Commentarius In LXXV Psalmos [Attributus]

Set your hearts, therefore, upon his strength, and divide up his houses, so that you may recount them to another generation. Two houses are to be understood: one from the uncircumcision, the other from the circumcision. It is established (from Augustine) that the Apostles were to divide up, that is, to distinguish, these houses. When Saul had been called and had become Paul (Acts 9), coming together in unity with his fellow apostles, he reached this agreement with them: that they should go to the circumcision, and he to the uncircumcision (Acts 11). By this arrangement of their apostleship they divided up the houses of the city of the great King, and, united in the corner, they divided the Gospel by arrangement and bound it together in love. These houses are also divided up throughout different regions, through different congregations, through different orders, through different merits. This division of houses carries with it a distinction of rewards in heaven. Hence the Savior says: In my Father's house there are many mansions (John 14). Just as now there are different houses of grace in one city, so then there will be different mansions of glory in the same eternity (1 Cor 15). But what is it that is commanded to you, O holy Apostles, that you should recount it to another generation? What follows says:

For this is God, our God forever, and unto generation and generation: he himself will rule us for ever. We are the other offspring. Truly other, because new. These things were foretold in the carnal offspring, and proclaimed and fulfilled in the spiritual offspring. It is told to us, therefore, that this God, who is so great and so worthy of praise, is our God: not for a time, but forever. O sweet joy! ineffable gift! The Jews had the God of heaven, but not forever, because they rejected him. The nations had many gods of bronze, of wood, of stone, of gold: but not forever, because they were made of corruptible matter; of which it is written, Let those gods who did not make heaven and earth perish from the earth, and from those things which are under heaven (Jeremiah 10). For all the gods of the nations are demons: but the Lord made the heavens (Psalm 95). He himself, the Lord our God, is forever, to reign both in this age and in the age to come. He himself, and no other, will rule us for ever. If he is our God, he is also our king. He protects us, because he is God, lest we die. He rules us, because he is king, lest we fall. But in ruling us he does not break us. For those whom he does not rule, he breaks. Of those whom he rules it is written: You shall rule them with a rod of iron (Psalm 2). Of those whom he does not rule, there follows at once: And like a potter's vessel you shall shatter them. Let us therefore pray to be ruled and delivered by him here, forever, unto the generations of generations.

Let it be proclaimed, when they have seen those who do not worship God flourish and bloom with earthly happiness, while they themselves, who worship God, labor in hardships, in fastings, and in the other difficulties of mortal human life. Against this sickness the divine word speaks to us in this psalm.

TITLE OF PSALM XLVIII.

The title is such: Unto the end, for the sons of Korah, a psalm of David. This psalm befits David the prophet, who speaks here, set forth for the sons of Korah to understand. The subject is Christ, the Redeemer not of the wicked but of the just. Or the subject is contempt of the world. In the first part he sets out a prologue, for the commendation of the matter he is about to speak. In the second part he sets forth Christ the Redeemer, not of the wicked and lovers of the world, but of the just, and in that same part, reproving their folly, he marks the vanities to which the lovers of this world are devoted. In the third part he admonishes the just who are poor, that they should not be concerned about these rich men, because their riches will quickly perish. Moreover, the Apostles or the Prophet intend in this psalm to exhort all who exist in the faith, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, both free and slave, of whatever condition they may be, to turn away from the desire of earthly things to the love of heavenly things. And so there will be nothing to fear on the day of judgment.

First of all, they make them attentive in many ways: both because they speak to them prudently, that is, morally; and because they speak figuratively; and also because they will learn that thing from the master presiding within, and what they will preach to others with their voice, they will fulfill in deed.

PSALM XLVIII.

Hear these things, all you nations; perceive with your ears, all you who dwell in the world. What I say. Perceive with your ears, that is, do not hear in passing. Therefore, just as there is some distinction between Hear and Perceive with your ears, so there is some distinction between all you nations and you who dwell in the world. For he wishes us to understand more significantly what he says, All you who dwell in the world: so that by nations we understand all the wicked, but by dwellers in the world, all the righteous. For one who dwells is not held. But one who is held does not dwell, but is dwelt in. These words were to be heard not only by sinners and the impious, but also by the righteous. For now they are mixed together, all alike, but when it comes to rendering account, those who heard without cause will be separated from those who perceived with their ears. Therefore let sinners hear. This is what he says: Hear these things, all you nations. Let the righteous also hear, who have not heard without cause, and who rule the earth rather than are ruled by the earth. And this is what he adds: Perceive with your ears, all you who dwell in the world. And again he says:

Both the earth-born and the children of men. What he says, "From the same," he refers to sinners; what he says, "and the children of men," to the faithful and the righteous. You see, then, that this distinction is preserved. Who, then, are the earth-born, if not the children of the earth? Who are the children of the earth? Those who seek earthly inheritances. Who are the children of men? Those who belong to the Son of Man. At some time we have already made these distinctions for your holiness. And we have found that Adam was a man, but was not a son of man. And Adam himself was not God; but Christ was both a son of man and God. Whoever belong to Adam are earth-born; whoever belong to Christ are children of men. Yet let all hear. I will withhold my word from no one. Is he earth-born? Let him hear on account of judgment. Is he a son of man? Let him hear on account of the kingdom. Together into one, rich and poor. Again these same things are repeated. What he says, "rich," pertains to the earth-born; what he says, "poor," to the children of men. Understand the rich as the proud, the poor as the humble. Let him have many resources of money—if he is not puffed up in them, you are poor. Let him have nothing—let him desire and be inflated, God reckons him among the wicked rich. The Lord questions both the rich and the poor in the heart. The Prophet intimates that he will say no small thing, since he makes such a summons of all. And he gives the reason why he ought to be heard when he adds:

My mouth shall not speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart prudence. Wisdom is the knowledge of divine things. Prudence is concerned with the instruction of morals. And here the prophet or the apostles announce wisdom, where they proclaim Christ the Son of God, the Redeemer of all the righteous. They form morals, when they teach that these earthly things are not to be desired, and that the riches of the wealthy are to be neglected. Moreover, they declare that they have said these things not with pure lips but with meditation, so as to make their hearers more attentive. They also assert that they hear and speak these things not from themselves but from an inner teacher, namely the Holy Spirit, when he adds,

I will incline my ear to a parable, I will open my proposition upon the psaltery. To incline the ear to a parable is to hear that same parable humbly. This those do not hear who do not do what they say: such were the Pharisees, whom the Lord says sit upon the chair of Moses. For he who is a leader and not a hearer profits another, not himself. But those who do and so speak, hear what they say. And therefore they speak fruitfully what they hear. Such was this holy man. He who first humbly hears the parable, so that, instructed by the inner teacher, he may then open his proposition upon the psaltery. Parables are similitudes of things, which are compared to the things being treated. Propositions are questions, in which there is something that must be resolved by disputation. Wherefore does he hear the parable?

Because we now see through a mirror in an enigma, as the Apostle says. As long as we are pilgrims away from the Lord here, that vision of ours is not yet face to face, where there are no longer parables nor enigmas nor similitudes. An enigma is an obscure parable, which is understood with difficulty. If therefore we see in an enigma, let us incline our ear to the parable. And so let us open our proposition in the psaltery. Let us hear what is said, let us do what is commanded. I will open, he says, my proposition in the psaltery, because what I set forth is to be made manifest in this psalm. I will do it not only by word but also by example, so that what I teach with my mouth I may fulfill in deed. For the psaltery, in which the strings are struck by the hands so that the melody may be heard—that is, the psalm—we have often already said signifies good action. To open one's proposition in the psaltery, therefore, is to demonstrate by works the words that are set forth. I will incline my ear to the parable. As if he were saying, I will hear the Holy Spirit speaking within me, and announcing the things that are to come in parables and propositions. I will therefore incline and humble my ear to this parable, and I will not be among those of whom it is said: Woe to the prophets who prophesy from their own heart (Ezekiel 13). But afterward I will open my proposition in the psaltery. For the prophet has heard, and what he heard he makes manifest in this psaltery of the psalm, saying:

Why shall I fear in the evil day? That is, in the day of judgment. Someone says, Because you have committed theft, murder, or another grave sin. Not for that reason, he says, shall I fear. Why then shall I fear? What follows says, The iniquity of my heel, that is, my final iniquity, will surround me. That is, it shows me damnable on every side. Therefore it is not so much iniquity as the end of iniquity that must be feared. For not the one who has lived wickedly, but the one who has ended his life in wickedness, will perish. If therefore a man avoids the iniquity of his heel and walks in the ways of God, he shall not fear, so as to come to the evil day. Why then shall we fear in the evil day? Or why shall we not correct ourselves before the evil day comes? It was commanded to Eve that she watch the head of the devil, because the devil watches her heel (Gen. 3). Eve is our flesh. Through the flesh man more easily slips. If therefore the iniquity of our heel surrounds us, why shall we fear in the evil day? For we have it in our power, with the Lord's help (from Augustine), not to commit iniquity; or, if we have committed it, to correct it. And thus there will be none to surround us. And in the last day we shall not fear, but rejoice.

Who, then, are those whom the iniquity of his heel will surround? Those who trust in their own strength and glory in the multitude of their riches. Woe to you, Jews, who trust not in Christ but in your own righteousness. Woe to you, rich men, who glory in your riches. You must fear what is added in the psalm:

A brother does not redeem; shall a man redeem? Who is this brother, if not Christ, who saved strangers as brothers? Joseph prefigured him, who delivered his brothers from famine (Gen. 42–43). This brother said to a certain person after his resurrection: Go, tell my brothers (John 20). Our Lord willed to be our brother by assuming our nature. For Christ, who is called and is the Son of God, is called our brother (Heb. 2). Therefore, if Christ does not redeem, is a man going to redeem? If he who is God and man does not redeem, will another who is a mere man redeem? By no means. Hence: He will not give to God his propitiation. An evil man cannot appease God, neither by offering, nor by prayer, nor by sacrifice. Hence Paul says: For those who sin willingly, there is no longer a victim for sin remaining (Heb. 10). For as long as a man is in the will to sin, he can appease God by no gifts, no sacrifices, no good works. And therefore it is added:

And he will not be able to give the price of his own redemption. For the almsgiving of that man is not pleasing to God whose will is still held fast in guilt. And he will labor forever, and he will still live unto the end. He who for a time took delight in riches will labor forever in torments. He will desire to die, but he will not be able. He will live only for this, that he may always labor. Woe to you, evil desire, how evilly do you deceive your lovers.

He will not see destruction, when he sees the wise dying. They see the wise die. They attend to temporal death, but they do not foresee the destruction of damnation to come. Such things he is usually wont to say: Was not that wise man dead? If he who had some wisdom could do anything, he would not die. Therefore I will do good for myself while I live—these are they who, thinking pleasure to be the highest good, cling to all the delights of the body. These are they who say: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. The Jews saw Christ hanging on the cross, and they despised him, saying: If this man were the Son of God, he would come down from the cross—not seeing what destruction means. He was dying temporally, that he might live again eternally. They were living temporally, to die eternally. Concerning whom it is presently added: Together the foolish and the stupid shall perish. The foolish man is he who does not believe in future punishment. The stupid man is he who, though he believes, nevertheless does not take heed.

Be on guard, then, against foolishness; be on guard against folly; provide against the destruction that is to come. Make for yourself friends from the mammon of iniquity. Go to the ant and learn wisdom (which gathers in summer, so that it may live in winter), and you will not perish forever. But these men will perish together, and they will leave their riches to strangers. All the wicked leave their riches to strangers, whether they are children, or parents, or neighbors, to whom they leave them. Yet in this they are strangers, because they cannot come to their aid from their own riches.

And their sepulchers, that is, the pyramids and mausoleums, which they build as though they were great houses, as if those sepulchers ought to be their houses forever. They are received into costly tombs and wrapped in costly garments; they are buried with ointments and spices. Then what kind of memory do they have? Their tabernacles are in generation and generation; they have called their names in their lands. Their houses and families praise them even to the third and fourth generation, and offer sacrifice to them. He touches on the custom of the Gentiles, who on appointed days would hire certain men to invoke the names of the dead around their burial place. In this the prophet notes their great folly, because although they themselves thought that by these means they had an eternal memory, yet they did this only in their own lands.

