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Gustave Doré’s engraving of David standing crowned and bowed as he mourns Absalom

Psalm 101

What St Athanasius said to pray when you learn that God’s judgment comes with mercy, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 8Verses
  • 1Situation

St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus

When to pray it

In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.

You've learned that God's judgment comes with mercy, and you want to draw near to Him.

When you have learned the Lord's power to judge, and that He judges with mercy mixed in, and you want to draw near to Him, you have the words of Psalm 101.

Letter to Marcellinus

8 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 101

Its own heading A Psalm of David.

  1. 1I will sing of Your loving devotion and justice; to You, O LORD, I will sing praises.
  2. 2I will ponder the way that is blameless— when will You come to me? I will walk in my house with integrity of heart.
  3. 3I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
  4. 4A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know nothing of evil.
  5. 5Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.
  6. 6My eyes favor the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way of integrity shall minister to me.
  7. 7No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who tells lies shall stand in my presence.
  8. 8Every morning I will remove all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

Psalm 101 is 100 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.

After God has brought you through

Close to this

All 53 situations, in one guide.

Your turn

Which Psalm are you living right now?

A few honest taps about your life right now, and the psalm an early Church Father gave for exactly that.

  • 3 min
  • 7 questions
Start

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Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.