Commentarius In LXXV Psalmos [Attributus]

But I will always hope. Whatever they do to me, however much they persecute me, I will not be distressed by any adversity, but I will always have firm hope in you; and I will add to all your praise. What is this? How can a man add to all the praise of God? But God had been praised in all his creation, in the governance of the ages, in the ordering of times, in the height of heaven, in the fruitfulness of the earth, in the expanse of the sea, in the very sons of men, in the giving of the law, and in all his other wonders. He had not yet been praised in that he raised flesh to eternal life. Therefore praise is added to God beyond all the praise that came before, when the incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven of his Only-begotten are proclaimed. Hence he further adds:

My mouth will announce your justice. And he adds what he calls justice, namely your salvation, that is, your Son, who both saves those who hope in him and justifies them; and this all the day, that is, at all times. This is the praise that surpasses all praise, namely to proclaim the justice of God, by which the ungodly is justified, and the salvation by which the condemned is saved. And for this reason I have announced your justice: because I have not known, that is, I have not approved, the letter, of which Paul says: The letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3). For certain people boasted not of grace but of the letter, because they had received the law (Mt 5).

But the law without grace is only the letter, and it remains to convict iniquity, not to give righteousness. For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would surely be by the law. But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Glorying in that very grace, I did not know the letter—that is, I wholly rejected from my heart those who presume upon the letter and are estranged from grace. Hence it is rightly added:

I will enter into the powers of the Lord. For the spiritual man, while he does not cling to the letter, is worthy through understanding to enter into the inner things of the spirit, so that he may know the powers of the Lord—that is, grace and virtues—by which, no longer weakened through the flesh, he may mightily fulfill the divine commandments. In this too he commends the grace of God, not his own righteousness, when he immediately adds: O Lord, I will remember your righteousness alone. For certain men, not knowing the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. I acknowledge none of my own; I will remember your righteousness alone. Your righteousness alone frees me; my own is nothing but sins. I will not boast of my own strength, lest I remain in the letter, but of your grace, through which, by working, I fulfill the letter. And not only to do, but also to know this very thing he attributes to God, when he adds:

God, you have taught me from my youth, and even until now. From the very beginning of the faith by which you renewed me, even to this present, you have taught me, because I ought to remember your righteousness alone. For considering my past life, I see what was owed to me, and what I received in place of what was owed to me. Punishment was owed; grace was rendered. Gehenna was owed; eternal life was given. From the time I was converted, I learned that no merits of mine went before, but that your grace came to me freely. Instructed in this way, I will proclaim your marvelous works, that is, those things which you have marvelously accomplished, I will preach to others. For what is more marvelous among the marvelous works of God than that the Creator himself became a creature? God took up human nature. By his blood he redeemed the lost man, and brought him back from death to life, from the world to glory. These are the marvelous works that I will proclaim, which you have taught me from my youth. And just as you have taken me up in mercy until now, O Lord, so may you not cease to act even to the end. And this is what follows:

And even to old age and senescence, God, do not forsake me. You have helped the strong; do not abandon the weak. In the time of the apostles and martyrs the Church was young, strong in virtue, patient in tribulation, perfect in wisdom; but now, because charity has grown cold, wisdom is diminished, and virtue fails, she has begun, as it were, to come into old age. In the time of the Antichrist she will fall into senescence, when her strength will be so diminished that, if it were possible, even the elect would be led astray. Therefore the Church of Christ asks that, just as from her youth she is governed by the grace of almighty God, so even to the end she may be guided by the same grace. Even to old age and my senescence, that is, even to my last day, even to the end of the world, may your grace persevere with me. Until I announce your arm, that is, your Son, to every generation that is to come. Hence it is said elsewhere: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore Christ is called the arm of the Lord, because he himself is the virtue and strength of God, through whom all things were made, and by whom the power of the devil is overcome. To every generation this arm is announced, so that by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ they may remain strong, and by trusting in such great virtue may mightily conquer the devil and their vices.

I will proclaim (he says) not my own strength or my own righteousnesses, but your power and your righteousness, O God, which extend even to the highest things, which you have made as great wonders: that is, even to the heavenly powers themselves, which you created far more wondrously than your other works. The great wonders of God are the Angels, Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, Powers. These very great wonders owe to you both that they exist, that they live justly, and that they live blessedly. Not only are men governed by the grace of God, but even the highest and eternal powers themselves. Hence he exclaims in admiration, saying: O God, who is like you—understood, in the working of great wonders? The first angel wished to be like you, and he fell (Isa. 14). The first man wished it too, to whom the serpent said: And you shall be as gods (Gen. 3), and he lost his dignity. And yet man is read to have been made in the likeness of God (Gen. 2); and the Lord himself invites us to his likeness, saying in the Gospel: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, that you may be sons of your Father (Matt. 5). And the Apostle says: We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3). In what, then, did man sin, if he wished to be what God made him to be? But he wished this perversely, so that just as God has no one by whom he was formed, and no one by whom he is governed, so man wished to be in his own power without a lord, without a ruler—and thus he is deservedly so by his own will.

But this too could be willed without sin—namely, that he be like God. For whoever wills to be like God in such a way that he stands before him and keeps his strength from him, and by cleaving to him is stamped like wax from a ring, has his image, doing what was said: But for me to cleave to God is good (Ps. 72). This one keeps the likeness and image in which he was made, and does not sin. But because man first scorned to do this, now as a captive he cries out: O God, who is like you? I perversely willed to be like you, and I was made like a beast. Under your dominion, under your command, I was truly like you. But man, when placed in honor, did not understand; he was compared to senseless beasts and became like them (Ps. 48). And because he watched for what was forbidden, he found punishment. Hence now, groaning, he adds:

How many evil troubles you have shown me, and many! For evil was shown to man by experience. Hence it is written: And their eyes were opened (Gen. 3). For they knew that they had sinned. The inner eyes, by which they saw the spiritual good, were closed; and the outer eyes were opened to experience evil. But who can say or conceive how many and how great the troubles and anxieties miserable man sees and feels in this mortality and corruption? These are therefore evil because they cannot be without guilt. Yet they become discipline, and are a warning, not a desertion.

For he immediately adds: And turning, you revived me. As if after anger he had turned to mercy, you revived the human race, which had died in the first parent. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15). And from the depths of the earth, that is, from the profundity and submersion of sin, you brought me back again. What is this that he says, Again? For God does not bring us back from sins only once, but now through baptism, now through penitence, now through conversion; and so by many and various means we are brought back to salvation. We repeat our guilt; the Lord all the more repeats his mercy toward us. Or: from the depths of the earth, that is, from the sins that plunge us into destruction, God has brought back the human race—first through faith, again through sight; now by living rightly, again by enjoying eternal blessedness. We have risen in mind, in faith, in hope, in love. It remains that we rise also in body. And because we already hold this in hope, it is rightly said: And from the depths of the earth you brought me back again. But to me, thus brought back,

You have multiplied your magnificence, that is, in many ways you have bestowed great and manifold gifts of virtues. And turning, through the mediator Christ (1 Tim 2), from the anger which you held because of sin against the human race, you have consoled me, by making me secure concerning the eternal promise. And because (from Augustine) he had spoken of two restorations, one according to the spirit in reality, the other according to the body in hope, he commends both, as he adds:

For I also will confess to you the truth in the vessels of the psalm, O God. This is according to the spirit. For from the higher part the psaltery sounds, which is, as it were, a kind of spiritual vessel, in which the psalms are contained, in which also the truth of the Lord is proclaimed to his honor. The vessels of the psalm are the instruments by which psalmody is performed, and they signify the vivification of the spirit. What of the body? I will sing to you on the harp, O Holy One of Israel. For the harp gives forth sound from the lower part. I will sing to you on the harp, that is, in the mortification of the flesh. To you, I say, who are the Holy One of Israel, that is, who sanctify those who are spiritually Israel, that is, those who see God. And therefore

My lips will exult when I sing to you, and my soul which you have redeemed. Holy David was so certain of the redemption of his soul that he already spoke of it as done, which in the Spirit he foresaw as future. He did not say, "And my soul, which you will redeem," but "My soul which you have redeemed." Therefore, while he sings to the Lord, he exults not only with outward lips but inwardly in his soul. For this is how God ought to be praised: that the mind be in harmony with the voice, so that that saying of the Apostle may be fulfilled: "I will sing in the spirit, I will sing also with the mind" (1 Cor 14). Nor will my lips alone sing,

But my tongue also will meditate on your justice. That is, how my soul has been redeemed and justified by you, with no preceding merits of mine, but by your free mercy alone. When will it meditate on this? In the end. When those who seek evils against me have been confounded and put to shame. In two ways (from Augustine) they will be confounded and blush: either when they believe in Christ, or when Christ comes. For all the dead will rise (1 Cor 15), each with his own cause: the good will be separated to the right, but the evil to the left. And then those who exulted before will be confounded; those who babbled will blush, when it is said to them: "Go into eternal fire" (Mt 25). And note that he did not say, "And my tongue will speak," but "will meditate." For then tongues will cease (1 Cor 13), since in that blessed life the wills and thoughts of all will be manifest to all in turn.

TITLE OF PSALM LXXI.

A Psalm of David, concerning Solomon. This treatise tends toward Christ, who is the true Solomon, that is, the peaceful one, who established peace between God and the human race (Ephesians 2). In this psalm Christ is the subject according to both natures, namely the divine and the human. In the first part he asks that judgment be given to him, and affirms that he will have it. In the second part (which begins, "In his days shall justice arise") he speaks of the kingdom, commending that kingdom in many ways. In the third part (which begins, "May his name be blessed") there is a commendation of the king himself. He intends to admonish us to be subject to this same Solomon. The voice is that of the Prophet foreseeing Christ as the future king, who prophesies by praying that the kingdom be given to him, saying:

PSALM LXXI.

O God, give your judgment to the king: and your justice to the son of the king. The Lord confirms this in his own person, where he says in the Gospel: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5). He who is king is also the son of a king, since God the Father is certainly a king: and he himself established his incarnate Son as king over his people, so that he might rule them spiritually according to justice and judgment, according to good morals and virtues, and establish them forever in his heavenly kingdom. As if he were saying: O God the Father, give to Christ judgment over men, so that just as you have the right to judge, so may he also have it.

