Psalm CV
1This Psalm is the first of those to which is prefixed the word Allelujah; the meaning of which word, or rather two words, is, Praise the Lord. For this reason he beginneth with praises: “O confess unto the Lord, and call upon His Name” (ver. 1); for this confession is to be understood as praise, just as these words of our Lord, “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”
For after commencing with praise, calling upon God is wont to follow, whereunto he that prayeth doth next add his longings: whence the Lord’s Prayer itself hath at the commencement a very brief praise, in these words, “Our Father which art in Heaven.” The things prayed for, then follow.…This also followeth, “Tell the people what things He hath done;” or rather, to translate literally from the Greek, as other Latin copies too have it, “Preach the Gospel of His works among the Gentiles.” Unto whom is this addressed, save unto the Evangelists in prophecy?
2“O sing unto Him, and play on instruments unto Him” (ver. 2). Praise Him both by word and deed; for we sing with the voice, while we play with an instrument, that is, with our hands. “Let your talking be of all His wondrous works. Be ye praised in His holy Name” (ver. 3). These two verses may without any absurdity seem paraphrases of the two words above; so that, “Let your talking be of all His wondrous works,” may express the words, “O sing unto Him;” and what followeth, “be ye praised in His holy Name,” may be referred to the words, “and play on instruments unto Him;” the former relating to the “good word” wherewith we sing unto Him, in which His wondrous works are told; the latter to the good work, in which sweet music is played unto Him, so that no man may wish to be praised for a good work on the score of his own power to do it. For this reason, after saying, “be ye praised,” which assuredly they who work well deservedly may, he added, “in His holy Name,” since “he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” …This is to be praised in His holy Name. Whence we read also in another Psalm: “My soul shall be praised in the Lord: let the meek hear thereof, and be glad;” which here in a sense followeth, “Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord:” for thus the meek are glad, who do not rival with a bitter jealousy those whom they imitate as already workers of good.
3“Seek the Lord, and be strengthened” (ver. 4). This is very literally construed from the Greek, though it may seem not a Latin word: whence other copies have, “be ye confirmed;” others, “be ye corroborated.”…While these words, then, “Come unto Him, and be enlightened,” apply to seeing; those in the text relate to doing: “Seek the Lord, and be strengthened.”…But what meaneth, “Seek His face evermore”? I know indeed that to cling unto God is good for me; but if He is always being sought, when is He found? Did he mean by “evermore,” the whole of the life we live here, whence we become conscious that we ought thus to seek, since even when found He is still to be sought? To wit, faith hath already found Him, but hope still seeketh Him. But love hath both found Him through faith, and seeketh to have Him by sight, where He will then be found so as to satisfy us, and no longer to need our search. For unless faith discovered Him in this life, it would not be said, “Seek the Lord.” Also, if when discovered by faith, He were not still to be diligently sought, it would not be said, “For if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” …And truly this is the sense of the words, “Seek His face evermore;” meaning that discovery should not terminate that seeking, by which love is testified, but with the increase of love the seeking of the discovered One should increase.
4“Remember,” he saith, “His marvellous works that He hath done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth” (ver. 5). This passage seemeth like that, “Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you:” an expression which, in ever so small part, scarce a mind taketh in. Then mentioning His own Name, He mercifully mingled in His grace towards men, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; this is My Name for ever.” By which He would have it to be understood, that they whose God He declared Himself lived with Him for ever, and He said this, which might be understood even by children, that they who by the great powers of love knew how to seek His face for evermore, might according to their capacity comprehend, I Am that I Am.
5Unto whom is it said, “O ye seed of Abraham His servant, ye children of Jacob, His chosen”? (ver. 6).…He next addeth, “He is the Lord our God: His judgments are in all the world” (ver. 7). Is He the God of the Jews only? God forbid! “He is the Lord our God:” because the Church, where His judgments are preached, is in all the world.…
6“He hath been alway mindful of His covenant” (ver. 8). Other copies read, “for evermore;” and this arises from the ambiguity of the Greek. But if we are to understand “alway” of this world and not of eternity, why, when he explaineth what covenant He was mindful of, doth he add, “The word that He made to a thousand generations”? Now this may be understood with a certain limitation; but he afterwards saith, “Even the covenant that He made with Abraham” (ver. 9): “and the oath that He sware unto Isaac; and appointed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting testament” (ver. 10).
But if in this passage the Old Testament is to be understood, on account of the land of Canaan; for thus the language of the Psalm runneth, “saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan: the lot of your inheritance” (ver. 11): how is it to be understood as everlasting, since that earthly inheritance could not be everlasting? And for this reason it is called the Old Testament, because it is abolished by the New. But a thousand generations do not seem to signify anything eternal, since they involve an end; and yet are also too numerous for this very temporal state. For by howsoever few years a generation is limited, whereof the shortest period some have fixed is at fifteen years, after which period man hath the power of generation; what then are those “thousand generations,” not only from the time of Abraham, when that promise was made him, unto the New Testament, but from Adam himself down to the end of the world? For who would dare to say that this world should last for 15000 years?
Hence it seemeth to me that we ought not to understand here the Old Testament, which it said through the prophet was to be cancelled by the New: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.” …After saying, “He hath been mindful of His covenant unto an age;” which we ought to understand as lasting for evermore, the covenant, namely, of justification and an eternal inheritance, which God hath promised to faith; he addeth, “and the Word that He commanded unto a thousand generations.” What meaneth “commanded”?…
The command then was faith, that the righteous should live by faith; and an eternal inheritance is set before this faith. “A thousand generations,” then, are, on account of the perfect number, to be understood for all;
that is, as long as generation succeedeth generation, so long is it commanded to us to live by faith. This the people of God doth observe, the sons of promise who succeed by birth, and depart by death, until every generation be finished; and this is signified by the number thousand; because the solid square of the number ten, ten times ten, and this taken ten times amounts to a thousand. “Even the covenant,” he saith, “which He made with Abraham: and the oath that He sware unto Isaac; and appointed the same unto Jacob,” that is, Jacob himself, “for a law.” These are the very three patriarchs, whose God He calleth Himself in a special sense, whom the Lord also doth name in the New Testament, where He saith, “Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” This is everlasting inheritance.…
7He next followeth out the history well known in the truth of the holy Scriptures. “When they were in small numbers, very few, and they strangers in the land” (ver. 12); that is, in the land of Canaan.…But some copies have the words “very few, and they strangers,” in the accusative case, the translator having turned the Greek phrase too literally into Latin. If we were to render the whole clause in this way, we must say, “that they were very few, and they strangers;” but the phrase, “while they were,” is the meaning of the Greek; and the verb, “to be,” takes not an accusative, but a nominative after it.