Psalm 105
A confession of the manifold sins and ingratitudes of the Israeletes.
1 Give glory to the Lord, for he is good; for his merey endureth for ever.
2 Who shall declare the powers of the Lord? who shall set forth all his praises ?
3 Blessed are they that keep judgment, and do justice at all times.
4 Remember us, O Lord, in the favour of thy people : visit us with thy salvation,
5 That we may see the good of thy chosen, that we may rejoice in the joy of thy nation: that thou mayest be praised with thy inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers; we have acted unjustly: we have wrought iniquity.
7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt: they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies: and they provoked to wrath going up to the sea, even the Red Sea.
8 And he saved them for his own name’s sake, that he might make his power known.
9 And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up; and he led them through the depths as in a wilderness.
10 And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them: and he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 And the water covered them that afflicted them: there was not one of them left.
12 And they believed his words; and they sang his praises,
13 They had quickly done: they forgot his works; and they waited not for his counsel.
14 And they coveted their desire in the desert: and they tempted God in the place without water.
15 And he gaye them their request: and sent fulness into their souls.
16 And they proyoked Moses in the camp, Aaron the holy one of the Lord.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan; and covered the congregation of Abiron.
18 And a fire was kindled in their congregation; the flame burned the wicked.
19 They made also a calf in Horeb: and they adored the graven thing.
20 And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.
21 They forgot God, who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,
22 Wondrous works in the land of Cham: terrible things in the Red Sea.
23 And he said that he would destroy them; had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them.
24 And they set at nought the desirable land. They believed not his word:
25 And they murmured in their tents; they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.
26 And he lifted up his hand over them, to overthrow them in the desert;
27 And to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the countries.
28 They also were initiated to-Beelphegor ; and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
29 And they provoked him with their inventions: and destruction was multiplied among them.
30 Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him; and the slaughter ceased.
31 And it was reputed to him unto justice, to generation and generation for evermore.
32 They provoked him also at the waters of contradiction: and Moses was afflicted for their sakes;
33 Because they exasperated his spirit. And he distinguished with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the nations of which the Lord spoke unto them.
35 And they were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works;
36 And served their idols: and it became a stumbling-block to them:
37 And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils. «
38 And they shed innocent blood; the blood of their sons and of their daughters which they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan. And the land was polluted with blood,
39 And was defiled with their works: and they went aside after their own inventions. |
40 And the Lord was exceedingly angry: with his people: and he abhorred his inheritance.
41 And he delivered them into the hands of the nations: and they that hated them had dominion over them.
42 And their enemies afflicted them: and they were humbled under their hands:
43 Many times did he deliver them, But they provoked him with their counsel: and they were brought low by their iniquities.
44 And he saw when they were in tribulation; and he heard their prayer
45 And he was mindful of his covenant; and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
46 And he gave them unto mercies, in the sight of all those that had made them captives.
47 Save us, O Lord, our God: and gather us from among the nations; that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and may glory in thy praise. :
48 Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say: So be it, so be it.
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALM.
1 ‘ Give glory to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”
The prophet speaks here in the person of a faithful people sorry for their sins, and returning thanks to God. He invites all to praise God, for his goodness, for his previous direction of man, for the many favours he confers on him; and because his mercy in receiving the returning sinner remains ever un-
changed ; it cven exceeds our misery, which we may.
attribute to our crimes, which even, through God’s mercy, speedily disappear, whereas ‘‘ his justice continueth for ever and ever.”
2 ‘* Who shall declare the powers of the Lord? who shall set forth all his praises ?”
Having invited all to praise God, he now asks where will any one be found fit to praise him. ‘“ Who shall declare?” who is equal to the task ? “ The power of the Lord;” the works of his power, or rather, of his omnipotence, which he repeats when be says, “Who shall set forth all his praises ?” avising from a knowledge of the works of his power. Though the prophet speaks of all the attributes of God as worthy of praise, he speaks principally of his power, to which all his attributes may be reduced. For, of his wisdom it is written, ‘* She reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly ;” and, in fact, God’s wisdom is all-powerful, and canpot be thwarted, and as such cannot be deceived. By a similar process of reasoning, the works of his mercy may be brought under the bead of his power, because God alone is absolutely merciful, for be alone can remove all misery; and thus, he alone is, properly speaking, merciful, and that by reason of his omnipotence. He, then, that could speak of all God’s powers, could also cause all his praises to be heard, But where is the man capable of doing that? The just man, in this life, can do it to a certain extent, according to his abilities; but much more fully and satisfactorily will it be done by the blessed in the world to come ; and, therefore, the prophet, in answer to his own query, says,
_ 3“ Blessed are they that keep judgment, and do justice at all times.”
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
As much as to say, they alone are blessed, and, therefore, alone able to declare the power of the Lord, and to set forth his praises, “‘ who keep judgments, and do justice at all times ;” that is, they whro always form a correct judgment on every thing they do, by reason of their following the rule of the divine law in all their actions; ard thus lead a life of sanctity, in declining from evil, and doing good. This may be applied to the blessed on their pilgrimage, as well as to the blessed in heaven; the former “keep judgment and do justice,” to the hest of their abilities, as far as buman frailty will allow them, and they ask pardon for their daily sins; the latter do it with that amount of perfection that leaves no room for any sin. Thus, both are required to praise God, but in a different way, according to the relative degree of their perfection and happiness.
4 “* Remember us, O Lord, in the favour of thy people : visit us with thy salvation. 3
5 “ That we may see the good of thy chosen, that we may rejoice in the joy of thy nation: that thou mayest be praised with thy inheritance.” -
Having said that to the just and the blessed belonged the duty of praising God, he wishes that he and his may share in that pleasing duty, and briefly touches on predestination, justification, and glory, the beginning, the means, and the end of human happiness. ‘‘ Remember us, O Lord, in the favour of thy people.” Carry out those benevolent intentions of yours in regard of your people, that of your pure free will you selected before the beginning of the world to be your little flock, and to bestow your everlasting kingdom on them. ‘‘ Visit us with thy salvation; and, in order to carry that out, visit us through Christ our Saviour, cleansing us, through his merits, from our sins, “that we may see the good of thy chosen.” That, having been predestined, and justified, we may come to see the good of thy chosen, which means that the very face of the Lord may be made conspicnous to us. ‘ For we shali then be like to him when we shall see him as he is,” 1 Johniii. By the “good of thy elect” we are not to understand their own probity or goodness, but the supreme happiness that is their lot. “ That we may rejoice in the joy of thy nation.’ That we may partake in that unspeakable joy that arises from the beatific vision, which is the peculiar property of your nation; that is, of your chosen people, of which strangers cannot taste, of which the gospel says, “« Enter into the joy of thy Lord,”’—“ that thou mayest be praised with thy inheritance ;” that all your favours may have the effect of eternal praise being rendered to you and your inheritance; to you for having produced so noble a work, and to the inheritance, as being the work of your own hands; to you, as being a most powerful, wise, superior, and excelling artist, to whom no one can be compared ; and to your inheritance, as a most perfect incomparable work, that cannot be equalled, By “ in-
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
heritance” is meant that assembly of the just selected by God as his own possession ; for inheritance and possession appear to be synonymous in the Scripture, and are used indiscriminately.
6 ‘We have sinned with our fathers ; we have acted unjustly: we have wrought iniquity.
7 * Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt : they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies: and they provoked to wrath going up to the sea, even the Red Sea.
8 ‘And he saved them for his own name's sake : that he might make his power known.
9 ** And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up ; and he led them through the depths, as in a wilderness.
10 ‘* And he saved them from the hand of them that hated them: and he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 ‘And the water covered them that afflicted them: there was not one of them left.
12 “* And they believed his words: and they sang his praises.”
The prophet, speaking now in the person of those not quite perfect, but still penitent, begins to confess his sins and the sins of their fathers from the time of their departure out of Egypt to the present day, coupling it with praise of God’s mercy, that never closes its bosom against the penitent. Those verses are easily understood from the book of Exodus and Psalm Ixxvii. ‘ We have sinned with our fathers” means, we, too, have sinned by imitating them. “ Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt? refers to the time when they saw Pharao’s army in pursuit of them, and got so dispirited that they began to murmur against Moses for having led them out of Egypt; for had they understood the previous miracles that had been performed by the Almighty they would have placed unbounded confidence in his hope and protection. “ And they provoked to wrath” means, that when they saw the Red Sea before them, and Pharao’s army behind them, they provoked God by their diffidence and incredulity. ‘‘ Going up to the sea, the Red Sea,” means, on their journey to the Red Sea. ‘ He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up,” is a poetical expression, signifying that the Red Sea retired at God’s command, just as a slave would fly from his master’s presence on being severely rebuked. “ And he led them through the depths;” that is, through the place that a moment before had been the depths of the sea ; an expression similar to ‘‘ the blind see, the deaf hear,” meaning, those who had been so afflicted.
13 ‘ They had quickly done: they forgot his works: and they waited not for his counsel.
14 “ And they coveted their desire in the desert : and they tempted God in the place without water.|
15 ‘‘ And he gave them their request: and sent fulness into their souls.”
The prophet goes on with the relation of the ingratitude of the people, and that, ae witnessing
337 the astounding miracle performed in the Red Sea, and for which they had thanked God so profoundly ; for no sooner did they feel the slightest want of food and drink than they lost all sight of God’s providence and omnipotence, and broke out in language of impatience and infidelity. “ They had quickly done,” without any delay, ‘‘they forgot his works,” all the miracles they had witnessed; “ and they waited not for his counsel,” they would not wait for the time appointed by God in his counsel or wisdom; for God, in allowing them to suffer for a while, was only trying their faith, their hope, and their love, while they, in ignorance of God’s designs, began to murmur, as if he did not care for them, or could not help them. He now enters into the particulars of their impatience. ‘* And they coveted their desire in the desert; and they tempted God in the place without water.” They could not have patience even for a short time, or endure for a moment the scarcity of bread and water. “ They coveted their desire” is not an unusual phrase, meaning, merely, that they longed or wished for. ‘‘ And he gave them their request,” bread and water, that they asked. “ And sent fulness into their hearts,” by not only giving them food and drink, but giving both in abundanee, Exod. xvi. and xvii., Num. xi. and xx.
16 ‘‘ And they provoked Moses in the camp, Aaron the holy one of the Lord.
17 ‘“* The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan: and covered the congregation of Abiron.
18 ‘‘ And a fire was kindled in their congregation: the flame burned the wicked.”
He now alludes to Dathan and Abiron, whose history may be found in Numbers xvi. ‘“ They provoked Moses in the camp.” Core, Dathan, and Abiron, provoked him by charging him with having usurped supreme power. ‘“‘ Aaron, the holy one of the Lord;” and they provoked Aaron too, who was sanctified by God to be his priest. ‘* Zhe earth opened,” &c., and swallowed up the three of them, with all their families and substance, “ and covered the congregation,” &c. After opening and swallowing them it closed upon the rebels, and covered them and their families. ‘ And a fire was kindled in the congregation, the flame burned the wicked,” Immer diately after the death of those three disaffected, some of the Jews, who were not. authorized to offer incense, having presumed to do so, fire from heaven descended and killed two hundredeand fifty of them; and when the people began to murmur against Moses, as if he had been the author of it, another fire was sent by God that consumed four thcusand seven hundred of them,
19 ‘' They made also a calf im Horeb; and they adored the graven thing,
20 ‘* And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.
21 ‘* They forgot God, who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt,
92‘ Wondrous works intheland of Cham: terrible things in the Red Sea.
23 “ And he said that he would destroy them; had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them.”
