Bellarmine on Psalm 125 : Verses 7-8 and conclusion

Verses 7 & 8

Going they went and wept, casting their seeds. But coming they shall come with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves.

Euntes ibant et flebant, mittentes semina sua. Venientes autem venient cum exsultatione, portantes manipulos suos.

He now describes a little more fully and clearly the process of sowing and reaping. “Going,” he says, “they went,” that is, leaving their house the peasants went to the field, “and wept, casting their seeds,” with sorrow they cast their grains of wheat onto the earth, seeing that these seeds acquired with much effort were now for a time being taken away from them. But afterwards, “ coming” from the field at harvest time, “they shall come” home “with joyfulness, carrying their sheaves,” that is, carrying back whole sheaves of wheat in exchange for the few grains (they sowed). The prophet did not spell out the application of the similitude because it was easy for everyone to follow. The Apostle uses this same similitude in II Cor. ix: “ He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly.”[1] This is an admirable similitude and hence it will not be without fruit to consider in what things seed may be compared to alms-giving, so that those who in their hearts he hath disposed to ascend by steps[2] may be encouraged to share freely with the poor. Firstly, the seed that is sown is small and yet produces such a great multitude of grains as to seem incredible : and so too alms-giving of itself seems to be a small matter, as being merely human and of limited duration, and effected through a corruptible human body, and yet it produces not great quantities of money, food or clothing but a kingdom 

which lasts for ever : just as if a grain of wheat sown on the earth were to produce not an ear of wheat but of solid gold, studded with precious gems instead of grains. Hence, the grain sown must die and be lost, otherwise it will not spring up, as the Gospel says: “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone:”[3] thus alms should be given and not exchanged, and given to those who cannot pay back; finally, an alms should be given so as to be gone and (effectively) lost, with no hope of recovery in this  life : for, lost and fallen into corruption in this way, it will spring up again, producing much fruit in life everlasting. Finally, a seed that has been sown needs sun and rain so that it can germinate : so too alms, along with all other good works, need the sun of divine grace and the showers of the mediator’s blood, that is, if they are to earn merit, they need to spring from the grace of God, which is born from Christ’s blood : and so the smallest of things can become the greatest by reason of the virtue derived from grace; in this way, they become not only meritorious de congruo (as a favour) but also de condigno (as a right), as the Scholastics say, and deserving of life everlasting.[4] But there is a difference between the sowing of seeds and the giving of alms when rightly carried out, to wit, there are many things that can happen so that the man who sows in tears will not reap in joy: for it is possible that the seed sown lacks rain and does not spring up; or after shooting, it may be eaten by locusts or swarms of pests; or, once grown, it may be taken by thieves, or destroyed by fire. But alms-giving done from charity is safe, in fact it is held safe in heaven, where neither locusts nor swarms of pests, nor thieves can come near. Accordingly, there is no doubting that he who sows spiritual seed in tears will reap fruit in great joy.

 

[1] Now this I say: He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings, shall also reap blessings. Hoc autem dico : qui parce seminat, parce et metet : et qui seminat in benedictionibus, de benedictionibus et metet. [I Cor. 6]

[2] 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. LXXXV 6]

[3] Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die. Itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal.Amen, amen dico vobis, nisi granum frumenti cadens in terram, mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet : si autem mortuum fuerit, multum fructum affert. Qui amat animam suam, perdet eam; et qui odit animam suam in hoc mundo, in vitam aeternam custodit eam. [John xii 24-5]

[4] The essential difference between meritum de condigno and meritum de congruo is based on the fact that, besides those works which claim a remuneration under pain of violating strict justice (as in contracts between employer and employee, in buying and selling, etc.), there are also other meritorious works which at most are entitled to reward or honour for reasons of equity (ex œquitate) or mere distributive justice (ex iustitia distributiva), as in the case of gratuities and military decorations. See Merit in Catholic Encyclopedia. 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 125 : Verse 6

Verse 6

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

Qui seminant in lacrimis, in exsultatione metent.

