Psalms of David

For three hundred years, these translations have shaped how English-speaking Christians sing their prayers. Isaac Watts, the man who gave us "Joy to the World" and "When I survey the wondrous cross," turned his poetic genius toward the oldest poetry in the Western canon, the Psalms of King David. Here, ancient Hebrew songs of praise, lament, rage, and thanksgiving become elegant English verse meant to be sung aloud. Watts preserves the emotional wildness of the originals: the bloodthirsty pleas for divine vengeance, the dizzying heights of joy, the dark nights of the soul. These are not sanitized hymns but raw, muscular poetry about what it means to be human before God. Three centuries later, they remain the backbone of English-language worship, their language woven into the spiritual DNA of millions.