Bellarmine on Psalm LXXXIV: Verse 2

Verse 2

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people: thou hast covered all their sins.

Remisisti iniquitatem plebis tuae, operuisti omnia peccata eorum.

He now announces the method by which God, in blessing the land, released Jacob (God’s people) from (their) captivity : and he says it was done by remitting the sins of His people. For just as sin was the cause of captivity, so the remission of sin was the cause of deliverance from captivity. “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people,” that is, in Thy mind and by Thy decree, Thou hast pardoned the iniquity of Thy people, because on account of their iniquity Thou hadst given up this people to the devil, as to a minster of Thy justice. “Thou hast covered all their sins;” this is a repetition, announcing the same thing, “Thou hast covered,” that is, Thou hast hidden from Thy face, so that Thou mayst not see and punish; because in truth God cannot not see that which actually is, however it may be hidden or covered over; when God covers over sins, He destroys and pardons them completely, so that they are no more, and, as we said elsewhere, God covers over sins, when He forgives them, not like a cloth to hide them, but like a bandage that heals

and makes well. He says: “all their sins,” so as to explain what he said, the iniquity of Thy people does not signify (only) the one sin common to all the people, which is original sin, but every sin, be it common to all, or proper to each one. In Greek, it has remisisti iniquitates / Thou hast forgiven the iniquities; but in Hebrew the word is in the singular, iniquity; but the sense is the same.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.