1 The prayer of the poor man, when he was anxious, and poured out his supplication before the Lord.
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VERS. 1.-- *A prayer of the poor man.* According to the form of a servant, etc., *as far as* the bridegroom on account of the head, the bride on account of the body. Christ, poor in us, and with us, and for our sake, here prays in the person of one repenting, who acknowledges his own abasement and the cause of his abasement, and who asks to be set free from sins and restored to his former state. He admonishes, therefore, that a man mark his own misery, and seek the mercy of God.
2 Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.
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VERS. 2.-- *O Lord, hear my prayer.* The fifth psalm of penance; the fourth that is called a prayer. The first part, a deprecatory bid for a hearing. *And the cry.* The prayer grew into a cry. *Let it come,* let not the clouds be in the way, which are in the way of the wicked. An epimone through three verses, that is, a frequent repetition of the thought.
3 Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am in trouble, incline thy ear to me. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me speedily.
4 For my days are vanished like smoke, and my bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.
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VERS. 4.-- *For they have failed.* The second part, in which is the mournful prayer; in which is set forth what the poverty is, what the tribulation. He now discloses whence he cries. *For they have failed. My days have failed like smoke.* For when Adam was lifted up, the days fail, the strength of the mind is drawn in. Misery can move a merciful judge. *My bones are grown dry like fuel.* The strong, whose frying-pan are they that are scandalized, etc., *as far as* for a man is already being fried, while he fears that he shall burn.
5 I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.
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VERS. 5.-- *I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered.* Made mortal. *Grass* is green, but when smitten it easily feels the hurt: so the flesh of man, green in the law of God, when cut down by that same law withers away.
6 Through the voice of my groaning, my bone hath cleaved to my flesh.
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VERS. 6.-- *From the voice of groaning.* The nature of them that sin is shown, because while sin is sought after, the contemplation of God is not had. *My.* Not of those who groan over earthly and not over spiritual things, etc., *as far as to bear the weak.*
7 I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.
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VERS. 7.-- *Like a pelican,* He sets down three birds, three places, etc., *as far as* who, if not among men, is outside on high, saying to them that sleep in the night. Or, the sagacious sparrow flees to the heights of the virtues, where he is safe from the snares. He who is solitary or single, on account of charity (which makes him one out of many), is upon the roof, or upon the building, on account of the height of faith, that he may not come down to take anything out of the house, that is, out of the flesh. *In a dwelling-place.* Or in ruined walls, which are commonly called ruins, where the walls stand without a roof, where there dwells the night-raven, a bird that loves the night.
8 I have watched, and am become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop.
9 All the day long my enemies reproached me: and they that praised me did swear against me.
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VERS. 9.-- *All the day.* Or, the whole may be taken in the person of the just man. As if he should say, etc., *as far as* or, in my abasement I was refreshed, so much did it please me.
10 For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.
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VERS. 10.-- *Ashes.* By ashes and weeping the penitent are signified. For ashes and haircloth are the arms of penitents. *Drink.* Temporal delight. Or, I mingled with tears the longing for my homeland because of the delay; or the drink of the Scriptures, which recall ancient things.
11 Because of thy anger and indignation: for having lifted me up thou hast thrown me down.
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VERS. 11.-- *From the face of wrath.* Wrath is vengeance; indignation is a movement of the soul, by which we are indignant even with our sons. Wrath is called an onset against those who are to be punished, and these do not fall upon God. But it is antropopathos. *Of wrath.* Whence the Lord also says: *The wrath of God abideth upon them that believe not*. He does not say, shall come; but *abideth,* because it is not taken away, the wrath in which he was born.
12 My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.
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VERS. 12.-- *My days have declined like a shadow.* Because I have declined from the true day, my declining days are like myself.
13 But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever: and thy memorial to all generations.
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VERS. 13.-- *But thou,* etc. The third part, where the certainty of obtaining pardon is shown. Now he that is fallen rises up to prophesy, now the penitent lifts up his head. The memorial is a promise to be remembered; from thee is our restoring, because thou art mindful of us, or we of thee.
14 Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come.
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VERS. 14.-- *The time is come.* Because God willed all things to be done in order, and appointed a time for this, wherein the opportunity is fitly ordered.
15 For the stones thereof have pleased thy servants: and they shall have pity on the earth thereof.
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VERS. 15.-- *The stones thereof.* There are stones in Sion, etc., *as far as* hence it is that, when the Holy Spirit had been sent, many of them believed who had crucified the Lord.
