Horn. Power and kingdom. (Worthington) --- He speaks like a virtuous Levite, who acknowledges that all good came from the Lord. (Haydock) --- He cannot speak of temporal blessings alone. (Berthier) PSALM . ( DOMINI.) The perpetuity of the Church of Christ, in consequence of the promises of God: which notwithstanding, God permits her to suffer sometimes most grievous afflictions. Israel. The Lord our king, (1 Kings viii. 7.) will protect us, (Haydock) or He will defend our King David, and his posterity, as he then promised to him, ver. 5, 20. These verses may be thus connected, as the psalmist had been led to praise the wonderful works of God, and now returns to his promises. (Berthier) Then, may relate to a distant time, when God chose Israel. (Menochius) --- Saints. Hebrew, "merciful ones." Samuel, or Nathan, Septuagint, Arabic, &c., have "sons." The rest read "saints." (St. Jerome) --- People. As Moses had written, Deuteronomy xvii. 15. (Calmet) --- This regards David, as a figure of the Messias, (Luke i. 32., and Ezechiel xxxiv. 23.; Berthier) in whom it was more fully verified, 2 Kings v., and Acts xiii. 22. (Worthington) Oil. Vatican Septuagint has, "mercy," and is followed by St. Jerome in Ezechiel lv. 3. (Calmet) --- But is a mistake, Greek: eleei being put for Greek: elaio. (Berthier) Him. The Jews contributed to the glory of Christ, and the redemption of mankind. The enemies of David fell before his feet. (Calmet) Rivers. Of his kingdom there shall be no end, Luke i. 33., and Zacharias ix. 10. (Haydock) --- Every nation shall adore him. David extended his conquests over all Arabia, and from the Pelusium to the Euphrates. (Calmet) --- In this sense, the text may be applied to him, though it belongs more to Christ. (Menochius) Father. We never find that David used this title; (Du Hamel) but Christ did frequently, insomuch that the Jews were convinced, that he claimed the divine nature: though, as man, he called God his support. (Berthier) (Isaias lxiii. 16.) First-born. Or favourite, Exodus iv. 22., and Jeremias xxxi. 9. What king could be preferred to David for piety, riches, &c.? Yet he was only a feeble type of our Saviour, who surpasses all kings, as much as the reality does a shadow. (Calmet) (Colossians i. 15., Romans viii. 29., and Apocalypse i. 5.) (Berthier) --- High. Hebrew helyon, which is one of the titles of God, and belongs to Christ, (Haydock) who is King of kings, and heir of all, Hebrews i. (Menochius) Heaven. This can only be verified in Christ, who rules over all, and gives power to his Church unto the end. The family of David has been confounded with the rest of the nation for nearly 2,000 years. (Calmet) --- The temporal dominion of those princes has ceased in Jechonias, (Du Hamel) like that of other monarchs; so that God had in view a different throne, (Berthier; ver. 5.) and the Messias, who would render the kingdom of David perpetual, (Menochius) in a spiritual sense. (Haydock) And if. God foresaw the prevarications of the Israelites and Christians: But he speaks this to shew their free-will, and that he would treat them as children, (Berthier) and not with the utmost severity, (Calmet) unless they proved obstinate, 2 Kings vii. 14. (Haydock) --- Some shall always continue faithful, and shall be glorified, while the bad shall be cast away. (St. Augustine) --- Christ will never lose his Church. (Worthington) From him. David. Many ancient psalters read, "from them." (Calmet) --- God, by degrees, punished the Jews, by depriving them of their kings; though the family of David was preserved, and some share of power remained till Christ's coming. (Berthier) Holiness. Or by myself , having nothing greater, Hebrews vi. 13. (Calmet) --- I will not. Literally, "if I lie," which is a Hebrew idiom, (Berthier) implying as much. (Worthington) --- I have sworn irrecoverably, once for all. (Menochius) Witness. Which may refer to the throne, or to the sun, (Calmet) or to the rainbow. (Berthier) (Du Hamel) --- As long as the stars subsist, so long shall his throne be established. (Calmet) --- The Church shines like the sun, and is easily known. (Berthier) --- God, (Eusebius) or Christ, attests the promises. (St. Jerome) (Isaias lv. 4., and Apocalypse i. 5.) --- The rainbow was assigned as a memorial, that the world should no more be drowned, Genesis ix. The other covenants made God have no less stability. (Haydock) --- Christian souls may shine in virtue, like the sun, or full moon, (Worthington) particularly (Haydock) after the resurrection, when they will be perfect, and not liable to change. (St. Augustine) Rejected. In all kingdoms, there are some interruptions, and God did not fail in his promises. He still maintained the sceptre in Juda, though not with the same splendour at all times. (Berthier) --- Angry. Or literally, "hast deferred." Distulisti. (Haydock) --- The Israelites ardently wished for the coming of the Messias. The psalmist here contrasts the present forlorn condition of the people with the preceding promises; and bewails the fate of Sedecias, who was slain at a distance from home. Distulisti. See Psalm lxxvii. 