Psalm 35 — The unjust has said within himself

^35:1^ Unto the end, for the servant of God. ^35:2^ The unjust has said within himself that he would sin. There is no fear of God before his eyes. ^35:3^ For in his sight he has done deceitfully, that his iniquity may be found unto hatred. ^35:4^ The words of his mouth are iniquity and guile. He would not understand that he might do well. ^35:5^ He has devised iniquity on his bed; he has set himself on every way that is not good, but evil he has not hated.

^35:6^ O Lord, your mercy is in heaven, and your truth reaches even to the clouds. ^35:7a^ Your justice is as the mountains of God, your judgments are a great deep.

^35:7b^ Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord. ^35:8a^ O how have you multiplied your mercy, O God!

^35:8b^ But the children of men shall put their trust under the cover of your wings. ^35:9^ They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house; and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure. ^35:10a^ For with you is the fountain of life;

^35:10b^ and in your light we shall see light.

^35:11^ Extend your mercy to those who know you, and your justice to those who are right in heart. ^35:12^ Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the sinner move me.

^35:13^ There the workers of iniquity are fallen; they are cast out, and could not stand.

363. In the preceding psalm, the psalmist begged for the help of God against the persecutions of sinners; now here he describes the wickedness of the sinners.

The title is unto the end, for the servant of God. And the expression for the servant of God is new. He is the faithful servant who does not usurp the goods of the Lord for himself and does not blame the Lord for his own evils.

For there are some who ascribe their evils to God, saying that they sin out of necessity, and they claim their goods as their own, saying that they have them as a result of their own personal virtue. David acts in the opposite way.

He makes two main points regarding this.

First, he mentions the evils in us which come from ourselves;

second, he affirms that the goods in us are from God, at Lord, in heaven.

He considers two aspects of our own evils.

First, he puts forward the root of evil.

Second, he describes the growth of evil from its root, at the words of his mouth.

The root of evil is in the intention. Therefore, he first describes an evil intention.

Second, he explains its cause, at there is no fear.

Third, he gives evidence, at for he has done deceitfully.

As the Philosopher says in book 3 of the Ethics: one does something unjust but does not act unjustly; another also does it and acts unjustly, but is not unjust; another does it and acts unjustly and is unjust. (See Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 3.2, 111b and 5.6, 1134a.)

He acts in the first way who keeps something of another’s which he believes is his own.

He acts in the second way who does something unjust not out of habit, but out of passion, so when the passion ends he gives back the other’s thing.

He acts in the third way who does something unjust out of a fixed intention.

And so he says, the unjust has said, that is, he resolved out of a clear intention, within himself that he would sin, since it belongs to his own power to intend to sin, not the destiny found in the stars. God made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel (Sir 15:14).

But the unrestrained movement of sin happens because the obstacle to sin is removed. Now, a sin is said to be against the Holy Spirit when it is committed out from definite malice, and this happens when the obstacle is removed. (Cf. ST II-II, q. 14, a. 1.) Now, he removes this obstacle, which is the fear of the Lord. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil (Prov 16:16). As much as is in you, you have made void fear and have taken away prayers (Job 15:4). And so he says, there is no fear of God before his eyes. Fear is in the affections, but the cause of fear is in the eyes, with which they did not consider the judgment of God. They turned away their eyes that they might not look up to heaven (Dan 13:9).

But the reason is, for in his sight he has done deceitfully. When someone does something hateful in the eyes of a king, it is a sign that he does not fear him. So when the sinner sins before the face of God, who sees all things, it is a sign that he does not fear God, since he has done deceitfully, that is, he has done something deceitful, in his sight, namely, God’s. All things are naked and open to his eyes (Heb 4:13).

And he says deceitfully, since he implies one thing outwardly and hides something else. The bloody and deceitful man the Lord will abhor (Ps 5:7). Dissemblers and crafty men prove the wrath of God (Job 36:13).

And so, his iniquity may be found unto hatred, that is, his iniquity is such that God has hatred for him. And a sign that God hates dissemblers is that in the Gospels, God says much against dissemblers.

Another text has, in his sight, so that he may see his iniquity and hate it. It can happen that someone examines his conscience to find his own iniquity and hate it. Yet often one acts falsely in this, since he does not examine it well, but instead lightens what is grave and makes grave what is light. And so he says, he has done deceitfully in his sight, that is, in conscience, since if he faithfully hated iniquity, he would have examined it well.

