Commentarius In LXXV Psalmos [Attributus]

THE COMMENTARY ON THE SEVENTY-FIVE PSALMS OF DAVID, ONCE ATTRIBUTED TO RUFINUS OF AQUILEIA.

The Argument of All the Titles That Are Prefixed to the Psalms.

The titles of all the superscriptions are diverse; for besides those which are marked in advance by the names of their authors, or by indications of causes, or of times, there are others whose title is "Unto the end"; others whose title is only "A Psalm of a song," or "A song of a psalm." And it must be that the causes of the diverse superscriptions have proceeded from diverse reasons. For it is not without cause that this order of titles is varied with such great diversity of things, so that now "Unto the end," now "A Psalm," now "A song," now "A song of a psalm," now "A psalm of a song" is set forth to distinguish the psalm that lies beneath. And although in each several psalm we strive to show the causes of each several inscription, nevertheless for the compendium of studious understanding, in a brief discourse let us gather together the power of all the superscriptions. The end is that for the sake of which all other things are, but it itself furnishes its cause to no other thing. For all things are for the sake of the end: I wish nothing else after the end. For one tends toward the end, but in the end one ceases. Thus the end is both the perfection of the things that come before, and, extending itself into nothing else, is its own possession once and for all in itself.

Therefore the psalms that are inscribed "Unto the end" are to be understood as proceeding from the perfect and complete teachings and forms of eternal goods; because the course of our faith should extend to the things that are said in these, and, tending toward nothing further beyond them, it should rest in its own desired and attained end of blessedness. But in the musical arts these are the kinds and varieties of functions. A psalm is when, with the voice ceasing, only the sound of the resounding instrument is heard. A canticle is when the chorus of singers, using its freedom and not constrained to the harmonious service of the instrument, exults in a hymn of melodious voice alone. But a psalm of a canticle is when, with the instrument leading the way, the answering and emulating voice of the singing chorus is heard, imitating the manner of the psaltery in the measures of the voice. But a canticle of a psalm is when, with the chorus singing first, the art of the harmonious instrument is joined to the hymn of human singing, and it is modulated on the psaltery with equal sweetness to the measures of the leading voice.

To these four kinds of the musical art, therefore, the superscriptions fitted to each individual psalm are correspondingly adapted. But from the powers of the psalms, and from the diversities of musical doctrine themselves, the reason for each one's superscription is shown. For in that psalm in which only "Psalm" is inscribed, there is contained either the doctrine or the confession of works of faith and religious deeds, since the Prophet, by recounting the things he does, instructs us unto the doctrine of similar deeds, our bodily organ's motion being tempered to pious uses of duties. But when only "Canticle" is set before in the title of a psalm, spiritual knowledge and heavenly understanding are understood in it, which one attains through the cognition of wisdom, when, with works of faith not recounted, it shows only the doctrine of perfect knowledge concerning God. For not all knowledge is immediately in a good work, nor again does every good work attain true knowledge. Wherefore there is that which is in the third kind of superscriptions. It is called "Canticle of a psalm" when the doctrine of knowledge is joined with the efficacy of good works. For one must first live in good works, so that the knowledge of the divine sacrament which follows thereafter may be perfect, according to that which was said: "Have you desired wisdom? Keep the commandments, and the Lord will grant it" (Matt. 19). He will grant wisdom, therefore, to those who through the merits of good works obtain the grace of understanding.

From these pursuits of works and of doctrine, the reason why that psalm is inscribed "A Canticle of a Psalm" will have to be known. But where it is "A Psalm of a Canticle," there the use of good works is handed down through the knowledge of understanding, since the earlier knowledge of God, once attained, furnishes us with the desirable efficacy of faithful deeds. This fourfold diversity, therefore, of the musical art is fitted to the diversity of the psalms, as it is. A Psalm, through the movement of the bodily organ, consists in the remembrance of deeds. But a Canticle, through the knowledge of wisdom, has within itself the understanding of doctrine. But it is "A Psalm of a Canticle" when, with the merit of deeds going before, the knowledge of understanding is furnished. Then it is "A Canticle of a Psalm" when, through the understanding of knowledge once attained, the work of faithful deeds is begun and carried out. Through these properties of the superscriptions, therefore, one ought to seek the understanding of the psalms, because to each kind of prophecy, in the property of the titles, each kind of musical comparison is suited. But the other superscriptions, which either signify deeds done according to histories, or encompass times, or days, or something else, are shown either from the interpretation of names, or from the comparison of deeds, or from the likeness of similar things, from which matters the psalm consists. And wherever there is "For the day of the sabbath," or "For the hidden things of the son.

Or let "For the eighth day" be understood, through its bodily superscription and meaning, as the setting forth of a special psalm: so that we may attain the prophecy that is in the psalm, whether it is "of that David," or "to that David," or "to Absalom," or "to Saul," or "to Doeg." But in the diapsalma, which is interposed in very many psalms, it must be recognized that it begins with a change either of person or of sense, through the turning of the musical meter: so that wherever a diapsalma has intervened, it is to be understood that either something else is said, or even that it is said by another, or that it is sung in another mode of musical art. Concerning the persons or senses, wherever we find that a diapsalma intervenes, we shall attempt to set forth the reason. Moreover, the Greek and Latin translation could not preserve the discipline of the musical mode. But these things, said in compact brevity, will suffice.

Now let us hasten to turn our pen to the exposition of the psalms themselves. But a careful and well-disposed judgment must be applied to the exposition of each individual psalm, so that it may be known by which key of understanding each one of them is to be opened. For every book is like a beautiful and great city, which has many and diverse buildings, whose doors are closed by their own different keys.

Since these things, gathered together and mingled into one place, present the greatest difficulty to one who wishes to open each house individually and does not know how to find the key of each house, so that either, with the key of a familiar science already known, he may quickly choose one out of that abundance of gathered variety, or, with great labor, find a key suited and fitting for opening each entrance—because reason and the nature of the matter do not permit keys that do not belong to them to be fitted to different locks. Therefore, according to God's mercy, being about to find the key for opening each psalm, let us open the entrance of this first Psalm with its own proper and fitting key. This book among the Hebrews, on account of various reasons, is entitled in three ways: that is, either the Book of Hymns, or the Book of Soliloquies, or the Book of Psalms. Therefore its title is the Book of Hymns, because that whole work pertains to the praise of God. Hymns are songs sounding forth the praise of God. If there is praise, but it is not of God, it is not a hymn; if it is the praise of God, but it is not sung, it is not a hymn. It is necessary, therefore, that if it is a hymn, it have these three things: both praise, and of God, and song. Some also say that a hymn is properly called the praise of God composed in meter. Hence properly in Hebrew it is called the Book of Hymns, because there the whole psalter is written in meter.

It is also rightly called among us the Book of Hymns, because although, hindered by translation, it does not keep the meter, it nevertheless keeps what is most important: namely, that in every part among you, as also among the Hebrews, it signifies the praise of God, which is evident. It is also not undeservedly called the Book of Soliloquies, in that in it the Holy Spirit alone speaks without any human ingenuity or assistance. Or it is a soliloquy, not because the psalms alone speak of Christ, but because they speak of him more worthily and more manifestly than the other prophets. From this dignity also this prophecy is held in more frequent use in the Church. Again, it is rightly called the Book of Psalms, because holy David wished to declare the sweet mystery of this prophecy with a sweet sound, a sweet instrument, that is, the psaltery. For wishing to magnify the worship of the temple to the honor of God, when he brought back the Ark from Shiloh, he chose three thousand men praising God with musical instruments, and he set them over a hundred and fifty; to all of whom he added four others as leaders: Ethan, Heman, Asaph, and Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 16). He himself also, playing on the psaltery in the tabernacle, invited the others to divine worship, and he played this prophecy on the psaltery (1 Chronicles 24). And not without cause on this instrument rather than another: because just as this instrument has ten strings, and is hollow above, from which it resounds, so this prophecy resounds concerning things above, which instructs us concerning spiritual things.

Nor is this for the sake of human praise, but from the sole desire for the heavenly homeland. The ten strings of the psaltery signify the ten precepts of the law: all of which he fulfills well who carries out those things which are sung as written in the psaltery. But it is called prophecy, not because it foretells future things, but because it discloses hidden things. Its times are three: past, present, and future. And it is itself sometimes made through figures, sometimes through a dream, sometimes through hidden revelation: as is that, which the Prophet himself attests, where he says, I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me (Ps. 10). And, You have made known to me the hidden things of your wisdom (Ps. 50). The common matter of this whole work is Christ, understood in three ways: that is, according to his divinity, according to his humanity, and according to his body, which is the Church. But what is interspersed concerning contrary things, that is, demons and impious men, is not done because they are of the principal matter, but so that they may serve the principal matter through certain advantages, they are mixed in. As in the first psalm he introduces the impious, in order that through their punishments he may deter men from conformity with them, and lead them to conformity with Christ. It is asked by some to which part of philosophy it is to be assigned. To whom it must be answered that, insofar as it treats of morals, it can be assigned to Ethics; insofar as it treats of nature, to Physics.

It must be known, however, that the Holy David composed these one hundred fifty psalms by the revealing of the Spirit of God. And although certain psalms are entitled with the names of others—as for instance of Solomon, of Haggai, of the sons of Korah, and of any others whatsoever—it was not done for the reason that they themselves composed the psalms, but on account of the mysteries of the names, or the offices to which the following discourse appears to pertain. Nor were they arranged in the order in which they were composed by the holy David. For when he had sinned with the wife of Uriah, he brought forth Have mercy on me, O God; but after these things, on account of the persecution of Absalom, he produced Lord, why are they multiplied. Likewise, when he was first anointed by Samuel, he composed The Lord is my illumination; but when Saul had died, I will love thee. Esdras the scribe, who set the titles, arranged the psalms otherwise than they had been dictated; perhaps the Holy Spirit disposing this, so that when the order of events or of times is not held according to the letter, another more subtle order may be sought according to spiritual understanding. And there are some who wish the five books of the psalms to be [so called], because they find "fiat" four times there; but that it is one book, the book of the Acts of the Apostles confirms, where it says, As it is written in the book of Psalms.

Esdras, however, when he had set titles to the other psalms, did not assign one to this psalm for the reason that this psalm is the title of all the others. Just as a title also illuminates and prefaces the whole subject matter that follows, so this psalm, which comes first, touches on the whole subject matter of the work that follows. He treats of this subject matter in the following way: by showing the power of the divinity, the perfection of Christ's humanity, the universality of the healing of the members, the conversion of sinners, and the patience and glory of all. His intention is to admonish us to strive to recover in ourselves the blessedness lost in the first parent, and by our example in others; and so that we may be able to do this, he urges us to be conformed to the image of the new man, Christ, of whom he treats in this first psalm in this way. He removes from him all evils, both of thought and of deed. He commends in him every perfection of virtue. He shows that he is useful to us. But it must be known that those perfections of Christ which he sets forth collectively in the first psalm, he carries out in many ways and in parts in the remaining psalms that follow. Therefore, since all tend toward blessedness, and cannot be blessed except through Christ (for to be blessed is so great a good that all, both good and bad, wish it), he sets Christ before us as an example. And he begins with blessedness thus.

COMMENTARY ON THE SEVENTY-FIVE PSALMS.

PSALM ONE.

Blessed is the man, etc. After it has been said, he did not depart, it seems superfluous that there is added, he did not stand, and he did not sit. For he who does not consent to sin can no longer stand or persevere in it. But he does this for this reason, because he wishes to follow the order in which the first man sinned, so that he may show the second man to be entirely unlike the first. Blessed is the man who did not depart. This must be understood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not depart in the counsel of the wicked, as the earthly man did, who consented to his wife when she was deceived by the serpent, so as to despise the Lord's commandments (Gen. 3:6). And he did not stand in the way of sinners. He indeed came into the way of sinners, being born as sinners are; but he did not stand, because secular enticement did not hold him. And he did not sit in the chair of pestilence. For he did not want an earthly kingdom with pride (John 18). And this chair of pestilence is rightly understood for the reason that few are they who lack the love of ruling and do not seek human glory. Pestilence, moreover, is a disease spread far and wide, involving all or nearly all. Or the chair of pestilence can be understood as pernicious doctrine. Then the order of the words must be considered: he departed, he stood, he sat. He departed who withdrew from God. He stood when he took delight in sin.

He sat, confirmed in his pride, unable to return—unless freed by him who neither departed in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. This can also be understood of any righteous man, in what is said: Blessed is the man who did not depart, etc. To depart in the counsel of the wicked is to assent to depraved counsels. He stands in the way of sinners who perseveres in evil works. But he sits in the chair of pestilence who teaches others the evil he does. Therefore whoever strives to live blessedly ought especially to beware of depraved counsels. For it is written: Evil communications corrupt good manners (1 Cor. 15). Depraved works and examples are likewise to be avoided, because just as the less good are always drawn toward better things by the works and examples of the good, so sometimes the weak are drawn toward worse things by the deeds and examples of the wicked. Hence the Psalmist says elsewhere: With the holy you were holy. And a little later it is added: And with the perverse you will be perverted (Ps. 17). Therefore these things must be fled the more earnestly, the more easily they can deceive unwary minds. The way of blessedness, then, is that whoever desires to strive toward a good work—namely, so that he may live blessedly—should first take care to avoid evil, lest he hinder the good that he does. Whence it is written: Decline from evil, and do good (Ps. 33). What follows concerns our Lord Jesus Christ.