And to the same son of the king—that is, your son, you who alone are king and rule your people in truth—give your justice, that is, righteous judgment, because that king will always judge with just judgments. This is an hendiadys, because he says the same thing through different terms. For in this place justice and judgment are the same thing, and they signify nothing other than just judgment. Give him to judge your people in justice, that is, that he may judge all rightly—namely, the good and the evil. Nor should it disturb anyone that he says "your." For even the perverse are his own, and they can do nothing except by God's permission. Likewise also "your poor in judgment," with the implied sense "give him to judge." Christ judges the good and the evil in this life; he will also judge afterward, when he separates the evil from the good (Matthew 25). And it must be noted that when he said "the poor," he immediately added "your," so that by this he might designate the true poor. For not all the poor are God's poor; rather, they are their own poor, because they are not humble but proud. And there are certain rich people who more readily give all their possessions to the poor than the poor themselves do. Therefore, to designate his own poor, the Lord says in the Gospel: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5). He did not say "the poor in possessions," but "in spirit," since that poverty is blessed and acceptable to God where there is no presumption of spirit.

Such poor people Christ will judge in the judgment to come, and will save them, since, as it is said elsewhere: The patience of the poor will not perish forever (Ps. 9). And not only give him judgment, but also cause him to be made known through your preachers throughout the whole world. And this is what he adds next:

Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice. The mountains in the Church are those eminent in surpassing holiness, who are fit to teach others also (2 Cor. 3). Let these mountains receive the peace that is to be preached to the people, as it was commanded them by the Lord: Into whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house (Luke 10). The hills are the lesser ones. Let them receive justice, that is, obedience, which is in men, and in every rational creature is the origin and perfection of all justice. Or by mountains and hills can be understood both kinds of preachers of the gospel peace, whether those who go before or those who follow after. Let them receive peace and justice, that is, Christ, who reconciles us to God and justifies us through faith (Col. 1), and let them make him known to the peoples. First he asks, then he affirms that Christ will truly judge. Hence he also says:

He will judge the poor of the people, that is, the true and spiritual poor, by separating them from the people, just as the Lord said to his disciples: I have chosen you out of this world. And he will save the children of the poor, that is, the imitators of the apostles: and he will humble the accuser, that is, he will oppress the devil, who is the unjust accuser of our brethren. For he has been humbled, because he whom he had killed has risen, and he has taken away the kingdom of death. It was over this kingdom that he [the devil] wielded power in such a way that through the one man whom he had deceived, he dragged all men through death to damnation. But he has been humbled: for if through the trespass of one man death entered into the world (Rom. 5), much more will those who receive the abundance of grace in life reign through Christ, who has humbled the accuser.

And he will endure with the sun, that is, with the deity: which is for this reason called the sun, because by the true knowledge of righteousness it enlightens the soul, with the accuser humbled: he endures with the sun, because, with the devil conquered through the resurrection, he sits at the right hand of the Father, where he no longer dies, and death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom. 6). And this before the moon. As the firstborn from the dead, going before the Church, which by changing fails and grows. In generation and generation. Or he calls it the generation by which we are begotten mortally. Then he announces the incarnation of the deity, when he adds:

He shall come down like rain upon the fleece. For what happens so silently and without noise as when the shower comes down upon the fleece (Judges 6)? It strikes no one's ears with sound. It sprinkles no one's body with the moisture of rebounding dew; but without disturbing anyone, the whole shower, poured out through many parts, while the whole body has one channel and knows no rent, by its solid softness provides many channels; and what seems closed by its density is open by its fineness. Rightly, then, do we compare Mary to the fleece: she conceived the Lord in such a way that, while she drew him in with her whole body, she did not suffer any rent in that same body; but she was soft for obedience, solid for holiness. Rightly, then, is Mary compared to the fleece: from whose fruit salutary garments are woven for the peoples. Plainly the fleece is Mary. Indeed, from her soft bosom the Lamb came forth, who himself, bearing the wool of his mother, that is, of his flesh, covers the wounds of all peoples with his soft fleece. For every wound of sin is covered over by the wool of Christ, is warmed by the blood of Christ; and to receive healing, it is clothed with the garment of Christ. And because from his fullness we have all received (John 1), it is aptly added, And like drops dripping upon the earth. Since his whole divinity poured itself into Mary, he came down like rain upon the fleece; since through the divisions of graces he poured himself into the Church, he came down like drops dripping upon the earth.

Gideon, about to go into battle, asked the Lord for a sign of the outcome of the war (Judges 6). So he placed a fleece upon the ground, which first appeared wet and afterward dry. But the ground was first dry and afterward wet. The rain is Christ, the fleece is Judea, and the ground is understood as the multitude of the Gentiles. First the rain came upon the fleece, just as Christ first came down to Judea. But the ground was dry, because the people of the Gentiles were still untaught and unbaptized. But will it always be dry? Not always: when the fleece has been shaken out, the name of Christ is spread abroad over all lands. So from the fleece to the ground, from Judea to the Gentiles, the name of Christ and the teaching of the heavenly dew flowed out. And what benefit will there be in the coming of Christ?

In his days justice shall arise, and abundance of peace. This was also fulfilled according to the letter. For in the time when the Lord was born, the whole world was at rest under the rule of one realm. Spiritually, however, both peace and justice arose in his days. Sinners were made just, and the discordant peaceful. In his days justice arose—the grace of faith by which the elect are justified. And well is it said, And abundance of peace: because through the whole world there will be an abundant reconciliation, and from every part men will be reconciled to God. But this peace will endure in the saints until the moon is taken away, that is, until the present Church becomes immortal and impassible.

For what does "until the moon be taken away" mean, except until it be brought to pass that it is not? Namely, that the abundance of peace be carried to this point, that contradiction and rebellion be utterly destroyed, and that peace be made growing without end, so that, with death wholly conquered, between flesh and spirit, between man and God, an unshaken concord and undivided unity be forever held. Then he shows the extent of the kingdom, when he adds:

And he shall rule from the eastern sea even to the western sea; and from the river Jordan even to the ends of the earth, around the whole circle of the world. By the river Jordan, in which Christ was baptized, we have received baptism, through which Christ is spread abroad through the whole world.

The Ethiopians shall fall down before him: and his enemies shall lick the earth. By the Ethiopians (from Augustine), he signified all the nations by a part for the whole: choosing that nation which he might most especially name, which is at the ends of the earth. They shall fall down (he says) before him, that is, they shall adore him: and the enemies of God shall lick the earth, if ever the Jews, heretics, and pagans take delight in the doctrine of the Apostles. For the Apostles are the salt of the earth (Matt. 5). The enemies of God shall also lick the earth, when they strive to deceive the saints by the blandishments of falsehood and by flattering words.

The kings of Tarshish and the islands shall offer gifts; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring presents. This the Magi fulfilled even bodily, with the star as their guide (Matt. 2), and the kings and princes of the whole earth still do not cease to imitate them spiritually every day. Tarshish is interpreted as the exploration of joy, or contemplation. For some, coming from the exploration of joy, having tested and despised the empty gladness of this world, making themselves kings by rationally ruling their own carnality, offer themselves as gifts to the Lord King. By the islands (which are dry land surrounded by sea) we understand those who are dry from the waves of this world: by whose storms they are by no means submerged, although they are buffeted by its gales on every side. Such islands offer gifts, because they ascribe to the Lord the good things they do. Arabia is interpreted as humility. Saba as burning. The humble, and those who burn up base things within themselves, having likewise become kings, bring themselves as free gifts to the Lord. For those things are customarily brought which are able to walk. Was this said of victims to be sacrificed? Far be it that such justice should arise in his days! But by these gifts which are proclaimed as to be brought to the Lord, faithful men are designated, whom the authority of kings brings into the fellowship of the Church of Christ.

And all kings shall adore him, who previously were accustomed to be adored, that is, some from every kind of kings; and all nations, which previously were accustomed to serve earthly kings, shall serve him, namely our heavenly king. And rightly so,

Because he shall deliver the poor man from the powerful. Here that one is called powerful (according to Augustine) who above was called the accuser. That he should subject men to himself and keep them in slavery was brought about not by his own virtue but by human sins. But he who humbled the accuser, and entered into the house of the strong man, so that, having bound him, he might plunder his vessels (Luke 11), he himself delivered the poor man from the powerful, and that poor man so desolate and wretched, who had no helper. For neither any righteous man on earth nor any angel could accomplish this. Nor could they be delivered even through free will, except only through Christ. And how shall he deliver him?

He shall spare the poor and the needy. The poor man is one who has nothing. The needy man is one who needs another's help. This poor man, empty and destitute of virtues and good works, the pious king will not condemn according to his own merit, but will spare him, remitting punishment, forgiving guilt. And thus: He shall make the souls of the poor safe, the souls of the rich being handed over to demons. And how shall he make the souls of the poor safe?

From usury and iniquity he shall redeem their souls. For they will no longer practice either usury or iniquities. Or: from the usury and iniquity of the devil. For this most wicked moneylender lends luxury to some, avarice to others, and indeed pride to others; and after sinners have been exercised in these things, they return their soul to the devil as usury. The devil's money is iniquity, which we have received from him. On this money he exacts usury from us, that is, penalties, which we did not receive and yet pay. From these usuries and iniquity the souls of the poor are redeemed, by that blood which was shed for the remission of sins. And so their name has become honorable before him. For now (from Augustine) he is not mindful of their names by his lips, by which they were formerly called idolaters, or adulterers, or murderers; since, having abandoned the vices for which they were marked with such names, they turned to Christ and received a new name, so that from Christ they should be called Christians (Acts 11). This name is certainly honorable before him, even if it is held despicable before enemies. Hear also another honorable name, and full of all joy, which the pious Lord himself deigned to impose on his disciples, saying: I will no longer call you servants, but my friends (John 15:15). There follows the commendation of the king himself of whom he speaks:

And he shall live. For he will not remain in death, as the Jews thought, but he will rise from the dead and live forever, as the Apostle testifies, who says: Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more; death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom. 6). And there shall be given to him of the gold of Arabia. For many even of the wise of the Gentiles will be converted to him. Or the gold of Arabia signifies wisdom in humility. For we have said that Arabia is interpreted as humility. Nothing is more precious than this treasure, nothing more valuable either to be held or to be offered to God. And they shall adore him always, that is, they shall worship him with the highest and singular veneration. And this very fact that they adore him will proceed from him, that is, from his gift. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings (Rom. 8). Those who pray well have this from him. From him they draw whatever good they possess. Deservedly, therefore, all the day, that is, continually, they will bless him, giving thanks and ascribing their goods not to themselves but to the Lord. Another reason is also shown why he ought to be blessed, when it is added:

It shall be a firmament on the earth. For all the promises of God are confirmed in him (Galatians 3). And whatever has been prophesied for our salvation, all of it is, or will be, fulfilled in him. The faithful souls, too, placed in this earth, have no other firmament but Christ. He is a firmament to those who fear him. Behold, there is a firmament. Is it not high? It shall indeed be so. For he shall be exalted above the tops of the mountains, that is, among those mountains which are higher than others, when Christ comes, he alone will appear more eminent than all (Matthew 24). Hence another Prophet says: In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains (Isaiah 2). For if other mountains are exalted by holiness, our Lord is exalted above them by divinity. Behold, he is a firmament, and a high one: is he not also fruitful? Yes: His fruit shall be upon Lebanon. By Lebanon (from Augustine) we are accustomed to understand, as it were, the dignity of this world, since Lebanon is a mountain having lofty trees, and the name itself is interpreted as Whitening. And what wonder if, above every splendid height of this world, the fruit of Christ is exalted, whose fruit is that his lovers have despised all worldly summits? But if we take Lebanon in a good sense, on account of the cedars of Lebanon which he planted: what other fruit is to be understood, which is exalted above Lebanon, than that of which the Apostle, about to speak of love, says: I show you yet a more excellent way?

