St Thomas Aquinas on the Psalter

“Its matter is universal; while each of the canonical books has it spsecial material, this one ranges over the material of all theology. ... Everything that bears on the end of the Incarnation is expressed in thsi book in so clear a way that one might believe oneself face to face with the Gospel, not with prophecy. ... This plenitude is the reason why the Church returns ceaselessly tot he Psalter, for it contains all Scripture. ...

The mode of sacred Scripture is in effect multiple. It can be narrative as in historical books; commemorative, exhortative, and prescriptive as in the Law, the Prophets, or in the Wisdom Books; disputative, as in Job or Saint Paul; deprecative or laudatory, as here. In effect, everything that in the other books is dealt with according to a precise mode is here found under the form of praise and of prayer. ... It is from this that the book takes its title: The beginning of the Book of Hymns, which is to say, of the soliloquies of the prophet David about Christ. The hymn is a praise of God under the form of a song. The song is the exaltation of the soul over the subject of eternal realities that are expressed by the voice. It teaches therefore to praise God in joy. The soliloquy is the personal colloquy of man with God or, indeed, only with himself; and this is necessary for whoever praises or prays.

As to the end of this Scripture, it is prayer, elevation of the soul toward God. ... It is possible for the soul to elevate itself toward God in four ways: by admiring the greatness of his power ... the elevation of faith; by extending itself toward the excellence of its eternal beatitude ... the elevation of hope; by attaching itself strictly to divine goodness and its holiness ... elevation of charity; by imitating the divine justice and its action ... the elevation of justice. [These different points are insinuated into the various Psalms], this is why Saint Gregory says that if the Psalmody is accompanied by the intention of the heart, it prepares in the soul a path for God, who infuses into it the mysteries of prophecy or the grace of compunction.

from Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1

Postscript. A flash of fire from chapter 39.

RSV:

“Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with strength?

Do you make him leap like the locust?

His majestic snorting is terrible.

He paws in the valley, and exults in his strength;

he goes out to meet the weapons.

He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;

he does not turn back from the sword.

Upon him rattle the quiver,

the flashing spear and the javelin.

With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground;

he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’

He smells the battle from afar,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

KJV:

Hast thou given the horse strength?

hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?

Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper?

the glory of his nostrils is terrible.

He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength:

he goeth on to meet the armed men.

He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted;

neither turneth he back from the sword.

The quiver rattleth against him,

the glittering spear and the shield.

He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage:

neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.

He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha;

and he smelleth the battle afar off,

the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

Powerful poetry in the book of Job. Chapter 38.

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Gird up your loins like a man,

I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornsterstone,

when the morning stars sang together,

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

“Or who shut in the sea with doors,

when it burst forth from the womb;

When I made clouds its garment,

and thick darkness its swaddling band,

and prescribed bounds for it,

and set bars and doors,

and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your proud waves be stayed?

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,

and caused the dawn to know its place,

that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,

and the wicked be shaken out of it?

It is changed like clay under the seal,

and it is dyed like a garment.

From the wicked their light is withheld,

and their uplifted arm is broken.

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea,

or walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare, if you know all this.

“Where is the way to the dwelling of light,

and where is the place of darkness,

that you may take it to its territory

and that you may discern the paths to its home?

You know, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,

or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

which I have reserved for the time of trouble,

for the day of battle and war?

What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,

or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain,

and a way for the thunderbolt,

to bring rain on a land where no man is,

on the desert in which there is no man;

to satisfy the waste and desolate land,

and to make the ground put forth grasses?

“Has the rain a father,

or who has begotten the drops of dew?

From whose womb did the ice come forth,

and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?

The waters become hard liek stone,

and the face of the deep is frozen.

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,

or loose the cords of Orion?

Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,

or can you guide the Bear with its children?

Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Can you establish their rule on the earth?

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go

and say to you, ‘Here we are?’

Who has put wisdom in the clouds,

or given understanding to the mists?

Who can number the clouds by wisdom?

Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

when the dust runs into a mass

and the clouds cleave fast together?

“Can you hunt the prey for the lion,

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

when they crouch in their dens,

or lie in wait in their covert?

Who provides for the raven its prey,

when its young ones cry to God,

and wander about for lack of food?

I find this one of the most chilling and moving passages from Scripture. Great weight hangs on every word. The final answer of Jesus falls like a guillotine. Mark’s Gospel, chapter 10.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him , and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I dirnk you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

Thomas Aquinas in praise of friendship

There is nothing on this earth to be preferred before true friendship. For friendship unites those who are virtuous and helps them to preserve and strengthen their virtue. We all of us, whatever our task in life, have need of it; steadfast alike in good times and in bad. Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious. Love makes things which are difficult easy and almost unworthy of note.

St Thomas Aquinas, De Regimine Principum, Ch. X.

The Necessity for Human Law and Its Limits

 From the foregoing it is clear that there is in man a natural aptitude to virtuous action. But men can achieve the perfection of such virtue only by the practice of a 'certain discipline.'--And men who are capable of such discipline without the aid of others are rare indeed.--So we must help one another to achieve that discipline which leads to a virtuous life. There are, indeed, some young men, readily inclined to a life of virtue through a good natural disposition or upbringing, or particularly because of divine help; and for such, paternal guidance and advice are sufficient. But there are others, of evil disposition and prone to vice, who are not easily moved by words. These it is necessary to restrain from wrongdoing by force and by fear. When they are thus prevented from doing evil, a quiet life is assured to the rest of the community; and they are themselves drawn eventually, by force of habit, to do voluntarily what once they did only out of fear, and so to practice virtue. Such discipline which compels under fear of penalty is the discipline of law. Thus the enactment of laws was necessary to the peaceful and virtuous life of men. And the Philosopher says (I Politics, 2): 'Man, when he reaches the perfection of virtue is the best of all animals: but if he goes his way without law and justice he becomes the worst of all brutes.' For man, unlike other animals, has the weapon of reason with which to exploit his base desires and cruelty.

 St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Prima Secundae, Qu. 95 Art. 1

Laws when they are passed should take account of the condition of the men who will be subject to them; for, as Isidore says (Etym. II, 10): the law should be ‘possible both with regard to nature and with regard to the custom of the country.’ But capacity to act derives from habit, or interior disposition: not everything that is possible to a virtuous man is equally possible to one who lacks the habit of virtue; just as a child is incapable fo doing all that a grown man can do. For this reason there is not the same law for children and for adults: there are many things permitted to children which are punished by the law, and even abhorred, in adults. Equally, it is possible to permit many things to those not far advanced in virtue which would not be tolerated in a virtuous man.

Now human law is enacted on behalf of the mass of men, the majority of whom are far from perfect in virtue. For this reason human law does not prohibit every vice from which virtuous men abstain; but only the graver vices from which the majority can abstain; and particularly those vices which are damaging of others, and which, if they were not prohibited, would make it impossible for human society to endure: as murders, theft, and suchlike, which are prohibited by human law.

Ibid., Qu. 96, Art. 2