Ps 40:2-3 Therefore the faithful soul, longing for the spiritual coming of Christ—who comes daily through grace into the minds of the faithful—can say: “Expecting, I have waited for the Lord.” That is to say, with an interior and heartfelt affection I have yearned for the presence of God, that He might build His dwelling within my heart. “And He inclined toward me,” that is, He turned the eye of His loving kindness toward me as I waited in this manner. “And He heard my prayers,” by coming to me, just as He lovingly promised to the one who waits, saying in the Gospel: “My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and We will make Our dwelling with him.”
“And He brought me up out of the pit of misery,” that is, from this body in which I dwell, which is full of miseries; He drew me out through contemplation and hope of future goods, so that my manner of life begins to be in heaven, and while living in the flesh I do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, and thus merit to hear that word of the Apostle: “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit.” For, as he says, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Or again, “from the pit of misery” may be understood as from evil habit, which is a deep and wretched pit, of which Solomon says: “The wicked man, when he has come into the depths of sins, despises.” From this He brought me out through the grace of conversion and salutary repentance. Or again, “from the pit of misery” means from hell, into which I would have fallen—and indeed would eventually have fallen—had the mercy of God not come to my aid. Or again, “from the pit of misery” means from this world, from which He has drawn me away by turning my affection from the love of the age, as John exhorts in his Canonical Epistle: “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.” Hence it is written elsewhere: “Do you not know that friendship with this world is enmity with God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of this world is constituted an enemy of God.”
“And from the mire of dregs,” that is, from carnal concupiscence or the filth of lust, which most shamefully deforms the soul, He has delivered me, and He has bestowed grace to fulfill that word of the Apostle: “That we may live soberly, justly, and piously in this world.”
This passage may also be understood in a special way of the synagogue of the ancient patriarchs, liberated by Christ from the limbo of the dead. Thus each one of them, giving thanks to God for the coming of the King Messiah and for his own liberation, says: “Expecting, I have waited for the Lord.” For the ancient saints awaited the coming of Christ with the most ardent longing. Hence Jacob says: “I will wait for your salvation, O Lord.” And Micah: “I will look to the Lord, and I will wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” And in Isaiah it is written: “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” For this reason Moses said: “I beseech You, Lord, send whom You will send.”
“And He inclined toward me,” that is, Christ the Son of God descended into the world through the Incarnation, as I had desired. “And He heard my prayers,” by doing and suffering all that was written concerning Him and required for human redemption. “And He brought me out of the pit of misery and from the mire of dregs,” that is, from the limbo of hell, as Zechariah prophesied when addressing Christ: “You also, by the blood of your covenant, have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water.”
“And He set my feet upon a rock,” that is, the Lord established and confirmed my desires in the love of Christ, so that I may say with the Apostle: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” “And He directed my steps,” that is, He disposed my works according to His law, as Solomon testifies: “The heart of man disposes his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Ps 40:3-4 “And He put a new song into my mouth,” that is, a new praise and thanksgiving for these benefits bestowed upon me, as the Apostle says: “I am filled with consolation; I abound exceedingly with joy in all our tribulation.” And elsewhere: “The old things have passed away.” For what the ancients sang as future in the Old Testament with anxious longing and affliction of soul because of delay, Christians sing in the evangelical law or New Testament with joyful and grateful hearts as already accomplished. Hence John says in the Apocalypse of Christ: “Behold, I make all things new.”
“A song to our God,” that is, this canticle is a song to be sung to the honor and glory of God. “Many shall see,” that is, they shall be enlightened by the faith and grace of Christ and shall contemplate His wonders, as Isaiah foretold: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” “And they shall fear,” from considering the things they know through faith; they shall fear also the punishments of hell; “and they shall hope in the Lord,” trusting that by His grace they will escape the torments of hell and obtain the joys of heaven.
