Commentarius In LXXV Psalmos [Attributus]

For I will see your heavens, the works of your fingers: the moon and the stars, which you have founded. It is as if he were saying: For I will discern and understand the Scriptures, which, by the working of the Holy Spirit, you have written through your ministers. Therefore (according to Augustine) the heavens are seen to be the works of God's fingers—that is, the books are understood, brought down even to the slowness of little children; and through the humility of the historical faith, which was accomplished in time, they well nourished and strengthened [the little ones] and require them [to advance] to the sublimity of the understanding of eternal things, and they confirm them in it. From these words it is plainly evident that the holy prophet speaks mystically. For if he were speaking according to the bare letter, when about to mention the lesser light, he ought first to have mentioned the greater light (Gen. 1), and to have related that the sun was made before the moon and the stars were founded. But because he was speaking according to the mystical understanding, so that we should take the moon as the holy Church and the stars as all the saints, he was unwilling to name the sun—evidently because he was speaking to that eternal Sun himself, of whom it is written: But for you who fear God, the sun of righteousness shall rise (Mal. 4). Concerning whom the reprobate at the end will say: The sun of righteousness is not a burden to us (Wis. 5). By saying, then, the moon and the stars which you have founded, and by keeping silent only about the sun, which was made, he indicated that he spoke to him alone who makes not only the sun and moon and stars bodily, but also the moon as the Church and the stars as all the saints spiritually.

Thus, then, when something is missing from the history, we are led by clear reasoning to the understanding of allegory. Then he makes mention of the earthly man and the heavenly man, whom the almighty Father has visited: the one he raises up wondrously through mercy, the other he exalts ineffably through the glory of his divinity. In admiration of these he added,

What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man, that you visit him? There is a difference between man and the son of man. For every son of man is a man (from Augustine), but not every man is a son of man. Adam, indeed, is a man, but not a son of man. Therefore those who bear the image of the earthly man (1 Cor 15), who is not a son of man, are designated by the name of men. But those who bear the image of the heavenly man are called sons of men. Here, then, the earthly one is called man, but the heavenly one is called the son of man. And the former is far separated from God, while the latter is present to God, and for that reason he is mindful of the former, as of one placed far off; but the latter he truly visits, whom, being present, he illumines with his countenance. For salvation is far from sinners (Ps 118). And the light of your countenance is stamped upon us, O Lord (Ps 4).

The Son of Man, therefore (according to Augustine), was first visited in that very man of the Lord, born of the Virgin Mary, concerning whom, because of the weakness of the flesh which the Wisdom of God deigned to bear, and the humility of his passion, it is rightly added: You have made him a little lower than the angels. But there is added that glorification by which, rising again, he ascended into heaven: You have crowned him, it says, with glory and honor, and you have set him over the works of your hands. By the works of God's hands the angels are understood, in that they were touched by the Lord more subtly and more worthily than the other creatures. And because he deigned not only to possess the angelic nature, but also to redeem the human nature after the fall and to subject it to himself, it is rightly added:

You have subjected all things under his feet. All these things he explains: All sheep and oxen. By sheep, all the simple in the holy Church are understood, who after the manner of sheep live simply and humbly under the rule of shepherds. By oxen, however, the rulers themselves are designated, who cease not to plough and cultivate the hearts of men with the word of doctrine, so that they may render spiritual fruit to the Lord from earthly minds. Therefore the Lord has subjected to himself all sheep and oxen, because he disposes and rules all the elect in the holy Church, both the subject and the prelate (1 Pet. 5).

And because here the evil are mingled with the good, it is rightly said next concerning the reprobate: Moreover also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea. The word Moreover, he says, is set down to mark the difference between the good and the evil; but this Moreover must be referred not only to the beasts of the field, but also to the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The beasts of the field (according to Augustine) are understood as men who rejoice in the pleasure of the flesh, where nothing arduous, nothing laborious ascends. For broad is the way that leads to destruction. In the field Abel is killed. The birds of the air are the proud, who in thought and speech are puffed up, and while they reckon others lower than themselves, they fly as it were on high in their mind. Of these it is said: Our lips are our own; who is our lord? The fish of the sea are the curious, who walk through the paths of the sea—that is, they search in the deep of this world for temporal things, which like paths in the sea quickly vanish and perish. And he did not say, They walk, but, They walk through: showing the most stubborn zeal of those seeking empty and fleeting things. But these three kinds of vices—that is, the pleasure of the flesh, pride, and curiosity—sum up all sins, which are enumerated by John the Apostle when he says: Do not love the world, since all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the world.

For through the eyes, indeed, curiosity is usually understood. And the Lord was tempted in these three temptations (Matt. 4); and when the enemy could not prevail against him, this is said of him: After the devil had completed every temptation (Luke 4). And because the Lord is now wondrous, in that he instructs infants, destroys the crafty, shows mercy to sinners, visits the saints, possesses the angels, contains men, and subjects every creature to himself—he who is the beginning and the end—let us praise him in the beginning and in the end, and never cease from his praise, saying: O Lord, our Lord, etc.

TITLE OF PSALM IX

This psalm is sung For the hidden things of the son. And because it does not say whose son, the only-begotten Son of God is to be understood. For the Lord himself also (from Augustine), when he sets down the Son without any addition, wishes himself, the only-begotten Son, to be understood, where he says: If the Son has set you free, then you will truly be free (John 8). For he did not say the Son of God, but by saying only the Son, he gives it to be understood whose Son he is. This manner of speaking is received by none but the excellence of him of whom we so speak that, even if we do not name him, he can be understood. For thus we say: It rains, it is clear, it thunders, and whatever other such things there are; nor do we add who does it, because the excellence of the doer offers itself spontaneously to the minds of all. We believe in two comings of the Lord: one past, which the Jews did not understand; the other future, which both hope for.

And because he whom the Jews did not understand flowed forth to the Gentiles, it is not unfittingly taken as said of this coming: For the hidden things of the Son, where blindness in part has come upon Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in (Rom. 11). Two judgments also are intimated through the Scriptures: one hidden, and the other manifest. The hidden judgment is the punishment by which each person is either exercised unto purification, or admonished unto conversion, or, if he has despised it, is blinded unto condemnation. But the manifest judgment is that by which the Lord is to come to judge the living and the dead. Those who are not corrected by this hidden judgment will be deservedly punished by that manifest one. But in this psalm are to be observed the hidden things of the Son, that is, his humble coming, which he accomplished for the Gentiles, together with the blindness of the Jews, and the punishment which is now carried out secretly, not yet as the condemnation of sinners, but either as the exercise of the converted, or as an admonition that they may be converted, or as blindness, that they may be prepared for condemnation. Let it be said, then, in the voice of the Son; let it be said in the voice of all the perfect unto the Father:

PSALM 9

I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart: I will tell of all your wonderful works. As if he were saying openly, I will praise you with my whole heart, with an undivided heart, with a perfect heart. Blessed is the man who holds back nothing for himself from his whole heart, but spends it all on the praise of God. God ought to be praised as much as he is loved. Therefore, just as he is to be loved with the whole heart, the whole soul, and all strength (Deut. 6; Matt. 22; Luke 10), so also is he to be praised. And just as no tribulation, no distress, no creature ought to separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8), so neither from the praise of God. The one who is such as this is fit to say: I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart. But if the Lord is to be praised, is he not also to be proclaimed? Therefore it is added: I will tell of all your wonderful works. All things, indeed, both visible and invisible, both spiritual and bodily, both those which you do visibly around the body to nourish faith, and those which you do invisibly around the soul to grant eternal salvation. Why are the wonderful works of God told? So that from his works (Rom. 1) we may recognize the author, and from his wonders admire the wonderful one, and so be stirred up to know and love the Lord. And so, in these times, let us establish our hope and our joy in him, as this holy man did, who says in what follows:

I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing to your name, Most High. I will be glad, he says, in you, not in the world, not in the desires of the flesh, not in the pleasures of the world, which is vanity, but in him who is the truth. The joy of this world leads to destruction, as it is written: Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn. But the joy that is in God begins indeed in this life, yet endures forever, as the Lord himself said to his disciples: I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. And it must be known that gladness pertains to the mind, exultation to the body, and psalmody to good action. Let there be, then, spiritual gladness in the mind, holy cheerfulness in the body, and let divine praise be in harmony with good action, and what is said will be fulfilled: I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing to your name, Most High.

In converting my enemy backward: They will be weakened, and they will perish from your face. Here he begins to explain what he perceives concerning the hidden things of the Son. When the Lord was tempted, the enemy was turned backward. It was said to him: Go back, Satan: for it is written. You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve (Matt. 16). Then he who (from Augustine) desired by tempting to set himself before him was made backward, not by deceiving the one who was slow, but by prevailing nothing in him. The enemy was therefore turned back, after he could not deceive the heavenly man who was slow; and he turned himself to earthly men, where he can dominate. Wherefore no man precedes him and makes him be backward, except the one who, laying aside the image of the earthly man, has borne the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15). The devil indeed (from the same) was turned backward also in the persecution of the just. And he is much more useful as a persecutor than if he went before as a leader and prince. We ought rather to flee him as a persecutor than to follow him as a leader. For we have one whom we may flee to, and be hidden in the hidden things of the Son, because the Lord has been made a refuge for us (Ps. 89). And because many are his ministers, members of the devil, it is rightly said in the plural number, They will be weakened, and they will perish from your face. The devil was weakened with his ministers, when he lost the power that he had over the human race. But he will perish when he is sent into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt.

But it has been well said: They will perish from your face: because it is written, Let the wicked be taken away, lest he see the glory of God (Isa. 26), or because the enemy has been turned backward, therefore the unjust and the impious will be weakened by their own evil works, and they will perish from their impieties, from your face, that is, from your knowledge. And rightly so:

5. Since you have made my judgment and my cause: you have sat upon the throne, you who judge justice. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5). He himself, in Christ as on his throne, was judging the Jews who were judging Christ. They were judging openly, he secretly. They were caught, according to what the Lord himself says: I will catch the wise in their cunning (Job 5). For by their judgment and counsel they thought they had acted so that the name of Christ would be erased from the earth; and by that very judgment they brought it about that the name of Christ became wonderful in the whole earth. That judgment, therefore, by which he was judged by the impious, and that cause by which the just and innocent one was condemned, was not theirs but Christ's: because it harmed them, it benefited Christ: and in a wondrous way, by their depraved wills, Christ did what he willed. But what he says, You who judge justice, has been said in contrast to those who judged iniquity. And because, with the devil and his members condemned, the nations were converted to Christ, there is plainly added:

You have rebuked the nations, and the impious one has perished: you have blotted out their name forever and ever and ever. Those who had long persisted in iniquities were to be rebuked sharply. Those who, despising the Creator, worshiped idols were to be struck with harsh rebuke. And it is well said, The impious one has perished: because from impious he has been made pious. He has perished from what he was, who begins to be what he was not. Hence it is written, Turn the impious, and they will not be (Prov. 12). Their name has been blotted out forever, because they are no longer called Pagans, but Christians: they were fornicators, they have been made chaste; they were wrathful, they have been made gentle; they were greedy, they have been made generous; they were unjust, they have been made just. Their name, therefore, has been blotted out forever and ever and ever, so that neither in this age nor in the age to come may they be reckoned idolaters or wicked, if they have truly been converted.

The enemies have failed by the sword in the end, and you have destroyed their cities. By the sword of the enemy (according to Augustine) are understood the various opinions of error, by which souls are slain as if by blades. These swords fail in the end, that is, they fall away completely, when those who had been seduced by some error return to the faith. Of these the Apostle says, you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light: for the fruit of light is in all goodness and justice (Eph. 5). And because, with error removed, base things and sins are destroyed, it is rightly said: And you have destroyed their cities.

The cities in which the devil reigns are those in which deceitful and flattering counsels hold the place, as it were, of a court. At this principality, as attendants and ministers, stand the services of the members: eyes for curiosity, ears for wantonness, hands for plunder, and the remaining members waging war on perverse counsels. As it were the common people of this city are all the delicate affections and the turbulent motions of the mind, stirring up daily seditions in the man who thinks on them. Therefore, where the king is found, where the court, where the ministers, where the people—there is a city. For such things would not exist in evil cities unless they first existed in individual men, who are, as it were, the elements and seeds of cities. He destroys those cities when, with the prince driven out from them (of whom it was said, The prince of this world is cast out), these kingdoms are laid waste by the word of truth, malignant counsels are put to rest, shameful affections are subdued, the services of the members and senses are taken captive from injustice and transferred to the warfare of good works: so that now (as the Apostle says) sin may not reign in our mortal body, so that we obey its desires; nor may we exhibit our members to serve sin. Then the soul is pacified, and the man is ordered to take up quiet and blessedness; whence also it is immediately added, Their memory has perished with a crash: and the Lord endures forever. A great crash occurs when impiety is overturned and destroyed.

