Psalm 99: text of prayer in Russian

Text of prayer Psalm 99

In Church Slavonic

Psalm to David, in confession
1 Shout to God, all the earth,
2 Work for the Lord in gladness; come before Him with joy.
3 Know that the Lord is our God: He created us, and not we, but we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter ye into His gates with confession, into His courts with song: confess to Him, praise His name.
5 For the Lord is good, his mercy endures forever, and his truth endures unto generations.

In Russian

Psalm of David, for praise.
1 Shout to God, all the earth!
Read also: The Order of the Twelve Psalms
2 Serve the Lord with joy; come before His face with joy.
3 Know that the Lord is our God, He created us, and not we; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with praise, into His courts with songs, glorify Him, praise His name,
5 For the Lord is good, His mercy endures forever, and His truth endures forever.

Psalm of David. On the fourth (day) of the week.

The God of Vengeance The Lord, the God of Vengeance has appeared. Arise, Judge of the earth, give retribution to the proud! How long will sinners, Lord, how long will sinners boast? Will they utter and speak lies, will all who commit iniquity speak? They have humiliated Thy people, O Lord, and offended Thy inheritance, They have put to death the widow and the orphan, and they have killed the stranger, And they have said: “The Lord will not see, neither will God know Jacob.” Come to your senses, mad people among the people, and fools, finally understand! Doesn't he who made the ear hear? Or does not the Creator's eye see? Will not the Instructor of the nations, the One who teaches man understanding, reprove? The Lord knows the thoughts of people, that they are vain. Blessed is the man whom You will instruct, O Lord, and teach from Your law, so that he may remain meek from the day of disaster until a pit is dug for sinners. For the Lord will not cast away His people, nor forsake His inheritance, Until righteousness returns to judgment, (and also) all who hold it are upright in heart. Who will rise up for me against the evil ones? Or who will stand with me against those who commit iniquity? If the Lord had not helped me, my soul would soon have entered hell. When I said, “My foot has wavered,” then Your mercy, O Lord, helped me. As my illnesses multiplied in my heart, Your consolations brought joy to my soul. Let not the throne of iniquity be inherent in You, creating a burden contrary to (Your) command: They will persecute the soul of the righteous and condemn innocent blood. But the Lord was my refuge and my God was my reliable help. And the Lord will reward them for their iniquity, and the Lord our God will destroy them through their wickedness.

Glory:

History of writing

Unlike many other songs of King David, Psalm 99 does not refer to specific historical events; it does not describe the author’s experiences at a difficult stage in his life’s journey. Analysis of the text suggests that David wrote this prayer at the end of his journey, as an instruction to the younger generation. The Psalter included several songs of advice in which the king collected the wisdom accumulated over the years.

