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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 128
Saepe expugnaverunt. The church of God is invincible: her persecutors come to nothing.[1] Canticum graduum. Saepe expugnavérunt me a juventúte mea, dicat nunc Israël;
Often have they fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say.
[2] saepe expugnavérunt me a juventúte mea; étenim non potuérunt mihi.
Often have they fought against me from my youth: but they could not prevail over me.
[3] Supra dorsum meum fabricavérunt peccatóres; prolongavérunt iniquitátem suam.
The wicked have wrought upon my back: they have lengthened their iniquity.
[4] Dóminus justus concídit cervíces peccatórum.
The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners:
[5] Confundántur, et convertántur retrórsum omnes qui odérunt Sion.
Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion.
[6] Fiant sicut foenum tectórum, quod priúsquam evellátur exáruit,
Let them be as grass on the tops of houses: which withered before it be plucked up:
[7] de quo non implévit manum suam qui metit, et sinum suum qui manípulos cólligit.
Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand: nor he that gathereth sheaves his bosom.
[8] Et non dixérunt qui praeteríbant : Benedíctio Dómini super vos. Benedíximus vobis in nómine Dómini.
And they that have passed by have not said: The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord.
Notes
[1] Canticum graduum. Saepe expugnavérunt me a juventúte mea, dicat nunc Israël;Often have they fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say.
God’s people, in trouble, console themselves by the reflection that troubles and difficulties are nothing new to them, and that, through God’s assistance, they have always got through them. This applies to the Jews, and the repeated attacks of the neighbouring nations, while the temple and the city were being rebuilt; and it also applies to the Church of Christ, that scarcely ever had a moment’s respite from the assaults of pagans, heretics, or bad Christians. He, therefore, says, “Often have they fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say.” Let not Israel, God’s people, be surprised if her enemies assail her; for it is no new story with her; because, from her very infancy, at the first dawn of the Church, she suffered persecution from Cain, and similar persecutions have been going on to the present day.
[2] saepe expugnavérunt me a juventúte mea; étenim non potuérunt mihi.
Often have they fought against me from my youth: but they could not prevail over me.
He assigns a reason for the enemies having come so often to the charge, and says it was because “they could not prevail over him;” for, had they prevailed over and destroyed God’s people, they would have had no occasion to renew the fight. The history of the Church bears testimony to this.
[3] Supra dorsum meum fabricavérunt peccatóres; prolongavérunt iniquitátem suam.
The wicked have wrought upon my back: they have lengthened their iniquity.
He now repeats and confirms by similes and metaphors what he had just expressed in plain language. “The wicked have wrought upon my back.” They used my back for an anvil that the smith so repeatedly hammers; for their persecutions were so fierce and so numerous, that they could be compared to nothing else. “They have lengthened their iniquity.” It was not once or twice they so hammered me, but they repeated it, kept it up and continued it.
[4] Dóminus justus concídit cervíces peccatórum.
The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners:
[5] Confundántur, et convertántur retrórsum omnes qui odérunt Sion.
Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion.
The prophet now consoles God’s people by predicting that the divine vengeance was not far off from the wicked persecutors of the just; as if he said, Cheer up, you just, for your persecutors, to be sure, wrought upon your back, or your necks; but, in a very short time, God, in his justice, instead of working on their necks, will cut them off with his sword, so that they will never again have the power of harming you; and then, finally, all those who had been so puffed up in their pride “shall be confounded,” and all they “that hate Sion,” and persecuted God’s people, shall fly, and fall, and “be turned back.” We must remark that the expression, “will cut the necks of sinners,” applies only to the impenitent sinners; for God, instead of cutting the necks of those who humbly confess their sins with a fixed purpose of amendment, “heals all their diseases.” The words, “Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion,” is not to be read in the sense of an imprecation, but of a prophecy; as we have frequently remarked.
[6] Fiant sicut foenum tectórum, quod priúsquam evellátur exáruit,
Let them be as grass on the tops of houses: which withered before it be plucked up:
[7] de quo non implévit manum suam qui metit, et sinum suum qui manípulos cólligit.
Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand: nor he that gathereth sheaves his bosom.
Another imprecation, which, too, is to be read as a prediction, for it conveys to us the briefness of the happiness of the wicked, and, by a very happy idea, compares it to grass, a vile and fragile substance, and, as is said of it, “which is to day, and tomorrow will be cast into the fire;” and, not content with comparing it to grass, he adds, that it is like the grass that grows on the top of a house, a thing of no value, so much so that nobody ever thinks of cutting it, saving it, or making it into bundles, but leaves it where it grows to wither and to rot. At present, we don’t see the full extent of this comparison, though we know of nothing, perhaps, more worthless, or of less value than such grass; but when we shall all come to be judged we shall see that such a comparison, instead of being over the mark, is considerably under it. What will be, then, to see those who abounded in the riches and power of this world, and who imagined they had, through such riches, established themselves and their families in their kingdoms and empires, shoved out ignominiously, and hurled into the lowest pit? and, furthermore, to see those who had reveled in pleasures and enjoyments, who knew not how to put up with the slightest inconvenience, consigned to everlasting torments, without the slightest hope of the smallest relief for all eternity?
[8] Et non dixérunt qui praeteríbant : Benedíctio Dómini super vos. Benedíximus vobis in nómine Dómini.
And they that have passed by have not said: The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord.
As he said that the grass on the house top was not usually cut or gathered, he adds, that neither will the mowers of such grass be saluted or blessed by the passers by, as they are wont to salute the reapers or mowers of the hay or corn that grows in the fields; which will be another ingredient in the confusion of the wicked, who are compared to the grass on the house top. He, therefore, says, it never occurred, nor will it occur, that the passers by should salute or bless them that mow you, for you were never mowed, but when there was occasion to clean the roof you were pulled up and thrown into the fire or the sewer; and though the blessing of the passers by is given to the mowers, still it has its own effect on what is being mowed, for it includes the abundance and the ripeness of the crop and thus, the absence of any benediction on the wicked will have its effect on them too, because, in the last judgment, nobody will bless or salute them, nobody will have pity on them; they will be despised and condemned by all, which will tend very much to their further disgrace. No one will say to them, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you,” nor “We have blessed you in the name of the Lord;” but, on the contrary, they will be told by Christ, the judge, and by all his saints, “Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”
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