Psalms 49:5
Gather ye together his saints to him: who set his covenant before sacrifices.
Open Psalms 49:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Congregate illi sanctos ejus, qui ordinant testamentum ejus super sacrificia.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- συναγάγετε αὐτῷ τοὺς ὁσίους αὐτοῦ, τοὺς διατιθεμένους τὴν διαθήκην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ θυσίαις.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 50:5
- אִסְפוּ לִ֥י חֲסִידָ֑י כֹּרְתֵ֖י בְרִיתִ֣י עֲלֵי זָֽבַח
Haydock's commentary
His saints. Hebrew, "my merciful ones," (Haydock) the chosen people, (Calmet) particularly priests, (Theodoret) who might have too high an opinion of the legal sacrifices, (St. Chrysostom) or all the elect are meant, Matthew xxiv. 30. (Eusebius)
The Hebrews were the only nation which then offered sacrifices to the true God, though some individuals might do it among the Gentiles. (Calmet)
Before, super, or, "who make a covenant with him respecting sacrifices."
Protestants, "those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice," Malachias i. 12. (Haydock)
The Septuagint seem to have read v for i, more accurately, as the prophet speaks till ver. 7. (Berthier)
Judgment should begin at the house of God. And if first at us, what shall be the end of them that believe not the gospel of God? (1 Peter iv. 17., and Romans ii. 9.) (Haydock)
Those who believe not, are already judged, John iii.
Sacrifice generally precedes a covenant, Genesis xv. 17. (Menochius)
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
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter IV. How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts
The Spirit, distinguishing from such revelry the divine service, sings, “Praise Him with the sound of trumpet;” for with sound of trumpet He shall raise the dead. “Praise Him on the psaltery;” for the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord. “And praise Him on the lyre.” By the lyre is meant the mouth struck by the Spirit, as it were by a plectrum. “Praise with the timbrel and the dance,” refers to the Church meditating on the resurrection of the dead in the resounding skin. “Praise Him on the chords and organ.” Our body He calls an organ, and its nerves are the strings, by which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit, it gives forth human voices. “Praise Him on the clashing cymbals.” He calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds with the pulsation of the lips. …
St Cyprian Treatise IX
22. But when shall come the divine vengeance for the righteous blood, the Holy Spirit declares by Malachi the prophet, saying, “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning as an oven; and all the aliens and all the wicked shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord.” And this we read also in the Psalms, where the approach of God the Judge is announced as worthy to be reverenced for the majesty of His judgment: “God shall come manifest, our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall burn before Him, and round about Him a great tempest. He shall call the heaven above, and the earth beneath, that He may separate His people. …
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, That Jesus Christ shall come as a Judge
In Malachi: “Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, burning as an oven; and all the aliens and all the wicked shall be as stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord.” Also in the forty-ninth (or fiftieth) Psalm: “God the Lord of gods hath spoken, and called the earth. From the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof, out of Sion is the beauty of His glory. God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence. A fire shall burn before Him, and round about Him shall be a great storm. He hath called the heaven above, and the earth, that He may separate His people. Gather together His saints unto Him, those who arrange His covenant with sacrifices. …
St Augustine City of God, Passages from the Psalms of David Which Predict the End of the World and the Last Judgment
It is the last judgment of God which is re ferred to also in the 50th Psalm in the words, “God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence: fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call the heaven above, and the earth, to judge His people. Gather His saints together to Him; they who make a covenant with Him over sacrifices.” This we understand of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look for from heaven to judge the quick and the dead. For He shall come manifestly to judge justly the just and the unjust, who before came hiddenly to be unjustly judged by the unjust. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm L
12. “Gather to Him His righteous” ( ver. 5 ). The voice divine and prophetic, seeing future things as if present doth exhort the Angels gathering. For He shall send His Angels, and before Him shall be gathered all nations. Gather to Him His righteous. What righteous men save those that live of faith and do works of mercy? For those works are works of righteousness. Thou hast the Gospel: “Beware of doing your righteousness before men to be seen of them.” And as if it were inquired, What righteousness? “When therefore thou doest alms,” He saith. Therefore alms He hath signified to be works of righteousness. …