The prophet has asked God to lead back all the captives to their homeland and now he urges those same captives to begin with a good will the work of walking and making their way up (to the their homeland); they should not allow themselves to be detained by a love for those things which they possess in the foreign land (of their exile) because they will find more numerous and far better things in their homeland. He employs here an extremely apt similitude of sowing and reaping. For a sower ordinarily sows in tears, that is, with sorrow and grieving, because he thinks he is casting his seeds into the ground and does not know whether he will ever receive any return from it; and hence he seems to labour and grow weary only to lose what he has : but when the (time of) harvest comes, he reaps with great joy, because he sees that his wheat, which seemed to be lost when it was sown, not only has not been lost but has been returned to him with a huge increase. But this exhortation is chiefly of relevance to those exiles on a spiritual journey. For those who actually love their captivity and, enslaved by their love of this world, think nothing about their heavenly homeland, they regard the journey undertaken by the just to their heavenly homeland as a waste of time and of no value. For those who truly are exiles and are making their way up to their heavenly homeland, these people give freely to the poor who will never return what they have received, they labour without fee or reward, as the Apostle did, and they willingly go without pleasures : all this seems to be foolishness to those who do not know what they (the sowers) are preparing. But this is nothing other than sowing in tears so that they may afterwards in their own time reap in joy : and if those who still love their captivity would only consider this carefully, they would certainly change their minds and would themselves start upon the journey upwards, and they would on the way sow all their things, with a certain sense of sorrow, so that they might after a little while reap in joy in their heavenly homeland.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 125 : Verses 4 & 5

Verse 4

The Lord hath done great things for us: we are become joyful.

Magnificavit Dominus facere nobiscum; facti sumus laetantes.

Those who have gained their freedom agree with what the gentiles say, and they add the following: Indeed the Lord has dealt with us magnificently, He did for us something beyond what we deserved and what we hoped for, when He called us back from our wretched captivity to our sweetest homeland; and so we are become joyful, we who were groaning in sorrow beneath the yoke of our captivity.

Verse 5

Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as a stream in the south.

Converte, Domine, captivitatem nostram, sicut torrens in austro.

Not all those held in captivity returned straight away, but first of all some came with Esdras, and then others came with Nehemias; those who returned first prayed to God for a full return of all the other captives. In fact, they used the image of a rushing “stream” which, driven by the south wind, is wont to flow most powerfully and swiftly. Accordingly, they say: “Turn again our captivity, O Lord,” that is, bring about the return of all the other captives who are still in a foreign land, every last one of them; let this be done most swiftly, so that the return is rapid and complete, as is the case with those things that a torrent carries away and bears along when, driven by the south wind, it is swollen by rain pouring down from the heavens or snows melting and pouring down the mountain sides. But this prayer is much more necessary for the spiritual exiles : for although some have already arrived in their homeland, yet many others are still in exile : many have even begun to like their captivity, and fixated with worldly things, have no thought for their homeland; and so it 

becomes necessary for God, just like a torrent, to apply force to them like the south wind and compel them to go up (to their homeland). Finally, both the former and the latter are still held as captives; for all expect that every creature shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption,[1] and even the blessed in heaven are waiting for the redemption of their body. For the sake, therefore, of this complete deliverance of the children of God, of which the Apostle speaks in Romans viii, we rightly pray: “Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as a stream in the south.” In the matter of vocabulary, in the Hebrew and Greek codices it has torrents or streams of water, using the accusative plural; but it is probable that in the ancient and more correct Greek texts it was χειμάρρος, that is torrent, and not χειμάρρους, that is, torrents. For St. Jerome in his Commentary on the Septuagint reads torrent, and St. Augustine likewise reads torrent. The Hebrew word can however be read in the nominative or accusative case: but there is no difficulty with the meaning. For the sense is the same whether we say :