But his will is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he will meditate day and night. That the will of Christ was in the law of God the Father, the text of the holy Gospel sufficiently shows, where it is related by Luke that the boy Jesus is found in the temple of the Lord, sitting in the midst of the teachers and questioning, while all were astonished at his understanding and his answers (Luke 2). And when questioned by his parents, he said: What is it that you were seeking me? Did you not know that in those things which are my Father's, I must be? (Ibid.). Therefore his will is in the law of the Lord. In no way would the boy Jesus have remained in the temple of the Lord against his parents' will, if his will had not been in the law of the Lord. And in his law he will meditate day and night. For Christ preached by day and by night. By day he taught the crowds, by night he revealed the mysteries of the word to his disciples (John 8). Or, his will was in the law of the Lord because the Son never disagreed with the precepts of the Father. Hence it is that he himself said: I did not come to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, the Father (John 6). From these words what else do we gather, except that we ought to obey the Lord's precepts, not by fearing, but by loving: not out of necessity, but out of will. For neither fear nor necessity, but love alone fulfills the law. Hence it is that the Apostle says: For he who loves has fulfilled the law (Rom. 13).

Nor is it surprising if he who is filled with love meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, that is, continually; or day and night, that is, in prosperity and adversity. For where there is true love, there is meditation on the divine law; and the mind that is kindled with the love of God is changed neither by prosperity nor by adversity.

And he will be like a tree that is planted beside the courses of waters, which will give its fruit in its season. Concerning wisdom it is said through Solomon: She is a tree of life to those who have laid hold of her, and he who has held her fast is blessed (Proverbs 5). But what is Christ, if not the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1)? Whoever lays hold of him by loving and desiring him will without doubt live forever. We read that in paradise there is a tree of life, of which it was said: See that he does not perhaps take from the tree of life and live forever (Genesis 3). If therefore one who took from this tree would live forever, Christ is rightly compared to the tree, who is the food of life; whoever feeds on it will live and will not die. Now in sacred Scripture the name of waters is sometimes used to designate the people, as is read in the Apocalypse, where it is said through the angel: Many waters are many peoples (Apocalypse 17). But the courses of waters (according to Augustine) signify the fall that comes about through sin. Rightly therefore is the Lord described as planted beside the courses of waters, because among men flowing along in the flux of mortality and sin he deigned to be born.

He who grew green like a tree through the newness of life, sent forth new leaves, as it were, through new words, blossomed through miracles, and gave fruit by bestowing the remission of all sins and eternal life. Rightly, therefore, it is said that he will give his fruit in its own time. Concerning this time and fruit it is said through Paul: After the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son into the world, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law. Hence it was said to Abraham: In your seed all nations will be blessed. He does not say "in seeds," as though in many, but "in your seed," which is Christ, who says through himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Or else, like a tree planted by the streams of the waters of God, whenever any just man is rooted and founded in love through the infusion of the Holy Spirit. For by the name of "tree" the just man is often expressed, or even the unjust; as it is said through the prophet: I am the Lord, who humbles the lofty tree. Because according to the voice of Truth, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Solomon also says: If a tree falls to the south or to the north, wherever it falls, there it will be.

For on the day of his death the just man falls to the South, the sinner to the North: because the just man is led to joys through the fervor of the Holy Spirit, while the sinner, together with the apostate angel (who said, I will sit on the mountain of the testament on the sides of the North), is reprobated in his own cold heart. But by waters the grace of the Holy Spirit is customarily designated. Whence the Truth says: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And, Whoever drinks of the water that I give shall not thirst forever. By the irrigation of this water it is brought about that the faithful soul advances in the Lord through the greenness of faith and hope, and remains fixed in his love. And because love is never idle (for it works great things if it exists), it is rightly said that it will give its fruit in its time. In this present time the elect give their fruit; because the good that they do they attribute to him by whom they were made. Or, to give its fruit in its time is, through this life, to present one's works to the eternal Judge. Whence, through the likeness of a householder, it is said by a certain one: Lord, you handed over five talents to me; behold, I have gained five more. From these words it must be very carefully noted that whatever almighty God grants us in this life, he gives as a loan, and requires it with profit.

Nor is it enough to keep what has been given, but each one must above all multiply it, so that, avoiding the sentence of the slothful servant, he may deserve to hear what is said there: "Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things: enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25). Therefore, if we act faithfully in few things while we live here for a short time (for all temporal things are few compared with eternity), we shall be set over many things. Many indeed are the heavenly goods, of which it is written that neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him (Isa. 64; 1 Cor. 4). And his leaf shall not fall off, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. By the leaf is understood the word. For what leaves do for a tree, this the words of the Redeemer do in us by way of likeness: by his fruit indeed we are spiritually fed, but by his speech we are shaded from vices. But how the leaf, that is, the word, does not fall off, he himself shows in the Gospel, where he says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Matt. 24; Luke 21). For even if the sound of words passes away, the meaning expressed by the words endures. And whatever is said by the voice of truth, whether in the Law, or in the Prophets, or in the Gospel, or in the Apostolic books, or even through any religious persons, all of it will be fulfilled through operation.

Hence it is written: one iota, or one apex, shall not pass from the Law until all things be fulfilled (Matthew 5; Luke 24). And because Christ is called mighty in deed and word (for he himself is the power of God and the wisdom of God [1 Corinthians 2]), rightly it is said of him in what follows: And all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. The only-begotten Son of God, coming in the flesh (John 1), because he was true God and true Man, taught and did some things as God, others as Man. But what he did or taught as God has profited us for right believing. What indeed he did as Man has profited us for right living. Fulfilled therefore is what is said: And all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. But perhaps it is not believed that he acted prosperously, since he was seized by the Jews, bound, scourged, crucified, killed (John 18). Nay, it was then that he acted prosperously, because by his death he destroyed our death. Nor would it have profited him to be born in the flesh, had it not befallen him to die and rise again. And by the wondrous dispensation of the Lord it was brought about that both the Jews should fulfill their will against Christ, and should accomplish Christ's counsel, which they thought to destroy. But these words which were spoken concerning the head can also apply to his members. For whoever desires perfectly to serve God seeks to be righteous not only in deed but also in word. Let it be said therefore of any perfect man: And his leaf shall not fall, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. His leaf does not fall whose word stands fast in the truth.

His leaf shall not fall, because he restrains his tongue from excess of words. Hence it is said through Solomon: The wise man will keep silence until the proper time (Proverbs 11). The Psalmist also says elsewhere: I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue (Psalm 38). And James declares, saying: He who does not offend in word, this man is perfect (James 3). Of this perfect man, therefore, it is rightly said: And all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. The deeds of the upright indeed then prosper when evils are not mingled with goods: when things well begun are carried through to the end: when in return for them neither temporal gain, nor earthly glory, nor the favor of men, but only the reward of the heavenly fatherland is sought. But sometimes it happens that one who lives perfectly offends in word or in deed. Yet even then his word does not fall away, even when he offends, as long as the guilt is retained in the heart until it is healed by the satisfaction of penitence. And when after a fault he returns more cautiously to righteousness, what seems to be opposed to it—his very sin—also prospers. And in a wondrous way it comes about that from the very source whence he sinned, he becomes more righteous. Rightly, therefore, it is said through Paul: All things work together for good to those who are called according to purpose, who are saints (Romans 8). All things, indeed, not only prosperous things but also adverse: not only good things but also evil.

Therefore, since each perfect man is both mature in speech and discerning in action, it is rightly said: And his leaf shall not fall, and all things whatsoever he does shall prosper. But now let us hear what he adds concerning the reprobate.

Not so the wicked, not so. Here the repetition is a threat, as if he were saying: Neither so shall you be blessed, nor so shall you be able to prosper, But like the dust, which the wind drives away from the face of the earth. Deservedly is the wicked man compared to dust, because to the sinning man it is said: Dust you are, and to dust you shall return (Gen. 3). While he is driven by temptations, he is moved like dust by the wind. When anger disturbs him, pride inflates him, vainglory lifts him up, luxury enervates him, avarice subjugates him, envy divides him, sorrow casts him down: by as many impulses of temptations as he is pressed, so by as many blasts of winds is the dust scattered. But if the face of the earth is taken as the appearance of the heavenly fatherland (of which earth the Prophet says: I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living [Ps. 26]), the dust is rightly described as driven away from the face of the earth, because the wicked man is removed from the vision of heavenly glory.

Therefore the wicked do not rise in judgment. That is, of course, because, weighed down by no weight of virtues, they have been cast out like dust from the face of the earth. Whence it is written: Let the wicked be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God. Nor sinners in the council of the righteous. The sentence seems to be repeated, so that what was said above, the wicked, may be understood as sinners, and what was set down first, in judgment, may here be said as in the council of the righteous. Or if the wicked are one thing and sinners another (for every wicked man is a sinner, but not every sinner is wicked). The wicked do not rise in judgment, that is, to be judged, because they have already been assigned to most certain punishments. But sinners do not rise in the council of the righteous, that is, to judge, but to be judged. But since David says that the wicked do not rise in judgment, what is it that Paul says: We shall all indeed rise? For by all he wishes both good and evil, both pious and impious, both sinners and righteous to be understood. But it must be known that all, both good and evil, are to rise to life, but not all will rise to glory. The same Apostle makes this sufficiently clear, who in the same place adds: But we shall not all be changed. Indeed all will rise that they may live, both good and evil; but not all will be changed from life to glory, except the good alone. Why this?

Because the Lord knows the way of the just. He knows, that is, He approves. But the way of the wicked shall perish. As if he were saying, the Lord does not know the way of the wicked: so that to be unknown by the Lord is the same as to perish, and to be known by the Lord is the same as to remain. For the knowledge of God is taken in two ways (from Augustine): either to know, that is, to recognize; or to know, that is, to approve. According to this, that the knowledge of God is said to be recognizing, the Lord knows both good and evil. As it is written, He knows both the deceiver and the one who is deceived (Job 12): for He would not judge anyone wicked if He did not know him at all. And yet He does not know the wicked, because He does not approve his deeds. And so He knows, because He apprehends, and He does not know, because He does not recognize him in the highest form of wisdom. Hence He will say to them in judgment, Amen I say to you, I do not know you (Matt. 25). But according to this, that to know is said to be to approve, the Lord knows only the good, as it is written: The Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim. 2). He knows them because He foreknew and predestined them to be made conformable to the image of His Son (Rom. 8). Therefore, because almighty God so knows the works of the just as to approve them, but so does not know the deeds of the wicked as to condemn them, it is rightly said, Because the Lord knows the way of the just, and the way of the wicked shall perish.

TITLE OF THE SECOND PSALM.

The second Psalm is entitled thus: A Psalm of David. It should be noted that titles are prefixed to certain Psalms in such a way as to indicate the intention, in some the subject matter, and in some indeed both. A psalm is properly called a melody, which proceeds from the psaltery through the movement and labor of the hands, and therefore it is often used for good works, which cannot be without labor. And insofar as exhortation to good works is contained in this matter, for that reason such a word befits the matter itself, so that it is called a psalm. This psalm, therefore, that is, the following exhortation to good works, is to be attributed to David, that is, to Christ, who is interpreted as the true David, that is, desirable in appearance, or strong in hand. For who is so desirable as He of whom it is written: Whose face the whole earth desires, and whom the angels desire to look upon (1 Pet. 1; Luke 11)? And who is stronger than He who has done all things whatsoever He willed (Ps. 134)? Who cast out the prince of this world from his kingdom (John 12), who by His death destroyed our death (Hosea 13)? And it should be known that when Psalms are entitled in such a way that Psalm is prefixed and not Canticle, it is indicated that the subject is morals. But when Canticle and not Psalm, it is handed down not concerning morals but concerning mystical understanding. The intention of Christ, to whom these words apply, is this: that all the faithful may have hope and confidence of a good life, not in

but they establish [it] in Christ both according to the beginning and according to the end. Because sometimes the prophets foresee future things in such a way as they know past things. The holy David, what he foresaw would come to pass concerning the passion of Christ and his persecutors, wished to narrate not in the future but in the past tense: so that from his words he might show that, with the Holy Spirit revealing, he was as certain of future things as of past things. He speaks, therefore, concerning the persecutors of Christ.

PSALM II.

Why have the nations raged, that is, the Gentiles; and the peoples, that is, the Jews, meditated in vain? And why have the kings of the earth stood together, Herod and Pilate, and the princes Annas and Caiaphas, gathered into one, in counsel and place, against the Lord, the Father, and against Christ his Son? So great, then, was the insanity of fury that invaded them, so great a blindness of malice struck them, that they did not even fear to put to death unanimously their own author, whom they ought to have believed in and adored. But it is said, Why, as if it were said, in vain. For they did not accomplish what they willed. For those who killed Christ for this reason, that they might wipe out his name from the earth, and lest they themselves should lose their place and nation: for this very reason indeed they increased his name, and the same lost both nation and place, because they killed the innocent Lord. And it was done in a wondrous manner, that while they believed they were fulfilling their own counsel, they were fulfilling the counsel of the Lord unwillingly and unknowingly.

Therefore they meditated on empty things. For there is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord (Prov. 21). But what empty things did they meditate on?

Let us break, they say, their bonds, and let us cast off from us their yoke, that is, let us destroy the bonds of the Christian religion, so that they may not be able to subjugate us to themselves. Thus, thus do proud minds frequently raise themselves up against their own author, while they desire to fulfill their own will, not his: and they fall the worse the more they stretch themselves up above him by whom they were made. But what follows?

