Breviarium In Psalmos

ABRIDGED COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.

PROLOGUE.

Recently, when we were reading together in common the Psalter of Origen, which he himself called the Enchiridion, annotated with brief and necessary interpretations, we both perceived that he had either touched lightly on certain matters or left them entirely untouched; on these he disputed at great length in another work, namely because he did not think it a great matter to confine them in a brief discourse. Therefore, out of the familiarity that exists between us, you have earnestly and diligently requested that whatever seemed to me worthy of remembrance I should annotate with certain marks rather than with interpretations. And just as those are accustomed to do who paint the sites of lands and cities on a small tablet, and attempt to show the widest regions in a modest space, so too in the most extensive work of the Psalter I should, as it were, in passing touch on certain things, so that from the few things I have touched upon, the rest also which have been omitted may be understood—what force and reason they have. Not that I think I can say the things he passed over, but that those things which he himself discussed in his tomes or homilies, or which I judge worthy of reading, I may set down in this narrow commentary. The Psalterium is Greek, and in Latin it is called an organ, which the Hebrews call nebel. It is called a psalm because it takes its name from the psalterium, or from psallendo. Although David sang all the psalms, nevertheless all the psalms pertain to the person of Christ, and those which do not appear to have a title among the Hebrews are reckoned as one psalm.

For through the title the understanding of each psalm is grasped. What is a title but a key? So to speak, one does not enter a house except through a key; thus also the understanding of each psalm is grasped through the key, that is, through the title, whether it is sung in the person of Christ, or in the person of the Church, or in the person of the prophet.

THE PSALMS BEGIN TO BE EXPOUNDED.

PSALM ONE.

Blessed is the man who has not gone away in the counsel of the impious. Some say that this psalm is, as it were, a preface of the Holy Spirit, and therefore has no title. Others say that, in that it is first, it has the beginning of its order, and that it is a fault to call it first, since there is none before it. Otherwise: among the Hebrews, the first and the second are one psalm, which is also confirmed in the Acts of the Apostles. Finally, because it began with blessedness, it ends in blessedness, saying: Blessed are all who trust in him. Otherwise: blessed is he who has not thought, not done, not taught evil. Otherwise: blessed is he who is not a Jew, a gentile, a heretic. Otherwise: Tertullian, in the book On the Spectacles, asserts that this psalm can be understood also of Joseph, who buried the body of the Lord, and of those who do not assemble at the spectacles of the gentiles. And he has not stood in the way of sinners. He did not say, and he has not walked in the way of sinners—for this is indeed impossible, since no one is without sin, not even if his life were but a single hour.

He says “without sin”: but “he did not stand in the way of sinners”—that is, he who did not persevere in wrongdoing, but through repentance turned to better things. “And he did not sit in the chair of pestilence.” For “pestilent men” the Hebrew has “mockers,” namely that the perverse teacher mocks all his disciples. Whence Jeremiah says: “I did not sit in the council of those who mock” (Jer. 15).

“But his will is in the Law of the Lord.” He has set forth two things in three, so that he may have the will, and to the will join also zeal. “And in his law he will meditate day and night.” Meditation on the law is not only in reading the Scriptures, but also in doing what has been written. The just man, therefore, whether he eats or drinks or sleeps, doing all things in the name of the Lord, meditates on his law day and night.

“And he will be like a tree that was planted,” etc. For “planted,” Aquila translated “transplanted.” But the tree to which the blessed man is compared I take to be wisdom, of which Solomon also speaks: “She is a tree of life to those who follow her” (Prov. 3). But wisdom is declared by the Apostle to be Christ, the Son of God. “Christ,” he says, “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1)—that is, having been made conformable to Christ the Son of God, certainly to the body of his glory. “That he will give his fruit in its time.” For he will give fruit not at any time, but at the appointed time: namely, when, having conquered the powers and principalities, he has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, having been made conformable to the brightness of his body.

But that the Lord wished himself to be called a tree, he says: Either make the tree good and its fruit good (Matthew 12). Which tree he spoke of thus: If they do this in the green wood, what will be done in the dry (Luke 23).

And his leaf shall not fall. The words of teaching which profit the nations unto salvation, according to that of the Apocalypse: And the leaves of this tree for the healing of the nations. And all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper (Apocalypse 22). The Jews think this psalm was spoken concerning Josiah: because he alone among the profane kings did not go in the counsel of the impious, but followed the law of God. But this which has just been read, and all things whatsoever he shall do shall prosper, can be understood not only of Josiah, but of none of the saints, except perhaps in the future age. Better, therefore, do we understand it of that man who was taken up and saved by our Savior: not that we testify that one was taken up and another saved; but that the one and the same Son of God and son of man, who before the ages was always the Word, himself afterwards deigned also to take up flesh.

Not so the wicked, not so. That which is said a second time, "not so," is not found in the Hebrew volumes, nor indeed in the Septuagint translators themselves. For reading in the copies of Origen in the library at Caesarea, I found it written only once. Between the wicked man and the sinner there is this difference: the wicked man denies God, while the sinner confesses and sins. Just as the righteous man is compared to a tree, so the wicked man is compared to dust. The one who is righteous is compared to the tree of paradise; the one who is wicked is compared to dust.

But like dust, which the wind drives away from the face of the earth. Although dust comes from the earth, it nevertheless ceases to be earth. The wicked man will be so wretched that he is not even earthly dust. He seems indeed to have the substance of earth, but he has his own substance: he has nothing solid, but what he has, he has for punishment. He is scattered here and there, he is never in one place; wherever the wind has drawn him, there his impulse is directed. So too the wicked man, who has once denied God: wherever the breath of the devil has drawn him, there he is led by error.

Therefore the wicked do not rise again in judgment: not because they do not rise, but because they do not rise in judgment; for judgment has already been passed on them. Nor sinners in the council of the righteous. If sinners do not rise in the council of the righteous, the resurrection of sinners and of the righteous is different.

Because the Lord knows the way of the righteous. The Lord knows nothing other than what is worthy of his knowledge. For the Lord knows those who are his; and if there are any he does not know, they will not be known (Tim. ii). And to sinners it is said: Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I do not know you (Luc. xiii). But the way of the righteous I take to be him who says: I am the way (John xiv). Of whom the prophet also says: See what the good way is. And the path of the wicked shall perish (Jer. vi). How mercifully—not the wicked shall perish, but wickedness.

PSALM II.

Why have the nations raged, and the peoples meditated empty things. It is the part of a bold man to wish to interpret this psalm after Peter—indeed, to think anything other than what Peter said of it in the Acts of the Apostles.

The kings of the earth stood together, and the princes gathered as one against the Lord and against his Christ. Not only Herod the king, but also those kings stood against the Lord, whose kingdoms the devil showed him in a moment of time.

Let us break their bonds, and cast away, etc. The four preceding verses are, as it were, the little chambers of either angels or prophets, marveling why human recklessness has risen up against the Son of God. But from the fifth verse the Lord himself answers, exhorting the people of the Gentiles, and all those from among the Jews who will believe in him, to dissolve the bonds of the law and cast off the heavy burden of the Law, which their fathers could not bear, and to follow him whose yoke is sweet and whose burden is light.

He who dwells in the heavens will laugh them to scorn. Through examples drawn from human speech we learn the affections of God: not that he laughs anyone to scorn, but that we do things deserving of scorn. And the Lord will mock them. Mockery is properly expressed by a wrinkled brow and a contracted nose. Far be it from us, then, to think this of God in a bodily way, which even in serious men some consider worthy of reproach.

Then he will speak to them in his anger. Concerning the anger of God, Lactantius also wrote a most beautiful book, and Origen himself argues very frequently that it is not so much anger as a necessary correction, like that of a father toward a son, a physician toward a sick man, a teacher toward a pupil. But anger can seem to be present to those who suffer, not that God corrects in anger. And in his fury he will trouble them. As in the Epistle to the Romans: The anger of God, he says, is revealed (Rom 1), so that those who understand that it is coming may strive to avoid it; so also in the present passage he speaks kindly, not saying, "he will punish," but "he will trouble," so that one who is troubled may be corrected without punishments.

But I. The voice of Christ. I have been established as king, it is said with respect to the part of the flesh. By him, God the Father. Over Zion, that is, over the Church. Zion is interpreted as the watchtower of life. His holy mountain: the mountain is the Church, or Christ himself, as that passage: And it will be in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord prepared on the top of the mountains. Preaching the commandment of the Lord (Isa 2). This is the doctrine of the Gospel.

The Lord said to me, You are my son: today I have begotten you. Jesus Christ is yesterday and today, and forever. Rightly, then, to him who was born in time it is said:

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. As if he were saying: Since the Jews were unwilling to receive you, all the nations will come to you as an inheritance.

Rule them with a rod of iron. In the harsh discipline of the Romans. Or by the rod of iron is meant intolerable discipline, because their hearts were crooked. Like a potter's vessel you will shatter them. A potter's vessel, before it has been hardened into fired clay, if it is broken, can be re-formed. Read Jeremiah (Jer. 19). But once the clay vessel has been shattered, it can by no means be pieced back together whole. Yet what is impossible with men is possible with God. The potter is Christ; the vessel is man, as it is written: Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, says the Lord (Ibid. 18). Otherwise: he is shattered here for repentance, or on the day of judgment into fire.

Now therefore, understand, you kings. All you kings of the world, or you holy kings, the apostles, understand these things spoken above. Be instructed. That is, instruct yourselves, or others. You who judge the earth, that is, the holy Church.

Serve the Lord in fear. He said "in fear" to take away their pride, because he had called them kings. And rejoice in him. To strengthen them again, as it is said: Rejoice and exult with trembling; that they might be with trembling, that is, with trembling of the body and fear of the soul.

Take hold of discipline, lest at some time the Lord be angry. For what is said in Greek, in Hebrew is read as nescu bar, which can be interpreted as "worship the Son." So this is a most clear prophecy concerning Christ, and the order of the command: Worship the Son, lest perhaps the Lord be angry, that is, the Father. And you perish from the just way. The Lord was angry with the Jews who were unwilling to worship the Son, and they perished from the right way. The just or right way is Christ. We are in the way when we fulfill the commandments of God. We perish from the way when we turn aside from them.

In a brief moment of his anger. That is, at the departure of each man from this life. Or the anger is brief on the day of judgment, as that saying: For when men shall say, Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them (1 Thess 5). Blessed are all who trust in him. Not in men, nor in themselves, but in God. This psalm, as we said before, ends in blessedness, from which the one above begins, and therefore among the Hebrews they are counted as one.

PSALM 3.

A psalm of David, when he fled from the face of Absalom his son. This psalm is later than many that follow it, which seem to belong to the history of Saul. For David suffered the plots of Saul before Absalom took up arms against him. But because his purpose was to instruct all men by his example, not so much to recount what he himself suffered, he therefore placed the second things before the first, so that he might teach the order of temptations. For first we are corrected because of sins, and afterward we are tested because of virtue. But in David the order of temptations was changed. Under Saul's persecution he was innocent; under Absalom he is held most manifestly guilty of a crime, having killed Uriah. Read the title of the fiftieth psalm, and you will understand that it is, according to the former order, the one that is third.

O Lord, how many are they that trouble me, many rise up against me. This psalm can pertain both to David and to Christ, and through him to all the saints.

He has heard me from his holy mountain. I consider the holy mountain to be the only-begotten Son of God, to whom in the last days the peoples shall flow together, with Isaiah and Micah prophesying this very thing. But it is also understood of the Church, because a city cannot be hidden set upon a mountain.

I slept, and was drowsy, and I arose, because the Lord took me up. As a sleep, he says, and its place was persecution.

I will not fear the thousands of the people surrounding me. Both David can say this concerning Absalom and his army, and the Lord concerning the Jews raging against him and crying out: Take him away, take him away, crucify him (John 19).

For you have struck all who oppose me without cause. The Lord strikes, both the vineyards of the foreigners with hail, and the Savior, who for us was made all things, is written to have been struck by the Father: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered (Zechariah 13). But for "without cause," the Hebrew reads "jaw," that is, lechi. And because he had mentioned the jaw beforehand, consequently there is added: You have crushed the teeth of sinners. Let the friends of the bare history therefore answer how God strikes the jaw and breaks the teeth of sinners, in the manner of boxers contending against him. You have crushed the teeth of sinners—the princes of the Jews; the teeth are either heretical teachers or their words.

Salvation is the Lord's. That is, not from man, but from God. He alone can do it, and through him pass from death to life. And upon your people. That is, the Christian people. Your blessing. He pours blessing upon the people of believers, sending them the Holy Spirit, or in the future when he will say: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matthew 25).

