---
title: "Psalm 54 (55) – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/psalms/54/
description: "Psalm 54 (Psalm 55 in Hebrew numbering) in the CPDV, with the Latin Vulgate. Exaudi, Deus. A prayer of a just man under persecution from the wicked. It…"
---

# Psalm 54 (55)

Psalm 54 in the Vulgate numbering Bless follows is Psalm 55 in Hebrew numbering (the NABRE, RSV and KJV). Here are all 24 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Exaudi, Deus. A prayer of a just man under persecution from the wicked. It agrees to Christ persecuted by the Jews, and betrayed by Judas.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Psalm 54 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Unto the end. In verses, the understanding of David.
2. Listen to my prayer, O God, and despise not my supplication.
3. Be attentive to me, and heed me. I have been grieved in my training, and I have been disturbed
4. at the voice of the adversary and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have diverted iniquities toward me, and they have been harassing me with rage.
5. My heart has become disturbed within me, and the dread of death has fallen over me.
6. Fear and trembling have overwhelmed me, and darkness has buried me.
7. And I said, “Who will give me wings like the dove, so that I may fly away and take rest?”
8. Behold, I have fled far away, and I linger in solitude.
9. I waited for him who saved me from a weak-minded spirit and from a tempest.
10. Cast them down, O Lord, and divide their tongues. For I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.
11. Day and night, iniquity will surround it upon its walls, and hardship is in its midst,
12. with injustice. And usury and deceit have not fallen away from its streets.
13. For if my enemy had spoken evil about me, certainly, I would have sustained it. And if he who hated me had been speaking great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.
14. Truly, you are a man of one mind: my leader and my acquaintance,
15. who took sweet food together with me. In the house of God, we walked side-by-side.
16. Let death come upon them, and let them descend alive into Hellfire. For there is wickedness in their dwellings, in their midst.
17. But I have cried out to God, and the Lord will save me.
18. Evening and morning and midday, I will discourse and announce, and he will heed my voice.
19. He will redeem my soul in peace from those who draw near to me. For, among the many, they were with me.
20. God will hear, and He who is before time will humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God.
21. He has stretched forth his hand in retribution. They have contaminated his covenant.
22. They were divided by the wrath of his countenance, and his heart has drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and they are arrows.
23. Cast your cares upon the Lord, and he will nurture you. He will not allow the just to be tossed about forever.
24. Truly, O God, you will lead them away into the well of death. Bloody and deceitful men will not divide their days in half. But I will hope in you, O Lord.

## Psalm 54 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. In finem, in carminibus. Intellectus David.
2. Exaudi, Deus, orationem meam, et ne despexeris deprecationem meam:
3. intende mihi, et exaudi me. Contristatus sum in exercitatione mea, et conturbatus sum
4. a voce inimici, et a tribulatione peccatoris. Quoniam declinaverunt in me iniquitates, et in ira molesti erant mihi.
5. Cor meum conturbatum est in me, et formido mortis cecidit super me.
6. Timor et tremor venerunt super me, et contexerunt me tenebræ.
7. Et dixi: Quis dabit mihi pennas sicut columbæ, et volabo, et requiescam?
8. Ecce elongavi fugiens, et mansi in solitudine.
9. Exspectabam eum qui salvum me fecit a pusillanimitate spiritus, et tempestate.
10. Præcipita, Domine; divide linguas eorum: quoniam vidi iniquitatem et contradictionem in civitate.
11. Die ac nocte circumdabit eam super muros ejus iniquitas; et labor in medio ejus,
12. et injustitia: et non defecit de plateis ejus usura et dolus.
13. Quoniam si inimicus meus maledixisset mihi, sustinuissem utique. Et si is qui oderat me super me magna locutus fuisset, abscondissem me forsitan ab eo.
14. Tu vero homo unanimis, dux meus, et notus meus:
15. qui simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos; in domo Dei ambulavimus cum consensu.
16. Veniat mors super illos, et descendant in infernum viventes: quoniam nequitiæ in habitaculis eorum, in medio eorum.
17. Ego autem ad Deum clamavi, et Dominus salvabit me.
18. Vespere, et mane, et meridie, narrabo, et annuntiabo; et exaudiet vocem meam.
19. Redimet in pace animam meam ab his qui appropinquant mihi: quoniam inter multos erant mecum.
20. Exaudiet Deus, et humiliabit illos, qui est ante sæcula. Non enim est illis commutatio, et non timuerunt Deum.
21. Extendit manum suam in retribuendo; contaminaverunt testamentum ejus:
22. divisi sunt ab ira vultus ejus, et appropinquavit cor illius. Molliti sunt sermones ejus super oleum; et ipsi sunt jacula.
23. Jacta super Dominum curam tuam, et ipse te enutriet; non dabit in æternum fluctuationem justo.
24. Tu vero, Deus, deduces eos in puteum interitus. Viri sanguinum et dolosi non dimidiabunt dies suos; ego autem sperabo in te, Domine.

## The saints

- “Do not be afraid to abandon yourself totally to God; He will not let you down.” — St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Letters, c. 1689 (On this theme: verse 22)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 16: “Let death” … This, and such like imprecations which occur in the psalms, are delivered prophetically; that is, by way of foretelling the punishments which shall fall upon the wicked from divine justice, and approving the righteous ways of God: but not by way of ill will, or uncharitable curses, which the law of God disallows.
- Verse 19: That is, they that drew near to attack me were many in company all combined to fight against me.
- Verse 22: Dispersed, scattered, and brought to nothing, by the wrath of God; who looks with indignation on their wicked and deceitful ways.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).