Bellarmine on Psalm 6: Title and verses 1-2

Today we begin a series posting the commentary on the first of the Penitential Psalms, Psalm 6, written by the great  Scripture scholar, apologist and polymath, St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1641). Where footnotes are included, the text follows each verse.

The Latin is reproduced courtesy of the Digital Collection site  - UANL and is accompanied 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.

Psalm VI: Title and subject matter

Unto the end, in verses, a psalm for David, for the octave.

In finem, in carminibus. Psalmus David. Pro octava.

What is written as for the octave,or, as Hebrew has it, hhal haschminith, over the octave, seems to be a reference to a kind of harp with eight strings,1 or something similar. For in the first book of Paralipomenon, chapter xv, where various instruments are described, with which the Psalms were to be sung, a harp over eight is included, amongst others. It is not to be denied, however, that it is commonly said that octavam / eight signifies in this context the last day of judgement, which will be the eighth day, because it follows after the six days of labour in this life and after the seventh day of rest for souls. Now this Psalm is the first of those seven which pertain to penitence. It is not likely that the Rabbis and their followers are right in saying that this Psalm was composed by David for the recovery of his bodily health, which he had lost because of committing adultery and murder. For Scripture makes it plain enough in the second Book of Kings that God was to impose a punishment on David on account of the sin charged against him. Nowhere does it recall disease of the body.  The Church would not have numbered this Psalm, from the most ancient times, among the penitential Psalms, and even as the first of them, unless properly and according to the letter, it did not pertain to penitence. And so, the subject matter of this Psalm will be the prayer of a sinner fearing divine judgment and hoping for reconciliation.

Verse 1

O Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath.

Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me, neque in ira tua corripias me.

This is a petition by someone who is truly repentant and contrite, and who hates his sins above all else. For God blames, that is, reproves the sinner in anger and fury when He punishes not so that He might save a sinner in paternal love but so that He might chastise and destroy him utterly and satisfy justice.

This is what He does in this life when He strikes the sinner with blindness and stubbornness, so that the sin becomes the punishment for the sin: and indeed in the next life, when He consigns a soul to be lost in Hell. Shaken, therefore, with horror and fearing the abyss of God’s judgements, David does not reject the scourge of punishments which do not separate from God but which rather make sinners draw nearer to God. But he dreads that evil more horrible than all others, which is to be delivered up to the desires of his heart, unto shameful passions, to be made obdurate and blind, and finally to be separated for ever from the face of God. The words ira/anger and furor/fury are here interchangeable as are arguit/blames  and corripit/reproves for, as we have noted elsewhere, it is quite common for prophets to repeat a word by way of explaining or emphasising grace.

Verse 2

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.

Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum; sana me, Domine, quoniam conturbata sunt ossa mea.

In order to move God so that He does not condemn him in His fury, David brings forward certain arguments; and the first one he takes up from his weakness, as though he might say: Do not consider, O Lord, my sins as being offences against you but rather as coming from my misery and sickness; and so do not punish me as a judge but heal me as a physician; burn me and cut me, should this be needed, but from mercy so as to heal me, and not from justice so as to cast me off as lost. For of a truth sins are miseries and the more malice there is in committing them, the greater the miseries; and the less we acknowledge them and fear them, so much the more miserable we are. And so he says: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak,” that is: look mercifully upon my sins, whatever they may be, as though upon illness and sickness which render me weak and feeble. “Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.” He repeats the same, using different words. For God, if He shows mercy, will take away his misery and then He will heal him, and so the two phrases are the same: “have mercy on me” and “heal me.” And so also “for I am weak” means the same as “for my bones are troubled.” By bones is signified health and strength; bones are said to be troubled when strength wavers and health is broken or weakened. The Greek and Hebrew words can however be rendered: trembled, or my bones were shaken.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.