---
title: "Psalm 88 (89) – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/psalms/88/
description: "Psalm 88 (Psalm 89 in Hebrew numbering) in the CPDV, with the Latin Vulgate. Misericordias Domini. The perpetuity of the church of Christ, in consequence…"
---

# Psalm 88 (89)

Psalm 88 in the Vulgate numbering Bless follows is Psalm 89 in Hebrew numbering (the NABRE, RSV and KJV). Here are all 53 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Misericordias Domini. The perpetuity of the church of Christ, in consequence of the promise of God: which, notwithstanding, God permits her to suffer sometimes most grievous afflictions.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Psalm 88 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The understanding of Ethan the Ezrahite.
2. I will sing the mercies of the Lord in eternity. I will announce your truth with my mouth, from generation to generation.
3. For you have said: Mercy will be built in the heavens, unto eternity. Your truth will be prepared there.
4. I have set up a covenant with my elect. I have sworn to David my servant:
5. I will prepare your offspring, even in eternity. And I will build up your throne, from generation to generation.
6. The heavens will confess your miracles, Lord, and also your truth, in the Church of the saints.
7. For who among the clouds is equal to the Lord? Who among the sons of God is like God?
8. God is glorified by the counsel of the saints. He is great and terrible above all those who are around him.
9. O Lord, God of hosts, who is like you? You are powerful, Lord, and your truth is all around you.
10. You rule over the power of the sea, and you even mitigate the movement of its waves.
11. You have humbled the arrogant one, like one who has been wounded. You have scattered your enemies with the arm of your strength.
12. Yours are the heavens, and yours is the earth. You founded the whole world in all its fullness.
13. You created the north and the sea. Tabor and Hermon will exult in your name.
14. Your arm acts with power. Let your hand be strengthened, and let your right hand be exalted.
15. Justice and judgment are the preparation of your throne. Mercy and truth will precede your face.
16. Blessed is the people that knows jubilation. They will walk in the light of your countenance, O Lord,
17. and they will exult in your name all day long, and they will be exalted in your justice.
18. For you are the glory of their virtue, and in your goodness, our horn will be exalted.
19. For our assumption is of the Lord, and it is of our king, the holy one of Israel.
20. Then you spoke in a vision to your holy ones, and you said: I have stationed help with the powerful one, and I have exalted the elect one from my people.
21. I have found my servant David. I have anointed him with my holy oil.
22. For my hand will assist him, and my arm will fortify him.
23. The enemy will have no advantage over him, nor will the son of iniquity be positioned to harm him.
24. And I will cut down his enemies before his face. And those who hate him, I will turn to flight.
25. And my truth and my mercy will be with him. And his horn will be exalted in my name.
26. And I will place his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.
27. He will invoke me: “You are my father, my God, and the support of my salvation.”
28. And I will make him the first-born, preeminent before the kings of the earth.
29. I will preserve my mercy for him eternally, and my covenant for him faithfully.
30. And I will set his offspring from generation to generation, and his throne like the days of heaven.
31. But if his sons abandon my law, and if they do not walk in my judgments,
32. if they profane my justices, and if they do not keep my commandments:
33. I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with a beating.
34. But I will not scatter my mercy from him, and I will not do harm to my truth.
35. And I will not profane my covenant, and I will not make void that which proceeds from my lips.
36. I have sworn by my holiness one time: I will not lie to David,
37. his offspring will remain for eternity. And his throne will be like the sun in my sight,
38. and, like the moon, it is perfected in eternity, and it is a faithful witness in heaven.
39. Yet, truly, you have rejected and despised, you have pushed away, my Christ.
40. You have overthrown the covenant of your servant. You have profaned his sanctuary on earth.
41. You have destroyed all his fences. You have made his territory dreadful.
42. All who pass by the way have plundered him. He has become a disgrace to his neighbors.
43. You have exalted the right hand of those who oppress him. You have brought joy to all his enemies.
44. You have diverted the help of his sword, and you have not assisted him in battle.
45. You have torn him away from cleansing, and you have smashed his throne down to the ground.
46. You have reduced the days of his time. You have flooded him with confusion.
47. How long, O Lord? Will you turn away unto the end? Will your wrath flare up like a fire?
48. Remember what my substance is. For could you really have appointed all the sons of men in vain?
49. Who is the man that will live, and yet not see death? Who will rescue his own soul from the hand of the underworld?
50. O Lord, where are your mercies of antiquity, just as you swore to David in your truth?
51. Be mindful, O Lord, of the disgrace of your servants (which I have sustained in my sinews) among many nations.
52. With these, your enemies have reproached you, O Lord; with these, they have reproached the commutation of your Christ.
53. Blessed is the Lord for all eternity. Amen. Amen.