21., and lxii. (Calmet) --- Thou hast been angry with thy Christ, (king Sedecias) and even with our Redeemer, in some sense, (Calmet) as He was treated thus, in consequence of the sins of mankind. (Eusebius, &c.) --- The promises were not fulfilled in David, that we may look farther. Solomon seemed to answer all his expectations. But he fell, and God had not him but Christ in view. The kingdom and sacrifices of the Jews are no more. Christ was not taken from them, but deferred. Some Jews and many Gentiles believed in him, ver. 47., &c. (St. Augustine) (Worthington) --- Anointed. Thou hast despised us, and delayed the coming of the Messias. We cannot accuse the psalmist of impatience, as a late commentator has done, his words being dictated by the Holy Ghost. He expostulates with love and confidence, (Berthier) and comforts himself with the thought, that the coming of the Messias is only delayed. (Worthington) Overthrown the covenant, &c. All this seems to relate to the time of the captivity of Babylon, in which, for the sins of the people and their princes, God seemed to have set aside for a while the covenant he made with David. (Challoner) --- Yet he did not in effect, ver. 39. (Haydock) --- Sanctuary. The temple, (Theodoret) or according to the Hebrew, "the diadem," by which the king was "set apart" from the common people, and rendered sacred, Psalm cxxxi. 18. (Berthier) --- The psalmist speaks in the person of the weak, who complained, (Worthington) that the kingdom ws a prey to invaders, and the Church oppressed by infidels. (Worthington) (Tirinus) Fear. All this forts can afford no refuge. The country is like an abandoned vineyard. The Assyrians and Chaldeans have ruined it, and the neighbouring nations of Samaria and Edom take possession of it. (Calmet) --- Thou leadest on their armies, and renderest our efforts useless. (Menochius) --- This conduct of God proceeded from mercy. This severe chastisement awakened his people, who after the captivity were more tractable. (Chaldean) (Berthier) (Calmet) Cease. The priests are absent; and he cannot be purified in the temple. --- Purification may here denote the royal ornaments. (Pagnin) (Calmet) (Menochius) Time. Hebrew, &c., "youth." (St. Jerome) (Haydock) --- Joachim was only seventeen years old when he came to the throne, which he occupied three months. (Amama) --- The four last kings of Juda reigned but a short while, and most of them came to an untimely end. Instead of Greek: chronou, the Roman Septuagint, St. Augustine, &c., read Greek: thronou, "of his throne," or reign. (Calmet) --- The Vulgate seems more natural, as the throne of David had subsisted above 400 years, so that it was not overturned in "its youth," or commencement, though the number of ages, promised to it, seemed now to be abridged. (Berthier) How long. Here the third part, or the prayer of the psalmist, begins. (Calmet) --- Away. Another interrogation might then commence, "shall it be unto the end?" (Haydock) --- In this prayer he foretells that God will regard our weakness, and preserve his Church. (Worthington) Remember what. Hebrew ani, "I." As this seems odd, Houbigant substitutes, adni, "Lord." (Berthier) --- Substance is. That Christ will assume our nature, (St. Augustine, City of God xvii. 9, 11.) or "how long I shall live." (Montanus) --- Even the world "passes" like a shadow, 1 Corinthians vii. (Amama) --- "Be mindful of me from the depth: else why hast thou in vain created the sons of men?" (St. Jerome) (Haydock) --- In vain. To spend their days in misery? or rather, "are not all created subject to vanity?" If thou do not succour us, we shall presently perish, and who will glorify thy name on earth? (Psalm cxliii. 