Bellarmine on Psalm 142: Verses 5-6

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 5

I remembered the days of old, I meditated on all thy works: I meditated upon the works of thy hands.

Memor fui dierum antiquorum : meditatus sum in omnibus operibus tuis, in factis manuum tuarum meditabar.

He explains now how he was able to breathe again after such great anguish and shows us by his example the way to recovery after his fall. “I remembered,” he says, “the days of old,” that is, I started to reflect upon Thy mercy, which from the world’s beginning Thou didst show to our fathers, bearing their infirmities, healing illnesses and sparing their iniquities. I did not simply remember these in passing, but “I meditated on all thy works,” that is, I studied diligently all Thy works, whether of nature or of grace, and in all of them I saw Thy mercy predominated. And repeating this, he adds: “I meditated upon the works of thy hands,” that is, I applied myself to studying Thy works. These can be referred (following St. Gregory) to  ancient times, in which man in a state of innocence enjoyed the delights of paradise; thence may be better understood the misery of his servitude; but the previous explanation, in which we followed Chrysostom, seems to adhere more closely to the text.

Verse 6

I stretched forth my hands to thee: my soul is as earth without water unto thee.

Expandi manus meas ad te; anima mea sicut terra sine aqua tibi.

Having conceived hope from a consideration of God’s mercy, he begins to sigh and look up to God: “I stretched forth,” he says, “my hands” in prayer “to Thee,” since my soul thirsts for Thy grace as the arid earth craves rain. This is a most fitting comparison. For just as the earth without water does not hold together, is not clothed in plants, is not bedecked with flowers and does not produce fruit, but is empty and barren; so a soul without the grace of God does not resist temptations; but like dust it is carried before the face of 

the wind, it is not clothed with justice, it is not bedecked with wisdom and it does not produce the fruits of good works; the penitent understands all this from his own experience and he therefore thirsts all the more because he appreciates this more.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.