Psalms 118:53
A fainting hath taken hold of me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
Open Psalms 118:53 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Defectio tenuit me, pro peccatoribus derelinquentibus legem tuam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀθυμία κατέσχεν με ἀπὸ ἁμαρτωλῶν τῶν ἐνκαταλιμπανόντων τὸν νόμον σου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 119:53
- זַלְעָפָ֣ה אֲ֭חָזַתְנִי מֵרְשָׁעִ֑ים עֹ֝זְבֵ֗י תּוֹרָתֶֽךָ
Haydock's commentary
Fainting. So much was the psalmist grieved at the sight of sinners! (Berthier)
He would have died through zeal, if he had not seen God's justice. (Worthington)
Apostates particularly filled him with horror. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Letter XCIII
28. We, however, are certain that no one could ever have been warranted in separating himself from the communion of all nations, because every one of us looks for the marks of the Church not in his own righteousness, but in the Divine Scriptures, and beholds it actually in existence, according to the promises. For it is of the Church that it is said,“As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters;” which could be called on the one hand “thorns” only by reason of the wickedness of their manners, and on the other hand “daughters” by reason of their participation in the same sacraments. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVII
5. …“My soul hath refused to be comforted” ( ver. 2 ). So great weariness did here possess me, that my soul did close the door against all comfort. Whence such weariness to him? It may be that his vineyard hath been hailed on, or his olive hath yielded no fruit, or the vintage hath been interrupted by rain. Whence the weariness to him? Hear this out of another Psalm. For therein is the voice of the same: “weariness hath bowed me down, because of sinners forsaking Thy law.” He saith then that he was overcome with so great weariness because of this sort of evil thing; so as that his soul refused to be comforted. Weariness had well nigh swallowed him up, and sorrow had ingulfed him altogether beyond remedy, he refuseth to be comforted. What then re mained? In the first place, see whence he is comforted. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Zain
54. “Weariness hath held me; for the ungodly that forsake Thy law” ( ver. 53 ). “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” ( ver. 54 ). This is the low estate, in the house of mortality, of the man who sojourneth away from Paradise and the Jerusalem above, whence one going down to Jericho fell among robbers; but, in consequence of the deed of mercy which was done him by that Samaritan, the statutes of God became his song in the house of his pilgrimage; although he was weary for the ungodly that forsook the law of God, since he was compelled to converse with them for a season in this life, until the floor be threshed. But these two verses may be adapted to the two clauses of the preceding verse, respectively.