The interpretation timeline

Ps 111:4

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

2 Patristic · 1 Jewish

Ps 111:4 · Douay-Rheims
“To the righteous a light is risen up in darkness: he is merciful, and compassionate and just.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“"Unto the right-hearted there arises up light in the darkness" [Psalm 112:4]. Justly do the godly direct their heart unto their God, justly do they walk with their God, preferring His will to themselves; and having no proud presumption in their own. For they remember that they were some time in darkness, but are now light in the Lord. [Ephesians 5:8] "Merciful, pitying, and just is the Lord God." It delights us that He is "merciful and pitying," but it perhaps terrifies us that the Lord God is "just." Fear not, despair not at all, happy man, who fearest the Lord, and hast great delight in His commandments.”
Source
305 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
735
A.D.
Bede Patristic
A.D. 673–735
“"Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the brightness of God shone around them." What does it mean that, as the angel was appearing to the shepherds, the splendor of divine brightness also enclosed them, something that we have never discovered in the whole course of the Old Testament? Though in countless cases angels appeared to prophets and just people, nowhere do we read of angels enclosing the human beings with the brightness of divine light. [Why is this], unless it is because the privilege was properly kept for the dignity of this time? For when the true Light of the world was born in the world, it was unquestionably fitting that the herald of his nativity should also bathe the bodily sight of human beings with the freshness of heavenly light. Now the prophet says concerning his nativity, "A light has arisen in the darkness for those who are righteous in heart." And as though we were asking what the light was to which he refers, he immediately goes on, "He is a merciful and compassionate and just Lord." Therefore, when the merciful and just Maker and Redeemer of the human race deigned to illuminate the world by the glory of a wondrous nativity, it was entirely proper that the brightness of a wondrous light should fill that very region in which he was born.”
Source
370 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“He shone a light in the darkness Heb. זרח [the “kal” conjugation], like הזריח, [the “hiph’il” or causative conjugation]. Its midrashic interpretation is that He Himself, so to speak, becomes a light for them, as (above 27:1): “The Lord is my light and my salvation.””
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.