hebrew · hymn

Selected Psalms (Hymns of Israel)

c. 1000–300 BCE · Iron Age to Persian Period · Jerusalem; various

Psalm 8 — The Glory of God and the Dignity of Man

1O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
2Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
3Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength
4Because of thine enemies,
5That thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
6When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
7The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
8What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
9And the son of man, that thou visitest him?
10For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
11And hast crowned him with glory and honour.
12Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
13Thou hast put all things under his feet.
14O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Psalm 19 — The Heavens Declare the Glory of God

15The heavens declare the glory of God;
16And the firmament sheweth his handywork.
17Day unto day uttereth speech,
18And night unto night sheweth knowledge.
19There is no speech nor language,
20Where their voice is not heard.
21Their line is gone out through all the earth,
22And their words to the end of the world.
23In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
24Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
25And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
26His going forth is from the end of the heaven,
27And his circuit unto the ends of it:
28And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Psalm 22 — My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me

29My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
30Why art thou so far from helping me,
31And from the words of my roaring?
32O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not;
33And in the night season, and am not silent.
34But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
35Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted,
36And thou didst deliver them.
37They cried unto thee, and were delivered:
38They trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
39But I am a worm, and no man;
40A reproach of men, and despised of the people.
41All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
42They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
43He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him:
44Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
45I am poured out like water,
46And all my bones are out of joint:
47My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
48My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
49And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;
50And thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
51They part my garments among them,
52And cast lots upon my vesture.
53But be not thou far from me, O LORD:
54O my strength, haste thee to help me.

Psalm 46 — God Is Our Refuge

55God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
56Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,
57And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
58Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
59Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
60There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,
61The holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
62God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:
63God shall help her, and that right early.
64The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved:
65He uttered his voice, the earth melted.
66The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
67Come, behold the works of the LORD,
68What desolations he hath made in the earth.
69He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;
70He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;
71He burneth the chariot in the fire.
72Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 90 — A Prayer of Moses: From Everlasting to Everlasting

73Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
74Before the mountains were brought forth,
75Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
76Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
77Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
78For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past,
79And as a watch in the night.
80Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep:
81In the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
82In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;
83In the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
84The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
85And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
86Yet is their strength labour and sorrow;
87For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
88So teach us to number our days,
89That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Psalm 104 — Praise to the Creator

90Bless the LORD, O my soul.
91O LORD my God, thou art very great;
92Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
93Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:
94Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
95Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters:
96Who maketh the clouds his chariot:
97Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.
98Who laid the foundations of the earth,
99That it should not be removed for ever.
100Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment:
101The waters stood above the mountains.
102He sendeth the springs into the valleys,
103Which run among the hills.
104They give drink to every beast of the field:
105The wild asses quench their thirst.
106By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation,
107Which sing among the branches.
108He watereth the hills from his chambers:
109The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
110O LORD, how manifold are thy works!
111In wisdom hast thou made them all:
112The earth is full of thy riches.
113So is this great and wide sea,
114Wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
115There go the ships: there is that leviathan,
116Whom thou hast made to play therein.

Psalm 137 — By the Rivers of Babylon

117By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept,
118When we remembered Zion.
119We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
120For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song;
121And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
122Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
123How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?
124If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
125If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth;
126If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

notes

The Psalms (Hebrew: Tehillim, "praises") are a collection of 150 religious poems spanning several centuries of Israelite and Judaean history. Many carry superscriptions attributing them to David, Asaph, the Sons of Korah, Solomon, or Moses, though modern scholarship views these as editorial additions rather than authorship claims. Psalms are classified by type: hymns of praise (Psalms 8, 19, 104), laments (individual: Psalm 22; communal: Psalm 137), songs of trust (Psalm 46), wisdom psalms (Psalm 90), and many others. Psalm 22 opens with the cry of dereliction later quoted in the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, demonstrating how ancient liturgical texts were re-read in new contexts. Psalm 104 has long been compared to the Egyptian Great Hymn to the Aten (c. 1350 BCE), which praises the sun disc as sole creator in remarkably parallel terms. Whether this reflects direct borrowing, a shared ancient Near Eastern tradition, or independent development remains debated. Psalm 137 records the experience of Babylonian exile (586–538 BCE), making it one of the most precisely datable psalms. Its haunting opening question — "How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land?" — became emblematic of diaspora experience across the centuries. Translation from the King James Version (1611). Public domain.

currently held: Manuscript tradition (Dead Sea Scrolls, Masoretic text)

Solar DeityHebrew BibleDivine CouncilHymn of Praise

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