A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 108 — David, in the Person of Christ, Prayeth Against His Persecutors; More Especially the Traitor Judas: Foretelling and Approving His Just Punishment for His Obstinacy in Sin, and Final Impenitence
11 This was literally fulfilled in Judas and the Jews; for when Judas, stung with remorse, came to the Jews and threw up the money, instead of offering him any help or consolation, they only said, “What is that to us? Look thou to it.” Being thus rejected by the priests, and despairing of pardon from Christ, he went and hanged himself. The Jews, too, when they were besieged by the Romans, had not one that would dare to help them.
12 The prophet now predicts that on the death of Judas’s children his name would become quite extinct, for these children were to be the last generation of the family. This is literally true as regards the children of Judas, and is equally true as regards his spiritual children, for he never had any. We know that all the other Apostles had their children in the faith, begotten by them through the preaching of the Gospel; who, in their turn, begot other children in Christ; and thus, their posterity will continue forever; while the spiritual posterity of Judas was and is nil. And though the Jews were not thoroughly extinguished, still their kingdom or constitution expired in one generation; because, after the destruction of Jerusalem, they were scattered among all nations; and then was fulfilled what Osee predicted for them, “For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim.”
13 An additional calamity that will fall on Judas and the Jews is, that they will be punished for the sins of their parents, including not only their natural parents, but all the Jews who sinned in the desert and in the land of promise; and the “sin of his mother” means, not only his natural mother, but the entire synagogue, or the city of Jerusalem, of which Jeremias says, in Lamentations 1, “Jerusalem hath grievously sinned.” The Lord himself confirms this prediction of David, when he said, “That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen I say to you, all those things shall come upon this generation.” The cursed Jews even imprecated such vengeance on themselves when they said, “His blood be upon us, and upon our children.” This in nowise contradicts the expression in Ezechiel, “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,” for Ezechiel speaks of the children who do not imitate the wickedness of the father, while the Psalm alludes to those who do. For God, incensed by the sins of the parents, waits to see would the children come to penance; but if, instead of doing so, they only imitate the parents, and thus fill up the measure of their iniquity, he then exterminates them all, for their past as well as for their present sins; and this is only what God himself promised, when he gave them the law, “I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
14–15 He repeats what he said of the sins of the parents, drawing a beautiful contrast between the recollection that would be kept up of their sins, instead of their glory, as much as to say, Let their sins and those of their parents be always remembered, and let not a vestige of the recollection of their glory and happiness remain. He then assigns the cause of the whole, “Because he remembered not to show mercy;” for, as St. James writes, “Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy.” The sin of Judas consisted in seeing the chiefs of the Jews raging against Christ, and, instead of having any pity for his innocent Lord and Master, he most cruelly delivered him up to be slain by them.
16 See the extreme cruelty of Judas and the Jews! in persecuting Christ, “the poor man and the beggar, and the broken in heart;” all which terms are most applicable to Christ. He was a poor man; for, as the Apostle says, “Though being rich, he became poor for your sakes, that, through his poverty, you might be rich;” he may also be called “a beggar,” for he chose to live upon alms, in order that he may devote himself entirely to his ministry and to prayer; and, finally, he was “broken in heart,” full of anxiety and solicitude for the safety of the human race; from which we may form a remote idea of the cruelty of his persecutors. They who seek the life of another are usually prompted by revenge for some real or supposed wrongs that have been inflicted on them; or by avarice, through a desire of getting hold of another’s wealth; or by envy of another’s happiness. Now, Christ, the meek and humble of heart, offered no injury to anyone; no one could court his riches, for he had none; and when his daily business was to deplore the sins of mankind, to exhort them to penance, to despise the things of this world, and to look forward to those of the next, there was no possible cause or reason for anyone’s seeking for his death.
17 It is impossible for anyone, looking at curses and blessings in their intrinsic light, to love one and hate the other; but man is said to love one and hate the other when his own wickedness causes him to be cursed instead of being blessed. Thus, Judas, in betraying Christ for a small sum of money, loved cursing, for he caused himself to be cursed by God; in like manner, by forsaking Christ, through whom all nations were to be blessed, “he would not have blessing,” inasmuch as himself was the cause of not being blessed by God. That applies to the Jewish people also; for the Son of God came from heaven to bless his people; but they, by putting him to death, were the cause of their being cursed instead of being blessed, and of having the benediction transferred to the gentiles. Now, God’s blessing implies an abundance of all good things, as well as his curse implies a heap of all misfortunes. The latter was strikingly exemplified in Judas, who, forthwith, lost not only the money, but the life of this world and of the next; as also in the Jews, who lost their kingdom and their priesthood, and obstinately lived on in blindness and incredulity, until they went down to that exterior darkness to be found only in hell. “And he put on cursing like a garment; and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.” The prophet, making use of most beautiful similes, declares that the divine malediction is a heap of all internal, as well as external evils; so that no room can be found for any manner of good in one accursed by God. He first compares God’s curse to a garment that completely covers the entire body; and as such garment cannot penetrate the interior of man, he compares it to water, which does, not only when man drinks, but when he gets drowned; for then it not only envelopes his exterior, but it gets into his stomach, his breast, and all the interior of his body; then, as water will not penetrate the bones, nor the flesh, nor the nerves, he compares it to oil which insinuates itself into all; and thus the curse of God will fill the body and all its members, the soul and all its affections, the mind and all its faculties of understanding and of will, not only of Judas and of the Jews, but of all who shall come under the sentence, “Go ye cursed,” with all manner of evils and misfortunes.
If man would seriously reflect on these matters, he would, of necessity, tremble more for his safety.
18 He now adds, that the malediction will not only thoroughly encompass him, but will stick forever to him; that it will be like the clothes he wears to cover his nakedness, of which he can never divest himself; “and, like a girdle with which he is girded continually,” the malediction will adhere to him as firmly as if it were tied about him like a cincture, knotted and tied firmly to secure it. Who, then, can form an adequate idea of the firmness or the indissolubility of the knot tied by the unswerving, all powerful will of God?
19 He now concludes his prediction of the miseries of Judas by saying, “This is the work of them;” that is to say, this is the reward of their works, for the word work is used in the Scripture to signify the reward of works, as we have in Leviticus, “The work of him that hath been hired by thee thou shalt not retain until the morning”—“Who detract me,” call me a deceiver, deny that I am the Son of God, “before the Lord.” Such will be their recompense from the Lord.