For one does not pass to the highest peace, where the highest silence is, unless he has first waged war with his own vices amid great uproar. Then is made for him a most peaceful kingdom with God, when the tumult of vices is so destroyed in him that their memory is utterly blotted out.

And there the Lord remains forever, where iniquity now finds no place, whether outside through action or within through thought; or, according to the historical sense, the memory of the wicked has perished with a crash, because the clamor and savagery of those persecuting Christ has wholly ceased. For where are those who with such great uproar cried, Crucify, crucify? Where are the persecutors of the martyrs? Who even remembers them? They thought to extinguish the Christian name. They themselves have perished, and the Lord remains forever.

He has prepared his throne in judgment, and he himself will judge the orb of the earth in equity, he will judge the peoples in justice. The throne of God is the Son of the Father. Whence it is written, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

God prepared this one, because he sent him to be incarnate, so that in the form of a servant he might be judged, suffer, rise again, and reign; and he who was judged in secret would judge openly, not with iniquity and injustice (as men often judge, who, while they love some more and others less, sometimes fall away from the equity of judgment; and while they judge according to deeds, not according to hearts, they frequently do not preserve the rectitude of justice); but as one equitable and just he will judge the orb of the earth in equity, sparing no one, rendering equal things to all. He will judge the peoples in justice, with their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or defending them:

And the Lord has become a refuge for the poor, a helper in opportune times, in tribulation. However much that enemy who has turned backward may persecute (according to Augustine), what harm will it do to him for whom the Lord has become a refuge? But this will come about only if for Christ's sake he has chosen to be poor, loving nothing that either deserts one living or loving here, or is deserted by one dying. For for such a poor man the Lord has become a refuge. Nor does he help his poor man as soon as he begins to be troubled, but only then, when he has recognized the time to be opportune. For the Lord reproves whom he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives. These he tests in tribulation, and helps in opportune time. And therefore,

Let those who know your name hope in you, for you have not forsaken those who seek you, O Lord. For when the soul that seeks is wrenched from this world, the knowledge of God's name fittingly receives it at the point where it anchors its hope. For the name of God itself is everywhere made known; but knowledge of the name is when he is known whose name it is. Therefore, since we have already come to know God through faith (1 Cor. 13), let us fix our hope in him, let us seek him through love, so that when we have found him, we may remain with him. For he does not forsake those who seek him; rather, by possessing them he keeps them, by keeping them he glorifies them, and with them he reigns forever. Hence the holy Prophet admonishes us to sing to our Lord and to proclaim his grace to all. For he says,

Sing to the Lord who dwells in Zion, announce his zealous works among the nations. For a psalm is so called where there is a harmony of the voice with the instrument. And in a psalm we understand two things: the voice of praise and the harmony of action. Truly he sings psalms who so praises God that he lives rightly. Now the Lord himself (from Augustine) dwells in Zion (which is interpreted as contemplation) and bears the image of the Church that now is, just as Jerusalem bears the image of the Church that is to come (Gal. 4), that is, of the city of the saints already enjoying the life of angels, because Jerusalem is interpreted as the vision of peace. But contemplation precedes vision, just as this Church precedes the eternal and immortal city that is promised.

And here we engage in contemplation, so that we may arrive at vision. We are therefore commanded to sing psalms to the Lord who dwells in Sion, so that the Church may praise the Lord in concord, and proclaim to others the zeal of holy preaching. For we ought to praise our Lord by deed, contemplate him in mind, and proclaim him with our voice, so that tongue, conscience, and life may together resound in his praise within us. But on account of those who suffer persecution for the word of God which they proclaim, a consolation follows, when it is added:

Because he who seeks blood has remembered them. That is, the last judgment will come, where both the glory of the slain and the punishment of the slayers will be made manifest. But as for what he says, He has remembered, let no one think it is put in such a way as if forgetfulness could fall upon God. Rather, because the judgment will come after a long time, it is put according to the feeling of weak men, who think God has, as it were, forgotten, because he does not exact vengeance as quickly as they wish. To these it is also said, what follows: He has not forgotten the cry of the poor.

What is this cry of the poor, which God does not forget? It follows, and it is said: Have mercy on me, O Lord; see my humiliation from my enemies. Why then (from Augustine) did he not say, Have mercy on us, O Lord, and see our humiliation from our enemies? Not as though many poor cry out, but as though one. Or is it because the one who now intercedes for the saints is the one who first became poor for our sake, though he was rich (2 Cor 8)? His members are afflicted by enemies on earth, and he himself cries out for them in heaven.

He also says, You who exalt me from the gates of death, that I may proclaim all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion. For (from Augustine) man is exalted in him—not only the man whom he bears, who is the head of the Church, but also whoever of us is among the other members—and is exalted from all depraved desires, which are the gates of death, because through them one is carried to death. But the gates of the daughter of Sion are all the best pursuits in the holy Church, through which one comes to the vision of peace. In these gates all the praises of God are well proclaimed.

Then follows: I will exult in your salvation. The salvation of God is our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have been saved, who has transferred our hearts from the vain gladness of this world, so that we may truly rejoice in him. But this our joy is still in hope, not in reality (1 Cor 13). For we are afflicted by evil men as long as we live here (1 John 3); concerning whom it is added: The nations are fixed in the destruction which they have made. Attend to how the punishment of the sinner is reserved from his own works, and those who wished to persecute the Church are fixed in that destruction which they thought to bring upon it. For when they desired to kill bodies, they themselves were dying in soul. Concerning whom it is further added: In this snare which they hid, their foot is caught. The hidden snare is a deceitful thought; the foot of the soul is understood as love, which when it is depraved is called cupidity, but when it is right, dilection or charity. For by love one is moved as toward the place to which one tends. But the place of the soul is not in some space, which a bodily form occupies, but in the delight in which it rejoices to have arrived through love. The foot of sinners, therefore, that is, love, is caught in the snare which they hide: because when delight has followed upon a fraudulent action (when God has handed them over to the desires of their heart), that delight already binds them, so that they cannot break off their love from there and transfer it to useful things. Rightly, therefore, it is added:

The Lord will be known when he executes judgments: in the works of his own hands the sinner has been caught. These are the judgments in which the Lord is known: that his very works, which the wicked man does, accuse, judge, convict, and punish the sinner. He seeks no other witnesses than his life and conscience. But this is the just judgment of almighty God, that each one receive according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5). Here (from Augustine) is inserted the Canticle of the diapsalma, as it were the hidden joy of the separation which now takes place not by places but by the affections of souls, between sinners and the just, like that of the grain from the chaff while still on the threshing floor (Matt 3). And there follows: Let sinners be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God. For those who persevere in their sins, because they are unwilling to be turned to God, must needs be turned into hell; and there let them justly feel punishment, who here neglect to amend their guilt. And just as they did not see fit to hold God in their knowledge, he handed them over to a reprobate mind (Rom 1). Concerning such people it is said in one place: They provoked me with that which was not God, and angered me with their vanities (Ps 105). And I will provoke them with that which is not a people, and with a foolish nation I will anger them.

But when those men perish and are handed over by God to forgetfulness, will God also forget those who have known him through faith, and for love of him have despised the world, and have had tribulation in the world? Far be it. For there follows:

For the poor man will not be forgotten in the end: the patience of the poor will not perish in the end. Now, as it were, there is a forgetting of the poor, as long as the Lord does not defend them from the tribulation which they endure; and their patience is seen, as it were, to perish, since no glory is now repaid for it. But in the end the forgetting of the poor will not be, nor will their patience perish in the end, because then his glory is received, when all labors are ended together.

From the words which follow, moreover, he seems to make mention of the Antichrist, when he adds: Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened: let the nations be judged in your sight. For that man of sin will be strengthened to such an extent that he sits in the temple of God, and even names himself God, and causes many to be converted to himself. Against him, therefore, the Prophet asks the Lord to arise, and to condemn by his judgment those who will believe in him. Concerning whom he further adds: Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: let the nations know that they are men. He rightly names him a lawgiver, because he is to bring his own law, as Christ brought his own; and is to be preached in his own name, as Christ was preached in his own name.

But the statement, Let the nations know that they are men, asks that those who are going to believe in him recognize that one does not walk according to God but according to man (1 Tim 4).

And because (according to Augustine) that one is believed to be going to come to such a height of empty glory, and he will be permitted to do such great things both against all men and against the saints of God, that then truly some of the weak would think that God neglects human affairs: with a diapsalma interposed, he adds, as it were, the voice of those groaning and asking why judgment is delayed. Why, O Lord, he says, have you withdrawn far off? Then he who asked in this way, as if he had suddenly understood, or as if, knowing, he had asked in order to teach, added, saying: He despises in opportunities, in tribulation—that is, you despise at the opportune time, and you make tribulations, to inflame minds with desire for your coming. For to those who have thirsted much, that fountain of life is sweeter. And so he intimates the purpose of the delay, saying, While the impious is proud, the poor man is set on fire. It is wonderful and true that by zeal for good hope the little ones are corrected toward right living by the exercise of their persecutors. By this mystery it is brought about that we are even permitted to have heresies (1 Cor 11): not because the heretics themselves will this, but because divine providence works this out of their sins—providence which makes and orders light, but only orders darkness, so that by comparison with them the light becomes more pleasing, just as by comparison with heretics the discovery of truth is found more delightful.

For by comparison with them, those who are approved are made manifest among men (1 Cor 11), those who are known to God.

They are caught in the counsels in which they think. That is (from Augustine), their evil thoughts become chains for them. But why? Because the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the wicked man is blessed. The tongues of flatterers bind souls in sins. For it delights them to do those things in which not only is no reprover feared, but the worker is even praised and blessed. Hence they are caught in the counsels in which they think.

Let no one (from Augustine) congratulate a man who prospers in his own way, whose sins lack an avenger but have a flatterer at hand. This is the greater wrath of the Lord. The sinner has provoked the Lord. Elsewhere: He has exasperated him, so that he suffers these things, and so that the scourges of correction are not brought upon him. According to the multitude of his wrath he will not seek. He is greatly angry while he does not search out, while he as it were forgets, and does not attend to sins, and through frauds and crimes men come to riches and honors. This is especially going to happen in that Antichrist, who will appear so blessed to men that he is even thought to be God. But how great this wrath of God is, the following words teach.

God is not in his sight: his ways are defiled at all times. He who knows (from Augustine) whence one ought to rejoice in the soul, knows how great an evil it is to be deserted by the light of truth. Since men consider the blindness of the bodily eyes a great evil, because that light is withdrawn: how great a punishment, then, does he suffer, who by the prosperity of his sins is brought to such a point that God is not in his sight, and his ways are defiled at all times, that is, his thoughts and counsels are unclean? Your judgments are taken away from his face. For the mind, conscious of evil against itself, while it seems to itself to suffer no punishment, believes that God does not judge: and thus the judgments of God are taken away from his face, when this very thing is a great condemnation. He shall rule over all his enemies. For so it is handed down, that he shall conquer all kings, and alone obtain the kingdom (Ps 2). When also, according to the Apostle, he who preaches concerning him shall sit in the temple of God, exalting himself above all that is called God (2 Thess 2), and that is worshiped.

And because (from Augustine) he has been handed over to the lust of his own heart and destined for final damnation, and through wicked arts will come to that vain and empty height and to damnation, therefore it follows: For he has said in his heart. I shall not be moved from generation to generation without evil. That is: my fame and my name will not pass from this generation to the generation of posterity, unless by evil arts I obtain so exalted a principate that posterity cannot be silent about it. For a lost soul, devoid of good arts and alien to the light of justice, strives by evil arts to open for itself an approach to fame so lasting that it is celebrated even among posterity. And those who cannot become well known desire that men speak even ill of them, provided only that their name is spread most widely abroad. This I believe is what is said here: I shall not be moved from generation to generation without evil. What wonder, then, if even that Man of sin (who is to fill up all the wickedness and impiety that all the false prophets began, and to perform such signs as to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect) is to say in his heart: I shall not be moved from generation to generation without evil?

His mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and deceit; under his tongue are labor and pain. By cursing, open abuse may be understood; by bitterness, threats and terrors; by deceit, flattering and seductive words, by which he will turn the multitude to his side. And well is it described that under his tongue are labor and pain, because his inner parts will be filled with anger, hatred, and every evil will. Nothing (from Augustine) is more laborious than iniquity and impiety. This labor is followed by pain, because one labors not only without fruit but even to destruction. This labor and pain refer to what he said in his heart: I shall not be moved from generation to generation, without evil. And therefore it is said to be under his tongue, and not on his tongue, because he will think these things silently, but will speak other things to men, so that he may appear good and just and a son of God.

He sits in ambush with the rich. Who are these rich (according to Augustine) but those whom he will load with the gifts of this world? And therefore he is said to sit in ambush with them, because he will display their false happiness to deceive men; and those who by a depraved will desire to be such as they are, and do not seek eternal goods, fall into his snares. And therefore it follows: In secret places, that he may kill the innocent. In secret places, it is said, where it is not easily understood what is to be sought and what is to be avoided. But to kill the innocent is to make a guilty man out of an innocent one.

His eyes look upon the poor. For he will persecute most of all those (according to Augustine) of whom it is said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He lies in wait in a hiding place, like a lion in his den. He calls him a lion in a hiding place, in whom both force and deceit will operate. For the first persecution of the Church was violent, when Christians were compelled to sacrifice by proscriptions and torments. The second persecution was deceitful, which was carried out through heretics and false brethren. The third remains, to come through Antichrist, than which nothing is more dangerous, because it will be both violent and deceitful. It will have force in dominion, deceit in miracles. Force is referred to when he is called a lion; deceit, when he is said to be in a hiding place. And again these same things are repeated in the same order. He lies in wait, it says, to seize the poor. This pertains to cruelty.

But what follows: To seize the poor man while he draws him in, is reckoned as deceit. He will seize by raging, he will draw in by flattering.

In his snare he will humble him, he will bow down and fall, when he has ruled over the poor. The snare (according to Augustine) signifies ambush; and well does he say, In his snare he will humble him: for when he begins to perform those signs, the more marvelous they appear to men, the more will those saints who will then be despised, and held as nothing. Those whom he, against whom they will resist through justice and innocence, will seem to overcome by wondrous deeds. But He will bow down and fall, when he has ruled over the poor. That is, when he has inflicted any punishments whatsoever on the servants of God who resist him.

But whence, He will bow down and fall? For he said in his heart, God has forgotten, he has turned away his face, lest he see to the end. This is (according to Augustine) the most wretched bowing down and fall, while the human mind prospers, as it were, in its own iniquities, and thinks itself spared, when it is blinded and reserved for the last and opportune vengeance; of which he speaks when he adds: Arise, O Lord God, and let your hand be exalted. That is, let your power be made manifest. For above he had said, Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened, let the nations be judged in your sight. That is, in secret, where God alone sees.

This happened when the impious attain to the great felicity that seems so in the eyes of men, over whom a lawgiver is set such as they deserved to have. But now, after that hidden punishment and vengeance, it is said: Arise, O Lord God, and let thy hand be exalted—not, to be sure, in secret, but now in the most manifest glory. Do not forget the poor. As the impious suppose, who say, Thou hast forgotten, God hath turned away his face, that he may not see unto the end. The Church, therefore, laboring in those times like a ship amid great waves and storms, rouses the Lord as though he were sleeping, that he may command the winds and tranquillity return (Matthew 8; Mark 4; Luke 8).

And now, with the judgment made manifest, understanding and exulting they say: Why hath the impious provoked God to anger? That is (from Augustine), what did it profit him to do such great evils? For he said in his heart, He will not require it. But it is not as he himself thought. For, Thou seest that thou considerest labor and sorrow—of the just—that thou mayest deliver them (that is, the impious) into thy hands. That is, into the power of thy judgment. Their malice does not escape thee, nor shall thy hand cease from vengeance.

To you the poor man has been left. For he is poor for this reason, that is, he has despised all things of this world, so that you alone may be his hope. This poor man was granted to them for a time for punishment; but in the end he is left for glorification. You will be a helper to the orphan: for the impious man was a persecutor.

Break the arm of the sinner (that is, his power) and of the malignant one: his sin will be sought, and it will not be found. He himself will be judged by his own sin, and he himself will perish because of his sin. Therefore let sinners and the malignant fear, because God will crush them, and he will bring their malice to nothing. Let the poor and the orphans of Christ take comfort, because God will receive them, and after their labor he will lead them to eternal rest. The Lord will reign forever and for the age to come: you nations will perish from his land. The Lord will not reign with an earthly kingdom, but with a heavenly one. For an earthly kingdom is transitory and fleeting. This kingdom will pass away; this age will pass away. Another kingdom will succeed it, and another age, in which the Lord will reign forever. But what is his land, if not the holy Church? Then it will be true, firm, and established, when this mortal thing has put on immortality, and this corruptible thing has put on incorruption.

From this land the nations will perish, and the impious, that is, sinners, of whom it is said in another psalm: Not so the impious, not so, but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth (Ps. 1). For since they will have no weight of virtue, they will not be able to attain to that blessed stability; whence it is written: Let the impious be taken away, lest he see the glory of God (Isa. 26).

And then will be fulfilled what is added below: The Lord has heard the desire of the poor. That desire, namely (according to Augustine), with which they burned when in the straits and tribulations of this world they longed for the day of the Lord. And this desire was the preparation of their heart. Whence he adds next: The ear of your hearing has heard the preparation of their heart. This is the preparation of the heart of which it is sung in another psalm: My heart is prepared, O God (Ps. 107). Of which the Apostle says: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom. 8). But by the ear of the Lord we must understand not a bodily member, but his mercy, which hears us.

And what is that desire of the poor which the Lord will hear? Nothing other than that he come to judge for the orphan and the humble. That is, he comes not to the one who is conformed to this world, but to the one who despises all things for God's sake and acknowledges himself to be dust and ashes. For it is one thing to judge the orphan, and another to judge for the orphan. He judges the orphan even when he condemns him; but he judges for the orphan when he pronounces sentence on his behalf. The desire of the poor, then, is that the end of the world may come and the judgment of God take place, so that once the just are separated from the impious, the wicked may no longer prevail to harm the good. And this is what follows: That man may no longer continue to magnify himself upon the earth.

TITLE OF PSALM X.

The title of the following psalm is, Unto the end, a psalm of David. The present persuasion is David's—that is, of those who have been perfectly founded in him, who because of their knowledge of the Scriptures and because they manfully resist the heretics are deservedly to be called David. David, that is, of the one who directs those less founded in faith and less instructed in the Scriptures—Unto the end, that is, to this end that the institutions and precepts of Christ may be for them the end and sufficiency for defending the faith against the heretics. Their intention, moreover, is to invite others to place their whole confidence in defending themselves against the heretics in God, who is the true end. Let us therefore look at the text of the psalm.

We must be on guard against heretics, who by recalling and exaggerating the vileness of the many sins of the Church, as though the righteous were among them, strive to turn us away and tear us from the womb and breasts of our mother the Church, affirming that Christ is among them, and as if piously and zealously advising us that by crossing over to them we may migrate to Christ, whom they boast that they possess. But it is well known that Christ in prophecy, when He was indicated by names, was also allegorically called a mountain. So we must answer these men and say:

PSALM 10.

In the Lord I trust: how do you say to my soul, Migrate to the mountain like a sparrow? As if he were saying: Since my soul has so great a mountain, in which it places its confidence, as Christ is, by what reasoning do you say that it should cross over to another mountain like a sparrow, that is, as though cautious and cunning? I hold one mountain, in which I trust. How do you say that I should cross over to you, as though there were many Christs? Or if you call yourselves mountains out of pride, one must indeed be a sparrow equipped with the virtues of wings and the precepts of God. But these very things forbid flying to those mountains and placing hope in proud men. I have a home where I may rest, because I trust in the Lord. For even the sparrow has found a home for itself: and the Lord has become a refuge for the poor.

Let us therefore say with full confidence, lest while we seek Christ among the heretics we lose Him: In the Lord I trust. By these words, then, we are taught to beware the cunning opinions of heretics.

Hence it is also added: For behold, sinners have bent the bow. That is, they have applied holy Scripture to their own errors and their own meanings. And Scripture is rightly called a bow: because just as from a bow the arrow comes forth to strike, so from Scripture proceeds a sentence that pierces the heart. They have made ready their arrows in the quiver. That is, they have fitted their poisoned opinions within holy Scripture itself, which contains opinions within itself just as a quiver contains arrows: to this end, namely, they have prepared them, That they may shoot in the dark at the upright in heart. That is, that they may strike down the upright in faith by means of obscure opinions. Or in the dark, that is, in that wherein they are less capable of holy Scripture, and less grounded in faith; for the darkness of the heart is ignorance. And because such danger threatens from these men, it must be said: In the Lord I trust. And therefore it is necessary, O Lord, that trust be placed in you, and that recourse be had to your aid.

Because they have destroyed what you have accomplished. That is, the faith, which although it is one, is nevertheless held concerning various things: concerning humanity and divinity, and concerning things past, present, and future; and therefore it is expressed in the plural, because it consists of many things. The faith which you have accomplished—that is, you have inspired it perfect and whole in the hearts of the faithful by your grace, and have thundered it forth by teaching—they have destroyed, as far as was in them, and have denied. This turning away was done for the sake of testimony. Sinners plot to do such things, but what has the righteous one done? That is, the Lord, who acts justly in both respects, leaving no evil unpunished and no good unrewarded—what has he done? And this question is not asked from ignorance, but so that the weakness of the infirm may be taught. The Lord said what he was; hence, when the question has been asked, it is answered:

The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord, his throne is in heaven. These are themselves the temple of God, in whom the Lord dwells through faith. Hence the Apostle says, The temple of God is holy, which you are. But those who after faith advance to contemplation are not only a temple, but also heaven. These the Apostle designates when he says, But our conversation is in heaven. In them the Lord resides as in heaven. From these words it is shown that the Lord neither forsakes the greater on account of the lesser, nor despises the lesser on account of the greater.

Whence it is added next. His eyes look upon the poor. That is, the regard of his mercy is not turned away from the poor man—namely, such a one of whom it is written, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5). And it is not [surprising] if the Lord, being just, dwells in the poor who trust in him, and enlightens by his indwelling the wise who proclaim his faith; and those who are puffed up he blinds through their own error. For his eyelids question the children of men. The holy Scriptures, which are closed in some places and opened in others, are, as it were, the eyelids of God: they question (from Augustine), that is, they test the children of men—whether they are wearied by the obscurity of things, or exercised by it; whether they are illuminated by the knowledge of things, or held fast in it.

And he says this more plainly when he adds: The Lord questions the just and the impious. That is, he proves the good and the evil—yet that he is just, he has from God; but that he is impious, he has from himself. How? By loving iniquity, and so by hating himself. And this is what he says: But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul. Against which, that man truly loves himself who hates sin.

He will rain snares upon sinners. The same outpouring of the Scriptures, according to each one's merit, is a rain of snares for the sinner and a rain of abundance for the just. For when it is understood in a bad sense, the Lord rains snares upon sinners; but when in a good sense, he makes fruitful the hearts of the pious and the faithful. The same good things, therefore (from Augustine), benefit the good and harm the wicked. Whence he says to the Danites, We are to some an odor of death unto death, to others an odor of life unto life.

Fire, sulphur, and a spirit of storms, the portion of their cup. This is their punishment and their end (from Augustine), through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed: so that first they are tossed about by the fire of covetousness, then they are seized as if by the stench of their works as by sulphur, and finally they are burned together with malignant spirits in eternal fire. And this is the portion of the cup, that is, of their tribulation: so that just as the just receive eternal life as their portion, so the impious receive perpetual damnation as their portion. But I think it is called a cup for this reason, lest we suppose that anything beyond measure and limit is done even in the very punishments of sins through divine providence. And therefore, as if giving the reason why this happens, he adds: For the Lord is just, and he has loved justices. Not without reason did he put justices in the plural. For in many just men there appear to be, as it were, many justices, although there is one justice of God, in which all participate.

Therefore he again refers to singleness, saying, "His countenance has seen equity." The Lord is so just in himself that he loves his own righteousnesses in us. Such as he himself is, he desires all of us to be. Hence he admonishes us, saying: "Be holy, for I am holy." Keep justice, and you will be like the Lord, and the just Lord will love you, a just man. But if you neglect justice, you will not go unpunished. For it follows, "His countenance has seen equity." The severity of God's countenance sees equity both in the good and in the evil. Now equity is that he repay good things to the good and evil things to the evil. It is equity that he render things worthy of deeds. What he therefore says, "The Lord is just, and he has loved righteousnesses," pertains to the order of living rightly; what he adds, "His countenance has seen equity," pertains to the recompense of each one's work.

