St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 137

PSALM 137
THE LAMENTATION OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN THEIR CAPTIVITY IN BABYLON

Ps 137:1 UPON the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion: 

Such was the language of the captives who were brought away from Jerusalem to Babylon, and who were not detained in the city, but were employed in various laborious tasks through the country, along the banks of the rivers, in which the province abounded, on which they would seat themselves betimes, and burst into tears, at the recollection of, and through longing for their country. When he says, “The rivers of Babylon,” we are not to understand that all these rivers ran through the city; for it is well known that the Euphrates was the only river that ran through it, and the expression, therefore, includes the country about Babylon; or, perhaps, by Babylon, he means the province of that name, as Samaria, the city, gave its name to the country about it. In a spiritual sense, such is the language of God’s elect, who are held here below in captivity, are inwardly detached from the world, and know themselves to be citizens of the Jerusalem above, for such holy exiles sit on the banks of the rivers, instead of being hurried away by their waters, and rolled along to the sea. The rivers of Babylon mean the temporal things of this world; and when one gets attached to them by his desires, such as the avaricious, the ambitious, the voluptuary, they are carried away by the rapids, and hurled headlong into the sea, into the great abyss, to be punished there for eternity. Here, then, is the position of the citizens of the country above, and the first distinctive mark to tell anyone to which people he belongs, for they who are in a high position in this world, and still have their hearts in heaven, and long for the things of this world, these are they who belong to Jerusalem, and not to Babylon. Again: the aforesaid “fellow citizens with the saints” “sit on the banks of the rivers,” on a very low spot; they seek not an elevated one, they have no desire for place or power, they pride themselves not on their wisdom; and should they chance to be raised to rule over a Babylon, as was the case with David, and many Christian kings, however high their position may be, their ideas do not go up with it, nor do they look upon their elevation as an honor, but as a burden, under which to groan; and, instead of glorying in it, as far as they are personally concerned, they will seek to sit in the lowest place, if they have the true spirit of him “who was meek and humble of heart.” Thirdly, they will not only seat themselves lowly down, but they will lament and deplore, not the loss of the things of this world, but their own captivity, when they bring their sweetest country to their recollection, that of mount Sion. They who forget it fraternize with the children of Babylon; but they who long for it, and whose longings cause them to remember their country, however prosperous they may be, they don’t feel satisfied, but still sigh for their country, and the severest test we can apply to ourselves, as to whether we belong to Babylon or to Jerusalem, is to reflect on what pleases us, or what delights us, for “where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.”

 Ps 137:2 On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments. 

The Jews, in their captivity, hung up their musical instruments “on the willows in the midst thereof” of Babylon, that all its inhabitants may see how they threw away those instruments of joy, in order to show that they were more inclined to weep than to sing. Pious souls are fond of doing the same; for when they come to understand fully their exile and banishment, they say with the same prophet, “My soul refused to be comforted; I remembered God and was delighted;” for though the citizens of the celestial Jerusalem cannot rejoice and sing with the Babylonians, nor of their success and prosperity, still they sing, in their hearts, to God, and rejoice in the hope of future happiness. “We hung up our instruments” means the consigning those instruments of joy and pleasure to the votaries thereof, who, like so many unproductive trees, are daily watered by the rivers of Babylon, and produce no fruit. Let such people for whom eternal wailing is in store hereafter, strike the harp, and burst forth in song here.

Ps 137:3 For there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs. And they that carried us away, said: Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion. 

The captive Jews hung up their harps on the branches of the trees, not only through grief and sadness, but also that they may not oblige the Babylonians, who were anxious to hear and to mock the sacred hymns they were wont to sing on their holy festivals. St. John Chrysostom observes the improvement such tribulation effected in the Jews, who previously derided, nay, even put to death, some of the prophets; but now that they were captives in a foreign land, they would not attempt to expose their sacred hymns to the ridicule of the gentiles.

Ps 137:4 How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land? 

Such was their answer when asked, “Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion.” They say that such is their longing and grief for their country, that they cannot possibly sing while so removed from it, fearing to give offense to their masters, by telling them the principal reason, which was, for fear of their sacred hymns being turned into ridicule. In a spiritual view, holy souls, citizens of the Jerusalem above, feeling that rejoicing is suited to their country, and lamentation to their exile and captivity, exclaim, How can we sing amidst so many dangers and temptations! “Laughter I counted error; and to mirth I said: Why art thou vainly deceived?” They, too, sing the song of the Lord in a strange land, who sing sacred hymns and chants in such a manner as to please the ear, seeking only to catch it by various inflections and variations, never considering that sacred music was intended to raise the soul to God rather than please the senses. There are to be found too, some who will bring the songs of Babylon into the house of God and into holy Sion, who so adapt sacred words to profane tunes as to cause the audience to attend exclusively to the air, and overlook the meaning of such hymns,

Ps 137:5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. 
Ps 137:6 Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee: If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy. 

They who said, “How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?” the whole people, as if they formed only one person, are introduced, swearing unanimously, and resolving firmly, that they will never forget their country; and, as the striking the harp or chanting of a hymn, may be construed into a sign of their forgetting their country, they pray to God with a solemn imprecation, that the hand that strikes the harp may wither, and the tongue that sings the song may be paralyzed. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,” as I certainly will, when I strike the harp in a foreign land, “let my right hand be forgotten.” May it rot and perish, and be of no use, in which case it will be forgotten, “let my tongue cleave to my jaws,” so that it will not be able to move, if I not only forget thee, but if I do not even go further, and “make Jerusalem, the beginning of my joy.” make the holy city of Jerusalem the beginning and the sum total of my joy. Such, in fact, is the peculiarity and the distinguishing mark of the elect, if they neither in prosperity nor adversity lose sight of their future country, and would hesitate in losing hand or tongue, should God’s glory, and their own eternal salvation require it, and if they take no real pleasure in anything but in longing and hoping for that celestial home that is not made by the hand of man, where is to be found that joy of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel, when he says, “Enter into the joy of thy Lord.”

Ps 137:7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: Who say: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
Ps 137:8 O daughter of Babylon, miserable: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us.
Ps 137:9 Bessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.

In the end of the Psalm, David predicts the destruction of the children of Edom, and the Babylonians who thus persecuted the children of Israel. The Babylonians, under king Nabuchodonosor, sacked Jerusalem, and brought its inhabitants away captives to Babylon. The Idumeans, the descendants of Esau, who was also called Edom, had encouraged them to it; that is clearly related by Abdias the prophet, and David prophesies it here long before it happened; and David therefore takes up the Idumeans first, either because they were the originators of so much misery to the Jews, or because he chose to take up first those who had been guilty of the lesser injury. “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem,” in the days when Jerusalem was sacked and demolished, and he then tells what they did. “Who say: Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof,” for such was their language to the Babylonians when they were marching against it. When he says, “remember,” it means remember to punish, as God is said to forget when he forgives; thus, in Ezechiel, “I will not remember all his iniquities which he hath done;” and in Tobias, “Neither remember my offences, nor those of my parents.” He then turns to Babylon, and by way of imprecation, foretells its destruction. “O daughter of Babylon, miserable” as I foresee you will be, however happy you may seem to be now. “Blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us,” blessed will be the king of the Medes and Persians, for he will succeed in conquering you, and will indict all the hardships on you, that you have indicted on us, as eventually happened. And he further prophesies that such will be the cruelty of the Medes and Persians, that they “will take and dash thy little ones against the rock,” and thus show them not the slightest mercy. All this has a spiritual meaning. First, in an allegorical sense, looking upon the Idumeans as the Jews, and the Babylonians as the pagans; for, in point of fact, it was the pagans that principally sought to tear up the Church of Christ from its very foundations, and that on the suggestion, counsel, and exhortation of the Jews; for it was upon the charges made by the Jews, that the pagans passed sentence of death on Christ. Herod put St. James to death, and bound St. Peter with chains, “seeing it was agreeable to the Jews;” and the same Jews did all in them lay to get the Romans to put St. Paul to death. In various other places, and at various other times, the same Jews “stirred up and incensed the minds of the gentiles against the brethren,” as we read in the Acts; but God “remembered” both Jews and gentiles, to punish the one and the other. He razed their chief city, upset their kingdom, and scattered themselves all over the world; and he so swept away the pagan empire and kingdoms, who then held the whole world in sway, as not to leave scarce a pagan power now in existence. And, as idolatry and pagan rule have been supplanted, not by violence or force of arms, but by the preaching of God’s word, the prophet addresses God, saying, “Blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us,” for the pagans most unsuccessfully persecuted the Christians, who, in return, most successfully persecuted them. It would have been of the highest advantage to them, if, on the extinction of idolatry, they had died to sin and began to live to justice, as occurred to their children, who had not been so deeply rooted in the errors and vices of paganism. For it is a well known fact, that an immense number of the youth and other simple minded persons were easily converted to the Christian religion, and held out even unto death for it against the idolatry of their fathers, allusion to which is made in the words, “Blessed he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock;” that is to say, who shall bring the little ones to the rock, Christ, to get a fortunate dash against it, and die the death of the old man, to rise a new man. Secondly, to take this passage in a moral point of view, we may look upon the Idumeans as representing the carnal, and the Babylonians as the evil spirits, and it is more in the spirit of the Psalm; for, as we set out with it, the captivity of Babylon was a type of the captivity of mankind, a captivity still to some extent in existence, and will, “as long as the flesh lusteth against the spirit,” and the elect exclaim, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” and the Apostle says, “Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body;” and, finally, we are but “pilgrims and strangers” in a foreign land; and though not belonging to it, we are in the midst of a wretched world. God, then, will repay to Babylon what Babylon imposed upon us; for, as the evil spirit, the king of Babylon, bound us with a chain that still hangs on the neck of all the children of Adam, so, on the day of judgment, will Christ, the King of Jerusalem, lead the evil spirit captive, and will so tie him down with the chains of eternal punishment, that he will never rise again to do any harm; of which St. Jude speaks when he says, “And the Angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day.” And it is not only the devil that Christ will tie down in everlasting chains, he will also bind down the worldlings, who persecuted the pious, and kept them in captivity; for the Angels will bind them up “in bundles to be burned.” And, as the same king of Babylon makes the little ones of Christ, they who have not grown up nor advanced in Christ, and always need milk, the principal objects of his snares, in order to bring them away captives; so, on the contrary, blessed is he, who, by a happy dash on the rock, kills sin, those who have not been too deeply stained with it, that they may live to justice.

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 130

PSALM 130
A PRAYER OF A SINNER, TRUSTING IN THE MERCIES OF GOD. THE SIXTH PENITENTIAL PSALM

Ps 130:1 A gradual canticle. OUT of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord:
Ps 130:2 Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. 

The prophet being about to pray to God, first demands an audience, and then explains what he wants. He begins by comparing himself to one in a low valley, or a very deep well, who, unless he calls with a very loud voice, cannot be heard by one who is on a very high mountain, and thus, in fact, matters stand with us. For though God, by reason of his essence and power, be everywhere, still the sinner, by reason of his dissimilitude to God, is removed very far from God. God is always just and happy, and “dwelleth on high.” The sinner is always bad and miserable, and like Jonas the prophet, who, for his disobedience to God, was thrown not only into the depths of the sea, but even into the depths of the belly of the whale; and, nevertheless, when be cried from thence he was heard, for a fervent prayer breaks through and penetrates everything. David then says, “From the depths,” not from the depth, because a true penitent has need to cry from two depths, the depth of misery and the depth of his heart; from the former, as if from the valley of tears, or as another Psalm expresses it, “Out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs,” and from the latter, the depth of his heart; that is, from a thorough consideration and deep reflection on his own misery; for he that is not aware of, and that does not reflect on the depth in which he lies, has no wish to rise out of it, and, therefore, despises it, and thus sinks deeper again, as the Proverbs say, “The wicked man when he is come into the depth of sins contemneth.” But whoever will, on profound reflection, feel that he is an exile, a pilgrim, and in great danger of never arriving at his country; and what is infinitely worse, that though he is not just now in the lowest depths of hell, he deserves to be there by reason of his sins, it is impossible for such a one not to be thoroughly frightened and horrified, or to avoid calling out with all his might to him who alone can rescue him from such a dreadful depth, and extend a hand to him to get up. “Lord, hear my prayer.” However deep I may be, and however high you may be, as I cry with a very fond voice, you can hear me, and therefore, I beg of you to “hear my voice.”—“Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.” However loud one may cry, he will not be heard, unless the person to whom he cries attend to him. People are often so absorbed in other matters, that they pay no heed to one talking to them, and then one talks to them in vain. Now, God always sees and hears everything, but when he does not grant what we ask, he is like one that does not attend to us, as if he were thinking of something else, and, therefore, David, being most anxious for a hearing, and not content with having called out with a loud voice, asks, furthermore, that God may deign to attend to him; that is, to receive his prayer, and grant what it asked.

Ps 130:3 If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.

Having got an audience, he now tells what he wants, and that is, that God should not deal with him in his justice, but in his mercy; that he should not require an exact account of the debt, but mercifully wipe it out; and, as he cannot summon sufficient courage to make such a request openly, he lays down a proposition with wonderful tact, and which must have been specially suggested by the Holy Ghost, from which he hopes to move God to grant his prayer. He, therefore, says as follows, “If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities,” you will condemn the whole world; and, as it would not be consistent with your goodness to do that, I should not be looked upon as too forward in asking you to pardon my sins, and to rescue me from those depths into which my sins alone have plunged me. As regards the words, iniquity means all sorts of sin that break the law; as we read in 1 Jn. 3, “All sin is iniquity;” for all sins, strictly speaking, are not iniquity; that is, sins against justice; because there are sins of pride, of luxury, of the flesh, and many others. The word “observe” does not mean simply to look at; it means to note down, to record, to make an entry, as a creditor would against a debtor. The expression, “who shall stand it?” means, that should God choose to judge us, save in his mercy, nobody could pass his judgment; because any offence offered to God is infinite, and we, without his grace, are not only unable to offer condign satisfaction, but we are even incapable of seeing the enormity of the offence, or of having a perfect sorrow for it, or even of the manner in which we should set about doing penance for it; besides, we know not the number nor the heinousness of our sins; for, “Who can understand sins?” Now, God knows exactly the number of our sins; and he has them all written in his book; for, as Job says, “Thou indeed hast numbered my steps.” He, too, knows, and is the only one that knows, the infinite enormity of mortal sin, and how, then, can weak, ignorant men render an account to so exact a calculator, and so powerful an exactor? Thus, like one who is able to throw himself into a well without being able to get out of it, is the sinner who can transgress, but cannot make satisfaction for the transgression, unless he be mercifully helped thereto.

Ps 130:4 For with thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on his word:
Ps130:5 my soul hath hoped in the Lord.

To be truly penitent, (the subject of the prophet’s instruction in this penitential Psalm,) we need two things; to reflect on our own wretched condition, and to know the extent of God’s mercy; because he that is ignorant of the state he is in, seeks for no medicine, does no penance; and he that has no idea of God’s mercy, falls into despair, and looks upon penance as of no value. The prophet, then, having clearly shown, in the preceding verses, that he was fully aware of his nothingness, because he cried from the depths, and because he said that his sins were so grievous, that if God were to be influenced by his judgment alone, no one could stand the ordeal; he now shows that he has an idea of God’s mercy, and, therefore, however great and numerous his sins may be, that he still hopes for pardon of them, and for salvation; and, in consequence, he says, “For with thee there is merciful forgiveness and by reason of thy law I have waited for thee, O Lord;” as much as to say, though no one can stand before you if you choose to mark our iniquities, still, knowing you, as I do, to be naturally merciful, and knowing that “with thee there is merciful forgiveness,” and that, “by reason of the law” you imposed on yourself, to show no mercy to the impenitent, but to receive the penitent, it is “by reason of such law that I have waited for thee, O Lord,” in the hope and expectation of pardon for my sins. “My soul hath relied on his word.” He now begins to exhort others, whom he encourages by his own example, to put their hope in God, saying, I have been in the lowest depths of misery, but I never despaired of God’s mercy; for “my soul,” wounded, as it was, with the gores of sin, “relied,” looked for a cure, “in his word,” on his promise; for God frequently, through Moses, in Deuteronomy, and in various other parts of the Scripture, promised pardon to those who do penance. “And when thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him; yet if thou seek him with all thy heart, and all the affliction of thy soul.” Hence David himself previously said, in Psalm 119 “Be thou mindful of thy word to thy servant, in which thou hast given me hope.” And he then repeats more clearly what he had just expressed rather obscurely, when he adds, “My soul hath hoped in the Lord,” that he would get the pardon he looked for. David’s example ought to be of great value to us; for he was in the depth of misery, whether we regard his sins or what he suffered for them. His sins were most grievous; he had been guilty of adultery, took the life of a most faithful soldier; offended that God who had bestowed a kingdom on him, the gift of prophecy, strength, beauty, prudence, riches on him. He was also in the depths of misery when he was constantly persecuted by Saul, and in daily danger of his life; and yet, as he did not despair; but rather clung to hope, he was delivered.

