Psalms 76:4
I remembered God, and was delighted, and was exercised, and my spirit swooned away.
Open Psalms 76:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- memor fui Dei, et delectatus sum, et exercitatus sum, et defecit spiritus meus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐμνήσθην τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ εὐφράνθην· ἠδολέσχησα καὶ ὠλιγοψύχησεν τὸ πνεῦμά μου. διάψαλμα.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 77:4
- אֶזְכְּרָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֣ים וְאֶֽהֱמָיָ֑ה אָשִׂ֓יחָה וְתִתְעַטֵּ֖ף רוּחִ֣י סֶֽלָה
Haydock's commentary
Delighted. Hebrew, "cried out," which many explain through sorrow. But the Septuagint seem rather to take it in a different sense, as well as the swooning, which might proceed from ecstatic joy (Berthier) at the thought of God. The alternate sorrows and joys of the just are well described. They are seldom allowed to continue long in the same state. Protestants, "I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah." St. Jerome, "I spoke within myself," exercising myself in meditation. (Haydock)
I was sometimes in such distress, that nothing seemed capable of giving me any comfort. But I relied on God, and was in an ecstacy. (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 LXXVII
5. …“My soul hath refused to be comforted” ( ver. 2 ). So great weariness did here possess me, that my soul did close the door against all comfort. Whence such weariness to him? It may be that his vineyard hath been hailed on, or his olive hath yielded no fruit, or the vintage hath been interrupted by rain. Whence the weariness to him? Hear this out of another Psalm. For therein is the voice of the same: “weariness hath bowed me down, because of sinners forsaking Thy law.” He saith then that he was overcome with so great weariness because of this sort of evil thing; so as that his soul refused to be comforted. Weariness had well nigh swallowed him up, and sorrow had ingulfed him altogether beyond remedy, he refuseth to be comforted. What then re mained? In the first place, see whence he is comforted. …
Theodoret Counter-statements of Theodoret
Against X. The unchangeable nature was not changed into nature of flesh, but assumed human nature and set it over the common high priests, as the blessed Paul teaches in the words, “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is encompassed with infirmity. …