Seventeen verses on love from the psalms, grouped by who is loving whom, with the full text and a printable sheet.
Most of the love in the psalms is God's love, and the World English Bible usually calls it loving kindness. The King James Version often renders the same lines as mercy or lovingkindness. The psalms say this love reaches to the heavens, lasts forever and is better than life. They also speak of loving God in return and, less often, of love between people.
The verses are grouped by who is loving whom: God's love, God's love in hard moments, loving God, and love for other people. Each comes with a short note on what it says. Tick the ones you want and print them as a sheet.
Short lines about how large and how lasting God's love is, each one complete on its own.
Your loving kindness, LORD, is in the heavens.Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
Loving kindness is placed in the heavens and faithfulness reaches the skies. The verse measures God's love by the largest thing the writer can see.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
The comparison is height: as far as the heavens are above the earth. The love is described as that great toward those who fear him.
Because your loving kindness is better than life,my lips shall praise you.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
The psalm sets God's loving kindness above life itself. Praise follows as the result: my lips shall praise you.
For his loving kindness is great toward us.The LORD’s faithfulness endures forever.Praise the LORD!
For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.
This is the whole reason given in the shortest psalm in the book, which has two verses. His loving kindness is great toward us, and his faithfulness endures forever.
For the LORD is good.His loving kindness endures forever,his faithfulness to all generations.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Three short claims: the LORD is good, his loving kindness endures forever, his faithfulness lasts to all generations. It is the closing reason of a psalm that calls all the lands to shout for joy.
I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever.You established the heavens.Your faithfulness is in them.”
For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
The writer declares that love stands firm forever. He then points to the heavens God established as the place where his faithfulness is fixed.
For when love is the thing that feels least certain. Each of these verses speaks from inside trouble or need.
When I said, “My foot is slipping!”Your loving kindness, LORD, held me up.
When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.
The writer quotes his own alarm: my foot is slipping. The answer is that God's loving kindness held him up, told as something that already happened.
The LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime.In the night his song shall be with me:a prayer to the God of my life.
Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
Loving kindness by day and a song by night. It sits inside a psalm where tears have been food day and night, so it is spoken from sorrow.
Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning,for I trust in you.Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,for I lift up my soul to you.
Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
A request to hear God's loving kindness in the morning. The psalmist asks for it first, and only then asks to be shown the way to walk.
How precious is your loving kindness, God!The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.
How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Loving kindness is called precious, and people take refuge under the shadow of God's wings. The love is pictured as a place of shelter.
The psalms also speak of love going the other way, from a person to God.
I love you, LORD, my strength.
I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
The psalm opens with a plain declaration, I love you, LORD, my strength. Its heading says David spoke it on the day the LORD delivered him from all his enemies.
I love the LORD, because he listens to my voice,and my cries for mercy.
I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
The reason for the love is given in the same line: he listens to my voice and my cries for mercy. Love here is a response to being heard.
Whom do I have in heaven?There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
No one in heaven or on earth is wanted besides God. It comes late in a psalm that began with envy of the wicked, so it is a conclusion the writer reached.
Oh love the LORD, all you his saints!The LORD preserves the faithful,and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.
O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
A call to all his saints to love the LORD. The reason given is that he preserves the faithful.
The psalms say less about love between people than about God's love, but these verses speak to it.
See how good and how pleasant it isfor brothers to live together in unity!
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity. The whole psalm is three verses on this one idea.
I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother.I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
The writer describes grieving for people who were sick as if each were a friend or brother. Two verses earlier he says the same people repaid him evil for good.
For my brothers’ and companions’ sakes,I will now say, “Peace be within you.”
For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.
Peace is wished on a city for the sake of brothers and companions. The love for a place is tied to the people in it.
No. The line love is patient and is kind is 1 Corinthians 13:4, from a letter of Paul in the New Testament, not a psalm. The nearest idea in the psalms is the description of God as slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, which appears in Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8 and Psalm 145:8. For readings from the psalms themselves at a wedding, see the page on psalms for weddings.
No. It is Jeremiah 31:3. The closest line in the psalms is Psalm 103:17, which says the LORD's loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him. Psalm 136 goes further in its own way and repeats his loving kindness endures forever in every one of its 26 verses.
Psalm 136 is the most sustained, because every verse ends with his loving kindness endures forever. For a single line, Psalm 63:3 says God's loving kindness is better than life.
The two translations often render the same line differently. Psalm 136:1 reads his loving kindness endures forever in the World English Bible and his mercy endureth for ever in the King James Version.
Psalm 133 is about brothers living together in unity. Psalm 35:13 to 14 describes fasting and mourning for people who were sick as if they were a friend or brother.
Psalm 63:3: because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. Its heading places it in the desert of Judah.
The psalms are prayers and songs, not spells, and none of them promises a partner. Psalm 45 is headed as a wedding song, and the page on psalms for marriage gathers others.
Psalms about Mercy and GracePsalms About God's FaithfulnessPsalms for WeddingsPsalms for Marriage and LovePsalms About FriendshipPsalms about Self Worth and Being Loved by God