About this work

The psalm in picture form

The goal isn’t simply to take a Tehillim and put a nice picture next to it. I’m trying to create something different — almost like putting the Tehillim into picture form.

I don’t know about you, but I personally enjoy staring at photographs. I can look at a complex photo for a long time and notice different things. I don’t naturally enjoy staring at pages and pages of words in the same way.

So I started thinking: what if you could actually look at a picture and, if you understood what the picture was representing, you could essentially experience the Tehillim through the image?

That’s what I’m trying to create.

The picture isn’t supposed to be immediately obvious. In fact, the complexity is intentional. It’s almost like a visual Midrash.

You read the Tehillim, you look at the image, and then you start discovering how the different elements of the picture correspond to the words, ideas, and themes of the Psalm.

So instead of saying, “Here is a picture that shows what the Tehillim says,” it’s more like:

Here is a visual world built from the Tehillim. Now explore it and discover how everything connects.

I think there’s something very special about that.

It’s similar to those “find the hidden things” pictures you sometimes see in magazines — except you’re not looking for a hidden shoe, frog, or sock. You’re looking for meaning.

You might look at the picture and initially just see David standing high above everything. Then you read the visual explanation and realize: David is standing above the scene because he has faith and trust. He’s looking upward rather than being consumed by everything happening around him.

Then you notice the army surrounding him. Those are the people plotting against him.

You notice the ropes and realize that they represent the people binding themselves together in rebellion against his rule.

You see enemy kings surrendering their crowns and swords, representing the call for them to turn and submit rather than continue rebelling.

You see people taking refuge around Zion and David while he is praying.

Suddenly, all these things that seemed like random details begin to connect to the actual words of the Tehillim.

And that’s the experience I’m trying to create.

You don’t necessarily understand everything in five seconds. You discover it.

You can sit there looking at the picture and think, “Wait, why is that there? What does that represent? Ohhh… I understand.”

And I think that makes the experience much more engaging. The reader isn’t simply consuming an illustration. They’re interacting with it.

That’s also why I don’t want to simplify the images just because someone might not understand everything immediately. The complexity is part of the point.

Complexity should create curiosity, not confusion.

If someone looks at the image and thinks, “There’s a lot here. I want to understand this,” that’s exactly what I want.

And if they don’t immediately understand everything, the class and the visual interpretation give them the roadmap. They can listen, then go back to the image and suddenly start seeing all the connections.

I think this is especially appropriate for Tehillim because the Psalms themselves are so deep, poetic, symbolic, and layered. A simple, literal illustration can only communicate one part of that.

I’m trying to create something where the entire chapter is represented inside one visual world.

So when you’re staring at this picture, you’re not just looking at a picture about the third chapter.

You’re looking at the third chapter in picture form.

And if you understand the visual language of the picture, staring at it becomes another way of engaging with the Tehillim itself.

That’s what I find so incredible about this.

This is made to be Judaism-friendly, and welcome to every tradition that already cherishes these songs — Christian, Jewish, and anyone who wants an honest, human way into King David’s words. The paintings show what the chapter is doing. They are not a badge of one community.

The classes come first. The site is where you return after you have been walked through a chapter — to live with one painting on the wall, small, medium, or large. The complete image is not displayed here. You meet it in the class, a region at a time, and then you can take the chapter home.