Denis the Carthusian · Commentary on the Davidic Psalms · Volume VI
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Nisi Dominus
Commentary on the Davidic Psalms
Psalms 126–150
Denis the Carthusian
Translation & Introduction by Andrew M. Greenwell
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“Read the entire Psalter.”
— St. Jerome
Nisi Dominus is the sixth and final volume of Denis the Carthusian’s monumental Commentary on the Psalms, completing the English translation of his exposition of the Davidic Psalter. This volume contains Denis’s commentary on Psalms 126 through 150, together with his concluding Tractate on the method of devoutly reciting the Psalms and his separate Exposition of the Seven Penitential Psalms.
Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471), known to posterity as the Doctor Ecstaticus, stands near the culmination of the medieval exegetical tradition. His commentary gathers together the great inheritance of patristic and medieval interpretation, while bearing the unmistakable marks of his Thomistic education and his contemplative Carthusian vocation.
For Denis, however, the Psalms are never merely texts to be explained. They are to be prayed, interiorized, and lived. Their words instruct the mind, govern the affections, awaken compunction, strengthen virtue, and lead the Christian soul toward contemplation and union with God.
The Medieval Exegetical Tradition
Scripture in its multiple senses
Denis explains the Psalms according to the traditional interpretative inheritance of the Church. The historical or literal sense remains the foundation, while the spiritual senses disclose Christ, the Christian moral life, and the soul’s final destiny.
I
Literal
The historical and textual meaning that forms the necessary foundation of the Psalm’s interpretation.
II
Allegorical
The mysteries of Christ, His Church, and the economy of salvation signified in the sacred text.
III
Tropological
The moral sense by which the Psalm instructs and forms the Christian in virtue and the imitation of Christ.
IV
Anagogical
The eschatological sense directing the soul toward heavenly realities and its ultimate union with God.
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Hearing the voice of Christ in the Psalms
The dominant weight in Denis’s interpretation is Christological. Although he recognizes the Psalter’s historical setting and the voice of David, Denis continually listens beyond the historical sign to the reality signified. David is for him preeminently “the Prophet,” because through the Psalms the mystery of Christ is proclaimed with extraordinary fullness.
Within the Psalter Denis hears not simply the vox David, the voice of David, but above it the vox Christi: Christ speaking, Christ speaking to the Father, and Scripture speaking concerning Christ.
vox David vox Christi vox Christi ad Patrem vox Christi ad nos vox de Christo
Denis’s Scriptural Method
Scripture explaining Scripture
Denis deliberately avoided an excessively elaborate scholastic apparatus in this commentary. Instead, his stated purpose was to explain the Psalms, to the degree possible, from the most sound Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
Scriptura ex Scriptura explicanda est.
Scripture is to be explained through Scripture.
Yet his method remains unmistakably shaped by St. Thomas Aquinas. Denis had entered the via Thomae during his studies at Cologne and carried that intellectual formation into the Charterhouse at Roermond.
Thomistic
The theological structure of St. Thomas frequently stands behind Denis’s interpretation, guiding and governing his exegesis even when Aquinas is not explicitly cited.
Carthusian
Denis’s monastic vocation gives his theology its strongly contemplative character, drawing doctrine toward prayer, purification of heart, and the vision of God.
More Than Commentary
The Psalms are to be lived and prayed
Denis places strong emphasis upon Christian practice. The Psalms are intended to school the Christian in a manner of living—to form the soul according to the imitatio Christi. His individual commentaries repeatedly move from exposition toward application, often ending with a peroration calling the reader to embody the Psalm’s teaching.
Each Psalm also concludes with prayer. Exegesis therefore does not terminate in understanding alone: understanding turns toward petition, conversion, virtue, and the grace necessary to put the sacred text into practice.
From interpretation to prayer
Denis’s Commentary moves repeatedly from the meaning of the Psalm to the moral and spiritual transformation of the person praying it.
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Tractate on the Method of Devoutly Reciting the Psalms
Denis fittingly concludes his entire Commentary on the Psalms with a seven-article Tractate devoted to the practical and interior use of the Psalter in the Christian life.
Its concern is not simply how the Psalms are pronounced, but how they are interiorized. The person praying the Psalms must learn how to order and vary his affects, concepts, intentions, and considerations in accordance with the sacred text—in short, to form himself according to the mind of the Psalms, which is the mind of Christ.
The Spiritual Ascent
Purgative · Illuminative · Unitive
The Tractate situates the Psalter within the traditional threefold path of Christian perfection. The same Psalms accompany the soul as it is purified, illuminated, and finally drawn toward the contemplative love of God.
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The Purgative Way The Psalms awaken compunction, expose sin, teach repentance, and assist the examination and purification of the heart.
II
The Illuminative Way They instruct the soul in virtue, strengthen moral progress, and illuminate the Christian path toward perfection.
III
The Unitive Way The Psalms enkindle charity and longing for God, preparing the purified soul for contemplation and mystical union.
The Affects
The movements, dispositions, inclinations, desires, and longings of the heart are themselves to be formed by the proper recitation of the Psalms.
Compunction and Self-Knowledge
The Gregorian scrutinies
Drawing upon Pope St. Gregory the Great, Denis identifies four objects of compunction through which the Christian examines himself before God. The Psalter thereby becomes an instrument not merely of praise but of conscience, repentance, and interior conversion.
ubi fuit
Where has one been?
ubi erit
Where shall one be?
ubi non est
Where is one not?
A Separate Work Included
Exposition of the Seven Penitential Psalms
This final volume also contains Denis’s separate commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms. It is an independent work rather than a repetition of the treatment of these Psalms found throughout the six-volume Commentary.
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The Seven Psalms of Penance
Denis treats the traditional penitential Psalms with a broader range of patristic and medieval authorities, including St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Bernard, St. Albert the Great, and St. Thomas Aquinas.
Psalms 6 · 31 · 37 · 50 · 101 · 129 · 142
The Seven Penitential Psalms had long occupied a privileged place in Christian devotion, particularly in penitential observance. Denis relates them to the interior purification of the Christian and to the ordered ascent toward the pure and contemplative life.
Volume VI · The Final Volume
The completion of Denis’s Commentary on the Psalms
With the exposition of Psalms 126–150, the concluding Tractate on devout recitation, and the separate Exposition of the Seven Penitential Psalms, Nisi Dominus brings the six-volume English translation of Denis the Carthusian’s great commentary on the Psalter to its completion.
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The Psalter interpreted according to Christ, formed into prayer, and carried into the interior life of the Christian.
