builds deceptions.
Turn aside from evil and choose the good.
Search for flourishing and fly toward it.
God watches the righteous
And listens for their cries for help.
He turns from those who make evil
And they are cut off.
The righteous raise their prayers to him
And he is swiftly at their side.
He draws nearer to the brokenhearted than they know.
He saves and frees those who have been
Crushed, bruised, and snuffed out.
Though the afflictions, fears, and wounds
Of the righteous teem against them,
The Lord delivers his people out of them all.
They are pressed but unbroken,
But the wicked meet their own afflictions,
And are condemned by their own hate.
The Lord saves his servants.
None who shelter in him will be condemned.
Psalm 42
As the deer pants for streams of water,
So I long for you, O God.
My whole being thirsts for the living God.
When shall I come to him and see his face?
Day and night my grief abides,
And my tears have been my food,
While they say, “Where is your God after all?”
These things I remember
As I pour out my soul:
How I would come and go with the others
And walk with them slowly into the house of God.
We laughed long in song and praise.
There were portions of joy for all
Who joined us in the celebrations those days.
But why are you cast down, o my soul?
Why do you roar and rage within me?
Wait for God, even yet praise him,
For he is the God who saves.
When my soul slips down, I remember you
From the land of the Jordan and mount Hermon
And mount Mizar where the rivers flow down
From the high places.
Though the abyss calls to me
In the voice of your waterfalls,
Though all your waves and breakers
Have piled upon me, I will remember
How by day you have laid your love on me
And by night your song is with me.
I bow in prayer to the God who guards my life.
I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I walk in the dark of grief
Because of the distress my enemies have brought me?”
I am bound and shut up
As if all my bones were broken.
While they say to me all day long:
“Where is your God?
Where is your God?”
Why are you cast down, o my soul?
Why do you roar and rage within me?
Wait for God, even yet praise him,
For he is the God who saves.
Psalm 46
God is my shelter and strength.
His solace finds me in all my trouble
His help follows me through all my fears.
Therefore I will be at peace though the earth gives way,
Though the mountains shake and slip into the heart of the sea,
Though its waters roar and foam,
And the mountains tremble at its rising.
There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God,
The holy dwelling place of the Most High.
God is in her midst; she will not be shaken.
God is her help when morning dawns.
The wayward nations roar, the kingdoms tremble
When God speaks, the earth melts.
The God of Hosts is with us
The God of Jacob is our mountain fortress.
Come see the works of the Lord,
How he desolated the earth.
He makes battle cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and snaps the spear.
He burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in all the earth.”
The God of Hosts is with us
The God of Jacob is our rock of refuge.
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God.
According to the love you bear me
Beyond all my circumstances.
According to your great compassion,
Wipe away the guilt from the bonds I have broken.
Tread me until all my crookedness is gone,
Wash from me the joy I felt at my failures.
I am familiar with all my rebellion,
And the monstrous loves that would consume me
Are always at my side.
You are the one I have failed,
In fashioning evil instead of good.
Even if all were false, your words would still be true.
Even if all were guilty, your justice would remain.
From birth I was twisted and bent;
I was marred even from the moment I was conceived.
But when you find firmness and faith inside me, it delights you.
You teach me wisdom and store it within me.
Sprinkle me with blood and I will be clean;
Trample me in the water and I will be whiter than snow.
I want to hear joy and gladness;
Let the parts of me you have broken rejoice again.
Hide from yourself all the times I have cherished the wrong;
Utterly remove them as though they never were.
Do not fling me away from your presence.
Do not separate me from your light and life.
Summon me back once again to the joy of your salvation,
Teach me to lean on you while you hold me up.
Then I will show others the path I walked back to you,
And they will lay down their revolt and return.
Rescue me from the guilt on my hands,
O God, my deliverer, my salvation,
And my tongue will tell of your justice.
O Lord, open my mouth and I will praise you.
For you do not delight in sacrifices or I would give them;
You will not accept a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A crushed heart that knows it is shattered, O God,
This you will not despise.
