Today, we continue with 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 3
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul: he hath brought down my life to the earth.
Quia persecutus est inimicus animam meam, humiliavit in terra vitam meam;
This is the third reason he adduces in order to obtain pardon for his sins, which arises from the gravity of his temptation; for it was not through his free will, or without any temptation, that he sinned, as did the reprobate angels who consequently found no pardon for their sin; but as a result of the gravest persecution by our enemy the devil, who as “a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour,”
[1] he was laid low, and cast down from the heights of innocence to the depths of deadly sin. And that causal particle,
quia, is to be understood with these words:
Hear me in thy justice; as if he might say, because Thou art just, fulfilling promises, “for in thy sight no man living shall be justified: For the enemy hath persecuted my soul,” inducing me to commit adultery and tempting me to commit murder, and “ he hath brought down,” cast down, made abject “my life” even down unto the earth, because he made me vile and contemptible in Thy sight, and before the holy angels; and again, he abased me, down to the earth, because he made me a lover of the base earth who previously had been wont to abide in heavenly things. This explanation is shared by the holy fathers Chrysostom, Augustine, Gregory and others.
[1] Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Sobrii estote, et vigilate : quia adversarius vester diabolus tamquam leo rugiens circuit, quaerens quem devoret : [I Pet. v. 8]
Verse 4
He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been dead of old: And my spirit is in anguish within me: my heart within me is troubled.
collocavit me in obscuris, sicut mortuos saeculi; Et anxiatus est super me spiritus meus; in me turbatum est cor meum.
He presses forward with an explanation of the calamities which the diabolical persecution brought on through sin. For after he abased his soul down to the earth, that is, he became entangled in earthly desires, he makes him to dwell “in darkness,” namely in spiritual blindness, his interior eyes no longer seeing, so that he embraces false goods for true ones, so that he does not see abysses and precipices, so that he completely loses sight of the way that leads to life; finally, he makes him to dwell in that darkness in which those dead of old are buried, that is, those dead a short time ago, whether those dead of old, or, as St. Jerome reads it, those dead
antiqui / long ago, in which no trace of sight remains. This is the enveloping spiritual blindness in which the lovers of the world do dwell. The Apostle speaks of this darkness in
Ephesians iv: “ Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts;”
[1] and in chapter vi: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness;”
[2] although the increase of the spiritual blindness, as great as it is, is not so great that nothing can be added thereunto. For what can be a greater darkening of the mind than to reject eternal happiness for the sake of momentary pleasure of the flesh? He continues: “And my spirit is in anguish within me;” by these words he shows that he has, by a divine light, begun to see his darkness, and the abject condition of his soul so delighting in earthly
pleasures; and so follows the anguish of his spirit from the dread of the divine judgement, and from the wretched state into which he has fallen on account of his sin. And so this is the beginning of repentance. “My spirit is in anguish within me;” in Hebrew is found the same word as in the Psalm above:
When my spirit failed me.
[3] It signifies great anguish, which almost leads to death, if hope did not bring the consolation of mercy.
Super me / within me, means: my spirit is in anguish in my miserable state, in my greatest grief. Then he repeats the idea in different words: “My heart within me is troubled;” now
in me / in me is not the same as
super me / within (over) me but means in this context:
in my heart or
within me. And so the sense is: My Spirit, considering this miserable state, is in extreme anguish, and my heart is troubled deep within me, not slightly or superficially but really seriously, and I have begun to be deeply troubled and upset in the depth of my heart. They should follow this penitent’s example who wish to be delivered and should reflect seriously and deeply upon the damage wrought by their sin.
[1] Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. tenebris obscuratum habentes intellectum, alienati a vita Dei per ignorantiam, quae est in illis, propter caecitatem cordis ipsorum, [Ephes. iv. 18]
[2] For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. quoniam non est nobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus principes, et potestates, adversus mundi rectores tenebrarum harum, contra spiritualia nequitiae, in caelestibus. [Ephes. vi. 12]
[3] When my spirit failed me, then thou knewest my paths. In this way wherein I walked, they have hidden a snare for me. In deficiendo ex me spiritum meum, et tu cognovisti semitas meas; in via hac qua ambulabam absconderunt laqueum mihi. [Ps. Cxli. 4]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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