Why read Psalm 128?
Psalm 128 offers encouragement after repeated trials or oppression. Its memory of suffering from youth is joined to the conviction that evil has not had the final word.
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 128 opens the heart with the call “Many times they have fought against...”. It is one of the 8-verse psalms in the 18th Kathisma and is recited both at services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being a foundational book for the Orthodox Christian.
The text of Psalm 128
1. Many times they have fought against me since my youth, let Israel say!
2. Many times they have fought against me since my youth, and they have not overcome me.
3. The sinners struck my back; they extended their lawlessness;
4. But the righteous Lord cut the necks of the sinners.
5. Let all who hate Zion be ashamed and turn back.
6. Let them become like grass on the rooftops, which withered before it was pulled up,
7. With which the reaper did not fill his hand, nor the gatherer of sheaves his bosom,
8. And passers-by will not say: “The blessing of the Lord be upon you!” or: “We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
When Psalm 128 is read
- It belongs to the 18th Kathisma and is read in the sequence of the Psalter at services; the faithful read it during fasts and in times of need.
- At the end of each psalm, tradition adds: «Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.».
Adjacent psalms
The numbering follows the Orthodox Psalter (Septuagint). The same psalm may have a different number in other Bible editions.