## Psalm 88 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Intellectus Ethan Ezrahitæ.
2. Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo; in generationem et generationem annuntiabo veritatem tuam in ore meo.
3. Quoniam dixisti: In æternum misericordia ædificabitur in cælis; præparabitur veritas tua in eis.
4. Disposui testamentum electis meis; juravi David servo meo:
5. Usque in æternum præparabo semen tuum, et ædificabo in generationem et generationem sedem tuam.
6. Confitebuntur cæli mirabilia tua, Domine; etenim veritatem tuam in ecclesia sanctorum.
7. Quoniam quis in nubibus æquabitur Domino; similis erit Deo in filiis Dei?
8. Deus, qui glorificatur in consilio sanctorum, magnus et terribilis super omnes qui in circuitu ejus sunt.
9. Domine Deus virtutum, quis similis tibi? potens es, Domine, et veritas tua in circuitu tuo.
10. Tu dominaris potestati maris; motum autem fluctuum ejus tu mitigas.
11. Tu humiliasti, sicut vulneratum, superbum; in brachio virtutis tuæ dispersisti inimicos tuos.
12. Tui sunt cæli, et tua est terra: orbem terræ, et plenitudinem ejus tu fundasti;
13. aquilonem et mare tu creasti. Thabor et Hermon in nomine tuo exsultabunt:
14. tuum brachium cum potentia. Firmetur manus tua, et exaltetur dextera tua:
15. justitia et judicium præparatio sedis tuæ: misericordia et veritas præcedent faciem tuam.
16. Beatus populus qui scit jubilationem: Domine, in lumine vultus tui ambulabunt,
17. et in nomine tuo exsultabunt tota die, et in justitia tua exaltabuntur.
18. Quoniam gloria virtutis eorum tu es, et in beneplacito tuo exaltabitur cornu nostrum.
19. Quia Domini est assumptio nostra, et sancti Israël regis nostri.
20. Tunc locutus es in visione sanctis tuis, et dixisti: Posui adjutorium in potente, et exaltavi electum de plebe mea.
21. Inveni David, servum meum; oleo sancto meo unxi eum.
22. Manus enim mea auxiliabitur ei, et brachium meum confortabit eum.
23. Nihil proficiet inimicus in eo, et filius iniquitatis non apponet nocere ei.
24. Et concidam a facie ipsius inimicos ejus, et odientes eum in fugam convertam.
25. Et veritas mea et misericordia mea cum ipso, et in nomine meo exaltabitur cornu ejus.
26. Et ponam in mari manum ejus, et in fluminibus dexteram ejus.
27. Ipse invocabit me: Pater meus es tu, Deus meus, et susceptor salutis meæ.
28. Et ego primogenitum ponam illum, excelsum præ regibus terræ.
29. In æternum servabo illi misericordiam meam, et testamentum meum fidele ipsi.
30. Et ponam in sæculum sæculi semen ejus, et thronum ejus sicut dies cæli.
31. Si autem dereliquerint filii ejus legem meam, et in judiciis meis non ambulaverint;
32. si justitias meas profanaverint, et mandata mea non custodierint:
33. visitabo in virga iniquitates eorum, et in verberibus peccata eorum;
34. misericordiam autem meam non dispergam ab eo, neque nocebo in veritate mea,
35. neque profanabo testamentum meum: et quæ procedunt de labiis meis non faciam irrita.
36. Semel juravi in sancto meo, si David mentiar:
37. semen ejus in æternum manebit. Et thronus ejus sicut sol in conspectu meo,
38. et sicut luna perfecta in æternum, et testis in cælo fidelis.
39. Tu vero repulisti et despexisti; distulisti christum tuum.
40. Evertisti testamentum servi tui; profanasti in terra sanctuarium ejus.
41. Destruxisti omnes sepes ejus; posuisti firmamentum ejus formidinem.
42. Diripuerunt eum omnes transeuntes viam; factus est opprobrium vicinis suis.
43. Exaltasti dexteram deprimentium eum; lætificasti omnes inimicos ejus.
44. Avertisti adjutorium gladii ejus, et non es auxiliatus ei in bello.
45. Destruxisti eum ab emundatione, et sedem ejus in terram collisisti.
46. Minorasti dies temporis ejus; perfudisti eum confusione.
47. Usquequo, Domine, avertis in finem? exardescet sicut ignis ira tua?
48. Memorare quæ mea substantia: numquid enim vane constituisti omnes filios hominum?
49. Quis est homo qui vivet et non videbit mortem? eruet animam suam de manu inferi?
50. Ubi sunt misericordiæ tuæ antiquæ, Domine, sicut jurasti David in veritate tua?
51. Memor esto, Domine, opprobrii servorum tuorum, quod continui in sinu meo, multarum gentium:
52. quod exprobraverunt inimici tui, Domine; quod exprobraverunt commutationem christi tui.
53. Benedictus Dominus in æternum. Fiat, fiat.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 709: God's Spirit and Word in the Time of the Promises ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. 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 40: “Overthrown the covenant” … All this seems to relate to the time of the captivity of Babylon, in which, for the sins of the people and their princes, God seemed to have set aside for a while the covenant he made with David.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Dec 20, 2026: Fourth Sunday of Advent — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
- Thu, Dec 24, 2026: Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29
- Fri, Mar 19, 2027: St. Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29
- Thu, Apr 22, 2027: Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 89:2-3, 21-22, 25 and 27

7 more dates through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). 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).