The prophet now gives expression to his detestation of the people’s idolatry, in making a calf of gold, and rendering divine worship to it; and, at the same time, praises God’s mercy, in having, at the instance of Moses, forgiven so great a sin. Exod. xxxii. “ They made also @ calf in Horeb;” a calf of gold, to represent an idol they had seen in Egypt, that was made for them by Aaron, who was obliged to comply with their wishes through fear. They did that at Horeb, a mountain quite convenient to mount Sinai. “ And they adored the graven thing ;” the golden heifer; and though it is not a graven thing, but a molten thing, it is called graven, it being a general term for all idols, whether of timber or marble, that are, properly speaking, graven; or of gold or silver, that are usually molten. He alludes to mount Horeb, and to graven things, because it was on mount Horeb that God, when he appeared not long before, said to them, ‘* Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing; thou shalt not adore or worship them;” and thus a great aggravation in the sin of the Jews was, that they made and set up for adoration this graven or molten thing, on the very spot on which God had forbidden it. ‘“ And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.” An aggravation of the folly of the Jews consisted in their setting up an idol in the form of a calf for the true God, thereby changing their - glory, the true God, who was their glory, for the image of a brute beast; nor does he say they exchanged God fora beast, but, to render the case worse, for the image ofa calf, or, in other words, the most precious thing in existence for the most contemptible. “ They forgot God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Cham, terrible things in the Red Sea.” A further aggravation of the folly of the Jews consisted in their having forgotten or deserted that God who freed them from the captivity of Pharao, for the service of a god who could neither save himself nor any one else ; for Moses smashed the calf, and made powder of it without any resistance, or even consciousness, on the part of the golden calf. They also forgot that God of all power, ‘ who hath done great things in Egypt,” which was also called the land of Cham ; “ terrible things in the Red Sea;” by drying it up so as to afford a passage through to the children of Israel, and then letting the waters on so as to suffocate the Egyptians; and, notwithstanding all this, they worshipped an empty, an imbecile god, that is to say, a mute and useless image, “ And he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach.” God, then, determined, and said he would destroy them; and he would have done so, had not Moses, his chosen ser-
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
vant, interfered, and by his intercession succeeded “in turning away his wrath lest he should destroy them.” He uses a metaphor, taken from a brave soldier who stands in the breach to repel the enemy until his own reinforcements should come up; and from this we can argue in favour of the power of the intercession of the saiuts,
24 * And they set at nought the desirable land. They beieved not his word:
25 ‘+ And they murmured in their tents; they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.
26 ‘ And he lifted up his hand over them, to overthrow them in the desert ;
27 ‘+ And to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the countries.”
The prophet now records another sin of the Jews, in their despising the land of promise, which Ged told them was one flowing with milk and honey. “ And they set at nought the desirable land.” They despised and thought little of the land of promise, instead of valuing it highly, as they should have done; for they said, ‘ Zhe land which we have viewed devoureth its inhabitants.”—“ They believed not his word;” God’s word, that he had spoken so often to them, as to the quality of the land; and “they murmured in their tents” against him who had brought them out of Egypt to establish them in the land of promise. ‘* They hearkened not to the voice of the Lord;” they did not obey his commands. “ And he lifted up his hand over them; to overthrow them in the desert. And he cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the countries.” He raised his hand, armed with the sword of justice, over his sinful people, in order to slay the murmurers in the desert, and to scatter their posterity, abject and desolate, all over the world, so that they could no longer be called a nation. The former has been already accomplished, for all the murmurers perished in the desert; the latter, at the instance of Moses, was not then and there carried out, but, in consequence of the repeated sins of the people, was fully accomplished, both by the king of Babylon, and by ‘Titus and Vespasian. How incensed, then, must not God feel with those who despise the kingdom of heaven, as announced and promised to us by his Son, when he was so grievously incensed with the Jews for having disregarded the land of promise, that was nothing but earth, and a mere figure of the kingdom of heaven ?
28 “ They also were initiated to Beelphegor ; and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
29 ‘‘ And they provoked him with their inventions : and destruction was multiplied among them,
30 ‘* Then Phinecs stood up, and pacified him ; and the slaughter ceased.
31 “And it was reputed to him unto justice, to generation and generation for evermore.”
David now alludes to another sin committed by the Jews, the history of which is to be found in Numbers xxv. We read there that the children of Israel,
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
seduced by the daughters of Moab, began to commit fornication with them, and to worship an idol of their’s, called Beelphegor, which incensed God so much that he ordered all the princes of the people to be hanged on gibbets; but when Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, in his zeal slew an Israelite in the act of fornication with a Madianite “woman, God was so pleased with his zeal, that he forgave the whole people for it. ‘“* They also were witrated to Beelphegor ;” to their other sins the Israclites added that of becoming disciples of Beelphegor, the idol of the Madianites; “‘ and ate the sacrifice of the dead;” the sacrifices that were offered to their dead gods, such as Apis and Serapis with the Egyptians, Jupiter and Apollo with the Greeks, instead of sacriticiug to the one, true, and living God. ‘‘ And they provoked him with their inventions.” They naturally provoked God by the worship of new gods invented by them; not that they were the first to set up Beelphegor, but that they were the first to learn his worship from the Moabites, and introduce it to the Israelites. “ And destruction was multiplied among them,” in consequence of that sin destruction set in upon them, numbers of them having miserably perished. ‘“* Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him; and the slaughter ceased.” Phinees, full of zeal for the glory of God, stood up courageously against the impious deserters of the old religion, and by his ra so appeased God, that ‘‘ the slaughter ceased.” “ And it was reputed to him unto justice.” God, who searcheth the heart, and well knew the good disposi: tions of Phinees, did not look upon such slaughter as a sinful act, or one worthy of punishment, but, on the contrary, asa good and a meritorions act, ‘ and that £0 generation and generation for evermore ;” inallusion to the promise. made by God to Phinees, that in consideration of what he did so nobly, the priesthood should remain in his family as long as the Jewish dynasty should hold.
32 * They provoked him also at the waters of con- #radiction : and Moses was afflicted for their sakes ;
83 “ Because they exasperated his spirit. And he distingmshed with his lips.”
He now passes to another sin of the Jews, recorded in Numbers xx. When the people, suffering from want of water, began to wrangle with Moses, who was so frightened that-he seemed to have some hesitation, and ‘said; “© Can we bring you forth water from this rock 2” however, on striking the rock twice, water poured forth in the greatest abundance. God, however, half in anger with Moses for his hesitation, in punishment of it did’ not allow him to introduce the people to the land of promise, and he died on the way to it. “ They provoked him;” the Jews provoked God “at the waters of contradiction ;” the place where they upbraided and wrangled with Moses, by reason of their want of water. “ And Moses was afflicted for their sakes,” troubled and grieved in his mind at the unreasonableness of the
people. “ Because they exasperated his spirit.” By their murmurs and reproaches they made Moses, who, at all times was most alive and ready to carry out all God’s commands, now truly downcast and disheartened. ‘ And he distinguished with his lips;? they so confused him, that when God ordered him to bring the water from the rock, he did not put full faith in God, or give him that implicit obedience be required ; for God said to him, “ Speak to the rock before thee, and it shall yield waters,” instead of doing which he said, “ Can we bring you forth water from this rock?” and thus, “he distinguished with his lips.”
34 “They did not destroy the nations of which the Lord spoke unto them.
35 “ And they were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works ;
36 ‘ And served their idols: and it became a stumbling-block to them:”
He now records another grievous transgression of the Jews, who, instead of banishing all the idolaters from the land of promise, as they had been ordered by God, began to cohabit with them, and to adopt their superstitions and sacrileges. Herein he alludes to the words of the Angel, who, in the person of God, thus addresses them, Judges. ii., ** J made you go out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land jor which I swore to your fathers; and I promised that I would not make void my covenant for ever, on condition that you should not make a league with the inhabitants of this land, but should throw down their altars ; and you would not hear my voice., Why have you done this?”—* And they were mingled among the heathens, and learned their works, and served their idols,” as the whole book of Judges testifies 5 “‘ and at became a stuinbling-block to them;” proved their ruin; for it caused God to give them up to various idolatrous kings, as we read in the same book; and it was only meet that they who preferred the devil to God, should be handed over to the devil’s servants.
37 ** And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils.
38 * And they shed innocent blood; the blood of their sons and of their daughters which they sacrificed to the idols of Chanaan. And the land was polluted with
blood, 39 “ And was defiled with their works: and they went
There is no record of all this in the book of Judges, but it must, of necessity be true, as the Holy Ghose inspired the prophet to record it, who possibly had it also by tradition. God once commanded Abraham to slay his son, yet he would not allow him to doit, being satisfied with his readiness to obey ; but the false gods, the demons, envying God for such obediente in Abraham, not satisfied with the same readiness on the part ‘of their dupes, actually required of then: to sacrifice and spill the blood of foes own children. And such was the blindness of man then, that they did rot feel such tyranny on the part of the demons, nor perceive the difference between the sweet
yoke of their Maker, and the severe and bitter fetters of the destroyer. ‘“ And they went aside after their own inventions; that synagogue of the Jews that was betrothed to God left him, abandoned him, and went in pursuit of idols, to worship them; idols of their own invention, for they learned no such worship from Moses, but rather from the idolaters about them that they thus chose to follow.
40 “ And the Lord was exceedingly angry with his people : and he abhorred his inheritance.
41 ‘+ And he delivered them into the hands of the nations: and they that hated them had dominion over them.
42 ‘+ And their enemies afflicted them: and they were humbled under their hands:
43 ‘* Many times did he deliver them. But they provoked him with their counsel: and they were brought low by their iniquities.
44“ And he saw when they were in tribulation: and he heard their prayer.
45 *¢ And he was mindful of his covenant; and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
46 ‘ And he gave them unto mercies, in the sight of all those that had made them captives.”
These seven verses area sort of abridgment of the book of Judges, where we read of God having been so provoked by the sins of the Jews that he frequeatly allowed them to fall into the hands of their enemies the Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and others; but when they would return to penance he was wont to raise up some brave leader, such as Jepthe, Gedeon, Samson, ,and others, to deliver them. The only verse of those seven requiring an explanation is the last. ‘ And he gave them unto mercies in the sight of all those that had made them captives.” God so placed them in the bosom of his mercy, to the utter astonishment of those who made them captives, that their very enemies could not deny but that God was fighting for his own people.
47 “ Save us, O Lord our God: and gather us from among the nations ; that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and may glory in thy praise.
48 ‘* Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting : and let all the people say: So be it; so be it.”
The conclusion of the Psalm, in which the prophet prays to God to gather all his faithful from the nations; that is, to bring back all the strayed ones to the assembly of the pious, that all may together give thanks to God, and praise him, and also glory
in praising him. Some think that herein he alludes to the dispersion in the Babylonish captivity, which he foresaw in spirit ; but it is more likely that he alludes to the dispersion among the gentiles that were still in the land of promise, and against whom David had waged several wars. He concludes by praising God, saying, “ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” at all times, or rather for ever, and let all the people confirm his prayer by saying, ‘So be wd, so be it.” And this is the end of the fourth book, according to the Hebrews.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
PSALM OVI,
All are invited to give thanks to God for his perpetual providence over men.
1 Give glory to the Lord, for he is good : for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let them say so that have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the countries,
3 From the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea.
4 They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city for their habitation.
5 They were hungry and thirsty : their soul fainted in them.
6 And they cried to the Lord in their tribulation: and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them into the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him; and his wonderful works to the children of men.
9 For he hath satisfied the empty soul; and hath filled the hungry soul with good things.
10 Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in want and in iron,
11 Because they had exasperated the words of God; and provoked the counsel of the Most High:
12 And their heart was humbled with labours: they were weakened, and there was none to help them.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction: and he delivered them out of their distresses.
14 And he brought them out of darkness, and the shadow of death; and broke their bonds in sunder.
15 Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
16 Because he hath broken gates of brass, and burst iron bars, —.
17 He took them out of the way of their iniquity: for they were brought low for their injustices.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of meat: and they drew nigh even to the gates of death.
19 And they cried to the Lord in their
affliction : and he delivered them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word, and healed them: and delivered them from their destructions.
