Commentarius In LXXV Psalmos [Attributus]

Against these things we ought to be trained for battle, and to fight with the arms of righteousness on the right and on the left (2 Cor 6), and to hold a strong and inflexible intent, like a bow of bronze, for striking and putting the enemy to flight. And rightly are our intents compared to arms, because just as strength is in the arms, and the hands cling to the arms, so our intent ought to be strong, and from it robust action ought to proceed. But because we are frail, and our enemies are stronger than we, it is needful that there be done for us what follows:

And you have given me the protection of your salvation, and your right hand has received me. The Lord gives to his elect his salvation, by which he protects them as though they were naked. He gives his right hand, that is, the favor of his grace, by which he receives them as a physician receives the sick. If you have feared the heat of vices, and the weapons of invisible enemies, or the adversities of persecuting men, ask for the protection of divine salvation. If you have felt yourself a sinner and weak, corrupted by many vices and negligences, ask for the mercy of God, and that you may be received and healed by his uplifting right hand. For he himself is true salvation, who protects his own from outward persecution. He himself is uplifting mercy, who receives and heals from the proper infirmity of body and soul.

And because he sometimes chastises those same people whom he protects and cares for, to their benefit, what follows is rightly added: And your discipline corrected me even to the end, and your discipline itself will teach me. In this it appears that the heavenly Father loves us, since he has deigned to give us discipline. Hence Sacred Scripture admonishes us, saying, My son, do not neglect the discipline of your father, and do not grow weary when you are reproved by him. For whom the Lord loves he reproves; he scourges every son whom he receives (Prov 1 and 3). But this discipline of the Lord is useful for two things: it corrects conduct and teaches knowledge. The discipline of God makes a man both well-ordered in conduct and well-taught. Yet it so corrects and teaches as to send him to the end, that is, to Christ, who is the end of labor and the reward of work. Corrected and taught by this discipline beyond doubt was he who said: We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience, patience produces proven character, proven character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5). Whence it is fittingly added:

You have enlarged my steps beneath me. Lest carnal narrownesses hinder me (from Augustine), since you have made my charity broad, working cheerfully, even concerning those mortal things and members which are beneath me. And my footsteps were not weakened. That is, the signs which I impressed in order to imitate you. Whoever glories in tribulations has enlarged steps beneath him. If outside there is the narrowness of pain, within is the breadth of charity. In the hearts of God's servants the love of God grows as much as the world's adversity attacks from outside. But his footsteps are not weakened who strengthens his heart to endure evils for God's sake, who can say with the Apostle: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? I am certain, he says, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8). Whoever, then, is such as has been said above—namely, girded with virtue, perfect in work, learned for testing, trained in discipline, perfect in charity, invincible in tribulation—who is now overcome by no one, is fit now to pursue his enemies. Whence in the voice of the perfect it is added:

I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they fail. Holy men pursue their enemies when they drive back and repress malign spirits, or carnal affections, from themselves by praying, watching, subduing their flesh, and devoting themselves to spiritual pursuits. But to overtake one's enemies is to come to know the cunning of unclean spirits by subtle inquiry, and having known them, to avoid them. Or he overtakes his enemies, whoever constrains the carnal motions of the mind under the rule of reason. Nor ought he to turn back from this intention, from this pursuit, until they fail, that is, until those things which unlawfully struggle against the mind are utterly consumed. Rightly, therefore, it is added,

I will break them in pieces, and they will not be able to stand: they will fall beneath my feet. If you are able to break your enemies in pieces, if you do not permit sin to reign in your mortal body (Rom. 6), if you take away their strength so that you do not present your members as weapons of iniquity to sin (ibid.). Thus also they will not be able to stand, if as soon as you feel the temptation, you drive it back from yourself, if immediately, as soon as you see the sin, you amend it. The Apostle teaches us to break our enemies in pieces when he says, Mortify your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, luxury, and the rest (Col. 3).

They will fall even under your feet, if you have hated and despised the vices and desires in your heart, and have moreover added good affections and spiritual actions. Hence elsewhere the perfect man says: I have hated iniquity and abhorred it; I have loved your law above all things (Psalm 118). These two things make a person perfectly overcome the devil and sin, namely the love of God and the hatred of evil.

And lest this seem to be ascribed to one's own strength, it is rightly added: And you have girded me with strength for battle: and you have supplanted those rising up against me under me. If you wish the pride rising up in you to be supplanted under you, pray God that he gird you with humility. If you wish luxury to be supplanted under you, pray the Lord that he gird you with chastity (Wisdom 8). Whatever vice you see rising up against you, ask from the Lord the virtue contrary to that vice, by which it may be vanquished, and let it be done for you as follows:

And you have given my enemies to me as a back: that is, you have brought them backward. And you have destroyed those who hate me. Enemies are, as it were, given as a back when their enticing appetites and base things are wholly consigned to oblivion; when one does not look back through delight, and the eye of the mind is directed to contemplating heavenly things and to the things that are to be desired before us. But the Lord destroys those who hate us when he drives the malignant spirit away from us, lest they tempt us, lest they harm us. Or, in accordance with what was said above, "I will pursue my enemies," we can fittingly understand the enemies of the holy Church, whom holy and perfect men do not cease to pursue daily, by arguing, rebuking, forbidding, excommunicating; and out of these they seize some and draw them to the faith, to penitence, to conversion; nor are they converted by preaching until those men fail from iniquity. They shatter them from the state of pride, and subject them to themselves under all manner of humility, and, girded with the arms of the virtues, they supplant them from vices, so that those who were rising up by persecuting may become followers by repenting. And those who were going before by threatening and dragging may go backward by obeying: converted from hatred to love, dispersed from the gathering of malice and divided from one another.

And because some of the aforementioned enemies are rejected by the Lord—namely, because they are not converted with their whole heart, nor do they truly confess their sins, nor do they purely implore the Lord's mercy—there is added:

They cried out, and there was none who would save them: to the Lord, and he did not hear them. For not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 7). Hence the Apostle says to certain ones who cry out wrongly: You ask, and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly (James 4). The reprobate will also cry out on the day of judgment, saying: Lord God, open to us (Matt. 25). And there will be none to hear them, but it is said to them: Amen I say to you, I do not know you (Ibid.). Concerning these, in the voice of the head, it is added:

And I will crush them like dust before the face of the wind; like the mud of the streets I will blot them out. Because, being dry, they did not receive the rain of God's mercy, because they were light and shifting before the wind of temptation, they will deservedly be taken away from the land of the living and crushed in the manner of dust, when it is said to them: Go, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matt. 25). They are deservedly called the mud of the streets, because they lived on the broad and spacious way, in uncleannesses and vices. These indeed will be blotted out by the Lord, as it is written: Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the just (Ps. 68).

You will deliver me from the contradictions of the people. Those who said, If we let him go alive, the world will follow him (John 11; Matthew 21).

You will establish me as the head of the nations. That the nations may believe in me, that I may be to them as God, and they may be to me as a people (Hosea 2). Blindness has come upon Israel in part, that the multitude of the nations might be saved (Romans 9). For the Jews were unwilling to receive the word of faith (1 Peter 2), whence it was said to them: It was necessary that the word of God be preached to you first, but because you have rejected it and made yourselves unworthy of eternal life: behold, we turn to the nations (Acts 13), of whom it is further said, The people whom I knew: whom I did not visit in bodily presence, has served me, has kept my commandments. By the hearing of the ear he obeyed me. He did not see me with his eyes, but having only heard my name, he received my preachers. Be you also of this people of faith, so that if you have not seen Christ in the flesh, you may nevertheless serve him in spirit, and be obedient to him with your whole will, that you may deserve to be blessed, together with those of whom it is written, Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed (John 20). But beware of the example of those of whom it is further said:

The sons of foreigners have lied to me; the sons of foreigners have grown old, and they have limped from their paths. The Jews were sons of God, but by killing Christ they became sons of the devil (John 8), not remaining in the truth, made transgressors of the Law, they lied (Romans 2). In the sin of the first man they grew old, because they refused to receive the new man. And they have limped from their paths, that is, from the Law and the Prophets, or in their own understandings, or leaning on one foot, that is, worshiping the Father and not the Son; or following the old and not the new Testament, or holding the letter and not the spirit. Hence it is that the Apostle says: Who also made us fit ministers of the new Testament: not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 5). For by these feet the holy Church walks, by these feet she is advanced toward heavenly things. Then, for our edification, let us hear what he adds.

The Lord lives, and blessed is my God, and exalted be the God of my salvation. The gods of the nations do not live, nor can they save anyone. (Hence elsewhere the Psalmist says: They have a mouth, and they will not speak; they have eyes, and they will not see [Ps. 113].) And therefore they are neither to be blessed nor to be exalted. But we have such a Lord and such a God, who lives forever, who rules us as Lord, who created us as God: who handed himself over to us, who was the author of our salvation. Hence rightly by us he is to be blessed, exalted, loved, worshiped, and revered.

And 49. God who gives vengeance to me, and subdues peoples under me, my deliverer from my angry enemies. And you will exalt me above those who rise up against me, you will rescue me from the unjust man. Not only does God bestow salvation on his elect, but he also grants vengeance on their enemies. So great were the vengeance which God the Father gave to Christ his Son upon his angry enemies, namely the Jews, who were inflamed with such zeal of anger and fury that they rose up against their God, and as one unjust man gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ (Ps. 2): so great, I say, were the vengeance he gave, that those whom he had undertaken to rule and to nourish as sons, on account of their faithlessness and madness, he reprobated and cast down as strangers. From whom Christ was delivered when he rose from the dead; he was exalted when he ascended to the right hand of the Father.

He was delivered up when the word of faith, which was taken away from Judah, was given to the Gentiles. Concerning this it is said: And you will subdue peoples under me. For when he abandoned the one Jewish people, who rejected the yoke of faith, judging them harshly, he subjected many peoples of the nations to that same yoke, calling them in mercy. Hence it is added:

Therefore I will confess to you among the nations, O Lord, and to your name I will sing a psalm. That is, through my faithful ones throughout all the earth I will praise you, and they will do good in your name. In this place confession signifies praise. But a psalm signifies good works. He truly and sincerely praises God whose tongue and life agree in his praise. It is further shown from what follows why God is to be praised, when it is added:

Magnifying the salvations of his king, and showing mercy to his Christ, to David, and to his seed forever. His salvations were not yet magnified when God was known only in Judea. But then the magnificence of his salvations increased, when his wonderful name was proclaimed in all the earth, when it was said to the apostles: Go, preach the Gospel to every creature. Then without doubt he showed mercy to his Christ, to David, when he who is equal to himself in divinity willed to be born of the seed of David according to the flesh. And to his seed forever, that is, he likewise showed mercy eternally, when he granted to those who believe in him the remission of sins and eternal life.

Whence it is written: I will call those who were not my people, my people; and her who had not obtained mercy, her who obtained mercy. And it shall be that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

TITLE OF PSALM XVIII.

The title of this Psalm (from Augustine) is well known, because it is not the Lord Jesus Christ who says these things, but these things are said concerning him. Unto the end, a psalm of David. The task is to set forth the state of the catholic religion, and the preachers of the Church, and him from whom they received their preaching. And this he does, so that sins may be understood and corrected; and thus the blameless man may be pleasing to God. The voice of the Prophet speaking through the Holy Spirit, or of the Church.

PSALM XVIII.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of his hands. That is, the Apostles and Evangelists, who are rightly called heavens because of the loftiness of their life, and a firmament because of the solidity of their faith and love; they declare the glory of the divinity, and announce the works of the humanity. John declares the glory of God, when he says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. He announces the works of God, when he adds: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Concerning his glory also he adds, saying: And we saw his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

From these two, namely divinity and humanity, consists the true and catholic faith. And because these things must be preached with discretion, according to the capacity of the hearers, there is rightly subjoined:

Day pours forth speech to day, and night shows knowledge to night. Day to day, that is, spiritual things to spiritual; night to night, that is, carnal things to carnal. For both declare, even if both do not understand alike. The one hears as speech poured forth, the other as knowledge announced. For what is poured forth is poured forth to those present, but what is announced is announced to those far off. Day pours forth speech to day, when Paul says, We speak wisdom among the perfect. Night shows knowledge to night, when he transforms himself to those of less understanding, as though of less understanding, saying, I judged not to know anything among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified. And again, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal men I gave you milk to drink, not meat.