Ps 130:6From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.

Let all Israel, that is, all God’s people, do what I do; let them, in whatever depth they may be, hope in the Lord: be they oppressed by sin or by the punishment of sin, let them trust in God’s help. “From the morning watch even until night.;” the whole day, from day break to the end of the night, let them not, for as much as one moment, cease to trust in God. We are bound to hope in God during the whole day, and during the whole night, for two reasons: first, because we are always in danger; nor is there one moment in which we do not need God’s help and assistance; secondly, because we are at liberty to hope at all times in God; and our conversion or penance is always acceptable, be it in the morning; that is, in our youth; or at midday, in the prime of life; or in the evening, in our old age; or be it in the day time of our prosperity; or in the night of our adversity.

Ps 130:7Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.

He assigns a reason why we should always confide in God; and at the same time predicts the redemption of man, through Jesus Christ our Lord. We can justly hope in God all day and night, “Because with the Lord there is mercy.” There are works of mercy that are not in God; hence we read, “the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord;” and in another place, ‘Thy mercy is to the heavens;” pious souls, too, have a certain share of mercy; but mercy, properly speaking, is found with God alone, rests in his bosom alone; mercy it is that removes misery; for, who can remove misery but one that cannot be subject to it? who can cure all defects but the one that is free from them, who is Almighty? To God only can be applied what the same prophet says, “For thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee;” and, therefore, it is that our holy mother, the Church, when appealing to God in her prayers, most commonly commences with, “O Almighty and merciful God.” Nor should we hope in God by reason of his being merciful only, but with that, because “there is plentiful redemption with him;” because, when God in his mercy determined to spare the human race, in order that he may satisfy his justice, he offered a ransom of infinite value, the blood of his only begotten, sufficient to redeem any number of captives in the most plentiful manner, to any amount. Man could have sold himself as a captive for his sins, or he could have been given up to the devil, to whose temptations he had yielded, to torture him for his sins, but he never could have redeemed himself, nor have rescued himself from the power of the devil. What man was unable to do, therefore, God’s mercy did for him, and that through the blood of the only begotten. Now, when this Psalm was being written, the said mercy was with God, in his counsel and resolve, but at present “the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord,” because the price that was paid for the redemption of the captives is being daily expended, and hence the Apostle says, “For you are bought with a great price, glorify and bear God in your body,” which is more clearly expressed by St. Peter, when he says, “You were not redeemed with corruptible gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.” Such redemption is called “plentiful,” because “he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world,” not only because such a ransom redeems us from captivity, but, besides, raises us to share in the inheritance, and the kingdom, whereby we become “heirs of God and coheirs of Christ.”

Ps 130:8And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

The “plentiful redemption” will be clearly manifested to all, when “Israel”—that is, God’s people—shall be redeemed; not as the carnal Jews idly expect, from the sovereign powers now in possession of it, but “from all his iniquities;” a thing the Angel promised would be accomplished by our Savior, when he said to St. Joseph, “And thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” This redemption has begun, and is going on, and will be completely accomplished on the last day, when we shall be delivered not only from our sins, but even from the punishment due to them, and from any danger of relapse, as is conveyed to us by David in Psalm 102, when he says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us;” and, again, in the same Psalm, “Who forgiveth all thy iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who satisfieth thy desire with good things;” and most clearly in Daniel, “That transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice may be brought.”

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 62

PSALM 62
THE PROPHET ENCOURAGES HIMSELF AND ALL OTHERS TO TRUST IN GOD, AND SERVE HIM

Ps 62:2 SHALL not my soul be subject to God? for from him is my salvation.

A just man, fiercely assailed by various concupiscences, every one of which contend for a mastery over him, in his brave struggle, exclaims, “Shall not my soul be subject to God?” Is it not better and fitter for me to serve God than be a slave to avarice, pride, or concupiscence? “For from him is my salvation.” Those evil passions and desires offer me nothing but death everlasting; but God promises, and will certainly confer, eternal happiness, if I remain faithful to him.

Ps 62:3 For he is my God and my saviour: he is my protector, I shall be moved no more.

My salvation not only depends on him, but “he is my God and my Savior.” The Hebrew has the word “rock” for God, to signify that in this world he is the rock we are to build upon, to take refuge on, and in the other world to be our Savior. In both he will be our protector here to defend us, hereafter to crown us; and, therefore, “I shall be moved no more.” I will not be much concerned or troubled, but remain firm, however grievous the temptations may be.

Ps 62:4 How long do you rush in upon a man? you all kill, as if you were thrusting down a leaning wall, and a tottering fence.

Having spoken of himself, he now turns to deplore the dreadful ruin of souls by the evil spirits through the agency of the various concupiscences. In truth, nobody can calculate the numbers brought to ruin by the evil spirits, through the agency of avarice, ambition, lust, anger, envy, and such evil passions. Full of indignation, therefore, against the evil spirits, he exclaims, “How long do you rush in upon a man?” will you never cease from persecuting man? “You will kill;” you all seek to destroy souls in various places and by various means, but with one common object. “As if a leaning wall and a tottering fence;” waging war upon poor, fallen human nature, so weak and corrupt, that it may aptly be compared to a tumbling wall and a rotten fence. A beautiful description of the malice and power of the demons, as well as of the frailty and weakness of human nature; for, in truth, since his fall, man may be compared to a tottering wall or heap, that requires the very smallest push to tumble it; for he is frail, and, as Genesis, chap. 8, has it, “Prone to evil from his youth;” and, therefore, the Apostle justly exclaims, “Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and he immediately answers the question thus, “The grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Ps 62:5 But they have thought to cast away my price; I ran in thirst: they blessed with their mouth, but cursed with their heart.

He returns to the subject he began with, and shows that the object of our spiritual enemies, in their attacks upon the just, is to deprive them of the everlasting rewards for which they envy them, and which they themselves lost through their own fault. “But they have thought to cast away my price.” They tempt, assault, excite my concupiscence to balk me of “my price;” that price by which I was redeemed, and thus deprive me of the dignity and great honor of everlasting glory. But I, on the contrary, “ran in thirst.” The more they sought to keep me back, the more ardently and thirstily I ran; for “The prize of the supernal vocation,” Phil. 3:14; “They blessed with their mouth, but cursed with their heart.” Their words were those of kindness, gently alluring to enjoy the present, and yield to pleasure; but, meanwhile, “They cursed with their heart,” knowing those very pleasures to be poison to the soul, and the most direct means of marring me in the pursuit of eternal happiness.

Ps 62:6 But be thou, O my soul, subject to God: for from him is my patience.
Ps 62:7 For he is my God and my saviour: he is my helper, I shall not be moved.
Ps 62:8 In God is my salvation and my glory: he is the God of my help, and my hope is in God.

He now repeats the two first verses, to show the greatness of the temptations by which he was assailed; and that he so confided in God that he was in no way afraid of them. “But be thou, O my soul, subject to God.” However the enemy may rage do you, my soul, in silence and subjection, be obedient to God, “for from him is my patience;” say nothing, for he will certainly help you. “For he is my God;” this is word for word in the Hebrew with verse 2, which see. In verse 7 he concludes by saying he expects everything from God; that is, our true end, and the means to obtain it. Our true end consists in being delivered from all evils, and the possession of the supreme good; salvation implying the one, and glory the other: the means are God’s assistance and our own hope, as they are properly named in the text, “In God is my salvation and my glory.” From God I expect salvation and deliverance from all harm, and eternal glory, the supreme good; for when we shall see God, and become like him, and perfectly united to him, we shall be truly safe and happy.

Ps 62:9 Trust in him, all ye congregation of people: pour out your hearts before him. God is our helper for ever.

He now exhorts everyone to the practice of that virtue, that God had so bounteously and gratuitously granted him to practice; first reminding them to put their trust in God alone, and not in anything created. “Trust in him, all ye congregation of people;” including every family, assembly, people, all men, not only Jews, but gentiles. “Pour out your hearts before him.” Make a sincere and open confession of your sins and wretchedness; make all your wants known to him; pray to him to have mercy on you, as Anna did, when she said, “I have poured forth my soul in the sight of the Lord;” and, as a matter of course, “God is our helper forever;” there is no doubt but he will help you.

Ps 62:10 But vain are the sons of men, the sons of men are liars in the balances: that by vanity they may together deceive.

Conscious of the smallness of the number that would follow his advice, he, therefore, inveighs now against the multitude of the wicked, saying, the greater part of men are quite devoid of true wisdom though they apparently abound in it; but it is that wisdom designated by the Scriptures as “the prudence of the flesh;” and, therefore, most men are vain, senseless, and imprudent; because “They are liars in the balances;” in false and fraudulent weights and measures. This observation applies not only to those who are engaged in trade and commerce, but to all mankind; for we, all of us gifted with reason, get that reason as a sort of balance or measure wherewith to distinguish real from apparent good, and then to choose the one, and reject the other. Now, the greater part of mankind, in doing so, miserably deceive themselves and others, by making use of such false measures, and what is worse, by doing so willfully. No one can deny that the greatest evil that can befall man is to commit sin, and thereby deserve hell’s torments; and that the greatest good that can be secured is grace in this life, and happiness in the next; and yet, when we come to weigh to measure one with the other in the balance, temporal gain will generally preponderate; and to secure it, the risk of eternal punishment will be incurred. “That by vanity they may together deceive;” though lies and vanity assume various shapes and forms, they agree in one point, in deceit.

Ps 62:11 Trust not in iniquity, and cover not robberies: if riches abound, set not your heart upon them.

He comes again to exhort, and especially against avarice, it being “the root of all evil;” secret frauds being expressed by the word “iniquity,” and open wrongs by the term “robberies;” and he goes farther, in prohibiting even an affection for riches, saying, “If riches abound, set not your heart on them.” St. Augustine beautifully remarks, that they who rob, see their plunder, but they do not see who, at the very moment, robs themselves; that is, the devil, who robs them of their soul. The same Augustine and Basil remark, that when riches abound, they begin to overflow and run away, and the blind and the covetous look only to their abundance, and never consider their flowing, nor perceive it. We are, therefore, reminded “not to set our heart on them,” for fear it, too, may flow with them, and be lost. When riches abound, then, having our hearts firmly and securely fixed on God, we should take care to let the riches flow, but to flow to advantage; like the prudent farmer, who directs the course of the stream to irrigate and enrich his land, but will be most careful in not allowing it to carry himself along.

Ps 62:12 God hath spoken once, these two things have I heard, that power belongeth to God,
Ps 62:13 And mercy to thee, O Lord; for thou wilt render to every man according to his works.

He concludes by assigning a reason for not wishing for riches, and for guarding against all manner of sin; God, once for all, in one word, comprising everything. The two things announced to David are God’s power and mercy, for us to fear the one, and love the other; and, secondly, that he will “render to every man according to his works;” that his power will not unjustly oppress anyone nor will his mercy obstruct his justice; and they who seriously reflect on those two points, “and set their hearts on them” may be called the truly wise.

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 87

PSALM 87
The glory of the church of Christ

Ps 87:1 The foundations thereof are the holy mountains:

The prophet commences by praising the city, by reason of the holy mountains it has for a foundation. He names not the city, so wrapt in admiration is he with the beauty of the new city he sees descending from heaven, the Church of Christ, whose foundations may be considered in various lights. If we regard the first founders and propagators of the Christian religion, the foundations signify the twelve Apostles, as we read in Apoc. 21, “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” If we consider the doctrine on which the faith of the Church is founded, the foundations are the Apostles and the prophets, who were the immediate ministers of the word of God, of whom the Apostle says, “Built upon the foundations of the Apostles and the prophets.” Finally, if we regard ecclesiastical power and authority, according to which the foundation in a house corresponds with the head in a body, Christ and Peter are the foundations, Christ being the primary. Of Christ the Apostle says, “For no one can lay any other foundation but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus;” and of Peter, Christ himself says “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.” Those, then, are the holy mountains, upon which the city of God is built, getting the name of mountains by reason of their altitude and excellence; and holy, for their elevation is not by reason of their pride, but by reason of their sanctity, wisdom, and authority. The objection of Christ’s being called the cornerstone surmounting the edifice, viz., “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner;” and also, “Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,” is of no consequence, for there are two cornerstones, one in the foundation, the other in the summit of the building, and both connecting two walls; and though, in an ordinary building, the same stone cannot be in the foundation supporting the entire building, and on the top supported by the building; still, in the spiritual edifice, one and the same stone, that is, one and the same prelate, supports and bears the whole edifice by his authority, while, at the same time, he presides over and is borne, through obedience, by the whole edifice, by all the living stones, which two duties apply principally, to Christ, who is absolutely the head and ruler of the whole Church; and they also apply to the supreme pontiff, who is Christ’s vicar on earth; and, to a certain extent, to all prelates, in regard of those over whom they preside, for all prelates should bear and be borne; bear with the infirmities of those over whom they are placed, and be borne with when they correct or command. The city has another subject of praise in its gates.

Ps 87:2 The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.

Having said that the city of God had holy mountains for its foundations, so that there was no fear of its falling, like buildings erected on sand; he now adds, that, with its being exempt from danger on that score, it also is incapable of being stormed by the enemy, so strongly are the gates of it fortified; Psalm 147 saying of them “because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates.” “The Lord loveth the gates of Sion,” by reason of the strength of its gates, that render it impregnable “above all the tabernacles of Jacob;” loves those gates more than the tabernacles of Jacob; for, however beautiful and elegantly laid out those tabernacles may have been when the Jews were on their journey from Egypt to the land of promise, still they had neither gates nor foundations, and, therefore, were frail and temporary. These words refer to the stability and permanence of the Church, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail; and especially to the time when it shall arrive at its heavenly country, for which the patriarch sighed, and of whom the Apostle says, “For he looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;” and, in the Apocalypse, the new Jerusalem is said to have “twelve gates, and in the gates twelve Angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” By the twelve gates we understand the twelve Apostles; for it is through their true and sound preaching that we all enter into the Church of God: their being called the foundations in another place is of no moment, for they are gates and foundations together; gates by their preaching, foundations by their support of the faithful. Christ, to be sure, said, “l am the gate;” Christ is the gate, no doubt, because it is through his merits we all enter, and are saved; but the city has twelve gates and one gate, as well as it has one foundation and twelve foundations, for Christ was in the Apostles, and spoke through the Apostles, as St. Paul says, “Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaketh in me?” Thus, when we enter through the Apostles, we enter through Christ, because the Apostles did not preach up themselves, but through Christ, and Christ preached through them; and, when we are founded and built upon the Apostles, we are founded and built on Christ. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel being written on the gates signifies that the first members of the Church came from the children of Israel, to whom the Apostles themselves belonged; then came the fullness of the gentiles. In the Apocalypse, when mention is made of the elect, and of those to be saved, mention is first made of twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; and then follows “a great multitude; which no man could number, of all nations and tribes, and peoples, and tongues.”

Ps 87:3 Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.

The prophet, as it were, intoxicated with the spirit, as he began abruptly by admiring the excellence of the city, saying, “The foundations thereof are in the holy mountain,” now just as abruptly changes his mode of speech and addresses the city itself, saying, “Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God;” as much as to say, Holy city, don’t wonder if I began incoherently, for I am overwhelmed by the multitude of your praises; for the Holy Ghost has been telling me many glorious, grand, and wonderful things about you. And, in fact, who could observe any order in narrating the praises of a city where God will be all unto all, and where those blessings are reserved for the elect, “which eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, and which hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive.” And though, strictly speaking, the city of God in heaven, and, to a certain extent, his Church, spread over the earth, are alluded to here, even of that earthly Jerusalem, type, as it was, of the Church, “glorious things are said.” It was a royal and sacerdotal city, the temple of the Lord, the Ark of the covenant, and many things belonging to both were there; and what is more, there it was that the King of Angels and the Lord of all nature gave his instructions, performed his miracles, effected the redemption of the human race, was buried there, sent the Holy Ghost from heaven there, and there laid the foundations of his Church to endure.

Ps 87:4 I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me. Behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there.

He now praises the holy city, by reason of the number and the variety of the nations who inhabit it, for it is not confined to the Jews alone, as was the case in the Old Testament; but all nations are to inhabit the Catholic Church, which is the true Jerusalem, so praised in this Psalm. He mentions Rahab and Babylon, Palestine, Tyre, and the Ethiopians, all gentiles, but well known to the Jews. Rahab means proud, and by it he means the Egyptians; and the meaning is, in calling and enrolling the elect of the new Jerusalem, I will bear in mind, not only the Jews, but even the Egyptians and Babylonians, who know me through faith and religious worship. For behold, the foreigners, the nations of Palestine, and the people of Tyre, and the Ethiopians “were there,” that is, those nations called and invited by me, will be there too; for he makes use, of the past tense, as usual, to signify the future.

