ARGUMENT

ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST, in the time of His Passion, was forsaken by His friends and neighbours. The doctrine of Confession. The Confession of the penitent with the whole soul. The Confession of patience, and virtue to salvation. Read in Job. At the end of the prayers the Confession of the penitent who supplicateth for the mercy of the Judge.

VENERABLE BEDE. When he saith to bring to remembrance, the title teaches us this, that since we cannot always and altogether avoid sin, we may at least abstain from giving way to it. And in that he adds concerning the Sabbath [this is the additional title in the Vulgate,] he signifieth that the penitent ought always, while he feels the wounds of present sins, to call to remembrance the rest of the eternal Sabbath. Some apply this Psalm to the history of blessed Job: but Jerome thinks it said in the person of any penitent, or mystically in that of the SAVIOUR at the time of His Passion. This penitential Psalm is divided in a fourfold way. In the first part he seeks by the sorrows of the present life to move the pity of the merciful Judge; in the second he speaks of his body as deformed by wounds, and his soul grieved by the hard sayings of his friends. In the third, the medicine of the SAVIOUR is set forth, of that SAVIOUR who was prepared to endure the depths of His unmerited Passion, while the sinner merits more than he suffers. In the fourth, he speaks of GOD, as his only Preserver in all difficulties and dangers.

SYRIAC PSALTER. Of David, when the Philistines said to King Achish, This is David who slew Goliath: we will not that he go forth with us against Saul. Besides, there is in it for us the Institution of Confession.

S. JEROME. This Psalm shows that if any sickness happens to the body, we are thereby taught to seek for the medicine of the soul.