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

Psalm 5

What St Athanasius said to pray when you need words to plead with God, in a letter from the 300s.

  • 12Verses
  • 2Situations

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. He named this one more than once.

You need to plead with God, and you want words to pray with.

When you want to plead with God and pray, sing Psalms 5 and 143.

Letter to Marcellinus

For the same situation he also named Psalm 143.

There's something you can't work out on your own, and you want to lay it before God.

When you want to plead with God and pray, you have Psalms 5 and 143.

Letter to Marcellinus

For this, the quiz gives Psalm 143, and this psalm beside it.

Psalm 5:3

Where it turns

In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.

12 verses, Berean Standard Bible

The whole psalm

Psalm 5

Its own heading For the choirmaster, to be accompanied by flutes. A Psalm of David.

  1. 1Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning.
  2. 2Attend to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You I pray.
  3. 3In the morning, O LORD, You hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my plea before You and wait in expectation.
  4. 4For You are not a God who delights in wickedness; no evil can dwell with You.
  5. 5The boastful cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all workers of iniquity.
  6. 6You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
  7. 7But I will enter Your house by the abundance of Your loving devotion; in reverence I will bow down toward Your holy temple.
  8. 8Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make straight Your way before me.
  9. 9For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
  10. 10Declare them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.
  11. 11But let all who take refuge in You rejoice; let them ever shout for joy. May You shelter them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
  12. 12For surely You, O LORD, bless the righteous; You surround them with the shield of Your favor.

When you need words to pray, for yourself or someone else

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

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.