The Psalter is divided into twenty sections called kathismata, read in order through the week at Vespers and Matins. Kathisma 10 contains Psalms 70–76 (Septuagint numbering).
Psalm 70 (71)
By David, a Psalm sung by the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive.
1O Lord, I have hoped in thee: let me never be put to shame.
2In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me: incline thine ear to me, and save me.
3Be to me a protecting God, and a strong hold to save me: for thou art my fortress and my refuge.
4Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the sinner, from the hand of the transgressor and unjust man.
5For thou art my support, O Lord; O Lord, thou art my hope from my youth.
6On thee have I been stayed from the womb: from the belly of my mother thou art my protector: of thee is my praise continually.
7I am become as it were a wonder to many; but thou art my strong helper.
8Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may hymn thy glory, and thy majesty all the day.
9Cast me not off at the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength fails.
10For mine enemies have spoken against me; and they that lay wait for my soul have taken counsel together,
11saying, God has forsaken him: persecute ye and take him; for there is none to deliver him.
12O God, go not far from me, O my God, draw nigh to my help.
13Let those that plot against my soul be ashamed and utterly fail: let those that seek my hurt be clothed with shame and dishonour.
14But I will hope continually, and will praise thee more and more.
15My mouth shall declare thy righteousness openly, and thy salvation all the day; for I am not acquainted with the affairs of men.
16I will go on in the might of the Lord: O Lord, I will make mention of thy righteousness only.
17O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and until now will I declare thy wonders;
18even until I am old and advanced in years. O God, forsake me not; until I shall have declared thine arm to all the generation that is to come:
19even thy power and thy righteousness, O God, up to the highest heavens, even the mighty works which thou hast done: O God, who is like to thee?
20What afflictions many and sore hast thou shewed me! yet thou didst turn and quicken me, and broughtest me again from the depths of the earth.
21Thou didst multiply thy righteousness, and didst turn and comfort me, and broughtest me again out of the depths of the earth.
22I will also therefore give thanks to thee, O God, because of thy truth, on an instrument of psalmody: I will sing psalms to thee on the harp, O Holy One of Israel.
23My lips shall rejoice when I sing to thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24Moreover also my tongue shall dwell all the day upon thy righteousness; when they shall be ashamed and confounded that seek my hurt.
Psalm 71 (72)
For Solomon. The hymns of David the son of Jessæ are ended.
1O God, give thy judgment to the king, and thy righteousness to the king’s son;
2that he may judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
3Let the mountains and the hills raise peace to thy people:
4he shall judge the poor of the people in righteousness, and save the children of the needy; and shall bring low the false accuser.
5And he shall continue as long as the sun, and before the moon for ever.
6He shall come down as rain upon a fleece; and as drops falling upon the earth.
7In his days shall righteousness spring up; and abundance of peace till the moon be removed.
8And he shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
9The Ethiopians shall fall down before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
10The kings of Tharsis, and the isles, shall bring presents: the kings of the Arabians and Saba shall offer gifts.
11And all kings shall worship him; all the Gentiles shall serve him.
12For he has delivered the poor from the oppressor; and the needy who had no helper.
13He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall deliver the souls of the needy.
14He shall redeem their souls from usury and injustice: and their name shall be precious before him.
15And he shall live, and there shall be given him of the gold of Arabia: and men shall pray for him continually; and all the day shall they praise him.
16There shall be an establishment on the earth on the tops of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall be exalted above Libanus, and they of the city shall flourish as grass of the earth.
17Let his name be blessed for ever: his name shall endure longer than the sun: and all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
18Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who alone does wonders.
19And blessed is his glorious name for ever, even for ever and ever: and all the earth shall be filled with his glory. So be it, so be it.
Psalm 72 (73)
A Psalm for Asaph.
1How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart!
2But my feet were almost overthrown; my goings very nearly slipped.
3For I was jealous of the transgressors, beholding the tranquillity of sinners.
4For there is no sign of reluctance in their death: and they have firmness under their affliction.
5They are not in the troubles of other men; and they shall not be scourged with other men.
6Therefore pride has possessed them; they have clothed themselves with their injustice and ungodliness.
7Their injustice shall go forth as out of fatness: they have fulfilled their intention.
8They have taken counsel and spoken in wickedness: they have uttered unrighteousness loftily.
9They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has gone through upon the earth.
10Therefore shall my people return hither: and full days shall be found with them.
11And they said, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?
12Behold, these are the sinners, and they that prosper always: they have possessed wealth.
13And I said, Verily in vain have I justified my heart, and washed my hands in innocency.
14For I was plagued all the day, and my reproof was every morning.
15If I said, I will speak thus; behold, I should have broken covenant with the generation of thy children.
16And I undertook to understand this, but it is too hard for me,
17until I go into the sanctuary of God; and so understand the latter end.
18Surely thou hast appointed judgments to them because of their crafty dealings: thou hast cast them down when they were lifted up.
19How have they become desolate! suddenly they have failed: they have perished because of their iniquity.
20As the dream of one awakening, O Lord, in thy city thou wilt despise their image.
21For my heart has rejoiced, and my reins have been gladdened.
22But I was vile and knew not: I became brutish before thee.
23Yet I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand.
