Bellarmine on Psalm 31: Verse 6

Today we continue St Robert Bellarmine's commentaries on Psalm 31, the second in the series of 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 verse.

Verse 6

I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord: and thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin.

Dixi : Confitebor adversum me injustitiam meam Domino; et tu remisisti impietatem peccati mei.

For the solace of penitent sinners, he announces God’s ineffable mercy, which he experienced in himself. For although “ God is light, and in him there is no darkness,” [1] He pursues the darkness of sinners into the deepest detestation, and unless a sinner recovers himself, He is ready to hurl him into the external darkness, unto the worst of eternal torment. He is however willing to give His pardon if someone makes an act of penitence in his heart, so that He may anticipate his confession by being merciful and lenient. He seems to be considering that time when the Prophet Nathan reproached him for his sin; and, at once contrite, he said: “ I have sinned against the Lord;”[2] and Nathan replied: “The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die.” Now seeing such a sudden pardon, David thought it was true that he had been granted forgiveness before his confession, but not before his interior contrition, in which there was at the same time hatred for sin, love of God and an intention to confess and make satisfaction. “I said I will confess,” that is, with compunction of heart, I have decided straightway to confess “ against myself my injustice,” to confess openly that I am a criminal and a sinner; and you did not wait for those words that

I spoke: “I have sinned against the Lord;” but with ineffable, paternal kindness, “Thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin,” which I understood from your Prophet Nathan who said: “ The Lord also hath taken away thy sin.”[3] Hebrew has: the iniquity of my sin; Greek has the impiety of my heart; and so agree the ancients in the Commentaries, St Augustine, Theodoretus & Euthymius. The Latin translator seems to have accepted impiety from the Greek and of my sin from the Hebrew. But all fall back on the same idea: for impiety of the heart means what is conceived in the heart, and impiety of sin is what is committed in sinning. So too with David’s sin: it was iniquity with regard to Urias and impiety with regard to God.

[1] And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness. Et haec est annuntiatio, quam audivimus ab eo, et annuntiamus vobis : quoniam Deus lux est, et tenebrae in eo non sunt ullae. [I Ioan. I. 5]

[2] And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die. Et dixit David ad Nathan : Peccavi Domino. Dixitque Nathan ad David : Dominus quoque transtulit peccatum tuum : non morieris. [II Reg. xii. 13]

[3] And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die.Et dixit David ad Nathan : Peccavi Domino. Dixitque Nathan ad David : Dominus quoque transtulit peccatum tuum : non morieris. [II Reg. xii. 13]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.