For this is also placed first among the divine gifts, where it says: But the fruit of the Spirit is love. And from there the rest are woven together in order. Fittingly, moreover, there is joined to this: And they shall flourish from the city like the grass of the earth. The city in this place designates the society of this world. And so the fruit of Christ is exalted above Lebanon, that is, above the long-lasting trees and the incorruptible woods (because that fruit is eternal); all the glory of man, according to the temporal loftiness of the world, is compared to grass, since by believers who already hope for eternal life, temporal happiness is despised, so that what is written may be fulfilled: All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40), and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen: but the word of the Lord endures forever. And on account of all these benefits

Let his name be blessed forever, that is, the fame and glory of his name, as regards men, let it receive increase, and let it be ever more and more spread abroad and magnified both here and forever. Deservedly, moreover, is he to be blessed, since even Before the sun, that is, before all times, his name endures. He does not say the name, that utterance which passes away: but the divine substance is understood here, which is signified by the name: and it follows that whoever blesses God is blessed by God. This the holy Isaac showed, when in the figure of Christ, blessing his son, he said: Whoever blesses you, he also shall be blessed (Genesis 27).

Hence it is said to Abraham: In your seed all nations shall be blessed (Gen. 22). Whence now it is rightly said: And in him all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed. Tribes are so called as it were curiae, though improperly. And the Lord God commanded his people to be divided into various tribes (Num. 34; Josh. 13 and 14); and holy Jacob blessed his sons according to their various tribes (Gen. 50). The various tribes in the Church of God designate souls chosen according to their various merits, on account of which also in the house of the Father there are many mansions (John 14). As if he were saying: Not only will he himself be blessed, but all his own through him. Whence deservedly All nations shall magnify him: not that they themselves make him great, who is great through himself, but by praising and making him great. Whence in his own part he blessed God, saying:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who alone works wonders. For whoever works, does not himself work through himself, but the Lord works through him.

And blessed be the name of his majesty for ever. By the name of majesty is understood the glory of the Godhead. But why, when he said God of Israel, did he not rather say God of all men, or God of the whole creation? Because there he intended to commend God according to grace. For afterwards he commended him according to power, where he added the name of his majesty; on which account he also immediately added: And all the earth shall be filled with his majesty. In this matter it must be noted that, although almighty God fills all things through the power of his divinity, yet certain things he fills in a special way through the grace of his indwelling. Hence, as we said before, to commend his grace he is called the God of Israel, because he chose this nation for himself in a special way; concerning which he says through another Prophet: And I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Lev. 26). He has therefore placed four blessings in these four verses. The first concerning the eternity of God. The second concerning the blessing of the Gentiles in him. The third concerning the spiritual grace conferred on Israel, in which he also proclaimed God alone to be wonderful, because in this work of grace alone he was far more wonderful than in the other works. The fourth, the glory of his majesty, in which consists our blessedness and our end; for with that majesty all the earth shall be filled, the whole Church shall be filled. And from all these things may God be blessed. Fiat Fiat. Because he greatly desires it, therefore he repeats it.

THE TITLE OF THE SEVENTY-SECOND PSALM.

Just as through a key or a door we enter into a house, so through the sense of the titles we enter into the understanding of the psalms. The title of this psalm is: The hymns of David the son of Jesse have failed, a Psalm of Asaph. Hymns are songs containing the praise of God. If there is praise, and it is not of God, it is not a hymn. If there is praise, and it is of God, and 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 a song. When therefore he said, They have failed, he seems to announce a troublesome matter. For one who sings praise not only praises but also praises joyfully. One who sings praise not only praises but also loves him whom he sings. In praise there is the proclamation of one confessing, in song there is affection. Asaph is interpreted as synagogue, or congregation. The voice in this psalm is that of the synagogue, with the hymns of David failing—not of the son of God, but of the son of Jesse. Therefore he added the son of Jesse, lest in this place, as in the other psalms, Christ be understood through David; but through David the carnal Jewish people be taken, over whom King and prophet David presided. Of this David, that is, of the carnal people, the praises have failed, with temporal things failing, through which God was accustomed to be praised by the carnal people. But why have they failed, except that better things be sought, which cannot fail? The matter itself is the faithful synagogue. In the first part, now as it were confirmed, it praises God, which before, doubting, had nearly gone astray.

In the second part (where it says, "My people will be converted here") the conversion from what he had doubted is commended. In the third (which begins, "Nevertheless because of deceit") he shows that this prosperity is deceptive and drags its lovers to death. In the fourth (which begins, "For what is there for me in heaven?") he shows that he has true understanding and no longer seeks temporal things, but God alone. The intention is to restrain the simple, lest they murmur against God over the prosperity of the good or the adversity of the wicked, since it is certain that He is good and just in all things. Therefore he says:

PSALM 72.

How good is God to Israel. He is indeed wondrously and ineffably good. Yet His supreme goodness is not known to all, but only to those who are right of heart, that is, who are neither puffed up by prosperity nor broken by adversity, and in both understand God to be good and right. Then he begins to declare his doubt, which he had previously held, for the confirmation of others, when he adds:

But my feet were almost moved—that is, the affections of my soul were almost moved away from God. My steps were almost poured out—that is, my works. Our steps are poured out when we labor for the sake of desiring various earthly things. But when we labor for eternal things alone, the steps of good action are no longer poured out, but rather tend toward one thing, namely, toward God. The feet were moved (from Augustine) toward wandering; the steps were poured out toward falling—yet not entirely, but almost. As if he were saying more plainly: I almost withdrew from God, both in will and in deed. Therefore he says "almost," because he repented. For if he had not repented, he would have withdrawn from God completely. But why did this happen?

Because I envied the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners. I saw that they had peace, that they flourished in riches, though they despised God. But I, who was a worshiper of God, lacked all these things. Therefore I envied them. Therefore I was indignant, therefore I was jealous. But now I see why they have this peace. Why?

Because there is no regard for their death. There is in them no regard of divine mercy, that they may be delivered from eternal death. Therefore they enjoy this temporal peace here, only to be punished in the future with perpetual damnation. And their firmament is in their plague—the word "is not" is understood. He calls their plague their guilt, in which there is no firmament, that is, no remedy of penitence or of salvation.

They are not in the labor of men, and they will not be scourged with men. That is, they do not labor like other men, nor are they afflicted. For they are not of the sons of God, whom the merciful Father scourges, that he may receive them (Prov. 3). But never can almighty God be more angry with a sinful man here than when he allows him to prosper in this life.

Therefore pride has held them fast. For because they do not feel the scourge, they therefore live proudly. For if they were scourged, perhaps they would be humbled. So pride has held them, bound them, tied them fast, subjected them as captives, as servants. From this holding-fast, they are covered—that is, they are wholly filled with iniquity, as regards their neighbor—and by their impiety, as regards God. O those unhappy ones, whom pride ever holds bound, iniquity covers as if submerged. And whence this has proceeded is shown when it is added:

Their iniquity came forth as if from fat. That is, from an abundance of riches, from the swelling of pride, from will and pleasure. From this it must be noted that iniquity does not always proceed from one origin. For sometimes it is derived from necessity, sometimes from abundance. There are certain evil people (from Augustine) as if from leanness, because they are thin, slight, poor, and needy, affected by a certain stain of necessity. The poor man commits theft: iniquity proceeded from leanness. The rich man abounding in wealth seizes what belongs to others: iniquity came forth as if from fat. When you say to the lean man: Why did you do this? He, humbly afflicted and cast down, answers: Want compelled me. If you say to the rich man: Why do you do this? He scarcely deigns to hear, and even despises you. It is one thing, then, to sin from necessity, another from abundance. Behold, these began from pride: where have they arrived? They have passed over (he says) into the affection of the heart, that is, even to the fulfilling of their depraved wills.

And this which they themselves passed over, they did not do without forethought, but as if from delay and filing, because they thought about it long among themselves first, and afterwards spoke to others to teach them their wickedness. And this not in secret, but openly. Hence he adds: They spoke iniquity on high. Not with fear, but with boldness, clearly and openly, with all listening. Nor did they speak evil only against men proudly and perversely, but even against God.

For they were able to [set] their mouth against heaven, blaspheming God, disparaging the heavenly things themselves. And their tongue passed over the earth. First into heaven, then into the earth they carried their tongue: because first they spoke against Christ, but afterwards against the Church. Or, that their tongue passed over the earth means that, despising the heavenly Lord, they praised and magnified themselves in this life, as they said elsewhere: We will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own. Who is our Lord (Ps. 11)? And truly in this their tongue passed over the earth, because their loquacity exceeded the bounds of humanity and the measure of nature, since they extolled themselves so much that they despised God as being above them. And because they erred so greatly, and from their peace and prosperity came to such great wickedness, their damnation was for others an occasion of conversion. Therefore he adds:

Therefore my people will be converted here. Here, he says, amid such great blindness, amid such great perdition as those who loved riches have fallen into. My people, having considered this by reason, out of zeal and envy which it previously had on that account, will be converted, lest it be punished with a like damnation together with the lovers of riches. My people, he says, will be converted here, that is, having considered the perdition of the wicked. Or here, that is, in this world, while it is the acceptable time for conversion, and the day of salvation (2 Cor 6). Concerning these he immediately adds: And full days will be found in them, namely full unto pardon, unto mercy, and unto grace. For the fullness of time has come, in which God sent his Son on earth (Gal 4). Or in those who will be converted to God here, in the future days will be found full of blessedness, full of eternity. Truly there the days are full, where the sun of righteousness shines, where the divine and eternal brightness gleams (Wis 5; Mal 4). Then he recounts how they first went astray, and how afterwards they were converted. For he says:

And they said, that is, thinking within themselves before their conversion: How does God know? That is, how can we know that he knows, since the good are thus afflicted and the wicked prosper? And is there knowledge in the Most High? If there is, and he knows, how does he allow it? It is an aposiopesis, that is, a breaking off, where something is added so that the speech may be fully understood. Such was their error. For they thought that God either did not know or did not care about human affairs, when the good were afflicted and the wicked flourished. Hence they also say next:

Behold, these are sinners and abounding in the world, they have obtained riches. I, who serve God, am in need; they are sinners, and they have obtained abundant riches in the world.

