Bellarmine on Psalm 94: Verse 9

Verse 9

As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.

sicut in irritatione, secundum diem tentationis in deserto, ubi tentaverunt me patres vestri, probaverunt me, et viderunt opera mea.

He provides an example of a hardening of hearts : for the fathers of old, having being led by Moses out of Egypt, while they were on their way and were crossing the wilderness, not infrequently hardened their hearts, being unwilling to believe in God’s promises and unwilling to obey Him; hence, “they provoked Him and tempted Him,” as another reading has it : and they tempted Him in His might, and they were wanting, and they saw His miraculous works, such as the manna raining down 

from the sky and the water gushing from the rock. See Numbers xiv: “As in the provocation,” he says, “according to the day of temptation in the wilderness,” that is, according to that day in which they tempted God : for in tempting God, they provoked Him. It is not necessary to indicate here a particular day, because they frequently tempted Him in the wilderness, and (the word) day can be taken as including the whole time (of their journey), so that the sense is : “As in the provocation,” which happened in the wilderness, by which they frequently tempted me in the wilderness.  “Where (they) tempted me,” that is, where they wanted to discover whether I was truly God, and whether I could provide bread and meat and water in the wilderness, which that desert place lacked.  “They proved me, and saw my works,” that is, where they experienced my omnipotence, because they saw my works, which could be done only by the true God, the truly omnipotent.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 8

Verse 8

Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:

Hodie si vocem ejus audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra

This is the second part of the Psalm, in which the Prophet urges God’s people to praise God not only with their voices but also in their works. Now the sacrifice of works most pleasing to God is the obedience we show to His commandments, according to I Kings xv.: “Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and (or) not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed?”[1] The Prophet introduces God here so that his exhortation may have more force. The word eius / his is no objection, for in Scripture, God frequently speaks of Himself, as if He is speaking of another, as in the place just quoted : “Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed?” The Holy 

Spirit speaks thus in this verse: “Today if ... his voice,” that is, the Lord’s (voice), “you shall hear,” that is, if you shall hear my voice, who am your Lord, “harden not your hearts.” That word hodie / today, means at this time, and, as the Apostle says in Hebr. iii, this exhortation stays in place “whilst it is called today,”[2] that is, while the time of this life endures; for after this life, there will be time no more, but eternity. The word si / if seems to show that God does not speak to us at every moment but communicates with us according to the time and place, either through interior inspiration, or through the voices of preachers, or through reading the Scriptures, or in other ways, so that He can make known His will to us. The expression “ harden not 

your hearts” indicates that it benefits little to hear the Lord’s voice unless that voice penetrates the depths of the heart, and inclines it to faith and obedience : The hardening of the heart is sometimes attributed to man and sometimes to God; for in Exod. vii, the Lord says : “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart;” and in I Kings vi, it says: “Why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharao hardened their hearts?”[3] Now God hardens hearts not by imparting malice but by withholding His mercy, as St.Augustine says in his epist. 105 ad Sixtum and in his tract. 53 in Joann. : thus God hardens (hearts) by withdrawing His presence and His help, which he can do in His hidden judgement but cannot do through injustice. St.Gregory subscribes to this in book xi Moral., chapter v. God is said to harden the heart in justice when He does not soften a reprobate heart through His grace. Man, however, hardens his heart when he resists the inspirations and voices of God, as is said in Acts vii : “You always resist the Holy Ghost;”[4] and man is induced to resist God by the present sweetness of sin, which the Apostle, in Hebr. iii, calls “the deceitfulness of sin,” when he says: “that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”[5] In the Hebrew text, the words Today if you shall hear his voice, are linked to the previous words, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand, today if you shall hear his voice; then begins the next verse with Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. But the Apostle, in Hebr. iii. cites the text we have in the Greek and Latin codices. And so, with the Apostle as judge, the better reading is that of the Septuagint and that of our Vulgate edition, rather than the Hebrew, whatever the blather of modern heretics may say.

