My teaching shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
Read Chapter 32
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
Behold the nature of the rain which is given only to the just and denied to sinners. Therefore the rain is the Word of God. Only the just are prepared to receive it. Lovers of the world, however, who are proud, dissolute or avaricious are unwilling to receive the rain of God’s Word even if it is forced upon them. Why is this? Because they are unwilling to hunger or thirst after justice. Those who are saturated with the filth of dissipation do not deserve to be refreshed with the rain of God’s Word.
All of us wish to have refreshing waters in our gardens. If there are no waters in them, we draw them from the sea with great effort in order to provide vegetables for our bodies. If so how much more solicitous should we be for the Lord’s garden, that is, the church of God, that the dry places be watered and the hard places softened by the rivers of sacred Scripture and the spiritual streams or fountains of the ancient Fathers, so that afterwards what is harmful may be uprooted and what is useful planted? Sermon
Gather, as rain does from vapours; (Menochius) so let the sum of what I have taught you be collected into this short canticle, and penetrate your hearts. (Haydock)
Chaldean, "may my discourse be as delightful as the rain. "Septuagint, "may my apophthegm (or sententious discourse, Calmet) be expected with earnestness, like rain "when the soil is thirsty. (Haydock)
Preachers are compared to clouds, and their speech to rain, Isaias lx. 8., and Ecclesiasticus xxxix. 4.
Drops. Some explain this and the former term in the original, of "a stormy and vehement shower "while others attach this idea only to the last part of the sentence. (Calmet)
The lawgiver wishes to engage the hearts of his audience by mildness, though he is forced also to thunder, in order to rouse their attention, ver. 15. (Haydock)
Sound doctrine produces much fruit in good dispositions, as rain causeth the seed to push forth which has been sown in an excellent soil. (Worthington)
