The Book of Psalms

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  • Psalm 66

    (director: a song, a lyric)        * * * This psalm, or “song” as it’s called by the superscription, is shaped around a series of ten plural imperatives which “all the land” is enjoined to do. Four of these insistent verbs start the first stanza: Shout out to God | all the land                          play for | the glow of his Read more

  • Psalm 65

    (director: a David lyric, a song) * * * This stunning crescendo of a psalm modulates relentlessly and almost invisibly. Psalm 65 starts as one thing, ends as something else. It begins centered in Jerusalem, celebrating quiet. “To you | stillness is praise / God | in Zion” (1). How is silence sufficient praise? Praise Read more

  • Psalm 64

    (director: a David lyric) * * * Psalm 64 has a narrative pleasure that’s obvious—a tight story of revenge—and a marvel of sounds that are hidden in English. The story is taut and clear. The curtain opens. The speaker, surrounded, is calling for help. Villains, armed to the teeth, wield metaphorical weapons: “who’ve whetted | Read more

  • Psalm 63

    (of David, lyric, when he was in the wilderness of Judah) * * * The value of translating nefesh not by the anachronistic “soul” but by its literal sense of “neck” or “throat” becomes perfectly clear in Psalm 63, where “my throat” is paired with “my body” (1), “my mouth” (5), and “your right hand” Read more

  • Psalm 62

    (to Jeduthun, a David lyric) * * * “Once God spoke | twice I heard this,” the speaker of Psalm 62 says near the end of this duplicative, twice-heard poem (62:11). The first and third stanzas, verses 1-2 and 5-6, are near-doubles that work as a refrain. Partly the lines repeat: “from him | my Read more

  • Psalm 61

    (director: on strings, of David) * * * There is so much conventional imagery in this plain psalm that it’s not hard to imagine it might have been written by a king, as many suppose. It doesn’t take much: verses 6-7 refer to a king; verses 5 and 8 use the first person. Still, such Read more