Breviarium In Psalmos

And Paul to Timothy: "I testify to you," he says, "in the sight of the living God, and in the sight of his elect angels," and the rest (II Tim. 4). But judgments are when he either honors the just with splendid merits, or condemns transgressors with eternal punishments. For the ways are the apostles and prophets, through whom one comes to the true way, which is Christ. Thus, then, the psalm begins, "Blessed are the undefiled": which, on account of the length of its words, we have determined, with the Lord's assent, to explain in three homilies. This entire psalm is written according to the order of letters, such that eight verses begin from one letter, and again another eight are completed from the following one. And this is similarly read up to the end. But Josephus reports in his books that this psalm and the canticle of Deuteronomy were composed in one meter, and he thinks that elegiac meter can be discerned in both: namely, that the former verse consists of six feet, and the lower one is finished in a pentameter with one less.

ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way. These, surely, are in the way of the world, through which we walk. Blessed are the undefiled. Misery is set in opposition to blessedness. "Blessed" is said in our tongue to mean immortal, or praiseworthy, or glorious. Those are blessed who merit to enter into eternal life; and those are miserable who descend into hell. How does he say "undefiled"? Because a man cannot be without small sins, as Saint John said: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (I John 1). And the prophet says: "He who enters in without spot, and works righteousness" (Ps. 14). Without spot, that is, without mortal crimes. But nevertheless he makes a distinction between spot and spot, that is, because even if we cannot be without small sins, yet we ought not to fall into greater ones. In the way: those who walk in the law of the Lord. In the way, in Christ, as he himself says: "I am the way and the truth" (John 14). Those who walk in the law of the Lord, that is, in his commandments. Who walk, that is, who persevere. Who walk in the law of the Lord. Who, having subdued the desires of the flesh, also trample upon the honor of earthly glory.

Blessed are those who search out his testimonies. So that when they have sinned, they may understand that they have offended in the presence of witnesses. With their whole heart they seek him. And not lightly, nor sluggishly.

For those who work iniquity have not walked in his ways. For the ways are the apostles and the prophets, through whom one comes to that Way which said: I am the way, the truth, and the life, as we have already said; for in this way the wicked do not walk, because they follow the way of Satan.

You have commanded, Lord, that your commandments be kept exceedingly. Not with a lukewarm heart, nor with a slack mind, but he teaches us to keep his commandments bravely and attentively.

Would that my ways were directed to keeping your justifications. For unless our ways are directed by the Lord himself, we shall be too weak to keep his justifications, because of the frailty of the flesh.

Then I shall not be confounded, when I have looked into all your commandments. It is not fitting to neglect some and observe others, but we ought to keep all equally, lest we be confounded in the future judgment.

I will confess to you, O Lord, with a right heart. Because there is nothing perverse in the portion of heretics. In that I have learned the judgments of your justice. So that I might praise you with a right heart.

I will keep your justifications; do not forsake me utterly. And if we are abandoned for a time, we are not yet utterly abandoned so as to perish.

BETH. By what does the younger man correct his way: by keeping your words. Here the prophet corrects not only old age but also teaches youth to be instructed, and so to keep the divine words that even if an old fault has been lamented, now no thought consents to sinning.

With my whole heart I have sought you; do not cast me away from your commandments. He confesses that he has sought God not in part but with his whole heart, lest he be cast out from his commandments: because he casts out no one who came to save sinners.

In my heart I have hidden your words, that I may not sin against you. In the hidden place of the heart he stores up the sacraments of God: when he avoids a heretic after two corrections (Titus 3), when he does not expose the holy thing of God to dogs—or does not cast his pearls before swine (Matthew 7). He does nothing negligently in the things that are God's; because he knows that cursed is the one who has done the work of the Lord negligently (Jeremiah 48).

Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes. For I know that your statutes of vainglory, which the Pharisee brought forward in the temple, did not proceed from you (Luke 18).

With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth. The Apostle says that the judgments of God are incomprehensible (Romans 11). Therefore this man declared with his lips only those things which he heard and learned from the prophets—but to believers, and not to the unworthy.

In the way of your testimonies I have delighted, as in all riches. For just as an earthly man delights in fields and vineyards, so this man, having despised the world, is enriched by God and rejoices in the testimonies of God from a pure conscience.

In your commandments I will exercise myself, and I will consider your ways. Exercise is the assiduity of work. And this man: unless he had been exercised in the commandments of God, he could not consider his ways—that is, the apostolic and prophetic doctrines.

In your justifications I will meditate; I will not forget your words. These things I meditate on, in these I exercise myself, so that, not consigning them to oblivion, I may be able to fulfill them wholly and perfectly.

GIMEL. Repay your servant; give me life, and I will keep your words. He earnestly prays that he may be repaid for this, that he serves God. And because he does not know himself to be a servant of sin, he desires to live in him who is life, and to keep his words while the present life is rolled on.

Open my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law. Wipe away from the eyes of the heart the veil of the letter, and make me contemplate the wondrous things of your law in a spiritual sense. For in your light we shall see light (Psalm 35).

I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide your commandments from me. So too the Apostle says: While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord (2 Corinthians 5). The prophet says that he, placed in the body, is a stranger to the heavenly assembly; who knows whether these commandments are contained in thrones and dominions, which he implores may not be hidden from him.

My soul has desired to long for your justifications, at all times. So that whether I eat, or drink, or do anything else, I may always desire them, meditate on them, lay hold of them.

You have rebuked the proud. So that you might lead them back to the holy humility which you taught. You have rebuked the proud. Thus he did to the devil, and to Adam, who raised themselves up in pride. Or now through your teachers you rebuke the opposing powers, the members of the devil, heretics or evil men, who act against the commandments of God. You have rebuked them through your saints. Cursed are those who turn aside from your commandments. Cursed are those who turn aside from the commandments of God, but then the evil will fully receive the curse, that is, heretics or the rest: since he will say: Go, you cursed, into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25).

Take away from me reproach. Of sin, and judgment. And contempt. Of mortal judgment. Because I have sought out your testimonies. Not idly and sluggishly, but strenuously and vigilantly.

For indeed princes sat and spoke against me; but your servant was occupied in your justifications. What the prophet says of himself in this verse, he sees as future in the apostles and the rest of the martyrs, who endured nothing before kings and governors, the Lord also foretelling this (Matthew 10, Mark 13, and Luke 21). Though they were afflicted with various punishments, even to the severing of their necks, they always occupied themselves in God's justifications.

For your testimonies are also my meditation. In these pressures, certainly. And my counsel is your justifications. Because they promise eternal life.

DALETH. My soul has clung to the pavement; give me life according to your word. I understand the soul as joined to a mortal body; therefore, lest sin grow strong, I ask to be given life by you, knowing that the desire of the flesh works death.

I have declared my ways to you. How does he say, I have declared to you, when elsewhere he says, Declare to me? Does God not know or is he ignorant of anything, since he himself is present everywhere, and foresees all things, and is within? But what he says, I have declared my ways to you, is as if he were saying: You, declare your iniquities first (Isaiah 43), that is, your works: what you have done against God's command, declare through confession or penitence, so that you may be justified in God's words.

I declared my ways, and you heard me; teach me your justifications. I confessed the ways of my sin, and you forgave; now grant me teaching, that I may be instructed in your justifications.

Instruct me in the way of your justifications. The justifications which the letter of the law brought forth, let me grasp spiritually. And I will be exercised in your marvelous works, in the apostles and the other teachings of the Church, which are figured in them.

My soul has slumbered. In the station of this mortal dwelling. From weariness. Of bodily weakness. Confirm me in your words. That, with the sleep of sin taken away, I may watch earnestly in them.

Remove from me the way of iniquity. That desire through which one comes to sin. And in your law have mercy on me. For with you the law has been established, that you may always have mercy.

I have chosen the way of truth. Christ the Son of God, whom, foreseeing that he would come into the world, I hear saying: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14). I have not forgotten your judgments. Those judgments which, bringing them forth in the Gospels, he said: This is the judgment, that everyone who believes in the Son of Man may have eternal life (John 3).

I have adhered to your testimonies, O Lord; do not put me to shame. And because by adhering to them I have merited pardon for my former deeds, I ask that you not allow me to be put to shame by the repetition of sin.

I have run the way of your commandments. When I was enduring many things for the sake of your word, for the hope of future blessedness. When you enlarged my heart. When in the breadth of the holy Scriptures you instilled in me the mystery of the blessed Trinity. Or, you enlarged my heart: that is, in the breadth of charity, in hope, in faith.

HE. Set a law before me, O Lord, the way of your justifications. The Prophet says in the person of the Church, Set a law before me. That is, yourself: because the law is Christ. As if he were saying: Set yourself before me, that is, give yourself as a gift. And I will seek it always, that very law, that is, the commandments, or yourself. Give me understanding, and I will search your law. That is, your commandments. Understanding, so that I may not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps. 31). The Church asks that she may understand the distinction between good and evil, between life and death, between the letter and the sense. That I may understand and preach and fulfill in deed. And I will keep it with my whole heart. That is, with wholehearted love.

Lead me in the path of your commandments. The path is less than the way, that is, it is narrow, and the narrow way, that is, the higher commandments which lead to life: because wide and spacious is the way that leads to death (Matthew 7). Because I have willed it. The voice of the Church. As if the Church were saying: I have not desired anything else, nor taken delight in anything except your commandments. Therefore I ask that you lead me into your commandments, that is, make me understand.

Incline my heart to your testimonies. The voice of the Church: The proud do not incline their heart to the testimonies of God, because they hope that they are higher and understand the precepts of God better than the Church. And not to avarice. That is, to vanity: because those proud do not incline their heart to the testimonies of God, but to vanity or avarice. Incline my heart, says the Church, that is, in humility, as that saying: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matthew 11).

Turn away my eyes lest they see vanity. Turn away my eyes, that is, my senses, lest they see vanity, that is, defection. As if it were saying: That in this vanity, which is defection, I may not have my eyes, that is, my senses, fixed. But what, it says? In your way give me life. That is, in yourself. Or in your commandments give me life, in the soul.

Set your servant. For the Christian people. Your utterance. Your commandments. In your fear. That is, in holy fear. Cut away my reproach which I have suspected. The Church says: that is, take away, cut off, sever, the reproach which I have suspected from others. That reproach which the Gentiles used to say: You are a worshipper of the crucified one; you are an adorer of one who died shamefully; you are a venerator of one who was killed; and they used to say: Behold our God, whom you call handmade. Where is your God? Let him come. Which I have suspected. What did they suspect? That the Church observed a deception, because she adored Christ. Because your judgments are pleasant. That is, clear: joyful to those who love and desire them; that is, they are clear and pleasant not to the unwilling but to the willing.

Behold, I have longed for your commandments: in your equity give me life. It is one gift, Lord, of your compassion, that we who keep the holy utterances may be given life in your equity, that is, when we confess you to be equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

VAV. And let your mercy come upon me, O Lord. That you may forgive my sins. And your salvation according to your word. This is salvation, the word which you promised through another prophet, saying: I do not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Ezek. 33). That is, that you come to redeem us: according to what you promised to Abraham, as it is said. In your seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 22).

And I will answer those who reproach me with a word. The Church says this. As if she were saying: If you come to redeem us, I will answer those who reproach me concerning my faith, how I believe, and say: Where is your God? Behold our God, or their idols which they worship. Because I have hoped in your words. I will answer steadfastly those who call my hope vain, which I have in you, because their hope is vain.

And let him not take away the word of truth from my mouth utterly. I will not consent to those who sin, lest I hear: Why do you declare my justices (Ps. 9)? Because I have hoped exceedingly in your judgments. Hoping in these, I have always brought them forth in the churches of the peoples.

And I kept your law always, forever and ever. "Always" shows every time of the present life; "forever and ever" truly shows the age to come.

And I walked in spaciousness. For I was enlarged in the keeping of your law. Because I sought out your commandments. Carefully examining them. I sought them out for this purpose, that I might believe and understand.