Or otherwise: their tabernacles, that is, the houses of stone which they built from their riches, in which they dwelt for a time; abiding in the offspring of sons and the offspring of grandsons; they called their names, that is, they were the cause why their names were held in memory. And not everywhere, but in their own lands, that is, in their own neighborhood. All this pertains to refuting the empty arrogance of the rich, so that they not spend their effort on vast buildings, since in the end they possess nothing of them beyond the grave. But they do this for this reason, because they have lost their understanding. And this is what follows:

Man, when he was in honor, did not understand. What greater honor could be given to man than reason and understanding, and the likeness of God? Placed in such great honor, he did not understand, that is, he did not act with understanding; but he was compared to senseless beasts. Not according to anything else but according to senselessness, and in his conduct he was made like them. For just as beasts are prone to the earth, and obedient only to the belly, so the lovers of the world are devoted only to earthly things:

This is their way, a stumbling block to them. This way, according as they were in honor and did not understand, seeking only earthly things, will be a stumbling block to them, that is, an offense which will lead them to destruction. Let it be a stumbling block to them (from Augustine), not to you. When will it be to you? If you think that such people are blessed. But if you understand that they are not blessed, their own way will be a stumbling block to them, not to Christ, not to his members. And afterward they will please themselves in your mouth. When they have become such that they seek only temporal goods, they will praise themselves, pleasing themselves. Or afterward they will please themselves in their mouth, when they say in judgment, Lord God, open to us (Matthew 25). But then will come what follows: Like sheep they are placed in hell, death will feed on them. Because, having been made a flock, having been corrupted and stripped by the great multitude of black spirits, they will be led into darkness. And deservedly, those who did not wish to have Christ as shepherd will be fed upon by death and devoured by the ravenous wolf.

And the just shall rule over them in the morning, because they shall be their judges in judgment. And their help, which they have in this world, shall grow old, that is, shall fail, in hell from their glory, that is, because they have boasted in their riches. Rightly it is said that their help grows old from their glory, because their glory and riches will be able to offer them no help in hell.

Nevertheless God will redeem my soul from the hand, that is, from the power, of hell, when he has received me, that is, my humanity. For now the just have toil, pressure, tribulation; in hope there is future true joy. Now those who open their eyes to worldly gladness, and why do they close them? their happiness passes away, and punishment comes. On the contrary, the temporal punishment of the just passes away, and eternal happiness comes. The Spirit of God therefore stirs us when he adds:

Do not fear when a man has become rich. And not only when he himself has become rich, but when the glory of his house has been multiplied, that is, the honor of his riches. Do not despair, nor think that he is loved by God because he abounds in riches, and that you, because you are poor, have been forsaken by God.

For when he has died, he will not take all things with him. Do you see the living man? Think of him as one who warns: Do you attend to what he has here? Attend to whether he takes it with him. He has much gold, much silver, much in lands, much in slaves, and other such things. When he has died, he will not take all things with him. Nor will his glory go down with him. What will the flesh, rotting in the tomb, have? What will the soul, lost in hell, have? Therefore his glory will not go down with him, because in his life he sought temporal glory. This is what he adds:

Because his soul in his life will be blessed. For those who count these temporal things as great, when they see certain people flourishing in this world with honors and riches, are accustomed to praise them and call them blessed; as it is said elsewhere in the psalm: Because the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the wicked man is blessed. And again, They have called the people blessed to whom these things belong. Therefore his soul will be blessed in his life, but in death it will be tormented, and he will feel eternal punishment, who has pursued transitory glory. He will confess to you, when you have done good to him. It belongs to the perfect to praise the Lord in adversity. But the reprobate praises him only in prosperity. Has gain come to him? He confesses. Has an inheritance come? He confesses. Has loss come? He blasphemes. And therefore it is added:

He will enter into the generations of his fathers. Who are their fathers, if not the devil and his angels? Hence the Lord said to certain people: You are from your father the devil (John 8). The generations of the devil, then, are all the reprobate. Hence it is said through John: You brood of vipers, who will show you how to flee from the coming wrath (Matthew 3)? Therefore he will enter into the generations of his fathers, because together with the reprobate he will perish in eternal fire. And forever he will not see the light. For he will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8 and 13). Everyone who does evil hates the light (John 3). Therefore, because while he lived he loved the darkness, he will never see the light. And that he has lost the light of the heart, he shows when it is added:

Man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he was compared to senseless beasts, and became like them. The repetition of the sentence is a confirmation; or he repeats it for this reason, because the intent and usefulness of the psalm depend especially on this verse. Defend, O man, your honor. Do not abandon the understanding that God gave you, for this purpose, that you may perceive divine things, love eternal things, and despise earthly things. Use your understanding, use your reason; despise temporal things, so that you may merit to attain heavenly things.

TITLE OF THE PSALM (??)X.

In the following psalm the subject is the calling of all the nations: the manifest coming of Christ, the changing of the old sacrifice into a new one, the condemnation of the undisciplined sinner, and that a sacrifice of praise is to be offered to the Lord. The title is, A Psalm of Asaph. Asaph is interpreted as congregation. This psalm, then, is to be assigned to Asaph, that is, to the congregation of the faithful who existed before the coming of Christ, who believed that Christ would come in the flesh and for our sake—which we believe to have been fulfilled. The subject matter of this psalm is Christ himself, first calling us through preaching, then judging strictly. But the aforementioned faithful, by introducing the person of the Lord Christ himself so that they may speak with greater weight, intend to persuade their hearers to desist from carnal observances and to transfer themselves from the shadow to the truth, and not to preach with the voice in such a way that they do not also carry it out in deed. But as to why such things as Christ persuades by his precepts must be obeyed, the reasons have been set out beforehand at the beginning of the psalm, up to that place where it is said: Hear, O my people. At the beginning, moreover, such a commendation of his preaching is made. The voice is that of the synagogue.

PSALM 49.

God, the God of gods, the Lord has spoken, and he has called the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting. It was not any man, nor any angel, who spoke, but the God of gods himself, namely our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the maker and deifier of the saints, as he himself says elsewhere to certain holy gods made such by grace: I said, you are gods and all sons of the Most High (Ps. 81). Hence the Apostle says, He gave them power to become sons of God (John 1). And again: We are sons of God, but it has not yet appeared what we shall be (1 John 3). This one, so great and such, spoke through angels, through prophets, through himself (Hebr. 1), through his faithful ones, and he called the earth, that is, the men dwelling on the earth. And not in one land only, but from the rising of the sun to its setting. For the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles, and it was said to them, Go, preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16). And because the preaching began from Jerusalem, rightly is it added:

Out of Sion comes the beauty of his comeliness. Hence another prophet says: Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. From there the form of his comeliness began to be preached, that is, the beauty of the divinity of Christ. He is the one who is fair in form above the sons of men, of whom it is also added:

God will come openly: our God, and he will not be silent. First he came hidden, he appeared weak in the flesh. There was a form of glory in his divinity, but this lay hidden in his humanity. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Hidden, therefore, he came, that he might be judged. Openly he will come, that he may judge. And this is what he says: And he will not be silent. Now he is silent concerning judgment, hidden in heaven. He is patient over sinners, not exercising wrath, but awaiting repentance. I have been silent, he says; will I be silent forever? And it must be noted that he says our God. For he is not God who is not our God. Since all the gods of the nations are demons, but the God of the Christians is the true God. But that he will come to judgment, the following words teach, when it is said: Fire shall blaze up in his sight. For he will come to judge the world by fire. Hence the Apostle says: The fire will test what sort of work each one's is. Let those who have not yet tasted the sweetness of God, who do not yet desire the face of God, fear at least the fire. Earthly punishments—let those whom rewards do not invite.

Is it a small thing to you that God makes promises? Tremble at what he threatens. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Otherwise: Christ came for judgment, and then the fire of evil desire will blaze up and burn the reprobate, who will be in his sight, because they will look on him whom they pierced. And round about him a mighty tempest—that is, the angels, because just as a mighty tempest blows the chaff into the fire, so they will blow the wicked down to hell. A mighty tempest will winnow so great a threshing floor. By this tempest will be that winnowing by which every unclean thing will be separated from the saints: every pretense from the faithful, every despiser and proud man from the pious who tremble at the word of God. So when the Lord comes to judgment, what will he do?

He will call the heaven from above. By heaven he wishes all the saints and perfect to be understood, whom he will call above to sit with him and judge with him. He will call the earth to discern his people. He will call heaven, that it may judge with him. He will call the earth, that it may discern his people from the evil people. Hear the calling of the earth, and the discerning of his people: Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. Receive, I say. Why? For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, and so on. Behold why they are called earth: namely, because of the fertility of good work.

These, if they could not be heaven by despising all things, were at least good earth by bearing the fruit of mercy. Then the prophet, seeing future things as though present, exhorts the angels who are to gather. For the Lord will send his angels, and all nations will be gathered before him.

Gather to him his saints from different parts of the world. And not such saints as insist on carnal observances, but such as ordain and set forth his new testament above the legal sacrifices—for those sacrifices of the old testament were a shadow and a prophecy of the truth. To ordain the testament above the sacrifices, then, is to offer oneself as a sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill spiritually what the letter commands. Or the testament is ordained above the sacrifices when new things are set before old: when the sacrifices of animals are destroyed, the order of Melchisedech is proclaimed everywhere. To the order of this newness belongs what follows.

And the heavens shall declare his justice, for God is judge. The heavens declare God's justice when spiritual men preach the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and good works. Hence it is said elsewhere: The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 18). And this justice is proclaimed to us for this purpose, that by fulfilling it we may deserve to escape the wrath of the judge. For God is judge, who will judge the living and the dead (Matt. 16), because he will render to each according to the merits of his works. The holy men, keeping this unceasingly before the eyes of their mind—that God is judge—do not cease to examine their life, to bewail their sins, and always to advance themselves toward better things, so that afterward they may be able to appear blameless before the strict judge. To this point the Synagogue has commended Christ, either by setting forth the order of his preaching or by commending his second coming; from here on it introduces him speaking as follows:

Hear, my people, and I will speak, O Israel: Israel is a name of election. You shall no longer be called Jacob, but you shall be called Israel (Gen. 32). Therefore hear as Israel, as one who sees God (and if not yet in hope, yet now in faith), for this is what Israel means: one who sees God. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8). Moreover, he wins his goodwill when he says: My people. As if he were saying: an elect people, a people for his own possession (1 Pet. 2). And I will testify to you. That is, I will prove it by the testimonies of the Scriptures. What? God, I am your God. That is, I am God, your God. For whoever understands the Scripture of the Apostles and Prophets recognizes that the Lord Jesus is our God. Your God—and he is properly called this whom God holds more intimately, as it were, as his own possession, as it were, from his own private property. What more do you want? Do you first seek something from God? Behold, God himself is your God. What do we say to God? You were seeking gifts; you have the very giver. And what does the Lord our God require of us? Let us hear what he adds:

I will not reprove you in your sacrifices. I will not say to you (as Augustine says), Why did you not fatten a bull for me? Why did you not offer the best goat from your flock? Why does that ram walk among your sheep and is not placed on my altar? But your burnt offerings are always in my sight. Holon means whole; caustum means burnt. A holocaust, then, is a whole offering consumed by fire. There are certain holocausts that God does not accept, of which it is said in another psalm: Surely you will not delight in burnt offerings (Ps. 50). These are the burnt offerings of brute animals, in which God does not delight. What, then, are those that are always in my sight? Do good, God says, in your good will to Zion. Then you will accept the sacrifice of righteousness, the oblations, and the burnt offerings. There is a fire of most burning charity. Let the mind be inflamed with charity, let it take the same members from charity for its own use. Let it not allow them to serve lust, so that the whole man may burn with the fire of divine love. Such burnt offerings, God says, are always in my sight. Perhaps Israel still thinks of oxen, of sheep, of goats. Therefore what follows is added:

I will not accept calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks. He foretells (from Augustine) the New Testament, when all those old sacrifices ceased. For then it was foretold that there would be a certain future sacrifice by whose blood we would be cleansed. Why then, "I will not accept calves from your house, goats, and other such things"?

For all the wild beasts of the forests are mine. As if he were saying: I, who possess all the wild beasts, have no need of that calf or goat which is in your house. But perhaps (from the same) Israel says: Those wild beasts are God's beasts, which I do not shut in my fold, which I do not tie to my manger. But those things which are with me are not God's, but mine. Therefore the Lord adds: The beasts of burden in the mountains and the oxen are mine. Both those things which you possess and those which you do not possess are all mine. For if you are my servant, your whole property is mine.

I have known all the birds of heaven. That is, I have weighed all things and numbered them. One is the knowledge of God, another that of man. Just as (from the same) one thing is God's possessing, another is man's possessing. For you do not have everything you possess wholly in your power, so that as long as your ox lives, it is in your power. These birds of heaven were born from the water by the word of the Lord saying: Let the waters bring forth the birds of heaven (Gen. 1). Where had he known what he had commanded, that the waters should bring forth? Surely he already knew what he had created, and he knew it even before he created it.

So great, then, is the knowledge of God that in some ineffable manner they existed with Him before they were created. And He expects from you to receive what He had before it was created. And the beauty of the field is with me—that is, the richness of all things that spring forth in the earth is with me. With Him is the field, with Him the appearance of the earth, with Him the appearance of heaven, with Him all the birds of heaven and every creature, since He Himself is everywhere.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you. He who keeps Israel will neither hunger nor thirst, neither labor nor sleep. But these things were said according to your carnality, because you, before you eat, suffer hunger, and perhaps you think that God also hungers, so that He may eat. Even if it could be that He hungered, He would not tell you. All things that are before Him, from wherever He wills, He takes away. Nothing is necessary to Him. And therefore He adds: For the world is mine, and its fullness. Do not labor, then, over what you may give me: without labor I have what I will.

