Search the encyclopedia
1000 articles found for “The psalmist”
Psalm 52
[Bible]Psalm 52 is a psalm of David that contrasts the downfall of the mighty man, who boasts in evil schemes and trusts in his wealth, with the thanksgiving of the psalmist, who trusts in the mercy of God.
Psalm 54
[Bible]Psalm 54 is a seven-verse individual lament of David, set at the time when the Ziphites informed Saul of David's hiding place. It opens with a prayer for deliverance, confesses God as the psalmist's helper, and closes with a vow to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Psalm 49
[Bible]Psalm 49 is a wisdom psalm of the sons of Korah. It teaches that even those who trust in wealth cannot escape death or buy their own lives, and it confesses that God will redeem the psalmist's soul from the grave (Sheol).
Psalm 66
[Bible]Psalm 66 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving that calls all the earth to praise God, recalls the deliverance of the Exodus and the refining that comes through suffering, and bears witness to the God who heard the psalmist's prayer as he pays his vows.
Psalm 77
[Bible]Psalm 77 is a lament and a psalm of Asaph. In a time of trouble, the psalmist asks whether God has cast him off, then takes heart again by remembering God's works of old, especially His leading of the people through the sea at the Exodus.
Psalm 89
[Bible]Psalm 89 is a fifty-two-verse poem that praises the everlasting nature of God's covenant with David. Confronted with the collapse of the dynasty, it then laments and asks where that promise has gone. Its final verse is a doxology that closes Book III of the Psalms.
Psalm 120
[Bible]A short poem of seven verses in Book V of the Psalms and the first of the fifteen "Songs of Ascents." The psalmist prays for deliverance from a lying tongue and laments the distress of living among those who hate peace.
Psalm 139
[Bible]Psalm 139 is a psalm of David confessing that God knows a person's every thought and way, is present everywhere, and formed each person in the womb. It closes with a prayer asking God to search the psalmist's heart.
Psalm 138
[Bible]Psalm 138 is an eight-verse psalm of thanksgiving bearing the superscription "A Psalm of David." It gives wholehearted thanks to God for answering prayer, expresses the hope that the kings of the earth will also praise him, and asks him to care for the psalmist to the end.
Psalm 142
[Bible]Psalm 142 is an individual lament that its superscription introduces as a prayer of David "when he was in the cave." Isolated, with no one to care for him, the psalmist confesses that the LORD alone is his refuge and his portion, and he pleads for deliverance.
Psalm 11
[Bible]Psalm 11 is a short, seven-verse psalm of trust in which the psalmist, threatened by the wicked, rejects the advice to "flee as a bird to your mountain" and declares that he takes refuge in the LORD, who from His heavenly throne examines humankind.
Psalm 16
[Bible]Psalm 16, titled "Michtam of David," is a psalm of trust confessing that the LORD alone is the psalmist's good and inheritance and that the LORD will not abandon him even in the face of death. The New Testament cites it as testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 30
[Bible]Psalm 30 is a psalm of thanksgiving whose superscription attributes it to David. Delivered from the brink of death, the psalmist confesses that God's anger endures but a moment while His favor lasts a lifetime, and he praises God for turning his mourning into dancing.
Psalm 63
[Bible]Psalm 63 is an eleven-verse prayer psalm whose superscription attributes it to David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. In it the psalmist thirsts for God in a dry land and confesses that God's lovingkindness is better than life.
Psalm 92
[Bible]Psalm 92 is a psalm of thanksgiving bearing the superscription "A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day." It contrasts the short-lived prosperity of the wicked with the enduring fruitfulness of the righteous and celebrates the exaltation and uprightness of the LORD.
Psalm 103:11-12
[Bible Verses]Psalm 103:11-12 is a passage from a psalm traditionally attributed to David. It compares God's lovingkindness to the height of the heavens above the earth and His removal of sin to the distance between east and west. Regarded as an expression of the completeness of divine forgiveness, it is frequently cited in preaching and as a word of comfort.
Psalm 32:5
[Bible Verses]Psalm 32:5 is a verse from Psalm 32, a psalm traditionally attributed to David. In it the psalmist testifies that when he stopped concealing his sin and confessed it to God, he was promptly forgiven. It is one of the passages most often cited on the confession and forgiveness of sin.
Psalm 51:11–12
[Bible Verses]In this passage David, repenting of his sin, asks God not to cast him away from His presence or take His Holy Spirit from him, and to restore to him the joy of salvation. It is often cited as a model of penitential prayer and figures in discussions of whether the Holy Spirit can depart from a believer.
Psalm 58:3
[Bible Verses]A verse in Psalm 58 that indicts unjust rulers and judges and declares that the wicked go astray from birth. It is frequently cited in support of the doctrine of original sin. Interpreters debate whether it should be read as a statement about all people or as a poetic description of particular wicked individuals.
Psalm 139:13–14
[Bible Verses]A hymn of praise attributed to David, declaring that God formed him in his mother's womb. Cherished as a passage on the dignity of human life, it is frequently cited in debates over abortion and bioethics as support for the personhood of the unborn.