Daily Psalms - Classical Psalms Every Day

Psalm 69: When the Waters Come In
"Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul." Some prayers do not bother with preamble. David is drowning, and he knows it — sunk in deep mire, throat dried from crying, eyes failing while he waits. He is not even sure he is innocent; he confesses his foolishness in the same breath as his lament. But he refuses to pretend, and that is the gift of this psalm. It gives voice to the prayer of the person who feels forsaken not only by God but by the ordinary comforts of human company: "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." And yet, astonishingly, somewhere in the rising water the psalm begins to sing. "I will praise the name of God with a song." Not after the rescue — during the drowning. That is faith stripped of everything but its sinews. The New Testament writers would later see the face of Christ in these verses, and they were right to; but before it became prophecy, it was simply the honest cry of a man going under who refused to stop talking to God on the way down.
00:00 The Waters Are Come In
00:30 Mine Eyes Fail While I Wait
01:00 The Zeal of Thine House
01:30 In the Multitude of Thy Mercy
02:00 Let Not the Pit Shut Her Mouth
02:30 They Gave Me Gall and Vinegar
03:00 Let Their Table Become a Snare
03:30 I Will Praise Him With a Song
04:00 The Lord Heareth the Poor

Psalm 68: The God Who Marches
Reading this psalm is a little like standing in a parade as the procession passes — you cannot quite catch every banner, but you can feel the ground shake. David imagines God on the move, and the imagery tumbles over itself: enemies scattered like smoke, wax melting before fire, a father to the fatherless, a judge of widows, a God who setteth the solitary in families. That last line alone could carry a whole sermon. The God of the thunderstorms is also the God of the adoption paper. The One who rides upon the heavens of heavens is the same One who makes a home for the lonely. And in the middle of it all comes a verse the Apostle Paul could not get out of his head: "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive." The great procession, it turns out, is not merely God parading his strength — it is God hauling away everything that has ever held us, and scattering gifts as he goes.
00:00 Let God Arise
00:30 A Father of the Fatherless
01:00 The Earth Shook at His Presence
01:30 As Wings of a Dove Covered With Silver
02:00 The Chariots of God
02:30 Thou Hast Ascended on High
03:00 The Issues From Death
03:30 The Singers Went Before
04:00 Kings Shall Bring Presents
04:30 His Strength Is in the Clouds

Psalm 67: Blessed to Be a Window
Here is one of the shortest psalms in the book, and also one of the most generous. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us." A familiar line — until you notice the word that follows. "That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations." The psalmist does not ask for blessing as a private possession. He asks for it as a window through which the rest of the world might see God. Be good to us, he prays, so that the nations may catch the reflection and come running. It is the opposite of the cramped instinct that hoards mercy and wonders why the room has gone stale. A blessing meant to be passed on is the only kind that keeps. And when the psalm imagines what follows — the peoples singing for joy, the earth yielding her increase, every end of the earth turning godward — it turns out the shortest psalm has been pointing, all along, at the widest possible horizon.
00:00 God Be Merciful Unto Us
00:12 That Thy Way May Be Known
00:24 Let the People Praise Thee
00:36 Let the Nations Be Glad
00:48 The Earth Shall Yield Her Increase
00:58 All the Ends of the Earth Shall Fear Him

Psalm 66: Come and See, Come and Hear
This psalm has a structure you could almost diagram — it moves in concentric circles, from the widest possible view to the most intimate. It begins with all ye lands making a joyful noise, and ends with one man, alone, telling what God has done for his soul. "Come and see," the psalmist calls at first, pointing to the Red Sea made dry, the flood crossed on foot, the nations held under God's unsleeping eye. But then, halfway through, the voice changes. "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." That shift is the whole point. Public miracles are wonderful, but they are not enough on their own — somebody must eventually tell you what God has done in the small room of a single life. The universe is evidence; a testimony is witness. Both are needed, and both are given here, and the psalm insists that we not despise either one.
00:00 Make a Joyful Noise
00:20 How Terrible in Thy Works
00:40 He Turned the Sea Into Dry Land
01:00 Tried as Silver Is Tried
01:20 Through Fire and Through Water
01:40 I Will Pay Thee My Vows
02:00 Come and Hear What He Hath Done
02:20 He Hath Not Turned Away My Prayer

Psalm 65: The Crown Upon the Year
This is one of the great agricultural psalms, and you cannot read it slowly without smelling damp earth. God, David tells us, visits the earth. He doesn't merely sustain it from a distance; he comes down with a watering can. He waters the ridges. He settles the furrows. He softens the soil with showers. The verbs are tender, almost domestic — the sort of attention a gardener gives, not the management of a corporation. And then comes the line that should be carved over every farmer's gate: "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness." God walks through the seasons, and goodness leaks from his footprints. The little hills rejoice on every side. The valleys, covered in corn, shout for joy. If you have ever wondered whether creation itself worships, the psalm answers: it has been doing so all along. We are simply latecomers to a song the pastures have been singing for a long time.
00:00 Praise Waiteth for Thee in Sion
00:20 Iniquities Prevail Against Me
00:40 Blessed Is the Man Whom Thou Choosest
01:00 The Confidence of All the Ends of the Earth
01:20 Thou Stillest the Noise of the Seas
01:40 Thou Visitest the Earth
02:00 Thou Crownest the Year With Thy Goodness
02:20 The Little Hills Rejoice