The Reformed tradition believes in the importance of singing and learning the Psalms. Below is a Psalm exam that I created for my annual household visits and have also administered to our high school and college Sunday school students. I’ll provide an answer key in another post. There are 50 quotations from the more familiar psalms. Students are asked to identify the Psalm from the quotation. How many can you answer?

Psalm Exam

Write the number of the Psalm to the left of the quotation.  Some Psalms have multiple quotes.

1. The LORD is my Shepherd.
2. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of scoffers.
3. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?
4. God is our refuge and strength.
5. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
6. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
7. Why do the heathen nations rage?
8. Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory.
9. Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.
10. For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
11. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?
12. How shall a young man cleanse his way?
13. Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
14. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
15. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, Your children like olive plants around your table.
16. O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us the work that You did in their days, In the days of old.
17. If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That you may feared.
18. I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD.’
19. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
20. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
21. Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered, And let those who hate Him flee before Him.
22. O sing a new song to the LORD for wonders He has done.
23. Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
24. One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD.
25. They pierced my hands and feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.
26. As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
27. May he also rule from sea to sea And from the River to the ends of the earth.
28. You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth.
29. O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
30. The LORD says to my Lord: Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.
31. Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
32. Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war.
33. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
34. Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
35. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?  How long will You hide Your face from me?  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
36. The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’
37. O how I love Your law!  It is my meditation all the day.
38. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.
39. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
40. If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.
41. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.
42. Let his days be few; Let another take his office.
43. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
44. I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay.
45. Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
46. Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it.
47. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.
48. The heavens are telling of the glory of God.  And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
49. For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.
50. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.