Why read Psalm 83?
Read Psalm 83 when you want to renew your longing for prayer and God's house. Its joy in His dwelling places and its image of pilgrimage express the desire to draw closer to Him.
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 83 opens the heart with the cry "How amiable are Thy dwellings...". It is one of the 13-verse psalms of the Eleventh Kathisma, and it is said both at the services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being the constant companion of the Orthodox Christian.
The text of Psalm 83
1. How amiable are Thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts!
2. My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.
3. For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtledove a nest, where she may lay her young:
4. Even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
5. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; unto the ages of ages shall they praise Thee.
6. Blessed is the man whose help is of Thee, O Lord; ascents in his heart he hath purposed,
7. In the valley of weeping, in the place which he hath appointed. For the Lawgiver shall give a blessing;
8. They shall go from strength to strength; the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.
9. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer! Give ear, O God of Jacob!
10. Behold, O God, our defender, and look upon the face of Thine anointed!
11. For one day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be cast down in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of sinners.
12. For the Lord loveth mercy and truth; God will grant grace and glory. He will not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence.
13. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that hopeth in Thee.
When Psalm 83 is read
- for the longing after the church and the Holy Liturgy.
- 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.