And therefore I too, joined to them before my conversion, likewise said: Therefore without cause have I justified my heart, that I might be clean in thought: and I washed my hands among the innocent, that is, with the innocent I cleansed my actions, and I did this without cause. Where is the reward of a pure conscience? Where is the prize of an innocent life? I live well, and I am in need; that man sins, and he abounds.

And I was scourged all day long: the scourges of God do not depart from me. I serve well, and I am scourged; he does not serve, and he rests. These words are dangerous and almost blasphemous. He did not say, "God did not know," but as though inquiring, he hesitates and wavers. He did not say (from Augustine), "There is no knowledge in the Most High." This is what he said a little earlier: "But my feet were almost moved." He does not confirm it, but the very doubt is dangerous. Yet through danger he swims across to health, and hence it is added: "And my chastisement in the mornings," that is, without delay. For he is chastised when he is healed from error. The chastisement of the wicked is deferred; mine is not deferred. That is late, or rather none at all; mine is in the mornings. Hear now the voice of the chastised man. For he restrains himself from what he had said, and recognizing his error, he says:

If I said, I will declare thus, behold, I have reprobated the nation of your sons. For this to be understood more plainly, it needs to be distinguished thus: I said, thinking within myself, If I declare thus, namely as I declared above, or as those declared who said, "How does God know?" etc. Behold, it is manifest and certain that I have reprobated the nation of your sons, that is, of your righteous ones. I am about to say something else (from the same) than what Abraham said, than what Isaac said, than what Jacob said, than what the prophets said. For all those said that God cares for human affairs. I am about to say that he does not care. Am I greater in prudence, or in understanding, than they?

The most wholesome authority has recalled my thoughts from impiety. Therefore, so that he might prove the righteous of God—or rather, so that he might wholesomely think as one with them—he no longer stubbornly defends his error, but humbly states what he does not know. For it is no small advance in knowledge not to be ignorant of one's own ignorance. Whence someone says: "This one thing I know, that I do not know." And this is what he adds:

I was considering, so that I might know this: it is labor before me. I thought I knew the truth—why the wicked flourish, why the good suffer—and now, converted and chastened, I have recognized that this is labor before me. What is "before me"? While I remain with myself, while I persist in carnal understanding, while I attend only to visible things, I cannot easily perceive the truth about earthly matters. How long will this labor last?

Until I enter into the sanctuary of God. Until I pass over in mind to spiritual understanding, and understand—that is, fix my understanding—in their last end. Therefore, to possess true knowledge of temporal things, two things are necessary for us. First, that we weigh eternal things with a good mind. Then, that we solicitously consider the end of those things which pass away. With both of these accomplished, it is easily gathered that whatever is loved temporally is vanity (Eccles. 1). By "the sanctuary of God" nothing else can be understood than the divine judgment; and whoever enters it by reason considers, with undoubted understanding, that the omnipotent and just God permits the wicked to flourish in this world for this purpose, that they may be punished more severely in the future.

For this reason he wants the good to be troubled temporally, so that, having been purged, they may afterward rejoice eternally. But now, as one who has entered the sanctuary of God and been spiritually instructed there, he recognizes not only the last things that are to be awaited, but he also intimates that he understands why goods have been given to the wicked, when he adds:

Nevertheless, you have set them in place because of their deceits—that is, the riches in which they trust, which they have obtained by frauds and deceits. This is not to be understood as though almighty God (who is just and good) sets these temporal goods before the wicked because of their deceits, intending by so setting them to deceive them in this way; but in these goods, which he who is good bestows well by setting them before the wicked, their own will, prone to evil, and their perverse use corrupt them. For when they have received earthly goods from the good God—goods by which they ought to have become better by dispensing them well and giving generously with mercy—from that very source, corrupted by the vice of their own greed and pride, they practice frauds, deceits, envies, and other evils. Nevertheless (he says), you have set them in place because of their deceits. Although I may speak of their last things, yet here already in some manner you punish them by a hidden judgment. Hence he also adds: You have cast them down while they were being lifted up. He does not say, You have cast them down because they were lifted up, but in that very thing by which they are lifted up, they are cast down. For to be puffed up is already to fall; and the more they are exalted and become proud outwardly, the more they are blinded inwardly.

The more they ascend, the more they vanish like smoke. Hence he adds, in admiration:

How have they become a desolation? For where there is pride, there is desolation. For while the mind is lifted up, it is emptied of every virtue, of every fruit of good work. Great also is the desolation where God is not. For this reason also, Suddenly they have failed. Suddenly honors are lost; quickly power is lost; suddenly loss comes; whatever is possessed temporally is suddenly emptied out. Hence it is found in the Gospel concerning a certain man: Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you (Luke 12). And after they have failed, They have perished because of their iniquity. This has often happened, and happens daily. Such is the fruit of riches. These are the last things, which he understands who has entered into the sanctuary of God. They perish because of their iniquity, who have desired earthly things, who have vanished away in pride, who have been rooted in their pleasures as if they were always going to live. Where is their glory? Where their power? Where their peace, where the abundance of riches?

Like the dream of the swollen. So all things have failed. Suppose a man, in dreams, finds treasures. He had gone to sleep poor; in his dream he is rich, but only until he wakes. He woke, and found his misery, which he had laid aside in sleep. And those men will find their misery, which they had procured for themselves, when they have woken. For in a manner they now sleep in sin, while they live at ease, while they do not attend to the misery that is to come. After death they will be compelled to wake, when they begin to give an account of themselves. And then they will truly fail and perish, when that which is added below is fulfilled: O Lord, in your city you will bring their image to nothing. Are they not worthy to suffer this, that God in his city should bring their images to nothing, since they too in their earthly city have brought the image of God to nothing? Or else the transient goods and earthly glory are called their image, because even if they do not give it, they nevertheless promise blessedness. These things are brought to nothing in the city of God, because in the hearts of the saints, who are the city of God, all this earthly glory and wealth is reckoned as nothing. And as if someone were to say: O Asaph, whence comes this to you, that you speak thus? whence comes to you such great contempt for temporal things? he says:

Because my heart has been inflamed. For since the hearts of the saints have been set ablaze by the fire of the Holy Spirit, they can desire nothing but spiritual things. Hence Paul admonishes, saying: Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12). And because the love of God consumes carnal pleasure, he rightly adds: And my reins have been changed, that is, carnal delights have been changed and taken away.

And I have been brought to nothing, denying myself: And I did not know, that is, I regarded myself as ignorant and foolish. Hence Paul says: If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself (Gal. 6). For divine love, when it perfectly occupies the mind, at once lays waste voluptuous desires: and whatever it finds carnal, it wholly annihilates and puts to death. Love is strong as death (Song 8). Three things most useful to us are shown in this verse. First, the fervor of charity; then the mortification of the flesh; afterward the perfection of humility. But in the verse that follows, two things, namely obedience and perseverance, are commended to us. For he says:

I have become like a beast of burden before you, and I am always with you. Happy is the soul that can be God's beast of burden, so that for love of him it may be gentle and meek, willingly bearing all things and patiently enduring all things (1 Cor. 13), and as it has begun well, so may it always advance, and may it always remain with God in its holy purpose, so that it is separated from him by no temptations and moved by no adversities, so that it can truly say: and I am always with you. Such was Paul, when he declared that he could be separated by no tribulations, no distresses, and finally by no creature from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8). And lest he seem to ascribe this to his own strength, he commends the grace of God, saying:

You have held my right hand, and in your will you have led me, and with glory you have received me. He calls his works his hand, and his right hand because of eternal life. For he was not working for earthly things but for eternal things, according to what is written: Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matt. 6). Nor was he doing this by his own strength, but he was holding and guiding him who said: Without me you can do nothing (John 15). He speaks here by a certain comparison. For just as a child or an invalid cannot walk by himself unless he is held by the hand, so great is our weakness that it can by no means advance in good by itself unless the divine power always holds and draws it.

Into your will," he says, "you have also placed me, so that I may fulfill it, that I may never do anything except what you have willed. You have led me from virtue to virtue, and at last you have received me with glory—that is, you will receive me. Happy is that soul which is always subject to the will of God, so that it wills what God wills and rejects what God rejects, and commits itself wholly, without any contradiction, to the divine will, so that whatever he wills, he may do with it as with his own beast of burden: wherever he wills, let him lead it. For God will lead such a soul into his glory. This glory is prepared for the saints in heaven, which is truly wonderful and ineffable. Hence, marveling, he says:

For what is there for me in heaven? And he began to consider that heavenly happiness itself, and to reproach himself because he had desired earthly things, saying: And from you, what have I wanted upon the earth? He compared his earthly will with the heavenly reward that he was to receive. He saw what was being kept there for him, and thinking and burning in the thought of some ineffable thing, which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man: he did not say, "That and that is mine in heaven," but "What is mine in heaven? What is that? How great is it? Of what kind is it?" And since what I have in heaven is so great, from you what have I wanted upon the earth? Why did I ever want earthly things? Why did I ever desire transitory things?

You keep for me," he says, "in heaven immortal riches—yourself; and I have willed from you on earth what even the impious have, namely gold and silver. Thus while this Asaph admires heavenly things and despises earthly things, turning his mind between the two, he gravely afflicts himself with repentance, and, despising the lower things, snatches himself wholly up to the higher. Whence he also says:

My flesh has failed, and my heart. He shows himself wholly spiritual and burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit, when he declares that the desires of the flesh and his former thoughts have failed within him. Our flesh fails when it is so constrained by the rigor of discipline that it can no longer struggle against the spirit. Our heart also suffers failure, when our own will and all presumption are cut away within, and thus God has become, he says, the possessor of my heart, while I live in time. Afterwards God will also be my portion forever. Men in this world choose portions for themselves; some riches, some honors, some military service, some commerce: different men choose different things for themselves. Among these the people of God cry out: God is my portion, not for a time, but forever. Such an inheritance is good and true, which can remain forever. And why did you choose this inheritance for yourself?