21 Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifice of praise: and declare his works with joy.
23 They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters:
24 These have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
25 He said the word, and there arose a storm of wind: and the waves thereof were lifted up.
26 They mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths: their soul pined away with evils.
27 They were troubled, and reeled like a drunken man: and all their wisdom was swallowed up.
28 And they cried to the Lord in their affliction; and he brought them out of their distresses,
29 And he turned the storm into’ a breeze: and its waves were still.
30 And they rejoiced because they were still; and he brought them to the haven which they wished for, ;
31 Letthe mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
32 And let them exalt him in the church of the people: and praise him in the chair of the ancients.
33 He hath turned rivers into a wilderness, and the sources of waters into dry ground:
34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
35 He hath turned a wilderness into pools of waters, and a dry land into water springs.
36 And hath placed there the hungry: and they made a city for their habitation.
37 And they sowed fields, and planted vineyards: and they yielded fruit of birth.
38 And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly; and their cattle he suffered not to decrease.
39 Then they were brought to be few: and they were afflicted through the trouble of evils and sorrow.
40 Contempt was poured forth upon their princes: and he caused them to wander where there was no passing, and out of the way.
41 And he he!ped the poor out of poverty ; and made Aim families like a flock of sheep.
42 The just shall see and shall rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
43 Who is wise, and will keep these things, and will understand the mercies of the Lord?
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALM.
1 “ Give glory to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 * Let them say so that have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the countries.
3 ‘* From the rising and from the setting of the sun, Srom the north and from the sea.”
This is the preface of the Psalm, in which David exhorts all who have experienced the mercies of the Lord to declare his praise, and especially to give glory to the Lord himself, because he is truly good and merciful, and his mercy never fails, He specially invites the faithful, redeemed by the blood of his only begotten from the bondage of a most powerful enemy, the prince of darkness, who held them in bonds at his own discretion, whom he afterwards collected and gathered together to be one people, one Church, one kingdom, children of his delight, not from Egypt or Babylon, as formerly were the Jews, but ‘fromthe rising and the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea;” that is, from the four quarters of the world, as we read in John x. “And other sheep I have that are not of the fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd;” and in chap. xi., “ For Jesus should die for the nation, and not only for the nation but to gather together into one the children of God that were dispersed.” Though all the faithful, whether Jew or gentile, are specially invited, still the invitation applies in general to all men who may have been at any time, or in any place whatever, delivered by the Lord from any manner of trouble; for redemption is frequently used in the Scripture for any manner of delivery or salvation, without any price having been paid for it. It also applies to those who may have been delivered from the hand—that is, from the power of any enemy; and, finally, to those who may have been delivered from any exile or dispersion in any extremity of the world, and brought back to their country and re-united to their people. The whole world is included in the verse, “from the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea;” in other words, from east to west, from north to south,
4 ‘* They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water: they found not the way of a city for their habitation.
5 ‘* They were hungry and thirsty : their soul fainted in them.
6 “ And they cried to the Lord in their tribulation : and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 ‘* And he led them into the right way, that they might goto a city of habitation.
8 ‘ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him; and his wonderful works to the children of men.
9 “* For he hath satisfied the empty soul; and hath Jjilled the hungry soul with good things.” ¥
This is the first part of the Psalm, containing an explanation of the first affliction. There are four -afilictions of the body common to all, and there are also four spiritual ailictions. The corporeal afflictions are hunger and thirst, caused by the infecundity of the earth, or by want of rain; that is to say, from some natural cause extrinsic to the sufferers; secondly, captivity, caused by the violence of others, that is, from some voluntary, extrinsic source; thi: dly, disease or sickness, which arises from some intrinsic source, from bad constitution ; and fourthly, the danger of shipwreck, caused by an external, uatural cause, as also by an internal and yoluntary cause, namely, man’s curiosity, which, not content with the solidity of the earth, must needs make trial of the liquid deep. ‘here are also four spiritual afflictions, called by theologiaus natural wounds, wounds left in us‘through original sin; they are ignorance, concupiscence, bad temper, and malice; to which are opposed prudence, temperance, patience, and justice, which are called the four cardinal virtues. In this first division of the Psalm, then, the prophet sings of God’s mercy in delivering us from the first of these afflictions, including both corporal and spiritual ; and though he appears to allude barely to the hunger and thirst the Jews suffered in the desert, still, the principles laid down byhim are universal, and are applicable to all; and thus, he says, ‘* They wandered in a wilderness, in a place without water.” Many, in quest of their country, have wandered through a pathless country, and one without water, as occurred to the Jews for forty years. “ They found not the way of a city for their habitation,’ after straying for a long time, and in all directions, they f,und no way leading to a city where they may safely rest and dwell, “ They were hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in*them.” In their wanderings they met with neither meat nor drink, and they, in consequence, all but gave up the ghost. “ And they cried to the Lord in their tribulation,’ when all human aid failed them they appealed to God, “ and he delivered them out of their distresses.” THe was not found wanting when they appealed to him, but with that mercy that characterizes him, he delivered them, ‘And he led them into the right way, -that they might go to a city of habitation;” the mode he chose for delivering them was to shew them the shortest possible way to the city where he dwelt himself. “ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him.” It is, therefore, only right and just that such benefits conferred on man by God in his mercy, should be praised and acknowledged by all, as true favours from God ; “ and his wonderful works to the children of men;” the wonderful things he did for the liberation of mankind should-also be duly praised and
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
acknowledged, ‘‘ or he hath satisfied the empty soul.” Because he provided the most extraordinary
food, prepared by the hands of the Angels, for a lot
‘of hungry people in the desert, nigh exhausted for
want of food. This, as we have already said, is most applicable to the food provided for the Jews; but there can ke no doubt but the prophet meant, by this example, .to teach all those who have been rescued from ignorance and from the misery of thirst and hunger, that they owe their deliverance to God, and that they should, therefore, thank his mercy. And there can be no doubt but the prophet had specially before his mind that ignorance of the way of, salvation, under which so many labour, and who stray about, as it were in a desert, hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of truth, the source of wisdom and of prudence. We naturally look for happiness. There is no one that does not look for it, and, therefore, for the way that leads to it ; however, many, pre-occupied by the thoughts and the desires of passing good, look for happiness where it is not to be found ; nay, even look upon that to be happiness which is anything but happiness ; and when they know not in what it consists, naturally know not the way that leads to it. Thus, in their strayings and wanderings, they never find, though they are always hungering and thirsting for the city of their true habitation; beeause the longings of an immortal soul, capable of appreciating supreme happiness, can never be content with the things of this world, miserable and transitory as they are; while those whom God ‘ hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy,” and “ gathered out of the countries,” beginning to feel their own blindness, through the great gift of God’s mercy, “they ery to the Lord,” and are heard by him ; they are “ led into the right way, that leads to the city ;” they know that the kingdom of God is their ultimate end, and that justice is the means of acquiring it ; “ hungering and thirsting,” then, for justice, they run to the fountain of grace, and, refreshed from that fountain, they arrive at the heavenly city, where they are filled and satisfied with all manner of good things, so that they never hunger or thirst again for all eternity,
10 “Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in want and in iron.
11 “ Because they had exasperated the words of God ; and provoked the counsel of the Most High:
12 “ And their heart was hwmbled with labours : they were weakened, and there was none to help them.
13 ‘* Then they cried to the Lord in their affliction : and he delivered them out of their distresses. :
14 ‘* And he brought them out of darkness, and the shadow of death ; and broke their bonds in sunder.
15 “ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
16 ‘ Because he hath broken gates of brass, and burst tron bars.”
This is the second part of the Psalm, in which he reviews the deliverance from the second affliction, corporal as well as spiritual, The second corporal
COMMENTARY
affliction consists in captivity, through which poor creatures are shut up in dark prisons, bound with chains, and loaded with manacles. He seems to aljude to the captivity of the Jews, under various persecutors, in the time of the judges, or perhaps under Pharao; for David does not seem to have taken much trouble in relating matters chronologically ; the more so as what he states here is applicable to all captives, to all in chains and fetters, who may at any time have been liberated through the mercy of the Lord. “ Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in want and in tron;” that is to say, i have known others who were taken by the enemy and were shut up in loathsome prisons and dense da:kness, and were loaden with chains and reduced to beggary, ‘ because they had exasperated the words of God, and provoked the counsel of the Most High.” These were justly afflicted and punished in that manner, because they disregarded God’s precepts and despised his advice. ‘‘ Hwasperating God’s words” means provoking him to anger when he speaks or commands, which is done by those who do not keep his commandments. They, too, may be said to “exasperate God's words’ who provoke his very commandments to anger; for, as the commandments of God crown those that observe them, so they punish those that transgress them; and in this manner they who trausgress the commandments provoke them against themselves. There isa certain amount of figurative language in the whole; for “ G'od’s words’ mean God, in his discourse or his commands; and the word ‘* exasperating’ means God’s punishment being as grievous as if he were capable of being exasperated. A similar figure of speech appears in the following sentence: “and provoked the counsel of the Most High;” for the “ counsel of the Most High” must be understood as applying to God in his goodness, with the best intentions, irritated by those who opposed them; or *‘ provoked” may be rendered as contemning or despising, for those who do either provoke, that is, excite to anger. “ And their heart was humbled with labour ;” their pride was brought down by captivity, chains, and fetters. They are just the things to do it. ‘ They were weakened, and there was none to help them.” They were not able to resist their enemies; avd thus, having no one to help them, were led off in captivity. ‘ Then they oried to the Lord,” &c.; then they began to implore the divine assistance, a free them as well from their dark prisons as from their chains and fetters; and, to shew the extent of their obligations to him, he adds, “‘ he broke gates of brass and burst iron bars,” to shew how firmly secured they had been, and what power it required to liberate them ; and thus, on the whole, they are proved to have been delivered from a most severe and wretched captivity. Now, the second spiritual affliction consists in the concupiscence of this worl—such as its goods, its wealth, its pleasure, which, like so many chains and fetters, so tie a man down that, though he is fully aware. of
true happiness existing in God alone, and that, while he remains here below, he must mortify his members, still he remains a captive, without being able to stir, if the grace of God will not set him free. The
_ beginning of his freedom must have its source in his own humility. He must feel that he is a captive, that he has no strength in him, that his heart has been humbled in his labours, and, satisfied of there being no one able to help him but the one heavenly Father, he must, in a contrite and humble heart, with much interior sorrow, exclaim, Lord, I suffer violence ; look on me, and haye mercy on me. ‘ Unhappy man that Iam, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The mercy of the Father will most surely. be at hand to bring the captive from his prison, to burst his fetters, so that, on gaining his liberty, he can with joy exclaim, ‘* O Lord, thou hast broken my bonds, I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise.” ;
17 “ He took them out of the way of their iniquity : Sor they were brought low for their injustices.
18 ‘* Their soul abhorred all manner of meat: and they drew nigh even to the gates. of death.
19.‘ And they cried to the Lord in their affliction : and he delivered them out of their distresses.
20 “ He sent his word, and healed them: livered them from their destructions.
21 ‘ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
22 ‘* And let them sacrifice the sacrifice of praise s and declare his works with joy.”