Or it can be understood according to the same sense that it is in his sight, namely God’s, that is, in Sacred Scripture, which they ignore because of its truth, and that of the Holy Spirit. Instead, they act deceitfully, and this occurs because they do not discover their iniquity.

Afterwards, he describes the growth from the root.

First, he describes the sins of the mouth;

second, those of the heart and of deed.

A man commits a sin of the mouth in two ways, either through open wickedness when he lies openly, and this is what is said, the words of his mouth are iniquity and guile. You shall not find iniquity in my tongue (Job 6:30). Or it is through hidden falsity, and this is deceit. Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it has spoken deceit (Jer 9:8).

In the heart he sins in two ways: through contempt for the good and through eagerness for evil. It happens that someone sins through weakness and another through ignorance. But when there is pretended ignorance, then there is serious sin. We desire not the knowledge of your ways (Job 21:14).

And so he says, he would not understand that he might do well, so he desires to understand only strange things and not so he may do well. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge (Jer 4:22).

Likewise, a man sometimes commits a sin out of eagerness for wickedness, so he says, he has devised iniquity on his bed, that is, in his heart.

Or, on his bed, that is, when he is in secret. The thought of a fool is sin, and an abomination (Prov 24:9).

He has set himself on every way that is not good. Here he describes the sin committed in deed.

First, he describes helping another in evil;

second, that he does not impede evil.

In regard to the first he says, he has set himself on every way that is not good, that is, he lives and encourages every evil way, or evil action. The kings of the earth stood up (Ps 2:2).

In regard to the second, he says, but evil he has not hated. You have loved malice more than goodness, and iniquity (Ps 51:5). When evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue (Job 20:12).

364. O Lord, your mercy is in heaven. Here, he shows what he has received from God.

And first he enumerates these goods.

Second, he asks for them to be given to them, at extend your mercy.

He makes two points regarding the first.

First, he gives the cause of the goods which he received from God.

Second, he enumerates the goods themselves, at men and beasts you will preserve.

First, he praises the cause.

Second, he describes the far reaching nature of the effects, at your judgments are a great deep.

This is whatever God does in us, whether it is from justice or mercy or truth. And it is from justice when he renders what he is deserved. It is from truth when he gives what he promised. It is from mercy when he exceeds our merits and what was promised.

Let us delve into these three.

The justice of God is deep, since no one can merit anything which God does repay more amply.

The truth is higher, since God promises and gives things which we have never merited, such as the Incarnation and all those things which pertain to the mystery of redemption.

But his mercy is the deepest, because he grants lavishly those things which we are not even able to think up. Eye has not seen (1 Cor 2:9).

And he compares his justice to the mountains, his truth to the clouds, which are higher than the mountains, and his mercy to the heavens, which are the highest of all. He says, O Lord, your mercy is in heaven, that which is the cause of all my goods is in heaven. His tender mercies are over all (Ps 144:9). I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord (Isa 63:7). And your truth reaches even to the clouds. Your justice is as the mountains of God, your judgments are a great deep. All these things are said from the perspective of his effects, since in regard to his essence they are the same.

Mystically, the just ones can be understood by these three, since in the just themselves is found justice, truth, and mercy. The just are signified by the heavens because of their reward and charity. Your reward is very great in heaven (Matt 5:17). Likewise, mercy shines greatly in them, since they are in every way freed from tribulation. But we are still in the midst of calamities. By the clouds are understood the doctors. I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it (Isa 5:6). And in them shines the truth which they manifest. By the mountains are understood holy men.

And what follows from all of these? That these judgments are a great deep, that is, are incomprehensible. How incomprehensible are his judgments (Rom 11:33). Your justice is as the mountains of God, your judgments are a great deep.

365. Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord. Above, the psalmist praised the justice, truth, and mercy of God and his judgments through which these goods come to us; now here he enumerates these goods.

He makes two points about this.

First, he recalls the goods which are lavished universally upon every creature.

Second, he recalls the particular goods which he confers upon the rational creature, at but the children of men.

He considers two things regarding the goods to all creatures.

First, he recalls those things which come from God universally.

Second, he rises up in admiration of the divine mercy, at O how you have multiplied your mercy, O God.

I say, therefore, that your mercy is great, and because of it you preserve men and beasts, that is, rational and irrational creatures.

