For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. Wrath. God is incapable of passion: but man deserves to be treated with the utmost rigour; and this David deprecates, begging that God would act rather like a physician in his regard. Theod. Calmet.—The same petition occurs in psalm 6; and this ought to caution people not to make imprecations, since God’s judgments are so terrible. Bert.—Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory explain this text of the fire of hell, and of purgatory. 1 Corinthians 3:15. Bible.—Though some be saved by the latter, “yet is that fire more grievous than whatever man can suffer in this life.” Saint Augustine—“I esteem that transitory fire more intolerable than all present tribulation.” Saint Gregory Worthington.—We may therefore pray, “Here burn,” and so forth with the same Saint Augustine who assures us, (Gen. con. Man. ii. 20.) that “he who cultivates not the field of his soul, will, after this life, experience either the fire of purgatory or eternal punishment.” Bible.