People around you are going without, and you want them shown mercy.
When you see many poor and needy people and want them shown mercy, you can honour those who have already helped and urge others to do the same, with Psalm 41.
Letter to Marcellinus
Psalm 41
What St Athanasius said to pray when people around you are going without, in a letter from the 300s.
- 13Verses
- 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.
13 verses, Berean Standard Bible
The whole psalm
Psalm 41
Its own heading For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
- 1Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble.
- 2The 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.
- 3The LORD will sustain him on his bed of illness and restore him from his bed of sickness.
- 4I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against You.”
- 5My enemies say with malice: “When will he die and be forgotten?”
- 6My visitor speaks falsehood; he gathers slander in his heart; he goes out and spreads it abroad.
- 7All who hate me whisper against me; they imagine the worst for me:
- 8“A vile disease has been poured into him; he will never get up from where he lies!”
- 9Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
- 10But You, O LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up, that I may repay them.
- 11By this I know that You delight in me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.
- 12In my integrity You uphold me and set me in Your presence forever.
- 13Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
Psalm 41 is 40 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.
When you need words to pray, for yourself or someone else
Close to this
- You need to plead with God, and you want words to pray with.
- There's something you can't work out on your own, and you want to lay it before God.
- Someone you love is in trouble, and you want to comfort them and pray over them.
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.