Bellarmine on Psalm 109 : Verse 8 (conclusion)

Verse 8

He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

de torrente in via bibet; propterea exaltabit caput.

The majority of the ancients explain this last verse as being about Christ’s humility in the flesh and His exaltation in heavenly glory; this applies both to those who read the previous verses as being about Christ and to those who read them as being about the Father. It is in fact a surprise to find some more modern commentators taking a different view. David gives a reason why Christ’s power is so great that he is able to break kings, judge nations, fill ruins and crush heads; and he says: “He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head,” as though he were to say with the Apostle: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names.”[1] He calls the course of human affairs a torrent: for just as a torrent flows with great force and noise, and proceeds in turbulence and confusion, then soon after ceases, and leaves not a wrack behind: so it is with human affairs in this short period of mortality; for all things pass, and with much turbulence and confusion: great battles and conflicts between peoples and nations are often heard of, as in the time of Alexander the Great and afterward of Caesar and of others like them. But shortly after, they come to an end, both they themselves and their successors, and traces of their power can scarcely be found. Through His incarnation, the Son of Man came down into this torrent, and “in the way,” that is, during the course of His mortal and transitory life, “He drank the water,” the turbid water of this “torrent,” He bore the distress of our mortality, indeed He plunged into the depths of the torrent by His passion, and so He will not have drunk water for His refreshment and pleasure but He will have drunk water most noxious, as they do who sink into watery depths, as Psalm LXVIII: “Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul. I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.”[1] By the merit of such great humility willingly taken on for the glory of the Father, and for the salvation of mankind, He has now lifted His head , ascending to heaven, and being seated at the right hand of the Father, established as judge of the living and the dead. Others read the verb in the preterite, he hath drunk;  but the Hebrew and Greek have the future, He shall drink: hence our common reading matches the original texts.

[1] He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: Humiliavit semetipsum factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et donavit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen :  [Philipp. ii. 8-9]

[2] SAVE me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul. I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me. Salvum me fac, Deus, quoniam intraverunt aquae usque ad animam meam. Infixus sum in limo profundi et non est substantia. Veni in altitudinem maris; et tempestas demersit me. [Ps. LXVIII 1-2]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.