PSALM 4.

Unto the end, in songs, a psalm of David. Unto the end, that is, in Christ. For Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness for everyone who believes. In songs, that is, in praises. A psalm of David, that is, the praise of Christ.

When I called, the God of my justice heard me. It is incongruous to take this of David, so that he who in the previous psalm was nearly killed by his son because of the killing of Uriah should now dare to say: The God of my justice heard me. The whole psalm, therefore, must be referred to Christ, and through Christ to the righteous. Jacob also said something similar to this, saying: My justice will hear me tomorrow (Genesis 30).

In my tribulation you have enlarged me. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer. Although you have brought me help, and in my tribulation you have enlarged me, nevertheless I always stand in need of your mercy.

Why do you love vanity, and seek after lying? Diapsalma. The word sela, the Seventy interpreters, Symmachus, and Theodotion translated as diapsalma. Aquila, however, rendered it as always; and I think it is either the mark of some musical sound, or certainly that the perpetuity of the things that have been foretold is indicated, so that wherever sela, that is, diapsalma, or always, is set down, we may know that not only to the present time, but to eternity, either the things that follow or the things that have gone before pertain.

What you say in your hearts, and in your beds be pierced with compunction. That is, sins committed in the day by thinking, at night be atoned for by tears.

Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord. Sacrifice righteousness to God, and consequently you will hope in the Lord.

The light of your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us. He on whose face the light of the Lord is signed contemplates the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. The Lord commanded such a sign to be marked also on the foreheads of those who groan, in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 9).

They are filled with the fruit of their grain and their wine. That which is found in many manuscripts, "and their oil," when I was turning over an ancient copy of Origen's Psalter, which had been corrected by his own hand, I found neither in the Hebrew nor in the other editions nor even among the Septuagint translators themselves.

PSALM 5.

Unto the end, for her who obtains the inheritance, a psalm of David. Concerning the Church, which at the end and consummation of the world will obtain the inheritance among all the nations that believe in Christ, this psalm is composed. Finally, also from her person the prayer is directed to the Lord.

Give ear to my words, O Lord. No one has this confidence except the Church. He who is a sinner has not dared to say: Give ear to my words, O Lord; he who is angry and curses has not dared to say: Give ear to my words, O Lord; but he wishes that God would close his ears. Understand my cry, etc. A cry in the Scriptures is not of the voice but of the heart. Finally, it is said to Moses: Why do you cry to me (Exod. 14)? although Moses had not cried out beforehand. Understand my cry. And the Apostle says: Crying out in our hearts, Abba, Father (Gal. 4).

Surely the one who cries out does not cry out in the heart, but cries out with the tongue. And how does the Apostle say, crying out in our hearts? When, then, our groaning and our conscience prays, God understands this cry. Whence Jeremiah also says: Let not the pupil of my eye be silent (Lam. 2). See what he says: Let not the pupil of my eye be silent: and at times the pupil of my eye cries out to God. Surely if it cries out, the tongue cries out, not the pupil of the eye. But just as we cry out in our hearts when we beseech the Lord with groaning, so when we pour out tears to God, at that time the pupil of our eye cries out to the Lord. My King and my God. He truly dared to say, My King and my God, in whom sin does not reign in his mortal body. My King and my God, because you reign in me, and sin does not reign: therefore you are my God. You are my God: because my belly is not my God: because gold is not my God: because lust is not my God. Since you are virtue, and I desire to have virtues, therefore you are my God, that is, my virtue.

In the morning you will hear my voice. Some interpret this more simply, that is, I rise at dawn to pray, and I entreat you. But what kind of interpretation is this, by which it is said that he hears us in the morning but does not hear us in the evening, does not hear us at midnight? But see what he says: As long as I am in the darkness of error, he does not hear me. But when the sun of righteousness has come into my heart, then he hears me: in the morning you will hear my voice. He did not say the third hour, he did not say the sixth hour, he did not say in full light; but see what he says: In the morning, as soon as I have begun to flee the darkness, you hear; as soon as I am at the beginning of a good work, you hear me, you do not seek the end. For it is mine to will, yours to accomplish. In the morning I will stand before you. See the order: in the morning, not in the evening, not in darkness, but in the morning. In the morning I will stand before you: I will stand steadfastly, and I will imitate Moses. In the morning I will stand before you: I will stand before you, not before others. But when it is morning, and I have stood, and stood before you, then I will deserve to see you. And I will see. It is understood, I will see you. Many read this badly and say: but let us know that it is an error; it is said thus, that is, I will see, so that the order we have mentioned may hold, when the light of virtues begins in my soul, when I have begun to stand before you—not to sit, not to lie down, but to stand—and you will set my feet upon the rock, then through these steps I will deserve to see you. For you are God, who does not will iniquity. Therefore you will not hear me in full light, but in the morning, since you do not will iniquity, O God.

For when I begin to withdraw from iniquity, I shall immediately deserve to be heard by you.

Nor shall the malignant dwell beside you. When someone who is evil withdraws from us, let us rejoice: what has happened in the Lord happens also in us. For see what the Holy Spirit says: Nor shall the malignant dwell beside you—for what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What agreement between Christ and Belial? When, therefore, some withdraw from us, let us also say: They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us (1 John 2). It is said to God: The malignant shall not dwell beside you. For if God is a fire, and a consuming fire, whatever is stubble, whatever is wood, flees from the fire, lest it be consumed by the fire. Nor shall the unjust remain before your eyes. When it is said, nor shall they remain, it is shown that they once remained. But the unjust once remained before the eyes of God: they remained while God awaited their repentance; but because they persisted as unjust, therefore they did not remain before the eyes of God.

You have hated all who work iniquity. Unhappy is the one whom God hates. Who is this whom God hates? The one who works iniquity. For if we all sin, and whoever sins is held in hatred by God, therefore we are held in hatred by the Lord. But if we are held in hatred by the Lord, how have we been saved by grace? You have hated all who work iniquity. He did not say, who have worked iniquity, but who work iniquity. Those who persevere in sin are held in hatred by the Lord; but those who have abandoned it are loved by the Lord: You will destroy all who speak a lie. I see a new thing. The one who works evil is held in hatred; the one who lies perishes. Let us see which is worse, to be held in hatred by the Lord, or to perish. Unhappy indeed is the one who is held in hatred by the Lord, but he is still alive. But the one who speaks a lie and perishes has already ceased to be. Therefore the one who speaks a lie is more unhappy than the one who works iniquity; for the one who works iniquity is held in hatred, but the one who speaks a lie perishes. For the mouth that lies kills the soul (Wisdom 1). And how is it written: that God may be true, but every man a liar (Romans 3). But if whoever speaks a lie already perishes and kills his own soul, and we all lie, therefore shall we all perish?

But what he says, "You will destroy all who speak falsehood," we can understand both from the following parts of the psalm and from the order itself, that he speaks of heretics. For one who works iniquity kills only his own soul; but one who is a heretic and speaks falsehood kills as many people as he leads astray.

The Lord will abhor the man of blood and deceit. Every heretic is a man of blood; daily he pours out the blood of souls. Rightly he called him deceitful: he is both a murderer and deceitful.

But I, in the abundance of your mercy, will enter into your house. They in their iniquity go out from your house; I in your mercy will enter into your house. I will enter into your house, which is the Church.

I will worship toward your temple, etc. This is the same house that is also the temple.

Lord, lead me in your righteousness. But I desire to enter into your house and I wish to enter by your straight way; but since my enemies have placed continuous stumbling blocks in the paths, and lay snares on the road for me as I desire to go into your house; therefore, I ask you, direct my feet even to the end. It is mine to set my feet on your way; it is yours to correct my steps: Because of my enemies, direct my way in your sight. That is, make your straight way because of my enemies, who plot against me. But what is this way? The reading of the Scriptures—that is, lest in your Scriptures, through which I desire to enter into your Church, I fall.

For everyone who understands the Scriptures wrongly falls in the way of God.

Since there is no truth in their mouth. The heretics are described, the bloodthirsty and deceitful man is described, whom the Lord will abhor. There is no truth in their mouth. They do not have Christ, the truth, in their mouth, because they do not have him in their heart either. Their heart is vain. It is better rendered in the Hebrew. For truly the heart of heretics lies in wait for all whom it deceives.

Their throat is an open sepulcher. Unhappy are the heretics, who are whitewashed sepulchers, full of the bones of the dead. Their throat is an open sepulcher. Arius, Eunomius, and the other heretics have tongues for arrows; they have their jaws for a sepulcher. Their throat is an open sepulcher. And rightly he said "open," for whenever anyone deceived wishes to enter, the heretic is ready and receives him. Never do heretics close their mouth, but they always open their mouth. With their tongues they acted deceitfully. They held one thing in their heart, and promised another in their speech. They spoke piety, and concealed impiety. They speak of Christ, and hide the Antichrist. For they know that no one could be led in, if they brought forth the Antichrist. They bring forth light, in order to conceal the darkness, so that through light they may lead to darkness. Judge them, O God. They know that you are judge; let them know that you look upon human affairs. You who are to judge at the end, judge even in the present. You who are to judge universally, now judge in part. Those who refuse to feel the Father, let them feel the Judge.

Judge them, God. Why? For what reason? It follows:

Let them fall away from their own thoughts. For if you render to them in the present what they deserve, they begin to withdraw from their evil thoughts; as long as they do not feel you as judge, they do not cease. Let them fall away from their own thoughts. He spoke excellently: from their own thoughts. For daily the heretics change their doctrines. Finally, if a man of the church, learned in the Scriptures, contends against them and convicts them by the holy Scriptures, they immediately seek how they may discover some other new doctrine. They do not seek how they may be saved, but how they may prevail. Therefore he said now: Let them fall away from their own thoughts, and let them have you as their one thought.

According to the multitude of their impieties, cast them out. He did not say from where he casts them out: let him cast them out from heaven, let him cast them out from the earth; the Scripture does not say from where he casts them out, but it is so. We ought therefore to read: According to the multitude of their impieties, cast them out. What he says is this: From their many impieties, by your mercy, cast them out, that is, let them not be in their many impieties. It can also be interpreted otherwise: Because they were exceedingly impious and refused to fall away from their own thoughts, and add impieties to impieties, and gather them daily, and have more impieties, therefore cast them out. From where? From that which obtains the inheritance. You cast them out from there, so that, since they do not have the faith of the Church, they may not dwell in it.

Because they have provoked you, Lord. You, Lord, are sweet by nature, but whoever are sinners and heretics turn the nature of your sweetness into bitterness by their own fault.

And let all who hope in you rejoice. Let those perish, and let the members of the Church rejoice. They will exult forever. Here, "forever," we ought to speak not of the present age but of the future. Finally, he did not say, "they exult in the age," but "they will exult"—it is said of the future. For here there is sorrow, but there joy. Heretics laugh in the present, but in the future they will mourn. We, however, mourn in the present, so that we may laugh in the future. They will exult forever. What will be the exultation of holy men? And you will dwell in them. Blessed will they be who are worthy to have Christ as their guest; blessed those who will be the tabernacle of Christ.

And all who love your name will glory in you. Whoever loves God will glory in the Lord. Who love. He did not say, "who fear," but "who love." For wherever there is fear, there is not love. For perfect love casts out fear. For whoever love the name of the Lord, they will glory. They will glory. Our blessedness is future: everything that is promised is of the future. Some will reign; some will possess; some will glory. We are wretched here, so that we may be happy afterward. Let us follow Christ our Lord. Whoever says that he believes in Christ ought to walk just as he walked.

Christ the Son of God did not come to be served, but to serve. He did not come to command, but to serve. He did not come for his own feet to be washed, but to wash the feet of his disciples. He did not come to strike, but to be struck. He did not give a slap, but received one. He did not crucify, but was crucified. He did not kill others, but himself suffered. He was poor, that he might make us rich. He received a blow for us, that we, though beaten, might not feel pain. Whenever we are struck, let us offer the cheek, let us turn our back, let us imitate Christ. He who is struck imitates Christ; he who strikes, Antichrist. Why do I say all this? That in the present age, whatever we endure, we may glorify the name of the Lord for Christ. While we speak, while we walk, we are suddenly taken away. I myself, who speak to you today, do not know what will become of me tomorrow. If a slight fever comes, where is that voice? Where is pride? Suddenly it is turned to ashes. Why does earth and ashes boast? According to the nature of the body, we are earth and ashes. You are earth, and to earth you shall go; and earth boasts against its maker. It follows.

For you will bless the righteous. Therefore blessedness is deferred to the future.

