Bellarmine on Psalm 96 : Verse 2

Verse 2

Clouds and darkness are round about him: justice and judgment are the establishment of his throne.

Nubes et caligo in circuitu ejus; justitia et judicium correctio sedis ejus.

According to the first sense, an explanation is given of the nature of God who, though invisible, governs and rules the visible world with perfect justice. “Clouds and darkness are round about him,” that is, the Lord our king is invisible, “(because he) inhabiteth light inaccessible;”[1] and He is like the sun which, when blocked off by cloud and darkness, cannot be seen and yet we can still feel its light and warmth. God is described thus in Psalm XVII: “And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.”[2] Thus did He appear on mount Sinai, hidden in cloud and darkness, as it says in Exod. xx. “Justice and judgment are the establishment of his throne,” that is, although He may be invisible, He is truly present, and He judges peoples with a most just judgement. The word correctio / establishment can also be translated as firmamentum / foundation, as St. Jerome does; or even as stability, uprightness, or preparation, as it is translated elsewhere by the Septuagint translators: for the Hebrew word signifies all these, as we explained in the commentary on the previous Psalm. And so this word correctio signifies in this context uprightness, or righteousness, so that the sense is: the uprightness or righteousness of God’s seat consists in justice and judgement; for the judicial power of God, signified by his seat, is most righteous because God always judges justly and He cannot judge in any way unjustly, because He is Himself wisdom and justice: and this is proper to God; for the seats of other kings are not somewhat lacking in crookedness, since error insinuates itself easily into them, whether through ignorance or through false information, or through the passion of emotions. According to the second sense, it refers to the coming of Christ at the judgement: “For he will come in clouds of heaven,” surrounded by great splendour, as it says in Matth. xxv and xxvi, and as John writes in Apocal. xi.

[1] Who only hath immortality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and empire everlasting. Amen. qui solus habet immortalitatem, et lucem inhabitat inaccessibilem : quem nullus hominum vidit, sed nec videre potest : cui honor, et imperium sempiternum. Amen. [I Tim. vi. 16]

[2]And he made darkness his covert, his pavilion round about him: dark waters in the clouds of the air. Et posuit tenebras latibulum suum; in circuitu ejus tabernaculum ejus, tenebrosa aqua in nubibus aeris. [Ps. XVII. 12]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.