Why read Psalm 43?
Read Psalm 43 to pray for a community facing suffering. Remembering God's help in earlier generations gives the psalmist a way to express present questions and ask for deliverance.
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 43 opens the heart with the cry "O God, with our ears have we heard...". It is one of the 28-verse psalms of the Sixth Kathisma, and it is said both at the services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being the constant companion of the Orthodox Christian.
The Orthodox Septuagint numbering is retained here: this Psalm 43 corresponds to Psalm 44 in the Hebrew-text numbering.
The text of Psalm 43
1. O God, with our ears have we heard, for our fathers have told us
2. The work which Thou didst work in their days, in the days of old.
3. Thy hand destroyed nations, but Thou plantedst our fathers; Thou didst strike peoples, but Thou didst multiply our fathers.
4. For they inherited not the land by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them,
5. But Thy right hand and Thine arm, and the illumination of Thy countenance, for Thou wast well-pleased in them.
6. Thou art Thyself my King and my God, Who commandest the salvation of Jacob;
7. Through Thee shall we push down our enemies, and in Thy name shall we bring to nought them that rise up against us.
8. For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
9. For Thou hast saved us from them that afflicted us, and hast put them that hate us to shame.
10. In God shall we boast all the day long, and in Thy name shall we give praise for ever.
11. But now Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame, and wilt not go forth with our hosts;
12. Thou hast turned us back from our enemies, and they that hate us have plundered us.
13. Thou hast made us as sheep appointed for food, and hast scattered us among the nations;
14. Thou hast sold Thy people without a price, and didst not value them when Thou soldest them.
15. Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us;
16. Thou hast made us a proverb among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
17. All the day long is my confusion before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
18. Because of the voice of him that reproacheth and slandereth, because of the face of the enemy and persecutor.
19. All these things are come upon us, and we have not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt unrighteously in Thy covenant,
20. And our heart is not turned back; neither have our steps departed from Thy way.
21. For Thou hast humbled us in the place of affliction, and the shadow of death hath covered us.
22. If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have stretched out our hands to a strange god,
23. Shall not God search out these things? For He knoweth the hidden things of the heart.
24. For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
25. Awaken, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arise, and cast us not off unto the end.
26. Why turnest Thou Thy face away? Forgettest Thou our poverty and our affliction?
27. For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly hath cleaved unto the earth.
28. Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for Thy name's sake.
When Psalm 43 is read
- It belongs to the Sixth Kathisma; it may be read daily, together with the prayer rule (see the morning and the evening prayers).
- At the end of each psalm, the tradition adds: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."
Neighbouring psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
