Bellarmine on Psalm LXXXIV: Verse 6

Verse 6

Thou wilt turn, O God, and bring us to life: and thy people shall rejoice in thee.

Deus, tu conversus vivificabis nos, et plebs tua laetabitur in te.

He declares the effect that will follow on from reconciliation; for from this it will come to pass that man gains life and God will be praised. “Thou wilt turn, O God,” through laying aside anger and through reconciliation, “Thou wilt bring us to life:” for “the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting;”[1] “and thy people” brought to life and breathing thanks to so great a gift, “shall rejoice in thee,” and rejoicing shall sing Thy praises. In Hebrew, it has nonne / surely instead of Deus; Surely having turned Thou wilt bring us to life? But it is easy to see what the Septuagint translators had and read in their codices; for they were not lacking in learning and they translated the word as God; because the Hebrew word has the same letters as surely, but transposed. For conversus / turned, (Thou wilt turn), St. Augustine reads convertens / turning, as the Greek has ἑπισρἑψας ; but the sense is not : Thou, converting us, wilt bring us to life, but, Thou, turning Thyself to us, wilt bring us to life; and in this way this reading is harmonised with the Hebrew and the Latin.

[1] For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Stipendia enim peccati, mors. Gratia autem Dei, vita aeterna, in Christo Jesu Domino nostro. [Rom. vi. 23]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.