1 Unto the end, a psalm of a canticle for David himself.
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VERS. 1.-- *Unto the end.* A psalm of David the prophet, concerning the exultation of Christ and of the Church here and in time to come, that all may sing to God. When Christ was rising, as though the ark were lifted up, etc., *as far as* Moses is said to have used words like these.
2 Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face.
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VERS. 2.-- *Let God arise, and let them be scattered.* He confidently wishes for what he knows will be. *And let them that hate him flee.* Or it can be read of the penitent, etc., *as far as* that, when the fire of the Holy Spirit is applied by the tears of penitence, their hardness may be dissolved. *That hate him.* Let the obstinate be taken away from the presence of him who is everywhere present; a grave curse, that they should will and strive after what can in no wise come to pass.
3 As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
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VERS. 3.-- *As smoke faileth.* Smoke from a flame vanishes in its rising; so sinners bring forth smoky deeds out of the flame of wickedness, and by that very lifting up they fail. *As it melteth.* It can be said of the penitent; or, in the judgment the wicked will be taken away from the face of God: who will be a fire for the punishment of the ungodly, and a light for the just.
4 And let the just feast, and rejoice before God: and be delighted with gladness.
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VERS. 4.-- *Let them feast.* In the delights which are in the sight of God. *And let them be delighted,* this can delight them, that they are glad because their gladness is not to be ended.
5 Sing ye to God, sing a psalm to his name, make a way for him who ascendeth upon the west: the Lord is his name. Rejoice ye before him: but the wicked shall be troubled at his presence,
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VERS. 5.-- *Sing ye to God.* He turns himself to those to whom he has given so great a hope, and exhorts them. *Who ascendeth.* The new life will not receive him unless the old has died; or, by rising again he overcame the fall of the body. *Upon the going down.* The going down of death befalls him upon whom the sun of justice rises. And lest thou doubt who this may be, because *the Lord is his name,* a name essential to him, whom the Jews slew as a common man. *In the sight.* The consideration of the reward to come mitigates hardships.
6 Who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows. God in his holy place:
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VERS. 6.-- *Of orphans.* Whose father, the world and the devil, is dead, and their mother, concupiscence. *Widows,* for whom their husband, error, dies; in whom God dwells, whom he gathers, whom he draws, because out of widows and orphans he makes himself a temple, in which he is.
7 God who maketh men of one manner to dwell in a house: Who bringeth out them that were bound in strength; in like manner them that provoke, that dwell in sepulchres.
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VERS. 7.-- *God who maketh to dwell.* In the Hebrew it stands: *But the Lord maketh monks to dwell in a house,* in whom sin does not dwell together. *Of one manner.* Of one mind, thinking one thing, etc., *as far as* not by merits, whence he adds: *Who bringeth out them that were bound. He bringeth out them that were bound.* Out of hell, the devil being bound. *Who provoke.* Blasphemers against God. Or, by persecuting, buried in tombs, in stinking carnal things, so that they neither will nor can walk. *They provoke.* By resisting justice, since they are altogether dead in dead works; but the bound do will to walk, and cannot; these are loosed by grace, those are raised up.
8 O God, when thou didst go forth in the sight of thy people, when thou didst pass through the desert:
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VERS. 8.-- *O God, when thou didst go forth.* A Diapsalmus concerning the word of the Gospel, by the going forth of Christ. *O God, when thou didst go forth.* Truly thou bringest out, because his going forth was prefigured before Israel, when he appeared in the pillar of cloud and of fire in the desert, and filled them with manna. *A going forth,* when he appeared to men through his humanity, or when *he bringeth out them that were bound,* that is, raises them up. *He passed into the desert,* when he came to the Gentiles. *Thou didst go forth.* As if he should say: when thou wast about to pass over that solitude which had not yet received the splendour of light, the earth indeed thou didst shake and stir, but from heaven thou didst distil the drops of thy grace.
9 The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel.
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VERS. 9.-- *The earth was moved.* Because then earthly men were moved at seeing such great wonders. *The heavens dropped down at the face of God:* manna, when in the manner of a dripping manna came down from the face of God, whose presence was known by the pillar. Mount Sinai smoked at the face of God (according to another reading) when Moses received the law there.
10 Thou shalt set aside for thy inheritance a free rain, O God: and it was weakened, but thou hast made it perfect.
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VERS. 10.-- *A rain.* This is what the heavens dropped down, manna, *a voluntary rain* which would satisfy the will of that nation, greedy to eat. *Thou shalt set apart, O God, for thine inheritance.* Because he did not give to other nations what he then gave to the Jews. *It was weakened,* etc. For a time, while it did not believe in Christ. *He hath made it perfect.* God made his inheritance perfect, when he admitted the Gentiles to fill it up. He adds whereby he made it perfect.