And I spoke of your testimonies in the sight of kings, and I was not put to shame. Knowing that he who confesses you in this world, you will confess before the Father and his angels (Matt. 10). But we, if we stand before kings and governors for the Lord's sake, as the martyrs did, whether we announce the word of truth, or contend for righteousness (Ibid. and Mark 13): we ought to be not confused, but steadfast.

And I meditated on your commandments which I loved. That the work of meditation might bring forth the fruit of love.

And I lifted up my hands. That is, I raised them. To your commandments which I loved. Clean from sin, and free from the shedding of innocent blood. And I exercised myself in your justifications. That what was indicated in these things according to the letter, I might be able to perceive spiritually.

ZAIN. Remember your word to your servant, Lord, in which you gave me hope. Deign to make me such that I may be held fit, mindful of your word amid the pressures of this age, through hope in eternal goods, to deserve consolation, as follows:

This has consoled me in my humility: because your speech will give me life. When I am placed in straits, it supplies the food of eternal life.

The proud acted unjustly everywhere. They, having abandoned the humility of the divine precept, were exalted in the vanities of this age. But from your law I did not turn aside. Because as they drew near to damnation, I was raised up in it.

I remembered your judgments. I did nothing in this life unworthy, fearing lest I be condemned with them. From the age, Lord. From the beginning of this life. And I was consoled. Knowing myself secure from the judgment of death. I was consoled, says the Church herself: because God has come to redeem his members. As if she should say: From the beginning I knew and understood through the Holy Spirit that you were to come in the flesh.

Defection has seized me because of sinners who forsake your law. The voice of the Church. He shows the feeling of compassion, so that she grieves over the transgressions of the wicked, according to that saying of the Apostle: If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it (1 Cor 12). And therefore she does not wish anyone to sin, but desires all to know the way of truth (1 Tim 2).

Your justifications have become my songs in the place of my pilgrimage. The prophet teaches us that in the pilgrimage of this world we should ceaselessly sing spiritual songs once received by the ear, because while we are in the body, we are away from the Lord (2 Cor 5).

I remembered your name in the night, Lord, and I kept your law. For human frailty ought always, and more earnestly in the nighttime, to make remembrance of the Lord's name (1 Cor 5): when it is either pressed by the recollection of riches, or tormented by the fire of concupiscence, and especially to pray this, that if it has begun to keep the law of God, it may not be torn away from it in anything.

This has become mine, because I have sought your justifications. This law has become for me a consolation and not a stumbling block, so that I might be able more diligently to search out your justifications. We too suppliantly entreat the Lord: that he may instill his justifications in us, open the ways, declare his marvelous works, and if any shadow of the law conceals something, may he reveal it by the illumination of the Paraclete, so that if we do not attain the palm of blessedness, at least we may obtain pardon for our offenses. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit is honor, and power, and glory forever and ever. Amen.

We have already described in the preceding homily (homily ii) the distinction between justifications, commandments, laws, and ways; now let us return to the chapter of the eighth letter.

HETH. I have said, O Lord, that my portion is to keep your law. He who forsakes the pride of the world, the heights of honors, and the boasting of riches, and lays up treasures in heaven—God becomes his portion, just as Peter said to the paralytic: Silver and gold I have none; but what I have, this I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk (Acts 3). O great treasure, O excellent heap of happy riches, that he who keeps the law of God, and whose God is his portion, should cure the diseases of the infirm!

I have entreated your face with my whole heart. The prophet rightly entreats the face of God with his whole heart, who knows that he has a clean heart. For blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5). Have mercy on me according to your word. By which you promised that you would not overwhelm the sinner in death, but would console him with mercy.

I have thought on my ways. That they were right. And I have turned my feet to your testimonies. My senses to your precepts: so that I ought to observe them, and fulfill them in deed.

I am ready, and I am not troubled. I am ready to preach: I am not troubled to endure tribulation for Christ. That I may keep your commandments. The wicked darts of those who reproach me have not troubled me.

The cords of sinners have wrapped around me, and I have not forgotten your law. The prophet says that he is enclosed by the reproaches of sinners, and yet he says that he is not forgetful of the divine law: knowing that we ought through many tribulations to enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14).

In the middle of the night I rose to give thanks to you, over the judgments of your justice. For he knows that in the middle of the night he can either suffer dangers or attain rewards, because just as at midnight the angel struck Egypt (Exodus 11), so at midnight the wise virgins are brought in to the bridegroom (Matthew 25). And there are many other testimonies concerning midnight. Therefore here he rises at that time with judgment and justice, so that what he asked for he may obtain.

I am a partaker with all who fear you and keep your commandments. David was a partaker in the kingdom with all men who endured tribulation; and now the Church is a partaker with those who fear God with holy fear and fulfill his commandments. She is a partaker with them in faith, hope, and charity.

The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord. When he makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and rains on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5). Teach me your justifications. Woe to those who, having the key of knowledge, neither enter themselves nor permit others to enter (Luke 11). He showed mercy when he came to redeem us. Hence the earth is full, that is, the holy Church. Teach me your justifications. That is, your commandments, so that I may understand them and preach them and fulfill them in deed.

TETH. You have done good with your servant, Lord. The voice of the prophet in the person of the Church. You have done good, when you came in the flesh and redeemed us; when you fulfilled what you promised to Abraham and the other fathers, as that saying: and in your seed all nations shall be blessed (Gen. 22). With your servant: the Christian people. According to your word. The Word of the Father is the Son. According to your word; that you would not punish me, a sinner, in anger, but console me with mercy. Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge. The voice of the Church. It should have said knowledge first, and discipline afterward; because a man cannot be good unless he has knowledge. What goodness does it say he does? Because he gives rain upon the earth, and makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust. And discipline, that is, that first a man should measure in himself and practice discipline, and afterward in others. And knowledge, that is, that he have discretion, and know how to discern between good and evil, between life and death, between body and soul. Teach me, that I may understand how to fulfill your commandments in deed. Because I have believed your commandments, Therefore teach me, because I have believed in your precepts; that is, I have fulfilled them in deed. Before I was humbled I transgressed, therefore I have kept your word. When transgression comes first, we are humbled, and through this we are instructed to keep the divine words.

You are good, Lord. For no one is good except you alone. And in your goodness teach me your justifications, because they are good, just as you also are good.

The iniquity of the proud has been multiplied upon me; but I will search out your commandments with my whole heart. For when divine scourges were reproving me and the proud of the world were provoking me, saying: Where is your help, where is your hope, where is the goodness of your God? I searched out your commandments all the more vehemently, seeking consolation in them.

Their heart has curdled like milk. Since milk is sweet by nature, yet when corrupted by a fault it curdles and turns sour. So too the proud, that is, the heretics, once had a sweet heart in the Holy Scriptures; but perverting them in the drunkenness of their own understanding, they have become curdled and most bitter. But I have meditated on your law, through which you humble the proud, through which you grant grace to the humble.

It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications. The voice of the Church says: It was good for me that you humbled me, because through this I learned to fulfill your commandments in action. It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications; because they are learned not in pride, but in humility.

Good to me is the law of your mouth, above thousands of gold and silver. The law of God's mouth is Christ, who did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5). Foreseeing him, the prophet longs for him above all treasures, because he commands not only that friends be loved but also that enemies be forgiven.

JOD. Your hands have made me and formed me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. For it is a great thing that a man understand that he was made and formed by the hand of God, and fashioned after his image. And if he has known this, he ought to seek knowledge, that he may understand and keep his commandments; lest, departing from them, he who was the image of God begin to be the image of the devil.

Those who fear you will see me and rejoice. The voice of the Church, that is, that those who fear God may see their own understanding and have joy; because the Church, when she sees others observing God's commandments, has great joy. Afterwards they will rejoice in turn, both here and in the future. Because in your word I have hoped exceedingly, that is, in Christ I have hope.

I have known, Lord, that your judgments are equity, and in your truth. Your equity is that you reprove sinners for their offenses; your truth, that you bring down the proud from their heights. Therefore, because you have humbled me, to correct me:

Let your mercy now be done, that it may console me. The voice of the prophet in the person of the Church. The prophet foresaw through the Holy Spirit that Christ would come in the flesh, who was mercy, that he might redeem us according to what he had promised, and console me. He fulfilled what he promised; for he says in another place: Many are the mercies with God, and our sins are many (Ps. 143). Hence he says: Many are your mercies. According to your word to your servant. According to what you promised, come to redeem your servant, the Christian people, who serve you especially. Let your mercy now be done that it may console me, according to your word to your servant. For you promised that after the humility of affliction, you would grant the aid of consolation.

Let your mercies come to me and let me live, for your law is my meditation. I already meditate on your law, but I cannot come to eternal life unless I have been changed by you therein.

Let the proud be confounded, because they have unjustly wrought iniquity against me. Let them be confounded in their sins, and let them know that they have acted wickedly against the just. But I will exercise myself in your commandments. Showing them what they ought to do. But I. The voice of the Church. I will exercise myself in your commandments. While those aforementioned have done so: I exercise myself there in your precepts.

Let those who fear you be turned to me, and those who have known your testimonies. That is, that, with me teaching, knowing them, they may be turned to you.

Let my heart be immaculate in your justifications, that I may not be confounded. And because from the heart proceeds a multitude of vices, as the Lord says in the Gospel: therefore the prophet asks that he be made immaculate in God's justifications, so that when the sentence of damnation does not confound him in judgment (Ps. 118). So too we ought to press down various thoughts, lest they prepare confusion for us when we have desired to fulfill them. Let my heart be immaculate. Here heart is put for the pious soul. As if he were saying: Let my soul be without mortal sin. In your justifications that I may not be confounded. That is, that I may not have eternal confusion.

CAPH. My soul has fainted for your salvation. In Jesus, because he came to save his people from their sins. And in your word I have greatly hoped. That which in the beginning was God with God, that he might come for human redemption.

My eyes have fainted for your eloquence, saying, When will you console me? Attend. I receive this consolation: that you come from the heavens in the fainting of spiritual eyes.

Because I have become like a wineskin in the frost: I have not forgotten your justifications. The Lord said in the Gospel: No one puts new wine into old wineskins (Mark 2), signifying that the human breast, filled with long-standing vices, cannot contain the commandments of God. Therefore we also, if we grow warm with natural ardor so as to sin: when we receive the commandments of God, this heat is suddenly extinguished, and we shall be like a wineskin in the frost, the ardor of sin being cooled within us.

How many are the days of your servant; when will you execute judgment on those who persecute me. Few are the days of this life. You, Lord, crush in your judgment Satan with his attendants, quickly under our feet, who persecute us.

The wicked have told me their fables, but not according to your law. He has heard many things from heretics and the nations which do not agree with the commandments of God. Therefore he adds:

All his commandments are truth. For they are comprehended by no falsehood. The wicked have persecuted me; help me. I endure grievous wars against principalities and powers, and therefore I do not ask that this contest be removed, but that I be helped, knowing that no one can be crowned unless he has competed lawfully.

They have almost consumed me on the earth; but I have not forsaken your commandments. Bodily vices would have greatly humbled me on the earth, unless I had kept the divine commandments.

According to your mercy give me life. Unto eternal life; because I now no longer live for myself: but Christ lives in me. That I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Either those things which you commanded in the Law; or those which you brought forth in the Gospels.

LAMED. Forever, O Lord, your word remains in heaven. In that heavenly man who, having left behind the earthly image, has become heaven.

Your truth is from generation to generation. One generation is that of the Law and the Prophets; the other is that of the Gospels. In these generations the truth of God remains, because they have brought forth nothing of falsehood. You founded the earth, and it remains—not that earth which passes away with the heaven, but that earth in which the word of God is multiplied.

By your ordinance the day perseveres, for all things serve you. He who, having left behind the darkness of the world, lives in the light of God—he perseveres in God, who is the true day. And all things that he accomplishes by his ordinance, he reckons as service to him.