The third part of the Psalm, treating of the third corporeal affliction, which is a most severe disease and languor, such as that. of the children of Israel, when God afflicted them with a great plague, through the fiery serpents, so that numbers of them were constantly dying; but no sooner did they cry out to God than they ware delivered; and, in like manner, no matter how any one, or to what extent they may be struck down by sickness or disease, if they will seriously, from the bottom of their heart, in firm faith, and with the other xequisites, invoke the Almighty, they will most assuredly be delivered. To enter into particulars, especially as regards expressions not explained before. ‘‘ He sole them out of the way of their mnngnuaty ; for they were brought low for their injustices.” We must, of necessity, supply ‘something here; for instance, God saw some of them lying prostrate, “and took them,” that is, raised them up, ‘ out of the Wi of their iniquity,” in which they were miserably plunged ; ‘‘ for they were brought low for their injustices,” even to the very earth; ‘ther ‘soul abhorred all manner of megs and they drew nigh even to the gates of death.” The disease must haye been very severe when they refused the food necessary to support life, so that death must have, in consequence, been actually at their doors, ‘* He sent his word, and healed them.” And he explains how, by the will or by the command of God alone, without the brazen serpent, or any other created thing ; not that things created, such as drugs and medicines,
and de-
ate of no use, but’that they have their virtue and efficacy from God, and without his co-operation they are of no value; but God, of himself, without their intervention or application, by his sole word and command, can heal and cure all manner of diseases; in which sense we are to understand that passage in Wisdom, * For it was neither herb nor mollifying plaster that healed them, but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things;” and, in a few verses before, speaking of those who had been bitten by the fiery serpents, and were,cured by looking on the brazen one, he says, “‘ or he that turned to it was not healed by that which he saw, but by thee the Saviour of all.” David speaks figuratively when he says, “ He sent his word, and healed them;” as if his word were a messenger or an ambassador on the occasion; unless, perhaps, he alludes to the mission of the Word incarnate, through whom many were healed of their corporeal diseases, and without whom nobody could be healed of their spiritual diseases. ‘‘ Mor there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.” The third spiritual afiliction consists in the infirmity or weakness and frailty of human nature, corrupted by sin. There are many who understand thoroughly what they ought to do, and are anxious to do it; but they either have no strength, or have not sufficient strength to do it, until they get it from on high. ‘They are also, not unfrequently, so affected by a sort of languor or listlessness, that their soul loathes all manner of food; not that they are led into any error, or seduced by any evil concupiscence, but they take no delight in God’s word, they know not what it is to feel any heavenly aspirations, and they run the risk of saffering from hunger, not for want of wherewith to satisfy themselves, but from sheer fastidiousness ; and such temptations are neither trifling nor uncommon. They have great need of “ crying to the Lord,” to rectify their bad taste, and bring them to have a desire for the milk of divine consolation ; and when they shall have begun to relish the things that are from above, and to taste how sweet is the Lord, let them not take the merit of it to themselves; but “‘ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him ; let them sacrifice the sacrifice of praise, and declare his works with joy;” for it clearly is the work of God, and not of man, to make man, accustomed to nothing but the things of this earth, and to what he sees, to have an ardent desire for and feel a sweet relish in the things of the other world, that are hidden from him.
23 “They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters:
24 “ These have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep,
25 ' He said the word, and there arose a storm of wind : and the waves thereof were lifted up.
26 “* They mount up to the heavens, and they go down to the depths: their soul pined away with evils.
27 ‘+ They were troubled, and reeled like a drunken man: and all their wisdom was swallowed up.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
28 ‘+ And they cried to the Lord in their afflictions and he brought them out of their distresses.
29 ‘+ And he turned the storm into a breeze: and its waves were still.
30 ‘' And they rejoiced because they were still: and he brought them to the haven which they wished for.
81 ‘ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.
82 ‘+ And let them exalt him in the church of the people: and praise him in the chair of the ancients.”
This isthe fourth part of the Psalm, in which God is praised for his care of those that are in danger at sea. No example of such danger, previous to David’s time, occurs in the Scriptures, but subsequent to David, we have that of Jonas, of the Apostles, and of St. Panl. “ They that go down to the sea in ships.” They who cross the deep, and are engaged either in rowing, reefing, or setting the sails, know from experience many wonderful works of God, that many know nothing whatever of, or if they do, have it only from hearsay; for instance, the fury of the storm, the raging and roaring of the waves, the immense extent and depth of the sea, the constant and imminent danger that surrounds them, and the fear that will so lay hold on them betimer, as to make the hearts of the bravest quail. ‘ He said the word and there arose a@ storm of wind;’ God spoke, and the storm, in obedience to its Creator, at once arose, sprung up, and, in consequenee, ‘ the waves were lifted up; so that they seemed almost to touch the skies ; and, ultimately, to expose the lowest depths of the sea; ‘‘therr soul pined away with evils; fear so laid ho!d on them, that they became incapable of any manner of exertion; nay more, “ They were troubled and reeled like a drunken man; and all their wisdom was swallowed wp ;” a most natural description of the state of those in danger from shipwreck ; they lose all presence of mind, can adopt no fixed counsel, and, consequently, cannot act upon any ; “and all their wisdom,” in steering and righting a ship, if ever they had any, seems to have entirely taken leave of them. ‘“‘ And they cried to the Lord in their affliction.” This verse, occurring now for the fourth time, has been already explained, and the other verses do not seem to need any.—Now, the fourth spiritual affliction is that malice of the will, which principally consists in pride, that is the queen of vice. And, in fact, when the blasts of pride begin to play upon the sea of the human heart then the billows of its desires are raised up even to the very heavens. We are all acquainted with the language of the prince of the sons of pride, “ L will aseend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will ascend above the height of the clouds, L will be like the Most High.” It was by him the giants of old were inspired to set about building the tower of Babel, that was to have reached the sky. Fhe descendants of those people are they who seek to add kingdoms to kingdoms, and empires to empires; and to whose ambition there is no bounds; whereas, if they would enter into themselves, and
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
carefully consider the fearful storms of reflection, suspicion, fear, desires, presumption and despair, that continually harass them, and must, finally, overwhelm them, they would undoubtedly have cried to God, who would in his pity and mercy have delivered then from such a mass of evils; for he would have infused the spirit of his Son into their hearts, to teach them meekness and humility, that the raging billows of their desires, being thus composed, they may find rest for their souls, and be brought into the harbour of his good will; into that harbour of peace and tranquillity that is naturally coveted by all mankind. And this being the greatest favour of God’s mercy, they would naturally chant, ‘ Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him, and his wonderful works to the children of men.”
38 “ He hath turned rivers into a wilderness, and the sources of waters into dry ground :
34 “ A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.”
This is the second part of the Psalm. After having sung of the mercy of God in warding off the four afflictions, he now praises him for the omuipotence and providence through which he sometimes chanzes the nature of things, proving himself thereby to be their Maker and Ruler. He first says that God sometimes ‘ turned rivers into a wilderness, and the sources of waters into dry ground,” that is, that when it pleased him, he dried up entire rivers, and caused the places inundated by them to become perfectly dry ; “a fruitful land into barrenness,” which is intelligible enough, “ for the wickedness of them that dwell therein,” as a punishment for the wickedness of its inhabitants ; an example of which we have in Genesis, where we read, ‘ And Lot lifting up his eyes saw all the country about the Jordan, which was watered throughout, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, as the paradise of the Lord,” and “i this beautiful and fertile country, a paradise in itself, was dried up by sulphur and fire from heaven, and condemned to everlasting sterility.
35 “ He hath turned a wilderness into pools of waters, and a dry tand into water springs.
36 “ And hath placed there the hungry: and they made-a city for their habitation.
37 ‘‘ And they sowed fields, and planted vineyards : and they yielded fruit of birth.
38 ‘+ And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly : and their cattle he suffered not to decrease.”
On the other hand, God, when he chose, ‘‘ turned a wilderness into pools of waters;” caused rivers to flow in desert lands, where they were unknown, and made streams of pure water to run where they never ran before. That made the land habitable ; men began to build there, to till the land, and to reap its ‘fruits; and thus man and beast began to multiply thereon. It is not easy to determine what land the prophet alludes to; for, though God brought water from the rock for his people, they did not tarry nor settle there, nor build houses there; and when he
brought them into the land of promise, there were rivers, cities, houses, and fields all ready for them. I am, therefore, of opinion that the prophet refers to some early colonization, subsequent to the deluge; for, as well as he turned the fertile plains of Sodom and Gomorrah into a wilderness, so he also caused rivers to run, and cities to spring up in places that were previously waste and desolate. Isaias seems to have this passage in view when he says, “ J well turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters ;” and St. Jerome says that he therein alludes to the condition of the gentiles, who were at one time desert and uncultivated, without faith, without the law, without the prophets or the priesthood ; but were afterwards to be highly nourished, through Christ, with the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and, therefore, St. Augustine very properly applies this passage to the synagogue, as contrasted with the Church. The synagogue, that one time abounded in the waters of the word of God, and like a fertile soil, produced its prophets and priests, had its altars, sacrifices, miracles, and visions, now desert and barren, is turned into dry ground, with not one of those things ; while, on the other hand, the Church of the gentiles, from having been dry and barren, is turned into pools of water, is become most fertile, replete with the choicest fruit, and has come to be the people of the Lord, the Church of the living God, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, where alone is to be found the true sacrifice, true priests, true miracles, true holiness, true wisdom, and, finally, all the gifts of the Holy Ghost,
39 ‘* Then they were brought to be few : and they were afflicted through the trouble of evils and sorrow.
40 “ Contempt was poured forth upon their princes : and he caused them to wander where there was no passing, and out of the way.
41 ‘ And he helped the poor out of poverty ; and made him families like a flock of sheep.
42 * The just shall see and shall rejoice: and all intquity shall stop her mouth.
43 ‘Who is wise, and will keep these things, and will understand the mercies of the Lord 2”
The prophet now teaches us that there is nothing on earth stable or permanent, for they who have been at one time blessed by God, and multiplied through his blessing, in a little time after have been, by reason of their sins, cut away and reduced to nothing ; and they who abound in all the good things of this world have, for the same reason, been driven to the direst extremities ; and such has proved to be the case, not only with ordinary mortals, but even with princes whose sins have caused God to bring them to be contemued, by his having deprived them of wisdom and prudence, and thus, in consequence, making many and grievous mistakes in all their affairs. However, at the same time, men of honour and virture were to be found, raised up by God from poverty, and fed and nourished by him as his own sheep. Hence, ultimately, divine providence caused the just to rejoice, and the wicked to be confounded.
What has been said, in general, regarding God’s providence towards mankind, applies also to his special providence in regard of the Church, which grew up in a short time; and soon after was lessened, harassed, and afflicted by heresy and schisms; “ her princes,” that is, her bishops and priests, were held in contempt, for numbers of them fell back from the path of their predecessors, who had set such an example of holiness and piety to the people over whom they had been placed. However, the Church was not abandoned to such an extent altogether as not to leave a considerable number of princes, and bishops, and priests, and holy laics, whom God enriched with spiritual favours, and whom, as being his own sheep, he led to the choicest pastures, and made them increase and multiply. To come now to the text. * Then they were brought to be few,” after increasing to such an extent, their numbers began to be reduced “and they ey were afilicted with the troubles of evil and sorrow;” after having had such a flow of prosperity they began to feel sad reverses. ‘‘ Cantempt was poured forth upon their princes,” One of the greatest
misfortunes that could befall any people is to have:
their rulers, whether secular or ecclesiastical, objects of contempt. ‘And he caused them to wander where there was no passing, and out of the way.” The reason why they were despised was, because the princes aforesaid, having been deserted by the light of grace, in consequence of their own sins, as well as those of their people, did not walk in the right way; that is to say, they led a bad and immoral life, scandalized the people by their bad example, and made bad laws in favour of the wicked, and against the just. Observe, that when God is said to procure those things, he does not do it directly: he does it indirectly, by withdrawing the light of his grace, ‘‘ And he helped the poor out af poverty.” As well as he suffered the proud and haughty princes to fall, and rendered them objec‘s of contempt, so, on the contrary, he raised up the poor and the humble, “ and made him fumilies like a flock of sheep;” multiplied his posterity, blessed and protected them as a shepherd would his own sheep, “ The just shall see and shall rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” ‘Tne consequence of this providence of God will be, that the just will rejoice and express their joy in praising and glorifying God; and ‘all ¢niquity,” all the malicious and the wicked will be struck dumb, and will not presume to offer the slightest opposition. This we sometimes see in partial instances ; but it will be fully de- ‘veloped and made apparent only on the day of general judgment.
