Psalms 109 · The Lantern

Psalmus David. Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum.

Virgam virtutis tuæ emittet Dominus ex Sion: dominare in medio inimicorum tuorum.

Tecum principium in die virtutis tuæ in splendoribus sanctorum: ex utero, ante luciferum, genui te.

Juravit Dominus, et non pœnitebit eum: Tu es sacerdos in æternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech.

Dominus a dextris tuis; confregit in die iræ suæ reges.

Judicabit in nationibus, implebit ruinas; conquassabit capita in terra multorum.

De torrente in via bibet; propterea exaltabit caput.

This is certainly what David also says in the Psalms. "Let his prayer become sin," when not only is there nothing of worth sought in his sacrifices but even much of blame.

"Let his days be few" [Psalm 109:7]. By "his days," he meant the days of his apostleship, which were few; since before the Passion of our Lord, they were ended by his crime and death. And as if it were asked, What then shall become of that most sacred number twelve, within which our Lord willed, not without a meaning, to limit His twelve first Apostles?

But still, what is more serious, another asks for the death of an enemy, and the one whom he cannot pursue with a sword, he pursues with prayer. And the one who is cursed still lives, yet the one who curses is already held guilty of his death. But God commands that an enemy be loved, and yet God is asked to kill an enemy.

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