Psalms 54:9
I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.
Open Psalms 54:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Exspectabam eum qui salvum me fecit a pusillanimitate spiritus, et tempestate.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- προσεδεχόμην τὸν σώζοντά με ἀπὸ ὀλιγοψυχίας καὶ καταιγίδος.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 55:9
- אָחִ֣ישָׁה מִפְלָ֣ט לִ֑י מֵר֖וּחַ סֹעָ֣ה מִסָּֽעַר
Haydock's commentary
Storm. The first fury of the rebels, which is most dangerous, is thus specified. David was convinced, that his son's party would dwindle away, when he was informed that he did not pursue him, following the advice of Chusai. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "I would hasten my escape from the impetuous wind and tempest." But the Septuagint may be equally correct. (Berthier)
God protected his weak servant in the greatest dangers. (Worthington)
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 LV
9. “I was looking for him that should save me from weakness of mind and tempest” ( ver. 8 ). Sea there is, tempest there is: nothing for thee remaineth but to cry out, “Lord, I perish.” Let Him stretch forth hand, who doth the waves tread fearlessly, let Him relieve thy dread, let Him confirm in Himself thy security, let Him speak to thee within, and say to thee, “Give heed to Me, what I have borne:” an evil brother perchance thou art suffering, or an enemy without art suffering; which of these have I not suffered? There roared without Jews, within a disciple was betraying. There rageth therefore tempest, but He doth save men from weakness of mind, and tempest. Perchance thy ship is being troubled, because He in thee is sleeping. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Lucinius
1. Your letter which has suddenly arrived was not expected by me, and coming in an unlooked for way it has helped to rouse me from my torpor by the glad tidings which it conveys. I hasten to embrace with the arms of love one whom my eyes have never seen, and silently say to myself: ‘“oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flee away and be at rest.”’ Then would I find him “whom my soul loveth.” In you the Lord’s words are now truly fulfilled: “many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham.” In those days the faith of my Lucinius was foreshadowed in Cornelius, “centurion of the band called the Italian band.” And when the apostle Paul writes to the Romans: “whensoever I take my journey into Spain I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you;” he shews by the tale of his previous successes what he …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).