Psalms 14:1
A psalm of David. Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy hill?
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Psalmus David. Domine, quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo ? aut quis requiescet in monte sancto tuo ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυείδ. Κύριε, τίς παροικήσει ἐν τῷ σκηνώματί σου; καὶ τίς κατασκηνώσει ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῷ ἁγίῳ σου;
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 15:1
- מִזְמ֗וֹר לְדָ֫וִ֥ד יְ֭הֹוָה מִי יָג֣וּר בְּאָהֳלֶ֑ךָ מִֽי יִ֝שְׁכֹּ֗ן בְּהַ֣ר קָדְשֶֽׁךָ
Haydock's commentary
David. The word psalm being appropriated to some, while others are styled hymns, &c., does not hinder the latter from being also psalms or spiritual songs, to be set to music: so the insertion of David, "the beloved's name," in some of these divine canticles, is no proof that the rest were not written by him. (Worthington)
The author describes the perfection of priests, &c., contrasts the sanctity of those who shall inhabit Jerusalem with that of the wicked mentioned in the last psalm. Some copies have To the end in the title, while others omit it, with the Hebrew, St. Chrysostom, &c.
Hill. The Jews comforted themselves with the hopes of seeing Jerusalem rebuilt, Psalm cxxxi. 1. The prophets describe those who should return from captivity, as holy people, (Isaias xxvi. 3., and Sophonias iii. 13.; Calmet) a figure of the Church. (Haydock)
Heaven is also styled a tabernacle and mountain, (Apocalypse xv. 5., and Hebrews xii. 22.; Berthier) and is here chiefly (Haydock) meant. See ver. 5. (Worthington)
Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine On the Holy Trinity, The One Death and Resurrection of The Body of Christ Harmonizes with Our Double Death and Resurrection of Body and Soul, to the Effect of Salvation. In What Way the Single Death of Christ is Bestowed Upon Our Double Death
6. Therefore on this double death of ours our Saviour bestowed His own single death; and to cause both our resurrections, He appointed beforehand and set forth in mystery and type His own one resurrection. For He was not a sinner or ungodly, that, as though dead in spirit, He should need to be renewed in the inner man, and to be recalled as it were to the life of righteousness by repentance; but being clothed in mortal flesh, and in that alone dying, in that alone rising again, in that alone did He answer to both for us; since in it was wrought a mystery as regards the inner man, and a type as regards the outer. …
St Augustine A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness, Who May Be Said to Walk Without Spot; Damnable and Venial Sins
Having premised these remarks, let us carefully attend to the passages which he whom we are answering has produced, as if we ourselves had quoted them. “In Deuteronomy, ‘Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God.’ Again, in the same book, ‘There shall be not an imperfect man among the sons of Israel.’ In like manner the Saviour says in the Gospel, Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ So the apostle, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, says: ‘Finally, brethren, farewell. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XV
1. Touching this title there is no question. “O Lord who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle?” ( ver. 1 ). Although tabernacle be sometimes used even for an everlasting habitation: yet when tabernacle is taken in its proper meaning, it is a thing of war. Hence soldiers are called tent-fellows, as having their tents together. This sense is assisted by the words, “Who shall sojourn?” For we war with the devil for a time, and then we need a tabernacle wherein we may refresh ourselves. Which specially points out the faith of the temporal Dispensation, which was wrought for us in time through the Incarnation of the Lord. “And who shall rest in Thy holy mountain?” Here perhaps he signifies at once the eternal habitation itself, that we should understand by “mountain” the supereminence of the love of Christ in life eternal.
St Ambrose Concerning Repentance, Chapter IX. By collating similar passages with 1 Sam. iii. 25, St. Ambrose shows that the meaning is not that no one shall intercede, but that the intercessor must be worthy as were Moses and Jeremiah, at whose prayers we read that God spared Israel
41. Then you have in the fifteenth Psalm: “Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest upon Thy holy hill?” It is not that no one, but that he who is approved shall dwell there, nor does it say that no one shall rest, but he who is chosen shall rest. And that you may know that this is true, it is said not much later in the twenty-fourth Psalm: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?” The writer implies, not any ordinary person, or one of the common sort, but only a man of excellent life and of singular merit. …
St Leo the Great Sermons, On the Fast of the Tenth Month, VI
And hence, whatever result follow, the money-lender’s trade is always bad, for it is sin either to lessen or increase the sum, in that if he lose what he lent he is wretched, and if he takes more than he lent he is more wretched still. The iniquity of money-lending must absolutely be abjured, and the gain which lacks all humanity must be shunned. A man’s possessions are indeed multiplied by these unrighteous and sorry means, but the mind’s wealth decays because usury of money is the death of the soul. …