Bellarmine on Psalm XLV: Verses 4 & 5

Verses 4-5

The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful: the most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle.

God is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved: God will help it in the morning early.

Fluminis impetus lætificat civitatem Dei : sanctificavit tabernaculum suum Altissimus.

Deus in medio ejus, non commovebitur; adjuvabit eam Deus mane diluculo.

He now shows how God’s people will not be afraid when the earth is troubled and the mountains shall be removed into the heart of the sea; and he says the reason is that, instead of the abundance of bitterness which will trouble the wicked, the Church will be given an abundance of delight which will cause her to be joyful; and instead of the instability of the mountains that shall be removed into the heart of the sea, the Church will be given perpetual stability, because God will be in her midst. “The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful,” that is, God’s people will not be afraid when the earth is troubled, because the tidal waves of the bitter sea will not flood into the Church; but the sweet and bright waters of the river, in a powerful stream and in great quantity will cause her to rejoice with an abundance of delight. In Hebrew it says nahar pelagan / rivulets of the river, or currents instead of what we have from the Greek, stream of the river; but these are not 

contradictory: for rivulets of water can flow with force or without force: the Septuagint translators wanted to make clear that those currents would not flow gently or with little force but in great abundance and force, so as to explain the power of the sweetness that  flows in the city of God. “ thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure.”[1] The Prophet adds: “the most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle,” as though to say : therefore God makes His city joyful, because He chose it and sanctified it to Himself in His tabernacle, and He wanted it to be His own dwelling, as it says in chapter xxi of the Apocalypse: “Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people.”[2] “God is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved,” this is opposed to the instability of the earth and the mountains, as though to say: the people of God will not be afraid of being cast into the heart of the sea: for “God is in the midst thereof,” that is, God does not withdraw from them but is always closely present to them, as one might expect,  “in the midst,” intimately, in 

their hearts, and so this city will not be moved but will be made firm with a stability everlasting. And he concludes by showing whence and when these things shall be, saying: “God will help it in the morning early,” that is, joy and stability will be given to the city of God, since God will help it at the beginning of the day, that is, at the dawning of the day of eternal happiness. For the Scripture compares the time of infidelity to the darkness of night, the time of faith to the dawn, and the vision of God to the brightness of day. In his Epistle to the Romans, Blessed Paul says: “The night is passed, and the day is at hand.”[3] And in II Peter I., it says “And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”[4] And the Bride says in Cant. ii. : “Till the day break, and the shadows retire.”[5] And the prophet Malachy says in chapter iv. : “But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise .”[6]  And with this sentence the ancient reading agrees, which St. Augustine had, and which St. Ambrose remembered, and which the Church embraces in the Ecclesiastical office: “God will help her with His face,” that is, He will help her with His greatest and mightiest assistance when He shows her His face, and that will be when the Sun of justice shows Himself openly to her, He will bring about that day longed for and desired by all the Saints from the beginning of the world; and on this, the Apostle says: “For I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day.”[7]

[1] They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure. Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae, et torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos; [Ps. Xxxv. 9]

[2] And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people; and God himself with them shall be their God. Et audivi vocem magnam de throno dicentem : Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus, et habitabit cum eis. Et ipsi populus ejus erunt, et ipse Deus cum eis erit eorum Deus : [Apoc. xxi. 3]

[3] The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit. Abjiciamus ergo opera tenebrarum, et induamur arma lucis. [Rom. Xiii. 12]

[4] And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Et habemus firmiorem propheticum sermonem : cui benefacitis attendentes quasi lucernae lucenti in caliginoso donec dies elucescat, et lucifer oriatur in cordibus vestris : [II Pet. I. 19]

[5] Till the day break, and the shadows retire. Return: be like, my beloved, to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. donec aspiret dies, et inclinentur umbrae. Revertere; similis esto, dilecte mi, capreae, hinnuloque cervorum super montes Bether. [Cant. ii. 17]

[6] But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings: and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd. Et orietur vobis timentibus nomen meum sol justitiae, et sanitas in pennis ejus : et egrediemini, et salietis sicut vituli de armento. [Malach. iv. 2]

[7] For which cause I also suffer these things: but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day. Ob quam causam etiam haec patior, sed non confundor. Scio enim cui credidi, et certus sum quia potens est depositum meum servare in illum diem. [II Tim. i. 12]

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam