Bellarmine on Psalm 101: Verses 15-16

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 15

For the stones thereof have pleased thy servants: and they shall have pity on the earth thereof.

quoniam placuerunt servis tuis lapides ejus, et terrae ejus miserebuntur.

The Prophet foresaw and foretold the renewal of holy Sion, and when he saw the servants of God already on fire with a desire for building the Church, he actually foresaw the holy Apostles, who previously had worked in fishing and other humble pursuits, but were later taught by Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit, so that having left behind all other cares, they devoted themselves wholly to the building of the Church. “For,” he says, “the stones thereof have pleased thy servants,” that is, those whom Thou didst choose and predestine as Thy servants; “the stones thereof have pleased,” that is, the building of the new Jerusalem has been pleasing, it has also been pleasing to collect and place together the living stones, to be built upon the foundation already laid. “And they shall have pity on the earth thereof;” and they will love and cherish the very earth of the new Jerusalem, as a mother loves and cherishes the infant in her womb: for in Scripture, the word miserendi / having pity on. can mean to love with a fatherly or motherly affection. See Isai. Xlix: “ Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb?”[1] By stones are to be understood the constant and the perfect; by terram / earth (or pulverem / dust, following the Hebrew), are to be understood the weak and the infirm, of whom the Apostle says in Romans chapter xiv, “Him that is weak in faith, take unto you;”[2] see also Romans chapter xv: “ Now we that are stronger, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak;”[3] and II Corinthians, chapter xi: “ Who is weak, and I am not weak?”[4] 

[1] Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. Numquid oblivisci potest mulier infantem suum, ut non misereatur filio uteri sui? Et si illa oblita fuerit, ego tamen non obliviscar tui. [Isai. Xlix. 15]
[2] Now him that is weak in faith, take unto you: not in disputes about thoughts. Infirmum autem in fide assumite, non in disceptationibus cogitationum. [Rom. Xiv. 1]
[3] Now we that are stronger, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Debemus autem nos firmiores imbecillitates infirmorum sustinere, et non nobis placere. [Rom. Xv. 1]
[4] Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? Quis infirmatur, et ego non infirmor? quis scandalizatur, et ego non uror? [II Cor. Xi. 29]

Verse 16

And the Gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

Et timebunt gentes nomen tuum, Domine, et omnes reges terrae gloriam tuam;

From this text we understand this Psalm explains, less correctly than foretold in the preceding verses, the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, cast down in the reign of Nabuchonosor; in those days not all the people feared the name of God and not all the kings feared His glory. Indeed, these things were reserved for the advent and glorification of the Messias, and as it was foretold, so did it famously come to pass. And so he says: “And the Gentiles shall fear,” that is, when the new Sion is built, the Gentiles will be converted and they will fear with a holy fear and a pious veneration “thy name, O Lord,” Jesus Christ; “and all the kings of the earth” will in the same way be converted and shall fear “Thy glory,” that is, Thy majesty, as the king of Kings, and the Chief of the kings of the earth, seated at the right hand of the Father, until all Thy enemies are made Thy footstool,[1] and afterwards as the Judge who will come to judge all the living and the dead, and will render to everyone according to his works.[2]

[1] The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool. Psalmus David. Dixit Dominus Domino meo : Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. [Ps. Cix. 1]
[2] Who will render to every man according to his works. qui reddet unicuique secundum opera ejus : [Rom. ii. vi]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.