O Lord, as with the shield of your good will, etc. In the world, a shield is one thing and a crown another; but with God, he himself is both shield and crown—as a shield he protects, as God he crowns; he himself is our shield, he himself is also our crown. And for this reason he says: O Lord, as with the shield of your good will you have crowned us. You have protected us with your shield, and your protection has been our crown—that is, our crown has been your shield, that is, our victory. For "crown" is interpreted as "victory." Let us give thanks to God and beseech him that in his good will he himself may be our shield and crown, that we may never withdraw from him, that we may follow him, and say with Jeremiah: And after you, following, I have not labored, O Lord, as with the shield of your good will you have crowned us (Lam. 1). By the shield we are protected, and when we have been made perfect, we are crowned.

PSALM 6.

Unto the end, for the songs, for the octave, a psalm of David. This psalm and the eleventh have the inscription "for the octave," containing the mystery of the resurrection and of repentance, and through these of our salvation. In it the human race asks that we be corrected indeed and judged by God, but not in his wrath and fury. It would be long to recall more examples of the sacrament of this number. Eight souls entered the Ark of Noah, who were saved in the flood. David was the eighth son of Jesse, who was despaired of by his father and alone chosen by God. On the eighth day the firstborn are circumcised, and they cease to be unclean. Zacharias too, the father of John, speaks on the eighth day of his son's circumcision. And after eight days—or six (for both are read in different evangelists)—the Lord is transfigured on the mountain, so that the number eight is thus contained in the number six, just as now in the sixth psalm the inscription of the ogdoad is placed.

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, etc. This is a psalm of repentance, and it does not refuse to be corrected and reproved, but rather in fury and in wrath, because he is weak and his bones are troubled. And sometimes fury comes first, and wrath afterward; but for the most part they are one. Yet fury refers to the present, wrath to the future.

Have mercy on me, O Lord. The voice of the Church. Have mercy on me, for I am wretched. And he himself finds the mercy of God who confesses himself wretched. For I am weak, heal me, O Lord. As if he were saying: I am weak because of sin; heal me, for you are the physician. I am the sick man, you are the physician. I have weakness, you have health. I am weak through sin, you heal through mercy.

For all my bones are troubled. As if he were saying: all the virtues, which he called bones, were transgressed, or lost, in the first man. My soul has been troubled thereafter. Through repentance, that we may be corrected.

And you, O Lord, how long? What is understood is: How long will you not rescue, not correct, not amend my soul, which is greatly troubled?

Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul. Unless he has first turned our soul, he cannot deliver it from danger. Or this: O Lord, who have turned your face away from us, turn back and deign to look upon us, and deliver our soul.

For there is no one in death who remembers you. For the dead will not praise you, O Lord, but we who are alive, because he is not the God of the dead but of the living. But in hell who will confess to you? He set this down not as an impossibility but as a rare thing. For the saint delights in all God's judgments and praises his judgments.

I have labored in my groaning. Have mercy on me, because I have done these things and the things that follow. Every night I will wash my bed. He who each day soaks his couch with tears cannot have the pomp of lust creep into his thoughts. In my tears I will soak my bed. How great a multitude of tears, such that his bed is soaked with tears.

My eye is troubled by fury. Where are the friends of the letter? Surely that bodily eye is not troubled there by anger, unless perhaps we are lifted up into such great rage that even our countenance and face are changed. Therefore that eye is troubled which, if it has been made to stumble, will be plucked out. But he did not say: By my anger my eye is troubled; but, By your anger. O God, through whom I fear the punishments prepared for me: my mind is troubled, and the whole principal part of my heart has trembled. I have grown old among all my enemies. The enemies do not wage new wars against me; my enemy is ancient. Otherwise: I cannot attain the maturity of that man who is renewed from day to day, because I carry the old man with his vices and desires as my enemies fighting against me.

Depart from me, all you who work iniquity. After he himself has obtained mercy, he teaches or exhorts the others to depart from him. For he does not wish to have the company of the wicked. At the same time, that point must also be noted which we have already said above: that he commands not those who have worked iniquity, but those who are working it, to withdraw from him.

Let them be turned back and be greatly ashamed very quickly. He prays not against enemies but for enemies: that they be turned back and be ashamed of their sins: and be ashamed not lightly, but vehemently: and not after delaying for a time, but quickly.

PSALM VII.

A psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Chusi the son of Jemini. Many, and especially those who do not have knowledge of the Hebrew language, think that this psalm was sung at the time when Chusi the son of Arachi, the friend of David, destroyed the counsel of Achitophel: and sent messengers to him, that he should no longer sit in the wilderness, but flee far away, lest he be overwhelmed by his son. But it must be known that they err greatly. First, because the name Chusi is written with the letter samech: but here with sin. Then, because David, who had commanded Joab and the other leaders of his army, saying: Spare the boy Absalom (II Kings 18), never spoke of the death of his son: He conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity: He opened a pit and dug it out, and he fell into the pit which he made: especially he who, when the death of his son was heard, covered his head, and crying out wailed: My son Absalom, my son Absalom. Finally, because there Chusi, the friend of David, is written as the son of Arachi: but here as the son of Jemini. It must therefore be known that Chusi is interpreted as Ethiopian: and that the whole psalm was written against Saul, who was persecuting him: and he himself fell into the pit which he had dug.

Whom he calls the Ethiopian, because of his bloodthirsty, foul, and cruel ways. But Jemini means family, in that it pertains to the tribe of Benjamin, from which Saul arose, as the books of Kings bear witness, in which the Scripture records: And there was a man of the sons of Benjamin, and his name was Cis, the son of Abihel, the son of Sareth, the son of Bechor, the son of Aphi, the son of a man of Jemini, a mighty man, and this man had a son, and his name was Saul (1 Kings 9). Semei also, that one who threw stones and dust at David, was of the family of Saul, that is, a Jeminite: as is written in the same books: There came out a man from the kindred of the house of Saul, and his name was Semei, the son of Gera (2 Kings 17): concerning whom David is afterward introduced as speaking: Behold, my son who came forth from my womb seeks my life: and how much more now the son of Jemini? Aquila interpreted this passage thus: For the ignorance of David, who sang to the Lord for the words of the Ethiopian: Symmachus in this manner: For the ignorance of David, because he sang to the Lord for the words of Chusi the son of Jemini. I have set forth all these things at greater length because very learned men have thought that this psalm was composed not against Saul but against Absalom, which I have shown to be partly not the case.

O Lord my God, in you have I hoped, etc. I have not hoped in my sword, I have not hoped in my own strength, but I have hoped in your help.

Lest at any time he seize my soul like a lion, etc. This fits Saul; it does not fit Absalom. For how could Absalom call him a lion, concerning whom he says: Spare my child Absalom? If there he calls him a child, and as it were an infant and ignorant, how does he here call him a lion? I have entered into this according to the history, and there are many things that may be said, and the whole psalm can be interpreted in the person of Saul. But because it is our care to interpret not only according to the history, but also according to the spiritual understanding: we interpret this Chusi, this Ethiopian, as none other than the devil. It is asked how this Chusi is a son of Jemini: how is the devil an Ethiopian, a son of the right hand? That he is an Ethiopian is by his own fault; that he is a son of the right hand is because he was created by God. Rightly is it said of him: Lest at any time he seize my soul like a lion. Our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may seize.

O Lord my God, if I have done this. Behold, the prince of this world: and he found nothing in me. If there is iniquity in my hands. Because he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.

If I have repaid those who repay me evil. Saul was twice delivered into his hands, whom he did not wish to kill, saying: I will not touch the Lord's anointed (1 Kings 24). This, then, is not to render evil for evil to him: who was rendering evil for good to himself. If, he says, I have rendered evil to my enemies for evil, I shall not rise again: and if I have sought evil for evil, they will render evil for good. Let me fall deservedly from my enemies empty. In the Hebrew, for empty, recam is written. Whence we understand that which is contained in the Gospel: Whoever shall say to his brother, raca and fool (Matthew 5), what interpretation it has.

Let the enemy persecute my soul, etc. The last enemy of the soul, death, has been destroyed. And let him trample my life on the earth. It cannot be trampled, because he did not do the things said above. And let him bring my glory down to the dust. If, he says, I have rendered evil to my enemies for evil, I shall not rise again.

Arise, O Lord, in your anger. Since they did not perceive you through your benefits, let them perceive you through your wrath. And be exalted in the borders of my enemies. He prays for his enemies, that he may be exalted in the borders of his enemies. When they have ceased to be enemies, then you, O Lord, will be exalted in them.

And arise, O Lord my God, in the commandment that you commanded, etc. This we say: believing this, we speak. For in the Psalms the persons are always changing. It is much now if we wish to say in how many, how great persons are changed. Arise, O Lord my God, in the commandment that you commanded: this we say, you suffered for us, you were crucified: arise, and save us. Therefore arise, that a very great multitude may believe in you. When therefore you have arisen, what else do we entreat, except return to the Father?

And on account of this, go back on high. On account of what? On account of the synagogue of the peoples. That you died, you died for us: that you rose again, you rose again for us, that you ascended to the Father, you ascended for us. And on account of this, go back on high. No one ascends into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in the heavens.

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, etc. David cannot say this; it properly belongs to the Savior, who did not sin.

The wickedness of sinners will be consumed, and you will direct the righteous. My righteousness cannot be directed unless the iniquity of those men has been fulfilled, namely of the Jews.

Unless you are converted, he will brandish his sword. This passage admits a twofold understanding. For many think it is said of God, that it is spoken to sinners. And what does it say? Unless you are converted, he will brandish his sword: that is, unless you do penance, the Lord will strike you with his sword. But let us see whether the following words can be fitted to the person of the Lord. He has bent his bow, etc. This can be said of God. And for that one he has prepared vessels of death. This is difficult: for the Lord does not have vessels of death, but vessels of life. But this too can be understood concerning the person of the Savior. But what follows:

Behold, he has labored with injustice, etc. That is, so that heretics might be stirred up to contempt of God.

He opened a pit, etc. Whereby he might destroy them. And he fell into the pit which he made. For in the pit of death which he had opened, he himself perished first: as it is written concerning Arius: that is, unless you are converted, unless you do penance, the devil always has his bow ready, he shoots arrows with which he may strike us. For those whose hearts burn with lust, vices, and passions: these have been conquered by the devil. He made his arrows for those who burn. Well did he say, for those who burn: he did not say, for those who will burn: that is, those who are to burn with his arrows: but whoever he has seen whose hearts burn, those he has struck down. For the Apostle says that the devil has burning arrows (Eph. 6). Behold, he has labored with injustice, he has conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity. Thus the devil conceives, thus he labors, thus he nourishes, thus he exalts. He opened a pit, and dug it out, and fell into the pit which he made. The devil himself is the pit, himself the snare. He opened a pit. But because he cannot hold water, according to Jeremiah: therefore his pit has been turned into a snare. All the conventicles of heretics are the snares of the devil. But what we passed over above: God searching hearts and reins, my just help from God: in the Hebrew it is written thus: God, the just searcher of hearts and reins: so that there follows afterward: My help from God, who saves the upright in heart. Will he be angry every single day?

Better in the Hebrew is the reading for this: He threatens every day, which Aquila also translated. And well does he say: Threatening and breaking in every day. For he who because of his patience does not thus punish sins: as if angry and threatening, he awaits the day of vengeance, so that by fear he may correct the one who does wrong. Let us follow the order.

His sorrow will be turned upon his own head, etc. Just as if someone throws a stone at another, and is not careful, and the stone comes upon his own head, he is wounded by his own wound: so too the devil is killed by his own pride, is exalted, and falls. Now he wishes to exalt his head, and cannot: because his sorrow will be turned upon his own head, and will bring him down. The devil, according to the rule of the Scriptures, is read of in Genesis: he is the serpent, he is the snake, who spoke to Eve: because he is wholly fastened to the earth. Other animals, although they walk on the earth (Gen. 3), nevertheless do not have their whole body lying on the earth: although they have their feet on the earth, yet they have another part of the body upward. But the devil, that is, the serpent and ancient snake, according to Isaiah, is wholly on the earth (Isa. 14): and he has head and the rest of the body alike. His sorrow will be turned upon his own head, and his iniquity will descend upon his own crown. See what he says: both upon his head, and upon the crown of his head. But when iniquity presses upon the head, and presses upon the crown, where is the devil's power? This is the devil's end.

His sorrow will return upon his head, and his iniquity will descend upon his crown.

I will confess to the Lord according to his righteousness. He who did not allow those who fear him to perish. And I will sing to the name of the Lord most high. He who led us from the lamentations of sorrow into everlasting joys.

PSALM VIII.

Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm of David. Three psalms are inscribed for the winepresses by different men: David, Asaph, the sons of Korah, and those which pertain to the mystery of the Church; for this reason they hold the eighth and eightieth number. But that the eightieth, the third from the end, is the psalm which is marked for the winepresses, this shows that the sacrament of the resurrection of the Church is contained in the Trinity.

O Lord, our Lord. First, the name of the Lord among the Hebrews is of four letters: yod, he, vau, he, which properly sounds as the name of God, and can be read as iaho, and the Hebrews think it ineffable. But the second, adonai, is common to all, which is often applied even to men. How admirable is your name in all the earth. That you became man for us, that you died, that you rose again, has been made known among all nations.

For your magnificence is lifted up above the heavens. Which after the resurrection you ascended into the heavens with the triumph of glory.

Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise. Although through the teaching of the elder Prophets there are many things that contain the Lord's praise, nevertheless the Lord himself declares that this verse was fulfilled in the Gospel, when the children cried out: Hosanna to the son of David (Matt. 21). Because of your enemies. For the confusion of the Jews. That you may destroy the enemy and the avenger, the Heretic, who with his wickedness attacks the Church, yet pretends to defend it.

For I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers. By the heavens we understand the holy Scriptures, which were brought forth by the finger of God, that is, by the Holy Spirit. For I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers. He who promises that he will see, does not yet see them as present. I will see, he says. For then I will also come to know the reason and course of his work. In one way the helmsman sees the ship, in another way the physician sees the sick man, in another way the painter sees the painting, than do the untrained eyes of the ignorant. The moon and the stars which you have founded: the Church, or its teachers.

What is man that you are mindful of him? What merit does man possess, that you should become mindful of him and, for his redemption, take up flesh? Or the son of man, that you visit him? The Son of God became the Son of man—that is, the Son of the virgin Mary—who visited the body of our lowliness, which he deigned to assume.

You made him a little lower than the angels. In the Hebrew, for what is rendered “than the angels,” which are called malachim, the text has “God,” that is, Elohim. The Apostle interprets this passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews as referring to Christ (Heb. 2). With glory and honor you crowned him. With glory, when at his descent the lower world was made bright; with honor, when he conquered death; with a crown, when, surrounded by the choir of the saints, he returned triumphant from the lower world. And you set him over the works, etc. That they may be subject to him, except him who subjected them to himself.

You subjected all things under his feet. When he ascended to the heavens. All sheep and oxen. Holy souls, producing the fruit of innocence. Moreover also the beasts of the field. Men of lower merit.

The birds of heaven: those who through pride speak iniquity on high. And the fish of the sea: those who walk through the paths of the sea, who through excessive curiosity, not contemplating heavenly things, think that eternal life lies among the waves of this world.

O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name, etc. He begins from blessedness, or from praise, and concludes in praise. The Church marvels at this: how the saints suffer willingly for the name of Christ, or how we are all redeemed by the Creator of the world.

PSALM IX.

Unto the end, for the hidden things of the son, a psalm of David. Although Aquila rendered it "for the hidden things of the son" and "the youth of the son," yet it must be known that the Hebrew has "for the death of the son." Indeed Symmachus also translated it in this manner: "for the victory concerning the death of the son." The whole psalm, therefore, pertains through tropology to the mystery of Christ. Hence the Seventy interpreters wished to conceal the passion and resurrection of Christ, which was previously unknown to the world, by the word "hiding," lest it be easily known by the nations at that time. Here he speaks of that son whom he mentioned above, not of that son according to the history of David, that is, Absalom, whose works were not hidden but manifest and evil against his father; but this is understood of the Only-begotten of God the Father. We know two advents, the first and the second. In the first advent he came both manifest and hidden: manifest in the flesh, and hidden in the Godhead. And in the second advent he will come both hidden and manifest.

Hidden, because we do not know the day or the hour. Manifest, because every eye will see him. And in another way hidden, because we do not know the hidden judgment of God: that is, because the Jews have been rejected and the Gentiles chosen. In another sense: we see the saints afflicted, and we do not know whether it is for testing or for correction, so that their glory may grow toward something better. We see others afflicted, whose punishment begins here and remains with them in the future. We see others neither afflicted nor suffering injury, but sound in body, abounding in temporal joy above all. Such people are dangerous: because we believe that God does not visit them, since they are not worthy to be visited, so that afterward they may be punished without end. This whole psalm is sung in the person of the Church by the prophet concerning the Antichrist.

I will confess to you, Lord, etc. The voice of the Church. A threefold confession sounds here: that is, of sins, of martyrs, of confessors: a giving of thanks, or praise, as in the Gospel: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matt. 11), and here a threefold love is understood: that is, you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with all your strength (Matt. 22). I will tell of all your wonderful works. How does he say that he tells all the wonderful works of God, since no man can either see or comprehend God? For if we wish to tell all the wonderful works of God, it is impossible. Why can we not? Because in another place he says: I will declare all your judgments (Ps. 18).

Man cannot do this himself. How can he not? Because the Lord says: All things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you (John 15). But why did he not tell the day of judgment, but said: It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1)? But this question is resolved in this, when he added, all judgments: afterward he says, of your mouth: as if the prophet or any holy man were saying: As much as you have taught me, so much will I tell: indeed, if you tell as much as you understand, you tell all the wonderful works of God, although in themselves there are more. Or I will tell all your wonderful works, not only those in which the dead are raised, the blind are enlightened, or the rest; but also that through you lost souls are restored to unhoped-for salvation.

I will be glad and exult in you. I will be glad, in hope, and I will exult, in reality: according to that saying of the Apostle: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (2 Cor 10), And I will sing to your name, Most High. I will sing, I will fulfill in deed, to your name. The name of the Father is the Son, the Most High himself is God. Or, I will sing to your name: here praise is with deed.

In turning my enemy backward. What kind of enemy, that is, the devil: because the Lord said: Get behind me, Satan (Mark 8). Before the coming of Christ the devil was the guide of the road of death: but afterward, following the Church from behind, he is like a dog. Whence elsewhere it says: You will crush his head, and he will watch your heel (Genesis 3): that is, the end of each one's life. The woman is the Church, the serpent the devil. They will be weakened and will perish from your face. The impious, certainly, will perish from their own impiety. Or just as he said above in the singular, so here also in the plural, that is, he comprehends all his attendants together, who are to perish on the day of judgment. Why will they be weakened? Because previously they were strong on account of our sins: but now the weakness of God has made us strong and them weak: as the Apostle says: What is weak in God is stronger than men (1 Corinthians 1).

Because you have made my judgment. The voice of the Church, as if she were saying: Openly you have chosen the nations, and rejected the Jews. When he says, my judgment: here it appears that the Church comes from the nations. And my cause. As if the Church were saying: You have pleaded for me against my adversaries, and you have vindicated me; and you have made my cause good. You have sat upon the throne. Thronus is Greek, in Latin sedes: because each saint is a seat of God: as he himself says: Heaven is my seat (Isaiah 66). And elsewhere: The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom (Wisdom 7).

One of them, that is, Paul, says: Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor 13)? You who judge equity. That is, justice: you have judged justly, you, Father, my cause, that you might raise me up: because they unjustly handed me over to death.

You have rebuked the nations. Through the preachers, who used to worship idols, wood and stones. And the impious one has perished. The devil, who is worshiped in those very woods or stones: or through apostolic preaching the nations were rebuked, and he who was first was made from the impious one. You have blotted out their name forever. That is, their memory. The name of impiety will no longer be remembered among them: because those who believe in you have received your new name, which will be blessed on earth.

The enemies' swords have failed at the end. As if he were saying: the weapons of the devil, which were the members of sinners, through whom the devil used to persecute others, have failed. Or otherwise: the enemies' sword has failed, as if he were saying, from the sword, which is the word of God, they will fail in the future judgment, when they are to be judged by that very word. And you have destroyed their cities. That is, the sinners. As many as are the vices of sinners, so many also are the cities, that is, the fortifications, in which the devil was reigning: as if he were saying: they have failed through your preachers.

Their memory perished with a sound. The sound of their teaching, or the evil of the heretics, perished together with them. Or "with a sound," that is, from the preaching of the Gospel. And the Lord endures forever. And he and his saints will perish with their tumult, while the Lord endures forever, as we have said, and his saints.

He has prepared in judgment, etc. For he has given all judgment to the Son. He has prepared his seat in judgment: that is, the Church: from which he himself will judge the circle of the earth, that is, all nations. In equity he will judge the peoples. What is equity, this is also justice, that is, Christ. Or, that is, at his second coming, with rewards for the just, and hell and punishment for the unjust.

And the Lord has become a refuge for the poor. Between the poor man and the adversary, that is, the devil, Christ will be judge: who will judge between the Church and the adversary, that is, the devil. Whence also in the Apocalypse it is said: Who is the accuser of our brethren. Or those poor, who for his sake have become poor, distribute their riches as food for the poor. A helper in opportune times. He is the helper of his Church. In tribulation. When it is opportune, as the Apostle says. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able: but will make with the temptation also a way out, that you may be able to endure: lest we be condemned with sinners to eternal punishment (1 Cor 10).

Let them hope in you. That is, not in themselves, but in you, and not in the desires of the world. Who knew your name. Whether your power or your majesty. Or your name: that is, your Son. Wherefore because of what follows: For you have not forsaken those who seek you, O Lord. Therefore they hope in you: so that that may be fulfilled: If they kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul. Nevertheless he permits them to be tempted, but not utterly.

Sing to the Lord. That is, sing to the Lord, preach, fulfill in deed. Who dwells in Zion. Zion, a watchtower, that is, Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace: now the Church here is a watching: because it watches concerning the future judgment of God. But when it has come to the heavenly Jerusalem, there will then be no watching, but vision. Whence Paul says: We see now through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face (1 Cor. 13). Declare among the nations his zeal. The voice of the prophet admonishes preachers to preach. Declare his zeal: that is, preach his commandments. Perhaps they will say: We shall die if we go to the nations: but the prophet adds:

Because he seeks their blood. And the Lord says: Do not fear, for if they kill the body, they cannot kill the soul (Matt. 10). The Lord has remembered, and he has not forgotten the prayer of the poor man. As if the prophet were saying: He has not forgotten to avenge your blood. Whence the Lord himself said: But will God not grant vengeance to his elect who cry out to him day and night (Luke 18).

Have mercy on me, O Lord. The voice of the Church: See my humility from my enemies: you who lift me up from the gates of death, etc. The gates of death are the pursuits of the fathers, who worshipped various gods of demons. They themselves were the gates of death, whose teaching led to death. Otherwise: The gates of death are the teaching of heretics, from which gates the Church has been lifted up and sent into the gates of the daughter of Zion, which are the gates of life. Just as by evil teaching we understand, as it were, the gates of death, which lead us to destruction, so too by the gates of life we understand good preachers, who through their teaching lead us to eternal life.

I will exult in your salvation. I will exult, that is, I will rejoice: in your salvation, in your Christ.

The nations are fixed in the destruction that they have made. That is, in the evil works that they have done, there they are fixed, concerning which they are to be judged. In this snare that they have hidden, etc. Because each one will first fall himself into the snare that he prepares for another to fall into.

The Lord will be known as he executes judgments. He will be known, that is, for judgment. The sinner has been caught in the works of his own hands. Because each sinner himself carries with him both cords and chains and torments, from which he may endure evils. For it is not necessary that things be prepared by others from which he may be tormented, since he himself prepares for himself the things that pertain to punishment.

Let sinners be turned into hell. That is, because they wish to live beyond the end of the world, let them be turned into hell. All the nations that forget God. That is, those who say that God forgets and has no care for their affairs, let them themselves be forgotten by the Lord: because they do not say truly that God forgets his creatures; because you say.

For not in the end forgetfulness, etc. Because if he delays, he does not take away his help from his saints.

Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. The voice of the Church sounds against the Antichrist: Arise, unto judgment: let not man prevail: that is, the sinful man, the Antichrist. Let the nations be judged in your sight. In two ways they have already been judged first in God's foreknowledge. Why? Because they do not belong to the Church, but to the Antichrist: because it has been said: But whoever does not believe has already been judged (John 3).

Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them. That is, the Antichrist, who is the bringer of the law of evil doctrine, as Paul says: They refused to receive the truth, but consented to iniquity (1 Thess. 2).

Let the nations know that they are men. When they have been condemned, then they will know that they placed their hope in man, and not in God, who alone can save.

