The translation below is by Yorkshireman Myles Coverdale, and was included in the first Book of Common Prayer, published in 1549. Because it was used for church worship, this translation of the Psalms was for many people more familiar than that found in the King James Bible.
Each verse is divided into two parts by a colon, a device related to the way Psalms are chanted in church. For reading, this colon can be ignored or treated as another mark of punctuation such as a comma.
Other translations
The Authorized Version
Tate and Brady’s metrical psalter
See also
Day 16
Morning Prayer
Psalm 79
Deus, venerunt
O GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance : thy holy temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem an heap of stones.
2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air : and the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the land.
3 Their blood have they shed like water on every side of Jerusalem : and there was no man to bury them.
4 We are become an open shame to our enemies : a very scorn and derision unto them that are round about us.
5 Lord, how long wilt thou be angry : shall thy jealousy burn like fire for ever?
6 Pour out thine indignation upon the heathen that have not known thee : and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy Name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob : and laid waste his dwelling place.
8 O remember not our old sins, but have mercy upon us, and that soon : for we are come to great misery.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy Name : O deliver us, and be merciful unto our sins, for thy Name’s sake.
10 Wherefore do the heathen say : Where is now their God?
11 O let the vengeance of thy servants’ blood that is shed : be openly shewed upon the heathen in our sight.
12 O let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee : according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die.
13 And for the blasphemy wherewith our neighbours have blasphemed thee : reward thou them, O Lord, seven-fold into their bosom.
14 So we, that are thy people, and sheep of thy pasture, shall give thee thanks for ever : and will alway be shewing forth thy praise from generation to generation.
Psalm 80
Qui regis Israel
HEAR, O thou Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep : shew thyself also, thou that sittest upon the cherubims.
2 Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses : stir up thy strength, and come, and help us.
3 Turn us again, O God : shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
4 O Lord God of hosts : how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth?
5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears : and givest them plenteousness of tears to drink.
6 Thou hast made us a very strife unto our neighbours : and our enemies laugh us to scorn.
7 Turn us again, thou God of hosts : shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
9 Thou madest room for it : and when it had taken root it filled the land.
10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it : and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedar-trees.
11 She stretched out her branches unto the sea : and her boughs unto the river.
12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedge : that all they that go by pluck off her grapes?
13 The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up : and the wild beasts of the field devour it.
14 Turn thee again, thou God of hosts, look down from heaven : behold, and visit this vine;
15 And the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted : and the branch that thou madest so strong for thyself.
16 It is burnt with fire, and cut down : and they shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand : and upon the son of man, whom thou madest so strong for thine own self.
18 And so will not we go back from thee : O let us live, and we shall call upon thy Name.
19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts : shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
Psalm 81
Exultate Deo
SING we merrily unto God our strength : make a cheerful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take the psalm, bring hither the tabret : the merry harp with the lute.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new-moon : even in the time appointed, and upon our solemn feast-day.
4 For this was made a statute for Israel : and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony : when he came out of the land of Egypt, and had heard a strange language.
6 I eased his shoulder from the burden : and his hands were delivered from making the pots.
7 Thou calledst upon me in troubles, and I delivered thee : and heard thee what time as the storm fell upon thee.
8 I proved thee also : at the waters of strife.
9 Hear, O my people, and I will assure thee, O Israel : if thou wilt hearken unto me,
10 There shall no strange god be in thee : neither shalt thou worship any other god.
11 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt : open thy mouth wide, and I shall fill it.
12 But my people would not hear my voice : and Israel would not obey me.
13 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lusts : and let them follow their own imaginations.
14 O that my people would have hearkened unto me : for if Israel had walked in my ways,
15 I should soon have put down their enemies : and turned my hand against their adversaries.
16 The haters of the Lord should have been found liars : but their time should have endured for ever.
17 He should have fed them also with the finest wheat-flour : and with honey out of the stony rock should I have satisfied thee.
Day 16
Evening Prayer
Psalm 82
Deus stetit
GOD standeth in the congregation of princes : he is a Judge among gods.
2 How long will ye give wrong judgement : and accept the persons of the ungodly?
3 Defend the poor and fatherless : see that such as are in need and necessity have right.
4 Deliver the outcast and poor : save them from the hand of the ungodly.
5 They will not be learned nor understand, but walk on still in darkness : all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods : and ye are all the children of the most Highest.
7 But ye shall die like men : and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, and judge thou the earth : for thou shalt take all heathen to thine inheritance.
Psalm 83
Deus, quis similis?
HOLD not thy tongue, O God, keep not still silence : refrain not thyself, O God.
2 For lo, thine enemies make a murmuring : and they that hate thee have lift up their head.
3 They have imagined craftily against thy people : and taken counsel against thy secret ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us root them out, that they be no more a people : and that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have cast their heads together with one consent : and are confederate against thee;
6 The tabernacles of the Edomites, and the Ismaelites : the Moab ites and Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek : the Philistines, with them that dwell at Tyre.
8 Assur also is joined with them : and have holpen the children of Lot.
9 But do thou to them as unto the Madianites : unto Sisera, and unto Jabin at the brook of Kison;
10 Who perished at Endor : and became as the dung of the earth.
11 Make them and their princes like Oreb and Zeb : yea, make all their princes like as Zeba and Sal mana;
12 Who say, Let us take to ourselves : the houses of God in possession.
13 O my God, make them like unto a wheel : and as the stubble before the wind;
14 Like as the fire that burneth up the wood : and as the flame that consumeth the mountains.
15 Persecute them even so with thy tempest : and make them afraid with thy storm.
16 Make their faces ashamed, O Lord : that they may seek thy Name.
17 Let them be confounded and vexed ever more and more : let them be put to shame, and perish.
18 And they shall know that thou, whose Name is Jehovah : art only the most Highest over all the earth.
Psalm 84
Quam dilecta!
HOW amiable are thy dwellings : thou Lord of hosts!
2 My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord : my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young : even thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be alway praising thee.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee : in whose heart are thy ways.
6 Who going through the vale of misery use it for a well : and the pools are filled with water.
7 They will go from strength to strength : and unto the God of gods appeareth every one of them in Sion.
8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer : hearken, O God of Jacob.
9 Behold, O God our defender : and look upon the face of thine Anointed.
10 For one day in thy courts : is better than a thousand.
11 I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God : than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness.
12 For the Lord God is a light and defence : the Lord will give grace and worship, and no good thing shall he withhold from them that live a godly life.
13 O Lord God of hosts : blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee.
Archive
Next: The Coverdale Psalms