Psalm 72 is a prayer of blessing over the King of Israel. The psalmist prayed that God would bless Israel and cause the nation to flourish under the king’s leadership. The psalm contains more than 10 specific prayers for the future of the kingdom and concludes with a statement of praise directed towards the God of Israel.

The author of Psalm 71 was growing old, and his strength was fading. He wrote this psalm to express his trust in God to help him fight his battles. He had trusted God since his youth and God had never disappointed him. While he didn’t have strength to fight anymore, he was ready to use the strength he still had to worship and teach others about God.

David asked God to run to his side in Psalm 70 to help him with his enemies. David’s adversaries relished in the thought of ruining him. David asked the Lord to shame them and thwart their efforts. David recognized that he needed the Lord’s deliverance. He needed God to help him because he was just a “poor and needy” man (70:5).

In Psalm 69, David shares his depression and weariness in dealing with his enemies. Men hated him because of his close association to God. These haters of God wanted to see him ruined, but David was confident the Lord wouldn’t allow it to happen. He waited patiently for the Lord’s deliverance, worshipping while he waited.

Psalm 68 is a psalm of David in which He praises God for His power and His care for the helpless (orphans, widows, etc.). David recalls God’s care for the Israelites when they travelled through the wilderness and the great display of God’s power seen at Mount Sinai. He speaks of a procession of worship, made up of the tribes of Israel and foreign dignitaries who honor the Lord. Paul quotes from Psalm 68:14 in Ephesians 4:8.

Psalm 67 has an unknown author and is relatively short at just 7 verses. The psalmist asks for God’s blessing on his people, so the surrounding nations would know they served the one true God of Heaven and come to know Him themselves. The author found joy in the fact that God judged the earth with equity and governed the nations of the earth.

Psalm 66 is a psalm of worship and thanksgiving for God’s love and great works. The psalmist calls on everyone to shout to the Lord with joy. The psalm recalls God's deliverance of the nation of Israel, invites people to worship, and concludes with a personal testimony about how God answered the prayers of the psalmist.

Psalm 65 is pure praise! David gives his readers multiple reasons to worship God. He is worthy of our adoration and our thanksgivings should be directed towards Him. The psalm speaks of God’s kindness, how He cares for His people and nurtures the earth to bring forth an abundant harvest.

In Psalm 64, David asked God to preserve his life from his enemies, wicked men who wanted to ruin him and other godly people. These wicked men worked super hard to lay secret traps for innocent people. They were clever in their craft, but God is cleverer. David wrote of His confidence that God would upend the traps of the wicked and destroy them with their own devices.

David wrote Psalm 63 to express his longing for God. He craved God’s presence like food and drink. He found satisfaction in going to the sanctuary, the Tabernacle, and meditating on God when he was laying on his bed at night. He anticipated a future where God defeated his enemies for him and exulted him on the throne of Israel.

Psalm 62 records David’s expression of trust in the Lord. He said the Lord was the only one worthy of his soul’s trust. God is an eternal rock of security and refuge. In contrast, the lives of men vanish like a vapor, whether low-class or high-class, it makes no difference. We should put our trust in something eternal, not anything temporary.

Psalm 61 is a short psalm in which David talks about God’s help in times of weakness. He prayed, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. David also prayed that his reign and throne would “endure to all generations,” a prayer that was answered when Jesus was crowned the eternal king.

Psalm 60 is an expression of lament by David, it came about after God allowed Israel to suffer a defeat in battle. David prayed for God to empower his men to defeat their enemies. He emphasized that human power was useless without God’s blessing.

In Psalm 59, David was being pursued by evil men that he compared to prowling bloodthirsty dogs. These evil men lived as if God was unaware of their actions, but David knew they were mistaken. The God of Heaven was looking down at them with distaste, and David knew the day was coming when God would humble them. In the meantime, God was David’s fortress.

Psalm 58 is an imprecatory Psalm in which David rebukes the wicked rulers of the people who pervert justice and oppress others. After describing these wicked men, David unleashes a series of curses against them. David was not personally going to harm these men, but his psalm called on God to deliver judgment to them.

David wrote Psalm 57 when he was hiding from King Saul in a cave. This probably refers to the time when David was at the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1-2). David’s psalm calls for God to be glorified and his oppressors to be thwarted. He rouses his soul to worship God and express unwavering confidence in the Lord’s ability to save him.

Psalm 56 is a prayer of David during a time of distress when he was captured by the Philistines at the city of Gath (1 Samuel 21:10-22:1). He expresses trust in God's awareness of his trouble, writing that God collected his tears in a jar. David had no doubt God would deliver him, and he encouraged his own soul not to fear human adversaries.

In Psalm 55, David was betrayed by a “familiar friend.” Men who had once been his allies had turned against him, and this was a cause of great distress for David. He wanted to flee the situation, like a dove flying away from danger, but instead he put his trust in the Lord and waited patiently for God to deliver him.  

David was repeatedly betrayed by the Ziphites, who reported on his location to murderous King Saul of Israel. In response to this betrayal, David wrote Psalm 54. He calls on God to defeat his enemies for him, and he rejoices in anticipation of his deliverance. He worships God for His faithfulness and for helping him through every trouble.

Psalm 53 is the twin of Psalm 14. The two Psalms are almost identical, with only slight variations in a few verses. They begin with the famous words, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The Psalm tells how God will punish those who deny His power and will redeem His faithful ones out of the hands of atheist abusers.