Psalms 85:3
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day.
Open Psalms 85:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam ad te clamavi tota die ;
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐλέησόν με, κύριε, ὅτι πρὸς σὲ κεκράξομαι ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 86:3
- חָנֵּ֥נִי אֲדֹנָ֑י כִּ֥י אֵלֶ֥יךָ אֶ֝קְרָ֗א כָּל הַיּֽוֹם
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter II. Our Instructor’s Treatment of Our Sins
Our Instructor, the Word, therefore cures the unnatural passions of the soul by means of exhortations. For with the highest propriety the help of bodily diseases is called the healing art, an art acquired by human skill. But the paternal Word is the only Pæonian physician of human infirmities, and the holy charmer of the sick soul. “Save,” it is said, “Thy servant, O my God, who trusteth in Thee. Pity me, O Lord; for I will cry to Thee all the day.” For a while the “physician’s art,” according to Democritus, “heals the diseases of the body; wisdom frees the soul from passion.” But the good Instructor, the Wisdom, the Word of the Father, who made man, cares for the whole nature of His creature; the all-sufficient Physician of humanity, the Saviour, heals both body and soul. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXXVI
5. “Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I have cried unto Thee all day” ( ver. 3 ). Not “one day:” understand “all day” to mean continually: from the time that the body of Christ groans being in afflictions, until the end of the world, when afflictions pass away, that man groaneth and calleth upon God: and each one of us after his measure hath his part in that cry in the whole body. Thou hast cried in thy days, and thy days have passed away: another hath come after thee, and cried in his days: and thou here, he there, another elsewhere: the body of Christ crieth all the day, its members departing and succeeding one another. One Man it is that reaches to the end of the world: the same members of Christ cry, and some members already rest in Him, some still cry, some when we shall be at rest will cry, and after them others will cry. …