1 Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.
v.1
VERS. 1.-- *Unto the end, in songs.* *Understanding.* The Church ought with great care to understand, etc., *as far as* who for the troublesomeness of the citizens fled into the wilderness.
2 Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:
v.2
VERS. 2.-- *Hear, O God, my prayer.* A prayer sent before against evils, or against the waves of the world. *Despise not my supplication.* For if God gives temporal things to one who asks, his prayer is nevertheless not acceptable to him, because it lacks its due end.
3 Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,
v.3–4
VERS. 3, 4.-- *In my exercise,* etc. Every wicked man lives either that he may be corrected, or that through him a good man may be exercised. *I was troubled at the voice of the enemy.* In the very battle, while he wishes to love his enemies too, and, as the warfare grows, begins to hate them, and so begins to be sunk in the waves. Troubled. Or, I was troubled at the voice of the enemy, who called me a Samaritan and one having a devil.
4 At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.
5 My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.
v.5
VERS. 5.-- *My heart is troubled.* By the law of the flesh the mind is disturbed within me, it does not go forth from me.
6 Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.
v.6
VERS. 6.-- *Fear and trembling.* It is the property of death that we first fear it, whence we tremble. *Darkness hath covered me.* *The darkness* is wicked men, who persecute the Church, and who cover it over: he that hates his brother is in darkness.
7 And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?
v.7
VERS. 7.-- *Who will give me wings as?* But in this weakness what does he say? *Who will give me wings?* He wishes to be parted for a time from so many scandals, lest, being weak, he should increase his sins by remaining among them. *As of a dove,* etc. Not as to a raven, etc., *as far as but it is necessary to remain for your sakes,* and so the merit is from the desire. The dove. Or, the dove that was sent out, finding muddy places, returned to the ark; so Christ, finding the muddy hearts of the Jews, flew away to the Gentiles.
8 Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.
v.8
VERS. 8.-- *Lo, I have gone far off.* He touches on this, that Christ avoided his persecutors, to take away the occasion of their anger, and remained praying in the desert places: wherein he taught us to pray and be still in the secret of the conscience, when we are pressed by the wicked. *And I remained in the wilderness,* of the Gentiles; whence: *Let the desert rejoice, and flourish as the lily.* And elsewhere: *Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not*.
9 I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.
v.9
VERS. 9.-- *I waited for him.* Diapsalmus. Now safe in the wilderness he hopes for the help of God, and calls down curses on his fellow citizens. I waited (that it may be read in the person of Christ) in the wilderness, not secure of myself, the protection of the Father *I looked for, who saved me from faintness of spirit,* that I might not fall nor yield to the wicked in the passion, *from the tempest* lest I should be angry.
10 Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.
v.10
VERS. 10.-- *Cast down.* Lest they fortify their thoughts by contriving. *Divide.* Lest their unity be proud, lest their malice have its effect. *In the city.* This is the city of which the Lord says by the prophet: *I am God and not man, and I do not enter the city.* Yet there is another, which God inhabits, of which it is said: *A city set upon a mountain cannot be hid.*
11 Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,
v.11
VERS. 11.-- *And labour in the midst thereof,* etc. Now labour is in the midst, because iniquity is there: but rest is in humility.
12 And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.
v.12
VERS. 12.-- *Usury,* etc. Because he exacts more, to another's hurt. Or, whatever thing he has received, he does not let it go, that it may be let go to him.
13 For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden my self from him.
v.13
VERS. 13.-- *For if mine enemy.* A reproach of Judas, while it is read in the person of Christ; or, thus far the Church has dealt with open enemies, now with hidden ones. *I would perchance have hidden myself from him,* etc. Great patience would so give place to words, that it would hide itself, that it might not see the adversary.
14 But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,
v.14
VERS. 14.-- *But thou, a man.* Once, because at some time thou gavest good counsel. *Of one mind.* Because among the Apostles he was a leader, sent before to the strongholds and villages. *Familiar,* because he knew the traitor beforehand, so that Christ speaks thus especially against Judas. Or thus, generally against any Jewish man, etc., *as far as* the ordinances of the law, or the morsel. *Of one mind.* Thou who once didst admonish well; *Leader:* I made thee leader over my people. *Familiar,* of the same nation. *My familiar. Who together.* Thou who wast with me in the same Church.
