Kathisma VIII

O come, let us worship God our King. O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King and our God. O come, let us worship and fall down before the very Christ, our King and our God.

Stasis I

Psalm 55 (56)

¹Have mercy upon me, O God; for man has trodden me down; all the day long he warring has afflicted me. ²Mine enemies have trodden me down all the day from the dawning of the day; for there are many warring against me. ³They shall be afraid, but I will trust in you. ⁴In God I will praise my words; all the day have I hoped in God; I will not fear what flesh shall do to me. ⁵All the day long they have abominated my words; all their devices are against me for evil. ⁶They will dwell near and hide themselves; they will watch my steps, accordingly as I have waited patiently in my soul. ⁷You will on no account save them; you will bring down the people in wrath. ⁸O God, I have declared my life to you; you have set my tears before you, even according to your promise. ⁹Mine enemies shall be turned back, in the day wherein I shall call upon you; behold, I know that you are my God. ¹⁰In God, will I praise his word; in the Lord will I praise his saying. ¹¹I have hoped in God; I will not be afraid of what man shall do to me. ¹²The vows of your praise, O God, which I will pay, are upon me. ¹³For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from sliding, that I should be well-pleasing before God in the land of the living.

Psalm 56 (57)

¹Have mercy, upon me, O God, have mercy upon me: for my soul has trusted in you: and in the shadow of your wings will I hope, until the iniquity have passed away. ²I will cry to God most high; the God who has benefited me. Pause. ³He sent from heaven and saved me; he gave to reproach them that trampled on me: God has sent forth his mercy and his truth; ⁴and he has delivered my soul from the midst of lions'whelps: I lay down to sleep, though troubled. As for the sons of men, their teeth are arms and missile weapons, and their tongue a sharp sword. ⁵Be you exalted, O God, above the heavens; and your glory above all the earth. ⁶They have prepared snares for my feet, and have bowed down my soul: they have dug a pit before my face, and fallen into it themselves. Pause. ⁷My heart, O God, is ready, my heart is ready: I will sing, yes will sing psalms. ⁸Awake, my glory; awake, lute and harp: I will awake early. ⁹O Lord, I will give thanks to you among the nations: I will sing to you among the Gentiles. ¹⁰For your mercy has been magnified even to the heavens, and your truth to the clouds. ¹¹Be you exalted, O God, above the heavens; and your glory above all the earth.

Psalm 57 (58)

¹If you do indeed speak righteousness, then do you judge rightly, you sons of men. ²For you work iniquities in your hearts in the earth: your hands plot unrighteousness. ³Sinners have gone astray from the womb: they go astray from the belly: they speak lies. ⁴Their venom is like that of a serpent; as that of a deaf asp, and that stops her ears; ⁵which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor heed the charm prepared skillfully by the wise. ⁶God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions. ⁷They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail. ⁸They shall be destroyed as melted wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun. ⁹Before your thorns feel the white thorn, he shall swallow you up as living, as in his wrath. ¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the ungodly: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner. ¹¹And a man shall say, Verily then there is a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judges them in the earth.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Glory to thee, O God. (Thrice.) Lord, have mercy. (Thrice.) Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Stasis II

Psalm 58 (59)

¹Deliver me from my enemies, O God; and ransom me from those that rise up against me. ²Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men. ³For, behold, they have hunted after my soul; violent men have set upon me: neither is it my iniquity, nor my sin, O Lord. ⁴Without iniquity I ran and directed my course aright: awake to help me, and behold. ⁵And you, Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, draw near to visit all the heathen; pity not any that work iniquity. Pause. ⁶They shall return at evening, and hunger like a dog, and go round about the city. ⁷Behold, they shall utter a voice with their mouth, and a sword is in their lips; for who, say they, has heard? ⁸But you, Lord, will laugh them to scorn; you will utterly set at nothing all the heathen. ⁹will keep my strength, looking to you; for you, O God, are my helper. ¹⁰As for my God, his mercy shall go before me: my God will show me vengeance on my enemies. ¹¹Slay them not, lest they forget your law; scatter them by your power; and bring them down, O Lord, my defender. ¹²For the sin of their mouth, and the word of their lips, let them be even taken in their pride. ¹³And for their cursing and falsehood shall utter destruction be denounced: they shall fall by the wrath of utter destruction, and shall not be; so shall they know that the God of Jacob is Lord of the ends of the earth. Pause. ¹⁴They shall return at evening, and be hungry as a dog, and go round about the city. ¹⁵They shall be scattered hither and there for meat; and if they be not satisfied, they shall even murmur. ¹⁶But I will sing to your strength, and in the morning will I exult in your mercy; for you have been my supporter, and my refuge in the day of my affliction. ¹⁷You are my helper; to you, my God, will I sing; you are my supporter, O my God, and my mercy.

