Why read Psalm 108?
Psalm 108 gives words to the pain caused by slander and hostility. Its harsh language calls for careful reading: judgment is entrusted to God, not used as a prayer for personal revenge.
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 108 opens the heart with the cry "O God, hold not Thy peace at my praise...". It is one of the 30-verse psalms of the Fifteenth 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 108
1. O God, hold not Thy peace at my praise, for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me.
2. They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue and surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me in vain.
3. Instead of loving me, they slandered me; but as for me, I prayed,
4. And they repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
5. Set Thou a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand.
6. When he is judged, let him go forth condemned, and let his prayer be turned into sin.
7. Let his days be few, and let another take his office;
8. Let his children be orphans and his wife a widow;
9. Let his children be displaced and beg; let them be driven out of the courtyards of their houses;
10. Let the usurer seize all his possessions; let strangers plunder his labours;
11. Let there be none to help him, neither let there be any to pity his fatherless children;
12. Let his children perish, and in one generation let his name be blotted out;
13. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out;
14. Let them be before the Lord continually, and let his remembrance perish from the earth, because he did not remember to show mercy.
15. And he persecuted the wretched, the poor and the humble of heart, to kill him.
16. And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him; and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him.
17. And he clothed himself with cursing as with a garment, and it entered into his bowels as water, and as oil into his bones.
18. Let it be unto him as the garment with which he covereth himself, and as the girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
19. This is the reward of them that slander me before the Lord, and that speak evil against my soul.
20. But deal Thou with me according to Thy mercy, O Lord, for Thy name's sake, for Thy mercy is good.
21. Deliver me, for I am wretched and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.
22. Like a shadow that inclines, I have passed away; I tremble like the beating wings of locusts.
23. My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is changed for want of oil,
24. And I am become a reproach to them; they saw me and shook their heads.
25. Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to Thy mercy,
26. And let them know that this is Thy hand, and that Thou, O Lord, hast done it.
27. They will curse, but Thou wilt bless; let them that rise up against me be put to shame, but let Thy servant rejoice.
28. Let them that slander me be clothed with confusion, and let them be covered with their shame as with a mantle.
29. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth, and in the midst of many will I praise Him,
30. For He stood at the right hand of the poor, to save his soul from those who persecute him.
When Psalm 108 is read
- a prophetic psalm, read during Passion Week.
- 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.
