Why read Psalm 87?
Read Psalm 87 when loneliness or suffering feels overwhelming. It voices pain without a bright resolution, showing that even deep anguish can be brought before God.
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 87 (19 verses), from the Twelfth Kathisma of the Psalter. The opening words — "O Lord, the God of my salvation, by day have I cried..." — are also the traditional "name" of the psalm: our grandmothers did not say "psalm 87", but called it by name, after its first words.
The text of Psalm 87
1. O Lord, the God of my salvation, by day have I cried and in the night before Thee.
2. Let my prayer come before Thee; bow down Thine ear unto my supplication, O Lord,
3. For my soul is filled with evils, and my life draweth nigh unto hell.
4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am become as a man without help, free among the dead.
5. Like wounded men laid to sleep in the grave, of whom Thou art no more mindful, and who are put away from Thy hand.
6. They laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places and in the shadow of death.
7. Thy wrath hath been heavy upon me, and all Thy waves hast Thou brought upon me.
8. Thou hast removed mine acquaintance far from me; I am become an abomination unto them.
9. I was shut up and could not come forth; mine eyes have grown weak from poverty.
10. I have cried unto Thee, O Lord, all the day long; I have stretched out my hands unto Thee.
11. Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Or shall the dead rise up again and praise Thee?
12. Shall any one declare Thy mercy in the grave, and Thy truth in destruction?
13. Shall Thy wonders be known in darkness, and Thy righteousness in a forgotten land?
14. But as for me, unto Thee, O Lord, have I cried, and in the morning shall my prayer come before Thee.
15. Why castest Thou away my soul, O Lord, and turnest Thy face away from me?
16. I am poor and in toils from my youth; I was exalted, yet was humbled and brought to trouble.
17. Thy wrathful displeasures have passed over me, and Thy terrors have troubled me.
18. They came round about me like water all the day long; they compassed me about together.
19. Thou hast removed far from me friend and neighbour, and mine acquaintance because of my misery.
When Psalm 87 is read
- in depression and in the night of the soul — the darkest psalm.
- 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
Read also
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
