Psalm 15:1-5 vs. “Psalm 15 (English Standard Version)”
The Corner Room (Adam Wright) · checked 2026-09-05
▸ 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 five verses of Psalm 15, in order, in a named version, with nothing added to the printed text
- The version is named two ways a listener can find: the release track title, and the video's own copyright line
- The official upload prints the sung text in its description, so the whole song can be checked against an ESV in a minute
- The list stays whole, including the hard clause about keeping a promise after it turned out to cost something
⚠ Cautions
- The embedded player's own YouTube title names no translation. The version is in the release track title, which is what Apple Music and Spotify show
Verse Proof
Psalm 15:1-5The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
“O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks with integrity and practices righteousness, who speaks the truth from his heart, who has no slander on his tongue, who does no harm to his neighbor, who casts no scorn on his friend, who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD, who does not revise a costly oath, who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”
Psalm 15 carries David's name in its heading and runs five verses. It is built as one question and one answer. Verse 1 asks the LORD who may stay where He is. Verses 2 to 5 answer, and the answer is not a feeling or a ritual. It is a list of ordinary things a person does and does not do with words, neighbours, promises and money. The last line is a promise about the person who lives that way.
WHAT THE SONG SINGS — the ESV text of Psalm 15, all five verses in order, version named in the release track title
The song is the psalm. All five verses, in order, in the English Standard Version. The version is not left to be guessed. It is printed in the release track title, "Psalm 15 (English Standard Version)", which is what Apple Music and Spotify show. The official lyric video prints the sung text in its description and closes with the ESV copyright line naming Crossway.
The text printed under the official upload runs to twelve lines and about 105 words. All five verses are there, in the psalm's order, with no line printed twice and nothing added. What a printed text cannot show is whether the recording repeats a line for musical shape, the way the Psalm 88 setting does. The track runs 3:51.
Because the song is the psalm, the address moves where the psalm's address moves. The opening question is spoken to the LORD. The four verses that answer it describe a person, and they are aimed at no one in particular.
(The text quoted above is BSB, because this site quotes freely usable translations. The song's ESV wording differs in small places, 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. The tune is simple enough for a room to sing along, which fits a psalm made of short repeated clauses.
Psalm 15 asks who may stay with God. The answer is about your neighbour.
Why it matters
Psalm 15 is short, so it is easy to sing whole. That matters more here than it would elsewhere, because the psalm is one question and one answer. Cut part of the answer and you have changed what the question was answered with.
The answer is also plain. It is about slander, money, a promise that turned out to cost something, and how you treat a neighbour and a friend. None of it needs explaining, and none of it is easy. A song that keeps the whole list keeps the difficulty.
Is it safe to dwell on?
Sung on repeat, this song moves between God and the singer.
What you plant by repeating this song is Psalm 15, all of it, which means you end up carrying a list. No slander. No harm to a neighbour. No scorn for a friend. A promise kept after it proved costly. Money lent without interest. No bribe taken against an innocent person.
The song's attention divides, and the division is the psalm's. The opening looks at God and asks who may stay with Him. The rest looks at a person. Sung over and over, that shape keeps the question about God's presence tied to an ordinary week, where the slander and the money and the promise actually happen. The last line is the one that settles it, and it is a promise rather than a demand.
Helpful comparison
There is more to check here than usual, because the artist published the evidence. The official upload's description box carries the sung text, and the ESV credit sits directly under it. A listener does not have to take the method on trust. They can read the text, open an ESV, and compare in about a minute. Most songs on this site give you nothing like that.
The album also labels its own extent. Where The Corner Room sets part of a psalm, the track title carries the verse range: "Psalm 88:1-7", "Psalm 119:105-112". Where the whole psalm is set, the number stands alone. "Psalm 15" carries no range, and Psalm 15 has five verses. The title and the posted text agree.
What we checked and what we did not. The printed text was compared to Psalm 15 verse by verse. All five verses are present, in order, with nothing added. We did not set it beside a published ESV word for word. The word-for-word claim rests on the release track title and the video's own ESV credit line. One line of outside corroboration does exist. A reviewer quoting this track gives its closing line as "He who does these things shall never be moved." That is the ESV's wording of verse 5. The BSB quoted above ends "will never be shaken."
Sources
- The Corner Room — official site · (Adam Wright, who began the project while music minister at Cahaba Park Church; the page describes its tenth collection as Scripture set to music verbatim from the ESV Bible, a later release than this album)
- Psalm Songs, Volume III — album page · (ten-track listing; "Psalm 15" is track 4 and carries no verse range, alongside "Psalm 88:1-7" and "Psalm 119:105-112" which do)
- Psalm Songs, Volume III (Digital Download) — store page · (the Volume III product listing; its description body is leftover Volume II copy, so the "verbatim from the ESV Bible" sentence on it describes Volume II and is not cited here as evidence for this album)
- Apple Music — "Psalm 15 (English Standard Version)" · (exact track title; album Psalm Songs, Vol. 3; released 10 December 2021)
- Spotify — "Psalm 15 (English Standard Version)" · (exact track title)
- The Corner Room — "Psalm 15" (Lyric Video) · (official channel upload; oEmbed returns author_name "The Corner Room", channel @TheCornerRoomMusic; runs 3:51; the description prints the sung text and credits the ESV Bible, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles)
- The Gospel Coalition Australia — Kingsley Davidson review, 13 May 2022 · (Volume 3 set verbatim from the ESV; the Psalm 15 track described as "like a campfire singalong")
Corrections
- This entry cited the album's store page as one of the places the ESV is named. That page's description body is leftover Volume II copy: the sentence reads "Psalm Songs, Volume II is a collection of 8 Psalms, verbatim from the ESV Bible, set to original music," and it is followed by a Volume II track list. It is not about Volume III, which is this album. The ESV naming now rests on the two places that do carry it, the release track title and the video's own credit line, and the count is corrected from three to two.
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 →
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