Psalms 40:4
The Lord help him on his bed of sorrow: thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness.
Open Psalms 40:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dominus opem ferat illi super lectum doloris ejus ; universum stratum ejus versasti in infirmitate ejus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Κύριος βοηθήσαι αὐτῷ ἐπὶ κλίνης ὀδύνης αὐτοῦ, ὅλην τὴν κοίτην αὐτοῦ ἔστρεψας ἐν τῇ ἀρρωστίᾳ αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 41:4
- יְֽהוָ֗ה יִ֭סְעָדֶנּוּ עַל עֶ֣רֶשׂ דְּוָ֑י כָּל מִ֝שְׁכָּב֗וֹ הָפַ֥כְתָּ בְחָלְיֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
His bed. Literally, "on the bed of his sorrow." His, seems to have been formerly in Hebrew, (Houbigant) though it be now omitted, (Berthier) as it was in the time of Symmachus, "the bed of misery," (St. Jerome) of infirmity.
Thou hast. Hebrew, "thou wilt make." Protestants, "turn," (marginal note; Haydock) "change, or take away." In the east, the bed was removed entirely, (John v. 8.) and this expression may denote, (Calmet) that the sick man should be cured, and no longer be confined to his bed, (St. Chrysostom) or that God would take him by the hand, to support him, and turn his bed, like a tender mother, to make it more comfortable. (Genebrard) (Calmet)
When the just are sick unto death, Christ will give them greater consolation. (Worthington)
He will withdraw their affections from all terrestrial things, and remove whatever has been dangerous to them. (St. Gregory, Mor. xxiii. 15.) The ineffable name has been thrice repeated in these verses, to insinuate, that all good is wrought by the blessed Trinity. (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 XLI
4. “The Lord help him” ( ver. 3 ). But when? Haply in heaven, haply in the life eternal, that so it remain to worship the devil for earthly needs, for the necessities of this life. Far be it! Thou hast “promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” He came unto thee on earth, by Whom were made heaven and earth. Consider then what He saith, “The Lord help him, on his bed of pain.” The bed of pain is the infirmity of the flesh; lest thou shouldest say, I cannot hold, and carry, and tie up my flesh; thou art aided that thou mayest. The Lord help thee on thy bed of pain. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
1. If all the members of my body were to be converted into tongues, and if each of my limbs were to be gifted with a human voice, I could still do no justice to the virtues of the holy and venerable Paula. Noble in family, she was nobler still in holiness; rich formerly in this world’s goods, she is now more distinguished by the poverty that she has embraced for Christ. Of the stock of the Gracchi and descended from the Scipios, the heir and representative of that Paulus whose name she bore, the true and legitimate daughter of that Martia Papyria who was mother to Africanus, she yet preferred Bethlehem to Rome, and left her palace glittering with gold to dwell in a mud cabin. We do not grieve that we have lost this perfect woman; rather we thank God that we have had her, nay that we have her still. …
St Ambrose Concerning Virgins, Chapter V. St. Ambrose, speaking of tears, explains David's saying, “Every night wash l my couch with my tears,” and goes on to speak of Christ bearing our griefs and infirmities. Everything should be referred to His honour, and we ought to rejoice with spiritual joy, but not after a worldly fashion
21. And who can now fail to understand that the holy prophet said for our instruction: “Every night will I wash my couch and water my bed with my tears”? For if you take it literally for his bed, he shows that such abundance of tears should be shed as to wash the bed and water it with tears, the couch of him who is praying, for weeping has to do with the present, rewards with the future, since it is said: “Blessed are ye that weep, for ye shall laugh;” or if we take the word of the prophet as applied to our bodies, we must wash away the offences of the body with tears of penitence. For Solomon made himself a bed of wood from Lebanon, its pillars were of silver, its bottom of gold, its back strewn with gems. …
St Ambrose Concerning Virgins, Chapter V. St. Ambrose, speaking of tears, explains David's saying, “Every night wash l my couch with my tears,” and goes on to speak of Christ bearing our griefs and infirmities. Everything should be referred to His honour, and we ought to rejoice with spiritual joy, but not after a worldly fashion
23. And as He took a body of pain, so too He turned His bed in His weakness, for He converted it to the benefit of human flesh. For by His Passion weakness was ended, and death by His resurrection. And yet you ought to mourn for the world but to rejoice in the Lord, to be sad for penitence but joyful for grace, though, too, the teacher of the Gentiles by a wholesome precept has bidden to weep with them that weep, and to rejoice with them that do rejoice.