Thomas Aquinas, on Ps 37:8

“For my loins are filled with illusions; and there is no health in my flesh.”

“"Afflicted." Here he sets forth the magnitude of the sorrow. And first he sets forth such magnitude. Second, he sets forth a sign of it, at "I roared." He posited two things regarding sorrow. The first, that he is saddened. The second, that he is bowed down. By the first he designates sorrow; by the second, dejection; and he must repeat these two here. With respect to his being bowed down, he says "humbled." With respect to his being saddened, he says "afflicted"; and both "exceedingly," and this on account of the magnitude of the evil he had incurred, because sin is the greatest evil. And therefore he is afflicted with many pains. Likewise, on account of the loss of a great good. Jer. 2: "See and know how evil it is to have forsaken the Lord," etc. Likewise, according to Origen, on account of the change of state from the state of grace and virtue to the state of sin. Boethius: "A great kind of unhappiness is to have been happy." Job 29: "Who will grant me that I might be as in the months of old, according to the days in which God watched over me?" A sign of great sorrow is roaring; therefore he says, "I roared from the groaning of my heart." Roaring is said to be the voice of beasts, namely of the lion and the bear, on account of the vehemence of pain or hunger. Hence roaring is vehement weeping. Job 3: "Like rushing waters, so is my roaring." Hence, "I roared," that is, I wept most bitterly. But it sometimes happens that someone weeps outwardly, yet not from interior emotion. But I do not weep in this way; rather, this roaring proceeds from the groaning of my heart. Lam. 1: "Many are my groanings, and my heart is sorrowful." Is. 59: "We shall all roar like bears."”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.