Why read Psalm 54?
Psalm 54 offers words for entrusting your worries to God when you are afraid or betrayed. The hurt caused by a close companion is met by the invitation to cast your burden on the Lord.
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.
In the 7th Kathisma of the Psalter, Psalm 54 awaits its reader with 27 verses of prayer arising from a real experience. It begins with “Hear, O God, my prayer, and do not...” — and from there onwards, everything is a dialogue between the human being and God.
The text of Psalm 54
1. Hear, O God, my prayer, and do not overlook my supplication.
2. Attend to me and listen to me; I grieved in my unrest and was troubled by the voice of the enemy and the distress caused by the sinner.
3. For he brought lawlessness upon me and opposed me in anger.
4. My heart was troubled within me, and the fear of death fell upon me;
5. Fear and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me.
6. And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, so that I may fly and rest?
7. Behold, I would flee far away and dwell in the wilderness.
8. I waited for God, who saves me from faintheartedness and the storm.
9. Destroy them, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen lawlessness and division in the city.
10. Day and night it will surround her upon her walls; lawlessness and toil are in her midst, and injustice;
11. And usury and deceit have not been absent from her streets.
12. For if the enemy had insulted me, I would have endured it;
13. And if the one who hates me had boasted against me, I would have hidden from him.
14. But you, a man like me, my leader and my acquaintance,
15. Who enjoyed meals together with me, we walked in the house of God in one accord!
16. Let death come upon them, and let them descend alive into hell,
17. For deceit is in their dwellings, in their midst.
18. But I cried to God, and the Lord heard me.
19. In the evening and the morning and at noon I will speak, I will proclaim, and He will hear my voice.
20. He will deliver my soul in peace from those who approach me, for many were against me.
21. God will hear and humble them, He who is before the ages.
22. For there is no amendment in them, and they did not fear God. They stretched out their hands against their allies,
23. They defiled His covenant. They were scattered by the anger of His face, and their hearts drew near;
24. Their words became softer than oil, but they are arrows.
25. Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
26. But You, O God, will bring them down into the pit of corruption.
27. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men will not reach half their days; but I will hope in You, O Lord.
When Psalm 54 is read
- When slander brings you down.
- 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
Read also
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
