When it is said
Anyone may pray it, at any time.
It suits the days before an eye operation and the days after it.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Who wrote it?
The Hebrew names no author. In the Greek Psalter that the Orthodox Church prays, it is Psalm 145, and its heading names the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.
Sung at the Liturgy
In Isabel Hapgood’s service book of 1906, the choir sings it as the second of the psalms that open the Divine Liturgy, on every day but the great feasts. The Greek text of the Liturgy that J. N. W. B. Robertson printed in 1894 has it sung on Sundays and saints’ feasts.
Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church (1906); J. N. W. B. Robertson, The Divine Liturgies (1894)
What the words mean
Opens the eyes, or makes wise?
The Hebrew says that the Lord opens the eyes of the blind, and the plain wording follows it. The Greek Psalter that the Orthodox Church sings has “the Lord makes the blind wise”, and so does the Church Slavonic.
J. N. W. B. Robertson, The Divine Liturgies (1894), the Greek text; Часослов (the Slavonic Horologion), Azbyka
Two verses left out
This prayer gives verses 1 and 2, then 5 to 10. Verses 3 and 4 warn against trusting princes, mortals whose plans die with them (Psalm 146:3-4). Isabel Hapgood’s service book leaves them out too, where the choir sings the psalm at the Liturgy.
Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church (1906)
The Scripture in it
Hallelujah! Praise the LORD, O my soul. I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He remains faithful forever. He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free, the LORD opens the eyes of the blind, the LORD lifts those who are weighed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates. The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Hallelujah!
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.