Will I eat the flesh of bulls? Or will I drink the blood of goats? Since you do not seek these things, say therefore: Lord our God, what do you wish your people Israel to offer you? And it follows and says:

Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise. God always loves interior sacrifices more. For He pays attention to the disposition rather than the wealth. Therefore He immediately adds: And pay your vows to the Most High. Let your conscience be your altar. Let your fire be divine love. Let your sacrifice be the praises of God. So then, praise God in your heart in such a way that in that very spiritual offering of praise, set aflame by fire, you may slay and mortify yourself, and sacrifice to God. And well does He command, together with the sacrifice, to pay the vow to the Most High. For God weighs sacrifices according to vows. Your sacrifice will be so much greater before God, as you have had greater devotion in the sacrifice itself. Whence it is written: By faith Abel offered to God a much more plentiful victim than Cain, through which he obtained testimony that he was righteous (Hebr. 11). For God weighs the heart and not the substance. Nor does He consider how much is in his sacrifice, but from how much it is offered. Hence it is said elsewhere in the psalm: In me are your vows, O God, which I will repay, praises to you (Psal. 55). As if he were saying openly: And if I do not have gifts to offer outwardly, within myself nevertheless I find what I may place on the altar of your praise.

Because you are not fed by our giving, but are better pleased by the offering of the heart, Sacrifice, I say, to God a sacrifice of praise, so that you may thus have him gracious and favorable. And what then?

And call upon me in the day of tribulation: and I will deliver you, and you shall honor me. When you are in tribulation, do not despair, nor wish to trust in your own strength. Call upon me, and I will deliver you. For the day of tribulation was permitted to come to pass for this reason, because perhaps if you were not in tribulation, you would not call upon me. But when you are in tribulation, you call upon me: and because you call, I will deliver you. When you have been delivered, you shall honor me, so that you may no longer depart from me. Tribulations therefore are of value to us, because they stir us up to honor God. In tribulation we recognize our own weakness; when delivered, we perceive divine grace. And we honor him all the more, in that we know our liberation proceeds not from ourselves but from him. And it must be known that this whole mortal life is a tribulation to holy men (Job 7). For besides the countless anxieties of this world, in that they are separated from God, in that they still sojourn in the world (2 Cor 5), in that the corruptible body weighs down the soul (Wis 9), they are vehemently afflicted. And the more frequent tribulations there are among us, the more frequent our prayers ought to be to God. But care must be taken that we not live wickedly while we sing well. For it follows:

But to the sinner God said, Why do you declare my justices? That is, do you preach my commandments that justify? Of such people the Apostle says (Rom. 2): You who preach that one must not steal, do you steal? You who teach that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abominate idols, do you commit sacrilege? And do you take up my testament with your mouth? That is, the body of Christ and the cup of the new Testament, which was poured out for many for the remission of sins (Matth. 26; Marc. 15; Luc. 22; 1. Cor. 11). Or, do you take up my testament with your mouth, that is, do you presume to preach my Gospel with lips so polluted?

But you have hated discipline. That is, corruption: And you have cast my words behind you. Because, neglecting them, you have not kept them. In hating discipline, the evil will is censured. In casting the words of God behind one, the negligent and depraved life is reproved. To cast the words of God behind one is, having despised them, to act perversely. Behold how you have cast my words behind you:

If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and with adulterers you placed your portion. Lest perhaps you should say, I have not committed theft, I have not committed adultery. What if the one who did it pleased you? Did you not run by that very pleasure? Did you not place your portion with the one who did it, by praising him? And if you do not do the evil, yet if you praise the evil, if you consent from desire, you run with the evil man and receive the portion of the evil man.

Your mouth abounded in malice, and your tongue framed deceits. He intimates the malice and deceit of certain men, who although they know that the things they hear are evil, do not reprove them in the least. And it is a small thing that they do not say, You have done evil; but by flattering they say, You have done well. And they know that they are evil, but they abound in malice, and their tongue frames, that is, adorns, deceits. Now deceit is a certain fraud in words, when one thing is promised and another is meant. It is a small thing that you do evil; beyond that you praise by flattering, and you mock and deceive the sinner. Or the mouth of the sinner abounds in malice, when by curses and insults he provokes others. But their lips frame deceits, when they utter with their words things pleasant to the hearing. Hence there is further added:

You sit and speak against your brother. This happens when someone who is, as it were, steadfast, or a teacher already of some importance, disparages his brother—perhaps one who acts well and lives rightly. But in that he says "sitting," a delay or eagerness is indicated. There is another, weak and imperfect, against whom he places a stumbling block by speaking wickedly in like manner. Therefore that weak one is called the son of his mother, not yet of his father, still needing milk and clinging to the breasts. He is still carried in the bosom of mother Church, not yet able to come to the solid food of his Father's table. But he is caused to stumble because he is not yet perfect. For if he were perfect, he could in no way have been caused to stumble. For great peace have they who love the law of God, and there is no stumbling block to them (Ps. 118). And the Lord in the Gospel says: Whoever shall cause to stumble one of my little ones (Matt. 18). He did not say "of the greater," but "of the little ones," because it belongs only to the little ones to be caused to stumble. But it is the practice of the wicked to disparage the perfect, to place a stumbling block before the imperfect, and always to sow discord.

You have done this," says the Lord, "and I was silent"—that is, I did not rebuke, I did not punish. For now is the time of mercy, in which the loving Lord patiently waits for us, that we may be converted. For he is not angry every single day, but as it is said in another psalm: "Unless you are converted, he will brandish his sword." Hence it is that he adds: "You thought unjustly that I would be like you." It is a small thing that your evil deeds please you; you think they please me as well. Because you do not endure God as an avenger, you wish to have him as a partaker. "I will rebuke you, and I will set them before your face." The more patiently the merciful Lord bears with sinners, the more strictly he will rebuke them in judgment. And because they neglect to attend to themselves and amend here, he will set them there before his face, that they may see their own foulness—not, however, for the purpose of correction, but that they may blush the more. Now therefore, you, whoever you are who are such a one, do what God threatens to do to you. Take yourself from behind your back, where you do not wish to see yourself, your deeds being concealed, and set yourself before yourself. Ascend the tribunal of your own mind. Be your own judge. Let fear torment you. Let confession burst forth. And say to your Lord: "For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always against me." For if, as Paul says, we would judge ourselves, we would certainly not be judged. Therefore, by way of admonition, he adds:

Understand this, you who forget God. You who have forgotten God, while you do evil, weigh by reason what has been said, so that you may correct yourselves. Attend in this verse to the bowels of divine mercy. Even those who forget him he does not forget, he does not repel, but rather recalls to understanding, that they may come to their senses and not perish. He does not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. 18). And why, O merciful Lord, do you admonish those who forget you, that they may understand? Hear the cause: Lest at some time that adversary the devil snatch them, who like a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5), and there be no one to rescue them. If you are unwilling to understand. For the Lord does not rescue those who forget him, who disdain to understand the things that pertain to the salvation of their souls. Whence it is written: Every ignorant person shall be ignored (1 Cor. 14). In contrast to this, let us hear what he adds concerning those who understand and praise God:

The sacrifice of praise will honor me: and there is the way, where I will show him the salvation of God. What in Latin is "salvation," in Hebrew is called Jesus. In the sacrifice of praise, therefore, the way of Jesus' showing is made, because while compunction is poured out through psalmody, a way is made for us in this life, through which we come at last to Jesus. As he himself speaks of his showing, saying: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him (John 14).

TITLE OF PSALM 50.

Unto the end, a psalm of David, [verse 2] when Nathan the prophet came to him, when he went in to Bathsheba (2 Kings 12). This psalm is attributed to David the prophet, looking to the end, that is, to Christ, from whom he had departed through sin, who is the end of the law and the prophets. Or the end, that is, the perfection of all good works. The psalm, I say, was composed for that matter for which Nathan the prophet came to reprove him. And because Nathan had come to him many times, so that it might be known at which coming he was the cause of this psalm, he determines it thus: namely, at that time when he went in to Bathsheba. By the beauty of this woman, another man's wife, the king and prophet David was captivated. This is not read in this psalm, but it appears in its title. In the books of Kings, however (from Augustine), it is read more fully. He arranged for her husband to be killed in war. And after this deed, Nathan the prophet was sent to him by the Lord, to reprove him for so great a crime (2 Kings.

Many wish to fall with David, and do not wish to rise with David. The example set before us is not of falling, but, if you have fallen, of rising. Take heed lest you fall. Let not the falls of the great be the delight of the lesser, but let the falls of the great be the trembling of the lesser. Let those who have not fallen hear, that they may not fall. Let those who have fallen hear, that they may rise. Such an example also admonishes that no one ought to exalt himself in prosperous circumstances. For many endure adverse circumstances, but do not fear prosperous ones. Yet a prosperous condition is more dangerous to the soul than an adverse one to the body. He did not commit this sin when he suffered Saul as a persecutor. But one must always be watchful against good fortune. The subject of this psalm is David, or any other penitent. But the prophet in this psalm intends principally to pray on account of the threefold guilt of the crime mentioned above, namely for adultery, homicide, and fraud. Then also for all other sins, that God may forgive him this offense and all others, and restore to him the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may never lose it again. But David is set before all the righteous in this psalm as an example, not of sinning, but, if they have fallen, of rising. And let them not presume on their own strength, since it is written, He who stands, let him see that he does not fall (1 Cor. 10). He is set before the unrighteous for this purpose, that some of them may not despair because of the greatness of their offense, looking to David, who obtained pardon for so great an offense through worthy satisfaction. David therefore speaks thus:

PSALM 50.

Have mercy on me, God. This is said in the manner of someone caught in some matter whose crime, because it is already manifest to the judges, he no longer strives to defend; but he labors to obtain pardon alone by entreaty, showing his penitence and putting forward his past merits, and promising that he will do good things in the future. First he prays for his sin; then he confesses his crime of his own accord. As if he were saying, God, that is, my Creator, from whom my great and manifold iniquity is not hidden, Have mercy on me, according to your great mercy. That is, in the manner of your mercy, which is great, forgive my great sin. And according to the multitude of your compassions. That is, in the manner of your compassions, which are many toward the afflicted, blot out my iniquity, which is manifold. That is, blot out murder, fraud, and adultery. Here he shows that his sin is both great (for it was adultery [1 Kings 11]) and manifold. For there murder and fraud and many other things can be denoted. This is the difference between mercy and compassion: because God is naturally always merciful in himself, but actually compassionate in us. The virtue of mercy is inseparably in God. But when any benefits are bestowed on us out of this mercy, they are called compassions. And it is to be noted that he who prays for great mercy confesses great misery. Therefore great mercy is set in opposition to great sin.

The multitude of mercies is set against the multitude of faults. For this reason he still adds:

Wash me more thoroughly from my iniquity than I am able to entreat you: that you may forgive what my conscience fears, and add what my prayer does not presume. And cleanse me from my sin. Although the Apostle John declares that there is no difference between iniquity and sin, saying, Iniquity is sin (1 John 1), yet by the very usage of speech iniquity sounds greater than sin. And every man freely confesses himself a sinner, but he sometimes blushes to call himself iniquitous. When this penitent, therefore, prays that he may be washed from iniquity and cleansed from sin, he seems to ask healing both from the graver and from the lighter fault. And he adds the reason why he asks that what he has done wrong be forgiven him, saying:

For I know my iniquity, in the manner of repentance and satisfaction: and this not for an hour, but continually. Therefore he adds: And my sin is always before me. Before me, that is, before my eyes. He has not forgotten his sin and iniquity, although he had already heard from the prophet: God has taken away your sin (2 Samuel 12). In his conscience, as in a picture, he had adultery and murder depicted; every day he saw the corruption; and therefore he said, And my sin is always before me. I see it. Do not you consider it. Attend to what God does. If you are mindful of your sin, he will not be mindful.

If you forget them, God will remember them. I am he, says the Lord, who blot out your iniquities. But you, be mindful of them. But perhaps someone will say, Why should I be mindful of them? So that, he says, my mercy may be more welcome, so that you may feel what I have granted you. For if you are mindful of the heap of your sins, you will also be mindful of the greatness of God's beneficence. Such were the saints: they did not publish their virtues, but recalled the memory of their sins—not like people now, who forget their sins and wish to conceal them; but if they have done any good, they bring it forward in public and hasten to make it known to all. Have you done something good? Conceal it, so that your Lord may see it and praise it. Have you done evil? Acknowledge it and amend it, and God forgives. Confess to God, and say what follows:

Against you alone have I sinned. To him alone must an account of sin be rendered, who alone is without sin. And I have done evil before you. What is this? Before men, another man's wife is not an adulteress, nor is her husband killed. But in this every man sins against God alone, because God alone can cure a man of sin. As if a sick man should say to an excellent physician: I am sick to you alone; no one can heal my suffering but you alone. Hence in another psalm it is said of this heavenly physician to the sinful soul, Who is propitiated for all your iniquities. Who heals all your infirmities.

