If you have ever searched for promises in Psalms, you already know where people turn when life gets heavy. Hospital rooms, funerals, sleepless nights and long drives home: these are the places Psalm 23 and Psalm 46 get read out loud.
The Psalms are one hundred and fifty songs and prayers. David wrote many of them. Others carry the names of Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Ethan and even Moses in their titles, and some have no name at all. They were sung in the temple, prayed in caves and passed down for three thousand years.
Before you claim a line from a psalm as a promise, it helps to know one thing that most lists skip. Not every sentence in the Psalms is said in the same voice. Once you can hear the difference, the whole book opens up.
Two voices you will hear in the Psalms
When God Himself speaks
Every so often a psalm stops and God talks in the first person. You can spot it by the word I, with God as the one saying it. These are promises in the plainest sense, because God is giving His own word.
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Psalm 50:15 (KJV)
Psalm 46:10 is another one, and so is Psalm 81:10, where God reminds Israel that He brought them out of Egypt and tells them to open their mouths wide so He can fill them.
When the singer speaks about God
Far more often, the writer is telling you what he has learned about God, or telling his own soul to hold on. Psalm 23 is in this voice. David does not quote God. He says what the Lord is to him.
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1 (KJV)
These lines are still the word of God, given through a person. They tell you the truth about who God is. You can lean your full weight on them. Just read them as a witness telling you what God is like, not as a contract with fine print.
Why does this matter? Because it keeps you from two mistakes. One mistake is to say a psalm is only poetry, so it cannot be trusted. The other is to pull a single line out of a song and treat it as a guarantee of anything you want. The Every Promise of God books count the times God speaks a promise, and they say plainly who each one was made to. The songs of trust around those promises are the best place to learn how to answer them.
Psalm 23, line by line
This may be the best-known psalm of all, and it is only six verses long. Here it is in full in the King James Version.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Psalm 23:1-6 (KJV)
David had been a shepherd before he was a king, so he knew this picture from the inside. A good shepherd finds grass and water, walks ahead so the sheep do not have to guess the way, and stays close when it gets dark. Look at what the psalm says the Lord does:
- Supplies. I shall not want means I will not be left lacking what I need.
- Gives rest. Sheep only lie down when they feel safe and fed.
- Restores. When your soul is worn out, He brings it back.
- Leads. The paths are right, and He walks them for the sake of His own name.
- Stays. In the valley of the shadow of death the psalm turns from he to thou. David starts talking to God directly, right in the darkest spot.
- Follows. Goodness and mercy do not wait for you to find them. They come after you all your days.
The rod and staff were a shepherd's tools: one to beat off wild animals, the other to guide and pull a sheep back. Both were comforts, even the one that might sting.
Well-loved psalms and what they promise
Here are ten psalms people turn to most, who the title names as the writer, what each one holds out, and where it falls in the Every Promise of God series.
| Psalm | Title names | What it holds out | In the series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psalm 23 | David | The Lord leads, feeds, restores and stays with you | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 27 | David | Light, salvation and a strong life, so there is no one to fear | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 34 | David | The Lord hears, delivers and stays near the brokenhearted | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 37 | David | Trust Him, delight in Him and He will bring it to pass | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 46 | The sons of Korah | A very present help even when the earth shakes | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 55 | David | Cast your burden on the Lord and He will hold you up | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 84 | The sons of Korah | Grace, glory and no good thing held back | Book Three, coming next |
| Psalm 91 | No name given | Shelter, angels and God's own I will | A later book |
| Psalm 103 | David | Forgiveness, healing and a Father's pity | A later book |
| Psalm 121 | A Song of degrees | The Keeper who never sleeps | A later book |
Five promises from the first eighty-nine psalms
For the brokenhearted
The heading over Psalm 34 ties it to a frightening day in David's life. Near the end he writes one of the tenderest lines in Scripture:
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalm 34:18 (KJV)
Notice that it does not say God fixes everything at once. It says He is near. Sometimes that is the promise you need most.
For the restless and the worried
Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
Psalm 37:4-5 (KJV)
Psalm 37 is an older man's advice. Later in the same psalm David says he has been young and now is old. The promise to bring it to pass comes after two verbs: delight and commit. You hand your way over, then you watch Him work.
When the ground is moving
Psalm 46 sings about the city of God while nations rage around it. It pictures mountains falling into the sea and still says the people of God will not fear. Its promise for the city is short: God shall help her, and that right early.
For the heavy load
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22 (KJV)
In Psalm 55, which the heading gives to David, the writer tells of a close friend who turned on him. He even wished he had wings like a dove so he could fly away. Instead he cast the burden. To sustain means to hold up. It does not always mean the load disappears.
For the one who walks straight
Psalm 84:11 calls God a sun and a shield and then makes a promise with a condition attached: no good thing will be withheld from them that walk uprightly. Good things, as God measures good.
A gentle word. Standing on God's promises goes hand in hand with good care. Keep seeing your doctor, take what you have been prescribed, and talk to someone you trust. If healing is slow, that is never proof that your faith was too small. The people of the Bible waited too.
The promises in Psalm 91
Psalm 91 is the clearest example of the two voices in one song. For thirteen verses a person speaks about God, mostly to someone else. Then, in the last three verses, God takes over and speaks for Himself.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
Psalm 91:14-16 (KJV)
Count the promises in those three verses: deliver, set on high, answer, be with, deliver again, honor, satisfy with long life, show salvation. That is God piling one promise on top of another. The reason He gives is personal. The one who receives them is the one who has loved Him and known His name. The earlier verses add shelter, angels to keep you, and rescue from the snare and the pestilence. Psalm 91 is one of the strongest promise chapters anywhere, and you can read more about it on our page of promises of protection. It falls after Psalm 89, so it will come in a later book of the series.
Psalm 121: the Keeper who does not sleep
Psalm 121 is one of fifteen psalms titled A Song of degrees, Psalms 120 through 134. Many Bible teachers believe travelers sang them as they climbed the hills on the way up to Jerusalem for the feasts. You can imagine a family on a rocky road looking up at the hills and asking where help would come from.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2 (KJV)
The rest of the psalm uses the word keep or preserve again and again. The Lord will not let your foot slip. He does not doze off on watch. He keeps your going out and your coming in, which covers every trip you will ever take, from this time forth and even for evermore. Many families read it before a long drive or a move to a new city.
How to pray a psalm back to God
- Read the whole psalm first. A single verse makes more sense when you know what the writer was going through.
- Listen for the voice. Is God speaking, or is the singer speaking about God? Both are true, but they land differently.
- Find the condition, if there is one. Trust, delight, walking uprightly and calling on Him show up again and again.
- Make it yours in plain words. For Psalm 55:22 you might pray: Lord, this is too heavy for me. I am putting it on You. Hold me up today.
- Be honest when it hurts. The Psalms include complaints and questions. God did not edit them out, and you do not have to hide yours.
Coming next
Book Three is coming next. It covers Job and Psalms 1 through 89, which takes in Psalm 23, 27, 34, 37, 46, 55 and 84. Each promise God speaks gets its own page with the King James verse, who it was made to, any condition, and a short prayer. Sign up and we will tell you when it is ready.