Twelfth Kathisma

Psalm 85

Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and hearken unto me, for poor and needy am I. Keep my soul, for I am holy; save thy servant, O my God, that hopeth in thee. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for unto thee I cry all the day long; make glad the soul of thy servant, for unto thee have I lifted up my soul. For thou, O Lord, art good and kind, and great in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplication. In the day of my tribulation I cried unto thee, for thou hast hearkened unto me. There is none like unto thee among the gods, O Lord, and there are none like unto thy works. All the nations which thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name: for thou art great and workest wonders; thou alone art God. Guide me, O Lord, in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth; let my heart be glad, that I may fear thy name. I will confess thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name for ever. For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the lawless are risen up against me, and a congregation of mighty men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord my God, art compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and great in mercy, and true. Look upon me, and have mercy on me; give strength unto thy child, and save the son of thy handmaid. Work upon me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed, for thou, O Lord, hast helped me and comforted me.

Psalm 86

His foundations are in the holy mountains; the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the tabernacles of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God. I will remember Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: and, behold, the foreigners, and Tyre and the people of Ethiopia, they were born there. Zion is my mother, a man shall say, and a man was born in her, and He, the Most High, hath founded her. The Lord shall declare it in his writing of the peoples, and their rulers that were born in her. How joyful are all those that dwell in thee.

Psalm 87

O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried in the day and in the night before thee. Let my prayer come in before thee; bow down thine ear to my supplication. For my soul is filled with evil, and my life hath come nigh to hell. I have been counted among them that go down into the pit. I am become as a helpless man, free among the dead, like them that are wounded and lie down in the grave, whom thou hast remem bered no more; and they are cut off from thy hand. They have laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, and in the shadow of death. Thy displeasure hath lain upon me, and all thy waves hast thou brought upon me. Thou hast removed mine acquaintances from me; they have made me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up and did not come forth. Mine eyes were weakened from poverty: I cried unto thee, O Lord, all the day; I stretched forth my hands unto thee. Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up that they may confess thee? Shall any one declare thy mercy in the grave, and thy truth in perdition? Shall thy wonders be known in the darkness, and thy righteousness in a forgotten land? But I, O Lord, cried unto thee, and in the morning my prayer shall come before thee. Why, O Lord, dost thou reject my soul, and turn away thy face from me? I am poor and in troubles from my youth up; and being exalted, I was humbled and perplexed. Thy wrath hath passed over me; thy terrors have disquieted me. They have encompassed me like water all the day, and have overwhelmed me at once. Thou hast removed friend and neighbor from me, and mine acquaintance because of my misery.