4.) (Calmet) --- Will thy providence take no care of us? (Berthier) --- If the Messias come not, we cannot be saved, and we shall appear to have been created in vain. (Menochius) David. He was a man according to thy own heart, and thy promises to him were absolute. Ethan speaks not of the other kings, or of the people, who might have justly irritated the Lord. He excuses their failings, by the consideration or their mortal and frail nature, ver. 49. (Calmet) Nations. Who continually insult us, and blaspheme thy name. (Haydock) --- This fills me with the most poignant grief. (Calmet) --- Which, &c. Aquila and St. Jerome, "For I have carried in my bosom all the iniquities of peoples." If we should read kul, "voice," for col, "all," which seems useless before rabim, "many," (Haydock) we might translate, "I bore in my bosom the discourse of many peoples." (Calmet) Wherewith. Or "because," quod. (Haydock) --- Change. Hebrew also, "the supplanting or retardment." Why does not your Messias come? How are your kings fallen! though God had promised them an eternal kingdom! Boast no more of his power or veracity. This impious language disturbs me. (Calmet) --- They deride the ignominious life of the Messias. (Eusebius) --- Sedecias had "exchanged" the promised crown for irons, which was a cutting reproach. (Berthier) --- Christ appeared to have left his people. (Worthington) --- Infidels objected, that David's piety was ill requited by God, and that the anointed had made a bad exchange; Greek: antallagma, Matthew xvi. 26. (Menochius) So be it. Some suppose, that these words were added by the collector of the psalms into five books. (Calmet) --- Here the third ends. (Haydock) --- The psalmist loses not hope, under adversity. (Berthier) --- He begins and finishes with God's praises. (Calmet) --- We beg that all may praise thee, O Lord. (Worthington) --- This is the only reply which he makes to the sarcasms of infidels, being convinced of God's providence. (Calmet) God. This characterizes the Jewish legislator [Moses]. (Berthier) (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 1.) (Du Hamel) --- David composed it in his [Moses'] name, (Menochius) or it bears some analogy with his writings. St. Jerome maintains, that he [Moses] was the author of the nine following psalms, (Calmet) which have no title in Hebrew. (Tirinus) --- But St. Augustine thinks they would then have formed a part of the pentateuch. (Calmet) --- The life of man was longer in the days of Moses than seventy or eighty years. (Bellarmine; ver. 10.) --- Moses cannot be the author of the 94th and 95th psalms. (Worthington) --- In Psalm xcviii. 6., Samuel is mentioned, and it is not necessary to haver recourse to the prophetic spirit. One of the descendants of Moses, during the captivity, may have been the author, (Calmet) or David may have predicted that event. (Haydock) Formed. Hebrew, "brought forth," Job xxxviii. 8. (Calmet) --- Here Origen improperly concluded the sentence. (St. Jerome, Ep. ad Cypr.) --- God, is not in Septuagint, Syriac, or ancient Latin psalters. (Calmet) --- Al signifies both God, and not, and seems to be twice explained in the Vulgate, as Hebrew omits not, ver. 3. (Haydock) --- The sentence would be very striking, if God were left out, as it is done by Houbigant. The eternity of matter is refuted by this text. (Berthier) (Worthington) --- God's eternity is contrasted with man's short life. (Calmet) --- New gods must of course be false. (Menochius) --- Plato asserted, that "the creator of all must be unbegotten and eternal." (Plut. Conviv. viii.) Turn not man away, &c. Suffer him not quite to perish from thee, since thou art pleased to call upon him to be converted to thee. (Challoner) --- God wills not the death of the sinner. (Worthington) --- Give him grace not to yield to his base passions. (St. Augustine) --- Hebrew, "thou humblest man," (Haydock) that he may enter into himself. (Calmet) For, &. This thought naturally tends to convert the sinner. --- Watch. Consisting of three hours, (Berthier) which were of unequal length, according to the seasons. (Calmet) --- A thousand years seem not so long to God. (Haydock) --- What them must be the short life of man? See Job vii. 8. (Calmet) --- None ever lived one thousand years. Yet what would that be, compared with eternity? (Worthington) Their years be. Hebrew, "thou strikest, (Calmet) or inundatest them: they are a dream." But our version is accurate. (Berthier) Fall. Hebrew, "it is cut down and dries." The heat of the climate caused the flowers to decay ver soon, Isaias xl. 6. Man's youth touches on old age. (Calmet) --- The