Psalms 24:8
The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to sinners in the way.
Open Psalms 24:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dulcis et rectus Dominus ; propter hoc legem dabit delinquentibus in via.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- χρηστὸς καὶ εὐθὴς ὁ κύριος· διὰ τοῦτο νομοθετήσει ἁμαρτάνοντας ἐν ὁδῷ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 25:8
- טוֹב וְיָשָׁ֥ר יְהוָ֑ה עַל כֵּ֤ן יוֹרֶ֖ה חַטָּאִ֣ים בַּדָּֽרֶךְ
Haydock's commentary
Righteous. Though he is always ready to receive the penitent, he will punish the obstinate with severity. (Calmet; Worthington)
Yet he points out the means of obtaining his favour. (St. Augustine)
A law. Hebrew, "will instruct." (Calmet)
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 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter VII. 40-53; VIII. 1-11
7. Let them take heed, then, who love His gentleness in the Lord, and let them fear His truth. For “The Lord is sweet and right.” Thou lovest Him in that He is sweet; fear Him in that He is right. As the meek, He said, “I held my peace;” but as the just, He said, “Shall I always be silent?” “The Lord is merciful and pitiful.” So He is, certainly. Add yet further, “Long-suffering;” add yet further, “And very pitiful:” but fear what comes last, “And true.” For those whom He now bears with as sinners, He will judge as despisers. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXV
8. “Gracious and upright is the Lord” ( ver. 8 ). The Lord is gracious, since even sinners and the ungodly He so pitied, as to forgive all that is past; but the Lord is upright too, who after the mercy of vocation and pardon, which is of grace without merit, will require merits meet for the last judgment. “Wherefore He will establish a law for them that fail in the way.” For He hath first bestowed mercy to bring them into the way.
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 1.16
After having said, “Of His fullness have all we received,” he adds, “and grace for grace.” For by grace the Jews were saved: “I chose you,” saith God, “not because you were many in number, but because of your fathers.” ( Deut. vii. 7 , LXX.) If now they were chosen by God not for their own good deeds, it is manifest that by grace they obtained this honor. And we too all are saved by grace, but not in like manner; not for the same objects, but for objects much greater and higher. The grace then that is with us is not like theirs. For not only was pardon of sins given to us, (since this we have in common with them, for all have sinned,) but righteousness also, and sanctification, and sonship, and the gift of the Spirit far more glorious and more abundant. By this grace we have become the beloved of God, no longer as servants, but as sons and friends. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it 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).