# Psalm 151

Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/psalm-151 — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-02)

Psalm 151 is read in Coptic during the psalmody of the Holy Saturday service and is also attested in Arabic Psalter manuscripts.[^1][^3][^4]

## Liturgical use

Psalm 151 is read during the psalmody of the Holy Saturday service. The chief priest, wearing white vestments and facing east, reads its Coptic version.[^1]

The opening words are given in English as:

> I was small among my brethren, and a youth in the house of my Father.[^1]

Following the reading, the rest of the clergy and deacons process around the church with the Psalter wrapped in white silk and with lighted candles, singing in Coptic, “Let us give thanks to Christ and God.” They then sit facing one another in two rows.[^2]

## Manuscript witnesses

Psalm 151 appears in an Arabic Psalter copied in Cairo in 1242 by Agathun ibn Fasih al-Tursini, who belonged to the Melchite community of Egypt. The manuscript is identified as Sinai Arabic 55, folios 1–172; the psalm in this manuscript is “apocryphal.”[^3]

Another witness is Sinai Arabic 59, copied in Cairo by the Melchite priest Mikha’il ibn Ghazi and completed in 1696. It contains the Psalter, including Psalm 151, together with the biblical odes and the Kathismata.[^4]

## Sources
[^1]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 619)
[^2]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 619)
[^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 182)
[^4]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 683)