He who dwells in the heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will mock them. Because those dwelling on earth presumed to laugh at and mock the heavenly Lord, they will be shown by that heavenly God himself to be worthy of laughter and mockery. For he who rose from the dead, and now dwells in the heavens reigning, when he comes to judgment, will show them worthy of laughter (as we have already said) and mockery. Hence through Wisdom it is said (Prov. 1): Because I called, and you refused, I stretched out my hand, and there was no one who looked: you despised all my counsel, and you neglected my reproofs. I also will laugh in your destruction, and I will mock, when what you feared has come upon you (Ibid). When sudden calamity has rushed in, and destruction has come on like a storm: when tribulation and distress have come upon you: then they will call upon me, and I will not hear: they will rise early, and they will not find me.

Then he will speak to them in his anger, he who before was silent in his gentleness. And in his fury he will throw into confusion those whom before he endured in the long-suffering of his patience. But the anger and fury of the Lord (from Augustine) must not be understood as a disturbance of the mind, but as the power by which he judges most justly. In his anger he will speak to them, when in his judgment he rebukes them with harsh reproof; in his fury he will throw them into confusion, when he strikes the impious with strict punishment. Behold, God appears to us sinners not as angry but as appeased and merciful; he sees our evils and patiently endures them. Therefore he tolerates them for a long time, that he may draw us to repentance. But whoever now neglects him when he is appeased will surely feel him when he is angry. And the harder each one now is toward repentance, the stricter he himself will be toward vengeance. But how he who dwells in the heavens also reigns on earth, let us hear: for he says:

But I have been established as king by him—that is, by my Father—over Zion, his holy mountain, proclaiming his commandment. I, I say, whose bonds they were meditating to cast off and whose yoke to throw away. By Zion (from Augustine), which is called contemplation, the holy Church is understood, whose intent is daily raised up to contemplate the brightness of God. As the Apostle says: But we, with unveiled face, contemplating the glory of the Lord (2 Cor 3). This Church he calls a holy mountain (2 Pet 1), because of its eminence and firmness.

Over this Church, therefore, the only-begotten of God the Father has been established as king, not to reign by a earthly empire, but by a heavenly one. For he says in a certain place: My kingdom is not of this world. Therefore it is above the world. And when they wished to seize him to make him king, so that he might reign over them in a temporal manner, he fled and rejected earthly empire. Christ, therefore, has been established as king spiritually in us, so that, with the malignant prince expelled from our hearts, he himself may reign in the inner man according to the spirit, according to the gifts of graces and the largesses of virtues and the edifications of morals, for the salvation of our souls: so that sin may no longer reign in our mortal body, nor may we serve uncleanness unto iniquity, but rather justice unto sanctification. Thus, therefore, Christ desires to reign in us, so that he may defend us from unclean spirits and vices, and may fortify us with virtues and sacred works. Thus he longs to reign in us, so that by his guidance he may be able to lead us to the heavenly kingdom. But because we are still in the struggle, he does not cease to admonish us with his precepts. Hence it is well said: Preaching his commandment: because he says not "precepts" but "commandment," perhaps indicating to us charity, in which all the commandments are summed up; and if anyone fulfills it, the rest will be fulfilled by it.

Christ proclaims this commandment to us daily, and by this commandment he lifts us from earthly things to heavenly ones; and whatever he says through other commandments, he always intends to direct us to this one commandment. This is indeed a twofold mandate, for in the love of God is the love of neighbor. And it is written: On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets (Matthew 22). Whatever, therefore, the law, whatever the prophecy, whatever the Gospel, whatever the apostolic word proclaims—one commandment, that is, one love, consummates it all. But since we have heard of the power, let us hear of the dignity of this our king. For it follows, and says:

The Lord said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you. What we hear through the Prophet, this we also read through the Gospel. For there it is said that when the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father thundered: This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him (John 1; Matthew 17). There the Trinity manifestly showed itself to human nature, because the Son of God appeared in the form of a man, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father in the likeness of a human voice (Luke 2; Matthew 2).

Although (from Augustine) that day could seem to have been called a day in prophecy on which Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh, nevertheless, because “today” signifies presence, and in eternity there is neither past nor future but only present, it is divinely understood as said in this sense: “Today I have begotten you,” by which the catholic faith proclaims the eternal generation of the power and wisdom of God, who is the only-begotten Son. We therefore believe that there are two generations in Christ: one divine, the other human; one by which he was born from the Father in heaven without a mother, the other by which he was born on earth from a mother without a father. According to the former, when we were nothing, he created us. According to the latter, when we were lost, he reformed us. The only-begotten Son, therefore, born of the Father without time, because he did not wish to possess his heavenly inheritance alone, also established human nature for the contemplation of his glory. But because it perished by sinning, he also sought it out by being born in the flesh; and he who had made man in the image and likeness of God, by the wondrous affection of his love, himself became in the likeness of man. And from the point where he humbled himself to our humanity, he raised us up to the glory of his inheritance. In this generation and humiliation of the flesh, therefore, it is said to him by the Father:

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. He who asks seems indeed lesser than he of whom he asks. And when Christ took up the flesh, he made himself lesser than his Father through his humanity. For in that he is in the form of God, equal to the Father, he does not ask of the Father, but works all things together with the Father. But in that he deigned to humble himself for us, made lesser than the Father, he does not cease to intercede for us. Ask of me, he says, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. The holy Patriarchs and Prophets asked on behalf of the Jews; the only-begotten Son of God himself, made man among men, deigned to ask on behalf of the nations. They asked for salvation for their own nation, and God sent them a Savior. But because they saw him humble in the flesh, with a proud heart and from that pride they despised him. Yet whom Judea in her arrogance rejected, the gentile world in her humility received. The former lost the inheritance through pride; the latter came to the inheritance through humility. But because this was done not by their own merits but by the will of the Son of God and with the consent of his Father, it is rightly said to him: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. For he did not say, Let those nations ask, but, Do you ask. From these words it is sufficiently gathered that the gentile world is not saved by its own merits, but that he asked for this to be done, who for us was obedient to the Father even to the passion of death.

And because the Gentile people was gathered to the faith from the ends of the world by the bread, it is rightly said: And your possession, the ends of the earth—with "I will give" understood: I will give to you. For while persecution is being carried on in Judaea, the holy preaching of the Apostles is scattered throughout the whole world: as it is written, The word of God had been sent to you: but because you judged yourselves unworthy, behold, we are going to the Gentiles (Acts 13). Therefore, for the cruelty of malice that burned up the mind of Judaea, almighty God took the Gentiles as his inheritance: because by the very fact that she persecuted her own Redeemer and his members, the holy Apostles were scattered through various places, and we who are in the circuit of Judaea see the splendor of the true light by the gift of heavenly grace. But because he found us in the strength of life and brought us back to the rule of justice, it is well added:

Rule them with a rod of iron and break them like a potter's vessel. By the rod of iron is understood inflexible justice, which is called a rod because it is straight, and iron because it is hard. Straight to us, hard to the wicked: gentle to the just, harsh to the perverse. And because by this the Lord rules the spiritual and breaks the carnal, it is rightly said: And like a potter's vessel you shall break them. For what are earthly hearts but vessels of clay? For a vessel of clay is earthly and fragile (1 Cor 4). Therefore carnal hearts, which desire transitory things, love what is corruptible and base, and press upon earthly things with all their desires—what else are they but earthly vessels?

Those whom the Lord breaks in pieces with a rod of iron, when through the uprightness of justice he destroys their carnality in them, when he grinds down the elation of the mind, when their own weakness is brought back to memory, and the misery of corruption is diligently attended to, and the fracture of vices is carefully weighed. Since, therefore, the highest goodness has so made us that it may rule us, so breaks us that it may restore us to the mind, while it changes vessels of wrath into vessels of mercy, and vessels fit for destruction into vessels fit for honor (Rom. 9): let it rightly be said, You shall rule them with a rod of iron, and like a potter's vessel you shall break them in pieces. Those whom the divine word now addresses, when it adds:

And now, you kings, understand: be instructed, you who judge the earth. And now, that is, already renewed (according to Augustine), already with the clay coverings of the flesh crushed, with those vessels which pertain to the carnal life: now understand, you who are already kings, that is, you who are able to rule whatever in you is servile and bestial, chastising your bodies and subjecting them to servitude. Those who serve the heavenly king are undoubtedly kings: for to serve him is truly to reign. For each one is rendered so much the freer from vices, and rules himself spiritually so much the more powerfully, the more humbly he serves his author. Be instructed, it says, you who judge the earth. By this are signified the spiritual, who judge the earth. For whatever we judge is within us. But whatever is below the spiritual man is called by the name earth: because it is wounded by earthly corruption.

He who accuses himself as a sinner and condemns himself by his own judgment, and pursues himself with harsh reproaches, is not undeservedly called a earthly Joden (I Cor. 11). To such as these it is said, "Understand and be instructed," that is, understand for this purpose, that you may be instructed. For understanding does not profit if it does not reach the instruction of life. But he is instructed in understanding who strives to draw what he is able to understand toward the edification of his own life.

Serve the Lord in fear, and exult to him with trembling. For it often happens that he who serves the heavenly Lord purely, from that very virtue lifts himself up into elation, and the more he is at variance with the virtue of humility, the more quickly he removes himself far from the service of the Lord. Wherefore it is necessary that love so serve, that in humility the swelling of pride may always restrain the mind, lest the wind of elation carry away the fruit that a good life gathers. Or because in this world we are placed between the joy of hope and the fear of temptation, the Holy Spirit addresses us, saying: Serve the Lord in fear, and exult to him with trembling: so that both exultation may be born from hope, and trembling from temptation. For even if the action of the just sometimes prospers, yet it is placed in that life of which it is said through blessed Job, "Temptation is the life of man upon earth" (Job 7).

Since, therefore, we move among things smooth and rough, among prosperity and adversity, between sorrow and joy, between hope and fear, it is rightly said, "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult before him with trembling." But because it is not enough to do good unless one can also bear evils with equanimity, there is added:

"Lay hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry and you perish from the just way." Discipline is corrective tribulation, according to that saying, "For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and he scourges every son whom he receives" (Prov. 3). And because righteousness is practiced now in prosperity, now in adversity—in prosperity, indeed, fear is commanded; in adversity, patience under discipline—lest, if prosperity exalts him, he fall into the pit of pride, or if adversity casts him down, he be overwhelmed and collapse, conquered by the vileness of faintheartedness. But whoever neglects to lay hold of this discipline perishes indeed from the way of righteousness, and walks wretchedly through the paths of iniquity; and he provokes the almighty Lord to anger in proportion as he refuses to bear adversity for love of him. For since it is written, "That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8), and "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things the Lord has prepared for those who love him" (Isa. 64; 1 Cor.

Since God promises incomparable goods and the world brings in only the smallest evils, rightly is the Lord just in being angry when he sees such great things despised for things so small. For if they loved the sweetness of the heavenly fatherland, they would endure all tribulations out of great joy, since it is certain that from the endurance of this tribulation the inestimable reward of that sweetness grows. But still, for the sake of grasping discipline, it is added, when it is summed up:

When his anger has been shown forth in a little while; Blessed are all who trust in him. Now, while the sentence of the strict judge is deferred, and the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul (Ps. 9), while the just man endures tribulations and distresses, it does not appear what is the punishment of the wicked and what is the glory of the just. Hence it is that John the Apostle says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3). Then indeed it will appear how deceptive the confidence of this world has been, how transitory life, how brief glory, how slight pleasure, how false prosperity, and how quickly whatever here was dear and precious to them has passed away. Therefore those are unhappy who have trusted in such things. But blessed are all who trust in the Lord.

TITLE OF THE THIRD PSALM

The third Psalm is to be understood as spoken in the person of Christ, treating of his passion and resurrection. And it directs us to that history in which David is said to have fled from the face of his son Absalom, who was warring against him (2 Kings 13). Understanding that this history foretold those things which were done in the passion of Christ, the prophet Esdras prefixed such a title to the Psalm of David: when he fled from the face of Absalom his son. This is expounded in the following way: this Psalm, that is, this exhortation of moral teaching which is contained in the ensuing matter, is David, that is, Christ, who is strong of hand. The Psalm (I say) is entitled concerning those things which happened when he fled, that is, when by taking away his grace he withdrew from the face of Absalom his son, that is, from the mind of Judas, whom together with the other Apostles he chose by his grace for this purpose, that he might be his son (Luke 6). Well indeed is Absalom named, because it means the peace of the father; he is understood as the betrayer of Christ, because although he himself did not have peace with Christ, nevertheless Christ gave him peace and kept it in his heart.

Seeing therefore that his elect would suffer for righteousness' sake not only from others but even from friends and relatives, the Lord intends in this work to exhort them to constancy in suffering, setting himself before them as an example: so that just as he was constant in his passion, and in his tribulation called upon the Lord, and that very tribulation profited him unto glory and exaltation, so they too, considering that through tribulations they will be exalted, should turn to prayer, thinking that he is their head and advocate, and should not fail. What follows is from the psalm.

PSALM 3

Lord, why are they multiplied who trouble me? Many rise up against me. This inquiry was not made for the sake of ignorance, but for the instruction of the perfect, so that by considering the end of their tribulation they may remain constant. So indeed (from Augustine) they are multiplied who rise up and trouble, so that from the number of the disciples there was not lacking one who went over to the number of the persecutors. O wondrous patience of God Almighty! Those whom he could have destroyed by a single word, in his wondrous meekness he deigned to tolerate, so that through himself he might demonstrate what virtue of patience ought to be in us. For the eternal Creator made himself an example for us, so that, since the heavenly God was thus humbled, earthly man might now cease to be proud.

