Seventh Kathisma
Psalm 46
All ye nations, clap your hands, shout unto God with a joyful voice. For the Lord Most High is fearful, a great King over all the earth. He subdued the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet: He chose us for his inheritance, the beauty of Jacob which He loved. God is ascended with jubilation, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Sing psalms unto our God, sing psalms; sing psalms unto our King, sing psalms: for God is King of all the earth; sing psalms with understanding. God hath become King over the nations: God sitteth upon his holy throne. The princes of the people are gathered together with the God of Abraham, for God’s mighty ones of the earth have been greatly exalted.
Psalm 47
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain, in the well-planted joy of the whole earth. The mountains of Zion, on the sides of the north: the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces when He helpeth her. For, behold, the kings of the earth were assembled; they came together. They saw it, they wondered; they were troubled, they were moved: trembling took hold on them: there were pangs as of a woman in travail. Thou shalt break the ships of Tarshish with a violent wind. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God: God hath founded her for ever. We have received thy mercy, O God, in the midst of thy people. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise to the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice, and let the daughters of Judæa be glad for the sake of thy judgments, O Lord. Go round about Zion, and encompass her, announce in her towers. Set your hearts upon her strength, and divide her houses, that ye may tell it to another generation. For this is our God for ever, and unto ages of ages; He shall shepherd us for ever.
Psalm 48
Hear these things, all ye nations; give heed, all ye that dwell in the world, both ye earthborn, and ye sons of men, rich and poor men together. My lips shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding. I will incline mine ear unto a parable; I will solve my riddle upon the harp. Wherefore shall I fear in the evil day? the iniquity of my heel shall encompass me. They trust in their own strength, and boast in the multitude of their riches: a brother redeemeth not, shall a man redeem? He shall not give to God a ransom for himself, nor the price of the redemption of his soul: he shall labor for ever, and live to the end; he shall not see corruption. When he seeth the deaths of the wise, the fool and the mindless perish together, and they shall leave their riches to strangers. Their sepulchres are their houses for ever, their dwellings from generation to generation; they have called lands after their own names. And man, being in honor, understandeth not: he is likened to mindless cattle, and is become like them. This their way is a stumbling-block to them; yet afterwards shall their say ings be commended. As sheep are they laid in hell, death shall shepherd them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their help shall wax old in hell; from their glory they were cast out. But God shall deliver my soul from the hand of hell when He receiveth me. Fear not when a man is enriched, nor yet when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away, neither shall his glory descend with him. For his soul shall be blessed in his life: he shall confess thee when thou doest good to him. He shall go into the ge neration of his fathers; he shall never see light. And man, being in honor, understandeth not: he is likened to mindless cattle, and is become like them.
Psalm 49
The God of gods, the Lord, spake, and He called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion cometh the excellence of his beauty. God, our God, shall come visibly, and shall not keep silent: a fire shall be kindled before him, and round about him there shall be a great tempest. He shall summon the heaven above and the earth to judge his people. Gather his Saints unto him, them that have covenanted his covenant upon sacrifices. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is Judge. Hear, O my people, and I will speak to thee, O Israel; and I will testify to thee: I am God, thy God. Not for thy sacrifices will I reprove thee: for thy wholeburnt offerings are before me continually. I will take no bull ocks out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy flocks. For mine are all the wild beasts of the thicket, the cattle on the moun tains, and the oxen. I know all the birds of the heavens; and the beauty of the field is with me. If I should hunger, I would not tell thee: for mine is the world and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls? or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise; and render thy supplications to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of tribulation; and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. But to the sinner hath God said, Why dost thou declare my statutes, and take up my covenant in thy mouth? For thou hast hated instruction, and hast cast my words behind thee. If thou didst see a thief, thou didst run with him, and didst cast thy lot with adulter ers. Thy lips have multiplied evil, and thy tongue hath woven deceits. Thou didst sit and speak against thy brother, and didst lay a stumbling-block for thy mother’s son. These things thou hast done, and I kept silent. Thou hast considereed transgres sions, that I should be like thee: I will reprove thee, and set thy sins before thy face. Therefore understand these things, ye that forget God, lest at any time He snatch you away, and there be no deliverer. The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me, and this is the way wherein I will show him my salvation.