[1] And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams. Et ait Samuel : Numquid vult Dominus holocausta et victimas, et non potius ut obediatur voci Domini? Melior est enim obedientia quam victimae : et auscultare magis quam offerre adipem arietum. [I Kings xv. 22]

[2] But exhort one another every day, whilst it is called today, that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. sed adhortamini vosmetipsos per singulos dies, donec hodie cognominatur, ut non obduretur quis ex vobis fallacia peccati. [Hebr. Iii. 13]

[3] Why do you harden your hearts, as Egypt and Pharao hardened their hearts? did not he, after he was struck, then let them go, and they departed? Quare aggravatis corda vestra, sicut aggravavit Aegyptus et Pharao cor suum? Nonne postquam percussus est, tunc dimisit eos, et abierunt? [I Kings vi. 6]

[4] You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. Dura cervice, et incircumcisis cordibus, et auribus, vos semper Spiritui Sancto resistitis; sicut patres vestri, ita et vos. [Acts vii. 51]

[5] But exhort one another every day, whilst it is called today, that none of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. sed adhortamini vosmetipsos per singulos dies, donec hodie cognominatur, ut non obduretur quis ex vobis fallacia peccati. [Hebr.iii. 13]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 7

Verse 7

For he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

quia ipse est Dominus Deus noster, et nos populus pascuae ejus, et oves manus ejus.

This is the fifth and final reason, because the Lord not only made us but guides us by a special providence, like a shepherd with a flock of his (sheep). St. Augustine notes an elegant transposition of words here, for it seems that the Prophet should have linked the sheep with (His) pasture and the people with His hand, (as in): “ and we are the people of his hand and the sheep of his pasture;” instead, he links the people with His pasture and the sheep with His hand, so as to signify that the people are from God’s viewpoint like sheep, who need a shepherd : and yet they are not sheep lacking in reason, that need to be driven with a crook;[1] but these sheep are called sheep of His hand, either because God made them, as St. Augustine explains, or, as others teach, because God guides them with His own hand; for although God’s people have (their own) shepherds and teachers, by whom they are fed and guided, yet God Himself has a special care for them and does not allow them to be harmed by the neglect, the ignorance or the malice of (their shepherds). From which we understand that God’s people should place their trust in God, the supreme shepherd, and have recourse to Him through prayer when confronted by a shepherd less suited for their care; for He Himself says through Ezechiel: “I will feed my sheep:”[2] 

[1] a. A shepherd's staff, having one end curved or hooked, for catching the hinder leg of a sheep. OED.

[2] I will feed my sheep: and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. Ego pascam oves meas, et ego eas accubare faciam, dicit Dominus Deus. [Ezech. Xxxiv. 15]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verses 5 & 6

Verse 5

For the sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

quoniam ipsius est mare, et ipse fecit illud, et siccam manus ejus formaverunt.

The third reason is that our God is Lord not only of the land but also of the sea, for He surrounded it with dry sand in which it is held as if in a container. It is therefore right that men, who derive great benefits from the sea, should give thanks and praise to Him.

Verse 6

Come let us adore and fall down: and weep before the Lord that made us.

Venite, adoremus, et procidamus, et ploremus ante Dominum qui fecit nos;

The fourth reason is because the same Lord not only made the land and the seas, but He also made us men; now, we men offend our maker by our sins. “Come,” the Prophet says, “let us adore and fall down: and weep,” lamenting our ingratitude and our sins “before the Lord that made us,” and for this reason in all justice He is our Lord, and we owe Him every obedience. From the Hebrew, St. Jerome’s translation is genua flectamus / let us bend our knees, instead of what we have, ploremus / let us weep. But all the Greek and Latin codices have ploremus / let us weep, and this is how all the old exegetes read and translate it;

nor is it likely that the prophet would have said let us bend our knees after he had (already) said let us adore and fall down; for the Hebrew for adorare / to adore means  prosterni /to prostrate oneself and succumbere / to fall down, which is explained by the following word, procidamus / let us fall down. For it is more to fall down and to prostrate the whole body than to bend the knee. And so it is probable that the Septuagint translators were working from the true Hebrew text which means ploremus / let us weep; but with the passage of time one letter was inserted in the Hebrew which meant it was translated as genua flectamus / let us bend our knees. It is no way credible that the Septuagint translators, men most learned, would have translated it as ploremus / let us weep, if they had not read it thus, as we now read it in the Hebrew codices.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 4

Verse 4

For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.

quia in manu ejus sunt omnes fines terrae, et altitudines montium ipsius sunt;

