Psalms 118:125
I am thy servant: give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies.
Open Psalms 118:125 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Servus tuus sum ego : da mihi intellectum, ut sciam testimonia tua.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- δοῦλός σού εἰμι ἐγώ· συνέτισόν με, καὶ γνώσομαι τὰ μαρτύριά σου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 119:125
- עַבְדְּךָ אָ֥נִי הֲבִינֵ֑נִי וְ֝אֵדְעָ֗ה עֵדֹתֶֽיךָ
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter VIII. Philosophy is Knowledge Given by God
And should one say that it was through human understanding that philosophy was discovered by the Greeks, still I find the Scriptures saying that understanding is sent by God. The psalmist, accordingly, considers understanding as the greatest free gift, and beseeches, saying, “I am Thy servant; give me understanding.” And does not David, while asking the abundant experience of knowledge, write, “Teach me gentleness, and discipline, and knowledge: for I have believed in Thy commandments?” He confessed the covenants to be of the highest authority, and that they were given to the more excellent. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Ain
124. “I am Thy servant. O grant me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies” ( ver. 125 ). This petition must never be intermitted. For it sufficeth not to have received understanding, and to have learnt the testimonies of God, unless it be evermore received, and evermore in a manner quaffed from the fountain of eternal light. For the testimonies of God are the better and the better known, the more understanding a man attaineth to.
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Titus 1:1-4
Wherefore then was the delay? From His concern for men, and that it might be done at a seasonable time. “It is time for Thee, Lord, to work” ( Ps. cxix. 125 .), says the Prophet. For by “His own times” is meant the suitable times, the due, the fitting.
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XV. That the understanding, by means of which we can recognize God's commands, and the performance of a good will are both gifts from the Lord
Further the blessed David asks of the Lord that he may gain that very understanding, by which he can recognize God’s com mands which, he well knew, were written in the book of the law, and he says “I am Thy servant: O give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments.” Certainly he was in possession of understanding, which had been granted to him by nature, and also had at his fingers’ ends a knowledge of God’s commands which were preserved in writing in the law: and still he prayed the Lord that he might learn this more thoroughly as he knew that what came to him by nature would never be sufficient for him, unless his understanding was enlightened by the Lord by a daily illumination from Him, to understand the law spiritually and to recognize His commands more clearly, as the “chosen vessel” also declares very plainly this which we are insisting on. …