Why read Psalm 41?
Read Psalm 41 when sadness makes you long for God's presence. The image of a deer seeking water expresses the soul's thirst, while the repeated call to hope accompanies its grief.
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.
“As the deer longs for the springs...” — this is how Psalm 41 begins, a work of 17 verses from the 6th Kathisma. The Psalter is read in the Orthodox Church at every service, and this psalm has its place in the order of prayer.
The text of Psalm 41
1. As the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for You, God.
2. My soul thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?
3. My tears became my bread day and night, when people said to me every day: “Where is your God?”
4. I remembered these things as I poured out my heart, when I went with a great multitude towards the house of God,
5. With the sound of joy and praise and with the sound of celebration.
6. Why are you sorrowful, my soul, and why do you trouble me?
7. Hope in God, for I shall praise Him; the salvation of my face is my God.
8. Within me my soul was troubled; therefore I shall remember You from the land of Jordan and Hermon, from the little mountain.
9. Deep calls to deep in the voice of Your waterfalls.
10. All Your billows and waves passed over me.
11. By day the Lord will command His mercy, and by night a song to Him will come from me.
12. A prayer to the God of my life; I shall say to God: “You are my support, why have You forgotten me?”
13. Why do I walk sorrowful when my enemy afflicts me?
14. When my bones were being broken, my oppressors reviled me.
15. When they said to me every day: “Where is your God?”
16. Why are you sorrowful, my soul, and why do you trouble me?
17. Hope in God, for I shall praise Him; the salvation of my face is my God.
When Psalm 41 is read
- when the soul thirsts for God.
- 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.
