Psalms 88:48
Remember what my substance is for hast thou made all the children of men in vain?
Open Psalms 88:48 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Memorare quæ mea substantia : numquid enim vane constituisti omnes filios hominum ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- μνήσθητι τίς μου ἡ ὑπόστασις· μὴ γὰρ ματαίως ἔκτισας πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων;
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 89:48
- זְכָר אֲנִ֥י מֶה חָ֑לֶד עַל מַה שָּׁ֝֗וְא בָּרָ֥אתָ כָל בְּנֵי אָדָֽם
Haydock's commentary
Remember what. Hebrew ani, "I." As this seems odd, Houbigant substitutes, adni, "Lord." (Berthier)
Substance is. That Christ will assume our nature, (St. Augustine, City of God xvii. 9, 11.) or "how long I shall live." (Montanus)
Even the world "passes" like a shadow, 1 Corinthians vii. (Amama)
"Be mindful of me from the depth: else why hast thou in vain created the sons of men?" (St. Jerome) (Haydock)
In vain. To spend their days in misery? or rather, "are not all created subject to vanity?" If thou do not succour us, we shall presently perish, and who will glorify thy name on earth? (Psalm cxliii. 4.) (Calmet)
Will thy providence take no care of us? (Berthier)
If the Messias come not, we cannot be saved, and we shall appear to have been created in vain. (Menochius)
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 City of God, Of the Substance of the People of God, Which Through His Assumption of Flesh is in Christ, Who Alone Had Power to Deliver His Own Soul from Hell
But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes him to praying to God; yet even the very prayer is prophecy: “How long, Lord, dost Thou turn away in the end?” “Thy face” is understood, as it is elsewhere said, “How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me?” For therefore some copies have here not “dost,” but “wilt Thou turn away;” although it could be understood, “Thou turnest away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise to David.” But when he says, “in the end,” what does it mean, except even to the end? By which end is to be understood the last time, when even that nation is to believe in Christ Jesus, before which end what He has just sorrowfully bewailed must come to pass. On account of which it is also added here, “Thy wrath shall burn like fire. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXXIX
36. “O remember what my substance is” ( ver. 47 ). That David, who was placed among the Jews in the flesh, in Christ in hope, speaks “Remember what is my substance.” For not because the Jews fell away, did my substance fail: for from that people came the Virgin Mary, and from her the flesh of Christ; that Flesh sins not, but purifies sins; there, saith David, is my substance. “O remember what my substance is.” For the root has not entirely perished; the seed shall come to whom the promise was made, ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator. “For Thou hast not made all the sons of men for nought” ( ver. 47 ). Lo! all the sons of men have gone into vanity: yet Thou hast not made them for nought. …
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).