Meals for the Soul — Orthodox Resources

The Old Testament · Psalms

Psalms 42

1 A Psalm of David.

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, against an ungodly nation: deliver me from the unjust and crafty man. 2 For thou, O God, art my strength: wherefore hast thou cast me off? and why do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses me? 3 Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me, and brought me to thy holy mountain, and to thy tabernacles. 4 And I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth: I will give thanks to thee on the harp, O God, my God.

5 Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? Hope in God; for I will give thanks to him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

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.