Killing Demons

Et occidit reges fortes, quoniam in saeculum miseridoria ejus. Reges fortes occidit, quando a nobis expellit daemonia, varia immissione grassautia quorum voluntas nequam tunc extinguitur, si fidelium animae ab eorum potestate tollantur. Occide, Domine, fortes reges, ut liberes servos humiles: eripe tibi devotos, ne ille nefandissimus eos sibi faciat esse subjectos. Sehon regem Amorrhaeorum, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius. Ista quidem in superiore psalmo iam videntur exposita, quae non pigebit repetere, quando ea sancta auctoritas ad salutem nostram probatur iterasse. Sehon quidem interpretatus est tentatio colorum, aliter vero arbor infructuosa; Amorrhaeus exacerbationem; quae omnia videntur ad diabolum pertinere; ipse est enim arbor infructuosa, ipse exacerbatio. Sed haec in nobis Dominus occidit, quando nos ad instituta sua morum sanctitate perduxerit. Et Og regem Basan, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius. Og interpretatur coacervans, Basan confusio. Qui enim coacervat peccata nostra, absolute diabolus est. Ipse etiam recte dicitur confusio, quoniam et sequaces suos confundit, et ipse de Domini iudicio confusus abscedit. Verum haec et talia Domini virtute interfecta iacent, quando nos eripere a tam pessima obnoxietate dignatur. Cassiodorus, Expositio In Psalterium, Psalmus CXXXV Source: Migne PL 70.972c-973a

He slew great kings, for His mercy is forever. 1 He kills great kings when He expels demons from us, when their wicked will is extinguished, if the souls of the faithful are drawn from their power. Kill, O Lord, strong kings, so that you free your humble servants. Seize to yourself the devout, lest he who is most wicked makes them subject to him. Sehon king of the Amorites, because His mercy is forever. This seems to have been explained in a previous Psalm, but it does not displease us to repeat it, when this sacred authority is proven to repeat things for our salvation. Sehon is interpreted as the 'trial of appearances', otherwise a 'fruitless tree.' The Amorites are 'exasperation,' which everywhere seems to pertain to the devil, for he is the author of fruitlessness, and he is exasperation. But the Lord kills these things in us when He leads us to be established in the holiness of His ways. And Og king of Bashan, because His mercy is forever. Og is interpretated as 'heaping up', and Basan 'confusion.' For he who heaps up our sins is certainly the devil. Indeed he is rightly called confusion because he confounds with his plots and his confusion cuts us off from the judgement of the Lord. Truly these and such things slain by the great virtue of the Lord are cast down when it is fitting that He seizes us from such wretched servitude. Cassiodorus, Commentary On The Psalms, from Psalm 135 1 Ps 135.19