The Psalter is divided into twenty sections called kathismata, read in order through the week at Vespers and Matins. Kathisma 6 contains Psalms 37–45 (Septuagint numbering).
Psalm 37 (38)
A Psalm of David for remembrance concerning the Sabbath-day.
2O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thine anger.
3For thy weapons are fixed in me, and thou hast pressed thy hand heavily upon me.
4For there is no health in my flesh because of thine anger; there is no peace to my bones because of my sins.
5For my transgressions have gone over mine head: they have pressed heavily upon me like a weighty burden.
6My bruises have become noisome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
7I have been wretched and bowed down continually: I went with a mourning countenance all the day.
8For my soul is filled with mockings; and there is no health in my flesh.
9I have been afflicted and brought down exceedingly: I have roared for the groaning of my heart.
10But all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hidden from thee.
11My heart is troubled, my strength has failed me; and the light of mine eyes is not with me.
12My friends and my neighbours drew near before me, and stood still; and my nearest of kin stood afar off.
13While they pressed hard upon me that sought my soul: and they that sought my hurt spoke vanities, and devised deceits all the day.
14But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and was as a dumb man not opening his mouth.
15And I was as a man that hears not, and who has no reproofs in his mouth.
16For I hoped in thee, O Lord: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
17For I said, Lest mine enemies rejoice against me: for when my feet were moved, they spoke boastingly against me.
18For I am ready for plagues, and my grief is continually before me.
19For I will declare mine iniquity, and be distressed for my sin.
20But mine enemies live, and are mightier than I: and they that hate me unjustly are multiplied.
21They that reward evil for good slandered me; because I followed righteousness.
22Forsake me not, O Lord my God: depart not from me.
23Draw nigh to my help, O Lord of my salvation.
Psalm 38 (39)
For the end, a Song of David, to Idithun.
2I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I set a guard on my mouth, while the sinner stood in my presence.
3I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good words; and my grief was renewed.
4My heart grew hot within me, and a fire would kindle in my meditation: I spoke with my tongue,
5O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.
6Behold, thou hast made my days old; and my existence is as nothing before thee: nay, every man living is altogether vanity. Pause.
7Surely man walks in a shadow; nay, he is disquieted in vain: he lays up treasures, and knows not for whom he shall gather them.
8And now what is my expectation? is it not the Lord? and my ground of hope is with thee. Pause.
9Deliver me from all my transgressions: thou hast made me a reproach to the foolish.
10I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; for thou art he that made me.
11Remove thy scourges from me: I have fainted by reason of the strength of thine hand.
12Thou chastenest man with rebukes for iniquity, and thou makest his life to consume away like a spider’s web: nay, every man is disquieted in vain. Pause.
13O Lord, hearken to my prayer and my supplication: attend to my tears: be not silent, for I am a sojourner in the land, and a stranger, as all my fathers were.
14Spare me, that I may be refreshed, before I depart, and be no more.
Psalm 39 (40)
For the end, a Psalm of David.
2I waited patiently for the Lord; and he attended to me, and hearkened to my supplication.
3And he brought me up out of a pit of misery, and from miry clay: and he set my feet on a rock, and ordered my goings aright.
4And he put a new song into my mouth, even a hymn to our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall hope in the Lord.
5Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not regarded vanities and false frenzies.
6O Lord my God, thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, and in thy thoughts there is none who shall be likened to thee: I declared and spoke of them: they exceeded number.
7Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me: whole-burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou didst not require.
8Then I said, Behold, I come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me,
9I desired to do thy will, O my God, and thy law in the midst of mine heart.
10I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo! I will not refrain my lips; O Lord, thou knowest my righteousness.
11I have not hid thy truth within my heart, and I have declared thy salvation; I have not hid thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.
12But thou, Lord, remove not thy compassion far from me; thy mercy and thy truth have helped me continually.
13For innumerable evils have encompassed me; my transgressions have taken hold of me, and I could not see; they are multiplied more than the hairs of my head; and my heart has failed me.
14Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, draw nigh to help me.
15Let those that seek my soul, to destroy it, be ashamed and confounded together; let those that wish me evil be turned backward and put to shame.
16Let those that say to me, Aha, aha, quickly receive shame for their reward.
17Let all those that seek thee, O Lord, exult and rejoice in thee; and let them that love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.
18But I am poor and needy; the Lord will take care of me; thou art my helper, and my defender, O my God, delay not.
Psalm 40 (41)
For the end, a Psalm of David.
2Blessed is the man who thinks on the poor and needy: the Lord shall deliver him in an evil day.
3May the Lord preserve him and keep him alive, and bless him on the earth, and not deliver him into the hands of his enemy.
4May the Lord help him upon the bed of his pain; thou hast made all his bed in his sickness.
5I said, O Lord, have mercy upon me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
6Mine enemies have spoken evil against me, saying, When shall he die, and his name perish?
7And if he came to see me, his heart spoke vainly; he gathered iniquity to himself; he went forth and spoke in like manner.
8All my enemies whispered against me; against me they devised my hurt.
9They denounced a wicked word against me, saying, Now that he lies, shall he not rise up again?
10For even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, lifted up his heel against me.
11But thou, O Lord, have compassion upon me, and raise me up, and I shall requite them.
12By this I know that thou hast delighted in me, because mine enemy shall not rejoice over me.