Unless your law had been my meditation, then perhaps I would have perished in my lowliness. He gives an example, that even if we are brought low in various persecutions, we should meditate on the law, lest we perish.

I will not forget your justifications forever, for in them you have given me life—carrying me over into eternal life after many struggles.

I am yours; save me, O Lord, for I have sought out your justifications. I am your servant, and you are my God. From you I ask to be saved, because the belly is not my God, nor am I given over to empty glory, but to your justifications.

Sinners waited for me to destroy me; I understood your testimonies. With a long struggle the adverse powers assail me, but I, understanding your testimonies, received consolation from them.

I have seen the end of all consummation. Christ, surely, who is the end of the Law and the consummation of the prophets. The prophet foresaw in the spirit that he had consummated all things that were written concerning him in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms. Indeed he himself said in his passion: It is consummated (John 19). Your commandment is exceedingly broad. For he foresaw that time to be spacious, from the time when he commanded himself to come through the Law and the prophets, until he proceeds through the Gospel.

MEM. How I have loved your law, Lord: my meditation is all day long. In this it appears that he loves the Law of God: because he is known to meditate on it at every time of his life. But he said day, for that which shines forth from the splendor of the divine light.

You have made me wiser than my enemies by your commandment, because it is mine forever. The prophet's enemies are the Jews, who do not understand spiritually. Than these the prophet says he is wiser, because in these commandments, which he kept forever, he foresaw the Lord who was to come.

I understood above all those who taught me, for your testimonies are my meditation. The scribes and Pharisees then were teaching, holding the key of knowledge; but this one understands above them, who saw in the Gospels that the mystery of anointings, and of feasts and of whole burnt offerings, was to be fulfilled.

I understood above the aged, because I sought your commandments. Above the priests and princes I seek all the commandments of the law, because I await in the New Testament what I see foreshadowed in the Old.

From every evil way I restrained my feet, that I might keep your words. From the precipice of shameful deed I always held myself back, that I might more easily be able to keep the word of your commandments.

From your judgments I did not turn aside, because you set the law before me. I received from you the law of your commandments, so that if I turned aside from these judgments, I would be condemned in the eternal judgment.

How sweet to my throat are your words! Above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth. When honey or other food has passed to the palate, it has no further taste; but your words, Lord, whether in the mouth, or in the throat, or in the hidden recess of the heart, are always sweet to those who meditate on them. For just as visible honey drives away the bitterness of our throats, so the bitterness of our sins is softened by the Lord's words.

From your commandments I understood; therefore I hated every way of iniquity. Drinking in the sweetness of the commandments mentioned above, I hated the way of bitter iniquity.

NUN. Your word, Lord, is a lamp to my feet. If in the nights of this world the light of God's word shines in us, our feet do not fall into the snares of ropes and the pits of traps, which the hand of the devil's cunning prepares at our stumbling blocks. And a light to my paths. So that, with this light going before us as we tread the paths of this life, we may be led into that way which is the true way.

I have sworn and determined to keep the judgments of your justice. First he swore, that he might not be released from this keeping. Then he determined, that he might arm himself with what he had sworn, knowing that nothing in God's judgments is brought forth except through justice.

I have been humbled everywhere, Lord; give me life according to your word. He has learned the humility that Christ taught, who is meek and humble of heart. Therefore he now prays that, just as that one after the humility of the form of a servant was exalted into the glory of God the Father, so also this one may be transferred from this bodily humility into eternal life.

Make the freewill offerings of my mouth pleasing, Lord. The voice of the Church. As if she were saying: May my vows, which I offer to you, be pleasing to you, that is, acceptable and delightful. And teach me your judgments. That is, your commandments, so that I may understand and fulfill them.

My soul is in your hands. That is, in your senses, because I am ready to act. And in another place he says: My soul is in my hands. How does he say, in my hands? Because I am ready to endure martyrdom for Christ.

Sinners have set snares for me. See that the snare is set beside the way, and if you depart from the way, you will fall into the snare. What are these snares, if not the traps of the devil, or the suggestions of the demon? Vices also and sins can be understood. And in your commandments I have not erred. The voice of the Church. I have not erred from your commandments, but I have kept them in action.

By inheritance I have acquired your testimonies. Your testimonies and your precepts, that is, my inheritance forever, both here and in the future. Because they are the exultation of my heart. Your testimonies, that is, exultation, because the Church delights and exults in the commandments of God.

I have inclined my heart. I was not proud but humble, and therefore I inclined my heart so that I might understand you, because the proud do not incline their heart to humility. To what end have I inclined my heart? says the Church. To doing your justifications, that is, your commandments. Forever, because of the recompense. Of eternal life, that I may deserve to receive it.

SAMEKH. I have hated the wicked, and I have loved your law. The voice of the prophet in the person of the Church. How does he say, I have hated the wicked, when the Lord says: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6)? And elsewhere: Pray for those who persecute and slander you (Matthew 5). And here how does he say, I have hated? But according to the law of the Old Testament he can defend himself, as it is said: You shall love your friend, and you shall hate your enemy (Leviticus 19). But now it must be understood thus: I have hated, namely, vices and sins. And I have loved, that is, that nature, because it is not permitted to hate a creature of God, but sin. As he says elsewhere: With perfect hatred I have hated them (Psalm 118). And it is not a perfect hatred. Why? Because whoever hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3). And I have loved your law, that is, I have loved your law which you commanded, I have fulfilled it in deed.

You are my helper and my supporter. Helper in the present, supporter in the future. And in your word I hope. That is, in Christ, because the Son is the Word of the Father.

Depart from me, you wicked, and I will search out the commandments of my God. The voice of the prophet in the person of the Church: he says by way of desire: Depart from me, you wicked. If you wish to perform penance perfectly, you must separate yourself from the company of sinners or of all wicked men, and flee to another place, so that you may be able to perform it perfectly. Depart from me, you wicked: these are the demons, vices, and sins, or the hostile powers. For while they prepare snares for you and most wicked suggestions, you cannot search out the commandments of God so as to understand them well. But if you wish to do penance, you must separate yourself from their company.

Receive me according to your word. David says: Receive me from the flesh according to what you have promised, so that from my flesh you might take flesh and redeem me. And I shall live. That is, in the soul, if you redeem me, both here and in the future. And do not put me to shame in my expectation. Concerning this, that I have awaited salvation, may I not be put to shame when you come, so that I may have no confusion neither here nor in the future.

Help me. He asks for help. And I shall be saved. In my soul, if you come to help me. And I will meditate on your justifications. That is, on your commandments. Always. Without end.

You have despised all who depart. That is, you have looked down on them. From your just judgments. Why? Because their thought is unjust. Therefore you have despised them: because they depart from your commandments, and their thought is unjust: of heretics, or of Jews, or of all the wicked, both against Christ and against the Church.

I have reckoned all the sinners of the earth as transgressors. By wishing, the prophet speaks in the person of the Church: because before the coming of Christ they were transgressors: who were held under debt because of the transgression of the first man Adam, and all were descending to hell: even infants themselves were descending to hell: because on account of that debt they were reckoned transgressors: unless they had been washed clean through baptism. And now, those who are not baptized descend to hell. I have reckoned them transgressors. Because not all sinners are transgressors: but all transgressors are sinners. Therefore I have loved your testimonies. Lest I appear a transgressor in them.

Pierce my flesh with your fear, for I have feared your judgments. I fear the judgment to come; therefore, crucifying all the desires of the flesh, I am ready to live with you, to die with you, to be buried with you, so that in the future I may deserve to rise with you. But we also, Lord, beseech you that, pierced with your fear, with the lamp of sacred light going before us, absolved from the cords of sin and made your portion, we may be able to walk that way which, having freed us from the punishments of evils, makes us co-heirs with the angels. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ: to whom is honor and glory with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

The blessed prophet always urges us with wholesome counsel and sacred eloquence: that the righteousness which he kept in deed, we should faithfully carry out and retain indissolubly. And so that he may more easily stir sluggish and inert minds to keep these things, he teaches what reward we obtain for the righteousness of that keeping, saying:

AIN. I have done judgment and justice: do not deliver me to those who slander me. Continually in this mortal body the crowd of vices pursues us: but if the measure of God's judgments and justifications remains in us, so that by prudent counsel we do what befits them, we shall not be delivered into the hands of these persecutors.

Take up your servant for good. Because I no longer know how to serve sin. That the proud may not slander me. The devil and his ministers.

My eyes have failed for your salvation. For Jesus, who in Hebrew is called Savior. And for the word of your justice. For that Word which was in the beginning with God: who came not to destroy the just ordinances of the law, but to fulfill them.

Deal with your servant according to your mercy. That I myself may accomplish my vows. And teach me your justifications. That I may be able, as I have so often desired, to attend to them.

I am your servant: give me understanding that I may know your testimonies. May I learn them from you, and not from heretics or Jews: because for me no time is idle from the exercise of your service.

It is time to act, O Lord: the wicked have destroyed your law—namely the Jews, who did not understand it spiritually. But the time will come when the Lord will make its hidden things disclosed through the preaching of the Gospel.

Therefore I have loved your commandments above gold and topaz. For just as gold surpasses the value of all metals, so the topaz, containing in itself the beauty of all gems, surpasses the honors of all. Therefore the prophet loves the commandments of God above all these things, because in them he understands the coming of the Lord, who is to redeem the world, has been announced.

Therefore I was directed toward all your commandments: I have hated every wicked way. Nothing from the ways of iniquity came near me, but just as I have walked blamelessly, so I have hated all things that lingered in the ways of iniquity.

PHE. Your testimonies are wonderful, O Lord: therefore my soul has searched them out. I have seen in them one thing done, another figured. And therefore, because it is wonderful to me, having searched more diligently, with you revealing them, I come to know all things, as follows.

The unfolding of your words gives light, and gives understanding to the little ones. The words of God are the writings of the prophets and of the Law, which are made clear in the Gospels: when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and by many mighty works showed forth God. But the understanding of these things is granted to our littleness, we who have been reborn in innocence, the Lord saying thus: I confess to you, Lord, Father of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones (Matthew 11).

I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit: because I desired your commandments. I unbarred a clean heart, and made myself worthy of the desire of your commandments, so that the Holy Spirit might be poured into me.

Look upon me and have mercy on me: according to the judgment of those who love your name. That you may change me by that judgment by which you change the rest who love your name.

Direct my steps according to your word. And not according to bodily desires. And let no iniquity have dominion over me. Because I am bound to your service.

Redeem me from the slanders of men, that I may keep your commandments. Slanders are when a charge of impiety is brought against just men. And he asks to be redeemed by God from these, so that he may keep his commandments.

Make your face shine upon your servant. Strengthen me in the likeness of the image of your glory. And teach me your justifications, so that what I perceive in them through a mirror, I may behold with certain contemplation.

My eyes have brought forth streams of water, because they did not keep your law. This holy man always performs true penitence, and does not cease to wash away old sins with flowing tears, so that you may understand that, unless you have performed true penitence, what you have done is not easily forgiven you. For true penitence is to wash away sins committed with continual weeping, and not to repeat what has been washed clean.

SADE. You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right: you have commanded your testimonies in justice, and your truth exceedingly. All things that we suffer at your command are just, right, and true, because they either come upon us for our sins, or happen so that we may be shown to be proven.

The zeal of your house has made me waste away. When the house of God is made a den of thieves by evil inhabitants, or when I see bodies dedicated to God defiled by the mire of crimes. Because my enemies have forgotten your words. For forgetting the precepts of the Law, they have made your house a den of thieves.

Your word is exceedingly fiery, and your servant has loved it. Because just as sin consumes, so too it enlightens the one who sins, if he is converted.

I am younger and despised; I have not forgotten your justifications. Although David says these things in his own person, who as the younger among his brothers was, as it were, despised and sent to pasture the sheep, and thereafter chosen for the kingdom: yet these things must be referred to the Christian people, who formerly were despised and cast out from their father's house, remembering the justifications of God, and having received the firstborn rights of the former, became first.

