Verse 3
For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just: that the just may not stretch forth their hands to iniquity.
Quia non relinquet Dominus virgam peccatorum super sortem justorum; ut non extendant justi ad iniquitatem manus suas,
The Prophet explains a little more clearly the reason God protects those who trust in His assistance. For, he says, if God permits for His own just reasons the wicked to dominate the just, He will not permit this to last for a long time lest the just, in despair, begin to do the works of the wicked; and so he says: “For the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just,” that is, the Lord will for a while give to the wicked a rod, that is a sceptre, which is the sign of power, “upon the lot of the just,” that is, upon the inheritance, or the portion and lot “of the just;” but He will not for long leave the rod in the hands of the wicked. In Hebrew it says:
The rod of the sinner will not rest upon the lot of the just, but these words have the same meaning; the metaphor of
rest is an elegant way of explaining the short time sinners have to rule over the just : for although the time the time the wicked have to rule over the just can seem long to those who do not have eternity in contemplation, everything which has an end will seem to be of very short duration to those who assured by the divine promise that the kingdom of Christ will have no end. He says accordingly “The rod of the sinner will not rest upon the lot of the just,” that is, there will a certain power of the sinner for a time over the just in order to test them, to train them and to correct them; but it will be as though standing (for a while) rather than being seated (over them); transitory rather than enduring; temporary and not eternal. “That the just may not stretch forth their hands to iniquity,” this means lest the just cease to persevere in justice when they see the happiness of the wicked as so long-lasting that it can be thought to have no end.
Verse 4
Do good, O Lord, to those that are good, and to the upright of heart.
Benefac, Domine, bonis, et rectis corde.
Because he said there is a danger that the just might be scandalised by the continuing power of the wicked, he turns to God and prays that He will do good to those that are good, namely by delivering them from the power of the wicked, at any rate, by supplying them plentifully with interior patience and consolation; and at the same time he informs and teaches us that the truly good are those who are “upright of heart,” that is, who are not scandalised by the judgements of God, but who accept in good part all that God does, even when He permits the wicked to be in control for a long time. For the upright in heart are they who conform their hearts, that is to say their judgement and will, to the perfectly upright judgement and will of God, even if they do not understand why God does a something or permits it to happen; it is written of these things in another Psalm: “How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!”
[1] These souls submit in all things to God and God is pleasing to them, and they are pleasing to God, just like a straight rod on a straight pavement fits and lies perfectly true; but a distorted rod cannot fit straight and true except on a distorted surface.
[1] A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart! Psalmus Asaph. Quam bonus Israel Deus, his qui recto sunt corde! [Ps. LXXII 1]
Verse 5
But such as turn aside into bonds, the Lord shall lead out with the workers of iniquity: peace upon Israel.
Declinantes autem in obligationes, adducet Dominus cum operantibus iniquitatem. Pax super Israel!
By reason of the last point he made in the previous verse, in which good things were desired for the upright of heart, the Prophet adds a terrible threat to those who turn aside from uprightness to deviance, and who lose patience in persecution or tribulation, or who deny the faith or complain and murmur against God, and he says that they, “with the workers of iniquity,” that is, with the persecutors themselves and with the wicked, shall be led out in judgement, since, as St. James says in chapter ii: “And whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all;”
[1] and finally, all the wicked having been separated from the good, there will be true and everlasting peace “upon Israel,” that is, upon the people of God. In this text, there is considerable discussion about the word
obligationes / bonds, and different commentators say different things: but I, allowing everyone his own viewpoint, say that if the verse is to make sense with the one previous, and if the Latin codices are to be harmonised with the Greek and the Hebrew, I have no doubt that the Latin translator wrote
obligationes, not looking so much at the thing bound and binding through the obligation, as at the twisted and deviant state of the rope binding the person when someone is tied up; for something cannot be bound unless a rope, which is otherwise straight, is twisted and wrapped around (the thing). That this is so may be gathered firstly from the Hebrew word, which properly signifies
crookedness or
deviation, and which is rendered by St. Jerome as
pravitas / crookedness;
[2] secondly, from the Greek, which Euthymius explains as
crookedness and
perversity. Finally, by reason of what continuity requires: for if by
obligationes we understand obligations to do something, as with vows, oaths, promises and such like, it can scarcely be seen what the Prophet intends here; if however by
obligationes are understood the knots and twistedness which represent the opposite of uprightness of heart, of which he has just spoken, everything makes sense. The Vulgate translator therefore has spoken properly and truly, if somewhat obscurely.
[1] And whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all. Quicumque autem totam legem servaverit, offendat autem in uno, factus est omnium reus. [James ii 10]
[2] Crookedness or incorrectness (w. ref. to behaviour, morals, or ethics), perversity, depravity, wickedness.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
No comments:
Post a Comment