For behold—that is, it is manifest—those who estrange themselves from you will perish, that is, they will be condemned, and they will lose the truth and will truly perish; because you have destroyed—that is, you will destroy—or in your foreordination you have destroyed all who commit fornication against you. Every unlawful union can be called fornication. Hence it is written: Israel committed fornication with the gods of the nations (Judg. 8). And well did he say, from you: because whoever sins is far from God (1 Chron. 5). When a man begins to fall away from the love of God, he begins to be estranged from God. But if he is joined to temporal things by unlawful love, then surely he commits fornication. For the soul has abandoned its own husband—that is, its author—and has united itself in wanton love to one who was not its own. For this reason it justly incurs the penalty of perdition, because it willingly abandoned its salvation. Those, therefore, because they abandoned God, have perished. But you—what of you?

But for me, to adhere to God is good. This is my whole good: to adhere to my God in will, in faith, in love. And as long as I am on this pilgrimage, I will set my hope in the Lord God. Because I cannot yet adhere to my God by sight, in the meantime I will at least adhere to him by hope. And rightly: because (from Augustine) he is my Lord, who rules me; and my God, who created me. This is good for me, this is sweet, this is pleasant to me. And what are you doing here, you who set your hope in God? What will your business be, except to praise the one you love and to make those who love him together with you?

And this is what follows: That I may declare all your praises, that is, that I may proclaim whatever is to be proclaimed about you, In the gates of the daughter of Zion, that is, in the hearing of the children of the Church. For the ears are gates, through which the preachings penetrate the inner parts of the hearts of the saints. Or the gates are the virtues of the soul, through which one goes to the heavenly Jerusalem. The praises of God, therefore, are proclaimed in the gates when the voices of teachers are in the opening of the virtues. He preaches in the gate whose life commends his speech.

THE TITLE OF THE SEVENTY-THIRD PSALM.

The title of this psalm is: Understanding of Asaph, that is, this understanding, which the words of this psalm bring forth to us, is Asaph, that is, of the Synagogue, not according to the branches cut off, but according to those confirmed. In this psalm the Synagogue speaks, converted on behalf of all the Jews, whether those to be converted in the present or at the end of the world: setting forth to be understood what she understands, namely that they should believe that Christ has come, just as she herself believes. And this she does through this theme, namely by setting before them the twofold dispersion of the Jews, which had been spoken by the Prophets as to come to pass after the advent of Christ. Deservedly, therefore, through this theme she exhorts them, so that when they see these signs fulfilled, they may believe that Christ has already come. And first she sets forth the local dispersion; afterward the inner one, namely the present blindness of the Jews. The voice of the Synagogue.

PSALM 73.

Why, O God, have you cast us off unto the end, is your wrath kindled against the sheep of your pasture? He does not reprove, but asks. As if he were saying: O God, who by the very fact that you are God, govern all things by eternal disposition, who exceed the measure in nothing, but dispose all things with the highest discernment (Wisdom 8:9 and 12), why have you cast off your people unto the end: so as never again to bring them back into Jerusalem? As if he were saying: Not without cause have you done this, nor have you been angered in some ordinary way, but to such an extent that your anger has turned into fury, as far as human sight can judge. You have been angered, I say, not against just anyone, but against the sheep of your pasture, that is, against the Jews, whom like a good shepherd you led through the desert, and whom you fed with manna, and afterward placed in a land flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 13). Why (according to Augustine) have you done this, except that we clung to earthly things and did not know you? Do not be angry, I pray, O Lord, but do what follows.

Remember your congregation, which you possessed from the beginning. Call to mind that you gathered us into one from many nations and places, and possessed us as your own inheritance from the beginning, that is, from the time of the Patriarchs whom you first chose. From the time of the Patriarchs they were possessed—evidently because they were in their loins. From them the Lord possessed the people of Israel, from whom it also took its name and origin. For he always guarded it, until, provoked by them, he allowed them to be afflicted for their own sin. Remember that you gathered and possessed us: and let this be the cause of your compassion. And therefore also remember, because you redeemed the rod of your inheritance. What is meant by the rod, if not the scepter, rule, and dominion? And what by the inheritance, if not the same people? Therefore the Lord redeemed the rod of his inheritance, because he freed the kingdom of the Jews from the slavery of Pharaoh (Exod. 12). Or the inheritance itself is called a rod by intransitive grammar, which was prefigured by the rod of Moses. For first, when God wished to possess that inheritance, freeing it from Egypt, he gave a sign to Moses. For Moses had said: What sign shall I give them, that they may believe me, that you have sent me? And the Lord said to him: What do you carry in your hand? A rod, he said. Cast it, he says, upon the ground. And he cast down the rod, and it became a serpent, and Moses was afraid, and fled from it.

And the Lord said to him: Take hold of its tail. And he took hold, and it returned to its former state (Exod. 4). What does this signify? First, death comes from the serpent. Therefore the rod in the serpent is Christ in death; hence when the people were bitten by serpents in the desert and were dying, God commanded the bronze serpent to be lifted up, and those who had been bitten, looking upon it, were healed (Num. 21). What is it to be healed by the serpent by looking upon the serpent? It is to be healed from death by believing in the dead one. And yet Moses was afraid and fled. Christ died, and the disciples were afraid, and they withdrew from that hope in which they had been. Yet they took hold of the tail, because afterward they believed. This is also signified by that saying: You shall see my back parts (Exod. 33). And the serpent returned into the rod, because Christ rose from death to life (Rom. 6). At the end of the world, too, as it were by the tail, we return to the hand of God, and we are made the established kingdom of him, so that there is now fulfilled in us: You have redeemed the rod of your inheritance. But because the synagogue says these things, it is determined from the following words, when it is said: Mount Zion, in which you dwelt. This I call the inheritance, which is Mount Zion. For there was the city of Jerusalem, there the capital of the kingdom, there the temple and the sacrifice, in which it says God also dwelt. And that he might commend his dwelling there more expressly, he immediately added: in it. For though he dwells in all things as God, yet in it he dwells more especially. In all things by his power, in it by his grace.

After seeking mercy for himself from God, he then seeks vengeance upon the enemies by whom he is being laid waste, when he adds:

Lift up thy hands against their pride unto the end—that is, exercise thy power and might to utterly destroy their pride. As thou didst repel us unto the end, so crush their pride unto the end. And well is his hand lifted up against their pride unto the end, because by the working of divine power the nations, now humbled, have come to know Christ, who previously in their pride laid waste his people. And well does he say, Unto the end: because the end of the Law is Christ, unto righteousness to every believer, which he rightly desires for them. But he marvels at the malice of the Roman prince in his devastation, saying: How greatly hath the enemy done wickedly in the holy place?—that is (according to Augustine), in the temple, in the priesthood, in all those sacraments. And truly an enemy. For that king and his army who did this worshipped false gods, adored idols, served demons. They themselves wrought many evils against the saints of God. And this is what he adds:

And those who hated thee have boasted in the midst of thy solemnity—that is, in the common assembly of the Jews, who had gathered from all parts for the feast day (Exod. 23). This must be carefully noted. For he says that Jerusalem was then overthrown when that very solemnity was being celebrated, at which solemnity they crucified the Lord (Matt. 26). Gathered together they raged; gathered together they perished. And he shows how they boasted.

They could display signs, not of the Lord, but their own signs, their own standards, their own eagles, their own dragons, their own statues; or perhaps the signs which they heard from the prophets of their demons. And they did not know as in the going forth over the summit. They did not know that it was over the summit—that is, with the most high God—as was happening in the going forth, that is, as it went forth from the divine disposal. For unless power went forth from the most high God, their malice could not have carried this out. Therefore, just as it went forth from the most high God, so it was done by that army. For all power is not from man but from God (Rom. 13). God, indeed, is the giver of all powers, but he is not the giver of all wills. Therefore every power is just; but one will is just, another unjust. If, then, the power is good, why is the action evil? Your affection imposes a name upon your work. Wherefore, what the just God willed to be done justly, because they themselves willed it unjustly, was evil—what they did. So what they did went forth from the summit, but they themselves did not know it. He continues still upon their malignity, saying:

With axes they cut down its doors as if in a forest of trees. All this was done according to the letter. For just as wood is cut down in a timber forest, so they cut down the doors with axes, cheaply, without any temporal reverence, all pressing toward the same end: because with one heart and one will they all came together at once to evil. With axe and mattock they cast it down. The axe for cutting down, the mattock for breaking to pieces. For they did not merely cut them down, but also cast them down.

They burned your sanctuary with fire; in the earth they defiled the tabernacle of your name. Even the tabernacle itself, which had been dedicated to your holy name, they defiled. The altars, the tables, the books, the vestments and similar things they threw out and trampled underfoot.

They said in their heart, which is surely more pious than if they had said it with their mouth. For in this, that they are reported to have said it in their heart, their will, affection and intention is denoted. But they said it—not four or five, but their whole kindred, nor divided into parts, but all together. What did they say? Let us make all the feast days of God cease from the earth. Thus let us scatter all things, so that they can never again come together or celebrate a feast in the earth. Up to this point it has been shown how greatly the enemy has dealt wickedly in the holy place. It has been shown how many evils were brought in by the enemies. Then he indicates what benefits were withdrawn from them by God himself, saying:

We have not seen our signs. We have seen, he says, the destruction of our city. Yet we have received no sign from God, as once Gideon and our other fathers did. There is no longer a prophet. Who will pronounce good or evil? And he will know us no more, that is, God has altogether forgotten us. Afflicted, then, by such great evils, groaning to the Lord, he says:

How long, O God, will the enemy reproach, will the adversary provoke your name to the end? How long, to what end does the enemy adversary reproach and provoke? Does he provoke to this end, that being angered you may rebuke, and rebuking may know? And to this end, until the end comes upon you? Let whoever is afflicted for his sin attend to these words, whoever is abandoned by God as if angered. Let him not despair, let him groan, let him show his misery to the physician. For to this end he strikes, that he may spare; to this end he is angered, that he may not be angered. Hence this Asaph still adds:

Why do you turn away your hand—that is, Judea, designated by the hand of Moses—and your right hand, that is, the aforesaid Judea, which you once favored more than the Gentiles, first leading it through the Red Sea (Exod. 14) and even feeding it with manna (Exod. 16)? Why do you turn it away from the midst of your bosom—that is, from the common fellowship of the saints, which are called your bosom because they are filled with spiritual sacraments? You do this to the end, or toward what end are you pressing through this? Here he touches on the story of Moses' hand, which as long as it was in his bosom was clean; when he drew it out, he found it leprous. Then he put it back into his bosom, and so received its former cleanness (Exod. 4). In this he prefigured the Jewish people, who as long as they were in the bosom and keeping of the Lord remained clean; but when they went out, they became unclean and full of sins. Again, at the end of the world they will return to the Lord's bosom and remain in their former health. Why, he says, do you turn away your right hand from your bosom, so that, as Augustine says, it remains unclean? Recall it, I pray, to your bosom. Let it return to its own color, let it acknowledge its Savior. He was asking why, and now he has understood: as the title has it, The understanding of Asaph. And therefore he adds:

