I thought since we did not have any conference yesterday, and tomorrow is the wonderful Feast of the Epiphany, it would be a good way to start that day in explaining Psalm 71, which is the epiphany psalm. Oh, by the way, Father Placid, when we sing tomorrow the offertory with that beautiful Regis Tauces, you know, Tauces, I think it may be better if we wait until all are together, you know, and then continue to start that, otherwise I'm afraid it's messed up so easily. Psalm 71 is the epiphany psalm.

[01:03]

You can see that so strongly in the tradition of the Church. I think the fact that the three magi have in the course of history been changed into the three kings due to the influence of this Psalm 72. But, you know, the epiphany is the manifestation of the glory of the Messiah's King, while the nativity is more the manifestation of the humility of the Messiah as servant of God. with the accent placed on the weakness and helplessness of the little child born under the law. The Nativity celebrates his birth in Bethlehem and in the hiddenness among the humble folks.

[02:13]

The Epiphany is his manifestation to the world. It's the feast of the universality of the messianic kingdom. That is one of the reasons, I think, why the Feast of the Epiphany used to have such emphasis in the city of Rome, because Rome always considered herself in a special way as the head of the church from the Gentiles. And we can even say that it is not only this Feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of the glory of the Messiah's King. What does manifestation mean? When we speak of manifestation, we so easily understand that in the sense of either a visual

[03:21]

of an intellectual sense, but really, naturally, the manifestation of the glory of the king is the coming of the glory of the king, and that coming of the glory of the king to Jerusalem, to the city of peace, as the bride of the king. through the epiphanies, the wedding feast, because the glory of the messianic king, that really is his agape, his descending love. Now that is, it seems to me, the reason why this Psalm 71 Deus judicium tum regida is taken in the liturgical tradition as the psalm of the epiphany.

[04:26]

It has, therefore, as you see, the psalm definitely, according to the consensus patrum veli, a messianic meaning. The old question principle has always been whenever a psalm or a prophecy transcends, evidently transcends, the historical and political reality, then These statements refer to Christ, either in a literal or a typical sense. Now, this psalm evidently transcends the political and historical reality.

[05:35]

What is said here of the king has never been historically fulfilled in the course of the history of the Jewish people, has never been fulfilled in any one of the kings, not even in Solomon. However, to this kind of argument, today two objections are being raised. The one objection is based on the grammatical forms of the psalms, the verbal forms, which are generally in the what we call Joseph form, may he. Not really in the what we call the future psalm, he shall be. And then, of course, I mean, there are some definitely, I mean, of course, you know very well that the Jewish tenses do not agree with our tenses, that there is a completely different concept there, so it always remains a difficulty.

[06:55]

However, there are some definitely future forms in it, The majority, however, of the verbal moods seem to be in the juicy rather than the future. And therefore, many people today explain this psalm as a prayer for the king which is offered to him and for him at his accession to power, as a wish at his accession to power, as at his intronization. And then, and that is the other objection against the messianic interpretation of the psalm today, then the universality, or let us say the emphatic expressions concerning the extension of the king's rule and, for example, the eternity of the king's rule are traced back to the common oriental, what we call,

[08:22]

court style, court style. And this court style was developed especially in connection with the court ritual. And the central act of the court ritual was the annually repeated celebration of the accession of the king to the throne. And in these ritual celebrations, the king in the oriental terminology is lifted up, let's say, to the equality with the gods. He is made a god, so to speak. Now, personally, I don't doubt that there are such influences of style.

[09:27]

He must never forget the Jewish kingdom. The Israelite people did not live under a glass... What do you call that? Dome. Dome, you know, hermetically closed. from the neighbouring civilisations? Evidently not. And in order to defend the inspiration it is not necessary to exclude the influences of the neighbouring civilisations. and therefore stylistic elements like this may very well have entered into the picture and may have helped to give form to these enthusiastic expressions. However, in the context of the economy of salvation,

[10:37]

of which the Israelitic people is the main instrument and which is expressed in the inspired word of God. These oriental influences, as much as they may serve as forms, receive a new, one can say, divine interpretation. they are put into a different context, into the context of God's revelation. And that, I think, is necessary in order to preserve the idea that the inspired writer, after all, is an instrument of the Holy Spirit in the very act of writing, not only in some kind of an indirect way. So therefore the court style may be responsible, as far as the external form is concerned, for the transcendence, which is clearly expressed in these words of the psalm, that the king will reign from ocean to ocean, from the rivers to the ends of the desert, and so on.

