Psalms 101:20
Because he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth.
Open Psalms 101:20 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia prospexit de excelso sancto suo ; Dominus de cælo in terram aspexit :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι ἐξέκυψεν ἐξ ὕψους ἁγίου αὐτοῦ, Κύριος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἐπέβλεψεν·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 102:20
- כִּֽי הִ֭שְׁקִיף מִמְּר֣וֹם קָדְשׁ֑וֹ יְ֝הוָ֗ה מִשָּׁמַ֤יִם אֶל אֶ֬רֶץ הִבִּֽיט
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CII
20. “Out of the heaven did the Lord look down upon the earth” ( ver. 19 ): “that He might hear the mournings of such as are in fetters, and deliver the children of such as are put to death” ( ver. 20 ). We have found it said in another Psalm, “O let the sorrowful sighs of the fettered come before Thee;” and in a passage where the voice of the martyrs was meant. Whence are the martyrs in fetters?…But God had bound them with these fetters, hard indeed and painful for a season, but endurable on account of His promises, unto whom it is said, “On account of the words of Thy lips, I have kept hard ways.” We must indeed groan in these fetters in order to gain the mercy of God. These fetters must not be shunned, in order to gain a destructive freedom and the temporal and brief pleasure of this life, to be followed by perpetual bitterness. …