Verse 7
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini, qui fecit cælum et terram.
The Prophet concludes with praise for God, humbly acknowledging that such a great victory, and deliverance from such dangerous temptations, are not to be attributed to his own powers, but to the celestial help he received from God almighty : whose omnipotence is shown by the fact He made heaven and earth. The way in which God is wont to remove His servants from dangerous temptations is implied when he says: “The snare is broken,” for the snare is often broken when a bird, either alarmed by some cry, or drawn by more attractive food, uses force and thus breaks the snare. When a bird, although trapped in a snare, will not leave the bird-catcher’s bait, and does not know it is captured and does not try to escape, it is in this way easily captured and killed. It is the same when the soul of a man falls into temptation, and is then illuminated by God and, either fearful of divine judgement and hell, or drawn by the promises of heavenly glory, the soul begins to think on how hard are the sufferings of the present time, yet how much harder beyond any comparison will be the eternal torments to come; or the soul thinks how sweet this present life seems, how sweet the pleasure and the riches, yet how much sweeter by far shall be the rewards of eternal life: the soul is ablaze with love for the blessings of heaven and is fired by fear of hell’s torments; ablaze with this fire, it conceives divinely assisted strength, and with the grand impetus of a most firm commitment of not sinning against God, it breaks the snare of temptation and, being set free, it flies off and sings in joy: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” This form of escape is written of by St. Cyprian in the last chapter of his book
De Exhortatione martyrii. What persecution can vanquish or what torments can overcome reflections such as these?
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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