PSALM COVII. The prophet praiseth God for benefits received. 1 My heart is ready, O God, my heart ‘is _ ready; I will sing, and give praise, with my
glory.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
This Psalm has been explained before; the first five verses of it being identically the same as the: last five of Psalm lvi., and the last eight verses of it being word for word with the last eight verses of Psalm lix. No reason can be assigned for such repetition, save, perhaps, the making up of 150 Psalms.
PSALM CVIIf.
Dawid, in the person of Christ, prayeth against his persecutors ; “more espscially the traitor Judas : foreteli ‘ang and appr oving his just punishment for his obstinacy in sin, and final impenitence,
1 O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.
2 They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.
3 Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.
4 And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.
5 Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand.
6 When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin.
7 May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.
8 May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
9 Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg: and let them be cast out of their dwellings.
10 May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.
11 May vugke be none to help him; nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.
12 May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.
13 May the iniquity of his fathers be re-, membered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
- May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from. the earth:
15 Because he remembered not to shew mercy;
16° But poesesueed the poor man and the beggar, and the broken in heart to put — to death.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
17 And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.
18 May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.
19 This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord, and who speak evils against my soul.
20 But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,
21 For lam poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.
22 Lam taken away like the shadow when it declineth; and I am shaken off as locusts.
23 My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil.
24 And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me, and they shaked their heads.
25 Help me, O Lord my God: save me according to thy mercy.
26 And let them know that this is thy hand; and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.
27 They will curse, and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.
28 Let them that detract me be clothed with shame; and let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak.
29 I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth; and in the midst of many J will praise him.
30 Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.
EXPLANATION. OF THE PSALM.
1 ** O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.”
Words extremely like the expressions of Christ when he said, John xvii., “ And now glorify thou me, O Father.” Christ, then, as man, asks God, his Father, not to be silent in his praise; that is, as regards his innocence, charity, and other virtues, which was literally accomplished through the Apostles,
who, filled with the Holy Ghost, announced the
praises of Christ in all languages through the entire world, It was also accomplished through the martyrs, who came after them; through the confessors and doctors, who, with their blood, or by their example, by their preaching, their writings, or their miracles, announced the praises of Christ to all ages
aud all nations. He then assigns a reason for asking such glory from God, because there are not wanting those who, by their false accusations, will seck to detract from his glory; ‘‘ the mouth of the wicked and of the deceitful man,” of Caiphas and Judas, and, in fact, of all the Jews, ‘‘is opened against me.” He couples the wicked with the deceitful man, because Christ’s persecutors, full as they were of envy and malice, still affected a regard for Christ when they said, ‘* Master, we know that thou art a true speaker, and teachest the way of God in truth.” Thus they were sinners in hating him. They should have loved; and they were deceitful, because, under the guise of friendship, they sought to entrap him in his discourse. Or some of them were avowed sinners, namely, those who openly biasphemed him, saying, “he was a seducer, and thai tt was in Beelzebub he’ cast out devils;’ while others who were occult sinners and deceitful, put to him questions as if for information, but with a view to lay snares for his character and for his life.
2 ‘They have spoken against me with, deceitful tongues ; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.”
He now explains the expression “ the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me;” the mouth of the latter was opened when they praised me as a good master, and, at the same time, were only seeking to take advantage of anything that may slip from me; and the mouth of the former, or of the wicked, was opened, because “ they. have compassed me about with words of hatred,” giving expression to their inward hatred of me when they said, * This man is not from God. Behold, a man that is a glutton and a wine drinker, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.’ But, whether covertly or openly, “ they fought against me without cause ;” for they had no reason whatever in returning evil for good.
3 “ Instead of making me a return of love, they de-
. tracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.”
He explains a phrase in the last verse, “ without cause.” For when they should have returned love for love they only turned to detract me; while I, instead of returning evil for evil, turned to pray for them; which he did openly when he exclaimed on the cross, “* Father, forgive them,” and which he most likely did also in private as often as he heard their detractions.
4 “And they repaid me evil for good, and hatred for my love.”
He repeats that more emphatically, as if he said, for my blessings I got nought but maledictions, hatred for love, numerous wounds for all my cures death itself for life conferred on them.
5 ** Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand.”
The prophet now passes on to Judas, who, he foresaw, would be the “the leader of them that appre-
hended Jesus;” and, in the shape of an imprecation, foretells everything that was to happen him. “ Se¢ thou the sinner over him.” Judas would not have Christ our Lord, the most just and the most meck of men, as a master, and you will, therefore, put the spirit of avarice over him, to which he will be a wretched slave to the day of his death. Judas preferred being a slave to mammon, and, therefore, could not be a servant of Christ; for ‘‘ nobody can serve two masters.” Now, the spirit of avarice is one of the greatest injustice; for it gives the honour that is due to God to an idol, as the Apostle calls it, ‘the service of idols.” —“ And may the devil stand at his right hand.” The devil will be his guide in all his acts, will constantly stand alongside him, or will rather drag him with the chain of avarice, as he would a dog, and excite him to bite his own master.
6 ‘‘ When he is judged, may he go out condemned ; and may his prayer be turned to sin.”
The prophet now predicts that most unhappy end of Judas; to which prophecy Christ himself seems to refer when he said, ‘‘ Those whom thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them have perished eacept the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be ful- Jilled.”—“ When he is judged,” on his departure from this world, ‘ may he go out;” meaning, he will go out ‘ condemned;” and should he chance to pray to God, his prayer will not only be of no avail, but it will ‘be turned into sin.” St. Jerome says that Judas’s prayer was turned into sin, by reason of his want of hope when he prayed ; and thus it was that in despair he hanged himself. St. Augustine says it was because he did not pray through Christ, as a mediator. Others say it was because Judas, in common with other persecutors, prayed for the extirpation of Christianity. To which may be added, that Judas’s prayer was turned to sin because, instead of asking assistance from God, he asked it of the devil, who suggested to him the hanging of himself. We uust remark, though, that the prayer of a sinner is not always sinful, but, on the contrary, goes a great way to obtain forgiveness, as did the prayer of the publican; but it becomes sinful when the person praying offers it to those to whom he should not offer it, such as to idols or to the devil ; or when he prays for what he should not ask God for, such as for the downfall of his enemies; or when, instead of praying through the one mediator Christ, he presumes on his own merits; or, finally, when he does not pray with faith, hope, and the other necessary accompaniments of prayer. All this applies to the Jews, as well as to Judas, of whom he was the type. The Jews, who depart this life without believing in Christ, will receive eternal punishment: and the prayers they daily use in their synagogues are “turned to sin to them;” because they do not pray through the Son; for they know neither him nor the Father, and because they pray for things God does not wish to grant them, such as the destruction of all Christians,
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
and the speedy coming of Antichrist, whom they will acknowledge, as has been foretold in the Scripture.
7 “May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.”
This is the passage quoted by St. Peter, to shew the necessity of electing an Apostle in place of Judas; and whereas the Apostles and disciples concurred with Peter in his interpretation of the passage, we are, of necessity, obliged to do the same. “ Men brethren, the Scripture must be fulfilled whieh the Holy Ghost foretold by the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who was the leader of them that apprehended Jesus.” The prophecy was fulfilled to the. letter in Judas ; “his days were few,” as regards his life, or his Apostleship ; ‘‘ and another got his bishopric;” Matthias, who was “‘ another” in every sense of the word, being neither a relation, friend, or acquaintance ; and like him in nowise either in life or morals. The word “bishopric,” in Hebrew, implies inspeetion, supervision ; which a bishop must do frequently, as he has to render an account of his sheep, a thing that cannot be accomplished by those who reside far from their flocks. This, too, was realised in regard of the Jews; for, after the sin of Judas, short, indeed, were the days of their episcopacy, that is, of their priesthood ; and another took it, for the priesthood of Aaron was at once transferred to that of Melchisedech, many of whose priests are this day to be found all over the world, with not one of Aaron.
8 ‘* May his children be Jfatherless, and his wife a widow.”
For fear any one may suppose that Judas was condemned to a certain punishment during his life, which was not shortened though he was deprived of his position as an Apostle, the prophet declares tbat his days were numbered, for his wife was at once to become a widow, and his children orphans ; as actually happened, for he hung himself the same day : and in avery short time after, when Jerusalem was sacked, nearly all the men perished, leaving innumerable widows and orphans to deplore them.
9 “ Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg:-and let them be cast out of their dwellings.”
Judas’s sin was to be visited on his children ; they were to be outcasts from their own country, and beggars in another,
10 ‘‘May the usurer search all his substance : and let strangers plunder his labours.”
We are told here how it will come to pass that the children of Judas and the Jews will be in future a lot of paupers and beggars, because their creditors, when they find them unable to pay, will hunt them up and plunder them of every thing they can lay hands on; and should any thing escape them, the unfortunate people will be robbed of it “by the strangers,” by the soldiers of Titus, who even ripped them up in search of the gold and jewels they were suspected of having swallowed.
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
11 ‘' May there be none to help him; nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.”
This was literally fulfilled in Judas and the Jews ; for when Judas, stung with remorse, came to the Jews and threw up the money, instead of offering him any help or consolation, they only said, “ What as that to us? Look thou toit.” Being thus rejected by the priests, and despaiing of pardon from Christ, he went and hanged himself. The Jews, too, when they were besieged by the Romans, had not one that would dare to help them.
12 “ May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.”
The prophet now predicts that on the death of Judas’s children his name would become quite ex. tinct, for these children were to be the last generation of the family. This is literally true as regards the children of Judas, and is equally true as regards his spiritual children, for be never had any. We know that all the other Apostles had their children in the faith, begotten by them through the preaching of the Gospel; who, in their turn, begot other children in Christ; and thus, their posterity will continue for ever; while the spiritual posterity of Judas was and is nil. And though the Jews were not thoroughly extinguished, stil! their kingdom or constitution expired in one generation; because, after the destruction of Jerusalem, they were scattered among all nations ; and then was fulfilled what Osee predicted for them, ‘ Mor the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.”
13 ‘‘May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord : and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.”
An additional calamity that will fall on Judas and the Jews is, that they will be punished for the sins of their parents, including not only their natural parents, but all the Jews who sinned in the desert and in the land of promise; and the “sin of his mother” means, not only his natural mother, but the entire synagogue, or the city of Jerusalem, of which Jeremias says, in Lamentations i., ‘ Jerusalem hath grievously sinned.’ The Lord bimself confirms this prediction of David, when he said, ‘* That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar, Amen I say to you, all those things. shall come upon this generation.” The cursed Jews even imprecated such vengeance on themselves when they said, ‘* Hzs blood be upon us, and upon our children.” This in nowise contradicts the expression in Ezechiel, ‘“‘ The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,” for Ezechiel speaks of the children who do not imitate the wickedness of the father, while the Psalm alludes to those who do. For God, incensed by the sins of the
parents, waits to see would the children come to penance; but if, instead of doing so, they only imitate the parents, and thus fill up the measure of their iniquity, he then exterminates them all, for their past as well as for their present sins ; and this is only what God himself promised, when he gave them the law, “I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
14 “* May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:
15 ‘ Because he remembered not to show mercy :”
He repeats what he said of the sins of the parents, drawing a beautiful contrast between the recollection that would be kept up of their sins, instead of their glory, as much as to say, Let their sins and those of their parents be always remembered, and let not a vestige of the recollection of their glory and happiness remain. He then assigns the cause of the whole, * Because he remembered not to shew mercy ;” for, as St. James writes, “* Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy.” The sin of Judas consisted in seeing the chiefs of the Jews raging against Christ, and, instead of having any pity for his innocent Lord and Master, he most cruelly delivered him up to be slain by them.
16 ‘‘ But persecuted the poor man and the beggar, and the broken in heart to put him to death.”
