---
title: "Psalm 87 (88) – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/psalms/87/
description: "Psalm 87 (Psalm 88 in Hebrew numbering) in the CPDV, with the Latin Vulgate. Domine, Deus salutis. A prayer of one under grievous affliction: it agrees…"
---

# Psalm 87 (88)

Psalm 87 in the Vulgate numbering Bless follows is Psalm 88 in Hebrew numbering (the NABRE, RSV and KJV). Here are all 19 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Domine, Deus salutis. A prayer of one under grievous affliction: it agrees to Christ in his passion, and alludes to his death and burial.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Psalm 87 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. A Canticle Psalm to the sons of Korah. Unto the end. For Mahalath, to answer the understanding of Heman the Ezrahite.
2. O Lord, God of my salvation: I have cried out, day and night, in your presence.
3. Let my prayer enter in your sight. Incline your ear to my petition.
4. For my soul has been filled with evils, and my life has drawn near to Hell.
5. I am considered to be among those who will descend into the pit. I have become like a man without assistance,
6. idle among the dead. I am like the wounded sleeping in sepulchers, whom you no longer remember, and who have been repelled by your hand.
7. They have lain me in the lower pit: in dark places and in the shadow of death.
8. Your fury has been confirmed over me. And you have brought all your waves upon me.
9. You have sent my acquaintances far from me. They have set me as an abomination to themselves. I was handed over, yet I did not depart.
10. My eyes languished before destitution. All day long, I cried out to you, O Lord. I stretched out my hands to you.
11. Will you perform wonders for the dead? Or will physicians raise to life, and so confess to you?
12. Could anyone declare your mercy in the sepulcher, or your truth from within perdition?
13. Will your wonders be known in the darkness, or your justice in the land of oblivion?
14. And I have cried out to you, O Lord, and in early morning, my prayer will come before you.
15. Lord, why do you reject my prayer? Why do you turn your face away from me?
16. I am poor, and I have been amid hardships from my youth. And, though I have been exalted, I am humbled and disturbed.
17. Your wrath has crossed into me, and your terrors have disturbed me.
18. They have surrounded me like water, all day long. They have surrounded me, all at once.
19. Friend and neighbor, and my acquaintances, you have sent far away from me, away from misery.

## Psalm 87 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Canticum Psalmi, filiis Core, in finem, pro Maheleth ad respondendum. Intellectus Eman Ezrahitæ.
2. Domine, Deus salutis meæ, in die clamavi et nocte coram te.
3. Intret in conspectu tuo oratio mea, inclina aurem tuam ad precem meam.
4. Quia repleta est malis anima mea, et vita mea inferno appropinquavit.
5. Æstimatus sum cum descendentibus in lacum, factus sum sicut homo sine adjutorio,
6. inter mortuos liber; sicut vulnerati dormientes in sepulchris, quorum non es memor amplius, et ipsi de manu tua repulsi sunt.
7. Posuerunt me in lacu inferiori, in tenebrosis, et in umbra mortis.
8. Super me confirmatus est furor tuus, et omnes fluctus tuos induxisti super me.
9. Longe fecisti notos meos a me; posuerunt me abominationem sibi. Traditus sum, et non egrediebar;
10. oculi mei languerunt præ inopia. Clamavi ad te, Domine, tota die; expandi ad te manus meas.
11. Numquid mortuis facies mirabilia? aut medici suscitabunt, et confitebuntur tibi?
12. Numquid narrabit aliquis in sepulchro misericordiam tuam, et veritatem tuam in perditione?
13. Numquid cognoscentur in tenebris mirabilia tua? et justitia tua in terra oblivionis?
14. Et ego ad te, Domine, clamavi, et mane oratio mea præveniet te.
15. Ut quid, Domine, repellis orationem meam; avertis faciem tuam a me?
16. Pauper sum ego, et in laboribus a juventute mea; exaltatus autem, humiliatus sum et conturbatus.
17. In me transierunt iræ tuæ, et terrores tui conturbaverunt me:
18. circumdederunt me sicut aqua tota die; circumdederunt me simul.
19. Elongasti a me amicum et proximum, et notos meos a miseria.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 633: Christ Descended Into Hell ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: A musical instrument, or chorus of musicians, to answer one another.-- Ibid.
- Verse 1: “Understanding” … Or a psalm of instruction, composed by Eman the Ezrahite, or by David, in his name.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Tue, Oct 3, 2028 (computed): Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 88:2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8
- Wed, Oct 4, 2028 (computed): St. Francis of Assisi — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 88:10bc-11, 12-13, 14-15

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish. Mass citations number the Psalms in the Hebrew way.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).