1 A Psalm of 1praise for the sons of Core on the second day of the week.
2 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. 3 The city of the great King is well planted on the mountains of Sion, with the joy of the whole earth, on the sides of the north. 4 God is known in her palaces, when he undertakes to help her.
5 For, behold, the kings of the earth were assembled, they came together. 6 They saw, and so they wondered: they were troubled, they were moved. 7 Trembling took hold on them: there were the pangs as of a woman in travail. 8 Thou wilt break the ships of Tharsis with a vehement wind. 9 As we have heard, so have we also seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God has founded it for ever. Pause.
10 We have thought of thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy people. 11 According to thy name, O God, so is also thy praise to the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. 12 Let mount Sion rejoice, let the daughters of Judæa exult, because of thy judgments, O Lord.
13 Go round about Sion, and encompass her: tell ye her towers. 14 Mark ye well her strength, and observe her palaces; that ye may tell the next generation. 15 For this is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide for evermore.
- 1 v. 1 A song.
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.