Why, O Lord, have you withdrawn far off? Why do you stretch out your salvation afar when we have been inflamed by the expectation of your coming? Whence the Lord said in the Gospel: Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved (Matt. 24). You despise in opportunities, etc. Then they seem to despise, when it is the opportune time for the Church that he should help, and he does not at once come to her aid in tribulation. Why? That he may exercise her according to his will: because the more he delays, the more the Church is enlarged in her desire.

While the impious man is proud, etc. While the impious man, the Antichrist, is proud, the poor man, the Church in tribulation, is set aflame by the pride of the Antichrist himself. They are caught in their counsels, etc. For they are bound by their own thoughts, who are against God.

Because the sinner is praised in his desires, etc. The sinner is praised by flatterers, and not by the righteous, when the sinner praises the sinner, one another, while they praise each other in turn, they kill.

The sinner has provoked the Lord. The Antichrist himself. According to the multitude of his anger. Because he did not receive the scourges of correction. He will not seek. That they adore him as if he were God: that is, he is not worthy to be sought, but to be punished.

God is not in his sight. Because he does nothing worthy of him. His ways are polluted, etc. For he does not walk by the right way, which is Christ.

Your judgments will be taken away, etc. Because he does not believe that judgment will come upon him. Of all his enemies, and certainly of Christians, to prove those who despise to follow him.

For he said in his heart, etc. For I will always seduce men, so that, persisting in evils, they resist the will of God. For he said, that is, the Antichrist: what did he say? I shall not be moved from generation to generation without evil: that is, I shall do such great evils in one nation that, before I come to another nation, they may hear of my fame beforehand and fear. Otherwise: I shall not be moved from the carnal generation to the spiritual generation: that is, I shall ascend from earth with my body into heaven: without evil, as if he were to say, without any injury. When he wishes to ascend to the Mount of Olives, the Lord will slay him with the spirit of his mouth. One of his members, Simon Magus, wished to ascend into heaven, but he perished.

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. As if he were to say: He who boasts of his own righteousness, that he may be God, is cursed before God. Under his tongue. Under his heart. Labor and sorrow. Sorrow is his own, and he tempers the labor and sorrow of others.

He sits in ambush with the rich. That is, the devil lies in wait through his members, over whom he presides, and harms others. That he may kill the innocent. That is, that he may make the innocent guilty, and first of all harm himself.

His eyes. That is, the eyes of the Antichrist. They look upon the poor. That is, upon the Church, which is the body of Christ: he looks to harm, and not to help. He lies in ambush in secret, like a lion in his den. He can be called both devil and lion and dragon. A dragon, when he harms in secret; and a lion, when he persecutes openly. That he may seize the poor man. That is, the Christian.

To seize the poor man, while he draws him. In his snare he will humble him: he will bow down, and fall, etc. He seems to bow down as if to humility, so that he may appear as if gentle and holy, and when he has bowed himself, then he is about to fall: because while he hopes that he is far from death, then sudden destruction will come upon him.

For he said in his heart, God has forgotten: he has turned away his face, lest he see unto the end. He has forgotten: as if he were saying, All things are mine for as long as the world shall last, and God has handed them over to oblivion: he has never made use of them: but they are mine, because I am God.

Arise, O Lord. That is, unto judgment. The Church speaks against the Antichrist. And let thy hand be exalted. That is, thy power: while the Antichrist boasts in such a manner that he possesses all things without end. Do not forget the poor unto the end. While he says that he reigns unto the end. For this reason it is said above.

The impious one has provoked God. That is, the Antichrist. For he said in his heart, God will not require it. The Antichrist says: God does not care about this present world.

Thou seest that thou considerest labor and sorrow. The prophet speaks to God: Because the Antichrist meditates how he may do harm, thou considerest, That thou mayest deliver them into thy hands. The hands of God are said to be those who exercise God's just vengeance upon sinners. For this reason hands, because God is avenged through them. Otherwise: That thou mayest deliver them into thy hands, that is, into their own works: that they may be worthy to be delivered up, who have done unworthy things: because they themselves have delivered themselves up to their own miseries, and he has given them over to all their own wills.

For to you the poor man has been left. That is, the Church. As if he were saying: It is yours to save. You will be a helper to the orphan. An orphan is one who has no father; a fatherless child is one who has neither father nor mother. He is called an orphan who does not have the devil as a father, as in the Gospel: Do not call anyone father on earth (Matthew 23). And who does not have a mother, that is, the Gentiles. As if he were saying: You will be a helper to this one.

Crushing the arm of the sinner. These things pertain to the Antichrist: because the Lord will break his strength. And of the wicked man. He himself is the wicked man. His offense will be sought, and it will not be found. That is, he is not worthy to come to amendment. And otherwise: It will not be found, so that he may have sin: but let him be as God, who has no sin, as far as it depends on him.

The Lord will reign forever without end. Because then the kingdom will be with tranquility, as Paul says: When he has handed over the kingdom to God and the Father, when God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15). You will perish, O nations, from his land. Those who received the Antichrist will perish from the Church, that is, out of the Church: with Christ reigning, the nations' crimes die away from the human body.

The Lord has heard the desire of the poor. That is, the Lord has heard his Church, that she may be vindicated. He has heard, that he might grant them the kingdoms of heaven. The ear of your kindness has heard the preparation of their heart. That is, your mercy. The ears of the Lord are said to hear when he deigns to hear: that is, eternal life, which the Church desires, when he has given it to her, so that what she once longed for in hope, she may at last enjoy in sight.

To judge for the orphan and the humble. For here he speaks in the dative, not the accusative case: that is, not that he may judge the orphan, but that judgment may be given for the orphan and the humble, that they may receive eternal life. That man may no longer magnify himself upon the earth. That from this the Antichrist may not rise up against the elect of God, nor tempt them: because, crushed by the kingdom of the Son of God, he will be no more. Let us also pray the Lord, that he may deign to keep us unharmed from his works: so that, having become orphans through him, and knowing Christ the Lord as our Father, we may be made like him in faith, hold him in our heart, and glorify him in our works: for to him, with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 10

Unto the end, a psalm of David. The tenth psalm is sung against heretics and those who believe wrongly.

In the Lord confide. The voice of the Church, against heretics, or of Christ against demons. Transmigrate to the mountain like a sparrow. He wishes the just man to migrate to the deserts, so that there he may more easily crush him. Or because heretics are deceitful, of whom the prophet says: Woe to those who call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet (Isa. 5): therefore they wish to seduce the just man to themselves, saying: Migrate to us. He answered them: My hope is in the Lord. How, he says, shall I migrate to your mountains, that is, to your pride? But as for what he says, like a sparrow: we often read that a sparrow is placed for prudence. Therefore these say: Pass over to us as one who is prudent, when their prudence is foolish.

For behold, sinners have bent the bow. That is, heretics have bent the bow of their mouths against the Church, the power of their wordiness. They have prepared their arrows: that is, words. In the quiver, in themselves. For they themselves are the quivers: where they keep hidden the empty words and venomous opinions which they fashion from the Holy Scriptures. That they may shoot in the dark at the upright of heart. For they never fight in the light, but always in darkness. Wherefore the just man used to say: Your word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet. That they may shoot in the dark at the upright of heart (Ps. 118). That when they see any unlearned or simple persons in the Church, they may entice them with deceitful and hidden snares.

Because they have destroyed what you have perfected. What is it that you have made? Your Church in unity. Hence it says: Out of the mouth of infants and nurslings you have perfected praise (Ps 8). Heretics wish to destroy this both in themselves and in others, because they tear apart unity. Otherwise: him whom you perfected, Christ conceived of the Holy Spirit, the Jews killed. But what did the righteous one do? When heretics slander and disagree among themselves, the Church answers this in the person of the Church. You disagree among yourselves, but Christ is not silent about you, for he said: I give you my peace, I leave you my peace (Jn 14). And otherwise: What did the righteous one do? That is, he redeemed the world and gave himself for the world.

The Lord in his holy temple. As if the prophet were saying: Although you heretics turn away from the Church, nevertheless the Lord will be in the temple, that is, in the Church. The Apostle says: You are the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6). The Lord in his holy temple: in the Church, which he presented to himself as holy. The Lord, his seat is in heaven. In heaven, that is, in the holy preacher. Hence he said: Heaven is my seat (Is 66), and the soul of the righteous, the seat of wisdom in the soul of the righteous, which meditates on heavenly things.

His eyes look upon the poor. The eyes of Christ look upon the Christian people with the gaze of divinity. For what do they look? That is, to help. His eyelids question the sons of men. The subtlety of divinity, that is, the hidden judgments of God, in which he questions us: because by this he knows what each one has, because the judgments of God are hidden. Just as Scripture is sometimes obscured, so that we may recognize our weakness: again we are lifted up, lest we despair. And in another way: through prosperity and adversity he questions: because by this God proves what sort each person has been. In another way: we see one nation scourged, and we know for what cause it is scourged: here the judgments are manifest. And in another way: we see it scourged, and we do not know for what cause, and here are the hidden judgments, through these things comprehended above.

The Lord questions the just and the impious. That is, he proves. But whoever loves iniquity hates his own soul. That is, he loses it.

He will rain snares upon sinners: fire, and so on. This was done according to history, when the Lord rained sulfur and fire upon Sodom. As the apostle Jude says, it was made an example of eternal fire. He will rain upon sinners. In two ways even heretics rain down evil doctrine. And just as one rain waters the fruitful earth and the dry, so also there is one preaching from God, which pours upon the good earth, that is, the saints, and upon the bad earth, sinners, to whom belong these things that follow: fire, covetousness, sulfur, the rottenness of sins, the spirit of storms, the spirit of tempest. He indicates the spirit of storm unto the punishment of eternal judgment, and the lashes of sins, which fire burns up and tempest destroys. And he says through the prophet: Around him a mighty tempest. The portion of their cup: Why did he say portion? Because each one according to his portion, as it were from the cup, that is, will receive just vengeance according as he has borne his own misery, as the prophet says: God will render to each one according to his works.

Because the Lord is just, and he has loved justices: his countenance has seen equity. For each one, as in a mirror, when he comes into his sight, will see his own iniquity, and he himself foresees their iniquity. Or, the presence of God has seen the saints for ruling. For he loves justice: because he judges each one according to his own work. His countenance has seen equity: so as to grant rewards to the saints and punishment to sinners. May he deign to make us worthy by his calling, and not bring punishments upon us according to our sins, but grant pardon according to his great mercy; because to him is honor and glory with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 11.

Unto the end, for the octave, a psalm of David. This psalm is sung concerning the passion of Christ. For the octave, as we said above.

Save me, Lord. The voice of Christ to the Father on behalf of the flesh in the passion. Because the holy one has failed. Apart from you, there remains no one who can save. Because truths have been diminished from the children of men. Why did he say truths, when we do not know who is the truth, as he says: I am the way and the truth (John 14). Just as there are many churches and one Church, so there are many truths: because the works of many just men, and many who do good. But why have they been diminished?

For before the coming of Christ, whether prophets or patriarchs, both those of good nature and those who, having been cast down in part, were seen to serve, had been diminished in many ways: because the head, that is, the truth, who is Christ, had not yet come. The members were diminished until their head, which is Christ, came.

They have spoken vain things, etc. First Peter, when he said: And even if it should be necessary for me to die with you, I will not deny you. Similarly all the disciples also said (Matt. 26): but all these spoke vain things, for they could not fulfill what they proposed. And the heretics, evil teachers, who teach perverse doctrine, have spoken vain things, each one to his neighbor. Christ the Lord, who speaks these things, is the neighbor of all: who showed mercy, so that by his death he might bind up our wounds. Against whom the Jews busied themselves in vain speech. They have spoken with deceitful lips in heart and heart. Symmachus translated it thus: Slippery lips, in the heart there is one thing, and it speaks another. Deceitful lips are called double-tongued, because they speak with two tongues: because they say one thing, and hold back another. Thus those with deceitful lips who have spoken evil from heart to heart: having cut off what they conceived in the heart, they brought it forth with the mouth in deed.

May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips. Is he speaking by cursing? No; for it is not the custom of the saints to curse, but by declaring what is to come he spoke—not by wishing, but by prophesying (John 8). Who are the deceitful lips? Heretics and evil preachers. And the tongue that speaks great things—that is, those who speak proud things.

Who had said, We will magnify our tongue. That is, those who praise one another and magnify their own works. Our lips are our own. As if he were saying: We have our teachers from ourselves, not from elsewhere. For they clap in empty wordiness, saying: We are the children of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to anyone. Who is our Lord? As if they were saying: We have no Lord, because we know all things.

