What the psalms say about marriage, love and starting again, with each verse explained and a printable sheet.
Only two psalms speak about marriage directly. Psalm 128 pictures a wife as a fruitful vine inside the house, and Psalm 45 is headed a wedding song. The rest of the book says a great deal about the things a marriage runs on: loving kindness, faithfulness, careful words, forgiveness and starting over. This page gathers those verses and says plainly what each one says, without stretching any of them into a promise.
The verses are grouped in three parts: the psalms that mention marriage, verses on love and faithfulness, and verses for a marriage going through a hard season. Tick the ones you want and print them as one sheet for the two of you.
The two psalms that picture a marriage: a wife in the home and a wedding song.
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.
The wife is pictured as a fruitful vine in the innermost parts of the house, with children like olive shoots around the table. The verse sits inside a psalm about the blessing on the one who fears the LORD.
Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear.Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.
Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
Psalm 45 is headed a wedding song, and here it turns from the king to the bride. It asks her to listen, and to leave her own people and her father's house behind.
Verses about loving kindness, faithfulness and shared work. They do not mention marriage, but their words fit two people building a life.
Mercy and truth meet together.Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other. The psalm uses the picture of two meeting and embracing to show good things belonging together.
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.
The psalm calls God's loving kindness precious and pictures people sheltering under the shadow of his wings. It describes a love that people can take refuge in.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us.Establish the work of our hands for us.Yes, establish the work of our hands.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
The prayer is in the plural: on us, for us, the work of our hands. It asks twice for that shared work to be established.
Oh magnify the LORD with me.Let’s exalt his name together.
O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
It invites someone else to join in: magnify the LORD with me, and exalt his name together. The word together is in the verse itself.
For a marriage in a hard season. These verses ask for a new start, guarded words and a clean heart. They do not promise an outcome.
Turn us again, God.Cause your face to shine,and we will be saved.
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Turn us again, the psalm says, and it asks for God's face to shine. It is a prayer for restoration spoken in the plural.
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. The tears come first and the joy comes later, at harvest.
Create in me a clean heart, O God.Renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
A request for a clean heart and a right spirit, made new from within. The psalm asks for change in the one praying rather than in anyone else.
Set a watch, LORD, before my mouth.Keep the door of my lips.
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
Set a watch before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. It is a prayer for help with words, asked for before they are spoken.
Stand in awe, and don’t sin.Search your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
Stand in awe, and do not sin. The verse then tells the reader to search their own heart on their bed and be still.
The book of Psalms has no love poem between two people. Psalm 45 comes closest. Its heading calls it a wedding song, and it praises a king, then speaks to his bride, describing her clothing interwoven with gold and her procession into the palace with gladness and rejoicing. The word lover does appear elsewhere, but always for companions who stayed away in a time of trouble, as in Psalm 38:11 and Psalm 88:18.
No psalm is written about a marriage in trouble. The psalms that ask for restoration, such as Psalm 80 and Psalm 126, are prayers for a whole people to be turned back and restored. Their words are in the plural, turn us again and restore our fortunes, so two people can pray them together. Psalm 51 is the other side: a prayer for the one praying to be changed.
Psalm 128 is the clearest. Verse 3 pictures a wife as a fruitful vine in the house and children like olive shoots around the table. Psalm 45 is headed a wedding song.
They say little about marriage itself and a great deal about loving kindness and faithfulness. Psalm 85:10 pictures mercy and truth meeting and righteousness and peace kissing each other.
Psalm 133:1 praises brothers who live together in unity, and Psalm 34:3 invites another person to praise God together. Neither is about romance, but both are about the people closest to you.
Psalm 90:17 is written in the plural and asks for the work of our hands to be established. Psalm 67:1 asks God to be merciful to us and bless us, and works as a short shared blessing.
No psalm is written about a marriage, but Psalm 80:3 and Psalm 126:4 ask for restoration in the plural. Psalm 51:10 asks for a clean heart in the one praying.
Psalms for WeddingsPsalms for Family and HomePsalms about God's LovePsalms for Forgiveness and RepentancePsalms About FriendshipPsalms for Blessing and Favor