present moment is all we can call our own. (Berthier) --- "A young man may die soon: an old man cannot live long," says an English proverb. (Worthington) Life. Literally, "age." Thou clearly discernest all our proceedings. (Haydock) --- Man is condemned for Adam's sin. The Israelites who were fit for arms, and gave way to murmuring, were sentenced to die in the desert. He may allude to this event. (Berthier) --- Hebrew may signify also, "our hidden things," or "youth," (Calmet) or "mistakes," (Houbigant) or "negligences." (St. Jerome) --- From these we should always pray to be delivered, Psalm xxiv. 7. (Haydock) --- Sin occasions the shortness of life, (Worthington) as man was created to be immortal. (Haydock) --- Before the deluge, men lived indeed longer. (Menochius) As a spider. As frail and weak as a spider's web; and miserable withal, whilst, like a spider, we spend our bowels in weaving webs to catch flies. (Challoner) --- Meditabuntur is here used in a passive sense. (Tirinus) --- Hebrew, "we have spent our years like one speaking a word." (St. Jerome) --- When he has done, the sound is no more: so their memory has perished with a sound, Psalm ix. 8. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, Chaldean, &c., do not mention the spider: Yet it seems to have been originally in the text, as it is recognized by the Syriac, Septuagint, and the other Greek interpreters, and makes the sense more complete. (Calmet) --- The transcribers might more easily omit than the Septuagint, &c., could insert this word. (Berthier) In them. Years, (Calmet) "in the world." Chaldean, "together." Symmachus, years. This was the usual term of man's life in David's time, (Haydock) and about the captivity, when this was written. Many lived above one hundred years when Moses wrote. (Calmet) --- Yet this proves nothing, as there are still instances of equal longevity, though it is true, that people in general seldom live above seventy, or eighty, or if they do, their days ar a burden to them. The same might be the case under Moses. He probably alludes to those warriors, who were cut off in the wilderness, few of whom would survive 80. (Berthier) --- The author of Ecclesiasticus, (xviii. 8.) gives one hundred, for the utmost limits of life. The pagan sages speak in the same style as the psalmist. (Calmet) --- Strong. Septuagint, "in dominion." But here it means in a vigorous constitution. (Bellarmine) --- Princes lived no longer than others. Hebrew and Vulgate may be "the prime, or most of them," as even a great part of the time before seventy, as well as after, (Haydock) is usually spent in misery, Genesis xlvii. 9. (Calmet) --- Mildness. God's mildness corrects us: in as much as he deals kindly with us, in shortening the days of this miserable life; and so weaning our affections from all its transitory enjoyments, and teaching us true wisdom. (Challoner) --- Hebrew, "we pass quickly and fly away, (St. Jerome) like birds of passage, (Calmet) or "it is cut down soon," (Montanus) "in silence," (Drusius) tacitisque senescimus annis. (Haydock) --- St. Jerome wonders, that the Septuagint should have translated as they have done: But they are followed by Theodotion, and the Sext. edition, who may have had different copies, equally good. (Berthier) --- Corrected or "hurried away," Genebrard. --- But this is not the sense of the Septuagint. (Amama) --- "We grow tired." (Houbigant) --- It is a mercy of God to shorten men's lives, (Menochius) as many would sin more, if they had a probability of continuing upon earth. (Worthington) Anger? God must punish actual sin severely, since he thus condemns mankind on account of original sin. (Worthington) Thy right hand. Your Messias, to liberate and instruct us. (St. Augustine) --- "Make us know how to number our days thus, and we shall come to thee with a wise heart." (St. Jerome) (Ecclesiasticus vii. 40.) (Haydock) --- Septuagint have read iminoc for yamenu, "our days." (Amama) --- Make us truly wise, (Sa) or acquainted with teachers of truth. (Bellarmine) (Menochius) We are. Hebrew, "Fill us." (Montanus) --- But the psalmist feels interiorly, that his petition has been granted. (Berthier) --- The prospect of a glorious immortality fills us with hope in proportion to our sufferings for the truth. (Worthington) Yea, the work. Each in particular. Roman Septuagint, &c., omit this sentence, which Houbigant improperly deems useless. (Berthier) --- Charity must direct all. (St. Augustine) (Worthington)