But he says rightly that he has done evil before God, because God alone knows what and how great the evil of each person is. For man sees the face, God sees the heart. Man sees the sin of the deed, God inspects even the root of the intention. Or: to you alone, without sin, have I sinned, and I have done evil before you, whom no secret escapes. He is the just punisher who has nothing in himself to be punished. And therefore I pray, cleanse me. Why? That you may be justified in your words. Your word is, Turn to me and you shall be saved. Your word is, Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Your word is, At whatever hour the sinner turns, he shall live and not die. And I indeed have turned, and coming to you I seek mercy. Forgive therefore what I have committed, so that in your words you may be found just and true, and that you may overcome when you are judged. That is, when certain ones, understanding wrongly, judge that you do not show mercy to those who have fallen criminally. Overcome them, and put aside their sentence, by sparing me, who have fallen criminally. Otherwise: Therefore I confess my sins to you alone; therefore I uncover my evils before you, so that I may justify you in your words, and blame myself in my works; and as if a judgment were established, may you overcome, and may I be overcome. For often, while we carefully discuss God's cause with respect to us, and our cause with respect to God, we judge God himself among us by reason.

Man ascends to the tribunal of his own mind; his thought becomes the accuser, his conscience the witness; reason becomes the judge, fear the executioner; and when he finds himself unjust and convicted, having become more humble, he renders himself gracious to the Lord. Or, when you judge, may you appear victorious, that is, in the judgment of your Son, by which he was condemned to death, victorious according to the glory of his resurrection and ascension. For you surpass all judges: and he who thinks himself just before you is unjust. Nor (from Augustine) does it suffice for David to confess only his own criminal sins: he even brings the very origin of sin to the physician. He confesses all things, he humbles himself in all things, so that he may deserve forgiveness of all sins. Hence now he adds, in the voice of both himself and the whole human race, saying:

For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me. My mother conceived me with the delight of sin. I, conceived, contracted with myself the iniquity of the original offense. Was David born of adultery, who was born of Jesse, a just man, and his wife? What is it, then, that he says he was conceived in iniquities, except that iniquity is drawn from Adam (Rom. 5 and 15)? No one is born except by drawing guilt and the punishment of guilt. What he says, Behold, signifies: openly. For all see this. All perceive this.

For man, living in corruptible flesh, has the impurities of temptations impressed upon himself, because he drew them from his very origin; since on account of the delight of the flesh, his conception is impurity. Hence it is that he is often tempted even against his will. Hence it is that he suffers certain impure things in his mind, although by judgment he struggles against them; because a conception from impurity, while it strives toward purity, attempts to overcome what it is. Therefore he who has already arrived at the place of purity should look back upon the way of his own conception by which he came, and from there gather that he does not have from his own virtue the purity of living, since the beginning of his existing was made for him from impurity.

For behold, you have loved truth. Therefore I recognize sin according to repentance, because, Behold—that is, it is open—that you have loved truth: that is, true confession; or you have loved truth, and you have not left even the sins of those whom you forgive unpunished. Thus you have set mercy before, that you might also preserve truth. You forgive the one who confesses, but the one who punishes himself. You have made known to me the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom. Thus you have loved me, thus you have honored me, that you might reveal to me by the prophetic Spirit the hidden mysteries of your wisdom—that is, of your Son: namely, his incarnation, passion, resurrection, ascension, and many other things. He says uncertain things on account of the Jews, who read them and doubted. Hidden things on account of the Gentiles, who did not know these things at all.

Tell us, holy David, if anything has been revealed to you concerning the coming of Christ. He will come down, he says, like rain upon the fleece (Ps. 71). Tell of the gathering of the persecutors. The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes assembled together against the Lord and against his Christ (Ps. 2). Tell of the passion of the cross. They dug my hands and my feet (Ps. 21). Tell of the food and drink. They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink (Ps. 68). Tell of the burial. They placed me in the lowest pit (Ps. 87). Tell of the resurrection. Do not abandon my soul in Hell (Ps. 15). Tell of the ascension. God ascended with a shout of joy (Ps. 46). Tell of the glory of the Church. The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing (Ps. 44). It would be long to recount how many and how great are the secrets revealed to him. Since, then, so great a man has fallen, who is there that can be secure concerning himself? And yet, if it should happen that anyone has fallen, let him consider that this man repented, and not only received pardon, but was even restored to his former rank. Hence he also adds:

Sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed. We know hyssop (according to Augustine) to be a lowly herb, but a medicinal one, which is said to cling to the rock with its roots. Do you too grasp your rock, that is, Christ, with the root of love (1 Cor. 10). Be humble before your God, so that you may be exalted in your glorified God. Do not despise the herb; attend to the power of the medicine. Hyssop lays down the swelling of the lung. In the lung, pride is customarily signified. For there is the inflation, there the panting. But humility cures such a passion. With hyssop, in the old law, the blood of a calf was sprinkled for cleansing the children of Israel (Lev. 14). Let us also sprinkle ourselves with hyssop, let us imitate the humility of Christ's passion, and we shall be cleansed from our sins. But it is a small thing for us to be cleansed from the filth of sins, unless it falls to us to be adorned with the brightness of virtues. Therefore he adds: You shall wash me with your sacred blood: And I shall be made whiter than snow. In which no traces of blackness can be discerned. He rightly says that he is made whiter than snow, because the brightness of a justified soul surpasses every brightness of visible creation. The garment of Christ shone on the mountain as white as snow (Matt. 17), which signified the Church as one to be cleansed from every stain of sins. Thus, with me cleansed and made white:

You will give joy and gladness to my hearing. The truth heard within delights greatly. And the servant of God rejoices exceedingly and is glad when, concerning the remission of sins, or the promise of eternal salvation, or certain divine conditions, he is instructed within. Hence it is said of John: But the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears, and rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice (John 3). Joy can be referred to present grace. Gladness to future glory. And, because of the joy restored to me, my humbled bones shall exult. That is, the virtues which were cast down through sin shall be for me a cause of exultation. Or the perfect men can be understood, since they have been humbled, they shall exult: according to what is written: Everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted (Luke 18; Matthew 23). And so that this may happen, he adds as follows:

Turn your face away from my sins. God does this when he overlooks the sins of men because of repentance. He turns his face away from sins, as it were, he does not remember, when he does not punish. You ask deservedly, and you ask well, that God turn his face away from your sins, if you do not turn your own face away from them. Hence it is that he says above, And my sin is always against me. Nor do I ask only for these sins, but also for all others. And this is what he says: And blot out all my iniquities. Which, when you have blotted out.

Create a clean heart in me, O God. Create, as God, something new: cleanse my heart: take away evil thoughts. And renew a right spirit in my inmost being. He spoke well: Renew; for the house that sin had made old has been built again; I ask that grace renew it. Through my deed the uprightness of my spirit had been bent: through your grace let it be directed: so that as before I may walk rightly and in truth in your sight.

Cast me not away from your face. That is, from your presence. Let my sins be cast away from you, not I. Until now, he says, I have stood before your face, I have understood your secrets. I beseech you, Lord, that you not drive me away from such knowledge of you. And take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. That as once, so also now, the advent, incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension of your Son may be manifest to me: and strengthen me with the principal spirit. In what (according to Augustine) does he strengthen? Because you have forgiven me: because I am certain that what you have given is not imputed to me. And made secure by this, and thus strengthened by grace, I will not be ungrateful. What will you give for this gift?

I will teach the wicked your ways. For this is the peculiar mark of holy men, that the good spiritual things which they receive from God they strive to share with others out of charity, and that they seek the salvation of others as they do their own. Hence he adds: and the impious will be converted to you. For they do not teach others in order to commend themselves, or to seek some temporal gain from their doctrine, but with this intention alone, that they may be able to draw the impious to conversion. Great is the commendation of divine mercy, and the consolation of sinners, when it is said, And the impious will be converted to you. Thus God is so full of the fat of mercy that salvation is promised not only to the converted but even to the impious themselves. Hence Paul says, That their faith may be reckoned for righteousness to those who believe in him who justifies the impious (Rom. 4). But attending to his many iniquities, and attributing them to the corruption of flesh and blood, he adds:

Deliver me from bloods, O God, God of my salvation. You, O God, who are God and the author of my salvation, deliver me from bloods, that is, from the corruptions of the flesh. The Latin interpreter expressed this—from the same source—in a less Latin word, yet with the meaning drawn from the Greek. For we all know that "bloods" is not said in Latin; yet because the Greek set it down thus in the plural number, not without cause—since he found this in the original Hebrew tongue—the interpreter preferred to say something less in Latin style rather than to indicate the meaning less precisely. Why, then, did he say "from bloods" in the plural? In many bloods, as it were in the origin of the flesh of sin, he wished many sins to be understood: looking to those very sins which come from the corruption of flesh and blood. Whence the Apostle says: Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God. Deliver me from bloods, that is, from iniquities. And my tongue shall exalt, that is, shall announce with exultation your righteousness. If I shall be able to declare your righteousness—if you shall first have delivered me from iniquity. And because he said, My lips shall exult your righteousness, lest he seem to attribute this to his own powers, as though having speech in his own power, commending the grace of God he adds:

Lord, you will open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. You will make my lips fit for preaching, lips that had before been closed on account of sin. For praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner. Hence God said to the sinner, Why do you declare my justice? By contrast, praise befits the upright. It is yours, then, to open my lips; it is mine thereafter to proclaim your praise—which is more acceptable to you than to offer the sacrifices of the law.

For if you had desired a sacrifice—the legal one, rather than the offering of praise—I would have given it. But I have resolved rather to offer the sacrifice of praise, because you will certainly not be delighted with the old burnt offerings. What then? Did not the holy David offer God sacrifices and burnt offerings of calves and bulls, as was commanded in the law? He offered them, certainly; but in that very offering he presented a new sacrifice rather than an old one. For when he slaughtered the animals, he immolated himself inwardly to God in contrition of heart, and there he offered to God vows and praises, which he knew to be more acceptable to God than to offer the flesh of animals. And this is the true sacrifice that he sets before us when he adds:

A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit. A merely carnal sacrifice is not pleasing to God, but a troubled spirit—that is, one greatly anxious on account of sins—is a sacrifice pleasing to God. And he proves this by the words that follow, saying: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not despise. From this it is clear that a troubled spirit is a pleasing sacrifice to you; because you, O God, will not despise—indeed, will gladly accept—a heart contrite through compunction and humbled. Having commended the new sacrifice, he prays that God establish the Church from both walls, which may offer this kind of sacrifice. He says therefore:

Deal kindly, Lord, in your good will with Zion. You, Lord, to whom such a sacrifice is pleasing, deal kindly with Zion—that is, bestow abundant blessing and mercy upon your future Church, not according to her merits, but in your good will, that is, with your free grace. And from living stones—namely, faithful souls—let the walls of Jerusalem be built, that is, let both walls of the Church, namely the Jewish and the Gentile, be constructed in faith, hope, and chastity (Eph. 2). Zion is interpreted as contemplation, and Jerusalem as vision of peace. Recognize yourselves, then, in Zion and Jerusalem, if you hope for a certain future hope, and if you have peace with God.

Then you will accept a sacrifice of righteousness. Now, as a sacrifice for iniquity—which is a troubled spirit, a contrite and humbled heart—you, God, will not despise. Then, that is, in the age to come, you will gladly accept only the sacrifice of righteousness and of praise, as it is written: Blessed are those who dwell in your house, O God; for ages of ages they will praise you (Ps. 83). You will also accept offerings and holocausts. When the whole flock was placed upon the altar to be consumed by fire, this was called a holocaust. The divine fire will consume us wholly. For not only will our soul be consumed by the divine fire of wisdom, but our body there will merit immortality. Then they will place upon your altar—that is, upon the memorial of your venerable passion and resurrection—calves, meaning themselves: innocent, new, free from the yoke of the Law.

TITLE OF PSALM 51.

In this psalm two kinds of people are treated: one earthly, the other heavenly; one it persecutes, the other it suffers; one glories in malice, which will be rooted out; the other glories in God, and will endure. The perverse kind is treated in the first part of the psalm, and its malice is described throughout. But the kind of the elect is shown at the end. The title is this: Unto the end, the understanding of David, when Doeg the Idumaean had come and announced to Saul, and said to him: David has come into the house of Ahimelech. It is read in the history that this was at the time when Saul was persecuting David.

David himself, driven by hunger and by enemies, when he had nowhere to flee, went into the house of Ahimelech the priest and ate there of the bread of the Presence. When a certain Edomite named Doeg, a servant of Saul, had seen this, he was moved by envy and reported it to Saul, saying: David has come into the house of Ahimelech (1 Kings 21 and 22). This persecution and the accusation of Doeg were fulfilled, and are fulfilled daily in the Church. Doeg is interpreted as "moved" or "motion." Edomite is interpreted as "earthly." Saul is "appetite," Ahimelech is "the kingdom of my father." The explanation of the title is this: this understanding, which the words of this psalm bring forth, is not to be completed in this life, but in the end, that is, in the future; or in the end, Christ. By this understanding the wicked, through this present license they have of doing evil, are believed to be about to undergo the damnation of eternal punishment. But the good, through this, that they suffer those evils from them, are to be rewarded in the future; and this understanding is to be attributed to David, that is, to any faithful person. Understanding, I say, had concerning that matter which was signified when the Edomite Doeg came, that is, some earthly man moved by malice, and announced it to Saul, which is interpreted as "appetite," by whom death is signified; and he said to him, urging him on to persecution: David, that is, any faithful person, has come into the house of Ahimelech, that is, into the fellowship of the Church, which is rightly designated by Ahimelech, which is interpreted as "the kingdom of my father," because God the Father reigns in it.

