[Scriptum compendiosum Psalterii intentionem declarans]

The sentence in general: the prophet, in the person of the ecclesia Church, begging that his prayer be heard by God, proclaims that heretics, schismatics, wicked sinners, and all their enemies must be excluded by a proper judgment, and that the good and just will be eternally rewarded. The words of the ecclesia Church are my words.

O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury

The author of the psalm is the prophet David. The matter is unjust persecution. The intention is to induce innocent men to bear patiently whatever persecution of the wicked, from the fact that in the end the innocent will be eternally rewarded. The wicked man, however, in the present life falls into the snare which he makes for another, and in the future he will be condemned perpetually. The sentence in general: the prophet in this psalm, in the person of any faithful one, as any prophet in spiritual affliction from the malignant temptation of demons, seeks to be delivered divinely by alleging his own innocence, divine justice, and the malice of sinners, and if they are not converted, he threatens them with the condign retribution, namely the penalty of eternal damnation.

O Lord, rebuke me not

The author of the psalm is the prophet David. The matter is the true recognition of sins. The intention is to move men to a salutary penance with the hope of the remission of all sins. The sentence in general: the prophet, in the person of the truly penitent, cries to the Lord, seeking pardon for all his own miseries by which he is afflicted and groans, narrating in particular the truth of the penitent.

O Lord, our Lord

The author of the psalm is the prophet David. The matter is the exaltation of Christ. The intention is to magnify Christ and to confound his enemies, namely the Jews. The sentence in general: the prophet in that psalm, in the person of the ecclesia Church, sings the praises of all the faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in brief confesses the majesty and magnificence of the divine nature, and the humiliation and exaltation of the human nature over all creatures in him.

I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart

The author of the psalm is the prophet David. The matter is the twofold judgment of Christ, namely of discretion and of discussion. The intention is that he might induce men to believe this and to praise God for it. The sentence in general: the prophet in that psalm says he will be glad to sing to our Lord Jesus Christ with his whole heart, because at the time of the judgment of discretion, the just judgment being handed to him, he represses the devil, the wicked enemy of the human race, converting the Gentiles to the faith, and rolling them and their obstinate tyrants into the snares of death prepared for others, while delivering the Catholic people, who are afflicted, poor, and cast down. And at the time of the judgment of discussion, he casts down the Antichrist himself, who will lift himself up against the Christian and persecute the faithful most harshly, and delivers the Christian people as if they were an orphan and a fatherless child left behind.