Commentarius In LXXV Psalmos [Attributus]

The virtue of justice, however, is not in action but in the will. Rightly, then, those who will justice are commanded to exult, because the love of justice generates a new life and spiritual joy. And lest they wish to glory in themselves, therefore it was immediately added: And let them say always, Let the Lord be magnified. For it is always fitting to magnify and praise him who works in us both to will and to work for good will (Phil 2). And rightly he adds: Who will the peace of his servant. For it is not enough for the servants of God to will justice unless they also strive to will peace. Hence, when he had said above: Decline from evil and do good (Ps 33), he immediately added: Seek peace and pursue it. Peace is when the flesh and the spirit are in concord in God. In this peace justice is completed. And nothing else now remains except perseverance. Hence, fittingly, it is immediately added:

And my tongue shall meditate on your justice, your praise all the day long. Meditation seems to pertain more to the heart than to the tongue. But because holy men meditate on the law of the Lord day and night (Ps 1), and they speak what they meditate, therefore their tongue is said to meditate on the justice of God. Hence it is written: The mouth of the wise is in their heart (Prov 16). But whose tongue endures to meditate on the praise of God all the day long? But good works and a good life have their tongue before the Lord. If you have lived well all the day long, you will praise God all the day long.

TITLE OF PSALM 35.

Unto the end, for the servant of the Lord, David. Our end is Christ, to whom this psalm sends us; it is attributed to the same Lord Jesus Christ, who is called David, because He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. But "servant" is said from purity, because He was without sin, which is clearly declared in this psalm. In it is shown that the sinner has all his sins not from God but from himself. But that the just man has nothing of justice except from the generosity of God alone. The subject is the just man, and secondarily the impious. In the first part of the psalm he describes the impious man together with his accusation. In the second part he describes the just man not with his own praise, but with the praise of God. He intends, moreover, to admonish us that our vices are from ourselves, but good things from God, lest the foot of pride come upon us and we fall (Hosea 13). Thus, then, he begins.

PSALM 35.

The unjust man said, that he might sin in himself. Many say this: We cannot be without sin (1 John 1). Such is our nature. God made us such. If He Himself did not will it, we would not sin. Why does the unjust man say this? There is no fear of God before his eyes. If he feared God, he would not say this; rather he would accuse himself, not God. Where there is no fear, there is dissolution of the soul. But the fear of God is the bridle of sin. Because, therefore, he wishes to hide himself from God such as he is, rightly what follows is said concerning him:

Because he acts deceitfully in his sight, so that his iniquity may be found out for hatred. Whoever wishes to hide his sin from God acts deceitfully in the sight of God. And this is the iniquity that God hates and punishes severely. When a man sins, and then repents, and recognizes that he has done evil, rebuking or accusing no one other than himself, and from this turns to the mercy of God with his whole heart and whole groaning—such iniquity is not found hateful to God. Indeed, it is easily forgiven him. But because he not only lives wickedly, but also defends his wicked life by pride—this is the man whom God hates. According to the hardness of his heart and his impenitent heart, he stores up wrath for himself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God (Rom. 2)—of which it is also added:

The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He carries out iniquity through his words, showing it in thought, in act, and in word. Many act deceitfully so that they may find out their iniquity—that is, they do not act from the heart, so that they might be able to find it and hate it. They would find it, if they wished. But they do not wish to, so that they may be able to defend and excuse themselves. And just as there is deceit in the searching out, so also in the defense. For if you say to one of them, Why do you do this evil? he answers you: How many do this! Will God destroy them all? So then, speaking iniquity and covering himself wickedly, iniquity and deceit are found in his mouth. He refused to understand, so that he might do good.

There are men who wish to understand and cannot. But others who do not wish to, and therefore do not understand. But it is one thing when someone tries to understand something and cannot because of the weakness of the flesh, as it is written, "Because the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks on many things" (Wis. 9); and, as the Apostle says, "the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2). But it is another thing when the human heart acts more perniciously against itself, so that what it could understand if a good will were present, it does not understand: not because it is difficult, but because the will is opposed. And that first case is indeed weakness; this latter is the height of iniquity. That is infirmity, this is deliberation. But let us still hear what he adds concerning that unjust man.

He has meditated iniquity upon his bed. That is, in the secret chamber of his heart. He has stood by every evil way. That is, he has persevered in sin. But he has not hated malice. There is the fruit, there the end. Can you not avoid having malice? At least hate it. For when you hate it, it scarcely creeps upon you to do something evil. For sin is in the mortal body. But what does the Apostle say? "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to obey its desires" (Rom. 6). And a little later the same Paul: "For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness" (Ibid.).

It is one thing not to fight and to be in true and perpetual peace; another to fight and conquer; another to fight and be conquered; another neither to fight nor resist, but to be dragged along. For there are men who do not fight at all, such as this man of whom he speaks. For when he said, "But malice I have not hated," how does he fight against that which he does not hate? This man is dragged by malice and does not resist. But there are those who begin to fight, yet because they presume on their own strength, they fall. And there are those who fight and are not overcome, because they do not presume on themselves, but commit themselves wholly to the divine mercy. Concerning these he adds, turning to the familiar speech of the Lord, and saying:

Lord, in heaven is your mercy. The mercy of God is understood in two ways. One is that which he bestows here in common on the good and the evil, such as abundance of possessions, bodily health, knowledge, learning, prophecy, and other things of this kind. But because these are transitory, it is a temporal mercy. There is another which God bestows only on the good and holy, such as the remission of sins, divine love, eternal life. This is indeed not earthly but heavenly; not transitory but eternal. But how has this been proclaimed? He continues and says, And your truth reaches to the clouds. That is, the knowledge of your truth has come to the preachers. These preachers, through whom the Gospel of God is preached, are the clouds of God. They thunder with threats, they rain with words, they flash with miracles.

Let us therefore hope for mercy, but for that mercy which is in heaven.

Your justice is like the mountains of God. Just as the mercy of God makes men heavens, when it raises them from earthly things to heavenly: and just as the true word of God makes men clouds when it enlightens them through its wisdom: so the divine justice makes men like the mountains of God, when it exalts and strengthens them with virtues and good works. And just as, when the sun rises, it first clothes the mountains with light, and from there the light reaches the lowest parts of the earth: so when the Lord Jesus Christ came, he first shone upon the height of the Apostles, he first enlightened the mountains: and thus his light descended to the valley of the earth. And lest anyone should ask why he chose these and rejected those: therefore he immediately added: Your judgments are a great deep. They are of such great depth that they cannot be searched out by anyone (Rom. 11, Prov. 18). Or by the deep the malice of the reprobate can be understood. Whence it is written, The sinner, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises (Prov. 18). Therefore after he spoke of the elect, he immediately added concerning the reprobate, saying: Your judgments are a great deep. As if he were saying: Just as mercy and truth and justice save the righteous, so your judgments condemn the reprobate: which are therefore called a great deep, because they are darkened by manifold iniquity. And because he had first said that the divine mercy was in heaven: now he shows that it also came to earth. For he says:

You will save men and beasts, O Lord, as you have multiplied your mercy, O God. For the merciful Lord has multiplied his mercy to such an extent that he has saved not only rational men but even brute and ignorant beasts. For where sin abounded, grace superabounded (Rom 5). But the sons of men, that is, the whole Church continued even to the end of the world, will hope in the covering of your wings. That is, in the protection of the two commandments, namely, of love of God and of neighbor (Mt, Lk 10). Whoever is not protected under these wings will be burned by the heat of vices. Or, because he says first "men" and afterward "sons of men," we can understand by "men" the ancient fathers, who indeed did not have the law, but were themselves a law to themselves, and understood and kept the Lord's commandments rationally. For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, naturally do the things that are of the law, such men, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them (Rom 2). They indeed were saved through the mercy of God, just as we also, who are the sons of men, namely of the prophets and Apostles, belonging to the Son of Man, Christ the Savior, who have been nourished under the law and reborn through grace unto the hope of eternal life. This grace is indeed commended to us when it is added:

They shall be inebriated from the abundance of your house: and you shall give them to drink from the torrent of your pleasure. The grace of God poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5), is itself the abundance of the house of God. With this abundance they are inebriated who are so filled with love of the almighty God that, their mind being changed, they seem to be strangers to themselves. This is rightly called the torrent of pleasure, because it comes with great force, and with great sweetness and delight it is drunk by those who thirst for justice. With this the martyrs were inebriated when they went joyfully to death, despised torments, and did not recognize their weeping parents. Let us therefore hope under the covering of God's wings, that we may deserve to be inebriated with his sweetness.

For with you is the fountain of life: and in your light we shall see light. Who is the fountain of life, if not Christ? He came in the flesh, he watered the one who thirsted, he satisfied the one who hoped. Here one thing is the fountain, another the light; there it is not so. For what is the fountain, that also is the light. And whatever you wish, call it that: because there is no [name] by which you may call it. Because (from Augustine) you cannot find a fitting name, let it not remain in one name. It is a fountain because it satisfies those who thirst. It is light because it enlightens the blind. In this light we see light, because, enlightened by Christ, we see wisdom, justice, charity. Or in this light we see light, as he himself says, He who sees me sees also the Father (Jn 14). And that this may be done, do what follows:

Stretch forth your mercy to those who know you, and your justice to those who are right in heart. First comes knowing God through faith, then having a right heart—that is, willing what God wills. God stretches forth his mercy to those who know him when he first grants to those who believe in him the remission of sins. Then, when I have already begun to have a right heart, so that they too will what God wills, thus they attain the justice of God, so that from sinners they are made just. But now beware, lest through pride. Hence one must pray and say:

Let not the foot of pride come upon me: and let not the hand of the sinner move me. He feared the root of sin and the head of sin, who said this. Justice was not lacking to the first Adam, but the foot of pride came upon him. And the hand of the sinner moved him, that is, the temptation of the devil. By pride, then, we fell, so as to arrive at this mortality. Pride casts down; humility raises up. Keep, therefore, what is within, namely your foot, your affection: and you will not fear outside lest the hand of the sinner move you. Why is this said against pride? Because

There they fell who work iniquity; they were driven out, and they could not stand. Those who are now wicked first fell in pride. First that one fell, who did not stand in the truth (John 8); then through him those whom God sent out of paradise (Gen. 3). Therefore, when the Lord was making the Church cautious, he said: She will watch your head, and you her heel (Ibid.). The serpent watches, so that the foot of pride may come upon you, so that your affection may be moved away from God, and so he may cast you down. But you, watch his head—pride, the beginning of every sin (Sir. 19). The first origin of sinning is the will falling away from the highest good, and this is the foot of pride. From this proceed two vices, namely ignorance of things to be done and concupiscence of harmful things. Then two others are derived from these: that is, fear and love. From these, moreover, the whole crop of evils is generated. Therefore it must be guarded against with the utmost care, lest the foot—that is, our affection—be moved away from the highest good, lest it slip through pride, and so fall into the hands of the sinner and be shut out from blessedness. To the extent that each one loves God less, to that extent his foot slips toward sinning. And to the extent that he loves God more, to that extent he stands more strongly, and to that extent it pleases him less to sin.

THE TITLES OF PSALM 36.

A psalm of David himself. That is, for the more excellent members of the Church. The prophet, or any righteous man who speaks here, seeing the wicked prosper and the righteous trampled by the wicked, and that certain simple righteous men envied their power and wished to avenge the injuries brought upon them by them—at times even wishing to become like them—sets down against these things a certain most wholesome teaching. The subject is the righteous man, and by contrast the wicked man is secondary. Yet he divides it thus. In the first place he speaks of the righteous man, admonishing him not to be moved by envy toward the wicked, nor by imitation, nor by anger, inserting certain things about the wicked man. In the second part he sets down what the wicked man does against the righteous man, admonishing the righteous man himself to endure patiently. In the third part he sets down the rewards of the righteous with admiration, and the condemnation of the wicked, whereby he deters the righteous man from wishing to imitate evil. The intention is to console simple souls by these means, so that they are in no way moved on account of the wickedness or injury of the wicked.

PSALM 36.

Do not emulate, he says, those who do evil. Those who do evil are so called as it were feeding an evil fire, that is, concupiscence. Hence it is written, He who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps. 10). And again, Whoever wishes to be a friend of this world will be established as an enemy of God (James 4). These are the ones who do evil, who work evil in themselves: by hating God and their own souls, and by loving sin. To emulate has various meanings. For sometimes it is put for to love, as the Apostle says, For I emulate you with a divine emulation (2 Cor. 10). Sometimes for to imitate, as he again says, Emulate the better charisms (1 Cor. 12). Sometimes for to envy, as in this place. Therefore every faithful and imperfect soul is admonished not to wish to emulate, that is, to envy, those who take delight in evil; nor to be zealous, that is, to persecute, those who work iniquity. And this is what he adds: Nor be zealous against those who work iniquity. For the weak mind of the elect is stirred against the reprobate in two ways: either when it envies their felicity, or when it is angered by their iniquity. Do not do this, but be of calm mind. For both their felicity and their iniquity are brief.