“Turn again our captivity,” as a torrent turns and carries along all things with it; or “Turn again our captivity,” a torrent (filled) with things pushed forward and forced along, when filled with waters by the south wind. A bigger question relates to the noun Austri, for more recent commentators, learned and more accurate, maintain that the noun Austri should not be understood as referring to a wind, but to the dry and desert region in the south, such as the deserts of Arabia; and they would render the sense in this context as: “Turn again our captivity,” as streams flow in arid deserts : for the return of the captives shall gladden us, as arid places are gladdened by flowing waters. But for us, the authority of the Fathers is to be respected, for there is no doubt that the Septuagint translators understood Austrum to refer to a wind:  for this properly signifies νὁτος, which they used in this context; hence, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Theodoret, Euthymius and other ancient writers, Greek and Latin, recognise in this part of the text the similitude of a southern wind causing snows to melt, and making clouds form, and in this way swelling streams. The reasoning behind this connection and the word torrent seems to favour this explanation. For the Prophet uses the noun torrents to refer to the fullness of the returning captives; indeed, it is rivulets that are wont to flow through arid, desert places, not swollen, great torrents, which massive rains or snowfalls cause to flow from the mountains. But, some will say, the Hebrew word does not mean wind, but southern region, or an arid, desert place. I reply, as I have often replied, the meanings of Hebrew words should not be limited to what is written in Hebrew dictionaries : more faith should be placed in the Septuagint translators and in St. Jerome, than in all the dictionaries; and in the same way, the Greek word νὁτος properly signifies a southern wind, and from this may be carried over a reference to the region from which the wind blows : and so it may be that the Hebrew word negheb which these commentators would have as meaning southern region, may by transference also refer to the southern wind, and the authority of the ancients is enough to persuade us that the word is to accepted here in this sense.

[1] Because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. quia et ipsa creatura liberabitur a servitute corruptionis in libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei. For we know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now. Scimus enim quod omnis creatura ingemiscit, et parturit usque adhuc. [Rom. viii 21-2]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 125 : Verses 2 & 3

 Verse 2

Then was our mouth filled with gladness; and our tongue with joy. 

Tunc repletum est gaudio os nostrum, et lingua nostra exsultatione. 

From interior consolation bursts forth exterior joy, which is recognised in a cheerful face and joyful voice. “Then,” he says, that is, on hearing the good news of their deliverance, “was our mouth filled with gladness,” that is, our face appeared joyful and glad, and our tongue burst out with words of happiness and rejoicing. In Hebrew it has for the word gaudio / gladness the word risus / laughter; but the meaning is the same : for laughter is a sign of gladness. But if someone prefers to understand by os / mouth not the face but the mouth, properly speaking, then the sense will be: Our mouth was filled with joyous words and praises, and the same will be signified by the words that follow, “and our tongue with joy,” which is a very common repetition in the Psalms.

Verse 3

Then shall they say among the Gentiles: The Lord hath done great things for them.

Tunc dicent inter gentes : Magnificavit Dominus facere cum eis.

The news of this deliverance not only affected with great joy  those who were delivered but it also filled with great admiration those who heard about it, and so they said: “The Lord hath done great things for them,” that is, the Lord has acted magnificently towards His people. For although it was Cyrus who liberated the Hebrew people from such a long captivity, yet everyone understood that this was done through divine prompting; for the deliverance took place at that very time that God had predicted through Jeremiah that it would take place, that is, after seventy years; and Cyrus himself, as it says in book I, chapter I of Esdras, acknowledged that he had been given his rule over the earth by God, and that he had been ordered by the same God to let the people go  and to build the temple in Jerusalem; and finally, it was a thing never to be expected that any king of his own will , and without any ransom, should release so many thousands of captives, and not only release them, but release them laden with great gifts. Accordingly, it was understandable that all the gentiles attributed such a great gift to divine 

