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 9
Morning Prayer
Psalm 44
Deus, auribus
WE HAVE heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us : what thou hast done in their time of old;
2 How thou hast driven out the heathen with thy hand, and planted them in : how thou hast destroyed the nations and cast them out.
3 For they gat not the land in possession through their own sword : neither was it their own arm that helped them;
4 But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance : because thou hadst a favour unto them.
5 Thou art my King, O God : send help unto Jacob.
6 Through thee will we overthrow our enemies : and in thy Name will we tread them under, that rise up against us.
7 For I will not trust in my bow : it is not my sword that shall help me;
8 But it is thou that savest us from our enemies : and puttest them to confusion that hate us.
9 We make our boast of God all day long : and will praise thy Name for ever.
10 But now thou art far off, and puttest us to confusion : and goest not forth with our armies.
11 Thou makest us to turn our backs upon our enemies : so that they which hate us spoil our goods.
12 Thou lettest us be eaten up like sheep : and hast scattered us among the heathen.
13 Thou sellest thy people for nought : and takest no money for them.
14 Thou makest us to be rebuked of our neighbours : to be laughed to scorn, and had in derision of them that are round about us.
15 Thou makest us to be a by-word among the heathen : and that the people shake their heads at us.
16 My confusion is daily before me : and the shame of my face hath covered me;
17 For the voice of the slanderer and blasphemer : for the enemy and avenger.
18 And though all this be come upon us, yet do we not forget thee : nor behave ourselves frowardly in thy covenant.
19 Our heart is not turned back : neither our steps gone out of thy way;
20 No, not when thou hast smitten us into the place of dragons : and covered us with the shadow of death.
21 If we have forgotten the Name of our God, and holden up our hands to any strange God : shall not God search it out? for he knoweth the very secrets of the heart.
22 For thy sake also are we killed all the day long : and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain.
23 Up, Lord, why sleepest thou : awake, and be not absent from us for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face : and forgettest our misery and trouble?
25 For our soul is brought low, even unto the dust : our belly cleaveth unto the ground.
26 Arise, and help us : and deliver us for thy mercy’s sake.
Psalm 45
Eructavit cor meum
MY HEART is inditing of a good matter : I speak of the thing which I have made unto the King.
2 My tongue is the pen : of a ready writer.
3 Thou art fairer than the children of men : full of grace are thy lips, because God hath blessed thee for ever.
4 Gird thee with thy sword upon thy thigh, O thou most Mighty : according to thy worship and renown.
5 Good luck have thou with thine honour : ride on, because of the word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
6 Thy arrows are very sharp, and the people shall be subdued unto thee : even in the midst among the King’s enemies.
7 Thy seat, O God, endureth for ever : the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
8 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity : wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
9 All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia : out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
10 Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women : upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colours.
11 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear : forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house.
12 So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty : for he is thy Lord God, and worship thou him.
13 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift : like as the rich also among the people shall make their supplication before thee.
14 The King’s daughter is all glorious within : her clothing is of wrought gold.
15 She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-work : the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company, and shall be brought unto thee.
16 With joy and gladness shall they be brought : and shall enter into the King’s palace.
17 Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children : whom thou mayest make princes in all lands.
18 I will remember thy Name from one generation to another : therefore shall the people give thanks unto thee, world without end.
Psalm 46
Deus noster refugium
GOD is our hope and strength : a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved : and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof rage and swell : and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same.
4 The rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God : the holy place of the tabernacle of the most Highest.
5 God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be re moved : God shall help her, and that right early.
6 The heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved : but God hath shewed his voice, and the earth shall melt away.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord : what destruction he hath brought upon the earth.
9 He maketh wars to cease in all the world : he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire.
10 Be still then, and know that I am God : I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Day 9
Evening Prayer
Psalm 47
Omnes gentes, plaudite
O CLAP your hand together, all ye people : O sing unto God with the voice of melody.
2 For the Lord is high, and to be feared : he is the great King upon all the earth.
3 He shall subdue the people under us : and the nations under our feet.
4 He shall choose out an heritage for us : even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved.
5 God is gone up with a merry noise : and the Lord with the sound of the trump.
6 O sing praises, sing praises unto our God : O sing praises, sing praises unto our King.
7 For God is the King of all the earth : sing ye praises with understanding.
8 God reigneth over the heathen : God sitteth upon his holy seat.
9 The princes of the people are joined unto the people of the God of Abraham : for God, which is very high exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield.
Psalm 48
Magnus Dominus
GREAT is the Lord, and highly to be praised : in the city of our God, even upon his holy hill.
2 The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth : upon the north-side lieth the city of the great King; God is well known in her palaces as a sure refuge.
3 For lo, the kings of the earth : are gathered, and gone by together.
4 They marvelled to see such things : they were astonished, and suddenly cast down.
5 Fear came there upon them, and sorrow : as upon a woman in her travail.
6 Thou shalt break the ships of the sea : through the east wind.
7 Like as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God : God upholdeth the same for ever.
8 We wait for thy loving-kindness, O God : in the midst of thy temple.
9 O God, according to thy Name, so is thy praise unto the world’s end : thy right hand is full of righteousness.
10 Let the mount Sion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad : because of thy judgements.
11 Walk about Sion, and go round about her : and tell the towers thereof.
12 Mark well her bulwarks, set up her houses : that ye may tell them that come after.
13 For this God is our God for ever and ever : he shall be our guide unto death.
Psalm 49
Audite haec, omnes
O HEAR ye this, all ye people : ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the world;
2 High and low, rich and poor : one with an other.
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom : and my heart shall muse of understanding.
4 I will incline mine ear to the parable : and shew my dark speech upon the harp.
5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of wickedness : and when the wickedness of my heels compasseth me round about?
6 There be some that put their trust in their goods : and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.
7 But no man may deliver his brother : nor make agreement unto God for him;
8 For it cost more to re deem their souls : so that he must let that alone for ever;
9 Yea, though he live long : and see not the grave.
10 For he seeth that wise men also die, and perish together : as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other.
11 And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever : and that their dwelling-places shall endure from one generation to another; and call the lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless, man will not abide in honour : seeing that he may be compared unto the beasts that perish; this is the way of them.
13 This is their foolishness : and their posterity praise their saying.
14 They lie in the hell like sheep, death gnaweth upon them, and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning : their beauty shall consume in the sepulchre out of their dwelling.
15 But God hath delivered my soul from the place of hell : for he shall receive me.
16 Be not thou afraid, though one be made rich : or if the glory of his house be increased.
17 For he shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth : neither shall his pomp follow him.
18 For while he lived, he counted himself an happy man : and so long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee.
19 He shall follow the generation of his fathers : and shall never see light.
20 Man being in honour hath no understanding : but is compared unto the beasts that perish.
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