Bellarmine on Psalm 97 : Verse 2

Verse 2

His right hand hath wrought for him salvation, and his arm is holy.

Salvavit sibi dextera ejus, et brachium sanctum ejus.

He explains what these wonderful things are, and he puts forward one in which all the other things are comprehended. The Lord has done this in a marvellous way for He alone, by His own power, has saved the world; He had no need of allies, nor of an army, nor of weapons; He alone cast out the prince of this world, and delivered the whole human race from his power. This was the end of all the miracles we enumerated a while ago, and by reason of this, all are to be understood in this one (miracle). The words salvavit / hath wrought may refer to the Son, who saved the world by his own power; and also to the Father, who saved the world by His right hand, that is, through Christ : and all things come back to this. The words sibi / for him, signify the same thing in Hebrew as ipsa / itself, as though the prophet might have said : His right hand itself hath wrought salvation, it has worked the salvation of the world. The word sibi, according to the Hebrew in Canticles i: “Follow after the steps of (thy) flocks,”[1] where the Hebrew has abi tibi; and in Chapter ii : “the rain is over and gone,”[2] in Hebrew includes sibi, imber abiit sibi. But these words tibi and sibi are omitted by the translator, because they are redundant, as being understood and included. But in Isai, lix, the translator cludes the word sibi, when he tranlsates it thus: “His own arm brought salvation to him,”[3]  and in lxiii: “My own arm hath saved for me.” But some read the word sibi as eum, so that the meaning is His arm hath saved him, because He rose from the dead by His own power. St. Augustine refers the word sibi to Christ, as to the end, so that the sense is: Christ has saved men, but for Himself, that is, unto His own glory. All these readings are true but the first is most in accord with the letter. Because the Prophet adds: “and his arm is holy,” which repeats what he has announced; for the right hand and his arm refer to the same thing, that is, His power and might; but he also adds the word holy, so that we may understand this strength in the arm to be spiritual rather than physical; for Christ has vanquished the enemy not by force of arms or physical strength but through love and suffering, through humility and obedience, by the merits of a most holy life, by the shedding in charity of His own precious blood; it is not by the spear and the sword that He has won victory over an extremely powerful enemy. This is what the Apostle alludes to in Philip. ii. : “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.”[1]

[1] f thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds. SPONSUS. Si ignoras te, o pulcherrima inter mulieres, egredere, et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce haedos tuos juxta tabernacula pastorum. [Cant. I. 7]

[2] For winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. jam enim hiems transiit; imber abiit, et recessit. [Cant. I. 7]

[3] And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished, because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice supported him. Et vidit quia non est vir, et aporiatus est, quia non est qui occurrat; et salvavit sibi brachium suum, et justitia ejus ipsa confirmavit eum. [Isai. lix. 16]

[4] He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. Humiliavit semetipsum factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. [Philip. ii. 8] 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.