[12:02]

This and from as long as the moon will stand, so long also his reign will endure. But necessarily, you see, that is, of course, that's the important thing. In the small, limited, one can say really dwarf-like framework, of the Israelitic kingdom. These expressions are to my mind also only possible and can be explained only because The background of the Israelitic idea of the Israelitic kingdom really is the kingdom of God. The Promised Land is not simply Palestine, but it is the Promised Land, and as Promised Land it is the picture image of the eternal inheritance, the messianic inheritance,

[13:20]

that God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has promised to the fathers, which is an eternal inheritance. And therefore, whatever concerns and is said and may be said of the earthly king always must be interpreted on the background of that eternal meaning that the Promised Land that Palestine has. Otherwise, one could say, as many interpreters today say, that this psalm, like the 72nd Psalm, on the lips of an Israelite, are simply the expression of ridiculous political großenwahn. in English. Perception. Perception, you see, ridiculous Israelitic perception.

[14:23]

Now that is of course refuted also immediately as we go, as soon as we go to the text of the psalm. because the text of the psalm immediately starts right in the beginning, and let us put all emphasis on it, and let us rise out of any numbness and realise the power of the Holy Spirit right in the opening verse of the psalm. It starts with deus judicium tum regida, so it starts absolutely and clearly from above and not from below. This psalm is not the glorification and the sublimation and the elevation of human glory into the field of the divine glory. That's not the case.

[15:25]

But this psalm clearly starts from the divine power and descends and then conceives the earthly king as the image of the divine king. It's not the earthly king who is lifted up into divine glory, but it is the earthly king participating in and really becoming king in virtue of the divine King of God. God grant thy judgments, or judgment, to the king. Deus judicium tuum regida. So it starts with saying God, not an acclamation of the king,

[16:27]

In earthly, if this would be a political business, it would not start with that word. It would start with the word king, you see, but it starts with Deus. The whole thing is a prayer that God may give The king, thy judgment, or thy judgments, that is different according to the Masoretic text or the Septuagint. Thy judgment. Therefore, deus judicium tuum regida. The king participates in God's judgment. What is God's judgment, the mishpat or mishpati? It is the order, or let us say, the institution of the covenant and the maintenance of that covenant, what really is the purpose of the judgment.

[17:38]

The purpose of God's judgment Or one can say the essence of God's judgment is the divine activity through which God maintains the covenant. Divine activity through which God maintains the covenant. That is a very important principle because then one can see later on in the psalm another thing which is of great importance, And there is the fact that the justitia and the judgments, the tzedekah and the mishpatim, which are here spoken of in the psalm, are not limited only to the covenant and the law of Sinai. But there is repeated reference also to that covenant and to that, one can say, law, which has been established in the eighth chapter of the book Genesis with Noah and his descendants.

[18:48]

And that, I think, as for example, in the sign where it is said, may he live as long as the sun, as long as the moon to future generations. May the righteousness sprout in his days, abundance of peace until the moon is no more. That refers to the covenant, the natural order which is established in its, let us say, eternity as an expression of God's eminence, of God's absolute trustworthiness with nature in the eighth chapter of Genesis with Noah. It is the characteristic of the messianic times that these two covens, the coven with Noah and the covenant with the Israelitic people on Mount Sinai, fuse, as it were, into one, are both fulfilled.

[19:51]

The characteristic of the messianic promise is the fulfillment of the two, of Sinai and of the covenant with Noah. That is the universality of the messianic kingdom, messianic promise, which is expressed all through the psalm. So then is the beginning. Deus judicium tuum regida, et justitiam tuum, feel your rages. I just wanted, you know, just to... I'd like to add a little remark to that here. In this first verse you have three, let's say, different schools of thought in order to interpret this. God give your judgment to the king and your justitia, siddhaka, one says righteousness,

[20:58]

to the son of the king. That is one interpretation which is the, let us say, rabbinic and traditional Jewish interpretation and which understands Rashi, I must say, the medieval, which is always in a certain reaction against the Christian messianic idea and therefore takes great pains to avoid the taste of the messiahs. And Rashi is one of, of course, in the rabbinic tradition, who interprets this psalm as a prayer of David for his son Solomon. A prayer of David for his son Solomon. Deus iudicium tuum rei, Jeda. David. ad justitiam tuam filio regis. That evidently is an impossible interpretation.