TITLE OF PSALM XI.

Titles are therefore placed before the psalms because in the titles it is shown what is contained in the text of the psalms. The title of this psalm is: "Unto the end, for the octave, a Psalm of David." This is a psalm of David, that is, of the perfect soul tending toward the end, that is, toward Christ, and acting and praying in this psalm, "for the octave," which is understood as the eternal age, which after this time (which is rolled out in seven days) will be given to the saints.

Now in this psalm the subject is the lack of holy men and the diminishing of truth, the coming of Christ and the brightness of divine eloquence, the salvation of the just and the destruction of the reprobate. Therefore this holy man, seeing the world lying in wickedness (1 John 5) and that we are placed amid many miseries, intends to set before us a form of praying, so that by his example we may so pass through temporal things as to attain to eternal life. He says therefore:

PSALM 11.

Save me, O Lord, for the holy man has failed, for truths have been diminished from among the children of men. He seems to look forward to that time when there was neither leader nor prophet in Israel, and each one did what was good in his own eyes (Dan. 3). Hence it is said in Hosea: For many days the children of Israel shall sit without a king, without a prince, without sacrifice, without an altar, without priesthood, without manifestations (Hos. 3). But as for what he says, Truths have been diminished, he does not say this (according to Augustine) because there are different truths, since truth is one, by which holy souls are enlightened. But because there are many souls, many truths can be spoken of in them, just as from one face many images appear in mirrors.

But where truth fails, there vanity must necessarily abound. Hence it follows: Everyone has spoken vain things to his neighbor; with deceitful lips, they have spoken with heart and heart. By “neighbor” (from the same source) every human being must be understood, because there is no one with whom one may work evil. And the love of neighbor does not work evil (Rom 13). That he says twice, “with heart and heart,” signifies a double heart. From these words, therefore, it is shown that the sons of men have been so diminished from the truth that they devoted themselves to serving vanity and a twofold falsehood. He announces by praying and prophesying that the scattering and destruction of this vanity will come through the advent of Christ, when he adds:

May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaks great things. He says “all” (from the same source), so that no one may think himself excepted: as the Apostle says, Upon every soul of the one who works evil (Rom 2). The tongue that speaks great things is a tongue that speaks lofty and proud things. But these words apply to the proud, which follow:

Those who said, We will magnify our tongue: our lips are our own: who is our Lord? This is the peculiar trait of the proud, that as far as they can they desire to be seen as lords, that they despise the authority of a magistrate over them, that they speak grandly, and that whatever they have drawn from their own understanding they defend as if by reason, out of the swelling of pride. We must beware of the vice of talkativeness and pride, and lest in the things we bring forth we wish stubbornly to persist, lest (which be far from us) we be among the number of those whom the Lord has destroyed because of vices of this kind. For pride has confusion, just as on the contrary humility has exaltation. For it is written: For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4). Hence now, in the person of God the Father, what follows is set down:

Because of the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor, now I will arise, says the Lord. He himself (from Augustine) is the merciful Father who, because of the needy and the poor—that is, those lacking in the poverty and want of spiritual goods—deigned to send his Son. And his discourse begins from this point in Matthew on the mount, when he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5). And having followed this, he added: I will place him in salvation; I will deal faithfully in him. He does not say what he would place. But certainly he said “in salvation,” that is, in Christ (according to that saying: Because my eyes have seen your salvation [Luke.

Therefore it is understood that he placed in him that which pertains to removing the misery of the needy and consoling the groaning of the poor. In this too he acted with confidence, according to that saying in the Gospel: For he was teaching them as one having authority, not as their scribes. Concerning his authority Daniel spoke thus: I was seeing, he says, in a vision of the night, and behold, in the clouds of heaven the Son of man was coming, and to him was given principality and honor and kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him. And his power is an eternal power, which shall not be taken away, and his kingdom is one that shall not be corrupted.

Concerning his light of eloquence, there is added: The words of the Lord are chaste words: silver tried by fire, proven by the earth, purified sevenfold. He calls them chaste, according to Augustine, without the corruption of pretense. For many preach the truth not chastely, because they sell it for the price of the conveniences of this world. Of such the Apostle says that they proclaim Christ not chastely. Rightly, moreover, they are compared to silver tried by fire, because just as silver is tried by fire so that it may be pure and bright, so undoubtedly the divine words have been tried by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Whence the Lord himself says, The words that I speak to you are spirit and life. And the same Psalmist said elsewhere, Your word is exceedingly fiery.

But it is rightly said to be "proven in the earth," because the divine utterance is shown by the faithful of holy Church to be right and true. That which is "purified sevenfold" is through fear of God, through piety, through knowledge, through fortitude, through counsel, through understanding, through wisdom (Isa. 11). There are also seven degrees of blessedness, which the Lord sets forth in that same sermon which he delivered on the mount: "Blessed are the poor in spirit"; "Blessed are the meek"; "Blessed are those who mourn"; "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness"; "Blessed are the merciful"; "Blessed are the pure in heart"; "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matt. 5; Luke 6). It can be observed that that whole lengthy sermon was produced from these seven statements. For the eighth, where it is said, "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake," signifies that very fire by which silver is tested sevenfold. But what the coming of Christ accomplished together with the examined utterance is shown when it is added:

You, Lord, will keep us and guard us from this generation forever. From this depraved and perverse generation you will guard us, lest we be corrupted by their life and morals; and you will keep us forever, that we may rejoice with you in perpetuity: here you will guard us as needy and poor; there you will keep us as wealthy and rich. These words pertain only to the elect. For concerning the reprobate, what follows is added.

The wicked walk about in a circuit: according to your height you have multiplied the children of men. The wicked are rightly said to walk about in a circuit, because they are spun around in the desire for temporal things, which, by the repeated circuit of seven days, is rolled along like a wheel; and therefore they do not arrive at the eighth, that is, at the eternal, for which this Psalm is titled. So also it is said in Solomon: for the wise king is a winnower of the wicked, and he will send upon them the wheel of evils. There is also a multiplication in temporal things that turns one away from the goodness of God. Whence the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks on many things (Wisdom 9). But the righteous are multiplied according to the height of God, when they go from virtue to virtue (Psalm 83).

TITLE OF PSALM XII.

The title of this psalm is: Unto the end, a psalm of David. The Apostle says, Christ is the end of the law, unto justice to everyone who believes (Rom. 10). We believe in him when we begin to enter the new way; we shall see him when we have arrived. And therefore he himself, the end, has been appointed as a psalm for praising God. And because in these verses God is sung to: therefore not undeservedly is the text of this work called a psalm. Now a psalm used to be made from the movement of the fingers and the harmony of the voice. He would strike the strings, the organ would resound, and together with the organ he himself would sing the words (1 Paral. 15). If this signifies that in us good works and praise ought to be in harmony, the psalm exhorts us to this, which is inscribed David, who holds the person of the Church or of any perfect soul. Therefore the holy man intends in this psalm to remind us that by his example we should continually lament the evils of this exile, and ardently desire the vision of heavenly glory: and that we should pray lest we fall into deadly sins, and lest we give the devil an occasion of tempting us: and for this constancy let us give thanks, not to ourselves, but to God. At the end too he shows that he exults in heart in the Lord, and that by praising him and living well he sings and makes melody to him. He prays therefore thus:

PSALM XII.

How long, O Lord, will you forget me unto the end? How long will you turn your face away from me? As God does not forget (according to Augustine), so neither does he turn his face away. But Scripture speaks after our manner. God is, as it were, forgetting us when he allows us to labor long in this pilgrimage. He is, as it were, turning his face away when he hides from us the manifestation of his vision. In these words, therefore, two kinds of compunction are suggested to us. One, by which we ought to bewail the misery in which we are. The other, by which we ought, weeping, to sigh for the glory of the heavenly fatherland, in which we are not.

Other kinds of compunction also are shown when it is added: How long shall I set counsels in my soul, sorrow in my heart by day? By day he signifies continuance. Counsel is of no use except in adversities. To set counsel in the soul by day is solicitously and continually to foresee and guard against the suggestions and sins by which the soul is corrupted. He was setting counsel in his soul who said: In my heart I have hidden your words, that I may not sin against you (Ps. 118). But to have sorrow in the heart by day is continually to afflict the heart with grief over evils committed. It is fitting, therefore, that in this counsel and sorrow of ours we lament things past and guard against things to come. But because this struggle of ours is against the spiritual forces of wickedness (Eph.

and the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks on many things (Wisdom 9). The soul beholds these enemies, and groaning adds:

How long will my enemy be exalted over me? The enemy is exalted over us as often as we are convicted of sinning. The Apostle says, I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Romans 7). These things pertain to the exaltation of the enemy. Hence the same man, groaning, adds, Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? But what follows? The grace of God through Jesus Christ (ibid.).

This grace the psalmist implores when he says: Look upon me, and hear me, O Lord my God. Look upon me refers (according to Augustine) to what was said, How long will you turn your face away from me? Hear me refers to what was said, How long will you forget me unto the end? And well does he say, O Lord my God. Lord, that is, Savior; God, that is, Creator of all, God through power; my God, however, through grace.

Hence it is also said: Illuminate my eyes, lest I ever fall asleep in death; lest at some time my enemy say, I have prevailed against him. God is the light of our heart, sin is the death of the soul. Hence it is written: The soul that has sinned, it shall die. From this sleep of death the Apostle rouses us, saying, Awake, you righteous, and do not sin (1 Cor 15). We must therefore pray that by him who is the true light the eyes of our heart may be illuminated, lest we ever fall asleep in the death of sin through negligence; lest at some time the ancient enemy insult us and say that he has prevailed against us, if he has been able to subject us to himself through sin. For the prince of darkness will rejoice if he has been able to disturb in us the state of uprightness. Hence he also adds: 7. Those who trouble me will exult if I have been moved; but I have hoped in your mercy. For to this end they trouble us, to this end they frequently disturb us with countless tribulations, that by their disturbances they may move us from the state of uprightness. Placed therefore in dangers of this kind, we must neither despair nor again presume on our own strength. But our whole hope must be fixed in his mercy, who can both illuminate us, lest we go astray, and strengthen us, that we may stand firm.

And because hope in God generates joy of heart, rightly it is added: My heart will exult in your salvation: I will sing to the Lord, who has given me good things, and I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord most high. Here he commends three things to us: exultation of heart, singing with the voice, psalmody in deed. From these words the perfection of divine praise is indicated to us. For if we desire purely and perfectly to praise the Lord our God, we ought to refer to his praise everything that is in us, so that all our faculties may resound in his praise: namely, life, tongue, and conscience: both because through his salvation, that is, through Christ, he saves us; and because he unceasingly provides us with temporal and spiritual good things; and because his name is most high. For since we cannot find a Lord higher and better, it is just that we persevere in his praise, love, and service.

TITLE OF PSALM XIII.

The title of this psalm is the same as the one above. It treats, moreover, of the error of the Gentiles and of the unbelief of the Jews, who denied that the Lord Christ is God (John 19): and therefore they themselves, corrupted by error and depravity of morals, and made useless, attempted also to corrupt others with them and to lead them into their own error. When these had been rejected by the Lord, he declares that he dwells in a righteous generation, and that he sends his Salvation from Zion, so that he may gather his people from captivity: so that Jacob may exult in him and Israel rejoice.

And these things were written for our sake, so that, attentive to their condemnation and to the salvation of the faithful, we may shun those men and, imitating these, remain in faith in the Lord Jesus, who is our end and our reward; when we come to him, made spiritually Jacob and Israel, we shall rejoice perfectly in him. This is the intent and the usefulness of this psalm. Its subject matter is the fool himself.

PSALM XIII.

The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. The Gentile people can be understood here, who fell so far from the natural law that they had received into folly that they did not believe that the very one by whom they were created is the Lord. Whence the Apostle says: They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents (Rom. 1). For which cause God also gave them up to shameful passions, so that they dishonored their own bodies in themselves. With these words agree the words that follow: They are corrupt, and have become abominable in their pursuits: there is none who does good, there is not even one. They are corrupt in vices and sins, and have become abominable by imitating the natural use for that use which is against nature (ibid.). And rightly he calls their vices and sins pursuits, because they committed them not from ignorance or merely from weakness, but (what is graver) from pursuit and from will. Of these there is not one who does good, who refuse to believe in one God (Rom. 1).

