God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
1. Your Love remembereth, that in two Psalms, which have been already treated of, we have stirred up our soul to bless the Lord, and with godly chant have said, "Bless thou, O my soul, the Lord." If therefore we have stirred up our soul in those Psalms to bless the Lord, in this Psalm is well said, "May God have pity on us, and bless us" (ver. 1). Let our soul bless the Lord, and let God bless us. When God blesseth us, we grow, and when we bless the Lord, we grow, to us both are profitable. He is not increased by our blessing, nor is He lessened by our cursing. He that curseth the Lord, is himself lessened: he that blesseth the Lord, is himself increased. First, there is in us the blessing of the Lord, and the consequence is that we also bless the Lord. That is the rain, this the fruit. Therefore there is rendered as it were fruit to God the Husbandman, raining upon and tilling us. Let us chant these words with no barren devotion, with no empty voice, but with true heart. For most evid...
Upon us, to grant our requests; or may the Messias come, Hebrews i. 3.
And may, is in the Arabic, and in most copies of the Septuagint and Vulgate, though it is omitted in Hebrew, "and we shall live. "(Ethiopic) (Calmet)
Perhaps it may be given to express the sense of Selah, which seems to have been a term of approbation. It does not alter the sense. (Berthier)
God first forgives sins, and then bestows his manifold graces. (Worthington)
This was the form of solemn blessing, Numbers vi. 17. (Du Hamel)
For David, is not in Hebrew, nor in some copies of the Septuagint. (Calmet)
Yet the psalm expresses the sentiments of the royal prophet, (Berthier) or it is a sequel to the two former , thanking God for liberty, and for rain. The Fathers explain it of the coming of Jesus Christ, and the calling of the Gentiles, ver. 5. It many have been sung when the first-fruits were brought to the temple. See Psalm lxxxiv. (Calmet)