There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard. In the Acts of the Apostles it is read how, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, all were filled with him, and they spoke in the languages of all nations, as the Spirit gave them to proclaim (Acts 2). But it was not only there, where they were filled, that they sounded forth.

Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Therefore we too speak here. For that sound has reached even to us.

In the sun he has set his tabernacle. The Lord (according to Augustine), in order to wage war against the kingdoms of temporal errors, was about to send not peace but a sword into the earth (Matt. 10): in time he set as it were his military dwelling, that is, the dispensation of the incarnation. Or, in the sun—that is, in manifestation—he set his tabernacle, namely his Church, which has no foundation in this world. Whence she herself says, But our conversation is in heaven. And he, as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber. That is, from the virginal womb, where God was joined to human nature as a bridegroom to his bride; for the Word was made flesh (John 1), and in the virginal womb he found a bridal chamber, and from there, as if proceeding from a most chaste couch, he appeared lowly in mercy beneath all, strong in majesty above all (Phil. 1). Whence it follows: He rejoiced as a giant to run his course.

He exulted like the strongest, and surpassing other men in incomparable virtue, not to dwell but to run the way (Ps. 1). For he did not stand in the path of sinners. He was born, he grew, he taught, he suffered, he rose again, he ascended. He ran the way, he did not cling to the way. Do you wish to hear how far he ran?

His going forth is from the highest heaven, and his meeting is even to the highest of him. From the Father (from Augustine) his going forth is not temporal but eternal, by which he was born of the Father; and he meets in the fullness of divinity even to equality with him. His going forth is from the highest heaven, because he went out from the Father and came into the world (John 16). And his meeting is even to the highest of him, because he again left the world and went to the Father (John 10). From the highest to the highest is his course, because in deity and power he is equal to the Father. But after he ran out from there and returned by running back, he sent the Holy Spirit: divided tongues as of fire were seen upon those on whom he came (Acts 2). And therefore it follows: Nor is there anyone who hides himself from his heat. As fire the Holy Spirit came to consume the hay of the flesh, to burn the gold, and to purify (Isa. 11). Or it can be understood thus: Nor is there anyone who hides himself from his heat, that is, who does not have some heat, or some grace of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12): since all have understanding and reason.

The law of the Lord is unblemished, converting souls. The law of the Lord (from Augustine) is himself who came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it (Matt. 5); and the law is unblemished because he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet. 2); not pressing souls under the yoke of slavery, but converting them to freedom to imitate him. Or the unblemished law of the Lord can be understood as the divine commandments, of which the Apostle says, The law is indeed holy, and the commandment just and good (Rom. 7). But I am carnal, sold under sin. This law indeed, with divine grace breathing upon it, converts souls, sends sinners to repentance, inflames the lukewarm, rouses the sluggish, cleanses the unclean, justifies the unjust. The testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones: the divine utterances are not undeservedly called law and testimony. Law, because they teach and command; testimony, because in them God deigns to prove how much he loves us. And this testimony is faithful, that is, credible. For through this testimony which we see fulfilled in him, as the divine law teaches, we also await and hope for the future things concerning us, which have been promised as eternal, to be fulfilled. And this law and this testimony gives wisdom to little ones, that is (Phil. 3), to the humble. Whence it is written, Upon whom does my spirit rest, except upon the humble and quiet and one who trembles at my words (Isa. 66)? And again.

I will confess to you, Father, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones (Matt. 11). He therefore bestows wisdom on little ones, because he instructs the humble concerning divine things.

The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts; the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening eyes. The justices of the Lord are right (Deut. 26), that is, inflexible: they do not turn aside to the right or to the left, they are not bent in prosperity or in adversity; they rejoice the hearts of those who observe them with spiritual joy. The commandment of the Lord also (from Augustine) is bright, without any defilement of carnal observances: enlightening the eyes, that is, the sight of the inner man.

The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever. The fear of the Lord—not that penal fear under the law (from Augustine), which dreads that temporal goods be taken from it, with love of which the soul commits fornication—but the chaste fear, by which the Church, the more ardently she loves her bridegroom, the more carefully she guards against offending him. And therefore perfect love does not cast out this fear (1 John 4), but it endures for ever and ever.

The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves. His judgments (from Augustine), who judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5): truly justified immutably. For neither by threatening nor by promising does God deceive anyone, nor can anyone snatch away from the wicked his punishment, or from the pious his reward. The judgments of the Lord are justified in themselves, that is, through unity, not for the strifes of division, but for the gathering of unity. Therefore he made those on whom he first came to speak in the tongues of all: because he announced that he would gather the tongues of all nations into unity. What one man then did, having received the Holy Spirit, so as to speak in the tongues of all nations, unity does in this way: it speaks in all tongues among all nations. And these same judgments of the Lord are more to be desired than gold and much precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Through these two things, namely gold and precious stone, which are more desired in this world, he wishes to comprehend all riches. And through the other two, that is, honey and the honeycomb, than which nothing in this world is sweeter, he wishes to understand all sweetnesses: so that you may understand that nothing is so sweet, so precious, so to be loved, so to be sought after, as the divine judgments. And when you have understood that they are so dear, love and keep them, so that you may deserve to receive the heavenly reward from them, and that there may be said of you what follows:

For indeed your servant keeps them; in keeping them there is great reward. How sweet these things are, your servant proves by keeping them. To one who does not keep them, indeed, they are bitter, and punishment follows. But in keeping them (from Augustine) there is great reward: not in some advantage placed outside oneself, but in this very thing—that the judgments of God are kept—there is great reward, and one rejoices in them. But amid these divine judgments that he longs for and the heavenly reward that he hopes for, the holy man seems to be struck with dread at his own sins, to which he adds:

Who understands his faults? And therefore the prayer follows: Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare your servant from those of others. It is no wonder that each person does not understand his own faults, because they are themselves darkness and hinder the eye of the heart, nor do they allow it to see the light, nor even itself. Therefore (from Augustine) let us say to God, who knows how to see what he must purify, who knows how to look into what he must heal.

To him let us say: Cleanse me from my hidden faults, and spare your servant from those of others. My own sins defile me, the sins of others afflict me. Cleanse me from these, spare me from those. Take evil thought from my heart, drive away from me the evil persuader. These two kinds of sin, our own and another's, first became clear at the beginning. The devil fell by his own delight, he cast down Adam by another's. If they have not had dominion over me, then I shall be blameless, and I shall be cleansed from the greatest sin. He did not say, If there have not been sins in me, but, If they have not had dominion over me. For it is impossible for a man to be without sin, as long as he lives in mortality, as the Apostle testifies when he says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1). Therefore even if we have sin in the flesh, and even if carnal desire pricks us, if we resist as much as we can by the will, if we do not consent in the spirit, we are blameless before God, nor shall it be imputed to us, as long as sin does not have dominion over us. But what is the greatest sin, of which he says, And I shall be cleansed from the greatest sin? Without doubt (from Augustine) this pride is so great a vice that it cast down the angel, and from an angel made him the devil, and shut him out from the kingdom of heaven forever. This is a great sin, and the head and cause of all sins. For it is written, Pride is the beginning of every sin (Sirach 10).

And lest you regard it as something trivial, he says, The beginning of man's pride is to apostatize from God. This vice is no slight evil, my brothers. In those persons whom you see to be great, Christian humility is displeasing to this vice. On account of this vice they disdain to bow their necks under the yoke of Christ, bound the more tightly by the yoke of sin. From this vice, which is the head of all vices (since the rest were born from it), apostasy from God came about, the soul going into darkness, misusing free will, with the other sins also following. On account of this vice, on account of this great sin of pride, God came in humility. This is the cause, this the great sin. This disease of souls brought the almighty physician down from heaven, humbled him even to the form of a servant, subjected him to insults, hung him on wood, so that this fear might run to the saving remedy. Now at last let man be proud, for whose sake God was made humble. Thus, he says, I shall be cleansed from the greatest offense, because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Truly that man is undefiled who is free of this offense, because this is the last thing for those returning to God, which was the first for those departing.

And let the words of my mouth be such as to please, and the meditation of my heart in your sight always. So shall our words please, and our meditations be always in your sight, if first our pleasures have been subdued and our pride extinguished. From these words indeed we are instructed to strive to please the Lord our God, restraining unlawful pleasures in our speech and thoughts, and cleansing ourselves from pride. And therefore let us say what follows: O Lord, my helper and my redeemer. Be a helper (as Augustine says) in good things, and a redeemer in evil things. A helper, that we may dwell in your love; a redeemer, that you may free us from our iniquity.

TITLE OF PSALM 19

Unto the end, a psalm of David. This psalm is to be ascribed to the prophet David, who directs his consideration unto the end, that is, Christ, who is the end and the fulfillment of the law, as he himself says: I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. The prophet, therefore, in this psalm, not from the necessity of entreating, but from great affection, foreseeing by the Holy Spirit the things that were to come, spoke under the figure of wishing: intending this, that, having set forth to us the resurrection of Christ, which as yet to come he applauds, he may confirm us to believe that we shall rise again and sit together in heavenly places: so that where the loftiness of the shepherd has gone before, the lowliness of the flock may follow. And by the fact that he does this under the figure of wishing, he shows the desire and joy that he had from it.

So he said to Christ:

PSALM XIX.

May the Lord hear you in the day of tribulation; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. Why does he not say, in the day of peace or prosperity or joy, but, he says, may he hear you in the day of tribulation? Tribulation is indeed pleasing to God and useful to the righteous in this world. For it humbles the heart, and stirs it to prayer, and makes it worthy to be heard; whence the same holy man says elsewhere: In tribulation I called upon the Lord and he heard me (Ps. 17). The Prophet therefore says, by way of desire and foretelling things to come: May the Lord Father hear you, O Christ, in the day of tribulation, that is, in the time of your passion. May he hear, I say, so as to make you rise again; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you by immortality, that is, he who was called the God of Jacob. For to you (from Augustine) belongs the people born later, because the elder shall serve the younger.

May he send you help from the holy place. Namely, from himself. For he himself is the holy of holies, from whom all good things proceed, as the Apostle testifies, who says: Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1). And from Zion may he defend you. Making for you (from Augustine) the sanctified body, the Church, from the watchtower of the mire, which awaits when you come from the wedding. For Zion is interpreted as watchtower. And those belong to Zion and to the body of Christ who, despising earthly things, direct the eye of the mind to things above.

May he remember every sacrifice of yours: that is (from Augustine), may he make us mindful of all the injuries and insults which you endured for our sake. And may your burnt offering be made rich. And may he turn the cross, on which you were wholly offered to God, into the joy of the resurrection. Indeed his burnt offering appeared rich when, hanging on the cross and offering himself to God for us, full of the richness of love, he prayed for his persecutors, saying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23). O sweet Lord, how rich your heart was, how sweetly it burned, how wonderfully it breathes fragrance within us!

May he grant you according to your heart. You who knew (from Augustine) what benefit your passion would have. And may he confirm your every counsel. Not only that by which you laid down your soul for your friends (John 15), so that the dead grain might rise more abundantly: but also that by which blindness in part has come upon Israel, so that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, and so all Israel might be saved (Romans 11).

We will rejoice in your salvation. Not in earthly riches, not in transitory glory, not in the vanity of this world, but in him who can save us forever. And in the name of our God we will be magnified. Not in our own name, not in merits, not in our own strength, but in the name of our God we will be magnified. Let us therefore invoke (from Augustine) the name of the Lord our God upon us, and the confession of his name will not only not destroy us, but will even exalt us.

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Not only (from the same) those which you had on earth, but also those with which you intercede for us in heaven (Rom. 8). We have, says the Apostle, an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ (1 John 2), and he himself intercedes for us. Great is our confidence, that he who is to be our Judge does not cease to pray for us (Heb. 7). Let us only take care not to be ungrateful, lest what he mercifully asks for, the hardness of our heart repel from him. Now I have known that the Lord has saved his Christ. As if the Prophet were saying, The things which I have set forth I have not prayed out of distrust, because now, so long beforehand, I am certain that the Lord has saved his Son, by strengthening him in his passion, preserving him in obedience, raising him from the dead, lifting him up to the heavens, placing him at his right hand; therefore he puts the past for the future, because that which he understood to be future concerning Christ was so certain to him as if it were past.

He will hear him from his holy heaven. Not (from Augustine) from the earth only, where he asks to be glorified, but also from heaven, where now at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, he pours out from there the Holy Spirit upon those who believe in him (John 14). In the powers of his right hand is salvation. Our powers are solely his favor, since even out of tribulation he gives aid, so that when we are weak, then we are strong (2 Cor 12). For vain is the salvation of men, which is not of his right hand but of his left. For by this they are lifted up into great pride, whoever by sinning have been saved only for a time.