[22:06]

We can take the other one, which understands this filio regis as parallel to the king in the first half of the verse. Give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the son of the king. The king is also son of the king because he is legitimate. A king who is not son of a king is a usurper, but this here is a legitimate king. Give your judgment to the king and your righteousness to the son of the king, a legitimate king. Or maybe we could take up, and that has a great temptation for me, this second part of the verse in this way, God give your judgment to the king,

[23:17]

and your righteousness to the son of the king, which would mean the offspring of the king. And the offspring of the king is then the mystical body, is the generation of the king, in the messianic Christian interpretation. That's the, those two, the king and his son, belong closely together. That is absolutely evident from one place, which one can call the source of the, let us say, the idea of the royal messianism, and that is in the second book of Samuel, the seventh chapter. That is Nathan's prophecy to David, which speaks not only of him but also of his house, of his son.

[24:27]

So, and maybe in that connection and on that background, That may be the meaning here also of the justitiam tuam, feel your wages, the offspring of the king, so that not only God gives to the king his judgment, but also to the offspring of the king, because They are a royal race and they will sit on the thrones and judge. So the Jewish king, that is so important to separate and distinguish the meaning of a psalm like 72 from anything that is known to us of the Oriental, what we call, court style. The Jewish king, and let us say the Messiah, is king under God and under his law, for which he is responsible.

[25:43]

The king in the Jewish idea is rather the first Jew, as we speak, of the president as the first citizen. So the idea is not to repeat it, the elevation of the human element, the political element into divine proportions, but the participation of the human in the divine salvation which gives to the king and to his office its weight, and gives also to the prayer of the community its specific color. This participation, and that I think we should keep in mind when we see and read and pray the psalm in the spirit of the church, this participation is really fulfilled

[26:51]

in the mystery of the incarnation. Deus judicium tuum regita. God give your judgment to the king and your righteousness to the son of the king. And other words may be good and for you to keep in mind, and that is evidently here in the psalm. Justice is conceived of, or righteousness, conceived of as the root of all the peace and the power and the universality and the fullness of blessing in the messianic kingdom.

[27:54]

What is that justitia, that justice or righteousness? The first thing that we have to emphasise is that this righteousness is justitia Dei, justitiam tuam, Feel your register. It's the justice of God. Not, therefore, a justice, as I say, which is conceived on the level of humaneness. As a human virtue, justitia distributiva, But this justice in Hebrew, often, not always, is that virtue through which and by which God keeps the community life based on the covenant

[29:16]

the community life of his people. Therefore, it is a community. How can we say? A power which is directed to the conservation and to the blossoming forth of the community life. and therefore especially a virtue which comes to the succor of the oppressed and of the weak ones. The siddhaka is that virtue which actively intervenes to deliver the oppressed and to ensure the execution of just judgment against the usurpation or intervention of the mighty ones.

[30:25]

Therefore, this justice, which here is conceived of as the root of the blessedness of the messianic kingdom, is not a demand or a request, let's say, of a human, humanitarian character, but is a divine attitude which does not tolerate that the weaker become the victim of the stronger. It's that divine attitude which descends to the oppressed. Therefore also the messianic king, who is considered as the manifestation and the incarnation of this tzedakah, descends, descends like the rain upon the thirsty land.

[31:27]

And the word descending is in this psalm again used in an central and important at an essential place and is very essential in the context. This justice, this descending righteousness, let us call it righteousness of God, is just for that reason universal, including all creation. And that is important also in this connection, I think, to interpret and see the meaning of this Psalm 72. The universality of the messianic kingdom is

[32:31]

a result not only of the universality of God as Creator, I will put it this way, but still more the universality of God as the Redeemer. Not only the universality of God as the Creator, but still more the universality of God as the Redeemer. Now with this, let us just divide the psalm into some paragraphs. That always is a help, although You will have the same experience that I have if you try and if you read various commentaries. The way in which this division is done is different, nearly varies from author to author.