Because of the misery of the needy and the groaning of the poor. This is the voice of the Father. Who was needy, if not the human race in the world, which came into that misery in which it groaned in sins? And there was groaning in hell, among those who dwelt in punishments. Now I will arise, says the Lord. That is, I will send my Son to redeem them—both those who are in misery in the world and those who dwell in hell. And so it came to pass: God the Father sent his Son to us in our misery, that he might free us, and that by his poverty we might be rich.

I will place in my salvation. He said, "in my salvation," and did not say what I will place: there is understood, the salvation of the nations. And what else will I place? Joy against groaning: and spiritual riches against poverty. I will act with confidence in him. The voice of the Father concerning the Son. As if he were saying: With confidence I do all things through him; because the divinity strengthened the humanity: as it is written, he acted freely.

The words of the Lord, chaste words. He comprehends the teaching of both Testaments together. Then are they chaste, if they are preached by good preachers incorruptibly and without corruption. Then this will be: if when they preach they are not provoked by love of parents, not by fear of the powerful, not for the sake of present gifts, not for empty honor. Otherwise: those who dare neither to add anything more, nor to diminish, as much in the old as in the new Testament, but preach faithfully. Silver tested by fire. That is, approved by the Holy Spirit. He does not approve the divine words: but the Holy Spirit illuminates those who preach them: as in Isaiah that angel, when he received the coal from the altar, and touched his lips, saying: Behold I have touched these lips of yours, and your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin shall be cleansed. By silver, the old Testament: by gold, the new. Thus it is the letter and the spiritual understanding, as if gold were produced from silver. Tested of the earth, that is. The Church. Those divine words have been approved through the Holy Spirit, whom the Church received.

Otherwise: “Proven earth,” that is, Christ the Lord, who came in that humanity in the part of the flesh which he received from Mary; the Lord took up, as it were, earth. “Purified sevenfold.” The seven gifts which were in Christ: not that he might be purified, but that those who were to receive those very gifts might be purified.

You, Lord, will keep us. That is, the Church asks this in faith. And you will guard us from this generation. He comprehended at once the whole crowd of all evils—of heretics, of dialecticians, and of the rest. From the generation of these the Lord separated his Church. Hence also in the Gospel: All these things will come upon that whole generation, from the blood of Abel which was shed, or from the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom they killed between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23).

The impious walk around. When they have carried us over from the present world into the future, then the impious walk outside; nor will they be able to enter with the saints, whom you, according to your greatness, preserved by your care. The impious walk around: because they will not come to eternal life. And otherwise: When the elect have been received, they will cry outside the door: Lord, Lord, open to us. Otherwise: Around them, and it will be said to them: I do not know you. According to your height you have multiplied the sons of men. The sons of God.

According to the multitude, according to the abundance of your mercy, because the Church is multiplied, that is, from his goodness and mercy: when in the recompense of future blessedness, receiving your promises, they have been made conformable to the body of your glory, in which there is to you with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 12.

Unto the end, a psalm of David. The twelfth psalm contains the voice of the faithful soul seeking God.

How long, O Lord, will you forget me unto the end? The voice of the Church. As if she were saying: How long? Why does he say "unto the end"? Man consists of four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. Earth is lower than these creatures, because earth is the end of creatures; therefore the Church says: Even if I am viler, as it were the vilest, like earth, how long will you forget me? Not for this reason, because I am the lowest and the end of other creatures—do not for this reason forget me unto the end. How long will you turn your face away from me, so that I may not have knowledge, nor the illumination of your thought, before the term of this life.

How long shall I set counsels in my soul. I endure these things, he says, until through spiritual counsel I seek you. Sorrow in my heart by day. By that light, surely, of your knowledge which I had long lost, I will add sorrow upon the darkness of my sins: that is, I will do penance.

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? As long as I have not turned to you, the devil, who is the enemy of the human race, is raised up against me. How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? As if he should say: How long does the adversary have dominion over the Church? Even to the end. Look upon me, and hear me, O Lord my God. This is the prayer of the Church, and it can be understood of three persons: Look upon me in tribulation, or in aid: and hear me in that which I entreat.

Enlighten my eyes. That is, the eyes of the heart. Lest I ever sleep in death. We know that a man who is in torment cannot sleep, but he puts "sleep" for that night. Whence he said above: Death without death, and defect without defect. And the Lord slept in the ship, when he is awakened by the disciples. It must be noted that the Lord was sleeping when the faith of the apostles was wavering. The Lord watches for each one according to his faith, and is awakened through faith. And if faith is not held, he seems, as it were, to sleep. Whence he says: Awaken your faith, and then you awaken Christ. Look upon me, and hear me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death.

For you are the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world. For you enlighten the eyes of our heart, lest the sleep of eternal death creep upon us. Lest at any time the enemy say, etc. Lest at any time—that is, in the future judgment—my enemy say, I have prevailed against him: that is, I have seduced him so as to deceive him. As if he were saying: If the adversary can find us in the sleep of unbelief, then he prevails over us.

They will exult if I am moved. Those whose feet were moved, because they did not stand in the truth of God—if they could draw my feet away, that is, my senses, from the catholic faith, then they will exult: that is, they will rejoice, as the Prophet says: But my feet were almost moved; but I hope in your mercy, that I may be established in faith.

My heart will exult in your salvation: in the Lord Jesus Christ. I will sing to the Lord, that is, I will praise and proclaim. Who has given me good things, that is, the supports of this present life by which we subsist: so that, despising the pomp of the world, I might behold spiritual things in my mind. Otherwise: He has given good things: the virtues of the Church, that is, faith, hope, and charity: and in the future, eternal life. I will sing to your name, O Most High: that is, what I sing and proclaim, I may fulfill in deed. Rightly, therefore, O Lord Jesus Christ, is your name sung, because, rich in mercy, you grant victory to the just and invite sinners to be converted to you: to you be glory and honor with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM XIII.

The thirteenth psalm has no inscription, but declares that our redemption will come forth from Zion. And first indeed it speaks against the impious, who, trusting in the riches of the world, do not know the God who bestows them.

The fool has said in his heart. For what is "fool" in the Hebrew is set down as nabal. Whence also Abigail concerning her husband Nabal on Mount Carmel says: Truly according to his name he is a fool (1 Kings 25). There is none who does good, there is not even one. They refer this psalm to the passion of Christ, when all abandoned the Lord: to such an extent that Peter also, who was the prince of the apostles, denied him. Who have said in their heart, There is no God. They said it in the heart, not in the mouth. Why? Because they did not dare: lest perhaps they violate the numina of their gods. The fool has said, the Jewish people: who say in their heart, There is no God, there is no Christ the Son of God. One of them not only did not regard him as God, but did not even believe him to be a prophet, when he said: If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what manner of woman she is who touches him, for she is a sinner (Luke 7). And another: If he is the Son of God, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him (Mark 15).

They are corrupted. Degenerate from that integrity of good nature. They have become abominable. That is, hateful. In their own wills. That is, in their own deeds. They are corrupted and have become abominable in their own wills. For if they had had knowledge of God, they would not have been corrupted and abominable. There is none who does good, there is not even one. Unless one has known Christ, who is the only-begotten of the Father, he cannot be altogether good. There is none who does good, there is not even one. Here it appears that this psalm pertains to the passion: because no one of the disciples, not even Peter who is the head of the Church—because he too denied—no one of men, because the whole world had turned aside to the lower part, except one man, who is Christ.

The Lord looked down from heaven. To give salvation to the human race. Or, from heaven, that is, from the saints. Upon the sons of men. Whom he may make his saints. Or, from his holy one. Upon the sons of men: that is, upon the human race: That he may see, that is, that he may make his saints to see: through whom he looks and in whom he dwells. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men: that he may see if there is one who understands or seeks God. He looks down through holy souls, which we have often called heaven, that he may see if there is a wise man who seeks God with his mind: for before the divine power nothing is held concealed.

All have turned aside. The whole human race had turned aside to the lower part. Together they became useless, both to themselves and to others. All have turned aside, together they have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one. For he says these things concerning the Gentiles. But because he interposes "all," he adds that the Jews are to be understood, who often mingled themselves in the mire and idolatries of the Gentiles.

Their throat is an open sepulcher. From this verse up to the one where he says, There is no fear of God before their eyes, it is not found in the Hebrew manuscripts. It is asked, then, how the Apostle used this testimony in the Epistle which he wrote to the Romans (Rom. 3). We answer that the Apostle wove this testimony from Deuteronomy and the Psalter and other places of the Scriptures.

There they feared with fear: what follows, Where there was no fear: is not found in the Hebrew volumes.

Their throat is an open sepulcher. Through their seductions they gathered men into their mouths as into graves. For elsewhere a similar thing is said: Unless the Lord had been in us, perhaps they would have swallowed us alive (Ps. 123). With their tongues they acted deceitfully. Corrupting good morals with evil conversations. The poison of asps is under their lips. Because, like asps, they thus stop their ears, lest they hear the precepts of the divine Law. For the poison is understood as the deceit of iniquitous conversations.

Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. The blessing of flattery brings a curse. For bitterness refers to this: because they made the sweet words of God bitter to their own destruction, by thinking evil. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: because their teaching harms both themselves and others, and condemns them in the future. Their feet are swift to shed blood. They kill both bodily and spiritually, while they desire to shed Christ, who is the life of the soul, from the soul itself.

Contrition and unhappiness are in their ways: contrition of the body, unhappiness of the soul. In their ways, that is, in their works. Sinners are always wretchedly crushed in their own way. Because they have not known the way of peace. Which is Christ the Lord: neither through faith nor through works. Why did they not know it? For the reason that follows: Because the fear of God is not before their eyes. They did not set God before their senses, in memory and holy fear. The fear of God is not before their eyes. For they do not fear the coming judgment, and therefore they do not observe his commandments.

Will not all who work iniquity know the vengeance that is to come? As if he were saying: If they do not know it now, they will know it in judgment when he is to come. Who devour my people as food of bread: the heretics devour the Christian people. As bread runs through all foods, without it nothing can be salted, but it is taken with all foods: so too heretics are never satisfied in their iniquities, unless they are satisfied from the people of God, or from the Church, those whom they can seize from there. Who devour his people, the ecclesiastical people, as food of bread: because there is no living bread except the one who descended from heaven. They have not called upon the Lord. For if they had called upon him, they would surely have been saved. Otherwise: They have not called upon God. Why? Because many call upon something, but not God, but another thing which they desire to have in place of God, not God himself.

There they trembled with fear, where there was no fear. Both the nations fear their own gods, and the Jews fear their own powerful men, when they said concerning Christ: If we let him live, the Romans will come and take away our kingdom and our nation. They trembled with fear where there was no fear: certainly in idols and in the vain rites of images.

For the Lord is in the generation of the just. In the Christian people. And he was also among the Jews, because from them he took flesh. You have confounded the counsel of the poor man. The Jews were unwilling to believe in Christ: that is, they were unwilling to believe the mystery of his incarnation concerning his coming. Christ is called the poor man, as Paul says: Because though he was rich, he became poor, so that by his poverty he might make us rich (2 Cor 8). You have confounded the counsel of the poor man: that is, of Christ: not understanding that he came forth from God when he gave counsel, saying: Repent. Because the Lord is his hope. Certainly the Father, on account of the flesh he assumed: because his humanity was strengthened by his divinity.

Who will give salvation to Israel out of Zion? Who but God, who is in Zion? He gave salvation, Christ himself, in the holy Church. Otherwise: Who will give salvation to Israel out of Zion? The Lord Christ, whom the inhabitants of that earthly Zion did not believe. When the Lord turns away the captivity of his people. We have already been redeemed from that captivity of transgression, but we are still in the captivity of this life. And otherwise: Concerning the portion of the Jews, that it may itself be turned away from captivity in the time of Elijah and Enoch, as Paul said: When the fullness of the nations has entered in, then all Israel will be saved. Otherwise: When the Lord turns away the captivity of his people, through his own passion. Let Jacob rejoice, and let Israel exult. He is the same Jacob who is also Israel; but here Jacob, and there Israel. Here the supplanter of vices, and there the one seeing God face to face, when God will be all in all; who, having left behind worldly things, beholds the Lord in mind. May he deign to grant us that, having been made Jacob in deed, with vices supplanted and truly Israelites, we may deserve to see him in mind and to hold him in heart, to whom with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 14.