These in chariots, and these in horses. They are carried along by the rolling (from Augustine) succession of temporal goods, and these are drawn by proud honors, and in these they exult. But we will call upon the name of the Lord our God. But we, fixing our hope in eternal things, and not seeking our own glory, will exult in the name of the Lord our God.

They themselves were bound and fell. And therefore (from Augustine) they themselves were bound by the desire for temporal things, fearing to spare the Lord, lest they lose their place to the Romans (John 11); and rushing against the stone of offense and the rock of scandal (1 Peter 2), they fell from heavenly hope, upon whom blindness in Israel has come in part (Rom 10), not knowing the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own. But we have risen and been raised up. For we, so that the people of the Gentiles might enter, having been raised up from the stones as children of Abraham (Matt 3), who were not pursuing righteousness, have laid hold of it; and we have risen again, and not by our own strength, but justified through faith we have been raised up (Rom 5).

O Lord, save the king. That he who by his passion has shown us an example of striving might also offer our sacrifices, a priest raised from the dead and established in heaven (Heb 7). And hear us in the day when we call upon you. Since you will offer yourself to us, hear us in the day when we call upon you.

TITLE OF PSALM 20.

Unto the end, a psalm of David. The prophet, rejoicing that his prayer has been heard, says that the king rejoices in the Lord. And he shows how many and how great goods God the Father has rewarded him with because of his constancy, and, by contrast, how many evils he will inflict on his adversaries. And he does this so that all may hope in the Lord and in the mercy of the Most High, lest his right hand find them to destroy them. And here the intention is noted where he says, Let thy hand be found by all thy enemies, and the rest. The voice of the prophet singing of Christ to the Father:

PSALM 20.

Lord, in thy strength the king shall rejoice, and over thy salvation he shall be exceedingly exalted. As if he were saying (from Augustine), Lord Father, in thy strength, in that the Word was made flesh (John 1), the man Christ Jesus shall rejoice, who was beforehand appointed king over thy Church, to vanquish the devil and to rule it spiritually according to good works and virtues, and over the salvation which thou hast bestowed through him upon that same Church, he shall exceedingly exult. Joy pertains to the soul; exaltation to the body. Within he shall rejoice over the divinity joined to the humanity; outwardly he shows himself exulting over his Church redeemed through divinity and humanity; whence it is also added:

You have given him the desire of his heart, and you have not deprived him of the will of his lips. For he desired (according to Augustine) to eat the passover, and to lay down his soul when he wished, and to take it up again: and you gave it to him. And you did not deprive him of the will of his lips, by withholding it. This will he made manifest through his lips, saying thus to God: Father, I will that where I am, there also may my servant be (John 17). And again, he says, My peace I leave with you (John 14). There is also another reason why the king will rejoice and exult exceedingly.

For you have gone before him with blessings of sweetness, you have set on his head a crown of precious stone. For before he became man, he was blessed by all the patriarchs and prophets. Even by the angel himself, saying to Mary: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Luke 1). Therefore God the Father went before his Son the king with blessings: because before he was made, he was blessed by many. And well is it added, Of sweetness, because this abundance of blessing proceeded from the sweetness of his love. He changed the bitterness of wrath into the sweetness of mercy, and turned the curse of the sinner into the remission of sins. And this is the blessing.

On his head too he set a crown of precious stone, because (according to Augustine) at the beginning of his preaching the precious stones came and surrounded him—his disciples, from whom the outset of his proclamation went forth. Or by the crown placed on his head we can understand the whole Church surrounding Christ on every side, which consists of living and precious stones—namely, apostles and martyrs, confessors, and virgins. Nor should it disturb us that he does not say "of precious stones" but "of precious stone." For many are one in the unity of faith. Many are one in the bond of charity, as it is written: They had one soul and one heart in God (Acts 4).

He asked life of you. He asked for resurrection (according to Augustine), saying, Father, glorify your Son (John 12 and 17). And you have given him length of days for ever and ever. That is, the long ages of this world, which the Church was to have, and thereafter eternity for ever and ever. For in that he died to sin, he died once; but in that he lives, he lives to God (Rom 6).

Great is his glory in your salvation—namely, in that you saved him and raised him up, and made him incorruptible from corruptible and immortal from mortal. But still you will place glory and great beauty upon him, when you set him at your right hand in heaven. Great, indeed (from the same source), is the glory of Christ the king: to rise from death to life; but greater is his glory to sit at the Father's right hand. And great is his beauty: that a man is Lord. Or, you will place glory and great beauty, that is, you will build glorious and beautiful things upon him, who is the foundation of the Church (Matt. 18), of whom the Apostle says, No one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 3). Glory we can refer to immortality, or to blessedness, or to divinity; beauty, however, to works and virtues. There is also another reason why the king will rejoice.

Because you will give him as a blessing for ever and ever. First you will bless him, afterward you will give him as a blessing to the peoples: so that the blessed one may bless, the sanctified one may sanctify, the glorified one may glorify. Whence it was said to Abraham, In your seed all nations will be blessed (Gen. 22). Or, You will give him as a blessing for ever and ever, so that he may be blessed by us and praised both in this age and in the age to come (Ps. 83 and 113). You will make him glad with joy with your countenance. For Christ will rejoice on the day of judgment, when the countenance and glory of God, which he himself promised to believers (Matt. 2?), will be made manifest. Our salvation, and the vision of God, will be his joy. And then the joy of the head and of the body will be perfect, when what was said through the Apostle is fulfilled: We shall be like him, when we see him as he is (1 John 3). And in the Gospel, But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (John 16). And rightly you ought to make him glad, either in himself according to his humanity, or in his members.

Because the king hopes in the Lord. He is not puffed up on account of his royal dignity, but humble in heart he places his hope in you, the Lord and his Father. And in the mercy of the Most High he will not be moved. His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, will not disturb his humility. In this example of his, what does the Lord our God commend to us, if not the strength of hope and humility? For if the king hopes in the Lord, how much more ought we to hope in him, who are powerless and frail men? If he is not moved in the mercy of the Most High, who is without stain of sin, how much more ought we to persist in that same mercy, who are corrupted by so many vices and sins? For we must take care lest there befall us what follows:

Your hand shall be found by all your enemies, your right hand shall find all those who hate you. What is his hand but his Son? He himself is also his right hand, inasmuch as he is equal to him. Who are his enemies, whom he himself hates, and those who hate him, but those whom he himself has rejected, and who did not believe in him, or believing did not obey? By all these in the day of judgment his hand will be found, that is, Christ will appear according to his humanity. His right hand will find them, that is, the same Lord Christ, to destroy them by the power of his divinity. Hence it is also added:

You will place them like a furnace of fire. That is, you will establish them burning inwardly in their conscience with the impiety they have committed. In the time of your face. That is, in the time of your manifestation on the day of judgment, when they will see face to face the one whom they pierced (Zechariah 12). Hence it is written, And all flesh will see the salvation of God (John 10; Isaiah 40; Luke 3). Then the Lord in his anger will trouble them. Saying, Go, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matthew 25). What then will happen? And fire will devour them. Alas, grief and sorrow. Once the sentence is given, the punishment will follow at once. How dreadful is the anger that will then be without mercy! How savage the confusion where there can be no consolation! How unhappy are those souls whom the fire will devour, the fire that will not be quenched (Isaiah 26)! Where is the worm that does not die, where is the weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13).

You will destroy their fruit from the earth, and their seed from the children of men. If by fruit we understand their work, and by seed their thought, you will destroy both from the land of the living and from the company of the saints. For they would not be your enemies, nor would they incur such great punishments, unless they had useless works and thoughts. And deservedly these things have befallen them.

Because they have turned aside to evils against you. Saying, It is expedient for us that one man die, and that the whole nation not perish (John 11). The evils which they thought would threaten you while you reigned, they turned against you to befall you. They devised plans which they could not establish. For they devised to blot out your name from the earth. They devised to kill Christ, lest they lose the nation and the place. But for that very reason they lost them, because they killed him. They could not therefore establish their plan, because there is no wisdom, no prudence, no counsel against the Lord (Proverbs 21). And from this I know.

Because you will place them as a back. That they may look backward, and not be fit for the kingdom of God: that in mind and desire they may seek earthly things and lose heavenly things. But will you destroy all? Far be it. For blindness has happened in part to Israel, that the multitude of the Gentiles might enter (Romans 9). But the remnant will be saved. Hence it is also added: In your remnants you will prepare their face. That is, your face and your presence, which would have been theirs, if they themselves had believed. You will prepare for your remnants, that is, those whom you have left for yourself to be saved. And therefore,

Exalt yourself, O Lord, in your strength. That is, rise again and remain in the equality of the Father, so that you may show your power and your majesty—you who first came in humility. But we will sing and chant your mighty deeds. Singing pertains to praise, a psalm to good works. As if he were saying: with heart and deed we will celebrate and make known your wondrous works.

TITLE OF PSALM 21.

Unto the end, a psalm of David, for the morning assumption. This psalm is to be attributed to David, that is, to Christ born of his hand, who defeated the devil and conquered death (Rom 1). He is called David because he was made for us from the seed of David according to the flesh. And he himself directs us unto the end, that is, unto the glorification of his resurrection. And this psalm is for the morning assumption, that is, for the resurrection accomplished in the morning. For the first resurrection of the Sabbath was in the morning, by which he was received into eternal life; death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6). These things are said in the person of the crucified. For the words at the head of this psalm are those which he himself cried out while he hung on the cross (Mt 27; Mk 1; Lk 23; Jn 19)—also the person of the servant, the old man, whose mortality he bore. For our old man was crucified with him. But he intends to invite us by his example to suffering and patience. For as the Apostle says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example.

that we may follow his footsteps (1 Peter 2). But he prays for himself and for his members: he tells how despised he was by the Jews; he narrates his passion; and he asks that his soul be delivered. He invites us to praise, he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles, and that the heavens—that is, the Apostles—will declare his righteousness to a people that will be born spiritually, a people whom the Lord has made, that is, reformed.

PSALM 21.

O God, my God, look upon me, why have you forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. We have heard this word on the cross. There the Lord says, Eli, Eli, lamasabactani (Matthew 27). The Evangelist interpreted it, and said that he had spoken in Hebrew, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (John and 14)? What did the Lord mean to say? For God had not forsaken him, since the Son is always in the Father and the Father in the Son, as it is written: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1). That very Word, therefore, which was God, was made flesh. He took up death for us, and made us his body, for which he prays to the Father when he says, O God, my God, look upon me, why have you forsaken me? as if to say: O God of all by power, but especially my God by grace, look upon me—that is, upon my own—with the regard of your mercy. Why have you forsaken me—that is, my own? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.

How does he say "of my sins," he who committed no sin, unless because he pleads for our sins and made our sins his own, so as to make his righteousness ours?

My God, I will cry out by day, and you will not hear; and by night, and not to my folly. He said this concerning me, concerning you, concerning him. For he was bearing his body, that is, the Church. I will cry out by day in the prosperous things of this life, that they not be changed; and you will not hear, because I will cry out to you with the words of my sins. And by night, that is, in the adversities of this life, I will cry out that they may prosper; and likewise you will not hear. Nor do you do this to my folly, but rather that I may know what you wish me to cry out for: not with the words of sins, nor with the desire of temporal life, but with the words of conversion to you unto eternal life. Many cry out and are not heard; but for salvation, not for folly. Paul cried out that the thorn in the flesh be taken from him, and he was not heard. It was said to him, My grace is sufficient for you. For power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12). Therefore he was not heard, but not to folly—rather to wisdom: that a man may understand that the Lord is a physician, and that tribulation is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation. Placed under the medicine, you are burned, you are cut, you cry out: the physician does not listen to your will, but listens for your health.

But you dwell in the holy one, the praise of Israel. You dwell in those whom you have sanctified. For you do not dwell in a body subject to sins. Since, says the Wise One, wisdom will not enter a malevolent soul. Those who are just, who are chaste and pure and holy, these are the dwelling place of God. Therefore show yourself to be such that God may dwell in you. Cleanse your heart, sanctify yourself, that you may deserve to be among those of whom the Apostle says, The temple of God is holy, which you are. And well does he say, the praise of Israel. For Israel is interpreted as one who sees God. Those who do not see God, who do not understand him, do not know how to praise him; nor is praise beautiful in the mouth of a sinner. But he is truly praised by those by whom he is spiritually seen, that is, believed, understood, loved. Be you also spiritually Israel, that your praise may be God.