But God, our king before the ages, who is in the beginning the Word through whom all things were made (John 1)—he himself, made man as king, worked salvation in the midst of the earth. For to this end he turned away his hand for a time from his bosom, that is, the Jewish nation from his protection; to this end blindness in part came upon Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter (Rom. 11), so that God the king might thus work salvation in the midst of the earth, that is, in the midst of the Gentiles. Or “in the midst of the earth,” that is, in the flesh he assumed; or in the city of Jerusalem, which is situated in the middle of the earth, where the Lord was crucified for the salvation of the whole world. Then he shows how he worked salvation, turning to God himself, the worker, and saying:

You strengthened the sea in your power. By the sea he signifies the Gentiles, because of the surging of vices and the bitterness of their ways. But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. In this power the Gentiles were strengthened through faith, hope, and love. Moreover, God so strengthened this sea as to make it dry land, as it is said elsewhere: Who turned the sea into dry land (Ps. 65). And in what order this was done, he added next: You crushed the heads of the dragons in the waters. You shattered the vices and sins which are suggested by the deacons, that is, by the malignant spirits who lie in wait for holy souls. He shows that almighty God destroyed the prince of the devil himself, together with all his heights and pomps, when he adds:

You have broken the heads of the dragon. The heads of the dragon can be called evil suggestions, which proceed from the devil. This enemy dragon has many heads. Its heads are the eight principal vices. But the first of these heads is the vice of pride, from which the rest arise. For the beginning of all sin is pride (Sirach 10). Hence the command was given that the seed of Eve should watch the head of the serpent (Genesis 3). For the Church has been admonished to avoid the beginning of sin. Therefore the heads of the dragon have been broken, the diabolical vices have been destroyed. For where God reigns, pride cannot reign, nor vainglory, nor envy, nor anger, nor sorrow, nor acedia, nor gluttony of the belly, nor luxury. Such are the heads of this crafty dragon, which our king has broken in his strength. And so by breaking them he worked salvation in the midst of the earth, which had previously been corrupted and had grown weak through the invasion of such enemies. And what did he do with him whose heads he broke? You have given him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians. They are called to the faith who were once black. And it is said to them: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord (Ephesians 5). For the Church is made from these, to whom it is said: Who is this that ascends made white (Song of Songs 6)? I am black (she says) but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem (Song of Songs 1). These are the peoples of the Ethiopians, to whom this dragon has been given as food.

This is what that calf signifies, which the unbelieving people worshiped, which Moses crushed and, having ground it down, gave it to the people to drink in water (Exod. 32). What is this, if not that the worshipers of the devil have become the body of Christ? Hence (from Augustine) it was said to Peter concerning the Gentiles: Kill and eat (Acts 10), that is, kill what they are, and make them what you are. As if it were said: Crush and drink. It was necessary, surely, that the body that was the devil's should pass over into the body of Christ by believing, and thus the dragon be crushed, having lost its members. This was also prefigured in the serpent of Moses. For the magicians did likewise, and having cast down their rods, they produced dragons. But Moses' dragon swallowed up the rods of all the magicians (Exod. 7). Let it be understood, then, that the body of the devil is swallowed up by believers. And rightly is it said, You have given him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians. Or in this way: You have given him as food, because now all bite him by refuting, accusing, and cursing. And in what order this was done, he shows in what follows:

You broke open springs and torrents so that they might flow (from Augustine), the waters of wisdom and faith, to irrigate the saltiness of the Gentiles, so that by their sweetness and irrigation they might convert others. And note that in some the word of God becomes a spring, in others a torrent. Properly, torrents are called rivers that dry up in summer, but are flooded and run with winter waters. You see a faithful man who will persevere to the end, who will not abandon God in any temptation, and who endures all troubles. Whence does he flourish, if not because the word of God has become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life (John 4)? Another receives the word, preaches it, does not keep silent, and runs. Perhaps he is touched by some temptation: he cannot bear the heat, he fails, he dries up. The heat, then, tests springs and torrents. Yet the earth is watered from both, by him who worked salvation in the midst of the earth. You dried up the rivers of Ethan. In one place God breaks open springs so that they may run; in another he dries up rivers so that they may not flow: but the rivers (he says) of Ethan, which is interpreted as "strong." They are, as it were, strong who presume on their own strength. Let their rivers be dried up: let the teachings of the Gentiles not profit: let the ram of the philosophers not advance: let every empty and swollen teaching wither. Let them be flooded by the sweet and gentle spring, the Gospel of truth.

Yours is the day, and yours is the night. Who does not know this, that he himself made all these things? But we ought to understand something that pertains to salvation, which he worked in the midst of the earth. Who are the day, except the spiritual? Who are the night, except the carnal? I could not (he says) speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal. When the spiritual speak spiritual things, day to day utters the word. But when even the carnal themselves do not keep silent about the faith, night to night declares knowledge. Therefore yours is the day, and yours is the night. Yours are the spiritual, yours are the carnal. Those you enlighten with the truth of unchangeable wisdom; these you console by the manifestation of the flesh. You made the dawn and the sun, that is, you made grace and wisdom. For just as after night comes the dawn, so after guilt comes grace. And just as after the dawn the sun grows hot, so too through the effect of God's grace wisdom grows fervent in the hearts of the elect through love. And just as there is no day except through the illumination of the sun, so there is no righteous man unless he is illuminated by the light of the Godhead.

You have made all the ends of the earth. For God sets a limit to his grace, which he gives to his Church by measure (Rom 12). For each one does not advance in virtue and grace as much as he wishes, but as much as it pleases him to divide his earth, who sets the limits. I want (says the Apostle) all to be as I am, but each one has his own gift from God: one thus, and another thus (1 Cor 7). Summer and spring you formed them, that is, the mature in character: because in summer fruits are mature, and the flourishing, namely those putting forth the first beginnings of virtues, because in spring flowers are born. You formed them, it is said in the neuter: as if it were said: Both the perfect and the new, you have made them all. You are the one who gives the earth, and you set its limit, and as much as you wish and in whatever way you wish, you make it bear fruit. Let them not therefore boast, as if they had not received: you formed them. A great commendation of the grace of God in the Church of Christ. Then he also prays for his own, saying:

Remember this, namely your congregation, for which I prayed above. He also sets forth its blindness, as one who understands and groans, when he adds: The enemy has reproached the Lord. For the Jewish people, full of iniquity and hostility, said to Christ, You are a Samaritan, and you have a demon (John 8), and heaped many other insults upon him. Hence it is further added: And a foolish people provoked your name, that is, provoked you. Truly foolish, truly stupid, truly stiff-necked (Exod 23), who saw so many miracles and did not believe; and moreover, him whom they ought to have adored, they killed. But because some of those who were about to kill Christ were afterward to return to confession and repentance for so great a sin, he intercedes for them and says:

Do not give to the beasts a soul that confesses to you. To which beasts (from the same passage), unless those whose heads were crushed in the waters? For the devil himself has been called a beast, a lion, a serpent, a dragon. Do not give a soul that confesses to you to malignant spirits. For Peter spoke to the Israelites, because they themselves had killed Christ. They, pricked in heart, said: What shall we do? Do penance (he says), and let each one be baptized in the name of Christ, and your sins will be forgiven you (Acts 2). Let it be said, then: Do not give to the beasts a soul that confesses to you. For to that serpent in paradise (Gen 3) the sinful earth was granted, but not the confessing soul.

And the souls of your poor, that is, of those who despise the world, do not forget unto the end. For now they seem, as it were, forgotten by you, while they hunger, while they thirst, while they do not receive from you earthly consolation, while they are afflicted, while they are despised; but unto the end you will not forget, when they will be rewarded eternally.

Look upon your testament. Give back what you have promised. We hold the tablets, we await the inheritance. And it is necessary that you look upon it: Because those who have been darkened by the dwellings of iniquities of the earth have been filled. Our dwellings (from Augustine) are our hearts. There the blessed in heart dwell willingly. Look therefore upon your testament, that the remnant may be saved, because many who attend to the earth have been darkened and filled with earth. Dust has entered into their eyes and blinded them. And it has come to pass, as is said elsewhere, Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see (Ps. 68). Why this? Because those who have been darkened have been filled with dwellings of iniquities, that is, with evil hearts, by clinging to the earth. And therefore I say, Look upon,

Let not the humble man who has been made humble be put to shame. He says this of the one about whom he said a little earlier, "Do not hand over to the beasts the soul that confesses to you." He asks that the one who, confessing his sins, has been made humble, not be turned away from God's mercy, from the regard of his clemency; because if he were turned away, he would be put to shame and handed over to the beasts. Then he makes mention also here of that poor man about whom he added in the same place, adding: "The poor and the needy will praise your name." The poor man of God is the one who desires nothing in this world, who does not presume on himself, who ardently longs for heavenly goods. The needy man is the one who, destitute of all human help, seeks help from no other source but from God alone, in whom he has placed his whole hope. Such poor and needy men, he says, will praise your name. For such men are fit to praise God—those whom desire does not constrict, whom love expands, whom their life commends. And just as he asked pardon for those who confess, so now for those who persevere in sin he stirs God to vengeance. Hence he adds, not so much by praying as by prophesying:

Arise, O God, judge your cause. Make the cause that we have undertaken to defend appear just to them—namely, that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead, and so to enter into his glory (Luke 24). Arise, that you may judge. For unless you first rise from the dead, you will not judge at all. For (from Augustine) he would not have been about to come to judgment, except that he rose from the dead. Christ was foretold as one who would come; he came as the Scripture foretold. He fulfilled righteousness, he preached eternal life. And yet he was despised on earth, and is still despised in his holy ones. This is why almighty God will come to judgment, and there, both to demonstrate his cause and to judge, he will show how just a cause he had, and how unjust a penalty he endured; and in those in whom he finds guilt, he will judge strictly. Hence what follows is also added: Remember your reproaches, those which are from the foolish man all day long. There is a certain foolish man who has not known, or knowing, lives perversely. Such men reproach the Lord God and his members, now by blaspheming, now by mocking, now by threatening, now by flattering. And God will remember such men in judgment, to judge and condemn them—not all of them, however, but only those who are in this sin all day long, that is, continually. For God does not remember those things which are amended before the end through repentance. But it must be very carefully noted what is added:

Do not forget the voices of your enemies. Their voices were indeed those reproaches which they brought against God. Why then does he repeat it? Because a judge in a case ought diligently to attend to both parties: namely, to him against whom the reproach is brought, and likewise to him by whom it is brought. For because those foolish ones brought those reproaches not against a man but against God himself, against their own Creator, they were beyond doubt the more to be condemned. Again, in this also the fault became more grievous, because they were brought not only by the foolish but also by enemies. For it is far more culpable to sin through enmity than through ignorance; yet both sins bound them. That also is greatly worthy of reprobation which is added: The pride of those who hate you has ascended continually. They are unwilling to look back, but advance more and more in evil.

