Psalms 116 & 119 (after Bellarmine)

David introduces the Psalms. Master Jean de Mandeville,
(French, active 1350 - 1370) [Getty Museum]

We continue to build the pages of the Little Office website. Below are Psalm 116, from Prime, and Psalm 119, from Terce, with notes based on St Robert Bellarmine's explanations.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam

[ ]  Footnotes are not hyperlinked but refer to the notes after the Psalm.





Psalmus 116

Laudáte Dóminum. All nations are called upon to praise God for his mercy and truth. Alleluia.

[1] Laudáte Dóminum, omnes gentes: * laudáte eum, omnes pópuli:
Praise the Lord, all ye nations: * praise him, all ye people.
 [2] Quóniam confirmáta est super nos misericórdia ejus: * et véritas Dómini manet in ætérnum.
For his mercy is confirmed upon us: * and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever.

Notes

[1] He addresses the whole Church, and exhorts it to praise God. “All ye nations” is directed to the converted gentiles, who are named first by reason of their being in the majority, and the people nearer those of the Jews who had been converted to the faith; and the Apostles themselves, in alluding to a similar expression in the second Psalm, “Why have the gentiles raged, and the people meditated vain things,” apply the former to the gentiles, and the latter to the Jews.[2] The reason assigned for praising God is, “for his mercy is confirmed on us,” by the arrival of the Messias to Jews and gentiles; “and the truth of the Lord remaineth forever;” for the Church was established, “Against which the gates of hell shall not prevail,” and his kingdom was established, of which there will be no end.

Psalmus 119

Ad Dominum. A prayer in tribulation. A gradual canticle.

[1] Ad Dóminum cum tribulárer clamávi: * et exaudívit me.
In my trouble I cried to the Lord: * and he heard me.

[2] Dómine, líbera ánimam meam a lábiis iníquis, * et a lingua dolósa.
O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, * and a deceitful tongue.

[3] Quid detur tibi, aut quid apponátur tibi * ad linguam dolósam?
What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, * to a deceitful tongue?

[4] Sagíttæ poténtis acútæ, * cum carbónibus desolatóriis.
The sharp arrows of the mighty, * with coals that lay waste.

[5] Heu mihi, quia incolátus meus prolongátus est: habitávi cum habitántibus Cedar: *[6] multum íncola fuit ánima mea.
Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar: * my soul hath been long a sojourner.

[7] Cum his, qui odérunt pacem, eram pacíficus: * cum loquébar illis, impugnábant me gratis.
With them that hated peace I was peaceable: * when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.

Notes

[1] Ad Dóminum cum tribulárer clamávi: * et exaudívit me.
In my trouble I cried to the Lord: * and he heard me.
Among the various calamities of this our exile, one is specially to be deplored, and that is the deceitful tongue of those among whom we are obliged to mix; and the prophet, in order to instruct his fellow exiles by his example, sings in this Psalm of his having asked for and obtained deliverance from such an evil. “In my trouble,” I did not look for help from man, but “I cried,” in prayer, “to the Lord,” and he, in his mercy, “heard me.”

[2] Dómine, líbera ánimam meam a lábiis iníquis, * et a lingua dolósa.
O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, * and a deceitful tongue.

He tells what he prayed for when he cried to the Lord. It was, “O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips and a deceitful tongue,” one of the greatest and most numerous evils of this our pilgrimage. “Wicked lips” give expression to detraction, railing, calumny, false testimony, and similar expressions against the law of justice; “a deceitful tongue” sends forth words of deceit, flattery, pretence, and fraud. We may meet with “wicked lips” without “the deceitful tongue,” as when one openly reproaches or calumniates; but when the wicked lips and the deceitful tongue are united, the evil exceeds comprehension, so as scarce to admit of any addition to it, as the next verse will inform us.

[3] Quid detur tibi, aut quid apponátur tibi * ad linguam dolósam?
What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, * to a deceitful tongue?

