Psalms 37:16
For in thee, O Lord, have I hoped: thou wilt hear me, O Lord my God.
Open Psalms 37:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quoniam in te, Domine, speravi ; tu exaudies me, Domine Deus meus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι ἐπὶ σὲ ἤλπισα, Κύριε· σὺ εἰσακούσῃ, κύριε ὁ θεός μου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 38:16
- כִּֽי לְךָ֣ יְהוָ֣ה הוֹחָ֑לְתִּי אַתָּ֥ה תַ֝עֲנֶ֗ה אֲדֹנָ֥י אֱלֹהָֽי
Haydock's commentary
Hoped. This was the reason of his silence. (Berthier)
He knew that God was in a manner engaged to defend those (Calmet) who rely (Worthington) wholly on Him; and he declared such to be his disposition. (Haydock)
Hear me. The same term thahane means, "wilt answer" (Mont.) as a judge and advocate. (Haydock)
God will one day manifest the justice of his elect. (Berthier)
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 Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXVIII
20. “For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope; Thou wilt hear, O Lord, my God” ( ver. 15 ). As if it were said to Him, “Wherefore openedst thou not thy mouth? Wherefore didst Thou not say, ‘Refrain’? Wherefore didst Thou not rebuke the unrighteous, while hanging on the Cross?” He goes on and says, “For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope; Thou, O Lord my God, wilt hear.” He warns you what to do, should tribulation haply befall. For you seek to defend yourself, and perhaps your defence is not listened to by any one. Then are you confounded, as if you had lost your cause; because you have none to defend or to bear testimony in your favour. “Keep” but your “innocence” within, where no one can pervert thy cause. False-witness has prevailed against you before men. …
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter XLI. The appearance of what infirmities one who lives in a Cœnobium ought to exhibit
And that you may be able to attain all this, and continually remain subject to this spiritual rule, you must observe these three things in the congregation: viz.: that as the Psalmist says: “I was like a deaf man and heard not and as one that is dumb who doth not open his mouth; and I became as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth there are no reproofs,” so you also should walk as one that is deaf and dumb and blind, so that, putting aside the contemplation of him who has been rightly chosen by you as your model of perfection, you should be like a blind man and not see any of those things which you find to be unedifying, nor be influenced by the authority or fashion of those who do these things, and give yourself up to what is worse and what you formerly condemned. …