Tatiana Miller. Patristic interpretations of Psalm 99

“...whoever picks up the book of Psalms, if he goes through the prophecies about the Savior with the usual surprise and reverence, as in other scriptures, then he reads the other psalms as if he were his own words; and the listener, as if pronouncing this on his own behalf, becomes moved, and all the utterances of the chants become close to him, as if truly his own <...> Therefore, child, everyone who reads this book should read everything in it with sincere affection, because everything in it is inspired by God; but beyond that, to extract from it, as from a garden, for his own benefit, exactly what he sees as a need for himself. For, in my opinion, in this book all human life, spiritual dispositions, and movements of thoughts are measured and described in words, and beyond what is depicted in it nothing more will be found in a person,” with these words of St. Athanasius the Great determined the eternal value of the biblical “Book of Praises” for the Christian world. With the pedantry of the ancient rhetorician St. Athanasius classified the psalms according to their genres and themes and listed eighty-six situations when a person can give scope to his feelings in singing the songs of David, recognizing in them, as if in a mirror, the movements of his soul. The comprehensive and at the same time deeply personal nature of the psalms determined the exceptional place they occupied in the liturgical practice and patristic heritage of the Orthodox Church. They are sung and read at the beginning of Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy; individual prayers are filled with quotes from them; the very utterance of the prayers is called “psalmody.” Understood as a deeply personal text, the Psalter has an inexhaustible depth of meaning, and the patristic interpretation of it is primarily a reflection of the spiritual experience of the interpreter, and not a search for objective criteria for its explanation. Let us explain this using the example of a short psalm 99. 1 Psalm of praise. Shout to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with joy; go before Him with a shout! 3 Know that the Lord is God, that He created us, and we are His, His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Glorify Him, bless His name, 5 for the Lord is good: His mercy endures forever, and His truth endures forever. St. Athanasius the Great in his “Commentary on the Psalms” calls it “solemn” and invites it to be sung by those who are immersed in the vision of God’s providence and want to teach others faith in the Lord. The subtle ear of the Alexandrian saint catches in this psalm an appeal to all humanity (“all the earth”) with a call to sing to God a song of gratitude for redemption (“shout to God, all the earth”); those who have submitted to God are full of joy and feel joy (“Work for the Lord in joy, be present before Him in joy”), they recognize the Redeemer as their Creator, they recognize that they did not arise by chance, but are the work of His hands (“Know that the Lord is God ours”) and stand on different levels; some are rational (as if they were actually “people”), others are likened to those who are still among the dumb, for they have not experienced Divine words (“sheep”), but both are called by God; He calls everyone and makes them His (“We are people and sheep of His pasture”), a call is addressed to them to enter the earthly Church, which is called “the gates” (“Enter into His gates in confession”). When reading this interpretation, we are transported to the turning point of the 4th century. AD, when, after three centuries of confrontation, humiliated and despised Christianity triumphed in its victory over the greatest of the world's empires, rapidly transforming from a persecuted religion into the privileged religion of the Roman state. At the same time, paganism, pushed into the background, for a long time still held its position in society, in its life and culture. As a man of his era, the great Athanasius (*293–†373) experiences the joy of victory and realizes the universal character of Christianity, the unity of all humanity as redeemed by Christ. Explaining the words: “Shout to God, all the earth” (Ps. 99:1), he writes: “he commands the redeemed to sing a song of victory, and the redeemed - the whole human race. For “earth” he calls “those who live on the earth.” At the same time, he vividly senses the reality of the life around him, where it is still necessary to affirm faith in God the Creator as opposed to pagan fatalism, where not everyone achieves perfection and many have not yet reached the Word of God. The verse “Keep in mind that the Lord is our God: He created us, and not we, but we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Ps 99:3) is received from St. Athanasius has this kind of interpretation: “This Lord, who redeemed the whole earth with His blood, is also our Creator. For we did not come into existence by chance, but we are the work of His hands. Therefore, we are both His “people” and His “sheep”, and those of us are people who are more intelligent, and those sheep who remain among the dumb and have not experienced the Divine words...” However, human imperfection is not able to tear God away from man . “...as God and Creator of all, He calls everyone and appropriates them to Himself,” concludes the Alexandrian saint. Thus, the entire psalm is understood as chanting the earthly Church, uniting all humanity redeemed by Christ. The triumphant pathos of St. Athanasius is felt especially clearly when comparing his text with the “Explanatory Psalter” of Euthymius Zigaben, which brings together the previous comments. The author of the “Explanatory Psalter” lived in the 11th–12th centuries. and did not set out to take in the whole world in its breadth and depth. Having at hand several works on the Psalter, he considered it possible to pass over the beginning of Psalm 99 in silence, without giving any explanations to the words “Shout to God, all the earth,” “forgetting” to remind that “all the earth” is, according to the interpretation of St. Athanasius - all of humanity. His field of vision is narrower than that of the Alexandrian archbishop; he sees before him not humanity as a whole, but only Christians, not the universe, but human life. If for St. Athanasius’s words “Take us away, for that Lord is our God” (Ps 99:3) were evidence that we were created by God, and not by the power of blind chance, then Euthymius Zigaben writes about them the following: “Although <...> and parents torment or they give birth to their own children, but it is God who creates; He is the culprit of them, and parents are only contributing causes, as serving the original command of God...” In his explanations we perceive not the delight of rejoicing, but the sober observation of a practicing Christian. The life of a Christian is a constant struggle with dark forces, and the words “Work for the Lord in joy” (Ps 99:2) are interpreted by Zigaben as a call to Christians to sing a victorious song to Christ for His victory over invisible enemies-demons, and in references to the comments of Cyril, Athanasius, Eusebius and Theodoret substantiate in detail the need for “fun”: serving the Lord is not associated with darkness, sadness, pain; on the contrary, it is a service to light, life, truth, sanctification, and joy is organically inherent in it. Thus, the deep meaning of “joy” is revealed as an indispensable requirement of the Christian life. Further, Zigaben points out the stages of this life: in the verse “Enter into His gates in confession, into His courts in singing” (Ps 99:4) he hears the instruction that “first you must confess your sins, then sing praises to God , so that through confession the tongue may be purified and thus bring pure song to God.” If St. Athanasius understood by “gates” the earthly Church as a single whole, then Zigaben, referring to Theodoret, means all the churches located in different places on earth, which together form the “house of Christ”. Zigaben is