Bellarmine on Psalm 94: Verse 9

Verse 9

As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.

sicut in irritatione, secundum diem tentationis in deserto, ubi tentaverunt me patres vestri, probaverunt me, et viderunt opera mea.

He provides an example of a hardening of hearts : for the fathers of old, having being led by Moses out of Egypt, while they were on their way and were crossing the wilderness, not infrequently hardened their hearts, being unwilling to believe in God’s promises and unwilling to obey Him; hence, “they provoked Him and tempted Him,” as another reading has it : and they tempted Him in His might, and they were wanting, and they saw His miraculous works, such as the manna raining down 

from the sky and the water gushing from the rock. See Numbers xiv: “As in the provocation,” he says, “according to the day of temptation in the wilderness,” that is, according to that day in which they tempted God : for in tempting God, they provoked Him. It is not necessary to indicate here a particular day, because they frequently tempted Him in the wilderness, and (the word) day can be taken as including the whole time (of their journey), so that the sense is : “As in the provocation,” which happened in the wilderness, by which they frequently tempted me in the wilderness.  “Where (they) tempted me,” that is, where they wanted to discover whether I was truly God, and whether I could provide bread and meat and water in the wilderness, which that desert place lacked.  “They proved me, and saw my works,” that is, where they experienced my omnipotence, because they saw my works, which could be done only by the true God, the truly omnipotent.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.