Ps 18 (19)

Psalms 18:1 To the choirmaster. Psalm. Of David.

Psalms 18:2 The heavens tell of the glory of God, and the work of his hands proclaims the firmament.

Psalms 18:3 Day unto day sheweth the message, and night unto night sheweth the news.

Psalms 18:4 It is not language, nor words, whose sound is not heard.

Psalms 18:5 Through all the earth their voice is spread, and to the ends of the world their word.

Psalms 18:6 There he set a curtain for the sun, which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of the bridal chamber, rejoicing as a valiant man that walketh by the way.

Psalms 18:7 He rises from one end of heaven, and his race reaches to the other end: nothing escapes his heat.

Psalms 18:8 The law of the LORD is perfect, it refreshes the soul; the testimony of the LORD is true, it makes the simple wise.

Psalms 18:9 The commands of the LORD are right, they make the heart rejoice; the commands of the LORD are clear, they give light to the eyes.

Psalms 18:10 The fear of the LORD is pure, it endures forever; the judgments of the LORD are all faithful and righteous,

Psalms 18:11 More precious than gold, than much fine gold, sweeter than honey, than a dripping honeycomb.

Psalms 18:12 Thy servant also is instructed in them; to him that observes them is great profit.

Psalms 18:13 Who discerneth inadvertence? Absolve me from the faults which I do not see.

Psalms 18:14 Also from pride save thy servant, that he may not have power over me: then shall I be blameless, I shall be pure from great sin.

Psalms 18:15 The words of my mouth be pleasing to thee, before thee the thoughts of my heart. Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

In the first part of the Psalm (vv. 2-7) there is a song to the Creator of the universe. In the second (vv. 8-15) there is a hymn to the Torah, i.e. the divine law, the word of the Lord. The two parts of the psalm deal with how man can gain knowledge of God; first, by deduction by observing the visible heavens, and then through the teaching of God's word. These are the material and spiritual spheres respectively. The unity between the two is made through the symbolism of the sun: without the physical light of the sun and the spiritual light of God's word, there would be no life on earth. God reveals himself to all by illuminating the universe with the radiance of the sun and enlightens the faithful with the blaze of his word contained in his revealed law. It is significant, in fact, that the law, in the second part of the psalm, is outlined with solar attributes: just as the sun gives physical light to the earth (vv. 6-7), so the law is the lamp that gives spiritual light to man (vv. 8-9).

Going into more detail, we see how the order, beauty and harmony of the universe narrate the glory of God. The firmament cries out that it comes from God. It proclaims itself to be the work of his hands. The existence of the heavens is a song to the glory of God. Whoever looks at the firmament cannot but confess that it is the work of the Lord's hands. The majesty of creation provides evidence of a creator God even more majestic than creation. He who from the beauty of creation does not see the infinite beauty of his creator is a fool.

It is a narrative of God's glory unbroken, without end (v. 3). The day that goes conveys the news that there is a creator to the day that comes, entrusts it to him so that he in turn may convey it. The night that goes also conveys news of it to the night that comes, so that it too may cry out this truth and deliver it in turn to the night that succeeds it. No day wants the other day to forget its Lord, and so no night wants the other night to stop telling the wonders of God. God's truth must remain stable forever.

Day and night convey the news silently (v. 4). No one hears them speak. It is enough for the night to rise and the starry sky shines in all its splendour and immediately the hymn of praise for its Creator and Lord begins. It is enough for the day to dawn and the contemplation of God's works becomes a song of praise and blessing for its Author. This truth should also apply to man. It is enough for a man to come into the light for a hymn of thanksgiving to his Author and God to be sung. There is no greater miracle than the birth of a new human life. Yet man is the only being who does not always convey this news.

