Psalms 72:25
For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?
Open Psalms 72:25 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quid enim mihi est in cælo ? et a te quid volui super terram ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τί γὰρ μοι ὑπάρχει ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ; καὶ παρὰ σοῦ τὶ ἠθέλησα ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς;
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 73:25
- מִי לִ֥י בַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וְ֝עִמְּךָ֗ לֹא חָפַ֥צְתִּי בָאָֽרֶץ
Haydock's commentary
Earth? I no longer envy the prosperity of the wicked, (Calmet) seeing that it is all a dream, and a snare, ver. 18, 20. (Haydock)
Nothing can now give me content, but thyself. (Calmet)
This is all we should desire, both for soul and body, as our true inheritance. The wicked, on the contrary, use their free-will to offend God, who destroys, or sentences them to eternal fire. (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 LXXIII
23. And he is beginning to think of that same Heavenly felicity, and to reprove himself, because he hath been a beast, and hath longed for things earthly. “For what have I in Heaven, and from Thee what have I willed upon earth?” ( ver. 25 ). By your voice I see that ye have understood. He compared with his earthly will the heavenly reward which he is to receive; he saw what was there being reserved for him; and while thinking and burning at the thought of some ineffable thing, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor into the heart of man hath ascended, he hath not said, this or that I have in Heaven, but, “what have I in Heaven?” What is that thing which I have in Heaven? What is it? How great is it? Of what sort is it? “And,” since that which I have in heaven doth not pass away, “from Thee what have I willed upon earth?”…Thou reservest, he saith, for me in Heaven riches immortal …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily V on Rom. i. 28
Now let each man enter into his own conscience, and reckoning up his transgressions, let him call himself to a strict account, that we be not then condemned with the world. ( 1 Cor. xi. 32 .) For fearful is that court, awful the tribunal, full of trembling the accounts, a river of fire rolls along ( ἕλκεται ). “A brother doth not redeem: shall man redeem?” ( Ps. xlix. 8 . LXX.) Call then to mind what is said in the Gospel, the Angels running to and fro, of the bridechamber being shut, of the lamps going out, of the powers which drag to the furnaces. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Marcella
3. Wherefore, seeing that we have journeyed for much of our life through a troubled sea, and that our vessel has been in turn shaken by raging blasts and shattered upon treacherous reefs, let us, as soon as may be, make for the haven of rural quietude. There such country dainties as milk and household bread, and greens watered by our own hands, will supply us with coarse but harmless fare. So living, sleep will not call us away from prayer, nor satiety from reading. In summer the shade of a tree will afford us privacy. In autumn the quality of the air and the leaves strewn under foot will invite us to stop and rest. In springtime the fields will be bright with flowers, and our psalms will sound the sweeter for the twittering of the birds. When winter comes with its frost and snow, I shall not have to buy fuel, and, whether I sleep or keep vigil, shall be warmer than in town. …