Your justice is justice forever. Which that former people did not know to be always everlasting. And your law is truth. For them it was a shadow; now for the people of the Church it is truth. But the prophet, enduring many things for this truth, says:

Tribulation and distress found me: your commandments are my meditation. However much one is troubled in punishments, constrained in chains, the voice, always free, meditates on God's commandments assiduously. Your testimonies are equity forever: give me understanding and I shall live. That, according to their understanding, I may be able to receive eternal life.

COPH. I cried with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord: I will seek your justifications. I cried to you, save me, that I may keep your commandments. We have often warned that this cry is not of the bodily voice but of the spiritual mind, through which the just are heard by God, or that he opens his gracious hearing to their prayers.

I arose early in the morning and cried: because I hoped in your word. He who by the maturity of a lively mind never removed his hope from the words of God has forestalled old vices by youthful purity.

My eyes anticipated you at dawn: that I might meditate on your words. The light does not find him asleep, but diligently watchful and meditating on the divine words with the intent gaze of spiritual eyes.

Hear my voice, O Lord, according to your mercy, etc. Unceasingly the spiritual voice sends forth its groan, that from this mortality it may be transferred into eternal life.

Those who persecute me in iniquity have drawn near: but they have become far from your law. For everyone who wickedly draws near to the saints to harm them is made distant from the law of God. You are near, O Lord: and all your commandments are truth. You are not confined to places, but through the truth of your commandments you steal into the hearts of the saints.

From the beginning I have known of your testimonies. From Adam in all the patriarchs and prophets. Because you have founded them forever, in the Gospels in which we also are founded upon the foundation already mentioned: as we have often remembered the apostle Paul to have said.

RES. See my humility and deliver me: because I have not forgotten your law. I humble myself before you, I beseech you to deliver me, that I may be exalted: because I am mindful of your law, by which you said: Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted (Luke 14).

Judge my judgment, and redeem me; by your word give me life. I have judged myself to know nothing except Jesus Christ, who was promised to come for the redemption of the world. According to this judgment, then, may I be given life by you in your words.

Salvation is far from sinners, because they have not sought out your justifications. Our salvation is Christ, who is far from the negligent Jews, in that they do not understand what is figured in the justifications of the law.

Your mercies are many, O Lord, because they snatch us from many dangers. According to your judgment give me life, lest there be found in me what the judgment of death may consume.

Many persecute me and afflict me; I have not turned aside from your testimonies. Let them rage with hatreds, let them assail me with injuries: I am raised up by your testimonies, not bent down.

I saw those who did not keep the covenant, and I wasted away, because they did not guard your words. The covenant was with Israel and God, which he said to Moses: All things whatsoever the Lord has said, we will do. But even now we make a covenant in baptism, that we may renounce the devil and his works. For the transgressors of this covenant, then, the prophet wastes away. And Paul, who said: Who is burned, and I am not burned?

See that I have loved your commandments, O Lord; in your mercy give me life. He loved them: not out of fear, but through the affection of a good will. Therefore he asks to be given life in them.

The beginning of your words is truth, so that the new man, reborn in Christ, may live. And all the judgments of your justice are eternal, so that thereafter, knowing himself to have been created to the image and likeness of God, he may do nothing unworthy of his judgments and justices.

Princes have persecuted me without cause, and my heart has feared at your words. I have feared that word by which he says: Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven (Matt. 10). Therefore he stood firm and strong in his passion.

I will rejoice over your words: like one who finds great spoils. The strong man having been bound and his vessels plundered (Luke 11), I rejoice in that gospel word which says: When they persecute you and curse you, and speak every evil against you for the sake of justice, rejoice and exult: because your reward is great in heaven (Matt. 5).

I hated iniquity and abhorred it, but I loved your law. While he hates iniquity and loves God's righteousness, he extends himself in a greater duty, saying:

Seven times a day I have spoken praise to you, upon the judgments of your justice. Seven times a day he praises God, because his mind, enduring in full splendor, hastens toward that seventh day, that is, the Sabbath of sabbaths, which is eternal rest.

Great peace have they who love your law, O Lord, and there is no stumbling block for them. Whoever loves God must necessarily have peace with his brothers. For he loves God with a false love who is scandalized in his brother.

I awaited your salvation, O Lord, and I did your commandments. Awaiting the salvation of Jesus, the Lord of all, I did the things that had been commanded in the Law and the Prophets.

My soul kept your testimonies, and it loved them exceedingly. With the earnestness of keeping watch, it added a strong love.

I have kept your precepts and your testimonies, because all my ways are before you, O Lord. He keeps the precepts and testimonies who walks in God's ways, and does nothing in act, word, or thought that is held unworthy of divine contemplation.

TAU. Let my prayer draw near in your sight, O Lord; according to your word give me understanding. I beseech you, Lord, that my prayer may be made near to you, so that, receiving understanding from you, I may entreat nothing other than what is fitting.

Let my petition enter in your sight, O Lord: according to your word deliver me. So that, graciously receiving it through the night of this life, it may be delivered from this corruption of carnal desire.

My lips will pour forth a hymn: when you have taught me your justifications. If my lips have been opened by you through a pure conscience, then I shall bring forth a hymn worthy of praise, which, imbued with your justifications, I am taught.

My tongue will declare your words, because your commandments are equity. There is nothing else in your words, O Lord, but peace, but equity, but life. This I shall believe in my heart, this I shall speak with my lips, this I shall declare with my tongue.

Let your hand be made, that it may save me: for I have chosen your commandments. When he says, Let your hand be made, he designates the Lord Savior, who was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh, through whom all things were made and are ruled. Here we ought to understand the hand as the right hand. But he asks that the Savior come, through whom he knew he was to be saved. And in that he says, I have chosen the commandments, he testifies that he has set aside all dangers out of love for the Lord.

I have longed for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my meditation. I had longed to see him whom I believed, even in those times, was to come from the virginal womb. And to show that this knowledge came to him from the divine Scriptures, there follows: And your law is my meditation. For in the prophets he had longed for Christ the Lord, who was to be born, of whom the Law and the prophets spoke.

My soul shall live and praise you, and your judgments shall help me. Having absorbed the weakness of earthly corruption, he confesses that he lives to God through the help of his judgments.

I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost; seek your servant, because I have not forgotten your commandments. He says that he was, and now is not, a wandering sheep; he prays that he may be carried back on the shepherd's shoulders, so that now joys may be given to the angels over his finding. But the Lord was sent only to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel (Matt. 15). We suppliantly beseech him that, having become doers of his judgments, guardians of his commandments, and searchers of his testimonies, with the lost sheep found (Luke 15) and restored by the diligence of the kind shepherd to the Church's fold, carried back on his sacred shoulders, we may deserve to glory in the fellowship of the holy angels: to him be glory with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit throughout all ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM 119

A song of the steps. The Psalms of the fifteen steps, through certain advances, lead us to the summit: so that in the courts of the Lord we may say: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, in the courts of the house of his God (Ps. 133). And because many have disputed at great length on these matters, it is foolish to wish to say little in place of great things.

When I was in trouble, I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. Three things are swiftly set forth in one verse: distress, prayers, and being heard: for no one is in distress except the one who desires to live piously in Christ. Therefore we must cry out to the Lord, not with loftiness of words, but with humility of heart, if we wish to be heard.

Lord, free my soul from unjust lips, from the Jews, who not only do not believe in Christ the Lord, but also do not fear to blaspheme with unclean lips. And from a deceitful tongue. From the teaching of heretics, who strive to drive us from the straight line of the faith.

What is to be given to you, or what is to be added to you, for a deceitful tongue? The Lord, with the affection of his loving-kindness, deigned to question the soul that cries out faithfully to him: what is to be given to it, or what is to be added to it, for a deceitful tongue? Many say at this place, with the preposition changed: What is to be given to you against a deceitful tongue? They mean that the soul may hear this as if from God's teaching.

Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals. For "desolating coals" the Hebrew has "desolations." I think that the coal which is brought to his lips in Isaiah is also a desolator, so that it may purge the vices which he had contracted either by speaking or by keeping silent about the best things. And so here too he prays for a like coal: that the coal from God's altar may be given to him, which on his lips makes a desolation of sins, that is, keeps him free from vices.

Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged. He whose conversation is in heaven is a stranger in this body, and this sojourning seems long to him, because what he has received by hope he does not behold in visible form. And therefore, groaning as wheat among the chaff, he says: I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar. Cedar is interpreted as darkness. So this man dwells with the inhabitants of darkness, but is not darkened by the darkness: as the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. My soul has been much a sojourner. For I desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ.

With those who hated peace, I was peaceable, fulfilling that saying of the Apostle: If it is possible, having peace with all men (Philippians 1 and Romans 12). He is therefore with those who hate peace as one peaceable, for this reason, that he might preach peace to them more freely. And when I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause. He was proclaiming peace; but the enemies of peace not only did not receive it, but even fought against the very preacher of peace by their own wickednesses.

PSALM 120

A song of degrees. This psalm contains the second ascent, whose title is: A Song of Degrees. For there are many things signifying (as you have already heard in the first of them) our ascent, which takes place in the heart toward God, from the valley of weeping, that is, from the lowliness of affliction.

I lifted up my eyes to the mountains. I raised my spiritual eyes, surely, to the heights of the books: namely, of the Prophets and of the Law. From where will help come to me? From where I suspect that the Lord, the helper of all, will come.

My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. From him I await help, through whom the Father established heaven and earth. Henceforth, for his faith, this man received from the Holy Spirit an answer of consolation. For he says:

He will not let your foot be moved. He does not allow the stability in which you have been established in him to be removed. Nor does he who keeps you slumber. For God protects and guards with watchful custody the one who remains in him.

Behold, he will neither slumber nor sleep, who keeps Israel. But he is kept by God without any interruption, by one who has beheld him with the intent gaze of spiritual eyes.

The Lord keeps you. He himself who made heaven and earth, because the gods who did not make it perish from it.

The Lord is your protection: upon the hand of your right hand. He protects you, lest the hostile part hinder your right work, that is, the good.

By day the sun will not burn you, nor the moon by night. The just man can neither be lifted up in prosperity nor cast down in adversity. What is signified in day and night, this also is signified in the sun and the moon.

The Lord keeps you from all evil. From all the snares of the enemy. May the Lord guard your soul. Lest the portion of the adverse power rule over it.

May the Lord guard your entrance. Through whom you have entered in to know the Father. And your exit from this time now and forever. So that when you have departed from the body, you may be protected by his guard: lest you be cast headlong into that chaos, where the rich man is seen burning, but in the bosom of Abraham with Lazarus you may enjoy everlasting rest (Luke 16).

PSALM 121.

A song of degrees. This psalm is the third degree of ascent, containing the voice of a man whose conversation is held in the heavens.

I rejoiced in those things which were said to me. Things had been said to me through the Law, and the prophets and the apostles. But I also say those things which I had contemplated through a mirror, and now I see face to face (1 Cor. 13). And what are they, you ask? We shall walk into the house of the Lord. That is, into the heavenly Jerusalem, so that we may be made citizens of the saints and members of the household of God.

Our feet were standing in your courts, Jerusalem. Firm in its breadth. But lest you think this refers to an earthly city, hear what follows:

Jerusalem, which is built as a city. He says, the building of this city is not yet complete, but daily it is built of living stones upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, from the very chief cornerstone, Christ Jesus (Eph. 4), as the Apostle says. Its participation is in the same thing. In one body of the Church, through Christ.

For thither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord. Not those subject to sin, but the tribes of the Lord: which, knowing the Lord, did not delay to follow him: which must be referred to the Gentiles. A testimony for Israel. That he may condemn him: because he did not recognize him though he was shown forth in many miracles. But the tribes of the Gentiles received him as soon as he was known. So too the queen of the South, or the Ninevites, will rise in the judgment of this testimony, and will condemn him (Luke 11). To give thanks to your name, O Lord. For they give thanks, because in your name every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil. 2): and because you, Lord Jesus Christ, are in the glory of God the Father.