Ps 40:5 Then the Church, or any Christian, says to Christ or to the whole Trinity: “Many things You have done, O Lord my God, Your wonders.” For many and great were the miracles of Christ. Hence it is written in the Gospel: “Power went out from Him and healed all,” and again, “As many as touched the fringe of His garment were healed.” And Christ said to the disciples of John: “Go and report to John what you have heard and seen: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the lame walk, the dead rise.” These wonders Isaiah foretold of the coming of Christ: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall speak.”
The Church recounts these wonders of Christ, as it is written in Ecclesiasticus: “Did not the Lord make the saints declare all His wondrous works, which the Lord Almighty established to be firm in His glory? How desirable are all His works! And who shall be filled at the sight of His glory?”
Moreover, the Church, speaking in the person of the Apostles and preachers and doctors, says: I announced first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, and daily I preach to all the faithful, O Lord Jesus Christ, Your life and Your wonders; “I have spoken,” by proposing to them the doctrine of the Gospel; “they have been multiplied beyond number,” for those converted to the faith through my preaching cannot be counted by us, although they are not absolutely infinite. Hence the Lord says through Malachi: “From the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name is great among the nations; for I am a great King, says the Lord, and My name is dreadful among the Gentiles.”
This proclamation of the Apostles and the multiplication of the faithful God the Father clearly foretold through Isaiah, speaking to Christ His Son: “It is too little that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the remnant of Israel; I have given You as a light to the nations, that You may be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Ps 40:6 “Sacrifice and oblation,” that is, the legal sacrifices, “You did not will” in the time of the New Law. “But ears of the heart,” of which the Gospel says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” “You have perfected for Me,” that is, You have given Me perfect ears, so that I might promptly obey You in all things, as You previously testified of Me: “A people whom I did not know has served Me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed Me.” These ears the Jewish people did not have, of whom the Lord says through the Prophet: “Who is blind but My servant? And who is deaf but he to whom I sent My messengers?”
“Holocaust and sin offering You did not require,” in the time of the evangelical law. For it must be considered that there were three kinds of precepts in the Old Testament: moral, judicial, and ceremonial. The moral precepts remain in the time of the New Law, since they belong to the natural law and are perfected by the counsels given by Christ in the Gospel; to these belong the commandments of the Decalogue. The judicial precepts may be observed without sin in the New Law if instituted by one who has authority to legislate. But the ceremonial precepts, to which belong the sacrificial laws, are deadly in the time of the New Law, since they are merely figurative; to observe them would be to say in reality that Christ has not yet come.
Of these precepts the Lord says through Ezekiel: “I gave them statutes that were not good and judgments by which they shall not live.” And the Apostle to the Hebrews says: “The law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the realities, can never make perfect those who draw near,” and elsewhere: “The law brought nothing to perfection.” The cessation of legal sacrifices and the institution and perpetual duration of the one true sacrifice the Holy Spirit foretold through Malachi, speaking to the Jews: “I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord, and I will not accept an offering from your hands; for in every place a clean offering is offered to My name,” namely the Body and Blood of Christ, which is the final sacrifice intended for its own sake, succeeding all the sacrifices of the Law.
Concerning these three kinds of precepts of the Old Law, the glorious and holy Doctor Blessed Thomas speaks most elegantly and beautifully in the Prima Secundae.
40:7-8 “Then,” that is, now in the time of grace, when the sacrifices of the Law have ceased, “I,” following the footsteps of Christ—or I, the Church, the spouse of Christ—“said: Behold, I come,” O Lord Jesus, to Your faith and grace, hoping to be saved in You and not placing salvation in the Law. I come also to offer myself to You, wholly dedicating myself to divine service and daily mortifying myself for Your sake. I do this because “in the head of the book,” that is, in the second verse of the first Psalm, “it is written of Me that I should do Your will, O God.” There it is said of Me: “His will is in the law of the Lord.” O my God, I desired to obey You in all things, and I fixed Your law—namely the evangelical law—in the midst of my heart, hiding it there and holding it in memory. This is the sacrifice pleasing to You and supremely honoring You, as Isaiah beautifully sets forth: “The Lord will always guide you and will fill your soul with splendor.” If you glorify the Lord by not doing your own ways, nor seeking your own will, nor speaking idle words, “then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth,” says the Lord.
