Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 6

Verse 6

Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem: and abundance for them that love thee.

Rogate quæ ad pacem sunt Jerusalem, et abundantia diligentibus te.

The Prophet now exhorts the exiles returning from their captivity to greet, even from afar, the city of Jerusalem, offering kindly prayers of peace and plentifulness, which are two of the 

best gifts for making citizens happy; but peace without plentifulness is merely security in the possession of misery; plentifulness without peace is a doubtful and uncertain happiness; but when plentifulness is conjoined with peace, nothing is wanting in the city for its happiness. He therefore says: “Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem,” that is, pray for a true and solid peace from God for your country, and that there may be abundance not only for the city of Jerusalem herself but for all them that love thee, o holy city. In Hebrew, it has ask for peace for Jerusalem herself; from this it is clear that the words quæ ad pacem sunt Jerusalem / that are for the peace of Jerusalem, are nothing other than a circumlocution for peace.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 5

Verse 5

Because their seats have sat in judgment, seats upon the house of David.

Quia illic sederunt sedes in judicio, sedes super domum David.

This is the third praise of Jerusalem, because located there are the royal throne and the and the seat of supreme judgement; and this verse can be read as a continuation of the previous verse because of the conjunction quia / because. It seems to be offering a reason why God wanted 

the temple to be in Jerusalem, which the whole people of Israel had to visit three times a year because it was a royal city and a metropolis for the whole kingdom. He says: “Because there,” that is, in Jerusalem, “… seats have sat in judgment,” that is, the seats of kings succeeding each other, for whom it is proper to judge the people; “have sat,” that is, have remained firmly settled and fixed, which is different from what might be said of the seat of Saul, the first king, which was in Gaba of Benjamin, but it did not remain there because it was moved after a while; and likewise, different from the seats of the Judges, who came before the kings, who did not sit at a fixed location but moved from place to place; but the seats of the kings of David’s family were fixed in Jerusalem, and so he adds: “Seats upon the house of David,” that is, the seats of the kingdom founded on David’s family found rest and stability; for this was told to David by God in II Kings vii: “And thy house shall be faithful, and thy kingdom for ever before thy face, and thy throne shall be firm for ever.”[1] The words seats upon the house of David are not said to indicate they ruled David’s house (family): for they ruled over the whole house of 

Jacob, that is, all the twelve tribes of Israel, not only David’s family; but the seats are said to be upon the house of David because from that house were born the kings of God’s people. In Hebrew, it does not say upon the house of David, but to the house of David, that is, the seats given to the house of David. But all this applies much more to Christ and the heavenly Jerusalem. For lest the Jews perhaps should think the words of the Psalm were to be understood chiefly of the earthly Jerusalem, and not rather of the heavenly Jerusalem, of which it was a figure, God permitted not only the removal of the royal seat from Jerusalem but the overthrow of Jerusalem itself. That promise therefore pertains to Christ and to Jerusalem above, according to the prophecy in Isaiah chapter ix, and Daniel chapter ix, and the words of the angel to the Virgin in Luke I: “The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.”[2] Truly and properly speaking, their seats have sat in judgment in the heavenly Jerusalem, firstly, because Christ’s throne and the thrones of those who reign with Him have been established with full firmness in heaven; and secondly, because those saints reigning and judging with God are a seat (throne) for God; for the soul of the just is the seat of wisdom, and these seats truly sit in judgement, accorded to the Lord’s promise: “You, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”[3] And the seats are founded upon the house of David, because all the royal and juridical power of the saints comes from Christ, who is called the son of David in the Gospel, and who received the throne of David, His father, who will reign forever in the house of Jacob, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end.

[1] And thy house shall be faithful, and thy kingdom for ever before thy face, and thy throne shall be firm for ever. Et fidelis erit domus tua, et regnum tuum usque in aeternum ante faciem tuam, et thronus tuus erit firmus jugiter. [II Reg. vii. 16]

[2] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. hic erit magnus, et Filius Altissimi vocabitur, et dabit illi Dominus Deus sedem David patris ejus : et regnabit in domo Jacob in aeternum, et regni ejus non erit finis. [Luc. i. 32]

[3] And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus autem dixit illis : Amen dico vobis, quod vos, qui secuti estis me, in regeneratione cum sederit Filius hominis in sede majestatis suae, sedebitis et vos super sedes duodecim, judicantes duodecim tribus Israel. [Matt. xix. 28]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 4

Verse 4

For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.