Because there the seats sat in judgment. The seats of God are the apostles, upon whom the Lord rests. These seats shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, as he himself says in the Gospel (Matt. 19). Seats over the house of David. Over the Church of Christ, governing and admonishing her by their precepts.

Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. Ask what things pertain to the peace of this city, and follow it, so that through the love of peace you may obtain the fruit of eternal blessedness. And abundance for those who love you. He who, having left behind fleeting things, loves God above all things, himself enjoys the abundance of heavenly goods.

Let peace be in your strength. The Lord Christ is our peace, who binds us in the one bond of charity; whose strength, if it grows strong in us, he himself also flows into our hearts. And abundance in your towers. The prophet asks that abundance of heavenly goods be in these, who, surpassing others in merit, like the strongest towers, both fortify this city by their virtue and adorn it by their height.

For my brethren and my neighbors, I spoke peace concerning you—that is, so that they too might present themselves perfect for the completion of this building.

For the house of the Lord our God, I sought good things for you. By preaching peace to his neighbors and brethren, he makes them the city of the eternal King, for which he sought these good things: so that from the whole body of the city they might pass over into one dwelling of him who said: Father, I ask that where I am, they also may be with me. I in them, and you in me, that they may see my glory, because you loved me before the foundation of the world (John 17).

PSALM 122

A Song of Degrees. This psalm discloses the fourth ascent of the Songs of Degrees, in which that faithful man who once lifted up his eyes to the mountains, now advancing already in the ascent, raises them to the very inhabitant of the heavens, saying:

To you I lifted up my eyes, who dwell in heaven. It is to be noted that through each of the psalms there are certain advances of the degrees. He who in the first had said: I cried to the Lord when I was in trouble, and in the second had recounted that he lifted up his eyes to the mountains, and had also rejoiced because entrance into the house of God had been promised him, now has advanced to something greater, so as to lift his eyes to God himself. Who dwell in heaven. Ascending, where was he about to lift his eyes, if not to that place toward which he was tending and desired to ascend?

Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of a handmaid on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us. Both servants are we, and handmaids are we: he is the master and the mistress. Let your charity attend. It is no wonder if we are servants and he is the master; but it is a wonder if we are handmaids and he is the mistress. Yet neither is this a wonder, that we are handmaids, for we are the Church; nor is that a wonder, that he too is the mistress, for he is the power and wisdom of God. Hear therefore the Apostle saying: But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1). When we are subjected to many kinds of persecutions, we ought always to keep the intent of our eyes fixed in God's help without any fault, until he bestows mercy upon us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we are greatly filled with contempt. That is, with despair, because the saints are despised by evil men.

And our soul is greatly filled: with reproach from the wealthy, and with scorn from the proud. He says this not only of those in riches, but those who abound in malice—they despise the poor of Christ. The rich despise the poor, and the proud despise the humble, and they themselves speak many reproaches against the holy Church.

PSALM 123.

A song of degrees. This psalm is the fifth step of ascent, teaching that faithful man to advance, who by the lifting up of his spiritual eyes to the dweller in the heavens, overcoming all the snares of diabolical assault, begins thus, saying:

Unless the Lord had been in us: let Israel now say. The Lord dwells well in us if we look up to him in the contemplation of a holy mind. Unless the Lord had been in us, when men rose up against us: perhaps they would have swallowed us alive. The impious have not attempted to devour our flesh, but to swallow our souls through the instigation of crimes; but we have been snatched from them by him who was in us. For this thanks must be given to him: because by his grace we have been saved.

When their spirit was enraged against us: perhaps they would have swallowed us up like water. The commotions of evil minds, which seek to swallow up the saints of God, are compared to waters; but with the Lord dwelling in the saints, they flow downward and run away.

Our soul has passed through the torrent. The Hebrew has it better: A torrent has passed over our soul: namely, that many whirlwinds of temptations passed over his soul, and could not kill it, as the righteous man says: Unless the Lord had been in us: let Israel now say. Perhaps our soul would have passed through intolerable water. The word among the Greeks is ambiguous: it can mean both that which subsists and that which is intolerable, that is, which no one can bear. For this Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion and all the interpreters agree with one voice: proud and arrogant waters for "passing over."

Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as a capture to their teeth. The teeth of these torrents are the multitude of vices, from which, lest we be caught, we are saved by the grace of God.

Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the snare of the hunters. Snares are spread for us in our desires and in the various deceits of diabolical cunning; but with Satan crushed beneath our feet, like a sparrow let us fly away from those who would capture us. For so it follows:

The snare has been broken, and we have been set free. For if the Lord dwells in us, he himself (as we have said) will break these snares, lest they hinder us.

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. This is the name that is above every name. By the help of this name, the snares of death are conquered, if we remain fixed in him.

PSALM 124.

A song of ascents. This psalm is held to be the sixth among the songs of ascents, which exhorts us by the voice of the prophet, that, having abandoned worldly affairs, we should place all our confidence in God alone, saying:

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion: they shall not be moved forever. Zion is the Church; the mountain, according to Daniel, is Christ the Lord (Dan. 2). Therefore those who place their whole hope in him shall not be moved forever, because they are made conformable to the body of his glory. He who dwells in Jerusalem. In that very Church, our mother, which is above, the free woman (Gal. 4).

Mountains are round about him. The watches of the saints, angels, prophets, and apostles, which, like the height of mountains, stand out above all others in holiness. And the Lord is round about his people, from this time forth and even for evermore. As he himself deigned to promise, saying: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the world (Matt. ult.).

Because the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners upon the lot of the just. For "rod" in Hebrew is "sceptre." This, then, is what we ask: lead us not into temptation, which we cannot bear. That the just may not stretch out their hands to iniquity. That they may not think: what does it profit me that I am just, if the wicked always persecute me? That they may not stretch out, that is, that they may endure the wicked and not do evil.

Do good, O Lord, to the good and to the upright of heart. Those who are either good in deed, or are held to be upright in faith.

But those who turn aside into obligations the Lord will lead away. For "obligations," Aquila translated as: Symmachus, the fifth edition. With those who work iniquity. Those who turn aside from the commandments of God are led away with those who do not know God, that they may be struck with a like sentence. Peace upon Israel. Christ the Lord is our peace (Eph. ii), who, taking away the wall of enmity from the midst of Jews and Gentiles, made both one, which before was divided.

PSALM 125.

A Song of Degrees. This is the seventh psalm of the degrees, which brings forth a song or ascent in which the faithful soul exults in the Lord against the captivity of sins, and says:

When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion. For the ancient captivity of vices had pervaded the whole world; but as the sun of righteousness dawned upon us, it was put to flight. Thus also the Church, which is specifically called Zion, appeared. We have become like those who are consoled. Instead of "consoled," all the editions alike have translated "dreaming." And rightly "dreaming"; for the joy is not yet full, while the rest are still held in captivity.

Then was our mouth filled with gladness: and our tongue with exultation. From a spiritual and infinite joy. Either our mouth or our tongue is filled: because it is not enough to set forth such great praises for the grace by which we are saved.

Then shall they say among the nations, The Lord has done great things with them. For if, leaving behind transitory things, we place our hope in eternal things, then it is said that the Lord has made us great, the captivity having been driven away, and as once the nations, terrified with fear, spoke concerning the people of Israel, saying: God dried up the waters of the sea and of the Jordan at the entrance of the children of Israel (Joshua 2). In this joy, therefore, we confess.

Because the Lord has magnified his dealings with us, we have become joyful. We formerly served Pharaoh, that is, the destroyer, in hard labors; but now we serve the heavenly King, whose yoke is sweet and whose burden is light (Matt. 11).

Turn back our captivity, O Lord. The prophet confesses that he shares a common captivity with the rest of the people, because one member suffers with the other members. Like a torrent in the south. For just as when the south wind blows the ice is melted, and when the torrents are filled, all dread flows away with its force, so when the Holy Spirit breathes, our sins are melted away—that is, so that, having received forgiveness, there may be fulfilled in us what is written: As ice in fair weather, your sins are melted away (Sir. 3).

Those who sow in tears will reap in joy; going they went and wept, casting their seeds. Therefore the saints of God sowed in the tears of confession, and amid various torments, the word of God among the nations, going and weeping over the hardness of their hearts, which in the future they will carry with the fruits of their sheaves, when the Lord says to them: Amen I say to you, that you will weep and lament; but the world will rejoice, yet your sorrow will be turned into joy (John 16).

Therefore let us also, as we cry out against the oppressor, lift the eyes of our mind to God our helper, that he may rescue us from the savage teeth of the envious; let him take away from us the scepter of iniquitous domination, so that, once we are freed from the captivity of vices, we may be granted his accustomed mercy and be joined together as living stones into the building of the heavenly Jerusalem.

PSALM 126.

A song of degrees of Solomon. This psalm is therefore prefixed with Solomon's title: so that he who was the builder of the temple may himself teach that he cannot complete its construction without the Lord's help.

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. We are, according to the Apostle, the temple of God: and unless we are built by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets (II Cor. 6), the building of the philosophers and the other secular teachers will be in vain.

Unless the Lord keeps the city, those who keep it have labored in vain. The faithful soul is taken as the city of the eternal King, a city thronged with good citizens, that is, with honorable conduct, which no one's guard can protect unless it be his who, never sleeping, protects Israel.

It is vain for you to rise before light. He who rises before light gropes in the darkness of night. So too he who, having abandoned the light of the Gospel, has passed over to the doctrine mentioned above, remains in darkness: nor will he be able to enjoy the brightness of the Lord's resurrection. Rise after you have sat down, you who eat the bread of sorrow. You who rest in humiliation, be lifted up, you who remember that you were either born or have lived in sins, and desire to pass over to God. Or, you who eat the bread of sorrow. Instead of "sorrow," Theodotion and the fifth edition translated it as "idols"; the sixth, however, as "error." And so the sense according to the simple understanding is this: You rush to the temple at dawn in vain, and you believe that you worship God, you who worship idols alike and feed on unclean bread.

When he has given sleep to his beloved: as if someone had asked when this was done, it is said to him: When he has given sleep to his beloved. The beloved are the saints, who after the sleep of the present life seem to slumber here: so that in the resurrection they may deserve to attain to eternal life. Behold, the inheritance of the Lord are children, the reward, the fruit of the womb. When the saints have departed from this world, having received the sleep of rest, then they will become the inheritance of the Lord, because they are no longer subject to temptations. But even the Lord himself, born of the Virgin, became the fruit of the womb. His assumed humanity received this reward: that the nations, called as children, might be his inheritance.

He gave them, it says, power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name (John 1).

As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of those who were shaken out. He calls "shaken out" those who are unencumbered and girded for battle, a word which the Seventy translators also rendered in the books of Esdras.

Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from them. For "desire" the Hebrew has "quiver." So, since he had first sent arrows as a comparison for the saints, he consequently brings in the quiver to be filled with arrows. He shall not be confounded when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. The gate, the doorway or the entrance: he it is who said, I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved (John 10). Therefore he who, from among the sons of those shaken out, is fixed in Christ, shall not be confounded on the day of judgment, when he has reproached the enemies of the Law of God for their disobedience and their error, or all their malice.

PSALM 127.

A song of degrees. This psalm, in the ninth step or song of ascent, sets forth the fear and love of the Lord, saying:

Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. Those who, joining themselves to the love of God with fear, are exercised in the things which the prophets, apostles, and evangelists preached.

You shall eat the labors of your fruits: blessed are you, and it shall be well with you. The labors of fruits are when a man is exercised in the world, so that he may be able to come to the fruit of eternity. For one walks laboriously through these ways of God, as he himself says: Narrow and troublesome is the way that leads to life (Matthew 7). But this labor is filled up with eternal fruits, when a man is enriched with that heavenly bread. For with this desire that man also was pierced, who said: Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God (Luke 14).