For without faith it is impossible to please God. Hence the Truth itself says: Without me you can do nothing. Because they first sinned in heart, therefore afterward they sinned in deed, and by the merit of their error they were punished with the penalty of corruption. And so our mind must be kept with all vigilance, lest it be corrupted by any vice; for our thoughts do not pass by empty before the eyes of God. He sees within what he punishes outwardly: that is, open punishment follows hidden guilt, so that the inner things are punished by the outer, and the heart falls publicly that sinned secretly.

But what follows seems to pertain to the Jews. For it says: The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there is one who understands or seeks God. It can be understood as spoken concerning the Jews, that he called them children of men more honorably because of their worship of God, in distinction from the Gentiles, who because of their worship of stones were made corrupt and abominable. Therefore the Lord looks down upon the children of men through his holy souls, which is what he signifies by saying from heaven, that he may see—that is, may cause to be seen—whether there is anyone who understands God in heart or seeks him in deed. Or by children of men we can understand imitators of carnal men, just as, on the contrary, imitators of God are called sons of God.

For through righteous men God looks upon sinners, and through the good he refutes the wicked, and through the life and teaching of the saints he makes the error and injustice of the depraved known; concerning these, the following is added about their wickedness:

All have turned aside, together they have become useless: there is none who does good, there is not even one. It is not to be understood that all have turned aside in such a way that in the human race there was not even one who did good, since shortly afterward he says: The Lord is in the righteous generation. But evidently of those who are imitators of the carnal, whose life and conduct are corrupt, there is no one who does good. For as long as a man is greater, he cannot do good. But how far they have turned aside from the way of truth, the words that follow show. For it is said: Their throat is an open sepulcher: with their tongues they acted deceitfully, the poison of asps is under their lips. Rightly are they compared to an open sepulcher: because just as a sepulcher lies open to receive dead bodies, so they gaped to draw simple souls to themselves, and having destroyed them through error, to incorporate them into themselves. Rightly, moreover, after he said with their tongues, he added their own: so as to signify evil men. For evil men have evil tongues. Then the Jews acted deceitfully with their tongues, when they asked the Lord whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not (Matthew 22).

They indeed had deceit in their mouth, but they concealed the poison of malice in their heart: so that if he said, "It is lawful," they would immediately refute him from the law, in which it is commanded that one should serve the Lord alone (Deut. 6). Again, if he said, "It is not lawful," they had brought in the Herodians, who would immediately seize him and condemn him for forbidding the royal tribute (Matt. 22). And rightly are they compared to asps, because just as the asp stops its ear against the voice of the charmer (Psal. 57), so they stopped their ears against the voice of preaching (Act. 6). Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Their mouth was full of cursing when they said, "Do we not speak well when we say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (Joan. 8). They were also filled with bitterness when they said to Pilate, "Crucify him. He is guilty of death" (Matt. 27, Marc. 15, Luc. 25, Joan. 19). Their feet were swift to shed blood when they led him outside the city and killed him. Whence they were crushed by their enemies and brought to the misery of captivity. And therefore it is added: Contrition and misery are in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2). There is no fear of God before their eyes.

This was the cause of the hardness of their heart, because they did not fear the Lord; therefore they hardened their hearts against believing, and it happened to them just as it is written: But the one who is hard of mind will fall into evil (Prov. 28). The prophet rebukes their malice when he adds:

Will not all those who work iniquity know, who devour my people like bread? They did not know what they were doing, those who were killing the Lord. Hence he himself, praying, said: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23). But they will know in judgment, when they see the one whom they pierced (Zech. 12). When they behold the holy martyrs, whom they killed (Apoc. 1), whom they are described as devouring like bread, so that their disposition may be denoted. For just as bread is sweet to eat, so sweet was the persecution of the saints to them. Hence they are described not as eating but as devouring, so that in this may be designated not only their will but also their greed.

They did not call upon the Lord; there they trembled with fear where there was no fear. What wonder if those trembled who did not call upon the Lord? Who is secure without the Lord? For they said, If we let him go on like this, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. They feared to lose an earthly kingdom, where there was no fear, and they lost the kingdom of heaven, which they ought to have feared. And this must be understood of all temporal advantages: while men fear to lose them, they do not attain to eternal things. Nor will all who work iniquity come to know this, as follows.

For the Lord is in the generation of the just—not, surely, in the depraved. Why is the Lord not in them? He adds the reason: You have confounded the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope. For you said, He trusts in God; let him deliver him now if he will. You despised the lowly coming of the Son of God, because you did not see pomp in it—you who follow after such things. Because he hoped in God, he was despised by you, to whom earthly things are more pleasing than heavenly.

Who will give from Zion the salvation of Israel? The sense is, Who except that one whose humility you despised? For he himself will come in glory to judge the living and the dead, and to bring the kingdom of the righteous; so that, just as by that humble coming blindness came in part upon Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, so by that other coming there may be fulfilled what follows, and thus all Israel may be saved (Rom. 11). For on behalf of the Jews the Apostle also took up that testimony of Isaiah which says: He will come from Zion, who will turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Isa. 57). To this he adds what is said:

Who will give from Zion the salvation of Israel? When God has turned back the captivity of his people, Jacob will be exalted, and Israel will rejoice. By Jacob are signified those who fight and struggle against vices. For Jacob is interpreted as supplanter. By Israel, however, are understood those who, after the struggle with vices, have advanced even to the contemplation of God; since Israel means one who sees God. As long as the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks on many things (Wis. 9), we are in captivity. But when God has turned back our captivity—which will then come to pass when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality (1 Cor. 15)—then there will be exultation in body and in spirit for those who have been spiritually Jacob, that is, who have supplanted base things.

There will be joy in the mind of those who have been spiritually Israel, who have burned with love and contemplation of the Godhead. There the labor of the righteous will end, love will be perfected. There the active and the contemplative life will be rewarded with the joy of eternity. There the eternal reward of those making progress and of the perfect will be repaid.

TITLE OF PSALM 14.

The fourteenth Psalm is inscribed. A Psalm of David. Now our David is Christ, as we have often said. Then we read in Exodus that on the fourteenth day the lamb is sacrificed, when the moon is full (Exod. 12), since nothing of its light is lacking. Therefore this psalm signifies to us a certain fullness of light, a certain blessed brightness, whose purpose is to show us the royal way, by which through Christian service we may press on to the fatherland. But it speaks of the perfect commandments of justice, by which he teaches you that you can enter into heavenly things (Matt. 19); to which he also adds lesser ones, so that in them the weakness of beginners may exercise itself and be able to strive toward higher things. But now let us hear what the prophet says:

PSALM 14.

Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? Or who shall rest on your holy mountain? Not first on the mountain and afterwards in the tabernacle, but first in the tabernacle and afterwards on the mountain. A tabernacle is not a firm house, it has no foundation; it is a thing of war, it is shifted hither and thither, and it migrates with the migrant. It signifies the Church of the present age. For we do not remain here as dwellers (Heb. 13), but we are to migrate elsewhere. Mountains, however, have firm foundations. Therefore by the name of mountain is designated the solidity of the future fatherland. Since, then, we are to migrate from tabernacles to the mountain, we ought to learn who these are who are to migrate to the holy mountain of God. Let us therefore hear what the Holy Spirit answers to the prophet as he asks.

He who enters (he says) without stain, and works justice. He who enters is on the way. He did not say, he who has reached the end without stain, but he who is still on the journey and has no stain. Someone could have said: I have no stain, I have done no evil. It is not enough for us not to do evil, unless we have also done good. But who can be without stain? Since the Apostle says, In many things we all offend (James 3). And, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1). But with the merciful Lord he is reckoned without stain, over whom guilt no longer rules through delight.

Hence the same prophet, when he prayed to be flooded from hidden and from alien faults, added: If they have not been lords over me, then I shall be spotless (Ps. 18). The first entrance, then, to righteousness is to keep oneself spotless from sin; but to be perfected in good is a going beyond. Let us strive, therefore, to enter without the stain of sin, and to practice the works of righteousness. Righteousness knows not father, knows not mother: it knows the truth, it does not accept a person, it imitates God.

Let us hear the works of righteousness that follow: Who speaks the truth in his heart. Many speak the truth on their lips, not in their heart: they who seem to speak the truth, but their heart does not agree with their lips. As if, for instance, someone deceitfully points out a road, knowing that there are robbers on it, and says, If you go this way, you will be safe from the robbers, and it happens that the robbers are truly not found there: that man has spoken the truth, but not in his heart. For he thought one thing, and, not knowing it, spoke the truth. Therefore it is a small thing to speak the truth, unless it is so also in the heart. Who has not acted deceit in his tongue. Deceit is acted with the tongue when one thing is brought forth by the mouth and another is kept in the heart. He does not act deceit in his tongue who brings forth in speech what he has pondered in his mind. Nor has he done evil to his neighbor. By neighbor we ought to understand every human being (Luke 10); and therefore it is written, What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to others (Matt.

(22.) that we do no evil to anyone, which assuredly we do not wish to be done to us by anyone (Luke 6). And he did not take up reproach against his neighbors. A great thing is being said. Never, he says, did a neighbor murmur against him (Tob. 4). Never did he find any occasion for disparaging him. This exceeds the human condition: it is the grace of God.

4. The malignant one is brought to nothing in his sight, and whether he is an emperor, or a prefect, or a bishop, or a presbyter (for these are the dignities of the Church), whoever is evil is counted as nothing in the sight of the saint. And immediately there follows: But he glorifies those who fear the Lord. This saint who enters without stain, who despises the powerful because they are evil: if he sees anyone fearing God, though he be poor, yet he glorifies him. Just as (from Augustine) the former things pertain to the perfect, so those things which he is now about to say pertain to beginners.

He who swears to his neighbor and does not deceive, who has not given his money at interest, and has not taken bribes against the innocent. To swear not at all is the mark of the perfect (Matthew 5). To guard against deceit in an oath, even if it is not the perfection of the perfect, is nevertheless some progress belonging to beginners. Likewise, not to give one's money at interest is not a great virtue, but it is nonetheless a beginning of virtue. For if we wish to be perfect, we ought to give away all that is ours (Matthew 19). Again: it is no great thing not to take bribes against the innocent; for we ought, if we can, to set the innocent free. What then is the reason that the Holy Spirit adds even the least commandments to the perfect ones, except that in this he mercifully intends to cherish our weakness? Namely, that if we cannot yet attain to the perfect things, we may at least strive to practice the small things as we are able. For if, according to our ability, we press on from small things to greater, and even if we cannot at once reach the things we desire, the reward will still not fail those who labor. Hence it follows: He who does these things shall not be moved forever. That is (according to Augustine), he will arrive at those greater things, in which there is great and unshakable stability.

TITLE OF THE FIFTEENTH PSALM.

Antiquity was accustomed to do this, that when anyone had a triumph over his enemy, he had an arch built for himself, which was called triumphal; on which that victory was depicted (1 Kings 15). Whence at Orange, on a triumphal arch, the Massilian[?]... is held sculpted, as a sign of Caesar's victory. Similarly God the Father, through the victory by which the devil has now been conquered, as it were a triumphal arch from the kingdom of the whole world acquired for himself, caused a title to be affixed to the cross: Jesus the Nazarene, king of the Jews (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19).

The inscription of the title of this psalm is: A psalm of David himself. Therefore (from Augustine) he added "himself," because he himself, our King, speaks in this psalm in the assumption of a human person, concerning whom the royal title inscribed at the time of his passion shone forth. His intention is to invite us to his kingdom, which he acquired for us through his humanity, passion, and resurrection, whereof this psalm treats. He says therefore:

PSALM 15.