TITLE OF PSALM 74.

This psalm which follows is entitled in this manner: Unto the end, do not corrupt, a Psalm of the song of Asaph. This psalm, which is for us the cause of song—that is, of great joy and delight (because it promises to the humble the reward of blessedness)—is set before Asaph, that is, before the unbelieving Synagogue, to this end, that it may tend unto the end, that is, unto conformity with Christ. It is set before, I say, Asaph, with Christ exhorting that Synagogue, Do not corrupt yourself, that is, do not be proud. For just as humility is the guardian of all the virtues, so on the contrary pride is corruption.

The subject matter in this psalm is Christ himself, and the Synagogue, which he exhorts here. They speak now in their own person, now in the person of the members, exhorting them with the mouth to humility. And this he does by setting before them the condemnation that the proud will have in the future, and the exaltation that the humble will attain. The intention is to invite all to humility, so that they may thus be able to avoid the strict judgment of almighty God. Hence he also sets himself as an example, and speaks from the voice of his humble members:

PSALM LXXIV.

We will confess to you, O God: we will confess, and we will call upon your name. The beginning of good things is the confession of sins. For the just man in the beginning is the accuser of himself (Prov. 18). First, therefore, confess your sins to God. For this is the beginning of righteousness. And not once only, but again, and as often as you have sinned, so often confess. The repetition of the word is a commendation of perseverance. You cannot run back again to baptism. If you have sinned, run back to confession. Why do we confess to God, when he himself knows our sins even if we do not confess them? Because confession generates compunction. It gives birth to humility, which is pleasing to God, through which he is reconciled to the converted man. So confess your sin, and then call upon God. For if you call upon him first, you will not be heard. What is it to call upon, but to call within? First, therefore, let me drive out sin, and so invite God into your heart.

For now you will be worthy to invoke the name of the Lord, and to proclaim his works to others. Hence it is also added: We will tell of your marvelous works. What is so marvelous as that the Creator becomes a creature, that the immortal one dies, that death is destroyed by death, that the condemned sinner is recalled from guilt to grace, to glory? These are the marvelous works of God, which the members of Christ do not cease to tell. But because the judgment is to come afterward, now the Lord himself speaks in his own person.

When I receive the time, I will judge justices. The time itself is not yet. Thanks to his mercy, he first proclaims justices, and so judges justice. For if he wished to judge before he proclaimed, he would not find anyone to set free. When I receive (he says) the time. He could not receive a time in that he is the Son of God, but in that he is the son of man. Hence the Evangelist says: He gave him power and judgment to do, because he is the son of man (John 5). Now, therefore, is the time of preaching. Hence he says: I will tell of your marvelous works. Hear him telling. Hear him preaching. For if you despise him, he himself, the judge, threatens you with judgment, saying: When I receive the time, I will judge justices. To judge justices is to render to each according to his merits. We will tell (he says) of your marvelous works. And how great a work this is, is shown when it is added:

The earth is melted. And what do you mean by “earth”? All (he says) who dwell in it, that is, who persist in earthly things by zeal and will; for each one is what he loves. If you love the earth, you are earth; if you love God, you are among those of whom the Lord himself said: I said, You are gods (Ps. 81). The earth is melted when earthly hearts flow away in vices and desires. Hence to sin is spoken of as flowing away, as it were, from something liquid, away from the stability of the firmament of virtue and justice. For whoever sins does so through desire for lower things; and just as one is strengthened by love of higher things, so he fails and, as it were, melts away through desire for lower things. Thus, then, the earth being melted, I (says the Lord) have strengthened its columns. He calls the apostles columns. Whence Paul says of his fellow-apostles: Those who seemed to be columns (Gal. 2). And what would those columns be, unless they were strengthened by him? For by a certain earthquake even they themselves wavered, when they saw the Lord put to death. But he rose again; he showed that death is not to be feared; by sending the Spirit from on high, he set the hearts of the disciples on fire; and thus he strengthened the columns of the earth. Let him say, therefore: I have strengthened its columns. And since, once these were strengthened, he sent them out to preach, he rightly adds to this:

I said to the wicked, Do not act wickedly. He did not say it to them, but he said it. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matt. 28). Nor did he say it to the righteous, but to the wicked. For he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2) to repentance. The physician, he says, has no need of the healthy, but of those who are sick (Ibid. and Matt. 9). The Law said: Whoever does this or that, let him die the death. I said to the wicked, Do not act wickedly. So too he said to the adulteress: Go, and sin no more (John 8). Therefore those whom justice has slain, grace preserves; it is enough that they come to their senses (2 Tim. 2) and prostrate themselves in humility. Therefore he still adds: And to those who go on sinning, Do not exalt your horn. Do not be lifted up in pride. Do not defend your sins arrogantly. In this verse God admonishes the sinner in two ways. First, that he depart from evil; then, that he not be proud in sin. First, that he be on guard for the future; by the second, that he repent of the past. Another prohibition follows.

Do not lift up your horn on high, that is, do not raise yourselves against God; do not be so proud as to cast the blame for your sins back upon your Maker. For there were those who said, "It is not our fault if we sin, since God made us such as we are. If God had willed it, no man would have sinned." Thus the wicked are accustomed to exalt their horn in two ways: namely, either by defending themselves, or by accusing the Most High himself. Therefore he adds: Do not speak iniquity against God. By saying, "God does not judge human affairs; he does not care what is done on earth." Neither in this way nor in that ought you to speak iniquity against God, O Jews.

For neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the desert mountains (understood) do they speak iniquity against God. Already the nations that dwell in these three parts of the world have begun to think rightly and reasonably of their Maker. You alone, to whom the desert region was granted for habitation, do not blaspheme. Or it can be said thus: O Jews, do not speak iniquity against God—which indeed those did who cried out, "He is guilty of death," and "Crucify him" (Matt. 26–27)—because neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the desert mountains (it is implied) is anyone exempt from the judgment of God.

For God is judge. He called the mountains deserted because of the uninhabitable region which is in the North. If man were judge, he might perhaps have been feared less. But since God is judge, let no one now speak against him, but rather let him be served by all. And he commends God as judge when he adds: he humbles this one, that is, the Jewish people: and he exalts this one, that is, the Gentile.

For the cup is in the hand of the Lord. For the sacred Scripture is in the power of the Lord. For he alone has the key of knowledge (Apoc. 5). The cup, I say, of pure wine full, mixed: for in the Lord's cup are contained pure wine, mixed wine, and the dregs. And as if from the cup they take pure wine, who from the sacred utterance receive the divine understanding. They drink the mixed, who understand some things purely, but some things they do not yet discern at all. They drink the dregs, who from the same source receive error. The Jews, heretics, and pagans drink the dregs, whose turbulent and foul doctrine is never separated from error. And he inclined from this, from the Jewish people, into this, the Gentile. Thence the understanding is refined. Nevertheless its dregs are not emptied out. Since neither the unbelief of the Jews, nor the error of the heretics, nor the folly of the pagans has been utterly diminished. All the sinners of the earth shall drink the dregs first, then death. Or, its dregs are not emptied out, since among the Jews the carnal sacraments remain. All the sinners of the earth shall drink, since all take delight in earthly promises.

Wonderful is this cup, from which both the good and the evil will drink: and in which the good receive that by which they may live, the evil that by which they may perish. Such also was the Word of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Saint Simeon declares, saying: Behold, this one is set for the fall and resurrection of many, and for a sign that will be contradicted (Luke 2). So also in the preceding psalm, calling the Scripture itself a bow, he says: He has prepared in it the vessels of death (Psalm 7), that is, the sentences which, wrongly understood, bring death to many. So from this cup some live, some perish. Amid these things, what does Christ say?

But I will announce forever. For as long as this age shall last, Christ and his own will preach the Gospel. I will sing to the God of Jacob with joy. I will praise him, who is specifically the God of those who are spiritually Jacob. Then he foretells the judgment, where he predicts that the evil will be humbled and the good exalted. Hence he also adds:

And all the horns of the sinners I will break, and the horns of the just shall be exalted. Sinners have their horns in this world—namely, power, dominion, honors, riches, and even pride itself, which stands foremost; with these horns, like untamed bulls, they attack some, trample others, and drive them down. But almighty God by His judgment will break all the horns of the sinners, and will bring all their power and pride to nothing. The just also have their two horns—the two Testaments, or faith and love, and the other virtues—by which they defend themselves from the enemies of the Church; with these they also mightily attack and lay them low. These things a wondrous God, when He comes to judgment in His glory, will wondrously exalt. From these words, then, let each one gather what manner of person he ought to show himself to be. And let him beware, as was set forth in the title, lest he corrupt himself and perish by imitating proud sinners and resisting the Lord. But rather let him strive to imitate the humble and the just, so that in the kingdom to come he may deserve to be exalted by the Lord. For this is the purpose and the benefit of the psalm.

THE TITLE OF PSALM LXXV.

The titles of the psalms make manifest their meaning; therefore this psalm is entitled thus: Unto the end, in praises, a psalm of Asaph, a Canticle to the Assyrians. This psalm is set forth for Asaph, that is, for the faithful Synagogue, so that it may persevere not in sorrow or in necessity, but in praises and in exultation until the end of its life. This psalm is a canticle of the Synagogue, that is, the cause of singing and gladness, because in the beginning it says that she is Judea and Israel out of Zion. This psalm is set forth not only for Asaph, but also for the Assyrians, that is, for all who live rightly. For Assyrian is interpreted as "directing." The subject matter of this psalm is the Synagogue. Its intention is to exhort all the faithful who have vowed themselves to God, both Jews and Gentiles, to persevere in their vow, so that in the future they may render back to God those whom they have vowed here. In the first part it is said that God is known in his saints, and that he dwells in them, and that there he shatters all the weapons of the devil. In the second part (which is called: They slept their sleep), the hardness of the reprobate and the terrible judgment of God are commended. Hence at the end each one is exhorted to pay his vows, lest he be punished by the terrible king. He says therefore:

PSALM LXXV.