Your wife like an abundant vine: on the sides of your house. The wife, according to Solomon (Proverbs 7), is understood as wisdom, which, brought into the house of the purified soul like a beautiful vine, is extended on the sides of our works.

Your sons like new olive trees, around your table. The deeds of the good stand around the teaching of heaven, with the richness of peace and the shadowing of virtue.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. By these riches indeed is he enriched.

May the Lord bless you from Zion. He who reigns in the Church. And may you see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of your life. In that heavenly mother, of whom we have spoken in other psalms: in whom the saints shall see the good things of eternal life.

And may you see your children's children. Grasping the recompense of good works. Peace upon Israel. Our peace, Jesus Christ, may he ever look upon the mind that sees him.

PSALM 128.

A song of degrees. This psalm brings us the tenth, whether a song or an ascent, which beginning from the prophetic voice teaches us to resist unceasingly the wickednesses that assail us, lest they overcome us.

Often have they fought against me from my youth. This man says that he is assailed from the beginning of his life, but he is silent about by whom he is assailed, so that it may be understood that the battle is sent by the devil. You will be able to perceive this more easily either from the testing of Job or from the betrayal of Christ by Judas.

Let Israel now say: Often have they fought against me from my youth, for indeed they could not prevail against me. Therefore he who is Israel, he can say this, because he is assailed all the days of his life. But this battle does not prevail against him, because the Lord fights for him.

Upon my back the sinners have wrought; they have prolonged their iniquity for themselves. For one who runs continually to God and strains toward greater things, the workshop of wicked devices is built behind his back, because they cannot be exposed to view. But when they do not attain their effect, they prolong them for themselves: for this reason, by envying, they provoke sin and divine vengeance upon themselves. For it follows:

The Lord is just; he will cut off the necks of sinners. In place of "necks" the Hebrew has "bonds" or "chains," so that the sense may be: those who had walled me in on every side with their snares and were even holding me bound—but, with the Lord's help, all their knots were loosed.

Let all who hate Zion be confounded and turned backward—Zion, that is, the Church, which is the body of Christ, of whose members we are.

Let them become like the grass of the rooftops, which withers before it is plucked up. Let this not be said of buildings set upon rock, but of those which, as though about to fall the sooner, are placed upon sand—which regards the works of the flesh, in which not only is no grain of goodness found, but even before they come to any increase they are dried up.

Of which he has not filled his hand who reaps—that is, he who has not received a reward worthy of his work as recompense. Nor has he filled his bosom who gathers the sheaves—that is, he who through purity of conscience, even if he has less, has nevertheless applied a good will. And therefore from God, as though he had given much, he carries back his sheaves, like the widow with her two small coins (Mark 12).

And they did not say, those who passed by: The blessing of the Lord be upon you. The holy ones of God did not bless them—those who, counting this world as nothing, passed over to things heavenly and eternal. We have blessed you in the name of the Lord: so that, leaving behind unfruitful and dry works, you may sow those things which fill both the hand of the reapers and the bosom of those who gather the sheaves.

PSALM 129.

A Song of Degrees. The psalm itself unfolds for us the eleventh step of ascent, and it is a song: bringing forth the striving of a faithful soul reaching toward higher things, while it complains that it is, as it were, submerged in the deep, it summons us to understand heavenly things, saying:

Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my prayer. He cries out from the depths who knows the height of the riches of the wisdom of God: who suffers persecutions: who entreats him with a merciful sigh.

Let your ears be attentive: to the prayer of your servant. The prophet does not here demand a carnal ear, knowing that God is incorporeal: but he asks for the power by which he deigns to hear his own.

If you should observe iniquities, O Lord: Lord, who will endure it? For if the frailty of the human race, transgressing your laws, were straightway struck by your vengeance, who could escape?

Because with you there is propitiation. For you will reconcile us to the Father through the cross. And for the sake of your law I have endured you, O Lord. The law is spiritual, and containing the words of life: which we ought to endure, lest, sinning against it, we be judged by the law (Rom. 7).

My soul has waited for the Lord, etc. From the morning watch until night. From that morning hour at which it was placed in the Lord's vineyard, it has fixed its hope on that hour at which it may receive the denarius of its reward. From the morning watch. Let Israel hope in the Lord. From the moment the light of truth shone upon it, let it contemplate heavenly things without ceasing.

Because with the Lord there is mercy. When he deigned to become man for our sake. And with God there is abundant redemption. When he redeemed us not with gold or silver, but with his precious blood.

And he himself will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. For the Son himself, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, will save the remnant of Israel, their iniquity being forgiven.

PSALM 130. A Song of Degrees. This psalm is held to be the twelfth in this ascent, whether of song or of degree, and it teaches us, in the person of the prophet, the humility that Christ was to bear in the flesh, saying:

Lord, my heart is not lifted up. But in its contrition and humiliation I have offered you an acceptable sacrifice. Nor have my eyes been lifted up, so as to desire things transitory and fleeting.

Nor have I walked in great things, nor in your wonders that are above me. Those great and wonderful things that seemed to men, in these I have not walked, lest they overwhelm me.

If I did not think humbly, but exalted my soul. He is indeed humble in heart, but exalted in understanding. I thought humbly in the world, but I exalted my soul in heaven.

Like one weaned from his mother, so will you repay into my soul. He feels nothing childish in himself, because, passing beyond the food of milk, he has come to the perfect man; he now prays to be nourished by that bread which came down from heaven.

Let Israel hope in the Lord, from this time now and forever. He teaches that our hope is closed by no limit of time, so that through the hope of the present life we may obtain the goods of the world to come.

PSALM 131.

A song of degrees. This psalm is held to be the thirteenth among the songs of degrees; and through the ascent of advancements it teaches us, from the prophetic voice, concerning the coming of the Son of God, saying:

Remember, Lord, David. The Son of the almighty God, about to take flesh for the redemption of the people, willed to be called David: that is, called by his name, from whose stock he was to take also a body. And all his meekness. He did not contend, nor cry out: but like a gentle lamb he was led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53).

As he swore to the Lord: he vowed a vow to the God of Jacob. He set down oath and vow for the firmness of the utterance, so that we might not doubt to follow: but what he willed in the meantime, it is worthy to consider. Remember, Lord, David, and all his meekness. As he swore to the Lord. In place of "as," the Hebrew has "who": so that the sense may be: Remember, Lord, David, and all his meekness, who swore to the Lord, and made a vow to the God of Jacob.

If I enter into the tabernacle of my house, if I ascend to the bed of my couch, if I give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. The tabernacle of the house indicates the heavenly seat; but in the couch of the bed, in the sleep of the eyes, in the slumber of the eyelids, or in the rest of the temples, he has shown the eternal quiet that is never broken. In these things he promises that he will not return, unless first in man he should build a place worthy of God the Father, or the congregation of the Church, by his resurrection.

Behold, we have heard of it in Ephrata. The region of Bethlehem is to this day called Ephrata. Other Scriptures also are witnesses of this matter. Ephrata itself is Bethlehem. There the Church was first heard of, that is, in the place where Christ the Lord took on flesh. In this place Rachel, the beloved of Israel, also rests (Gen. 35), who bore the type of the Church. We have found it in the fields of the forest. Among the nations, which were formerly the lairs of the devil, but are now fields, fruitful in worshiping the Lord.

We shall enter into the tabernacle of God—we who are gathered into one house of the Church through the Lord. We shall adore in the place where his feet stood, where the apostolic preachings are heard, which, as feet, sustain the whole body of the Church.

Arise, O Lord, into your rest. You have now fulfilled the oath, you have paid the vow; you have now found a place for God; you have now brought forth the Church from your side; arise now from the dead, return to the tabernacle, going into your rest, of which you spoke above. And not only you, but you and the ark of your sanctification—that is, the body you assumed, with which the divinity was covered, from which the words of life, from which the heavenly bread, from which the way, the truth, and the life have been shown to us.

Let your priests be clothed with justice, so that, clad in the breastplate of justice, they may not be wounded by the arrows of the enemy. And let your saints exult in the heavenly goods.

For the sake of David your servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ—for the sake of him who from the seed of David took upon himself the form of a servant: let not the brightness of your image be turned away from the saints, in whom Christ himself dwells, but let it enlighten them.

The Lord swore truth to David, and he will not fail him. To God the man, the Father swears the truth, which he does not empty out but fulfills, saying: From the fruit of your womb I will place upon your throne. We are the fruit of his womb, whom he spiritually begot as if from the womb. If we keep what follows, we shall sit upon his throne, and not only we, but also our children. For he says:

If your sons keep my covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them, and their sons even forever and ever, they shall sit upon my throne. If we keep his covenant, he will make us sit in the heavenly places, as the Apostle says (Eph. 1): They shall sit upon his throne. But even those to whom it was said shall themselves sit upon his throne: You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19). Our children also shall sit—that is, the good works which we have done for love of him shall be remembered in his sight.

For the Lord has chosen Sion: he has chosen her beforehand for a dwelling for himself. The ecclesiastical host in concord with him, or the souls sanctified for you by the heavenly sacraments.

This is my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell, for I have chosen her. The soul which through the glory of the resurrection and the cleansing of sin has been made his house and his rest.

Blessing I will bless her widow: I will satisfy her poor with bread. For “widow,” that is, both the Hebrew scrolls and the Septuagint themselves have it; but because of the novelty of the word and the change of a single letter, I have gradually come to hold that it should be read as “for,” especially since in the following verse “the poor” followed. Symmachus and Aquila translated it as “food.”

I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall exult with exultation. For he himself clothes us either with righteousness or with salvation, when he makes us conformed to his body, who is our righteousness and salvation, preparing for us eternal tabernacles.

There I will bring forth a horn for David. The kingdom of Christ, which is shown in those to whom it was said: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5). I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. John the Baptist, or the forerunner of our Lord and Savior, is called by God the Father a lamp prepared: he who announced that he was to come into the darkness of this world: for thus the Lord himself also calls him, saying: He was a burning lamp (John 5), and the rest.

His enemies I will clothe with confusion. The unbelieving Jews, when they shall see the Lord in his majesty. But over him my sanctification shall flourish. For "sanctification," neser ( ) is found in the Hebrew: which Aquila translates as "consecrated," and it signifies the plate of gold that was bound on the forehead of the high priest, having the name of the Lord engraved upon it.

PSALM 132. A song of degrees.

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. He says two things: good and pleasant. Martyrdom is good, but it is not pleasant: for it has torments and punishments, and there is always pain in tortures, and certainly there is no pleasantness in pain. Behold how good and how pleasant. Again, pleasure is pleasant. As if he should say: To eat sweet food seems to be pleasant, for it compels to desire. Here therefore he has set down two things, and what seemed to be contrary to itself, namely good and pleasant, he has joined together in one phrase. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity. Brethren in mind, not in body.

Esau and Jacob were brothers, and because they lived together, this was a cause of discord for them. Therefore what he said here, "brothers," he does not mean brothers in the body, but spiritual brothers. Brothers of whom the Savior also spoke, when he said to the women: Go, tell my brothers (Matt. 28). Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity. This psalm properly applies to cenobitic communities and monasteries. For although it may also be understood of the churches, yet there, because of the diversity of their purposes, such concord does not appear to exist. For what brotherhood is there? One man hastens to go home, another to the marketplace, another in the church thinks about interest rates. In monasteries, however, just as there is one purpose, so there is also one mind. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity. Truly good, truly pleasant. We have let go of one brother, and behold how many we have found. My brother by worldly standards—what I say of myself, I say of each individual—does not love me as much as he loves my property. But spiritual brothers are those who indeed neglect their own affairs and do not seek other things. As we also read in the Acts of the Apostles: that the multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul (Acts 4). And, he says, all things were common to them. Rightly were all things common to them, who possessed one Christ. We have said many things, but let us hasten to the rest.