Ps 87:5 Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her.

The prophet now adds, as the chief praise of Sion, that the Highest, the Son of God, who founded her, was born in her. For the most glorious thing that could be said of her was, that he who, in his divine nature, founded her, chose, in his human nature, to be born in her. The text should be read thus, according to the Hebrew, “Shall not this man say to Sion?” Is it possible that any one will say to Sion a thing so wonderful and so unheard of, “that a man is born in her; and the Highest himself hath founded her?” will anyone tell Sion that there is one born in her, her very Creator? This very evident prophecy has been carped at by the Jews, who cannot possibly get over it. Christ, however, was born in Bethlehem, and not in Sion; to which we reply, that the Sion spoken of here means the Church of God’s people, and that Christ, as man, was born therein, while, as God, he is the founder of it. It may also be fairly said that Christ was born in Sion, inasmuch as his parents, Solomon and David, his ancestors, belonged to Sion.

Ps 87:6 The Lord shall tell in his writings of peoples and of princes, of them that have been in her.

He answers the question he put when he said, “Will any one say to Sion?” for he says the Lord himself will put the question; nay more, in order that it may be kept in eternal memory, that he will write it in the book in which are the people and the princes, who through regeneration have been in the city. “The Lord shall tell;” will announce that in Sion one has been born who is the very founder of the city of Sion; and he will tell it “in his writings of peoples and of princes;” in the rolls of those people and princes who have been regenerated in the city, for he who is the head of them all, is also the founder of the city; and will, therefore, be written in the head of the book. That book will be published on the day of judgment, for then the books will be opened with another book, the book of life, of which our Savior says, “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” By princes we understand the Apostles whom God appointed princes over all the earth.

Ps 87:7 The dwelling in thee is as it were of all rejoicing.

The conclusion of the Psalm, declaring the supreme happiness of all the inhabitants of that city, whose foundations were alluded to in the beginning of the Psalm; for the peculiar happiness of the holy city of Jerusalem is, that in it no poor, no sad, no miserable person is to be found, for “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;” and though this is to be accomplished in the heavenly Jerusalem only, still in the Church militant, those who are enrolled citizens in heaven are all rejoicing in hope, and to them the Savior says, “Nobody shall take your joy from you;” and the Apostle, “Always rejoicing;” and in fact, if God’s servants rejoice even in tribulation, when can they be sad? St. Augustine remarks that the Psalmist does not use the word “rejoicing” absolutely, but “as it were of all rejoicing,” lest we should suppose that the joy spoken of here was such as we see with the children of this world, who rejoice in the acquisition of gold or silver, or in carnal pleasures, or the like. The dwelling in the heavenly Jerusalem will be, to a certain extent, like a dwelling where a banquet or a wedding feast is celebrated with music, songs, and pleasure; but no such things will have a place there, nor will the cause be the same for such joy and gladness.

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 42

 PSALM 42
The fervent desire of the just after God: hope in afflictions

 Ps 42:2 As the hart panteth after the fountains of water; so my soul panteth after thee, O God.

Love is a fiery affection, and, therefore, cannot be restrained, but breaks forth in words and sighs. To express his love somehow, David compares himself to a thirsty stag, saying, “As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters;” a most happy and expressive simile. The stag is noted for four peculiarities. It is a deadly enemy to serpents, and constantly at war with them. When it is pursued by the hunters, it betakes itself to the highest mountains as quickly as possible. By some natural instinct, they singularly carry out the advice of the Apostle, “Bear ye each other’s burdens;” for, according to St. Augustine, when they move in a body, or swim across a lake, the weaker ones rest their heads on the stronger, and are thus helped along. Finally, when they are tired after a combat with serpents, or a flight to the mountain, or from helping each other along, they seek to refresh themselves by copious droughts of water, from which they cannot be tempted or deterred. Such is a most perfect idea of the true lover of God. He has to wage a continued war against the serpents of his evil desires. When he is nigh overcome by temptation, or by persecutions, he flies away to the mount of contemplation, bears his neighbor’s infirmities with the greatest patience, and, above all, thirsts ardently for God, from whom he will not be held back by any earthly happiness or trouble. Such was David, though a soldier; so was Paul, Peter, and the other Apostles and martyrs; such were all who felt they were, while here below, in exile, and, through good and evil days, never lost sight of that country, the supreme object of their wishes.

Ps 42:3 My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?

He explains the meaning of “panting after God,” and why he should be so sought after. St. Chrysostom observes, that three things usually excite our love, and through it our thirst and desires; and these are the beauty of the object, favors conferred on us, and love itself, for beautiful objects almost compel one to love them; favors conferred, lead us to love the giver; and love on their part provokes mutual love. Should these three things be united in one person, that is, could there be found or imagined any one of surpassing beauty, conferring boundless favors daily on another, for whom they feel the most intense and ardent love, how could the latter possibly stand by not ardently loving the former in return? David shows here that these three things are united in God, in regard of himself; and, therefore, states that “he thirsts after him;” that is, he is inflamed by love and desire towards him. “My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God,” as the most beautiful, most noble, most excellent of all things; comprising all good, “strong,” not transitory or perishable, but permanent, everlasting. “Living,” active, intelligent, loving, pouring down continual favors on us, having great regard for us, boundless love for us. Such thirst after what is so good, so kind, so loving of me, forces me, from my whole heart, to exclaim, “When shall I come and appear before the face of the Lord?” When will there be an end to my pilgrimage, when the commencement of any joys?

Ps 42:4 My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God?

He that will reflect attentively on the three points already alluded to, namely, the incomprehensible beauty of God, the multitude of his favors, and the extent of his love that caused him to deliver up his only begotten Son for us, cannot but burst into tears in his desire for getting the full possession of so great a good. David seriously reflected on these points, and, he, therefore, adds, “My tears have been my bread day and night.” My tears were my only food, I lived on them day and night; that is, during the whole term of my pilgrimage, whether in the days of prosperity, or the nights of adversity, my soul not only refused to be gladdened by any earthly consolation, or to be saddened by any temporal mishap; but, at all times, my tears have been my meat and my drink. “Whilst it is said to me daily,” by the wicked and the incredulous, “Where is thy God?” that means, while I wander about daily, “seeking whom my soul loveth,” my thoughts and my spirit said to me, “Where is thy God?” all those things you have seen in your search for him are beautiful, to be sure, but not like thy God. Where, then, is your God? Where will you look for him? When will you come and see the face of your God?

Ps 42:5 These things I remembered, and poured out my soul in me: for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God: With the voice of joy and praise; the noise of one feasting.

He goes on with the expression of his desires, “he poured out his soul,” which may be interpreted in three ways. First, when about to enter the wonderful tabernacle, the very house of God. I cleared, banished all earthly delights out of my soul, that I may fill it with the delights of my Lord.

Second, I extended, expanded my soul to be able to contain the immense good to be had in that wonderful tabernacle; where there is the “never failing plenty of the house of the Lord.” Third, “I poured out my soul:” rose above it in contemplation, as it is expressed in Lam. 3, “He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace; because he hath taken it upon himself.” And, in fact, in this our exile there is no more ready way of getting up to the “wonderful tabernacle,” and the actual house of God, than through our own soul, which is the image of God. It is more sublime than the heavens, and deeper than the abyss; and he who can steady his own soul and rise above it, will rise to him whose image it is, and he “will go over to the place of the wonderful tabernacle and the house of God.” To touch briefly on this ascent, let us consider: the soul is a spirit, and, therefore, far exceeds all things corporeal; and thus, God being a spirit, and the Creator, not only of bodies but of spirits, therefore, far exceeds not only bodies, but even spirits. Again, the soul, however simple and indivisible, is yet entire in the body and in all its parts; filling all the members, yet occupying none exclusively; thus, God, while he is one, and indivisible, still fills the whole world and all created things, everywhere entire, present everywhere, confined nowhere. Thirdly, the soul does not move about in the body, still carries it, guides it, governs it, quickens and enlivens it, as we see from the death of any one; for, the moment the soul departs, the body falls down at once, and in one moment loses all power of motion, sense, beauty, everything. Now, what the soul is to the body, God is to the universe; not that God is the soul of the universe, as some philosophers vainly imagined; but, because he seems to have a certain resemblance to the soul in these respects; for, while he remains fixed and unmoved in himself, “upholding all things by the word of his power,” and, “in him we live, move, and have our being.” Fourthly, the soul is intelligent, and our intellect has cognizance of all the senses, and knows many things beside, which no corporal sense can comprehend. So God is all intellect preeminently, replete with the knowledge of all men and Angels, and of infinitely more matters, far beyond our understanding. Fifthly, the soul knows many things not only in theory but even practically; hence, the endless productions of human ingenuity, in the various arts, trades, and manufactures; so exquisitely wrought as nearly to vie with nature; so also with the understanding of God, both in theory and practice, who without tools, without trouble, in a moment, by his sole word, from nothing made the universe. Sixthly, the soul is endowed with free will, and, therefore, moves the members of the body at its pleasure. Thus God, at his pleasure, governs all created things; and, therefore, David, in Psalm 119 says, “for all things serve thee.” And, not only is the soul, in its essence, the image of God, but in a remote sense it is the image of the Trinity; for there is in the soul intelligence representing the Father; knowledge derived therefrom, representing the Word of the Father; and love, springing from such intelligence, and knowledge, representing the Holy Ghost. There is also in the soul memory, intellect, and will, which, to some extent, represent the three divine Persons. “The soul then is poured in itself,” and rises over itself in contemplation, that it may be enabled to pass over to the “wonderful tabernacle;” and, therefore, the prophet adds, “for I shall go over to the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God.” By the place of the wonderful tabernacle is meant, the heavenly Jerusalem, the tabernacle in heaven not made by human hands, where the house of God is, of which he said in Psalm 27, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life.”—“With the voice of joy and praise, the noise of one feasting.” He tells us now, that in that ecstasy in which “he poured out his soul,” and in contemplation arrived at the site of “the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God,” that he did not do so in silence, but in loud acclamations, in admiration, and praise, in such joy and jubilee, as those enjoying a banquet cheerful and glad, such as is meet for the soul wrapt up in contemplation of the joys of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Ps 42:6 Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance,

With such spirits and mental consolation he seeks to dry up his tears, saying, “Why art thou sad, O my soul?” Why should tears be your bread day and night? Why will you by such incessant tears so “trouble me?” “Hope in God,” though you don’t see him, you so ardently long for, yet hope in him, “for I will still give praise to him;” that means, though the time has not yet come, it will come when before his face I will praise God, and declare his mercies, and say to him, “the salvation of my countenance;” that is, you are my salvation, for you brighten up my countenance by your light, and my face to behold yours, “and I will know as I am known;” and from a clear knowledge I will say, “thou art my God.”

Ps 42:7 And my God. My soul is troubled within my self: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and Hermon, from the little hill.

He now tells the alternations of sadness and consolation that were wont to seize him; sadness, in fear of the dangers of this life; consolation, from the hope and promise of the future. “My soul is troubled within myself.” Though I told my soul “to hope in God,” yet, when I looked in upon my weakness, and the little light and strength I possess, I was seized with great fear, and “my soul was troubled;” to cure which fear and terror I said, “I will remember thee from the land of Jordan and Hermoniim, from the little hill.” I will take my eyes off myself, and fix them on you, instead of fixing my eyes on the Jordan before me; I will think of the river “that gladdens your city, and the torrent of thy pleasure,” enjoyed by those who are there with you; and from this little hill Hermoniim, before me, I will remember your holy mountain, in which you dwell with your holy Angels; and with such recollections I will console my soul and my desires. Whether Hermoniim be a different mountain from Mount Hermon is not very clear; most probably it is, for Hermoniim is here spoken of as a small, whereas Hermon was a very large mountain.

Ps 42:8 Deep calleth on deep, at the noise of thy flood-gates. All thy heights and thy billows have passed over me.

He goes on with an account of the dangers and temptations of this life, comparing them to an inundation, alluding to that of Noe. “Deep calleth on deep.” An immense mass of water came rolling over me, and the moment it passed, another came in succession, as if called by the first. And those vast inundations poured in “at the noise of thy flood gates;” with such a noise and such a clamor, as if the flood gates of heaven were opened. “All thy heights,” all the lofty breakers, “and thy billows have passed over me;” the whole inundation, the universal deluge, passed over me. He alludes, as we said before, to the general deluge, when “the cataracts of heaven were opened;” that is, the quantity of rain that fell was such that would lead one to think some cataracts in heaven were opened, and that all the water burst forth with an unheard of force and violence, from which foundation arose the great abyss, an immense depth and quantity of water. This metaphor is used here to give an idea of the great dangers and temptations to which God will sometimes expose his elect. Men such as David, truly spiritual, alone are aware of the extent and magnitude of these temptations; for it is such people only know the boundless machinations of the enemy, and how grievous a matter it is to fall away from the grace of God.

Ps 42:9 In the daytime the Lord hath commanded his mercy; and a canticle to him in the night. With me is prayer to the God of my life.

After having described the extraordinary amount of temptation endured by him, he now tells us how he was in turn relieved by the consolations he got. “In the day time the Lord hath commanded his mercy,” which means, after those inundations of waters, and those dreadful abysses had cleared away; “in the day time” of prosperity, “the Lord hath commanded his mercy” to visit and console me; “and a canticle to him in the night,” in the night of tribulation and temptation; even “his canticle” will not cease, for I will, even in the night, sing his praises, thank and glorify him. “With me is prayer to the God of my life.” My song at night shall be in the secret of my heart, speaking with it rather than with my lips, looking upon him as the source of my salvation and my life, I will say to him,

Ps 42:10 I will say to God: Thou art my support. Why hast thou forgotten me? and why go I mourning, whilst my enemy afflicteth me?
He now admires the vicissitudes of the divine providence in governing us. If, O God, thou art really “my support, why hast thou forgotten me?” How does it come to pass that I should be overwhelmed by so many temptations and tribulations, that so pour down upon me, that, though you are my hope and my strength, you seem to have forsaken me? How does it happen again, that “I go mourning whilst my enemy afflicteth me?” while you are my helper and my protector.

Ps 42:11 Whilst my bones are broken, my enemies who trouble me have reproached me; Whilst they say to me day be day: Where is thy God?
Ps 42:12 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God. 

Not only has my enemy “afflicted me” before your face, you who are “my support,” but even “whilst my bones are broken,” come to such a pitch of debility and infirmity, that I can scarce resist temptation. “My enemies who trouble me have reproached me,” asking me incessantly, “Where is thy God?” The very enemies who persecute and harass me, reproach me with the confidence I have in you, as if the confidence were of no avail, for they constantly ask, “Where is thy God?” who you boasted was “your helper and protector.” So Tobias was reproached, “where is thy hope for which thou gavest alms and buried the dead?” and again, “It is evident thy hope is come to nothing, and thy alms now appear.” So the Jews upbraided Christ on the cross, “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he will.” Thus also, his incredulous enemies insulted David in his troubles, but though he was for the moment “saddened and disquieted,” he only reproved himself, saying, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to him;” words we have already explained in verses 4 and 5 of this Psalm.

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 119:165, 168, 171-172, 174-175

165. Much peace have they that love thy law, and to them there is no stumbling block.

The greatest and truest praise that can be conferred on anyone is to say they love God’s law; for if they love the law, they love him who gave the law; and if they love him, they love everything belonging to him; and thus, on their part, they have no enemy; but, as far as they are concerned, they are at peace with all. Again, “To them that love God all things work together unto good;” and, therefore, he that loves God should be at peace with all; and, therefore, the Apostle, Gal. 5, says, “The fruit of the spirit is, charity, joy, peace, etc.” By the same process of reasoning, “there is no stumbling block” to him “who loves thy law;” he runs on smoothly to his country, for he who loves the law cannot give scandal, scandal being a sin, and sin being a breach of the law; but scandal offered by others, either applies to the infirm, who, from their ignorance, look upon as forbidden what is not forbidden at all, and take offense at things they thought were illicit; or it is that of the Pharisees, who put a bad construction on what should have been viewed in quite a different light. But they “who love thy law” are neither infirm nor Pharisees, and, therefore, “to them there is no stumbling block.”

171. My lips shall utter a hymn, when thou shalt teach me thy justifications.

He now promises to return thanks on getting the grace he so often asked. “When thou shalt teach me thy justifications.” When your grace shall so enlighten and assist me to keep your commandments then, in the fulness of my inward joy, and in acknowledgment of so great a favor, “my lips shall utter a hymn” of praise and thanksgiving, because “from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

172. My tongue shall pronounce thy word: because all thy commandments are justice.

He says that he will not only praise God, but that he will teach mankind, and prove to them how full of justice are the commandments of God. “My tongue shall pronounce thy word.” I will announce your precepts to man, and I will teach them that “all thy commandments are justice,” that they are all based on justice; and it is, therefore, but just that they should be observed by all.