In you our fathers hoped. Nor did hope deceive them. For they did not place it in themselves, but in you. For it is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in princes. And elsewhere: Let Israel hope in the Lord. And again: Make me hear your mercy in the morning, for I have hoped in you. They hoped, and you delivered them. From enemies, from temptations, from tribulations.

To you they cried out. In the time of tribulation. And they were saved. In you they hoped, and they were not put to shame. They hoped that he would give them the land of promise, and they received it. We know and we have read how many of our fathers, hoping in him, the Lord delivered. He delivered the people of Israel from the land of Egypt (Exod. 12). He delivered the three young men from the furnace (Dan. 3). He delivered Daniel from the pit of the lions (Dan. 14). He delivered Susanna from a false charge (Dan. 13). They hoped, they cried out, and they were saved. And they were sinners and mere men.

But I am a worm and not a man. But I (according to Augustine) am no longer speaking in the person of Adam, but I myself am properly Jesus Christ, incarnate without seed; I am a worm, because mortal, because born of flesh, because generated without intercourse and without seed. Not a man, that is, not only, but God, so that I might be in man beyond men. I, such as I am, without seed, without sin, have become the reproach of men and the outcast of the people. Behold, so many fathers hoped and cried out, and immediately, willingly, they were saved. Yet they themselves (as I said) were mere men, and sinners. But the Lord was scourged, struck with blows, defiled with spitting, crowned with thorns, lifted up on the wood, and he cried out, God, God, why have you forsaken me (Matt. 27)? And no one came to his aid. Why this? Could he not, by the power by which he was God, free himself? He could plainly, but he did not wish to.

He wished to die, he wished to redeem us, he wished to form us by his example, so that even thus human pride might deign to imitate the humility of God; because, though he was in the form of God, he humbled himself, becoming obedient not unto some ordinary and common death, but unto the death of the cross, at once the most shameful and the most cruel. For this reason God willed to become man, a reproach of men and an outcast of the people. A reproach of men, on account of the cross; an outcast of the people, because they cast him out and demanded Barabbas, who had been sent to prison for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder. But they asked that the murderer be granted to them; while crucifying the author of life, they cast him out. He became, therefore, an outcast of the Jewish people. But now let us hear in the psalm how much Christ suffered.

All who saw me derided me; they spoke with their lips and shook their head. All, that is, those who had come to see, to crucify, held me in derision in their heart, and with their lips spoke mocking words, as is that, Hail, rabbi. And they shook their head, saying, Ah, you who destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. To this prophecy the Evangelist agrees, where he says, And those passing by mocked him. And shaking their heads they spoke these things with their lips:

He hoped in the Lord; let him deliver him. Hence the Evangelist says: He trusted in God; let him deliver him if he will (Matt 27). Let him save him by delivering him, since he wills him. As he himself says, the Jews said these things ironically about Christ, and yet they were speaking the truth:

For you are the one who drew me out of the womb. Not only (from Augustine) from that virginal womb (for it is the lot of all men to be drawn out of the womb in being born), but also from the womb of the Jewish people, in whose darkness is covered whoever places his salvation in the carnal observance of the sabbath and in circumcision and in other such things, and is not yet born into the light of Christ. My hope from the breasts of my mother. My hope, God, not from the breasts of the Virgin, from which I began to be suckled (for I was also before that), but from the breasts of the Synagogue, just as I said, you drew me out of the womb, lest I suck carnal custom.

In you I was strengthened from the womb. He himself is (from Augustine) the womb of the Synagogue, which did not carry me, but cast me forth. But I did not fall, because you set me. From the womb of my mother, you are my God. The womb of my mother did not cause me, as a little child, to be forgetful of you. And therefore:

Do not depart from me, because you will always be with me. And it is necessary: because tribulation is near. Hence in the Gospel: Rise, let us go; behold, he who will betray me is at hand (Matt 26). And there is no one who helps. Neither angel nor man, but you alone.

Many calves have surrounded me. The Jews, fat, luxuriant, of untamed neck. Fat bulls have besieged me. Annas and Caiaphas and the other elders. Bulls indeed, because proud; fat, however, because they were full of malice.

They have opened their mouth upon me. Blaspheming openly and with loud voice. Like a lion seizing and roaring. As a lion seizes prey, so they themselves by violence and cruelty seized me for the passion, roaring and with irrational bellowing, and resounding with clamor. Take him, take him, crucify him. He is guilty of death (John 19; Luke 22).

Like water I am poured out, and all my bones are scattered. Water poured out makes men who walk with their feet often fall into it. I am poured out like water, namely for their fall and ruin. The bones of Christ are the Apostles, by whom his body, which is the Church, is sustained and strengthened. But these were scattered, because when he was left, all fled: as it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered (Matt 26; Zech 13). Otherwise, water that is poured out either washes or waters. Christ was poured out like water. The filthy were washed, the thirsty were watered.

The bones scattered are the apostles, sent out to preach. My heart has become like wax melting in the midst of my belly. This can be understood as concerning grief for the dead, because he said, My soul is sorrowful even unto death; and out of anguish his sweat became like drops of blood running down to the ground, so that it was necessary for him to be strengthened by an angel sent from heaven (Matt 26). For the Evangelist says, An angel from heaven came, strengthening him. Or my heart, that is (from Augustine), my wisdom, which was written concerning me in the holy books, and was not understood, being as it were hard and closed. After the fire of my passion came near, it was, as it were, melted and made manifest, and taken up into the memory of my Church. Hence also the veil of the Temple was torn (Luke 23), after Christ breathed his last, because what was veiled has been revealed (1 Pet 2). My strength has dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has stuck to my jaws, and you have brought me down to the dust of death. It dried up, because it showed him dead and without vigor, and he did not defend himself, who was accustomed to help others. His tongue also stuck to his jaws, because he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and he did not open his mouth (Isa 53; John 19). And he was led down to the dust of death, that is, to the place of burial. Or, like a potsherd his strength dried up, because what was weak in him became weaker still from tribulation.

And just as a potsherd is soft before the fire and hard after the fire, so the power of the Lord was despised before the passion and after the passion was glorified; and he who was formerly mortal and corruptible afterwards became immortal and incorruptible (2 Cor 15). And just as the tongue in us is of no use except for speaking, so he said that his preachers, his tongue, had cleaved to his jaws, that is, to the two Testaments, so that from their inner parts they might draw wisdom. He also says that he was brought down to the dust of death (Ps), which dust signifies the impious and the wicked, whom the wind of temptation casts away from the face of the earth, that is, from the faith of the Church. Nor is it strange if I suffered these things which I foretold.

For many dogs have surrounded me. That is, the Jews, barking against the truth. The council of the malignant has besieged me. Namely, of the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, who took counsel together to seize Jesus by deceit and kill him (Mt 26; Jn 19). Hence it is also added: They have dug, that is, they have pierced with nails, my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones. By stretching me out on the cross they showed them to be, as it were, countable.

But they considered and looked upon me. Those same men, and not changed from their purpose of iniquity, were considering, and by considering were inquiring among themselves who I was. And they looked upon nothing in me except a mere man.

They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my garment they cast lots. That they divided the garments signified their discord and error, and the division of the kingdom. But that they did not divide the seamless and better garment figured the concord of the Church, which is without spot or wrinkle. Or the divided garments signify the Scriptures and the other sacraments, which could be divided through heresies. But there was there a tunic woven from above, which no one divided. What is this tunic (according to Augustine) but charity, but unity, woven from above by the Father, by the Holy Spirit, which no one can divide? Heretics could divide the sacraments among themselves, but charity they did not divide; and because they could not divide it, they departed; but that remains whole. By lot it fell to certain ones. He who has this is secure. No one moves him from the catholic Church. And if outside he begins to have it, let him be brought in: as the branch of olive by the dove, which when Noah sent it out, rejoicing that it had returned, he brought it back into the ark.

But you, Lord, do not remove your help far from me. Not at the end of the age (from the same), as with the others whom you will come to judge on the seat of your majesty: but immediately raise me up. Which was done: for on the third day, the pains of hell having been loosed and the devil conquered, he rose again. For if he had put it off until the general resurrection, all our hope would have fallen away. Look to my defense. Let nothing harm me. Attend in these words to the humility and patience of Christ. For he both suffers and speaks all these things on your account. See, then, how he placed his whole help and his defense not in himself, but in the Father, although he himself is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1). He wishes to form you by his example, so that when you have been placed in tribulations or temptations, you may endure humbly and patiently, and ask for divine help, saying, But you, Lord, do not remove your help far from me: look to my defense. Whence also it is added,

Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only one from the hand of the dog. By "sword" he wishes to be understood death, because the sword is a blade, and men are killed by the blade. And lest we understand the death of the flesh, for that reason he did not say, "Deliver my body," but "Deliver my soul." For we ought to pray more for the life of the soul, which will live forever, than for the life of the body, which rots in the earth. By "his only one" he designates the Church. By "the dog," the Jewish people—barking, discordant, biting, raging. From whose hand, that is, power, he asks that it be freed. Whoever quarrels, is discordant, bites, rages, is a dog. Hence it is also said, Many dogs have surrounded me, the council of the malignant has besieged me. Do not seek the company of such men, lest in the end you be bitten and torn by them; but pray to God that he deliver you from them.

Save me from the mouth of the lion, and my humility from the horns of the unicorns. The lion signifies the devil, of whom the Apostle says, Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, strong in faith (1 Peter 5). When he lies in wait secretly, he is a dragon; when he rages openly, he is a lion. Since, therefore, he had gnashed his teeth for open savagery to kill Christ, it was rightly said, Save me from the mouth of the lion. But by "unicorns" he means the proud. Therefore he added, my humility.

From the horns, he says, of the unicorns—that is, from the height of the proud, who raise themselves up in singular fashion and cannot bear companions—save my humility. In them indeed the invisible lion lay hidden. Through them he roared in part, in part he raged. He was eager to betray me, tearing at the Lord's flesh. We have heard what Christ suffered, and what he prayed: let us now attend to why he suffered. Hear the fruit.

I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the church I will praise you. Who are these brothers, if not the disciples who love one another? To them it was said by the Lord: This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you (John 15). These the Lord himself designates in the Gospel, when it was said to him, Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking you. But he, answering the one who spoke to him, said, Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? And he stretched out his hand toward the disciples, saying, Behold my mother and my brothers. Whoever, he says, does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother (Matthew 12). And my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it (Luke 8). Well indeed does he say, In the midst of the church I will praise you: because Christ came not secretly but openly to proclaim his Father. For he says, I have spoken openly to the world, I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple where all the Jews gather; and I have spoken nothing in secret (John 18).

And elsewhere the same Savior says: What I say to you in darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops. For what you have said in the darkness will be spoken in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the beds—that is, openly and before all. He tells his name so that it may be known; he proclaims his praise so that he may be loved; so that through faith and love God may be worshiped by spiritual brothers within the Church.

Then he invites us to his own praise, when he adds: You who fear the Lord, praise him; all you seed of Jacob, glorify him. Let all the seed of Israel fear him. Here he comprehends three orders: of beginners, of the advanced, and of the perfect. But some, terrified by the greatness of their sins and struck with dread at the divine judgment, correct the evils they have done, and return to the Lord more from fear of punishment than from love of justice—such people are admonished here to strive to praise God in voice and in conduct, whom they formerly blasphemed by living wickedly. And there are some who have been promoted to higher things, who now strive to exercise themselves in spiritual pursuits, to labor in good works, to restrain the desires of the flesh by the rigor of the spirit, and to supplant vices with virtues. These are the seed of Jacob, who is called the supplanter. These are commanded to glorify the Lord for their own advances, so that they may advance all the more, inasmuch as they glory not in themselves but in the Lord.

And there are very many who already hold the summit of perfection, who, thoroughly forgetting the things that are behind, keep the eyes of the mind fixed upon the sight of the true light: they transcend all earthly things, in mind they dwell only on heavenly things, they extinguish carnal desires within themselves, dead to the world they live to God. These are spiritually the seed of Israel, which is interpreted as "seeing God": they flee the defilements of flesh and soul, that they may deserve to see God. These are admonished to fear unceasingly the very one whom they love: not with the servile fear with which sinners fear God, lest they be punished, but with chaste fear, with which the perfect fear God lest they be forsaken.