In the sky God has pitched a tent for the sun (v. 6). The sun is compared to a bridegroom emerging from his thalamus. It is the image of the bridegroom who loves his bride and who is loved by his bride. The sun comes out to give joy, warmth, to the whole earth. It comes out to awaken it from its torpor of night. It comes out to bring it back to life. The sun is the material life of the earth. It is a symbol of God. God is the eternal light that gives life and warmth. The sun is a symbol of God, but above all it is a symbol of the Word of God. It is the Word of God that is the true light that illuminates every man.

Indeed, in the second part of the Psalm (vv. 8-15), the Torah, the 'law', is spoken of, which includes both the first five books of the Bible and the word of God in general. While the visible creation bears witness to God's power, God reveals himself personally to Israel in the Torah. This distinction is revealed in the text by the replacement of God, i.e. Elohim (vv. 1-7) with the 'Lord', i.e. Yahweh (vv. 8-15).

The first thing that is said is that the law of the Lord is perfect (v. 8), i.e. it contains no errors. For every man to be prepared to absorb the Word of God, it is right that he should be convinced of its perfection and truth. Is there anything sweeter than honey? Is there anything more precious than gold? (v. 11) Well, nothing compares to the preciousness and sweetness of the Word of God. Singing the beauty of the Word of God is evangelisation. Today we lack this singing. This is our greatest poverty. We no longer sing the beauty of the Word.

After contemplating the beauty of creation, which is a pale image of the beauty that is in the law of the Lord, the psalmist looks at his life for a moment. "The unseen, who discerns them? Absolve me from hidden sins" (v. 13). Is his heart truly all in the Word? Is his soul really all in the Law? He would like it to be so. But is it really so? Is there not an inadequacy between the Word and its observance?

How many inadvertences in life, how many hidden sins! How many laws not fully observed through ignorance, superficiality! The psalmist asks the Lord that even from these sins his servant be forgiven. This thought about the non-observance of the Law of the Lord because it is too great is sublime. It always makes us humble before the Lord. We also sin through inadvertence.

The worst pride is to feel perfect in the observance of the Law. Nothing is more dangerous than this pride. From this pride the psalmist wants to be saved. This pride must not have power over him. If he is saved from pride, then he will be "blameless, he will be pure from the great sin" (v.14), and the great sin is that of considering oneself perfect before God.

"May the words of my mouth be acceptable to you" (v. 15). The psalmist wants his words to be pleasing to the Lord. This humility should also be every believer's. It would be enough to ask oneself: Are my words acceptable to the Lord? It would be enough to answer this question with humility. 

This Psalm should be meditated upon. It is a wonderful song about the sun of God that is his Word.

This is not a work done out of antipathy towards Protestantism, or resentment towards evangelicals, but to defend the true faith, without warlike aspirations. I spent much of my life in the Protestant world, and late in life I discovered that I did not know the Catholic Church I was criticising at all, and it is this ignorance that leads many Catholics to allow themselves to be convinced or influenced by Protestants.  

These are divided into a myriad of denominations, some of which do not like to be called 'Protestant', but would like to be referred to only as 'Christian'. We also know that for Protestants, Catholics are not Christians, but idolaters and pagans; it follows that evangelicals in wanting to be called only 'Christians' aspire to the implicit recognition that they are the only 'true Christians'.

The problem is that only very few Protestants know the history of the Church; a great many only accuse by hearsay, but have never opened a book on Christian history over the centuries. All they need is what the pastor on duty says, a few pamphlets, and the internet to form their anti-Catholic 'culture'.

Many Protestants and/or Evangelicals, rather than being ashamed of their ignorance about Christianity, are proud of it, saying the classic phrase 'I am only interested in the Bible', a phrase that is already a whole programme. People's biblical-historical ignorance is essential in order to be able to guide them. A serious Protestant who would study the history of Christianity would have a good chance of ceasing to be a Protestant. 

In all Protestantism there is a do-it-yourself faith! The Holy Spirit guides us to understand the Bible well, it is true, but in the Protestant world, this pretext is used to cover an unrestrained and in some ways arrogant presumption, which leads every pastor to become a kind of infallible 'pope' in teaching people.

