Psalm 141:8

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the just wait for me, until thou reward me. (Psalm 141:8 DR)

As the Psalmist concludes this Psalm, he comes full circle to connect this final passage to the opening inscription. It will be remembered that the title of this Psalm is: Of understanding for David. A prayer when he was in the cave. We now come to see the fullness of both the cave and the understanding which has been granted to and possessed by the Psalmist.

But what, exactly, is the nature of this cave, and thus of this prison?

On the literal, historical level it is rather straightforward, for David was literally hiding in the depths and darkness of a cave when King Saul was chasing him with an army of 3000 soldiers. He was for all intents and purposes cornered and had nowhere else to run, his only hope to let the darkness of the cave conceal him. The understanding that he comes to is thus of reconciling his current circumstances with his unwavering hope in the Lord.

On this level the cave is a prison because he does not wish to be there, and in effect it functions as such in that as long as he is there he does not have freedom nor know the salvation of the Lord in respect to his mortal life. St. Bellarmine quotes St. John Chrysostom to this end:

As regards David, St. John Chrysostom says, “the prison” means the troubles and afflictions that caused him to hide himself in the cave, so that the meaning would be, Bring me clear of those afflictions, so that I may be able to leave this cave, and, upon being set at liberty, that I may praise thy name. “The just wait for me;” for they all expect you, in your providence, will free me, innocent as I am. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 141, 7.)

However, this prison has been interpreted in many ways and by many commentators throughout history. St. Augustine provides three separate interpretations and proofs for such readings.

As a sort of introduction to these readings, St. Augustine notes that the prison and the cave are the same:

That which is the cave, the same is also the prison. Two things have we set before us to understand, but when we have understood one, both will be understood. A man’s deserts make a prison. For in one dwelling place one man finds a house, another a prison. When men keep each other imprisoned, even though they keep them in their own houses, yet [it is] they who are closely guarded [who are] in prison; must we say that the others are in prison also? There is but one dwelling place to the one and the other: to the one, liberty makes it a home; to the other, slavery makes it a prison. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 17.)

A. This world

The first reading is that the prison refers to this world and the vanities thereof, and could also variously be understood as the mortal life in general:

To some then it has seemed that the cave and prison are this world; and this the Church prayeth, that it may be brought out of prison, that is, from this world, from under the sun, where all is vanity. For it is said, All is vanity, and there is vexation of spirit in every work of a man, which he toileth under the sun. Beyond this world then God promiseth that we shall be in some sort of rest; therefore perhaps do we cry concerning this place, Bring my soul out of prison. Our soul by faith and hope is in Christ; as a little before I said, Your life is hid with Christ in God. But our body is in this prison, in this world. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 17.)

He ultimately rejects this reading at least in the most general sense, noting that our bodies are what are in this world, whereas are souls are hid with Christ in God and our conversation is in heaven. Had the Psalmist said body rather than soul, St. Augustine argues, there would be greater warrant for such a reading. He does concede, however, that if one understands this life or this world in terms of earthly desires, then such a reading could be appropriate, since the flesh is what wars against the soul and in that sense makes this world into a prison:

But perhaps on account of certain earthly desires, which keep hold on us, against which we struggle and fight, because I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind; rightly do we say, Bring my soul out of this world, that is, out of the toils and troubles of this life. Not the flesh which Thou hast made, but the corruption of the flesh, and its troubles and temptations, are a prison to me. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 17.)

B. The Body

The next interpretation is related albeit more specific, in that the prison refers to the body itself specifically or mortality more generally. In other words, it is the body which is the prison for the soul from which the Psalmist longs to be delivered. One might expect that St. Augustine—who was in his early life heavily influenced by Platonism and Neo-Platonism—might be more sympathetic to this reading, but he finds fault with it, noting that, in effect, it proves too much. After all, he argues, if the Psalmist is merely pleading for release from this mortal coil, then the rest of the passage—which is predicated on this release—is utterly invalidated, for in the end all men—regardless of their merits or sins—are released from this prison through death:

For what great thing is it to say, Bring my soul out of prison, bring my soul out of the body? Do not the souls of robbers and wicked men go forth from the body, and go into worse punishment than here they have endured? What great request then is this, Bring my soul out of prison, when, sooner or later, it must needs come forth? (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 18.)

