PSALM . (DOMINE .) God's special providence over his servants. Descend. Hebrew, "make my bed the grave or hell," Job xvii. 13. The living and the dead are equally in God's power. (Calmet) In the morning. Shachar is so rendered by St. Jerome. (Haydock) --- Some would understand "the black eagle," (Lyranus) or the east, (Origen) or aurora. The poets assign wings to the sun, &c., Malachias iv. 2. (Calmet) Cover. Literally, tread me under foot," conculcabunt. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "shall cover or be my aurora." (Calmet) --- Pleasures of the most secret kind. All is naked before God. (Haydock) --- The prophet speaks in the name of all who are curious, that darkness itself cannot hide any thing from him. (Worthington) --- He seems also to represent one who seeks to avoid being seen in his pleasures. (Berthier) --- Hebrew, "around me." But it also has the former meaning, and shews that if we seek to indulge ourselves in darkness, it will be all in vain. (Menochius) Thereof. Alluding to day and night. (Berthier) Reins, and interior. (Theodoret) --- Nothing seems more hidden than a man's entrails, or a child in his mother's womb, who is formed by God, ver. 16., and 2 Machabees vii. 22. (Worthington) --- Protected. Hebrew, "covered," which may also mean formed. (Berthier) Magnified. Chaldean and St. Jerome, "hast magnified me." Hebrew seems less correct, "I have been terribly magnified," though the sense is much the same. (Berthier) --- I have been stricken with awe and astonishment at thy works. (Calmet) Bone. Hebrew, "substance." --- And my. Hebrew, "and curiously wrought." (Protestants) (Haydock) --- Septuagint have read rather differently, and give a very good sense; "and is my substance in?" &c. Most explain this also of the embryo. But it seems rather to refer to the corpse in the grave, Psalm lxii. 10. (Calmet) (Berthier) My imperfect being, &c., viz., When I was as yet but an embryo, in my mother's womb; and even then, in the book of thy knowledge, all the parts and members of my body were exactly set down; which by succession of days were formed, and brought to perfection; and no one of them but what was fashioned by thee. (Challoner) --- Or none shall return from the grave, nemo in eis. (Berthier) --- No man can form the body, Job x. 8. (Worthington) --- None of these days, (Haydock) or men, shall escape thee, (Calmet) or "live for ever." (Syriac) --- The embryo is formed successively, but nothing yet appears of what it shall be. (Petau) --- Protestants, "in thy book all my members (marginal note: all of them) were written, which in continuance were fashioned, (marginal note: or what days they should be fashioned) when as yet there was none of them." (Haydock) --- Imperfect. Chaldean, "body." Syriac, "reward." --- Book here alludes to the list of the living, kept by God, (Exodus xxxii. 32.) or to the decree of predestination, Philippians iv. 3. (Calmet) --- Our first and last state are both horrible, (Haydock) so that hardly any vestiges of man can be discovered. (Berthier) --- We shall find ourselves entire only in eternity, if we have spent our days well. (Haydock) Friends. Many pervert this passage, translating "thoughts," because the word may have that sense in Chaldean, (Worthington) though the paraphrase agree with us; (Calmet) and all confess that our version is accurate. The other may also be admitted. While the dead seem to have no longer any existence, the saints are still with God, and the psalmist hopes to rise with them. (Berthier) --- Principality. St. Jerome and Theodoret, "poor," who are generally employed by God in his greatest works, that no flesh may glory in his sight. Though the elect be comparatively few, yet they cannot be numbered (Haydock; Apocalypse vii. 9.) by man. (Worthington)