Do good to Zion because you delight in it;
Build up the walls of Jerusalem;
Then you will take delight in the right sacrifices,
All the offerings you have asked for
Will be brought to you and laid on your altar.
Psalm 53
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They have done horrors of injustice; they are corrupt.
There is not one who builds up and multiplies
The rich goodness God gave the world.
God looks down from the heavenly realm
On the children of humanity
To see whether there are any who are wise,
Who seek after God.
They have all fallen away;
Together they have become corrupt.
There is none who does good,
Not even one.
Do those who fashion evil instead of good know nothing?
They devour my people as they devour bread.
They do not call out to God.
They are in terror where there is none to fear.
They are in flight when none pursue.
God scatters the bones of those
Who set themselves against you.
They are put to shame, for God rejects them.
Who will bring the gift of salvation from Zion?
When God restores the captives,
Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad.
Psalm 73
Truly, God is good to his people,
To the one whose heart is clean and empty and true.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
My steps had nearly slipped
When I looked at fools with envy,
And saw the peace and happiness
That the wicked build for themselves.
Their lives are unfettered by pain,
Their bodies are fat and sleek.
They don’t toil as others do.
They do not carry the touch of pain
Everywhere they go like I do.
They wear their glory as an ornament
But violence wraps around them like a garment.
Their eyes cast about for the choicest things,
And they fill their hearts with the follies they find.
They laugh and lace their words with misery.
Their mouths assault the heavens
While their tongues stride through the earth, boasting.
Therefore, when the watching world looks
It finds no fault with them.
They say, “What does God know?
The Almighty has nothing on us.”
Look! These wretches are always at ease.
Their strength only gathers around them.
In vain I have kept my heart clean!
For nothing have I washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I am stricken. When morning comes
I stand exposed, a living rebuke.
If I were to speak of this I would betray your people,
So I lay my hand across my mouth and wait.
When I considered the meaning of all of this,
It was a burden to me,
Until I came into the sanctuary of God
And saw the end toward which their riches run.
You set them in a slippery place
And they slide to ruin.
In a moment they are laid to waste.
All the fear they fled sweeps them away
And like a dream upon waking, they are gone.
Lord, you disdain the ruin they made of your image.
When my heart filled with gall
And my heart grew sharp toward you,
I was a fool. I didn’t understand.
I was like a beast before you.
Despite it all, I am still with you.
You hold me by the hand.
Your counsel leads me.
You walk me toward your glory.
Whom have I in the heavens but you?
And on earth, what is my delight but you?
My flesh and my heart might fail,
But God remains the rock where I take shelter.
He is my portion and my lot forever.
Those who remove themselves from you will perish.
Those who wed themselves to another god will disappear.
But my goodness is found near God.
I have made him my refuge
And he has shown me marvels.
Psalm 84
Lord, my heart is bound to your dwelling place.
It is where I belong and long for.
When I end, when I am finished, when I am spent,
I will be safe inside the home and holy place of God.
My heart and flesh shout for joy
To the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young,
At your altar, O Lord of Hosts,
My king and my God.
Everyone who makes their home in your house is blessed;
Like birdsong, their mouths are filled with praise.
Blessed are those for whom you are their only power,
In whose heart are the pathways to Zion.
As they pass through the wasteland,
Fountains burst forth
And the early rain wraps the land in blessing.
They walk from strength to strength,
As each one appears before God in Zion.
O God, hear my prayer!
Listen, O God of Jacob.
You are our shield;
Look on the face of your anointed.
A day in your courts is filled with more goodness,
Than a thousand days elsewhere.
I would rather serve at the doors of the house of God,
Than heap up riches in the wilderness with the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and a shield;
He is the one who gives grace and glory.
He withholds no goodness
From those who walk with him.
O God,
Blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Psalm 86
Listen to me, Lord, and answer me,
For I am afflicted
And I am in need.