In this manner a purely dualistic understanding of the body and soul which would necessitate such a reading cannot be allowed, for it bifurcates the composite nature of the person as body and soul and inevitably ends in the Gnostic excesses to which such philosophical errors always lead to one extreme or the other.

Further, St. Augustine detects in such a reading a perhaps unintended consequence of a lack of charity, for, St. Paul longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ, yet he recognized in charity that it was necessary for him to remain so as to in charity strengthen the brethren and proclaim the Gospel. St. Augustine explains St. Paul’s words in that it is God who will lead us forth from this mortal life when He will, not when we will.

However, St. Augustine in charity concedes that this reading could be retained if understood not in terms of the body simpliciter but in terms of the body as liable to corruption because of sin and the punishment of sin:

Our body too might be said to be a prison, not because that is a prison which God hath made, but because it is under punishment and liable to death. For there are two things to be considered in our body, God’s workmanship, and the punishment it has deserved. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 18.)

All the aspects of the body that God created are good and are united with the soul with the soul as the form of that very body. The senses and appetites and passions were created by God to be ordered to the good of the soul and thus to the body itself. It is sin that introduced the disorder in the relationship of body and soul, and this disorder is not the body itself but rather the privation of grace by which the soul and body work harmoniously and with God as the ultimate good:

What is there in it that is a punishment to us? That the flesh is subject to corruption, that it is frail, that it is mortal, that it is needy; this will not be so in our reward. For the body will not cease to be a body when it rises. But what will not be then? Corruption. For this corruptible shall put on incorruption. If then the flesh be a prison to thee, it is not the body that is thy prison, but the corruption of thy body. For God made thy body good, for He is good: corruption He introduced in His justice, because He is Judge: the one thou hast in the way of goodness, the other in the way of punishment. Perhaps then he meant by, Bring my soul out of prison, bring my soul out of corruption. If thus we understand it, it is no blasphemy, the meaning is consistent. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 18.)

St. Bellarmine takes up a similar manner of understanding such a reading, relating it additionally to the souls in Limbo:

Still, perhaps, David, holy as he was, and devoured with great lights from God, had loftier aspirations, and, in his desire to be freed from his mortality, as he would from a prison, said, with the Apostle, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” for they who thus ascend to the dwelling of those who praise the Lord forever and ever are those who really praise his name, which is confirmed by the subsequent sentence, “the just wait for me until thou reward me;” for the souls of the holy prophets in Limbo were waiting for the just Prophet, to see him rewarded; and so were the holy Angels in heaven, who were looking out for the true and eternal happiness to be secured by his merits. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 141, 7.)

St. Bellarmine here relates this prophetically to Christ, for the holy souls in Limbo were not waiting for David to be delivered from his prison, but rather for Christ to be the One to deliver them. There is thus a beautiful prophetic duality here, for Christ takes upon Himself our mortal nature in the Incarnation that He may thus free us from the prison of the corruption of the flesh, and by doing so also deliver the just souls from their longing in prison for His salvation:

A number of the holy fathers agree in saying that the words, “the just wait for me until thou reward me,” are most applicable to Christ, because all the just, including all from the very beginning of the world, as well as the Apostles and the other faithful then alive, waited most ardently for the resurrection and the glorification of Christ, because they were all to receive from “the fullness of his glory;” for, as St. John says, “For as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified,” so we, too, can say, the souls of the saints had not ascended from the prison of Limbo to the kingdom of heaven, because Christ, the King of Glory, had not yet entered into his glory. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 141, 7.)

