1 For the end, a Psalm of David.
2 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he attended to me, and hearkened to my supplication. 3 And 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. 4 And 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. 5 Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not regarded vanities and false frenzies.
6 O 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. 7 [Heb. 10. 5,6.] Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body hast thou prepared me: whole-burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou didst not require. 8 Then I said, Behold, I 1come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me, 9 I desired to do thy will, O my God, and thy law in the midst of mine heart. 10 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo! I will not refrain my lips; O Lord, thou knowest my righteousness. 11 I 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.
12 But thou, Lord, remove not thy compassion far from me; thy mercy and thy truth have helped me continually. 13 For 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. 14 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, draw nigh to help me. 15 Let 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. 16 Let those that say to me, Aha, aha, quickly receive shame for their reward. 17 Let 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. 18 But I am poor and needy; the Lord will take care of me; thou art my helper, and my defender, O my God, delay not.
- 1 v. 8 Or, am come.
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.