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| 1542-1641. Rijksmuseum, CC0, Wikimedia Commons |
We continue with the commentary on Psalm 50 written by the great polymath, Scripture scholar and apologist, St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1641).
“One of Bellarmine’s confreres in the College of Cardinals called him ‘the most learned churchman since St. Augustine’and I’d agree with that,” Fr. Baker[1] said. “His knowledge of Scripture and Theology — he seemed to know the entire Bible by heart, plus the teachings not only of nearly every pope, but of many bishops, too! — it’s just astonishing. Bellarmine was truly a polymath.” [From an interview published in the National Catholic Register in September 2017]
[1] Author of a translation of Bellarmine’s Controversies of the Christian Faith, published by Keep the Faith Books (2016)
The Latin is reproduced courtesy of the Digital Collection site - UANL and is followed by my fairly literal translation. The Scripture excerpts (Douay Rheims/Vulgate) are taken from the DRBO site but the verse numbering follows that of Bellarmine’s Latin text.
Verse 13
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
Redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui, et spiritu principali confirma me.
This verse corresponds to these words: “To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness;” for just as he foretold, after true and perfect justification there follows an inner joy within man, from the testimony of the spirit speaking inwardly; so now after he sought forgiveness of his sin and an infusion of grace with the gift of perseverance, he asks for a sign and the effect of justification, saying: “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,” that is, through my sin I lost grace and the joy flowing therefrom, and so just as I asked for the lost grace to be restored to me, so consequently I ask for the joy of your salvation, that is,the joy which is born from the salvation given to me by you.
And lest perhaps he overly extols joy and endangers his safety, he adds: “and strengthen me with a perfect spirit;” that is, I ask that you strengthen and confirm me in goodness through the perfect spirit inspired by you in me. In Hebrew the word used is nedibah, which means chief and voluntary or liberal; these could refer either to the Holy Spirit. who is truly the chief of all the spirits, and most liberal and most generous because He is the fountainhead of all gifts; or to the spirit, that is, to the affection of David himself who asks of God just what befits the best prince who ought to be quick to do God’s will and liberal towards his people. St Augutinem Sr Jerome in his Commentario, and St Bernard in serm. 3 De Pentecoste, write: by spiritum principalem may be understood God the Father; by Spiritum rectum, God the Son; by Spiritum sanctum, God the Holy Spirit. But this seems to be a pious rather than a literal explanation.
spirit from me” as meaning not “take not...if I shall sin” but rather “take not...that I may not sin.”
Verse 14
I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee.
Docebo iniquos vias tuas, et impii ad te convertentur.
He expounds the fruit of his justification which redounds to the glory of God and as useful to many. “I,” he says, taken back by Thee into grace, after so many grave sins, “will teach,” both by words and by example, “thy ways,” which is to say thy mercy and thy justice: “ for all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth;”1 and hence it follows that the unjust, instructed by my example, may be converted to thee. Now David was for all who came after him a signal example of the divine mercy and justice; of mercy, indeed, for after such grave crimes, as soon as he said from his heart “I have sinned against the Lord,” his sin was forgiven him; and of justice, since the Lord heaped on him such grave temporal punishments that not only did the son born of his adultery immediately die, but also shortly after he was expelled from the throne of his kingdom, his wives were publicly violated by his own son, and two of his sons, Amon and Absalon, were killed. This example availed not only the men of that age but all other men even unto the consummation of the world; for this Psal composed by him about this matter is and will continue to be widely used for as long as the Church Militant endures. And so David fulfilled what he promised when he put forth this Psalm: for he taught the unjust the ways of the Lord, many sinners have been converted to God, and others too will doubtless be converted. It is probable that after making reparation, David preached on the divine mercy and that, by his exhortation, not a few sinners were converted to God.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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