C. Straitness

St. Augustine ultimately comes down on this interpretation, that the prison of which the Psalmist speaks is straitness; that is, the difficulties of this life and this world that weigh down upon the soul:

For to one who rejoiceth, even a prison is wide; to one in sorrow, a field is strait. Therefore prayeth he to be brought out of straitness. For though in hope he have enlargement, yet in reality at present he is straitened. Listen to the straits of the Apostle: I had no rest in my spirit, saith he, because I found not Titus my brother. In another place: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? But he who was both weak and burning, was not he under punishment and in prison? But these punishments through love produce a crown. Wherefore he saith again, There remaineth for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall pay me at that day. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 141, 19.)

In the sorrows and straitness of this vale of tears we find it difficult to hope in the Lord despite the straitness which surrounds us. In such straits we might wish to be delivered from this world or even from this mortal life, for tribulations and persecutions and such can occlude our vision like being in the depths of the darkness of the cave.

However, it was when the Psalmist was in the cave and therefore in prison that he finally began to see, when he received the understanding for which this Psalm was composed. He was stripped of all his pretensions of self-reliance and of all external support. He was straitened in his physical circumstances, but God used that straitness to enlarge his soul, to bring him into a profound faith and trust in the Lord. He began to love God for God’s own sake, rather than for any blessings that God might provide. His will became aligned with the will of the Lord, and in that darkness and straitness found an enlargement that an only come from a soul united in charity and will with the Lord, as the Psalmist says elsewhere:

When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me: when I was in distress, thou hast enlarged me. (Psalm 4:2 DR)

It is because of the alignment of his will and heart with God that he can now bring his prayer to the Lord to deliver him from prison, from his straitness. For now it is not merely about his own deliverance, but that also of the just who wait for him, until Thou reward me. He thus enters into the prophetic person of Christ as a member of His body, the Holy Catholic Church, and in his prayer anticipates Christ’s redemption of His Church and of all the holy souls who waited in expectation for their own deliverance.

The Body of Christ is one since it united in the charity of God with Christ. Yet until the Last Day the Church exists on different levels—as it were—divided into the Church Militant, the Church Suffering and the Church Triumphant. The Church Militant are those in this life who still war against the world, the flesh and the devil. The Church Suffering are those in Purgatory (and, by extension, the holy souls in Limbo of which the Psalmist speaks) who are being purified before their final salvation and entrance into the Beatific Vision. The Church Militant are all the saints who already have received their reward in the Beatific Vision.

In the consummation of all things the first two levels of the Church ill cease to be, as the Body of Christ will be united as simply the Church Triumphant in the Beatific Vision. Thus the Psalmist speaks in both the person of Christ and of the Church in anticipation of that Day; as St. Bellarmine noted, the souls in Limbo before Christ’s resurrection waited in patience for His glory to be revealed and to be delivered from prison. They are the just who waited for the reward of Christ; that is, His exaltation to the right hand of the Father following His defeat of death and sin upon the cross and His glorious Resurrection.

D. Purgatory?

And while neither St. Bellarmine not St. Augustine speak specifically to this, I think that if this passage can be applied to the souls in Limbo awaiting Christ’s triumph, I think there is at least sufficient grounds to apply it—mutatis mutandis—to the souls in Purgatory, who await their purification through the grace merited by that same death and resurrection and glorification of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As the Church Suffering they could thus make this prayer their own, for once their souls are brought out of prison, they will then praise Thy name in the glory of the Beatific Vision. And since the Body of Christ is one as united in Christ, there is a certain sense in which the just souls in heaven wait for both the souls of those in the Church Militant and the Church Suffering, not in terms of lack (since they lack nothing) but rather because there will be a final consummation of all things in which Christ will be all in all (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:28). This waiting of the just will come to fruition when the Body of Christ is united fully in the Church Triumphant in the Beatific Vision, the reward of the souls united to God in charity unto eternity.

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I then added in the text and applied some color correction and light glow and distortion effects.

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