But why the Lord is to be feared and glorified is shown when it is added: For he has not spurned nor despised the prayer of the poor. He has not spurned it so as to reject it, nor despised it so as to hold it cheap—the prayer of the poor, that is, of the humble. Nor did he turn his face away from me, and when I cried to him, he heard me. O the wondrous clemency of the almighty God! A poor man comes to a rich man, humbly entreats one who is powerful, cries out because of his need, asks for help, or seeks assistance. What does the proud rich man do? He despises the lowly person, turns his face away, does not deign to pay attention, disdains to listen. What the proud man rejects, the humble God receives. For the Lord on high looks upon the lowly, he attends to the poor with mercy, he hears them with loving-kindness.

Therefore what follows is rightly said:

With you is my praise in the great Church; I will pay my vows in the sight of those who fear him. Small was the Church when God was known in one nation only, that is, in Judaea (Ps. 75). Now she is great, because she is spread throughout the whole world: in her praises are daily offered to God, vows and sacrifices are paid, not in secret for fear of persecutors, but openly, in the sight of believers. Hence it is also added:

The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and they shall praise the Lord who seek him: their hearts shall live for ever and ever. Those who were fasting from the food of truth, who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, now feed on the divine Scriptures; they are refreshed by the heavenly sacraments; they praise him, who seek him: the praise of the Lord is the belching forth of that satiety. Thence their hearts live for ever, because that is the food of the heart and soul, of which it is written, He who eats of this bread shall live for ever (John 6). And, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt. 5). For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4). But that the Church is great is shown from the words that follow. For it is said,

All the ends of the earth will remember and be converted to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight. In that he says, All the ends of the earth, and, All the families of the nations, he indicates that in every part of the world and among every people the Lord is worshiped and adored. The holy man foresaw what we now see fulfilled. For they remember God, whom they had forgotten; and they are converted to him, from whom they had turned away when they desired earthly things and did not understand eternal things, and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Rom. 1). And they worship him who had been accustomed to worship idols.

For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he will rule the nations. The devil has been cast out (John 12); Christ has recovered such an inheritance as his own: he rules his people spiritually, he possesses them as his kingdom, he will rule among the nations with everlasting power. And because he had said that the families of the nations worship the Lord, he added concerning the powers, saying,

They have eaten and worshipped, all the fat ones of the earth. Who are the fat ones of the earth, if not the rich and those abounding in the world? They have tasted and proved that the Lord is sweet, and therefore they have worshipped. But what he says, that all the ends of the earth, and all the families of the nations, and all the fat ones of the earth are converted and worship the Lord: this is not to be understood as though no one should remain in the ends of the earth, or in the families, or among the rulers, who does not worship God; but it is to be taken that in every part of the earth, from every kind of family, from every kind of power, God is believed in and worshipped. For that many must be reprobated is shown when it is added: In his sight shall fall all who go down into the earth. To go down into the earth is to bend the state of the mind to desiring earthly things. But, as the Apostle says, The work of each one, of what sort it is, the fire shall prove. God will come openly, to judge the living and the dead. There the reprobate shall fall into hell, there the elect shall rise to heaven. Those shall hear, Go, you cursed, into eternal fire. These shall hear, Receive the kingdom prepared for you. Whence also it is added:

And my soul shall live for him, and my seed shall serve him. They now begin to live who say with the Apostle, But our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3). Hence he himself says, I live, now not I: but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2). Therefore holy men deny themselves, and as it were lose their souls in this world, so that they may keep them in eternal life (John 12). But their seed is their own good works, or those who are converted through them and serve God. Christ sent his seed into the earth when he commanded the Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16). A few grains were sown, and a great harvest grew (Luke 10). For they announced and spoke, and were multiplied beyond number. When the holy man had foreseen that this would be, he added:

There shall be announced to the Lord the generation to come, and the heavens shall announce his righteousness to the people that shall be born, whom the Lord has made. The generation to come is the generation of the New Testament, which is we: announced to the Lord, that is, to the honor of the Lord, that we may remain his inheritance. Hence the Apostle says, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of acquisition (1 Pet. 2). But by the name of heavens the Apostles are designated, who announced the righteousness of God to the people born of faith, created by God in good works. If therefore we have been announced to the Lord, let us believe in him, and being enlightened through righteousness (John

5), so that we may know to decline from evil and do good (Ps. 33); and having been born in him through grace, that we may merit to be his sons, made by him a new creature (2 Cor. 5): it is just that we remain in this newness of life (Rom. 6), and serve our God in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life (Luke 1).

THE TITLES OF PSALM XXII.

A Psalm of David. The Church speaks, rejoicing and giving thanks throughout this whole psalm for the benefits bestowed on her from heaven. It can be referred to the person of each of the faithful, who, having obtained the grace of baptism, cleansed in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, gives thanks to God. The intention of the Church is, in this place, to instruct her weaker members, that if any good has been accomplished in them, or is to be accomplished, whether in this life or in the future, they should strive to ascribe it to divine grace, and not to their own merits. And throughout this whole psalm there is a commendation of divine grace. He says therefore:

PSALM XXII.

The Lord rules me, and nothing will be lacking to me: in a place of pasture there he has placed me. It is said in another psalm, You shall rule them with a rod of iron (Ps. 2), that is, in inflexible justice. For a king is appointed for this purpose, that he may spiritually rule his Church according to good morals and virtues: so that, governed by his rule, it may be led away from the want of present misery to the pastures of eternal life. There nothing will be lacking to it, where God will be all in all (1 Cor. 13). There is the place of pasture, which in this world begins from faith, there one advances in contemplation. Hence the Truth says, If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and he will go in and go out, and find pasture (John 10). He will go in, namely, to faith; he will go out to contemplation. He will find pasture when that is fulfilled which is said in another psalm, We shall be satisfied when your glory appears (Ps. 10). But because it is said through our Redeemer, Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3): rightly it is added:

He has brought me up over the water of refreshment, he has converted my soul. The water of refreshment is the water of baptism: this sacrament is of regeneration and the beginning of salvation: there the soul is refreshed, and is brought up when it is washed from sins, imbued with faith, renewed in conduct. There it is brought from the devil to God, from evil to good, from death to life, from iniquity to justice. Whence also it is added:

He has led me over the paths of justice for his name's sake. What is designated by the paths, if not the narrower precepts of justice, by which faithful souls are led to the heavenly kingdom? For narrow is the way that leads to heaven. Nor would it be enough to be brought up by the waters of refreshment, unless it were also brought to perfection by works of justice. For with the Apostle as witness, faith without works is dead. And lest he seem to ascribe this to his own justice, he therefore says, For his name's sake: as if he were saying, Not for my merit. For not from works of justice that we have done, but for his own mercy he has saved us. Then this faithful soul shows that it is not only perfected in justice, but also fearless amid adversities, when it adds:

For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evils, because you are with me. The shadows of death are all the reprobate, the imitators of the devil. For he himself is called by this name, as John says, And his name was Death (Rev 6). They were in the midst of the shadow of death to whom Paul was saying, In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights, holding forth the word of life (Phil 2). But why he did not fear when placed in the midst of the wicked he shows, saying, Because you are with me. Great is the security of having God with oneself. Hence the Apostle says, If God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8)? Where the divine presence is, it is impossible for base things to be present. Where the divine power is, it overcomes all adversities. And since God sometimes usefully exercises those whom he inhabits with scourges, sometimes mercifully refreshes them with spiritual and temporal goods, there is rightly added: Your rod and your staff, these have comforted me. For by the rod we are struck, by the staff we are supported: by the rod we understand discipline, by the staff the support of consolation. In both ways the Lord comforts us, namely by scourges and by gifts. For to this end he scourges us, that in the future he may find nothing in us to punish. To this end we are corrected, that we may be tested and cleansed, that negligence may be amended, patience proved, and a crown bestowed.

Hence it is written, Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life (James 1). The rod of the Lord consoled the Apostle, when he said, We glory in tribulations (Rom. 5). And because holy men, while they are troubled outwardly, being full of the grace of God, glory inwardly, rightly there follows:

You have prepared a table in my sight. So that now (according to Augustine) I may not be nourished with milk, like a little child, but like one grown, I may take solid food, being strengthened. Against those who trouble me. Or by the table we can understand the sacred Scripture, which is prepared and set out in our sight: which presents to us the courses of various meanings, that we may be refreshed by them as by spiritual foods, lest amid the adversities of this world we take delight. Whence Paul says, Whatever things were written, were written for our instruction: that through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures we may have hope (Rom. 15). And because that Scripture itself profits nothing without grace, there is added, You have made my head fat with oil. That is, you have gladdened my mind with spiritual joy. Rightly by the head the mind is understood: because just as the members are governed by the head, so the thoughts are ordered by the mind. The head, then, is made fat with oil, as often as our inner self is anointed by the infusion of the Holy Spirit. Or the Lord prepared a table, when in his sacrament he gave us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink (Matt. 45; Mark 14).

Hence it is that at the paschal supper, when the Lord was handed over, while the disciples were reclining at table, Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat: for this is my Body (Luke 22; 1 Cor 11). He also offered the cup of his blood, that they might drink from it, for the remission of sins. Concerning this cup it is added: And my cup, which inebriates, how glorious it is! Truly glorious, in that the immaculate blood is offered. By this cup the affection of the faithful is made drunk, and it puts on gladness for the remission of sins: which is signified by the head made fat with oil. By this bread the heart of the just man is strengthened, by this oil he is made glad, by this cup, being inebriated, he is changed from his sins, washed clean through mercy, and drawn out into virtues. Then, through the gift of the same mercy, the faithful soul is lifted up to the heavenly fatherland. Whence it is added,

And your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. The mercy of the Lord goes before his elect, and follows after them. It goes before the unwilling, that he may will what is good: it helps the willing, that he may accomplish it: it follows the one who works, that he may merit to persevere. For it is not the one who has begun, but the one who has persevered to the end, who will be saved (Matt 44). Whence it is also added: And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days. In that blessed house, where is the dwelling of the saints, there is no variety of days: but one day, and one eternity.

For there the sun of justice shines, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of turning. But because we are accustomed to measure long periods of time by the spaces of days, sacred Scripture, speaking according to our usage, willed to designate eternal life by the length of days. Behold how our God rules us, so that he may lead us to the pastures of life. He washes us with the waters of baptism, converts our souls from vices and from the devil to God: he exalts us above the paths of justice, strengthens us amid adversities, chastises us with discipline, sustains us with consolation, satisfies the mind with the food of truth, fills us with spiritual joy, inebriates us with love. Finally he grants us perseverance even to the end, and after the end he makes us dwell forever and happily in the heavenly house.

THE TITLE OF PSALM XXIII.

Let us lift the veil of the present title, with the Lord's help, so that the inner recesses of the psalm may become clearer to us. Its title is, A Psalm of David, on the first day of the week. The first day of the week signifies the Lord's day, which is the first after the sabbath, the day on which the Lord rose from the dead: which, because of the excellence of so great a miracle, is properly called the Lord's. The psalm says that the earth is the Lord's, and founded by him. It intends to admonish every faithful person to ascend to the mountain of the Lord, the mountain of justice: to cleanse themselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, that they may go forth in good works.

that they keep themselves from all deceit, so that they may deserve to receive blessing and mercy from the Lord (2 Cor. 7). Likewise they are admonished to lift up the poles of the virtues to bring in the Lord, who is strong and mighty, the vanquisher of enemies and of the vile, the Lord of hosts, and the King of glory. This is the voice in this psalm of those rejoicing with Christ as He rises again, as a victor returning from war. Let it be said therefore:

PSALM XXIII.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell in it. If we take these words according to the historical sense, from visible things we ought to weigh within ourselves how great is the reverence due to so great and such a Lord, who was able to subjugate the whole world to His dominion. But if we take this spiritually, by the earth we can understand the Church, by its fullness, works and virtues. All these things are the Lord's, that is, made and disposed by the Lord. And lest anyone should suppose that only one land, or one nation, namely the Jewish one, is the Lord's, he added: The world and all who dwell in it. When the Lord is proclaimed as glorified (John 12) unto the faith of all nations, His grace is distributed abundantly, sins are forgiven far and wide. Thousands of thousands are reconciled to the Lord. And the whole world becomes His Church. And rightly: Because He founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers.

