Bellarmine on Psalm XLV: Verses 10 & 11

Verse 10

Be still and see that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.

Vacate, et videte quoniam ego sum Deus; exaltabor in gentibus, et exaltabor in terra.

The prophet had said a little earlier: “Come and behold ye the works of the Lord.”[1] Now, to show how anyone who wants to understand the works of the Lord should come, he says: “Be still and see,” and the better to persuade (his listeners), he introduces God Himself, speaking and exhorting: “Be still and see that I am God.” For the contemplation of things divine requires a mind free from the tumult of worldly cares; for the root of all troubled thoughts is cupidity:[2] for from the desire of riches, pleasures, honours and similar things, arise most troublesome thoughts, which generally leave no peace of mind for a man thus affected. Hence Jeremiah says of the contemplative man: “He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself;”[3] and the Lord commands in Matt. vi: “But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret.”[4] Now what is meant by “having shut the 

door,” to pray to the Father, He teaches us by His example, for He generally went up on a mountain to pray, and He prayed alone, far from the hurly-burly of (worldly) cares and concerns. But, aswe said, the chief stillness ought to be freedom from inordinate desires or earthly things: for the man who desires nothing of these things which he sees, even if he is much occupied in helping his neighbours, will easily collect his soul when he wants and will be still and will see that He is truly God, He is the beginning and the end, He is the entire hope of the faithful on earth, and their true happiness in heaven. For David was greatly occupied in governing his kingdom, as was St. Gregory (like many other Holy Pontiffs) in the duties of the pontificate; and yet they were lifted up into the highest contemplation, because they held the wings of 

their mind free from the mire of concupiscence. For the Apostle himself was burdened by solicitude for all the churches, and worked by the labour of his own hands to obtain food; and yet, because he was altogether free from worldly desires, he not only was still and saw, but he was even taken up to the third heaven, and he heard secret words which it is not given to man to utter. On the other hand, many are those men who are idle in respect of the worldly business but who are carnal and wrapped up in worldly desires; they are not still and do not know God. And so he says: “Be still,” that is, seek holy tranquility, and bring to it a pure and peaceful mind,  and, while thinking with full attentiveness, “see that I am God,” that is, I alone am God and no created thing, however great and sublime it may appear, is God; I alone am God, He who is; I alone. “For of him, and by him, and in him, are all 

things;”[5] I alone (am He), without whom you can do nothing, and are nothing. “I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth,” that is, when I shall have done the wonders which are spoken of above, I shall appear exalted among all the nations and before all the earth, so that every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.[6] For certainly at the end of the world there will be no-one who would dare to despise God; but all, whether willingly or not, will acknowledge His supreme dominion, and be subject to Him. St. Basil and a few others interpret this exaltation mystically as the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, so that the sense is: “Be still and see that I,” who seem to be a man like other men, in truth “am God, I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth,” hanging in shame and suffering on the cross, in the eyes of the wicked. But truly by reason of this cross shall I be lifted up before all nations, throughout all the earth, because I will draw all things to myself,[7] and by the yoke of faith and obedience to me, even the highest kings, along with their people, will bend their necks. In Hebrew it says cessate et videte / cease and see, which may be understood as ceasing from worldly business and desires, as we said, and we consider this as being the literal and proper explanation: but this takes nothing away from those who would have it that these words contain an exhortation to the wicked, so that the sense is:  When these things shall come to pass, which were explained just previously, cease ye now finally from the sin of infidelity and from persecutions of the good, and see ye with the eyes of faith that I am God, and your idols are not gods; for I alone at the end of the world will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth.

[1] Vide supra,Verse 8.

[2] Ardent desire, inordinate longing or lust; covetousness. OED.

[3] Jod. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself. JOD. Sedebit solitarius, et tacebit, quia levavit super se. [Thren. Iii. 28]

[4] But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. Tu autem cum oraveris, intra in cubiculum tuum, et clauso ostio, ora Patrem tuum in abscondito : et Pater tuus, qui videt in abscondito, reddet tibi. [Matt. vi. 6]

[5] For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen. Quoniam ex ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso sunt omnia : ipsi gloria in saecula. Amen. [Rom. xi. 36]

[6] That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur caelestium, terrestrium et infernorum, [Philipp. ii. 10]

[7]  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. Et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum. [Ioann. Xii. 32]

Verse 11

The Lord of armies is with us: the God of Jacob is our protector.

Dominus virtutum nobiscum; susceptor noster Deus Jacob.

He concludes the Psalm with a repetition of verse 7, so as to demonstrate that the devotion of the pious, by God’s exhortation, have been again stirred up and renewed.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.