For they shall quickly wither like grass. For they rejoice and flourish for a time, but soon they are dried up and reduced to dust (Isa. 40). And like garden herbs, that is, the greenness of plants, they shall quickly fall away. Hence Isaiah says, All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass is dried up, and the flower has fallen (Ibid.). First he tears out wickedness; then he commends good conduct, when he adds:

Hope in the Lord, and do good. For hope without good work is of no profit. Nor (from Augustine) is any good work possible without charity. Hence it is presently added, And dwell in the land, and you shall be fed in its riches. The land of the Lord is the Church. The father of many, who perform good works, cultivates it, waters it as a farmer: but those who do not dwell in the land do not belong to the farmer. Now to dwell in the land is to live spiritually and in concord within the holy Church. This no one is able to do unless he has charity; this itself is the riches of this land. God is charity (1 John 4). The Church seeks no other riches than her God: hence she also sang, You are my portion. Therefore delight, O soul, in your riches. For it is for this that men seek riches, that they may delight in them: and therefore it is added:

Delight in the Lord. With what fruit? There follows, and it says: And he will give you the petitions of your heart. One kind are the petitions of the flesh, another of the heart. Those are bodily, these spiritual. Delight in God does not ask what the flesh wants, but what the spirit wants. What else does the heart of one who delights in God ask for, except God himself, that very light, that very wisdom, that very eternity? This God promises to those who delight in him. Hence it is written: What the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, these things God has prepared for those who love him (Isa. 64; 1 Cor. 2). This is the petition of our heart. This is the reward of one who delights in the Lord. And because someone might say, I cannot delight or hope in the Lord, because I have many sins, against this he gives saving counsel, when he adds:

Reveal your way to the Lord. Tell your sins (Eccles. 17). Accuse yourself, and correct yourself (James 5). And hope in him, and he will do it. For he promises hope to sinners (1 John 1), and grants forgiveness to those who do penance (Matt. 4). O how saving are these commands: not to envy the wicked, not to love iniquity, to hope in the Lord, to delight in the Lord, to confess our ways and works to the Lord! If you do this, he too will do it. What?

And he will bring forth your righteousness as the light, so that it is never obscured in darkness and vices. Your righteousness is your faith, as in Romans 1: for the just man lives by faith, as in Hebrews 10. This righteousness is for now hidden. The matter rests in faith, not yet in sight, as in 1 Corinthians 3. You believe one thing so that you may do it; you do not yet see what you believe. But when you begin to see what you have believed, your righteousness will be brought forth into the light, as in Isaiah 58. And your judgment as the noonday. It was too little to say "as the light." For it is light when it grows white, when the sun rises; but the light is never clearer than at midday. For now you judge that you are following Christ; this you have purposed, this you have chosen. Your judgment is in secret, as in John 8; for now it is reproved and mocked by unbelievers. When will he bring it forth as the noonday? When Christ, our life, has appeared, then you also will appear with him in glory, as in Colossians 3. In the meantime, what?

Be subject to the Lord, and pray to him. Let this be our life: to obey his commandments and to entreat him. Let the good work and the prayer persevere, until he gives what I have promised. If you see the wicked flourishing, do not let vanity move you. Do not be jealous of him who prospers in his way, nor of the man who commits injustices. Does he prosper in his way? You labor in the way of God. For him, prosperity in the way ends in unhappiness; for you, labor in the way ends in happiness. That way is broad, and its end leads into the depths of hell; your way is narrow (Matthew 7), and its end is eternal life. I say this, so that you may not be jealous. And if you have been moved in any way, whether in mind or in body, correct it. And this is what follows:

Cease from anger, and forsake fury: do not be jealous, so as to do evil. Anger belongs to the mind, fury to the body. It is as if he said: Let neither the iniquity of the wicked move you to anger, nor their prosperity to envy. For those who do evil will be exterminated. That is, they will be cast out beyond the boundaries of the heavenly Jerusalem, as it is written: Let the wicked be taken away, lest he see the glory of God (Isaiah 26).

But those who sustain the Lord, they themselves will inherit the earth. Who are those who sustain, except those who are patient? Hence the Lord said to his disciples: You are those who have remained with me in temptations (Luke 22). Against this it is written: Woe to those who have lost endurance (Eccles. 2). But the earth is the heavenly fatherland, of which it is said elsewhere: I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 26). This earth those who sustain the Lord will inherit, that is, they will possess it by right of inheritance. And lest you should think this endurance very long, he immediately added:

And yet a little while, and the sinner will not be. That is, he will not appear. Brief is the life and happiness of the wicked. And if a long span seems, while they live, it seems brief when they die. Quickly do times pass by: brief is that which cannot last. Hence the Apostle says: What is your life? It is a vapor of smoke appearing for a little while (James 4). But it is very much to be noted what is added: And you will seek his place, and you will not find it. Now seek the place of the sinner, and you find it. His place is his use. For the sinner has some use (as Augustine says). Here God uses him for proving the just, as the devil was used for proving Job (Job 1); as Judas was used for betraying Christ (Matt. 26). There is, therefore, in this life something that is done concerning the sinner. This is his place.

As the chaff is in the goldsmith's furnace, and the chaff burns so that the gold may be purified, so the wicked rage so that the righteous may be tested. But when the time of our testing has passed—when there are none who are to be tested, there will be none through whom they are tested. And then, if you seek their place, you will not find it.

But the meek will inherit the earth. The meek are those who do not resist the Lord, who bear his yoke humbly (Matthew 11), who endure the adversities of the world with equanimity (Romans 12), not returning evil for evil, or curse for curse, but on the contrary blessing (1 Thessalonians 5). They are made fit to inherit that holy land, Jerusalem, which will be freed from this pilgrimage and will live forever with God and from God. And they will delight in the multitude of peace. For they will flow into the eternal God, who is the fount and fullness of all good things. Hence that heavenly city is named Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the vision of peace. So great, moreover, is the good of peace that among earthly things nothing is usually heard more gladly, nothing is desired more eagerly, nothing, finally, can be found better. In all things, moreover, a certain peace and order of nature is sought. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order. Order is the disposition that assigns to equal and unequal things their proper places. The peace of a household is the concord of those living together in ordered commanding and obeying. The peace of the rational soul is the ordered consent of cognition and action.

The peace of soul and body, an ordered life and the salvation of the living being. The peace of mortal man and of God is obedience ordered in faith, under the eternal law. These are the things in which the meek man of God ought to nourish himself, so that he may be able to reach heavenly peace. But the peace of the heavenly city is the most ordered and most harmonious fellowship of enjoying God, and one another in God. And because as long as one lives here, the righteous endure the snares of the unrighteous, there follows:

The sinner will watch the righteous man. For the wicked do not cease to search out the life of the good, attentively considering in what way they may be able to harm them. Hence it is written concerning the Lord: And they themselves were watching him (Luke 14). The evil man, therefore, watches the good man, to capture and destroy him. And what he cannot carry out by deed, he carries out by the wild and beastly gnawing of words. And this is what follows: And he will gnash upon him with his teeth. That is, with the teeth of wickedness and impiety, with which he strives to devour him. Often, moreover, the affections of the soul are signified through the movements of the body.

But the Lord will laugh them to scorn, because he sees that the day of each one is coming. He has the eyes of knowledge. He foreknew that the day of judgment would come, in which hidden things will be made manifest. There the sinner, worthy of mockery, will be exposed by the Lord, when, having lost his power, he will be handed over from glory to be punished with eternal torments. Even now they begin to be mocked, when they think to wield the sword of soldiery and, unknowingly, turn it against themselves.

The sinners have drawn the sword, they have bent their bow. By the sword we understand open and manifest persecution; by the bow, hidden and deceitful deception, by which they lie in wait for the saints. To draw the sword is to carry out in deed the malice first hidden in the heart. He bends the bow who prepares a deceit, whereby he may strike the unwary. With the sword one strikes at close quarters; with the bow one shoots from afar. The sword, then, that strikes is pressing persecution; the bow is unforeseen and, as it were, far-off deception. By these two kinds of persecution the wicked assail the good: namely, that they may deceive the poor and needy, and that they may slaughter the upright in heart. By the name of the poor and needy are designated the simple, who have neither knowledge nor virtue; by the upright in heart we understand the perfect. The simple, then, they strive to deceive secretly with the bow; but the perfect they endeavor to slaughter openly with the sword of persecution.

However blinded the enemies of the Church may be by any error, or depraved by malice, if they receive power to afflict bodily, they exercise her patience. And so that even enemies are loved, they exercise her benevolence. Because God works all things together for good to those who love him (Rom 8). But whatever the enemy opposes turns to his own detriment. And therefore it is added:

Let their sword enter into their own hearts, and let their bow be broken. They wished to kill in the body; in the soul they die. Whoever strives to harm another first strikes himself with his own javelin. But the bow is broken when deceit and evil will do not reach their effect. It is certain that the wicked harm themselves more than they seem to harm others. For it is more grievous for the soul to be killed by vice than for the body to be slaughtered by the sword. Then he commends the modest means of the righteous, saying:

Better is a little to the just man than the many riches of sinners. For the poverty of the righteous is better than the riches of sinners. The one abounds in few things, while the other, though full, thirsts. The one saves his soul, while the other loses both body and soul (Mt 16). But what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul (Mt 13)? For faith, which is compared to a grain of mustard seed, is better for this one than the faithlessness which wanders everywhere is for that one.

Because the arms of sinners will be crushed—that is, their strength, power, and riches, in which they trust. But the Lord strengthens the righteous, so that they are not overcome by injustice. For, as the Apostle says, tribulation produces patience, patience produces proven character, proven character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5). Hear the words of the strengthened righteous man: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword (Rom. 8)? How does he strengthen them? What follows says:

The Lord knows the days of the blameless. For he knows how they have lived and in what manner they have entered into life. Or he knows them because he has loved them. Hence, on the contrary, he will say to the wicked: Amen I say to you, I do not know you (Matt. 25). For everyone who does not know will be unknown, and therefore their inheritance will be forever. Be therefore pure and clean all the days of your life, so that you may please the Lord your God in your whole conduct (1 Cor. 14). And when you have finished these days, you will inherit forever.

They will not be put to shame in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will be satisfied. Now is the time of evil, in which the righteous labor. Hence daily they say in prayer, Deliver us from evil. In this time, all the proud, while they seek their own glory, are ashamed if injuries or insults have been brought against them. By contrast, holy men who seek not their own glory but God's—if they are mocked, if they are dishonored with insults and punishments—not only are they not ashamed, but they even glory. Hence the Apostle says, We glory in tribulations. But they are satisfied in the days of famine by the food of truth and the heavenly sacraments. For in this famine, where the Lord's holy ones hunger, they take His word as food, lest they fail on the way, until they are satisfied by the vision of Him in the fatherland. And because he had said above, The arms of sinners will be crushed, he proves this when he adds:

Because sinners will perish. How? He continues and says: But the enemies of the Lord. That is, the sinners themselves: As soon as they have been honored, held in reverence. And to be exalted, through powers and dignities, failing daily from evil to worse, they will fail like smoke. Smoke, bursting forth from the place of fire, is lifted on high, and by that very elevation swells into a great mass. And the greater it has become, the vainer it will be.

Thus the wicked, the more they are raised up, the more they are extended, the more they are spread out on every side into a greater compass, the more they become destitute, and failing, and not appearing. Thus it has been shown in many passages that the moderate means of the righteous man is better than the riches of sinners. Then he sets down the reason why the sinner fails, when he adds:

The sinner shall borrow, and shall not repay. Man has nothing that he did not receive as a loan. Hence in the Gospel the Lord says, A certain man going into a far country called his servants, and delivered to them his goods. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one (Matthew 25). Behold, the servants received the Lord's money as a loan. But he who has faithfully dispensed it in this world, and can repay it with interest to the Lord when he returns, to him it shall be said by the Lord: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord (Ibid.). The rich dispense faithfully when they give alms out of their riches. The teachers dispense faithfully when they teach rightly and live well. But sinners, borrowing from the Lord riches and wisdom, virtues and understanding, neither return thanks for them, nor give to the poor what they have, nor pay what they owe by living well. And therefore like smoke they shall fail. But the righteous man has mercy, that is, he is moved with a pious affection toward the afflicted: And he shall repay. He always has something to give, whose breast is full of charity. This is the charity that is also called good will (1 Corinthians 13).

(Matthew 5). If she has the means outwardly, charity gives it. If she has not, she gives good will, she offers counsel, she gives help if she can. If she cannot, she helps at least by a vow, or prays for the afflicted one; and perhaps this avails more than if she held out bread. Good will cannot be empty; the poor themselves give to one another from good will. Do you see the blind man led by the one who sees, because he has no coins to give, he lends his eyes to the one who has none? Whence has this come about, unless because good will is a virtue, which is the treasure of the poor? But he who has mercy and gives shall receive a good reward. For it is added:

Because those who bless him shall inherit the earth. Those who live well, and give to others with thanksgiving the good things they can, these are they who bless the Lord; to such in judgment he will say, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matthew 25). Behold that land which the righteous shall inherit. Why? I was hungry, he says, and you gave me to eat (Ibid.). And he will begin to recount the works of mercy by which the righteous blessed the Lord, when they fulfilled them for his honor. But those who curse him squander. For it has been heard, Go, you cursed, into eternal fire (Ibid.). These were unwilling to repay what they received as a loan. And because by living wickedly, and by unjustly retaining what was entrusted to them, they cursed the Lord, they themselves are justly cursed.