But he keeps these words of his own head for the body that is his, which is the Church, which, while she is pressed by tribulations, while she sees the perverse rising up against her, cries out and says: Lord, why are they multiplied who trouble me?

Many rise up against me. The holy martyrs cried this, when they saw the persecutors of the Church multiplied. The Church present now does not cease to cry this, which in the time of her peace labors under many adversities, while she is assailed by the snares of the enemy, while she is burdened by the conduct of the wicked, while she gravely endures the open injuries of carnal men, and bears more heavily the pretense of certain ones as though just, under the image of sanctity, as long as the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5), and the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks on many things (Wis. 9): as long as she remains in this perilous and laborious life, so long the faithful soul has to say: Lord, why are they multiplied who trouble me? Many rise up against me. Many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God. It is manifest that those were saying this who did not believe that Christ is God (Matt. 27). To this those voices pertain: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (Luke 23). For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2). And because for the most part, by a heaping up of vices, it creeps in.

Despair is healed, as if the vices themselves were insulting the soul, or even the devil and his angel through harmful suggestions, so that we despair while they work—most truly it is said: Many say to my soul: There is no salvation for him in his God. But whoever the adversary who attacks us, whatever tribulation weighs upon us, we must always say what follows:

But you, Lord, are my sustainer, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. By the name "head" in sacred speech the mind is usually understood. For just as the members are governed by the head, so the senses are governed by the mind. Such people the heavenly goodness willingly receives, whom it sees humbly fleeing to its aid; and it lifts up the head, that is, their mind, by the gift of its grace—those whom it delights not to glory in this world, not in themselves, but in the Lord their God. Hence the Apostle admonishes us, saying: Whoever glories, let him glory in the Lord. For if you glory in the Lord, God glories in you. If you seek not your own glory but his, he himself seeks how to exalt and glorify you. Hence the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, hence the Apostles and the other righteous men were exalted and glorified by the Lord God, because, despising themselves in this world, they sought the glory of the Lord, not their own. Or what is said here—But you, Lord, are my sustainer, and the rest—is said according to the man, because the taking up of man is the Word made flesh.

He also calls it the Lord's glory, even he whom the Word of God so took up that he became God like him. From this rule we are instructed that no one should glory in himself. But Christ as head had his exaltation in his passion, because in such great humility of passion he did not lose the strength of mind.

With my voice, he says, I cried to the Lord, and he heard me from his holy mountain. To cry to the Lord with one's voice is to entreat the Lord intently. He cries with his voice when anyone prays so intently that the sound of the voice does not disagree with the intention of the heart. Hence the distinguished teacher says: When you pray to the Lord with psalms and hymns, let that be in the heart which is brought forth in the mouth. And the Apostle says, I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind (1 Cor 14). The Lord willingly hears such people, namely those whom he sees crying out in this way; whence it is said as a blessing, And he heard me from his holy mountain, that is, from the height of his justice. For we read, Your justice is like the mountains of God (Isa 34). And it was thus just (from Augustine) that he should raise the innocent slain one from the dead, to whom evils were repaid for our sake (Isa 34), and repay those pursuing him as they deserved (Tit 3). He also hears us from his holy mountain when he receives our prayers, not from our merits, but from his holy mercy. For we are not worthy to be heard, but he is merciful, so as to hear (1 Tim 2). Hence it is that it is said through the Apostle.

Not from works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. But he himself through whom we were saved says, I slept, and slumbered, and rose again, because the Lord received me. The sleep of one dying, but the slumber of one dead can be understood; so that sleep is that by which one passes into slumber, as it were an awakening by which one passes to waking. Rightly, then, it is taken: I slept, and slumbered. I gave myself over to suffering, and death followed. Or then Christ slept, when, having taken on death, he rested from temporal pain. Then he slumbered, when on the second day he lingered in the tomb; but on the third day he rose from the dead. Hence he says here, And I rose again, because the Lord received me. For rising from the dead, he was received into the glory of God the Father. Or anyone of the faithful can say this, recalling the death of his sins and the gift of regeneration: I slept, and the rest. For we slept when we grew sluggish toward good work; when we lay delightfully in our own depravity; when it was sweet for us to sin, and indeed to persevere in those sins. But from this sleep the grace that gives life has made us wake, when it brought our evils back to memory; when it turned the sweetness of sins into bitterness, and formed our mind toward the lamentations of penitence, and stirred us, sluggish in vices, to good works. But the grace of the Lord is commended when it is said, I rose again, because the Lord received me.

For unless his grace had received it, our soul would not have risen at all from the death of sin. But whoever is raised up by the Lord is also made strong against his adversaries; this is rightly added next.

I will not fear the thousands of the people surrounding me. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God. Arise—that is, make me arise. It is the custom of the divine Scriptures (from Augustine) to attribute to the person of God what works in us. Hence that passage: Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? For he did not say, "By whose command I speak," but he attributes the very act of speaking to him by whose gift he was speaking. But since the number one thousand is perfect, by the thousands of the people the whole multitude of the wicked is designated. Therefore he whom the Lord raises up and saves does not dread the thousands of the people, because he fears the whole multitude of the wicked as much as he has the one almighty God as his protector. Or if what was said is taken in the person of the Lord speaking—I will not fear the thousands of the people surrounding me—it is clear that he no longer fears his adversaries, because they cannot afflict him bodily. For Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more; death shall no longer have dominion over him. And he has his enemies beneath him, in that power over heaven and earth was given to him as he sits at the right hand of God the Father. But why he does not fear, he gives the reason when he adds:

Because you struck all who oppose me without cause; you crushed the teeth of sinners. Who does not know that his enemies opposed Christ without cause (Isaiah 53)? For he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Peter 2). But because just God is also merciful (Psalm 10), he struck all his adversaries (Psalm 110): some by the vengeance of punishment unto damnation, others by the sorrow of repentance unto salvation. By those who oppose him are understood the malignant spirits, or any wicked men, who now persecute the Church of Christ; these indeed are struck by the Lord at the end of the age. You crushed the teeth of sinners. By teeth (according to Augustine) are signified cursed words, concerning which it is said through the Apostle Paul, But if you bite one another, take heed lest you be consumed by one another (Galatians 5). Teeth can also be understood as the leaders of sinners, by whose authority each person is cut off from the fellowship of those who live rightly, and is, as it were, incorporated into those who live wickedly. The Lord therefore grinds down the teeth of sinners when he brings both them and their words to nothing. Let evil adversaries therefore fear, because if they strike unjustly, they have above them the Lord, by whom they are justly struck. Let evil powers fear, because if they oppress others, they have above them the power by which they are oppressed. But what is our hope (2 Corinthians 4)?

Salvation (he says) belongs to the Lord, and your blessing is upon your people. We are indeed weak and feeble (1 Cor 11): let no one presume on himself, since salvation belongs to the Lord, who saves from the death of sin. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7). Therefore salvation belongs to the Lord. But what is the blessing of his people, if not that by which it is said, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Mt 27). Such is the blessing upon us and upon our children. Amen.

THE TITLE OF THE FOURTH PSALM

It must be known that in certain matters the psalm is placed first in the title so that the canticle does not follow. In others the canticle is placed first, so that the psalm does not follow. In others the psalm is placed first and the canticle follows. In others the canticle is placed first and the psalm follows: this variety must be noted. For where only the psalm is set down, it is signified that in the following matter there is treatment simply of morality. Where only the canticle, it is shown that the subject is joy. And where the psalm precedes and the canticle follows, a treatment of morality is had: yet in such a way that mention is made of the recompense toward which morality tends. But where the canticle precedes and the psalm follows, the discourse concerns the joy of recompense: yet in such a way that some mention is made of the morality through which it is obtained. This psalm is thus entitled, Unto the end, a psalm of the canticle of David.

It is expounded as follows: "This psalm of a song," that is, the present exhortation of good morality, in which mention is made of a song, that is, of the delight of eternal recompense, is "David," that is, of Christ, or of any faithful believer hoping in Christ: David, I say, directing those whom he exhorts "unto the end," that is, unto him who is the end and completion of the law and the prophets. Or the end, that is, the goal and consummation of the whole contest. Or the end, that is, the consummated rest of blessedness. The intention of Christ, or of anyone who believes in him, in this psalm is to persuade those who delight in earthly things that, by departing from the tribulation of vices and by neglecting earthly things, they should desire eternal goods, which are in the end, that is, in Christ, setting himself before them as an example, and speaking thus.

PSALM 4.

"When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me." That is (from Augustine), when I prayed within in my heart, he himself, from whom is my justice, heard me. "In tribulation you enlarged me." That is, from the straits of sorrow you led me into the breadth of joys. Tribulation and distress are upon every soul of man that works evil (Rom 2). But he who says, "We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and that the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us" (Rom 5), does not have the straits of the heart, even though they are inflicted from without by persecutors.

In this, harsh tribulations profit the righteous, because while they are afflicted in the body, they are enlarged in heart: and the more closely temporal evils press them, the more widely they desire heavenly goods. Since, therefore, from the straits of tribulation the enlargement of the mind grows, it is rightly said: In tribulation you have enlarged me. But the change from the third person to the second is perhaps made for this reason, that it may show how he was heard, speaking to God in that very enlargement: so that this is to be enlarged in heart, already to have God infused in the heart, with whom he converses within: to whom he now prays and says:

Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. That he asks again, when he has already indicated to him that he has been heard and enlarged, is perhaps done for this reason, that in the matter in which he has not been heard, he may still be heard: or in that in which he is not perfect, he may be perfected; or on account of others who are beginning, that there may be perfected in them what they have begun, who have believed. For the righteous have this as their own, that in everything they say and do, they seek not only their own progress, but also the edification of their neighbors. Hence it is fittingly added:

Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after lying? As if he were saying: You who dwell in mind within a carnal generation, to what end do you keep a hard heart, so that you do not believe God and do not think upon invisible goods? Why do you love vanity and seek after lying? With what fruit, with what advantage, do you by loving seek, and by seeking love, things temporal—which are vain because they cannot endure, and lies because they deceive their lovers?

And know that the Lord has made his holy one wonderful—namely, him whom he raised from the dead and placed at his right hand in heaven (Acts 3). The human race, then, is rebuked, that it may at last be converted from the love of this world to him. But if anyone is troubled by the added conjunction, where it says, And know, let him know that this kind of expression is familiar to the language of the prophet. For often you find it begun thus: And the Lord said to him; and, The word of the Lord came to him. This joining of the conjunction with the sentence, when the clause to which it is attached does not follow, perhaps wonderfully insinuates that the utterance of truth in the voice is joined with that vision which takes place in the heart. The Lord will hear me when I cry to him. Here, I believe, we are admonished (from the same source) that we should implore God's help with great intentness of heart, since just as we ought to rejoice over illumination in this life, so we ought to pray for rest after this life.

Wherefore it must be understood either in the person of a faithful preacher of the gospel, or in the person of the Lord himself, as if it had been said: The Lord will hear you when you have cried out to him.

Be angry, and do not sin. For it occurred to him (from Augustine): Who is worthy to be heard? Or how does the sinner not cry out to the Lord in vain? Therefore, he says, Be angry—understand, with yourselves—repenting deeply for past sins, and being indignant that you have fallen into such base and worthless things; and cease to sin any further. What you say in your hearts—understand, say it. Do not be the people of whom it is said: With their lips they honor me, but their heart is far from me (Isa. 26; Matt. 15). Be pricked in your beds. Beds are what the Lord admonishes us about, that we should pray within, with doors closed. But "be pricked" refers to the pain of repentance, so that the soul, punishing itself, may be pricked, lest, condemned in God's judgment, it be tormented. Or it pertains to awakening, that we may keep watch to see the light of Christ, as if goads had been applied.

Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord. The sacrifice of righteousness is the works of a righteous man after repentance. For what is more righteous (from Augustine) than that each person be angry at his own sins rather than at another's, and, punishing himself, slay himself as a victim to God? He also suggests the transition from the old life to the new: so that, after repentance, with the old man put to death, a sacrifice of righteousness according to the regeneration of the new man may be offered to God, when the soul now offers itself, washed clean, and places itself on the altar of Faith, to be grasped by the divine fire, that is, by the Holy Spirit; so that this may be the meaning: Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord, that is, Live rightly, and hope for the gift of the Holy Spirit. But what is hoped for except good things? But because he wishes to obtain from God that good which he loves, and few are those who love interior goods, wonderfully, when he had said, And hope in the Lord, he added, Many say, Who shows us good things? This question is daily on the lips of all the foolish and the wicked, who desire the peace and security of the present life, doubting about the future life; who often say, Who knows if these things are true (Wisdom 2)? Or who has come from the dead to report these things to us? Magnificently therefore and briefly he shows what good things are to be sought, responding to their question.

The light of your countenance, O Lord, is stamped upon us. This light is, from Augustine, the whole good of man, which is seen not with the eyes but with the mind. “It is stamped,” he said, “upon us,” as a denarius is stamped with the image of the King (Matt. 22). For man was made to the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1), which he corrupted by sinning. His good, therefore, is true and eternal, if by being reborn he is stamped (John 3). You have given gladness in my heart. Gladness, then, is not to be sought with reins by those who, still heavy of heart, love vanity and seek falsehood, but inwardly, where the light of God’s countenance is stamped. For Christ dwells in the inner man (Eph. 3). But men who pursue temporal things know how to say nothing else but, Who has shown us good things? since they cannot see the true good things within themselves. Accordingly it is said of them in what follows:

They are multiplied by the fruit of their grain, wine, and oil. It is not without purpose, from Augustine, that “their” is added; for there is the grain of God (John 12), since indeed it is the living bread that came down from heaven (John 6). And there is the wine of God, for “they shall be inebriated,” he says, “with the abundance of your house” (Ps. 35). There is also the oil, of which it was said: “You have fattened my head with oil” (Ps. 22). But these many who say, Who has shown us good things? are multiplied by the fruit of their grain, wine, and oil—their own, not God’s, that is, temporal, not spiritual.

