Christ the King

Extract

The first five verses of this psalm, from ‘My heart has uttered a good word’ to ‘Your right hand will conduct you wonderfully', Augustine has interpreted as being addressed to Christ, partly by God the Father, who utters a good word when he eternally begets the Son, and partly by the psalmist speaking prophetically. Then he continues in the same vein:

Your arrows are sharp, very potent.’ It means his words, piercing the heart, arousing love. As the bride says in the Canticle, ‘I have been wounded by charity’ (Cant, ii, 5). She means that she is in love, that she is on fire, that she is sighing for the bridegroom whose words have pierced her like arrows. ‘Your arrows are sharp, very potent', both piercing and effective. ‘Peoples will fall beneath you.’ They have been struck and have fallen.