- Over the title of this Psalm, being so short and so simple, I think we need not tarry. But the prophecy which here we read sent before, we know to be evidently fulfilled. For when these things were being sung in the times of King David, nothing of such sort, by the hostility of the Gentiles, as yet had befallen the city Jerusalem, nor the Temple of God, which as yet was not even built. For that after the death of David his son Salomon made a temple to God, who is ignorant? That is spoken of therefore as though past, which in the Spirit was seen to be future.
O God, the Gentiles have come into Your inheritance. Under which form of expression other things which were to come to pass, are spoken of as having been done. Nor must this be wondered at, that these words are being spoken to God. For they are not being represented to Him not knowing, by whose revelation they are foreknown; but the soul is speaking with God with that affection of godliness, of which God knows. For even the things which Angels proclaim to men, they proclaim to them that know them not; but the things which they proclaim to God, they proclaim to Him knowing, when they offer our prayers, and in ineffable manner consult the eternal Truth respecting their actions, as an immutable law. And therefore this man of God is saying to God that which he is to learn of God, like a scholar to a master, not ignorant but judging; and so either approving what he has taught, or censuring what he has not taught: especially because under the appearance of one praying, the Prophet is transforming into himself those who should be at the time when these things were to come to pass. But in praying it is customary to declare those things to God which He has done in taking vengeance, and for a petition to be added, that henceforth He should pity and spare. In this way here also by him the judgments are spoken of by whom they are foretold, as if they were being spoken of by those whom they befell, and the very lamentation and prayer is a prophecy.
-
They have defiled Your holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples. They have made the dead bodies of Your servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Your saints for the beasts of the earth. They have poured forth their blood like water in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. If in this prophecy any one of us shall have thought that there must be understood that laying waste of Jerusalem, which was made by Titus the Roman Emperor, when already the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Resurrection and Ascension, was being preached among the Gentiles, it does not occur to me how that people could now have been called the inheritance of God, as not holding to Christ, whom having rejected and slain, that people became reprobate, which not even after His Resurrection would believe in Him, and even killed His Martyrs. For out of that people Israel whosoever have believed in Christ; to whom the offer of Christ was made, and in a manner the healthful and fruitful fulfilment of the promise; concerning whom even the Lord Himself says, I am not sent but to the sheep which have been lost of the house of Israel, the same are they that out of them are the sons of promise; the same are counted for a seed; the same do belong to the inheritance of God. From hence are Joseph that just man, and the Virgin Mary who bore Christ: hence John Baptist the friend of the Bridegroom, and his parents Zacharias and Elisabeth: hence Symeon the old, and Anna the widow, who heard not Christ speaking by the sense of the body; but while yet an infant not speaking, by the Spirit perceived Him: hence the blessed Apostles: hence Nathanael, in whom guile was not: hence the other Joseph, who himself too looked for the kingdom of God: hence that so great multitude who went before and followed after His beast, saying, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord: among whom was also that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise. Hence also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on another five thousand were baptized, welded into one soul and one heart by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to them all things were common. Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles. Hence so many Churches of Judæa, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face, but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ’s most merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before concerning him, a wolf ravening, in the morning carrying off, and in the evening dividing morsels; that is, first as persecutor carrying off unto death, afterwards as a preacher feeding unto life. These are they that are out of that people the inheritance of God…So then even at this time a remnant through election of Grace have been saved. This remnant out of that nation does belong to the inheritance of God: not those concerning whom a little below he says, But the rest have been blinded. For thus he says. What then? That which Israel sought, this he has not obtained: but the election has obtained it: but the rest have been blinded. This election then, this remnant, that people of God, which God has not cast off, is called His inheritance. But in that Israel, which has not obtained this, in the rest that were blinded, there was no longer an inheritance of God, in reference to whom it is possible that there should be spoken, after the glorification of Christ in the Heavens, in the time of Titus the Emperor, O God, there have come the Gentiles unto Your inheritance, and the other things which in this Psalm seem to have been foretold concerning the destruction of both the temple and city belonging to that people.