Illuc enim ascenderunt tribus, tribus Domini, testimonium Israel, ad confitendum nomini Domini.

This is the second praise of Jerusalem, the great number of its inhabitants, and this verse is linked

to the second; for he gives a reason why the people of God should have said: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem;” Although not all were citizens of Jerusalem, but were inhabitants of various cities, all went up to Jerusalem three times each year. Therefore it says: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem, for thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,” that is, many if not all of the tribes, and thus a great multitude assembled in Jerusalem: for it is a Hebraism to use the (repeated) words tribus tribus / the tribes the tribes, instead of many tribes; for where we read in Genesis xiv: “Now the woodland vale had many pits of slime,”[1] in Hebrew it says puteos puteos bituminis / pits pits of slime. What follows next: “The testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord,” explains why so great a multitude should gather in Jerusalem; it was done in accordance with “the testimony,” that is, the law given to Israel which commanded that no-on should omit to visit the temple of the Lord and there confess in the name of the Lord their 

praise and thanks. But in a future sense, which we say is more likely the intent of the Holy Spirit, he gives a reason for saying: “Jerusalem, which is built as a city;” for it is built as a city because thither did the tribes now go up, and every day the tribes of the Lord go up, that is, holy souls from every tribe and nation, like so many living stones, are incorporated into the buildings as spiritual homes, as St. Peter says in I Epist. chapter ii. Now those souls of the Saints have gone up to the heavenly Jerusalem so as to praise the name of the Lord, because this is the sole activity in that house and city, all other activity ceasing. “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever;”[2] and Tobias, speaking in chap. Xiii. Of the heavenly Jerusalem: “Alleluia shall be sung in its streets;”[3] and this is “the testimony”, that is, the command given to “Israel,” that is, to the soul seeing God, that as she never ceases from love, so she should never to cease to praise God. What this testimony or command might be, we showed in our commentary on Psalm cxviii, where the word testimony is very frequently used for law or command.

[1] Now the woodland vale had many pits of slime. And the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrha turned their backs and were overthrown there: and they that remained fled to the mountain. Vallis autem Silvestris habebat puteos multos bituminis. Itaque rex Sodomorum, et Gomorrhae, terga verterunt, cecideruntque ibi : et qui remanserant, fugerunt ad montem. [Gen. Xiv. 10]

[2] Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever. Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine; in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te. [Ps. Lxxxiii. 5]

[3] All its streets shall be paved with white and clean stones: and Alleluia shall be sung in its streets. Ex lapide candido et mundo omnes plateae ejus sternentur : et per vicos ejus, Alleluja cantabitur. [Tobias xiii. 22]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 3

Verse 3

Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together.

Jerusalem, quae aedificatur ut civitas, cujus participatio ejus in idipsum.

The Prophet now, in the name of the pilgrims hastening to Jerusalem, begins to enumerate the praises of that same Jerusalem, so that they may rouse him to make his ascent without any delay. The first praise is that the city is so peaceful that, because of the love of the inhabitants, all things are held in common by all. “Our feet,” they say, “were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem,” that very Jerusalem that was built and is being built up, more and more, so that it is like a city “which is compact together,” that is, which is shared in common by all at the same time. It should be noted that the word eius, judging by the Hebrew text, is superfluous; for cuius participatio / whose sharing (the sharing of which), and cuius participatio eius / whose sharing of it, mean the same thing. Note too that the punctuation in the Hebrew codex is after ædificatur / built, and not after civitas / city; therefore the sense is not: Jerusalem is built as a city, as if it could be built otherwise than as a city; but that it is built as a city – such that it can be shared (by all) at the same time. Note the words that come at the end, in idipsum / together, completely, of one mind, linked by St. Augustine to the eternity of God, which is always the same;  these words 

signify nothing according to the letter, unless at the same time, or jointly; this is clear from the Hebrew, as we have said elsewhere. This whole sentence is truly much clearer and more sublime in reference to the sense of what is to come, for the heavenly Jerusalem is indeed built like a city; it is not properly speaking a city, nor are there stones in her properly speaking, but she is built like a city, because every day living stones, polished and squared by a master craftsman, are added to the structure of the heavenly habitation: from this it follows that those who understand this, not only should bear persecutions with equanimity, but should rejoice and be glad in tribulations, because they know that they are being prepared for the heavenly building. “My brethren,” says one of these living stones, “count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations.”[1] Now in the heavenly home there is most truly a sharing in common together; for in the earthly Jerusalem it was not like this, for the sharing in common together was due to doing this out of love, so that all things might be common to friends; and this sharing existed for a short time in the Church at Jerusalem, “neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own; but all things were common unto them.”[2] This is still the case in communities of religious orders, when they still observe with full rigour the rules instituted. But, in the heavenly Jerusalem, the sharing together in common is perfect, since the one God is all things for all, that is, one and the same God is the honour, and the riches, and the delight of all those dwelling in the house of the Lord; and that most happy and perfect abundance is always the same for all together, for it never suffers diminution or alteration.