But leaving these behind—those who have been multiplied by the desire for temporal things—the faithful man exults and says:

In peace, in that very same, I shall sleep and rest. For rightly is every alienation of the mind from mortal things overcome by such men, and the forgetfulness of the miseries of this world, which is fittingly and prophetically signified by the name of slumber and sleep. But this is not attained in this life; rather, it must be hoped for in the life to come. This too the words show, which are of the future tense.

For you, O Lord, have set me singularly in hope. Well does he say, Singularly. For the aforementioned multiplicity has perished (from Augustine), and singularity holds sway in the saints, of whom it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul (Acts 4). Singular therefore and simple, that is, separated from the multitude and crowd of things that are born, we ought to be—lovers of eternity and of unity—if we desire to cling to the one God and Lord.

TITLE OF THE FIFTH PSALM.

The title of the Psalm is, For her who receives the inheritance. The Church is understood, which receives the inheritance, that is, eternal life through the Lord Jesus: so that she may possess it, and be possessed by it. The intention of this same Church in this Psalm is to invite all the faithful, by praying and by doing good, to the inheritance of eternal blessedness, setting herself forth as an example, and praying thus.

PSALM V.

Give ear to my words, O Lord, understand my cry. The Church, having been called (according to Augustine), invokes God, so that (with his help) she may pass through the wickedness of this world, and come to him. But what are the ears of the Godhead, if not his piety and his mercy, by which he deigns to hear us? His also it is to understand our cry, to attend to and approve the desire of our heart. The Lord, as it were, receives our words with his ears, when he receives our prayers piously and mercifully. And well after "words" is "cry" added: because our words of entreaty then please God, when they proceed from the desire of the heart. Hence it is said through the Apostle, I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind (1 Cor. 14). But because it is not enough that God hear our words and understand our cry, unless he bring it to effect: rightly is it added:

Give ear to the voice of my prayer, my King and my God. As if he were saying: So hear my words, so understand my desires, that the outcome of the matter may prove that I have been intent upon my prayers. And because the prayer of holy Church is sent to the Father through the Son (Matt. 6), he rightly says, My King and my God. For by King he designates the Son; by God, the Father. And the Son says, Through me one goes to the Father (John 11). Rightly, therefore (from Augustine), first my King, then my God. Yet he did not say, Give ear, all of you, but Give ear, you—because the Father and the Son are not two Gods, but one God. He also adds the reason why he should be heard, when he subjoins:

Because I will pray to you, O Lord, and at once he adds, In the morning you will hear my voice, etc. What is it that (from Augustine) above he said Hear, as though he wished to be heard in the present: but now he says, In the morning you will hear, not hear; and, I will pray to you, and, I will stand, and I will see? Perhaps his former prayer shows the calling itself. But darkened amid the storms of this world, because he feels that he does not see what he desires, therefore he says, In the morning you will hear. As if he were saying: You are not such a one as can be seen by those from whose eyes the night of sins has not yet departed: but in the morning, that is, when the night of my error has passed and the darkness of sins has departed, you will hear my voice: that is, you will show that my voice has been heard.

In the morning I will stand before you and I will see. I will stand, he says, not lie down. For to lie down (according to Augustine) is to rest in earthly things. We must not, then, cling to earthly things if we wish to see God. And he sets out the reason why in the morning he will stand and will see: For you are not a God who wills iniquity. Iniquity, malice, falsehood, murder, deceit, and whatever is of this kind, is night; when it has passed, morning comes, so that God may be seen. As long as we are in this world among temptations, we lie in the darkness of sins; nor do we at once possess the truth, nor do we truly see. For to stand truly is to remain in the blessedness of eternity; and to see truly is to contemplate God in his majesty. But he who truly is, and remains unchanging—with whom (as James says) there is no change, nor shadow of turning (James 1)—since he is not a God who wills iniquity, therefore in this world, where iniquity abounds, he does not show himself. But because it will come to pass that the night of this iniquity passes by, and that in the morning—that is, in the resurrection—he restores his elect to the state of immortality and to the sight of his contemplation, let it rightly be said with the voice of the Church: In the morning I will stand before you, and I will see: for you are not a God who wills iniquity. But because in the gathering of the just there will be the rejection of the wicked (Matthew 25), it is rightly added:

The wicked shall not dwell beside you, nor shall the unjust remain before your eyes. "Wicked" is said, as it were, painted with an evil fire. By the name of the wicked, then, the number of the unbelieving can be designated, who, while they persist in the error of unbelief, despise by their wickedness the good fire of spiritual grace. The unjust, however, are those who grow sluggish from good works. The wicked, therefore, shall not dwell beside the Lord, because the number of the unbelieving is then removed so much further from the author of justice, as now it is separated from the justice of faith; and the unjust also are then unable to remain before his eyes, because now, namely in the works of darkness, they do not fear to persist. Concerning the reprobate, moreover, it is added:

You have hated all who work iniquity; you will destroy all who speak a lie. You will destroy all who not only do the things you hate, but also speak a lie, pretending a false justice, and not confessing their sins in penitence. But you will not destroy them if, by repenting, they speak the truth, so that by doing this truth they may come to the light. By those who work iniquity are designated those who not only do not do good, but also live perversely. Whom almighty God shows to be hateful, that is, worthy of his hatred, and because he does not acknowledge them in the rule of his justice, he punishes them forever, repelled from his love. But by those who speak a lie, heretics can deservedly be understood, who by their falsehood strive to destroy the truth of the faith: whom the strict judge will destroy with the reprobate.

For just as we are condemned by evil deeds, so too are they to be condemned by evil speech. Or it can be explained in this way: You will destroy all who speak lies—that is, those who are contrary to the truth, because by departing from what is, they turn aside to what is not. Hence (from Augustine) the Apostle says, "Whoever says that he abides in Christ and does not keep his commandments is a liar" (1 John 2:4). There are two kinds of lies (from the same author) in which there is no great fault, yet they are not without fault: when we either jest or wish to be of benefit, we lie. The first, in jesting, is not very harmful, because it does not deceive; for the one to whom it is said knows that it was said for the sake of a joke. The second is milder for this reason, that it retains some benevolence. But that lie which intends to deceive is the lie that kills the soul, as it is written: "The mouth that lies kills the soul" (Wisdom 1:11). But now there is a change of person, when it is added, "The Lord will abhor the man of blood and deceit." For it is the custom of the prophets frequently to change persons, so that they speak now to God, now to men, now to the head, now to the members. For they speak to God as to the one from whom they receive what they prophesy; they speak to men as to those to whom they prophesy; and now concerning the head to the members, now concerning the members to the head, they change their voice—in which they signify to us the unity of the head and the members. By "the man of blood," the persecutors of the holy martyrs are designated.

But the deceitful are those who desire to deceive faithful souls with seductive words, whom the Lord will abhor, that is, will separate from the inheritance of the elect. Since, therefore, those are to be condemned by their own evil merits, but the Church is to be saved through the Lord's mercy, he rightly adds:

But I, in the abundance of your mercy, will enter into your house; I will worship toward your holy temple in your fear. The house of God is the holy Church herself, which, destined to reign in heaven, still labors on earth; which is built from the faithful as from living stones, of whom Peter says, And you, as living stones, are built up (1 Peter 2), and Paul says, You are God's field, God's building (1 Cor 3). Whoever imitates the ways of the saints in the holy Church enters into the building of this heavenly house. To enter into this spiritual building is to behold the holy man, how they advance by loving. But because no one can do this by his own strength, therefore it is rightly said, In the abundance of your mercy. Great indeed is God's mercy, because (as Paul says) where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5). In his mercy the Lord frees us, the devout, from sins, but in more abundant mercy he also grants us the gifts of spiritual grace. In his mercy he rescues us from eternal punishments, but in the abundance of his mercy he has also led us back to the house of the heavenly fatherland.

Who can weigh the depths of divine mercy, which, in order to restore life to us, willed to become man (John 1) and to undergo death (Phil 2)? Let it be said, then: But I, in the abundance of your mercy, will enter into your house. Holy Church is therefore called a house (Matt 7), because it is inhabited by the almighty Lord. It is called a temple (2 Chron 18), because it is consecrated by the Lord himself. Or it is called a temple because in it praises are continually offered to the heavenly Lord (Ps 67). He says, then, I will worship toward your holy temple in fear. Because (from Augustine) he does not say "in the temple" but "toward the temple," it must be understood that this was said not of perfection but of progress toward perfection. And perhaps for this reason he added "in your fear": because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps 110). Whoever fears the Lord will do good (Sir 15). And in another psalm it is said, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, he will delight greatly in his commandments (Ps 111). And again, Serve the Lord in fear (Ps 2). And because he cannot do this by his own strength, he therefore adds:

Lord, lead me in your justice because of my enemies; direct my way in your sight. My enemies wish to seduce me and lead me astray into injustice. But you, Lord—you are my merciful creator; be my guide. For you made us, and not we ourselves. You rule us, and not we ourselves. But after he said, Lead me in justice, he rightly added, your—as if he were saying plainly, Given by yourself. For through the holy prophets and his servants, according to the distribution of the times, he gave lesser commandments to the people, whom it was still fitting to be bound by fear; through his Son he gave greater commandments to the people, whom it was now fitting to set free by love. Nor is it surprising that greater commandments are given for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, and lesser ones were given for the sake of an earthly kingdom, by the same living God who made heaven and earth, who alone knows how to provide for the human race the medicine suited to its times. Of this justice of his he now warns us in the Gospel, saying, Unless your justice abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees—that is, unless you fulfill not only those lesser commandments of the law, which begin men, but also these which are added by me (who did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it)—you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard the lesser justice. You have heard, he says, that it was said, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Let us hear the greater. But I say to you, do not resist evil.

Justice is a lesser thing: not to exceed the measure in vengeance, so that one does not repay more than one receives—and this is a great step. For no one is found who, having received a punch, wishes to return only a punch; indeed, having heard a single insulting word, he would be content to return only as much if he could. But either, disturbed by anger, he avenges himself too immoderately, or, because he thinks that the one who struck first is justly to be injured more severely than the one who had not struck was injured. The law restrained such a disposition to a great extent, in which it is said, An eye for an eye, and the rest. By these terms a measure is signified, so that vengeance does not go beyond the injury—and this is the beginning of peace. But perfect peace is to be entirely unwilling to seek such vengeance. Between that first thing, then, which is beyond the law—that a greater evil be repaid for a lesser evil—and this which the Lord says to disciples who are to be made perfect, that one should not resist evil, the middle position is held: that as much be repaid as was received; through which a transition was made from the greatest discord to the greatest concord, according to the distribution of times. But it still seems little to the Lord if, for the evil you have received, you repay no evil at all, unless you are also ready to receive more. This is what he explains next: If someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well (Matthew 5). But what is it that the Lord himself, who first himself fulfilled the precepts he taught (Acts

Did he not offer the other cheek to the servant of the priest who struck him? But beyond this he said: If I have spoken evil, reprove the evil; but if well, why do you strike me (John 16)? Is this not to be understood as a precept concerning the preparation of the heart, not the display of the deed? Whence the holy man says elsewhere: My heart is ready, O God (Psalm 36). Let it be said, then: Lord, lead me in your justice because of my enemies. He asks for the way of this justice when he adds: Direct my way in your sight. Justice is one thing, the way is another. For justice is the teaching of Christ, the way is Christ himself (John 14). He showed justice by preaching, the way by working. Whence it is written: What Jesus began to do and to teach (Acts 1). For right action is not virtue but the way of virtue. For through action one comes to virtue. For faith, which works through love, obtains grace (Galatians 5). And the grace of God, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5), fulfills justice. I, says the Lord, am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14). Understand the way as Christ working, the truth as Christ teaching, the life as Christ rewarding. The way leads to the truth, because through the way one comes to the teaching; but the teaching of truth leads to life, because when what is prescribed is fulfilled, the life that is promised is acquired. Well does he say: Because of my enemies.

For the holy Church suffers many adversaries on the way of God, who oppress her by persecuting, terrifying, flattering, and seducing; and how far they are at odds with the way of truth is shown by the words that follow.

Because there is no truth in their mouth. And this he confirms when he adds: Their heart is vain. For how can truth be in the mouth, if vanity is in the heart? A good man brings forth good things from the good treasure of his heart, and a bad man brings forth evil things from the evil treasure of his heart (Matthew 12). For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; concerning whom what is rightly added next is,

Their throat is an open sepulchre, they dealt deceitfully with their tongues: judge them, O God. Flatterers and seducers (from Augustine) are rightly called open sepulchres, who, being known to have the life of truth, are in a manner lifeless, and receive the dead into themselves, whom by deceitful words and a vain heart they turn to themselves once slain. What he said, with their tongues, signifies evil tongues. For evil men have evil tongues. But to deal deceitfully is to have one thing in the heart and another in the mouth. Whence in another psalm it is said: Who speak peace with their neighbor, but evils are in their hearts (Psalm 27). These almighty God judges, because he condemns all false and deceitful enemies in the final examination; concerning whom he further adds: Let them fall from their own thoughts; according to the multitude of their impieties, cast them out. It is prophecy (from Augustine), not a curse.

