Fifteen verses on God as father, fathers teaching their children, and sons and daughters, with the full text.
The psalms say less about fathers than people expect, but what they say is specific. They compare God to a father who has compassion on his children. They call God a father of the fatherless. They picture children as olive shoots around a table and as arrows in a strong hand. Psalm 78 goes furthest: it tells fathers to pass on what God has done so that children not yet born will know it and tell their own children.
The verses are grouped in three parts: God as a father, fathers teaching their children, and prayers for sons and daughters. Tick the ones you want and print them for a Father's Day card, a new father, or a family table.
The psalms rarely call God Father directly. These are the verses where they do, compare him to one, or show him taking a father's place.
Like a father has compassion on his children,so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
The comparison runs from the human father to God, not the other way. A father's compassion on his children is the picture used to explain how the LORD treats those who fear him.
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows,is God in his holy habitation.
A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
God is called a father of the fatherless and a defender of widows. The verse names the people most likely to be left without anyone.
He will call to me, ‘You are my Father,my God, and the rock of my salvation!’
He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
God is speaking about David here, and says David will call to him: you are my Father. It is the only verse in the psalms where the word Father is addressed to God.
When my father and my mother forsake me,then the LORD will take me up.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
The verse imagines being left by a father and a mother, and says the LORD will take me up. It is for anyone whose own father was absent.
Several psalms treat passing faith on as a duty that runs from one generation to the next.
We will not hide them from their children,telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
We will not hide them from their children. The psalm commits to telling the next generation what the LORD has done, rather than keeping it to the adults.
For he established a covenant in Jacob,and appointed a teaching in Israel,which he commanded our fathers,that they should make them known to their children;
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
The teaching was commanded to our fathers so that they would make it known to their children. This is the clearest instruction to fathers in the book.
that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;who should arise and tell their children,
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
The chain goes one step further: children not yet born should arise and tell their own children. The psalm is thinking in three generations at once.
We have heard with our ears, God;our fathers have told us what work you did in their days,in the days of old.
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
Our fathers have told us. This verse is the other end of Psalm 78: the children speaking, saying they heard it from their fathers.
Come, you children, listen to me.I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Come, you children, listen to me. The speaker offers to teach the fear of the LORD, in the voice of an older person calling the young to sit and listen.
Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me,until I have declared your strength to the next generation,your might to everyone who is to come.
Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
An old, gray-haired speaker asks God not to forsake him until he has declared God's strength to the next generation. It suits a grandfather as well as a father.
Blessings and pictures of children, for a father praying for his own.
Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD.The fruit of the womb is his reward.
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Children are called a heritage of the LORD and a reward. The heading attributes the psalm to Solomon.
As arrows in the hand of a mighty man,so are the children of youth.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Children of youth are compared to arrows in the hand of a mighty man. The picture is of strength and of something aimed and sent out.
Your wife will be as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of your house,your children like olive shoots around your table.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Children like olive shoots around your table. The blessing is set at a family meal, in the ordinary life of the house.
Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants,our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
Sons like well-nurtured plants, daughters like carved pillars in a palace. The verse names sons and daughters side by side and prays for both.
But the LORD’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him,his righteousness to children’s children,
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
The LORD's loving kindness and righteousness reach to children's children. The verse carries a father's hope past his own children to theirs.
No psalm was written for Father's Day, and none is attached to it in the text. The closest fits are Psalm 103:13, which compares God's compassion to a father's, and Psalm 127, which calls children a heritage of the LORD. For a father who has died, Psalm 44:1 and Psalm 78:4 speak of what fathers handed on.
Psalm 103:13 is the most direct: like a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. Psalm 78:5 is the clearest instruction to fathers, to make God's teaching known to their children.
No psalm names the day. Psalm 103:13 and Psalm 127:3 fit well because they speak of a father's compassion and of children as a gift.
Psalm 68:5 calls God a father of the fatherless, and in Psalm 89:26 God says David will call to him: you are my Father.
Psalm 144:12 prays that our sons will be like well-nurtured plants. Psalm 127:4 compares the children of youth to arrows in the hand of a mighty man.
Psalm 144:12 prays that daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. It is the main verse in the psalms that blesses daughters by name.
Psalm 68:5 calls God a father of the fatherless, and Psalm 27:10 says that when father and mother forsake me, the LORD will take me up.
Psalms About MothersPsalms for Family and HomePsalms for KidsPsalms for Blessing and FavorPsalms for a BirthdayPsalms of Remembrance