Like ointment on the head, which descended upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. Oh, if only there were time for us to dispute about each detail, a cloudy day would not suffice. We read in Exodus how the priestly ointment is prepared (Exod. 25, 30). Then we read how there was one ointment with which kings were anointed, and another ointment with which prophets were anointed. And why should I say more? All ointments had their own varieties and mysteries. Do we marvel concerning the saints? The leper, after he has been cleansed, after he has been sprinkled with hyssop and with the blood of a hen, and one hen is sent away into the wilderness, he himself has his own ointment. Nothing is sanctified except through ointment. Therefore the young women also say in the Song of Songs: Your name is ointment poured out. After you we will run in the fragrance of your ointments (Cant. 1). Like ointment on the head, which descended upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. He spoke well: on the head, which descended upon the beard of Aaron. The beard is a sign of manliness. For nature distinguishes woman and man by this sign; therefore the beard is a sign of manliness. The head, then, is called divinity, that is, deity. But the beard indicates the man. So that, he says, we may come to the perfect man, who is Christ (Coloss. 1).

See, then, what he says: Like ointment, like the blessing of ointment, it descended from the head—that is, from the Word of divinity—into the beard, it descended into the perfect man, who is Christ; afterward the ointment itself descended to the hem of his garment. So the blessing and the dew of Mount Hermon descended upon Mount Zion. Here, indeed, ointment is put for blessing. You loved righteousness, he says, and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of exultation before your fellows (Ps. 44). See what he says: You loved, he says, righteousness, and hated iniquity. It is not enough to love righteousness, but on the contrary to hate iniquity. See what he says: And you hated iniquity. For these virtues, what did he receive? Therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of exultation before your fellows. This is said to Christ: Therefore you were anointed, that you might anoint others. You were anointed with the oil of exultation before your fellows—that is, more than your Apostles. For you had the fountain of ointment; they had drops. Like ointment on the head. May the Lord grant us also this ointment of divinity, which came into the beard—that is, into the perfect man Aaron, into Aaron the priest. Now Aaron is interpreted as "mountainous." You see that this priest is not from the valleys, but is from the mountains. The beard, he says, of Aaron. The ointment that was on the head came into the beard; from the Word, God, it came to the man whom he deigned to assume.

And what does that anointed beard profit us, and that perfect man? Let us see what advantages it brings. That it descended to the hem of his garment—if we are the garment of Christ, we clothe his nakedness with our faith. Behold, he hung naked on the cross: a stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles (1 Cor 1), and yet he is clothed by our faith and word and confession. Noah lay naked in his house, and his shame appeared: the elder son mocked, and the younger covered him (Gen 9). And why do I say all this? To show that we are Christ's garment. I tell you a new thing—or rather not new, but from the Scriptures: we are Christ's garment, and when we have clothed him with our confession, we in turn put on Christ himself. For the Apostle also says that our garment is Christ (Gal 3). For when we are baptized, we put on and are clothed with Christ. Do you wish to know how we clothe the Lord? We read in Jeremiah: Take, he says, a linen loincloth for yourself, and go, he says, to the Euphrates, and place it in a hole in the rock. And I did, he says, what the Lord had commanded me. And after some days I returned to the Euphrates, and behold, he says, the loincloth had rotted, so that it was useful for nothing. And the Lord spoke, he says, to me: Pay careful attention: Just as, he says, you had the loincloth around your loins, so too I had this people around me, says the Lord (Jer 13). Why did I say all this? To show that believers are the garment of Christ.

What descended to the hem of his garment, what descended to the beard, the beard of Aaron. It is not for this occasion to speak of the priestly garments. Indeed the high priest has eight kinds of vestments. It is long now to speak of the ephod, of the tunic. It is long to speak of the breastplate, of the manifestations, of the little chains, of the belt, of the breeches, of the fringes, of the cord, of the bells—by what virtues the priest ought to enter the temple of the Lord, and into the holy of holies. And so we too, if we wish to be of the priestly garment, are either the shoulder-piece, which is interpreted as ephod, so that we may have good works and carry the commandments of Christ on our shoulders, or certainly we ought to be the inner tunic: which tunic is tight and clings to the body; it is not loose, it is not spread out, but clings wholly to the body. You see, then, that whoever is inner, and is the inner tunic, is joined more closely to the body. But if anyone is the breastplate, which is called the rationale, this is placed only on the breast. Observe the order of Scripture: whoever is the rationale is also reason, and is placed on the breast. Otherwise it can happen that someone has prudence, that he has, that he has speech. Whoever, then, is truly a priest, ought to have this, that is, the manifestations, that is, that whatever he has conceived in his mind he should bring forth and teach all. And all these things are in vain if chastity has not been increased and adorned. Therefore there is the belt, and it girds the loins, binds and strengthens.

Then it is said that he has breeches, so that whatever in us is shameful and foul may, as it were, be cleansed and put to death by this girdle. Then it is said that we ought to have a hem, which adorns, as it were, our feet. In this hem itself there are various flowers: there are pomegranates there, there are also fringes there. I think that the woman who was flowing with blood touched this fringe and was healed (Matthew 9). Then consider also these things: that at the very feet, between the pomegranates, there were also little bells, and the high priest did not enter into the holy of holies unless those little bells sounded. The little bells and those pomegranates are the diversities of virtues which each have their own voices, and the very going out of the holy of holies is vocal. For whether we eat or drink, we do all things in the name of the Lord (1 Corinthians 10). We have promised lesser things, and we have spoken of greater things.

As the dew of Hermon which descends upon Mount Zion, the dew of Hermon. We read in a certain apocryphal book that at the time when the sons of God were descending to the daughters of men, they descended upon Mount Hermon, and there entered into a pact, how they would come to the daughters of men and unite them to themselves. The book is very well known, and is counted among the apocrypha, and the ancient interpreters have spoken of it; but we have said some things, not for authority, but for remembrance. As the dew of Hermon, which descends upon Mount Zion.

I have read in someone's book, concerning this apocryphal book, one who confirms his heresy from it. For what does he say? "The sons of God," he says, "who were descending from the heavens, came to Hermon and desired the daughters of men." "They are angels," he says, "descending from the heavenly places, and souls which desired bodies. Indeed, bodies are the daughters of men." Do you see how the Manichaean dogma arises? For just as the Manichaeans say that souls desired human bodies and were joined to the pleasure of bodies, so also those who say that angels desired bodies, that is, the daughters of men—do they not seem to you to say the very same thing that the Manichaeans also say? It is a long task now to speak against them; but I wished only to judge concerning the volume from which, as if on the occasion of this one, they confirm their own dogma. Hermon in our language is interpreted as "condemnation." The dew of the Lord, therefore, was formerly among the people of the Jews, who afterwards were anathematized, and that blessing which formerly descended upon the anathematized people afterwards descended upon Mount Zion, that is, upon the Church. We, if indeed we are of the Church (and by the Church I mean the truth of doctrines, the confession of Christ), we are for building. And how many saints are in the desert, how many of us are not in the Church, and those who are not of the Church are engaged in the Church of Christ. If, therefore, we are in the Church, if we have the faith of the Church, the faith of the apostles, the faith of Christ, the truths of doctrines, we are the mountains of Zion.

Let us not wish to be the valleys of Zion, but the mountains of Zion. For Zion has its valleys, and it also has a plain. Whoever is a sinner is a valley of Zion, not a mountain of Zion. Let someone say: You speak from your own understanding. Let us call Isaiah as a witness, at the time when Zion had sinned, after many visions, where it is said: the vision against Idumea; the vision against Moab; the vision against Edom and the sons of Ammon, and at the end is placed: the vision of the valley of Zion. For because he had descended from the height of faith, therefore he fell from the mountain into the valley. So let us first flee the valley of Zion; let us come to the plain, from the plain let us come to the hills, from the hills let us come to the mountains. Let us follow Christ in the mountains. Indeed, our kinsman, like a gazelle and a young stag, leaps over the hills and bounds through the mountains. Hence also, according to the truth of the ascents, he did not ascend into heaven after the resurrection from the valley, but from the mountain. Unless we are mountains in virtues, we cannot ascend to heaven. For there, that is, in the mountains of Zion, in virtues, in faith, in confession, in the truth of doctrines, there is blessing.

And life everlasting. Our life is Christ. Whoever confesses Christ will receive life for ever and ever. Amen.

PSALM CXXXIII.

Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. The last psalm of the song of degrees. The first psalm of the degrees had been: When I was in trouble I cried to the Lord, and he heard me; in the second he had gone up: I lifted up my eyes to the mountains. In the third: I rejoiced in the things that were said to me; in the fourth: To you I lifted up my eyes, who dwell in heaven. See how little by little he ascends by degrees, and arrives at higher things. It is long if we wish to tell the beginnings of each of these psalms of the degrees. He comes to the thirteenth psalm, or rather he comes to the twelfth, and after every virtue he has placed humility. For in vain do we have virtues, if those very virtues are not crowned by the humility of the Lord. For what did he say? Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up. Therefore, because he had shown himself humble, he asks for the coming of Christ. And what does he say? Remember, Lord, David and all his meekness. And again in another place: For David your servant's sake, do not turn away the face of your Christ (Psal. cxxxi). Because he has received Christ, after faith in Christ he gathers the Church. And what does he say? Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity. The Church of the Lord has been gathered. What does the last psalm say? Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.

For it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity, and you are gathered together as one: Behold now, bless the Lord. Now bless the Lord, after the coming of Christ, because you have been gathered together in him. Now bless in the last of the degrees, because you have been gathered together on the summit of the virtues. Before you had therefore reached the fifteenth degree, that is, the height, you could not bless the Lord. So now I say to you: Behold now, bless the Lord. When it is said, "Behold," the matter is in a certain way pointed out with a finger. Behold now, bless the Lord. Who are to bless the Lord? All you servants of the Lord: you who are not servants of sin, but servants of the Lord. Do we think it a small thing that is said: Therefore am I a servant of the Lord? It is the highest virtue to deserve this. How so? He who says, "Therefore I am a servant of the emperor," claims a kind of dignity, and no one dares to approach the servant of the emperor; so it is an infinite dignity to say of oneself that one is a servant of the Lord. Whence also the Apostle glories in the servitude of the Lord, and writes at the beginning of his Epistles: Paul, a servant of Christ. And of Moses it is said: And not as Moses my servant, to whom I spoke face to face (Exod. 33). See what he says: To others I spoke in a vision and in a riddle, but not as to Moses my servant, to whom I spoke face to face (Hebr. 3). Let us put an example: Let us say there is some very rich master. He has a household; he has also servants who minister to him.

Do the servants who are in the villas have as much confidence as those who minister daily? Great is the dignity of those who see the face of the lord and minister to him. Moreover, the other servants, who do not see the face of their lord, if they wish to obtain anything, ask their fellow servants. Why have I said all this? Our Lord Jesus has himself also a great household: he has, as it were, at his face those who minister to him; he has others in the fields. I consider monks and virgins to be those who minister at the face of their lord; but the secular, who are as it were in the field, are of his household. Finally, those who are in the fields, these have asked them to beseech the lord, if they have need of anything. As much dignity, therefore, as those have who daily see the face of the lord, so much punishment do those have who neglect the ministry of the lord. For evil servants are accustomed, when they are in the fields, to fear the lord more, because they do not see him. But if they begin to see him daily, they despise him, and familiarity produces pride. And so we too ought not from custom to despise the goodness of our God. Bless the Lord, therefore, all you servants of the Lord, because you are not servants of sin, but servants of the Lord. All you servants of the Lord, who have the Lord alone as God. All you servants of the Lord, over whom anger does not rule, in whom lust does not reign, in whom other sins do not reign, over whom vices do not hold dominion—they are ruled by the Lord. All you servants of the Lord. It seems to have stood thus far. But see the addition.

