I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Read Chapter 34
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
2. "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall be ever in my mouth" (ver. 1). So speaketh Christ, so also let a Christian speak; for a Christian is in the Body of Christ; and therefore was Christ made Man, that that Christian might be enabled to be an Angel, who saith, "I will bless the Lord at all times." When shall I "bless the Lord"? When He blesseth thee? When the goods of this world abound? When thou hast great abundance of corn, oil, and wine, of gold and silver, of servants and cattle; when this mortal health remaineth unwounded and sound; when all that are born to thee grow up, nothing is withdrawn by immature death, happiness wholly reigneth in thy house, and all things overflow around thee; then shalt thou bless the Lord? No; but "at all times." Therefore both then, and when according to the time, or according to the scourges of our Lord God, these things are troubled, are taken away, are seldom born to thee, and born pass away. For these things come to pass, and th...
1. Because there was there a sacrifice after the order of Aaron, and afterwards He of His Own Body and Blood appointed a sacrifice after the order of Melchizedek; He changed then His Countenance in the Priesthood, and sent away the kingdom of the Jews, and came to the Gentiles. What then is, "He affected"? He was full of affection. For what is so full of affection as the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, seeing our infirmity, that He might deliver us from everlasting death, underwent temporal death with such great injury and contumely? "And He drummed:" because a drum is not made, except when a skin is extended on wood; and David drummed, to signify that Christ should be crucified. But, "He drummed upon the doors of the city:" what are "the doors of the city," but our hearts which we had closed against Christ, who by the drum of His Cross hath opened the hearts of mortal men? "And was carried in His Own Hands:" how "carried in His Own Hands"? Because when He commended His Own Body a...
Achimelech. So Clement VIII corrects what Sixtus V had printed Abimelech, conformably to the Hebrew Some editors have since preferred the latter word, (Calmet) which is retained in Berthier and Calmet, though we should think such changes improper, unless they were made by proper authority. (Haydock)
Many of the ancients suppose that Achimelech (who is also styled Abimelech, the high priest at Nobe) is here meant, from whom David concealed his real design. (Eusebius; St. Athanasius; St. Jerome)
Others rather think that the psalm was composed after David had escaped the great danger at the court of Achis, by counterfeiting madness, 1 Kings xxi. 13. (St. Augustine; Muis)
Achis alone is styled king among the Satraps. Those who ruled over the Philistines, generally bore the title of Abimelech, as the Egyptian monarchs had that of Pharao. (Berthier) (Genesis xxi. 22.) (Calmet) (Worthington)
This psalm is alphabetical. The last verse beginning with p, is supernumerary, and may belong to t...