174 I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my meditation.

He assigns a reason for asking so pressingly for salvation; and that is, because he wishes for it above and beyond anything he ever desired, as it is really the only object worthy of such desire, it being the only thing that can effectually satisfy man’s desires. And, as it will not suffice to have a desire for salvation without observing the commandments of God, he, therefore, adds, “And thy law is my meditation,” I will always, therefore, think on it, and exercise myself in keeping it.

175 My soul shall live and shall praise thee: and thy judgments shall help me.

“My soul shall live,” when it shall have obtained the salvation it so longs for and “thy hand shall have been with it to save it;” and then its duty, and its only business, will be to praise you for “blessed are they who dwell in thy house, O Lord, they shall praise thee forever and ever,” “and thy judgments shall help me.” Your commandments, so observed by me, will help me, ultimately, when I shall rise in the resurrection to live forever.

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 93

PSALM 93
THE GLORY AND STABILITY OF THE KINGDOM, THAT IS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Ps 93:1THE Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself. For he hath established the world which shall not be moved.

The beginning of this Psalm may apply either to the creation or the redemption, and it is not unusual for passages in the Scripture to have more literal meanings than one. “The Lord hath reigned;” has got possession of his kingdom, has begun to reign; “he is clothed with beauty;” has assumed his beautiful robes of office. “The Lord is clothed with strength;” he has not only got possession of the throne, but he has got strength and power to hold it, a matter of great consequence to one in power; “and hath girded himself,” to govern and to rule. If this be referred to creation, God may be said to have begun to govern when he created the world, and peopled it. If it be referred to the reparation, it was in the resurrection that Christ began to reign, and then he was clothed with the beauty of his glorious body, as well as with strength; for all power in heaven and on earth was given unto him, so that he should no longer be subject to any creature, but have everything under his feet. Finally, he girded himself to extend his kingdom to the bounds of the earth, through the preaching of his Apostles. “For he hath established the world, which shall not be moved;” God began to reign from the beginning of the world, for he then founded it from its very lowest foundations, and he established and settled it so that it cannot be moved; and thus gave a fixed habitation to men, who are bound to obey and to acknowledge him as their King. Christ, too, by his passion and resurrection, established and settled the world, that was hitherto harassed by demons, and by the worship of many false gods, in one true faith and religion.

Ps 93:2 My throne is prepared from of old: thou art from everlasting.

Though your reign commenced with the creation of the world, or with the resurrection, your existence did not date from it; for, “thou art from everlasting;” which means that he not only existed, but that he had within him the fullness of existence, which contains everything; for, before the creation, God was not a pauper, nor did he need anything, nor did he become richer or more wealthy by the creation of the world, for God did not create the world to enrich himself, but to share his riches with us. Thus, it was not from coercion that he created the world, but from mercy and love, which same mercy and love led him to make atonement for the world. “For God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting,” John 3.

Ps 93:3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord: the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods have lifted up their waves,
Ps 93:4 With the noise of many waters. Wonderful are the surges of the sea: wonderful is the Lord on high.

If these verses be referred to the creation, they explain the manner in which God made the earth habitable, so as to be the fixed residence of mankind. In the beginning of creation the waters covered the whole earth, and in consequence of a great inundation were raised considerably above it; but God, being brighter and more elevated again, and infinitely more powerful than them, rebuked and restrained the waters, and shut them up in the caverns of the earth, with strict orders never to return thence. This is expressed more clearly in Psalm 104, where he says, “Who hast founded the earth upon its own basis, it shall not be moved forever and ever. The deep like a garment is its clothing; above the mountains shall the waters stand;” that is to say, the earth was originally so formed that an abyss of water completely enveloped it, covering even the tops of the highest mountains; but, “At thy rebuke they shall flee, at the voice of thy thunder they shall fear;” that means, but you, O Almighty, rebuked the waters and so confused them by your thunder, that they fled and hid themselves in the depths of the earth; and then “you set a bound which they shall not pass over; neither shall they return to cover the earth.” A description of the same is to be found in Job 38, and has been beautifully condensed here by the Prophet, “Wonderful are the surges of the sea; wonderful is the Lord on high;” all the waters of the sea and the great abyss of waters raged and roared at a great elevation over the earth; but the Lord, who is wonderful, who dwelleth on high, and who is higher than anything created, confined the waters, and made the earth habitable. If we interpret this in reference to the redemption, we must take it as a description of the extent of the persecutions got up by the Jews and Pagans against the kingdom of Christ, just commenced at his resurrection, and his victory over all his enemies. “The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods have lifted up their waves.” The Jews lifted up their voices when they began to speak out against the Gospel and to thwart it. “Wonderful are the surges of the sea;” the persecutions of Nero, Domitian, and the other Roman emperors, that were seas as compared to rivers, when set alongside the persecutions of the Jews. “Wonderful is the Lord on high;” more wonderful than them all is the Lord who dwells on high, having obtained a victory over all his persecutors; and having, in spite of them all, propagated his kingdom throughout the entire world.

Ps 93:5 Thy testimonies are become exceedingly credible: holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, unto length of days.

If this verse be referred to creation, it must be taken as a reply to an objection that may be raised, for one may say, how do we know that what has been said about the founding of the earth, the abyss of waters, and their being restrained and confined, took place at all; for this happened before the creation of man, when there was no one to witness it? The prophet replies that he has it from God’s own testimony, who revealed it to his servant Moses, and that such testimony is worthy of all belief, by reason of Moses having proved himself a faithful servant of God, and a true prophet, by many signs and prodigies. The same may be said if we refer the verse to the redemption, for the testimonies to Christ, conveyed to us through his Apostles, are become so exceedingly credible, through the miracles of both, and through the accomplishment of the prophecies, and for various other reasons without end, that so established Christianity, that no one, having heard them, can possibly gainsay it. From which the prophet concludes that “holiness,” that is, that it should be regarded as holy, and that all who dwell in it should lead a holy life; and by the holiness of their lives, correspond with the holiness of “thy house,” the Church of God which has, and in which are preached, such testimonies; “unto length of days;” that it is right the Church should be saved and preserved by you, O Lord, unto length of days; “that the gates of hell may not prevail against her.”

A Patristic/Medieval Commentary on Psalm 23

PSALM 23
TITLE. A Psalm of David.

ARGUMENT

ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST prepares for His Church eternal pastures. Before Baptism. The voice of the Church after Baptism. To be read with Esther.1
VEN. BEDE. Through the whole Psalm the Christian regenerate in Baptism speaks, and renders thanks that he has been brought from the barrenness of sin into a green pasture and the still waters. And notice that, as before, in Psalm 15, he had received the Decalogue of the Law, thus he here rejoices in ten blessings.
EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA. The doctrine and the first institution of the new people.
S. ATHANASIUS. A Psalm of boasting in the LORD.

ANTIPHONS

Gregorian. [Corpus Christi: The table of the LORD is prepared for us against all them that trouble us. Office of the Dead: He shall feed me in a green pasture.]
Monastic. The LORD governs me, and nought shall be lacking to me: He set me there in a place of pasture.
Ambrosian. My GOD, My GOD, look upon me. K. K. K.
Mozarabic. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou GOD art with me.

COMMENTARY

1 The LORD is my shepherd: therefore can I lack nothing.

In the last Psalm we heard of the Passion of CHRIST:* now we hear of the effects of that Passion. It was because He stood in need of everything, that we lack nothing. And take it either way, both are beautiful: The Lord is my Shepherd, so our version; The Lord governs me, so the Vulgate. And think of the Psalm first of all as uttered by David long before his combat with Goliath, “as he was following the ewes great with young ones.” What he then said in the ignorance and simplicity of his pastoral life, that he found true through his persecutions, through his wars, through all his troubles to the very end. These are nearly the first words of David: and among the last words of David are, “Yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.” But it is in two different ways that those two different families—the “travellers,” to use the mediæval expression, (D. C.) and “they that have comprehended,”—are to use this verse. Our Shepherd—we, the travellers—our Shepherd putteth forth His own sheep into all kinds of dangers, by the lions’ dens, by the mountains of the leopards; and though wherever He putteth them forth, He Himself, according to His own most sweet promise, has been before them, yet they have to wander in wastes and wilds, far away from the comfort and safeguard of any visible fold. But with them the more beautiful flocks that feed upon the celestial mountains, the LORD is their Shepherd too: He has brought them home from the danger of wild beasts, as it is written, “No lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon:”* He has brought them out of the very sound of their voices; He has brought them into that fold,* not one of the stakes whereof shall ever be removed. And yet both they and we may say, (L.) The Lord is my Shepherd. The Shepherd delivers us continually from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear; the Shepherd King feeds them for evermore in pastures, of which the human heart cannot conceive the beauty. Therefore can I lack nothing. Because that Shepherd lacked everything; because He had not where to lay His head; because there was no room for Him in the inn; because He sat thirsty on the well; because He was taken even as He was in the ship; because He was an hungered in the wilderness; therefore shall we lack nothing,—His need supplying our wants,* as His righteousness atones for our guilt. “What can GOD deny us, when He has given us His own SON? asks S. Paul: and what can the SON of GOD deny us, when He gives us Himself? He gives us His Body, He gives us His Soul, He gives us His Divinity, and will He deny us bread? Oh, fear and cowardice, unworthy of faith! GOD had not as yet given Himself to be our food, and had only revealed this mystery to the same David, who had so often suffered from poverty, and at once He scoffs at it, and says for us that which we knew not how to say for ourselves. And what is that? The Lord is my Shepherd: therefore can I lack nothing. One thing follows the other. The rich shall fall into want, they who put their confidence in inconstant possessions, to-day possessed, to-morrow lost; but the poor who betakes himself to that LORD, Who is LORD of all things, shall have enough and to spare, as saith the same Prophet, ‘The rich men do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the LORD shall not want anything that is good.’ ”

2 He shall feed me in a green pasture: and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.

“Come unto Me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” And with what refreshment?* The green pasture: the waters of comfort. In its widest and broadest sense, the green pasture is the Church. Green, as constantly refreshed with the dew of the HOLY GHOST: green, as shaded from the burning sun of temptation. And notice how it follows,* “There was much green grass in the place: so the men sat down,”* There we have the freshness and verdure of—there also we have the rest to be found in—the Church, But the greater number of the Fathers refer this Psalm altogether to the Sacraments. The waters of comfort, therefore, are the waters of Baptism; just as presently we shall find the oil to be Confirmation, and the cup to be the Blessed Eucharist. But Rupert takes these* waters of comfort to be the rivers of pleasure which are at GOD’s right hand; of comfort imperishable, unchangeable, eternal. Lysimachus deplored that for a draught of water he had lost a kingdom: whoso drinketh of this water,* which proceedeth from the throne of GOD and of the Lamb, (L.) shall reign for ever and ever. And these waters of comfort were purchased for us by that bitter cry of our LORD on the Cross, “I thirst.” Therefore, because of that thirst,* ye shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation. And these wells or fountains, S. Bernard says, are five in number:* four belonging to the earthly paradise, the four wounds of our LORD while yet living in the flesh: the fifth, which pertains to the celestial land, the wound inflicted on His side. And they beautifully interpret, of these fountains, that which is said in Genesis of the four rivers of Eden. The first “compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good.” Havilah is by interpretation,* “He that suffers pain;” and by means of the wound in our LORD’s right hand, the gold produced by the region of pain will be good indeed. The second encompassed the whole land of Ethiopia; that land which originally lay under a curse; as the wound of our LORD’s left hand may be said to have turned the curse arising from the sin of man—the left hand being the type of sin—into a blessing: and so of the rest. Mediæval writers rejoiced to heap together all the characteristics, real or feigned, of various rivers: of the Cephissus, which makes the fleece of black sheep white: of the Xanthus, which turns them red; and so on. There are not wanting those who understand the waters of comfort of Holy Scripture: (D. C.) and quote appositely that saying of S. Paul’s, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our consolation.”*

3 He shall convert my soul: and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for His Name’s sake.

And now notice how admirably the miracle of the passage of Jordan figures the effect of Baptism; (G.) its savour of life unto life, and of death unto death. That part which remained nearest to the fountain head “rose up on an heap,”—that is, those who remain true to their LORD in Baptism are drawn up towards heaven: that part which ran into the Dead Sea “failed and was cut off,” having no more connection with the original source of the stream, (G.) but utterly lost in those dark and noisome waters. And notice also how admirably the usual course of GOD’s dealing with a Christian soul is here set forth. In the last verse we have Baptism: we are to understand the usual sad falls after Baptism. And then it follows, He shall convert my soul. Never let us be afraid, because the word has been so sadly misused and misapplied, to dwell boldly on this truth, and to enjoin it with all our might,—that in most instances a second grace is necessary after that of Baptism has been given and has been abused. And then, when this grace of conversion has been given, and has been received and acted upon, (L.) then He shall lead us forth in the paths of righteousness. Others see in this verse an admirable declaration of the blessings of the New Covenant. When the waters of comfort had once been opened, then the servants of GOD should be led forth in the paths of righteousness: for before the institution of that blessed Sacrament, the greatest Saints were only led forth in the paths of the ceremonial law. I cannot do better than quote the admirable words of Lorinus on the subject: “They,” says he, “were led forth in the paths of ceremonies,* carnal commandments, the works of the law; which could not justify,* and made nothing perfect.* ‘But in His days,’ says David,* ‘shall righteousness flourish:’ He,* namely, Who is the LORD our Righteousness;* the Righteous Man Who is raised up from the east;* the Righteous Man Whom the ‘clouds rain down;’* Who is made righteousness to us; Who came to teach us righteousness; Who Himself fulfilleth all righteousness; Who goeth in the way of righteousness; Who, finally, alone justifies and leads to blessedness them who walk according to the laws that He has prescribed to them, and teaches the Divine knowledge of the things which have to be believed as well as done.* These are the ‘ways of wisdom,’ of which Solomon speaks; these are the ‘right paths’ to which he invites.” For His Name’s sake. And here once more is the Name that is above every name; the Name, “great, wonderful, and holy,” which is to be the strength of GOD’s people here, and the everlasting subject of their praise hereafter.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.

Here we have the reason why this Psalm is one of those employed in the Office for the Dead. And see how beautifully the whole corresponds to it. The grave, the fold, in which the LORD’s sheep are penned safely till the morning of the Resurrection. And the Shepherd Himself had tasted of the same trials which He permits His sheep to know. The green pasture will be, as ancient Liturgies so often make it, the state of blessed souls, that have departed out of this world, but have not yet been admitted to the Beatific Vision. “They have departed,” says James of Edessa,* in his Liturgy, “with true hope, and the confidence of the faith which is in Thee, from this world of straits, from this life of misery, to Thee. Remember them and receive them, and cause them to rest in the bosom of Abraham, in tabernacles of light and rest, in shining dwelling-places, in a world of pleasures, in the city Jerusalem, where there is no place for sorrow or for war.” “They have been set free,” says Ignatius BarMaadn,* of Antioch, “they have been set free from this temporal life, according to the sentence constituted by their iniquity, and have returned to Thee, O GOD, as to the first Almighty cause. Spare them by Thy mercy; reckon them in the number of Thine elect; cover them with the bright cloud of Thy saints; cause them to dwell in the blessed habitations of Thy kingdom; to be invited to Thy banquet in the region of exultation and joy, where there is no place of sorrow or misery.” Then the “convert my soul” must be taken of that final conversion, when sin snail be destroyed for ever, as it is written, “He that is dead is freed from sin.”* “The paths of righteousness,” what are they but those streets of gold, of which it is written, “The nations of them which are saved shall walk in it?”* The table will be at the eternal wedding feast; and then how does the “All the days of my life,” and “I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever,” rivet the Psalm as it were to this, as its natural meaning! But to return to our verse. Why the valley of the shadow of death? What Eusebius taught long ago,* let Laud on the scaffold explain at greater length: “LORD, I am coming as fast as I can. I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to see Thee. But it is but umbra mortis, a shadow of death, a little darkness upon nature; but Thou, LORD, by Thy goodness, hast broken the jaws and the power of death.” Yes: our LORD passed through the valley of death; (A.) we through the valley of the shadow of death. He tasted of death, that we might never taste of it; He died, that we might fall asleep. Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me. Holy men have discussed at length what is the difference between these two. Some will have it that the rod denotes GOD’s punishments for lighter offences; (R.) the staff, (B.) His chastisements for heavier sins. But it is better to take the one of His punishment when we go wrong, (Lu.) the other of His support when we go right. Thus they will answer to the wine and the oil in the parable of the Good Samaritan;* the wine the salutary chastisement, the oil the no less salutary comfort. But there is yet a deeper meaning in it than this: the rod and the staff together make the blessed Cross;* just as the two sticks that the widow was gathering have always been considered typical of the same tree of salvation. And it may well be said that, (Z.) in our valley of the shadow of death,* that Cross is to be our comfort on which our LORD passed through His own valley of misery. For notice how the two join together: For Thou art with me—“I determined to know nothing among you save JESUS CHRIST”—Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me—“and Him crucified.”* There are other beautiful significations for these words. Some will have the rod to signify the Incarnation:* (“There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse:”) and by the staff the Passion: as if, in our passage through death, we require both the one and the other to console us; according to that saying,* “Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to praise Thee.” And yet once more: still taking the staff for the Cross, we may understand the rod of the Virgin Mother, here joined with the Cross itself, because it is written. “Now there stood by the Cross of JESUS His mother.” Once more: Dionysius regards the verse as the thanksgiving of the blessed for the loving kindness which has led them through all the dangers and miseries of this world; and thus beautifully writes: (D. C.) “The rod and the staff with which in the Way Thou didst visit me, have brought me to this celestial consolation. For corrections inflicted for sin, here spoken of under the name of the rod, so purify the soul, as to unite it to the Divine light. And the glorious consolations, bestowed by GOD upon earth, enkindle the soul to desire the perfect sweetness of their country. But it might seem that this verse cannot apply to the blessed, because it implies their remembering in Paradise what they suffered on earth; whereas it is written in Isaiah,* ‘The former troubles shall be forgotten, shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.’ We answer that the Saints in their country do remember the ills which they suffered in their journey,* in so far as such a remembrance is to them a matter of joy. For CHRIST in His most glorious Body has retained the marks of His Five Wounds, not only that in the Day of Judgment He may manifest to the ungrateful that which He suffered for them, but that the Saints in their country may for ever behold that which He endured for their salvation, and by this means may be inflamed with inestimable praise and giving of thanks.”

