Why read Psalm 35?
Read Psalm 35 to renew your trust in God's mercy and guard against pride. It contrasts human wrongdoing with divine goodness, describing God as the source of life and light.
You can read this psalm when its themes speak to your circumstances, or as part of your regular reading of the Psalter. This explanation draws on the text itself; the psalm is not reserved for one particular need.
Psalm 35 — “The unbelief of the lawbreaker tells my heart...” — is the prayer through which the Psalmist places the experience of an entire hour of life before God. It belongs to the 5th Kathisma and has 12 verses, which you will find in full below.
The text of Psalm 35
1. The unbelief of the lawbreaker tells my heart that there is no fear of God within him.
2. He deceives himself in his own eyes when he says he is supposedly seeking out lawlessness and hating it.
3. The words of his mouth are lawlessness and deceit; he did not wish to understand in order to do good.
4. He devised lawlessness upon his bed; he did not remain on any good path and did not hate evil.
5. Lord, Your mercy is in heaven, and Your truth reaches to the clouds.
6. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgements a great deep; people and animals You will deliver, Lord.
7. For You have multiplied Your mercy, God, and the sons of men will hope in the shadow of Your wings.
8. They will be satisfied from the richness of Your house, and You will give them drink from the spring of Your delight.
9. For with You is the spring of life; in Your light we shall see light.
10. Extend Your mercy to those who know You and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11. Let no foot of pride come upon me, and let the hand of sinners not shake me.
12. There all who work lawlessness fell; they were driven away and will not be able to stand.
When Psalm 35 is read
- It belongs to the 5th Kathisma and may be read daily alongside the prayer rule (see the morning and evening prayers).
- At the end of each psalm, tradition adds: «Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.».
Adjacent psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
