Why read Psalm 78?
Psalm 78 is a prayer for mercy on a suffering community. Its lament over Jerusalem asks for forgiveness and help while honestly acknowledging the pain of those who remain.
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 78 opens the heart with the call “O God, the nations have entered Your inheritance,...”. It is one of the 14-verse psalms in the 11th Kathisma and is recited both at services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being a foundational book for the Orthodox Christian. The Orthodox Septuagint numbering is retained: this Psalm 78 corresponds to Psalm 79 in the Hebrew numbering.
The text of Psalm 78
1. O God, the nations have entered Thine inheritance; they have defiled Thy holy temple; they have made Jerusalem a ruin.
2. They have given the dead bodies of Thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
3. They have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.
4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
5. How long, O Lord, wilt Thou be angry to the end? How long shall Thy wrath burn as fire?
6. Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that have not known Thee, and upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy name.
7. For they have devoured Jacob, and made his dwelling-place desolate.
8. Remember not our former iniquities; let Thy mercies quickly meet us, for we have become very poor.
9. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name; O Lord, deliver us, and purge away our sins for Thy name's sake.
10. Lest the nations should say: "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
11. The avenging of the blood of Thy servants which hath been shed; let the sighing of the prisoners come in before Thee.
12. According to the greatness of Thine arm, preserve the sons of those who have been slain.
13. Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom the reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord.
14. So we Thy people, and the sheep of Thy pasture, will confess Thee for ever; from generation to generation we will declare Thy praise.
When Psalm 78 is read
- It belongs to the 11th 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.
