Bellarmine on Psalm 142: Verses 12-14

Today we conclude St Robert Bellarmine's commentary on Psalm 142, the last of the Seven Penitential Psalms.

Where footnotes are included, the text follows each section.

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.

Verse 12

Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land: for thy name's sake, O Lord, thou wilt quicken me in thy justice. 

Spiritus tuus bonus deducet me in terram rectam : Propter nomen tuum, Domine, vivificabis me in aequitate tua,

He asked for wisdom, which pertains to the intelligence; now he asks for charity, which pertains to the will; for we truly walk in the path of righteousness when we know how to act well and will to do so. “Thy good spirit,” that is, not

my spirit but Thine, which is good, and of which the Saviour speaks in Luke vi: “How much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?”[1] The good spirit is the Holy Spirit, essentially good, through whom is diffused “charity… in our hearts;”[2] and He does this that we may will and do the works we will to do; and of this, it says in Ezech xxxvi: “I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments.”[3] This Spirit  “shall lead me into the right land,” that is, in that plain and direct path, which is the law of the Lord, most straight and most plain. Right land may be understood as our heavenly home, which is the land of the living, in which justice dwells, and which has no space for the crookedness of vices. It continues: “for thy name's sake, O Lord, thou wilt quicken me in thy justice,” so that he may show that justice, which is indeed a certain spiritual quickening, not derived from personal  merits, is contingent upon the gift of God’s grace to us. “For thy name's sake,” he says, that is, on account of Thy glory through Thy grace “Thou wilt quicken me in Thy equity (justice),” that is, in Thy justice, for thus it is in the Hebrew. By justice may be understood truth, of faithfulness in keeping promises; it can also be understood as justice, which justifies us; finally, it may be understood as the most just law of the Lord, in the way we understand Psalm cxviii, 40: “Quicken me in thy justice.”[4]

[1] If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him? Si ergo vos, cum sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestris : quanto magis Pater vester de caelo dabit spiritum bonum petentibus se? [Luc. vi. 13]
[2] And hope confoundeth not: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us. spes autem non confundit : quia caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est nobis. [Rom. v. 5]
[3] And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them. Et spiritum meum ponam in medio vestri : et faciam ut in praeceptis meis ambuletis, et judicia mea custodiatis et operemini. [Ezech. Xxxvi. 27]
[4] Behold I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy justice. Ecce concupivi mandata tua; in aequitate tua vivifica me. [Ps. Cxviii. 40]

Verse 13-14

Thou wilt bring my soul out of trouble: and in thy mercy thou wilt destroy my enemies. And thou wilt cut off all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Educes de tribulatione animam meam et in misericordia tua disperdes inimicos meos, et perdes omnes qui tribulant animam meam, quoniam ego servus tuus sum.

He concludes by foretelling his salvation and deliverance, and the perdition of all his enemies; this will be fulfilled without doubt at the Last Judgement; and what David says of himself can also be said of all true servants of God, who either have kept safe their innocence or have through true repentance returned to the path of righteousness.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.