Why read Psalm 143?
Read Psalm 143 to ask for protection and pray for the community's welfare. God's help is sought alongside peace, the well-being of families and recognition of human frailty.
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 143 opens the heart with the call “Blessed be the Lord my God, Who...”. It is one of the 15-verse psalms in the 20th Kathisma and is recited both at services and in prayer at home — the Psalter being a foundational book for the Orthodox Christian. The Orthodox Septuagint numbering is retained: this Psalm 143 corresponds to Psalm 144 in Hebrew numbering.
The text of Psalm 143
1. Blessed be the Lord my God, Who teacheth my hands to battle, and my fingers to war.
2. My mercy and my refuge, my supporter and my deliverer, my defender, and in Him have I trusted; He that subdueth my people under me.
3. Lord, what is man, that Thou hast made Thyself known unto him? Or the son of man, that Thou takest account of him?
4. Man is like unto vanity; his days pass as a shadow.
5. Lord, bow down Thy heavens and come down; touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6. Flash forth lightning, and scatter them! Send Thine arrows, and trouble them!
7. Send forth Thy hand from on high; take me out and deliver me from many waters, out of the hand of strangers,
8. Whose mouth hath spoken vanity, and whose right hand is a right hand of unrighteousness.
9. O God, I will sing a new song unto Thee; upon the psaltery of ten strings will I sing praise unto Thee,
10. To Thee that givest salvation unto kings, that deliverest David, Thy servant, from terrible captivity.
11. Deliver me and take me out of the hand of strangers, whose mouth hath spoken vanity, and whose right hand is a right hand of unrighteousness,
12. Whose sons are like young shoots grown up in their youth; their daughters adorned and beautifully dressed like the likeness of a temple.
13. Their storehouses are full, flowing over from one to another. Their sheep bearing many offspring, filling the ways as they go forth;
14. Their oxen are fat. There is no fallen fence, nor breach, nor cry in their streets.
15. They have called the people happy that hath these things; but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.
When Psalm 143 is read
- for the soul's good victory.
- 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.