11 In it shall thy animals dwell; in thy sweetness, O God, thou hast provided for the poor.
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VERS. 11.-- *Living creatures.* That is, thy nations, when they believe, dwell in the inheritance, that is, in the Church. He sets forth what the living creatures are. *Thou hast prepared:* he means the predestined, because from the origin of the world they were made ready. Or, *mount at the face of the God of Israel,* supply "dropped down", etc., *as far as* in whom grace superabounded. These things mystically, but according to the figure, etc., *as far as* he sends therefore to the mystery. Certain books do not have *mount,* but *at the face of the God of Sinai, of Israel;* that is, he who gave the law to the people of Israel: because he who gave the law through Moses, whereby he might terrify, gave also the blessing through the Apostles, whereby he might set free. *In sweetness* *Sweetness* is that whereby good is done, not from fear of punishment, but from delight in justice.
12 The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power.
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VERS. 12.-- *The Lord shall give the word.* Many powers to them that preach the word.
13 The king of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved; and the beauty of the house shall divide spoils.
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VERS. 13.-- *The king of hosts.* Of the Apostles, or of the beloved. The Father is the king of the angels, over whom the Beloved himself also commands. *The king of hosts of the beloved.* Of the Son, that is, the Father; or, after the manner of the old Scripture, Christ is *the king of hosts;* of Christ, that is, of his own, as Moses did, "as the Lord commanded Moses." *Of the beloved, of the beloved.* The repetition of *of the beloved* is for commendation; but this repetition is not in all the books, yet whether it be there or not, this is the sense: *of the beloved* not only for other things, but also for dividing the spoils, by dividing which he made the Church beautiful.
14 If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the paleness of gold.
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VERS. 14.-- *If you sleep.* *To sleep among the midst of the lots* is to rest in the authority of the two Testaments and peaceably to acquiesce. *The wings of a dove covered with silver,* the preachers, by whose preaching the glory of the Church is borne up to heaven. *Of a dove* The dove is the Church, etc., *as far as* by preaching it is borne up to heaven. *And the hinder parts.* Where the roots of the wings, etc., *as far as* the vigour of wisdom is charity. *Among the midst of the lots.* It would be of the Latin tongue "among the lots", etc., *as far as* "there shall be wings for you" is ambiguous.
15 When he that is in heaven appointeth kings over her, they shall be whited with snow in Selmon.
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VERS. 15.-- A Diapsalmus, *while he distinguisheth,* concerning the gifts of the ascending Christ, who alone can do it, and no other. While by the grace of the Holy Spirit kings are distinguished, etc., *as far as* and those who believe in him are protected.
16 The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain.
17 Why suspect, ye curdled mountains? A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell: for there the Lord shall dwell unto the end.
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VERS. 17.-- *The mountain of God, a fat mountain.* He adds a commendation of the mountain, etc., *as far as* For this is the mountain which in Ezechiel wounds the prince of Tyre. *It is well pleasing to God,* etc. *For the Lord shall inhabit it unto the end,* that is, even to the term of his majesty, which is an end without end, and the fullness of all things. *For the Lord hath dwelt.* None is such as he, because this mountain, namely the Lord, will inhabit those mountains until he lead them *unto the end,* that is, into himself, God to be contemplated. But the other mountains are the chariots by which God is carried into the whole world. *Chariots,* because they are of one mind, coupled together by charity, whom God guides to the ministry of his will, *by ten thousands,* by countless peoples; a multitude of saints. *Unto the end.* Because he is personally united to him in whom dwelt *all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.*
18 The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands; thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sina, in the holy place.
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VERS. 18.-- *Thousands of them that rejoice.* It signifies a great multitude of saints, etc., *as far as* and therefore they rejoice. *Sinai in the holy place* It is the mountain on which the law was given. It is called a commandment in which the Lord rests, because in his holy commandments his presence is wont to be beheld. *In Sinai.* Or, in Sinai the holy, that is, he who once gave the law on mount Sinai is himself the same in the holy one, that is, in Christ, who is the Holy of holies.
19 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts in men. Yea for those also that do not believe, the dwelling of the Lord God.