It is not enough to be servants of the Lord unless those servants also stand. For some stand, others fall, others sit, others lie down. Therefore those who fall, who sit, who lie down cannot praise the Lord. You who stand, praise him. But someone may say: Others also stand. There are many churches, many congregations. Who then stand? Do the Arians stand? The Eunomians name Christ, and the other heresies: do they therefore stand? So that he might not seem to give them license to praise the Lord, see what he says:

You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. That is, according to what the Apostle says: Until I come, he says, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church (1 Tim 3). The Church does not consist in walls, but in the truth of doctrines. The Church is there where the true faith is. Otherwise, fifteen or twenty years ago the heretics possessed all the walls of the churches here. For twenty years ago the heretics possessed all these churches. But the true Church was there where the true faith was. Therefore bless the Lord, you who are servants of the Lord. Praise is not beautiful in the mouth of a sinner (Sir 15). Therefore praise him, you who are servants of the Lord, and who are both servants and stand. Who stand? He set, it says, my feet upon a rock (Ps 39). And to Moses: But you, stand here with me (Exod 34). God stood in the assembly of gods. And you who stand, not anywhere, but in the house of God, in the courts of the house of our God.

It is not found in the Hebrew books, but it is in the following psalm. For how does it follow in that psalm itself? “Praise the name of the Lord, praise the Lord, you servants. You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God” (Ps. 81). Since, therefore, this psalm has “You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God,” for that reason someone thought that in the psalm itself which preceded, “You who stand in the house of the Lord,” one ought to add “in the courts of the house of our God.” But what “in the courts of the house of our God” signifies, and what the difference is between the house and the courts, will be discussed when the following psalm has been read.

In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place. This world is placed in the evil one (1 John 5), and our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of these darknesses (Eph. 6). Whence the Apostle also says: “The night has passed, but the day has drawn near” (Rom. 13). Therefore this age is night. But the age to come is day. Whence the Apostle also says: “As in the day,” he says, “let us walk honorably” (Ibid.). How are we to live in the day, that is, in the age to come, if we live now? In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place. Whether we will or not, we are in the nights. As long as we are in this age, we are in the nights. Night has darknesses. But the nights of these darknesses are the sins of men. See, therefore, what he says: In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place.

While, he says, you are in this world, and in these nights, lift up your hands. Do not let them down, but lift them up. Lift them up with Moses. If you lift up your hands, Amalek is conquered. But if you let them down, Jesus is overcome. And at the same time consider the mystery. If we lift up our hands, Jesus conquers. If we lift up our hands in good works, through our good works Christ overcomes the devil. Now hands are interpreted as works. Hence it is written: The word of the Lord was made in the hand of Haggai; the word was made in the hand of Jeremiah the prophet. Certainly the word of God is not made in the hand, but is made in the mouth. But see the mysteries of Scripture: God does not come to the word without a good work. Otherwise even a murderer confesses Christ, and the Lord does not come to him, because his hands do not deserve the Lord’s advent. Hence it is written in another place: In the hand of the tongue are death and life. So does the tongue have hands? Tell me, why is it said: In the hand of the tongue are death and life? See what he is saying: God does not hear the tongue, not words, but works, so that whoever speaks something also does it. Therefore it is commanded to us in the last psalm of the steps: In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place. Lift up, he says, your hands, because Jesus lifted his up on the cross. In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place. Why did he wish to add and say, in the holy place?

And heretics seem to lift up their hands, and Gentiles seem to lift up their hands, and Jews seem to lift up their hands; for they too give alms: if they see a poor man, they stretch out a hand. When a Jew has given alms, does he not seem to you to lift up his hand? He lifts up his hand indeed, but he does not lift it up in the holy place, because he does not confess Christ. But you who are in the house of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God; who are servants of the Lord, to whom it had been said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Psalm 132): lift up your hands in such a way that you lift them up in the holy place, that is, that you confess Christ, and whatever you do, do it for Christ. Virtues differ according to the character of the one who performs them. As if he were saying: A Christian gives alms; a Gentile also gives, a Jew also gives, and another Christian, a holy man, also gives. You will find some Christians who give alms for this reason, that they may be praised by the people. Whenever a poor man asks for a morsel, they look around here and there, and unless they see a witness, they do not give money. If he is alone, he draws back his hand; he does not give willingly. O you Christian, the poor man asks you to give him money: why do you not give in secret, but give in public? If you seek God as a witness, why do you require human eyes? Your alms seem to be alms among the ignorant; but in the sight of God it is an injury. For you do injury to your brother. For you wish to display a beggar to others who are watching.

When we give, then, let us not give as though it were from our own possessions, but from Christ's gift. We ought not to give to a beggar as to a beggar, but as to a brother. We give carnal things; he gives spiritual things: the poor man gives more than he receives. We give bread, which is consumed on that very day; he will repay us with the kingdoms of heaven in return for bread. Therefore I say this, that what we do, we should do in a holy manner: or what we do, we should do for Christ's sake. Otherwise many Gentiles who give alms, if they see someone with a hand cut off, if they see someone with a foot diseased and rotting, their mind is immediately grieved. The human soul is overcome by natural mercy. And what does he say? Behold, if I were such a one, what would I, wretch, do? And it can happen that I am such a one; who will give to me? And therefore I ought to give to this man, so that someone may give to me too, if I should be such a one. He indeed gives bread to the poor man, but he pities himself in the poor man, not him. That is mercy for oneself, not Christ's mercy: but it is mercy for oneself. Therefore let us do everything that we do for Christ's sake, let us do it in a holy manner. Whether we eat or drink, let us do all things in the name of Christ (I Cor. 10). We read the Scriptures. We learn the Psalms by heart, we hold fast the Gospels, we expound the prophets: we ought not to do this so as to boast among the brethren, but so as to please Christ: so that his word may resound in our mouth.

Men, monks, and even little women are accustomed to compete among themselves in this way: that they learn more Scriptures by heart; and they think they are better in this, if they have learned more by heart. The one who has learned more by heart is the one who does more. Otherwise, if what you learn by heart, I do: my works hold the Scriptures more than your speech, which resounds in vain. In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place. Lift up your hands onto the cross: lift up the banner. In the nights lift up your hands in the holy place. And when you have lifted them up in the holy place, and have done the things that are holy, let Christ be, as it were, the medicine of your good works. And bless the Lord. Hence the Apostle also says: In every place lifting up immaculate hands (1 Tim 2): and bless the Lord. Whatever you do, refer it to the Lord. Let hands be lifted up: let the mouth resound with Christ. And in the nights lift up your hands. Give alms to the poor, and bless the Lord: give thanks to the Lord, because he has given you the means to give to your brother. Rather, you give thanks to Christ when you have given, than let the brother who has received from you give thanks to you. The poor confer a great benefit on us. Almsgiving extinguishes sins, which we can no longer wash away otherwise. What is written? As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sins (Sir 3). Almsgiving grants what baptism also grants. Just as baptism forgives us our sins, so almsgiving also forgives us our sins.

Just as water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sins. For the fires of hell are prepared for sins. But almsgiving extinguishes these.

May the Lord bless you from Zion: he who made heaven and earth. You bless the Lord, and the Lord blesses you. From Zion, from the watchtower, from the Church, from true doctrines, from pious faith. May the Lord bless you from Zion. The Holy Spirit speaks this verse, or certainly the prophet speaks in the spirit. And what does he say? O you who by fifteen steps have ascended to the last, who have done these things and these: who bless the Lord: who in the nights lift up your hands, etc., and bless the Lord, receive also your reward. May the Lord bless you from Zion. What you have given, receive. You have given alms: you have done virtues, from God you will obtain a reward and a blessing. May the Lord bless you from Zion. Zion, from the heavenly Jerusalem in the mother of the firstborn, where are the future joys, where are the archangels, where are the other powers, where are the apostles, where are the prophets, where are the holy martyrs, where the multitudes of angels and saints follow, wherever the Lamb goes (Rev. 21). Finally John also saw the holy city come down from heaven, built of gems, having twelve gates. It was all golden, it had golden walls: it had also streets of various gems. In this city Christ reigns: in this city those who dwell are themselves both the inhabitants and the gates; they are themselves both the houses and the inhabitants.

Do you wish to know that they are houses? Christ dwells in them; Christ walks about in them. I will dwell in them, he says, and I will walk among them (Leviticus 26; 2 Corinthians 6). See, holy soul, how great it is: it receives Christ, whom heaven does not contain. See what he says: I will dwell, he says (ibid.). But it can happen that someone dwells in a cramped space. I will dwell and walk among them. Wherever he walks, the house is certainly spacious. Where does he walk? You are, he says, the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Let us prepare our temple, so that Christ may come and dwell in us: so that our soul may be Zion, may be a watchtower, may be set on the heights: may it be above, not below. We read in the prophet Zechariah: And the angel, he says, who was speaking in me said to me (Zechariah 1). If an angel was speaking in the prophet, how much more does he dwell in us! He himself has us both as houses and as those with whom he converses. May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth. If you are holy, hear what he says, he who made heaven. If you are a sinner, hear what he says, he who made earth. And he made both heaven and earth. For now let us speak according to the letter. He says this to distinguish them from idols. The gods, he says, who did not make heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth. But the Lord made the heavens. He says this to distinguish them from idols. This, for now, according to the letter.

Otherwise, according to the spiritual understanding, just as it is said to the sinner, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall go," so also it is said to the saint, "Heaven you are, and to heaven you shall go." Why have I said all this? To prove that the saints are heaven. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of his hands (Psalm 18). And the waters that are above the heavens, let them praise the name of the Lord (Psalm 148). The heavens of heavens belong to the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 113). Though we are earthly, though we walk on the earth, yet our conversation is in heaven. There we have our citizenship. He who made heaven and earth. Though you are a sinner, do not despair: the Lord can do all things. Many are made heaven from earth, and many from heaven are made earth. Unhappy Judas was heaven, and was made earth. The apostle Paul, at the time when he was persecuting the Church (Acts 7), was earth. He confessed, and was made heaven. Nor should he who is heaven be secure, nor should he who is earth despair of life. Jacob, at the time when he was fleeing to Mesopotamia from his brother, came to Luz, and there, it says, he placed a stone at his head (Genesis 35). Beneath his head was the stone, which was Christ. He never placed a stone at his head except at the time when he fled from his persecutor. As long as he was in his father's house and had the comforts of the flesh, he did not have a stone at his head. He departed from the house naked, he departed with a staff, and at once on that very night he found the stone and placed it at his head.

He who had such a pillow on which he refreshed himself—see his vision. He saw, it says, a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, and he saw, it says, angels descending and ascending. He saw angels coming from heaven to earth, and others ascending from earth to the heavens. Do you wish to know that that stone which was at Jacob's head was Christ, the cornerstone? The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner (Ps. 117). That stone which is written in the book of Kings, Abenczer (2 Kings 7). This stone is Christ. But Abenezer is interpreted, the stone of help. Jacob rose, it says, in the morning. And what did he say? This, it says, is the house of God. And what did he do? He took, it says, oil and anointed the stone. Unless we have understood the mysteries of the Scriptures, what reason was there for him to anoint the stone with oil? May the Lord bless you from Zion: who made heaven and earth. Denis, concluding five psalms of the songs of degrees in blessing, admonishes us from the prophetic voice, saying:

PSALM 134.

Praise the name of the Lord. Which you have come to know by faith to be above every name. Praise the Lord, you servants, who have ceased to be slaves of sin.

Who stand in the house of the Lord: in the courts of the house of our God. Who have been planted in him immovably.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is kind. For he swiftly grants pardon to those who repent: fulfilling even our hope by his kindness. Sing to his name, for it is sweet. For no harsh perversity of heretics has gone forth from him; but through that very sweetness we have been snatched from the filth of the Gentiles.

For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, namely him who, having supplanted the people, seized his blessing. Israel for a possession for himself. Who after many struggles merited to see God with his mind.

For I have known that the Lord is great, by the revealing of the Son we know the Father, he himself saying: No one knows the Father, except him to whom the Son has willed to reveal him (Luke 10). And our God is above all gods. Above all the holy angels, who are worthy to be called gods.