Why read Psalm 91?
Read Psalm 91 for morning or evening thanksgiving and encouragement to remain faithful. Praise for God's mercy is joined to the image of the righteous continuing to flourish and bear fruit in old age.
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.
"It is a good thing to give praise unto the Lord..." — so begins Psalm 91, fifteen verses from the Thirteenth Kathisma. The Psalter is read in the Orthodox Church at every service, and this psalm has its own place in the order of prayer.
The text of Psalm 91
1. It is a good thing to give praise unto the Lord, and to sing unto Thy name, O Most High;
2. To proclaim Thy mercy in the morning, and Thy truth through the night,
3. Upon the psaltery of ten strings, with songs upon the harp.
4. For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad through Thy works, and in the works of Thy hands will I rejoice.
5. How great are Thy works, O Lord! Exceeding deep are Thy thoughts!
6. A senseless man shall not know, nor shall the foolish understand these things,
7. When the sinners spring up as the grass, and all the workers of iniquity appear,
8. That they may perish for evermore. But Thou, O Lord, art Most High for evermore.
9. For behold, Thine enemies, O Lord, shall perish, and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10. And my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn, and mine old age with rich mercy.
11. And mine eye hath looked upon mine enemies, and mine ear shall hear the wicked that rise up against me.
12. The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, and shall be multiplied like the cedar of Lebanon.
13. They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14. They shall still be multiplied in a fruitful old age, and shall be well-content, that they may proclaim:
15. Righteous is the Lord our God, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
When Psalm 91 is read
- in the morning, in thanksgiving — "it is a good thing to give praise unto the Lord".
- 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.
