Why read Psalm 53?
Read Psalm 53 when persecution or injustice leads you to ask for help. The prayer places trust in God's name and gives thanks for deliverance from trouble.
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 53 opens the heart with the call «God, save me in Your name and...». It is one of the 7-verse psalms in the 7th Kathisma and is recited both at services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being a foundational book for the Orthodox Christian.
The text of Psalm 53
1. God, save me in Your name and judge me by Your power.
2. God, hear my prayer; attend to the words of my mouth!
3. For strangers have risen against me, and the powerful have sought my soul, and they have not set God before them.
4. But behold, God helps me, and the Lord is the support of my soul.
5. He will turn evil back upon my enemies; by Your truth You will destroy them.
6. Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, Lord, for it is good,
7. For You have delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked upon my enemies.
When Psalm 53 is read
- For deliverance from adversaries.
- 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.