A Psalm of David. The fourteenth psalm has been read at the fitting time, and it has so come about in order that it might seem to have been read almost deliberately in sequence; the psalm has been read in sequence. I think this was done by God's dispensation: that what was profitable for you should be recited today in the order of exposition. The fourteenth psalm has been read, which is inscribed, A Psalm of David. But our David is Christ, as we have often said. Then we read in Exodus that on the fourteenth day the lamb is sacrificed (Exod. 12). On the fourteenth day it is sacrificed, when the moon is full, when nothing is lacking of light. See, therefore, that Christ is not sacrificed except in perfect and full light. Since, therefore, on the fourteenth day the lamb is to be sacrificed for you, now the prophet marvels and asks:

Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? You who wish to dwell in the tabernacle of the Lord, hear what the Lord says: Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? Here we take tabernacle for eternity, although in other places it is understood as works; because here in the present tabernacle, which is the Church, many dwell in body and not in faith; because here, while we are lower, we stand as it were in a tabernacle, until after victory we come to the house. Otherwise: Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? Who, he says, being earthly, will be able to become a temple of God, and to dwell in the city of the living God? Of this the Apostle says many things.

Or who will rest on your holy mountain? Who, he says, will be worthy to be made conformable to the image of the Son of God, who is often called a mountain? This is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands; this one became a great mountain, this one filled the breadth of the whole earth; in this mountain the souls of the saints rest. In it, therefore, no one receives rest except the one who enters without stain and works righteousness: the one who is free from every blemish of sin and has kept the commandments of God inviolably. Otherwise: Or who will rest on your holy mountain? Not first on the mountain and afterwards in the tabernacle, but first in the tabernacle and so on the mountain. A tabernacle is not a firm house; a tabernacle has no foundation, but is moved here and there and migrates with the migrant, because a tabernacle has no foundation but is an uncertain house; a firm house, however, has foundations. The mountain is put for eternal life.

Who enters without stain. That is, without mortal sins, because we cannot be without small ones. Hence it is said: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Or otherwise: Who enters without stain. See what is commanded. He did not say: who has reached the end without stain, but who is still on the journey and has no stain. Someone can say: I have no stain, I have done no evil. It is not enough for us not to do evil unless we also do good. Finally it follows: And works justice. He did not say, works chastity, works wisdom, works fortitude. And these virtues are indeed excellent. Wisdom benefits us, fortitude benefits us, so that we may resist persecutions. Then temperance and chastity are necessary for us, lest we lose our souls. Justice alone is a great virtue, and the mother of all. Let someone say: How is justice greater than the other virtues? The other virtues delight the one who has them: justice does not delight the one who has it, but others. If I am wise, wisdom delights me: if I am strong, my fortitude delights me: if I am chaste, my chastity is my joy. But justice does not benefit those who have it, but the other wretched ones who do not have it. Or otherwise: And works justice, that is, keeps the commandments, as that saying: If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments (Matt. 19).

Who speaks truth in his heart. Many speak truth with their lips but not in their heart—those who appear to say true things, but whose heart does not agree with their lips. Otherwise: Who speaks truth in his heart, so that he thinks true things concerning the truth, who is Christ; and does not mingle himself with heretical assertions, which are always found false and empty. Hence Paul said: With the heart one believes unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10). Who has not practiced deceit in his tongue. He has not brought forth catholic doctrine deceitfully in order to deceive; but what he spoke with his mouth, he fulfilled in deed. That man acts deceitfully who thinks one thing and says another: as the prophet says: Restrain your tongue from evil, and your lips that they speak no deceit (Psalm 33). Nor has he done evil to his neighbor. He who shows mercy is himself a neighbor. Christ the Lord showed mercy, that he might redeem us by his passion: let no one turn his doctrine to evil, as the heretics do. Our neighbor is every Christian man. What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to another. And elsewhere it says: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And again it says: Turn away from evil, and do good. Some think the neighbor is a brother, or a neighbor in place, or a relative, or a blood relation. But our Lord teaches in the Gospel in that parable, where a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho: the priest passed by, the Levite passed by, and did not show mercy; the Samaritan passed by, and showed mercy.

And afterwards the Lord asks and says: Which of these was neighbor to him? Immediately it is said: He who did good. And the Lord adds: Go, and do likewise (Luke 10). All men, therefore, are our neighbors, and we ought to do evil to no one. And he did not accept reproach, etc. Never is he accused as harmful by his neighbors. But the Lord glorifies those who fear him. He does not glorify the rich, not the powerful, but only those who fear the Lord. And he did not accept reproach against his neighbors. He does not then accept the reproach of detraction concerning a brother if he does not first believe those things before he proves them. As if he were saying: He who keeps these things which were said above, that one is without blemish and works justice. And this one dwells in the tabernacle and will rest on your holy mountain, that is, in eternal life.

The malignant one is brought to nothing in his sight. In the sight of that just man, the devil. For in the Church, whoever is evil is counted as nothing in the sight of a saint. He is brought to nothing, because among such a saint he is held as nothing: while he was an angel, he was made a rebel; and just as he was made from nothing, after he lost the good things, he was reduced to nothing. And while he is nothing, the strongest saints do not fear him. But the Lord magnifies those who fear him. The voice of the Church: Those who fear the Lord with holy fear, the Lord magnifies them. Otherwise, according to the moral sense: But the Lord magnifies those who fear him.

For he knows that God dwells in these, as the Lord says: He who loves you loves me (John 14).

He who swears to his neighbor and does not deceive. This one is already less than perfection, even if he does good, because although he does not deceive on account of his oath, nevertheless such people are censured on account of that precept which says: Do not swear at all, neither by heaven nor by the earth; but let your speech be: Yes, yes; No, no. For that sentence—not to swear—belongs to the perfect (Matthew 5). For the soul, when it promises to keep God's commandments, if the neighbor is the body, then it deceives him if it does not observe what it promises. He who did not give his money at interest. Even if a person does not sin by the fact that he receives as much as he gives, nevertheless it is not perfection, because it has been said: Break your bread for the hungry (Isaiah 58). And it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20). Until one arrives at these things, he is less than perfection. Otherwise: money is the Lord's preaching; many are unwilling to give it freely if they do not receive a price from it. Yet it is permitted to take food and clothing from that same preaching (as Saint Paul says); to have nothing more from it, as he says: Those who preach the Gospel should live from the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9). And the Lord says: The worker is worthy of his food (Matthew 10). But whoever wishes to require more, it is reckoned as interest. Whence Paul says: If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things (1 Corinthians 9)?

As if he were saying: It is no great thing to speak against those spiritual things which we announce to you: But having food, let us be content with these (1 Tim 6). For just as visible money is forbidden to be given at interest, lest the one who lends should rather despoil: so also the word of God, which is great money, ought to be imparted freely not only to the rich who feed and give gifts, but also to the needy and the poor: the Lord saying thus: Freely you have received, freely give (Matt 10). And he has not accepted gifts against the innocent, so that those offering gifts may not disturb the judgment of truth. And otherwise: lest one become like Judas: who, having received a weight of silver, sold the innocent. As the prophet says: He who shakes his hands free from every gift, this one shall dwell in the heights (Isa 33).

He who does these things shall not be moved forever. All these things, just as they are to be held allegorically, so also, having been expounded according to the letter, they ought to be kept in one's conduct. And if anyone keeps them without reproach, he will not only be secure from the disturbance of the eternal judge, but will even deserve to possess that very mountain and the heavenly tabernacle in Christ Jesus our Lord: to whom is honor and glory with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM 15.

The inscription of the title for David himself. The inscription of the title is on mounds and in tombs, which hold the bodies of the dead. In place of this, Aquila and Symmachus put "humble and simple and spotless," signifying that the psalm pertains properly to Christ, who says: Learn from me that I am gentle and humble in heart, and meek (Matt 11). The psalm, as we have said, contains without diminution of the deity the voice of our king, which he brings forth in the man he assumed, sent from the Father. David, that is, Christ himself. This psalm pertains to the passion. There are three titles that are written: one on the mounds of the dead; another on the thresholds of the city or of houses; the third on the victory of the king. Here, therefore, he speaks of the title of the king's victory: as this king was—that is, Christ—and it was written over his head at the passover after the victory, that is, after the devil was conquered and the human race redeemed, in three languages: that is, in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Whence Pilate also said: What I have written, I have written. And he placed over his head the charge against Christ: This is the king of the Jews (Matt 27).

Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in you. The voice of Christ to the Father in his passion, in the person of the man he assumed. As if he were saying: By the Father, from whom I came forth, may I be guarded in the passion, because you are my hope. I said to the Lord, you are my God. He shows himself a man in the humility of the flesh, though he is equal in the omnipotence of majesty; because if he had said, "You are my Lord," he would have shown the Son to be lesser and the Father greater. Therefore he said: I said to the Lord, you are my God, because in divinity he is equal to the Father. Because you do not need my good things. We read that same line written also in Job: What does it profit if you make your way simple? All the good things, therefore, which the Lord showed in the flesh according to the form of a servant do not benefit the Father, but the human race. Since you do not need my good things. The voice of Christ. What are the good things of Christ? That is, his incarnation, passion, resurrection, and our redemption. Or otherwise: the good things are the heavens and what is in them, and the good earth and what is in it, which God created. The Father did not need these even after they were made, nor before. These things are not a work to the Father, nor necessary. But to whom?

To the saints who are in his land. All these things are necessary for them. They are in his land, that is, in the Church. He has made all his wills wonderful among them. Christ through his saints has made his mysteries wonderful: that is, he has magnified them.

Their infirmities were multiplied: afterward they hastened. The nations from which I now gather the Church: before their idols were multiplied, they knew God by nature. But after their idols were multiplied—which the Seventy translated as infirmities—leaving them behind, they returned to me most swiftly.

I will not gather their assemblies from bloodshed. Because the religion of the new Testament is spiritual. Nor will I remember their names by my lips. For we are changed in the laver: and from sons of men, we are called Sons of God. Nor will I remember their names by my lips. The voice of Christ. Nor will I remember the names of these apostles, which they had before the faith, when they had unfaithfulness. Those I will not recall: because as merits increase, new names have been added, as to Abraham, as also to Sarah, as to Peter, and the rest, because formerly they were servants of sin, but afterward friends: as the Lord said: I will no longer call you servants, but friends (John 15). And holy Paul had been such, when he said: We also were once foolish, and unbelieving like the rest; but we have obtained the mercy of God (Titus 3). And again: But you were washed; but you were sanctified (1 Cor 6).

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. The voice of Christ to the Father. The inheritance of Christ is the Church, and the Lord is the portion of his own body. He speaks as the portion of the man he assumed, because he received humanity from what is ours, and we immortality from what is his. And of my cup. Why did he say cup? Because through the cup each one receives according to his measure, but Christ more than his members, as Paul says: Who is the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8). You are the one who will restore my inheritance to me. This is what is said in the Gospel: No one comes to me unless my Father has drawn him to himself (John 6). According to the history, the inheritance of Christ was the Jews, to whom Christ came. But then it was scattered, when they crucified him; but it will be restored in the future, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Otherwise: God the Father will restore the inheritance of Christ when he has drawn his elect, the body of the holy Church, to that integrity, so that after the resurrection, having received their bodies, they may live incorrupt and immortal, because they lost that immortality in Adam.

The cords have fallen for me in excellent places. In the best places. In place of one Israel, he has obtained the inheritance of the whole world. Cords are given in an inheritance: because what he said, "they have fallen for me in excellent places," is as much as if he said, "in the patriarchs and prophets and apostles," or whomever the Father has called, Christ receives with himself. Therefore he said, "in excellent places," that is, in the saints or the apostles.

I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding. The voice of the head with the members. He has given understanding to discern between good and evil: between the sense and the letter: between God and neighbor: between light and darkness. I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding. He who is the wisdom of God does not himself need wisdom: but it must be understood according to that which is said in the Gospel: Jesus advanced in age, wisdom, and grace before God and men (Luke 2). Moreover, even until night my reins reproached me. "Night" signifies the time of the passion, in which the human frailty was instructed by the divinity within. Moreover, even until night my reins reproached me. Carnal pleasures then reproach me, when they suggest that I sin, when the flesh takes delight. But unless you had been at my right hand, perhaps I would be weakened.

I was providing the Lord in my sight always. The Son provides the Father, the Church provides Christ. Because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. As if he were saying: If you had not been at my right hand, perhaps I would have been moved from faith to unbelief, from good to evil.

Because of this my heart has rejoiced, etc. Because of the resurrection I have rejoiced, because through it the world has been set free. Otherwise: Because of this my heart has rejoiced, and my tongue has exulted. Because of this, that you help me, my heart rejoices, my tongue declares. Moreover, even my flesh will rest in hope. The voice of Christ. In the person of the body he rests in hope. As if he were saying: The Church, which is my flesh, now rests in hope. That is, in the hope of the resurrection: so that where the head has gone before, the members may follow.

