Bellarmine on Psalm 129: Title, theme and verse 1

Today, we begin a new series of posts featuring St Robert Bellarmine's commentary on Psalm 129, the sixth 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.

Cant

Canticum Graduum Salomonis

A gradual canticle of Solomon.[1]

This Psalm is short but filled with most salutary teaching. Not without cause is it used in the Church for reasons, apart from any others, such as the following: one comes from the gradual Psalms, because it laments the misery of exiles; one comes from the penitential Psalms because it teaches the reason for performing true penance; it is also a custom in the Church for it to be recited very frequently for the dead, since if it is said in the person of a soul detained in purgatory, everything fits in perfectly: for those souls are, so to speak, in the depths, and they want to rise therefrom, and they look for the mercy of God in the atonement paid by our Redeemer. In summary, the Psalm contains three things: a prayer to God, an exhortation to the people and a proclamation of future redemption.

[1]  “Fifteen psalms — namely, Psalms 119-133 (in Hebrew 120-134) — bear a Hebrew inscription which is rendered in the Vulgate as canticum graduum, and translated in the Douay Version as "a gradual canticle". The Authorized Version calls them "songs of degrees"; the Revised Version, "songs of ascents". Of the various conjectural explanations, the most probable regards them as psalms recited when going up to the annual festivals in Jerusalem, pilgrim-songs.” From the Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent.

Verse 1

Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine; Domine, exaudi vocem meam.

The Prophet, being about to pray to God, first craves a hearing and then explains his petition. He craves a hearing in the first two verses. He begins with the similitude of a man lying at the bottom of a very deep valley, or in a deep well, who, unless he cries out with a loud voice, cannot be heard by those who are on a very high mountain; and this truly is a most apt similitude: for although God is everywhere in His essence and power, and yet by reason of man's dissimilitude, sinful man is a long way off from God. For God is always just and blessed, and "dwelleth on high;"[1] sinful man is always bad and miserable, and like Jonah the prophet who, because he did not want to obey (God), was not only cast into the depths of the sea but also deep inside the belly of a whale; and yet crying out thence, he was heard: for a fervent prayer breaks through and penetrates all things. Now David says “Out of the depths,” not out of the depth or deep, for a truly penitent person ought to cry out from two depths: (firstly) from the depths of his misery, as from a vale of tears, or, as is said in another Psalm, out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs;[2] (secondly), from the depth of the heart, that is, from an intimate reflection upon and understanding of his own misery: for he who does not

think about and reflect upon the depth in which he finds himself does not care about rising out of it but sets it at naught; and so he sinks more deeply still, as it says in Proverbs: “The wicked man when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth:”[3] But he who understands through a profound reflection that he is an exile, a pilgrim, and running into the great danger that he might never attain his heavenly home, and what is of infinite misery, that he is already in a lower part of hell, if not now then he certainly has begun to deserve such a position, it is not possible for such a one not to be frightened and horrified in all his heart, not to call out with all his might to Him who alone can wrest him free from such a terrible depth and extend a hand to draw him upwards. And so follow the words: “Lord, hear my voice,” that is, although I down in the depths and Thou dwelleth on high, yet because with a loud voice I cry out, Thou canst hear me; and so I pray that Thou mayest hear my voice.

[1] Who is as the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high: Quis sicut Dominus Deus noster, qui in altis habitat. [Ps. Cxii 5]
[2] And he heard my prayers, and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs. And he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps. Et exaudivit preces meas, et eduxit me de lacu miseriae et de luto faecis. Et statuit super petram pedes meos, et direxit gressus meos. [Ps. Xxxix. 3]
[3] The wicked man when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth: but ignominy and reproach follow him. Impius, cum in profundum venerit peccatorum, contemnit; sed sequitur eum ignominia et opprobrium. [Prov. xviii. 3]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.