Preserve me. O Lord, for I have hoped in you. It was not necessary for him to pray for himself, for insofar as he was God, he could preserve himself. But just as he came to be incarnate for us, so the pious Redeemer deigned to pray for us, transforming us into his own person, because he willed to become one body with his Church. Therefore, for his weak members, whom he transforms into himself, he says: Preserve me. O Lord, for I have hoped in you. For we, who are mere men and have been lost through sin, need to be preserved by the Lord. For he himself is our hope, he himself is our God. We need his help, not he ours. Hence he rightly added:

I said to the Lord, you are my God, for you have no need of my goods. That the Father first redeemed us through his Son, he did solely out of love, not out of necessity. For his glory is perfect, and can neither be increased nor diminished. Hence we ought all the more to confess the Lord our God with our mouth and believe with our heart, and to hope in him, and to seek salvation from him, who does not seek our goods, but rather lavishes his own upon us. Hence it is also added:

To the saints who are in his land, he has made all my desires wonderful in them. To the saints (from Augustine) who have placed their hope in the land of the living, citizens of the heavenly fatherland, whose spiritual conversation is fixed by the anchor of hope in that fatherland, which is rightly called the land of God, although in these lands they live in the flesh. For these saints he has made all my desires wonderful, in their advancement by those who have understood what the humanity of my divinity profited them—that I might die—and the divinity of my humanity—that I might rise again. And it must be noted that after he says, He has made my desires wonderful, he immediately adds, in them: from which words it is to be gathered that he so showed his desires as wonderful to the saints that he made the same desires remain in them. For they could not have been saints if they had departed from his desires once known. This appears clearly enough from the following words, in which it is said:

Their infirmities have been multiplied; afterward they hastened. For the more plainly the divine will lies open, the more manifoldly human infirmity appears. For by the rule of supernal justice the strength of our depravity is detected. Hence it is that holy men, the more subtly they perceive divine things, the more strictly they lament their own sins; and from the light received from on high they recognize what they ought to amend in themselves; and therefore it is said: Afterward they hastened. For from the very source whence they recognize their own infirmity, from there they hasten more quickly to salvation. And because they humbly confess themselves infirm and sinners, therefore they are accounted worthy to be healed by the heavenly physician; for which reason it is added: I will not gather their assemblies from bloods; nor will I remember their names by my lips. What is signified by the name of bloods, if not sins? Whence it is written: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15). And he rightly says assemblies: for not all who are subject to vices have one will in sins; for some come together for plunder, others for avarice, others for luxury, others for pride. As many as are the varieties of vices, so many are the diversities of assemblies. But the merciful Lord does not gather their assemblies from bloods, because he does not accuse those converted to repentance in judgment. But what are their names, of whom he will not be mindful, except those names which they acquired for themselves by sinning?

For he who commits adultery is rightly called an adulterer; he who commits robbery, a robber; he who commits perjury, a perjurer; he who commits pride, a proud man. These names are not remembered if the faults for which they are names are corrected. Hence it is written: "Overlooking the sins of men for the sake of repentance" (Wisdom 1). Hence the Apostle says: "If we judged ourselves, we would not indeed be judged" (1 Corinthians 11). Therefore, because these are transferred into the inheritance of the Lord, so that the Lord himself may be their inheritance, it is rightly added:

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; you are the one who will restore my inheritance to me. They will possess the Lord himself as an inheritance with me. Let others choose for themselves earthly and temporal portions, in which they may take delight: the portion of the saints is the eternal Lord. Let others drink deadly pleasures: the portion of my cup is the Lord. You will restore my inheritance to me: so that it may be known also to those whom clarity sets free, which was with you before the world was made. The Lord's inheritance had been destroyed, when human nature, both corrupted by vices and held possessed by the devil, was ruined. The Savior was sent, sins were blotted out, free will was restored, the prince of this world was cast out, infirmity was healed, and unbelief was restored. Hence it is also added:

The lines have fallen to me in glorious places: for indeed my inheritance is glorious to me. Just as we divide our inheritance by lines, so God has divided his inheritance by faith, hope, and love. Those upon whom these lines have fallen have themselves come into the inheritance of the Lord. But they have fallen only in glorious places—those to whom heavenly glory has been more pleasing than earthly, spiritual virtues more than temporal honors. Many flourish in this world with riches, stand out in power, rejoice in honors, shine with temporal glory: they have a glory, but not one that endures. But those who despise earthly things, who desire the glory above, who burn for spiritual joys—these are beyond doubt glorious. Hence it now says: For indeed my inheritance is glorious to me. And it well says, To me. For this spiritual inheritance is not glorious to those by whom it is not known. For if they knew this glory which they love, they would not love a false one. Therefore those who by his gift are able to understand invisible things owe thanks to the Lord: and so it is fittingly added:

I will bless the Lord, who has given me understanding. When he says "to me," we must understand his members, who are joined to him in the unity of the body. That the Lord did not know this—that, despising temporal things, they understood spiritual things—was not their own virtue but the gift of God. Hence when Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16), lest he attribute this understanding to himself, he immediately heard: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Ibid.). Therefore the prophet elsewhere asks, saying: "Give me understanding, and I will search your law" (Ps. 118). But now the Lord's passion is commended to us, when it is added: "Moreover, even until night my reins reproached me." Moreover, for this reason I will bless the Lord, because my reins—that is, the Jews, from whose reins my fathers came and from whose flesh I was born—by reproaching and blaspheming compelled me even to death and to go into hell. And he rightly says "Moreover." For it is a greater virtue to bless the Lord in adversity than in prosperity. When God bestows his good things on men, both good and bad are accustomed to bless him. When he inflicts scourges, the bad indeed murmur, but the good bless. This verse therefore instructs us to this end, that we praise God in his gifts, lest we be ungrateful, and moreover in scourges, that we may be perfect, so that what we read in another psalm may be fulfilled in us: "I will bless the Lord at all times" (Ps. 33).

The words that follow agree with this sentence. For he says: I was providing the Lord in my sight always, since he is at my right hand, lest I be moved. Blessed is the man who always provides God in his sight. He is neither puffed up in prosperity nor broken in adversity. In all things that we do, that we speak, that we think, if we always provide God, we do not offend. Hence it is written: In all your ways think of him (Prov. 3). And rightly is the Father said to be at the right hand of the Son, since the Son is equal to the Father. From this he drew strength, so that, placed in human form in the passion, he could by no means be moved. But if, by the example of our Redeemer, we always provide the Lord in our sight, so that neither by love nor by fear of anything do we disagree with his will, he will surely be at our right hand, lest we be moved. For he himself said: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age (Matt. 28).

Because of this my heart has rejoiced, and my tongue has exulted; moreover, even my flesh will rest in hope. What is meant by the joy of the heart and the exultation of the tongue, except that inward and outward joy is commended? He who has God at his right hand ought to rejoice within, in his conscience, and outwardly in his tongue. Hence it is said elsewhere: Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice. But what he says, And my flesh will rest in hope, signifies the Lord's body, dead and placed in the tomb, and destined to rise again on the third day. For if we rejoice spiritually and imitate our head through his passion, we have sure hope, since we shall rise again together with him.

Because you will not abandon my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. You will not give my soul to remain in the underworld, nor will you allow the sanctified body—through which others also are to be sanctified—to be corrupted. And this was the disposition and grace of almighty God, that the soul of Christ should not linger long in the underworld, nor his body lie so long lifeless in the earth as to be corrupted. For if he had delayed, all our hope would have perished. He therefore willed to rise again without delay, and to have men as witnesses of that same resurrection of his, as it is written: And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep rose again with him.

And this is why, confirmed by such testimonies, we should believe that the true resurrection is in us, of the body as well as of the soul, if we, having been made his members, hold to the way that leads to the fatherland. Hence it is added:

You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy with your countenance: delights are in your right hand even to the end. He himself, the head of life, first knew the ways of life, which he showed to us both by deeds and proclaimed in words. What are his ways, by which we press toward life, except humility, love, patience, obedience, and the other virtues? To these ways the prophet admonishes us, saying: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths (Isa. 40). Hence the Truth itself says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. 11). Rightly, therefore, he says: You will fill me with joy with your countenance. For there is no full joy with this world. Hence it is written: Woe to you who laugh now (Luke 6). Here there is no full joy, neither of the one nor of the other. For tribulation is common to both. Holy men, even if they rejoice in hope, still groan in tribulation. But then they will be full of joy, when they see God face to face (1 Cor. 13), and delights are in their right hand even to the end: because those who will be at his right hand will rejoice without end. Their delights will be from the vision of the Lord, from the fellowship of angels, from blessed immortality, from eternal felicity.

Let us therefore strive to observe the ways of life, so that we may be able to arrive at such great joy and such great delights.

TITLE OF PSALM XVI.

The title of this psalm is, A Prayer of David himself. It is attributed to that David who is signified, who in truth came as a mighty man of war to conquer the powers of the air. But since in very many other psalms prayers are contained, it seems remarkable why in this psalm more than in others such a title should be applied. But although other psalms briefly contain mixed prayers within themselves, this one nevertheless by a certain excellence is called a prayer par excellence, because at the time of his passion, when it was at hand, Christ sang this prayer to his Lord. Moreover, he intends to instruct us in this psalm, so that by his example we may strive always to pray in our necessities. Now it treats of the righteousness of Christ, of the tribulation of his passion, of the resurrection, of the satiety and manifestation of heavenly glory. The voice of Christ speaking in his own person:

PSALM XVI.

Hear, O Lord, my justice: attend to my supplication: give ear to my prayer, not in deceitful lips. The mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2), how just and how without sin he was, the sacred Scripture testifies, which says: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth (Isa 53; 1 Pet 2). Some say that supplication and prayer differ in this, that supplication is for avoiding adversities, while prayer is for obtaining useful things. Yet both are used indiscriminately in many places. But he says, Attend and give ear, as if he were saying: Take what you hear, perceive what you understand. He therefore holds out before himself the justice of his work and the purity of his heart, so that in entreaty and prayer he may be worthily heard by the Father. He prays well who so prepares himself for praying that in prayer he can hold out his own justice, and presumes to ask nothing except what is rightly to be granted; and he strives to pray not only for himself and his friends, but also for his enemies. Therefore he says that he prays not in deceitful lips. For lips would be deceitful if the words disagreed with the intention or with equity. Let my judgment come forth from your countenance: let your eyes see equities. He knows his heart to be pure who brings his judgment before God. We know that Christ the Lord was judged unjustly by the Jews. But in that very judgment which they openly passed, they themselves were secretly judged.

From the face of God judgment came forth, by which he justly condemned those who judge unjustly. Let those who judge the affairs of men therefore fear, because above them they have God as judge, whose eyes see equity, so that nothing may remain unpunished and he may render to the worthy what is worthy. And this is said both for the fear of the wicked and for the consolation of the good, just as it is said in another place: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord (Deut 32; Rom 12). Holy men therefore ought always to examine their own heart, so that they may keep it approved before the eyes of God, lest he whose eyes see equity be able to see any fault in them—so that, when they are at some time placed in tribulation, they may be able to say with their head what follows.

You have proved my heart, and you visited me by night: you have tried me with fire, and iniquity has not been found in me. God the Father proved the Son when he allowed him to suffer; he visited him by night, because he helped him in tribulation; he tried him with the fire of passion, because from there he brought him over to incorruption. And iniquity was not found in him, because (as we have already said above) he committed no sin (Isa 53; 1 Pet 2). We too are proved by God whenever we are afflicted with tribulations. Hence it is written: As gold in the furnace he has proved the elect of the Lord (Wis 3). But in the night of tribulation the grace of visitation is not lacking, as the Apostle testifies, who says: God is faithful, who will not permit us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, but will also make a way out of the temptation (1 Cor 10).

10.) He examines us with this fire, that he may make us clean from the stains of sins. Tribulation is therefore useful for the servants of God, both because they are proved in their own heart, and because they are visited by God, and because they are purged from sin. "Iniquity," he says, "was not found in me."

That my mouth may not speak the works of men: because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways. He was worthy to speak the works of men who had no sin in himself (John 8; Heb. 7). And the more just he was, the more he ought to be heard by all, in that he could not justly be reproved by anyone. Those also who hold the place of Christ in preaching ought, as far as they can, to live blamelessly: because the word of a teacher is greatly confounded if it is corrupted by his action. But if because of the words of God's lips we ought to keep hard ways, the Lord consoles us, saying with apostolic authority, The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8). He kept hard ways who became obedient even unto death (Phil. 2). To forsake the world, to subdue the flesh, to punish sins with tears, to endure adversities and hardships for God's sake: these are hard ways, which the Lord's lips command us. But if the things commanded are hard, the things promised are wonderful. For neither has the eye seen, nor the ear heard, nor have they ascended into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him (Isa. 64; 1 Cor. 2).

