PSALM LXXXVIII (89), f. 51v.
This picture is crowded with many small episodes. In the upper corner, personifications of 'mercy and truth' which 'shall go before thy face' (verses 2, (1) and 15, (14)) are approaching the psalmist who is pointing to his mouth ( '... with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations,' verse 2, (1)). In the middle of this uppermost register the beardless, cross-nimbed Christ-Logos holding an open scroll (vers 4, (3)) is seated in a globe-mandorla resting on personifications of the sun and moon, and surrounded by four groups of saints separated by two angels, verses 37-38, (36-37): '... and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon ...'; also verses 6, (5), 8, (7) and 16, (15). At the extreme right of this register is the Crucifixion of Christ (verse 39, (38)) with Longinus and Stephaton present. Christ wears a loin-cloth. To the right of the Crucifixion and also to the left below it angels are scourging nude children, the 'children' who, according to verses 31-33, (30-32), would receive such treatment if they forsook God's law. In the corresponding position to the left the nude David, flanked by two angels holding his garments, is anointed by another angel (verse 21, (20)). To the left two figures with rods are turning away from him (verse 24, (23)). In the center of the picture and in a large circle (verse 12, (11) 'orbem terrae et plenitudinem ejus tu fundasti') the same personage, surrounded by attendants, is crowned and enthroned within a palace (verse 20, (19)). An enemy is prostrate under his feet (verses 23-24, (22-23)). At the bottom of the picture many ships filled with people are sailing on the sea. In the prows of the foremost, kings are extending gifts to the royal figure on his throne. This illustration is a combination of the content of verses 26, (25) and 28, (27): 'I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers'; 'Also I will make him my first-born higher than the kings of the earth.' In the upper portion of the circle two angels are flying down toward two corpses placed in sarcophagi. 'What man is he that liveth and shall not see death' (verse 49, (48)). To the right of the circle, a walled city is destroyed by men with axes and rods, and the people within it are put to the sword (verses 41-45, (40-44)).
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