Or, by men the just should be understood, and by beasts, sinners who are preserved temporally by God. He rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). Man, when he was in honor, did not understand (Ps 48:13).

And this common preservation consists in two things: preservation of the body—there is no riches above the riches of the health of the body (Sir 30:16)—and the provision of goods: save me . . . O king. And he said, “If the Lord does not save you, how can I save you? Out of the barn floor or out of the wine press? (2 Kgs 6:26–27).

Afterwards, he wonders at the divine mercy: O how have you multiplied your mercy, O God! That is, you have multiplied your mercy greatly so that you have preserved not only men, but also beasts.

Or it is that you care not only for the just but also for sinners, in that you have made temporal goods abound among them.

Jerome has, how precious.

The mercy of God is great, which preserves all. It is great, for you have given to each one more than he has merited. Your mercy is great upon me (Ps 85:13).

366. But the children of men. Here he describes the spiritual goods, which are three:

trust,

spiritual refreshment,

and intellectual knowledge.

These correspond to the grades of being.

There are certain beings that merely are,

some that are and live,

and some that, along with this, understand. (Cf. ST I, q. 14, a. 6.) And among these beings is the rational creature which participates in eternity, since the rational soul does not perish.

And so he says, the children of men, that is the children of the God of Christ; or the children of men is understood generally to mean all men.

They shall put their trust under the cover of your wings. And he speaks metaphorically. A hen shelters her chicks under her wings so they will not be killed; so God himself protects the rational creature with spiritual protection so that he will not fail, particularly in regard to the soul. How often would I have gathered together your children as the hen gathers her chicks under her wings? (Matt 23:37). In the shadow of his hand he has protected me (Isa 49:2).

Or he says, under the cover, that is, with spiritual protection. And so the two wings are the teachings of the New and Old Testaments.

Likewise, those who live here below are fed with special food.

So he first describes this refreshment.

Second, he describes its cause, at with you is the fountain of life.

Spiritual refreshment consists in two things:

in the gifts of God

and in his sweetness.

In regard to his gifts he says, they shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house. The house is the Church. That you may know how you should behave in the house of God (1 Tim 3:15). And when this house, which is in an earthly mode, shall be transferred to heaven, we shall go into the house of the Lord rejoicing (Ps 121:1).

The plenty of the gifts of God is found in both, but in this Church it is imperfect, but in the other there will be the most perfect abundance of all goods, and spiritual men will be satisfied with these. We shall be filled with the good things of your house (Ps 64:5).

And what is more, they shall be inebriated, in that their desires will be fulfilled beyond any measure merited, for inebriation is a certain excess. What eye has not seen (1 Cor 2:9; Isa 64:4). Be inebriated, my dearly beloved (Song 5:1). Now, those who are inebriated are not in themselves but are outside themselves. So those who are filled with the spiritual charisms have their whole intention carried outwards into God. Our conversation is in heaven (Phil 3:20). And this occurs not only by the refreshment of the gifts, but by the love of God. (Cf. ST I-II, q. 28, a. 3.) Then shall you abound in delights in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God (Job 22:26).

And so he says about his sweetness, and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure. This is the love of the Holy Spirit which acts forcefully upon the soul like a torrent. As a violent stream which the spirit of the Lord drives on (Isa 59:19). And it seems delightful because it causes delight and sweetness in the soul. O how good and sweet is your spirit O Lord, in us (Wis 12:1). And this drink is drunk by the good. They drank the same spiritual drink (1 Cor 10:4).

Or it is the torrent of your pleasure, namely of God, who is called a torrent: the torrent of wisdom as an overflowing stream (Prov 18:4), because his will is so effective that, like a torrent, it is not possible to resist him. Who resists his will? (Rom 9:19).

Now the material cause of this sort of refreshment is that they are joined to the fountain, and just as he who holds his mouth to a fountain of wine is inebriated, so he who holds his mouth—that is, his desire—to the fountain of life and of sweetness is inebriated. And another is drunk (1 Cor 11:21). And so he is inebriated, since with you is the fountain of life.

If this is referred to Christ, the sense is, with you is the fountain of life, that is, you are the fountain of life.

If it is referred to the Father, the sense is, with you is the fountain of life, that is, your Word, giving life to all. It is with you. The word was with God (John 1:1). They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water (Jer 2:13). He truly is the fountain of life, that is, of spiritual goods, from which all things are made to live. Intellectual knowledge, in which men or rational creatures participate, is related to this.

