De Profundis (6)
Neale now comments on verse 3:
3. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss: O Lord,
who may abide it?
[Neale's commentary contains the following marginal references: S.
Cyprian, Ep. 52; S. Ambrose, De Pœnitentia 1.; Augustine; Agellius;
Gerson; 1 S. John 1.8; Genebrardus.]
This verse is one of the great texts used by the Catholics in the
controversy against the Novatians, who in an unwise zeal for the purity
of the Church, denied all power of returning, even after severe
penance, to those who had fallen away under the stress of persecution.
For, as they note, the Psalmist does not say, "I cannot abide it," but
"who may abide it?" seeing that no man is safe from sins which howl
around him, none is of perfectly spotless conscience, none pure in
heart because of his own righteousness. "Abide it," or, literally,
with an idiom commom to English and Hebrew, "stand." that is, either
endure it without being clung down in prostrate ruin, or stand, as an
accused before a tribunal, to make any plea in defence. For "if we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Wherefore we beseech God not to act as Judge only, but to exert, as
King, His prerogative of mercy, and add:
4. For there is mercy with thee: therefore shalt thou be feared.
5. I look for the Lord;
But we shall look at the commentary on these verses next time.
Oriens.
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