Psalm 50
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy, and according to the multitude of thy compassions, blot out my transgressions. Wash me yet more from my transgressions, and from my sin purify thou me: for I know my trans gression, and my sin is continually before me. Against thee alone have I sinned, and have done evil before thee; that thou mightest be justified in thy words, and conquer when thou art judged. Behold, in transgressions was I conceived, and in sins did my mother bear me. Behold, thou hast loved truth; the hidden and secret things of thy wisdom hast thou revealed unto me. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me hear joy and gladness; the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my transgressions. A clean heart create in me, O God, and a right spirit renew in my inmost parts. Cast me not away from thy face, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Give me again the joy of thy salvation, and establish me with a princely spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and the impious shall return unto thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; my tongue shall rejoice in thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall declare thy praise. For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; with whole-burnt offerings thou wilt not be pleased. A sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a broken and humbled heart God will not despise. Do good, O Lord, in thy good will unto Zion; and let the walls of Jerusalem be built. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, oblations, and whole-burnt offerings: then shall they lay bull ocks upon thine altar.
Psalm 51
O mighty man, why dost thou boast of evil? All the day long hath thy tongue devised transgressions and unrighteousness: like a sharpened razor hast thou wrought deceit. Thou hast loved evil more than goodness; unrighteousness rather than to speak righteousness; thou hast loved all the devouring words, a deceitful tongue. For this cause may God destroy thee for ever; may He pluck thee up and utterly remove thee from thy dwelling, and thy root out of the land of the living. And the righteous shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say, Behold the man who made not God his help, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his vanity. But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God: I have trusted in the mercy of God for ever, and unto ages of ages. I will confess thee for ever, for all that thou hast done; and I will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy Saints.
Psalm 52
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves, and become abominable in iniquities; there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there be any that understand, or seek after God. They have all gone astray, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, not even one. Will not all the workers of iniquity know, those who devour my people as they would eat bread? They have not called upon the Lord. There they feared fear, where there was no fear: for God hath scattered the bones of men-pleasers; they were put to shame, for God despised them. Who will give salvation to Israel out of Zion? When God turneth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Psalm 53
O God, save me in thy name; and in thy power thou shalt judge me. O God, hearken unto my prayer, give heed to the sayings of my mouth. For strangers have risen up against me, and the mighty have sought after my soul; and they have not set God before them. For, behold, God helpeth me; and the Lord is the succor of my soul. He shall return evils to mine enemies: in thy truth do thou utterly destroy them. Willingly I will sacrifice unto thee; I will confess thy name, O Lord, for it is good. For out of all my tribulation hast thou delivered me; and mine eye hath looked upon mine enemies.
Psalm 54
Give heed to my prayer, O God, and disregard not my supplication. Attend to me and hearken unto me: I was afflicted in my meditation, and was disquieted at the voice of an enemy, and at the tribulation caused me by a sinner. For they have charged me with a transgression, and in wrath have they borne malice against me. My heart is disquieted within me, and the dread of death hath fallen upon me; fear and trembling have come upon me; and darkness hath covered me. And I said, Who will give me wings like a dove? and I will fly away and be at rest. Behold, I have fled away and abode in the desert. I waited upon God, who hath saved me from fainthearted ness, and from a stormy tempest. Drown them, O Lord, and sever their tongues, for I have seen transgression and strife in the city. Day and night it compasseth her upon her walls, and transgression and labor and unrighteousness in the midst of it: and usury and deceit have not vanished from her streets. For if an enemy had reviled me, I could have borne it; and if he that hated me had spoken greatly against me, I would have hid myself from him. But thou, like-minded man, my guide and mine acquaintance, who together with me sweetened our food: in the house of God we walked with one accord. Let death come upon them, and let them go down into hell alive, for there is evil in their dwellings, in their midst. I have cried unto God, and the Lord hath hearkened unto me. In the evening and in the morning and at noonday I will declare and proclaim, and He shall hearken unto my voice. He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw nigh to me, for they were with me in many things. God shall hearken and shall humble them, He that is before the ages. For there is no change with them, for they have not feared God. He hath stretched forth his hand to reward; they have profaned his covenant. They have been scattered by the wrath of his face, their hearts have drawn nigh; their words are become softer than oil, and they themselves are darts. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sus tain thee: He shall not permit the righteous to be disquieted for ever. But thou, O God, shalt cast them down into the pit of destruction: men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days. But I, O Lord, will hope in thee.