[1] My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; Omne gaudium existimate fratres mei, cum in tentationes varias incideritis : [Iac. i. 2]

[2] And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul: neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own; but all things were common unto them. Multitudinis autem credentium erat cor unum, et anima una : nec quisquam eorum quae possidebat, aliquid suum esse dicebat, sed erant illis omnia communia. [Acts iv. 32]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 2

Verse 2

Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.

Stantes erant pedes nostri in atriis tuis, Jerusalem.

He explains why the Hebrews are rejoicing about the return to their country and he says the reason is that they recalled the time when they were there before the captivity, and they saw the beauty and the greatness of Jerusalem. For many who were carried off to Babylon were children or adolescents, and they were easily able to remember Jerusalem as it was previously; and Esdras writes in book I chapter iii, that many were those who returned who had been in Jerusalem before the captivity and had seen the city and the temple; they say therefore:

“Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem,” that is, because we recall the time when we were standing in your courts, that is, in your gates, as it expressly has it in the Hebrew codex. Now the Prophet names the gates or courts, the vestibules of the city, rather than the public places or streets, because in those days meetings and business chiefly took place at the gates of the city, for it was there that were to be found the greatest number of people, as may be inferred from Prov. Xxxi. : “Her husband is honourable in the gates, when he sitteth among the senators of the land.”[1] It also appears from II Kings chapter xviii. that the gates at Jerusalem were not ordinary gates but double ones, and there was enough space between them so that here it is perhaps referred to as atrium / a court. “David,” says Scripture, “sat between the two gates:;”[2] and in Jerem. Xxxix. It says “ And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate;”[3] certainly a great space must have existed in the middle gate for so many princes with their retainers to be contained therein. But how can we Christians say: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem,” when we have never

been in the courts of our heavenly home?  In fact, we have been  in the courts of our heavenly home; otherwise we would not be exiles and pilgrims; nor would Christ have redeemed us from captivity, unless we had been exiled from our home country and made captives in a foreign land. We were therefore in the courts of the heavenly Jerusalem when, in the person of our father Adam, we dwelled in the earthly paradise, this earthly paradise being like an entrance court leading into the heavenly paradise, and that state of innocence was like a gate and entrance court to the state of glory; and perhaps for this reason the Holy Spirit did not want written “Our feet were standing in thy streets, O Jerusalem,” but in thy courts or gates, so that we might understand the message in this Psalm is about the heavenly Jerusalem and not the earthly one. We have therefore rejoiced at hearing the voice of those who say: “We shall go into the house of the Lord,” because we recall that time when our feet were standing in the earthly paradise and, by reason of this, in the entrance courts of the heavenly paradise; and from these good things we may guess at the far better things prepared for us in the very house of the Lord; and although just previously it was called the house of the Lord, now it is named the city of Jerusalem, for it is one and the same place: for our heavenly home is called now a kingdom, now a city, now a house; for if you consider the multitude and variety of its inhabitants, it will be a kingdom, as John saw in Apoc. Vii., “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues;”[4] If you consider the fellowship and friendship that exist between the saints and the blessed, it is a city; for although the number of the elect is great, they all know and love one another, like citizens of a city. Finally, if you think of all the elect having one father and one inheritance, there is no doubt but that it will be a house, in which all will be as brothers under one Father, (who is) God.

[1] Her husband is honourable in the gates, when he sitteth among the senators of the land. Nobilis in portis vir ejus, quando sederit cum senatoribus terrae. [Prov. xxxi. 23]

[2] And David sat between the two gates: and the watchman that was on the top of the gate upon the wall, lifting up his eyes, saw a man running alone. David autem sedebat inter duas portas : speculator vero, qui erat in fastigio portae super murum, elevans oculos, vidit hominem currentem solum. [II Kings xviii. 24]

[3] And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Serezer, Rebmag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. et ingressi sunt omnes principes regis Babylonis, et sederunt in porta media : Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Sereser, Rebmag, et omnes reliqui principes regis Babylonis. [Jerem. Xxxix. 3]

[4] After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands: Post haec vidi turbam magnam, quam dinumerare nemo poterat, ex omnibus gentibus, et tribubus, et populis, et linguis : stantes ante thronum, et in conspectu Agni, amicti stolis albis, et palmae in manibus eorum : [Apoc. Vii. 9]

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam

Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Title, theme & verse 1

Title and subject matter

Titulum et argumentum

Canticum graduum.

