☦ Orthodox Pascha Vigil/The Psalter of Prophet and King David.
[I chose to read these particular ones at home at 12:00 midnight Saturday until 12:30. Readers choose a time slot for reading of Psalms keeping Vigil by the Tomb of Christ. These continue until Saturday at 9:00 a.m. before the start of the Liturgy on Holy and Great Saturday.]
THE SEVENTH KATHISMA
Unto the end: a Psalm for the sons of Kore.
PSALM 46~
O clap your hands, all ye heathen; shout unto God with a voice of rejoicing.
For the Lord Most High is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.
He hath subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
He hath chosen us for his inheritance, the beauty of Jacob whom He loved.
God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.
Sing praises to our God, sing praises; sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
For God is the king of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding.
God reigneth over the heathen; God sitteth upon His holy throne.
The princes of the people are gathered together with the God of Abraham, for God's mighty ones of the earth are greatly exalted.
A Psalm of praise for the sons of Kore on the second day of the week.
PSALM 47~
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Well planted, the joy of the whole earth.
On the mountains of Sion, on the sides of the north, is the city
of the great king. God is known in her palaces, when He cometh to her help.
For lo, the kings of the earth were assembled; they came together.
When they saw her so, they marvelled, they were troubled, they were moved; trembling took hold upon them, there were pains, as of a woman in travail.
With a vehement wind shalt Thou shatter the ships of Tharsis.
As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. God hath established it for ever. We have thought of Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy people.
According to Thy name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends
of the earth; Thy right hand is full of righteousness.
Let Mount Sion rejoice, and let the daughters of Judea be glad,
because of Thy judgments, O Lord.
Walk about Sion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof.
Mark ye well her strength in your hearts, and consider her bulwarks, that ye may tell it to the generation following.
For this is our God for ever and ever; He will shepherd us for evermore.
Unto the end: a Psalm for the sons of Kore.
PSALM 48~
Hear this, all ye heathen; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world.
All ye that were born of earth, and ye sons of men; rich and poor together.
My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
I will incline mine ear to a parable; I will open my dark saying upon the psaltery.
Wherefore should I fear in the day of evil? The iniquity at my heel shall encompass me about.
There be some that trust in their strength, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.
A brother cannot redeem; shall a man redeem?
He cannot give to God a ransom for himself, nor the price of the redemption of his soul, even though he hath laboured for ever, and shall live to the end.
For he shall not see corruption, when he seeth wise men die.
The unwise and the fool shall perish together, and leave their wealth to others.
And their graves shall be their houses for ever, their dwelling places unto generation and generation; though they have called their lands after their own names.
Nevertheless, man being in honour understood not; he is like the cattle that are without understanding, and is become like unto them.
This their way is a stumbling block for them, yet afterwards they shall please with their mouth.
Like sheep they are laid in hell; death shall be their shepherd.
And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and from their glory their help shall consume in hell.
But God will redeem my soul out of the hand of hell, when He shall receive me.
Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, or when the glory of his house is increased.
For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him.
For his soul shall be blessed in his life; he will acknowledge Thee when Thou doest well to him.
He shall go to the generation of his fathers; he shall never see the light.
And man that is in honour, understood not; he is like the cattle that are without understanding, and is become like unto
them.
Glory. Both now. Alleluia.
A psalm of Asaph.
PSALM 49~
The God of gods, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
Out of Sion is the magnificence of His beauty.
God our God shall come visibly, and shall not keep silence.
A fire shall blaze before Him, and a mighty tempest shall be round about Him.
He shall call to the heavens above; and to the earth, that He may judge His people.
Gather His saints together unto Him, those that have established His covenant upon sacrifices.
And the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is judge Himself.
Hear, O My people, and I will speak to thee, O Israel; and I will testify against thee; I am God, even Thy God.
I will not reprove thee for sacrifices, for thy burnt offerings are continually before Me.
I will not welcome bullocks out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy flocks.
For all the beasts of the field are Mine, the cattle upon the mountains, and the oxen.
I know all the fowls of the air, and the beauty of the fields is Mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is Mine, and all the fulness thereof.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay thy vows
unto the Most High.
And call upon me in the day of thy trouble, and I will deliver thee; and thou shalt glorify me.
But unto the wicked God hath said, Why dost thou declare Mine ordinances, and takest My covenant in thy mouth?
Thou hast hated instruction, and hast cast My words behind thee.
When thou sawest a thief, then thou didst run with him; and thou hast been partaker with the adulterer.
Thy mouth hath multiplied evil, and thy tongue hath framed deceits.
Thou satest and spakest against thy brother, and laidst a scandal against thy mother's son.
These things hast thou done, and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest wickedly that I should be like thee; but I will reprove
thee, and set thy sins before thine eyes.
Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest He snatch you away, and there be none to deliver.
A sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me, and there is the way wherein I will show him My salvation.
Unto the end: a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to
him, when he had gone in to Bersabee, the wife of Urias.
PSALM 50~
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgression.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight; that Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and overcome when Thou art judged.
For behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins did my mother bear me.
For behold, Thou hast loved truth; the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom hast Thou revealed to me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed;
Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness; the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.
Turn away Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and establish me
with Thy governing Spirit.
I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall turn again to Thee.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; my tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness.
O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.
For hadst Thou desired sacrifice, I would have given it; Thou wilt not delight in whole burnt offerings.
A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise.
Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Sion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be builded.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness,
oblation and whole burnt offerings.
Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.
Glory. Both now. Alleluia.
Unto the end: instruction for David, when Doek the Idumean came
and told Saul, David has gone into the house of Abimelech.
PSALM 51~
Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man, and in iniquity all the day long? Thy tongue hath devised
unrighteousness; like a sharpened razor, thou hast wrought deceit.
Thou hast loved evil more than good, unrighteousness rather than to speak righteousness.
Thou hast loved all words of destruction, and a deceitful tongue.
Therefore shall God destroy thee for ever; He shall pluck thee out, and take thee away from thy dwelling place, and thy root out of the land of the living.
The righteous shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, and Lo, this is the man that made not God his help, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his vanity.
But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of the Lord; I have hoped in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
I will praise Thee for ever, because Thou hast done it; and I will wait on Thy name, for it is good before Thy saints.
