LORD, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. Thy hearing, and so forth That is, thy oracles, the great and wonderful things thou hast revealed to me: and I was struck with a reverential fear and awe. Challoner.—I saw that the unjust would not escape. Calmet.—Work. The great work of the redemption of man, which thou wilt bring to life and light in the midst of the years, when our calamities and miseries shall be at their height. Challoner.—Years, at the time appointed. Worthington.—Septuagint read, “Lord, I considered thy works, and was astonished; in the midst of two living creatures, or lives, thou shalt be known,” ( Bible.) or found, between an ox and an ass, as the Church has it. Nat. and and Circumc. Worthington.—Christ appeared when the world was most dissolute. Menochius.—The tradition of two animals being near the crib where he was born, is not of earlier date than about the fifth century. Some explain this of the Father between the Son and the Holy Ghost; others of Christ between the thieves, or the two testaments, or collecting his Church from Jews and Gentiles, and so forth Sanct. Calmet.—Moderns agree with S. Jerom’s version. The prophet begs that God would perform his ancient miracles in his days, ( Calmet.) by relieving the captives, as he had formerly delivered their ancestors. Bible.—Make. Hebrew and Septuagint “when the years approach, thou shalt be made known; when the time shall come, thou shalt be manifested; when my soul shall be troubled, in wrath thou,” and so forth Bible.—God never shuts the gate of mercy to the penitent. Nahum 1:3. Calmet.