This is the third Gradual Psalm, in which the Prophet describes the beauty and the nobility of the Holy City Jerusalem, to which the Hebrews longed to return from their Babylonian captivity. But as that was a type of the Father’s celestial home (Heaven), so the Hebrews returning from captivity to the earthly Jerusalem were a figure for our pilgrimage and ascent to the heavenly Jerusalem. And so the whole Psalm may be understood of either city and of either group of travellers (pilgrims); but the primary intention of the Holy Spirit is undoubtedly directed to the former.

Verse 1

I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.

Lætatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi : In domum Domini ibimus.

The words are those of God’s people who are rejoicing at having received the wonderful news of their return to their country. In fact, the messenger who told the Hebrews they were now to return to Jerusalem was Jeremias; he had foretold that after seventy years the captivity would end and that the city and the temple would be rebuilt, see Jerem. xxv and xxix; but Daniel, Aggeus and Zacharias, who lived at the very time the captivity came to an end, foretold it more clearly. They, therefore, filled the people with great joy when, at the end of the seventy years, they said: “We shall go into the house of the Lord,” that is, we shall return to our country, where it will given to us to see mount Sion and the site of the house of the Lord; and, the temple having been rebuilt, we shall go once more into the house of the Lord. But, beyond any comparison, Christ was a messenger with happier news who tells us in the Gospel: “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;”[1]  and even more clearly in John xiv: “ In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be.”[2]  This message filled with indescribable joy those who have learned how good it is to go into the  house of the Lord; and in that house not be a (mere) passing visitor or stranger, but a (fellow-) citizen of the Saints and someone belonging to the house.

Anyone knew this who thought carefully on the words of the Prophet: “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house;”Psalm xxxv;[3] and again, “We shall be filled with the good things of thy house;”[4] and the words of the Apostle to the Ephesians: “that you may know what the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”[5] Such is he who desires in his heart to go into the house of the Lord and so he sings from his heart: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.” But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God,[6] and when death draws nigh, that is, the end of his exile and wandering, he does not rejoice but is troubled and groans, quite rightly, because just as in his heart he hath not disposed to ascend by steps,[7] while he yet lived, just so will he have no hope to ascend into the house of the Lord, which is on high; but he will be afeared of descending into the prison of the damned to be punished for all eternity. It matters little that the Hebrew and Greek text has an active participle when rendering the things that were said to me; for the Vulgate translator expresses the sense of the Latin phrase so as to be more easily understood.

[1] From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Exinde coepit Jesus praedicare, et dicere : Poenitentiam agite : appropinquavit enim regnum caelorum. [Matt. iv. 17]

[2] In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. In domo Patris mei mansiones multae sunt; si quominus dixissem vobis : quia vado parare vobis locum.  And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be. Et si abiero, et praeparavero vobis locum, iterum venio, et accipiam vos ad meipsum : ut ubi sum ego, et vos sitis. [Ioann. Xiv. 2-3]

[3] They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure. Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae, et torrente voluptatis tuae potabis eos; [Ps. xxxv. 9]

[4] Blessed is he whom thou hast chosen and taken to thee: he shall dwell in thy courts. We shall be filled with the good things of thy house; holy is thy temple, Beatus quem elegisti et assumpsisti : inhabitabit in atriis tuis. Replebimur in bonis domus tuae; sanctum est templum tuum, [Ps. Lxiv. 5]

[5] The eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. illuminatos oculos cordis vestri, ut sciatis quae sit spes vocationis ejus, et quae divitiae gloriae haereditatis ejus in sanctis, [Eph. i. 18]

[6] But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus Dei : stultitia enim est illi, et non potest intelligere : quia spiritualiter examinatur. [I Cor. ii. 14]

[7] Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps, Beatus vir cujus est auxilium abs te, ascensiones in corde suo disposuit, [Ps. Lxxxiii. 6]

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam

Bellarmine on Psalm XLV: Verses 10 & 11

Verse 10

Be still and see that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.

