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Psalterium Latinum
Commentary

PSALM LXVIII (69), f. 38v.
In the foreground three ships are represented on the sea. In the middle ship is the figure of the psalmist who is clinging desperately to the stern of the ship and is appealing to heaven for help lest he sink and lest he be overwhelmed by his enemies in the other two ships (verses 2-3, (1-2), and verses 15-16, (14-15)). At the right of the picture is a table at which men are eating; but half of them are falling away from the table and into a sea below (verse 23, (22)). Some are doubled up ('et dorsum eorum semper incurva!' verse 24, (23)). To the left of the table is a walled city with them 'that sit in the gate' placed over the gate, taking counsel against the psalmist. One man, just outside the gate, holds a wine cup as one of the 'drunkards' (verse 13, (12)). To the left of this city men are quarrying rock and are carrying it to a spot where others are building a wall ('... and will build the cities of Judah,' verse 36, (35)). At the left of the picture is a tabernacle in which men (verse 10, (9)) are 'praising the name of the Lord' (verse 31, (30)). A 'bullock that hath horns and hoofs' is approaching the altar in front of the tabernacle (verse 32, (31)). Below in the sea are ducks, fishes and reptiles ('... everything that moveth therein,' verse 35, (34)) which are commanded to praise the Lord. In the heavens to the left the beardless, cross-nimbed Christ-Logos attended by two angels is giving a command to two wingless angels who are 'blotting out of the book of the living' the names of the unjust (verse 29, (28)).