God is known in Judaea; in Israel his name is great. There was once a time when that nation alone—namely, Judaea—knew and worshiped the true God, while the other nations worshiped idols and were wholly ignorant of the God of heaven. But through his grace he was proclaimed to the nations (1 Tim 3; Acts 13), and his name, which had been known only in Judaea, has now become wonderful in all the earth (Ps 8). Nor should the Jews boast any longer, for if the great name of the Lord is spoken among them, among us too it is proclaimed as wonderful. But since that nation fell from the knowledge of God by wandering astray and blasphemed the great name of the Lord, what is now said—that he is known and great in Judaea and Israel—must be understood only spiritually. For Judaea is interpreted as confession, and Israel as a man seeing God. Rightly, then, is God said to be known in Judaea, because from the confession of sin comes the knowledge of God. And Judaea is plainly mentioned before Israel, because through confession one comes to the vision of almighty God. Nor, because it is said, In Israel his name is great, should it be taken to mean that God is greater in one place and lesser in another; but the name of God is truly called great there where it is named in accordance with the greatness of his majesty. So too in prayer we ask, Hallowed be thy name (Mt 6).

That it is not asked as though the name of God were not holy, but that it may be held holy by men—that is, that God may become so known to them that they think nothing more holy, which they would more fear to offend. He has told us where he is known, where he is great. Let him tell us also where God dwells.

His place, he says, is made in peace, and his dwelling is in Sion. As long as you do not confess your sins, you are in a certain manner quarreling with God. But by confessing you begin to have peace with him, and so a place is made for him in your heart. In peace is perfection, where nothing is opposed. But the peaceful are those who are at peace within themselves, who compose all the motions of their soul and subject them to reason, and hold their carnal desires subdued. In such persons all things are so ordered that what is chief in man—that is, reason—rules the rest without their resisting, and is itself subject to the greater, that is, to God. This is the peace that is given on earth to men of good will. This is the consummate life, and that of the perfect and wise man. Over this most peaceful and most ordered kingdom, the prince of this world is cast out, who rules over the perverse and disordered. But Sion is interpreted as contemplation. This is the Church, which in the height of the walls of divine contemplation, afterward to enjoy the blessedness of open vision itself—in this Sion is his dwelling, as he himself says: And I will dwell in them, and walk among them.

There he broke the powers—namely, the bow, the shield, the sword, and war. In Zion, or in peace, he broke whatever they held as great, by which they protected themselves temporally, and the war that they waged against God by defending their sins. There is also a bow of deception in heretics, a shield of hardness in unbelievers, a sword in tyrants, a war in vices. These are the powers of the devil, which almighty God destroyed and broke in the peaceful heart. Then he turns to God himself, as if saying: You, Lord, who break such great powers, do this in this order.

You, illuminating wonderfully from the eternal mountains. Truly you and no other. It is said with great weight, You: so that you may understand no other illuminator except God alone. Man preaches, God illuminates. Nor does the word of the preacher profit outwardly unless the grace of the illuminator works inwardly. And who are these eternal mountains but the holy preachers? Mountains because of the height of righteousness; eternal, because they will remain always with the Lord. These mountains the eternal one first illuminated, so that through them he might afterward illuminate his earth, that is, the Church: and this wonderfully, because spiritually. Or wonderfully, that is, with signs and wonders, as it is written: But they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following (Mark 16). While they preach.

All the foolish in heart were troubled. The truth was preached. Eternal life was proclaimed, which is not of this earth. Men despised the present life; they loved the life to come. That one shone through the enlightened mountains. But the foolish were troubled. Hence that persecution of the martyrs. Hence the clamor of heretics. Hence the dissension of the carnal. Hence the enemies of the Church. Even while the wise man preaches, the foolish man is troubled. The one wishes to correct; the other is indignant and grows angry. Rebuke a fool, it says, and he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. What did those troubled ones do? They slept their sleep. They loved present things, and they slept—that is, they took delight in the present things themselves. Their sleep is the present life. There they slept, there they rested in their delighting. And so these present things became delightful to them. As one who sees in a dream that he has found a treasure: the dream made him rich, the waking made him poor. That sleep passed away, this life passed away, and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands. Because they placed nothing in the hands of Christ. Such are earthly riches. Such is the sleep of the present life. In the present they flourish and take delight, in the present they promise something: but in the end they tend toward nothing. Then he commends the hardness of their heart, because when earthly things are loved, the heart is hardened against heavenly things. Whence it is also added:

By your rebuke, O God of Jacob, all who mounted horses have fallen asleep. They were so deeply lulled to sleep in earthly things that they did not hear the wondrous rebukes of almighty God. They did not keep watch in their heart, because their heart was hard at the rebuke. For hardness of heart is a sleep. Behold, the very God of Jacob—not a new God, but the one who worked such great wonders in the house of Jacob—now rebukes sinners, thunders his wrath, sounds the gospel trumpet, threatens judgment, threatens eternal punishments. Amid such thunderings the proud still sleep, still refuse to condemn their old life, and will not keep watch unto the new. Why is this, except that they mounted horses—that is, they exalted themselves in pride, in honors, in powers, in the uncertainty of riches? Such are their horses, on which, like unbroken beasts, they are carried away to eternal punishment. And well does he say, They have fallen asleep, because here they begin to sleep. For their sleep will be perpetual in eternal death. Or, by your rebuke, by which you will say: Go into eternal fire (Matthew 25), those who mounted horses—that is, those who were proud—will begin to sleep, that is, to go into the eternal sleep of death. Those who here now sleep in riches will afterward be buried in torments.

You, God who will do this, are terrible—that is, you will appear terrible—and will anyone resist you? In such great terror of yours, what man will be able to oppose you? Nor will you then first begin to be angry. From that time, when they mounted horses, your wrath was upon them. You were angry then, and you threatened; you rebuked, because you desired them to be converted. And because they despised you when angry, afterward they will find you terrible. Hence it is also added:

You have made judgment heard from heaven. They have no excuse. For you made your judgment heard beforehand, and it was also foretold to them from heaven. The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 18). The heavens proclaim the judgment of God. Or, you are about to descend from heaven, so that you may make your judgment heard. For thus the Gospel testifies: Then they will see the Son of Man descending on the clouds, with great power and majesty (Mt. 24). For the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Lk. 21). Then will come to pass what is added:

The earth trembled and was still. The earthly conscience, which now is disturbed and labors, will then have to tremble and be still. It will no longer find evil things to do, but it will feel many torments at which to shudder. On one side will be its accusing sins, on the other the rushing stream of justice; below, the gaping horror of hell; above, the angry judge; within, a burning conscience; outside, a burning world. If the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the sinner appear? When God arises in judgment to save all the meek of the earth—not those who mounted horses, but all who in this earth were meek for God's sake, simple, patient—God will save them in his judgment. This very Truth testifies in the Gospel, saying: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth by inheritance. The meek are those who yield to wickedness and do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good. They shall inherit that earth of which it is said elsewhere: My portion is God in the land of the living. That is surely the rest and life of the saints, because they were meek, because they had a good and humble confession; therefore they shall rejoice in the Lord. This is what he adds:

For the thought of man will confess to you, and the remnants of thought will keep festival to you. First, indeed, when a man is converted to God and reconsiders all the evils he has done, the things he has spoken, the things he has thought, and humbly lays them open through confession, he has confusion, he has sorrow and compunction. But then, after repentance has been performed, after remission and grace have been obtained from God, when he begins to reconsider what he thought and to ponder from how many foulnesses, vices, and sins the merciful Lord has freed him, and how many spiritual goods besides he has conferred upon him, he begins to rejoice within himself and to give thanks to the divine goodness; and so, rejoicing within himself, he keeps a festival to the Lord. The first thought, therefore (from Augustine), has confession and a withdrawal from the old life. The remnants of thoughts celebrate solemnities to God if one who has been freed from sin remembers what he was, and does not let slip from memory the one who healed him. Then, after he has shown how the reprobate are condemned because of pride and the delight of the world, and how the meek are saved through humility and good confession, there follows a profitable admonition for all, when it is said:

Make vows, and pay them to the Lord your God: all you who bring gifts round about him. It is indeed just and useful for us, that we not perish in the same way with the reprobate, but rather be saved, that we take care, with the righteous, to appease the terrible God with such vows and gifts as we can. Now to make a vow is within our own free choice; but to pay it is not within our own strength, but of the grace of God. Yet neither on this account should we despair, because if we begin what is ours, he who commanded us to make vows will give strength, and will supply what is his own. But since God is boundless light, and fills all things with his majesty, and contains all things, how can all be round about him? But God is truth, and truth itself is common to all, and is neither mine, nor yours, nor this man's, nor that man's. There is no distinction, says Paul, of Jew, Greek, or barbarian: but whoever has called upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Since, therefore, truth is common to all, for this reason it is in the midst, so that all who love the truth may be round about it. Those who understand God in this way, and subject themselves to his service as is worthy, offer gifts round about him. And it must be known that one kind of vow is common, another singular. To believe in God, to hope in him for eternal life, to love him and to live according to God, is a common way for all.

Not to be proud, not to kill a man, not to hate a brother, not to violate the temple of God within oneself—this is commanded to all. All of us together ought to vow and pay all this. There are also vows proper to individuals, when one vows to God fasting, another chastity, another virginity, another to leave everything behind and enter the common life. Let all, then, make their vow to the Lord—either this or that—as divine grace has granted to each, and so let all offer gifts round about him. To whom?

To the terrible one, and to him who takes away the spirit of princes. Because the psalm speaks to the Synagogue, that is, to the carnal people, God is rightly commended to them as terrible, so that those who do not yet know how to love the Lord as gentle and as merciful, hearing that he is terrible, may at least learn to fear. And note that he does not say, "who takes away the spirit of men," but even of the princes themselves, so that God may be understood to be the prince over princes, power over powers, as king of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 1; 19). Rightly, then, it is added: To the terrible one among the kings of the earth. Nor does he say that he takes away life—which indeed even those who kill the body do—but he is said to take away the spirit itself, so that he may be feared all the more, who has power to destroy both body and soul in hell (Matt. 10). Or, because the spirit of princes is the spirit of pride, it can be read thus: He who takes away the spirit of princes, that is, the boldness of the proud.

There is also another understanding of why God is called terrible in this place. For holy and perfect men, in order that they may find God wonderful and propitious in His judgment, always reckon Him here within themselves as terrible, and judge their own faults strictly—so that in that strict judgment they may be found uncondemnable. Rightly, then, let it be said, "Terrible among kings"; terrors are they who spiritually rule their own flesh. Paul was a king of the earth when he said: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway." Be a king of the earth, and God will be terrible to you.