We continue with St Robert Bellarmine's commentary on Psalm 37, the third in the series of 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 verse.
Verse 3
There is no health in my flesh, because of thy wrath: there is no peace for my bones, because of my sins.
Non est sanitas in carne mea, a facie irae tuae; non est pax ossibus meis, a facie peccatorum meorum :
He describes the effect of the Lord’s arrows and says that he is thoroughly distressed, he cannot rest, for so long as he thinks upon God’s wrath and his own sins which have earned him this wrath. “There is no health, “ he says, “in my flesh, because of thy wrath: that is, the sight of thy wrath, which is ever-present to my mind’s eye, makes me to weep and
waste away. For sorrow in the soul also afflicts and weakens the flesh, making it grow pale and weak. “There is no peace for my bones, because of my sins,” that is, the sight of the deformity and seriousness of my sin so distresses me that there is rest for me and even my very bones do tremble.
Verse 4
For my iniquities are gone over my head: and as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me.
quoniam iniquitates meae supergressae sunt caput meum, et sicut onus grave gravatae sunt super me.
He gives the reason for being so greatly distressed when he looks back on his sins and he says the reason is that his sins are many and great. As for their
number, he says: “For my iniquities are gone over my head:” that is, they have piled up in such a great mass that they almost bury me: like someone who is drowning when he goes into the waters of a deep river and his head is covered over by the waters. As for the
magnitude of his sins, he says: “And as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me,” that is, my sins, like an insupportable burden, weigh down on the shoulders of my soul, because it is beyond my powers to make satisfaction for sin so grave. This is clearer in the Hebrew text, where
super me / upon me properly means
super vires meas / upon my powers, i.e., more heavily than I can bear. David’s sin was adultery coupled with murder, but, truly penitent, he reflects upon the many, aggravating aspects of his sin. For David sinned against his faithful servant, Urias, by taking his wife and also his life; he sinned against Bethsabee whom he led into committing sin and spiritual death; he sinned against his own wives by not keeping faith with them; he sinned not only against all the people (in his kingdom) but even against the infidels, through his bad example, whence Nathan said:
“ Thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme,”
[1] and, finally, he offended God whose laws he openly violated. And so, if the number of offences and crimes are counted up, together with the number of people against whom David sinned, then it is not without cause that David says: “ My iniquities are gone over my head.” Next, a sin’s gravity can be understood from its circumstances; for David killed Urias who was firstly innocent, secondly a most faithful servant, thirdly a man under arms for David, fourthly, because he dishonoured Urias’ wife in adultery, as if he wished to injure still further someone he had already injured; fifthly, because he wanted to make Urias the minister of his own death; sixthly, because when he wrote to Joab ordering him to bring about the death of Urias, he wanted it to be believed that Urias was guilty of some great crime, and in this way he injured Urias’ good name. But it was David’s ingratitude to God that was the chief cause of the gravity of David’s sin. For God had conferred a superabundance of temporal and spiritual gifts upon David alone.
For He made him a great king, an outstanding prophet and a most mighty general; He gave him in prudence, strength, beauty, riches and all good things everything that could have been wished for by men. Without doubt, all these things aggravated the seriousness of his sin, because when he weighed these in the balance of a most diligent examination (of his conscience), he justly said: “ my iniquities ... as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me.” And this is the reason why few feel a sense of sorrow like unto David’s, because few weigh the magnitude of their sin in the balance of a serious scrutiny.
[1] Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing, the child that is born to thee, shall surely die. Verumtamen, quoniam blasphemare fecisti inimicos Domini, propter verbum hoc, filius, qui natus est tibi, morte morietur. [II Reg. xii. 14]
Verse 5
My sores are putrified and corrupted, because of my foolishness.
Putruerunt et corruptae sunt cicatrices meae, a facie insipientiae meae.
This concerns that time which passed between the sin of adultery and the Prophet Nathan’s admonishment, which was more than nine months later. At any rate, Nathan reproached David the boy conceived from the adultery after he had been born, according to II
Kings xii. For the whole of that time, David put off healing the wounds of his sin by penitence. In this time, it (the wound of sin) was covered from his view, as if by a scab causing him to forget it and this did not allow him to acknowledge the wound. But the truth was that those sores were rotting and the wounds became more serious and more difficult to heal; and this is what he now laments, saying: “My sores,” not from the physician’s want of care, but covered over from neglect and forgetfulness,” are putrified and corrupted, because of my foolishness;” that is, my foolishness, which was the reason that I did not notice my wounds, and the reason that those rotten wounds spread the stench of scandal far and wide. By
cicatrices/sores,scabs, in this context are to be understood not those marks which remain after the healing of a wound but rather an unhealed wound, closed up like a scar; and because corrupt blood does not seep out from it, “ it is not fomented with oil nor bound up;”
[1] it therefore festers and rots. This is taken from the original text, which has the word
chaburoth, which does not properly speaking mean
cicatrices /scars, but a bruise, a swollen wound. For this reason, in the Latin edition
cicatrices are taken to be wounds, whereas as we have said, these are scars which form while the wound remains unhealed but is closed up on itself and the wound is neglected and festers.
[1] From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil. A planta pedis usque ad verticem, non est in eo sanitas; vulnus, et livor, et plaga tumens, non est circumligata, nec curata medicamine, neque fota oleo. [Isai. i. 6]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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