Keep me and guard me,
For I have kept faith these years.
Deliver me—I trust in you, my God.
Give me grace,
For I call to you day after day.
Lead me back to joy,
For I offer you my very life to bear up and carry.
You are good and are ready to forgive.
Your unwavering love
Runs to all who ask for it.
Hear my prayer.
The day of trouble is near.
I need your favor to follow me
Out onto the ice.
When the cold water finds me
I will call out
And you will answer.
There is nothing like you
Among all the things that claim my love.
All the wayward nations you scattered
Will return and bow and take their place
In the long telling of your glory.
You are immense; your wonders waken us.
You alone are God.
When the snow falls,
Show me your way
That I might walk with you and not fall.
Unite the shards that my fears
Have made of my frayed heart.
I lay my whole self down
Beneath the weight of your glory.
The dark water is below me
And only your steadfast love
Holds me above the abyss.
O God, the things I thought I lost
Are rising up to seek my life.
O Lord, how can your love
Abide my renunciations?
You are slow to anger.
Your overwhelming love overflows.
You are faithful
Though I was always elsewhere.
I need your strength to stand—
The chasm is opening to swallow me.
I can’t see your way to walk in it.
Make me remember
The days when you helped me
And the nights when you consoled me.
Help me come back
From what I have done to myself.
Help me find again
The home I walked away from.
Psalm 88
Lord, you hold my salvation.
Day and night I cry out. Do you see?
May these cries pass for prayer
As they rise to you.
My life is full with misery.
With one hand I could touch the grave
And silently topple nameless into the pit.
I have only the strength to slip
Into the sea with the other dead.
They would accept me into the fraternity
Of those whom you forgot,
Whom you cut off and cast aside.
You pulled me into the dark in secret.
You tumble me along the seafloor.
I sway and stagger under the billows.
Above my head is everything lost
To the water. I crush.
I am separated from all who knew me,
Who held me in their minds
And kept me in their affections.
You set a horror on me and they fled.
I am engulfed, shut in. I cannot go out.
I swing my hands in sorrow and shout.
Why this darkness?
I thought I would see wonders.
I thought I held unearned love.
I thought in death I would rise up and praise you.
I thought in ruin I would meet your faithfulness
And see your marvels in the dark.
This is oblivion.
Yet, here I am.
In the morning my affliction abides
And I raise my prayer to you.
Do not cast my hope away.
Do not hide yourself.
I have always been low, afflicted,
Lost from my youth.
I have suffered your terrors.
Few have helped me and none remained.
The waves of your fearful sea
Have tumbled me every time I stand.
I spin in your dark waters
As they close in around me.
Only the darkness has not abandoned me.
Psalm 107
Give the Lord all the thanks you have
Because he is good,
Because his favor is unending,
Because when his kindness finds you
It can keep you forever.
He takes his people from the grip of the enemy,
And gathers them from the places they wander,
From the East and West,
From the North and South.
I.
Some became lost in the wild wasteland
And could not find a city to dwell in.
They were hungry and thirsty.
The life in their bodies grew feeble and thin,
Tenuous and close to breaking.
They cried out to the Lord and he saved them.
He led them by the hand along a straight way
To a city of real people, with real trees,
And real laughter where they could be at home,
Where they could gather back
What they lost in the waste.
Let the children of men give thanks to God!
For his wonders satisfy the thirsty soul
And he fills the hungry with what is good.
II.
Some made their homes in darkness,
Under the shadow of death, prisoners of misery
Bound with chains of more than iron,
For they turned against the word of God
And raised their hands in rebellion
Against the wisdom of the Most High.
So God brought them near to toil and trouble
To humble them. They stumbled
And there was none to help.
They called to God and he saved them.
He brought them out of darkness to light
Beyond the fell shadow of death.
He broke apart the bonds that held them.
Give him thanks, O creatures he has made!
His wonders walk with you
To shatter the gates of bronze
And rend apart the walls of every prison.
III.