And this is what Christ says in the Gospel to those who wish to imitate Him in the form of the Cross and daily immolate themselves: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Ps 40:9-10 “I have announced Your justice in the great assembly,” that is, in the whole Christian people, because “their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world,” namely the words of the Apostles. “Your justice I did not hide in my heart,” but I preached it publicly, because I heard You, O Lord, terribly threatening in the Gospel: “Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His kingdom.” And therefore Peter said to the chief priests: “If it is just in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves; for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Therefore the justice of God—that is, the doctrine of Christ—must not be hidden, but one’s neighbor must be instructed. For “wisdom that is hidden and a treasure that is concealed—what profit is there in either?” Hence concerning the slothful and those who hide the justice of God, it is written in Isaiah: “His watchmen are all blind, mute dogs unable to bark, seeing vain things and sleeping,” which is said especially against negligent and unlearned prelates. “Your truth,” contained in Sacred Scripture, “and Your salvation,” that is, the happiness prepared for the faithful in heaven, I have declared to my neighbors.
But how does he now say, “I did not hide Your justice in my heart,” when later he says, “I have hidden Your words in my heart, that I might not sin against You”? The answer is that sacred doctrine is both to be hidden in the heart and not hidden. It is to be hidden lest it be forgotten, or lost through presumption or vainglory; but it is not to be hidden lest it fail to be shared with one’s neighbors and remain unfruitful. For thus the lazy and wicked servant is reproached by the Lord, because he hid the talent entrusted to him in the earth.
Ps 40:10 cont. Ps 40:11 “I did not hide Your mercy,” that is, the benefits You have graciously bestowed upon us, or the kindness and generosity of Your goodness, “and Your truth from the great council,” that is, from the Christian people seeking counsel as to how true beatitude may be attained. “But You, O Lord, do not keep Your mercies far from me,” but take away my sins, bestow grace, preserve virtues, and grant a happy consummation. “Your mercy and Your truth have always sustained me,” whenever I have prayed perseveringly. For just as Your truth promises in the Gospel, saying, “Ask and you shall receive,” so Your mercy hears and grants whatever is asked in a salutary and steadfast manner.
Above all, God hears the prayers of the whole community or multitude. Therefore it must be confidently believed that general councils are directed by the Holy Spirit, because of what the Savior says: “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it shall be done for them by My Father; for where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” How much more, then, if all agree and assemble together, will they be heard and have Christ in their midst! For this reason it is also reasonable that the authority of a general council should be greater than that of four individual Doctors.
Ps 40:12 “For evils without number have surrounded me,” both punishments and faults. For “many are the tribulations of the just,” and “we are placed in the midst of snares,” and “the just man falls seven times a day.” Our venial sins—which we commit by thinking, speaking, and acting, or incur by omission—are so many that they seem to exceed all number. “My iniquities have overtaken me,” that is, they have led me captive under the law of sin and subjected me to the yoke of sin and the servitude of the devil, binding me with the chains of malice. Hence the Savior says: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.”
“And I could not see,” that is, I could not determinately and individually recognize all the evils mentioned by which I am surrounded. Behold how great is our misery, and how much we ought to fear the divine judgment! For how many vices, now unknown to us, will rise up against us on the day of judgment, as though from ambush? Let us therefore humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, saying as it is written: “Cleanse me from my hidden faults, O Lord.” And let us weep and amend at least in general what we cannot weep over in particular; and let us strive, beyond our debts, to perform some—indeed many—good works against these unknown sins, lest the devil bring them forth against us on the day of judgment.
“My iniquities are multiplied beyond the hairs of my head,” especially with respect to venial sins; “and my heart has forsaken me,” that is, my intellect has failed in considering the multitude of my sins. Since they exceed in number even the hairs of my head, it is certain that each one cannot be weighed by my heart. Let us therefore say with all our inmost being and with great humility what King Manasseh of Judah said: “I have sinned beyond the number of the sands of the sea; my iniquities are multiplied, and I am bowed down by many chains of iron, and there is no breathing room for me, because I have provoked Your anger by setting up abominations and multiplying offenses. And now I bend the knees of my heart, begging You, O Lord, forgive me; do not destroy me together with my iniquities, nor reserve evils for me forever.”
