When it is said
Pray it when you give to someone in need, or for the people who give to the poor.
The choir sings its fourth verse, the plea for mercy, in the Great Doxology at the All-Night Vigil.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
St Athanasius’s advice
In his letter on the Psalms, St Athanasius of Alexandria gives this psalm to anyone who sees many poor people and wants them shown mercy. In his view its words let you praise those who have already shown mercy and urge the others to do the same.
St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus on the Psalms (the Greek, from the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae)
The verses left out
The prayer stops after the fourth verse and picks up again at the last. In between, the psalmist turns to his enemies, who wait for him to die, and to a close friend who shared his bread and then turned on him. At supper with His disciples, Jesus applied the verse about that friend to the one who would betray Him (John 13:18).
What the words mean
The poor, or the weak
The King James translators printed “the poor” in the first verse, but their margin offers “the weak” or “sick” as other readings of the Hebrew word. The Greek version known as the Septuagint has “the poor and needy”.
The King James Version, with its margin; Brenton’s English of the Septuagint
The Scripture in it
Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble. The LORD will protect and preserve him; He will bless him in the land and refuse to give him over to the will of his foes. The LORD will sustain him on his bed of illness and restore him from his bed of sickness. I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.”
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.