Not without reason do we understand death through Saul, because just as this sinful people asked a king from God, so we, through illicit desire, have acquired death. For Saul, as we have said, is interpreted as "desire." Evil desire is the death of the soul. This king rules over the sons of unbelief (Eph. 5). He persecutes us both by himself and through his ministers. But we shall triumph over this king when this mortal body has put on immortality, when that saying comes to pass which is written: "Where is your contention, O death? Where is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15; Hos. 13). In the meantime, that we may be patient and not faint on the way, let us be refreshed by the breads of holiness in the house of Ahimelech, that is, by the word of God and the heavenly sacraments in the house of the Church. The subject matter of this psalm is both kinds of men, the persecutors and the sufferers. The faithful soul, having this understanding—that those who now glory in wickedness will afterward be condemned, and those who now suffer for righteousness' sake will afterward receive eternal glory (Matt. 5)—speaks here against the perverse themselves, intending to recall them from their perversity and to show them the way of truth, saying thus:

PSALM 51.

Why do you glory in malice, you who are powerful in iniquity? You persecutor and lover of the world, to whom license and power to work iniquity has been granted, for what fruit? for what advantage do you glory in malice? Or at least this ought to recall you, that in this glory one can find no fruit. For it is surely more to glory in iniquity than to exercise iniquity in deed. For there are some who indeed do iniquitous things, but conscience stings them concerning sin, and they tremble within themselves. And it often happens that if they cannot yet refrain from all, they nevertheless strive to restrain themselves from certain wicked works. And there are those who rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things (Prov. 2). These are they who with loosened reins rush headlong into every evil. Such persons are rebuked in this psalm. Since we glory in malice, and they are powerful in iniquity, both the depraved will and the perverse action are reproved in them. But he sets forth malice in parts, when he adds:

All day long, that is, continually, your tongue has devised iniquity. Either you do evil, or while you cannot do it, you speak evil; or when you can do neither, you wish and devise evil. In this place he commends the tongue of the heart, not of the mouth; for our heart has its own tongue. What office the tongue has outwardly in speaking, such an office the tongue of the heart has inwardly in thinking. Hence it is that without any noise of words we often speak to ourselves in the heart. Nor have you only devised iniquity, but you have also wrought deceit. This is what he adds: Like a sharp razor you have wrought deceit. Your deceit has the stroke of a razor. As a sharp razor scrapes away the filth and hairs of skins, so your deceit, when you take away earthly possessions from the faithful, or strike down or kill their bodies, takes away only superfluous things, and does no harm to the soul. Nay, you make it whiter and more perfect. Behold what the wicked do to the saints: they shave off the hairs. Therefore let the wicked sharpen his razor, let him sharpen his deceit as much as he can: he will take away superfluous temporal things, not the necessary eternal ones. He takes away temporal life, he sends it on to eternal life. He takes away temporal things, he drives it on to eternal things. And it must be noted that in this verse both the thought and the act of malice are contained; but in the following verse even the affection is designated, when it is said:

You have loved malice above goodness. Not only have you thought and done evil, but you have also loved evil. Nor have you loved it only for the face, but also for speaking. And therefore he adds: Iniquity more than to speak equity. You supply "you have loved." This indeed always belongs to the reprobate, that they love more to think, do, and speak evil than good. And in this there is a double iniquity and condemnation, because what should have been rejected they choose, and what should have been crushed they despise. Woe to the iniquitous heart. It has turned itself away, lest it see what it ought to have seen. Of such a one (from Augustine) it is said in another psalm: He was unwilling to understand, so that he might act well (Ps. 35). For this reason it is rightly added:

You have loved all words of precipitation, O deceitful tongue. Now it does not care what it says, what it lies, how it deceives. To every falsehood, deceitfulness, and vanity it has abandoned itself headlong. The deceitful tongue is the minister of deceit. The deceitful tongue (from the same) carries one thing in the heart and brings forth another in the mouth. But in these there is precipitation and submersion.

Therefore God will destroy you in the end. And even if for now you seem to stand and flourish like grass in the field, in the end God will uproot you, when he will say: Go into the eternal fire (Matt. 25). And although you have fixed the root of your heart in the love of the world, he will uproot you and emigrate you, that is, he will cause you to emigrate from your tabernacle, that is, from this world, or from the body, or from the Church, in which you ought to have stood. And your root from the land of the living. Even the reprobate sometimes have a root of good. This is signified in the grain that fell upon the rock. For it put forth a root, but what was born withered, because it had no moisture. These are, says the Lord, who believe for a time, but in the time of temptation draw back (Luke 8). By believing, therefore, they have a root, but by not persevering they are torn away from the land of the living, that is, from the fellowship of the saints, because they did not have the moisture of divine grace.

The just will see and will fear, and they will laugh over him. Let us understand and discern these two times, of fearing and of laughing (Eccles. 3). We have read what is reserved in the end for the wicked. And because we understand and believe, we see and we fear. The Apostle says, Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling (1 Cor. 2). And the Psalmist: Serve the Lord in fear (Ps. 2). Therefore the just who are now, who live by faith, understand that the wicked are to be condemned. For this reason they fear, and for themselves. For what they are today, they know; what they will be tomorrow, they do not know.

But when our day has come, when Christ who is our life has appeared, then we too will appear with him in glory (Col. 3). Then the righteous will laugh over him, because there will no longer be any place for compassion or sorrow. Not as now, when you see a man living unjustly, you wish to labor with him and lead him back from wandering to the way of truth. Hence (from Augustine) you grieve over him and pray for him. But then, when the time of judgment has come, there will no longer be a place for correction, but only for condemnation. There will be repentance there, but unfruitful, because it is too late. Then the righteous will see the wicked man and laugh over him (Wis. 5), that is, appearing as his superiors they will judge him worthy of mockery. And they will say, in their inner speech:

Behold the man who did not set God as his helper. We must carefully consider what Scripture condemns in this wicked man. For it did not say, Behold the man who was rich, but Behold the man who did not set God as his helper. But he hoped in the abundance of his riches, that is, in the plenty of gold or silver, and of power, and of glory, and of other things. Not because he had riches, but because he hoped in them, therefore he is condemned, therefore he is moved from the tabernacle, therefore his root is uprooted from the land of the living, and he prevailed in his vanity. For what is more vain than the man who thinks a coin is worth more than God? Therefore, since this man is condemned, what do you say of yourself, O David? What do you say of yourself, O body of Christ?

But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God. I, remaining in the Church, which is the house of God, like a fruitful olive tree in the richness of charity and the fruitfulness of good works, have hoped not in riches or honors, but in the mercy of God: I, I say, who am to be led into eternity. And this he explains when he adds: and in the age that follows this age. Just as the olive neither in winter nor in summer loses its greenness, so holy men neither in prosperity nor in adversity lose the beauty of the virtues.

I will confess to you forever, because you have made me. Therefore, because you have made me such, I will praise you forever. Great is the confession, great the commendation of grace, to say to God: Because you have made me. What is it that you have made? Namely this, that I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, that I have hoped in the mercy of God. For what did I do, except evil? But God it is who works in us both to will and to work for good purpose (Phil. 2). And therefore with patience I will wait for your name, that is, the glory and glorification of your name: or your name Jesus, that is, the Savior: because it is good in the sight of your saints. He does not say in the sight of the wicked, but in the sight of the saints the name of the Lord is good. For they do not have the eye or the palate of the heart, so as to be able to see or taste how good and how sweet the Lord is. A man who does not know what is good, unless he has tasted it, does not know what he is saying.

Therefore the Psalm invites us more to experience, saying, Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. As if he were saying: Then you will see, if you have tasted. If nothing were sweet to the martyrs, they would by no means bear so many bitter hardships of tribulations with a calm mind. Your name is good in the sight of your saints. It is good to me when I hear God. It is a gift to me when I hear Jesus. This name both the good and the evil can hear; but only the saints can taste it. And the holier each one is, the more sweetly and pleasantly the name of the Lord is savored in his heart. The more also patiently and desirably he waits, that at last he may deserve to see what he loves.

TITLE OF PSALM LII.

Unto the end, for Mahalath, understanding of David. This understanding is attributed to David, that is, to Christ inviting us, that is, into conformity with himself who is the end of the law. The same Christ is set before us in this Psalm, to be understood, so that we may be transformed into him who is the end of the law: that we may believe him to be the salvation of Israel. Christ, I say, acting for Mahalath, that is, in the place of one giving birth or grieving. For Mahalath is interpreted as grieving or giving birth: but it has the effect of one grieving or giving birth, namely by arguing, by rebuking Jewish faithlessness, striving to transform from oldness into newness. My little children, whom I again bring forth (that is, for Mahalath) until Christ is formed in you (Gal. 4), that is, unto the end.

The subject matter of this psalm is the foolish people who do not know God. His aim, however, in this psalm is to refute those who denied that Christ is the Lord, showing that they are utterly ruined and corrupt, and so abominable to God that none of them does good, until they are converted to the one, that is, to God. He shows also that on account of certain people's iniquities, their reasonings and their judgments are to be scattered by God, and that they themselves are to be punished forever; but that the righteous will obtain salvation. So then he begins:

PSALM 52.

The fool said in his heart, There is no God. This psalm, because it has already been expounded above (Psalm 13), needs no exposition, except for this one verse, which is not in the earlier psalm. [Verse 6.] For God has scattered the bones of those who please men. The Jews wished to please men rather than God, when they said, We have no king but Caesar. And again: If you release him, you are not Caesar's friend (John 19). The Apostle says: If I were pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ (Galatians 1). Therefore, because in their desire to please men they refused to be servants of Christ, God scattered their bones, that is, the powers of the soul; and he destroyed within them the inner senses, namely reason and understanding, memory and other such things, which are called bones for this reason, that just as the flesh is supported by bones, so the soul is supported by the virtues.

But they were confounded, having lost both their place and their people, and were dispersed into captivity throughout all lands. And this happened to them for this reason: because God spurned them. For they themselves had first spurned him, as he himself said through his prophet: I nourished and raised up sons, but they spurned me (Isa. 1). Because, therefore, they spurned God, by the just judgment of almighty God they were spurned.

TITLE OF THE FIFTY-THIRD PSALM.

and 2. Unto the end, in songs of understanding, David, [Verse 2.] when the Ziphites had come and said to Saul, Is not David hidden among us (1 Kings 23)? The understanding of this psalm is to be attributed to David, that is, to Christ hastening unto the end, that is, unto the perfection of his obedience. And this "in songs," that is, in gladness: because the life of our Lord was a discipline of morals; because what he himself understood, he set before us to understand. But what did he understand? That one must persevere in praises, even unto the end. When did he understand this? When the Jews, flourishing so greatly in this world, handed him over to death, and were unwilling to believe that God lay hidden in a man. Which betrayal was prefigured when the Ziphites had come and said to Saul, Is not David hidden among us (1 Kings 23)? There was a certain village, Ziph, whose inhabitants were the Ziphites; in whose region David had hidden himself when Saul wished to find and kill him.

These Ziphites, then, when they had learned this, betrayed him to the king who was pursuing him, saying: "Behold, is not David hidden among us?" Their betrayal indeed profited them nothing, and it did no harm to David. For their malignant mind was made manifest. Ziph is interpreted as "flower." Hence they are called Ziphites, that is, "those flourishing," by whom are designated the Jews, who flourished in temporal goods. By Saul is understood death. The Ziphites, then, betrayed David to Saul, because the Jews delivered Christ to death (Matt. 25). By the Ziphites are also understood the lovers of this world, who still persecute the body of Christ. The subject matter of this psalm is the head and the body, placed among the wicked and afflicted. In the first part of the psalm he prays that he be delivered from strangers, by whom he is driven. In the last part he shows that they have been dispersed, while he is rescued from every tribulation and exalted above his enemies. This, then, is set before us to understand in this psalm: that just as the Son voluntarily offered himself to the Father (Heb. 9), and asked the Father not for present safety but for what would be profitable (John 17), so if those flourishing in the world rise up against us, let us run through the troubles brought upon us with a joyful spirit, and ask that they profit us for the future life.

He therefore prays in this psalm for this very thing, and sets himself before us as an example both of praying (as we have said) and of persevering: foreseeing that he would suffer for the redemption of the human race, that he might be raised from death, and that at last he might be worthily exalted according to the power and omnipotence of God. Thus therefore he said:

PSALM 53.

