Bellarmine on Psalm 95 : Title and theme

Title and subject matter

Titulum et argumentum

A canticle for David himself, when the house was built after the captivity.

Canticum ipsi David, quando domus aedificabatur post captivitatem.

This Psalm does not have a title among the Hebrews and this is not surprising because it seems to be a part of Psalm CIV, as is evident from book I Paralip. Chapter xvi, where the Psalm is sung on the return of the Ark, and where the first part is the beginning of Psalm CIV and the second is Psalm XCV; for it seems that Esdras, or whoever it was who collected and arranged the book of Psalms, with the aim of having 150 Psalms, made this Psalm XCV from part of Psalm CIV, in the same way that, from Psalms LVI and LVIII he made Psalm CVII which begins : My heart is ready, and from the end of Psalm XXXIX he made Psalm LXIX, which begins : O God, come to my assistance. The title, therefore, which we have in the Greek and Latin codices, was added either by the Septuagint translators, or more likely, by Esdras himself; and he ordered it to be sung when the temple was being rebuilt after the Babylonian captivity. Now although it is the case that David composed this Psalm on the return of the Ark and Esdras ordered this same Psalm to be sung on the rebuilding of the Temple, it is however certain that the primary aim of David, and of the Holy Spirit Himself, was to foretell the coming of Christ and His kingdom, when “(God) hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.”1 For, as St. Augustine correctly observes, in the whole of the Psalm there is no mention of the rebuilding of the Temple nor of the return of the Ark, and for this reason, either the Psalm does not match with the title, or it is to be explained, in accordance with its wording, as being about the propagation of Christ’s kingdom throughout the earth, that is, about the building of the Church among all the nations. In this all the ancient writers agree, the Latin writers Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose; and  the Greek writers Chrysostom, Theodoret and Euthymius. 

[1] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, qui eripuit nos de potestate tenebrarum, et transtulit in regnum filii dilectionis suae; [Coloss. i. 13]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.