The Book of Psalms

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

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- Chapter 75 -

We thank you, for your name is near

(Romans 2:1-16)

Unto the end. May you not be corrupted. A Canticle Psalm of Asaph.(a)

We will confess to you, O God. We will confess, and we will call upon your name. We will describe your wonders.

While I have time, I will judge justices.(b)

The earth has been dissolved, with all who dwell in it. I have confirmed its pillars.

I said to the iniquitous: “Do not act unjustly,” and to the offenders: “Do not exalt the horn.”

Do not exalt your horn on high. Do not speak iniquity against God.

For it is neither from the east, nor from the west, nor before the desert mountains.

For God is judge. This one he humbles and that one he exalts.

For, in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup of undiluted wine, full of consternation. And he has tipped it from here to there. So, truly, its dregs have not been emptied. All the sinners of the earth will drink.(c)

But I will announce it in every age. I will sing to the God of Jacob.

And I will break all the horns of sinners. And the horns of the just will be exalted.

Footnotes

(a)74:1 Corrupt not:It is believed to have been the beginning of some ode or hymn, to the tune of which this psalm was to be sung. St. Augustine and other fathers take it to be an admonition of the spirit of God, not to faint or fail in our hope: but to persevere with constancy in good: because God will not fail in his due time to render to every man according to his works.(Challoner)

(b)74:3 When I shall take a time:In proper times: particularly at the last day, when the earth shall melt away at the presence of the great Judge: the same who originally laid the foundations of it, and as it were established its pillars.(Challoner)

(c)74:9 The expression ‘meri vini’ refers to undiluted wine. In ancient times, people often diluted their wine with water; this made the water more sanitary, while preventing drunkenness. This metaphorical wine is undiluted. God tips the cup of wine from one side to another (not pouring it out yet), so as to mix the sediments into the wine, making is full strength. The earth will drink from the cup of God’s wrath, undiluted and with even the sediments mixed in.(Conte)