Providence. But why does the prophet use the future tense  when a little earlier he used the preterite tense? For he said: “Then was our mouth filled with gladness,” from which it would follow that he should say: “Then they said among the Gentiles;” so why did he say: “Then shall they say among the Gentiles?” The Hebrew codex puts both words in the future, but both words, according to the custom of the Hebrew language, can be translated in the preterite tense. But the Greek codices, which the Latin translator followed, puts the first word in the preterite and the second in the future. This is perhaps then a Hebraism, and the future may be taken for the preterite. Perhaps too the word tunc / then does not refer to the time of deliverance (which was) now past, but to the time of the announcement of this thing to the gentiles in far distant places, which was to be in the future, so that the sense would be: When the fame of this thing shall reach the gentiles in far distant places, then shall they say among the Gentiles : “The Lord hath done great things with the people of the Jews.” Nor is this admiration any the less among the gentiles when men who were of this world turn their backs on the world to follow the way of virtue and the imitation of Christ up to their homeland in heaven. For the world does not love those who are not of the world and yet it wonders at them  and cannot deny they God is in them and with them.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 125 : Title, theme and Verse 1

Title and subject matter

Titulum et argumentum

A canticle of the steps

Canticum graduum  

This Psalm speaks openly about returning from captivity and going up to the homeland; it properly belongs to that time in which the Cyrus’ decree was promulgated, ending the captivity of the Jews: this was a prefiguring of the Gospel in which the forgiveness of sins was announced, and the ascent to heavenly Jerusalem. 

Verse 1

When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became like men comforted.

In convertendo Dominus captivitatem Sion, facti sumus sicut consolati.

The Latin translator wanted to render an equivalent of the Greek words, and so it seems he spoke in a less than Latin manner. St. Jerome, following the thought rather than the words, translated it thus: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became like men dreaming.  For the Hebrew word truly signifies dreaming, and the sense is: When we first heard news of our release and our return to our homeland, we could scarcely believe for joy what was said to us, and we seemed not to be hearing and seeing  but to be dreaming. Similar to what befell the patriarch Jacob, in Gen. xlv, who on hearing his son Joseph was alive, who had seemed to have been dead a long time, he did not believe it, as being like one waking from a heavy sleep. Saint Peter too, in Acts xii, delivered against all hope from prison, thought he saw a vision.[1] Moreover, the Septuagint translators used the word consoled / comforted, because it came about that the Jews seemed to themselves to be dreaming. But the reading will be clear if we join the two as follows:

When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became from excessive consolation and joy like men dreaming ourselves to be delivered; or, if you like, this can be the sense: We became like men comforted, that is, we became as they are who accept comforting after a great tribulation, that is, cheerful and rejoicing after being sorrowful and mourning. They truly experience this indescribable comforting who convert seriously to God, and having contempt for any hope in what is wordly and all earthly things, they direct their footsteps in the way of peace. For they understand what an indescribable gift it is, to be plucked from the devil's imprisonment , from the pit of hell, to be made ready so as to possess true freedom and everlasting peace in the heavenly homeland, with God calling and leading them.

[1] And going out, he followed him, and he knew not that it was true which was done by the angel: but thought he saw a vision. Et exiens sequebatur eum, et nesciebat quia verum est, quod fiebat per angelum : existimabat autem se visum videre. [Acts iii 9]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 124 :Verses 3 - 5 (conclusion)

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.

Bellarmine on Psalm 124 :Verse 2

Verse 2

In Jerusalem. Mountains are round about it: so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth now and for ever.

In Jerusalem. Montes in circuitu ejus; et Dominus in circuitu populi sui, ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.

He proves what he has said, that mount Sion is secure and strong, but that those who trust in the Lord are much more so; this is because although Sion has mountains “round about it” like a wall, the man who “trusts in the Lord” has the Lord almighty Himself round about him; and the mountains which encircle mount Sion could fall and be levelled; but the Lord is round about His people “from henceforth now and forever.” The meaning of these two verses is that all those who trust in the Lord should feel perfectly safe, because the Lord protects them from all evil; and even if they should suffer temporary afflictions, this will be worked (by God) to their own good; and if God perchance should permit their riches, or health or such like to be taken away from them, He will replace these with something better, that is, patience and consolation, with the reward of eternal glory. But in this text, confidence or trust must not be understood as vain presumption, but rather that trust which is born of a faith which is not feigned, from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from fervent love.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.