interested in the mystery of communication between Christ and man: commenting on the fifth verse of the psalm, which is left without explanation by St. Athanasius, he speaks of Christ as compassionate, eternally merciful, of the unchangeable truth of His words, which does not depend on historical conditions and is equally effective for the ancient Jewish people and for the new Christian people. In references to quotes from Eusebius and Hesychius, the meaning of the words “compassionate”, “merciful” is revealed more specifically as the opportunity granted to a person to repent of sins again and again, receive forgiveness and return to Christ thanks to His love for mankind. Scriptures of St. Athanasius of Alexandria belonged to the early stage of Christian understanding of the biblical “Book of Praises,” and the works of Euthymius Zigabenus belonged to the final stage. In the “Explanatory Psalter,” the Christian world received the norm of understanding the entire book developed by the Holy Fathers, but this norm could not become final and ossified due to the fact that it was formed from repeated attempts to look at the text of the psalms through the eyes of the people of the New Testament and to grasp the motives consonant with personal spiritual experience of interpreters. After Zigaben, no one dared to compete with him in compiling a compendium reminiscent of the “Explanatory Psalter,” nevertheless, individual psalms continue to find their interpreters in the person of the ascetics of modern times. And we cannot pass over in silence “The Mysterious Explanation of Psalm 99,” written by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Congenial to the great David, St. Ignatius put into the form of a commentary on the verses of Ps 99 the jubilant song of his soul about the treasure it had found, about that invisible process of inner life that leads a person to unity with God. On the pages of the “Explanation” there is a condensed outline of what is discussed at length in other articles of “Ascetic Experiences”. The authority of the Old Testament prophet, as it were, puts a stamp of authenticity on the teaching of the ascetic himself. A tireless worker in the field of his heart carefully listens to the speech of the psalm and, unlike his predecessors, explains it in its entirety, line by line finding a description of those main stages through which a person passes in his development from the carnal to the enlightened by the Spirit of God. In the first verse, like St. Athanasius, by “earth” he means a person, but “the whole earth” for him is not a collection of people, not “all humanity,” but a person who has found unity with himself, who has overcome the disunity of his internal forces. This unity is an indispensable condition so that earthly man, whose soul is dead and subordinated to a passionate body, can come to life and turn to God: “only the entire human being, whole, reunited with itself, guided by the mind, unravaged and unshaken in prayer by alien thoughts,” writes St. Ignatius, “can strive with all his strength towards God <...> Then a person will understand from the inner experience that has taken place in his soul that he has come to life spiritually, that until then he was in captivity, in chains, in death.” And as a clear example of the “exclamation” of the soul to God, he gives a lengthy quotation from the 58th Word of St. Ephraim the Syrian. In the following verse (“Work for the Lord in joy and come before Him in joy”), according to the interpretation of St. Ignatius, expresses the feeling that fills a person who has acquired wholeness and thereby unceasing prayer: “In unspeakable joy, workers of unceasing prayer enter in spirit before the invisible face of God and stand before the face of God. They stand before this Person because alien thoughts and dreams, which formed an impenetrable veil, have been taken away <...> Joy and gladness are characteristic of a soul that has felt revival, that has felt deliverance from the captivity in which sin and fallen spirits held it, that has felt the overshadowing of Divine grace...” The enthusiastic tone of Psalm 99 was perceived by the Old Testament Jews as rejoicing when visiting Solomon's Temple, by a Christian of the 4th century. - like a victory song of the triumphant Church, by an ascetic monk of the 19th century. - as an indispensable property of a person living a spiritual life. The educated nobleman Dmitry Bryanchaninov fled from secular society at a time when Russian culture was entering its golden age and the human personality attracted the attention of artistic creativity as never before. The young man Dmitry exchanged the noisy capital and brilliant career for the harsh life of a monk, for that kingdom that is not of this world and in which there is an uncompromising struggle against evil, against human vice in order for man to become the abode of the absolute Good, God. Monk Ignatius Brianchaninov withstood this struggle and, as evidence of his invaluable inner experience, left us articles, sermons, and letters. The “Mysterious Explanation of Psalm 99” shows the inseparability of joy from the creation of a new creation in Christ. The one whose inner strengths are gathered together, to whom attentive prayer is available, is no longer “superfluous”, not alienated, and verse three now acquires a special meaning: not only about the creation of the world by God the words are spoken: “That Lord is our God: He created us , not us; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture,” but also about man’s new attitude towards God as a living God, about man’s feeling of his closeness to God, about his need to do God’s will: “He who prays unclean prayer has a dead concept of God, as God unknown and invisible. When, having freed himself from the plunder and captivity of thoughts, he is admitted before the invisible face of God, then he comes to know God with a living, experienced knowledge <...> Then a person, turning the eyes of his mind on himself, sees himself as a creature, and not as an original being, as people deceptively imagine to himself <...> then he sets himself in the relationship to God in which His creation should be, recognizing himself as obligated to reverently submit to the will of God and diligently fulfill it.” The outlook of an ascetic of the 19th century. no less broad than the horizons of the Alexandrian archbishop: the mental gaze of both saints embraces the universe as a whole, but is riveted to its different points. Unlike St. Athanasius St. Ignatius is completely focused on the human personality and in the lines quoted above gives his contemporaries an answer to the eternal questions “who are we?” and “what should I do?” He invites a person to take his true, real place in the world and for this, first of all, to become whole, whole, to bring the disordered parts of his being into a single harmony in order to feel his inextricable connection with God; this connection is not a simple dependence - it stems from the fact that man receives his being from God, is connected with God essentially, ontologically, due to which man’s activity, if it is correct and corresponds to his essence, cannot but be oriented towards his Source , cannot but be subordinated to God, the will of God. When explaining further verses (4,5) St. Ignatius continues to reveal the inner world of a spiritually revived personality. Genetically connected to the Creator, an intelligent creation is drawn to its Creator, and the Creator approaches it and dwells in it. Christian anthropology proceeds from this fact, and Orthodoxy, without belittling the high ideal of Communion with God and without turning a blind eye to how difficult it is to achieve for most people, has developed and is still developing to the smallest detail the science of the union of man with God. The cornerstone of this science is the axiom “human nature is damaged by sin.” The one who accepted it will not say “man, this sounds proud,” on the contrary, he will try to get rid of all arrogance and come to that state called humility

