The Psalter is divided into twenty sections called kathismata, read in order through the week at Vespers and Matins. Kathisma 20 contains Psalms 143–150 (Septuagint numbering).
Psalm 143 (144)
A Psalm of David concerning Goliad.
1Blessed be the Lord my God, who instructs my hands for battle, and my fingers for war.
2My mercy, and my refuge; my helper, and my deliverer; my protector, in whom I have trusted; who subdues my people under me.
3Lord, what is man, that thou art made known to him? or the son of man, that thou takest account of him?
4Man is like to vanity: his days pass as a shadow.
5O Lord, bow thy heavens, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
6Send lightning, and thou shalt scatter them: send forth thine arrows, and thou shalt discomfit them.
7Send forth thine hand from on high; rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hand of strange children;
8whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.
9O God, I will sing a new song to thee: I will play to thee on a psaltery of ten strings.
10Even to him who gives salvation to kings: who redeems his servant David from the hurtful sword.
11Deliver me, and rescue me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity;
12whose children are as plants, strengthened in their youth: their daughters are beautiful, sumptuously adorned after the similitude of a temple.
13Their garners are full, and bursting with one kind of store after another; their sheep are prolific, multiplying in their streets.
14Their oxen are fat: there is no falling down of a hedge, nor going out, nor cry in their folds.
15Men bless the people to whom this lot belongs, but blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.
Psalm 144 (145)
David’s Psalm of praise.
1I will exalt thee, my God, my king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
2Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
3The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and there is no end of his greatness.
4Generation after generation shall praise thy works, and tell of thy power.
5And they shall speak of the glorious majesty of thy holiness, and recount thy wonders.
6And they shall speak of the power of thy terrible acts; and recount thy greatness.
7They shall utter the memory of the abundance of thy goodness, and shall exult in thy righteousness.
8The Lord is compassionate, and merciful; long-suffering, and abundant in mercy.
9The Lord is good to those that wait on him; and his compassions are over all his works.
10Let all thy works, O Lord, give thanks to thee; and let thy saints bless thee.
11They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy dominion;
12to make known to the sons of men thy power, and the glorious majesty of thy kingdom.
13Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures through all generations.
13The Lord is faithful in his words, and holy in all his works.
14The Lord supports all that are falling, and sets up all that are broken down.
15The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their food in due season.
16Thou openest thine hands, and fillest every living thing with pleasure.
17The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
18The Lord is near to all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
19He will perform the desire of them that fear him: and he will hear their supplication, and save them.
20The Lord preserves all that love him: but all sinners he will utterly destroy.
21My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
Psalm 145 (146)
Alleluia, a Psalm of Aggæus and Zacharias.
1My soul, praise the Lord.
2While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
3Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no safety.
4His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth; in that day all his thoughts shall perish.
5Blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
6who made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all things in them: who keeps truth for ever:
7who executes judgment for the wronged: who gives food to the hungry. The Lord looses the fettered ones:
8the Lord gives wisdom to the blind: The Lord sets up the broken down: the Lord loves the righteous: the Lord preserves the strangers;
9he will relieve the orphan and widow: but will utterly remove the way of sinners.
10The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Sion, to all generations.
Psalm 146 (147)
Alleluia, a Psalm of Aggæus and Zacharias.
1Praise ye the Lord: for psalmody is a good thing; let praise be sweetly sung to our God.
2The Lord builds up Jerusalem; and he will gather together the dispersed of Israel.
3He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
4He numbers the multitudes of stars; and calls them all by names.
5Great is our Lord, and great is his strength; and his understanding is infinite.
6The Lord lifts up the meek; but brings sinners down to the ground.
7Begin the song with thanksgiving to the Lord; sing praises on the harp to our God:
8who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who causes grass to spring up on the mountains, [ and green herb for the service of men;]
9and gives to cattle their food, and to the young ravens that call upon him.
10He will not take pleasure in the strength of a horse; neither is he well-pleased with the legs of a man.
11The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, and in all that hope in his mercy.
Psalm 147
Alleluia, a Psalm of Aggæus and Zacharias.
1Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Sion.
2For he has strengthened the bars of thy gates; he has blessed thy children within thee.
3He makes thy borders peaceful, and fills thee with the flour of wheat.
4He sends his oracle to the earth: his word will run swiftly.
5He gives snow like wool: he scatters the mist like ashes.
6Casting forth his ice like morsels: who shall stand before his cold?
7He shall send out his word, and melt them: he shall blow with his wind, and the waters shall flow.
8He sends his word to Jacob, his ordinances and judgments to Israel.
9He has not done so to any other nation; and he has not shewn them his judgments.
Psalm 148
Alleluia, a Psalm of Aggæus and Zacharias.
1Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the highest.
2Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
3Praise him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars and light.
4Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and the water that is above the heavens.
5Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.
6He has established them for ever, even for ever and ever: he has made an ordinance, and it shall not pass away.
7Praise the Lord from the earth, ye serpents, and all deeps.
8Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy wind; the things that perform his word.
9Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
10wild beasts, and all cattle; reptiles, and winged birds:
11kings of the earth, and all peoples; princes, and all judges of the earth:
12young men and virgins, old men with youths:
13let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name only is exalted; his praise is above the earth and heaven,
14and he shall exalt the horn of his people, there is a hymn for all his saints, even of the children of Israel, a people who draw near to him.
Psalm 149
Alleluia.
1Sing to the Lord a new song: his praise is in the assembly of the saints.
2Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; and let the children of Sion exult in their king.
3Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises to him with timbrel and psaltery.
4For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; and will exalt the meek with salvation.
5The saints shall rejoice in glory; and shall exult on their beds.
6The high praises of God shall be in their throat, and two-edged swords in their hands;
7to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments among the peoples;
8to bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with manacles of iron;
9to execute on them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints.
Psalm 150
Alleluia.
1Praise God in his holy places: praise him in the firmament of his power.
2Praise him on account of his mighty acts: praise him according to his abundant greatness.
3Praise him with the sound of a trumpet: praise him with psaltery and harp.
4Praise him with timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and the organ.
5Praise him with melodious cymbals: praise him with loud cymbals.
6Let every thing that has breath praise the Lord.
Text: The Septuagint Psalter, translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1851). Public domain.