The Psalter is divided into twenty sections called kathismata, read in order through the week at Vespers and Matins. Kathisma 12 contains Psalms 85–90 (Septuagint numbering).
Psalm 85 (86)
A Prayer of David.
1O Lord, incline thine ear, and hearken to me; for I am poor and needy.
2Preserve my soul, for I am holy; save thy servant, O God, who hopes in thee.
3Pity me, O Lord: for to thee will I cry all the day.
4Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for to thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul.
5For thou, O Lord, art kind, and gentle; and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.
6Give ear to my prayer, O Lord; and attend to the voice of my supplication.
7In the day of my trouble I cried to thee: for thou didst hear me.
8There is none like to thee, O Lord, among the gods; and there are no works like to thy works.
9All nations whom thou hast made shall come, and shall worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.
10For thou art great, and doest wonders: thou art the only and the great God.
11Guide me, O Lord, in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth: let my heart rejoice, that I may fear thy name.
12I will give thee thanks, O Lord my God, with all my heart; and I will glorify thy name for ever.
13For thy mercy is great toward me; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
14O God, transgressors have risen up against me, and an assembly of violent men have sought my life; and have not set thee before them.
15But thou, O Lord God, art compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy and true.
16Look thou upon me, and have mercy upon me: give thy strength to thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.
17Establish with me a token for good; and let them that hate me see it and be ashamed; because thou, O Lord, hast helped me, and comforted me.
Psalm 86 (87)
A Psalm of a Song for the sons of Core.
1His foundations are in the holy mountains.
2The Lord loves the gates of Sion, more than all the tabernacles of Jacob.
3Glorious things have been spoken of thee, O city of God. Pause.
4I will make mention of Raab and Babylon to them that know me: behold also the Philistines, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians: these were born there.
5A man shall say, Sion is my mother; and such a man was born in her; and the Highest himself has founded her.
6The Lord shall recount it in the writing of the people, and of these princes that were born in her. Pause.
7The dwelling of all within thee is as the dwelling of those that rejoice.
Psalm 87 (88)
A song of a Psalm for the sons of Core for the end, upon Maeleth for responsive strains, of instruction for Æman the Israelite.
2O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee.
3Let my prayer come in before thee; incline thine ear to my supplication, O Lord.
4For my soul is filled with troubles, and my life has drawn nigh to Hades.
5I have been reckoned with them that go down to the pit; I became as a man without help;
6free among the dead, as the slain ones cast out, who sleep in the tomb; whom thou rememberest no more; and they are rejected from thy hand.
7They laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, and in the shadow of death.
8Thy wrath has pressed heavily upon me, and thou hast brought upon me all thy billows. Pause.
9Thou hast removed my acquaintance far from me; they have made me an abomination to themselves; I have been delivered up, and have not gone forth.
10Mine eyes are dimmed from poverty; but I cried to thee, O Lord, all the day; I spread forth my hands to thee.
11Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up, that they shall praise thee?
12Shall any one declare thy mercy in the tomb? and thy truth in destruction?
13Shall thy wonders be known in darkness? and thy righteousness in a forgotten land?
14But I cried to thee, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
15Wherefore, O Lord, dost thou reject my prayer, and turn thy face away from me?
16I am poor and in troubles from my youth; and having been exalted, I was brought low and into despair.
17Thy wrath has passed over me; and thy terrors have greatly disquieted me.
18They compassed me like water; all the day they beset me together.
19Thou hast put far from me every friend, and mine acquaintances because of my wretchedness.
Psalm 88 (89)
A Psalm of instruction for Ætham the Israelite.
2I will sing of thy mercies, O Lord, for ever: I will declare thy truth with my mouth to all generations.
3For thou hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy truth shall be established in the heavens.
4I made a covenant with my chosen ones, I sware unto David my servant.
5I will establish thy seed for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Pause.
6The heavens shall declare thy wonders, O Lord; and thy truth in the assembly of the saints.
7For who in the heavens shall be compared to the Lord? and who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?
8God is glorified in the council of the saints; great and terrible toward all that are round about him.
9O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee.
10Thou rulest the power of the sea; and thou calmest the tumult of its waves.
11Thou hast brought down the proud as one that is slain; and with the arm of thy power thou hast scattered thine enemies.
12The heavens are thine, and the earth is thine: thou hast founded the world, and the fulness of it.
13Thou hast created the north and the west: Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.
14Thine is the mighty arm: let thy hand be strengthened, let thy right hand be exalted.
15Justice and judgment are the establishment of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
16Blessed is the people that knows the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.
17And in thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
18For thou art the boast of their strength; and in thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted,
19for our help is of the Lord; and of the Holy One of Israel, our king.
