Part 636

72:13. And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.

72:14. And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.

72:15. If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.

If I said, etc.... That is, if I should indulge such thoughts as these.

72:16. I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:

72:17. Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.

72:18. But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.

Thou hast put it to them.... In punishment of their deceits, or for deceiving them, thou hast brought evils upon them in their last end, which, in their prosperity they never apprehended.

72:19. How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.

72:20. As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.

72:21. For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:

72:22. And I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.

72:23. I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.

72:24. Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.

72:25. For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?

72:26. For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.

72:27. For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.

72:28. But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.

Psalms Chapter 73

Ut quid, Deus.

A prayer of the church under grievous persecutions.

73:1. Understanding for Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off unto the end: why is thy wrath enkindled against the sheep of thy pasture?

73:2. Remember thy congregation, which thou hast possessed from the beginning. The sceptre of thy inheritance which thou hast redeemed: mount Sion in which thou hast dwelt.

73:3. Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end; see what things the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

73:4. And they that hate thee have made their boasts, in the midst of thy solemnity. They have set up their ensigns for signs,

Their ensigns, etc.... They have fixed their colours for signs and trophies, both on the gates, and on the highest top of the temple: and they knew not, that is, they regarded not the sanctity of the place. This psalm manifestly foretells the time of the Machabees, and the profanation of the temple by Antiochus.

73:5. And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,

73:6. They have cut down at once the gates thereof, with axe and hatchet they have brought it down.