It keeps coming at you, you're holding on, and you want to know what all this enduring is for.
If, while your enemies attack, you endure the hardship and want to learn what patience gains you, sing Psalm 40.
Letter to Marcellinus
Psalm 40
What St Athanasius said to pray when you’re holding on and wonder what it’s for, in a letter from the 300s.
- 17Verses
- 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.
Psalm 40:2
Where it turns
He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
17 verses, Berean Standard Bible
The whole psalm
Psalm 40
Its own heading For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
- 1I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.
- 2He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
- 3He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
- 4Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
- 5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
- 6Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
- 7Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll:
- 8I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
- 9I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.
- 10I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.
- 11O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me; Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.
- 12For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- 13Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; hurry, O LORD, to help me.
- 14May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated.
- 15May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled at their own shame.
- 16May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation always say, “The LORD be magnified!”
- 17But I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my helper and deliverer; O my God, do not delay.
Psalm 40 is 39 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.
When people turn against you
Close to this
- They're coming at you savagely, out to destroy you, and you've stopped fighting and put yourself in God's hands.
- Your own people have turned on you, and more and more others are rising up against you.
- People you thought were your friends are spreading lies about you, others are piling on, and it keeps going round in your head.
- Your friends and family have turned against you because you hold to the truth, and even people you know look the other way.
All 53 situations, in one guide.
Suggest a correction. Corrections that are applied are recorded in the public changelog.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.