See the extreme cruelty of Judas and the Jews! in persecuting Christ, ‘ the poor man and the beggar, and the broken in heart;’ all which terms are most applicable to Christ. He was a poor man; for, as the Apostle says, “ Though being rich, he became poor for your sakes, that, through his poverty, you might be rich; he may also be called “a beggar,” for he chose to live upon alms, in order that he may devote himself entirely to his ministry and to prayer ; and, finally, he was “broken in heart,” full of anxiety and solicitude for the safety of the human race; from which we may form a remote idea of the cruelty of his persecutors. They who seek the life of another are usually prompted by revenge for some real or supposed wrongs that have been inflicted on them; or by avarice, through a desire of getting hold of another’s wealth; or by envy of another’s happiness, Now, Christ, the meek and humble of heart, offered no injury to any one; no one could court his riches, for he had none; and when his daily business was to deplore the sins of mankind, to exhort them to penance, to despise the things of this world, and to look forward to those of the next, there was no possible canse or reason for any one’s seeking for his death.
17 ‘“‘alnd he loved cursing, and tt shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and i shall be far from him, And he put on cursing like a garment : and tt went in like water into his entrails, and itke oil in his bones.”
It is impossible for any one, looking at curses and
blessings in their intrinsic light, to love one and hate the other; but man is said to love one and hate the other when his owa wickedness causes him to be cursed instead of being blessed. Thus, Judas, in betraying Christ for a small sum of money, loved cursing, for he caused himself to be cursed by God; in like manner, by forsaking Christ, through whom all nations were to be blessed, “ he would not have blessing,” inasmuch as himself was the cause of not being blessed by God. That applies to the Jewish people also; for the Son of God came from heaven to bless his people; but they, by putting him to death, were the cause of their being cursed instead of being blessed, and of having the benediction transferred to the gentiles. Now, God’s blessing implies an abundance of all good things, as well as his curse implies a heap of all misfortunes. The latter was strikingly exemplified in Judas, who, forthwith, lost not only the money, but the life of this world and of the next; as also in the Jews, who lost their kingdom and their priesthood, and obstinately lived on in blin&ness and incredulity, until they went down to that exterior darkness to be found only in hell. “And he put on cursing like a garment; and vt went in like water into his entrails, and lke oul in his bones.” The prophet, making use of most beautiful similes, declares that the divine malediction is a heap of all internal, as well as external evils; so that no room can be found for any manner of good in one accursed by God. He first compares God’s curse to a garment that completely covers the entire body ; and as such garment cannot penetrate the interior of man, he compares it to water, which does, not only when man drinks, but when he gets drowned; for then it not only envelopes his exterior, but it gets into his stomach, his breast, and all the interior of his body; then, as water will not penetrate the bones, nor the flesh, nor the nerves, he compares it to oil, which insinuates itself into all; and thus the curse of God will fill the body and all its members, the soul and all its affections, the mind and all its faculties of understanding and of will, not only of Judas and of the Jews, but of all who shall come under the sentence, ‘‘ Go ye cursed,” with all manner of evils and misfortunes. If man would seriousiy reflect on these matters, he would, of necessity, tremble more for his safety.
18 ‘May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.”
He now adds, that the malediction will not only thoroughly encompass him, but will stick for ever to him; that it will be like the clothes he wears to cover his nakedness, of which he can never divest himself; “and, like a girdle with which he ts girded continually,’ the malediction will adhere to him as firmly as if it were tied about him like a cincture, knotted and tied firmly to secure it. Who, then, can form an adequate idea of the firmness or the
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
indissolubility of the knot tied by the unswerving, all-powerful will of God ?
19 “* This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord, and who speak evils against my soul.”
He now concludes his prediction of the miseries of Judas by saying, “ This ts the work of them;” that is to say, this is the reward of their works, for the word work is used in the Scripture to signify the reward of works, as we have in Leviticus, “ Zhe work of him that hath been hired by thee thou shalt not retain until the morning’ —*Who detract me,” call me a deceiver, deny that I am the Son of God, “ before the Lord.” Such will be their recompense from the Lord.
20 “ But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name’s sake : because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deiiver me,”
In this latter part of Psalm cviii. Christ prays for himself and for his body, the Church; and, as he predicted all manner of miseries to Judas and the Jews, in the first part of the Psalm, he now, in the shape of a prayer, predicts many blessings for the Church. He first, then, prays to the Lord that he may be always at hand to protect him in the Church, and that for the glory of his own name, ‘‘ because thy mercy ws sweel,” or it is kind, and lends itself at once to succour the wretched. He speaks here both for himself and for his body, the Church, and asks for God’s assistance against the persecutors of both, for three reasons; first, because God, being supreme Lord of all, can curb those enemies if he likes ; secondly, because he asks it with a view to extol the name of God; and, thirdly, because the mercy of God is kind ; and, therefore, God can not only shew mercy, but he wishes to shew it. And, as we said above, this is a prediction in the form of a prayer, or it is both together. We are, therefore, certain that the Church of Christ will be always helped and protected, ‘so that the gates of hell will not prevail against wt.”
21 “ For I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.”
The prophet, still speaking in the person of Christ, goes on with his prayer, having, apparently, in view the time when Christ’said, ‘“ Now ts my soud troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me JSrom this hour; or, perhaps, it refers to the time when he prayed in the garden, and said to his Apostles, “My soul ts sorrowful unto death.”— “Deliver me” from this death that stares me in the face, “ for I am poor and needy;” for I am destitute of all human assistance, having none to fight for me, “Sand my heart is troubled within me;”’ sorrow and sadness, arising from the consideration of my approaching death, have overwhelmed me. Christ said all this in order to shew that he was truly man, and, as such,:had a horror of death absolutely considered, and as contrary to nature, while he actually longed for and desired the same death, as being the
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price settled and decreed by his Father for the re- |
demption of mankind; and, therefore, when he said in John, ‘‘ Save.me from this hour,’ he at once added, ‘* But for this cause I came unto this hour ;” and when, in Matthew, he said, ‘ Let this chalice pass from me,” he also immediately added, “ Nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt.” As regards his body, the Church, he asks that it may be delivered from persecutions and temptation, because its members are poor and needy, depending not on their own strength or merits, but, like a true mendicant, on God alone.
22 ‘* J am taken away like the shadow when tt declineth ; and Iam shaken off as locusts.”
This is in allusion to the capture of our Lord after
his prayer in the garden. He compares it to a “ shadow when 2 declineth,” that flits away iusen- _ sibly, in profound silence. And thus was the Lord torn away from his disciples, aud led captive, brought before various tribunals, even to the very cross, without a murmur, without offering the slightest resistance or defence. ‘I am taken away like a shadow when it declineth.” I am hurried away from my disciples before the tribunal of Caiphas, Pilate, and Herod, in silence, as silently as the shadow that fades away; “and Iam shaken off,” tossed from one tribunal to another, ‘* as locusts,” the vilest of all animals, that are scattered by the wind from one place to another.
23 “My knees are weakened through fasting: and my Jlesh is changed for oil.”
This is in allusion to the weakness Christ suffered from the fast, the watching, and the labour of the night previous to, as well as on, the day of his passion. For though the life of Christ was one continued fast, he must have felt his weakness particularly at that time, and it is in the knees one first feels the debility ; “my flesh ts changed for oil ;” my whole person is changed in colour and bulk, by reason of the loss of the natural fat or oil necessary to support it.
24 “And Iam become areproach to them: they saw me, and they shaked their heads.”
This was the finale of his passion ; for immediately after that extreme weakness and debility, the Lord became a reproach to the Jews, when they saw him crucified between two robbers ; and while he was yet alive they blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘* Vah, thow that destroyest the temple of God, save thy own self.”
25 “Help me, O Lord my God: save me according to thy mercy.”
‘he Lord, in his departure from this life, prays to his Father for a speedy resurrection, as we have explained in Psalm xxi. and Ixviii., and at the same
‘time prays for real salvation of both soul and body, for bis mystical body, the Church.
26 “ And let them know that this is thy hand ; and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.”
Lest it may be supposed that Christ suffered so much, and died so ignominiously, against his will, and lest the Jews should be able to boast that they were an overmatch for him, the prophet, speaking in the person of Christ, says that this was all the work of God; as St. Peter, in Acts iii., says, “ But those things which God hath foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he hath so ful- Jjilled.” Te, therefore, says, ‘¢ And let them know,” all men, especially the Jews, * that this is thy hand;” that this matter, this suffering of mine, this death of mine, has come from your hand, that is, from your will, pleasure, and power ; “and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.” Neither Jews nor gentiles could prevail over Christ, could persecute or put him to death, had not God so wished it. They are not to be excused, however, of a most grievous sin in putting Christ to death, by reason of their having been the instruments of God's will; for in doing so they did not seek to do God’s will, but to indulge their own hatred and malice, and God only took advantage of their malice, of which he was not the author, to redeem the world, through the obedience, love, patience, and humility of his only Son.
27“ They will curse, and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shail rejoice.”
My persecutors, being quite ignorant of all these prophecies, ‘* ail curse’ me and my Church, and so the Jews do, even to the present day; “ and thou wilt bless” not only myself, by glorifying and exalting me to your right hand, but you will also, for my sake, bless all nations, by adopting them as children through faith and baptism. Hence will come to pass, that those who persecute and revile me, will ultimately ‘be confounded ; but thy servant,” your humble servant and his brethren “ shall rejoice” for ever.
28 ‘‘Let them that detract me be clothed with shame + and let them be covered with their confusion as with @ double cloak.”
He now confirms what he had previously laid down ; and in the shape of an impreeation, he predicts that all the adversaries of Christ and of his Church would be, ultimately, as completely covered with shame and confusion as a person is entirely enveloped by a double garment, a thing that will be perfectly accomplished on the day of judgment, Such will be the confusion of the damned on the day of judgment. And what greater confusion can be imagined than to have the ingratitude, the folly, and the other vices of the damned, exposed before the whole world, before men and Angels, from the beginning of creation ?
29 “TI will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth; and in the midst of many I will praise him.”
What a contrast to the confusion of the wicked ! They will be struck dumb with confusion; but Christ and his elect “will give great thanks to the Lord with their mouth; that is, with loud shouts, indica-
tive of great joy, and that “in the midst of many,” on this terrestrial theatre of ours here; on the day of judgment; and afterwards on the heavenly theatre of the celestial Jerusalem for all eternity.
30 “Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.”
They are bound to give all the glory and praise alluded to in the previous verse; “because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor,” Christ and his people, ‘to save them from persecution ;” to protect Christ from the Jews, who persecuted him, which was accomplished by the speedy resurrection of Christ, and also by the protection of his elect, who obtained life everlasting in spite of the demons and human beings who ‘persecuted them. As regards Christ, his principal persecutors were Caiphas and Pilate, who sentenced him to death; but God’s wisdom, the best protection he could enjoy, stood by him, and caused that sentence to be revoked by the resurrection of Christ. As regards the Church, the persecutors consisted of the emperors and kings, and pagan magistrates, who doomed many thousand martyrs to death ; and also of the demons, who acted
‘as God’s ministers in carrying out the decree pronounced against the human race ; but Christ, in the shape of a most powerful advocate, interfered, by ‘blotting out the handwriting of the decree which was against us, which was contrary to us, and the same he took out of the way, fastening tt to the cross ;” and thus saved the souls of the poor. We have here to observe that “ God stands at the right hand of the poor;” that is, of those who acknowledge their poverty, and their want of strength, and, therefore, daily knock at the door of that God who is rich in mercy. ‘‘ The poor” also mean those who have put away all affection for creatures, and, having become poor in spirit, place their riches in God alone.
PSALM CIX. Christ's exaltation, and everlasting priesthood.
1 The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: until I make thy enemies thy footstool.
2 The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.
3 With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength; in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day-star I begot thee.