Vacate, et videte quoniam ego sum Deus; exaltabor in gentibus, et exaltabor in terra.

The prophet had said a little earlier: “Come and behold ye the works of the Lord.”[1] Now, to show how anyone who wants to understand the works of the Lord should come, he says: “Be still and see,” and the better to persuade (his listeners), he introduces God Himself, speaking and exhorting: “Be still and see that I am God.” For the contemplation of things divine requires a mind free from the tumult of worldly cares; for the root of all troubled thoughts is cupidity:[2] for from the desire of riches, pleasures, honours and similar things, arise most troublesome thoughts, which generally leave no peace of mind for a man thus affected. Hence Jeremiah says of the contemplative man: “He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself;”[3] and the Lord commands in Matt. vi: “But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret.”[4] Now what is meant by “having shut the 

door,” to pray to the Father, He teaches us by His example, for He generally went up on a mountain to pray, and He prayed alone, far from the hurly-burly of (worldly) cares and concerns. But, aswe said, the chief stillness ought to be freedom from inordinate desires or earthly things: for the man who desires nothing of these things which he sees, even if he is much occupied in helping his neighbours, will easily collect his soul when he wants and will be still and will see that He is truly God, He is the beginning and the end, He is the entire hope of the faithful on earth, and their true happiness in heaven. For David was greatly occupied in governing his kingdom, as was St. Gregory (like many other Holy Pontiffs) in the duties of the pontificate; and yet they were lifted up into the highest contemplation, because they held the wings of 

their mind free from the mire of concupiscence. For the Apostle himself was burdened by solicitude for all the churches, and worked by the labour of his own hands to obtain food; and yet, because he was altogether free from worldly desires, he not only was still and saw, but he was even taken up to the third heaven, and he heard secret words which it is not given to man to utter. On the other hand, many are those men who are idle in respect of the worldly business but who are carnal and wrapped up in worldly desires; they are not still and do not know God. And so he says: “Be still,” that is, seek holy tranquility, and bring to it a pure and peaceful mind,  and, while thinking with full attentiveness, “see that I am God,” that is, I alone am God and no created thing, however great and sublime it may appear, is God; I alone am God, He who is; I alone. “For of him, and by him, and in him, are all 

things;”[5] I alone (am He), without whom you can do nothing, and are nothing. “I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth,” that is, when I shall have done the wonders which are spoken of above, I shall appear exalted among all the nations and before all the earth, so that every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.[6] For certainly at the end of the world there will be no-one who would dare to despise God; but all, whether willingly or not, will acknowledge His supreme dominion, and be subject to Him. St. Basil and a few others interpret this exaltation mystically as the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, so that the sense is: “Be still and see that I,” who seem to be a man like other men, in truth “am God, I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth,” hanging in shame and suffering on the cross, in the eyes of the wicked. But truly by reason of this cross shall I be lifted up before all nations, throughout all the earth, because I will draw all things to myself,[7] and by the yoke of faith and obedience to me, even the highest kings, along with their people, will bend their necks. In Hebrew it says cessate et videte / cease and see, which may be understood as ceasing from worldly business and desires, as we said, and we consider this as being the literal and proper explanation: but this takes nothing away from those who would have it that these words contain an exhortation to the wicked, so that the sense is:  When these things shall come to pass, which were explained just previously, cease ye now finally from the sin of infidelity and from persecutions of the good, and see ye with the eyes of faith that I am God, and your idols are not gods; for I alone at the end of the world will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth.

[1] Vide supra,Verse 8.

[2] Ardent desire, inordinate longing or lust; covetousness. OED.

[3] Jod. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself. JOD. Sedebit solitarius, et tacebit, quia levavit super se. [Thren. Iii. 28]

[4] But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. Tu autem cum oraveris, intra in cubiculum tuum, et clauso ostio, ora Patrem tuum in abscondito : et Pater tuus, qui videt in abscondito, reddet tibi. [Matt. vi. 6]

[5] For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen. Quoniam ex ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso sunt omnia : ipsi gloria in saecula. Amen. [Rom. xi. 36]

[6] That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur caelestium, terrestrium et infernorum, [Philipp. ii. 10]

[7]  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. Et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum. [Ioann. Xii. 32]

Verse 11

The Lord of armies is with us: the God of Jacob is our protector.

Dominus virtutum nobiscum; susceptor noster Deus Jacob.

He concludes the Psalm with a repetition of verse 7, so as to demonstrate that the devotion of the pious, by God’s exhortation, have been again stirred up and renewed.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.