5 Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me: thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

By far the greater number of commentators take it—and how could it be otherwise?—of the Blessed Eucharist. “This is the table,” (Z.) says S. Cyril, (C.) in his Catechetical Lectures, (B.) “prepared by GOD,* in opposition to the table prepared before him by Satan;” clearly meaning that,* before the Advent of CHRIST, the enticements and allurements of Satan to sin were, so to speak, a table of poisonous delicacies, to which there was then no such remedy as the table of the LORD. S. Cyprian and the Bishops assembled with him at one of the Councils of Carthage, exhort all those who were likely to be called to suffer martyrdom to prepare themselves for it by the reception of the Holy Eucharist.* “Those whom we excite,” says the Synodal letter, “and exhort to the battle, let us not leave weak and unarmed, but let us fortify with the protection of the Body and Blood of CHRIST. And since the Eucharist is celebrated to this end, that it may be a safeguard to them who receive it, let us arm with the defence of the LORD’s banquet those whom we desire to make safe against the adversary.” Then the sense of against them that trouble me may be threefold. Either in opposition to their wishes, and in defiance of their endeavours; or that we by receiving it may be strengthened in opposition to them; or that they, beholding the delicacies GOD provides for us, may be the more enraged and thrown into despair. They give multitudes of instances in which the reception of the Blessed Sacrament has at once set free from some particular temptation; like the story related of S. Macarius, who delivered one who was possessed by a devil,* and told her that the reason of the demon acquiring that power over her was her having abstained for so long a time from receiving.
Nevertheless, there are not wanting those who understand this table of Holy Scripture: as Bede,* S. Jerome, and Peter of Blois. Others, again, take it of the remembrance of the LORD’s Passion; but the most singular interpretation is that of S. Remigius, who takes the table to refer to the rod and the staff mentioned just before, as if David said, Whatever other consolation I might have looked for, Thou hast prepared this; the chastisement that for the present seemeth not joyous, but grievous, but afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, which fruit is here called the table. Gerhohus, after dwelling on the blessedness of the Holy Eucharist, well concludes by quoting the prayer ascribed to S. Ambrose: “I pray Thee, O LORD, by that holy and quickening mystery of Thy Body and Blood, by which we are daily fed in Thy Church, of which we are daily given to drink, by which we are cleansed and sanctified, and made partakers of Thy Divinity, give me Thy holy virtues, filled with which I may approach to Thine altar, so that these celestial Sacraments may be to me salvation and life. For Thou hast said,* by Thy holy and blessed mouth, ‘The bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven: if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever.’ O most sweet Bread, heal the taste of my heart, that I may perceive the sweetness of Thy love; cleanse it from all languor, that I may be conscious of no sweetness but Thine. O most pure Bread, having all delight in Thyself, which always refreshest us and never failest, let my heart feed upon Thee, and let the very innermost parts of my soul be filled with Thy sweetness.” And then he tells us how the Chaldæans still make out three bands against us:* the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and how each and all of these are to be repulsed by the Sacrament.
Thou hast anointed my head with oil. And here again the commentators devise all sorts of explanations, as indeed Holy Scripture itself invites them to do. But the best and truest seems to be that which sees in this oil both royal and priestly unction: according to that saying,* “Thou hast made us unto our GOD kings and priests;” and again, “ye are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.” Others again, (Z.) not unfitly,* understand it of Confirmation: which indeed suits well with the mention of Baptism in the second verse,* and also that of the Blessed Eucharist in this. Or mystically: it is the boast of every Christian,—“Thou anointest my head with oil.” For so S. Bernard understands that command,—Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head. For what is our Head but our Blessed LORD and SAVIOUR? and what is oil but the graces of the HOLY GHOST, That SPIRIT not given by measure unto Him? And there may also be a reference to the unction of our LORD by the hands of S. Mary Magdalene.
And my cup shall be full. Or, as it is in the Vulgate: (L.) And my inebriating chalice, how excellent it is!* And here again we see that glorious and excellent chalice,* filled, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with the precious Blood of CHRIST, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot. And S. Cyprian even uses this verse as an argument against the Aquarii, who used water in the oblation: “for how can water,” says he,* “inebriate?” “With this cup,” cries Augustine, “were the martyrs inebriated, when, going forth to their passion, they recognised not those that belonged to them,—not their weeping wife, not their children, not their relations: while they gave thanks and said, (A.) I will take the Cup of salvation!”

Ave,* sacer CHRISTI Sanguis!
Iter nobis rectum pandis
Ad cœli sedilia!

Ave, potus salutaris!
Nullus unquam fuit talis
Bonitatis copiâ!

6 But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

And here, as the conclusion of this Psalm of graces, (Ay.) comes the last and highest of all graces, that of final perseverance: the end and result of all the Sacraments. I will dwell in the house of the Lord. It may be taken in two senses: (P.) the religious as opposed to the secular life here; or the true life, the life that is life indeed, in the true house of the LORD hereafter. But why is it said, shall follow me, rather than, (Z.) shall go before me? For certainly we need that preventing grace of GOD, for which the Church prays, to remove obstacles, to face dangers, to overthrow difficulties. Because, say the Greek Fathers, the idea is that, though we of our own will and nature would forsake and forget GOD, (L.) He sends out after us, follows us, chases us, as it were, till He overtake us, and seizes us for Himself. We need not here enter into the disputes of the schools about prevenient, subsequent, co-operating, concomitant, grace. It suffices us to know what David so often declares, and the celebrated Council of Orange teaches from his words, that we need grace on every side, grace before and behind, grace on the right hand and on the left, if we ever hope to enter the kingdom of GOD at all. Prevenient and subsequent grace are beautifully set forth in the Canticles: when the Bride first says, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” and then, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” The former being signified by the first verse, (D. C.) the latter by the second. That I may dwell: there we have the heavenly home-sickness; S. Paul’s desire to depart and to be with CHRIST, which is far better; the change of the light of grace, here often clouded and obscure, for the light of glory that can never be darkened, that can never fade away, that grows brighter and more perfect to ages of ages.*

Nos ad sanctorum gloriam
Per ipsorum suffragia
Post præsentem miseriam
CHRISTI perducat gratia!

And therefore:
Glory be to the FATHER, Who anoints our head with oil; and to the SON, the Shepherd of His people: and to the HOLY GHOST, Who provides for us that inebriating chalice which is so excellent.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

VARIOUS USES

Gregorian. Ferial: formerly Sunday, now Thursday: Prime. [Corpus Christi: II. Nocturn. Office of the Dead: II. Nocturn.]
Monastic. Thursday: Sunday: I. Nocturn.
Parisian. Thursday: Sexts.
Lyons. Wednesday: Sexts.
Ambrosian. Tuesday of the First Week: II. Nocturn.
Quignon. Monday: Prime.

COLLECTS

Govern us,* O LORD, with the sweet yoke of Thy commandments, that we may obtain a place in Thine eternal habitation, and be satiated with the plenitude of the celestial banquet. (1.)
Grant,* O LORD, that we may sing a new hymn to Thy praise, to the end that Thou mayest bring us into the pastures of life, and lead us by the still waters of comfort; that we may never hunger nor thirst again, when our feet shall stand within the gates of Jerusalem. (11.)
Lead forth,* O LORD, Thy people by the waters of comfort which Thou hast formed by the baptismal streams; that they, inspired by the teaching of Thy law, may have their desire set on that place where Thou promisest Thyself to be their eternal reward. (11.)
[For Thy Name’s sake, (D. C.) O LORD, lead us in the paths of righteousness, let Thy mercy follow us, that we may dwell in Thy house for ever. Through (1.)]

Patristic/Medieval Commentary on Psalm 72

PSALM 72

TITLE: A Psalm for [or of] Solomon. LXX. and Vulgate: For Solomon; a Psalm of David. Chaldee Targum: By the hand of Solomon, uttered prophetically.

ARGUMENT

ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST, having brought the slanderer low, is to be adored by all kings of the earth. The Voice of the Church concerning CHRIST. The Voice of the Church concerning CHRIST to the FATHER.
VEN. BEDE. Solomon is interpreted Peaceful, signifying CHRIST the LORD, of Whom it is said, Of His dominion and peace there shall be no end. Throughout the Psalm the Prophet speaks, foretelling the Advent of CHRIST. In the first part he addresses the FATHER, asking for the SON judgment to judge the nations, which thing, however, he knew to be predestined before the world, Give the King Thy judgments, O God. In the second place, he declares that the children of the poor shall be saved in the judgment of the LORD, and the pride of the devil be humbled; and also explains in parables the child-bearing of the Virgin. He shall keep the simple folk by their right. Thirdly, he narrates the blessings which are to come when CHRIST the LORD is born of the HOLY GHOST and the Virgin Mary. In His time shall the righteous flourish. Fourthly, he says He is to be worshipped by all kings, because He hath redeemed mankind from the power of the devil. All kings shall fall down before Him. In the fifth place he declares that CHRIST, made visible to human eyes, hath been the defence of believers, and without doubt the profit of the righteous. He shall live, and unto Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia. Sixthly, he affirms that praise is to be given by the assent of the whole world to the everlasting LORD. His Name shall remain under the sun. In the seventh place, he offers, with purest devotion, a hymn to CHRIST. Blessed be the LORD God, even the God of Israel: which only doeth wondrous things.
SYRIAC PSALTER. Of David, when he made Solomon king, and a prophecy of the Coming of CHRIST and the calling of the Gentiles.
EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA. A prophecy of the kingdom of CHRIST and the calling of the Gentiles.
S. ATHANASIUS. A psalm of prophecy. Hortatory to endurance.

ANTIPHONS

Gregorian. Ferial. Be Thou * my protecting GOD. [Maundy Thursday. O my GOD * deliver me out of the hand of the ungodly.]
Monastic. Ferial. Thou art my helper and redeemer * O LORD, make no long tarrying. [Maundy Thursday. As Gregorian.]
Parisian. O my GOD * deliver me out of the hand of the ungodly, for Thou art my patience.
Ambrosian. As Psalm 69.

COMMENTARY

1 Give the king thy judgments, O GOD: and thy righteousness unto the king’s son.

The Psalmist, (A.) observes S. Augustine, does but foreshow that saying of the LORD in the Gospel, “The FATHER judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the SON.”* And note that CHRIST is styled both King, and King’s Son. He is King, (Z.) in that He is Very GOD from all eternity; He is the King’s SON, (L.) in that His Godhead is derived from the FATHER, Whose Only-begotten He is. And He is the King’s Son in another sense, (D. C.) in that by His Manhood He is of the house and lineage of David. The two members of the verse are, (A.) according to some commentators, only the same idea, restated for the sake of emphasis and variety, as in Ps. 2:4, and Ps. 19:1. Rather let us say, (Ay.) with Gerhohus, (G.) that it is a prayer to Him Who sometimes suffers unrighteous men to bear rule, and Who permits a Pilate to condemn the innocent, that He will make His SON judge in equity, and with righteous judgment. That He should do so was typified by the names of those who set the crown on Solomon’s head—Zadok, the “righteous,” and Nathan, “the giver,”—telling us of that righteousness which is not of the works of the Law, but of faith, given freely through grace from above.

2 Then shall he judge thy people according unto right: and defend the poor.

The Bible Version is here more in accord with the LXX. and Vulgate, (G.) and it runs, He shall judge Thy people with righteousness, and Thy poor with judgment. Thy people, he says, Thy poor, as he has already said Thy judgment and Thy righteousness, that he may dwell on the perfect harmony of will, the co-equal majesty of the SON with the FATHER, even as He Himself hath said,* “All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.” They have been His from all eternity as GOD; they are to be given to Him anew as Man. And whereas the Psalmist expresses CHRIST’S jurisdiction in two ways, (Ay.) so there is a double judgment, that of separation, whereby He parts the lowly from the proud; His people from aliens, even in this world; and that of doom, finally determining the lot of each according to his works. Thy poor. That is, (D. C.) the poor in spirit, who are blessed; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.* The world and the devil have their poor too—the miser, the arrogant,* the thief, the covetous, poor against his will. Thy poor. And we may take it of all Christians, but especially of the Apostles, (P.) who left all to follow CHRIST, and who shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus Thy people and Thy poor will in truth mean the same Church Militant, (A.) but distinguished into the general body of the faithful people,* and those voluntary poor who follow counsels of perfection. Wisely they, knowing how Holy Scripture again and again dwells on their blessedness, (L.) and on the danger of riches. Wherefore S. Peter Chrysologus says very well: “In heaven the first harvest is that of the hungry, the first payments in heaven are to the poor,* the dole of the needy is the first entry in the daily books of GOD.” Yet another interpretation explains the people of the Jewish, (Z.) the poor of the Gentile Church.

3 The mountains also shall bring peace: and the little hills righteousness unto the people.

By the mountains, (C.) observes Cassiodorus, are denoted the Apostles and Prophets, who preach the gospel of peace, that is, of CHRIST, the Prince of Peace, to the nations; and the hills denote the lesser saints, who have not attained the same heights of Divine grace, but who yet declare righteousness, by announcing the precepts of the LORD to the earth. Others interpret the mountains of the Angels, (Ay.) who brought, at the Nativity, the tidings of peace on earth, to men of good will; and explain the hills of earthly teachers.* Or, with Theodoret, we may take the mountains to denote the religious who withdrew from the world to such shelters. Yet, (Cd.) again, the mountains denote the authorities of the Church, to whom is committed the ministry of reconciliation, to establish peace between GOD and man; while the hills are the flock, (A.) who are bound to show righteousness by holy obedience to the Divine commands. And thus it will be the especial duty of the rulers, who have charge of peace, (R.) to prevent all schisms in the Church, that it may be One; and that of the hearers to be zealous in good works of righteousness, that it may be Holy. And these two things cannot be parted in CHRIST’S kingdom, (C.) for it is written, “Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”*

4 He shall keep the simple folk by their right: defend the children of the poor, and punish the wrong-doer.

Rather, with A. V., LXX., and Vulgate, He shall judge the poor of the people. The greater number of the commentators take this as little more than a restatement of the second verse, and they explain the words the poor of the people as denoting all truly humble Christians. And they carry on this interpretation to the next clause. For, observes S. Augustine, (A.) the poor and the children of the poor mean the same persons, just as the same city is called Sion, and the daughter of Sion. Gerhohus, more happily, applies the varying language to the altered state of the Church. GOD, (G.) he says, protects and defends His people now, as He did in the days of the Apostles, His true poor. We, their spiritual children, are inferior to them in all saintliness; but He does not therefore cast us out. JESUS took His chosen, perfect disciples unto a high mountain apart, and there disclosed to them the deepest mysteries of grace; but He did not the less descend into the plain, to give there His instruction to the people. Euthymius, on the other hand, (Z.) explains the poor of the people to be those Jews who, clinging to the letter of the Law, rejected the rich Gospel message, and were judged accordingly. But the children of those poor, whom GOD defends (or, as the Vulgate, will save,) are such as have sought the Christian fold, and gained therein wealth, which their fathers, poor in faith and piety, and in the knowledge of GOD, never enjoyed. And punish the wrong-doer. The LXX. and Vulgate read, And humble the slanderer. They agree, for the most part, (A.) in explaining it of the devil, whom CHRIST humbled once when He made him fall as lightning from heaven; yet again, (C.) when He overcame him in the Temptation; most gloriously when, by His Resurrection, He bore from him the keys of death and hell. He will humble him again in the Judgment, (G.) by acquitting the saints from his accusations, and casting him down for ever. But the words have a further application, (D. C.) which comes out more fully in the A. V., And shall break in pieces the oppressor. Every tyrant, every persecutor of the righteous, every tempter of the Church, shall partake of the punishment of Antichrist, according to that saying, “He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.”*

5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endureth: from one generation to another.