. It is this that serves as the starting point on the path to God, and St. Ignatius speaks about it, interpreting verse 4. This verse reminded a devout Jew of the Jerusalem Temple, Archbishop Athanasius the Great - of the earthly Church, E. Zigaben - of the many separate churches, of confession of sins and of thanksgiving to Christ. St. Ignatius here hears a speech about the inner temple of the heart; he writes: “The means to gain access to the face of God is humility. Humility is the gate of God, the gate to the courts of God, to the palace and temple of God not made by hands, to the temple of the heart, in which God is established through the sacrament of baptism. The Gates of God belong solely to God <…> they are opened exclusively by the finger of God. Before their opening, confession is granted <…> Confession is an act of humility. Confession is a person’s expression of his consciousness before God. This consciousness appears when our eyes are opened to ourselves from the touch of grace on the eyes of the soul, and the mind shakes off the blindness that had hitherto darkened it and deprived it of correct, godly self-view. We confess - we confess from the fullness of conviction <...> that we are fallen beings, burdened with both that sinfulness that belongs to the entire human race, and that that belongs to each of us in particular. Following confession is a non-vague prayer. She is a gift from God. By the right hand of this gift, the one praying is received from the environment of surrounding and captivating entertainment, and is presented, beyond all entertainment, to the face of God in the temple of God not made by hands <…> This prayer is called singing: because the prayer of the spirit is a holy, mysterious song with which God is glorified.” Meeting with God in the depths of the heart's temple brings knowledge of the goodness of God, inseparable from His justice, and at the same time - a feeling of spiritual sweetness, plunging the human spirit into the abyss of humility and lifting it from earth to heaven - this is how St. interprets it. Ignatius verse 5. The spirit-bearing worker of the purest prayer concludes this entire hymn to the soul seeking God with the words: “The heart, revived by its feeling for God and for everything that belongs to God, dies for the world, dies for everything that is hostile to God and that is alien to God . In this death there is life, in this destruction there is salvation. Amen".