24Thou hast guided me by thy counsel, and thou hast taken me to thyself with glory.
25For what have I in heaven but thee? and what have I desired upon the earth beside thee?
26My heart and my flesh have failed: but God is the strength of my heart, and God is my portion for ever.
27For, behold, they that remove themselves far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed every one that goes a whoring from thee.
28But it is good for me to cleave close to God, to put my trust in the Lord; that I may proclaim all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
Psalm 73 (74)
A Psalm of instruction for Asaph.
1Wherefore hast thou rejected us, O God, for ever? wherefore is thy wrath kindled against the sheep of thy pasture?
2Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased from the beginning; thou didst ransom the rod of thine inheritance; this mount Sion wherein thou hast dwelt.
3Lift up thine hands against their pride continually; because of all that the enemy has done wickedly in thy holy places.
4And they that hate thee have boasted in the midst of thy feast; they have set up their standards for signs,
5ignorantly as it were in the entrance above;
6they cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees; they have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter.
7They have burnt thy sanctuary with fire to the ground; they have profaned the habitation of thy name.
8They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth.
9We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and God will not know us any more.
10How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke thy name for ever?
11Wherefore turnest thou away thine hand, and thy right hand from the midst of thy bosom for ever?
12But God is our King of old; he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.
13Thou didst establish the sea, in thy might, thou didst break to pieces the heads of the dragons in the water.
14Thou didst break to pieces the heads of the dragon; thou didst give him for meat to the Ethiopian nations.
15Thou didst cleave fountains and torrents; thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16The day is thine, and the night is thine; thou hast prepared the sun and the moon.
17Thou hast made all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and spring.
18Remember this thy creation: an enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked thy name.
19Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that gives praise to thee: forget not for ever the souls of thy poor.
20Look upon thy covenant: for the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity.
21Let not the afflicted and shamed one be rejected: the poor and needy shall praise thy name.
22Arise, O God, plead thy cause: remember thy reproaches that come from the foolish one all the day.
23Forget not the voice of thy suppliants: let the pride of them that hate thee continually ascend before thee.
Psalm 74 (75)
For the end, Destroy not, a Psalm of a Song for Asaph.
2We will give thanks to thee, O God, we will give thanks, and call upon thy name: I will declare all thy wonderful works.
3When I shall take a set time, I will judge righteously.
4The earth is dissolved, and all that dwell in it: I have strengthened its pillars. Pause.
5I said unto the transgressors, Do not transgress; and to the sinners, Lift not up the horn.
6Lift not up your horn on high; speak not unrighteousness against God.
7For good comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert mountains.
8For God is the judge; he puts down one, and raises up another.
9For there is a cup in the hand of the Lord, full of unmingled wine; and he has turned it from side to side, but its dregs have not been wholly poured out; all the sinners of the earth shall drink them.
10But I will exult for ever: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
11And I will break all the horns of sinners; but the horns of the righteous one shall be exalted.
Psalm 75 (76)
For the end, among the Hymns, a Psalm for Asaph; a Song for the Assyrian.
2God is known in Judea; his name is great in Israel.
3And his place has been in peace, and his dwelling-place in Sion.
4There he broke the power of the bows, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Pause.
5Thou dost wonderfully shine forth from the everlasting mountains.
6All the simple ones in heart were troubled; all the men of wealth have slept their sleep, and have found nothing in their hands.
7At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, the riders on horses slumbered.
8Thou art terrible; and who shall withstand thee, because of thine anger?
9Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
10when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek in heart. Pause.
11For the inward thought of man shall give thanks to thee: and the memorial of his inward thought shall keep a feast to thee.
12Vow, and pay your vows to the Lord our God; all that are round about him shall bring gifts, even to him that is terrible,
13and that takes away the spirits of princes; to him that is terrible among the kings of the earth.
Psalm 76 (77)
For the end, for Idithun, a Psalm of Asaph.
2I cried to the Lord with my voice, yea, my voice was addressed to God; and he gave heed to me.
3In the day of mine affliction I earnestly sought the Lord; even with my hands by night before him, and I was not deceived; my soul refused to be comforted.
4I remembered God, and rejoiced; I poured out my complaint, and my soul fainted. Pause.
5All mine enemies set a watch against me: I was troubled, and spoke not.
6I considered the days of old, and remembered ancient years.
7And I meditated; I communed with my heart by night, and diligently searched my spirit, saying,
8Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be well pleased no more?
9Will he cut off his mercy for ever, even for ever and ever?
10Will God forget to pity? or will he shut up his compassions in his wrath? Pause.
11And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.
12I remembered the works of the Lord; for I will remember thy wonders from the beginning.
13And I will meditate on all thy works, and will consider thy doings.
14O God, thy way is in the sanctuary; who is a great God as our God?
15Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou hast made known thy power among the nations.
16Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Pause.
17The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee, and feared; and the depths were troubled.
18There was an abundant sound of waters: the clouds uttered a voice; for thine arrows went abroad.
19The voice of thy thunder was abroad, and around thy lightnings appeared to the world; the earth trembled and quaked.
20Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in many waters, and thy footsteps cannot be known.
21Thou didst guide thy people as sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Text: The Septuagint Psalter, translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1851). Public domain.