Bellarmine on Psalm 123 : Verses 5 & 6

Verses 5 & 6

Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us to be a prey to their teeth. Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken, and we are delivered.

Benedictus Dominus, qui non dedit nos in captionem dentibus eorum.  Anima nostra sicut passer erepta est de laqueo venantium; laqueus contritus est, et nos liberati sumus.

The Prophet introduces another similitude, from which the divine benefits are still better illustrated and more clearly understood. He compares persecution or temptation to the snare of a bird-catcher, and he says God is to be thanked and blessed because he has not given us to be a prey to their teeth, that is, He did not permit us to be captured, killed and eaten. He explains how God did this, saying: “Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers,” that is, our soul fell indeed into persecution and temptation, like a sparrow, or any other bird (the Hebrew noun signifies birds in general), being trapped in the net of a bird-catcher or huntsman; but the soul is delivered from that temptation or persecution before it is captured by the tempter and killed; just like a bird captured in a snare but taken out before it can be seized, killed and eaten by the bird-catcher. This is done because “the snare is broken, and we are delivered,” that is, because the grace of God put an end to the temptation before the soul either denied its faith or consented to sin in any other way, just as the snare holding the bird is broken and the bird flies off, and frustrates the hope of the bird-catcher standing with his mouth open.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.