[33:42]

I would say that verse 1 to 7, verse 1 to 7, form, as I say, one paragraph. However, perhaps one can add with an incision after verse 4. It runs this way, O God, grant thy judgment to the king and thy righteousness to the king's son, that he may judge thy people in righteousness and thy poor with justice. So may the mountains bear peace for the people and the hills righteousness. May he judge the weak of the people. May he deliver the poor and crush the oppressor. In Latin, oppressor. That is the wish or the desire and the prayer

[34:53]

for the coming of the justice or righteousness of the messianic king. Then may he live as long as the sun, as long as the moon to future generations. May he come down like the rain upon mown grass, like copious showers which water the earth. May righteousness sprout in his days, abundance of peace, until the moon is no more. Now that one could call, maybe with that little incision at the foot, as the first part of the psalm, which would be the description of the nature, or let us say the spirit, of the messianic rule, That means peace through justice.

[35:58]

Peace through justice. If you understand justice or righteousness as divine righteousness, sedaka, that would be verse 1 to 7. Then the second part may be verse 8 to 11. And that will be this. And may he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. Before him may his adversaries bow down and may his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarsus and the coastal regions, the islands, pay an offering of tribute May the kings of Sheba and Saba present their gifts. May all the kings pay him obeisance and all the nations serve him.

[37:06]

That would be 8 to 11. It seems to me that evidently these verses describe that universality, the universality or the extension in time and space of the messianic kingdom. Again, not as a political dream because of the nature of the messianic kingdom which, through God's descending righteousness, establishes peace all over the world. Then we have the next paragraph and can be from 12 to 15. And that verse 12 starts then with the important word for, because, as giving the reason for the universality of the messianic kingdom.

[38:17]

And that reason is for he delivers the needy from the rich, and the poor who has no one to help him. He looks with pity upon the poor and needy, and the lives of those in want he saves. He redeems their life from injury. as their blood is precious in his eyes. So may he, the poor man, live and be given the gold of Sheba. Then he will intercede on the king's behalf continually and will bless him every day. And then comes, in the next verses, 16 and 17, that may be then, may be considered again as another paragraph, comes, and that is the closing of the psalm really, a prayer of thanksgiving of, let us say, the poor, that means the redeemed, for the messianic king.

[39:44]

You see, these two things correspond to one another as, you see, a characteristic of the messianic kingdom. A political kingdom of a despot, and that was always characteristic all through the Old Testament, wherever political power established a universal rule. then what is, let us say, the result of that? What is the answer of that? No answer. If you read, I think it's the first book of the Maccabees, right the way it starts, the description of Alexander ruling as a despot and subjecting himself to his rule, to his power, to his legions, his soldiers, the entire earth, and the whole earth was silent before him.

[40:48]

That's the result of the oppressive rule of the despot. He has no response. The essence of the messianic kingdom is that it is a blessing, not an oppression, but a blessing. and the essence of blessing is that it is answered, that it is the communication of life, and life always responds. And so it is also here. You see, when he, in verse 6 and 7 of the psalm, I would say that verse 1 to 7, describes the nature and the spirit of the messianic kingdom, messianic rule. In 6 and 7, that important principle is beautifully expressed, that we have seen during the Advent season in the prophet Isaiah again and again.

[41:58]

May he come down, or he shall come down, like the rain upon the mown land, upon the cut grass, like copious showers which water the earth. Then may righteousness sprout forth in his days an abundance of peace until the moon is no more. You see, the essence of peace is not the silence of subjected nations in front of the oppressor, but the essence of peace is the joyful response, the living response to the messianic rule. And that living response is Eucharistia, thanksgiving.

[43:02]

And that is, it seems to me, the reason why this whole psalm, after it first, the end of the psalm, let us say, starting with verse 12, after it first describes how the rule of the Messiah, or let us say the spirit of the messianic king, descends like the rain upon the thirsty ground, because that is what it is, you know. You listen how the rain descends upon the thirsty ground. It's this way. He delivers the needy from the rich and the poor who has no one to help him. He looks with pity upon the poor and needy and the lives of those in want he saves. He redeems. In Hebrew he is the goel, the redeemer.

