Psalms — Chapter 31

BEATI QUORUM REMISSAE SUNT INIQUITATES. Lapide: Psalm 31 — the second penitential psalm. Paul quotes vv.1-2 in Rom. 4:7-8 to establish the doctrine of justification by faith: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered." Lapide: "remissae sunt" (are FORGIVEN) and "tecta sunt" (are COVERED) — two metaphors for forgiveness: (1) the debt is remitted/cancelled; (2) the sin is covered by God's mercy, so that He no longer sees it against us. The third (v.2): "beatus vir cui non imputavit Dominus peccatum" — blessed the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. Lapide against the Protestant reading: this non-imputation is not merely forensic; it corresponds to a real interior change — the infusion of sanctifying grace by which sin is truly (not merely legally) removed.