And so that each person may know how he ought to render it, lest he perish in like manner, he continues and says:

With the Lord the steps of a man shall be directed, and he shall desire his way. For in himself man finds nothing but error and sin. Therefore he himself has become for us both guide and way (John 14). And if we do not wish to go astray, let us direct the steps of good works in him, and let our will be in him who is the way, the truth, and the life (ibid.). Do not wish to go by another way than that by which he went, lest you slip. Perhaps it seems hard, but it is safe. Another way perhaps has delights, but it is full of robbers. It is better now to wish to keep the way of the Lord—by fasting, praying, suffering—so that afterward in the fatherland we may rejoice, than to wish to keep the way of the world—by laughing, taking delight, following the flesh—so that afterward in eternal punishment we may mourn. And because even on this way of the Lord there is no man who does not sin (5 Kings 8), a consolation follows when it is added:

When he falls, he shall not be crushed, because the Lord puts his hand beneath him. Peter fell, but he was not crushed. For the Lord put his hand beneath him and raised him up by the help of his mercy. For it is written: The Lord looked upon Peter, and he wept bitterly. But why? The Lord permitted his chosen one to fall, so that in temptation he might learn to know himself, who before temptation had presumed upon himself. This the Lord does not cease to do daily in his chosen ones. A man of great strength would believe himself such, if he always remained fixed in virtue. Therefore the Lord in his loving-kindness sometimes withdraws his grace and shows the one who presumes how weak he is. And when he is tested in temptation, through that same temptation he is prudently instructed. For when, having been tempted, he falls, he rises afterward the more truly the more humbly. And from the very source where the wine is, as it were, lost, it is more certainly possessed. But he proves that the just man is not crushed when he adds:

I was young, and indeed I have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. Here the body of Christ speaks as one man, who was young in the first ages, but old in the last times; and in so great a span he did not see the righteous forsaken, so as to perish, nor his seed—that is, any one of his faithful by his invitation—seeking bread. If we understand bodily bread, we find that many even of the righteous seek this. And then the statement according to the letter will not be true. It is necessary, therefore, to understand spiritual bread, that is, the bread of which the Lord says in the Gospel: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This bread the Lord did not cease to distribute to his faithful, both in the first ages and in the last, speaking to them through angels, through patriarchs, through prophets; then through his Son, through the apostles, through teachers, to refresh and strengthen their hearts, lest they fail on the way. The righteous is nourished by such bread, so that he may live in God and impart to his neighbors the good things he can. And therefore it is added:

All day long he is merciful and lends. This has already been explained. But he rightly said, "He lends," because he expects what he dispenses to be repaid to him not by the poor man, but by God. Hence he immediately adds: And his seed will be in blessing. The seed of the righteous man are good works, of which the Apostle says, "But let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap" (Gal. 6). Therefore, he says, while we have time, let us do good to all. And again: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows in blessings will also reap from blessings" (2 Cor. 9). Hence it is said elsewhere: "Going they went and wept, casting their seeds" (Ps. 125). We have heard the seed; let us hear the future blessing of this seed. "But coming they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves" (Ibid.). See therefore what follows, and do not be lazy.

Decline from evil, and do good. Turn away from sin, drive away the devil, follow good, and dwell in the age of ages. Where? In the Church, in unity, in truth, in God, in right judgment.

Because the Lord loves judgment, that is, discernment, by which good is separated from evil, false from true, temporal from eternal. And he will not forsake his saints, whom he chastises for a time. They will be preserved forever. "I," says the Lord, "whom I love, I reprove and chastise" (Prov. 3). Hence Paul says: "All discipline in the present seems not to be of joy, but of sorrow; but afterward it renders the most peaceful fruit of justice to those exercised by it" (Hebr. 12). Therefore holy men are scourged for a time, and like grains on the threshing floor they are threshed among the chaff (Matth. 5), so that afterward, purified, they may be preserved in the eternal granary. But the unjust will be punished, that is, eternally condemned. And the seed of the impious will perish, that is, their work will have no fruit. Therefore in the judgment they will say: "What did pride profit us? Or what did the boasting of riches confer on us? All those things passed by like a shadow." On every side this prophetic Scripture surrounds our weakness. Now it instructs us with words, now it forms us with examples. Hence it sets before us the punishment of the reprobate, and thence the glory of the just: so that the former may terrify us and restrain us from the love of this world, and the latter may stir us and invite us to the love of the heavenly fatherland. Whence also it is added:

But the righteous will inherit the land of the living. And this not for a time, but forever. Therefore he adds: And they will dwell upon it for ever and ever. Upon it, he says well: because they will be possessors and lords of that land. Do not, then, love this transitory inheritance, in which you cannot dwell for long. All things that pass away are to be despised; that alone is to be loved which cannot pass away, whose way is wisdom, of which it is next said:

The mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom. The mouth of the inner man is our heart. For just as with the mouth of the body we speak to men, so with the heart we speak to God. Now every spiritual progress proceeds from meditation: and it is that bread of which we spoke above. See, then, how willingly the righteous man eats, how he turns over and ruminates wisdom in his heart, so that afterward he may be able to bring forth a good word. Hence he also adds, And his tongue will speak judgment. To speak judgment is to utter a discerning word. First the righteous man considers in his heart what he ought to say and what to keep silent; and when he is silent about what must be kept silent, and says what must be said, his tongue speaks judgment. But he shows that the wisdom which the righteous man meditates is not worldly but divine, when he adds:

The law of his God is in his heart. The reprobate also have the law of God at times, but only in the mouth, not in the heart. They utter the words of God, yet do not love them; they extol them in praise, but trample them in their living. The righteous man, by contrast, because he both loves the word of God by meditating on it and fulfills it by loving it, is rightly said to be the one of whom it is written: The law of his God is in his heart. And what does this profit him? It follows, and he says: And his steps shall not be supplanted. The word of God in the heart sets free from every temptation; whence it is said elsewhere: I have hidden your words in my heart, that I might not sin against you (Ps. 118). He is with you, whose word does not depart from him. But what evil does he suffer, whom God guards? For see what follows:

The sinner considers the righteous man. That he may supplant him (from the same source, ibid.), and twist his steps aside. He speaks of what was foretold in the book of Wisdom: He is grievous to us even to look upon, for his life is unlike other men's (Wis. 2). And therefore he seeks to put him to death. In two ways the evil man seeks to put the good man to death. First, that he may consent to him, and so kill him in his soul. Then, if he does not consent, he seeks to kill him in his body. But what follows?

But the Lord will not abandon him in his hands. The Lord would abandon his righteous one into the hands of the wicked if he made him consent with the wicked. But he does not abandon his righteous one there, but out of the flesh that has been captured he brings forth the soul unconquered. And although he is scourged and killed outwardly, he is nonetheless always guarded inwardly. Nor will he condemn him when he is judged. That is, when judgment is made concerning him. For we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, so that each one may there receive what he has done through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5). When, therefore, that judgment has been reached, and the Lord has heard the case of his righteous one, he will no longer condemn him, even though he may seem to be condemned by man.

Wait, therefore, for the Lord, who will vindicate you, as the Apostle testifies, who says: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord (Rom. 12). And keep his way. That is, keep the commandments. And he will exalt you. From vices to virtues, from earthly things to heavenly. That you may receive the land as an inheritance. Namely, that land which no one will be able to take from you. When sinners have perished, you will see. But what glory will the righteous have, because he will see the sinner perish? When now he sees someone erring and perishing, does he not by compassion usually grieve and groan? But then, already joined to the author of his righteousness, he is bound by such great rectitude that he is moved by no compassion toward the reprobate. The righteous, therefore, will see the punishments of sinners and will rejoice (Ps. 57), because they will not be such as they.

In this matter it must be known that almighty God would never have created those whom he foreknew would perish forever, unless he had foreseen that some good uses would come from them. Indeed, just as their wickedness now benefits the good for the increase of holiness, so their punishment will benefit those same righteous ones for the increase of blessedness. For from the damnation of the reprobate the elect will recognize what they have merited through righteousness, because from their own salvation they will perceive what they have received through grace. And they will cling to the divine goodness with so much more ardent a love, inasmuch as by his free gift they will not feel punishment, and will receive unmerited glory. Then he shows how there is no prosperity for the wicked, when he adds:

I saw the wicked exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon. And I passed by, and behold, he was not; I sought him, and his place was not found. The wicked man is seen to be exalted and lifted up like the cedar of Lebanon when, swelling in heart, and surpassing even other lofty men of the world in power and glory, he is observed to be elated. But if you pass by in mind, and diligently consider what is to come, you will see with the eyes of faith that the glory or power of the wicked is nothing, even when it seems to be something. His place too is not found, when the condition of the present life is reckoned as nothing. And this indeed happens unceasingly. For now we see some flourishing in honors and riches, and behold, as if in a passing by and in a moment, we see those same men perish.

Hence we also say: Where is that man? Where is all that glory? Such great wealth? Such great power? And we groan, saying: Alas, that man is nothing. But it belongs to the imperfect to despise the glory of one who is about to die, in death itself; and then even those who love and pursue this glory even to death disparage him. They would indeed act more rightly if, when they saw a man in glory, they then thought on his destruction and perceived that his passing power is nothing. Then human pride is to be weighed, how it is nothing, when it exalts itself above others by its successes.

Keep therefore innocence, and see equity, for there are consequences for the peaceful man. True innocence is that which harms neither itself nor another. This is the treasure of the soul, which the enemy always strives to take away. Hence he also persuades us to desire earthly things, to love present glory, to serve the pleasures of the flesh. Equity is what the divine utterances speak of. According to what is written: What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to others (Tob. 4). And: What you wish men to do to you, do you also to them (Luc. 6). They are equity, because they proclaim that good things are repaid to the good and evil things to the evil. To keep innocence is to preserve oneself immaculate from vices and sins. He sees equity who diligently weighs both what he has received from the Lord and what he owes to pay back to him. Whoever does this is himself the peaceful man, whose remnant will be incorruption, immortality, eternal life.

But the unjust will perish, because they will be destroyed in body and soul. Together the remnants of the impious will perish. As it is said elsewhere in the psalm: When a man has become rich, and when his glory has been multiplied, when he enters in, he will not take it with him, and the rest. Therefore the remnants of the impious will enter in, because there will then be none of the riches that they loved.

But the salvation of the just is from the Lord. The first salvation, which pertains to the soul, which the just receive from the Lord, is the remission of sins through the grace of faith. Hence they are also just, because the just man lives by faith. But because this salvation is not yet perfect, and the just man is still in peril amid tribulations, it is rightly added: And their protector in the time of tribulation. For unless divine power protected his faithful ones, who could endure so many darts of temptations, or such great heats of vices?

And the Lord will help them. To fight, to do good. And he will deliver them. From tribulations. And he will rescue them from sinners, when he leads them from this life. And he will save them, with perpetual salvation. For this reason. Because they have hoped in him. Consider, O soldier of Christ, how much your emperor does for you. He himself is your salvation, your protection, your arms, your deliverance: that he may rule you here, guard you, and then lead you to eternal life.

TITLE OF PSALM THIRTY-SEVEN.

A psalm of David for the remembrance of the sabbath. This psalm befits David the prophet, or the penitent, in the remembrance of eternal rest. For thus sabbath is interpreted, that is, rest. In this psalm the subject matter is the penitent afflicted with many miseries and many sorrows on account of his sins. In the opening he wins the goodwill of the judge. In the second part he recounts his misery and excessive abasement, where he says, I have become miserable. In the third part he shows that he never abandoned God amid so many evils, but always hoped in him, and that he was prepared to suffer even graver things. In the conclusion he sets forth a certain exultation over the forgiveness obtained. His aim is to admonish us, not that we should understand (as he did in another penitential psalm), but that we should now patiently endure whatever evils have befallen us for the purging of sins, saying:

PSALM THIRTY-SEVEN.

Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your wrath. By fury is signified the vehement indignation of the Lord, with which the reprobate will be rebuked in judgment. Hence in his fury he will say to them (after first terrifyingly upbraiding them for the good works they neglected to do), Go, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matthew 25). In this fury those will be rebuked who in the time of mercy are not softened to repentance. By wrath can be understood the testing of the fire of Purgatory, in which those will be chastised who now build unfruitful things upon the foundation, Christ. They will indeed suffer loss, but they will be saved: yet so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3). But that fire will be more severe than anything a man can endure in this life. From this wrath, therefore, and fury, this penitent prays that he may be safe, pleading the many miseries by which he is already afflicted in this world, saying:

For your arrows are fixed in me, and you have strengthened your hand upon me. We are pierced as if by the Lord's arrows when we are wounded by the Lord with pains of body and soul because of sin. For the human soul is punished from that source whence it took delight. But the Lord strengthens his hand upon us, because the punishment of sin, with which he struck the first man, still persists in the human race. To such an extent has he strengthened his hand upon us that he did not even spare his own Son (Rom. 8). The first virtue is to avoid sins, that they ought not to be committed. The second is at least to correct sins once committed. But often we not only fail to avoid impending faults, but do not even recognize those already committed. And the mind of the sinner grows dark all the more deeply the less it understands the harm of its own blindness. Hence it often comes about by the bounty of the divine gift that punishment follows upon guilt, and scourges open the eyes of the one who sins, eyes which security amid base things had blinded. For the sluggish soul is touched by the blow so that it may be stirred up, so that one who has lost the secure state of his uprightness may, when afflicted, consider where he lies. The very harshness of correction becomes the source of light. Hence it is also added:

There is no health in my flesh because of the face of your wrath. For we bear a mortal body, full of temptations and anxieties, subject to bodily pains and needs, changeable and weak, needing medicine. For the medicine of hunger is food; the medicine of thirst is drink; the medicine of weariness is sleep. Take away these medicines, and those things which exist fail. But whence do we suffer these things? We behold the face of God's wrath; and "face" is said because of recognition, since we are accustomed to recognize people by the face. Through the recognition of God's wrath, moreover, there is also made the recognition of sin. And therefore he adds: There is no peace in my bones because of the face of my sins. By "bones" are understood the strong powers of the soul. Behold, because of our sins, which are the cause of God's wrath, we suffer many things in the members of the body, many things in the powers of the soul. In the body man has lost health, in the soul he has lost peace. For because he was unwilling to be in concord with his Maker, justly he found discord even within himself. He had great peace with God, when in the eternal light he clung without interruption, without contradiction of any trouble. But after by sinning he merited the wrath of God, soon falling miserably from that blessed immutability, and incurring the penalty of mortality and mutability, he lost peace, as we have said. Behold, as the bones sustain the flesh, so prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice sustain the mind.

But sometimes sluggishness creeps into the same mind, and prudence grows cold: for when it is weary and dull, it does not foresee what is to come. Sometimes pleasure creeps into the mind, and temperance grows cold: for insofar as we are drawn to earthly delights, to that extent are we less restrained from unlawful things. Sometimes fear insinuates itself into the heart, and disturbs the strength of our fortitude: and we are the weaker against adversities the more we dread to lose certain things that we have loved too immoderately. Sometimes, indeed, its own love thrusts itself upon the mind, and by a hidden delay diverts it from the uprightness of justice, and the more it neglects to give itself wholly back to its Author, the more it contradicts justice within itself. Folly also disturbs the wisdom of the soul, dullness the understanding, rashness the counsel, fear the fortitude, ignorance the knowledge, pride the fear. Again, in the heart charity is disturbed by scourges, hope is shaken by dread, faith is assailed by questionings. And because the virtues are disturbed by vices and sins in innumerable ways, it is rightly said, There is no peace in my bones because of the face of my sins. Nor is this a wonder,

For my iniquities have gone over my head. That is, they have prevailed over my mind, which is the head of the inner man. These are the things that take the mind captive in the law of sin and death (Rom. 7). And like a heavy burden, they have weighed heavily upon me. No burden can be as heavy as iniquity: its weight is felt only by those who desire to lay it down. For it does not seem heavy to one who still delights in it. But whoever desires to lay it down and to lift his mind up to heavenly things feels how great a burden iniquity is. When he struggles to rise, he lies down willingly; he is scarcely lifted up by the weak, and yet once lifted up he immediately slips back. By laboriously conquering himself he looks upon things above, but weighed down by his own weight he at once falls back upon himself. Hence he further adds:

My scars have rotted and become corrupt because of my foolishness. This is said by way of comparison. For just as scars rot first, and afterward the flesh bursts open, so sins healed in baptism rot when they are renewed in the will. But they become corrupt when we practice them in deed. And this happens from the face of our foolishness, that is, on account of the foolishness that is present in us. For the more we are foolish, the more we draw near to rottenness and corruption. Therefore it is further added:

I have become miserable, and I am bowed down even to the end. Before, I was blessed; now I have been made miserable, bearing many miseries, both in soul and in body. Before, I was erect even toward God; now I am bowed down even to the end, that is, into sin—or even to the very end, that is, unto death. Hence the Apostle, groaning, says: Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death (Rom. 7)? All day long I went about sorrowful. With spiritual joy lost, this sorrow is generated from the remembrance of the sabbath. Minds are to be lifted up, while they perceive that all transitory things are nothing; they seek after the things for which they were created; and when nothing beyond God is left to them, they rest in him in hope and love. And the more they are compelled to think on heavenly things, the more they lament their own distress, which they endure. Hence this penitent still adds:

For my loins are filled with illusions, and there is no health in my flesh. Let there be sorrow for us, until both our soul is stripped of illusions and our body is clothed with health. That is true health which is immortal. Therefore he has set down the loins, because in the loins is carnal pleasure, from which illusions are begotten. But who can enumerate how many and in what ways the soul is filled with illusions? Because of those illusions, at times one is scarcely permitted to pray.

Often thoughts rush in that we do not seek, and we wish to go from this one to that one and pass from that one to another; and sometimes you want to return to what you were thinking and to dismiss what you are thinking, and you cannot prevail, and something else occurs to you. You want to remember what you had forgotten, and it does not come to mind, and rather something else comes, which you did not want, and in its place innumerable things occur that were not sought. I have said this so that you may discover what it means to bewail the illusions of the soul. It has received punishment—illusions; it has lost truth. For just as illusion is a punishment of the soul, so truth is the soul's reward.

I am afflicted and humbled exceedingly: I roared from the groaning of my heart. From affliction comes humiliation, and from humiliation proceeds groaning. To this end the sinner is afflicted with punishments and scourges, so that he may be humbled in every way from his pride, in order that he who committed sin joyfully and elatedly may return, afflicted and humbled, to lamentation. What he says, I roared from the groaning, is a sign of the most vehement grief, when a man, out of the anxiety of his heart, in his groaning emits a kind of wild and intelligible roar. And it must be noted that he did not say, from the groaning of the flesh, but, from the groaning of the heart. For there are many who groan vehemently over some loss or temporal inconvenience. But the servant of God, because he roars from the remembrance of the sabbath, where is the kingdom of God, which flesh and blood shall not possess, fittingly says, I roared from the groaning of my heart.

This is shown clearly when it is added:

Lord, all my desire is before you, and my groaning is not hidden from you. Let your desire be directed toward him, and the Father, who sees in secret, will repay you (Matt. 6). But attend to what he says: Before you—as if he were saying, I desire nothing except what pleases you. For a perverse desire is not before God but against God. But if a good desire is present, groaning is present too; and though it does not always reach human ears, it never departs from the ears of God. He commends this inner groaning when he adds:

My heart is troubled. Why? Because my strength has forsaken me—namely, immortality, impassibility, innocence, justice. And the light of my eyes, that is, the light of reason. And that very thing which was natural to me is not with me. Or the light of my eyes is God himself. This light is not with him, but as it were with those who see in hope. But that light is not yet here of which it is said, I will show him myself (Ps. 90). We have some light, because we are children of God (John 1), and we certainly hold this in faith; but that light is not yet here which we shall see, for it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3). We know that when it appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. For now there is the light of faith and the light of hope. For as long as we are in the body, we are away from the Lord (2 Cor. 3). For we walk by faith, not by sight.

And as long as we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom. 8). Amid these tribulations, let us now listen to the words of our head for our consolation. Let our head now begin to shine forth in his passion; he says therefore,

My friends and my neighbors have drawn near and stood against me. As if he were saying: Why do you complain? See me afflicted, crucified, bearing your sins, carrying the miseries of the world, and taking them away. And this is what he says: My friends, that is, the Jews, who pretended to be my friends, and my neighbors according to the flesh (Matt. and 15), have drawn near against me, with swords and clubs (Matt. and 27), to hand me over; and they stood rigid, persevering in their malice. It is a grave thing to sin, but graver still to remain obstinate in sin. And note that he did not say enemies or strangers, but friends and neighbors. Certain evils that we suffer from friends are graver than those we suffer from enemies. For not only does their punishment torment us, but charity lost also tortures us. And those who were near me stood far off. That is, the disciples: because, having abandoned him, they all fled (Matt. 26). And those who sought my soul did violence. Dragging him to judgment and death. And those who sought evils for me spoke vanities. For they brought false testimonies against him (Luke 22 and 23). And they meditated deceits all day long. By which they might accuse him before Pilate (Matt. 26).

But now let us hear the patience of our Redeemer:

But I, as a deaf man, did not hear. Whence one of them said: Do you not hear how many things they testify against you (Luke 22)? And as a mute man not opening his mouth: As it is written: Like a sheep led to the slaughter, and he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53). And this was said according to his act. Since he had the act of hearing and speaking, he did not use it for vengeance. But these things pertain to his power, when it is subjoined:

And I became like a man not hearing, that is, not able to hear. And not having reproofs in his mouth, that is, although I had that by which I could reprove, nevertheless I was as one not having it. What else is in this, except that our pride is confounded? Which, if it has been stirred up even lightly, returns sharper injuries than it received: it does the evils it can, it threatens the evils it cannot. Behold, God, when he receives an injury, is not angry, does not answer with insulting words. And as if it were said to him, Why did you not open your mouth? It follows, and he says:

Because in you, Lord, I have hoped; you will hear me, Lord my God. Whence they also said: He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wills (Matthew 26). You easily overcome adversities if your hope is fixed in God. And if you are troubled for a time, in a fitting time the Lord your God will hear you. But whence will he hear? It follows:

Because I said, Lest at any time my enemies rejoice over me. We who are but men, when we wish to obtain something, humbly entreat the Lord. The mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2), because he is God of God, speaks and it is done. He prays when he wills, from the weakness of the flesh; he commands when he wills, from the power of divinity. But what did he say? Lest at any time my enemies rejoice over me, as over one conquered on my behalf. For they would have rejoiced over him, if he himself had not risen. And while they were stirred up, and as it were my feet were being shaken: in the passion they spoke great things against me. For casting off his yoke, and holding him in contempt, they said proudly: We have no king but Caesar (John 19). And many other things they spoke against him. Why?

Because I am ready for scourges. At times, as Augustine says, sinners in this life are either not scourged at all, or are scourged less, because their intention is already despaired of. But those for whom eternal life is being prepared must necessarily be scourged here: for that sentence is true, My son, do not faint under the discipline of the Lord, nor grow weary when you are rebuked by him (Prov. 3). For whom the Lord loves he chastises, and he scourges every son whom he receives (Hebr. 12; Apoc. 3). Therefore let not my enemies insult, let them not speak great things. And if my Father scourges me, I am ready for scourges, because an inheritance is being prepared for me. Do you not want the scourge? Then the inheritance is not given to you. For every son must necessarily be scourged. Indeed every son is scourged to such a degree that he spared not even himself, who had no sin (1 Petr. 2). And my sorrow is in my sight always. Was he erasing it because of the scourge? Far be it. From what, then? What follows:

Because I will declare my iniquity, and I will think on account of my sin. Behold, here is the source of grief. Not from the scourge, not from the wound, not from the medicine, but from sin. For the scourge is medicine against sin. Do not be secure when you have confessed your sin. This is not enough, unless you then think on account of your sin. You have laid bare the wound by confessing; the priest, who is the physician of your soul, has given you counsel of medicine: he has told you what to abstain from, what to apply to your wound. You must therefore think on account of your sin, and always retain it in memory, and do what you have heard, take care, and give attention, so that you may be healed. That man was thinking on account of his sin who said: Because I know my iniquity, and my sin is always against me. For he was not yet secure, although he had heard from the prophet: The Lord has taken away your sin. But these words are spoken in our person, who are sinners.

But my enemies live. It is well with them; they rejoice in the felicity of the world, where I labor, I roar from the groaning of my heart. And they have been strengthened against me, that is (from Augustine), massed together and made strong to oppress me. And those who hated me unjustly have been multiplied. For many appeared as enemies in the passion who before seemed friends. Because Christ loved them, they hated him unjustly. For the hatred is unjust, to hate a friend. The hatred is unjust, to hate the man, not the sin. This is the whole and great guilt of those men. For what could they harm by persecuting one who dies by will, not by necessity? But the hatred itself is the greatest crime of the persecutor.

Those who return evils for goods were disparaging me, and for no other cause than because I was following goodness. They ought indeed to have returned good for such great benefits: which they not only did not do, but even returned evils for good. Nor did they harm only by deed, but they also disparaged by word. On account of this he prays, and says:

Do not forsake me, O Lord my God. That is, do not permit me to fall into temptation. Do not depart from me. Do not, through the absence of your grace, let me perish. This is said in our own person.

Attend to my help. That is, give yourself attentive, so that you may help me to act well. O Lord, the God of my salvation. My ruler, my Creator, and the author of my salvation.

TITLE OF PSALM XXXVIII.