13But thou didst help me because of mine innocence, and hast established me before thee for ever.
14Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. So be it, so be it.
Psalm 41 (42)
For the end, a Psalm for instruction, for the sons of Core.
2As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for thee, O God.
3My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
4My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is thy God?
5I remembered these things, and poured out my soul in me, for I will go to the place of thy wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, with a voice of exultation and thanksgiving and of the sound of those who keep festival.
6Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; he is the salvation of my countenance.
7O my God, my soul has been troubled within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Ermonites, from the little hill.
8Deep calls to deep at the voice of thy cataracts: all thy billows and thy waves have gone over me.
9By day the Lord will command his mercy, and manifest it by night: with me is prayer to the God of my life.
10I will say to God, Thou art my helper; why hast thou forgotten me? wherefore do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses me?
11While my bones were breaking, they that afflicted me reproached me; while they said to me daily, Where is thy God?
12Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; he is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Psalm 42 (43)
A Psalm of David.
1Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, against an ungodly nation: deliver me from the unjust and crafty man.
2For thou, O God, art my strength: wherefore hast thou cast me off? and why do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses me?
3Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me, and brought me to thy holy mountain, and to thy tabernacles.
4And I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth: I will give thanks to thee on the harp, O God, my God.
5Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? Hope in God; for I will give thanks to him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Psalm 43 (44)
For the end, a Psalm for instruction, for the sons of Core.
2O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, the work which thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old.
3Thine hand utterly destroyed the heathen, and thou didst plant them: thou didst afflict the nations, and cast them out.
4For they inherited not the land by their own sword, and their own arm did not deliver them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou wert well pleased in them.
5Thou art indeed my King and my God, who commandest deliverances for Jacob.
6In thee will we push down our enemies, and in thy name will we bring to nought them that rise up against us.
7For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword shall not save me.
8For thou hast saved us from them that afflicted us, and hast put to shame them that hated us.
9In God will we make our boast all the day, and to thy name will we give thanks for ever. Pause.
10But now thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and thou wilt not go forth with our hosts.
11Thou hast turned us back before our enemies; and they that hated us spoiled for themselves.
12Thou madest us as sheep for meat; and thou scatteredst us among the nations.
13Thou hast sold thy people without price, and there was no profit by their exchange.
14Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
15Thou hast made us a proverb among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the nations.
16All the day my shame is before me, and the confusion of my face has covered me,
17because of the voice of the slanderer and reviler; because of the enemy and avenger.
18All these things are come upon us: but we have not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt unrighteously in thy covenant.
19And our heart has not gone back; but thou hast turned aside our paths from thy way.
20For thou hast laid us low in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death has covered us.
21If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search these things out?
22for he knows the secrets of the heart.
23For, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for slaughter.
24Awake, wherefore sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, and do not cast us off for ever.
25Wherefore turnest thou thy face away, and forgettest our poverty and our affliction?
26For our soul has been brought down to the dust; our belly has cleaved to the earth.
27Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for thy name’s sake.
Psalm 44 (45)
For the end, for alternate strains by the sons of Core; for instruction, a Song concerning the beloved.
2My heart has uttered a good matter: I declare my works to the king: my tongue is the pen of a quick writer.
3Thou art more beautiful than the sons of men: grace has been shed forth on thy lips: therefore God has blessed thee for ever.
4Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Mighty One, in thy comeliness, and in thy beauty;
5and bend thy bow, and prosper, and reign, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall guide thee wonderfully.
6Thy weapons are sharpened, Mighty One, (the nations shall fall under thee) they are in the heart of the king’s enemies.
7Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness.
8Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness beyond thy fellows.
9Myrrh, and stacte, and cassia are exhaled from thy garments, and out of the ivory palaces,
10with which kings’ daughters have gladdened thee for thine honour: the queen stood by on thy right hand, clothed in vesture wrought with gold, and arrayed in divers colours.
11Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father’s house.
12Because the king has desired thy beauty; for he is thy Lord.
13And the daughter of Tyre shall adore him with gifts; the rich of the people of the land shall supplicate thy favour.
14All her glory is that of the daughter of the king of Esebon, robed as she is in golden fringed garments,
15in embroidered clothing: virgins shall be brought to the king after her: her fellows shall be brought to thee.
16They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be led into the king’s temple.
17Instead of thy fathers children are born to thee: thou shalt make them princes over all the earth.
18They shall make mention of thy name from generation to generation: therefore shall the nations give thanks to thee for ever, even for ever and ever.
Psalm 45 (46)
For the end, for the sons of Core; a Psalm concerning secret things.
2God is our refuge and strength, a help in the afflictions that have come heavily upon us.
3Therefore will we not fear when the earth is troubled, and the mountains are removed into the depths of the seas.
4Their waters have roared and been troubled, the mountains have been troubled by his might. Pause.
5The flowings of the river gladden the city of God: the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle.
6God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her with his countenance.
7The nations were troubled, the kingdoms tottered: he uttered his voice, the earth shook.
8The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper. Pause.
9Come, and behold the works of the Lord, what wonders he has achieved on the earth.
10Putting an end to wars as for the ends of the earth; he will crush the bow, and break in pieces the weapon, and burn the bucklers with fire.
11Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
12The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper.
Text: The Septuagint Psalter, translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1851). Public domain.