15 Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.
v.15
VERS.15.-- *Meats.* Bodily ones, which could be sweet to the wicked alone. The man of iniquity is wont to be softened by banquetings, whence his guilt is the heavier.
16 Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.
v.16
VERS. 16.-- *Let come.* As above against the open enemies, so here he imprecates against the hidden. And lest the one man he was dealing with be thought to be meant, he makes the punishments common to the Jews, that is, he imprecates against the Jews in common with others. *Let death come.* Here he touches the beginning of the schism, etc., *as far as* and Christ and the Church speak in one voice. *Let come:* As upon those who were the beginning of the schism and in their pride separated themselves, a new death came; for the earth opened, and swallowed them alive. *Let them go down alive into hell.* As the earth swallowed the leaders, etc., *as far as* so these, sinning knowingly, go down. *Alive.* Knowing that they perish, and yet, as they perish, being swallowed up by the gulf of earthly desire. *In their dwellings.* They are alien, not natural, but received as guests, as it were newcomers; or, first *in their dwellings,* that is, in secret, afterwards *in the midst,* that is, in the open. *But I,* etc. He affirms what shall be done to him and what to them, proceeding by turns.
17 But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.
18 Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.
v.18
VERS. 18.-- *Evening and morning.* Because he saved, therefore evening, when he was taken; *morning,* when he was judged; *noonday,* when he was crucified. *I will tell,* the works that are past. *I will declare,* the powers and works which he shall do: and therefore he will hear, etc. *Evening.* Of things past *I will tell,* etc., *as far as* against those who love not peace, because I have loved peace. To tell belongs to the evening, when he said all that Judas was contriving. *To declare* belongs to the morning, when he said to Pilate: *For this was I born, that I should give testimony to the truth.*
19 He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.
v.19
VERS. 19.-- *They draw near to me.* In name, not in the divine power; in body, not in mind; in number, not in merit. *Because they were with me among many.* *Because in many things, with me,* that is, in the baptism of the Gospel, in reading, in feast days and the like, but not in the few things, with me. In all the sacraments with me, but not in faith, hope and charity, without which all things are nothing. Or, *in many things,* that is, among the chaff, etc., *as far as* so are they also with me in many things.
20 God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:
v.20
VERS. 20.-- *God shall hear,* etc. *At noonday,* when he sent forth the Spirit. Behold how great mysteries in few words: or, *thou shalt save at morning, and at evening, and at noonday:* whence, being not ungrateful, *tell,* and *declare,* and *he himself will hear,* etc. *He shall humble them, he that is before the ages.* From their pride, that they may believe. Or *he shall humble* them so as to take away their place and their nation. *For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God: he hath stretched out his hand in repaying,* etc. Because the mind of the faithless is unchangeable.
21 He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,
v.21
VERS. 21.-- *They have defiled:* because they defiled and were divided: the just are the more armed, the weak are set free, who have their care upon God.
22 They are divided by the wrath of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.
v.22
VERS. 22.-- *Wrath.* The vengeance of the judgment, etc., *as far as* he appropriates to his own. *The heart.* The secret will of God, which is contained in the Scriptures. *His words are softened.* Or, this befalls them because they softened their words by flattery, which words are *darts* when they say: *He is guilty of death.* But if to thee, a child who art nourished with the milk of a lesser teaching, they are still hard, be not angry with the breasts of the Church; but cast [thy care] upon the Lord, not another — he it is who is a harbour; the other is a rock to a ship, not a harbour, to one tossed about in the world. *The same words,* etc. Because, being softened, they do not lose their power, but by them the evangelists are armed, and they strike the hearts of men to the love of peace, and set the weak free from the entangled questions of heretics.
23 Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.
v.23
VERS. 23.-- *Thy care.* The care of the world, etc., *as far as: so the sadness of a man harms his heart. Wavering.* And if here, the words of wavering were: *I was made sorrowful in my exercise,* etc.
24 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.
v.24
VERS. 24.-- *But thou,* etc. These then shall not waver, etc., *as far as* Woe! to them that sin and do not repent. *Their days, but I,* etc. Days of their own choosing, not appointed by God.