It cannot be spoken of Solomon, remarks R. Kimchi, but must refer to the Messiah. How it refers to Him we may see in divers ways. The version before us, which is also that of S. Jerome and of the A. V., tells us of CHRIST as worshipped in the Church on earth, where “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” But it looks also forward to the manner in which He shall be served in heaven, when sun and moon have passed away, because “there is no fear in love,”* and His saints will then know the “perfect love which casteth out fear.”* S. Peter Damiani sings:

There nor waxing moon,* nor waning;
Sun, nor stars in courses bright;
For the Lamb to that glad City
Is the everlasting light:
There the daylight shines for ever,
And unknown are time and night.

The LXX. and Vulgate, (Ay.) however, read somewhat differently: And He shall abide with the sun, and before the moon. Where note, observes the Carmelite, that in CHRIST there is a twofold nature, Divine and human. He is simply eternal in that He is GOD; He is relatively eternal as Man. Moreover, the sun denotes all time, the moon all temporal things. And accordingly the sense is, He shall abide with the sun: that is, He shall abide according to His Manhood, so long as He will; to wit, in the Church by the Sacrament of His Body, as it is written, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”* This He says to confute those who allege that the Church or the Christian religion will ever cease to be. As respects His Godhead, it says before the moon. By the moon, which never abides in the same phase, we understand all creation, which is changeful. If then CHRIST abide before the moon, it follows that He abides before all creation, and thus is eternal, “JESUS CHRIST, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”* Again, by the sun we may understand GOD the FATHER, because He, as the Sun, hath glory coeval with Himself; and so too has the SON, Who is the “brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person,”* and therefore abides with the sun, beause He is coeternal with the FATHER as touching His Godhead. He also abides before the moon, by which we understand the Church, which shall pass through phases from mortal generations to the immortal one. And as He stands in sight of His Church, (G.) guarding it, so He abides before the moon. Once more, the words imply that the Church, tried by the prosperity of day and the adversity of night, will never be deserted by her LORD, Whose glory is her sun, Whose mild and pure life on earth is her moon. In that our Solomon dwelt among us in mortal and passible flesh, amidst many sorrows, He hath shown us the ways of patience, that we should “not be afraid for any terror by night, nor for the thing that walketh in darkness.”* And His Transfiguration on the Mount, when His Face shone as the sun, or rather His glory on the exalted throne of the FATHER’S Majesty, makes this world’s show and pomp mean in our eyes in the day of prosperity, that we be not hurt by “the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day,”* so long as the bright and gladsome vision of faith and hope is present to our sight.

6 He shall come down like the rain into a fleece of wool: even as the drops that water the earth.

The earliest commentators, as Tertullian and Lactantius, explain these words of the silence and secrecy of the Advent.* It is spoken, observes S. Augustine, of CHRIST’S First Coming. For as Gideon laid a fleece on the ground, which alone received the dew, (A.) whilst the ground remained dry, so Israel was that fleece, alone bedewed in the midst of a parched world; as He said, “I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel;”* and again, speaking to His disciples, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”* And as the sign was reversed, when the ground was wet and the fleece dry, so here is added, even as the drops that water the earth, because the Jewish people remains dry of the grace of CHRIST, and the whole round world throughout all nations is being rained on by clouds full of Christian grace. So too Ruffinus, more tersely: “CHRIST is the rain,* Judea the fleece, the multitude of the nations the earth.” With him agree some others also. But the majority of commentators explain the words of the mystery of CHRIST’S Incarnation. “What is so silent and noiseless,” asks S. Ambrose, “as rain pouring on a fleece of wool? It strikes no ears with sound, it sprinkles nobody with spray; but, unnoticed by man, it draws into its whole substance all the rain which is diffused through its many parts.* It knows not any severance, because of the firm passage, permitting, as it does, many passages through its softness; and that which seemed closed by reason of its density is open because of its tenuity. Rightly, I say, is Mary compared to a fleece, who conceived the LORD in such wise as to drink Him in with all her body, and yet suffer no rending of that body; but showed herself soft in obedience, firm in holiness. Rightly, I say, is Mary compared to a fleece, since from her fruit the garments of salvation are woven for the peoples. Mary is truly a fleece, since from her soft bosom the Lamb came forth, Who Himself wearing His Mother’s wool, that is, the flesh, covers the wounds of all nations with soft fleece. For the wound of every sin is bandaged with CHRIST’S wool, is fomented with CHRIST’S Blood; and, that it may recover health, is covered with CHRIST’S raiment.”* And S. Bernard speaks in similar language of this mystery. He came therein, observes Ayguan, not in His mighty power, (Ay.) but in the gentleness of deep humility, as was foretold: “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, lowly.”* Noting which, the Psalmist says, He shall come down like the rain into a fleece—that is, gently and imperceptibly He will come down into the Virgin, because He shall come with all lowliness and meekness.* And the simile is apt, as the Gloss notes; for as wool is not hurt by receiving or yielding water, (L.) so in the glorious Virgin Mary virginity abode inviolate before, during, and after her childbearing. So too S. Peter Chrysologus: The fleece, though it is of the body, yet knows not the body’s passions; and so, when there is virginity in the flesh, it knows not the sins of the flesh.* Wherefore that heavenly rain came with gentle descent into the virgin fleece, and the whole tide of Godhead hid itself in the thirsty fleece of our flesh, till, wrung out upon the Cross, it poured forth in the rain of salvation over all the lands. And thus the Western Church, in the Antiphons for Lauds of the Circumcision and First Vespers of the Purification includes this, which Sarum carries through the year as a Memorial: “When Thou wast born of a Virgin ineffably, then were the Scriptures fulfilled; as the dew upon the fleece didst Thou descend to save mankind, we praise Thee, O our GOD.”* So, too, in many a hymn, as thus:

Frondem,* florem, nueem sicca
Virga profert, et pudica
Virgo Dei Filium.
Fert cœlestem vellus rorem,
Creatura Creatorem,
Creaturæ pretium.

And as the rain on the fleece stains not,* but purifies, violates not, but beautifies, so CHRIST, born of the Virgin, left her brighter, fairer, more perfect than before. There is, however, another interpretation of the word נֵּז, here, and in all the old versions, translated fleece. It literally means, “that which is shorn or clipped;” and the A. V., with most later critics, explains it, mown grass. It is then, remarks Cardinal de Vio, spoken of the Second Advent, when CHRIST comes after the hope and bud of this life has been cut down by the scythe of death, that He may cause it to spring up again in the aftermath of the Resurrection.* And whereas most other commentators follow S. Augustine in explaining the drops that water the earth of the spread of the Gospel amongst the nations, Cajetan takes this also of the renewal of the earth after the Judgment. Parez is another exception. He explains the ground wetted when the fleece was dry, (P.) of the Church, empurpled with the Blood drained from CHRIST’S Body on the Cross.

7 In his time shall the righteous flourish: yea, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth,

The LXX. and Vulgate read as the first clause, (Ay.) In His days shall righteousness arise. It is, says Ayguan, a prophecy of that first true preaching of perfect righteousness, when He spoke the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples. It is more, (G.) according to Gerhohus—even the righteousness which is of faith, whereby the righteous lives, and is reconciled to GOD. And abundance of peace. Not of temporal peace, for He hath not come to send it on earth, but a sword. It is the peace of GOD which passeth all understanding, peace between GOD and man, between spirit and flesh, between the Church Triumphant of Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect in the LORD, and the Church Militant in its sojourn amongst mortals. And of this peace the Easter hymn sings:

Triumphat ille splendide,*
Qui dignus amplitudine
Soli polique patriam
Unam facit rempublicam.

“Rightly is it called abundance of peace,”* exclaims Gilbert of Hoyland, “which is given without measure. How should it not be abundant which did away the offence, and heaped up the former grace? The first man in Paradise had peace, so that he could not be led away against his will; but he had no strength to will his return. He had grace that he need not go out; he had it not to come back at a wish. But now is peace more plenteous in the grace of CHRIST, which is freely offered after repeated transgressions, and rejects not, but recalls the penitents. Well is it named abundance of peace, which no wrong-doing can exhaust, (Cd.) which is ever more ready for pardon than for vengeance.” And therefore the first greeting He gave His disciples as He returned in triumph and glory from death was, “Peace be unto you;” denoting that, after He had laid the enemies of mankind low, had overcome death and harrowed hell, peace was the wage of His toils, the fruit of His Passion, the trophy of His Cross, the common gain of all. So an unknown poet sings:

Virgam pacis CHRISTUS portat,*
Qui nos regit et confortat
Manu sapientiæ;
Qui per virgam creat pacem,
Frangens virgam contumacem
Per virgam justitiæ.

Pax concordat malos bonis,
Per quam regnum Salomonis
Eleganter floruit;
De caminis Babylonis
Tres Hebræos cum coronis
Liberos eripuit.

So long as the moon endureth. More exactly, as in the margin of A. V., till there be no moon, with which agree the LXX. and Vulgate, till the moon be taken away. The moon is interpreted of the Church, which has no light save from the Sun of Righteousness, and is subject to incessant change and vicissitude here below. When the earthly Church shall vanish in the full light of the reappearing Sun,* then GOD shall be all in all. The Roman Psalter, S. Ambrose, Cassiodorus, (A.) and others read, till the moon be lifted up. That is, observes S. Augustine, till the Church be exalted, through the glory of the Resurrection, to reign with Him, (G.) the Firstborn from the dead, Who went before her in this glory, to sit at the right hand of the FATHER. Then she who is now “fair as the moon” shall be “clear as the sun.”* S. Chrysostom, somewhat differently, explains it to mean till the preaching of the Church be ended; the Church which is crescent in the good,* waning in the bad, but which at last shall be full in the saints, when the number of the predestined is filled up. There remains one very singular interpretation: the moon, (C.) as ruling the night, is explained by Procopius of Satan, (L.) the prince of the darkness of this world, whose light is cold and deceptive. And he notes that CHRIST suffered on the fourteenth day of the moon, when her brightness begins to wane, and is near to disappearing.

8 His dominion shall be also from the one sea to the other: and from the flood unto the world’s end.

The literal sense is from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, from the Euphrates to the Desert, denoting the wide scope of Solomon’s rule. It is next taken by all the commentators to denote the spread of CHRIST’S kingdom or earth. Then they come to the mystical sense. And first, (Ay.) from one sea to the other is explained of CHRIST’S coming forth from the hallowed womb of the Virgin Mary, who is the sea of glass, like unto crystal for purity and clearness before the throne of GOD, a sea into which all the rivers of grace empty themselves. Thence He comes to all penitent hearts, which are seas of bitter tears. And so Lope de Vega:

Ya, JESUS, mi corazon
No sabe mas de Ilorar,*
Que le ha convertido en mar
El mar de vuestra pasion.

This gives us another and finer idea for the first sea than that of Ayguan, while agreeing with him as to the second. Yet a third grouping may be found, by explaining the words of our LORD’S double sovereignty over earth and heaven; from the troublesome waves of this world, whereon His disciples are tossed in the ship of the Church, to that haven where

in the ocean of Thy love
We lose ourselves in heaven above.*

And from the flood unto the world’s end. They take the flood to be the River Jordan, (A.) where CHRIST’S ministry and preaching of the Gospel began, thence to spread over the whole earth. And it further denotes CHRIST’S especial rule over the baptized, whose spiritual life begins with the cleansing flood, and perseveres to the end of the world, because He is with them always till then.

9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall kneel before him: his enemies shall lick the dust.

The LXX., Vulgate, and Æthiopic Psalters read, (C.) The Ethiopians shall fall down before Him. The Ethiopians, says one, as clothed in coarse leathern garments, denote sinners laden with iniquity. Or, as another suggests,* those who are dark and black with sin. Others take it with equal literalness of the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon, and of the conversion of Queen Candace at the preaching of her eunuch, followed by that of the king and a great part of the nation through the labours of S. Matthew. There is yet another explanation: the Ethiopians are said to be the devils, (Ay.) made subject to CHRIST by His victory on the Cross. (Z.) His enemies shall lick the dust. S. Clement of Alexandria aptly cites here the curse pronounced upon the serpent which deceived Eve,* and warns his readers against imitating the crafty being who,* as he grovels, seeks to bruise the heel of the just. Not dissimilar is the explanation that the words denote the low and earthly desires and aims of the ungodly. S. Augustine will have it to refer to heretics, (G.) loving mere human teachers, (A.) who are but dust, and not willing to hear the divine wisdom of the Church. It may, however, remarks Ayguan, (Ay.) be taken in a good sense also, that they who at first resisted CHRIST, shall at last become His true servants; as it is written, “The sons also of them that afflicted Thee shall come bending before Thee, and all they that despised Thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of Thy feet.”* Yet again, several take it of the Jews, literally because of the extremity of the famine in the siege under Titus,* when they were forced to devour all manner of filth;* and allegorically by reason of their mere earthly wisdom. Euthymius, (Z.) with a quaint exactness, interprets it of converts kissing the floors of churches, after the Eastern fashion.

10 The kings of Tharsis and of the isles shall give presents: the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts.

The words denote the universality of CHRIST’S Kingdom. (A.) And the first fulfilment of the prophecy must be sought in the adoration of the Magi, whose triple offering of gold, frankincense, and myrrh denotes the Godhead, Kingship, and Manhood of CHRIST. So Adam of S. Victor:

Tria dona reges ferunt:
Stella duce regem quærunt,*
Per quam semper certi erunt
De superno lumine,
Auro regem venerantes,
Thure Deum designantes,
Myrrhâ mortem memorautes,
Sacro docti flamine.

And as Arabia and Saba denote the far Eastern regions, so Tarshish and the isles point to the West, if we identify Tarshish with the Spanish Tartessus, as the isles most probably refer to the Archipelago. What rich treasures Spain and Saba (if Saba be Africa) shall bring to the feet of their King let Prudentius tell us:

Orbe de magno caput excitata,*
Obviam CHRISTO properanter ibit
Civitas quæque, pretiosa portans
Dona canistris.
Afra Carthago tua promet ossa,
Ore facundo Cypriane doctor:
Corduba Acisclum dabit et Zoellum
Tresque coronas.
Tu tribus gemmis diadema pulchrum
Offeres CHRISTO, genetrix piorum
Tarraco, intexit cui Fructuosus
Sutile vinclum.

And with this presentation of sacred relics agrees that remark of S. Augustine, (A.) that the kings are said to lead gifts, that is, to bring living victims, following them readily, to be offered to CHRIST. (C.) Cassiodorus, followed by many others, finds a mystical sense in the word Tharsis, which he interprets contemplation,1 and its kings will then be contemplative Saints; while the kings of the isles are those engaged in active life, surrounded by the sea of worldly cares, but rising above it firmly. He carries on the allegory to Arabia and Saba, which, as the lands of spices and perfumes, denote the temptations of the flesh; and their kings are the Saints who subdue them.

11 All kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall do him service.

We see not yet this prophecy fulfilled on earth, but in the Apocalyptic vision it has come to pass already in heaven. Kings shall fall down before Him, for it is written, “The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne.”* All nations do Him service; for again it is written, “I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our GOD which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”* But the LXX. and Vulgate read, All kings of the earth. And we may take it literally of the subjection of the Roman Empire to the Faith by the conversion of Constantine, (Ay.) or of the royalty of Christians drawn into the Catholic Church from all nations, and now made kings by ruling over their passions and desires, and serving CHRIST with body, mind, and will.*

12 For he shall deliver the poor when he crieth: the needy also, and him that hath no helper.
13 He shall be favourable to the simple and needy: and shall preserve the souls of the poor.

The LXX. and Vulgate read, (G.) He shall deliver the poor from the mighty one. Thus it tells of Him that spoiled the strong man armed who kept the souls of men as his goods in the palace of this world. And him that hath no helper.* For neither angel nor righteous man, neither law nor free-will, could help mankind, but only the Lion of the tribe of Judah. No helper. For man, (G.) like him who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, hath fallen from Paradise into the power of Satan, who hath stripped and wounded him, leaving him half dead. Neither Priest nor Levite, no help from the old Law, availed him, till the Great Physician came that way, poured oil and wine into his wounds, and placed him in the Church to recover. And because CHRIST is a skilful Physician, it is said that He is favourable (He spares, Vulg.) the simple and needy, but He does not spare their sins. He makes war on the disease, He cuts away the proud flesh, (Ay.) but He preserves the souls of the poor from their triple danger—slavery to the devil, pollution by sin, liability to punishment. And therefore, as the Master of the Sentences points out, CHRIST’S mercy and justice appear in His double gift of grace,* in that He spares first, instead of avenging Himself; then preserves the souls of His poor,* blotting out past sins, bestowing grace to guard against relapses, remitting the penalty due.

