The LORD reigns; let the people tremble: he sits between the cherubim; let the earth be moved.
Read Chapter 99
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
2. "The Lord is King, be the people angry" (ver. 1). For our Lord Jesus Christ began to reign, began to be preached, after He arose from the dead and ascended into heaven, after He had filled His disciples with the confidence of the Holy Spirit, that they should not fear death, which He had already killed in Himself. Our Lord Christ began then to be preached, that they who wished for salvation might believe in Him; and the peoples who worshipped idols were angry. They who worshipped what they had made were angry, because He by whom they were made was declared. He announced, in fact, through His disciples, Himself, who wished them to be converted unto Him by whom they were made, and to be turned away froth those things which they had made themselves. They were angry with their Lord in behalf of their idols, they who even if they were angry with their slave on their idol's account, were to be condemned. For their slave was better than their idol: for God made their slave, the carpenter m...
1. Beloved brethren, it ought already to be known to you, as sons of the Church, and well instructed in the school of Christ through all the books of our ancient fathers, who wrote the words of God and the great things of God, that their wish was to consult for our good, who were to live at this period, believers in Christ; who, at a seasonable time came unto us, the first time, in humility; at the second, destined to come in exaltation. ...For thus it is said in the Psalms: "Truth shall flourish out of the earth: and righteousness hath looked down from heaven." Now, therefore, our whole design is, when we hear a Psalm, a Prophet, or the Law, all of which was written before our Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, to see Christ there, to understand Christ there. Attend therefore, beloved, to this Psalm, with me, and let us herein seek Christ; certainly He will appear to those who seek Him, who at first appeared to those who sought Him not; and He will not desert those who long for Him,...
Himself. There is no title in Hebrew. Hence many have attributed it to Moses, with the preceding psalms. But the name of Samuel destroys this pretension, and most people suppose that David wrote it at the removal of the ark. (Calmet)
Others refer it to the return from captivity, (Theodoret) or to the dedication of the second temple, (Calmet) and the reign of the Messias. (Berthier)
Angry. Though many enemies rage, and the whole earth be stirred up to oppose the reign of Christ, he shall still prevail. (Challoner) (Psalm ii.)
His will shall be done, (Worthington) for He sitteth on the Cherubim. (Haydock)
Ferrand infers from this expression, that the psalm cannot regard the times after the captivity, as the ark existed no more. But this is not clear; and, at any rate, this idea might still be retained, as God is represented on a chariot drawn by Cherubim, Ezechiel x. 1., and Daniel iii. 55. (Calmet)