For he does not wish it to come, but foretells what he has foreseen will happen. They fall away from their own thoughts, because whatever they have thought proudly, when they die, they lose without fruit. Pride truly has ruin, just as, on the contrary, humility has exaltation. It is said elsewhere, In that day all their thoughts shall perish (Ps. 145). Which certainly would not perish if they meditated on heavenly things. For the same Psalmist testifies, For there are remnants for a peaceful man. But the unjust shall perish together; the remnants of the impious shall perish (Ps. 36). Therefore the thoughts of the impious shall perish, because they have never thought of eternal evils; and suddenly they lose temporal goods, which they had long pondered in their mind. Those who are expelled according to the multitude of their sins, because on account of the many evils which they have done, they shall be expelled from the eternal inheritance and cast into outer darkness (Matt. 8). Well then is it added: Because they have provoked you, O Lord. For it is not because they have sinned that they would therefore perish, unless by persevering in evil they provoked the Lord. For the heavenly mercy, after we have fallen, recalls us to repentance and long waits. For he does not wish the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Luke 15). But if, having been called, he neglects it, and spends the time of grace in increasing his guilt, which he ought to have appeased by repenting, then by provoking him more, that is, by stirring him to anger, he gravely offends him.

Hence Paul says: But you, according to your hardness and impenitent heart, store up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God (Rom. 2). For the stern judge condemns them then with as much severity as he now awaits them with mercy. But what will become of the just? It follows and says:

And let all those who hope in you rejoice. First indeed the joy of the just is in hope; hence it is said, Rejoicing in hope (Rom. 12). For in hope we have been saved (Rom. 7). But afterward it will be in reality. Hence what follows here adds, They will exult forever, and you will dwell in them. That itself will be eternal exultation (from Augustine), when the just become the temple of God, and he himself will be their indweller's joy.

And all who love your name will glory in you, and rightly, in you (from the same), as all possessing you as such an inheritance. For you will bless the just: this is the blessing of glory in God, and of being inhabited by God. And because the calling is not of our merits, but of the good will and mercy of God, he added, saying:

Lord, you have crowned them as with the shield of your good will. For the good will of God (from the same source) precedes our good will, calling the sinner to repentance. And this same good will is a most invincible shield, by which one repels the enemy suggesting despair of salvation through the multitude of tribulations and temptations. For God works in us both to will and to accomplish, for his good will (Phil. 2). For not from works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us (Tit. 3).

TITLE OF PSALM VI.

The sixth Psalm is thus entitled: A Psalm of David for the octave. By the octave the day of judgment is understood, since all times are rolled around by the repetition of seven days, and what happens in one can be changed in another. But that eighth day must be reckoned as the one which will not have this variety, and what will be done in it will remain eternal and unchangeable. Now the voice in this psalm is that of a faithful penitent, exhorting others by his example to repent in like manner, lest on the octave, that is, on the last day of judgment, they incur eternal damnation.

PSALM 6.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your wrath. God, who is of unchangeable nature (Malachi 3), with whom (as the Apostle says) there is no change nor shadow of turning (James 1), of whom it is said, But you, Lord of hosts, judge with tranquility (Wisdom 12): he receives in himself no disturbance of fury or wrath; but by the name of fury is understood that immense and immoderate infliction of vengeance, by which sinners will be punished in the final judgment. By wrath, however, can be understood that examination by which imperfect souls are cleansed in the fire of purgatory. And well is it said, Do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your wrath: for chastise, which seems the milder, avails for correction; but he who is rebuked, that is, accused, must fear lest he have damnation in the end. All who do not have Christ as their foundation are rebuked on the day of judgment (from Augustine). They are corrected mildly, that is, purified, who build upon this foundation wood, hay, stubble, that is, fruitless, vain, useless things (2 Corinthians 3). They will indeed suffer loss, but nevertheless they will be saved: yet so as through fire (ibid.). What, then, does this one pray, who does not wish to be rebuked by the Lord's fury, or corrected by his wrath? What, unless that he be healed? For where there is health, neither death is to be feared, nor the hand of the physician who heals or cuts. It follows therefore, and he says:

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. Many are the infirmities of our body and soul. For the body is corrupted by mortality, the soul is oppressed by temptations. Unhappy man is worn out by many temptations and miseries. Therefore he who feels his misery, what ought he to ask for so much as mercy? He who feels his weakness, what ought he to desire so much as health? It remains, then, that he say: Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. What is meant by bones but the strong parts of the soul? For lest you understand bones of the flesh, he explained it when he adds:

And my soul is greatly troubled. Indeed the inner senses are troubled by the consideration of one's own guilt, and the soul itself, weak and sinful, when by thinking it beholds the subtlety of the final examination, stripped of all inner strength, trembles within itself. For it sees that there whatever is found of wicked deed, or idle word, and of silence even down to the least thought, is condemned, if it has not been directed according to God's will. Hence is the burning conscience, from there the accusing sins, from there the terrifying justice, beneath the gaping horrid chaos of hell and horrible torturers; above, the angry judge; outside, the burning world. If the just man is scarcely saved, where will the sinner appear? Let him weep again and groan, lest he incur such torments. Does he fear justice? Let him seek mercy. Has he no strength?

or let him acknowledge his own weakness and say: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak, and the rest. For a great approach to God is the knowledge of one's own unhappiness. But he complains of the slowness of healing when he adds, And you, O Lord, how long? Behold, the great day of the Lord is near, near and very swift—that day of wrath, that day of calamity and misery, that day of darkness and gloom, that day of trumpet and clamor (Zephaniah 1). O bitter voice of the day of the Lord! Behold the sinful soul, an unfruitful tree, worthy of the axe and the fire: a dry and useless log. Fear disturbs the guilty one, conscience confounds him, his thoughts reproach him, and he is not permitted to flee. He stands suspended before a most severe sentence. Behold the wretched man in narrow peril, lacking speedy help, and saying, And how long, O Lord, do you delay? How long will you not hear? Nor in this (from Augustine) is God to be reckoned as cruel, but as a good persuader of the soul, [showing] what evil it has brought forth for itself. For the merciful Lord often delays to hear out of his great mercy, so that from the difficulty of healing there may be more diligent guarding of the health once received. For what is easily healed is not much avoided. Sometimes he delays so that it may be recognized how great a punishment is prepared for the impious, who refuse to turn to God, if those who do turn suffer such difficulty; as it is written elsewhere, If the righteous is scarcely saved, where will the sinner and the impious appear (1 Peter 4)? And because he delays, he therefore adds:

Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul; save me for the sake of your mercy. Turning himself (as Augustine says), he prays that God may turn to him, just as he himself promises: Turn to me, and I will turn back to you (Zechariah 1). But perhaps it is better understood thus: Turn, O Lord—that is, make me turn. For he feels difficulty in his very conversion. For our perfect conversion always finds God ready, as the prophet Hosea says: As the dawn he is prepared at his going forth (Hosea 6), since it was not his absence—he who is everywhere—but our own turning away that caused us to lose him. But while we are being converted—that is, while we are being reshaped by the change of our old life—we feel our spirit hard and laborious, being wrenched back from the darkness of earthly desires to the serenity of the divine light. And in such difficulty we say: Turn, O Lord—that is, help us, so that the conversion may be perfected in us, which finds you ready and offers you to be enjoyed by those who love you. And therefore, after he said, Turn, O Lord, he added, And deliver my soul, as though it were clinging amid the perplexities of this world and suffering, in its very conversion, certain thorns of rending desires. Save me, he says, for the sake of your mercy. He understands that it is not by his own merits that he is healed, since for one who sins and passes by the commandment that was given, a just condemnation was owed.

Heal me, he says, therefore: not because of my merit, but because of your mercy.

For there is no one in death who remembers you. He also understands (from Augustine) that now is the time of conversion: for when this life has passed, nothing remains but the repayment of merits. But who in hell will confess to you? Where? That rich man confessed in hell, of whom the Lord speaks (Luke 16), who saw Lazarus at rest, but himself was in torment, and he confessed to such an extent that he even wished his own to be warned, so that they might restrain themselves from sins, because of the punishments which they do not believe exist in hell [Augustine: is believed]. What is it, then, But who in hell will confess to you? Or does he wish hell to be understood as that into which the wicked are cast after judgment, where now, because of the deeper darkness, they will see no light of God to which they might confess anything? That can also be understood in this way: that he calls sin death, which is committed by despising the divine law; but hell, the blindness of the mind, which receives and envelops the sinner, that is, the dying one. Just as they did not approve of having God in their knowledge (he says), he gave them over to a reprobate mind (Rom 1). From this death and from this hell the soul prays to be made safe, while it strives for conversion to God and endures difficulty.

Wherefore (from Augustine) he continues, saying: I have labored in my groaning. And as though this had profited little, he adds and says: I will wash my bed through each night. Here the bed is called the place where the sick and weak soul rests, that is, in the pleasure of the body and worldly delight. This delight he washes with tears, who strives to drag himself out from it. For he sees that he is condemned by carnal desires, and yet his weakness is held fast by delight, and lies in it willingly; whence the soul cannot rise unless it be healed. But as for what he says, Through each night: perhaps he wished this to be understood as meaning that he who is prompt in spirit thirsts for some light of truth, and yet at times rests in the delight of this world through the weakness of the flesh, as though he is compelled to endure days and nights with alternating affection, so that when he says, With the mind I serve the law of God (Rom. 7), he feels it as day; again when he says, But with the flesh the law of sin, he is inclined into night, until all night passes away and that one day comes of which it is said: In the morning I will stand before you and see (Ps. 5). For then he will stand before you; now, however, he lies down, when he is in bed: which he will wash through each night, so that by such great tears he may obtain the most efficacious discipline of God's mercy. I will soak my couch with my tears. We understand the couch here as the bed mentioned above.

But to water is more than to wash, since something can be washed on the surface; watering, however, penetrates to the inner parts, which signifies weeping even to the inmost depths of the heart. The variation of tenses is true, in that he set down the past when he said, I have labored in my groaning, and the future when he said, with my tears I will water my bed: that shows what he ought to say to himself, when anyone has labored in groaning in vain—as if he were saying, It did not profit when I did this; therefore I will do that instead.

Hence there also follows: My eye is troubled because of fury. Is it because of his own fury, or God's, in which he asks not to be reproved? But if that fury signifies the day of judgment, how can it now be understood? Or is its beginning that here men suffer pains and torments, and especially the loss of understanding the truth, as I have already mentioned, what was said: God gave them over to a reprobate mind (Rom. 1)? For that is the blindness of the mind. Whoever has been given over to it is shut off from the inner light of God—but not yet utterly, while he is in this life. For there are outer darknesses (Matt. 8 and 22), which are understood to pertain more to the day of judgment: so that whoever, while there is time, has refused to be corrected, is utterly outside God. But to be utterly outside God, what is that, if not to be in the utmost blindness? Since indeed God dwells in inaccessible light (1 Tim. 6), into which enter those to whom it is said, Enter into the joy of your Lord (Matt. 25).

The beginning of this wrath, then, is the blindness of mind which every sinner suffers in this life. And so, fearing the day of judgment, he labors and laments, lest he be brought to that whose beginning he now experiences as so pernicious. And therefore he does not say "my eye is extinguished," but "my eye is troubled by fury." Moreover, by the name of fury can be understood the boundless fervor of the soul with which the penitent is accustomed to be angry with himself. Whence it is written, "Be angry, and do not sin" (Ps. 4). And well is it said not "extinguished" but "troubled," for the fury that comes through hatred extinguishes the eye of the mind; but the fury that comes through zeal does not blind, but troubles. But from the very source where it is for a time troubled by the grief of penitence, from there afterward it is better illuminated by the consolation of grace. Having considered the remaining vices, however, he finds himself to be walled round by them all. And because these are the vices of the old life and of the old man, which we must put off that we may put on the new (Eph. 4), it is rightly said: "I have grown old among all my enemies." Either among the vices themselves, or among men who are unwilling to be converted to God. For even if these are not savage, even if they spare, even if they live, as it were, in harmony with them in the same banquets and homes and cities, with no hatred interposed but with frequent conversations, nevertheless by their inward disposition they are enemies to those who convert themselves to God.

For while some love and desire this world, and others wish to be freed from this world, who would not see that the latter are enemies to the former? For if they could, they would drag them along with themselves to punishment. And it is a great gift to live daily among their words and not to stray from the path of God's commandments. For often my mind, striving to press on toward God, is shaken and trembles on the very path, and for the most part does not fulfill its good intention for this reason: lest it offend those with whom it lives, who love and pursue other goods that are perishable and passing. From these every sound person is separated, not in place but in mind. For bodies are confined by places, but for the mind its place is its own affection.

Wherefore (from Augustine), after labor and groaning and the most frequent showers of tears—because that cannot be in vain which is so vehemently asked of him who is the fount of all mercies—and since it has been most truly said, The Lord is near to those who are crushed, or contrite, in heart (Isa. 13 and 51): after such great difficulties, the soul itself signifying that it has been heard—which one may also understand as the Church—see what it adds: Depart from me, all you who work iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. Either this was said in prophecy, because the wicked will depart, that is, will be separated from the just, when the day of judgment comes (Matt. 13); or now, because even if we are held together in the same gatherings, nevertheless on the bare threshing floor I am now separated as grain from the chaff (Matt.

3), although they lie hidden among the chaff. And so they can be together, but they cannot be carried away together from the threshing floor.