St. Athanasius the Great

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When is Psalm 99 read?

In terms of content, the text of Psalm 99 belongs to the category of songs of praise that were performed in Jerusalem at solemn processions on holidays. Only with sincere faith and a desire to praise the Lord should one turn to prayer.

Now they read Psalm 99 in order to strengthen faith and remember Divine Providence in moments of doubt and anxiety. The salvation of people is in the hands of the Lord, and only faith helps to follow the right path. The righteous will never be abandoned by God in difficult times, but they should not forget about faith.

The lyrics of the song exist in several translations. To participate in church services, you should know the version in the Old Church Slavonic language, traditional for Orthodox prayers. At home, you can read Psalm 99 in Russian and even deviate from the literal retelling, but it is important not to miss the main idea and message of the song.

On what occasions do people resort to reading the psalm?

In case of any threats from evil people.
If you are haunted by fears, nightmares, damage, an evil eye, a curse. Ps. 90, together with the prayer “May God rise again,” will protect you from all evil spirits.
When you are overcome by laziness or other passions that interfere with your business.
To avoid falling under the bad influence (drug addicts, alcoholics, libertines, etc.).
From attacks by enemies, while protecting housing from destruction, from bullying.
If there is a threat of death (from poisoning, epidemic, from unknown causes, from purulent inflammation, from radiation) and many others. etc.

Note: It is best to learn the prayer by heart. Moreover, having learned its meaning, it is easier to remember and read in Old Church Slavonic. Trust me, you will love these words. They flow like a song: they themselves are born and restored in the mind. I say this from my own experience: the modern translation is kind of clumsy. Traditional - it just asks from the tongue, and when necessary, can be easily read from memory.

Interpretation

The song carries a simple but important truth - we need to thank the Lord for everything that He sends to people, recognize and praise His power. All prayers are based on the recognition of the power of the Lord and his connection with people. To better understand the interpretation of Psalm 99, we should look at the verses that make up it.

Verse 1 is a call to praise the Lord with all the earth, because he is the Creator.
Verse 2-3 – For believers, serving God is true joy, so the author says that we should keep God’s laws with joy. It also talks about the unity of people and the Lord, who created them in his own image, watches and protects them throughout their entire journey.
Verse 4-5 – King David writes that in the Lord is the only good of man, and His mercy and protection are a great gift. We need to glorify God, sincerely love Him and thank Him for everything that He has sent down to people.