Let us therefore hold firmly to the way, so that we may be able to reach the homeland. And therefore it is added:

Perfect my steps in your paths, that my footsteps may not waver. What is meant by steps, if not the acts of good works? What by paths, if not the narrow and constricted ways of the perfect commandments of God? He had perfect steps in the paths of the Lord who said, I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5). His footsteps are not silent, because he did not depart from the way of truth; whence he himself said, I must be about the things that are my Father's (Luke 2; John 8; Matt. 2?). And we too shall have perfect steps in the paths of the Lord, if we so fulfill the perfect things he commands that we remain immovable in them. For it is not enough to do perfect things, unless it also falls to us to remain firmly in them. Paul had perfect steps when he said, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4). He had firm footsteps when he said, Who shall separate us from the love of God? Tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or peril? Or the sword? We know that neither things present, nor things to come, nor any creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8). But if we have anything good in us, we ought to ascribe it to God, not to ourselves, who freely gives to the one who asks (1 Cor. 4), as Truth itself says: Ask and you shall receive (John 16). Whence now it is added:

I have called, because you have heard me, O God; incline your ear to me, and hear my words. The cry to the Lord is our desire. The more one desires, the more one cries out. But what is the ear that God inclines to us when we sin, if not his mercy? For unless he is inclined to mercy, we are not raised up to righteousness. But what is this, that he already says he has been heard, and still seeks that his words be heard? Perhaps he had been heard in one respect and not in another. He was heard in himself, and was still to be heard in his members.

To this pertain the words that follow: Show forth your mercies wonderfully, you who save those who hope in you. For God to show forth his mercies wonderfully is to make a just man out of an unjust one. Who would not marvel at the mercies of the Lord in the thief, in Paul, in the sinful woman, in the publican? When for the love of God the covetous man despises the things of the world, the proud man is turned to humility, the angry man to gentleness, the lustful man to chastity, has not God shown forth his mercies wonderfully? When he brings the despairing back to hope, when to the sinner who deserved eternal punishment he grants eternal rewards, does not God make his mercies wonderful? Hence he immediately adds:

From those who resist, keep me safe as the pupil of the eye. Christ is called the pupil of the eye, because he is dearer than all things and is the light by which all are enlightened. He is also the right hand of God, because he is equal to the Father, and all things were made through him. By the right hand and the pupil the elect can also be understood, because through them God works mighty deeds, and they are the light of the world. Those who resist are the unbelieving and the persecutors. Therefore the Son asks the Father to defend him from those who resist him, lest injustice overcome justice, or unbelief corrupt faith. So we too, by the example of our head, ought to pray to the Lord that he keep us, lest any opposing adversity break us, lest any temptation meeting us lead us astray, which would draw us away from the protection of his defense. Therefore it is added: Under the shadow of your wings protect me, from the face of the wicked who have afflicted me. The love of God and of neighbor, the New and Old Testament. Justice, love, and the other virtues are the wings of God, by which holy souls can fly to God. These spiritual wings both give refuge from the heat of vices and temper the affliction of the wicked; by these wings the Lord Christ, when he was afflicted by the impious Jews, was protected. Concerning whom he further adds:

My enemies surrounded my soul; they shut up their own fat; their mouth spoke arrogance. These things were done in the passion of Christ. The Jews surrounded the soul of Christ, for they wished to destroy his life (John 10). They shut up their own fat (from Augustine), that is, they kept the abundance of their pride within themselves. Their mouth spoke arrogance when they said, Hail, king of the Jews (Matthew 27), and other such things.

Casting me out, now they have surrounded me. Before, they believed he would come, as they read in their Scriptures; now, when he has come to fulfill what he had promised, when they ought to have received and adored him, they cast him outside the camp and crucified him. They set their eyes to look down at the earth, because they judged him not to be God but a mere man.

They received me like a lion ready for prey. They are comparable to that lion of which it is written: Your adversary the devil goes about like a lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5). And like a lion's cub dwelling in hidden places. The lion's cub, both of that one and of this people, is that people to whom it was said, Your father is the devil (John 8). And well does he say, dwelling in hidden places, since he who does evil hates the light. After so great a persecution he added:

Arise, O Lord, prevent him, and supplant him. Deliver my soul from the impious one, and your sword from the enemies of your hand. Arise—he whom we deem to sleep, according to Augustine, and not to care about the iniquities of men—before malice is exercised, so that vengeance may precede the deed. Or, to prevent the people is to turn back the punishment of evil upon himself before it falls upon another. According to what is written: Everyone who sins first sins against himself before another (Sirach 6). Or the Lord prevents him because, before the final judgment, he also judged him temporally. For he cast them out of their land, whence he says, And supplant him. For from that land flowing with milk and honey, in which God had planted them, they were uprooted. But he delivered the soul of Christ from the impious people when he raised him from the dead. His soul was the sword of God the Father, which his hand assumed, that is, his eternal power, so that through it he might subdue the kingdoms of iniquity and separate the just from the impious. O Lord, from the few divide them from the land in their life. Scatter them throughout the world in this life, which alone they consider their life, because they despise the eternal. And well does he say, From the few, since the Jewish people is fewer in number than all the people. He shows whose malice it is when he adds, And their belly is filled from your hidden things.

Not only will that visible punishment overtake them, but also, because of the sins that are hidden as darkness, their memory has been filled up by the light of your truth, so that they forget God. They were satisfied with children; they fulfilled their desires. And they left their leftovers to their little ones, saying: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matt. 27).

But I in justice will appear before your sight. I, who (according to Augustine) did not appear to those who, with a filthy and dark heart, cannot see the light of your wisdom, will appear in your justice, that is, I will be made manifest to your just ones. I will be satisfied when your glory appears. Since they have been satisfied with their own uncleanness, so that they could not understand me. I will be satisfied when your glory appears, in those who understand me. Therefore let our prayer, the affection of our devotion, our works, and the exercises of our patience aim at this: that we may be able to be satisfied with the glory of the Lord. Let our Redeemer be for us an example, for praying, for working, for suffering; and let him also be a companion for rejoicing.

TITLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH PSALM.

The title of the following Psalm is this: Unto the end, for the servant of the Lord, to David himself, who spoke to the Lord the words of this canticle, in the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of Saul and from the hand of all his enemies. The words of this canticle—that is, the words signifying such a matter from which a canticle is to be had, namely spiritual delight, which is had in true contemplation—are to be attributed to David, that is, to the strong hand, to Christ the servant of the Lord, on account of his simplicity and purity. David, I say, who directs his faithful unto the end, that is, unto the highest good; which words he spoke to the Lord the Father in his eternal speech. A canticle, I say, had in the day—that is, in the consideration of the day of his resurrection, or in the consideration of the time of fullness, in which the human race, through the resurrection of Christ, is to go forth from the night of unbelief and ignorance and of sins to the light of knowledge and of faith and of virtues. In which day of resurrection, or of the time of fullness, the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, that is, from the power of the Jews and of their king whom they sought for themselves. For just as David is interpreted as strong hand, so Saul is said to be interpreted as petition. Let Christ therefore speak, and the Church—that is, the whole Christ, head and body (Rom. 12).

PSALM XVII.

I will love you, God, my strength. The Lord is my firmament, and my refuge and my deliverer. This is the great reason why God is to be loved: because he himself is our strength. The love of God poured abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5) makes us strong to endure the adversities of the world, and to vanquish the vices and temptations of the devil, to practice good spiritual things, to despise earthly goods. For this reason also the Lord is to be loved, because he himself is our firmament, in whom we have a firm foundation, lest we be moved by the winds of temptations; and our refuge, to whom we flee, lest we perish in this misery; and our deliverer, so that, freed by him from the slavery of the devil and of sin, we may come to true liberty.

My God, my helper, and I will hope in him. My God, because he created me from nothing. My helper, because he helps me in good work; and therefore I will hope in him, through whom I shall be saved in the future. This is the difference between God and Lord: that God is the name of nature, and Lord is the name of office. The former pertains to the majesty and dignity that he himself is; the latter pertains to the power and dominion that he exercises in us. There it is shown to us what we should love, here what we should fear. In both, what we should believe, what we should hope, what we should love. And in the first verse charity and faith are commended to us; in the second, hope.

And not without reason is love first, because it is itself the queen of the virtues, it is itself the beginning of good things, and the root of the virtues. But let us hear what follows, and what stirs us to love God. My protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my sustainer. For he protects us from evils, and just as a horn rises above, so he, rising above as our salvation, like a physician receiving the weak to be healed, has taken us up. Hence the Son himself is compared to the good shepherd carrying back the weak sheep (Luke 15). And therefore:

Praising, I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies. Behold how great is the benefit of praising God. If both in prosperity and in adversity you praise God with your whole heart, no enemy will be able to harm you. For so many and such great good things which the kindly Lord confers on us daily, we have nothing we can give back except praise. But the praise of God confers a twofold gift on man: both because in man's praise God is honored, and because by the very merit of praise man is freed from evils. Hence the Lord himself admonishes us in another psalm, saying: Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you (Psalm 49).

The sorrows of death surrounded me. That is, the Jews inflicting on me the anguish of the passion. And the torrents of iniquity troubled me: because behold, the crowd, and he who was called Judas came (Matt. 26; Luke 22; Mark 12; John 18). The torrent came, and the onslaught of the wicked, to trouble the flock of the disciples, because, when the shepherd is struck, the sheep of the flock will be scattered (Zech. 13).

The sorrows of hell surrounded me. That is, those whom the sorrows of hell await. The snares of death came upon me beforehand: because they came upon him from every side with swords and clubs (Matt. 26; Mark 14; Luke 22). They are called the snares of death for this reason, that the deceptions of the devil were in them. But surrounded by so many persecutors, occupied by so many sorrows and disturbances, what did he do—he who could condemn them all with a single word, and free himself from every anguish? Let us hear.

In my tribulation I called upon the Lord and cried out to God. He does not avenge himself, but prays. Your emperor teaches you patience. If the sorrows of death surround you, if the disturbances of iniquity surround you, consider how much your Redeemer endured, and by his example bear all things patiently. Within, in your heart, call upon the Lord, and with the whole affection of your heart cry out to your God. For in him is power and divinity (Col. 2). Hence with good reason he is called Lord and God: whose dominion and rule of divinity can snatch the oppressed from every tribulation.

Whence it is written, From whatever tribulation they cry out to me, I will deliver them, says the Lord (Jer. 29). Well, therefore, is it added: And he heard from his holy temple my voice: and my cry entered in his sight into his ears. The temple of God is the Church. Whence Paul says, The temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor. 3 and 6). This spiritual temple God inhabits, and there he hears the voices of those who pray. And it must be noted that he said, And my cry in his sight: for one must pray where God is seen. Therefore it is said in the Gospel: But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret: and your Father who sees in secret will repay you (Matt. 6). So therefore we ought to cry out, that the Lord may see our cry, and that it may enter into his ears: which cry is certainly not so much of the voice as of the heart. Whence it is said to Moses, Why do you cry to me (Exod. 14)? The desire of our mind is a cry in the sight of God. But let us hear what follows next.

The earth was moved and trembled; the foundations of the mountains were disturbed and shaken, because he was angry. If we take this according to the letter, when the Lord suffered, a great earthquake occurred, and even the insensible elements themselves bore witness to their author (Matt. 27). But if by the earth we understand the earthly hearts of carnal people, and by the foundations of the mountains the leaders of the peoples—since, namely, the rest were being strengthened in them as in foundations—after the Apostles preached and they recognized that they had incurred the anger of almighty God (Acts 3) because they crucified his Son, disturbed and terrified on account of their guilt, they were immediately moved to repentance. And when Peter rebuked them, they are reported to have said, as if shaken: Men and brothers, what shall we do (Acts 2)? To whom counsel was given that through the washing of regeneration they might receive forgiveness of sins.

Concerning these things it is further added: Smoke went up in his anger, and fire blazed from his face; coals were kindled by him. What is his face but the knowledge of him? What is the smoke that draws forth tears but the tearful compunction of penitents? Fearing his anger, they washed away their guilt with tears. And from the very source by which they came to know God through faith, receiving the Spirit, they burned sweetly in love of him. And they were kindled by him, so that those who previously lay dead as sinners in the flesh, like coals in ashes, might become burning. From these words, therefore, we are instructed that through compunction the divine fire is kindled, which illuminates the inner parts of the mind and utterly destroys the blackness of sins; and in what order these things that are foretold were done is shown by the following words.

He bowed the heavens and descended, and darkness was under his feet. First he sent holy and chosen men to preach his humble advent, and afterward he himself followed and descended. For the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1). But from the same humility by which he appeared in the flesh, he cast down the prince of darkness with complete subjection, and gave him to his Church to be cast down. Therefore the Apostle says: The Lord will crush Satan under your feet quickly (Rom. 16). But he who was made a little lower than the angels (Ps. 8) through his humanity has been declared far more exalted than the angels through his divinity (Heb. 1 and 2; Col. 2). Hence it is added:

And he ascended upon the Cherubim, and he flew. For in that he is God, he surpassed the angelic dignities themselves by the fullness of his knowledge. He flew upon the wings of the winds: because by the height of his divinity he transcends the powers of the heavenly spirits: for to which of the angels did God ever say, Sit at my right hand, or, Today I have begotten you? Upon the wings of the winds, therefore, he flew, because he alone merited to sit at the right hand of the Father.

