A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 68 — Christ in His Passion Declareth the Greatness of His Sufferings, and the Malice of His Persecutors the Jews; and Foretelleth Their Reprobation
and the Lord himself, in the Gospel, frequently promised the same to the Jews, saying, “The kingdom of God would be taken from them, and the children of the kingdom would be cast out;” and that, in their place, “many would come from the east and from the west, and repose with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.”
29 He now, at length, in the end of the Psalm, predicts the glory of Christ, and the edification of his Church, speaking as he did hitherto in the person of Christ. “I am poor and sorrowful;” so I was while I hung naked on the cross, covered all over with wounds. He thus, in leaving this world, took nothing with him but our sins and miseries; thus giving us an example, how by gladly despising the good things of this world, and bearing all its crosses with patience, we may tread in his footsteps. “Thy salvation, O God, hath set me up;” when I was in such a state, in need of everything good, overwhelmed with everything evil and bad, “thy salvation” raised me up from the dead, wiped away all my misery, and replenished me with blessings and happiness. For, how can unhappiness find a place in him, adopted by salvation itself, and circled all round by it.
30 Christ, in the form of man, raised up and glorified by God the Father, now returns him thanks, and will do so forever, saying, having now discharged my labors, and free as I am from all pain, I will never cease praising the name of God; that is, his power, “with a canticle,” that is, with joy and gladness; “and I will magnify him with praise;” a repetition of the same to produce effect.
31 The sacrifice of praise offered to God in heaven, is far and away beyond the most valuable sacrifices offered in the law, among which the most superior was that of a young heifer, whose hoofs and horns were just beginning to shoot; and yet my canticle of praise will be more acceptable in the sight of God than such a sacrifice.
32 He now mingles exhortation with his praises. Let the poor understand and consider those things, that they may learn to rejoice in their poverty. He speaks to those who are poor, as he is; that is, poor from choice, and not from necessity, and who, though they may be rich, dispense their riches as stewards and not as masters, agreeable to God’s will; that they may indulge, and not in a spirit of pride, in works of charity and not in the gratification of their passions; and, finally, who repeat the expression, “Blessed be the name of the Lord,” with equal devotion, whether in prosperity or in adversity. “Seek ye God, and your soul shall live.” You poor in spirit, who despise everything earthly, as you are disencumbered of such a load, raise up your spirits, seek God, and your soul, which, as a perishable thing, cannot live, will then truly live. “Take heed, says Christ, and beware of all covetousness, for a man’s life doth not consist in the abundance of things which he possesseth.” Whereas, on the contrary, it is said of God, “In him was life” John 1; and in Psalm 35, “For with thee is the fountain of life;” and in Eccli. 1, “The word of God is high in the fountain of wisdom;” and in Prov. 8, “He that shall find me shall find life.” For wisdom is the life of a rational soul, and the soul is then most wise and most perfect, when it sees its first and supreme cause in itself, without anything coming between them. Seek God, then, by walking in the way of his commandments, diverging neither to the right nor to the left, and when you shall have come to him, then “your soul shall live.”
33 He assigns a reason for its being a good thing to seek God, that we may live, because the holy fathers visited by Christ, in his descent into Limbo, experienced the truth of it. They sought God for a long time, and were the first to find him; the way to eternal life having been opened by Christ, and they having been introduced thereto by him. “For the Lord hath heard the poor.” All the patriarchs and prophets were poor in spirit, dwelt in this world as so many strangers and pilgrims in search of their heavenly country. Such poor were heard by the Lord, and having heard them, “he hath not despised his prisoners,” for prisoners they were, inasmuch as they could not have passed from their prison to their heavenly country, had not Christ, by his death, burst the gates of hell, and broke its chains of iron.
34 He invites the whole universe to return thanks for the favors conferred on it, making special mention even of the reptiles, without mentioning men and Angels at all, of whose readiness to praise God he had no doubt.
35 The establishment of the Church, through the passion and resurrection of Christ, is now predicted, or, as some will have it, the establishment of the celestial Jerusalem, or perhaps both. “For God will save Sion.” He will protect from every danger and persecution on earth, and will afterwards endow with immortality, his primitive Church, formed out of the Jews; that is, the assembly of the Apostles and primitive disciples. “And the cities of Juda, shall be built up;” that is, that primitive Church will be propagated by the accession of many living stones, and many Churches will be built all over the world, called cities of Juda, that is, of confession, because the confession of the true faith builds up and propagates the Church, for Juda signifies confession. “And they shall dwell there.” He now foretells the solidity and the happiness of the Church. For the cities, that is, the inhabitants of the cities of Juda, “shall dwell there;” that is, in Sion, “and acquire it by inheritance;” for all the real faithful of the several churches acknowledge the Apostolic Church, that of Sion, excluding of course, heretics and schismatics. And the same true faithful, if they remain in the faith, “which worketh by charity,” will also inhabit the celestial Sion, and will “acquire it by inheritance,” because, “if sons, they are heirs also.” Rom. 8.
36 That means, not only will the primitive faithful, but even their posterity, possess that Sion, whether on earth or in heaven; for the Church of Christ, which is built on a rock, never dies. “And they that shall love his name shall dwell therein;” as many as shall be found to love his name shall permanently live in his Church, and afterwards in the celestial Sion. Those who shall be found on the last day to have had no charity, like chaff, will be separated from the corn, cast into the fire, and burned. Life everlasting is the reward of charity, according to St. James 1, who says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for, when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him.” Sinners, then, having faith alone, without charity, may belong to the Church as well as the just, in the way that the chaff lies in the barn as well as the grain; as good and bad fish are found together in a net; but they will not be so always, nor will they “acquire by inheritance” the heavenly Sion, that they may dwell forever therein.