4 The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.
; 5 The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among nations; he shall
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fill rnins: he shall crush the heads in tire land of many.
7 Heshall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALM.
1 ‘+ The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: until I make thy enemies thy footstool.”
David, in spirit, saw the Messias ascending into heaven after his death and resurrection, and tells us the language the Father made use of when he invited him to sit beside him and reign along with him. He makes use of the past tense, “the Lord said,” instead of the future; because, in the spirit of prophecy, he looks upon the matter as a thing of the past. ‘ Zhe Lord said,’ God the Father said, ‘‘ to my Lord,” to Christ, for it cannot apply to Abraham or Ezechias, as some of the Jews will have it, neither of whom sat on the right hand of the Father, nor were they begot from the womb before the day star, nor were they priests according to the order of Melchisedech ; and, furthermore, when this passage was quoted by Christ when arguing with the Jews, they did not attempt to question its reference to the Messias. “* Sit thou at my right hand.” Sitting denotes peace and supreme power, which Christ was to enjoy; and sitting ‘‘ at my right hand” denotes equality, and an equal share in that supreme power enjoyed by God the Father. Christ, as far as his divine nature was concerned, had that equality at all times, but he only got it as regards his human nature after his humiliation unto death, even to the death of the cross, as St. Paul says, ‘* Wherefore God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell, and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is m the glory of God the Father.” Sitting on the right hand of God, then, is the same as being in the glory and the majesty of God, and that glory consists in having a name above every name, at which every knee shall bend ; for, as the same Apostle has it, ‘‘ He must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet; when the Apostle proves that the expression ‘* sit thow aé my right hand’ means nothing more or less than share my sovereign power. The same Apostle, Heb. i., has, “* Por to which of the Angels hath he said at any time, Sit on my right hand? Are they not all ministering spirits sent to minster?” ‘Thus proving the difference between Christand the Angels, from the fact of the latter being merely ministers and servants, and, therefore, not allowed to sit, but obliged to stand, in readiness for the execution of their Lord’s commands; while Christ, as Lord and King, sits with his Father above all creatures. Finally, St. Peter, Acts ii., says, “ Being exalted, therefore, by the right hand of God, he hath poured forth this which you see and hear; for David did
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
not ascend into heaven, but he himself said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until £ make thy enemies thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know most assuredly that God hath made him Lord and Christ, this same Jesus whom you have crucified.” St. Peter clearly says here that “sitting at the right hand of God” means his having ascended into heaven, and ruling and governing in all places as God only ean rule and govern. ‘ Until I make thy enemies thy footstool.” The kingdom of Christ, then, is never to have an end, nor is there any danger of its being subverted by its enemies, God having determined to bring them all under subjection by degrees, that Christ may then reign peaceably for ever after. The word, then, ‘wntd,” does not imply that Christ’s reign was only to hold until his enemies should be subjected; but it means that his kingdom would be always extended more and more until as much as one single enemy not bowing the knee to him would not remain; as if he said, in other words, Come on ruling with me, and cease not extending our kingdom so long as one solitary enemy shall remain unconquered. That extension of Christ’s kingdom is daily going on through the conversion of some to faith and obedience, who willingly put themselves under Christ’s feet, that he may rest in them as he would on a footstool, and who, after finishing their exile, set out for their country, where they felicitously rest in God: others have either been perverted, or have got hardened in their perversity, and are, in the end, hurried away by death to judgment, and, on being condemned, are consigned to hell, where they are, for all eternity, trampled under the feet of Christ. The extension of Christ’s kingdom will be completed on the last day, when every knee shall bend of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell, to Christ. But why is the assertion “wnt I make” attributed to the Father ? does not the Son, too, “make thy enemies thy footstool?” Every thing done by the Father is also done by the Son, as he himself asserts ; but the Father is made to act here, in order, as it were, to reward the obedience of the Son, as the Apostle says, “ Wherefore, God also hath exalted him.” With that, everything implying power is usually attributed to the Father, though the Son has the same power, because the Father shares it with him, though the Son cannot share it with the Father, he having had it from the Father by generation. ‘The Son also, as man, enjoys it but by virtue of the hypostatic union. The part the Son takes in subduing the common enemy will be treated of in the next verse, 2 “The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion; rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.”
David having, in spirit, heard the Father saying to the Son, “ S2é thou at my right hand,” now addresses the Son, and, in the same spirit of prophecy,
shews how the propagation of Chirist’s kingdom on earth was to be commenced, “ The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion;” that is, God the Father, in order to put your enemies under your feet, will begin to extend the sceptre of your royal power out of the city of Jerusalem, and to extend it from Mount Sion, and propagate it to the remotest corners of the earth. This corresponds with the language of our Lord after his resurrection. _ “And thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead on the third day, and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” And in the first chapter of the Acts, “And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even: to the uttermost part of the earth.” The sceptre of his -power was sent out of Sion, as if it grew on that mountain; for it was in Jerusalem that the spiritual kingdom of Christ commenced, as there were the first believers, and there the faith began to be propagated by the Apostles. “‘ Rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.” All success, triumph, and happiness to you on the way; extend your kingdom to all nations; carry the banner of your cross in the midst of Jews and pagans ; plant it where they are thickest and strongest ; “ rule every where in the midst of them;” and in spite of them, and in opposition to them, set up your kingdom. That was very soon accomplished ; for within a few years, in spite of both Jews and pagans, many Christian churches were established, for the Apostle writes to the Colossians, chap. i., “ The truth of the Gospel is in the whole world, and bringeth forth fruit and groweth;? and St. Ireneus, who lived in the century next the Apostles, writes, ‘ The Church has been planted through the entire world, even to the ends of the earth;” and he specifies the Churches of Germany, Spain, Lybia, Egypt, France, the East, and the churches he calls those in the middle of the world, meaning Greece and Italy. The Psalm most appropriately adds, “in the midst of thy enemies;” because, however prosperous and triumphant the Church may be, she. will always be surrounded by enemies—by pagans, Jews, heretics, and bad Christians—as long as she sojourns here below. But at the end ofthe. world, when the good shall come to be separated from the bad, the kingdom of Christ will be no longer in the midst of her enemies, but will rise above, and be exalted over all her enemies,
3 ‘* With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength ; in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day-star E begot thee.”
Having said, “ Rule thou in the midst of thy enemies,” which meant at the time that Christ’s kingdom in this world was besieged by his enemies, he now tells us how matters will be on the last day, when all his enemies shall have been subdued, and made his footstool. “ With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength;” your power or princie
pality will thea be evident to all, and it will be seen that yours is the kingdom, ‘Jn the day of thy strength ;” on the last day, when your strength will move the heavens, darken the sun, shake the earth, raise the dead, and summon all to your tribunal. “ In the brightness of thy saints; when you shall be surrounded by your saints, who will shine like the sun. ‘¢ Hromthe womb, before the day-star, I begot thee;” you will have such a principality with you, because I, your Almighty Father, ‘degot you,” not as I did all other created things, from nothing, but * from the womb,” from my own womb, as.my true, natural, and consubstantial Son, and that. ‘‘ before the day- star,” before I created the stars, before any creature, before.all ages. ‘‘ From the womb,” The holy fathers very properly use, this,expression as a proof of the divinity of Christ; for, if he were a creature, he could not be said to-be born of the womb, for no one can say that a house, or a seat, or anything manufactured, is. born of the womb; nor does God any where say that the heavens or the earth were born of the womb. By the womb is meant the secret and intimate essence of the Deity; and, though the womb is to be found in woman only, still it is applied to the Father, to shew more clearly the consubstantiality of the Son with him, as also to shew that God.needed not the co-operation of woman to bring forth and produce. Himself begot and gave birth. As Isaias says, ‘¢ Shall not
I, that make others to bring forth children, myself
bring forth, saith the Lord.” —“ Before the day-star.” Here we have a proof of the eternity of Christ; for he was born ‘before the day-star, and, consequently, before all created things ; but he named the day-star, for he himself, as the Son of God, is the increate light. For he is the true light, that enlighteneth every man and Angel. he
4 “The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent:
Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech,”
Tse
He now passes from the -regal to the sacerdotal dignity, and shews that Christ is a priest for ever, not by reason of his succeeding to Aaron, but as a priest immediately appointed by God, and of whom s.cichisedcg was atype. ‘ Lhe Lord hath sworn,” hath confirmed his promise by an oath; “ and he will not repent;” firmly xesolved upon it, a resolution he will never alter; and that is, that though the priesthood of Aaron was to be changed, that of Christ’s never would. God is said to be sorry, a thing he eannot be subject to, when he acts as men do who are sorry for anything; thus, God says in Genesis, ‘ £ will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, from man even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made them.” And again, in 1 Kings xy,, the Lord says, “ Jt repenteth me that I have made Saul king.” —“ Thou art a priest for ever.” These are the words: of the Father to the Son, and not of David, as St. Paul
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
re-asserts in Heb. -v. Now Christ is said to be @ priest for ever, because the effect of the one sacrifice in which he offered his body on the cross holds for ever, as the Apostle, in Heb. x., has it, ** For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified ;” as also, because he, living for ever, daily, through the hands of the priests of his Church, who sueceed each other, offers a sacrifice to which the Apostle alludes, when he says, ‘‘ And the others indeed were made many priests, because, by reason of death, they were not suffered to continue ; but this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood.” —‘ According to the order of Melchisedech ;”
that is, the rite, law, or custom of Melchisedech,
whose order is distinguished from that of Aaron, and
from which it differs in many respects. In the first
place, Melchisedech succeeded no priest, nor had he . a successor; and, thus, the Apostle says of him,
“ without father, without mother, without genealogy,
having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.”
While in the priesthood of Aaron one succeeded an-
other, the son supplied the father’s place. Secondly,
Melchisedech was both king and priest; Aaron was
simply a priest. Thirdly, Melchisedech’s offering — consisted of bread and wine, that of Aaron was of
sheep and oxen. Fourthly, Melchisedech was the priest of mankind, Aaron’s priesthood was confined to the Jews. Fifthly, Melchisedech required neither tent, tabernacle, nor temple, for sacrifice, Aaron did ; and hence, to the present day, the Jews have no sacrifice, because they have no temple. Christ, then, is a priest according to the order of Melchisedech, by reason of his having succeeded no priest, and by reason of his having had no priest to succeed him in. the great dignity of his everlasting priesthood; and he in fact, as to his human nature has really no father, and as to his divine nature hasno mother. The same Christ is both King and Priest, and he offered bread
~ and wine at his last supper, that is, his body under
the appearance of bread, and his blood under the appearance of wine; and he is the priest, uot only of the Jews, but of the gentiles; nor is his priestly office confined to one temple or one tabernacle, but, as Malachy predicted, “‘ From the rising of the sun, even to the going down, in every pluce-there is sacri- Jice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation.”
5“ Phe Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath.”
Having asserted that the Son was called a priest for ever by the Father, the prophet now addresses the Father, and says that Christ will be really a priest for ever; for though many kings of the earth will conspire against him in order to upset his religion and his priesthood, he, however, seated at the right hand of his Father, will break his adversaries down, and, in spite of them all; will perpetuate his» priesthood and his sacrifice, “ The Lord at thy right hand; Christ, as you spoke to him sitting: there, when you said, “ Sit thow at my right hand”.
“ Hath broken kings in the day of his wrath ;” whon he shall be angry with his enemies, the kings of the earth, for persecuting his Church, he will break them, and, as far as I can foresee, has already broken
them; for in the spirit of prophecy, F already see.
Herod stricken by the Angel. Nero, in his misery, laying violent hands on himself; Domitian, Maximinus and Decits put to death ; Valerian taken captive by the barbarians; Diocletian and Maximinus throwing up the reins of government in. despair}; Julian, Valens, and Honoricus, and nearly all the kings hostile to. Christ meeting a miserable end here, and well-merited punishment in hell afterwards for all eternity.
