Psalms 55:4
From the height of the day I shall fear: but I will trust in thee.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ab altitudine diei timebo : ego vero in te sperabo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- φοβηθήσονται, ἐγὼ δὲ ἐπὶ σοὶ ἐλπιῶ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 56:4
- י֥וֹם אִירָ֑א אֲ֝נִ֗י אֵלֶ֥יךָ אֶבְטָֽח
Haydock's commentary
The height of the day. That is, even at noon day, when the sun is the highest, I am still in danger. (Challoner)
Hebrew, "many fight against me from an elevation, or from day-break."
Fear. Many prefix a negation, which St. Jerome rejects, (ad Sun.) explaining this height of the divine majesty. (Calmet)
David felt the impressions of fear; but corrected them by his confidence in God. (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 LVI
6. “For many men that war against me, shall fear” ( ver. 3 ). Shall fear when? When the day shall have passed away, wherein they are high. For for a time high they are, when the time of their height is finished they will fear. “But I in Thee will hope, O Lord.” He saith not, “But I will not fear:” but, “Many men, that war against me, shall fear.” When there shall have come that day of Judgment, then “shall mourn for themselves all the tribes of the earth.” When there shall have appeared the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, then secure shall be all holy men. For that thing shall come which they hoped for, which they longed for, the coming whereof they prayed for: but to those men no place for repentance shall remain, because in that time wherein fruitful might have been repentance, their heart they hardened against a warning Lord. …