Some were fools and sinners
Who embraced iniquity and found affliction.
They came within arms reach of the gate of death.
They abhorred food and wine and all the things
God made to delight his creatures
Though their days still flew like the weaver’s shuttle.
They cried out to the Lord and he saved them.
He healed them with his words
And they escaped the destruction
To which they had devoted themselves.
Let all his works praise him
For the wonders of his kindness,
Offer sacrifices, and burst into song.
IV.
Others went down to the sea in ships
To ply their work on the great waters.
They saw the works of the Lord,
His marvels in the deep.
He spoke and the waves stood up in a heap
And the wind rose in a tempest.
The ship climbed to the heavens
And plunged down into the abyss.
The sailor’s strength melted as fear took them.
They reeled and staggered like drunken men,
And their knowledge and skill were engulfed
By the raging sea that billowed around them.
They cried to the Lord and he saved them.
He arose and stilled the storm
And said to the waves, “Be quiet.”
Then the sailors rejoiced
And the sea held itself still and silent.
God brought them to their haven and home.
And they gave thanks to God who saved them.
Let all the earth worship the Lord!
For he changes rivers into wilderness,
And springs of water into thirsty ground.
He makes a fruitful land into a salt waste
Because of the evil of those who dwell in it.
But he also makes in the wilderness an oasis,
And causes springs to rise in the desert.
There he gathers the lost and the hungry to dwell.
He builds them a city to live in.
They sow fields and plant vineyards
And gather an abundant harvest.
He blesses them and they multiply
And even their animals flourish.
When they are brought low or bowed down
By oppression, evil, and sorrow,
He pours contempt on their oppressors
And sends them into the wasteland to wander.
But he raises the needy out of their affliction
And makes their families like thriving flocks.
The upright see it and rejoice,
But the wicked can only stare in silence.
Whoever is wise, let him keep these things in his heart
As he considers the unfailing love of the Lord.
Psalm 130
Out of the depths, I cry to you, Lord.
God, hear my voice.
I need you to attend
To my pleas for mercy.
If you kept our crooked loves always before you,
Who could endure it?
But with you is forgiveness
So that we can know the fear
That brings peace and consolation.
I wait for the Lord with my whole life
And in his word, I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than watchmen wait for the morning,
More than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord,
For with him there is unearned love and kindness
And a vast redemption.
He will lead you back
Until your love is healed and whole.
Psalm 137
By the river of Babylon
We sat down and wept
When we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
We hung our harps
While our captors called for songs,
And the very ones who tormented us required of us mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the Lord’s songs
In the land of our exile?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
Let my right hand wither.
If I do not remember my lost home,
If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy,
Let my lips close forever.
Remember, O Lord, how the Edomites,
On the day of Jerusalem’s fall, cried,
“Tear it down, leave it empty,
Raze it to its foundations!”
O Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
Happy is the one who repays you
For what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who takes your little ones
And dashes them against the rocks.
Rendition of Psalm 142
Help me, God!
I plead for mercy.
I spill my anxious meditations before you like water;
I tell you all my troubles.
My spirit faints and flickers.
Can you see the path I’ve walked—
Where every step conceals a deadfall?
I am lost. I am alone.
No one takes notice of me.
No refuge remains to me.
No one is looking for me.
Help me, God!
You must be my shelter,
My portion while I am alive.
Hear me, God!
I have never been this low and lost.
Deliver me from what follows me
And from what I followed,
For I am overwhelmed.
Bring me back again,
And I will praise you with my whole life.
Surround me with goodness and safety.
Become a Paid Subscriber
Any work of sufficient length is only sustained contact with by those who benefit from it.
An idea can be a fragile thing and 150 poems and translations is a big idea. I meant this project to be ambitious though and, if it is ever complete, it will be the work of years.
I know the only way I’m ever going to finish this project is if I know people read, value, and support it. Whether you subscribe or not, if you like a poem or find a rendition of a Psalm helpful, drop me a line or leave a comment and let me know.