Unto the end, for Idithun, a song of David himself. The words of a certain one (from Augustine) who is called Idithun are to be awaited and heard. And if each one of us can be Idithun in what he sings, he finds himself and hears himself. Idithun, indeed, we interpret as "leaping over them." If anyone has sung as one leaping over, let him rejoice that he is what he has sung. If anyone still clinging to the earth has sung, let him desire and strive to be what he has sung. It is called a song because it contains spiritual gladness: for it teaches us to leap over in mind from earthly things to heavenly. It sends us unto the end, that is, unto Christ. The matter is one who leaps over and is perfect, who, setting aside all the pleasure of worldly things, longs only for heavenly things, and is such a one as has been made perfect by God, so that he even wholly restrains his tongue from sin. This he arranges in parts as follows. In the first part that leaping-over one shows that he is silent to the world, that is, to wicked men, who press him down and try to find fault with his words and to speak about him.

In the second part he compares these worldly things with heavenly things, showing that these are vain and those are to be desired. In the third part he places a prayer, that he may be freed from evils and be able to obtain heavenly things. His intention is to admonish the righteous, that, setting aside worldly things, they may pass over to heavenly things.

PSALM XXXVIII.

I said, I will keep my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue. Our ways toward the Lord are our actions and our words. For by speaking well and acting rightly we set out toward eternal things. And because the holy man had already kept watch over the ways of wicked action, he resolved also to guard the ways of unlawful speech. For he who does not offend in word, that man is perfect (James 3). Hence Solomon says: He who guards his tongue guards his soul (Prov. 21). I said, I say, and I did. For it follows: I set a guard upon my mouth. When? When some pious, religious, and holy man stood against me? Far be it. These hear in such a way (according to Augustine) that what they approve they praise; but what they disapprove, among the many things perhaps that they praise, they grant pardon to the unpraised rather than prepare calumny. When, then? When the sinner stood against me. For the proud sinner stands by a certain peculiar knowledge of his own; any envious man hears one speaking as he passes by, catches at his words, sets snares. It is difficult that he not find something not said as it ought to have been said; nor does he forgive by listening, but he slanders by envying. With such men indeed one must be silent rather than say anything.

For what would you say to the turbulent, the slanderous, the quarrelsome? Hence the Lord says in the Gospel: Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast pearls before swine (Matthew 7). But how he set a guard over his mouth, he indicates when he adds:

I was silent, and I was humbled, and I kept silence from good things. Rightly, when he had said, I was silent, he immediately adds, And I was humbled: so that we may understand that the just man fell silent not from anger or indignation, but solely from humility. But he kept silence from good things, so that he might not offend in evil things. And from this, he says, my sorrow was renewed. For from a certain sorrow, which the slanderers and critics had brought upon me, I had, as it were, found rest in silence, and that sorrow which had been caused by the slanderers had ceased. But my sorrow was renewed, because I began to grieve more for having kept silent about the things I ought to have said, than I had grieved for having said the things I ought not to have said. And therefore:

My heart grew hot within me. My heart began to be restless: I saw the foolish, and I wasted away. I did not accuse them, and while I kept silent thus, zeal for your house consumed me (Psalm 68; John 2). And lest we should think this heat was small, he immediately added: And in my meditation the fire shall burn. In that he did not say, It burned, but, It shall burn, he shows that that fire grows more and more from silence. As if he were saying: As long as I keep silent, so much the more shall the fire burn. Placed in this fluctuation of speaking and keeping silent, between those who are ready to slander and those who desire to be instructed, in danger lest he cast pearls to swine, in danger lest he fail to distribute food to his fellow servants: in this heat he sought another, better place, and sighing for a certain end, where he would no longer suffer these things, he said:

I have spoken in my tongue. But why does he speak to him in his tongue, to whom his thought is known? But perhaps for this reason he speaks in his tongue, so that by his utterance the life of his hearers may be instructed. He says therefore: Make known to me, Lord, my end. Because he already knew the ways in which he was pleased, and he was guarding them, as far as he could, lest he offend: he wishes also to know his end, to which he ought to tend: lest, if he runs into uncertainty, he should be able to go astray. The Apostle showed us the end of our way, where he says: The end of the law is Christ, for righteousness to every one that believes (Romans 16). Christ is the end of our work, and the reward of our labor.

We strive toward him, and beyond him there is nowhere we can strive. For he himself is the highest good, the highest blessedness. Whoever does not know this end does not strive toward him. Even if he seems to live rightly, he runs in vain. And he desires to know not only the certain end but also the true life, when he adds: And what is the number of my days? Make it known to me. Why? That I may know what is lacking to me. Those days are not [true days]. They pass away almost before they come, and when they have come they cannot stand still. They press upon one another, they follow one another, and they do not hold one another. Nothing is recalled from the past, what is expected as future is going to pass away; it is not yet possessed while it has not come; it is not held once it has come. The number of days, therefore, that truly is, is the very infinity of eternity, which possesses true being, because it cannot pass away. Nor is it called a number of days because it is so in reality, but because we designate long spans of time by a plurality of days according to our capacity; into the infinite span of eternity he wished, improperly, to call it a number of days that is. Rightly, however, he first desires to know those things, so that afterward he may know what is lacking to him. For we cannot fully know what is lacking to us in temporal things unless we first know the eternal goods that we have lost, as the Lord reveals. For this reason the reprobate cannot perceive what is lacking to them, because through love they succumb to earthly things.

And since they do not lift up their hearts to eternity, they think exile is their homeland, darkness is light, and running is stability; because those who do not know greater things cannot judge concerning lesser things. On the contrary, when the servant of God lifts his heart to things above, he weighs the frailty of temporality better by the consideration of eternity. Hence, as though his end were known to him, and the number of days that exists, he attends to these things which pass away, and says:

Behold, you have set my days as measurable. That is, not eternal, but subject to decay. For everyone lives under a fixed measure. And my substance: not the renewal which Christ made, but the bodily essence, which we drew from Adam: as nothing before you. Some seem great in their own eyes, of whom it is written: Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes (Isa. 3); but before God they are nothing, as the Apostle testifies, who says: Whoever thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself (Gal. 5). Nor is this man great on this account, for inflation and swelling imitate greatness, but do not have health. Thus the first man was handed over, so that through the increases of times his life could be extended only, not unrolled. But because he fell of his own will into guilt when he touched what was forbidden, he lost his course. Therefore now this holy man sees his days as transitory, and knows himself to be nothing but dust. Hence also, following on, he added: Nevertheless, all things are vanity, every man living. I have already passed over all mortal things. I have ascended to the delight of the law of God.

I have desired the end (from Augustine), of which there is no end, and the number of days that exists, and in what remains I thus begin. Nevertheless, as long as I live temporally, as long as the life of man upon earth is a trial (Job 7), as long as human nature, both according to the body and according to the soul, has deficiency beneath it: All is vanity, every man living. For all things that are in man, both within and without, have dissolution or mutability. All things, I say—man both remaining and passing through, and even Idithum himself—as long as he lives here, is subject to all vanity. Whence Solomon says: I saw all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity (Eccl 1). Whence also it is added:

Nevertheless man passes through in an image, but even so he is troubled in vain. Although he bears the image of God, yet he not only passes but passes through. To pass is to tend toward the end at every moment. But to pass through is to end life by dying. Nor does he suffer only these things, but he is also troubled in vain by earthly pursuits. Whence also it is added: He treasures up, and does not know for whom he will gather them. This vanity is still more to be lamented, because when man falls from the love of his Creator, he straightway clings to worldly things in love and zeal, to such an extent that he willingly endures his exile; he departs unwillingly, and blinded by base desire, he gathers treasures: but he does not know for whom he gathers them. Whence it was said to a certain man: Fool, this night they will take your soul from you.

What you have prepared, whose will they be (Luke 12)? Do you wish to have what God has, and not lose it? I will show you a safe place. Hear the Lord in the Gospel: Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where thieves do not steal, nor rust or moth destroy (Matthew 6). But then, you say, how shall I store up in heaven? Place them in the hands of the poor (Luke 11): give to the needy. Hear, and do what this one, leaping over, adds:

And now, what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord? And because all things here pass away, and nothing is held certain or secure now—that is, in this vanity, in this pilgrimage, while I cannot yet possess—what ought I to do but wait for God? And turning to the one whom, waiting, he loves, he says to him in familiar and ancient speech: And my substance is with you. With the Lord he has his substance, whoever for God's sake distributes all that he has, or spends what he retains for his honor, and desires nothing at all besides God. After contempt for things, he seeks forgiveness of sins, when he adds:

Deliver me from all my iniquities. From all, I say: of thought, of speech, and of deed; from hidden sins and from those of others; from venial sins and from criminal ones. And because I despise earthly things, because I do not wish to rejoice in transient things, because I seek humility and poverty, and desire only things invisible. You have made me a reproach to the foolish. Hence the Apostle says: We have been made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men (1 Cor 4). On the right and on the left we have weapons with which we fight, through glory and ignobility, through infamy and good report, as deceivers and yet true (2 Cor 6). Hence elsewhere the Psalmist says: We have been greatly filled with contempt (Ps 122). Our soul has been greatly filled: reproach to the wealthy, and contempt to the proud. Placed amid these reproaches, the holy man commends his patience to us, when he adds:

I was silent, and I did not open my mouth. I did not answer them a word, nor did I murmur against you. Because he could have been silent first and spoken afterward, therefore after he said, I was silent, he immediately added, And I did not open my mouth: so that he might show the long-suffering of his silence. Then he asks for mercy and healing, putting the reason first, when he adds:

Because you have made: your plagues are loved by me. What are these plagues with which almighty God has struck the sinful man, except corruption, passibility, and mortality? From these plagues he desires to be healed, and to be brought back to true health, that is, to impassibility and immortality. And you ought, he says, to do this, because you made me, or because you made those plagues, to remove them from me. For just as it is yours to strike the sinner out of justice, so it is yours to spare out of mercy. For you are not only just, but also merciful. Moreover, he shows that he is vehemently afflicted, when he adds:

By the strength of your hand I have fainted under your rebukes. The strength of God's hand is the very stroke of the whip. When he himself scourges, we faint away from the rigor of our own pride. His strokes are rebukes to us. For in that he scourges, he rebukes us, because we have sinned. Hence, commending the Lord's justice and intimating our own guilt, he adds: Because of iniquity you have corrected men. All that I have done, all that I am weak, all that I cry out from the depths, all is because of iniquity; and in this you have instructed man. Hear this more plainly from another psalm: It is good for me, O God, that you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications. I have been humbled, and it is good for me: it is both a punishment and a grace. Hence it is said elsewhere: You who fashion labor in the commandment, that is, you form the labor, so that it may be a commandment to me. I say, take it away. And there is need for you to take it away, because I have fainted, that is, I could not endure, from the strength of your hand, that is, from your strong vengeance brought about in rebukes. By saying, in rebukes, he notes that God brings about his vengeance for this purpose, that he may draw man back from sin. When I speak of your plagues, or your strong hand, I do not accuse you, but I confess that I have iniquity, on account of which you have corrected me, a man, with your disciplines. Here is noted the judgment and the mercy of God. In this is judgment, that he scourges on account of iniquity.

In this there is mercy, that he chastises with correction like a father, so as to lead back to the way of truth. Hence he still adds: And you have made his soul waste away like a spider. Consider that creature itself, how wasting it is. Put it upon your finger, and it is a ruin. Nothing at all is more wasting. You have made the human soul such, to be instructed for iniquity. The instruction of the just God made this infirmity. There was a certain strength of vile things; by a certain strength man became displeasing, so that he might be instructed by infirmity, and because pride was displeasing, he is gnawed away by humility, or by infirmity. This verse can be applied both to the good and to the evil. To the good in this way: you have so corrected man that he might utterly mortify himself to the world, as a spider mortifies itself in its work. The soul of the just man wastes away like a spider when it fails from the fatness of carnal pleasure, when it macerates the flesh with fastings and vigils and chastises the mind from unlawful desires, when it strives to mortify itself to vices and concupiscences and to grow thin in virtues, to weave, so that with a wedding garment it may be able to appear worthy of the heavenly bridegroom. Or as a spider, to do a useless work, draws out and consumes its own inner parts, so the sinner vainly spends the inner parts of his soul in the appetite for earthly things. For the covetous man even holds his own soul for sale. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel: And what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?

And therefore it is added: Nevertheless, every man is troubled in vain. That is, every man who lives according to the flesh, while he strives to desire earthly things through covetousness, is troubled to no purpose. Who, as Augustine says, is secure even concerning his own good? What in this land is certain, except death? Consider all things, whether good or evil of this life, whether in righteousness itself or in iniquity itself: all things are uncertain. You know what you are today; you do not know what you will be tomorrow. Are you poor? It is uncertain whether you may become rich. Unlearned? It is uncertain whether you may be instructed. Weak? It is uncertain whether you may recover. You were born? It is certain that you will die. Wherever you turn, all things are uncertain. Death alone is certain, and it alone is much guarded against, though it is in no way avoided. Whoever, therefore, is troubled, let him cast his care upon the Lord, and say what follows:

Hear my prayer. That you may make my end known to me. And my supplication. That you may snatch me away from all iniquities. And you ought to hear, because I entreat you with affection and tears. And this is what he says: Give ear to my tears. The more holy anyone is, the more abundant tears he has in prayer, which the gracious God receives with his ears when he mercifully accepts them. If you wish to be heard by the Lord, pray with tears, break your heart. No greater sacrifice can be offered to God than a contrite and humbled heart (Ps. 50). Where there are tears, there the divine fire is kindled.

