In Psalm 144, David, the warrior king of Israel, asked the Lord to fight for their nation and send power from Heaven to defeat their cruel and dishonest enemies. At the end of the psalm, David spoke a blessing over his people and asked God to bless them with prosperity.

Psalm 143, like Psalm 142 before it, was written by David during a hard time in his life. Troubles in David’s life had left his soul exhausted. His soul was desperately in need of God’s help. In his downcast state, he intentionally meditated on the great works of God from the past. His hope was in the Lord to deliver him just as the Lord had delivered so many of His saints in the past.

In Psalm 141, David asks the Lord to protect his heart from temptation. He was open to correction and advice, but he didn’t want to be influenced by godless people. He prayed that God would help him evade the traps of those who hated him and cause them to stumble into their own snares.

Psalm 140 is a psalm of David in which he prays for the Lord to cause the schemes of the wicked to backfire. Violent, arrogant, crafty, sneaky, and godless men were threatening David, and David asked the Lord to protect him against all their cunning traps.

Psalm 139 is a poetic meditation on the infinite knowledge of the Creator God. David is the author, and he expresses his amazement of how intimately God knows him. God knew his actions, his thoughts, and even knew him before he was fully formed in his mother’s womb. The end of the psalm is a request from David to God to use His infinite knowledge to punish the wicked and bloodthirsty people of the earth.

David authored Psalm 138 and wrote of his devotion to God above all the pagan deities. He wrote that the kings of the earth would one day come to recognize God as supreme and worthy of their worship. He described God as his personal helper and as a helper to the humble people of the world. He asked God to use him for His will and expressed trust that God would protect him and accomplish all He intended through him.

Psalm 137 was written during or after Judah’s exile in Babylon. The writer recalls his sadness at having to sing songs about Jerusalem while a captive in a foreign land. He encourages his heart not to forget about the Promised Land and God’s covenant with Judah. The last 3 verses contain a curse, which the author speaks over Edom for helping the Babylonians conquer Jerusalem.

Psalm 136 is unique in its layout. Each of its 26 verses ends with the same phrase, “…His steadfast love endures forever.” It is a psalm of thanksgiving and worship to God, celebrating God’s power over nature and His enduring blessings on the nation of Israel. It is similar in theme to Psalm 135.

The author of Psalm 135 was overflowing with praise, and he worshipped the Lord for several of His attributes, including His power over nature, His goodness, and His support to the nation of Israel.

In Psalm 134, the unnamed author speaks to the priests and servants of the Temple who serve God during the night hours. He encourages them to lift their hands in praise to God, and he asks God to bless them from His place on Mount Zion.

David celebrates brotherly unity. He used two illustrations to describe the blessing of unity, writing that it was like oil running down the head of the High Priest and like the dew of Mount Hermon, a mountain in northern Israel.

In Psalm 132, the author appeals to God to bless Israel for the sake of David, God’s faithful servant. He “reminds” God of His promises to David to keep one of his descendants on the throne forever and to bless the city of Jerusalem (Zion).

Psalm 131 is an expression of humility. We don’t know why it was written or when it was written, but it could be a response to accusations of arrogance. The psalmist wrote as if speaking to God, and he told the Lord that he was not arrogant, haughty, or sinfully ambitious. He compared his soul to a calm and quiet child, a weaned child.

Discover practical strategies to lean into God's comfort and find hope during uncertain times. Megan, a former Nurse Practitioner turned Functional Health Practitioner, empowers Christian women to cultivate an embodied faith and reclaim wellness through a biblical lens. Join her on this path of growth, reflection, and trusting in God's timing.

The author of Psalm 129 recalls a time when God’s people were “greatly afflicted” by their enemies. He describes this affliction as having a field plow pulled over his back, cutting deep into the skin. Now that God had delivered them from those enemies and released their shackles, the psalmist prayed for their enemies to be exposed as evil people devoid of virtue and outside of God’s blessings.

The writer of Psalm 130 was waiting for the Lord’s mercy to save him from the depths of despair. He called to God for help, knowing that God would show him grace even though he wasn’t a perfect man. He encouraged all Israel to put their trust in the Lord for their redemption.

Psalm 128 is a blessing spoken over the righteous men of Israel. The man who loves the Lord will be like a man with a rich field, a prosperous vine, and a healthy orchard; In other words, a very happy man, especially when you understand this is in the context of an agricultural society.

The message of Psalm 127 is that all success and security come from the Lord, and without him there is none to be found. The worker and the watchmen will only be effective in their work if God is on their side. God is the giver of all gifts, one of His greatest gifts is children. A man whose house is full of children is like a warrior whose quill is full of arrow.

Psalm 126 is a psalm about restoration. The psalm recalls a happy time when God restored the nation (probably the nation of Judah). The psalmist looks back fondly at how happy the nation was when God renewed them and he prayed for a new restoration so his countrymen could rejoice in the Lord.

Psalm 125 is a short Psalm of unknown authorship. The writer discusses how God’s faithful people were surrounded by God’s protection, just as the city of Jerusalem was protected by the mountains that surrounded it.  He prayed for God to remove evil influences from the city so good people wouldn’t be tempted into sin.