Because the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication: the Lord has received my prayer. The frequent repetition of the same thought (from Augustine) shows not the necessity of one narrating, but the affection of one exulting. For those who rejoice are accustomed to speak thus, so that it does not suffice them to utter once what they rejoice in. This is the fruit of that groaning in which one labors (1 Cor. 9), and that joy of tears, by which the bed is washed and the couch is soaked. For he who sows in tears shall reap in joy (Ps. 125). And blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5).

Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled. Depart from me, he said above (from Augustine), which, as has been explained, can also happen in this life. But what he says, Let them be ashamed and troubled: I do not see how it can come about, except on that day when the rewards of the just and the punishments of sinners shall have been made manifest. For up to now the impious are so far from being ashamed that they do not cease to insult us: and for the most part they prevail so much by their mockeries that they make weak men ashamed of the name of Christ. Whence it was said, Whoever is ashamed of me and my words before men, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed before the angels and the Father (Luke 9).

But the time will come when they will be put to shame, saying: These are they whom we once held in derision and as a likeness of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honor. Behold how they are counted among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore we have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shone upon us, etc. (Wisdom 5). But as for what he says, Let them be converted and be put to shame, who would not judge it to be a most just punishment that those who were unwilling to have conversion unto salvation should have conversion unto confusion? Then he adds, Very swiftly. For when the day of judgment has begun to be despaired of, when they shall have said, Peace and security (1 Thess 5), then sudden destruction shall come upon them. But whenever it comes, it will come most swiftly, because it is despaired of as going to come. Although this too can be understood here, that the one whom God heard as he groaned and wept so often day and night is understood to have been freed from sins and to have subdued all the perverse motions of carnal affection, as he says: Depart from me, all you who work iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. And when this has befallen him, it is no wonder if he is now so thoroughly purified that he prays for his enemies. This, then, can pertain to what he said, Let all my enemies be put to shame and greatly troubled: that they may do penance for their sins, which cannot be done without confusion and trouble.

Nothing therefore prevents that which follows from being understood in this way as well: Let them be converted and be ashamed, that is, let them be converted to God, and let them be ashamed that they once boasted in the former darkness of their sins, as the Apostle says: For what glory did you once have in those things of which you are now ashamed (Rom. 6). But the phrase he adds, very swiftly, must be referred either to the affection of one who desires it, or to the power of Christ: how the nations, which for the sake of their idols were persecuting the Church, he converted to the faith of the Gospel with such great swiftness of time.

TITLE OF THE SEVENTH PSALM.

The seventh Psalm (from Augustine) is thus entitled: Unto the end, a psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Chusi the son of Jemini. Here we are directed to that history in the second book of Kings, where Chusi, the friend of David, crossed over to the side of his son Absalom, to explore the counsels and report back what that man was plotting against his father, at the instigation of Achitophel, who had fallen away from friendship with David and was instructing his son against his father with whatever snares he could. Spiritually, Chusi is interpreted for us as silence; Jemini, however, as right hand; Achitophel, as the ruin of a brother. Through Chusi, which is interpreted as silence, it is rightly understood that our Lord fought against those deceits by silence—by which silence, concealing the mystery of his venerable passion, he brought about the voluntary ruin of a brother.

that is, he turned the wicked crime of his betrayer into the order of his own mercy and providence: so that what the other, with a perverse mind, did for the destruction of one man, this one, by provident governance, might redirect to the salvation of all. Therefore the perfect soul sings the psalm to the Lord, the soul that is now worthy to know the secret of God for the words of Chusi, that is, for the knowledge of that same secret, which secret God the right hand, that is, favorable and propitious, worked for it. Now the intention of this perfect catholic is to exhort the faithful, that they place their hope in the Lord and so live perfectly as to be able to await the day of judgment secure, setting himself forward as an example, and saying thus:

PSALM VII.

O Lord, my God, in you have I hoped: save me from all who persecute me, and deliver me. From these words the faith and hope of this perfect soul are commended to us: as if he were saying, I believe that you are the true God and Lord, namely the creator and ruler of all. And therefore I have made you specially mine, not now presuming on myself, but hoping in you: for Blessed is the man who hopes in you (Ps. 33). It is mine to hope in you, yours to save and deliver me. Therefore, as if now, with every war and adversity of vices overcome, only the unclean spirit resisted him who is now perfect, he says: Save me from all who persecute me, and deliver me. Save me from those who persecute from behind, and deliver me from those who meet me face to face.

For it is not enough there that I be safe with you defending me, unless I also be secure with you delivering me.

Then he returns from the plural number to the singular, when he adds, Lest at any time he snatch away my soul like a lion, while there is none who may redeem, nor who may save. For the malignant spirits are many in nature, but one in malice. They are many in number, but there is one will of harming in all. But that ancient enemy, on account of his cruelty, he designates by the name of lion, agreeing with the Apostle who says, Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5). But how will human frailty be able to resist this enemy so strong and cruel, if he does not redeem and save it, who created it? And therefore he says, While there is none who may redeem, nor who may save: understand, unless you redeem and save. Great is the benefit for the servant of God to recognize his own infirmity, and to have no confidence in his own strength or merits. For then divine virtue begins to be present, when human presumption begins to fail. Hence it is said to Paul by the voice of God: My grace is sufficient for you, for virtue is perfected in infirmity (2 Corinthians 12); hence the Truth says, He who has seen come after me, let him deny himself (Luke 9). Such was the same Apostle, when he said, By the grace of God I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15).

Therefore, let us hear what kind of holy man this was—one who hoped in the Lord his God, did not presume on his own strength, and for that reason implored salvation from above. Again he invokes the Lord his God, as if giving thanks to him and ascribing to his name the good that he received from him, and he adds:

O Lord my God, if I have done this. What is "this"? If there is iniquity in my hands. That is, if I have presented my members as weapons of iniquity for sinning (Rom. 6); if I have not been innocent in hands—and what is more perfect—

If I have repaid those who repay me with evils. That is, if I have not been patient toward the wicked. Let me fall deservedly from my enemies empty. That is, deservedly through my negligence, while enemies pursue me, let me collapse empty of the fruit of righteousness. For it is just that whoever does not strengthen himself against them with the weapons of virtues and good works be defeated and fall by his enemies. And well does he say (from Augustine), not "if I have repaid those who do evils," but "those who repay me with evils." For he who repays has already received something. But it is of greater patience not to repay evils even to him who, having received benefits, returns evils for goods, than if he had wished to harm one who had received no benefit before. But he boasts in vain who, though he himself is a man, desires to avenge himself on a man; and while he openly seeks to overcome a man, he is secretly overcome by the devil. The result is empty, a vain and proud joy, that he could not, as it were, be conquered.

He understands, then, where the victory becomes greater, and where the Father who sees in secret repays. So let him not repay those who repay evil. He conquers anger rather than a man. For better is the one who conquers anger than the one who captures a city. But he seems to swear by an imprecation when he says, Let me fall deservedly from my enemies empty. This is the gravest kind of swearing an oath, when a man says: If I have done this, may I suffer that. But it is one thing for the oath to be in the mouth of the one swearing, and another in the meaning of the one prophesying. For here he states what by right befalls men who repay those who repay evil—not that he imprecates it upon himself or anyone else as though by oath; and therefore he adds:

Let the enemy pursue my soul and seize it. Again, naming the enemy in the singular number, he makes more and more manifest what he earlier called a lion. For he pursues the soul. For men rage only up to the imperfection of the body, but they cannot have the soul in their power; the devil, however, seizes the souls he has pursued, so as to possess them if he can; and when he possesses them, he tramples them underfoot, and therefore he adds: And let him trample my life on the earth. That is, by trampling the earth let him make my life his food. For he was called not only a lion but also a serpent, to whom it was said, You shall eat earth. And to the sinful man it was said, Earth you are, and to earth you shall go.

Rightly, then, is it added, And bring my glory down to dust. This is that dust which the wind scatters from the face of the earth, that is, the vain and foolish boasting of the proud, puffed up and not solid, like a ball of dust raised by the wind. Rightly, therefore, he set down here the glory which he does not wish to be brought down to dust. For he wishes to have it solid in conscience, where before the Lord there is no boasting. He who boasts, he says, let him boast in the Lord. That solidity is brought down to dust if anyone, through pride, despising the secrets of conscience, where God alone tests a man, wishes to glory before men. This is what he says elsewhere: God will crush the bones of those who please men. But he who has learned well, or has experienced, the stages of overcoming vices, has read through that this vice of empty glory is to be guarded against either alone or above all. For the soul fell by this vice first, and it conquers this one last. But the beginning of all sin is pride.

Then, against the devil and his angels, whose possession the sinners and the impious are, he prays, saying: Arise, O Lord, in your anger, and be exalted in the borders of my enemies. He says Arise, that is, appear, using human words, as though God were sleeping, when in his hidden purposes he lies unknown. But when (as Augustine says) the impious man is justified, he is made just from being impious, and migrates from the devil's possession into the temple of God. And since it is a punishment that possession be taken away from each one in which he desires to rule, he calls this punishment the anger of God against the devil, that he may cease to possess those whom he possesses. But he called the possession itself the end, where he wishes God to be exalted rather than the devil, that is, to be honored and glorified, while the impious are justified and praise God. As if in his anger the Lord seemed to arise, when rising from the dead he sought the bars of hell, and broke its gates, and despoiled it of the just whom it held captive. In the borders of his enemies too he was exalted, when he ascended to heaven, and his glorious and praiseworthy name shone forth, preached even to the ends of the earth. Whence it is also added: And arise, O Lord my God, in the precept which you have commanded: and the synagogue of the peoples shall surround you. You have commanded a precept to the Apostles. You have said, Preach the Gospel to every creature. Arise, therefore, in those to whom your precept has been preached.

Make them rise up through yourself, so that, rising from their own iniquities, they may fulfill your commandment. Or otherwise (from Augustine): Arise, O God, my man, in the commandment that you have commanded: you have commanded humility; appear humble. And you first fulfill what you have commanded, so that by your example those who conquer pride may not be possessed by the devil.

And the synagogue of the peoples will surround you. There is a twofold understanding (from Augustine). For the gathering of the peoples can be taken either of believers or of persecutors; both of these were brought about by the humility of our Lord, which the multitude of persecutors, despising it, surrounded him; concerning which it is said: The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together in one against the Lord and against his Christ (Ps. 2). But the multitude of believers, through his humility, so surrounded him that it might most truly be said: Blindness in part has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in (Rom. 11). And that: Ask of me, and I will give you the Gentiles for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps. 2). And because of this, go back on high. That is, and because of this gathering, go back on high: which he is understood to have done by rising again and ascending to the heights. For thus glorified, he gave the Holy Spirit, who could not be given before his glorification, as it is set down in the Gospel: But the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (Acts 2).

Having therefore returned on high because of the gathering of the peoples, he sent the Holy Spirit, filled with whom the preachers of the Gospel filled the whole world with Churches (Acts 1).

And because (from Augustine) he is going to come from there to judge the living and the dead, it is rightly added: The Lord judges the peoples. Who is the Lord, if not Jesus Christ (John 13)? For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5). But this soul which prays perfectly—see how it does not fear the day of judgment, and with truly secure desire says in prayer: Your kingdom come (Matt 6). Judge me, it says, O Lord, according to my righteousness. In the previous psalm the weak man was pleading, imploring rather the mercy of God than recalling any merit of his own. Since the Son of God came to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5), therefore there he said: Save me for your mercy's sake, that is, not for my merit's sake. But now, since having been called he has held fast and has kept the commandments which he received, he dares to say: Judge me according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence upon me. That is true innocence which does no harm even to an enemy. Therefore he asks to be judged well according to his innocence, who could truly say: If I have repaid those repaying me with evil.

But what he adds, "upon me," can be understood not only with respect to innocence but also with respect to righteousness, so that the sense is: Judge me, Lord, according to my righteousness and according to my innocence, which righteousness and innocence is upon me. By this addition he shows that the very fact that the soul is righteous and innocent is not something it has of itself, but through the Lord who enlightens it. Hence James says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1). For he is the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1).

Then (from Augustine) he continues concerning sinners: Let the wickedness of sinners be consummated. The wickedness of the men who crucified the Son of God seems consummated (Heb. 10); but greater is the wickedness of those who refuse to live rightly and hate the precepts of truth, for whom the Son of God was crucified. Let the wickedness of sinners therefore be consummated, he says: that is, let them arrive at the utmost wickedness, so that a just judgment may now come. But since it was said not only, Let the filthy be filthy still, but also, Let the righteous be righteous still (Rev. 22), he adds and says, And you shall love the righteous, O God, searching hearts and reins. How can the righteous man be directed, except in secret? When at the beginning of Christian times the saints were oppressed by persecutors (Acts 15), they seemed wondrous to men, and the saints who could endure such things for the name of Jesus Christ seemed to be directed.

Now, after the name of Christian came to be held in such great prominence, hypocrisy increased—that is, pretence—namely of those who, under the name of Christian, prefer to please men rather than God. How, then, is the righteous man directed amid such confusion of pretence, except when God searches the heart and the reins: all thoughts, which are signified by the name of the heart, and delights, which are understood by the name of the reins? Rightly indeed is the delight in temporal and earthly things attributed to the reins, because that part is also the lower part of man, and it is the region where the pleasure of carnal generation dwells, through which human nature is transmitted by the succession of offspring into this life of hardship and deceptive joy. God, therefore, searching our heart, and looking to see where our treasure is (Matt. 6), that is, in the heavens; searching also the reins, and looking to see that we do not yield to flesh and blood, but take delight in the Lord: he directs the righteous man in that very conscience before himself, where none of men sees, but only he who looks upon what each one thinks and what each one delights in. For the end of care is delight, because each one strives with his thoughts to reach his own delight.