The earth or the world is said to be founded upon the seas, because it is surrounded on every side by the waters of the sea, just as we say that some city is founded upon the sea—not that the sea lies beneath it, but because at its edge it first rises above the sea. But if these words signify something else that pertains more to us, we can understand by the sea the world, and by the rivers men of desire, who slip down into the age. These too the Church surpasses (according to Augustine), for by the Lord's grace she has conquered worldly desires and is ready through love to receive immortality. The Church is founded upon the seas, she who is set beside the bitter surges of this age. Or she is founded upon the seas, not beneath the sea, because she is overcome by no torments of the impious; or because not vices but she herself rules over vices. She is also prepared upon the rivers, because teachers and prelates are appointed over peoples and over princes and powers, who are designated by the name of rivers. Behold, the Church is placed on high: the Lord has set his world in the height, like an emperor his palace. And what soldier will ascend there to the Emperor?

Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? To ascend is the lot of many, but to stand is the lot of only a few and of the perfect. Judas ascended, but he did not stand. Many ascended, but turned back and went away behind. Who, then, will so stand as not to fall, so as not to draw back in the time of temptation? There follows, and it says,

He who is innocent in hands and pure in heart, who has not received his soul in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbor. He is innocent in hands and pure in heart who neither does nor thinks evil. For by hands we understand works, by the heart thoughts. But whoever lives unfruitfully receives his soul in vain. They had received their souls in vain to whom the householder said: Why do you stand here all day idle? And so that they might not be free for the leisure of vanity, they immediately heard: Go, and you also into my vineyard, and what is just I will give you. Whoever prepares himself for doing good, this is the one who has not received his soul in vain. To swear to one's neighbor in deceit is to affirm the true for the false, or the false for the true. He swears in deceit to his neighbor who, by affirming those words, declares things by which he may deceive him. Therefore, he who so does good things that in deed, in thought, and in word he is innocent,

He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Savior. For he shall be among those to whom the Lord will say on the day of judgment, Come, you blessed of my Father (Matt. 25). And this blessing will not be from his own merits, but from the mercy of his Savior, who saved us not by works of righteousness of ours, but because of his own mercy (Tit. 3).

This is the generation of those who seek him, of those who seek the face of the God of Jacob. From such people, he says, the Church is constituted; thus are born those who seek him: who seek the face, that is, the knowledge of the God of Jacob, the younger brother, in whom God commended his grace. For before they had done anything good or evil, it was said, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated (Mal. 1; Rom. 9). Just as then divine grace was given to the younger brother and not given to the older, so even now the Lord resists the proud, as the greater, but gives his grace to the humble, as the lesser (Jas. 4). Diapsalma.

Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. Man has five gates—namely, the five senses of the body: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. But these gates, unless they are guarded by individual watchmen, are frequently entered and re-entered by the devil through them. It is necessary, therefore, that these gates be closed to the devil and opened to God. And hence rightly are these here called princes, because they rule spiritually over these bodily senses. Those who strive to chastise their body and bring it into subjection (1 Cor. 9), so that sin may not reign in their mortal body (Rom. 6)—these are commanded to lift up their gates, that is, their bodily senses, and to lift up the eternal gates, which are faith, hope, and charity, and the other virtues; and these are rightly called eternal gates, because through them the entrance to the eternal homeland is opened. Through these gates, also, God enters into human hearts. Hence it is said: And the King of glory shall enter in. For He is the King of heaven and earth, the giver of glory, the destroyer of pride: so that whoever glories, may glory in the Lord (2 Cor. 10).

The mortal nature trembles with wonder and asks: Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. He who took the form of a servant—behold, he is the Lord. Before, weak from corruption; now, strong from immortality. Before, as it were, powerless when he was being killed; now, mighty in battle, when by his death he destroyed death, and rising from the dead he vanquished the devil. And because there were two peoples—namely, the Jewish and the Gentile—who were to be saved through the grace of God, rightly what is first said to the Jewish people is afterward repeated to the Gentile people, when it is added:

Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in. Again human frailty trembles and asks:

Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Note that above he is described as the Lord, strong and mighty in battle; here, however, he is called the Lord of hosts and the King of glory: because, namely, among the Jews he endured the contest of the passion, among the Gentiles he obtained the glory of power. Among them, on earth, he is afflicted with punishments; among these, now seated in heaven, he is declared by powers and miracles. But let us honor the Lord and our King, who mightily vanquished the powers of the air, and let us give thanks to him, who mercifully grants power and glory to his servants.

TITLE OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH PSALM.

The title of the following work is, A Psalm of David. Since we have frequently said what a psalm is and what is understood through David, we need not linger over these matters. This is the voice of a faithful soul in this psalm, converted from the death of unbelief to faith, [expressing] perseverance in prayer. Moreover, he intends to instruct us by his example, that after we have been converted to the faith, we should not return to our vomit, but that we should persevere in good purpose and persist in prayer. The voice of the Church.

PSALM TWENTY-FOUR.

To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul; my God, in you I trust, I shall not be put to shame. When my soul was forsaking you, it was trampled on the earth by carnal desires. For man, departing from God, is at once handed over to the power of vices. And from the fact that I trusted in myself, I was brought even to this misery which I suffer. And I, who, having forsaken God, wished to be like God, cast out from the joys of paradise, was shamefully mocked for my pride and put to shame. And because (from Augustine) it went ill with me without you, being converted I have lifted up my soul to you. Now I confess you as my God, I place my confidence in you. I shall no longer be put to shame, having been corrupted by sin.

Nor let my enemies mock me. Those who lie in wait with serpentine and hidden suggestions must not cast me down. For they are worthy of mockery who, deceived by diabolical persuasions, withdraw from a good purpose; who after conversion return to the world; who after virtues fall into vices. But his enemies could not mock him whom divine goodness has made to persevere in a good purpose. Hence it is also added: For all those who wait for you shall not be confounded. He waits for God who is able to be moved by no temptations away from him. Hence the Truth says to his disciples: You are those who have remained with me in my temptations (Luke 22). These assuredly shall not be confounded, but rather shall glory, because it is written: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life (James 1). On the contrary, it is said of the reprobate: Woe to those who have lost endurance (Eccles. 2). They lose endurance, that is, who while they think they will remain long in these visible things, abandon the hope of invisible things; concerning whom it is added:

Let all who do wickedness be confounded in vain. In vain, I say, do the reprobate act, because they carry away with them nothing of the fruit of their labor. For one man sweats to acquire honors, another burns to multiply his possessions, another pants to earn praises. But because the dying man leaves all these things here, he has lost his labors to no purpose, since he has carried nothing with him before the judge. Then each reprobate is confounded, when the judge is seen from without, and every fault is brought back before his eyes: when the accuser is endured within, and the mind is tormented over the fires of hell by its own fire more grievously. This too is turned into the confusion of the reprobate, that they behold the glory of the elect, so that, driven back to greater punishments of their own guilt, they may see what they have lost: their final confusion is eternal damnation (Matth. 7.). Lest this man, being converted, incur it by walking along the broad way, he humbly entreats his Lord, saying, Make known to me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. By "ways" the broader and lesser precepts of justice can be understood. By "paths," however, the higher and perfect commandments. It belongs to the broader way of justice when we are commanded to give a tenth from our possessions (Luc. 18.), to refresh the poor, to clothe the naked (Matth. 25.), to redeem sins by almsgiving (Dan. 4.), and to devote ourselves to the other works of mercy.

But it seems to belong to the paths, when we are commanded to renounce all that we have, to despise all things that are of the world, to deny ourselves, to love God with the whole heart. These spiritual ways and paths the Lord both shows outwardly to his elect in the Scriptures and does not cease to teach inwardly in the heart through the aspiration of grace: so that, being instructed, they may know the error of life and be directed in the truth. And therefore he adds:

Direct me in your truth, and teach me: for you are God my Savior, and I have waited for you all day long. Because I have nothing in me except the crookedness of sin and the lie of error, it is therefore necessary that you direct the crooked in the truth and teach the ignorant. Which you ought to do because you are my God, who created me; my Savior, who redeemed me: for whom I have waited all day long, that is, whom I have continually expected. Not one day has passed in which I did not wait for you: nor could I be moved by prosperity or adversity so as not always to place my hope in you. Or after the known ways and paths, that is, after the known broader commandments, such as, You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, and the like (Matthew 19); and after the known higher commandments, such as, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10), and, Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do also to them (Matthew 7), and, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5), etc.

After you have shown and taught these ways and paths, Direct me in your truth, that is, make me upright in the working of justice: And teach me, that is, make known to me, that you are God my Savior, that is, creator and redeemer. As if he were saying, Teach me the ways by which I may come to the truth: once this is fulfilled, I may reach you yourself, who are truth and life (John 14), to know and attain you, and by attaining, endure.

That this may be able to be done, Remember your mercies, Lord, and your compassions, which are from the world. No forgetfulness falls upon God, so that he could remember: for in him, who is true wisdom, all things are present. But he speaks after human usage, when he entreats God to remember. For God had been, as it were, forgetful of his mercies, when, as though angry, he permitted the human race to be subject to sin. He prays, therefore, that he may remember his mercies and compassions, which are from the world, foreordained (Prov. 8). For from eternity God had preordained through his mercy to redeem the human race. Well, moreover, does he say, mercies and compassions. For mercies pertain to the showing forth, compassions to the foreordaining out of his great mercy. Many are his mercies (Ps. 111). Hence in himself he is merciful, hence he is a shower of mercy in us. Therefore he knows himself to be wretched, who begs that the mercy, by which he may be spared, be brought back to memory. Hence he also adds:

Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances. He says "of youth" for this reason, that this age is always more prone to sinning. And in this age especially each one ought to correct himself, as it is written: "Son, from your youth take up instruction" (Eccles. 6). And it must be known that every sin is committed in three ways: that is, either by deliberate intent, or by weakness, or by ignorance. Judas sinned by deliberate intent, Peter by weakness, Paul by ignorance. He includes the sins of deliberate intent and of weakness when he says, "The sins of my youth." For youth (as we have said) is depraved and weak toward wrongdoing. But he designates the sins of ignorance when he adds, "And do not remember my ignorances." As if he were saying: The sins that I have committed, either through deliberate intent, or through weakness, or through ignorance, do not bring back to memory, do not reserve for vengeance; but as though they had fallen away from you, and so that you may forget my sins, let your mercy remember me. And this is what he adds: "According to your mercy remember me, you." Not according to the wrath that I have deserved. "Because of your goodness, Lord." Not because of my merit. I indeed am wretched, you are merciful; I am evil, you are good. Do not therefore attend to me from myself, but attend to me from yourself. From me is my condemnation, from you is my salvation. Whence also follows:

The Lord is sweet and upright: for this reason he will give a law to those who sin in the way. In sweetness, gentleness is signified; in uprightness, justice. Often, when we pursue uprightness, we abandon gentleness; and when we desire to preserve gentleness, we turn aside from the uprightness of justice. But our Lord and Redeemer so tempers both in himself that neither does sweetness diminish uprightness, nor uprightness diminish sweetness in any respect. The Lord is sweet in such a way as to forgive sins; he is upright in such a way that, after the grace of calling and forgiveness, at the final judgment he will require merits that are worthy. For this reason a law has been given to those who sin in the way: so that each one, from the law shown to him, may recognize in what he has sinned, and how he can amend what he has committed. For because the Lord is sweet, he therefore does not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. 33). Again, because he is upright, he does not leave that same sin unpunished. For this reason, then, the law is given to those who sin, so that according to the law they may either be corrected or be judged. When you hear that your Lord is sweet, attend to what you should love. When you hear that he is upright, attend to what you should fear: so that, stirred up by love and fear of God, you may keep his law. For love fulfills the law (Rom. 13); chaste fear preserves love. Both these virtues extinguish vices and beget virtues. Hence it is also added:

He will guide the gentle in judgment; he will teach the meek his ways. Those are called gentle who are at peace within themselves: who are not angered, do not contend, do not quarrel. The meek are those who patiently endure the insults, angers, and injuries of others. Of such persons Truth itself says, On whom does my spirit rest, if not on the humble and quiet, and on him who trembles at my words (Isa. 66)? Such persons the Lord guides in judgment, because they themselves have the Spirit of God (2 Cor. 7); and the spiritual man judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one (1 Cor. 2). Such persons do not presume to govern themselves, and therefore they are guided by the Lord: for they make him their ruler, and they do not kick back when a gentle yoke and a light burden are placed upon them (Matt. 11). But what ways he will teach them, he shows when he adds:

All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, to those who seek his covenant and his testimonies. These ways (according to Augustine) he will teach them, that is, mercy, by which he is placable, and truth, by which he is incorrupt. Of these he provided one by forgiving sins, the other by judging merits. And therefore all the ways of the Lord are the two advents of the Son of God: the one of showing mercy, the other of judging. But they understand the Lord as merciful in the first advent, and as judge in the second: those who, meek and gentle, seek his covenant, by which he redeemed us into new life by his blood; and in the prophets and Evangelists they seek his testimonies, which bear witness to that same redemption.

