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| David introduces the Psalms. Master Jean de Mandeville, (French, active 1350 - 1370) [Getty Museum] |
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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 147
Lauda, Jerusalem. The church is called upon to praise God for his peculiar graces and favours to his people. In the Hebrew, this psalm is joined to the foregoing. Alleluia.[1] Lauda, Jerúsalem, Dóminum: * lauda Deum tuum, Sion.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: * praise thy God, O Sion.
[2] Quóniam confortávit seras portárum tuárum: * benedíxit fíliis tuis in te.
Because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates * he hath blessed thy children within thee.
[3] Qui pósuit fines tuos pacem: * et ádipe fruménti sátiat te.
Who hath placed peace in thy borders: * and filleth thee with the fat of corn.
[4] Qui emíttit elóquium suum terræ: * velóciter currit sermo ejus.
Who sendeth forth his speech to the earth: * his word runneth swiftly.
[5] Qui dat nivem sicut lanam: * nébulam sicut cínerem spargit.
Who giveth snow like wool: * scattereth mists like ashes.
[6] Mittit crystállum suam sicut buccéllas: * ante fáciem frígoris ejus quis sustinébit?
He sendeth his crystal like morsels: * who shall stand before the face of his cold?
[7] Emíttet verbum suum, et liquefáciet ea: * flabit spíritus ejus, et fluent aquæ.
He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: * his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
[8] Qui annúntiat verbum suum Jacob: * justítias, et judícia sua Israël.
Who declareth his word to Jacob: * his justices and his judgments to Israel.
[9] Non fecit táliter omni natióni: * et judícia sua non manifestávit eis.
He hath not done in like manner to every nation: * and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.
Notes
[1] Lauda, Jerúsalem, Dóminum: * lauda Deum tuum, Sion.Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: * praise thy God, O Sion.
Jerusalem is a holy city, the more noble part of which is mount Sion, where the temple of the Lord was built, and is often used to express the city itself; and, therefore, “praise the Lord, O Jerusalem,” and “praise thy God, Sion,” signify one and the same thing. If it be referred to the Jerusalem above (the heavenly Jerusalem), nothing more appropriate could be applied to it; for in that heavenly city no one need be occupied in it providing for their personal wants, or those of their neighbors, there being no poor, no needy, to be found therein, and can, therefore, devote their whole time, as they really do, in praising God. Most justly, then, does he address the city, saying, “Praise the Lord,” for you have nothing else to do; for you are specially bound thereto by reason of the signal favours he has conferred on you; and, finally, because it has been your great good fortune to get so close a view of the beauty and the excellence of the Lord. The Church, in her exile, should also praise the Lord; but the whole Church cannot, nor can the Church at all times do it, in the midst of the cares and troubles that frequently disturb her. And if the Church cannot accomplish it, much less can the synagogue.
[2] Quóniam confortávit seras portárum tuárum: * benedíxit fíliis tuis in te.
Because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates * he hath blessed thy children within thee.
The reason why Jerusalem should bless the Lord arises from the fact of his having conferred on her that abundance and security of which human happiness consists. Security, without abundance, is no better than poverty, and abundance, without security, is replete with fear and danger. God, therefore, so strengthened the bolts of the gates of Jerusalem that they could not possibly be stormed, and those inside are quite safe, inasmuch as no enemy can enter, no friend will be excluded; nothing bad can come in, nothing good will go out; and the divine blessing brought an abundance of all good things into this highly fortified city; for it was not a particular blessing that God gave the holy city, but a general, an absolute one, to use the expression of the Apostle, “Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.” These two things perfectly apply to the Jerusalem above, where the security is eternal, and the blessing consists in the enjoyment of the supreme good.
They also apply, to a certain extent, to the Church in her exile, though not so entirely; “for the gates of hell will not prevail against her,” and she has many blessings within her; but, meanwhile, many wicked enter into her, and good revolt from her; she has the chaff mixed with the grain, the good with the bad fish, the kids with the lambs. There are other points of agreement also with the earthly Jerusalem, inasmuch as by reason of her being situated in the mountains, she appeared to be well fortified, and abounded, at one time, with inhabitants and with wealth; but, as she was more than once sacked and destroyed, it does not appear that the expression, “he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates,” is quite applicable to her. One would rather say the expression in Lament. 2 was, “Her gates are sunk into the ground: he hath destroyed and broken her bars; and the bulwark hath moved; and the wall hath been destroyed together.” Nor was there such an abundance in the city at the same time, when we read, “They said to their mothers, where is corn and wine? when they fainted away as the wounded in the streets of the city, when they breathed out their souls in the bosoms of their mothers.”
[3] Qui pósuit fines tuos pacem: * et ádipe fruménti sátiat te.
Who hath placed peace in thy borders: * and filleth thee with the fat of corn.
Not only is the holy city of Jerusalem highly fortified, but it is even exempt from the dangers of war, hence its name, Jerusalem, which signifies “The vision of peace,” and the first that attempted to disturb that peace was expelled with such violence as to cause the Lord to say, “I saw Satan as lightning falling from heaven.” “Who hath placed peace in thy borders;” who hath established universal peace through the length and breadth of Jerusalem. And further, not only does this city enjoy abundance, but even the most exquisite dainties, as conveyed in the expression, “the fat of corn;” and these without limit, as we can infer from the expression, “who filleth.” All this applies to our heavenly country in the strict sense of the words, for there alone will our inferior be in strict peace with our superior parts, and our superior parts with God; and there, too, will be strict peace between the citizens of all grades, high and low; for there will be one heart, one soul, and as the Lord expresses it, Jn. 7, “Made perfect in one.” There, too, “will all be filled with the fat of corn,” for truth and wisdom being the food of the soul, they will have actual truth as it is in itself, and not in figures or enigmas, and they will taste of the sweetness of the Word Eternal without being enveloped by the sacraments or the Scriptures; they will drink of the fountain of wisdom, instead of applying to the streams that flow from it, or to the “showers falling gently upon the earth.” They will be so filled that they will never again hunger nor thirst for all eternity.
