The Gates Of Death

Misere mei, Domine, vide humilitatem meam de inimicis meis, qui exaltas me de portis mortis. Ista est oratio cunctorum pauperum ad singularem numerum competenter adducta, quia semper in unitatem sanctorum haec turba perducitur. Sic enim sibi postulat subveniri, ut a clementissimo Rege videatur: quia revera conspectus ejus auxilium est, et tenebrosa protinus dispereunt, cum se tanti luminis serena concedunt. Humilitatem igitur suam de inimicorum superia supplicat aestimari, quia tantum carnaliter humiliantur martyres Christi, quantum persecutores eorum temporaliter videntur extolli. Porta, vero, mortis est diabolus, vel omnis illecebra saecularis: quoniam per haec ad aeternum exitium infeliciter introitur. Exaltas me, dicit, id est, longe facis a talibus. Nam cum porta mortis sit conversatio scelerata multorum, jure se ab ea dicit exaltatum: quia praeceptis vitalibus adhaerebat. Cassiodorus, Expositio In Psalterium, Psalmus IX Source: Migne PL 70.83d-84a

Be merciful to me, O Lord, look on my lowliness before my enemies, you who lift me up from the gates of death. 1 This is the prayer of all the poor fittingly attributed to single one of their number, because this multitude is ever led to the unity of the saints. So, then, he asks that aid come to him, that it appear from the most merciful King, because truly His look is help and the darkness swiftly perishes when He bestows the serenity of such light. So he prays that his humility might be judged against the pride of his enemies, because as much as the martyrs of Christ are humble in the flesh, so their temporal persecutors evidently exult in it. But the gates of death are the devil, or every snare of the world, because by these we woefully enter into eternal exile. 'You lift me up,' he says, that is, you take me far from such things. For when the gate of death is the wicked conduct of many, he rightly says he is exalted above them, because he adheres to the commandments of life. Cassiodorus, Commentary On The Psalms, Psalm 9 1 Ps 9.13