And therefore he adds:

For your name's sake. O Lord, you will be propitiated for my sin, for it is great. Because your way is of mercy, therefore you will be propitiated for my sin, not because of my merit, but because of your name. It is indeed necessary for us that you not remember the sins of our youth and our past negligences, but also that you be propitiated for our daily sin. For it is great, as the Apostle testifies, who says, In many things we all offend (James 3). For as long as we live here in a mortal state, we cannot be without much sin. But we have Christ as our propitiator, who intercedes for us (Rom 8). Hence we ought not to presume on ourselves, but to fear. For by fearing God we begin to avoid sin, to abandon the path of error, and to hold to the way of truth. And because it is a great thing to fear God, and few are those who fear him, he asks who it is that fears, and sets forth what fruit proceeds from this. He says therefore:

Who is the man who fears the Lord? As if he were saying: Whoever that man is, he is great, he is blessed. From this point he begins to come to wisdom. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 110). Hence it is also added: He has established a law for him in the way that he chose: and now not for the one who sins, but for the one who turns himself to God through fear and humility. God has established it for perseverance—not the law of the letter, which was given to those who sin in the way (for the law was handed down because of transgressors [James 2]), but the law of grace, which was not only given but established, and immovably fixed for the one who makes progress—not in any way whatsoever, but in the way that he chose, which is Christ (John 14). In this way the one who fears God is placed, and there the divine law is established for him, by which he may live spiritually for God. Hence he also adds:

His soul shall dwell in good things, and his seed shall inherit the land. For he takes delight in the law of God according to the inner man, he burns with heavenly desires, he clings to spiritual pursuits, he exercises himself in good works. Indeed, his seed are good works; hence the Apostle admonishes us, saying: But let us not grow weary in doing good; for in due time we shall reap, not growing weary (Gal. 6). And again: He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly (2 Cor. 9). Rightly, then, he said that his seed inherits the land: because the good work that he, as it were, sows when he performs it will make him possess a heavenly inheritance and the land of the living.

And lest he seem to presume on good works as though he were strong through them, he therefore adds:

The Lord is a firmament to those who fear him, and his covenant, that it may be made manifest to them. In herself the Church is indeed fragile and weak, but because she is founded upon firm rock (1 Cor. 5), therefore the gates of hell shall not prevail against her (Matt. 18). But because he thus strengthens her by his grace, he himself promises her in his covenant that he will also show himself. Hence in the Gospel the Truth says of the one who loves him: I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him (John 14). The reward of our labor is the vision of God; when we have seen him, there will be nothing further that we seek. Hence Philip says: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us (Ibid.). And because the Church of the elect, as long as she lives here bodily, unceasingly shows her desires there, he therefore adds:

My eyes are always toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the snare. These are not to be taken as bodily eyes. For God is not seen by bodily gaze (John 1; 1 John 4). By the eyes, then, the senses of the inner man; by the snare, every temptation; by the feet, the affections of the soul can be understood. From this snare of diverse temptations no one is plucked out unless his intention and desire are lifted on high. Do not therefore look back, if you wish to be fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9). Let your eyes, your senses, your heart, your desire be toward the Lord your God.

And he himself will pluck you out from every snare and hindrance, from every temptation and deception. And therefore in praying he adds:

Look upon me, and have mercy on me, for I am your only one and poor. I attend to you: do you look upon me: attend by desiring, look upon me by having mercy. For it is mine (from Augustine) to love you, it is yours to save me. Because I am your only one, preserving the unity of your only Church (which no schisms or heresies hold [Eph. 4]) persevering in one faith, hope, and charity, and I am your poor one, not seeking gold or silver, not possessions or riches above you. Not presuming on myself, not puffed up in spirit: but humble in heart: seeking nothing else but you. Wherefore look upon your only one, have mercy on the poor one.

The tribulations of my heart have been multiplied: deliver me from my necessities. The tribulations of the heart are understood as the interior passions of the soul, such as vices and depraved desires, the pleasures of the mind and concupiscences, and other such things by which the heart is troubled (2 Cor. 6). Necessities pertain to the body, by which the outer man is afflicted: such as hunger and thirst, cold and heat, sickness and corruption of the flesh, and other similar things: which are therefore called necessities because they are, as it were, natural, and whether we wish it or not, they happen to us. From these tribulations of the heart and necessities of the body the holy man asks to be delivered: so that he may be clothed with blessed immortality.

And because there are some who, when they experience such things, bear them impatiently: they resist in heart, they murmur with the tongue, they despise the scourges of almighty God; and from that by which they ought to have been purified, from that very source they tend toward worse things by their pride. Therefore he adds:

See my humility and my labor, and forgive all my offenses. Affliction of heart and body is the penalty of sin. But if this is endured with a humble and patient heart, the wondrous mercy of almighty God is at work, so that from the very source where guilt is punished, pardon may follow. Therefore he asks that his humility be seen, by which he patiently endures his labor: so that through the endurance of labors he may merit the forgiveness of his offenses. All, he says, forgive: that is, past, present, and future. Not only those of my youth and ignorance before I believed, but also these which, now living by faith, I commit through weakness or through the darkness of this life. To the greater accumulation of the tribulation also, which he suffers, he adds, saying:

Look upon my enemies, for they have multiplied, and they have hated me with an unjust hatred. For not only outside, but even within the very communion of the Church, enemies are not lacking. Outside are the Jews and the pagans; within are the heretics, who err in the faith, and the false Christians, who assail the faith by their conduct. These are the ones who hate the Church with an unjust hatred. Hatred is just when the fault is hated and the nature is loved. But hatred is unjust when the fault is loved and the nature is hated. Or hatred is unjust when someone hates a friend. Look upon my enemies—as if he were saying, By attending to them, protect me. Therefore he adds:

Guard my soul, and deliver me: I shall not be put to shame, for I have hoped in you. Guard, that it may not perish; deliver, that it may escape; I shall not be put to shame, that I may not fall from my purpose. And therefore you ought to do these things, because I have hoped in you. What the Church prays, the Lord does not cease to do daily in his elect: whom he in a manner abandons by guarding, and guards by abandoning. He permits their hearts to be shaken by temptations, their bodies to be afflicted by hardships, to be exercised by the hatreds of the wicked; but while he releases these things to the enemy, he always reserves the soul for himself. For the ancient enemy, and through his members the perverse, wickedly desires to tempt holy men: which almighty God permits to happen only in kindness, namely, that the good which lies hidden may appear, and virtue may grow through patience.

But the elect, when they feel the temptations of the wicked enemy within and without, presuming nothing of themselves, immediately run back to the help of God their protector: they humbly entreat that they may not commit things to be ashamed of; and that they may deserve to be heard, they strengthen themselves with the courage of hope. And when the perfect do this, they draw others to themselves by their example. Hence it is also added:

The innocent and the upright have adhered to me, because I have waited for you. Innocent in their ways, upright in faith. Innocent in the things they do in lowly matters, upright in the high things they perceive. Those who live innocently, who desire the heavenly fatherland out of longing, desire to be joined to the good just as they desire to be separated from the evil. For just as evil conversations corrupt good morals (1 Cor. 15), so good conversations build up good morals. And it is written, With the holy you will be holy, and with the perverse man you will be innocent (2 Kings 22). Therefore the saints adhere to the saints, the innocent to the innocent: that they may build one another up by words and ways, and share their own good things with one another through charity, so that one may grow in good from another. Meanwhile, while they patiently endure so many evils, and while they ardently labor in good works, while they are made firm by the uprightness of hope, lest their endurance be emptied out when placed amid such great tribulations: that they may be able to escape, they suppliantly implore God their deliverer, saying:

Free, O God, Israel from all his tribulations. Israel is interpreted as “a man seeing God.” It is as if he were saying (from Augustine), “Free, O God, the people whom you have prepared to contemplate you, from all their tribulations”—not only from those they endure outwardly, but from those they suffer inwardly. Let us strive also to lift our souls to the Lord, to place our confidence in him, and to learn his lowly and his lofty commandments, so that we may deserve to be directed in truth and to behold with our mind Wisdom itself (which is God); so that through his mercy we may be stripped of the delights of youth and of ignorance; so that, gentle and meek, we may follow the paths of mercy and truth; so that, made clean through the propitiator, the Lord, from daily sin, we may fear him, and, established in the way (which is Christ), may possess the law of his grace, through whom we may abide in good things and enjoy an eternal inheritance. Meanwhile, having God as our firmament, let us direct the eyes of our mind to him, until we are plucked from the snare of this world and through his mercy are freed from all tribulations, having become Israel spiritually, contemplating the Lord our God in his majesty.

TITLE OF PSALM XXV.

The title of the following Psalm is, A Psalm of David. This scripture is to be attributed to the more excellent member of the Church, praying to God above, and here showing that he has been heard, and that by divine mercy he has attained innocence and perfection; and for the rest praying that he not be moved from his purpose. And this he does, so that those from whom he is morally separated, from them he may also be eternally separated. His intention is to invite us by his example to innocence and perfection. He says therefore:

PSALM XXV.

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence: and hoping in the Lord I shall not be weakened. He who has guilt fears judgment. He therefore is perfect: because he saw his cause to be just, he asked to be judged by the Lord. Well does he recall that he walked in innocence: because spiritual innocence is the way by which one tends toward God: and to live innocently belongs to the inner man (Eph. 3). But that he pronounces himself innocent is not the pride of the arrogant, but the confession of the ungrateful. As if he were saying: After the mercy (from Augustine) which you have bestowed on me beforehand, I have some merit of my innocence, whose way I have kept. Nor yet even so in myself; but hoping in the Lord, I shall not be weakened in the work, but I shall persevere: so that as I began, so I may complete. If he presumed on himself, if he gloried in himself, without doubt he would be weakened.

But because he places his hope in the Lord, he can no longer be weak, because the Lord himself is his strength.

Prove me, O Lord, and try me: burn my reins and my heart. I have said, judge; but if there is anything in me that needs purging, O Lord, try me here, and correct me with the scourge of sons, and so prove me, that is, make me proven: burn my reins, that is, destroy the pleasures of the flesh (because in the reins pleasures abound most) and my heart, that is, depraved thoughts. Burn my reins and my heart: as if he were saying, Apply a spiritual remedy to outward and inward vices. Holy men, even if they live perfectly, still desire the Father's chastisements, so that they may press on to the homeland the more perfect the more the discipline that strikes them piously purges them daily even of the smallest faults. And therefore they endure discipline, that they may obtain mercy; concerning which it is added, For your mercy is before my eyes, and I have been pleasing in your truth. A truthful teacher beats a lying disciple; the disciple, when beaten, pays attention and seeks mercy from the teacher. So the heavenly teacher and pious father acts toward us. We have sinned, therefore we are scourged. He strikes, we wait for him to spare. Your mercy, he says, is before my eyes; I bear your discipline patiently, but I unceasingly wait for you to have mercy. And now I have been pleasing to you in the truth of the vengeance that I deserved, I who before displeased you in the lie of the fault by which I fell.

For because I fell, I deserved wrath; corrected by you, I found mercy.

From this, moreover, it appears that I entered in my innocence, because I did not sit with the council of vanity, and I will not go in with those who do iniquity. Those sit with the council of vanity who dwell in their assembly, who gather deliberately and devote themselves to this, that they may speak of vanity. To go in with those who do iniquity is to thrust oneself into the society of evildoers, and to insert oneself among the wicked in their wicked works by one's own choice. Such is the pursuit of the perverse and the carnal. For either they sit idle in vain loquacity and are given up to vanity, or they labor in wicked activity. By contrast, holy men, so that they may be held innocent in word and deed, restrain the tongue from vanity and preserve their life from wicked work. And because it is the first step not to love an evil thing, and the next also to hate it, it is rightly added:

I have hated the church of the malignant, and I will not sit with the impious. I have hated not men, but transgressors; not nature, but guilt. The malignant are those who labor for this, that they may surpass their fellows in malice. The impious are the faithless, who do not worship the Lord. For piety properly pertains to the worship of God. From all these the Church is separated, not indeed in body, but in life and conduct: namely, from those sluggish in idleness and given up to vanity, from those who work iniquity, from those who studiously heap up their own malice, and from the faithless. And it is to be noted that he first said, I did not sit; here he says, I will not sit with the impious.

