Why read Psalm 107?
Read Psalm 107 when you seek trust and resolve before a new challenge. A heart ready to sing and a plea for help express the willingness to move forward with hope in 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 107 (14 verses), from the Fifteenth Kathisma of the Psalter. The opening words — "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready..." — are also the traditional "name" of the psalm: our grandmothers did not say "psalm 107", but called it by name, after its first words.
The text of Psalm 107
1. My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready; I will sing and give praise in my heart.
2. Awake, my glory! Awake, psaltery and harp! I myself will awake right early.
3. I will praise Thee among the peoples, O Lord, and I will sing unto Thee among the nations,
4. For Thy mercy is great above the heavens, and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
5. Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth, that Thy beloved may be delivered.
6. Save me with Thy right hand and hear me. God hath spoken in His holy place:
7. "I will be exalted, and I will divide Shechem, and will mete out the valley of tabernacles.
8. Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; and Ephraim is the support of My head,
9. Judah is My lawgiver; Moab is the pot of My washing;
10. Upon Edom will I cast My shoe. Unto Me the strangers have submitted themselves."
11. Who will lead me into the fortified city? Who will guide me even unto Edom?
12. Hast not Thou, O God, cast us off? And wilt not Thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?
13. Give us help from trouble, for vain is the salvation that is of man.
14. Through God shall we do valiantly; and He it is that shall destroy our enemies.
When Psalm 107 is read
- It belongs to the Fifteenth Kathisma; it may be read daily, together with the prayer rule (see the morning and the evening prayers).
- 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.
