Why read Psalm 51?
Read Psalm 51 when you want to resist harmful speech and remain faithful to goodness. It contrasts boasting about evil and deceitful words with trust in God's mercy.
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.
“Why do you boast in evil, mighty one?...” — this is how Psalm 51 begins, a work of 8 verses from the 7th 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 51
1. Why do you boast in evil, mighty one? Lawlessness all day, injustice has your tongue spoken; like a sharp razor it has worked deceit.
2. You loved evil more than goodness, injustice more than speaking righteousness.
3. You loved all the words of destruction, deceitful tongue!
4. Therefore God will cast you down finally, tear you out and remove you from your dwelling place, and your root from the land of the living.
5. The righteous will see and fear, laugh at him and say, “Behold the man who did not make God his help,
6. But hoped in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself in his vanity.”
7. But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, hoped in the mercy of God forever and unto the ages of ages.
8. I shall glorify You forever, for You have done this, and I shall await Your name, for it is good before Your holy ones.
When Psalm 51 is read
- It belongs to the 7th 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.
