Bellarmine on Psalm 1 : Verse 6

Verse 6

Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.

Ideo non resurgent impii in judicio, neque peccatores in concilio justorum

The Prophet therefore says here that a difference will be made clear at the Last Judgement between the just and the wicked. For at this time it seems that all are mixed together. He therefore says: “Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in (the) judgment of the just.” For the “words of the just” apply to both clauses in the verse, both to in judicio and in concilio. This gives us : “The wicked shall not rise again in (the) judgment of the just” and “nor 

sinners in the council of the just.” This puts an end to the question raised by several commentators: why the Prophet should have said: “The wicked shall not rise again in judgment.” David, however, elegantly joins the last part of the Psalm to the first; just as he said at the beginning that the just did not walk in the counsel of the wicked and did not sit in their assembly : now he says the wicked will not rise again at the last day in judgement or in the council of the just.  The meaning here is therefore : “Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment of the just,” that is, the judgement of the just will be far distant from that of the wicked. This explains the words that follow : “nor sinners in the council of the just,” that is, when the wicked rise again, it will not be in the assembly and fellowship of the just, but they will be judged in hell along with the company of the damned. In the phrase in consilio justorum, the word consilium can be read as referring to the place of counsel and thus it will mean the same as the word concilio /council. Non resurgent / shall not rise again can also be translated from the Hebrew as non stabunt or non consistent / they will not stand, so the sense here will then be that when the just, in judgement and in the assembly of the just, will be seated as the Saints with Christ as judges of the world, then the sinners will not stand but will fall. “The just, however, shall stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them.”[1]

[1] Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them, and taken away their labours. Tunc stabunt justi in magna constantia adversus eos qui se angustiaverunt, et qui abstulerunt labores eorum. [Wisdom v 1]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.