14 He shall deliver their souls from falsehood and wrong: and dear shall their blood be in his sight.

From falsehood, because He saves them from him who is the “father of lies,”* and from the worship of false gods, turning them “from these vanities unto the living GOD.” From wrong, because He hath “broken the rod of the oppressor.”* But the LXX. and Vulgate read, He shall redeem their souls from usury1 and from iniquity. What are these usuries but sins, (A.) which are also called debts? They seem to be called usury, because the punishments are more grievous than the sins. For instance: a homicide slays only the body of a man, but can in no wise hurt his soul; while his own soul and body perish together in hell. Again, (G.) eternal punishment is called usury, because it so far surpasses any pleasure or advantage which sin can give us here, just as heavy compound interest soon exceeds the principal of a debt. From iniquity is added because GOD is not content with remitting punishment, (A.) but desires that sinners should turn from their wickedness and live, He bestows grace upon them, whereby justified, they may become holy, and not merely escape hell, but be fitted for heaven. But S. Chrysostom reminds us that, while GOD exacts no usury for our sins, He will, according to the parable of the ten pounds, demand usury for the divine gifts He has bestowed on us. And dear shall their blood be in His sight. It is spoken of His martyrs, whom He delivered from the falsehood of heathenism, from the violent wrong of persecution; and of whom it is said in another Psalm, “Right dear in the sight of the LORD is the death of His Saints.”* Wherefore the Paris Breviary:

Quem lictor insanus sitit,*
Quem cæcus effundit furor,
Amor sacerdos prodigum
Christo cruorem consecrat.

Et ille, mixtus sanguini
Quem fudit in ligno Deus,
Fundentibus placabilem
Orare non cessat Deum.

The LXX. and Vulgate, (A.) however, for blood read name. So then their name is honourable in His sight, for it is His own. They have left behind them the Pagan names they once bore, (D. C.) derived from Gentile superstition, or from their own defects and misdeeds; and now they are called Christians, the sons of the Eternal FATHER. And therefore GOD foretold His will to the unbelieving Jews, “Ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen; for the LORD GOD shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name, that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the GOD of Truth.”* There is another reading: His Name shall be honourable in their sight. How honourable, (Z.) how precious, let the hymn tell us:

Nomen dulee,* nomen gratum, nomen ineffabile,
Dulcis JESUS appellatum, nomen delectabile,
Laxat pœnas et reatum, nomen est amabile.

Hoc est nomen adorandum, nomen summæ gloriæ,
Nomen semper meditandum in valle miseriæ,
Nomen digne venerandum supernorum curiæ.

15 He shall live, and unto him shall be given of the gold of Arabia; prayer shall be made ever unto him, and daily shall he be praised.

He shall live. And first let us take it of Him of Whom they said, “Let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause;”* and again, “Let us condemn Him with a shameful death.”* To Him alone can those words of Eastern reverence be addressed with truth, (L.) “O King, live for ever!”* for He only can say, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”* And next, it is spoken of Him as He lives in His Saints,* according to that saying of the Apostle, “I am crucified with CHRIST; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but CHRIST liveth in me.”* And with this nearly agrees that other interpretation,* that He shall live in the hearts of His poor. And unto Him shall be given of the gold of Arabia. Literally we may take it, with Cassiodorus, (C.) of the gifts brought by the Eastern wise men; mystically with S. Augustine, (A.) and most of those who follow him, of the intellectual wisdom of the Gentiles laid at the feet of CHRIST, as when Justin and Cyprian, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Augustine himself devoted their powers to His service. Euthymius explains it of the Arab converts whom he supposes S. Paul to have made during his three years’ sojourn in their country. Prayer shall be made ever unto Him. This, (Z.) though true in fact, is not the meaning of the passage.* The A. V. reads, Prayer also shall be made for him continually. The LXX. and Vulgate are nearly the same, concerning Him; the Ambrosian Psalter, (Z.) as A. V., for Him. It is said, observes Euthymius, of the Prophets, who desired to see His day. (A.) It is said of Christians, remarks S. Augustine, (Ay.) who utter daily the petition, “Thy kingdom come.” They who are of Him, (G.) (de ipso, Vulg.,) notes the Carmelite, even members of His Body, ever make their prayer to Him. They pray (de ipso) in His own words,* says another, when they recite the Our FATHER. They shall pray (de ipso) in His strength, (Lu.) having none of their own. If it be further asked how we can be said to pray for CHRIST, we may answer with S. Augustine and S. Remigius, (A.) that we pray for His Body the Church, (R.) that it may be filled up with His elect; or, with a later commentator, that we may fitly, when desiring the spread of His kingdom, cry, with the children in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” And daily shall He be praised.* The LXX. and Vulgate read, All the day. Either way it denotes the perpetual worship paid to Him in earth and heaven, all the day of our toil here, before “the night cometh when no man can work;”* all the endless day of heaven, which hath no night. All the day. So a poet of our own:

The night becomes as day
When from the heart we say,
May JESUS CHRIST be praised.

In heaven’s eternal bliss
The loveliest strain is this,
May JESUS CHRIST be praised.

To GOD the WORD on high
The hosts of Angels cry,
May JESUS CHRIST be praised.

Be this while life is mine
My canticle divine,
May JESUS CHRIST be praised.

Be this the eternal song
Through all the ages on,
May JESUS CHRIST be praised.

16 There shall be an heap of corn in the earth, high upon the hills: his fruit shall shake like Libanus, and shall be green in the city like grass upon the earth.

There has been much doubt as to the precise meaning of the first clause in this verse. The word כִּסַּת here translated heap, occurs nowhere else, and a variety of renderings have been suggested. The A. V. reads handful. The LXX. στήριγμα, the Vulgate, similarly, firmamentum (both omitting the word corn) the Syriac Psalter multitude. Gesenius, somewhat alike, diffusion or abundance, with which Olshausen and Hupfeld agree. Delitzsch explains it a level surface, i.e., either a threshing-floor, or an artificial terrace for cultivation. The Chaldee Targum paraphrases פִּסַּת־בַּר as substance-making bread. And S. Jerome turns it a memorial of corn. According to the LXX. and Vulgate reading, the words of the Psalmist are but another form of the prophecy of Isaiah and Micah. “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, (C.) and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.”* CHRIST the LORD is the firmament, or strong foundation of those Prophets and Apostles who are called mountains, and yet He is also lifted up over them. “We read,” (G.) observes Gerhohus, “that there was made ‘a firmament in the midst of the waters,’* when as yet ‘the earth was without form and void.’ We see the heaven adorned with stars, a beauteous and wondrous work, performed by the WORD, not yet Incarnate. But a far more wonderful and awful thing is that the WORD should become Flesh, and be a firmament on the earth, hitherto void and formless. There shall be a firmament upon the earth, for man did eat angels’ food, and this bread which strengthens man’s heart shall be a firmament upon the earth, as much fairer than that heavenly firmament as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than it. For He Who called that ethereal heaven the firmament because by firm division it parted the waters from the waters, He, setting a firmament on earth,* ‘hath given Him a Name which is above every name’ and hath bestowed on Him power and judgment to divide the waters from the waters: His people from them who are not His people. For the ‘waters are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.’ ”* There shall be a firmament upon the earth, remarks another, because they who rest on Him shall be firm and steadfast in faith and charity,* even amongst the cares and troubles of this life. Another, (though unauthoritative) reading in some Latin Psalters, however, frumentum instead of firmamentum, has brought back several of the expositors to the word corn, which is the prominent one in the Hebrew text. And they all take it then of the Holy Eucharist. A cloud of Rabbinical tradition hovers round the passage, and helps to frame it that we may see it in this aspect. Besides the rendering of the Targum given above, (L.) the following may be cited. In the Midrash Coheleth, (Cd.) a comment on Ecclesiastes,* it is said that as Moses caused manna to come down from heaven, so Messiah shall be a cake of corn upon the earth. Rabbi Jonathan in his Targum reads, There shall be a sacrifice of bread upon the earth, on the head of the mountains of the Church. And this is further explained in the Sepher-Kibucim to the effect that in the days of Messiah there shall be a cake of corn lifted in sacrifice over the heads of the priests in the temple. Herein, (Ay.) most naturally, the commentators see the Elevation of the Host, that primeval rite of the Divine Liturgy wherein He Who is the substantiating Bread, the Memorial Sacrifice, the Corn of mighty meu, is uplifted in oblation to the FATHER, Himself the Victim and Himself the Priest. Wherefore Hildebert of Tours:

Sub cruce, sub verbo natura novatur,* et aram
Panis honorifieat carne, cruore calix.
Presbyter idcirco, cum verba venitur ad illa,
In quibus altari gratia tanta datur,
Tollit utrumque, notans quod sit communibus escis
Altior, et quiddam majus utrumque gerat.

Again, we may find a more literal fulfilment of the prophecy in the events of the Gospel history, wherein He Who is the Bread of Life is seen so often “like a young hart upon the mountains.”* In the temple on Moriah, in the place of His first preaching, in the scene of many an hour of prayer, in the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Ascension, again and again His feet are beautiful on the mountains.

Thrice for us the Word Incarnate high on holy hills was set,
Once on Tabor, once on Calvary, and again on Olivet;
Once to shine, and once to suffer, and once more, as King of kings,
With a merry noise ascending, borne by cherubs on their wings.

If, however, we explain the words of His husbandry, the Church, we shall still not lose our grasp of mystical interpretation. The heap or handful of corn will then denote the Christian body, the “city set on a hill that cannot be hid.” High upon the hills, either because raised on the “foundation of the Apostles and Prophets,”* those mountains of GOD’S house, or because of its own prominence in the world. Again, if we take the interpretation a floor or level spot covered with corn; this may denote one of two things. The corn, even after being parted from tares, has yet to be separated from its own husk and chaff on GOD’S lofty threshing-floor, and the words will thus denote the purifying of His people through afflictions in this world, and through the cleansing of purgatory in the intermediate state. Once more, Delitzsch’s interpretation, a terrace planted with corn, gives a very beautiful meaning. Till the Gospel came, only the plains and lower slopes of the life of holiness were cultivated. The higher ground soared rugged and barren far above, showing, indeed, peaks kissed by the first sunbeams, but difficult of ascent, and almost untrodden by man’s foot. Terrace after terrace now rises up the mountain side, and earth, borne slowly and laboriously from below, covers the bare rock, until the whole height is scaled, and the golden corn waves on the very summits of the spiritual life, to wit, the practice of those counsels of perfection which were once deemed too hard for men to follow. His fruit shall shake like Libanus. That is, the waving of the cornfield which the LORD hath blessed, shall be like that of the cedar-forest of Lebanon bending before the wind. And in this prophecy we may see shadowed the height to which the Gospel rises above the Law. For the stateliest forest-king known to the Hebrews is here compared to the single ear of corn, undistinguishable by human eyes from any other in the harvest. So even the humble and hidden Christian Saints of GOD in daily acts of holiness rise higher than the very mightiest seers of the elder dispensation,* because the Church is exalted above the Synagogue. And with this agrees the Æthiopie Psalter: His fruit shall be loftier than the cedar. The LXX. and Vulgate read a little differently: His fruit shall be lifted up above Lebanon. Lebanon, (A.) observes S. Augustine, we are wont to take as this world’s dignity, for Lebanon is a mountain bearing tall trees, and the name itself is interpreted ‘whiteness.’ What wonder is it then, if the fruit of CHRIST be exalted over every splendid position of this world, since the lovers of that fruit despise all worldly dignities? But if we take the words in a good sense, because of the “cedars of Libanus which He hath planted;”* what other fruit can be understood, as being exalted over this Libanus, save that whereof the Apostle speaketh when about to speak of charity, “and yet show I unto you a more excellent way?”* For this is put in the front place of divine gifts, in that passage where he saith, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.”* Again; it may be taken of the effects of the Passion of CHRIST, (D. C.) lifting up His Saints above all the glory and temptations of the world. Or if we continue to take it of the Holy Eucharist, (Ay.) the words denote its preeminence over all other means of grace given by GOD to His Church. (P.) Euthymius sees here a reference to the idol-worship anciently practised in Lebanon, (Cd.) and the victory of the Gospel over it and all other idolatry. And shall be green in the city like grass upon the earth. (Z.) The LXX. and Vulgate have: They shall flourish out of the city like grass (or hay Vulg.) of the earth. From the Church, (A.) GOD’S city, notes S. Augustine, and as grass beareth fruit, like wheat, which is called grass in Holy Scripture.* There are two cities, adds Gerhohus, of either of which these words may be spoken, (G.) Jerusalem and Babylon. If we take it of the former, GOD’S city, then S. Augustine’s explanation holds, if of the latter, the city of the world and the devil, it warns us that all flesh is grass, and that all the goodliness of that city is as the flower of the field.* So they who seek an abiding city here shall quickly perish in the judgment, for as soon as the sun ariseth, straightway the grass shall be dried up. It is of this world we must understand the words, (C.) aptly remarks Cassiodorus, because it is written, out of the city, not in the city, that CHRIST’S fruit will flourish. They will rise out of the earthly state in which they are planted into the bright sun and pure air of His presence. And they are compared to grass, because of its freshness and beauty, (D. C.) not with any thought of its brief life, because theirs is immortal. The Carthusian, laying stress also on the words out of the city, draws a very different corollary from them. They are spoken, says he, of those who having approached to the Communion of CHRIST’S Body in the Eucharist, return from church strengthened and refreshed, (L.) and flourishing in grace. S. Antony of Padua, also referring to the Holy Eucharist, explains the text of the Angels winging their flight down from the heavenly city to gaze on the mysteries of the altar. Lastly; the city is taken to mean, as so often, the earthly Jerusalem, whence the Gospel began, so that the preachers who went forth from it flourished, (Z.) while those who remained behind perished quickly as the grass of the field.

17 His Name shall endure for ever; his Name shall remain under the sun among the posterities: which shall be blessed through him; and all the heathen shall praise him.

A very beautiful meaning of the second clause in this verse is lost as well in the Bible version as in this one, nor does it appear in LXX., Vulgate, or Syriac. For His Name shall remain, we shall read, (having regard to the word יִנֹּין)1 His Name shall burgeon, shall put forth fresh shoots. And we shall thus find a reference to the perpetual vitality of the Gospel, the way in which it continually renews its youth and vigour when men deem it most effete, and also to the incessant additions of Christian names to the roll-call of GOD’S army, made in the Sacrament of Baptism. The LXX. and Vulgate read, His Name abideth before the sun. Before the sun, (A.) because the sun is the measure of time, and the Eternal WORD is before all time. Before the sun, because CHRIST existed before the angels, who are compared to the sun, (Ay.) were created. And there is a Rabbinical saying that there were seven things existing before the world was made,* of which one was the Name of Messiah. With this agrees the Targum, Before the sun His Name was prepared. The reading of the margin in the A. V. is: His Name shall be as a son to continue his father’s name for ever, which is nearly that of R. Kimchi. Others take it: His Name shall be the Son. Either way it speaks of Him Who came down to reveal His FATHER unto us, Who is that Holy Thing born of the Virgin Mary, and “called the SON of GOD.”* Among the posterities which shall be blessed through Him. The LXX. and Vulgate, somewhat differently: In Him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed. It is the renewal of the promise made to Abraham. (D. C.) “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,”* on which we have the inspired comment of the Apostle, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is CHRIST.”* They explain also all the tribes of the earth of all elect souls, (Lu.) according to their varying merits, because it is written, “In My FATHER’S house are many mansions.”*

Ye know the many mansions
For many a glorious name,
And divers retributions,
That divers merits claim;
For midst the constellations
That deck our earthly sky,
This star than that is brighter,—
And so it is on high.

18 Blessed be the Lord GOD, even the GOD of Israel: which only doeth wondrous things;
19 And blessed be the Name of his Majesty for ever: and all the earth shall be filled with his Majesty. Amen, Amen.

