Why read Psalm 42?
Psalm 42 is a prayer for guidance when you feel wronged or troubled. It asks for God's light and truth to lead the soul back towards Him and renew its hope.
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.
The full text of Psalm 42 (7 verses), from the 6th Kathisma of the Psalter. The opening words — “Judge me, O God, and defend my cause...” — are also the psalm’s traditional “name”: our grandmothers did not say “Psalm 42”, but called it by name, using its first words.
The text of Psalm 42
1. Judge me, O God, and defend my cause against the ungodly nation, against the unjust and deceitful man, and deliver me.
2. For You, O God, are my strength; why have You cast me off? Why do I walk in sorrow when my enemy afflicts me?
3. Send Your light and Your truth; they have guided me and brought me to Your holy mountain and Your dwelling places.
4. And I shall go to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth;
5. I shall praise You with the lute, O God, my God.
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 countenance is my God.
When Psalm 42 is read
- It belongs to the 6th Kathisma — the psalms are read in full within the cycle of kathismata, at Matins and Vespers.
- 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.
