Shortest and Longest Psalms in the Bible

The shortest psalm in the Bible is Psalm 117, with 2 verses. The longest is Psalm 119, with 176 verses. They are also the shortest and the longest chapters anywhere in the Bible. This page counts verses the way the World English Bible and the King James Version number them, where a psalm's heading is not counted as a verse. Across all 150 psalms there are 2,461 verses. Below are the shortest psalms, the longest psalms, and what each of them is about.

Length says nothing about importance. A psalm of two or three verses can carry a whole prayer, and the long ones are long because they tell a story, work through a theme line by line, or keep coming back to one subject. Every count here comes from the text, so you can check it on the psalm's own page.

Psalm 117 is the shortest psalm, with two verses and no heading. Verse 1 calls all nations and all peoples to praise the LORD. Verse 2 gives the reason: his loving kindness is great toward us, and his faithfulness endures forever. It ends with the words "Praise the LORD". In the King James Version the second verse reads "the truth of the LORD endureth for ever". Counted across the whole World English Bible, no other chapter has fewer verses, so Psalm 117 is also the shortest chapter in the Bible. For such a short psalm it looks a long way outward: the call to praise is addressed to every nation, not only to Israel.

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm, with 176 verses. It has no heading and names no author. The verses fall into 22 sections of eight. Verse after verse speaks of God's word under different names, such as law, statutes, precepts, commandments and judgments. It is a prayer as well as a meditation: the writer asks to be taught, kept and rescued. Verse 105 is the line "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path". The psalm does not end on a high note. Its last verse says "I have gone astray like a lost sheep" and asks God to seek his servant. It is also the longest chapter in the Bible.

After Psalm 119, the next longest is Psalm 78, with 72 verses. The heading calls it a contemplation by Asaph, and it retells Israel's history from Egypt to David as a lesson for the next generation. Psalm 89 has 52 verses and is given to Ethan the Ezrahite. It celebrates God's covenant with David, then turns into a lament. Psalm 18 has 50 verses and thanks God for rescue from enemies and from Saul. Psalms 105, 106 and 107 stand side by side, with 45, 48 and 43 verses, and none has a heading. Psalm 37, with 40 verses, is a collection of wisdom sayings about wrongdoers who seem to prosper.

After Psalm 117, the next shortest psalms are 131, 133 and 134, with three verses each. All three belong to the Songs of Ascents, the group of fifteen psalms that runs from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134. Psalm 131 describes a quieted soul, like a weaned child with his mother. Psalm 133 says how good and pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity, and compares it to oil and dew. Psalm 134 calls the servants who stand by night in the LORD's house to lift up their hands, and ends with a blessing from Zion. Psalm 127, whose heading names Solomon, is another short Song of Ascents, with five verses.

Counted by chapters and verses, yes. In the World English Bible the Book of Psalms has 150 chapters, one for each psalm, and 2,461 verses. No other book has as many of either. The next book by chapter count is Isaiah, with 66. This page counts chapters and verses, not words. The size of the book comes from the number of separate poems in it, not from any one long piece. Most psalms are far shorter than Psalm 119, and the four shortest have three verses or fewer.