In the Church militant also, which, to a certain extent, is the Jerusalem, we have peace with God, though we, at the same time, suffer pressure from the world. We do what we can to keep in peace with all; but we are in the midst of those who hate peace, and, therefore, “Combats without, fears within,” are never wanting, and though we may feed on “the fat of corn,” it is enveloped by too many coverings. We have the Word of God, but in the flesh; and though we eat of the flesh it is covered by the sacrament. We drink of the waters of wisdom, but it is from the shower of the Scriptures, and we are, therefore, never so satiated with those blessings as to make our happiness consist in hungering and thirsting for more. Much less applicable is all this to the earthly Jerusalem, the old synagogue of the Jews, to which it was applicable in a figurative sense only.
[4] Qui emíttit elóquium suum terræ: * velóciter currit sermo ejus.
Who sendeth forth his speech to the earth: * his word runneth swiftly.
Having exhorted the holy city to thank God for the favours conferred on itself, he now exhorts it to praise God for the favours conferred on other nations, from which they may learn how much more liberal he has been in their regard. He, therefore, exhorts them to praise that God, “who sendeth forth his speech to the earth,” who issues the precepts and decrees of his providence to the whole world; and “his word runneth quickly;” such precepts and decrees are borne with the greatest expedition to all created beings, penetrate all things, and are put into immediate execution. These words explain the order of divine providence that extends itself to everything, and that with the greatest velocity because God is everywhere, “upholding all things by the word of his power,” Heb. 1; and “reaches from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly,”—Wisdom 8. Hence, David says, in Psalm 118, “All things serve thee.”
[5] Qui dat nivem sicut lanam: * nébulam sicut cínerem spargit.
Who giveth snow like wool: * scattereth mists like ashes.
From God’s universal providence he now takes up one particular effect of it, in which the admirable power and wisdom of God are most conspicuous, and for which he deserves merited praise, even from the citizens above, exempt as they are from such changes. The wonderful effects of God’s power and wisdom, which, however, are most familiar and visible to us all, are to be found in his creation of heat and cold in the air. In certain countries, snow, frost, and ice will so abound, at certain times, that lakes, rivers, and even seas will become so congealed, that wagons, heavily laden, will be carried over them, as they would through so many roads or fields. The ice becomes so hard that bars of iron will hardly break it; and yet, God, when it pleaseth him, by a simple change in the wind, in one instant causes all to melt, and streams of water flow down from the housetops, from the hills, and the mountains. Thus, God, in one moment, converts the extreme cold into a most agreeable warmth.
To enter into particulars. “Who giveth snow like wool;” who rains down snow in such abundance, that every flake of it looks like flocks of wool, not only by reason of its whiteness, but also of its size. “Scattereth mists like ashes;” raises mists so dense, that they seem more like a cloud of ashes than of vapour.
[6] Mittit crystállum suam sicut buccéllas: * ante fáciem frígoris ejus quis sustinébit?
He sendeth his crystal like morsels: * who shall stand before the face of his cold?
“He sendeth his crystal like morsels;” who congeals the water when forming it into hail, so as to appear in small crystals like crumbs of bread. “Who shall stand before the face of his cold?” An apostrophe of the prophet in admiration of God’s great power in producing so much cold; as much as to say, who can stand or bear so much cold?
[7] Emíttet verbum suum, et liquefáciet ea: * flabit spíritus ejus, et fluent aquæ.
He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: * his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
Having described the extreme cold caused by the snow, frost, and ice, he now shows with what ease and celerity God causes them all to disappear. “He shall send out his word,” his simple command, “and shall melt them,” the snow, frost, and ice, and, at once, the cold disappears; and he explains how simply God effects that, when he adds, “His wind shall blow, and the waters shall run;” at his command the wind shifts to the south, causing the snow and the ice to thaw, and thus converting them into water.
[8] Qui annúntiat verbum suum Jacob: * justítias, et judícia sua Israël.
Who declareth his word to Jacob: * his justices and his judgments to Israel.
[9] Non fecit táliter omni natióni: * et judícia sua non manifestávit eis.
He hath not done in like manner to every nation: * and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.
He concludes by showing how differently God, in his providence, deals with his own people, and with other nations, because he instructed other nations, merely by natural causes and effects, so as to know their Creator through the things created by him; (from high philosophy to common sense: Plato, Aristotle et al) but he taught his own people through the prophets. “Who declareth his word to Jacob;” that is to say, Jerusalem praise that Lord, “who declared his word to his people Jacob,” by speaking to them through Moses, and the prophets, and who pointed out “his justices and his judgments to Israel,” through the same Moses, to whom he gave the law, in order to hand it over to his people of Israel, and from it you will be able to understand “that he hath not done in like manner to every nation,” because to you alone, and to none others, “hath he made manifest his judgments,” meaning his laws. All this applies literally to the Jerusalem on earth, to whom God sent his prophets to announce his words, and explain his laws; but it is much more applicable to the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church, that received the incarnate word of God himself, through the preaching of the Apostles, and learned a much more sublime law, judgments and justifications. It is more applicable, again, to the Jerusalem above, to which God openly announces his word; and in his word all its inhabitants behold the judgments of God, the order, disposition, and secrets of his divine providence, that to us are a great abyss.
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