Bellarmine on Psalm 101: Verses 17-18

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 17

For the Lord hath built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.

quia aedificavit Dominus Sion, et videbitur in gloria sua.

This is why all the nations and all the kings will fear Christ’s glory: “For He hath built up Sion,” that is, despite the unwilling and resistant nations and kings, He has built up His Church in the present, “ and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;”[1] and in the future, “he shall be seen in his glory,” when he shall come with all His angels, upon the clouds of heaven, to judge the world in great power. When He began to build up Sion, He was seen in His humility, as Isaias says in chapter liii: “ We have seen him, and there was no comeliness in him,”[2] but when He shall come to judge, then will He be seen in His glory.

[1] And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Et ego dico tibi, quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam. [Matt. xvi. 18]
[2] And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: Et ascendet sicut virgultum coram eo; et sicut radix de terra sitienti. Non est species ei, neque decor, et vidimus eum, et non erat aspectus, et desideravimus eum; [Isai. Liii. 2]

Verse 18

He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble: and he hath not despised their petition.

Respexit in orationem humilium et non sprevit precem eorum.

These words are referred by some to the prayers of the holy prophets and pious men of the Old Testament, who were awaiting the coming of the Messiah; but perhaps they understand more correctly who refer them to the prayers of the holy Martyrs, who say in the Apocalypse: “How long, O Lord … dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”[1] For the Son of God will be seen in His glory, because He has had regard to the prayer of all the martyrs and all His other pious servants, and He has not rejected their prayers; and so He will come to judge and to avenge their blood on those who are on earth. This explanation makes better sense of the words of the Psalm; for according to the first explanation, the present verse gives an account of their words: “ Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion,” which are in verse 14; and according to the second explanation,  it gives an account of the words immediately preceding, but in the second part of the verse, namely: “and he shall be seen in his glory.”

[1] And they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord (holy and true) dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? et clamabant voce magna, dicentes : Usquequo Domine ( sanctus et verus), non judicas, et non vindicas sanguinem nostrum de iis qui habitant in terra? [Apoc. vi. 10]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.