Verse 7
He shall send out his word, and shall melt them: his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run.
Emittet verbum suum, et liquefaciet ea; flabit spiritus ejus, et fluent aquae.
Up to this point, he has been describing the severe cold of snow, frost and ice : now he shows with what great ease and speed God causes this to recede. “He shall send out,” he says, “his word,” that is, His command, “and shall melt them.” God issues His order and very soon the snow, frost and ice melt, and immediately the cold is sent away. The way that God does this is explained when he adds : “his wind shall blow, and the waters shall run,” that is, on God’s command, the wind arrives from the south and the snow, frost and ice are melted into water.
Verses 8 & 9
Who declareth his word to Jacob: his justices and his judgments to Israel. He hath not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.
Qui annuntiat verbum suum Jacob, justitias et judicia sua Israel. Non fecit taliter omni nationi, et judicia sua non manifestavit eis.
He concludes by showing how great the difference is between God’s providence to His people and other nations. For God instructed other nations through natural causes so that they might acknowledge the Creator through things he created; but he instructed his own people through His prophets. “Who declareth his word to Jacob,” that is, Jerusalem praise the Lord, “Who declareth his word” to His people “Jacob,” speaking to them through Moses and the Prophets; and who showed “his justices and his judgments to Israel” through Moses. To whom God Himself gave the law, so that he could hand it on to the people of Israel; and from this, you will understand that “ He hath not done in like manner to every nation,” because “he hath made manifest” to thee alone, not to others, “his judgements,” that is to say, His laws. Now this conclusion is indeed applicable to the earthly Jerusalem, to whom God sent the Prophets,who announced His words and explained His laws; but it applies much more to the spiritual Jerusalem which is the Church, which received the incarnate Word of God through the preaching of the Apostles, and which learned law, justice and judgements much more sublime; but it applies most completely to the heavenly Jerusalem, to whom God Himself announces His Word, and in that same Word all the inhabitants of Jerusalem see God’s judgements, the order, disposition and reasoning of divine providence, which to us are so many unfathomable depths. Truly, therefore, God “hath not done in like manner to every nation,” but He hath loved the inhabitants of the heavenly home more than other men, and in loving them, He has made them supremely happy.
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