The Eastern Cross/Bible/Psalms/Psalm 54
The Book of Psalms · the Psalter
Psalm 55 in the KJV and most English Bibles
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Hearken, O God, to my prayer; And disregard not my supplication.
Ἐνωτίσαι ὁ Θεὸς τὴν προσευχήν μου, καὶ μὴ ὑπερίδῃς τὴν δέησίν μου·
"Hear Thou, O God, my entreaty, and despise not my prayer: give heed unto me, and hearken unto me". Of one earnest, anxious, of one set in tribulation, are these words. He is praying, suffering many things, from evil yearning to be delivered: it remains that we hear in what evil he is, and when he begins to speak, let…
Attend to me, and hearken to me: I was grieved in my meditation, and troubled;
Πρόσχες μοι, καὶ εἰσάκουσόν μου· ἐλυπήθην ἐν τῇ ἀδολεσχίᾳ μου, καὶ ἐταράχθην
"I have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled". Where made sad, where troubled? "In my exercise," he says. Of evil men, whom he suffers, he has made mention, and the same suffering of evil men he has called his "exercise." Think ye not that without profit there are evil men in this world, and that no…
Because of the voice of the enemy, and because of the oppression of the sinner: For they brought iniquity against me, And were wrathfully angry with me.
ἀπὸ φωνῆς ἐχθροῦ, καὶ ἀπὸ θλίψεως ἁμαρτωλοῦ· ὅτι ἐξέκλιναν ἐπʼ ἐμὲ ἀνομίαν, καὶ ἐν ὀργῇ ἐνεκότουν μοι.
Whence then doth this man pray, set among evil men, with whose enmities he was being exercised? Why saith he, "I have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled"? While he is extending his love so as to love enemies, he hath been affected with disgust, being bayed at all around by the enmities of many men,…
My heart was troubled within me; And the fear of death fell upon me.
Ἡ καρδία μου ἐταράχθη ἐν ἐμοὶ, καὶ δειλία θανάτου ἐπέπεσεν ἐπʼ ἐμέ.
But this man being troubled and made sad was praying, his eye being disturbed as it were on account of anger. But the anger of a brother if it shall have been inveterate is then hatred. Anger doth trouble the eye, hatred doth quench it: anger is a straw, hatred is a beam. Sometimes thou hatest and chidest an angry…
Fear and trembling came upon me, And darkness covered me.
Φόβος καὶ τρόμος ἦλθεν ἐπʼ ἐμὲ καὶ ἐκάλυψέ με σκότος.
"Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and darkness hath covered me." "And I have said," "He that hateth his brother, is in darkness until now." If love is light, hatred is darkness. And what saith to himself one set in that weakness and troubled in that exercise? "Who shall give me wings as to a dove, and I…
And I said, O that I had wings as those of a dove! Then would I flee away, and be at rest.
Καὶ εἶπα, τίς δώσει μοι πτέρυγας ὡσεὶ περιστερᾶς; καὶ πετασθήσομαι καὶ καταπαύσω.
Lo! I have fled afar off, And lodged in the wilderness. Pause.
Ἰδοὺ ἐμάκρυνα φυγαδεύων, καὶ ηὐλίσθην ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· διάψαλμα.
"Behold I have gone afar fleeing, and have abode in the desert". In what desert? Wherever you shall be, there will gather them together other men, the desert with you they will seek, will attach themselves to your life, you can not thrust back the society of brethren: there are mingled with you also evil men; still…
I waited for him that should deliver me From distress of spirit and tempest.
Προσεδεχόμην τὸν σώζοντά με ἀπὸ ὀλιγοψυχίας καὶ καταιγίδος.
"There has not failed from the streets thereof usury and deceit". Usury and deceit are not hidden at least, because they are evil things, but in public they rage. For he that in his house does any evil thing, however for his evil thing does blush: "In the streets thereof usury and deceit." Money-lending even has a…
"For if an enemy had upbraided me". And indeed above he was "troubled in his exercise" by the voice of the enemy and by the tribulation of the sinner, perhaps being placed in that city, that proud city that was building a tower, which was "sunk," that divided might be the tongues: give heed to his inward groaning…
"But you," he says, "man of one mind, my guide and my friend". Perchance sometimes good counsel you have given, perchance sometimes you have gone before me, and some wholesome advice you have given me: in the Church of God together we have been.
"But you,...that together with me took sweet morsels". What are the sweet morsels? Not all they that are present know: but let them not be soured that do know, in order that they may be able to say to them that as yet know not: "Taste ye and see, how sweet is the Lord." "In the House of God we have walked with…
"Let there come death upon them, and let them go down unto Hell living". How has he cited and has made us call to mind that first beginning of schism, when in that first people of the Jews certain proud men separated themselves, and would without have sacrificed? A new death upon them came: the earth opened herself,…
"Therefore to the Lord I have cried out". The Body of Christ and the oneness of Christ in anguish, in weariness, in uneasiness, in the tribulation of its exercise, that One Man, Oneness in One Body set, when He was wearying His soul in crying out from the ends of the earth; says, "From the ends of the earth to You I…
Therefore, my Brethren, those that in the very congregation of these walls ye see to be rebellious men, proud, seeking their own, lifted up; not having a zeal for God that is chaste, sound, quiet, but ascribing to themselves much; ready for dissension, but not finding opportunity; are the very chaff of the Lord's…
"He stretcheth forth His hand in requiting." "They have polluted His Testament." Read the testament which they have polluted: "In thy seed shall be blessed all nations." Thou against these words of the Testator sayest what? The Africa of holy Donatus hath alone deserved this grace, in him hath remained the Church of…
"His discourses have been softened above oil, and themselves are darts". For certain things in the Scriptures were seeming hard, while they were obscure; when explained, they have been softened. For even the first heresy in the disciples of Christ, as it were from the hardness of His discourse arose. For when He said,…
Furthermore, just as Peter, after their having been scandalized by the hardness, as they thought, of the discourse of the Lord, even then said, "to whom shall we go?" so he hath added, "Cast upon the Lord thy care, and He shall Himself nourish thee up." A little one thou art, not yet thou understandest the secret…
But to the others what? "But You, O God, shall bring them down unto the pit of corruption". The pit of corruption is the darkness of sinking under. When blind leads blind, they both fall into a ditch. [Matthew 15:14] God brings them down into the pit of corruption, not because He is the author of their own guilt, but…
"Sink, O Lord, and divide the tongues of them". He is referring to men troubling him and shadowing him, and he has wished this thing not of anger, brethren. They that have wickedly lifted up themselves, for them it is expedient that they be sunk. They that have wickedly conspired, it is expedient for them that their…
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.