Bellarmine on Psalm 95 : Verse 1

Verse 1

Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Cantate Domino canticum novum, cantate Domino omnis terra.

He starts from an exhortation that all the people of the earth should together give thanks for the benefits they have received in common; he repeats three times the words “Sing ye,” as he also repeats further on the words “Bring ye to the Lord,” introducing a latent reference to the most holy Trinity, which was to be preached openly in the new Testament. “Sing ye,” he says, “to the Lord a new canticle,” that is, give praise and thanks with singing and gladness. He calls it a “new canticle,” a beautiful canticle, wisely composed : also, a canticle for a new favour, and a canticle to be sung by men who have been regenerated, in whom greed and lust no longer hold sway, but charity; finally, as Chrysostom explains, a canticle not like that of Moses or Deborah, or any of the other ancient canticles, which could not be sung outside the promised land, according to Psalm CXXXVI : “How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?”[1] but a new canticle, which can be celebrated throughout the whole earth. Accordingly, he adds: “Sing to the Lord, all the earth,” that is, not only Judea, but the whole world.

[1] How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land? Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena? [Ps. CXXXVI. 4]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.