Bellarmine on Psalm 101: Verses 12-14

We continue our series of posts featuring St Robert Bellarmine's commentary on Psalm 101, the fifth of the Seven Penitential Psalms.

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.

Where footnotes are included, the text follows each section.

Verse 12

My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.

Dies mei sicut umbra declinaverunt, et ego sicut foenum arui.

A sign of this collapse, and also a certain part of it, is our very own mortality: for when the first man was raised unto great glory so that he might live forever, through sin he was cast down with his whole posterity, and he became subject to death, his days declining like a shadow, and he became withered like grass. And so the Prophet says, in the person of the penitent: Not only have I crashed down to earth because of my own wicked desserts, but also because of the ancient, shared fall, “My days have declined like a shadow,” that is, speedily and unrelentingly, they pass by imperceptibly, like an imperceptible shadow, continually moving; until with the setting sun, the penitent fades away and passes across into the shades of night. “And I am withered like grass,” that is, I was created that I might live forever like a palm, but, fallen down into a state of death, I have withered away like grass that is so easily dried up.

Verse 13

But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever: and thy memorial to all generations.

Tu autem, Domine, in aeternum permanes, et memoriale tuum in generationem et generationem.

This is another part of the Psalm where the Prophet, in the person of a poor penitent, having explained his misery, conceives a hope of reconciliation; illuminated by the divine Spirit, he foretells the restoration and renovation of the future Church through Christ: and he directs his words to Christ Himself, as the Apostle explains in Hebrews i. For the Apostle, wishing at this point to prove the divinity of Christ, cites in the first place the words of Ps xliv: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:”[1] next, Hebrews I (Ps. xcv): “ Let all the angels of God adore him.”[2] Finally, Ps. ci. “ In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth,” etc.[3] Those words are spoken to Him to whom these are addressed: “But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever.” Now, if the former words are said to the Son of God, these too are spoken to the Son of God. The words do not seem to satisfy by this reason those who say they are addressed simply to God, but they may be allowed to the Son, because the Son of God is God; if this were so, the Apostle would not be proving Christ to be God

but putting it forward as taken for granted. Therefore, the sense will be: I indeed am withered like grass, but Thou, O Lord, the Messias we await, endurest forever; our memory perishes indeed like a sound, but Thy memorial, that is Thy memory, will be propagated from generation to generation, because there will forever be, throughout the succession of ages, those who remember Thy wondrous deeds.

[1] Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness. Sedes tua, Deus, in saeculum saeculi; virga directionis virga regni tui. [Ps. Xliv. 7]
[2] And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith: And let all the angels of God adore him. Et cum iterum introducit primogenitum in orbem terrae, dicit : Et adorent eum omnes angeli Dei. [Hebr. i.6]
[3] In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands. Initio tu, Domine, terram fundasti, et opera manuum tuarum sunt caeli. [Ps. ci. 26]

Verse 14

Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come.

Tu exsurgens misereberis Sion, quia tempus miserendi ejus, quia venit tempus;

And so Thy memorial will be propagated from generation to generation, because Thou too hast not forgotten to have mercy on Thy people, but, “arising,” as if from a long sleep, “Thou shalt have mercy on Sion,” and Thou shalt come in mercy and shalt save us: for through the spirit I see, “for it is time to have mercy on it,” that is, for the time is near that He should come, already He approaches, in fact he is already coming in my mind, for, with the certainty of prophetic light, I perceive a future thing as present. This is the time referred to by the Apostle in Galatians, chapter iv: “ But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son.”[1] And see II Corinthians, chapter vi ( Isaias chapter xlix [2]): “ In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee.”[3] The Apostle explains in the same chapter: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

[1] But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: At ubi venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere, factum sub lege. [Gal. iv. 4]
[2] Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have preserved thee, and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed: Haec dicit Dominus : In tempore placito exaudivi te, et in die salutis auxiliatus sum tui; et servavi te, et dedi te in foedus populi, ut suscitares terram, et possideres haereditates dissipatas; [Isai. Xlix. 8]
[3] For he saith: In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Ait enim : Tempore accepto exaudivi te, et in die salutis adjuvi te. Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile, ecce nunc dies salutis. [II Cor. vi. 2]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.