Hence Ezra also says: “My God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up my face to You, because our iniquities are multiplied over our head, and our sins have grown even to heaven.” Indeed, our heart forsakes us when reason is taken from us—namely, when the use of reason is impeded, darkened, or deceived by the fog of vices. Therefore Hosea says: “Fornication and drunkenness and wine take away the heart.”
Thus, whenever we are drawn away from the center of reason by the impulse of passion; whenever we give consent to sin; whenever we turn away from the supreme good toward useless and vain things; whenever, abandoning the one thing that alone is necessary, we wander among many things—then our heart forsakes us. These are the fornications of the human heart, by which it fornicates away from God and is therefore despised by Him, as the Lord says through Ezekiel: “I have crushed their fornicating heart that has departed from Me.” To the man who has such a heart, the divine word says elsewhere: “Do not rejoice, Israel, for you have committed fornication against your God.” Therefore, “with all vigilance let us guard our heart,” especially in divine matters, because from it proceeds life if it is well guarded; but if not, then death proceeds from it, as Christ says in the Gospel: “From the heart come evil thoughts, thefts, and all other evils.”
Ps 40:13 “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me from all evils.” Behold how gentle, sweet, affectionate, and reverent this prayer is. “Be pleased,” he says, as if to say, Not what I will, but what You will. This is what we say daily in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done.” “O Lord, look to help me,” that is, direct Your gaze toward this in me—that You may mercifully assist me because of Your clemency, not justly reject me because of my malice.
Ps 40:18 “But I am a beggar and poor,” for daily and without ceasing I cry out in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Although I do not chiefly seek bodily bread, I continually beg for spiritual bread—namely, the bread of tears, the bread of salvation and grace (of which Christ says, “My food is to do the will of My Father”), and also the bread of the Eucharist. Therefore I am poor, that is, imperfect in spiritual things and deficient in all things. Hence David says: “I am poor and needy; the Lord is solicitous for me.” For He has care for all things—how much more for rational creatures? Therefore it is written: “You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer; we are clay, and You are our maker, and we are all the work of Your hands.”
Now consider how industrious this prayer is. He calls himself a beggar and poor, so as to provoke mercy—not just, like the Pharisee who said, “I am not like other men.” You also, then, if you desire to provoke God’s mercy; if you wish to receive abundant alms and rich bread from God; if you long to be spiritually enriched and filled—do before God what beggars of this world do before the rich from whom they seek alms. If they are wounded, ulcerated, dropsical, paralyzed, or afflicted with similar sickness, they uncover their sores, proclaim their need, and profess themselves poor. So let us show God the wounds of our souls, humbly disclose our poverty, and most affectionately invoke the help of God’s mercy; and the more deeply and sincerely we profess our misery with heartfelt humility, the more abundant grace we shall obtain from God.
Finally, consider how great in excellence and beauty this noble and glorious psalm is. First, it offers thanksgiving to God for His benefits, especially for the Incarnation of His Son. Second, Christ speaks to the Father, and the abolition of legal sacrifices is declared, along with the necessity of the true sacrifice, which is the Passion of Christ. Christ also teaches that what pleases God most is obedience to His will, as Samuel testifies: “Does the Lord desire holocausts and victims, or rather that His voice be obeyed? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams; for rebellion is like the sin of divination, and refusal like the crime of idolatry.”
The institution of the Church through the preaching of Christ is also declared in this psalm. Then there is set forth a most effective prayer to God and a most humble confession of sin. Let us therefore strive always to recite this psalm with fitting and due devotion. What has not been explained here becomes clear from what was said in the preceding section.
PRAYER
O God of infinite mercy, stretch forth Your hand to those who have fallen, and lead us out of the pit of misery and the mire of filth, so that, with our steps directed by You, we may unceasingly render to You a hymn of praise and propitiation.
CONTINUE
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