Presumption and arrogance are not immediately apparent - no one shows these faults so easily. They all seem God-fearing, observant of the Word and full of love for their neighbour. Too bad that their neighbour in most cases is the one who listens passively and does not contradict their biblical teachings. Those who dare to dissent are then no longer loved, often no longer greeted, and sometimes slandered. 

For a long time, thanks to Luther, the pope was considered the antichrist, therefore hated and accused, and so were all Catholic bishops and priests. Observant individual Catholics were also included in this climate. 

Protestants criticise papal infallibility, but in fact behave as infallibles; each in their own community, free to invent whatever they want, pulling the jacket on the Holy Spirit, as a guarantee of their doctrines! The result? A myriad of denominations with doctrines that often conflict heavily with each other.  

The problem lies in the great ignorance mixed with presumption that so many Protestants and/or Evangelicals have. Are Catholics less ignorant? No, most Catholics, unfortunately, are very ignorant in biblical matters, but at least they do not set themselves up as teachers to anyone who happens to be within their reach. The average Catholic is aware of his own ignorance, the average Protestant, on the other hand, is very presumptuous in biblical matters.

A Protestant who truly loved, as he says, the truth, would go and see for himself what the early Christians, our ancestors in the faith, wrote and how they lived, in order to understand if and how the Catholic Church is wrong, or where the Protestants are wrong in their interpretation of the Bible.    

Logically, rather than trusting a pastor who explains the Bible 2000 years later, it would be better to trust the early fathers, who learned Christian teaching directly from the voice of the apostles. Unfortunately, many Protestants do not use logic, but only anti-Catholic ideologies, cultivating a visceral dislike for everything Catholic, because they dismiss a priori the evidence of how the very first Christians lived, who lived after the apostles but before Constantine.  

The Christian faith is one, because the Spirit of God is one! So many take the wrong path, and we have a duty to understand who is in the right one and who is in the wrong one. Unity is the cohesion of the elements, of the parts that make up an entity (e.g. the cohesion between the parts of a car such as the body, the wheels, the engine, etc.) as Plotinus already said; if unity is lacking, that entity is also lacking and others may result, but no longer the entity it was before [if the cohesion of the body, wheels and engine is lacking, there is no longer the car entity, but rather the entities body, wheels, engine]. Here, Protestantism looks so much like the pile of sheet metal that a car once was. There is much criticism of the Catholic Church, but how many people know, for example, that Bultmann, a famous Lutheran Protestant theologian and exegete, reduced the resurrection to a theological symbol? Indeed, he did not consider it possible that physically Jesus was resurrected. In order to compare different biblical interpretations, one must have one's mind as clear as possible of ideologies and preconceptions. One must be open to any hypothesis if it is properly motivated and proven. If we rely on ideological prejudices that bind us to our doctrinal beliefs, we can do without reading or listening to any text or person; it is useless anyway. Our pride will prevent us from learning truths other than 'our own'. We often defend our biblical error with an impenetrable shell, we keep our truth, rejecting any other, which bangs on the shell and slips away. As soon as one touches the religious/spiritual plane, strangely enough, it is as if many pull the switch off their own mind, or at least a part of it. When Protestants converse with a Catholic, for example, they receive no information at all, only sounds that slip over their eardrums, but do not reach their brains. They do not listen.   

The history of Christianity means nothing to them, it is of no importance, except in the events to be held against them - see crusades, inquisitions, etc. - without knowing the true history of these events, and without knowing that the Protestants also had their wars, and also had their inquisitions, which were much bloodier than the Catholic ones.

They claim to be guided by the Holy Spirit, but strangely enough there are many groups that receive different and contradictory information from the same Holy Spirit, inexorably losing credibility. 

I realise that the Catholic Church has neglected the problem of Protestant proselytism. Evangelicals have been successful not because they are right, but simply because they find the Catholic people very ignorant in biblical matters, incapable of defending their faith properly, taking refuge behind the classic "I have no time to lose"; perhaps they even lose their faith... but time cannot be touched.   