Psalm 88

Thy mercies, O Lord, will I sing for ever; from generation to generation I will declare thy truth with my mouth. For thou hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever; thy truth shall be made ready in the heavens. I covenanted a covenant with mine elect; I sware to David my servant, Thy seed will I establish unto eternity, and I will build up thy throne from generation to generation. The heavens shall confess thy wonders, O Lord, thy truth in the church of the Saints. For who in the clouds shall be made equal to the Lord; or who among the sons of God shall be likened unto the Lord? God, who is glorified in the council of the Saints: great and fearful above all them that are round about him. O Lord God of Powers, who is like unto thee? Thou art powerful, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee. Thou art Master over the might of the sea; and thou tamest the surge of the waves thereof. Thou hast humbled the proud, as one that is wounded; with the arm of thy power hast thou scattered thine enemies. Thine are the heavens, and thine the earth: the world and the fulness thereof hast thou founded. The north and the sea hast thou created; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. Thine is the powerful arm: let thy hand be strengthened, and thy right hand be exalted. Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation: O Lord, they shall walk in the light of thy face. And in thy name shall they rejoice all the day long, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted: for thou art the glory of their strength, and in thy goodwill shall our horn be exalted. For from the Lord is our succor, and from our King, the Holy One of Israel. Then hast thou spoken in a vision to thy sons, and hast said: I bestowed help upon one that is mighty, and exalted one chosen of my people: I found David my ser vant; with my holy oil I anointed him. For my hand shall help him, and mine arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not prevail against him, nor shall the son of transgressions again do him harm. And I will cut down his enemies before his face; and them that hate him will I put to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him; and in my name shall his horn be exalted. And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry out to me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the Helper of my salvation. And I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth. I will keep my mercy toward him for ever, and my covenant faithful. And I will make his seed to endure unto ages of ages, and his throne as the days of heaven. And if his sons forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they profane my statutes, and keep not my commandments, I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with scourges. But my mercy will I not take away from him, nor will I do wrong in my truth. Nei ther will I profane my covenant, nor cast aside the things that have gone forth from my lips. Once I sware by my holiness, I will not lie unto David: his seed shall abide for ever, and his throne as the sun before me, and as the moon is set up for ever, and is a faithful witness in heaven. But thou hast rejected and despised; thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast overturned the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his sanctuary on the earth. Thou hast pulled down all his hedges; thou hast made his strongholds a terror. All that pass by the way despised him; he became a reproach to his neighbors. Thou hast exalted the right hand of his enemies; thou hast gladdened all his enemies. Thou hast turned back the help of his sword, and hast not helped him in battle. Thou hast made an end of his purification, and thou hast cast his throne down to the earth. Thou hast shortened the days of his time; thou hast covered him with shame. How long, O Lord, turnest thou away unto the end? Shall thy wrath flame up like fire? Remember what my substance is: for hast thou made all the sons of men in vain? Who is the man that will live and not see death? shall his soul be delivered out of the hand of hell? Where are thine ancient mercies, O Lord, which thou hast sworn to David in thy truth? Remember, O Lord, the reproach of thy servants, how I have borne in my bosom the reproach of many nations: wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the recompense of thine anointed. Blessed be the Lord for ever. So be it. So be it.

Psalm 89

O Lord, thou hast been our refuge from generation to generation: before the mountains came to be, or the earth and the world were fashioned, from age to age thou art. Turn not man away into humiliation; as thou hast said, Turn back, ye sons of men. For a thousand years in thine eyes, O Lord, are as yesterday, which is passed, and as a watch in the night. Their years shall be set at naught; like grass in the morning, they shall pass away. In the morning it shall flourish and pass away; in the evening it shall fall and harden and wither away. For we have vanished in thy wrath, and in thy displeasure have we been disquieted. Thou hast set our transgressions before thee, our age in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are vanished, and in thy wrath have we vanished. ˘ I have meditated upon our years: they are like a spider’s web. ˘ The days of our years, among them are seventy years, and if they be in strength, eighty years; and most of them are but labor and toil, for meekness is come upon us, and we shall be chastened. Who knoweth the might of thy wrath? and for fear of thee who can measure thy displeasure? So make thy right hand known to me, and those that are chastened in heart by wisdom. Return, O Lord: how long? and be thou entreated concerning thy servants. We have been filled with thy wisdom in the morning, O Lord, and we have rejoiced and we have been glad. In all our days let us be glad for the days wherein thou hast humbled us, for the years wherein we have seen evils. And look upon thy servants and upon thy works, and do thou guide their sons. And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, and the works of our hands do thou direct for us; yea, the work of our hands do thou direct.

Psalm 90

He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High, under the shelter of the God of heaven shall abide. He shall say to the Lord, Thou art my succor, and my refuge; my God, and I shall hope in him. For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunters, and from the seditious word. With his shoulders shall He overshadow thee, and under his wings shalt thou hope: with armor shall his truth encircle thee. Thou shalt not fear the terror of night, the arrow that flieth by day, nor the things that walk about in the darkness, nor calamity, nor the noonday demon. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Yet with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and the reward of sinners shalt thou see. For thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the Most High thy refuge. There shall not come to thee any evil, and no scourge shall come nigh thy dwelling: for He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands shall they bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Upon the asp and the basilisk shalt thou tread, and thou shalt trample upon the lion and the serpent. For he hath hoped in me, and I will deliver him; I will shelter him, for he hath known my name. He shall call unto me, and I will hear him; I am with him in tribulation, I will redeem him, and I will glorify him. Unto length of days will I satisfy him, and I will show him my salvation.