It is usually asked why God should be prayed to, and what need there is of prayer, since he himself knows what we need before we ask (Matt. 6). But for this reason we must pray, because the intent of prayer calms and purifies our heart, and makes it more capable of receiving the divine gifts that are poured into us spiritually. The loving Lord offers us his grace, and is always ready to give; but we are not always ready to receive, since we are inclined to earthly things and are held in darkness by the desire for temporal things. There occurs, then, in prayer a turning of the heart to God, and in that very turning we are made purer and more worthy. Hence it is further added: Do not be silent, for I am a stranger with you. For God speaks his secrets by his hidden utterance in the hearts of his faithful, and pours in the breath of his grace. Therefore elsewhere the psalmist asks, saying: Say to my soul, I am your salvation (Ps. 34). And again: I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me, and the rest (Ps. 84). For this reason, then, you must not be silent toward me: because I am a stranger, transferred from the city of Babylon, in which I was born through original sin (Ps. 50), dwelling with you, serving you, and belonging to your household. Yet I am not even now in your city. Therefore it is added: And a pilgrim, as all my fathers were pilgrims—namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others. For as long as we are in the body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord (Heb. 13).

For we have here no abiding city, but we seek the one to come in heaven. What then? It remains that I should ask, because without doubt I am about to depart. There follows and he says:

Remit to me, that I may be refreshed. In my conscience, that it may be unburdened from the heat of the anxiety of my sins. Before I depart from this life: And I shall be no more, that is, I do not have true being, if I depart from here without my sins first being forgiven.

TITLE OF PSALM 39.

The title of the following psalm is, Unto the end, a psalm of David. This psalm belongs to David, that is, to Christ, namely the head and the members. The subject matter is the change of the old sacrifice. In the first part he sets forth the testimony of this renewal. In the second part he introduces Christ himself doing away with the legal ordinances and confirming his own renewal. In the last part he introduces the followers of Christ, that is, those who proclaim. He intends to persuade that the legal institutions already have their end, and that one must come to God through Christ: so that, namely, with the superstitions of the Jews and the idolatry of the Gentiles set aside, we may come to the faith of Christ. He says therefore:

PSALM XXXIX.

Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and he attended to me. As if he were saying, I so waited for the Lord that I was waiting every day; and because I persevered, the Lord attended to me, that is, for my benefit, namely by bestowing his grace. For he who perseveres to the end, this one will be saved (Matt. 24). Hence the Prophet admonishes us, saying: If it delays, wait for it, because coming it will come (Hab. 2). But in what way the Lord attended to him, he explains when he adds:

And he heard my prayers. In what did he hear? Hear what follows. And he brought me out of the pit of misery. That is, out of the certain depth of error, which makes men miserable. And from the mire of the dregs. That is, from the desires of the flesh, which render souls muddy before the Lord and lying in the lowest depths.

And he set my feet upon a rock, and he directed my steps. [Verse 5.] And he put into my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God. The order of the words must be noted. For first he is led out from the mire of wickedness, so that his feet may be established on the rock through faith. But because right action ought to follow right faith, his steps were directed, so that after the directing of his steps, that is, the perfection of good work, he might also receive in his mouth the new song of preaching. For still, while we lie in the confusion of our infirmities, the authority of preaching ought not to be granted to us.

But when we have already risen to good works, when we have already begun to stand upright, it is fitting that we should be sent to preach for the winning of others. It is also very much to be noted that after he said "a song," he immediately added "a melody," that is, a hymn to our God. For there are some to whom the grace of teaching is given by the Lord, but who try to turn it back to their own glory. These, to be sure, receive the song in their mouth, but they disdain to render the melody, that is, praise, to the Lord our God for the grace they have received. But since this holy man received the word of preaching from the New Testament—that is, concerning the Lord's incarnation, passion, resurrection, ascension, and the other things that pertain to the new life and the new man—and spends all these things for the praise of almighty God, he rightly testified that not only was a new song placed in his mouth, but also a melody to our God. Be a new man, preach Christ: and so you have sung a new song. Do not seek your own praise, but praising, call upon the Lord: and so you have spoken a melody to our God. To preach the faith of the Lord, and moreover devoutly to praise him, is to sing a song and a melody to our God. And because, when this song and melody were heard, the holy man saw that he would convert many to the faith, he therefore immediately added: Many shall see, and shall fear, and shall hope in the Lord. Those who were blind and understood nothing of God, attending to and imitating the singers of the new song, have been enlightened.

Therefore those who believe will see, those who repent will fear, those who desire heavenly things will hope. After a man has been enlightened by faith, the first step toward God is fear, as it is written, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 110). And the more each one humbles himself within by fear, the more he is raised up in God by hope. But raised up by hope to invisible goods, he begins to love heavenly things and to despise earthly things (1 Cor. 13). Behold faith, hope, and charity, by which God is worshiped and man is made blessed. Hence it is also added:

Blessed is the man whose hope the name of the Lord is. The name of the Lord is Jesus, which is interpreted Savior (Matt. 1; Luke 1). Blessed, therefore, is he who hopes to be saved by Jesus. And he did not look upon vanities and false follies. That is, so as to serve avarice or worship idols. For to desire earthly things is to look upon vanities. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, "No one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9). Therefore in another psalm he prays, saying, "Turn away my eyes lest they see vanity" (Ps. 118). But to worship idols, to adore stones, to serve the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1), who made all things and orders all things by wise thought, is a great and false folly. Hence, turning himself to the Lord in faith and devotion, so that he may likewise turn the hearts of others to him—those who look upon vanities and false follies—he says:

You have done many things, O Lord my God; your wonders are your own. For you made heaven and earth and all things that are in them: and these are indeed yours, that is, subject to you, serving you. And in your thoughts, by which you dispose all things, there is none who is like you. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? These wonders of yours, both visible and invisible, and your incomprehensible wisdom, proclaim that you alone are to be worshiped, you alone are to be loved and desired: not these vanities and false follies. I have announced these things to those who did not know them. And I have spoken to those who know. For I am a debtor to the wise and to the foolish. Or: I announced beforehand through the fathers, and last of all I spoke through myself. They have been multiplied beyond number. For many, having heard the preaching of piety, have come to the fellowship of believers, who are not in the number of the elect, as the Truth bears witness, who says: Many are called, but few are chosen. Beyond the number, therefore, of those predestined to life, believers have been multiplied. And because in the time when the faith was preached, the old sacrifice was also changed: this is shown when it is added:

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have perfected ears for me. Behold how the holy man foresaw that the sacrifice was to be changed, and that the law was to be understood spiritually. Nor was this done in his own times, but in ours. He foresaw this by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. But we, just as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord. Behold, sacrifice and offering, as was the custom before, the Lord did not desire. He himself has become for us both priest and sacrifice. He is the true Lamb of God, who was offered for us, who takes away the sins of the world. The shadow has passed, the truth has appeared: the old things have passed away, and behold, new things have been made. Moreover, he has perfected ears for us, so that what we hear from the law, we may understand spiritually. These are the ears Christ was seeking when he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8). He perfected ears for his disciples when he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24). Or ears are perfected for us by God when we are made perfect in all things for obeying him. Whence it is written: Obedience is better than victims (1 Kings 15). The peoples had ears perfected by the Lord, of whom the Lord speaks elsewhere through the Psalmist: A people whom I did not know served me: in the hearing of the ear it obeyed me (Psalm 17). Holocaust and offering for sin you did not require (Hebrews 10).

This is the difference between a holocaust and a sacrifice: that when some part of the victim was offered to God, it was called a sacrifice, but a holocaust was wholly burnt, namely when the whole victim was burned in the sacrifice. But the Lord requires neither the lesser nor the greater sacrifices of the old law, to whom now not the shadow but the truth is pleasing, since he did not demand these things. What are the things he demanded? It follows, and he says:

Then I said, Behold, I come. This is the voice of Christ in his own person: Then, that is, at that time when it seemed opportune to me that old things should be changed into new: I said, Behold, I come, that is, I determined that my advent should be made manifest. He draws testimony of this advent from the Scripture, when he adds, turning himself to the Father and saying: In the head of the book it is written of me, that I should do your will: My God, I have willed: And your law in the midst of my heart. In the first psalm of this book it is written that I should do your will, that is, that I should fulfill the obedience enjoined on me by you. And so it is written: Thus I have willed, O my God. I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. Attend to what is written in the head of this book concerning Christ. For it is said there, Blessed is the man who has not gone away, and the rest. But here he says, Behold, I come. There it is said: But his will is in the law of the Lord: here however he says, That I should do your will.

It is said there: And in the law of the Lord he will meditate day and night; but here he says: And your law is in the midst of my heart. These are sufficiently equivalent. What is in the middle does not incline more to either side. Therefore that person has the law of God in the midst of his heart who so meditates on and keeps his commandments that he does not turn aside to the right or to the left (Deut. 5). That person has the law of God in the midst of his heart who loves the Lord his God with his whole heart, and with his whole soul, and with all his strength, and his neighbor as himself (Luke 10). Whoever is such a person is assuredly righteous, so that he does not cease to preach to others the righteousness that he himself has (Gal. 3). Hence it is also added:

I have announced your righteousness in the great Church, spread throughout the whole world. I have announced that righteousness does not come from legal institutions, but from you. Behold, I will not restrain my lips. If some wish to prohibit it, I will not be silent. Peter had such lips, so ready to preach righteousness: when it was forbidden by the rulers that he should speak any further about Jesus, he himself courageously answered, We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 4 and 5). And because my lips are ready to announce the truth, Lord, you have known it. For you are the searcher of the heart, you are the witness of the conscience. Whatever our lips speak, God always attends to our heart, and judges us according to it.

Such, therefore, ought we to show ourselves, that we may please the Lord our God with heart and lips. With the heart, says the Apostle, one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10). Let the lips sound, let the heart be near, so that you may be able to invoke the Lord as witness of your heart, saying, Lord, you have known. For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor. 1). Hence also it follows:

I have not hidden your righteousness in my heart. Like that slothful servant who hid his talent in the earth (Matt. 25). There the Lord said to his disciples, All things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15). Therefore he also commanded the Apostles that they should not carry a purse (Luke 9). For he carries a purse who conceals the divine words in his heart. Righteousness in this place is understood as faith. For the righteous lives by faith (Rom. 1). Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gal. 3). This many have hidden in their heart out of fear of death. Many still hide the righteousness of God, either fearing punishment or fearing loss. But those who fear neither punishment nor loss belong to those of whom it is said, Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5). I have spoken your truth and your salvation. That is, I have preached Christ, who says of himself, I am the Truth (John 14). And of whom Simeon says, My eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2).

And elsewhere the Psalmist asks, saying: Give us your salvation. I have not hidden your mercy and your truth from the great assembly. In councils and synagogues, before kings and governors, the holy apostles and martyrs preached with great authority and boldness the mercy and truth of Christ. Do you wish to hear of God's mercy? Do penance, and your sins are forgiven you. Do you wish to hear of the truth? Keep justice, and eternal reward will be given you. Hear mercy and truth together. Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Penance belongs to mercy, the kingdom of heaven to truth. Now mercy is preached; afterward truth will be shown forth. Again, he who now despises mercy will afterward feel the strictness of truth—not indeed unto glory, but unto punishment. Then he looked upon the wounded members, and prays for them, saying:

But you, Lord, do not put your mercies far from me—that is, from my people. Attend to sinners, and do not put your mercies far from them. Whoever feels himself being carried far from the Lord by a depraved life, by an evil will, let him say devoutly, let him say with tears: But you, Lord, do not put your mercies far from me. I am wretched, you are merciful. My iniquities are many, but your mercies surpass them. Your mercy and your truth have always upheld me. I attend, because you are merciful; I attend, because you are truthful. I love the merciful one, I fear the truthful one. And so love and fear lead me to you, because your mercy and your truth have always upheld me. Therefore I pray that you do not put your mercies far away.

For evils have surrounded me, of which there is no number. My sins are innumerable, my negligences are countless, which surround me on every side, hinder me on every side. Let us say these things from the marrow of our heart. Let us show our passions to our physician: let us humbly beseech him to receive us for healing. Let no one think himself righteous. For, as the Apostle bears witness, we all offend in many things (James 3). It belongs to us to cry out, to groan, to confess—not to boast, not to glory in merits. And if there are any such merits, what do you have that you did not receive (1 Cor. 4)? Rightly, then, it is added: My iniquities have overtaken me, and I could not see. To such an extent do our iniquities overtake us that, even if we wish to escape, we are unable to do so without help.