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VERS. 19.-- *Thou hast ascended.* He who came down that we might be instructed. *On high.* Above all the heavens. *Thou hast led captivity captive.* Those formerly held captive among the dead: these are the spoils, the likeness of a triumph; *thou hast received gifts in men* from the Father, that is, men. Or *thou hast given,* according as thou art God, *gifts to men,* which also is done in triumphs. *Thou hast led captivity captive.* Whence they are called captives, because they were caught in Peter's nets and put under a light yoke: whence in this chariot there are thousands of them that rejoice, not of them that weep. *Thou hast received.* Paul by apostolic authority, etc., *as far as: What you have done to one of the least, you have done to me.*
20 Blessed be the Lord day by day: the God of our salvation will make our journey prosperous to us.
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VERS. 20.-- *Daily.* Because daily he takes captives captive until the end of the world. And because he leads that chariot *unto the end,* he adds *a prosperous journey. Journey.* The course of life, which is truly prosperous, since the leader is one who brings salvation.
21 Our God is the God of salvation: and of the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death.
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VERS. 21.-- *Our God.* Diapsalma. He sets forth the workings which come about from the things said above: the shattering of enemies, the conversions of sinners; martyrdoms from either sex. *Of saving.* He commends grace, because none is saved but through him; but lest thou say, Why then are we to die? bear it patiently, and be not indignant at death, because even of the Lord, who was without sin, the issue was none other than of death, yet by his own will, lest man should fear death. *The issue from death.* That is, the resurrection; do not complain of death, because Christ went out thence, and granted a going out thence. Lest thou believe the evils of the obstinate unpunished, he adds, "but yet the heads": pride, or the authors of the Jewish division, or of sedition, or of heresy.
22 But God shall break the heads of his enemies: the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins.
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VERS. 22.-- *The crown of the hair.* The subtleties of empty questions, which seek such enmities of calumnies that they seem to scrutinize hairs.
23 The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea:
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VERS. 23.-- *From Basan.* That is, from confusion, etc., *as far as* to those who were most desperate.
24 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thy enemies; the tongue of thy dogs be red with the same.
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VERS. 24.-- *Thy foot.* That is, that they who before were enemies may become *thy foot,* preaching even unto blood, that is, even unto death: and *dogs,* barking for God, *which eat of the crumbs,* etc. *Thy foot.* Those alone are to be taken up to the office of rule who preach to others what they perceive, who carry out with the hands of good works what they preach or teach with the mouth; whence in Leviticus: The mouth of the turtledove is twisted back to its armpits. *In blood.* Since he shows God, etc., *as far as: and when I overcame them, my garments were sprinkled. Of the dogs.* In a great sacrament Gedeon was commanded to lead those who lapped water like dogs, three hundred only and no more, in the sign of the cross, because of *thau,* which signifies three hundred. *From him.* As if thou shouldst ask whence so great a good, that they should be *dogs* of him they were enemies? he says: *From him,* that is, by his grace, not from themselves.
25 They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God: of my king who is in his sanctuary.
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VERS. 25.-- *They have seen thy goings, O God.* Or, thy steps have been seen, O God, by which thou camest into the world. This grace lay hidden in the Old Testament: now it is manifest, when the Son, being sent, is announced among the Gentiles. *Who.* God. *Is in the holy place,* in the body, though the faithless see it not, according to that in which he suffered. In this also, by suffering or by believing, the princes *went before* them, or they went before unto praise of thee.
26 Princes went before joined with singers, in the midst of young damsels playing on timbrels.
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VERS. 26.-- *Princes.* He calls the Apostles *Princes,* etc., *as far as* and by preaching they followed after them. *In the midst.* The ministers set over the new churches of them that praise God, with the flesh tamed and the hide dried from the moisture of sin, and stretched out from the wrinkle of duplicity.
27 In the churches bless ye God the Lord, from the fountains of Israel.
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VERS. 27.-- *In the churches bless ye.* Diapsalma. He prays and affirms that this beginning may be enlarged and confirmed, and for its sake that the heretics also may be destroyed. *In the churches.* These are the young maidens playing on timbrels, lest anyone should think carnally of the dances of luxury. For the churches are young girls adorned with new grace. *In the churches,* not elsewhere, not in other conventicles. *From the fountains of Israel.* That you may preach unto their imitation, as is fitting: because they are the princes of faith, of hope and of charity, and through this Benjamin, that is, the son of the right hand.
28 There is Benjamin a youth, in ecstasy of mind. The princes of Juda are their leaders: the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali.
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VERS. 28.-- *There Benjamin,* etc. *Princes,* etc. By the names of the tribes he points to Christ and the Apostles. *There,* namely in the temple of Jerusalem, or in the Church. The interpretation of the names also suits the Church. Perhaps the Apostles were of these tribes, etc., *as far as: confession* in faith, *fortitude* in hope, *breadth* in charity. *In the height of mind,* or, as the Greek word properly stands, etc., *as far as* as a faithful and prudent steward, he divided.
