Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:1
"Bow down Your ear, O Lord, and hear me". He speaks in the form of a servant: speak thou, O servant, in the form of your Lord: "Bow down Your ear, O Lord." He bows down His ear, if you dost not lift up your neck: for unto the humble He draws near: from him that is exalted He removes afar off, except whom He Himself…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:2
"Preserve My Soul, for I am holy". I know not whether any one could say this, "I am holy," but He who was in the world without sin: He by whom all sins were not committed but remitted. We own it to be His voice saying, "Preserve My Soul, for I am holy;" of course in that form of a servant which He had assumed. For in…
Pity me, O Lord: for to thee will I cry all the day.
Ἐλέησόν με Κύριε, ὅτι πρὸς σὲ κεκράξομαι ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν.
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:3
"Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I have cried unto You all day". 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 groans and calls upon God: and each one of us after his measure…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:4
"Make glad the soul of Your servant: for unto You, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul". Make it glad, for unto You have I lifted it up. For it was on earth, and from the earth it felt bitterness: lest it should wither away in bitterness, lest it should lose all the sweetness of Your grace, I lifted it up unto You: make…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:5
"For Thou, Lord, art good and gracious" (ver. 5). ...Even prayers are often hindered by vain thoughts, so that the heart scarcely remains fixed on God: and it would hold itself so as to be fixed, and somehow flees from itself, and finds no frames in which it can enclose itself, no bars by which it may keep in its…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:6
"Fix my prayer in Thy ears, O Lord" (ver. 6). Great earnestness of him who prays! That is, let not my prayer go out of Thine ears, fix it then in Thine ears. How did he travail that he might fix his prayer in the ears of God? Let God answer and say to us; Wouldest thou that I fix thy prayer in My ears? Fix My law in…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:7
"In the day of my trouble I have cried unto You, for You have heard me". A little before he had said, All the day have I cried, all the day have I been troubled. Let no Christian then say that there is any day in which he is not troubled. By "all the day" we have understood the whole of time. What then, is there…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:8
"Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord" (ver. 8). What did he say? "Among the gods," etc. Let the Pagans make for themselves what gods they will; let them bring workmen in silver and in gold, furbishers, sculptors; let them make gods. What kind of gods? Having eyes, and seeing not; and the other things…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:9
"All nations that Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord" (ver. 9). He has announced the Church: "All nations." If there is any nation which God hath not made, it will not worship Him: but there is no nation which God hath not made; because God made Adam and Eve, the source of all nations, thence…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:10
"For You are great, and doing wondrous things: You alone are the great God". Let no man call himself great. Some were to be who would call themselves great: against these it is said, "You alone are the great God." For what great thing is ascribed to God, when it is said that He alone is the great God? Who knows not…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:11
"Lead me, O Lord, in Your way, and I will walk in Your truth". Your way, Your truth, Your life, is Christ. Therefore belongs the Body to Him, and the Body is of Him. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. [John 14:6] "Lead me, O Lord, in Your way." In what way? "And I will walk in Your truth." It is one thing to…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:13
"I will confess unto You, O Lord my God, in my whole heart, and I will glorify Your name for ever": "for great is Your mercy toward me, and You have delivered my soul from the nethermost hell". Do not be angry, brethren, if I do not explain what I have said as though I were certain. For I am a man, and as much as is…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:14
"O God, the transgressors of the law have arisen up against me". Whom calls he transgressors of the law? Not the Pagans, who have not received the law: for no one transgresses that which he has not received; the Apostle says clearly, "For where there is no law, there is no prevarication." [Romans 4:15] Transgressors…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:14
"And Thou, Lord God, art One who hast compassion and merciful, longsuffering, and very pitiful, and true" (ver. 15). Wherefore longsuffering and very pitiful, and One who hast compassion? Because hanging on the Cross He said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Whom prayeth He to? for whom doth He…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:14
If therefore You are "true," "Look upon me, and have mercy upon me: give power unto Your servant." Because You are "true," "give power unto Your servant". Let the time of patience pass away, the time of judgment come. How, "give power"? The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. [John 5:22]…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 85 · on Psalm 85:14
"Show me a sign for good" (ver. 17). What sign, but that of the Resurrection? The Lord says: "This wicked and provoking generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonah." Therefore in our Head a sign has been shown already for good; each one of us also may say,…
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.
Blessed Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, tr. A. Cleveland Coxe from the Oxford translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888).
Scripture: the Septuagint, in the translation of Sir Lancelot Brenton (1851), with spelling updated by Adam Boyd (2020); the Greek is Brenton's Septuagint text.
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.