The Book of PsalmsPsalm 63
Exaudi Deus orationem. A prayer in affliction, with confidence in God that he will bring to nought the machinations of persecutors.
The Douay-Rheims numbers the Psalms as the Latin Vulgate does. In Bibles translated from the Hebrew this is Psalm 64. Read Psalm 64 in the WEBC.
63Unto the end, a psalm for David.
2Hear, O God, my prayer, when I make supplication to thee: deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy.
3Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant; from the multitude of the workers of iniquity.
4For they have whetted their tongues like a sword; they have bent their bow a bitter thing,
5To shoot in secret the undefiled.
6They will shoot at him on a sudden, and will not fear: they are resolute in wickedness. They have talked of hiding snares; they have said: Who shall see them?
7They have searched after iniquities: they have failed in their search. Man shall come to a deep heart:
8And God shall be exalted. The arrows of children are their wounds:
9And their tongues against them are made weak. All that saw them were troubled;
10And every man was afraid. And they declared the works of God: and understood his doings.
11The just shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall hope in him: and all the upright in heart shall be praised.
Notes by Bishop Challoner
- 7 A deep heart. That is, crafty, subtle, deep projects and designs; which nevertheless shall not succeed; for God shall be exalted in bringing them to nought by his wisdom and power.
- 8 The arrows of children are their wounds. That is, the wounds, stripes, or blows, they seek to inflict upon the just, are but like the weak efforts of children's arrows, which can do no execution: and their tongues, that is, their speeches against them come to nothing.