29 Command thy strength, O God confirm, O God, what thou hast wrought in us.
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VERS. 29.-- *Give command, O God, to thy strength.* O God, make the Son known; as it were: what I announce as to come, do thou perfect. Or, *to thy strength,* that is, enjoin it upon thy strong ones, that they may announce thee. Or, O Father, commit thy work *to thy strength,* to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit. *For God commendeth his charity toward us, since, when we were sinners, Christ died for us:* which he prays well and confidently. *Confirm this, O God, which thou hast wrought.* By making the beginning.
30 From thy temple in Jerusalem, kings shall offer presents to thee.
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VERS. 30.-- *From thy temple in Jerusalem.* Which is free, our mother, which is the temple, from which is every best gift; from that temple, therefore. *The kings of the earth.* Or, particular ones shall offer thee gifts, that is, sacrifices of praise. But because the heretics clamour against this praise.
31 Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, the congregation of bulls with the kine of the people; who seek to exclude them who are tried with silver. Scatter thou the nations that delight in wars:
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VERS. 31.-- *Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds.* That is, those who are moved by every wind of doctrine. *That they may shut out them that are approved.* This is what the Apostle says: *That they who are approved may be made manifest*; or, let the approved shut them out from among the cows. For the stable, the strong, and the grave have not wherewith to seduce: *In the mighty people I will praise thee. Scatter thou.* Rebuke the wild beasts, and also scatter those that dissent. *The nations that will wars.* Heretics and others consenting to them, whom he calls nations because of the kinds of the diverse sects, lest a series of successions there confirm the error.
32 Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God.
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VERS. 32.-- *Out of Egypt, Ethiopia.* By the name of Egypt or of Ethiopia he signifies the faith of all nations, the whole from a part. He prophesies therefore that the heralds to come are not from the Jews alone, but from the Gentiles. Ethiopia, the Gentile world black with sins, hastens to give her hands to God. A likeness taken from the conquered, who, their arms laid down, give them to the victors, lest they perish. *His hand shall prevent.* That is, his vengeance, through confession, lest, remaining in their sins, they be punished.
33 Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth: sing ye to the Lord: Sing ye to God,
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VERS. 33.-- *To God, kingdoms.* That *to God* may stand at the beginning of the following verse. Or rather it stands at the end of the preceding verse, *to God.* And faith is commended (as if to say, a man is not justified by preceding works) which begins to work through love. Ethiopia therefore will believe God, and so *shall prevent* his works, that is, Ethiopia's, which in the Greek is not ambiguous — that is, by believing in God she shall prevent her own works. Or *his,* Egypt's, to God, that is, unto God. *Ye kingdoms of the earth, sing to God.* Having run through all the things which we now behold fulfilled, he exhorts to the praise of Christ, and foretells his coming that is to be. *Sing ye psalms.* Diapsalma. *Sing ye psalms:* he will come who ascended, where he will make the saints perfect.
34 Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens, to the east. Behold he will give to his voice the voice of power:
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VERS. 34.-- *He ascendeth.* according as he is man. For according as he is God, equal to the Father, above the heaven of heaven, above the loftier creatures, so that he had nothing above himself. *The East.* The Word begotten of the Father. *And he ascended from the east* by the power of the Word. *To the east.* He has expressed the place where he rose again and whence he ascended. *To the east,* of our illumination. Or because Jerusalem is in the East. *To his voice.* He who was lowly in the passion will give the voice of power in the common resurrection. *The voice of power.* The efficacy of raising up all the dead.
35 Give ye glory to God for Israel, his magnificence, and his power is in the clouds.
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VERS. 35.-- *His magnificence and power.* Because then there will no longer be a mingling of the wicked, thence his magnificence over the true Israel will be evident. *In the clouds.* Because he will not come alone to the judgment, but with the elders of the people, who are the clouds: and lest thou take them otherwise, he adds: *Wonderful in his saints.* By *clouds.* Here he understands the Apostles themselves, as existing above, and standing high away from earthly affairs, and as it were full of spiritual water, which they drew from the depths of the Holy Spirit, that they might water the fields and plains of souls, that is, the believers themselves.
36 God is wonderful in his saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God.
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VERS. 36.-- *He himself will give power and strength to his people; blessed be God.* (CAS). He has promised great things, lest anyone, because of human infirmity, should despair of coming to such great rewards.