Because you will not abandon my soul in hell. You will not abandon: because for this reason he descended there, so that he might cast out his elect from there, and bind the devil. The devil beforehand boasted in such a way that he held all the kingdoms of the world, but now not only could he not hold him, but rather he is shown to have been bound by Christ. Nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. How does he say: You will not give to see corruption: when elsewhere he says: What profit is there in my blood when I descend into corruption (Psalm 25)? He does not say this of the corruption of Christ's body in the tomb, but of the other saints.

You have made known to me the ways of life. The voice of the head on behalf of the body. The ways of life are the commandments of Christ, as it is written: If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments (Matt. 19). You will fill me with joy with your countenance. Then there will be full joy, when the body of the Church has been gathered into the kingdom of God: that is, when he has handed over the kingdom to God his Father: then God will be all in all. Delights at your right hand even to the end. The right hand of the Father is the Son. The delight of eternal life is at the right hand: that is, in the prosperity that is given to the Son: even to the end: as if he were saying, without end: because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes: because love is the fullness of the law, and love is the end of the commandment. Otherwise: Delights at your right hand even to the end. In that delightful power of yours in which the saints will reign with you, which is concluded by no end. Therefore we beseech them that, in no way separated from these things, if we do not deserve to be clothed in glory, we may not be excluded from pardon. For to you, with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM 16.

The sixteenth psalm contains the prayer of the person of the Lord together with the body joined to him, which is the Church. The prayer of David. It is understood as referring to three persons. This prayer is found in four psalms. This psalm is sung in the person of Christ against the Jews, and in the person of the Church against heretics. The Hebrews explain that when David sang the psalm, because he said, Hear, O Lord, my righteousness, for that very presumption by which he boasted that he would be heard on account of his own righteousness, he fell into sin.

Hear, O Lord, my righteousness. According to the Septuagint, O God of righteousness, or God righteous by nature. For, Hear, O God, my righteousness: here the person of Christ is to be understood. Hear, O God, my righteousness: the voice of Christ in his passion, and the voice of the Church in tribulation. Or the Church calls her righteousness her own, and not her own: her own, if she fulfills the commandments of God in deed; not her own, because it is given by God, not by herself. Hear, O God, my righteousness: because I have been obedient to you even unto death. Attend to my supplication. There is a difference between prayer and supplication. Prayer is that of the saints on behalf of the devout, that they may persevere in good. Supplication is for their own sins, or those of others. The whole is supplication.

Hear my prayer with your ears. That is, in this very thing that I ask, hear my prayer with your ears. For it prays not by a diminution of divinity, but by the weakness of the flesh. Not with deceitful lips. But through the purity that is pleasing to you.

Let my judgment come forth from your face. Not with deceitful lips. As if he were saying: Hear my prayer, because I pray with my whole heart: not like those who have deceitful lips, because they speak one thing and hold another in their heart, whether heretics or Jews. Let my judgment come forth from your face, not with deceitful lips. The voice of Christ to the Father. Because those who have deceitful lips judge me, but do you judge them in the future. The prophet speaks not by wishing, but by declaring. This shows what the Lord is going to do in judgment. Let my eyes see equity. The eyes of Christ, the holy preachers, let them see, that is, understand, equity, that is, equality, so that the justice they preach they may fulfill in deed.

You have tested my heart, God, and visited me by night. Even in distress you tested me, for I am sad and, as it were, in a kind of pressure of the dark night. You have tested my heart, God. The voice of Christ to the Father. You have tested Christ in his passion, and the Church in tribulation. You have examined me with fire. That is, through that very tribulation you have confounded my sins. And iniquity was not found in me. So that my mouth may not speak the works of men. What sort of works are the works of men? The vanities that they themselves love, or their various occupations—these are the works of men, as the Lord says in the Gospel (Matt. 21). For if an account is rendered for an idle word, how much more for the works of men, which they speak from their very thought with zeal.

Because of the words of your lips I have kept the hard ways. Because of the preaching and because of the things that are promised in heaven, I have kept the hard ways. How does he call them hard here, when in the Gospel it is said: My yoke is sweet and my burden light (Matt. 11)? It is sweet to those who are willing; it is hard to those who are unwilling. Although it may seem hard to the saints because of bodily tribulation, yet it is sweet, because they have the hope of eternal life. Or otherwise: Because of the words of your lips I have kept the hard ways. As if he were saying: Fearing the future punishments that you have threatened against transgressors of the law, I have exercised myself with hard labors and subjected the body to the power of the soul.

Make my steps perfect in your paths. Make my thoughts perfect in your commandments. The voice of the Church. For it is from God to begin, and from God to finish. Steps, thoughts. That my footsteps may not be moved. From those whose feet have been moved: that is, whoever have done evil.

I have cried, etc. Why did he say, I have cried? Because he believed through faith: therefore he said, I have cried. Incline your ear to me, etc. Christ inclines his ear when he deigns to hear. By a likeness of the sick man who lies in bed, he asks that the physician come and heal his infirmities. So too the human race was sick: when it lay in bed: that is, in sin. It was asking that the true physician come, who is Christ in the flesh, and heal its sicknesses.

Make wonderful your mercies, Lord, etc. Were they not made wonderful before? But then he made his mercies wonderful: when through the holy apostles and his saints he was healing infirmities.

From those who resist your right hand. You save from those who resist your right hand in three ways: the demons, God; the Jews, Christ; the heretics, the Church. Keep me, Lord, as the pupil of the eye. The voice of the Church. By the eye is understood the body of the Church, and by the pupil the humility of Christ, through whose example we live and see. The Church prays this, that she may be able to observe that humility which Christ taught. For if the eye is not guarded by the pupil, it does not see at all. For by the eyes the preachers are understood, and by the pupil the spiritual sense. The body of Christ, which is the Church, asks this, that the sense of the preachers, which is the eye, may be guarded, lest it be carried off into the unbelief of heretics.

Under the shadow of your wings protect me. A shadow consists of two things: light and a body. By the light, the divinity is understood; by the body, the humanity. Whence also it is said to Mary: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Luke 1). Under this shadow protect me, that the kite may not carry me off. And under the two wings of the Testaments: that is, their teachings, by which one lives, and is guarded, and is covered as by a hen: because by the hen the wisdom of God the Father is understood. For just as a hen hides her chicks under her wings because of the kites, so also the divine wisdom, and the two wings, which are the two Testaments, protect the Church from the kite: that is, from the devil. From the face of the wicked who afflicted me.

The Jews [did so to] Christ in the passion, and the heretics to the Church.

My enemies have surrounded my soul. The Jews [did so to] Christ in the passion. I said soul, not body: because the devil in the soul does not know inwardly what a man thinks, unless he understands it through outward movements, and in whatever he sees each person take delight, he brings in various suggestions. This pertains to the Church: They have shut up their fat. What is designated by fat, if not the malice of the Jews? Which in the Old Testament is forbidden to eat fat: because their heart was made fat. Whence he said in the Song of Deuteronomy: The beloved grew fat, and kicked. Why? Because he had grown fat with malice, and kicked: because he was unwilling to observe the commandments of God. The Jewish people was beloved by God: because he rained divine manna upon them: which pertains to us, who eat Christ. But the Jews despised themselves; that is, they bound themselves in malice. Their mouth has spoken pride. The mouth of the impious: because they act against Christ, and against the Church.

Casting me down, they have now surrounded me; they have set their eyes to look down to the earth. When Christ suffered, all the earth trembled, and the stars were darkened, and the rocks were split. But the Jews set their eyes on the earth, because they judged him to be only a man, and did not understand his divinity. Or they set their eyes on the earth, because they thought about earthly deeds, but did not meditate on heavenly things.

They have taken me up like a lion ready for prey, etc. As a lion is ready for prey, so the Jews took up Christ in the passion. And like a lion's cub. The lion is the devil; the cub is his son, Antichrist. Or otherwise: the lion is the devil, and his cubs are the Jews. In hidden places, in their hearts, as in darkness. The devil, or his members in whom the devil dwells, are called hidden places.

Arise, O Lord, prevent them, etc. The voice of Christ speaks to the divinity, that it may come before his soul, lest it be seized by the prince of the devil, which it also did. It came before him, and bound him, and led him down to hell. The devil was coming to require something of his own in Christ, but found nothing in him, as he said in the Gospel: The prince of this world comes, and finds nothing in me (John 14). And the holy Church asks, before she is supplanted by the devil and by his snares, which are the heretics, that our catholic one, who is Christ, may come and overturn the cunning of the enemy, that is, supplant them.

Deliver my soul from the wicked, your sword from the enemies of your hand. I pray, deliver the sword of your hand from your enemies, for the enemy has received power to punish us because of sins. "Those whom I handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme," says the Apostle. Deliver my soul from the wicked. The voice of Christ speaks to God the Father: that is, deliver my soul from the devil. And the voice of the Church asks this of Christ, that it be freed from the devil, or from heretics, and from every evil man. Your blade from the enemies of your hand. The blade is understood of Christ and of the Church. The blade of God the Father is the soul of Christ, by which he makes just vengeance. The devil is his blade, by which blade he makes vengeance in the world.

Lord, from a few divide them from the earth, etc. The voice of the Church. From a few, from the earth. The Church wishes to be separated from carnal people, and from the tares, and from the chaff before the day of judgment: but without cause: because it has received an answer from God, just as the Lord said in the Gospel: "Let both grow until the harvest": that is, until the day of judgment. Because here the Church is mingled with sinners: it asks on behalf of those who are predestined, that they may come and be separated from those who are not predestined, as it is said: "Many are called, but few are chosen." Supplant those who are in impiety; so that here they must be corrected, or in the future they are supplanted in vengeance. Their belly is filled from your hidden things.

Womb" is understood here in three ways. The womb is understood as chastity, as Eucherius says. And the womb of the angels was filled with the mysteries of God before they fell, and the womb of the Jews with the mysteries of the law, and the womb of the heretics with the mysteries of the Church.

They are satiated with children. The Jews are satiated, because they were multiplied in the procreation of children, and in the things of the world. When he says, they are satiated with swine's flesh, this designates the uncleanness of the Jews. They have left their remnants to their little ones. This is that just vengeance which is owed to them. They left their remnants to their little ones; that is, when they said: His blood be upon us, and upon our children (Matthew 27). And the children of the heretics will likewise have condemnation. Who are their remnants? Their own disciples, who are reborn from that evil doctrine of theirs. They are satiated with children, and they left the residue to their little ones. Because of the ambiguity of the word, some think that "swine's flesh" is written in place of "children," which Symmachus, expressing the Hebrew truth, translated: they shall be satiated with children, and they shall leave the residue to their little ones. They are satiated with children, and they have left their remnants, uncleanness, and iniquity: trampling underfoot the pearls of your words. And they left their remnants to their little ones, crying out: His blood be upon us and upon our children.

But I shall appear with righteousness in your sight. The voice of the Church. With righteousness: that is, to fulfill your commandments. I shall appear in your sight: that is, in your presence in the future. I shall be satisfied. With heavenly refreshment. When your glory shall appear. Your Son, who is salvation, and life, and the glory of all the saints: because Christ is called both salvation and glory. But I shall appear in righteousness, with the world conquered. I shall be satisfied in your sight, ascending to the heavens. When your glory shall appear, to your saints and elect who have believed through me: because what has been granted to them is mine. For I am in them, and they in me with you. But we, redeemed by you, Lord Jesus, beholding such great power and loving-kindness, humbly beseech you that, tried by the divine fire, we may not be detractors of human works, but, steadfast and fixed in you, may we continually extol your glory in deed, proclaim it in faith, and praise it with our voice. Amen.

PSALM XVII.

Unto the end, for the servant of the Lord David: the words of this canticle which he spoke to the Lord, on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. This entire psalm, under the person of David, pertains to Christ. David holds the type of Christ, who is mighty of hand, from whose seed is our David, who is Christ. For the servant of the Lord: that is, of God the Father, as the prophet says. It is a great thing for you to be called my son. For behold, I and my servants whom God gave to me. And the prophet Isaiah: A servant is given to us, a son is born to us. The words of this canticle which he spoke to the Lord. And David according to the history sang this canticle when he was being pursued by enemies, and Christ, who is our head, also sang to the Father in his passion: the Church in persecution. The Lord delivered him: that is, both David from the persecution of Saul, and God the Father delivered Christ in his passion from the hand of his enemies; that is, from the hand of the Jews, and from the hand of Saul. Saul is interpreted as demanding, because against the will of God they demanded him as king. This Saul bore the type of the devil. These enemies are members of the devil: that is, the Jews who persecuted Christ, and the demons, or the members of those who persecute the Church.