Bellarmine on Psalm 97 : Verse 9

Verse 9

The rivers shall clap their hands, the mountains shall rejoice together; at the presence of the Lord: because he cometh to judge the earth.

Flumina plaudent manu, simul montes exsultabunt a conspectu Domini, quoniam venit judicare terram.

He has invited the sea and the earth: he now calls on the rivers and mountains, so that they likewise may bring forth expressions of joy, but he says concerning the sea, “ Let the sea be moved,” which translates from the Hebrew as let the sea thunder, that is, with a great roaring like thunder; he says of the rivers: “The rivers shall clap their hands,” because the sound of river waters is much lighter than the roaring of the sea; hence he quite properly compares the one to thunder and the other to clapping hands. Where he says “ the mountains shall rejoice,” the Hebrew has the mountains shall offer up their praise; but all these things are said figuratively, and whether the mountains are said to rejoice or to offer praise, the meaning remains the same, namely the prophet, from his love and yearning for the coming Messiah, wants all created things to rejoice and offer praise as best they can. The clause because he cometh to judge the earth may refer to the first or the second coming, as we explained in the commentary on Psalm XCV. If it refers to the first coming, the sense will be: “Let the earth and the sea, the mountains and the rivers, rejoice and be glad, for the Lord is coming in judgement,” that is, to rule and govern with the best and most just laws the whole world, not only as formerly in the majesty of divinity invisible, but now in a form physical and visible, “being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man,”as it says in Philipp. ii.[1]  If it refers to the second coming, the sense will be: “Let the earth and the sea, the mountains and the rivers, rejoice, for the Lord is coming to judge the world,” and he will drive out all sinners from the earth and he will renew all the elements, “and He will deliver them (created things) from the servitude of corruption, under which they groan and travail in pain,” as the Apostle says in Romans viii.[2]

[1] But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. sed semetipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens, in similitudinem hominum factus, et habitu inventus ut homo. [Philipp. ii. 7]

[2] Because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now. quia et ipsa creatura liberabitur a servitute corruptionis in libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei. Scimus enim quod omnis creatura ingemiscit, et parturit usque adhuc. [Rom. Viii. 21-22]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.