Psalms 147 · The Lantern

Alleluja. Lauda, Jerusalem, Dominum; lauda Deum tuum, Sion.

Quoniam confortavit seras portarum tuarum; benedixit filiis tuis in te.

The Lord who builds Jerusalem shall gather together the dispersions of Israel. How Jerusalem is built, how the dispersion is gathered together, has already been said. Since therefore these two little verses have been discussed, and we ought not to build upon another's foundation, let us pass on to what remains.

Who is "our God," that praise should be pleasant to Him? He makes Himself sweet to us, He commends Himself to us; thanks to His condescension...."But God commends His love to us"..."in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." [Romans 5:8] ...Let us see whether it be the commendation which the Apostle speaks of, that Christ died for the sinners and ungodly: "the Lor…

"He heals the broken of heart and binds up their wounds." A marvelous kind of healing is spoken of so that we wear ourselves away constantly if we wish to be restored to health. But that wound of contrition pertains to what makes us whole and leads to full recovery. And—what is beyond every good—it leads us to that physician who offers eternal health.

Qui posuit fines tuos pacem, et adipe frumenti satiat te.

Qui emittit eloquium suum terræ: velociter currit sermo ejus.

If anyone undertakes to speak of the attributes of God, let him first describe the bounds of the earth. Though you dwell on the earth, you do not know the limit of your dwelling place; how then will you be able to form a worthy concept of its Creator?

Who numbers the multitude of the stars. What is the connection, according to the letter, between "And binding up their bruises" and "who numbers the multitude of the stars"? But because he healed the contrite of heart and bound up their bruises, those who before had been contrite, and afterward were healed, he turns into stars. Who numbers the multitude of the stars.

"Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names" (ver. 4). What great matter is it for God to "tell the number of the stars"! Men even have endeavoured to do this; whether they have been able to achieve it, is their concern; they would not however attempt it, did they not think that they should achieve it.

Qui dat nivem sicut lanam; nebulam sicut cinerem spargit.

Great is our Lord, and great is his power, and of his wisdom there is no number. Great is his power: Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And of his wisdom there is no number. Christ is wisdom: and the one wisdom cannot be numbered.

You have indeed concerning him who is the image, that "being in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." Where certainly both his rectitude in the form of God, and his majesty in the equality, are indicated to you: so that when rectitude is compared to rectitude, and greatness to greatness, that which is to the image and the image may appear to cor…

God by the knowledge of simple intelligence knows and comprehends infinite things. I respond: For the understanding of the foregoing, it must be noted that according to the ancient doctors we are compelled to hold that God knows infinite things, as the Prophet David says in the Psalm: "Great is our Lord and great is his power, and of his wisdom there is no number"; and as Augus…

Mittit crystallum suam sicut buccellas: ante faciem frigoris ejus quis sustinebit?

Emittet verbum suum, et liquefaciet ea; flabit spiritus ejus, et fluent aquæ.

Qui annuntiat verbum suum Jacob, justitias et judicia sua Israël.

They must suppose that our ancestors went down into Egypt without bodies and invisible and that only the soul of Joseph was imprisoned by Pharaoh, because it is written, "They went down into Egypt with threescore and fifteen souls," and "The iron entered into his soul," a thing that could not be bound.

..."Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth" (ver. 8). Now thou art alarmed, because thou canst not see the heaven: when it hath rained thou shalt gather fruit, and shalt see clear sky. Perhaps our God hath done this. For had we not the obscurity of Scripture as an occasion, we should not say to you those things wherein ye rejoice.

That you may be aware that God the Father worked not only on those first six days but "even until now," read the [saying] of the prophet, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you"; and in the psalm, "He who shaped the hearts of every one of them"; and elsewhere, "Who covers the heavens with clouds and prepares rain for the earth, who produces hay on the mountains," and othe…

Non fecit taliter omni nationi, et judicia sua non manifestavit eis. Alleluja.

Psalms147