-
Furthermore herein we ought either to perceive those things which were done by other enemies, before Christ had come in the flesh: at that time when there were even the holy prophets, when the carrying away into Babylon took place, and that nation was grievously afflicted, and at the time when under Antiochus also the Maccabees, having endured horrible sufferings, were most gloriously crowned. Or certainly if after the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord the inheritance of God must be understood to be here spoken of; such things must be understood herein, as at the hands of worshippers of idols, and enemies of the name of Christ, His Church, in such a multitude of martyrs, endured…This Church then, this inheritance of God, out of circumcision and uncircumcision has been congregated, that is, out of the people of Israel, and out of the rest of the nations, by means of the Stone which the builders rejected, and which has become for the Head of the corner, in which corner as it were two walls coming from different quarters were united. For Himself is our peace, who has made both one, that He might build two into Himself, making peace, and might unite together both in one Body unto God: in which Body we are sons of God, crying, Abba Father. Abba, on account of their language; Father, on account of ours. For Abba is the same as Father…
-
But now in that which follows, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples; even the Church herself is rightly understood under this name, even the free Jerusalem our mother, concerning whom has been written, many more are the sons of the forsaken, than of her that has the husband. The expression, for a keeping of apples, I think must be understood of the desertion which the wasting of persecution has effected: that is, like a keeping of apples; for the keeping of apples is abandoned, when the apples have passed away. And certes when through the persecuting Gentiles the Church seemed to be forsaken, unto the celestial table, like as it were many and exceeding sweet apples from the garden of the Lord, the spirits of the martyrs did pass away.
-
They have made, he says, the dead bodies of Your servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Your saints for the beasts of the earth. The expression, dead bodies, has been repeated in fleshes: and the expression, of Your servants, has been repeated in, of Your saints. This only has been varied, to the fowls of heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. Better have they interpreted who have written dead, than as some have it, mortal. For dead is only said of those that have died; but mortal is a term applied even to living bodies. When then, as I have said, to their Husbandman the spirits of martyrs like apples had passed away, their dead bodies and their fleshes they set before the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth: as if any part of them could be lost to the resurrection, whereas out of the hidden recesses of the natural world He will renew the whole, by whom even our hairs have been numbered.
-
They have poured forth their blood like water, that is, abundantly and wantonly, in the circuit of Jerusalem. If we herein understand the earthly city Jerusalem, we perceive the shedding of their blood in the circuit thereof, whom the enemy could find outside the walls. But if we understand it of that Jerusalem, concerning whom has been said, many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that has the husband, the circuit thereof is throughout the universal earth. For in that lesson of the Prophet, wherein is written, many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that has the husband: a little after unto the same is said, and He that has delivered you, shall be called the God of Israel of the universal earth. The circuit then of this Jerusalem in this Psalm must be understood as follows: so far as at that time the Church had been expanded, bearing fruit, and growing in the universal world, when in every part thereof persecution was raging, and was making havoc of the Martyrs, whose blood was being shed like water, to the great gain of the celestial treasuries. But as to that which has been added, and there was no one to bury: it either ought not to seem to be an incredible thing that there should have been so great a panic in some places, that not any buriers at all of holy bodies came forward: or certes that unburied corpses in many places might lie long time, until being by the religious in a manner stolen they were buried.
-
We have become, he says, a reproach to our neighbours. Therefore precious not in the sight of men, from whom this reproach was, but precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. A scoffing and derision: or, as some have interpreted it, a mockery to them that are in our circuit. It is a repetition of the former sentence. For that which above has been called, a reproach, the same has been repeated in, a scoffing and derision: and that which above has been said in, to our neighbours, the same has been repeated in, to them that are in our circuit. Moreover, in reference to the earthly Jerusalem, the neighbours, and those in the circuit of that nation, are certainly understood to be other nations. But in reference to the free Jerusalem our mother, there are neighbours even in the circuit of her, among whom, being her enemies, the Church dwells in the circuit of the round world.
-
In the second place now giving utterance to an evident prayer, whence it may be perceived that the calling to remembrance of former affliction is not by way of information but prayer; How long, he says, O Lord, will You be angry, unto the end? Shall Your jealousy burn like fire?. He is evidently asking God not to be angry unto the end, that is, that this so great oppression and tribulation and devastation may not continue even unto the end; but that He moderate His chastening, according to that which is said in another Psalm, You shall feed us with the bread of tears, and You shall give us to drink of tears in measure. For the, how long, O Lord, will You be angry, unto the end? has been spoken in the same sense as if it had been said, Be not, O Lord, angry unto the end. And in that which follows, shall Your jealousy burn like fire? both words must be understood, both, how long, and, unto the end: just as if there had been said, how long shall there burn like fire Your jealousy unto the end? For these two words must be understood in the same manner as that word which was used a little higher up, namely, they have made. For while the former sentence has, they have made the dead bodies of Your servants morsels for the fowls of heaven: this word the latter sentence has not, wherein is said, the fleshes of Your saints for the beasts of the earth; but there is surely understood what the former has, namely, they have made.