Why read Psalm 80?
Psalm 80 invites thanksgiving and attentive obedience to God. Its celebration recalls release from slavery and urges the people to listen to His voice.
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 80 — "Rejoice in God our Helper; shout aloud..." — is the prayer through which the Psalmist sets before God the living of a whole hour of life. It belongs to the Eleventh Kathisma and has 15 verses, which you will find below in full text.
The text of Psalm 80
1. Rejoice in God our Helper; shout aloud unto the God of Jacob!
2. Sing psalms and beat the timbrels; sing sweetly with the psaltery and the harp!
3. Sound the trumpet at the new moon, at the well-proclaimed day of our feast!
4. For it is a commandment for Israel, and an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He made it a testimony for Joseph, when he came out of the land of Egypt, and heard a tongue which he knew not:
5. "I removed his shoulder from the burden, for his hands had served in the brick-kilns.
6. In tribulation thou didst call upon Me, and I delivered thee; I heard thee in the midst of the storm and proved thee at the water of strife.
7. Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel: if thou wilt hearken unto Me,
8. Thou shalt have no other god, neither shalt thou worship a strange god,
9. For I am the Lord thy God, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
10. But My people heard not My voice, and Israel gave no heed unto Me.
11. So I gave them up unto the desires of their hearts, and they walked in their own counsels.
12. If My people had hearkened unto Me, if Israel had walked in My ways,
13. I would have soon subdued their enemies, and laid My hand upon those that afflicted them.
14. The enemies of the Lord deceived Him, but their time shall be for ever.
15. And the Lord fed them with the finest of wheat, and satisfied them with honey out of the rock."
When Psalm 80 is read
- It belongs to the Eleventh Kathisma and is read in the course of the Psalter at the services; the faithful read it during fasts and in times of need.
- 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.