Like many other songs, Psalm 99 was written by King David based on personal experience and assessment of the difficult path of life. In the words of prayer, he collected the wisdom that he had learned throughout his life, and now shares it with the younger generation, as important advice, the most necessary for any believer.

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Psalm of David 57

History of writing
Interpretation of the Psalm
Reading rules

Psalm 57 is a logical continuation of the previous text - Psalm 56. Both of them were written during the period of David's flight from King Saul, at a moment of extreme all-consuming despair. Psalm 57 is a lamentation song, although it contains elements of prophecy - David allegorically tells his listeners about Jesus Christ.

History of writing

King Saul was an extremely envious man who was subject to attack by evil spirits. David, at the same time, was a meek and humble young man who most of all loved to glorify the Lord, for which He anointed him to the kingdom. Envy tore Saul apart from the inside, and he began to seek death for David, so the young man was forced to flee and hide in desert places.

In Psalm 57, David asks the Lord to protect him and his people from harm

The inscription confirms that the author of this text is King David, and his phrase “Do not destroy” means that his position was extremely precarious and he was preparing for death every day.

Despite his repeated promises to stop the persecution, Saul still sought death for his warrior.

Psalm 57 was written in a moment of extreme despair, when David realized that the king was not going to keep his promises, that he had once again deceived him and still wanted the death of his warrior.

Interpretation of the Psalm

Some Christians believe that the psalm is extremely bloodthirsty, because David uses rather cruel expressions in it. But it is necessary to understand that at that time Israel was often in a state of war and cruelty was inherent in that time, because if the Jews did not show it, they could suffer from their enemies.

In addition, it should be understood that sinners will suffer seriously for their sins, because sin brings only one thing into a person’s life - punishment.

We recommend studying Psalm 114

Certain verses of the psalm clearly show this:

Verses 2-4 talk about the characteristics of those close to David. He understands that the persecution is illegal and unjust, because he has not committed any sin. And Saul’s supporters quickly believed in his guilt and continued to slander him. The author turns to Saul and his advisers and invites them to be judges over this matter. “Is the young man being persecuted fairly?” — the author seems to be asking the king. There are also prophetic thoughts here, since the expression “Are you speaking the truth, O judges, and do you judge justly, O sons of men?” these are words to the future Pharisees who persecuted Jesus Christ and crucified Him. By making such an appeal, the author emphasizes that the king and his advisers speak only in words about honor and justice, but their actions testify to something else and they have been like this since birth.
Verses 5-6 compare slanderers to snakes who obey no one. The asp is a snake that is common in Egypt and whose length is about 2 meters, while it is very poisonous. A person dies almost instantly from the bite of an asp, and the snake was previously used as a death penalty for criminals. The spellcasters could not do anything with this snake; it seemed to close its ears and did not listen to the music. Here the author compares Saul and the adder - i.e. hints that the king does not listen to the voice of God and cannot calm his evil nature.
Verses 7 - 10 are the author’s request to the Lord to appease sinners and slanderers. David relies on the Lord - He will crush his enemies and calm the slanderers. Here comparisons are used with the punishments that should follow on the heads of all wicked people. Psalm 57 is recommended to be read during testing times
Verses 11-12 speak of the joy of the righteous when the Lord protects him from his enemies. There is also a prophetic meaning here: “he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked” - there had previously been so much blood on the battlefield that the surviving victors wandered around it and their feet were covered in blood. So in the future, when Christians overcome sin and, through the Savior, defeat the wicked, their feet will be covered in blood. This is a symbol of the victory of the righteous led by Jesus Christ.

To understand this rather cruel psalm, you need to imagine yourself in David’s place - he was persecuted by Saul for no reason, they wanted to kill him without guilt. Everyone around him slandered and insulted him. Despair and hope in the Lord are the two main thoughts of this text.