Psalms 88:9
O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee.
Open Psalms 88:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Domine Deus virtutum, quis similis tibi ? potens es, Domine, et veritas tua in circuitu tuo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Κύριε ὁ θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων, τίς ὅμοιός σοι; δυνατὸς εἶ, Κύριε, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθειά σου κύκλῳ σου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 89:9
- יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹ֘הֵ֤י צְבָא֗וֹת מִֽי כָֽמ֖וֹךָ חֲסִ֥ין יָ֑הּ וֶ֝אֱמֽוּנָתְךָ֗ סְבִיבוֹתֶֽיךָ
Haydock's commentary
Truth. He often praises this attribute, as if to excuse himself for asking, why God had debased the throne of David? (Calmet)
God cannot be divested of this perfection. (Du Hamel)
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 On the Morals of the Catholic Church, Harmony of the Old and New Testaments
28. Perhaps some may think that those passages do not refer to the Son of God. What, then, is taught in the following words: "She displays the nobility of her birth, having her dwelling with God?" To what does birth refer but to parentage? And does not dwelling with the Father claim and assert equality? Again, as Paul says that the Son of God is the wisdom of God, and as the Lord Himself says, "No man knoweth the Father save the only-begotten Son," what could be more concordant than those words of the prophet: "With Thee is wisdom which knows Thy works, which was present at the time of Thy making the world, and knew what would be pleasing in Thine eyes?" And as Christ is called the truth, which is also taught by His being called the brightness of the Father (for there is nothing round about the sun but its brightness which is produced from it), what is there in the Old Testament more pla …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXXIX
9. “O Lord God of Hosts, who is like unto Thee? Thy truth, most mighty Lord, is on every side” ( ver. 8 ). Great is Thy power: Thou hast made Heaven and earth, and all things that in them are: but greater still is thy loving-kindness, which has shown forth Thy truth to all around Thee. For if Thou hadst been preached only on the spot where Thou didst deign to be born, to suffer, to rise again, to ascend; the truth of that promise of God would have been fulfilled, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: but the promise, “that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy,” would not have been fulfilled, had not that truth been explained, and diffused to those around Thee from the spot where Thou didst deign to appear. On that spot Thou didst thunder out of Thy own cloud: but to scatter rain upon the Gentiles round about, Thou hast sent other clouds. …