Bellarmine on Psalm LXXXIV: Verses 12-13

Verse 12

Truth is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven.

Veritas de terra orta est, et justitia de caelo prospexit.

Here the Prophet explains the mystery of the incarnation, using the preterite tense to stand for the future, according to the usage of Prophets. “Truth,” he says, “is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven,” that is, Christ, who is the truth, will be born of the Virgin Mary. “And justice hath looked down from heaven,” that is, justice will be manifested from heaven because, not only with the birth of Christ, did true justice begin to come down from heaven, and to to justify men through faith in Christ; but because, through the coming of Christ, there began to be disclosed that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice,” as is said in Rom. i.[1] For it would never have been 

known how great God’s anger was towards sin if God had not willed it to be expiated by the death of His only-begotten Son; and it would not even have been fully  known how great God’s anger was towards sinners if we had not seen how great was the suffering Christ underwent to expiate the sins of others; for, “For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?”as the Lord Himself says in Luke xxiii.[2]

[1] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice: Revelatur enim ira Dei de caelo super omnem impietatem, et injustitiam hominum eorum, qui veritatem Dei in injustitia detinent : [Rom. i. 18]

[2] For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? Quia si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet? [Luc. xxiii. 31]

Verse 13

For the Lord will give goodness: and our earth shall yield her fruit.

Etenim Dominus dabit benignitatem, et terra nostra dabit fructum suum.

He proceeds to explain the mystery of the incarnation, and he shows that truth will emerge from the earth, not in the manner of fruit emerging from the work of men ploughing the earth and sowing seeds, but like flowers that spring up in the fields and forests, without human cultivation, but from being bathed in the rains of heaven and the rays of the sun. “For,” he says, “the Lord will give goodness,” that is, He will send from heaven His Holy Spirit, who will overshadow a virgin;[1] and so our land, neither ploughed nor sown, but perfectly virgin, will yield her fruit. Hence, He himself says in the Canticle of Canticles: “I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys.”[2]

[1] Vide: And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Et respondens angelus dixit ei : Spiritus Sanctus superveniet in te, et virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi. Ideoque et quod nascetur ex te sanctum, vocabitur Filius Dei. [Luc. i. 35]

[2] I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys. Ego flos campi, et lilium convallium. [Cant. ii. 1]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.