Hence elsewhere the Psalmist says: The cords of sinners have wrapped around me (Ps. 118). And so he also asks, saying, Convert, O Lord, our captivity (Ps. 125). But having lost the light of truth, we have come into such great blindness that we do not know ourselves. We commit evils, and we do not detect them, or the things we have committed, quickly enough. The soul, shut out from the inner light, finds nothing in itself except darkness. It has lost the ability to see itself, because it despised the vision of its own Maker. From the loss of light, the multiplicity of iniquity grew; therefore he adds: They are multiplied beyond the hairs of my head. He recalls the hairs of the head to the number of multiplicity. Who (from Augustine) counts the hairs? Much less does he count sins, which exceed the number of hairs. You no longer kill, you do not commit adultery, you do not steal, you do not bear false witness, and the other great sins of this kind: these are the massive bulk of sins. You have guarded against great things; what do you do about the small ones? You have cast off the bulk; see that you are not overwhelmed by the sand. But there is still something far more serious, which he adds: And my heart has abandoned me. That is, the strength of my heart has failed, and it is not fit for knowing itself. As often as we wander in mind outside, we are delighted by earthly things, we abandon our own pursuits: and as often as we do, or speak, or think empty things: so often our heart abandons us. As often as we do not think of God, or of the things that pertain to the benefit of souls: so often we send our heart away.

Hence someone wisely said, "At whatever time you have not thought of God, reckon that you have lost it." Therefore this petition follows appropriately, in which it is said:

Let God be pleased with you, that you may deliver me, O Lord, look upon me to help me. He speaks well. Let him be pleased: for not from merits, but by his good pleasure alone (Tit. 3), by his grace alone, by his goodness alone, does God justify a man. The merciful Lord has pity on us because it pleases him, not because we have deserved it. Therefore he said to his disciples, "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (John 15). And the Apostle says, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15). Commending grace, therefore, he humbly entreats the Lord that he may deliver him from so many and such great evils which he set forth beforehand, so that by mercifully looking upon him he may help him in good things. Then he prays against his persecutors, saying:

Let them be confounded and put to shame together, who seek my soul. Let them fear—either the Lord, or the punishment by which they are to be punished. Many sought the soul of Christ, but he had power to lay down his soul and to take it up again. But they rejoiced when he laid it down; they were confounded when he took it back. Many also seek the body of Christ, and seek to destroy souls (John 10); and these indeed will either be confounded now, so that they blush for their evils and repent and, fearing, revere him; or they will endure everlasting confusion afterward, when it is said to them, "Go, you cursed, into eternal fire" (Matt. 25).

Hence there also follows: Let them be turned back and be ashamed, who wish me evil. Let those be turned back through humility, who were wrongly erect through pride, and let those who went before by dragging and killing follow by obeying. Let us also revere, that is, let them fear and honor God, who previously blasphemed; and so let them be converted from the evil will by which they were persecuting me.

Let them bear their confusion speedily. That they may quickly return to penitence: Who say to me, Well done, well done. That is, Good, good: it is a mocking praise. In these three verses note three kinds of persecutors. First he prays for those who seek his soul, to take it away: those are to be understood who by open persecution attempt to kill the servants of God. Such were those who with swords and clubs seized Jesus, and who placed him on the cross (John 18). Then he prays for those who wish him evil (Matthew 26). Those are to be taken who do not yet persecute openly, but bear hatred and enmities in their heart: these sometimes use simulations and cunning arguments to deceive those whom they hate; sometimes they break out into words of malice. Such were the Jews against the Lord (Matthew and 22). Afterwards he prays for those who say to him, Well done, well done: those are designated who are accustomed to mock the religion and simplicity of the just. Such also were present at the passion of Christ. All these persevere in his body.

But just as the Lord did not avenge himself on them, but prayed for them (Luke 23; Hebrews 5), so we ought not to seek vengeance on our enemies, but to offer a humble prayer, just as he himself commanded, saying: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; and, Pray for those who persecute and slander you (Matthew 5). And as if someone were asking, with what fruit, with what reward? he immediately adds, That you may be (he says) sons of your Father who is in heaven. And giving us an example from himself, he adds: Who makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust (ibid.). Consider how great an honor it is to be a son of God, so that you may patiently endure the injuries of an enemy. Then, turning to the Lord, he consoles us and admonishes us, saying:

Let all who seek you exult and rejoice over you. Let all who seek you through faith and love exult in body, rejoice in spirit: not over themselves, but over you: so that whoever boasts may boast in the Lord. A twofold reward has been promised to us by the Lord, namely, the immortality of the body and the blessedness of the soul (2 Corinthians 10). Therefore we are commanded to rejoice with a twofold exaltation, when it is said, Let them exult and rejoice. For to exult pertains to the body, but to rejoice to the soul. Moreover, the praise of the Lord is commended when it is added, And let those who love your salvation say always, May the Lord be magnified.

For what should we praise, proclaim, and magnify so much as God, the Father of lights, from whom is every good gift and every perfect gift (James 1)? For he himself led our first fathers, who were waiting for him, out of the mire of the dregs, and set them upon the firm rock, which is Christ (Ephesians 1); and he gave them good works, taught them a new song, and enlightened others through them. He gave them fear and hope, drawing them away from false vanities. He increased them both in number and in virtue. Then he sent his Son in the flesh, to do his will and to proclaim his righteousness in the great Church, and his mercy and truth and his salvation, so that we might be freed from countless sins and enemies, and might exult and rejoice in the Lord. These are the causes of the righteous, that they may always say: Let the Lord be magnified. But who are those who say this? Those, he says, who love your salvation, that is, your Son, through whom eternal salvation has been given to us. Whoever does not love our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 16), praise is not beautiful in his mouth. Nothing commends our praise before the Lord except affection and love. But what ought we so to love as him by whom we were created and saved? Again he returns to the consideration of the misery and want that he suffers in this pilgrimage, and says,

But I am a beggar and poor. Yet consolation returns at once, when he adds, The Lord is solicitous for me. Behold, we are the Lord's beggars: we sit at the door of his mercy: we beg, and we cry out, Thy kingdom come, and, Give us our bread, and, Deliver us from evil (Matt. 6). For we are poor, we have nothing of ourselves. Behold, great hope: The Lord is solicitous for me. Someone established in the Lord's service says, I am a beggar, I am poor, I have nothing to live on. Do not despise the Lord's poor. Cast all your solicitude upon him, for he himself has care for you. And do not say, What shall we eat? or with what shall we be clothed? for the Gentiles think of these things. What then is to be done? First seek the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt. 6). The Lord, says the poor man, is solicitous for me. Therefore if the Lord is solicitous, let us be secure. But because he who has long been waiting has grown weary, he entreats the Lord, when he adds: My helper, and my protector thou art, my God, do not delay. Waiting, I have waited for thee, my Lord: thou hast attended to me, lavishing many benefits: thou art solicitous for me. In this life thou hast become my helper in good things, and my protector in adversities. Only thy coming remains for me, my God, do not delay. As long as I do not see thee, I do not possess thee, I am a beggar and poor. Nothing apart from thee suffices for me. Thou art my expectation: thou art my salvation: do not tarry.

For one who longs and burns with desire, a single hour is a long delay: My God, do not tarry.

TITLE OF PSALM 40.

The title of the following psalm is, To the end, a psalm of David, which, since it has often been expounded already, need not be repeated. The subject is Christ, God and man, wronged according to his humanity, glorified through his divinity. He makes three parts in this psalm. In the first part he admonishes, with good promises, that Christ be understood as God above man. In the second part he sets forth the reasons why some thought him simply a man, because they saw him wronged in many ways. In the third part he makes us certain that he was more than a man. The intention is to admonish us that the mediator of God and men was at once man (1 Tim. 2) and God: on account of the glory of the passion of Christ, the commander of the martyrs, who did not spare himself, commanding his soldiers to battle, but fought first, conquered first, so that by his example he might encourage those who fight, by his majesty assist them, and by his promise crown them. Let us hear (from Augustine) something in this psalm that pertains to his passion.

We remind you again and again—for it is useful for us to hold fast—that the Lord Jesus Christ often speaks from himself, that is, from his own person, which is our head; and often from the person of his body, which is ourselves and his Church. But the words sound as though from the person of one man, so that we may understand that the head and the body consist in a unity of wholeness, and are not separated from each other, like that marriage of which it is said, They shall be two in one flesh. If, then, we recognize two in one flesh, let us recognize two in one voice. Let us therefore hear what is said.

PSALM 40.

Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor. That is, concerning Christ. To understand concerning the needy and the poor is to think something higher concerning the humanity and weakness of Christ. This above all must be understood: that our Lord and Redeemer, when he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. Rich with the Father, poor with us. Yet his poverty is our riches, just as his weakness is our strength, just as his foolishness is our wisdom, just as his mortality is our immortality. It must also be understood that the poverty and weakness of our Savior give us an example of humility, patience, obedience, gentleness, and love.

To understand and ponder these things, to believe and imitate them, is true blessedness. And as if someone were to ask, What will be the fruit of this understanding? He continues and says: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him. That is, on the day of judgment, when the wicked are to be punished, the Lord will deliver him from every evil, from every punishment, from every tribulation and distress of this world, and from the power and torments of the devil and of hell; and he will transfer him into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8). He recounts also other benefits which the Lord bestows upon the blessed man who understands, adding:

The Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. This prayer is a promise. For the Lord preserves this man who understands. Amid the dangers and temptations of this laborious life he does not allow him to perish. He does not permit him to be tempted beyond what he is able to bear (1 Cor. 10). Whatever he does, wherever he turns, he is always in God's keeping. He gives him life by his Spirit, more and more, according to the inner man (Eph. 3), so that day by day he may live more righteously and more purely in God. And he makes him blessed not only in heaven but also on earth, by bestowing spiritual virtues. According to what is written: Blessed are those who hope in you, O Lord (Ps. 38), and blessed are those who love your name. And blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the clean of heart, and the rest (Matt. 5).

The Lord promises us blessedness in the future life, but if we attend diligently, even on this earth we already possess a part of the reward. It is surely a part of great happiness to have been able to despise the world and to have begun to serve almighty God, to have escaped the most unhappy dominion of the vices, to be free from the wretched slavery of the devil and of sin (John 8), not to be tormented by desires for vain things, not to be entangled in crimes, to live innocently, to devote oneself to blessed chastity, to possess the sufficiency of glorious poverty: to seek nothing beyond God, to rest sweetly in his love and contemplation. Let us weigh how much the Lord has conferred upon us by his loving calling, from how many frauds, adulteries, robberies, perjuries, sacrileges, impurities, vices, and sins he has freed us: and then we shall know how true it is that we hear in the psalm, where it is said: and make him blessed in the earth. But this man of understanding, even if God sometimes delivers him into the hands of his enemies, so that they have power to kill the body, he never delivers him into their souls (Matt 10), that is, into the wills of his enemies: namely, so that they might be able to make him obey their iniquitous wills. Hence the holy martyrs also came forth as victors even in their sufferings, because even if they could be killed bodily, they could never be broken in spirit. Those who truly killed were conquered, because what they wished to accomplish they were in no way able to do.

Hence it is that at the deaths of the martyrs we do not weep but sing, because we rejoice, of course, in their triumph. And we do not proclaim their deaths but their birthdays, because, happily reborn through martyrdom, they have begun to live blessedly in glory. Rightly, then, is it said, And he will not deliver him to the soul of his enemies. There follows another great gift.

The Lord will bring help to him upon the bed of his pain. By the bed of pain is understood our flesh, which suffers in its weakness. Just as someone lies and rests on his bed, so the weak soul lies and rests in its flesh. For it takes delight in carnal pleasures. Human nature, indeed, from the very fact that it was created in weakness, always has a tendency to fail and slips unceasingly toward what is worse, unless it is sustained by the help of divine grace. The bed carried you, not you the bed (from Augustine). You were that paralytic; he is present who says to you, Take up your bed and go into your house (John 5). And as if it were asked, Why then, when God brings us help, do we suffer so many evils in this life, so many labors, such great restlessness of the flesh and of the world? he turns to the Lord, and as if setting forth the counsel of the healing cloud, he added: You have turned his whole bed in his weakness. By the bed he wishes the body together with the mind to be understood. He says whole with respect to all the senses, so that you may understand the man weakened both according to the flesh and according to the mind, inwardly as well as outwardly.