16 All the Gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
17 For the Lord hath built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.
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VERS. 17.-- *In glory.* He who was first seen in weakness in that Sion; whence: *We saw him having neither beauty nor comeliness*.
18 He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble: and he hath not despised their petition.
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VERS. 18.-- *The prayer.* This is done in the building of Sion: they pray, they groan who build, who are one poor man and many poor; whence in the title it stands in the singular, here in the plural. But he is called one because of the truth of the Church's peace, and many because of her breadth.
19 Let these things be written unto another generation: and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord:
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VERS. 19.-- *Let these things be written.* He who above was foul with penance, now adorned with the honour of a prophet, commands that these things which he has said be established by the testimony of Scripture, that the age to come may learn them. *In the generation.* These things, when they were being written, did not so profit the generation of the Old Testament; they profit another, that is, the new.
20 Because he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth.
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VERS. 20.-- *Because he hath looked forth,* etc. After the groans of one grieving, now there are words of consolations, now the poor man rejoices. And because he said above: *The Lord hath built up Sion;* and again: *Let these things be written;* now he declares both; as if this is what he said was to be written, *because he hath looked forth.* *He hath looked forth.* He speaks as of things past what were yet to come.
21 That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain:
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VERS. 21.-- *Of them that are in fetters.* The fear of God: these are the fetters, etc., *as far as* and when they are loosed, they are turned into glory. They that are fettered, the saints, etc., *as far as* whence their discourse runs together into the Church universal. *That he might loose the children.* But we are the children of those slain men, we who are loosed from the knots of sins and from the chains of desires.
22 That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem;
23 When the people assemble together, and kings, to serve the Lord.
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VERS. 23.-- *He answered him in the way of his strength.* The fourth part, where, after the certainty of pardon, he says that from his own brevity he passes over to eternity. *He answered.* Because: I speak, that I may declare the name of the Lord and his praise in Jerusalem, etc., *as far as* he does not despise, but renders fruit. *He answered him.* That is, he believes that Christ has risen. But because he foresees that some will say, there was indeed once a Church gathering all into one, but now it ceases. *The fewness,* he says, *of my days:* not the eternity of those days where I shall be, but the temporal days, so long as I shall be in this world. *Declare unto me.* Because of those who say that the Church now is not. That utterance is not idle, that petition is not empty. For the way itself, that is, Christ, has thus declared: *I am with you unto the consummation of the world*. The whole time unto the end is that scantiness of days: because everything that comes to an end is scant, that from thence there may be a passing over into eternity. *Declare* and:
24 He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare unto me the fewness of my days.
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VERS. 24.-- *Call me not back in the midst of my days.* Let it not so come to pass, as the heretics say, etc., *as far as* but they are nothing but halves, if the eternal ones be not added.
25 Call me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are unto generation and generation.
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VERS. 25.-- *In the way of strength.* In the faith by which he believes that Christ has risen. Christ was the way of strength after the resurrection, when, being now not weak but strong, he calls the Church into heaven. The praise of faith is not that it believes him dead, which the Pagan also believes, but that it believes him glorified.Or, the Christian religion is briefly defined when it is called *the way of strength.* Or, in generation of generations. There is a generation of generations which passes not away, gathered out of all, that is, the saints. In it shall be the years of the Lord, which do not pass away, that is, the eternity of God, which is the very substance of God, having nothing mutable.
26 In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands.
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VERS. 26.-- *In the beginning thou, O Lord.* As if: call me not back, because I tend toward eternity, which he expounds, saying: *In the beginning thou, O Lord, didst found the earth.*
27 They shall perish but thou remainest: and all of them shall grow old like a garment: And as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed.
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VERS. 27.-- *They shall perish.* The heavens themselves shall perish; of those nearest the earth this is certain; whence Peter also: *But the earth and the heavens which now are, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire*. Of the higher ones it is not certain, but if they remain, they remain not in themselves, but in God.
28 But thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail.
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VERS. 28.-- *And as a covering thou shalt change them.* Understand the heavens, which cover all things, which also shall be changed. *And thy years shall not fail.* Which shall be in the generation of generations. But shall we be able to be there? Assuredly, because *the children of thy servants shall dwell.*
29 The children of thy servants shall continue and their seed shall be directed for ever.
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VERS. 29.-- *The children of the servants.* As the children entered the land of promise, etc., *as far as* with all the newness of the children. *The children.* A cheerful conclusion. The children of the prophets and of the apostles, not to speak of those themselves. *The seed.* Works, whence eternal fruit. *Shall be directed.* Because nothing crooked enters in.