And he made darkness his hiding place. Namely, the obscurity of the sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart of believers: where he himself might lie hidden, and not abandon his own. He made darkness his hiding place, because he established his heavenly sacrament for us in obscurity. Hence it is that we handle the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ daily, and yet we are not able to see with our eyes as yet either its light or its glory, which we believe by faith. For we are in darkness, as long as we walk by faith, and not by sight. His tabernacle is round about him. For he is surrounded by the multitude of believers. Rightly, moreover, is the Church, placed in this pilgrimage, called the tabernacle of God, because a tabernacle has no foundation, but belongs to those who are fighting and passing through. And the Apostle said: For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek the one to come. Dark water in the clouds of the air.

Because the knowledge in the prophets is obscure—they who are rightly called the clouds of the air, since they are lifted up on high through their life and strike the lower realms with the rain of doctrine—the divine word was at first, indeed, obscure in the holy fathers. All things were covered under figure and shadow (Heb 10). The Spirit had not yet been given for manifestation, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (Jn 7). But afterward came the heavenly splendor, he who is the true light, who enlightens every man coming into this world (Jn 1). He removed the darkness, opened the Scriptures, sent preachers; he terrified and enlightened the hearts of the hearers. Hence it is added:

Before the brightness in his sight the clouds passed away, hail and coals of fire. By the greatness of the brightness that is in the sight of his manifestation, the clouds—that is, the Apostles, illumined by the divine light—passed over from the Jews to the Gentiles: as it is written, It was necessary that the kingdom of God be preached to you first, but because you rejected it and made yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 15). And they themselves became hail and coals of fire, by crying out, by threatening, by sending fire everywhere, by preaching the judgment to come, by setting human hearts ablaze with the ardor of faith.

And the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High gave his voice: hail and coals of fire. After he has said "the Lord," he adds "the Most High," so that you may understand that the God of gods, the Lord of lords, has spoken by himself. For first he spoke through the patriarchs and prophets, through the ancient fathers; then through himself (Heb. 1). Even the preaching of the apostles was not so much the apostles' as the Lord's, as the Lord himself testifies, saying: For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matt. 10). The Lord thunders, as it were, when he terrifies us with his judgment (Matt. 25). He gives his voice when he humbles the proud. A certain terrifying thunder seems to be what is said through John: Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come (Matt. 5)? It is as if he gives his voice when it is added: Produce fruits worthy of repentance (Luke 3). According to the capacity of his hearers, then, the Lord now thunders by threatening, now as hail crushing, now as fire kindling.

And he sent his arrows, namely (from Augustine) the Evangelists, flying on the wings of virtues along a straight course, not by their own strength but by his who sent them. And he scattered them, those to whom they were sent, so that to some of them they might be the odor of life unto life, to others the odor of death unto death (2 Cor 2). He multiplied lightnings. That is, the flashing miracles. And he troubled them. With a good troubling, unto repentance.

And the fountains of waters appeared. Namely, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, from which all spiritual knowledge proceeds. Or by the fountains of waters the Old and New Testament can be understood: which appeared to the hearers, with him revealing it who has the clear light of knowledge. These, of course, the spiritual fountains pour forth from themselves the other streams of the Scriptures. And the foundations of the world were revealed. The Prophets were revealed, who were not understood: upon whom the world believing in the Lord was to be built. But in what order (from Augustine) these things were done is shown when it is added: At your rebuke, O Lord, at the inspiration of the spirit of your wrath. Of him saying, Unless you repent, you will all perish together (Lk 13). After he said "rebuke," he added "inspiration." For then we are profitably rebuked outwardly, when we are inspired inwardly, so that we may fear.

Here he says Christ. He sent from on high: that is, from the bosom of the Father. And he received me. Namely, the head of the Church into equality with himself, at his right hand. And he took me up. That is, my Church, which is my body. From many waters. Because he established me from many peoples: or because he drew me out from many vices: or because he delivered me from many tribulations. And this is what follows:

He snatched me from my most powerful enemies. Who are these most powerful enemies, if not the malignant spirits? Beyond doubt we could not escape their strength, unless the God more powerful than all deigned to snatch us, who are frail. And from those who hated me, because they were strengthened against me. By those subject to me I was delivered. Who are these who hated the Church, if not the unbelievers and heretics? Who at one time were strengthened to such a degree that they even at times killed some of the elect in the flesh, and at times caused them to wander in the faith. But the loving Lord deigned to snatch them away, by crowning those who were slain, and by leading back those who wandered to the way of truth. Whence also it is added.

They prevailed against me in the day of my affliction. That is, they prevailed over me in the time of tribulation and persecution. And the Lord became my protector. Namely, protecting me from the assault of those who persecuted me.

And because I was enduring carnal distress, He brought me out into the spiritual breadth of faith. He saved me, because He willed me. With no merits of mine going before, but by His good will alone. For it is He who works in us both to will and to work for good will (Phil. 2).

And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity of my hands will He repay me. There are two things in a man according to which the Lord repays: namely, according to the righteousness of good will and faith, and according to the purity of good works. Nor can good works be pure unless they are derived from a just intention. Whence it is written, The Lord looked upon Abel, and upon his gifts (Gen. 4). First indeed He approved the devotion of faith, whence afterward He received the offering of the sacrifice (Heb. 11). And with good reason will He repay me:

Because I have kept the ways of the Lord. That is, I have preserved the breadth of good works by persevering.

And I have not acted impiously against my God. That is, after I approached Him by doing good, I did not withdraw from Him by living wickedly. Hence it is that concerning the holy living creatures the prophet says, They did not turn back when they walked, but each one went forward before its face (Ezekiel 1). So indeed our paths ought to be directed toward God, so that they are no longer diverted toward wickedness of deed. Nor is it surprising if he kept the ways of the Lord and did not act impiously against his God, for it follows: For all His judgments are in my sight. That is (according to Augustine), both the rewards of the righteous and the punishments of the wicked, and the scourges of those to be corrected and the temptations of those to be tested, I consider with persevering contemplation. For to keep righteousness and to avoid wickedness, it is very useful to ponder the last things carefully. Whence it is written: In all your works meditate on your last things, and you will not sin forever (Ecclesiastes 7). Rightly, therefore, it is added: And I have not cast away His righteousnesses from me. Unlike those who believe for a time and in the time of temptation fall away (Luke 8). Concerning whom the Apostle Peter says: For it is better not to have known the way of truth than after knowing it to turn back again (2 Peter 2).

And I shall be blameless with him, according to the delight of evil thought. And I will keep myself from my iniquity. That is, from the iniquity of action. Such ought our zeal, our desire to be: that within we be blameless, without harmless: so that we may obtain eternal recompense, concerning which he adds:

And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness. Not only because of the breadth of faith, but because of the length of perseverance. And according to the purity of my hands in the sight of his eyes. Not as men see, but as he sees. For the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4). And man sees in the face, God in the heart (Luke 11). The works of the good also are always in the sight of God, but the works of the evil he does not regard (Prov. 10). Whence it is said elsewhere, The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the impious he does not know (Ps. 1).

These things which have been set forth before, the Church says, to stir us up and move us forward to right faith, certain hope, good action, and eternal reward. Hence she now admonishes each one of us, saying: With the holy you will be holy, and with the innocent man you will be innocent. And with the elect you will be elect, and with the perverse you will be perverted. Attend to him who is the Holy of holies, who is holy in himself and can sanctify others. Who is truly innocent, the lamb without blemish (John 1), who when he was cursed did not curse (1 Peter 2), when he suffered did not threaten. Who is the elect of God the Father (Hebrews 5), as it is written: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17; Luke 3). Be joined to him, imitate him; let it be your good to cling to God, and you will be holy with the holy, innocent with the innocent, elect with the elect. But if you have loved the company of the perverse, you too will likewise be perverted. Behold, two ways are shown to you: one of the just, the other of the reprobate; one of salvation, the other of damnation; one which the humble hold and are exalted by God, the other which the proud hold and are humbled by God. Hence it is also added:

For you will save the humble people, and you will bring low the eyes of the proud. Keep humility, then; recognize that you are dust and ashes; confess your sins; be of little account in your own eyes, so that you may deserve to be saved with the humble people. Beware of the loftiness of the eyes, lest you seem to yourself glorious, to yourself wise, to yourself great, lest where you see yourself exalted, there he cast you down who brings low the eyes of the proud. Hence it is written: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight (Isa. 5). Let your eye, then, be single, that your whole body may be light (Matt. 6), and say what follows:

For you light my lamp, O Lord; my God, my God, enlighten my darkness. Because you have enlightened me in the things I know, enlighten me in the things I do not know. Or, because you have lighted my lamp by granting faith, enlighten the darkness of my works, so that what I hold by believing I may follow by doing. What are our darkness but our iniquities and negligences? We have fallen into such great blindness that we do not know ourselves, nor do we quickly detect the evils we commit. Hence we must ask of the Lord that he enlighten our darkness, that he make us see our offenses and crimes, so that we may be able to amend our life by weeping and repenting.

For in you I shall be delivered from temptation, and in my God I shall leap over the wall. In you, he says, I shall be delivered, not in myself; for in myself I am weak, but in you I am strong. You alone are the one who delivers from temptation, who casts out the prince of this world, who does not permit your servants to be tempted beyond what they can bear, but even makes a benefit out of temptation. In you I shall leap over the wall—whether the hardness of the heart, or the barrier of sins, which the devil set against me so that I could not come to you. We leap over the wall in our God whenever, through his grace, we overcome the cloud-like accumulated mass of vices that has been stirred up.

Here the Church begins to praise her God, saying, My God, his way is undefiled; the words of the Lord are tried by fire; he is the protector of all who hope in him. And let her say thus: This God of mine is not like the others; for his way is undefiled, his words are proven in tribulation, and his hope is certain and firm, who protects those who hope in him, lest they fail in temptation. What is so undefiled, so pure, as the power of God and the wisdom of God, Christ? who said, I am the way. Let us therefore hold to this way, and we shall be made clean; let us keep his words, and we shall not go astray; let us fix our hope in him, and we shall walk securely under his protection. And rightly is hope to be placed in him:

For who is God besides the Lord? Or who is God besides our God? God, who created us, God, who rules us, God whom we love, the Lord whom we fear. If we were to find such a one, or a better one, perhaps we should hope in him. But because he is better than all things and more exalted (as he himself says, I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no God), it remains that our hope should stay fixed in him.

Who has girded me with virtue—namely, with faith, hope, and love. And he has set my way blameless—that is, so that I may live innocently. And it must be noted that he did not say, He girded me, but He girded me beforehand. Indeed, it is a great gift of almighty God when each person is girded beforehand before he is loosened for vices. Nor is it surprising if he has set the way of those blameless whom he has girded beforehand in this manner, because where the belt of the virtues goes first, the stains and looseness of the vices cannot hinder. This is why the Lord commands us to gird our loins, so that each person ought to restrain himself against the vices before, loosened and hindered, he falls.

Who has made my feet like the feet of deer. That is (from Augustine), the affections of the mind, by which as by feet I am supported and make progress, to pass over the thorny and shadowy entanglements of this world. And setting me upon the high places. That is, the heavenly kingdoms, where is the dwelling of the saints. Whence the Apostle says, But our conversation is in heaven (Philippians 3). Thus without doubt we ought to order our affections and the steps of our works on this earth, so that, having trampled on the thorny desires of this world, we may strive to establish our mind in heavenly things.

Who teaches my hands for battle. Who (from Augustine) teaches me to work for the overcoming of enemies, who strive to shut off from us the heavenly kingdoms. And you have made my arms like a bow of bronze. That is, the untiring intention of good works. It is the custom of the prophets quickly to change the person. Now the prophet, or the Church, speaks to God, now to the neighbor. To God, namely, from whom it received what it speaks. To the neighbor, to whom it may dispense what it received. It is not enough for us to have steps straight for pursuing righteousness, unless we have hands taught for battle. For righteousness cannot be retained without battle. Now there are many kinds of battles: for we have a struggle against the principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness (Ephesians 6). We have a battle against the world; there is within ourselves a discord between the flesh and the spirit (Galatians 5).