The second of the (five) reasons is that the Lord has in His power the whole world, in its length, its breadth and its height; hence all who inhabit the earth are subject to Him and owe Him a sacrifice of praise. “For,” he says, “in his hand,” that is, in His power, “are all the ends of the earth,” that is, the whole of the world, even to its uttermost limits. “And the heights of the mountains are his,” that is, not

only the length and the breadth but also the height, as far as the tops of the highest mountains, are subject to His authority. In an ancient codex, from which this Psalm is read commonly throughout the Church, the following line is placed before this verse: “For the Lord will not cast off his people,”[1] and these words are read and explained by Sts. Jerome and Augustine in Commentario Psalmorum. But these words are not found in the Hebrew and Greek codices, or in the Latin Vulgate edition, and in this text they seem indeed to be unnecessary; but they are found in the previous Psalm (xciii) and they have been transplanted here; it is not possible to doubt they are most true. In the same antique codex may be read: “and he beholdeth the heights of the mountains,” instead of “and the heights of the mountains are his.” But in the Greek and the Hebrew it has the mountains are his and the Fathers read it in this way. Besides, this reading: “and he beholdeth the heights of the mountains,” means nothing other than that the Lord is higher than the highest mountain, so that He can easily look upon those things that are at the top of the highest mountains, whither no man has ever penetrated. In Hebrew, instead of the ends of the earth, it has investigations of the earth, from a word which means to investigate, and to search. From this, some a reference to the deep caverns of the earth, in contrast to the heights of the mountains, so that the sense is: In God’s hand are both the deepest and the highest parts of the earth. St. Jerome translates it as: In whose hand are the foundations of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are His, with which reading the Greek and Latin may be harmonised if by fines terrae / ends of the earth we understand the ends as referring to depth and not to length or breadth; but either meaning is true.

[1] For the Lord will not cast off his people: neither will he forsake his own inheritance. Quia non repellet Dominus plebem suam, et haereditatem suam non derelinquet : [Ps. xciii. 14]. 6]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 3

Verse 3

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et rex magnus super omnes deos;

He offers five reasons why God should be praised by us. The first is because our Lord is a great God above all other Gods, and a great king above all other kings, whom some are wont to call gods. In this text, the Hebrew  has a word for Dominus / Lord which has four letters and which is proper to the true God; and so the adjective magnus / great should not be linked to Dominus / Lord but to God, as we have said. Furthermore, by gods are to be understood in the first place false gods, that is, demons, which among the Gentiles usurp the worship of the true God, as is said in Psalm xcv : “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils.”[1] Secondly, by gods are to be understood the kings and judges of the earth, of who it is said in Psalm lxxxi : “I have said: You are gods.”[1] In Greek, it reads super omnem terram / above all the earth ; and this reading is followed by Theodoret and Euthymius; but in Hebrew it has super omnes deos / above all gods, and St. Jerome and St. Augustine read it in the same way; the Greek is probably a corruption.

[1] For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens. quoniam omnes dii gentium daemonia; Dominus autem caelos fecit. [Ps. Xcv. 5]

[2] I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High. Ego dixi : Dii estis, et filii Excelsi omnes. [Ps. lxxxi. 6]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 2

Verse 2

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.

praeoccupemus faciem ejus in confessione, et in psalmis jubilemus ei :

This verse may be understood in two ways. According to the first, the prophet is telling us to present ourselves early in the morning before the Lord to offer Him our praise, as though he were to say: before others arise, let us be the first to appear in the presence of the Lord, and this is altogether fitting for the hour (matins) at which we sing this Psalm in the Church. According to the second way (of understanding the verse), we are to join a confession of our own wretchedness with an acknowledgement of God’s mercy, so that the sense is: “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,” that is, before God comes to judgement, and exacts full retribution, let us anticipate (prevent[1]) Him by confessing our sins, or, let us prevent His wrath (the word facies / face, or  presence) can mean wrath in Hebrew),and before He is angered, let us confess our sins; “and (at the same time) make a joyful noise to him with psalms,” extolling His mercy with loud voices. It seems this second interpretation is more in keeping with the mind of the Fathers, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, Theodoret and Euthymius in his Comment. Psalm., and St. Gregory Nazianzus in his oration De Plaga grandinis.

[1] To prevent: a. transitive. To act before or more quickly than (a person or agent); to anticipate in action; to act in advance of. Obsolete.OED.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.