Psalm 59 (60)

¹O God, you have rejected and destroyed us; you have been angry, yet have pitied us. ²You have shaken the earth, and troubled it; heal its breaches, for it has been shaken. ³You have shown your people hard things: you have made us drink the wine of astonishment. ⁴You have given a token to them that fear you, that they might flee from the bow. Pause. ⁵That your beloved ones may be delivered; save with your right hand, and hear me. ⁶God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, and divide Sicima, and measure out the valley of tents. ⁷Galaad is mine, and Manasse is mine; and Ephraim is the strength of my head; ⁸Judas is my king; Moab is the caldron of my hope; over Idumea will I stretch out my shoe; the Philistines have been subjected to me. ⁹Who will lead me into the fortified city? who will guide me as far a Idumea? ¹⁰Will not you, O God, who have cast us off? and will not you, O God, go forth with our forces? ¹¹Give us help from trouble: for vain is the deliverance of man. ¹²In God will we do valiantly; and he shall bring to nothing them that harass us.

Psalm 60 (61)

¹O God, listen to my petition; attend to my prayer. ²From the ends of the earth have I cried to you, when my heart was in trouble: you lifted me up on a rock you did guide me: ³because you were my hope, a tower of strength from the face of the enemy. ⁴I will dwell in your tabernacle for ever; I will shelter myself under the shadow of your wings. Pause. ⁵For you, o God, have heard my prayers; you have given an inheritance to them that fear your name. ⁶You shall add days to the days of the king; you shall lengthen his years to all generations. ⁷He shall endure for ever before God: which of them will seek out his mercy and truth? ⁸So will I sing to your name for ever and ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

Stasis III

Psalm 61 (62)

¹Shall not my soul be subjected to God? for of him is my salvation. ²For he is my God, and my savior; my helper, I shall not be moved very much. ³How long will you assault a man? you are all slaughtering as with a bowed wall and a broken hedge. ⁴They only took counsel to set at nothing my honor: I ran in thirst: with their mouth they blessed, but with their heart they cursed. Pause. ⁵Nevertheless do you, my soul, be subjected to God; for of him is my patient hope. ⁶For he is my God and my Saviour; my helper, I shall not be moved. ⁷In God is my salvation and my glory: he is the God of my help, and my hope is in God. ⁸Hope in him, all you congregation of the people; pour out your hearts before him, for God is our helper. Pause. ⁹But the sons of men are vain; the sons of men are false, so as to be deceitful in the balances; they are all alike formed out of vanity. ¹⁰Trust not in unrighteousness, and lust not after robberies: if wealth should flow in, set not your heart upon it. ¹¹God has spoken once, and I have heard these two things, that power is of God; ¹²and mercy is your, O Lord; for you will recompense every one according to his works.

Psalm 62 (63)

¹O God, my God, I cry to you early; my soul has thirsted for you: how often has my flesh longed after you, in a barren and trackless and dry land! ²Thus have I appeared before you in the sanctuary, that I might see your power and your glory. ³For your mercy is better than life: my lips shall praise you. ⁴Thus will I bless you during my life: I will lift up my hands in your name. ⁵Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness; and my joyful lips shall praise your name. ⁶Forasmuch as I have remembered you on my bed: in the early seasons I have meditated on you. ⁷For you have been my helper, and in the shelter of your wings will I rejoice. ⁸My soul has kept very close behind you: your right hand has upheld me. ⁹But they vainly sought after my soul; they shall go into the lowest parts o the earth. ¹⁰They shall be delivered up to the power of the sword; they shall be portions for foxes. ¹¹But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that swears by him shall be praised; for the mouth of them that speak unjust things has been stopped.

Psalm 63 (64)

¹Hear my prayer, O God, when I make my petition to you; deliver my soul from fear of the enemy. ²You have sheltered me from the conspiracy of them that do wickedly; from the multitude of them that work iniquity; ³who have sharpened their tongues as a sword; they have bent their bow maliciously; ⁴to shoot in secret at the blameless; they will shoot him suddenly, and will not fear. ⁵They have set up for themselves an evil matter, they have given counsel to hide snares; they have said, Who shall see them? ⁶They have searched out iniquity; they have wearied themselves with searching diligently, a man shall approach and the heart is deep, ⁷and God shall be exalted, their wounds were caused by the weapon of the foolish children, ⁸and their tongues have set him at nothing, all that saw them were troubled; ⁹and every man was alarmed, and they related the works of God, and understood his deeds. ¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice in the Lord, and hope on him, and all the upright in heart shall be praised.

The Septuagint in English (Brenton, LXX2012), public domain. Numbering follows the Greek, with the Hebrew number in parentheses.