Why read Psalm 82?
Psalm 82 gives words to prayer for a community facing threats. It entrusts judgment to God and asks that opponents come to recognize His sovereignty.
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.
The full text of Psalm 82 (17 verses), from the Eleventh Kathisma of the Psalter. The opening words — "O God, who shall be like unto Thee?..." — are also the traditional "name" of the psalm: our grandmothers did not say "psalm 82", but called it by name, after its first words.
The text of Psalm 82
1. O God, who shall be like unto Thee? Keep not silence, neither be still, O God!
2. For behold, Thine enemies have made a tumult, and they that hate Thee have lifted up their head.
3. Against Thy people have they taken crafty counsel, and have consulted against Thy saints.
4. They have said: "Come, let us cut them off from among the nations, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more".
5. For they have consulted together with one mind. Against Thee have they made a covenant:
6. The tabernacles of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes,
7. Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, and the strangers with them that dwell in Tyre.
8. For Assur also is joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot.
9. Do unto them as unto Madian and Sisara, and as to Jabin at the brook of Kisson.
10. They perished at Endor; they became as dung for the earth.
11. Make their princes like Oreb and Zeeb, and Zebul and Salmana, all their princes, who said: "Let us take for our inheritance the sanctuary of God".
12. O my God, make them like unto a wheel, like the stubble before the wind,
13. Like the fire that burneth the wood, like the flame that setteth the mountains on fire;
14. So pursue them with Thy tempest, and make them afraid with Thy storm.
15. Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek after Thy face, O Lord.
16. Let them be put to shame and troubled for evermore, and let them be confounded and perish.
17. And let them know that Thy name is the Lord; Thou alone art the Most High over all the earth.
When Psalm 82 is read
- It belongs to the Eleventh Kathisma — the psalms are read in full in the cycle of the kathismata, at Matins and Vespers.
- 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.
