In the Lord I have taken my refuge.
How can you say to my soul:
'Fly like a bird to its mountain.
Once the soul has desired the Lord for its sole refuge, once it has heard the words of Jonah: "Deliverance is from the Lord,"
or the words of Jesus: "I am the resurrection and the life" it abandons the strength it sought in its former idols - external and internal. How can you ask it to return to them for its strength? "All who place their hand to the plow but keep looking back are unfit for the kingdom..."
See the wicked bracing their bow;
they are fixing their arrows on the string
to shoot upright men in the dark.
Foundations once destroyed, what can the just do?
The wicked are those visible and invisible powers, mostly invisible (for our fight is not against flesh and blood but against the demons, says Paul), shooting us with temptations, prowling about to destroy us, says Peter. We once depended on false foundations of idols, now that they are burned out of us, to what shall we turn? We have no more distractions left us. No more false works built in us by human pride. "Of these works built in you by human pride, not a stone shall remain upon a stone." How necessary!
The Lord is in his holy temple,
the Lord, whose throne is in heaven.
His eyes look down on the world;
his gaze tests mortal men.
The Lord himself is now recognized as the only master. Reigning on the throne of our hearts now purified.
The Lord tests the just and the wicked:
the lover of violence he hates.
He sends fire and brimstone on the wicked;
he sends a scorching wind as their lot.
The lover of violence has his own idol: violence. Dominance. Destruction. Fire is sent upon his soul, to purify it like gold.
That he may repent. A scorching wind is sent howling down upon him. That the desert may purify him. And he return to his God.
The Lord is just and loves justice:
the upright shall see his face.
How just it is, O Lord, that you treat us as such. The worth of the soul thus redeemed merits the purification you give it.
O praise your name!