The triple utterance of the Divine Name,* found in the Hebrew, but not in the LXX. and Vulgate, denotes, remarks S. Jerome, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Observe, that in the four last verses of this Psalm four reasons are given why worship and praise are due to CHRIST. First, because of His Eternity, (P.) for His Name endureth before the sun; secondly, because of His infinite goodness and mercy, for all nations are to be blessed and redeemed through Him; thirdly, by reason of His omnipotence, for He only doeth wondrous things; fourthly, (G.) because of His supreme Majesty. Which only doeth wondrous things. For He alone does them by His own might, whether He work of Himself or through agents, which is true of no one else, since none worketh them without Him. And though He saith: “The FATHER that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works;”* yet without Him, Who is the hand, arm, might, and wisdom of the FATHER, the FATHER doeth nought, nor yet the SPIRIT of the FATHER, Who is His SPIRIT too, because the operation of the Most High Trinity is undivided. Thus He only doeth wondrous things, yet He is not alone, for it is Man, assumed into the WORD, of one essence with the FATHER and the HOLY GHOST, (Ay.) Who worketh in the might and power, or majesty of the whole Trinity.* And so it is written, “All things were made by Him;”* and again, “LORD, (D. C.) Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” And therefore He says of His Saints, “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also.”* For ever. It can be no prophecy for Solomon, observes Tertullian, since he fell into idolatry, and lost that glory he had in GOD beforetime.* It can only be of Him Who is the Name of GOD’S Majesty, (L.) the Eternal SON. And all the earth shall be filled with His Majesty. And that in divers ways, as first by the Incarnation, whereby His Infinite Majesty is united to all human nature, for man is called by the Fathers the “second world.”* Secondly, by the preaching of the Gospel, for “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”* Thirdly, (Cd.) by the glory of the Resurrection. So S. Bernard: “All the earth,* I say, shall be filled with the Majesty of the LORD, when it shall be clad in the glory of the Resurrection. Why then murmurest thou still, O hapless flesh? why resistest thou still, and strivest against the Spirit? If He humble thee, if He scourge thee, if He bring thee into bondage, it is for thy sake, doubtless, in thy generation, not less than for His own.” Amen. Amen. Rabbi Jehudah the Holy said, “He that said Amen in this world, is worthy to say it in the world to come. David, therefore, utters Amen twice in this Psalm, to show that one Amen belongs to this world, the other to that which is to come. He who saith Amen devoutly, is greater than he who uttereth the prayers, for the prayers are but the letter, and the Amen is the seal. The scribe writeth the letters, the Prince alone seals them.”* Amen, (Be it so, Vulg.) now, particularly, (G.) Amen then, universally. Amen now, for we need it as comfort in our journey. Amen then will befit the full joy of our heavenly country. Let us then all say Amen, Amen, with eager longing to behold the King Solomon, not only with that crown of thorns wherewith His mother crowned Him, denoting thereby the Church formed of sinners and set upon CHRIST as a crown, but also with that diadem wherewith His FATHER crowned Him, because of His death and passion, with honour and glory, setting Him on the throne of everlasting brightness. From which throne we pray that He may rule all that is not yet under Him, that the whole earth may be filled with His Majesty.
And therefore:
Glory be to the FATHER, the King Eternal, Who giveth His judgment unto the King His SON; glory be to the SON, the true King Solomon, Who maketh peace in all His kingdom; glory be to the HOLY GHOST, Who is the Peace of all them who fight for Solomon, and serve Him here below, and Who will be yet more fully the peace of them that reign with Him in heaven.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

COLLECTS

Almighty GOD,* we pray Thee, calling on Thy Name, blessed before all worlds, that, humbling the slanderer, Thou wouldst vouchsafe to bestow peace and righteousness upon Thy people. Through. (1.)
O LORD, (D. C.) by the indulgence of Thy bounty, let us receive peace and righteousness, and alway possess them through Thine aid, that our slanderers may be brought low, and we may praise Thy blessed Name for evermore. (1.)
O LORD,* be favourable unto the poor, and heal the souls of the needy, that we, who trust not in our own strength, and hopefully intreat Thy mercy, may, through poverty of spirit, obtain the fulness of heavenly blessing. (11.)
Let the mountains,* enlightened with the earliest ray of faith, bring peace unto Thy people, that the righteousness of the hills may come down from the height of the Saints, and small and great together attain the summit of perfect deserving. (11.)
O GOD,* SON of GOD, Whose Name abideth for ever, and Who, making Thyself known as only GOD and LORD, camest, through the mystery of the Incarnation Thou tookest on Thee, to be a King, to redeem the world; grant us such warmth in this mystery of love, that we may escape the snare of the deceiver, so that, as we proclaim with loud voice the joys of Thine Advent, we may exult in our salvation when Thou, our Judge, comest to judgment. (11.)
O LORD,* to Whom the kings and the isles bring gifts, Who with Thine unconquered power, and through Thy heavenly pity, camest to save the poor from the mighty, and frail mankind from the sway of the ancient enemy; seeing that we are far from Thee, and in need of Thy mercies, that we are subject to his unrighteousness, tied and bound with the chains of our sins, let Thy lovingkindness deliver us now from his service, restore us to Thee, and keep us safely to abide with Thee, that we, who confess ourselves redeemed by Thy mercy, may hereafter glory in the gifts attained by Thy bounty. (11.)

St Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on Psalm 97

PSALM 96
ALL ARE INVITED TO REJOICE AT THE GLORIOUS COMING AND REIGN OF CHRIST

Explanation of the Psalm

Ps 97:1. THE Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad.

This Psalm admits of two literal explanations. Some refer it to the kingdom of God absolutely; others to the kingdom of Christ after his resurrection. Read according to the first the meaning of this verse is, “The Lord hath reigned.” The Lord God is the true and supreme King, and all other kings are but his servants; therefore, “let the earth rejoice; let many islands be glad;” let all the inhabitants of the earth, and of the islands that are so numerous in the sea, rejoice and be glad; for should they be oppressed by any of the kings here below, the Lord, who is the supreme King, and can easily control and bring them to order, will not fail to protect and to shield them. In the second sense, the meaning is, Christ our Lord, who at one time humbly appeared before the kings of this world, for judgment, “hath reigned,” for “all power on earth and in heaven hath been given unto him,” so that he is subject to no one, nor can any one claim any authority over him; but, on the contrary, he governs all as “Prince of the kings of the earth, as King of kings, and Lord of lords;” and therefore, “let the earth rejoice, let many islands be glad,” because the Lord, who has got possession of his kingdom, has let himself down to be our brother, though he is our God, by having created us, and our Lord, by having redeemed us.

Ps 97:2 Clouds and darkness are round about him: justice and judgment are the establishment of his throne.

According to meaning the first, the nature of God is touched upon here, who, though invisible, governs and rules the visible world with extreme justice. “Clouds and darkness are round about him.” Our King, the Lord, is invisible, for “he inhabits light inaccessible,” and is like the sun concealed by a cloud, yet still diffusing its light and heat. God is also described similarly in Psalm 18, “And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him; dark waters in the clouds of the air.” In like manner, when God gave the ten commandments on mount Sinai, he was covered with a dark cloud; “justice and judgment are the establishment of his throne.” However invisible he may appear to be, he still is really present, and judges his people with extreme justice. Meaning the second is, Christ’s coming to the general judgment; for “he will come on the clouds of heaven,” in great splendor, as he has in Mat. 25, and in the Apocalypse.

Ps 97:3 A fire shall go before him, and shall burn his enemies round about.

According to meaning the first the admirable power, efficacy, and celerity of the punishment that God inflicts on the wicked, when he chooses to punish them in this world, is here detailed. “A fire shall go before him.” He will send a fire before him whenever he may wish to judge and punish the wicked, and that will be most effective and immediate, for it will suddenly “burn his enemies,” and consume all “round about him,” so that a trace of them will not remain. This fire may also mean his ministering Angels, as we read in Psalm 104, “Who maketh thy Angels spirits; and thy ministers a burning fire,” of which fire Psalm 18 says, “A fire flamed from his face;” and Daniel 7, “A swift stream of fire issued forth from before him.” The second interpretation refers it to that fire that will precede the general judgment, and burn men, houses, gardens, vineyards, and all manner of living things on the face of the earth, concerning which, St. Peter says, as in Noe’s time, “The world that there was, being overflowed with water, perished;” so in the coming of Christ, “The heavens which now are, and the earth, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment,” and will be consumed. And the Psalm says that said fire will hurt God’s enemies only, because it is for them only it is intended; for those who have their heart and their treasure in this world. It will be a heavy load on them to have themselves, and the wealth they so loved, consumed by the fire. The just will suffer nothing from it, for they long since despised the goods of this world, seeing that death would only put them in a better position.

Ps 97:4 His lightnings have shone forth to the world: the earth saw and trembled. 

According to the first interpretation, David goes on with the relation of God’s power over the wicked. God, when he chooses, terrifies his enemies, not only with his fire, or that of his Angels, but even with the ordinary lightning, and cuts them down so unexpectedly, that they cannot possibly protect themselves. He says the same in Psalm 18, “And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the highest gave his voice, and he sent forth his arrows, and he scattered them, he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.” He then says, “His lightnings have shone forth to the world;” he had his winged lightning, wherewith to rouse the world, which so “shone forth as to terrify all who saw them,” and hence, “the earth,” as if it had sense and feeling, “saw and trembled.” A most poetic description to give an idea of the effects of God’s lightning. In the second explanation, he explains how an enormous fire, that will consume everything, will precede the last judgment, and will be caused by lightning, of which Wisdom, chap. 5., says, “Their shafts of lightning shall go directly from the clouds, as from a bow well bent, they shall be shot out, and shall fly to the mark.”

Ps 97:5 The mountains melted like wax, at the presence of the Lord: at the presence of the Lord of all the earth.

The prophet now shows the extent of God’s power from its effects, and again compares it to fire, for as wax cannot be brought near the fire without liquefying and melting, thus the mountains, however lofty and durable, nay, even the very earth, the most solid of all the elements, cannot stand for a moment, should God wish to consume and destroy them. We are not to understand, then, that the mountains did, or will run like wax, but that God could cause them, if he chose, to melt, and be dissolved like wax.

Ps 97:6 The heavens declared his justice: and all people saw his glory.

According to the first interpretation, “the heavens declared his justice,” because men could easily infer from the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars, and their continual changes, that God was a most just director of the whole world, as is also said in Psalm 18., “The heavens declare the glory of God;” St. Paul, Rom. 1, and Wisdom, chap. 14., say the same. According to the second interpretation, these words allude to the Angel’s trumpet, that will announce from heaven the Judge about to sit in judgment on the whole world, and the severity of his justice on those who rejected a merciful Redeemer; and then, “all people will see his glory,” when he shall appear in the clouds in his majesty, with all his Angels. The Apostle says of such coming, “For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with commandment, and with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God;” and the Lord himself says, “And he shall send his Angels with a trumpet and a great voice;” and in the Apocalypse, St. John writes, “Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him.” “The heavens declared” the Angels from heaven, “his justice,” for he will come to render unto every one according to his works, “then all people saw,” without any exception, “his glory,” for every knee will bend of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell.

Ps 97:7 Let them be all confounded that adore graven things, and that glory in their idols. Adore him, all you his angels:

According to the first interpretation, the prophet infers from what has been said, that all worshippers of idols should be justly confounded, when it is sufficiently clear that there is only one true God, who rules and governs in heaven and on earth, and who is endowed with the greatest power, wisdom, and justice to direct everything. “Let them be all confounded that adore graven things,” that are vain and empty gods, that cannot help themselves nor anyone else; and much more confusion to those “that glory in their idols,” for glorying in what, above all other things, they should be ashamed of. According to the second interpretation, this is a prediction, in the form of a prayer, of the immense confusion that will overwhelm all idolaters on the day of judgment; for they will then most clearly see that their idols were nothing, that they who spoke through them were unclean spirits, with whom they will be condemned to eternal punishment. “Adore him, all you his Angels.” According to the first interpretation, the prophet, in order to prove how justly he said, “Let them be all confounded that adore graven things, and that glory in their idols,” turns to the Angels, and invites them to adore God; for, if even the Angels, who are the most noble of created things, so far from being adored, should, like so many servants, adore God, how much less are demons or idols to be adored. According to the second interpretation, the prophet proves the majesty of Christ coming to judgment, from the fact that it will appear on that day that he is the true God, from the homage that will be rendered to him by the Angels. For the Angels will stand by like so many servants, will adore him, and will execute all his commands, which will be a source of the greatest joy and gladness to the true faithful, seeing their Lord so honored and glorified before the whole world. He appeals to the Angels, as if he were exhorting them to do what he foresaw would certainly be done by them. “Adore him, all you his Angels,” sitting on his throne for judgment. The Apostle bears out this exposition, when he says, in Heb. 1., “And again, when he introduceth the first begotten into the world, he saith: And let all the Angels of God adore him;” for the Apostle would appear by the word “again” to mean his second coming, and to apply these words to it, for no other words of the sort are found in the entire Scripture.

Ps 97:8 Sion heard, and was glad. And the daughters of Juda rejoiced, because of thy judgments, O Lord.

When God’s people heard that he reigned supreme everywhere, that idols had disappeared, that the very Angels were subject to God, they were greatly rejoiced at having such a king. “And the daughters of Juda rejoiced, because of thy judgments, O Lord;” the same people, now called Sion, now Juda, rejoiced to find the Lord sitting in judgment with so much justice.

Ps 97:9 For thou art the most high Lord over all the earth: thou art exalted exceedingly above all gods.

He assigns a reason for God’s people beginning to exult and be glad on hearing those things, and the reason is, because they inferred from them, that the God of God’s people was really the supreme Lord of all, “the Most High Lord over all the earth,” over all kings and princes, and “exalted exceedingly,” especially over the false gods erroneously worshipped by the gentiles; and, however true this may be, according to interpretation No. 1, for God proved himself, by various miracles, to be superior to all the kings of the earth, and all their false gods; it is no less true, when we read by interpretation No. 2, for God never displayed his glory so openly as he will on the last day, when, as we said above, all men and Angels, bad as well as good, will bend the knee before him.

Ps 97:10 You that love the Lord, hate evil: the Lord preserveth the souls of his saints, he will deliver them out of the hand of the sinner.

He concludes the Psalm, by exhorting the people to lead a life of holiness and purity, for which they will get a great reward, both in this world and in the next. “You that love the Lord, hate evil.” The holy prophet could not possibly address God’s chosen people more briefly, yet more comprehensively; for, when he says, “You that love the Lord,” he appeals to all the truly just, for charity comprehends all virtues; for, “he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law, and love, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law,” Rom. 13: “you that love the Lord,” then, means, All you just and holy souls, that fear the Lord really, and not feignedly, not only with your lips, but in your heart, according to the substance, and not the shadow of the law, “hate evil:” which is the essence of perfection, for he does not say, Fly from, or decline from evil, which may be done externally, but “hate evil,” which can only proceed from the heart. The heart is the source of all our actions, good and bad; for, as the love of the supreme good comes from the heart, so, in like manner, “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.” He then announces the reward for having done so, saying, “The Lord preserveth the souls of his saints, he will deliver them out of the hand of the sinner.” The Lord is a faithful, diligent, powerful, and prudent guardian of those that love him, and he will defend and deliver them from the power of the wicked, who are, generally speaking, deadly enemies of the just. According to interpretation No. 1, this promise is fulfilled even in this life, in regard of the just, for God often saves their lives, but will certainly save their souls, which is a far greater blessing; and hence, the expression, “preserveth the souls,” for he causes “all things to work together unto good, to such as according to his purpose are called to be saints.” According to explanation No. 2, the meaning would be, He will preserve the souls of his saints on the last day, so that they will not be injured by the accusations of the enemy; he will most completely deliver them from the hand of the sinner, for once the last sentence shall have been passed, the sinner can no longer harm the just.

Ps 97:11 Light is risen to the just, and joy to the right of heart.

Another reward of the just is, that they will not only be delivered from all evils, but they will be replenished with blessings. By light, here, may be understood the light of divine grace, or what seems more likely, the light of justice, of which Wisdom, chap. 5., says, “Therefore, we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us.” Now, the light of justice and of understanding is said to rise on a person when he begins to know, not only in theory but in practice, what is just and what is unjust, what is good and what is evil; and forms a correct judgment, and makes a judicious choice of what is really good and just, and not of what is apparently so to a badly formed and irregular mind. The light, then, that has risen to the just, is that which constitutes him a just man; and as the just take the greatest pleasure in doing what is just, he very properly adds, “and joy to the right of heart;” for justice directs the heart, and an unspeakable amount of joy is poured into the upright of heart from the fact of its conformity to the will of God, and everything that pleases God, on whose nod all creation hangs, pleases that soul. Nothing, then, can sadden the just; they rejoice and are joyful under the most grievous tribulations, “and nobody taketh their joy from them.”

Ps 97:12 Rejoice, ye just, in the Lord: and give praise to the remembrance of his holiness.

This is a consequence of what has been said in the preceding verse; for if joy has arisen to those right of heart, it follows that they should not rejoice in the vanities of the wicked, but “in the Lord,” who bestows justice and gladness on them; nay, who himself is their real and solid joy, being most beautiful to the eyes of the soul, and sweet to the interior; and not only should “the just rejoice in the Lord,” but they should also “give praise to the remembrance of his holiness;” they should ever celebrate with thanksgiving the memory of the sanctification they received from God, for they should never forget so great a favor as that which transformed them from being impious and wicked, to be holy and just. By holiness also may be understood God’s own holiness, for he is supremely holy; hence, Isaias calls him “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and we give praise to the remembrance of his holiness, when with praises we always remember that our God is most holy; and, therefore, that we should with all earnestness endeavor to make ourselves holy too. “For this is the will of God your sanctification;” and “Be ye holy,” saith the Lord, “for I am holy.”