O God, save me in your name. The voice of Christ to the Father: as if he were plainly saying, Glorify in your name, save me, by making me rise again. And judge me in your power, that is, according to the excellence of your power let my judgment increase: so that all may discern and know that you have sent me (John 11). And it shall be (says the Prophet) that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom 10; Joel 2). Let us therefore call upon the name of the Lord, that we may be saved (Acts 2). O God, in your name, that is, through the invocation of your holy name, save me from my sins: And in your power, that is, in your might, by which you will judge the living and the dead, judge me, that is, separate me from the wicked. It should be noted that he first asks to be saved in the name, then to be judged in power. For whom he has saved in the name that comes first, he will judge savingly in the power that follows. Be assured: that judgment will not be punishment for you, but discernment. And this prayer which he sends to the Father, he asks to be heard, when he adds:

O God, hear my prayer. That is, this prayer which he has already set forth concerning salvation and judgment. Give ear to the words of my mouth—that is, the very prayer conceived in the heart and uttered with the voice. The Lord has no other ears than His grace and mercy. And when it is said, Give ear, nothing else is understood but, Attend and hear both mindful and merciful. For if He gives ear so as to hear mercifully, we are assured that the Lord will hear our prayer. In the first verse, then, prayer is made for salvation; in the second verse, prayer is made to commend the prayer already made and to win the goodwill of God. Then he gives the reason why prayer should be made, saying:

For strangers have risen up against me. For the Jews rose up to oppose Christ. Strangers indeed, if not in race and nature, yet in customs and life. And not only the lesser people, but even the mighty have sought my soul. As it is written: The kings of the earth and the princes gathered together in one against the Lord and against His Christ. Mighty, then, according to the pride and power of the world. And they did not set God before their sight. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. The cause of so great a sin was therefore the blindness of heart and unbelief. But the cause of the blindness was pride. Woe to that man who does not set God before his sight. For the Lord is our illumination.

For when a man understands, he is enlightened; when he neglects to understand, he is darkened, and so he falls into every error and iniquity. These are the strangers who persecute the body of Christ. For they are not from God, but from the father, the devil. They did not understand me as God; but behold, it appears openly that I truly am God.

For behold, God the Father, inasmuch as I am man, helps me in my passion, lest I fail; and the Lord, his Son, is the sustainer of my soul, taking it to himself in the unity of person. Or the sustainer of my soul, because after the passion in which he heard me, he received my soul into glory. This help is promised also to his members, where he says: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age. And elsewhere in the psalm he says: I am with him in tribulation; I will deliver him and glorify him. Do not therefore fear your persecutors, because God is with you in tribulation. Do not fear those who kill the body, because the Lord is the sustainer of your soul. Perhaps for this reason he turned his voice to us. For up to this point he has spoken to the Father in prayer. But now, wishing to show us that he has been heard and helped by the Father, he speaks no longer to the Father but to us: For behold, God helps me, and the rest. For there was no need for him to say to the Father what he knew and what he himself was providing; but it was certainly necessary for us to hear this, so that we might learn the example of Christ's patience.

From these words we are instructed that when evils are inflicted on us by enemies, we ought not to grow angry, or curse, or seek vengeance, but to pray and to await God's help. Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord. Hence he adds, not so much by way of praying as by way of prophesying:

Turn away evils from my enemies. Behold what sort of vengeance God exacts. The evils that the wicked inflict on the good, God turns away from us and hurls back upon the wicked. For what harm does persecution and tribulation do to the martyrs? Rather, it profits them unto salvation. But it harms the others unto damnation. Hence it is said elsewhere: His sorrow shall be turned back upon his own head, and his iniquity shall descend upon his own crown. Rightly, therefore, it is added: In your power, that is, by your just judgment, scatter them. And well does he not say, Destroy, but scatter: because the Jews were destroyed in various parts and dispersed through the regions on account of the evil that they did to Jesus. God will also scatter the wicked in his truth, when at the last judgment he will hand them over to be tortured with various punishments and torments, saying,

I will sacrifice to you willingly. Every good work offered to God can be called a sacrifice. And well did he first say "willingly." For God weighs the will and the affection in every sacrifice, and considers the good intention of the one offering, not the greatness of the gift. And as great as is the devotion and the will of the one offering, so great is his sacrifice before God. Hence Moses says: The Lord looked upon Abel and upon his gifts (Gen. 4). The Lord is said to have looked not first upon the gifts, but first upon Abel: because he does not weigh the will from the gift, but the gift from the will. But upon Cain and his gifts he did not look (Ibid.), because clearly he did not see a good will in him. The Son offered himself to the Father as a sacrifice for us, willingly indeed, because not from necessity, but from love. For God does not love forced gifts and forced service. And I will confess to your name, O God, because it is good. Truly it is good, and wholesome for our souls, that we do all things that we do to the praise and glory of your name, that we sacrifice to God with our whole will, and confess to the name of the Lord with our whole heart. This is sweet, this is good, this is pleasant. And he sets forth the reason why this should be done, when he adds:

Because you have delivered me from every tribulation. Therefore I said, because your name is good. For if I could have recognized this before tribulations, perhaps they would not have been necessary for me. But tribulation was applied for admonition, and the admonition was made for your praise. For I would not understand where I was, unless I had been admonished by my weakness. From all tribulations, therefore, you have delivered me. And my eye has looked down upon my enemies. My eye has looked down upon those Ziphites. For I passed by their flower, I lifted up the height of my heart to you, and arriving from there I looked down upon them. And I saw that all flesh is grass, and the glory of man is like the flower of grass. Therefore, brothers, do this with your souls. Lift up your hearts. Polish the edge of your mind. Learn to love God freely. Learn to despise the present world. Learn to sacrifice willingly the victim of praise. Learn also to praise and invoke the admirable and great name of the Lord, so that, transcending the flower of grass, you may look down upon your enemies.

THE TITLE OF THE FIFTY-FOURTH PSALM.

Unto the end, in songs of understanding, of David: The understanding of this psalm must be attributed to David, that is, to Christ, who perseveres unto the end, that is, unto the completion of his obedience. And this "in songs," that is, in gladness of mind. The subject matter of this psalm is the whole Christ, namely, according to head and body, afflicted by the wicked, but delivered. Moreover, Christ sets before us, his members, what is to be understood in this psalm, that is, what is not to be committed to memory sluggishly, so that, placed amid adversities by his example, we may never grow faint from hope, but running through torments with confidence, we may hope for eternal recompense from God, and believe in the irrevocable damnation of those who persecute us. This is what is briefly contained near the end of the psalm, where it is said: Cast your care upon the Lord. And after a few words: But I have hoped in you, O God. Moreover, amid what adversities he hoped, and what he obtained concerning his deliverance and concerning the damnation of his adversaries by hoping, he clearly promises in the earlier parts of the psalm. And he prays for himself, that he may not fail in his passion; and for his resurrection and glorification. He also treats of the present rejection of the Jews, and of their eternal damnation, and of the assumption of the Gentiles, and of the glorification of the faithful forever: saying thus:

PSALM 54.

Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication: [Verse 3.] Attend to me, and hear me. As if he were saying: O you my faithful ones placed in tribulations, do not lose heart: but hoping in the Lord, and expecting recompense from him, pray after my example: because I, placed in suffering, prayed thus to the Lord: O God the Father, hear, for the sake of the dignity of your Son, my prayer, by raising me from death, and by glorifying me in my passion. As if he were saying: Father, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you (John 17). And despise not my supplication, that is, because of the assumed humanity, do not hold cheap my supplication, which I make for the avoiding of evils: but rather attend to me, that is, make that very humanity intent, that is, persevering in prayer, or in the virtues, and in the increase of good works. And so hear me. When in the divine page prayer and supplication are placed together, they differ from one another: because prayer is when we ask something honorable, namely concerning those things which we wish to attain; but supplication is for avoiding evils, namely concerning those things which we wish to be driven away from us. It must also be known that for the most part almighty God both hears and despises the supplication of certain people. Hence it is that to the Israelites he, being angry, granted the flesh which they wickedly asked for (Exodus 16): but how displeasing their request was to him, he showed even by punishing them.

Hence it is written: Their food was still in their mouths, and the wrath of God came up upon them (Num. 11; Ps. 77). So too, when after the manner of the other nations round about they asked God for a king, he indeed permitted them to have a king, but he made known to Samuel how displeasing their request was to him, saying: Hear the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For they have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them (1 Kings 8). Samuel also testified to this, saying: But you have rejected the Lord your God, who alone saved you from all your evils and tribulations (1 Kings 10). So then he asks that his prayer be heard, so that God may not despise his entreaty, but that the hearing of it may contain both grace and benefit. The words that follow seem to agree with this sentence.

Attend to me, and hear me. For then the Lord attends to me, and hears not only my prayer but me, when he grants what I ask for the benefit of my soul. And as if it were asked: What necessity is there for you to ask to be heard in this way? I was grieved (he says) in my exercise, and I was troubled [Verse 4] by the voice of the enemy, and by the tribulation of the sinner. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the exercise of his passion, the hostile Jews grieved and troubled by cursing and afflicting him. Hence he himself says: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt. 26).

Even yet the enemies of the Church do not cease from acting against its members: either to do evil, if they can, or if they cannot, at least to disparage and belittle them. Hence it is said in another psalm: Those who repay evil for good were disparaging me (Ps. 37). And elsewhere: All my enemies whispered together against me; against me they devised evil for me. They set an unjust word against me, etc. (Ps. 40). Concerning these it is further added: For they have bent down iniquities upon me. By accusing and slandering, as it is written: Do we not say well that you are a Samaritan and have a demon (John 8)? And in their wrath they were troublesome to me. By beating and striking with fists—and not justly, but in wrath, that is, on account of their own wrath. For it is written: Son, when you draw near to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation (Eccles. 2). It does not say for rest and security, but for fear and for temptation. For all who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3). Concerning the just, Wisdom also speaks thus elsewhere: Their affliction was esteemed, and their end: and they departed from the just way into destruction (Wis. 3). Likewise the Apostle: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they died by the slaughter of the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, needy, distressed, afflicted (Hebr. 12).

Moreover, the Savior himself, speaking of himself, says: Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and so enter into his glory (Luke 24)? To this pertains what follows:

My heart is troubled within me, and the dread of death has fallen upon me. Hence it is written in the Gospel: Jesus began to be afraid, to be weary and sorrowful, and the angel of the Lord strengthened him (Luke 22). Yet we must not believe that our Redeemer, who had power to lay down his life and to take it up again (John 10), had any fear of death as regards his own person. But we understand this as said according to his members: which, though they are strong in spirit, yet because the flesh is weak (Matt 26), are sometimes troubled among themselves because of punishment, and fear the bitterness of death. For this reason he adds:

Fear and trembling have come upon me. Fear can be referred to the soul, trembling to the body. Hence it is that he himself says: My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me (Matt 26). And to show that he was most especially struck by fear, he prayed not once only but three times, saying the same words (Matt 26); and even in his agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22). These words also pertain more to the members than to the head. And darkness has covered me. That is, the dark and blind Jews.

For unless they had been blind and overshadowed by diabolical darkness, they could have recognized Christ at least from such great powers and miracles (John 10). Or in that which he says, Why is my heart troubled within me, anger can be understood, of which it is said elsewhere: My eye is troubled with anger (Psalm 6). And if the eye is troubled, what follows? And the dread of death fell upon me: our life is love, death is hatred. When a man begins to fear that he may hate what he loved, he fears death, and a sharper and more inward death, by which the soul is killed, not the body. Hence fear and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me. For whoever hates his brother is in darkness (1 John 2). And what does he say to himself, placed in that exercise and weakness?

And I said, Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and rest? In this tribulation I did not despair, but I said, that is, I thus prayed to my Father: Raise me up, Father, with yourself. For who else besides you will give wings to me, existing as a dove, that is, innocent and without the gall of bitterness, that is, agility and ability, and I will fly, that is, I will pass from this world to the Father (John 13), from the Jewish people to the Gentile, and there I will rest? And my prayer will not be frustrated.

For behold, I have gone far away in flight, and I have remained in solitude. It is clear that I, fleeing—that is, swiftly rising from death—have removed myself far from the world or from the Jewish people, and have remained in solitude, that is, in heaven, or among the Gentiles. Holy men desire wings like a dove, that is, spiritual virtues, so that, having left earthly things behind in their mind, they may be able to fly through heavenly contemplation and rest in the love of God. And frequently the loving Lord fulfills their desire, so that, fleeing, they may withdraw far from the tumults of carnal thoughts and remain in solitude—that is, they may rest delightfully in the quiet of their own mind. And so that he might bring this about for me, I did not trust in my own strength.

I was waiting for him who saved me from the faintness of spirit and from the storm—that is, I was placing my hope in the Lord, who saved me so that I would not become faint-hearted, and from the storm, that is, from every disturbance. Peter had faintness of spirit when, seeing the strong wind and the storm of the sea, he was afraid. And when he began to sink, he waited for the help of his Savior. Therefore he also cried out: Lord, save me. And Jesus, stretching out his hand, took hold of him and saved him from the faintness of spirit and from the storm. And yet he rebuked him, saying: O you of little faith, why did you doubt (Matthew 14)?

