Bellarmine on Psalm LXII: Verse 3

Verse 3

In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory.

In terra deserta, et invia, et inaquosa, sic in sancto apparui tibi, ut viderem virtutem tuam et gloriam tuam.

He describes the properties of a desert, which are three, “a land deserted” of inhabitants, an (inaccessible) land “where there is no way,” and a land with “no water;” of these, the second is the effect and the third is the cause of the first; for any land is generally deserted by its inhabitants through 

lack of water, and this lack makes the land arid and barren; but when a land is deserted and made uninhabitable, by this fact it becomes inaccessible: in this context invia / where there is no way refers not only to a land with no way but to an inaccessible land, and through which it is possible to walk only with difficulty: for the Hebrew word hhaieph can mean tired, weary, laborious : and in this text it refers to a land which may be passed through with great effort and weariness. It seems the Prophet wanted to signify that land uncultivated and lacking not only in the luxuries but in the essentials was useful to him in finding God. For the more a soul is stripped of carnal goods, or certainly, the more it removes the desire for earthly things, the more easily it ascends to the contemplation and savouring of heavenly things. “I” he says, “in this desert land, and where there is no way, and no water,” feeling thirsty, “so . . . have I come before thee,”that is, so have I 

come into Thy presence through a raising up of my mind, as though I were (actually) in Thy sanctuary, so that the desert becomes for me a place of sanctuary. I have come before Thee to see Thy power and Thy glory,” that is, thy might and thy majesty. Those words, in sancto / in the sanctuary, in Hebrew is bakodesh / in sanctitate / in holiness, which often refers in Hebrew to a sanctuary. St. Augustine interprets these words a little differently, and following him we can say that desert is to be understood as the world, which is deserted by true men and is inhabited by beasts, “carnal and animal”, as the Apostle calls them in I Cor. ii.;[1]  it is also inaccessible, because it is difficult to find a way out; finally, it is without water, because although it has pools of putrid water, referring to carnal wisdom, it is lacking in heavenly water, which is true wisdom, unless God in His great grace shows (His) way to the travellers in this desert, and sprinkles them with heavenly dew. David speaks therefore in his own person and also in that of the holy pilgrims, his companions: Here I am stuck in this desert, thirsting for heavenly water, and longing to find a way out, mentally watching from the morning (for a way of) ascending to Thy heavenly sanctuary, and so in the sanctuary I have come before Thee, so that through meditation and contemplation I might see Thy power and Thy glory, for in the desert of the world we see nothing that is not passing, fragile and base. “To see,” he says, “thy power,” with which Thou didst make all things from nothing, and Thou dost maintain them with the word of Thy power; to see also Thy glory, in which Thou art super-eminent by far compared to all others, and nothing is like unto Thee, and all things willy nilly do serve Thee : and in this vision I started to feel dew and to taste manna, and to find the way that is Christ.

[1] Vide: But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei : stultitia enim est illi, et non potest intelligere : quia spiritualiter examinatur. [I Cor. ii. 14]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.