1 Alleluia, a Psalm of Aggæus and Zacharias.
Praise ye the Lord: for psalmody is a good thing; let praise be sweetly sung to our God. 2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; and he will gather together the dispersed of Israel. 3 He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. 4 He numbers the multitudes of stars; and calls them all by names. 5 Great is our Lord, and great is his strength; and his understanding is infinite. 6 The Lord lifts up the meek; but brings sinners down to the ground.
7 Begin the song with thanksgiving to the Lord; sing praises on the harp to our God: 8 who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who causes grass to spring up on the mountains, [1and green herb for the service of men;] 9 and gives to cattle their food, and to the young ravens that call upon him. 10 He will not take pleasure in the strength of a horse; neither is he well-pleased with the legs of a man. 11 The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, and in all that hope in his mercy.
- 1 v. 8 See Ps 103. 14.
About this text. This is Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 translation of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church reads, rather than the Hebrew text behind most English Bibles. It is in the public domain. Words in italics are ones Brenton supplied that the Greek does not have; he marked them so that a reader could tell the difference, and they are kept that way here. The numbered notes are his own. Its English is Victorian, and does not match the modern English of the New Testament pages on this site.
On the numbering. The Psalms are numbered here as the Septuagint numbers them, which is how Orthodox service books cite them. From Psalm 10 onward that is one behind a Hebrew-numbered Bible: Psalm 50 here is the Psalm 51 of most English Bibles. The Septuagint also carries a hundred and fifty-first Psalm, which those Bibles do not.