There the beginning is designated, here perseverance. For it is necessary that the good which is begun be carried through to the end. But let us hear the one who separates himself from the wicked, with whom he is joined.

I will wash my hands among the innocent and I will encompass your altar, O Lord. You do not wash your hands with visible water when you think piously about your works; and you are innocent in the eyes of God, who is also an altar in the eyes of God, to which the priest entered, who first offered himself for us. There is a heavenly altar, which no one embraces except the one who washes his hands among the innocent, having himself also been made innocent. For many unworthy persons touch this altar, and God tolerates his sacraments suffering injury for a time. But just as you are not received in the same way when you are among the wicked within the walls of the Church, so will you not be received among the wicked in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16). Therefore do not be afraid: wash your hands, and encompass the altar of God, where you offer vows to the Lord, where you pour out prayers, where your conscience is pure, where you tell God what you are; and if there is anything else that displeases God, he whom you confess will heal it. Why do you encompass the altar of God, holy man? It follows, and he says:

that I may hear the voice of praise and declare all your wonderful works. To hear the voice of praise is to understand within: because whatever evil is in you is from your sins, and whatever good is in the justifications of God. Thus you will hear the voice of praise, so that you do not praise yourself. And when you are good, you also hear divine praises within, which the Lord your God speaks in you, and in hearing them you say that you may declare all his wonderful works, bodily and spiritual, visible and invisible. It belongs to the wonderful works of the Lord when someone is raised up in the body. But to greater wonderful works it belongs when someone is raised up in the soul. It is a great miracle when one rises alive who was dead. It is greater when a pious man rises who was impious; when a chaste man rises who was lustful; when a humble man rises who was proud. These outward miracles are of benefit for faith: the inward for the edification of morals: the praises of the Lord for love. To this end the Lord your God is praised: to this end he is proclaimed wonderful, that you may love, believe, and hope. Love the one who is praiseworthy, believe and hope in the one who is wonderful. To this belongs what follows.

Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the dwelling of your glory. The house is the Church, its beauty is righteousness, the place of dwelling is eternal rest. And rightly has he set the beauty of the house first, and then the place of dwelling: because by loving and pursuing righteousness one attains to the glory of eternal quiet. And because each of the elect, however much he may advance, still fears to be reprobated, he humbly entreats the merciful God, saying,

Do not destroy my soul with the impious, O God, and my life with men of blood. The impious are those who hate God, men of blood are those who hate their neighbor. For whoever hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 2 and 3). These are the church of the malignant, who hold a council of vanity, with which the holy man declares that he has not sat. And it must be noted that he did not say, In the council, but, With the council. For one can sit in a council of vanity for a useful purpose, when he sits there for this end, that he may free the innocent, or that he may refute that very vanity. But to sit with a council of vanity is to consent to that council itself. Because he did not do this, he now prays that he who was not a partaker in the guilt may not also be a partaker in the punishment. And this is the judgment that he seeks from the Lord, that he be separated from the wicked with whom he dwells.

In whose hands are iniquities, their right hand is filled with gifts. Just as what we hold in our hands we have ready at hand, so they are said to have iniquities in their hands, because they always have evil-doing ready at hand. In their hands are iniquities, who are ready for murder, for theft, for robbery, and for doing the rest of evils. These are they who persist in acquiring gain with burning zeal, they search all around, so that their right hand may be filled with gifts. But because it says not hand, but right hand, something more subtly veiled is signified by this name. For it is the practice of the wicked to turn a gift freely given into an increase of guilt. Well then does he say, Their right hand is filled with gifts: because what was given them for obtaining eternal salvation they have turned to receiving the gifts of this world, thinking that gain is godliness (1 Tim. 6). They are those who sell their wisdom, who seek profit in place of righteousness, who sometimes even sweat over spiritual studies themselves, so that they may acquire something earthly. But because the man of God shakes his hand free from every gift and does whatever he does purely and for God's sake: not desiring to lay up treasure here (Matt. 6), but to escape free from this captivity: he suppliantly implores his Redeemer, saying,

But I have walked in my innocence; redeem me, and have mercy on me. Let the price of my Lord's blood avail for me unto the perfection of deliverance, so that in the perils of this life your mercy may not forsake me.

My foot has stood in the right way. That is, the affection of the heart has not withdrawn from righteousness. Why in the right way? Because he had said above, And in the Lord hoping I shall not be weakened. He wavers among the wicked who does not hope in the Lord. From this it came about that schisms arose. But what is concluded? In the churches I will bless you, Lord. He who blesses the Lord with his tongue and curses with his deeds does not bless the Lord in the churches. Nay, he is one of those of whom it is said, Woe to those through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed (Isaiah 52). This, then, is to bless the Lord in the churches: so to live that through each one's conduct the Lord is blessed.

TITLE OF PSALM XXVI.

A Psalm of David, before he was anointed a second time. This psalm is ascribed to David, that is, to the perfect Church. The psalm, I say, treats of that anointing which happened before he was anointed with the second anointing. We read that David was anointed twice. First by Samuel in his father's house (1 Kings 16), which prefigured the second anointing. Then, when he was received by the people and established as king over Judah in Hebron (2 Kings 2 and 5), he was anointed a second time. In the same way Christ was anointed twice, not with a bodily but with a spiritual anointing. First, as one free from sin, he was established as King over the Jewish people; after the resurrection, however, he was anointed, namely when he was made immortal and impassible. And there was given to him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Philippians 2). In the same way the faithful are anointed twice: first in baptism, when they receive the pledge of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 1 and 5); which anointing is a prefiguration and, as it were, a down payment of the future anointing. And second, after this life, when they obtain immortality and impassibility (Ephesians). And David, after the first anointing, did not continue in the kingdom until Saul was defeated. And he defeated many adversaries before he was anointed with the second anointing.

Likewise the faithful in this life have many adversaries before they are anointed a second time. And they will never be confirmed in the kingdom until Saul is conquered, that is, until the devil is utterly overcome and death is destroyed. And in this way this title can be expounded of the head and the members. The perfect soul aims in this psalm, by its own example, to exhort each one who has received the pledge of the Holy Spirit: that if he desires to be blessed, he should act manfully in the temptations of the present life, and by conforming himself through the benefits conferred by God in this life (which are enumerated at the beginning of the psalm, where it says, The Lord is my light, and the rest), he should endure the burden of the day and the heat with pious long-suffering. And so it says thus:

PSALM XXVI.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? There are three things that he says: light, salvation, protection. These three make a man fearless against all adversities. For if God enlightens him, so that he sees what is right; if he heals him, so that he fulfills in deed the right things he has seen. Then if he protects him, lest he fall into snares: what remains that he ought to dread? There came in truth the light which enlightens every man coming into this world (John

He has redeemed, enlightened, and protects him lest he lose him, so that I may say, "Of whom shall I be afraid?" I see enemies, I see tyrants rushing in; but I fear none of them, relying on the Lord's admonition, where it is said, "Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul" (Matthew 10). Then it is added:

While the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh: my enemies who trouble me, they themselves have been weakened and have fallen. The wicked draw near, the enemies invade me, foes besiege me: to eat my flesh, to tear me apart, and to deceive the carnal and imperfect, and to join them to their wicked body. Or to eat flesh is to consume carnal affections with the fire of tribulation: but in this they are weakened by their own strength, and being conquered they fall, in that they cannot break into the inner parts of the soul. Therefore he further adds:

If camps take their stand against me, my heart will not fear. If the armies of the wicked, if the assaults of vices, if the heaven of demons should rise up with gathered strength and ordered battle line, my heart doubts nothing: the almighty God strengthens it by enlightening, healing, and protecting. If battle rises up against me, so that the aforementioned enemies wish to wage war, in this I will hope. In what? It follows, and he says:

One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. The temptations and tribulations of this world avail us for attaining the kingdom of God. Hence the holy Church, while she endures wars in the depths, lifts her hope to the heights: and the graver things she suffers here, the greater reward she expects there. Hence in the Gospel the Lord says, When men have cursed you and persecuted you for my sake: rejoice in that hour, because your reward is great in heaven. Let us see, then, what one thing he asks, who, placed amid adversities, fears nothing. What is that one thing? That I may dwell, he says, in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That is called a house where we shall remain forever. In this pilgrimage it is properly called a tabernacle, which pertains to those who serve as soldiers and fight against the enemy. What we are to do in that house, you have in another psalm: Blessed, he says, are those who dwell in your house, O Lord; for ever and ever they will praise you.

Burning with this desire and aflame with love, he longs to dwell in the house of the Lord through all the days of his life—days, I say, not to be ended, but eternal. For days are spoken of just as years are, concerning which it is said, And your years shall not fail. For the day of eternal life is one day without sunset. Therefore he says, I have desired this from the Lord, this one thing I have sought, this will I seek. And as if we were to ask him: What will you do for yourself? Why do you seek this? That I may see (he says) the will of the Lord, and visit his temple. Behold what I love. Behold why I wished to dwell in the house of the Lord: that I may contemplate his delight. For now I see through a glass and in an enigma; but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known. Well does he say, and visit his temple, because that blessed vision will not be fulfilled except in the vision of the temple of God, which he rightly calls both a house and a temple. It is called a house because it is inhabited by the saints; a temple because the praises of the Lord are rendered there. But that I may arrive there, whence do I promise this for myself? There follows and he says,

Because he has hidden me in his tabernacle on the day of evils, he has protected me in the hiding place of his tabernacle. The day of evils is the present life, in which evil is done. Hence the Apostle says: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Eph. 5). The tabernacle is the present Church, in which we serve as soldiers. From this tabernacle the Son of God took flesh, and became for us the hiding place of the tabernacle. He hides us in the tabernacle through faith, he protects us in Christ for salvation: we are sons of God, but it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3). For we walk by faith, and not by sight. You are dead (says the Apostle), and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3). And because God thus hides us from vices and protects us in Christ, so as to exalt us in him to virtues, he rightly adds:

In the rock he has exalted me, and now he has exalted my head above my enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ is both the rock and the head (1 Cor. 10; Eph. 1 and 2). Concerning this rock the Lord himself says: And upon this rock I will build my Church (Matt. 18). Founded firmly on this rock, one is exalted from the world to heaven, from the devil to the Lord: where even now, while the body dwells and labors among enemies on earth, it already says that its head, that is, Christ, is exalted. For he has risen from the dead, and sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Eph. 1; Mark 16). Let the members therefore take confidence and not fear their enemies, since even now they see their head exalted above them.

For where the head is, there the members will also follow. We too are above with him. And he is also below with us. Behold what a pledge we have. Hence we too, by faith and hope and love, are with our head in heaven forever, because he also, by his goodness, divinity, and unity, is with us on earth even to the consummation of the age. Hence the Church does not cease to offer him praises and sacrifices. Therefore he adds: I have gone around and sacrificed in his tabernacle a sacrifice of shouting; I will sing and recite a psalm to the Lord. I have considered the faith of the whole world, in which my head has been exalted above those who were persecuting me. And in that very tabernacle, that is, in the Church spread throughout the whole world, I have praised the Lord with all my strength. To shout is to send forth the voice with mighty power. We sacrifice to God a sacrifice of shouting when we offer praises with great devotion and contrition of heart. In what he says, I will sing and recite a psalm, he intimates the frequency of divine service. Cautus pertains to the joy of praise. But a psalm pertains to the exercise of good work. Our praise is thus acceptable to God if we praise him with voice, heart, and deed. Then he asks that he be heard, when he adds,

Hear, O Lord, my voice with which I have cried to you; have mercy on me, and hear me. Let us groan now, let us pray now. Groaning belongs only to the wretched; prayer belongs only to the needy. Prayer will pass away, praise will succeed it. Mourning will pass away, joy will succeed it. Meanwhile, now, while we are in the days of evil, let our prayer not cease to God, from whom we ask that one thing. And let us not desist from that very petition, until, with him granting and leading us, we arrive at it, and all our desires are united into one in the heart and in the request. Hence it is also added:

My heart has said to you, my face has sought you: your face, O God, will I seek. As if he were saying: My prayer is not uttered by the lips alone, but by the heart. My face has sought you, that is, my intention, my faith, my mind, in which you know me: your face, O God, will I seek. I do not seek honor, I do not seek glory, I do not seek riches; your face, your beauty, your vision is in my desire.