He assigns a reason for having asked to be delivered from a deceitful tongue, because it is such a calamity as to admit of no addition to it. For what evil can be given to or added to a deceitful tongue?

[4] Sagíttæ poténtis acútæ, * cum carbónibus desolatóriis.
The sharp arrows of the mighty, * with coals that lay waste.
By an elegant metaphor, he explains the enormity of the evil of a deceitful tongue; he says that the words issuing from such a tongue are like arrows that shoot from afar, and with great rapidity, so that they can scarcely be guarded against; and, in order to give greater force and expression to the idea, he adds, that they are not like the arrows shot by an ordinary person, but “by the mighty;” that is, by a strong and robust hand; and, furthermore, that they are “sharp,” well steeled and pointed by the maker; and, finally, that they are so full of fire that, like the lightnings of heaven that are discharged from the hands of the Almighty, and are truly both sharp and fiery, they can lay everything waste and desolate. Such are words of deceit, especially when used by the devil to ruin souls, and are called by the Apostle “the fiery darts of the most wicked one.”

[5] Heu mihi, quia incolátus meus prolongátus est: habitávi cum habitántibus Cedar: *[6] multum íncola fuit ánima mea.
Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar: * my soul hath been long a sojourner.
In consequence of so great and so frequent an evil in this our place of peregrination, he sighs for his country, and thus, truly and from his heart, sings the “canticle of ascent,” as these fifteen Psalms are called. “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged;” for the true pilgrim desires rather to be shut out from his body than from his Lord, and therefore, looks upon the present life as entirely too long, inasmuch as it keeps him the longer away from the Lord. “I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar.” No wonder I should complain of being detained too long here below, for hitherto “I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar;” with wild and barbarous tribes, that live in tents instead of houses, and are black and swarthy. The word Cedar in Hebrew signifies blackness; and hence, in Canticles, we have the “tents of Cedar” put in opposition to “the curtains of Solomon;” that is, black and rustic tents, to splendid and valuable curtains. And, truly, the cities and palaces of the kings of this world, when compared to the mansions of the heavenly Jerusalem, are but so many rustic tents; and, therefore, the holy pilgrim again mourns, saying—

My exile in a foreign land has been entirely too long. Hence we may infer how few are to be found in those days who chant this gradual Psalm from their heart; whereas most people are so attached to the exile and the tents of Cedar that there is nothing they hear with greater pain than any allusion to their leaving it.

[7] Cum his, qui odérunt pacem, eram pacíficus: * cum loquébar illis, impugnábant me gratis.
With them that hated peace I was peaceable: * when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.
He concludes by assigning a reason for its being a loss to him to have his exile extended, and at the same time explains the expression, “the inhabitants of Cedar;” he there said, “I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar,” which he now explains by saying, I have dwelt “with them that hated peace.” There is nothing I love more than peace; I have dwelt with people of quite different habits, with the wicked, so wicked that they fought equally with friend and foe; and if, perchance, I ever “spoke to them” about peace it only caused them the more “to fight against me without cause.”
This Psalm is applicable to all the elect, and especially to Christ, the head of the elect, so far as his human nature is concerned. For he cried to some purpose to his Father, on the night he spent in prayer, and afterwards in the garden, and, finally, on the cross, when God exalted him “and gave him a name above every name. He also truly suffered from “the wicked lips and the deceitful tongue,” even to the hour of his death, as can be clearly seen throughout the Gospels. He could say with the greatest truth, “My sojourning is prolonged,” whereas, he said in the Gospel, “O incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” Truly “did he dwell with the inhabitants of Cedar,” for though he was light, and, therefore, did not dwell in Cedar, that is, in darkness, still he was seen by the inhabitants of Cedar, and conversed with them. Finally, “he was truly peaceable with them that hated peace,” because “when he was reviled he reviled not, when he suffered he threatened not,” “and when he spoke to them” on peace, love, on the kingdom of God, they, on the contrary, “fought against him without cause,” as our Saviour himself remarked, when he said, “But that the word may be fulfilled, which is written in their law; They have hated me without cause.”