Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

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Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

Psalm 21 with Aquinas – The Penalty of Rebellion [Beginning in verse 10], the psalmist determines the enemy’s penalty, first with respect to the evils inflicted upon them, and secondly the goods taken from them, at Eliminate their fruit. He sets down a three-fold order of penalties . . . First, there will be fire burning the surface of the earth: “In his going round, he will set (his enemies) on fire” (Ps 96). And so he says Burn them as though in a fiery oven , . . . oppressed as it were by fire on all sides . . . Or as though in an oven , that is it contains the fire in itself, and by this is understood the interior fire of perverse desire and anger which the evil suffer. . . . Second, an examination of the judgement is determined, during which he will reproach the sins of the impious, 1 and will reveal the sentence of damnation, either vocally or mentally. And thus the Lord in his anger will throw them into confusion , that is he will incite the disturbance of sorrow concerning the evils inflicted and the goods taken away. Third, they are enveloped by fire: and so, the fire will consume them : “The fire will consume them, which is not kindled” (Job 20), that is by human breath, but rather is kindled by divine power. . . . At this point the removal of goods is determined. Of the goods which men enjoy in this world, some consist in the fruits which they long for in this life, and others in those which they desire to leave behind them: and they lose them both. And so, with respect to the first, he says Eliminate their fruit from the earth , for which fruit they have been seeking . . . With respect to the second he says and their offspring, will pass away, from the sons of men , namely from the society of the holy.

1 Impious – ungodly