Psalm 4:1-8 vs. “Psalm 4 (English Standard Version)”
The Corner Room (Adam Wright) · checked 2026-08-21
▸ Official upload. It met the standard, so play it.
What we checked
Graded against the standard
Quotation criteria this song presents words as scripture, so these apply
Applies to every song the Name held holy · God shown holy · true of God · the standard
✓ What's good
- All eight verses of Psalm 4, in order, with nothing added and nothing repeated that the psalm does not repeat
- The version is named in the track title itself, so every line can be checked against one Bible
- The psalm's middle stays in, including the verses addressed to people rather than to God
- The album states its extent honestly: partial settings carry verse ranges in their titles, and this one does not
⚠ Cautions
None. This is the standard, met.
Verse Proof
Psalm 4:1-8The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer. How long, O men, will my honor be maligned? How long will you love vanity and seek after lies ? Selah Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for Himself; the LORD hears when I call to Him. Be angry, yet do not sin; on your bed, search your heart and be still. Selah Offer the sacrifices of the righteous and trust in the LORD. Many ask, “Who can show us the good?” Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with more joy than when grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
A psalm of David, headed for the choirmaster and set for stringed instruments. It is short and it moves in three directions. David asks God to answer him and reminds Him of past relief (v.1). Then he turns and speaks to people, asking how long they will shame his honour and love what is empty, telling them the LORD has set apart the godly, and telling them to be angry without sinning and to be quiet on their beds (vv.2-5). Then he turns back to God, reports the question many are asking, asks for the light of God's face, says God has given him more joy than a good harvest, and lies down to sleep (vv.6-8). Distress at the start, sleep at the end, and the reason given in the last clause.
WHAT THE SONG SINGS — the ESV text of Psalm 4, all eight verses in order, version named in the title
The song is the psalm. All eight verses, in order, in the English Standard Version, sung by a woman's voice over piano and cello. The version is not left to be inferred: it is printed in the track's own title, "Psalm 4 (English Standard Version)". Nothing is added, and no chorus is invented for a psalm that does not have one. Because the song is the psalm, the address moves where the psalm's address moves: it opens speaking to God, turns in the middle to speak to people, and returns to God for the last three verses. (The text quoted above is BSB, because this site quotes freely usable translations. The song's ESV wording differs in small ways, as any two translations do. What is being checked is whether the song matches *its own named version*.)
Nothing shifted. The words belong to the ESV and the order belongs to the psalm. What Adam Wright supplies is music, and the music is doing the interpretive work that edits do elsewhere: a quiet setting for a psalm that ends in sleep.
Psalm 4 entire is eight verses. Very little of the Bible is too long to sing whole.
Why it matters
A whole psalm keeps the parts a shorter setting would quietly lose. Here that means the middle, where the words are aimed at people rather than at God, and the question other people are asking in verse 6, and the plain ending where the psalmist simply goes to bed. None of that is quotable on its own, and all of it is the psalm.
Naming the version does the other half of the job. A listener who wants to check this song does not have to guess which Bible to open. Eight verses and one named translation: the whole song can be audited in a sitting.
Is it safe to dwell on?
Sung on repeat, this song moves between God and the singer.
What this plants by repetition is Psalm 4, including the parts nobody would choose for a chorus. You end up carrying a prayer that begins with a demand for an answer, spends its middle telling people to stop loving what is empty and to be quiet on their beds, and finishes with a man lying down to sleep because God alone makes him dwell in safety. The attention divides: some of the words are about God, some are about the singer's own distress and joy, and some are aimed at other people. That division is the psalm's, not the song's. Sung on a loop, it gives you a settled last line to end on, and the last line names God as the reason.
Helpful comparison
The album labels its own extent, which is worth noticing. Where The Corner Room set part of a psalm, the track title says so: "Psalm 88:1-7", "Psalm 88:8-18", "Psalm 119:105-112". Where they set a whole psalm, the number stands alone. So "Psalm 4" is a claim about scope as well as about text, and it is a claim you can check by counting to eight.
What we could verify, and what we could not. The artist states the method on their own site: Scripture set to music verbatim from the ESV. The track title names the version. An independent review of this album quotes the song's opening phrase and its closing phrase, and both are ESV wording, which brackets verses 1 and 8. The official lyric video's description carries the sung text line by line, above the Crossway permission notice, so anyone can set it beside an ESV and compare. This proof did not run that comparison, so verses 2 through 7 rest on the stated method rather than on an audit done here. Of the Corner Room proofs published before this one, only the Psalm 88 proof compared the words one by one.
Sources
- The Corner Room — official site · (Adam Wright of Cahaba Park Church, Birmingham; Scripture set to music verbatim from the ESV Bible; project scope)
- Psalm Songs, Volume III — album page · (track list: "Psalm 4" with no verse range, alongside "Psalm 88:1-7" and "Psalm 119:105-112" which carry ranges)
- Spotify — Psalm Songs, Vol. 3 · (exact track titles, every one ending "(English Standard Version)"; ten tracks, 37 minutes)
- Spotify — "Psalm 4 (English Standard Version)" · (exact track title, album, 2021)
- Apple Music — Psalm Songs, Vol. 3 · (release date 10 December 2021; ℗ 2021 The Corner Room)
- The Gospel Coalition Australia — Kingsley Davidson review, 13 May 2022 · (verbatim ESV; the Psalm 4 track described as female vocal with piano and cello, quoting its opening and closing phrases)
- The Corner Room — "Psalm 4" lyric video · (official channel upload; oEmbed returns author_name "The Corner Room", channel @TheCornerRoomMusic)
Corrections
- This proof said no lyric page it could reach lists the sung text line by line. That was wrong, and it is the worst kind of error this site can make, because the official lyric video's own description carries that text, sitting directly above the Crossway permission notice this entry already cites. The same paragraph credited three earlier Corner Room proofs with surviving a word-by-word audit. Only one did. The Psalm 88 proof compared the words against an independent transcription, the 1 Corinthians 13 proof rested on four statements of the translation, and the Psalm 23 proof describes no audit at all. Both sentences are corrected. The verdict, the tier and the criteria rest on the stated method and the named version, and none of them moved.
Think we got something wrong? Tell us what and where, and we will check it against the text. Real errors get fixed here, dated, in public. Every correction on the site →
More songs like this
✓ VERIFIED
“Psalm 11 (English Standard Version)”
The Corner Room (Adam Wright)
Sing it straight through. It is all seven verses of Psalm 11, in order, in a version the track title names. A reviewer says one verse comes back as a refrain, and it is the psalm's own verse.✓ All seven verses, in order. We set the printed sung text beside an ESV and compared it word by word: 131 words, all matching, nothing added and nothing dropped
⚠ The printed text under the video lists each line once. It is not a map of the song. A review of the album says verse 4 comes back as a refrain
✓ VERIFIED
“Psalm 88:1-7 / Psalm 88:8-18 (English Standard Version)”
The Corner Room (Adam Wright)
Sing it, both halves. It is the whole psalm in order, in a translation the release track titles name. It ends in the dark because the psalm does.✓ All eighteen verses, in order, across two tracks: the split preserves exactly the verses a trim would have taken
✓ no cautions: this is the standard
✓ VERIFIED
“Psalm 16”
The Corner Room (Adam Wright)
You can sing this one straight through. It is all eleven verses of Psalm 16, in order, in a named version. What you repeat is the psalm.✓ The printed sung text carries all eleven verses of Psalm 16, in order, with no line printed twice and no refrain added
⚠ The track title alone will not tell you which Bible you are singing. On Apple Music and Spotify it is just "Psalm 16". The version is named on the album page and in the video description.