He therefore sees our cares, he who searches the heart; he sees the hidden line of our cares—that is, our delights—he who searches the reins; so that when he finds our cares inclined not to the concupiscence of the flesh, nor to the concupiscence of the eyes, nor to the ambition of the world (all of which pass away like a shadow), but lifted up to the joys of eternal things, which are varied by no change, God, searching hearts and reins, may direct the just man. For our works, which we perform in deeds and words, can be known to men; but with what mind they are done, and to what we desire to attain through them, he alone knows, God who searches hearts and reins.

And because this just man had this direction of heart through the Lord, he rightly adds: The Lord is my helper, who saves the upright in heart. There are two duties of medicine (from Augustine): one by which infirmity is healed, the other by which health is preserved. According to the first, it was said in the preceding psalm: Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak. According to this second, it is said in this psalm: If iniquity is in my hands, if I have repaid those who repaid me evil, let me fall away from my enemies empty. For there the infirm man prays that he may be freed; here the man already sound prays that he may not be corrupted. According to that, it is said there: Save me, Lord, according to your mercy. According to this, it is said here: Judge me, Lord, according to my justice.

For there the remedy is that one may escape from sickness; here, however, he seeks protection lest he relapse into sickness. According to that it is said, Save me for your mercy's sake. According to these things it is said, My just help is from the Lord, who saves the upright in heart. For he saves both the one and the other. But the former he transfers from sickness to health; the latter he preserves in health itself. There, then, the help is merciful, because the sinner has no merit, who as yet desires to be justified, believing in him who justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4). Here, however, the help is just, because it is already granted to the just. Let the sinner therefore say there, who said: I am afflicted, save me. Lord, according to your mercy; and let the just man say here, who said: If I have repaid those who repay me evil: My just help is from the Lord, who saves the upright in heart. For if he displays the medicine by which we, being weak, may be healed, how much more now that by which we may be kept safe? Since if, when we were sinners, Christ died for us: how much more now, being justified, shall we be saved from wrath through him (Rom. 5)? My just help is from the Lord, who saves the upright in heart.

Then, so that we may strive to be converted to the Lord and to be right of heart, he commends to us his patience and threatens with judgment, adding: God is a just judge, strong and patient; is he angry every single day? Who is the judge God (according to Augustine), except the Lord, who judges the peoples? He is just, who will render to each one according to his works. He is strong, who even endured the impious persecutors, though he is most powerful, for our salvation. He is patient, who did not immediately after the resurrection drag even those who persecuted him to punishment, but endured them, so that they might at some time be converted from that impiety to salvation; and he still endures them, reserving the final punishment for the last judgment, and even now inviting sinners to repentance, not being angry every single day, nor gathering his ministers for vengeance. For now the patience of God invites to repentance; but in the last time, when men, because of the hardness of their heart or mind, and with an impenitent heart, have treasured up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, he will show his wrath; whence it is also added:

Unless you are converted, he will brandish his sword. It can be understood, following Augustine, that the man himself is the Lord's sword of God, doubly sharp—that is, the blade—which he did not brandish at his first coming, but hid as it were in the sheath of humility. He will brandish it, however, when he comes at his second advent to judge the living and the dead, and in the manifest splendor of his brightness he will flash light to his righteous and terrors to the impious (Matthew and Luke 21). For in other copies, in place of "he will brandish his sword," "he will make his blade shine" is found. By this word I judge that the final coming of the Lord's brightness is most fittingly signified. And because he has already confirmed this judgment of his in his Scriptures, what follows is well said: He has bent his bow and prepared it. The tenses of the words are not to be passed over indiscriminately, because he spoke of the sword in the future—"he will brandish"—but of the bow in the past—"he has bent." Then the words of the past tense follow:

And in it he prepared vessels of death: he wrought his arrows for those burning. Therefore I would willingly take this bow (following Augustine) to be the holy Scriptures, where by the strength of the New Testament, as by a kind of sinew, the hardness of the Old is bent and tamed. Hence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or they hurl divine proclamations. Which arrows he wrought for those burning—that is, for those who, struck, blaze with divine love. For by what other arrow was she struck of whom he says in the Song of Songs, I am wounded with love (Cant. 4:5)? By what other arrows is he set aflame who, desiring to return to God and to journey back from this pilgrimage, seeks help against deceitful tongues? And it is said to him: What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you against the deceitful tongue (Ps. 119)? The arrows of the mighty are sharp, with desolating coals: that is, struck and inflamed by them, you may burn with such love of the kingdom of heaven that you despise the tongues of all who resist and wish to call you back from your purpose, and you laugh at their persecutions, saying: Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? For I am certain, he says, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8).

Thus he wrought his arrows for those burning. In the Greek copies it is found thus: "He wrought his arrows for those burning"; but most Latin copies have "the burning." Yet whether the arrows themselves burn or make others burn (which they certainly cannot do unless they themselves also burn), the sense is sound. But since he says that the Lord prepared not only arrows but also vessels of death for the bow, it may be asked: what are the vessels of death? Are they perhaps the heretics? For they too leap forth from the same bow—that is, from the same Scriptures—not to inflame souls with charity but to destroy them with poison. And this does not happen except according to merits; therefore this disposition too must be attributed to divine providence, not because it itself makes sinners, but because it itself orders things when they have sinned. For I want the evil to be understood by those who read badly through sin, so that this itself is the punishment of sin; yet by their death the children of the catholic Church are, as it were, roused from sleep by certain thorns and advance toward understanding the divine Scriptures. For, he says, there must also be heresies, so that those who are approved may become manifest among you—that is, among men, when they are manifest to God (1 Cor. 11). Or perhaps he prepared these same arrows and vessels of death for the destruction of the unfaithful, and wrought the burning, or for those burning, for the training of the faithful? For it is not false what the Apostle said: "To some we are the odor of life unto life, to others the odor of death unto death" (2 Cor. 2).

It is not surprising, then, if the same apostles are both vessels of death for those by whom they suffered persecution, and fiery arrows to set aflame the hearts of believers.

After this dispensation, however (from Augustine), a just judgment will come, of which he speaks thus, so that we may understand that punishment is brought upon each person by his own sin, and that his iniquity is turned into his penalty: lest we think that that tranquility and ineffable light of God brings forth from itself the means by which sins are punished, but rather that the sins themselves are so ordered that what were delights to the sinning man become instruments for God in punishing. Behold (he says), he travails with injustice. For what had he conceived, that he should bring forth injustice? He conceived (he says) sorrow, and brought forth iniquity. He did not bring forth what he conceived. For what is conceived is not what is born; rather the seed is conceived, and what is formed from the seed is born. The seed that is conceived is the evil will; but the fruit that is born is perverse action. For first the evil will is born in the heart like a seed, but then from this seed unjust operation, or what is more, iniquitous operation, is generated like fruit. Injustice is that which is discordant from the rule of justice. Iniquity, however, is that which assails the rectitude of justice itself. The unjust man is he who does not keep the precepts of justice; the iniquitous man is he who offends the Lord with iniquitous works.

And well is it not said, "he committed iniquity," but "he brought it forth": for just as in childbirth there is pain and anxious labor, so all the perverse labor and anxiously gasp, that the evil which they have conceived in their heart they may bring to the outcome of action. Rightly also it is not said, "he conceived an evil will," but "pain": because the evil will itself torments itself, itself is its own punishment. For almighty God by his righteous and wondrous judgment brings it about that the soul which has sinned should itself be punished for the very sin which it commits. Whence rightly it is added:

He opened a pit, and dug it out, and fell into the ditch which he made. To open a pit (according to Augustine) is, in earthly things, that is, as it were in the earth, to prepare a fraud, into which another may fall, whom the more unjust man wishes to deceive. But this pit is opened when consent is given to the evil suggestion of earthly desires. It is dug out, however, when after consent one presses on to the working of the fraud. But how can it come about that iniquity should first harm the just man, against whom it proceeds, rather than the unjust heart from which it proceeds? And so the defrauder of money (for example), while he desires to tear another by loss, is himself wounded by the dart of avarice. But who, even while condemning, does not see how great the difference is between these, since the one suffers the loss of money, the other of innocence? He falls, therefore, into the ditch which he made. As is said in another psalm: The Lord shall be known when he executes judgments: in the works of his own hands the sinner is caught.

His pain will be turned back upon his head, and his iniquity will descend upon his own crown. For he did not wish to escape sin, but became subject to sin as a slave, since the Lord says, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave" (John 8). His iniquity will therefore be upon himself, since he himself is subjected to his own iniquity, because he could not say to the Lord what the innocent and the just say: "My glory, and the one who lifts up my head" (Psalm 3). So then he himself will be lower, while his iniquity is higher, and it will descend upon him—the iniquity that weighs him down and burdens him, so that he cannot fly back to the rest of the saints. This happens when in a perverse man reason is enslaved and desire rules.

And because this perfect man had already escaped this, he praises God and says: I will confess to the Lord according to his justice, and I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High. The confession of God's justice is that by which we speak thus: Truly you are a just God, when you both protect the just in such a way that you enlighten them through yourself, and order sinners in such a way that they are punished not by your malice but by their own. Therefore, because he sees the merits of souls so ordered by God that, while to each is given what is his own, the beauty of the universe is in no part violated, he praises God in all things; and this is the confession not of sinners but of the just. And lest we should understand it as the confession of sinners, he added at the end: And I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High. Now to sing belongs to joy, but repentance for sins belongs to sorrow.

Let us also make confession to the Lord according to His righteousness, praising and glorifying Him, because He is righteous; and let us sing to the name of the Lord Most High, by acting rightly, living well, and rejoicing spiritually, so that there may be fulfilled in us what is said in another psalm: Let our praise be joyful to our God (Ps. 146).

TITLE OF PSALM VIII.

Titles are therefore placed before books, so that through them the author of the writing and the subject matter, or the beginning, may be made clear. The title of this psalm is, Unto the end, a psalm of David, for the winepresses. Christ is our end, as the Apostle testifies, who says (Rom. 10): Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes. We tend toward Him; beyond Him there is nothing toward which we ought to tend. For He Himself is the highest good, the highest blessedness, true eternity. This Christ, whom the prophet David wrote in the person of the Church, leads us to the righteous end. And it is to be noted that he did not say "unto an end," but "the end." For we are not only sent to Christ so that we may come to Him, but also so that we may remain in Christ and be one with Him. But what is it that he says, For the winepresses? Winepresses are customarily understood (according to Augustine) as martyrdoms. For by the affliction of persecutions they were trodden down, who confessed the name of Christ; their mortal remains, like refuse, remained on the earth. I can also understand by winepresses any of the faithful, in accordance with what they endure for God's sake from the adversities of this world.

For it is written: All who wish to live devoutly in Christ suffer persecution (2 Tim 3). Therefore it is sung “for the winepresses,” for the constitution of the Church (according to Augustine), since our Lord, after He rose, ascended to the heavens. For then He sent the Holy Spirit, filled with whom the disciples preached the word of God with confidence (Acts 2), so that the churches might be gathered together. Now the prophet’s purpose in this work is to invite all to faith in Christ, whose praise is so great in all the earth, and by whose grace and power the universal Church has been established and strengthened. For he says,

PSALM 8

O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Your name in all the earth! As if he were saying: O Lord of all by power, who are our Lord by grace, how all who dwell on the earth marvel at You! You, Lord, were known in Judea only, and in Israel Your name was great (Ps 75). You appeared among us, You died for us, You rose, You ascended into heaven, You poured out Your Spirit upon the hearts of the disciples; when they preached, their sound went out into all the earth, and Your glorious name, which was known among one people, has become admirable in all the earth (Ps 18). Why admirable? Because Your magnificence has been lifted up above the heavens.

Rising from the dead you ascended into heaven, and what seemed lowly in you appeared magnificent. Hence (from Augustine) it is clear who it was that descended, since he was seen by some and believed by others, and where it was that you ascended.

Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise because of your enemies. I cannot (from the same author) understand the infants and nursing babes to be any other than those to whom the Apostle says, As to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food (1 Cor 3). These were signified by those who went before the Lord praising him (Matt 21), whose testimony the Lord himself used when the Jews said this, and to rebuke them he answered: Have you not read, Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise? And well does he not say "you have made" but "you have perfected praise." For there are in the Churches also those who are no longer given milk to drink but feed on solid food, whom the same Apostle signifies when he says, We speak wisdom among the perfect (1 Cor 2). But the Churches are not perfected from these alone, because if they were the only ones, provision would not be made for the human race. But provision is made when those also who are not yet capable of the knowledge of spiritual and eternal things are nourished by faith in the temporal history which, for our salvation, after the patriarchs and prophets, was administered by the very Wisdom of God, even in the mystery of the man he took up, in which is salvation for everyone who believes (Rom

So that, fortified by authority, he may devote himself to the commandments, by which each one, once purified and rooted and grounded in love, may be able to run with all the saints—no longer a little child on milk, but a young man on solid food—and to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth, and to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ. These things, however, you have done, Lord God, because of your enemies, to destroy the enemy and the avenger. Who is meant by the enemy but the pagan and the heretic, and by the avenger but the Jew, who, as if to avenge and defend his own law, persecuted the Christian name. These you, Lord, have destroyed and crushed, when, at your inspiration, the little ones came to your faith, and the experts in the law and the philosophers remained in their error. Great is the confusion of the enemies, when the foolish praise and the wise blaspheme; and in this, Lord, your holy majesty is wonderful, when by your grace the little one grasps concerning you what the great man cannot by his own wisdom. Hence it is written: I will confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones. Hence there follows,