The Eastern Cross/Bible/Psalms/Psalm 30
The Book of Psalms · the Psalter
Psalm 31 in the KJV and most English Bibles
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For the end, a Psalm of David, an utterance of extreme fear.
Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυὶδ, ἐκστάσεως.
O Lord, I have hoped in thee; let me never be ashamed: Deliver me in thy righteousness and rescue me.
Ἐπὶ σοὶ Κύριε ἤλπισα, μὴ καταισχυνθείην εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, ἐν τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ σου ῥῦσαί με καὶ ἐξελοῦ με.
"In You, O Lord, have I trusted, let Me not be put to confusion for ever". In You, O Lord, have I trusted, let Me never be confounded, while they shall insult Me as one like other men. "In Your righteousness rescue Me, and deliver Me." And in Your righteousness rescue Me from the pit of death, and deliver Me out of…
Incline thine ear to me; Make haste to rescue me: Be thou to me for a protecting God, And for a house of refuge to save me.
Κλῖνον πρὸς μὲ τὸ οὖς σου, τὰχυνον τοῦ ἐξελέσθαι με γενοῦ μοι εἰς Θεὸν ὑπερασπιστὴν καὶ εἰς οἶκον καταφυγῆς τοῦ σῶσαί με.
"Bend down Your ear unto Me". Hear Me in My humiliation, near at hand unto Me. "Make haste to deliver Me." Defer not to the end of the world, as with all who believe in Me, My separation from sinners. "Be unto Me a God who protects Me." Be unto Me God, and Protector. "And a house of refuge, that You may save Me." And…
For thou art my strength and my refuge; And thou shalt guide me for thy name’s sake, and maintain me.
Ὅτι κραταίωμά μου καὶ καταφυγή μου εἶ σὺ, καὶ ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματός σου ὁδηγήσεις με, καὶ διαθρέψεις με.
"For You are My strength, and My refuge". For You are unto Me My strength to bear My persecutors, and My refuge to escape them. "And for Your Name's sake You shall be My guide, and shall nourish Me." And that by Me You may be known to all the Gentiles. I will in all things follow Your will; and, by assembling, by…
Thou shalt bring me out of the snare which they have hidden for me; For thou, O Lord, art my defender.
Ἐξάξεις με ἐκ παγίδος ταύτης ἧς ἔκρυψάν μοι, ὅτι σὺ εἶ ὁ ὑπερασπιστής μου, Κύριε.
"Thou shalt bring Me out of this trap, which they have hidden for Me." Thou shalt bring Me out of these snares, which they have hidden for Me. "For Thou art My Protector."
Into thy hands I will commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.
Εἰς χεῖράς σου παραθήσομαι τὸ πνεῦμά μου, ἐλυτρώσω με Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς τῆς ἀληθέιας.
"Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit." To Thy power I commend My Spirit, soon to receive It back. "Thou hast redeemed Me, O Lord God of truth?" Let the people too, redeemed by the Passion of their Lord, and joyful in the glorifying of their Head, say, "Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth."
Thou hast hated them that idly persist in vanities: But I have hoped in the Lord.
Ἐμίσησας τοὺς διαφυλάσσοντας ματαιότητας διακενῆς· ἐγὼ δὲ ἐπὶ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἤλπισα.
"Thou hatest them that hold to vanity uselessly." Thou hatest them that hold to the false happiness of the world. "But I have trusted in the Lord."
I will exult and be glad in thy mercy: For thou hast looked upon mine affliction; Thou hast saved my soul from distresses.
Ἀγαλλιάσομαι καὶ εὐφρανθήσομαι ἐπὶ τῷ ἐλέει σου· ὅτι ἐπεῖδες τὴν ταπείνωσίν μου, ἔσωσας ἐκ τῶν ἀναγκῶν τὴν ψυχήν μου.
"I will be glad, and rejoice in Your mercy:" which does not deceive me. "For You have regarded My humiliation:" wherein You have subjected me to vanity in hope. [Romans 8:20] "You have saved my soul from necessities". You have saved my soul from the necessities of fear, that with a free love it may serve You.
And thou hast not shut me up into the hands of the enemy: Thou hast set my feet in a wide place.
Καὶ οὐ συνέκλεισάς με εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθροῦ, ἔστησας ἐν εὐρυχώρῳ τοὺς πόδας μου.
"And hast not shut me up into the hands of the enemy". And hast not shut me up, that I should have no opening for recovering unto liberty, and be given over for ever into the power of the devil, ensnaring me with the desire of this life, and terrifying me with death. "You have set my feet in a large room." The…
Pity me, O Lord, for I am afflicted: My eye is troubled with indignation, My soul and my belly.
Ἐλέησόν με, Κύριε, ὅτι θλίβομαι· ἐταράχθη ἐν θυμῷ ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου, ἡ ψυχή μου, καὶ ἡ γαστήρ μου.
"Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am troubled". But what is this unlooked-for cruelty of the persecutors, striking such dread into me? "Have mercy on me, O Lord." For I am now no more alarmed for death, but for torments and tortures. "My eye has been disordered by anger." I had my eye upon You, that You should not…
For my life is spent with grief, And my years with groanings: My strength has been weakened through poverty, And my bones are troubled.
Ὅτι ἐξέλιπεν ἐν ὀδύνῃ ἡ ζωή μου, καὶ τὰ ἔτη μου ἐν στεναγμοῖς· ἠσθένησεν ἐν πτωχείᾳ ἡ ἰσχύς μου, καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ μου ἐταράχθησαν.
"For my life has failed in pain". For my life is to confess You, but it failed in pain, when the enemy had said, Let them be tortured until they deny Him. "And my years in groanings." The time that I pass in this world is not taken away from me by death, but abides, and is spent in groanings. "My strength has been…
I became a reproach among all mine enemies, But exceedingly so to my neighbors, And a fear to mine acquaintance: They that saw me without fled from me.
Παρὰ πάντας τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου ἐγενήθην ὄνειδος, καὶ τοῖς γείτοσί μου σφόδρα, καὶ φόβος τοῖς γνωστοῖς μου· οἱ θεωροῦντές με ἔξω ἔφυγον ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ·
"I have been made a reproach above all mine enemies". All the wicked are my enemies; and nevertheless they for their wickednesses are tortured only till they confess: I then have overpassed their reproach, I, whose confession death does not follow, but racking pains follow upon it. "And to my neighbours too much."…
I have been forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am become as a broken vessel.
Ἐπελήσθην ὡσεὶ νεκρὸς ἀπὸ καρδίας· ἐγενήθην ὡσεὶ σκεῦος ἀπολωλὸς,
"I have been forgotten, as one dead from the heart". And they have forgotten me, as if I were dead from their hearts. "I have become as a lost vessel." I have seemed to myself to be lost to all the Lord's service, living in this world, and gaining none, when all were afraid to join themselves unto me.
"For I have heard the rebuking of many dwelling by in a circuit". For I have heard many rebuking me, in the pilgrimage of this world near me, following the circuit of time, and refusing to return with me to the eternal country. "Whilst they were assembling themselves together against me, they conspired that they might…
"But I have hoped in You, O Lord; I have said, You are my God". For You have not changed, that You should not save, Who dost correct.
"In Thy hands" are "my lots." In Thy power are my lots. For I see no desert for which out of the universal ungodliness of the human race Thou hast elected me particularly to salvation. And though there be with Thee some just and secret order in my election, yet I, from whom this is hid, have attained by lot unto my…
"Make Thy Face to shine upon Thy servant." Make it known to men, who do not think that I belong unto Thee, that Thy Face is bent upon me, and that I serve Thee. "Save me in Thy mercy."
"O Lord, let me not be confounded, for I have called upon You". O Lord, let me not be put to shame by those who insult me, for that I have called upon You. "Let the ungodly be ashamed, and be brought down to hell." Let them rather who call upon stones be ashamed, and made to dwell with darkness.
"Let the deceitful lips be made dumb". In making known to the peoples Your mysteries wrought in me, strike with dumb amazement the lips of them that invent falsehood of me. "Which speak iniquity against the Righteous, in pride and contempt." Which speak iniquity against Christ, in their pride and contempt of Him as a…
"How great" is "the multitude of Your sweetness, O Lord". Here the Prophet exclaims, having sight of all this, and admiring how manifoldly plenteous is Your sweetness, O Lord. "Which You have hid for them that fear You." Even those, whom Thou correctest, You love much: but lest they should go on negligently from…
"You will protect them in Your tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues". But here meanwhile while evil tongues murmur against them, saying, Who has come thence? You will protect them in the tabernacle, that of faith in those things, which the Lord wrought and endured for us in time.
"Blessed be the Lord; for He has made His mercy marvellous, in the city of compassing". Blessed be the Lord, for after the correction of the sharpest persecutions He has made His mercy marvellous to all throughout the world, in the circuit of human society.
"I said in my ecstasy". Whence that people again speaking says, I said in my fear, when the heathen were raging horribly against me. "I have been cast forth from the sight of Your eyes." For if You had regard to me, You would not suffer me to endure these things. "Therefore You heard, O Lord, the voice of my prayer,…
"Love the Lord, all you His saints". The Prophet again exhorts, having sight of these things, and says, "Love the Lord, all you His saints; for the Lord will require truth." Since "if the righteous shall scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?" [1 Peter 4:18] "And He will repay them that do…
"Quit you like men, and let your heart be strengthened": working good without fainting, that you may reap in due season. "All you who trust in the Lord:" that is, you who duly fear and worship Him, trust ye in the Lord.
Every note is a real passage, quoted word for word from a published English translation, with its source. Nothing here is summarised or written by us. Some verses have many notes and some have none, because the Fathers wrote more on some passages than others.
All of these translations are in the public domain. The passages were matched to their verses by the Historical Christian Commentaries project, which also hosts the full texts we link to. The Fathers are a treasury of the Church's mind, and they are best read alongside the life of the Church: if a passage raises a question, bring it to your priest.