6 “ He shall judge amony nations ; he shall fill ruins : he shall crush the heads in the land of many.”
Having told us how Christ would deal for the present with his enemies, the kings and princes. of the earth, he tells us now, in addition, how he will deal, on the day of judgment, with all his enemies, “ He shall judge among nations; he who, while here below, beat down the impetuosity of princes. and preserved his Church in time ef persecution, will afterwards, in the end of the world, judge all nations 5 amongst them, “he shail fill ruins,” will utterly exterminate, ruin, and destroy the whole body of the wicked; and thus ‘he shall crush the heads in the land. of many.” He will humble and confound all the proud, that now, with heads erect, make against him; for he will then trample on their pride, when he shall make their weakness known to the whole world, and thus render them both contemptible and confused ; and such is the meaning of crushing their heads: and he adds, “in the land of many,” because the truly humble and pious in this world are very few indeed, when compared to the proud and the haughty, who are nearly innumerable.
7 ‘+ He shall drink of the torrent tn the way : there-
fore shall he lift up the head.”
He now assigns a reason for Christ being endowed with such power as to be able to break kings, to judge nations, to fill ruins, and to crush heads, and says, “ He shall drink of the torrent in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head;” as if he said with the Apostle, “ He humbled himse: f becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name,” The torrent.means the course of human affairs; for, as a torrent flows with great noise and force, full of mud and confusion, and soon after subsides without leaving even a trace of itself, so it is with the affairs of this mortal life— they ay pass away, having, generally speaking, been, much troubled and confused. Great battles and revolutions, such as those in the time of Cesar and Alexander, and others, have béen heard of, but they and their posterity bave passed away without leaving
a trace of their power. The Son of God, through
and having condemned all the wicked,
his incarnation, came down this torrent, and “ ¢n the way,” that is, during his mortal transitory life, drank the muddy water of this torrent in undergoing the calamities consequent on his mortality ; nay, even he descended into the very depth of the torrent through his passion, the waters of which, instead of contributing to his ease and refreshment, only increased his pains and sufferings, as he complains in Psalm Ixviii. “The waters have come in even unto my soul. I stick fast in the mire of the deep, and there ts no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.” In consideration, then, of such humiliation, freely undertaken for the glory of the Father and the salvation of mankind, he afterwards “lifted up his head,” ascended into heaven, and, sitting at the right hand of the Father, was made Judge of the living and the dead.
God is to be praised for his graces and benefits to his church..
17 will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; in the council of the just, and in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the. Lord; sought out according to all his wills,
3 His work is praise and magnificence : and his justice continueth for ever and ever.
4 He hath made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and graelous Lord ;.
5 He hath given food to them that fear him. He will be mindtul for ever of his covenant :.
6 He will shew forth to, his people the power of his works:
7 That he may give them the inheritance of the gentiles: the works of his hands are truth and judgment.
8 All his commandments are faithful: confirmed for ever and ever, made in truth and equity.
‘9 He hath sent redemption to his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever, Holy and-terrible is his name:
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding to all that do it: his praise continueth for ever and ever,
EXPLANATION OF THE PSALM. 1 “Twill praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart ; in the council of thé just, and in the congregation,”
Holy David begins the hymn by an invocation, and tells ns at the same tittle how God should be praised
with advantage to ourselves. ‘J wll praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart.” Praise, in order to be of any value, must spring from the heart, and not only from the heart, but from the entire heart ; that is, with all the affections of the heart, that praises nothing, loves nothing, so much as the thing in question. ‘ With my whole heart;” also implies the greatest attention, thinking of nothing else, for it does not become one who is praising that God whom the Cherubim and Seraphim adore in fear, to let his mind down to unworthy matters ; ‘‘ 7m the council of the just, and in the congregation,” that is to say, I will chant thy praises both in the council of the just, who are few in number, and in the congregation of the sinners, who are numerous enough.
2 ‘* Great are the works of the Lord; sought out according to ali his wills,”
He praises him first for his works in general, all his works being great, and still so perfect that they carry out God’s will in everything.. The workman who never makes a small article, an inferior article, but makes all his articles both great and valuable, deserves much praise; and any one that will study God’s works, that we think so little of by reason of their being so constantly before us, cannot fail to behold God’s infinite power and wisdom in every one of them, even though we cannot comprehend them. Truly did Ecclesiastes say, “‘ All things are hard, man cannot explain them by word,” chap. i.; and in chap. viii., ‘“And I understood that man can find no reason of all those works of God that are done under the sun.” And not only are his works great, but “ they are saught out according to all his wills ;” prepared and settled previously, to be applied to any purpose he may choose, according to Psalm cxviii., “ For all things serve thee;” for, as St. Augustine most properly observes, nothing seems to be more repugnant to the will of God, than free will, through which sins, forbidden by God, are committed; and yet, God deals as he wills with free-will, for he reforms it through grace, or he punishes it in justice ; and had he not given free will, there would have been no sin, Itis, then, God’s peculiar province and his peculiar praise, to be able to produce things that may be adapted and accommodated to all circumstances, and turned to any account.
_ 8“ His work is praise and magnificence : and his Justice continueth for ever and ever.”
From the work of creation, he now passes to that of government, and he shews him to be worthy of all praise for that too. ‘“ His work is praise and magnificence ;” his direction and government of the world created by him is a subject of praise and thanksgiving, and also a fit subject for declaring his magnificence to all, The wise man speaks similarly when he says, “ The glory of children are their Jathers;” and, * A father without honour is the disgrace of the son;” for glory or disgrace is here used for the subject of either; “ and his justice continueth
wee
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
for ever and ever ;” that is to say, God, in his government, acts with magnificence in providing most abundantly for all, but he acts with the strictest justice, so that itis always united with his magnificence, and never found without it; for God always keeps his promise, and does no injury to any one; and it seems to be specially mentioned here, in order to refute a common complaint of God suffering the wicked to prosper, and the just to suffer and to be oppressed. God’s judgments may be severe, but they cannot be unjust, and whatever opinion we may form of them they are always just and worthy of all praise.
4 “ Hehath made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord :”
He now discusses a special work of divine providence, the raining of manna from heaven, which was a work of great mercy, not only to those who were then fed by it in the desert, but also to those who succeeded them, to whom he left an urn full of it as a memorial of the miracles he performed in the desert, see Exod. xvi., and Heb. ix. That manna was a type of the Eucharist, that he gave Christians for their spiritual food, and in memory of the wonderful things Christ did while on earth, the most wonderful of which was his glorious passion, that destroyed death itself by death, and triumphed over the prince of this world; and he, therefore, says, ‘ He hath made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord.”
5 ‘* He hath given food to them that fear him. He will be mindful for ever of his covenant :”
The food named here is the manna that God rained from heaven, and gave ‘‘to them that fear him;” to the Jews who worship him; for, though there were many sinners among them, still they worshipped the true God, and fearing and worshipping signify the same thing in the Scriptures. And as he wished the people to bear in mind the wonderful things he did when he brought them out of Egypt, and led them through the desert to the land of promise, so he, in turn, promises that he will bear in mind the bargain he made with them ; and, therefore, he adds, ‘‘he will be mindful for ever of his covenant;” that is, by his constant providence and protection, he will shew that he is mindful of his covenant and his promises.
oy He will shew forth to his people the power of his works :
7 “ That he may give them the inheritance of the gentiles ; the works of his hands are truth and judgment.”
The principal point in the treaty that God made with Abraham was, that he should give his posterity the land of the Chanaaneans, which was, consequently, afterwards called the land of promise. He, therefore, shews how “he is mindful of his covenant,” when he says, ‘he will shew forth to his people the power of his works;” that is to say, bearing his promise in mind, he will display his power to his people, by turning back the waters of
COMMENTARY ON
the Jordan, by levelling the walls of Jericho with the sound of the trumpet, by stopping the sun and moon at the command of Joshua, by raining down stones from heaven on the enemies of the Jews, and by many other similar miracles. ‘ That he may give them the inheritance of the gentiles,” that he may give his faithful the country of Palestine, which the gentiles, the Chanaaneans, held as their inheritance and their property. And, for fear any one may suspect him of injustice in taking the land of Palestine from the Chanaaneans and giving it to the Jews, he adds, “the works of his hands are truth and judgment ;” that is, all the works of the Lord, and especially the expulsion of the Chanaaneans from, and the introduction of the Jews into, the land of promise, have been done with great fidelity and justice, for truth here, as it does in many other passages in the Psalms, signifies faithfulness or fidelity. As God promised Abraham, then, that he would give that country to his posterity, he acted in truth or faithfulness; and as he did not expel the Chanaaneans until “the measure oftheir sins was Jilled up,” for which they deserved to be expelled, he also acted in justice; and, therefore, ‘‘ the works of his hands are truth and justice.” That the Chanaaneans deserved to be punished, and to be expelled from the land of promise, the Prophet proves, by reason of their not having observed the natural law, that is common to all, binding all and immutable, for they contain the first principles of justice; for, when God, in Leviticus xviii., prohibits incest, adultery, sing against nature, idolatry, and the like, he adds—‘‘For all these detestable things the inhabitanis of the land have done that were before you, and have defiled it. Beware, then, lest in like manner it vomit you also out uf you do the like things, as uw vomited out the nation that was before you.”
8 “All his commandments are faithful: confirmed for ever and ever, made in truth and equity.”
All God’s precepts, especially those of the natural law, are faithful, for being most right and just they deceive nobody, and thus they cause the good to be rewarded and the wicked to be punished. And they are not only faithful, but they are also immutable, admitting of no dispensation, for in no case can they be found unjust ; and, therefore, he adds, “ confirmed for ever and ever, made in truth and equity;” that is, firmly established from eternity, for they are based “ on truth ;” thatis, on righteousness “ and equity ;” that is, on justice.
9 ‘‘ He hath sent redemption to his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever. Holy and terrible is his name :”
Having recorded the favours that were conferred on the fathers of the Old Testament, he now comes to the far superior favours of the new dispensation, consisting, asit does, of real and everlasting redemption. “ He hath sent redemption to his people;”
sent them the Redeemer so often promised and so long expected, of whom Zachary prophesied, “ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people.” Now, Christ redeemed his people from the captivity and the slavery of sin and from the powers of darkness, by the price of his blood, and in such manner he really and truly “hath commanded his covenant for ever ;” that is, he ordered and settled it finally, that his covenant or his compact regarding true, real salvation, and the enjoyment of the kingdom of heaven, should be everlasting, and not like that of the possession of Palestine, which was only temporary, as we know from experience ; and therefore, Jeremias, chap. Xxxi., has, “ Behold, the days will come, saith the Lord, and L will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: Iwill give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” —‘* Holy and terrible is his name.” He now tells us, in consequence, how we are to adhere to his covenant, so as to come at what he promises, and he says, “* Holy and terrible is his name ;” that is to say, “he that commanded his covenant for ever” is holy and terrible, and he, therefore, hates the pollution and uncleanness of sin, by reason of his holiness, and he says, “‘ Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy;” and he punishes the polluted and the unclean by reason of his being terrible, and “Tt is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Therefore,
10 ‘* The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding to all that doth it: his praise continueth for ever and ever.”
They really begin to be wise who fear the Lord, and through such fear guard against sin, observe the law, and do good, that so they may by degrees advance from fear to love, and begin to hate evil, more through a love of virtue, than the fear of punishment. ‘A good understanding to all that do it.” An explanation of the preceding sentence, as if he said, understanding, which is a part of wisdom, is good, but “to all that do it;” that is, those who, influenced by a holy fear, do what their understanding tells them they ought to do ; otherwise, itis not only useless but injurious, as St. James says, ‘* Zo him, therefore, who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” “ His praise continueth for ever and ever;” be will, in consequence, be one of those who will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, praising God for ever and ever,
Se
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