20Then thou spokest in vision to thy children, and saidst, I have laid help on a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of my people.
21I have found David my servant; I have anointed him by my holy mercy.
22For my hand shall support him; and mine arm shall strengthen him.
23The enemy shall have no advantage against him; and the son of transgression shall not hurt him again.
24And I will hew down his foes before him, and put to flight those that hate him.
25But my truth and my mercy shall be with him; and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
26And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
27He shall call upon me, saying, Thou art my Father, my God, and the helper of my salvation.
28And I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.
29I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant shall be firm with him.
30And I will establish his seed for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
31If his children should forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
32if they should profane my ordinances, and not keep my commandments;
33I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with scourges.
34But my mercy I will not utterly remove from him, nor wrong my truth.
35Neither will I by any means profane my covenant; and I will not make void the things that proceed out of my lips.
36Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie to David.
37His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;
38and as the moon that is established for ever, and as the faithful witness in heaven. Pause.
39But thou hast cast off and set at nought, thou hast rejected thine anointed.
40Thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his sanctuary, casting it to the ground.
41Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast made his strong holds a terror.
42All that go by the way have spoiled him: he is become a reproach to his neighbours.
43Thou hast exalted the right hand of his enemies; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
44Thou hast turned back the help of his sword, and hast not helped him in the battle.
45Thou hast deprived him of glory: thou hast broken down his throne to the ground.
46Thou hast shortened the days of his throne: thou hast poured shame upon him. Pause.
47How long, O Lord, wilt thou turn away, for ever? shall thine anger flame out as fire?
48Remember what my being is: for hast thou created all the sons of men in vain?
49What man is there who shall live, and not see death? shall any one deliver his soul from the hand of Hades? Pause.
50Where are thine ancient mercies, O Lord, which thou swarest to David in thy truth?
51Remember, O Lord, the reproach of thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom, even the reproach of many nations;
52wherewith thine enemies have reviled, O Lord: wherewith they have reviled the recompence of thine anointed.
53Blessed be the Lord for ever. So be it, so be it.
Psalm 89 (90)
A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
1Lord, thou hast been our refuge in all generations.
2Before the mountains existed, and before the earth and the world were formed, even from age to age, Thou art.
3Turn not man back to his low place, whereas thou saidst, Return, ye sons of men?
4For a thousand years in thy sight are as the yesterday which is past, and as a watch in the night.
5Years shall be vanity to them: let the morning pass away as grass.
6In the morning let it flower, and pass away: in the evening let it droop, let it be withered and dried up.
7For we have perished in thine anger, and in thy wrath we have been troubled.
8Thou hast set our transgressions before thee: our age is in the light of thy countenance.
9For all our days are gone, and we have passed away in thy wrath: our years have spun out their tale as a spider.
10As for the days of our years, in them are seventy years; and if men should be in strength, eighty years: and the greater part of them would be labour and trouble; for weakness overtakes us, and we shall be chastened.
11Who knows the power of thy wrath?
12and who knows how to number his days because of the fear of thy wrath? So manifest thy right hand, and those that are instructed in wisdom in the heart.
13Return, O Lord, how long? and be intreated concerning thy servants.
14We have been satisfied in the morning with thy mercy; and we did exult and rejoice:
15let us rejoice in all our days, in return for the days wherein thou didst afflict us, the years wherein we saw evil.
16And look upon thy servants, and upon thy works; and guide their children.
17And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and do thou direct for us the works of our hands.
Psalm 90 (91)
Praise of a Song, by David.
1He that dwells in the help of the Highest, shall sojourn under the shelter of the God of heaven.
2He shall say to the Lord, Thou art my helper and my refuge: my God; I will hope in him.
3For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunters, from every troublesome matter.
4He shall overshadow thee with his shoulders, and thou shalt trust under his wings: his truth shall cover thee with a shield.
5Thou shalt not be afraid of terror by night; nor of the arrow flying by day;
6nor of the evil thing that walks in darkness; nor of calamity, and the evil spirit at noon-day.
7A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8Only with thine eyes shalt thou observe and see the reward of sinners.
9For thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou, my soul, hast made the Most High thy refuge.
10No evils shall come upon thee, and no scourge shall draw nigh to thy dwelling.
11For he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12They shall bear thee up on their hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13Thou shalt tread on the asp and basilisk: and thou shalt trample on the lion and dragon.
14For he has hoped in me, and I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he has known my name.
15He shall call upon me, and I will hearken to him: I am with him in affliction; and I will deliver him, and glorify him.
16I will satisfy him with length of days, and shew him my salvation.
Text: The Septuagint Psalter, translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1851). Public domain.