367. Likewise he says, and in your light we shall see light. There are two privileges that belong to the rational creature.

One is that the rational creature sees in the light of God, and other animals do not see in the light of God, so he says, in your light. This should not be understood about the light created by God, as though here were to be understood what is said in Genesis 1: be light made (Gen 1:3). But rather, in your light by which you shine, which is the likeness of your substance. Brute animals do not participate in this light, but the rational creature first participates in natural understanding. (Cf. Aquinas, Commentary on John 1, lect. 3; ST I, q. 79, a. 4.) For there is no other reason in the rational creature than the beams of divine clarity in the soul, on account of which clarity he is in the image of God. (Cf. ST I, q. 93, a. 2.) The light of your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us (Ps 4:7).

Second is the light of grace: rise you who sleep (Eph 5:14).

Third is the light of glory: arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for your light has come (Isa 60:1).

Or it is in your light, that is, in Christ, who is light from light, (Nicene Creed.) and so he is the light that is true God. Therefore, Christ is the light insofar as he proceeds from the Father. He is the fountain of life insofar as he is a principle of the life-giving spirit.

The other privilege is that only the rational creature sees this light, so he says, we shall see light. This light is either created truth, that is, Christ according to his humanity, or it is the uncreated truth, by which we know all other true things.

Spiritual light is truth, so just as something can be understood through light insofar as it is bright, so it is understood insofar as it is true.

Brute animals do understand some true things well, for example, that this is sweet, but not the truth of a proposition which is true, since this consists in the adequation of the intellect to the thing, which brutes cannot do. Therefore, the brutes do not have created light.

Similarly, they do not have the uncreated light, since man alone has been made to share the life of God through faith and through hope. So as now we see in the light through faith, so we will see him in his proper species when we will be in the fatherland.

368. Extend your mercy to those who know you. Here he turns to prayer and asks for the mercy of God.

First, he makes a petition for others;

second, for himself, at let the foot of pride not come to me.

He asks for two things, according to the two kinds of men who tend to be in the house of the Lord.

Indeed, some know God through faith,

and some who cling to him are justified.

Those who do not know God are not in his house, but those who have faith can be cast down by sin, and so he asks for mercy for them.

So he says, O Lord, to those who know you, through faith, and he speaks of the knowledge grasped through a certain clinging to these: extend, that is, intensify, reach your mercy out to them by having mercy on their sins. It is not a wise people (Isa 27:11). Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me (Jer 9:24).

But to those who are right in heart, that is, who have upright hearts and are confirmed in you through charity, extend to them—that is, enlarge justice—the crown which they have merited, since they have already merited a crown. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice (2 Tim 4:8). And so he asks for just things for them.

He asks for two things for himself.

First, he asks to be preserved from sin, and this is done by removing two causes of sin.

One is interior, and this is pride, which is the beginning of all sin, so he says, let not the foot of pride come to me, that is, remove the attitude of pride from me. Give me not haughtiness of my eyes (Sir 23:5).

Another cause is exterior, when he is incited to sin by another. And from those of others spare your servant (Ps 18:14). And so he says, and let not the hand of the sinner move me, that is, let the enticements and promises and blandishments not lead me to sin.

369. There the workers of iniquity are fallen. Here the reason for the petition is put forward, and it is twofold.

The first is that the foot has fallen, as when someone falls because of a foot which has an injury, and so he says, there, that is, in the foot of pride, they are fallen. Behold, pride is the beginning of all sin (Sir 10:15). A man sins by doing what is not contained under the divine law. But arrogance issues from pride. He who thinks himself to stand, that is, through pride, let him take heed lest he fall (1 Cor 10:12).

And he says, the workers, not “those who worked,” because sometimes someone sins from weakness or ignorance, and this sinful state does not endure, but when he sins from pride, then it endures, since they are glad when they have done evil and rejoice in the most wicked things (Prov 2:14).

Likewise, another cause is outside impulses, so he says, they are cast out, that is, they are cast out who rise up uselessly, as Lucifer was from heaven. And man was expelled from paradise through pride.

And could not stand. He shall drive him out of light into darkness (Job 18:18). But humility makes one stand fast. Our feet were standing (Ps 121:2).