[44:04]

They are alive from injury, and their blood is precious in his eyes. See, that's the way the rain descends upon thirsty ground. That reign of the messianic king is his agape. That agape descends to the poor, it saves the life of those in want, it redeems their life from the injustice done to them, and their blood is precious in his eyes. That means the messianic king does not use the blood of his subjects to establish his own throne, but their blood is precious in his eyes. It always seems to be that in last analysis, The way in which this principle is realised in history is by the fact, which is described in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the Lord gives his blood in order to redeem the many, and their blood is precious in his arms.

[45:23]

And so may – then comes the response, you know, so may he, Now, that's not quite sure, this interpretation. The whole verse here, this whole verse, so may the poor man live and be given gold, that doesn't quite fit into the context. But certainly this is, you know, then he will intercede on the king's behalf continually. and he will bless him every day. That definitely fits and belongs into the context. The rain that descends upon the thirsty ground of the poor, socially poor but still more the poor in the spirit, evidently, that descends upon the thirsty ground of the poor in the spirit, that then

[46:29]

brings forth, you know, creates, as it were, a living spontaneous response. And he, the poor one, the redeemed one, will intercede on the king's behalf continually and will bless him every day. And then his prayer, that's the way the last verses are interpreted, let there be an increase of corn in the land to the top of the hills may it abound, may its fruit blossom like the Lebanon and its sheaves be as the grass of the earth. Now, that too, there is a difficulty in the translation. What is the Latin word there of that verse? You have it somewhere, we can just look it up. I don't know. Et florevon decivitata sicut fönum terre.

[47:37]

Now, that is a kind of, isn't it? Et florevon decivitata sicut fönum terre. The usual interpretation which is given to that, which here you see it may be, and may be a good version and a good translation, If it is that way, Yeah, it's probably frumentum instead of firmamentum. That would mean, and that's why I just throw them at you, you know, as a kind of... as a kind of an interjection, or how is it, interjection, you know, that this, these two, if that florebunticivitate, you know, corresponds, and it corresponds to the Masoretic text, that is certainly true, this translation.

[48:43]

Then it would be this way, that the messianic blessing, this prayer for the messianic blessing, has for its objects two things, the abundance, of nature, that means of natural goods, and the abundance of children. And the inhabitants of the city may flourish like the grass. But, I mean, that's that. I just throw that in, so to speak. But then it continues. Sit nomen eius benedictum in saecula. May his name be blessed in all generations. Ante solem permanent nomen eius. Et benedicentur in ipso omnes tribustere, omnes gentes magnificabunt eum. That also is typically messianic.

[49:43]

It reminds you right away of the messianic promises given to Abraham, given to Isaac, and given to Jacob, which are here. And in you, in him, will be blessed all the nations of the earth, and all the Gentiles shall magnify him. Then the last two verses, are usually considered as the conclusion of the entire second book of Psalms, of which Psalm 71 is the last. And that fiat fiat, amen, amen, is then followed still in the present Masoretic Jewish text with the note, or how to say, the subscription or so, and here end the Psalms of David.

[50:56]

Now, that is evidently a later arrangement and interpolation. for the Jewish, for the medieval interpreters, the rabbis, that is enough to say that this Psalm 71 was the last psalm that David made and that he made after the accession for Solomon, you know, for his successor. So that's what I say. However, you know, also one can if one reads or if one prays this psalm, and can also the last verses and apply the last verses to the Eucharistia, the apocalyptic, eschatological Eucharistia, which at the end of time will ascend through the psalm to the Father,

[52:02]

and that the Father is really the last aim and purpose of the whole messianic kingdom. I mean the adoration, veneration of the Father. Reminding us of the text of the of the angel song in the temple. that angel's song which then again we hear in the Nativity of Aldo. So let us pray this psalm with great devotion and let us realize that again the psalm is a beautiful I'm going to say, proof or so of manifestation of the fact that the kingdom of the Messiah is the kingdom of that saving love which comes and descends like the rain to save the thirsty ground of the poor in spirit.

[53:23]

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