Why read Psalm 113?
Read Psalm 113 to give thanks for deliverance and renew your faith. The remembrance of the exodus and the contrast between God and idols encourage gratitude and living trust.
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 113 opens the heart with the cry "When Israel went out of Egypt...". It is one of the 26-verse psalms of the Sixteenth 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 113
1. When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people,
2. Judah became His sanctification, Israel His dominion.
3. The sea saw it and fled; Jordan was driven back.
4. The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs of the flock.
5. What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest? And thou, O Jordan, that thou wast driven back?
6. Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye hills, like lambs of the flock?
7. At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8. Who turned the rock into a lake and the stone into springs of water.
9. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name belongs glory, for Thy mercy and Thy truth,
10. Lest at any time the nations say: "Where is their God?"
11. But our God is in the heavens; in heaven and on earth, whatsoever He hath willed, He hath done.
12. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands:
13. They have mouths, but they shall not speak; they have eyes, but they shall not see;
14. They have ears, but they shall not hear; they have nostrils, but they shall not smell;
15. Hands have they, but they shall not feel; feet have they, but they shall not walk, neither shall they speak through their throat.
16. Like unto them let all be that make them, and all that put their trust in them.
17. The house of Israel hoped in the Lord; He is their helper and their defender.
18. The house of Aaron hoped in the Lord; He is their helper and their defender.
19. They that fear the Lord hoped in the Lord; He is their helper and their defender.
20. The Lord hath remembered us and blessed us; He hath blessed the house of Israel, He hath blessed the house of Aaron,
21. He hath blessed them that fear the Lord, the small with the great.
22. May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children!
23. Blessed are ye of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
24. The heaven of heavens is the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the sons of men.
25. The dead shall not praise Thee, O Lord, nor all they that go down into hell,
26. But we that live will bless the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore.
When Psalm 113 is read
- It belongs to the Sixteenth Kathisma; it is said in private prayer, especially for peace and understanding.
- 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.