The bed of the flesh is weakened by hunger, by thirst, by cold, by heat, by suffering, by pain, by decay, by mortality, and in countless other ways. The couch of the mind is weakened by folly, by dullness, by fear, by pride, by vainglory, by envy, by anger, and in many other ways. But this weakness is the penalty of sin. Because man refused to be strong in God, he is weak in himself. Because he took delight in the flesh and the spirit, he is punished in the flesh and the spirit. Let it therefore be said, You have turned all his bed in his weakness. For this reason he is still left in this weakness, even if the original sin for which he was punished is forgiven, so that he cannot again grow proud, and can be able to forget the guilt he committed. He is a wicked servant: he must always be held under the whip. But now, having been scourged, he begs for mercy, he begs for healing, he returns from pride to humility. He confesses his sin, saying:

I said, O God, have mercy on me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. I said, he says. I did not hide my sins, I did not keep silent my confession: as someone grew hardened, and therefore his bones grew old (Ps. 31). For whoever does not lay open the evil that he has done loses even the virtues that he has. It is a sign of true humility to acknowledge one's fault and to lay it open by the voice of confession. Therefore our Lord commands that we confess our sins to the priests (Luke 15): namely, that by confessing we may be humbled, and through the merit of humility receive the forgiveness of sins. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4). Great is the fruit of confession. A certain penitent says in another psalm, I said, I will confess: and you forgave the wickedness of my sin (Ps. 13). Notice how swift is the mercy of God to the man who confesses. He has not yet confessed, but he has it deliberated in his heart to confess, and therefore he is cleansed from sin. This is what the Lord signifies when he commands the lepers, saying: Go, show yourselves to the priests. And as they went on the way, they were healed (Luke 17). What does the publican say? God, be merciful to me a sinner. He went down justified (Luke 18). O blessed confession! how many are cleansed, healed, justified through you?

Therefore let each one of us say humbly, say with tears, say from affection, say from the heart: I said, O God, have mercy on me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. What is it, I have sinned against you? I have sinned in your presence, or against you. What is it, I have sinned against you? That we are to render an account to you for sin. Such things the friends say by confessing. Let us hear what the enemies said by erring.

My enemies have spoken evil against me. These words properly pertain to the head. As if he were saying: I came, the mediator of God and men (1 Tim. 2). But the enemies, not attending to this, and believing me to be only a man and not God, spoke these evils against me, that is, concerning me: When will he die, and his name perish? For they were wishing that he might die, and that his name be blotted out from the earth (Jer. 11). Christ died, and his name became wonderful. The grain of wheat falling into the earth died, and from there was multiplied all the more (John 12). So too the body of Christ has been accustomed to grow in tribulation. The Jewish enemies were saying: When will he die? When will we be able to kill him? And so his name, that is, his fame, will perish. He also makes mention of his betrayer Judas, who was the head of the enemies, when he adds:

And if he went in to see, he spoke vain things; his heart gathered iniquity for itself. He went in as a deceiver, as a spy, as one lying in ambush: not to imitate, but to see what he could reproach, what he could accuse, what he could slander. His heart was plotting the death of Christ, and so it gathered iniquity for itself. For it would have been better for him if that man had not been born. What the head suffered, the members also suffer. If they have persecuted me, he says, they will also persecute you. The Apostle says, Because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our liberty. These are hypocrites, evil pretenders, joining themselves with feigned charity, catching at all the movements, all the words of the saints, seeking snares in everything. Many such are found within the fellowship of the brethren, who, abandoning spiritual studies, growing sluggish in idleness, desire daily to hear and see and speak vanity: they spend the whole day in idle tales, in curiosity, in foolishness. Subjecting even their mind to depraved desires and unlawful thoughts, they gather iniquity for themselves in their heart, that is, to their own loss. They gathered for themselves, not for me, as Judas gathered for himself, not for Christ. He went out abroad, and spoke in the same thing. He went out to the Jews, and spoke in the same thing, that is, with one counsel, one conspiracy.

Concerning such people the Apostle says: They went out from us, but they were not of us (1 John 2). Whether they are inside or outside, they always speak what pertains to vanity, and they always gather for themselves iniquity and damnation. Many are inside in body and outside in heart, as is said of certain Israelites, that they returned to Egypt in heart (Exod. 16). And elsewhere someone says in the psalm: And my heart has forsaken me (Ps. 39). Whoever wanders in mind and thinks empty things, that person goes outside. But if our heart delightfully meditates on what is useless and vain, our tongue also willingly speaks that very thing. Do you wish to know, concerning a brother, what kind of heart he has? Pay attention to what he speaks of more willingly. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt. 12). And the good man brings forth good things from the good treasure of his heart, and the evil man brings forth evil things from the evil treasure of his heart (Ibid.). Let us guard our entrance, brothers; let us remain inside, and let us attend to the great edification for us in these words. First it said: He went in, and it did not say that he might act, but that he might see: already the wandering of the eyes and curiosity are noted, a vice that is very accustomed to harm those who have been converted. Hear another vice: He spoke vain things. Hear a third: His heart gathered iniquity for itself. Perverse thoughts separate from God (Wis. 1). These three pursuits belong to the idle in the cloister: wandering of the eyes, excess of words, perversity of thoughts.

These three vices cast a brother out of the cloister. But he goes out freely to this end, that he may see and speak outside more freely the vanity that he carries in his heart. Having gone out, Judas spoke to the Jews (Luke 22). But what did he say? All my enemies whispered against me: they devised evils against me. Those things that were adverse and harmful to me they sought out by secret counsels and thoughts. For they feared lest perhaps a tumult should arise among the people (Matthew 26). But it must be known that whispering is a great sin. Hence it is said through a certain wise man: The whisperer and the double-tongued is accursed: for he has troubled many who had peace (Sirach 28).

They set an unjust word against me. For they set it, that false testimony should be spoken against Jesus (Luke 22). The word was also unjust when they said, Let him be crucified. And, He is guilty of death (Matthew 26 and 27). They themselves did so concerning me. But, Shall he who sleeps not add to rise again? He who can rise from death as easily as a sleeper can be roused from sleep, shall he not add to his death that he may rise again? Shall he not rise again, who said, I have power to lay down my life, and again to take it up (John 10)? And Adam slept (from Augustine), when Eve was formed from his side (Genesis 2). Adam is in the figure of Christ, Eve in the figure of the Church. While Christ slept on the cross, the sacraments of the Church flowed from his side (John 19).

And where did he sleep? From that man who entered in order to see.

For even the man of my peace, in whom I hoped, who ate my bread, has magnified his supplanting against me. It was no wonder if my enemies were plotting evils against me, since even the man of my peace—that is, Judas, with whom I had peace, and who pretended to be a peacemaker—in whom I hoped, as far as the estimation of men goes. For they thought that I trusted him greatly and had great confidence in him, who ate my bread—that is, to whom I handed the dipped bread; or he ate my spiritual bread, because daily he heard my preaching. He magnified a greater supplanting against me than others did, because he even betrayed me with a kiss. Do not suppose, brothers, that all those who come to the monastic life and assume the habit of holy religion are holy, that all are religious. Judas too was an Apostle among the Apostles; it was hoped that he was holy, and yet he was a thief and a robber (John 12). But just as Christ patiently endured him, so if we have any pretenders who sit at our table, who are joined to us, they are to be tolerated with equanimity in the kiss of peace, by the example of our Lord; because he who does not tolerate evil is himself, through his impatience, a witness against himself that he is not good. But if any such person is patiently tolerated by us, it is indeed a great loss for him, but for us, on account of the virtue of patience, a great reward will be repaid by the Lord.

But we must know that just as it is greatly praiseworthy and belongs to great perfection to be good among the wicked, so on the contrary it is greatly detestable and belongs to great perversity to be evil among the good. O how glorious it is and acceptable to God, if among many proud people one is humble, among many wrathful people one is gentle, among many lustful people one is chaste, among many disorderly people one is religious! So too it is exceedingly shameful and greatly displeasing to God when among many humble people one is proud, among many chaste people one is impure, among many meek people one is wrathful, among many religious people one is perverse. He is to be tolerated, because the Lord has commanded it; but he himself will not escape the wrath of God. And just as the good man, on account of his praiseworthy perfection, will receive from the Lord a greater recompense than other men, so he too, like Judas the traitor, will receive a greater condemnation. For he has magnified his supplanting against Christ, because he has striven to supplant his members from a good purpose by his perverse example. Yet Christ does not avenge himself at once, but patiently tolerates and prays. In the future, however, unless they repent now, he will repay them more fully for the evils they do. And therefore he says:

But you, Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up, and I will repay them. That this is to have mercy—that you raise me up from death—and I will repay them in the future. We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account and to receive according to what each one has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5). But I know that he will raise me up. And he gives the reason why he knows, when he adds:

In this I have known that you have willed me: for my enemy will not rejoice over me. As if (from Augustine) over me when I have been overcome. For the Jews rejoiced when they saw Christ crucified. They thought they had fulfilled their will to do harm, from the accomplished fruit of their savagery. They saw Christ hanging on the cross, they shook their head, saying: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (Mt 27). He did not come down, though he was able. He was not showing impotence, but teaching patience. For if, when they said these things, he had come down from the cross, he would have seemed to yield to them as it were insulting him, and to have been conquered and unable to endure their reproaches. Rather he remained on the cross while they insulted him, fixed while they wavered. For they kept shaking their head because they did not cling to the head. He plainly taught us patience. For he did what is stronger, who refused to do what the Jews were provoking. For it is much more powerful to rise from the tomb than to come down from the cross. For my enemy will not rejoice over me.

They have therefore been seen, but Christ has risen, Christ has been glorified. They see the human race now being converted in his name; let them mock now, let them shake their head now—rather, let them now fix their head.

But me, because of innocence, you have received. Me, scourged without merit, slain without debt, because of innocence, because of integrity, without sin, you have received to be healed, just as a physician receives the sick man. And you have strengthened me, by giving immortality and impassibility. In your sight. In your majesty and divinity. Forever. Because Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more; death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom. 6). Behold, because of innocence Christ is received; having been received, he is strengthened forever. Attend, brothers: the way to the Lord is innocence. Hence it is asked in another psalm: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? And immediately it is added: He who is innocent in hands and clean of heart (Ps. 23). He is innocent who harms neither himself nor another. Let us therefore attend to our head, placed in our infirmity. For blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor; and let us learn in him the power of innocence—him who, when he was cursed, did not curse; when he suffered, did not threaten; but handed himself over to him who judges unjustly (1 Pet. 2). Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer he did not open his mouth (Isa. 53).

Therefore he says rightly, "But you have received me because of innocence," and for that reason he was rightly confirmed forever. This he did, this he taught; let us imitate this innocence of his as far as we are able, so that sin may not reign in us (Rom 6), so that with our head we may deserve to be received by God the Father and confirmed forever. And lest we be ungrateful, let us give him thanks for such great benefits of his, and with our whole heart and whole devotion let us say what follows: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel." Hence let him be blessed and praised as ruler and creator of Israel, that is, of those who see him through faith and who believe they will see him in visible form—those who understand that his Son is both God and man. And this blessing begins from this age and lasts into the age that follows. "Let it be, let it be." Here the Hebrew has "Amen, amen." This repetition of the word signifies an indissoluble confirmation. The Lord himself used this repetition of the word in the Gospel, where he says, "Amen, amen I say to you" (Jn 3)—clearly to confirm his own statement. In this he grants us to understand that what the Truth thus doubles, it affirms steadfastly.

TITLE OF PSALM XLI.

This psalm is entitled in this way: Unto the end, an understanding for the sons of Korah. The title in the psalm is like a key in a house. For just as a house is unlocked by a key so that the inner things may be seen, so the psalm is opened by its title so that the spiritual things within may be understood. It is a matter of great mystery that Christians should be called sons of Korah. For Christians are called sons of the Crucified. By Korah, moreover, Christ is understood, because Korah is interpreted as Calvary; and Christ was crucified in the place of Calvary. That place, as some say, was for this reason called Calvary, because condemned men were accustomed there to be shaved bald and beheaded. Therefore this understanding, which the words of the following psalm generate in us, is attributed to the sons of Korah, that is, to the sons of the cross, directed unto the end, that is, to those who desire to arrive at the highest blessedness. The subject matter is the righteous man according to both powers of the soul. Or the subject matter can be called the desire of the highest good. In the first part the righteous man is shown, according to the higher power of the soul, to desire God, to seek only heavenly things, and not to fear the adversities of this life. In the second part, through that higher power, the lower, animal part is strengthened, which is quickly moved by tribulation. It is the voice of the perfect, consoling themselves in this psalm with the hope of future blessedness, and patiently enduring the tribulation of this life.

For they consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8). Their purpose is to exhort us, that when placed in tribulations, we may console ourselves by their example, and that in pressures we may not take delight, [but hope] in the expectation of future recompense. They set forth their desire at the beginning of the psalm—those who long to press on to the end—thus: The voice of the perfect:

PSALM XLI.

As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. The nature of the deer is said to be such that it draws out a serpent by its breath and swallows it down for its own renewal. When it has been absorbed, the deer burns with such great thirst because of the venom that it is not enough for it to have drunk from one fountain, but it runs to many. In this manner this perfect soul declares that it has longed for God, saying: As—that is, how ardently—the deer longs and hastens, having swallowed the serpent, not to one only but to many fountains of waters: so, in that manner, and with ardor and fervor, my soul, having swallowed up its vices, longs to come to you. For just as many fountains refresh the deer's thirst, so you will be my refreshment from many miseries: that through you I may lay aside all the oldness of sin, and be reformed in spiritual newness (Rom. 6 and 12). For with you is the fountain of life, to which you yourself have deigned to invite souls, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7). And again, Whoever drinks of the water that I give.