Many Catholics claim to have faith in Jesus Christ, but this faith of theirs is only seen in times of need: when everything runs smoothly, Jesus is forgotten, and the Bible is of no interest to anyone to read. In contexts like these, evangelicals find a people who really need to be evangelised, by them. Many Catholics do not resist this proselytism because they have no biblical answers to give, only ignorance to hide. In such terrain the Protestant conquest is easy, and it is as if they were facing an unarmed army.   

But those who study the Bible and strive to deepen their understanding of the meaning of God's word realise that in reality Protestants are not at all the biblical teachers they appear to be, but are profoundly ignorant historians and biblical scholars, plagiarised by their sect of membership. By calling them ignorant I do not mean to offend them, for otherwise I would call them "false and liars". By calling them ignorant I acknowledge their good faith, they believe in some wrong doctrines, not realising that they are wrong.  

The point is that the Holy Spirit cannot contradict Himself, and so certainly the conflicting interpretations of different denominations cannot all be true, nor all inspired. Clearly, it is not possible for the same Spirit to suggest different doctrines to each. This creates watertight compartments, each Protestant group believing it is in the truth more than the others, isolating itself and preaching its own gospel. For example, according to the Adventists, all other Christian churches have abolished the Sabbath commandment by worshipping on Sunday, and therefore everyone except them is doomed to hell if they do not abolish Sunday as the Lord's Day. Of course, they justify these accusations of theirs with certain Bible verses, interpreting them in their own way. Here, this is the point that escapes all Protestants, classical and modern: the Bible cannot be interpreted subjectively, because the Truth is not subjective at all.

But being divided into watertight compartments, not communicating with one another, it is difficult for any of them to notice the doctrinal differences with other Protestants. If anyone does notice them, they pretend that they do not, or do not give them the proper weight, just believe in Jesus as our personal saviour. Their attention is only turned towards the Catholic Church, the enemy to be defeated! It is all too convenient to proudly claim that "I understand what is written in the Bible because the Holy Spirit guides me. God has hidden the truth from the wise and revealed it to the humble'. Here, every good Protestant uses such phrases to reject the interpretative authority of the fathers and doctors of the Church.In this context, we witness scenes in which any Protestant, of any degree of culture, scoffs at the writings of Irenaeus, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and does so casually, because in interpreting the Bible he feels humble enough to be guided directly by God, but at the same time he is blind enough not to realise that too many 'humble' Protestants then profess very different doctrines. They despise the Catholic, but elect a "do-it-yourself" that prides itself and says: "I do not need to read the writings of the church fathers, the Bible alone is enough for me", so the teachers of which the Apostle Paul speaks would be of no use: "It is he who established some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers" (Eph 4:11). 

One only has to read the history of the heresies that have affected Christianity throughout the centuries to realise that heretics based and always base their theses on the Bible, explaining it in their own way. People are unlikely to go poking around intertwined doctrinal and theological issues. It is easier to find a priest who has committed some human error and choose him as a target, in order to corroborate anti-Catholic theses and consider the Catholic Church as the enemy of Christianity and truth, allied with Satan to mislead souls and lead them to hell. Not even the archangel Michael flaunted such confidence in branding or judging the devil, yet it was the devil (Jd 1:9):  

The archangel Michael, when in dispute with the devil over the body of Moses, did not dare to accuse him with offensive words, but said: You condemn the Lord!

The truth is that the accuser par excellence is Satan himself; the saints do not accuse anyone, not out of respect, but because they defer to God's judgement. For a Protestant, on the other hand, it is normal to say that Catholics go to hell because they are idolaters. They set themselves up as judges, believing they know the hearts, and misunderstand the concept of worship. Any Christian should ask himself questions, to verify what he believes, and should be able to discern whether his beliefs in matters of faith are just the result of autosuggestion, induced fantasies, or whether they find confirmation in the history of Christianity and in the Bible.   

Argentino Quintavalle

 author of the books

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

(Buyable on Amazon)