Thus for the most part the elect, when they see powerful assaults of temptations, from weakness of soul fear the storm and the danger to their salvation, and so begin to sink; but nevertheless they do not perish, because waiting for and seeking divine help, they are saved. But just as they themselves are saved, so on the contrary the reprobate are sunk. Concerning whom, prophesying and at the same time praying, he immediately adds:

Cast them down, O Lord, and divide their tongues. Those who have lifted themselves up wickedly. It is expedient for them (from Augustine) that they be cast down; those who have conspired wickedly, it is expedient that their tongues be divided. Certain men through pride built a high tower, and the Lord divided their tongues (Gen. 11). Then they began not to understand one another. From this came the origin of many tongues. For before, there was one tongue. But one tongue was profitable from humble hearts. Yet when that gathering was cast down amid the conspiracy of pride, God spared them, so as to divide their tongues, lest by understanding one another they should make a pernicious unity. Through proud men tongues were divided. Through the humble Apostles tongues were gathered together. The spirit of pride dispersed the tongue. The Holy Spirit gathered the tongues (Acts 2). Those who desire one tongue, let them come to the Church: because amid the diversity of tongues of the flesh, there is one tongue in the faith of the heart. Cast them down and divide their tongues. Why?

Because I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city: iniquity in deed, contradiction in words, in the city, that is, in the society of the wicked, I have seen. There is a certain turbulent city. It was this that had built the tower. It was this that was confounded and called Babylonia; it was this that was scattered through countless nations (Gen. 11). From there the Church is gathered together into the desert of a good conscience. Christ came: the iniquitous city contradicted him. He stretched out his hands to a people that did not believe and contradicted. What therefore he says here, "Iniquity," can be understood as their faithlessness. For if the one who lives by faith is righteous, the one who does not have faith is iniquitous. Therefore faithlessness is iniquity. Nor is he alone iniquitous who does not believe, but also the one who lives wickedly. For the Apostle speaks of such people: "They confess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him" (Rom. 1). Yet even so the remnants of that city rage and contradict; concerning which it is further added:

Day and night, that is, continually, iniquity will surround her upon her walls, that is, upon her greater ones. Often people say: No one would remain a pagan, if those men were to become Christians. Therefore those who have not yet become Christians are, as it were, the walls of that city, of the one that does not believe and contradicts. Whoever defends another in his sin is a wall of the city of iniquity. And labor is in the midst of her, and injustice. Therefore there is labor there, because there is iniquity there, because there is injustice there. Wherever you see iniquity, understand labor to be there. The man who is iniquitous will never have peace. For his own conscience torments him, and he himself is his own enemy. There is always labor in pride, just as, by contrast, there is rest in humility. Hence the Savior admonishes us, saying: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For from what source do they labor, except that they are not meek and humble of heart?

And usury and deceit have not failed from her streets. Consider the Jewish people, and see how these two vices always reign among them, namely deceit and usury. The streets of this city are pride, luxury, covetousness, avarice, and other such things. The way of this city is broad and spacious, which leads to death (Matt. 7). Usury is when more is demanded than was lent. There is another, worse usury, when you do not forgive what is owed to you; and the eye of your heart is troubled at that verse in which it is said: Forgive us our debts, etc. (Matt. 6). Have you heard an insulting word? You wish to exact the punishment of damnation: you are a money-lender of injuries. Have you been struck with a fist? You seek to kill: it is deadly usury. Such usuries abound in that city. Deceit is when one thing is read in the heart and another is pronounced by the mouth. For the wicked always wish to conceal what they are, and to show what they are not. Then he shows that that people deserved to be punished for this reason, because they were first his household, and afterward cursed their Lord. But the evils that are inflicted by friends are more grievous.

For if my enemy, that is, the Gentile people, had cursed me, as the Jewish people cursed me, I would surely have endured it, and I would have judged more tolerably and more gently. And if he who hated me, when he was adoring idols, had spoken great things against me, that is, had insulted me through pride, and had magnified himself above me and threatened me with whatever he could, I would perhaps have hidden myself, that is, withdrawn myself from him. But these words can be understood more specifically of Judas the traitor, because Jesus hid himself from the Jews, but he did not hide himself at all from Judas. But what is it that he says, Perhaps? Can anything be uncertain with God? But this ambiguity of speech has been set down according to the usage of human speech. For thus we are accustomed to speak: Perhaps I will go there, perhaps I will do this. Concerning enemies, I say, one should act more tolerably.

But you, O Judah, a man according to the flesh, united in heart through pretense, my guide through preaching, well known through faith, who, conversing with me at the same time, used to take sweet foods, both bodily and spiritual. You, I say, O Judah, O perverse people, since you persist in such great evil, are you to be tolerated? Judas and his people signify false brothers within the holy Church, who, since they live in pretense, oppress the elect the more grievously the more inward they are. Yet the Lord teaches by his example that they are to be endured; but they themselves will not escape eternal punishment.

Those who are such let them hear the sentence of death, which is added:

Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. Death will come upon them when eternal damnation covers them. The living (according to Augustine) go down into hell, who understand that what they do is evil, and yet do not cease from it. What is "living"? Knowing that they are perishing. Upon such as these a far heavier damnation falls than upon the rest, as it is written: The servant who knows his master's will, and does not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes (Luke 12). Let false brothers therefore fear, pretenders, detractors, who display religion by their dress, yet do not live in religion. For to them belongs this sentence, which is spoken: Let death come upon them and let them go down alive into hell. Why?

Because of their wickedness in their dwelling places. And not only in the corners, but also in the midst of them. As if he were saying: Everywhere they are full of wickedness; either in their dwelling places, that is, in their bodies, in which we sojourn temporally and do battle (2 Cor 5), there are wickednesses. And in the midst of them, that is, in the heart, the wickednesses which they do, they do with their whole heart. Those who are such as these perish. But I cried to the Lord, and the Lord saved me. If the enemy has afflicted you, cry to God, and he will save you. Hence in another psalm he says: Call upon me in the day of tribulation, and I will deliver you (Psalm 80).

At evening and morning and midday I will tell and proclaim, and he will hear my voice. Evening (from Augustine): the Lord in death; morning in resurrection; midday in ascension. I will tell at evening the patience of death. I will proclaim at morning the life of the one rising. I will pray that he hear at midday, at the right hand of the Father. He will hear me who intercedes for us. Therefore, brothers, those whom you see in this very congregation within these walls—turbulent, puffed up, perverse—these are the chaff of the Lord's threshing floor. When he winnows at the last, all the chaff will fly away (Matt. 3). But what should we do, except sing with him, and pray, and lament in the psalm? And yet let us say with confidence what follows: Truly he will hear my voice, because

He will redeem my soul in peace. For he himself is true peace. The soul is redeemed in peace when it is transferred from vices to virtues, or from this world to the Father, through the grace of almighty God. From whom will he redeem it? From those who draw near to me. For from those who are far from me, the case is easy. He does not deceive me so quickly, who says: Come, adore the idol. He is far from me, because he is a pagan. More dangerous to me is the Christian who dwells with me in the house, and under the image of religion prepares for me the snare of deception. Rightly I say, Those who draw near to me: Because I was among many who were with me. Much is the chaff and few the grains. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 22).

But these were not among the few who are saved, but among the many—that is, among those who belong to the chaff and to perdition—they were with me. They were not with me in the wheat, but they were with me in the chaff, because the chaff is close to the wheat. They were with me in the sacraments, but they were not with me in [charity].

God will hear, and he will humble those who is before the ages. For (from Augustine) even though Christ our God is from Mary the Virgin in time, yet in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word (John 1). He will hear the humble in eternity; he will humble those in damnation who are lifted up in dissension. And rightly so: for there is no change for them. Because they are not changed for the better, but go down for the worse. And they did not fear God. Just as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 110; Prov. and 9), so not fearing God is the beginning of death. Blessed is the man who is always fearful. But he who is hard of mind will fall into evil (Prov. 28). Hence it is also added:

He will stretch out his hand in requital. This will be in the judgment, when God will enlarge his avenging hand for vengeance. Hence elsewhere he threatens, saying: I will lift up my hand to heaven. If I sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies, and to those who hate me I will repay (Deut. 32). And truly they are worthy to be punished: for they have defiled his covenant. Because they have despised him who was proclaimed unto salvation by the covenant of the law. Therefore,

They are divided by the wrath of his countenance. For the wrath and severity of God, on account of this sin, divided them throughout diverse parts of the world. These words also seem to pertain to heretics. For they do not cease to defile the covenant of God, while they understand and expound the holy Scriptures perversely. They defile God's covenant, because they do not cease to approve falsehood and error from it. And therefore they are divided by the wrath of his countenance. They are divided by the wrath of God's severity. For what the Donatist says, the Sabellian does not say. Nor does the Arian say what the Sabellian says. Separated from the unity of the catholic Church, they are divided through many errors. And his heart has drawn near. That we may understand his will. The division of the heretics is of great value to us for understanding God. For many things lay hidden in the Scriptures, and when the heretics had been cut off, they stirred up the Church of God with questions.

What was hidden has been opened, and the will of God has been understood. For was the Trinity perfectly treated before the Arians opposed it? Nor were those things that were said about the very unity of Christ clearly stated, except after that separation began to press upon weak brothers. Therefore those who knew how to treat and resolve these matters, so that the weak might not perish, being stirred up by questions, brought the obscure points of the law into public view by the words of the impious and by their own disputations. Therefore they were divided from the anger of his countenance, and to us the heart of him drew near for understanding. The Apostle says: There must be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you (1 Cor. 11). His words were softened beyond oil, and they themselves are darts. For certain things that seemed hard in the Scriptures, once expounded, were softened. And rightly beyond oil, because oil warms the flesh, and the sweetness of the true words of God warms the soul. And they themselves are darts. For they armed the preachers. And those very words are loved into the hearts of hearers, whether in season or out of season. That the words of God are darts, the Apostle testifies when he says: The word of God is living and effective, and more penetrating than any two-edged sword, etc. (Heb. 4). But perhaps you are not yet fit to be armed with these darts.

Cast your care upon the Lord. That is, expect everything from him, and nothing from yourself. Solomon calls the care of man a worm, by which man is gnawed as a garment by a moth (Prov. 20). Therefore cast your care upon the Lord. Think upon him, so that you may remain in your place like a little worm. And he himself will bring you in, in faith and morals, in doctrine, and in virtues. And although here it has temptation for a time, he will not give the righteous one fluctuation forever, that is, commotion or disturbance: but he will make him quiet in eternal life. He will not give the righteous one fluctuation forever. For even if for a time we fluctuate, and are tempted, and are afflicted, we have our anchor fixed in heaven. Therefore he will not give the righteous one fluctuation forever, because after the temptation of the waves, he will prepare for him a harbor of quiet forever. What is that harbor? Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt. 25).

But you, O God, will lead them down into the pit of destruction. Hence he will say: Go, you cursed ones, into eternal fire (Ibid.). He calls the pit hell, because of its depth and darkness. That place is prepared for the wicked, so that they may fall into it as into a deep pit and perish. God will lead them down into the pit of destruction, not because he himself is the author of their guilt, but because he himself is the judge of their iniquity. He shows what this iniquity is when he adds: Men of blood, that is, persecutors and shedders of blood; and deceitful, who by pretense and fraud deceive unwary souls: They shall not live out half their days, so as to return to repentance, but they will continue in malice even to the end. This is not to be understood of all. For many, after shedding blood and practicing deceit, have turned to repentance and salvation. But it is to be understood only of those who are divided from the wrath of his countenance. Holy men cut short their days, because whatever they sin in other days they make up for in the forty and other penitential days by fastings and prayers. Or because some are converted to God in childhood, others in youth, and others in old age, therefore it is rightly added: But I will hope in you, O God. That is, I will not place my hope in the world, nor in man, but in you.

THE TITLE OF PSALM LV.

The title of the following psalm is as follows: Unto the end, for the people that is far from the saints, of David, in the inscription of the title, when the Allophyli held him in Geth (2 Kings 1 and 21). This psalm is attributed to David, that is, to the Church, directing unto the end—the psalm, I say, composed for the people, namely, that he himself may be delivered from the people that has been made far from the saints, in the inscription of the title: because whereas the saints confess Christ as king of the Jews, as the title says (John 19), this people contradicts, whether in words, like the Jews and pagans, or in deeds, like bad Christians: when the Allophyli held him in Geth. Geth was a city of the Allophyli, that is, of foreigners, namely, of the people far from the saints. Geth is interpreted as a winepress. David fled to this city, but we do not read in the history that he was sought there. Therefore the Allophyli, that is, the foreigners, not only held our David, Jesus Christ, but still hold him, in Geth, that is, in the winepress, namely, in the pressure of this life. The subject is Christ and the Church. And she herself speaks of herself. In the first part she asks to be delivered from the demons and from her own members, placing in God her confidence of deliverance. In the second part, which begins where he says, All the day long my words, etc., she enumerates those evils which that people does to her. In the third part, which begins where he says, In me, O God, are thy vows, she says that she will praise God forever.

His intention is to admonish us to endure the evils of this life with patience, giving heed also to those who bring evils upon us, that they turn upon us. And although the Church trusts in God for her deliverance, nevertheless, attending to her own weakness, she begins to pray thus.

PSALM LV.

Have mercy on me, O God. She asks for help against the persecution of the wicked. And it is necessary: For man has trampled me down. And the devil is called man in the Gospel, where it is said of the tares: An enemy man has done this (Matthew 13). This enemy man, both through himself and through his members, does not cease to persecute and oppress the servants of God. When you have begun to live piously in Christ, you have entered the winepress. Prepare yourself for pressures. Do not fear, because man tramples you. You have become a grape, that you may be trodden. In the winepress there is fruitful pressure. The grape on the vine does not feel the pressure. It seems whole, but nothing flows from it. It is put into the winepress: it is trodden, it is pressed; injury seems to be done to the grape, but that injury is not sterile; indeed, if no injury were done, it would remain sterile. Let us therefore attend to two enemies, the one whom we see and the one whom we do not see, man and the devil. Let us love the one, let us beware of the other. Let us pray for man, let us pray against the devil, and let us say to God: Have mercy on me, O God, for man has trampled me down. All day long, that is, continually assailing me with words and suggestions, he has troubled me with open assaults. Against such as these this psalm strengthens us.

For it is necessary that we endure such things even to the end, which we would not endure unless it were expedient for us. For every trial is a testing, and every testing's effect has its own fruit. And he shows through whom the devil brings about this kind of assault upon the Church, when he adds:

My enemies have trodden me down all day long. Like a grape pressed in the winepress, the members of the devil have crushed me; and they were able to do so, For many are those warring against me. What he set forth earlier concerning one, he now says concerning many, because the devil is the head of all the reprobate, who now through himself, now through his members, tramples down and assails the body of Christ, just as he formerly did also to the head. But let us hear what the strong man, amid adversities, adds.

From the height of the day—that is, from temporal pride—shall I fear? Far be it. Or shall I fear from the height, that is, from power, which indeed is not to be feared, because it is of the day, that is, granted only for a time. This I shall not fear, but rather I shall place my hope in you. And this is what he adds: I will hope in you. When the days that are high have passed—for they are high only for a time—when the time of their height is finished, they shall fear. But I will hope in you. On the day of judgment the wicked shall indeed fear (Wisdom 5), but the just shall be secure. For then shall come that which they hoped for, which they desired, which they longed to see come. Now he shows himself strong and steadfast, when he adds:

In God I will praise my words. He praises his words in God who in what he says commends not himself but God. Hence Truth itself says: My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me, the Father (John 7). Some book is praised when it is said to have been composed by some named philosopher, or by a perfect grammarian. How much more are those words to be praised which are from God. But what is of God in you is honored by you: and you, made in God, will be honored by God. If, however, you honor what is of God in you as though it were your own, not God's, just as that people was made far from the saints, so you will be far from the holy one. Therefore in God I will praise my words. If in God, why mine? But in God and mine. In God, because from him: mine, because I have received. In God I have hoped. A little before he had said, I will hope. Now he has said, I have hoped, as one no longer fearing, as one confirmed. I will not fear what flesh may do to me. That is, any carnal person. Hope fixed in God expels all fear. It even despises transitory torments. For it generates love. It generates patience, by which the world is trampled down, the devil is overcome. You say, I will not fear what flesh may do to me: and what does it do to you?

All day long they cursed my words—that is, they judged my preaching execrable. All their thoughts were against me for evil. For the wicked think nothing but evil against the righteous (Ps. 7), how they may destroy and annihilate them and their speech. Nor is it only strangers who persecute, but also those of the household and those close to me. Therefore he adds:

They will dwell and hide themselves; they themselves will watch my heel. They dwell with me in one house, in one Church. They hide themselves under sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves (Matt. 10). They hide themselves like ambushers and spies, they set snares; if they cannot at once do the evil they intend, they watch the heel, so that at least in the end they may accomplish what they have plotted. This is the devil's custom, or that of those who are his ministers, to watch the heel—that is, our last moments—with insidious cunning. Hence it was said by the Lord to the serpent concerning the woman: She will watch your head, and you will lie in wait for her heel (Gen. 3). Therefore the servant of God must always be watchful and circumspect against the head of this crafty serpent, and so order his life and conduct with the Lord's help that those who dwell with him and hide themselves, who watch the heel, may find nothing to reproach, neither in the beginning nor in the end. But thus they watched my heel: As they waited for my soul.

For the wicked bear the life of the righteous like a heavy burden; hence the Jews said of the Demon: He is grievous to us even to look upon. For he is unlike our works (Wis. 2). Yet he taught, and the psalm prays even for such as these. However great a sinner a man may be, the kind God is able to save him. Hence he also adds:

For nothing—that is, for no preceding merits—you shall save them. Or thus: you shall save them so that no labor is yours. You shall not labor in healing, though we are astonished in beholding. In wrath you shall break the peoples in pieces. It seems to be wrath, but it is a father's wrath. A father is angry with a son who despises his precepts. Angered, he strikes him, he brings him down, he leads him to school: he breaks him, he presses him down from pride into discipline. How many have filled the house of God, broken in his wrath—that is, worn down by tribulations. You shall break them, and I will set my part to their conversion. I will announce to them that I have done many evils, and that these have been forgiven me through confession: so that they, hearing, may not despair over their sins, but by my example may obtain through confession the medicine of salvation. And therefore he says:

God, I have declared my life to you. In what way did Paul declare his life, saying: I who was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and insolent: but I obtained mercy (1 Tim. 1). He declared his life not for himself, but for him: because he so declared it that it might be believed for him, not for his own gain only, but for his. If you declare your life for this reason, that by your example you may invite others to confession, and to receiving the life which you have received: you declare your life to God, from whom you received grace, and you will have a greater reward, because from what you received, you have not shown yourself ungrateful. You have placed my tears in your sight. Those tears which I poured out, declaring my sins, you have placed in your sight, that is, you have held them acceptable, and you have heard me. As also in your promise. Because, as you had promised, so you have done. You said that you would hear the one who wept. I believed, I wept, I was heard. I found you merciful in promising, truthful in fulfilling.

Then, that is, through your breaking and through my proclamation, my enemies will be converted from their evil life, so that they may be turned backward, that is, may follow you. A man is not corrected by going ahead. It is good for him to be turned backward, and to follow the one whom he wished to precede. Man goes ahead through pride. He is turned backward through humility. He desires to go ahead who wishes to do his own will. He becomes one who goes backward who is always ready to obey. Therefore let my enemies be turned backward, so that those who were proud may become humble. And thus those who were enemies will be friends. Then he shows how swift God's mercy is, when he adds: In whatever day I call upon you, behold, I have known that you are my God. That is, my hearer. Similar is that which is said elsewhere: In whatever hour the sinner is converted (Ezek. 18), and groans, all his sins will be forgiven him. For he does not delay through days and years, but: Be converted to me (he says) and I will return to you; follow backward, and I will lead you (Zech. 1). The Church therefore, attending to such great divine mercy, says, Behold, I have known, that is, I have clearly understood, that you are my God. Great knowledge. He did not say, I have known that you are God, but, that you are my God. For he is yours when he comes to your aid. He is yours when you are not estranged from him. Whence it is said: Blessed is the people whose Lord is their God (Ps. 143). For whose is he not?

God is indeed the God of all, but properly of those who love him, fear him, possess him, worship him. Now, having become one with them through conversion and participation in the grace of God, he repeats the verse he had already spoken, so that they too with him and by his example may say:

In God I will praise the word, and in the Lord I will praise his words, etc. The word is the preaching concerning faith: how we ought to believe in God as three and one, as the Apostle says: The word is near in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach (Rom. 10). The discourse concerns morals, when it is preached to us how we ought to live, how chastely, how soberly, how justly, how piously. And all these things we ought to refer to God, inasmuch as in him we believe rightly, or live justly, or speak correctly (Tit. 2): and let us in God, and God in us, be praised and honored. And because the word of faith ought to be followed by the strength of hope, rightly there is added: In God I have hoped, I will not fear what man may do to me. It is called faith, because it comes to be in God. Hope, however, is like a foot, because it rests upon him. Faith is of value to us for righteousness, because the just man lives by faith (Rom. 1). By believing in God you turn aside from evil and do good (Ps. 33). This is righteousness. Hope is of value to us for patience and contempt of the world. By hoping for eternal things, we easily despise earthly things and bravely endure adversities (Hebr. 6). But our hope in God is, as it were, our anchor. The sailor, when he fears the storm, fixes his anchor.

If we have kept the anchor of hope fixed in God, we shall fear no storm of this world. I will not fear, he says, what man may do to me, because even if he takes away temporal things, I still have spiritual things to offer you.

In me, O God, are your vows, which I will render, praises to you. These are the true gifts and acceptable sacrifices that God requires of us: namely, pious vows, holy desires, right faith, sure hope, perfect love. Whoever pays such vows renders praise to the almighty Lord. These are the true riches, which one does not fear to lose on earth, unless he himself wishes to take them away. Whoever wishes to vow and to render a freewill offering to the Lord God, let him vow and render himself. For this is required, this is owed: let the image of Caesar be rendered to Caesar, the image of God be rendered to God. And this indeed is just. Why?

Because you have delivered my soul from death. He puts the past for the future. For one who considers eternity in his mind weighs whatever can pass away as already past. As if he were saying: Because in the other life you will deliver my soul from eternal death. And my feet from slipping. Because there my affection will in no way be moved toward evil. There will be no slipping there, where there is no temptation; there will be no slipping there, where the blessed Trinity is. Well, then, is it added: that I may please before God in the light of the living. We shall please before God in the light of the living when we appear before him immortal and without sin.

For we shall be like him, since we shall see him as he is (1 John 3). There is the true light and eternal life. There the righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Wis 3). Therefore let all these things be of no account to us, so that we may love God freely and hope in him; and let us fear neither man nor the devil. Let us bear with the wicked, let us be good; let us despair of no one. For all those whom we suffer (from Augustine), let us pray: that both here in the light of faith and there in the light of sight, as in the light of the living, we may be pleasing in the sight of God. Amen.

TITLE OF PSALM 56.

Unto the end, do not destroy, David, in the inscription of the title, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave (1 Sam 22 and 24). This psalm tends unto the end, that is, unto Christ, warning you, whoever you are, not to destroy David, that is, not to dishonor Christ in the inscription of the title changed by you, that is, by withdrawing yourself from the kingdom of Christ—namely, by denying that Christ is king of the Jews—the inscription of the title having been changed by certain people at that time, when David, that is Christ, fled from the face, that is, from the knowledge, of Saul, that is, of the devil, or of the Jews, into the cave, that is, into his humanity or his tomb. For because they knew only the humanity of Christ and saw him dead in the tomb, in no way attending to the fact that he is God, certain people changed the inscription of the title, denying that Christ is king of the Jews (John).

The subject is Christ. In the first part, as in other psalms where he treats of his passion, he sets a prayer beforehand. In the second part, which begins, He sent from heaven and delivered me, he touches briefly on his passion and glorification. In the third, which begins, My heart is ready, O God, he shows that he renders great praise to God because of his glorification. Christ shows in this psalm, through the mystery of his incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension, that the whole world is to be subjected to the Christian faith—clearly intending by this to admonish all, that there be no one who would wish to withdraw himself from his kingdom through unbelief. And this he does by setting before us his incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension. Thus, then, he begins:

PSALM 56.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. You hear the Master praying: learn to pray. For he prayed for this end, that he might teach us to pray. He suffered for this end, that he might teach us to suffer. He rose again for this end, that he might teach us to hope for the resurrection. By doubling the prayer, he insinuates to us a great necessity. This doubling of the prayer can also be referred to different things, in this way: Have mercy on me, O God, by giving me constancy in passion; have mercy on me, by making me rise again. And you ought to have mercy, because in you, not in another, my soul has trusted. As if he were saying: I trust in you not only in the present, but also in the future; not according to the body only, but according to the soul. And therefore he further adds, and in the shadow of your wings I will hope.

This is said by way of comparison, just as in the Gospel the Lord said to Jerusalem: How often I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling (Mt 23)? Divine goodness, indeed, with a kind of maternal affection, protects with the wings of its mercy and power, and defends from the heat of vices those who hope in it. And well is it added: Until iniquity pass away. Now in this world, as long as iniquity endures, hope is necessary for each righteous person, so that by hoping for eternal goods they may patiently endure temporal evils. Hence Paul admonishes, saying: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom 12). And again: But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8). Now, therefore, iniquity abounds and presses hard, and patient righteousness resists it, along with unfailing hope. In the death of the righteous, or at the end of the world, iniquity will pass away, and there will no longer be hope, because the person begins already to possess what he patiently awaited. This is why the Apostle says: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proven, he will receive the crown of life (Jas 1). Meanwhile, let us hear what he adds, being placed in tribulation: