Breviarium In Psalmos

Whatever the Lord willed, he did in heaven and on earth, in the sea, and in all the deeps. By the will of his goodness it pleased God to work wonders in the heights—in souls, in dry minds, in the waves of the world, in the depth of wickedness—as follows.

Bringing forth clouds from the ends of the earth. Raising the apostles and prophets up from earthly lowliness. He made lightnings into rain. So that they might first pour forth the light of the knowledge of God, and then the rain of teachings.

Who brings forth the winds from his treasuries. Directing the holy angels from the heavenly secrets: those who in these clouds and rains might bring strength and increase. Who struck down the firstborn of Egypt: from man even to beast. The principal vices and crimes of the world.

And he sent signs and wonders into your midst, Egypt. Terrifying the world in his passion, whether in darkness or in the shaking of the earth. Against Pharaoh and against all his servants, fastening the devil and his principalities to his cross.

Who struck down great kings and killed mighty kings. Countless vices, which had oppressed the world.

Sihon king of the Amorites. The despisers of God have with them an unfruitful tree: struck down together, they are cast into eternal fire. And Og king of Bashan. The wall of confusion, which stood in our way so that we would not acknowledge God. And all the kingdoms of Canaan. He killed the kingdoms of commotion, which stirred us away from God and ruled over us.

And he gave their land as an inheritance: an inheritance to Israel his people. All these things God destroyed and overthrew: and through the knowledge of himself he adopted us as an inheritance, and granted that we should rule over those who had not afflicted us.

Lord, your name is forever. Since he remains forever, let this be our everlasting inheritance. Lord, your memorial is from age to age. So that what the shadow of the old Law prefigured may be recognized in the other age, that is, in the Gospels.

Because the Lord has judged his people. The unbelieving Jews, who have now already been judged, since they have not believed. And he will be comforted in his servants. In those who believe, surely.

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of human hands; they have a mouth and do not speak, etc. He recalls the accursed things of the Gentiles, mocking them: because although they have no growth of any member, they wished to ennoble those idols with the metal of gold and silver. And therefore he added:

Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them. Let them be confounded in these things who believe; but let us be comforted, who, made in the image of God, adore him.

House of Israel, bless the Lord, assemblies of the saints: beholding God with the eyes of the mind. House of Aaron, bless the Lord, the perfect order of ministers.

You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord: so that just as you dread his majesty, so you may praise him with love.

Blessed be the Lord God out of Zion: who dwells in Jerusalem. He himself, our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 135.

Alleluia. This psalm lays open the mercies of the Lord shown to the human race in its various needs, saying:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endures forever. Give thanks for your sins, and praise him who through mercy forgives the one who abides in him.

Give thanks to the God of gods. To him who has given to those who believe in him the power to become sons of God.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords. This refers to the Son, and "to the God of gods" to the Father. Therefore we give thanks to the Father and the Son. For the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father.

Who alone works great wonders. Earlier he said, "Give thanks to the God of gods," and again, "to the Lord of lords"; and since he named two persons, now he says, "Who alone works great wonders," so as not to speak of two gods. For it is written: There is one God, from whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus, through whom are all things, and we through him (1 Cor 8).

Who made the heavens in understanding. These are the heavens that declare the glory of God: those who are clothed with the heavenly image and are heavens, who are not clothed with the earthly image, in understanding, in wisdom; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. As also in Proverbs Wisdom herself says: When he was making the heavens, I was with him; and the rest.

Who established the earth upon the waters. Although the earth is said to hang upon the waters, that is, with empty weight, yet he founded our earth and established it in baptism. He did not say he lifted it up, or exalted it, or made it ascend into the heavens. For baptism forgives sins and, as it were, frees from prison; but it cannot grant the kingdoms of heaven. For unless someone has entered through works and faith, he cannot be secure.

Who made the great lights. According to the letter he speaks of the stars: although we see them as small, yet they are great. For just as, if we ascend a high mountain and see a man in the valley below, he seems to us as something small, so too the stars are great, but from their height they appear small to us. For the star which is seen in Britain, that same star appears everywhere. But he says this to those to whom he said: You are the light of the world.

The moon and the stars to rule the night. He has set the Church, or her teachers, under the night of the old Law: that is, so that what that Law announced in the letter, they might fulfill and observe spiritually.

Who struck Egypt with their firstborn, and led Israel out from among them: with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. By the power of his might, having smitten the world, he led us out from its works.

Who divided the Red Sea into divisions, and brought Israel across through its midst. For by many steps one climbs through the waves of this age, so that one may draw near to him whom one beholds in the mind.

And he shook off Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. If we are Israel, God fights for us, and we shall be silent, and he casts down the devil with his attendants: so that they may not prevail to harm us.

Who led his people through the desert. Always the people of God is led through the deserts of this world, until it is brought into the land of promise. Who brought water out of the rock of the crag. From Christ the Lord, who is the steadfast rock, either Baptism has come forth, or the cup of eternal life has flowed.

Who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings: Seon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Basan, and all the kingdoms of Chanaan he killed. He says that all the kingdoms of sin were struck down by Christ: who struck down great kings. First he struck down Pharaoh, who is understood as the devil, and thus his army, as we explained in the preceding psalm.

And he gave their land as an inheritance: an inheritance to Israel his people. To the Christian people, surely.

Because in our humility the Lord was mindful of us: for his mercy endures forever. So that he might visit us by his coming.

And he redeemed us from the hand of our enemies. Pouring out his blood as our price.

Who gives food to all flesh. Offering himself as the living bread, and giving life to this world.

Give thanks to the God of heaven. Render to him the praise that is due: who transfers you from earthly things to eternal things.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords. Who has appointed you either judges or lords of the world. He himself is our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 136.

A Psalm of David, on account of Jeremiah. This psalm, brought forth from the voice of prophecy, teaches that the minds of men are taken captive by sins: after the example of that earthly Jerusalem which, led out by the nations into captivity, wept. Let the souls, therefore, that after many errors are converted to the Lord, say:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: while we remembered Sion. If someone is not sick, he does not know how much health is worth. And again, the lame man does not know how much a man sound in his feet is worth. Likewise the blind man does not know the one who sees. Why was all this said? Because the psalm says: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, while we remembered Sion. Babylon is interpreted as confusion. Therefore Babylon is this world. The sinner, then, who fell from paradise, came into the valley of tears, that is, into Babylon, into this world. But rather the prophet speaks in the person of him who fell: By the rivers of Babylon. For the river of Babylon is when you see someone beautiful for an hour, and, falling sick, he has lost his beauty, and his flower withers: here he passes away like a river, and the waters, succeeding one another, coming and receding, perish, and again others arise, and they too perish: so also in this world, for a moment or for some time, we are either enriched, or strong, or beautiful, and after a little while it passes away like water and perishes. There, therefore, we sat, and we wept, while we remembered Sion.

Although we have fallen from paradise through our own fault, nevertheless we remember our former happiness and do not forget it. And that man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho—which is interpreted as the moon, that is, which is always changing (and this is understood as the present world)—fell among robbers, and the Samaritan took him up and healed him with oil and wine, mingling severity with mercy (Luke 10).

On the willows in the midst of it we hung up our instruments. The willow has such a nature: it is indeed an unfruitful tree, and it is said that if anyone takes a drink from it or eats of it, he does not beget children. There, then, we hung up our instruments. Now a person's instrument is the body. For just as an instrument is composed of many pipes, yet sends forth a melody with one modulation, so too our instrument has touch; through it, that is, through works, we bring back melody, song, and hymn to God. Likewise also through hearing, and through smell, and through taste, and through sight, and through all these powers, as if from one instrument, we bring back hymn and song to the Lord. The willow is said again to have no root. But if a branch is cut off and planted beside water, it at once grows green. So too the sinner, though he has sinned, though he has fallen, yet if he is beside the waters, that is, if he reads the holy Scriptures and hears the divine word from a holy man, his soul grows green and he is converted to repentance.

Because there they asked us for the words of songs, those who led us captive, etc. The demons who deceived us and led us captive now, as it were mocking us and boasting, say to us: Give us back a word concerning your faith, just as when you were in Jerusalem you used to sing a hymn to God. Those who sinned and were deceived answer and say:

How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? We who have fallen from Jerusalem into Babylon, established in sins? Therefore no one, unless he be holy, can praise the Lord. For a sinner ought not to sing to the Lord, but to mourn his sins.

If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten. Therefore, because he sinned and fell, he remembers his former way of life and Jerusalem, and proposes to himself: unless I am always mindful of you and always keep you in mind, let my right hand be forgotten, that is, my works. He did not say the left hand, but the right. For the left hand is always in forgetfulness. Do you wish, then, always to be in the Lord's memory? Do the works of the right hand.

Let my tongue cleave to my jaws: if I do not remember you. That is, let me have neither works nor speech: if the memory of you does not continually dwell in my heart.

Remember, Lord, the sons of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem. Edom is interpreted as earthly and bloodstained. Who, then, is this but the devil? See therefore what he says. This is said in the person of Adam: Lord, remember how the serpent, the devil, deceived me and drew me away—he who is understood as Nebuchadnezzar—and cast me out of paradise. Remember and repay him, and let him suffer the punishment that he himself by his own malice brought upon me: drawing me, he led me into Babylon and among the Assyrians.

Daughter of Babylon, wretched one. The daughter of Babylon is the soul, which is always in agitation and in confusion, and has no stability, but is in vices and sins, which is truly wretched. Blessed is he who repays you the repayment that you repaid us. Blessed is he who repays her what she herself did. For example: she cast me out of paradise: I lead her back there through abstinence. She deceived me through fornication: I lead her back into Jerusalem through chastity, and from vices into virtue. Therefore I do this not as an enemy, but as a friend.

Blessed is he who will hold and dash your little ones against the rock. "Little ones" means thoughts. As if he were saying: I saw a woman, I desired her; immediately, if I do not cut off that desire and, as it were, seize it by the foot and dash it against the rock while the desire is small, it cannot afterward be cut off when it has grown. Blessed, therefore, is he who at once cuts it off and dashes it against the rock. But the rock is Christ.

PSALM 137.

I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart. As the wounds are, so also is the plaster. For just as the body has various wounds, so too the soul has its own passions and its own wounds, and various wounds, and against sin we ought to practice a corresponding penitence. If anyone confesses for all his sins, this one confesses to the Lord with his whole heart. As if he had said: Someone has committed fornication, he confesses for the fornication. But since he is either avaricious, or irascible, or a detractor, or a blasphemer, and has very many vices, this one does not confess with his whole heart. But if anyone does penance for all the vices and passions of his soul, this one can say: I will confess to you, Lord, with my whole heart. Because you have heard all the words of my mouth. This verse is not found in the Hebrew. Otherwise, what he says is this: therefore I will confess to you with my whole heart, that is, for all my vices and sins: because I did not confess to you for one vice only, and you heard me.

I will sing to you in the sight of the angels. See the advancement of the penitent, because after confession and repentance he is worthy to sing with the angels. But he who sings no longer does penance, but gives thanks and blesses him. I will worship toward your holy temple. If this is the temple that now appears desolate, in which one ought to worship, then the Jews ought not to worship, since the temple has been destroyed. But he calls the holy and heavenly Jerusalem the temple.

Because of your mercy and your truth. Let the sinner hear mercy, but let the just and the proud hear truth.

You will multiply strength in my soul. You will multiply, that is, the soul subject to many cares.

Let all the kings of the earth confess to you, Lord. The kings of the earth are those who reign in sin. Therefore let those who reign in sin themselves confess. For it is not written of the kings of this world: The king's heart is in the hand of God (Prov. 21). Do you think the heart of the most impious Julian was in the hand of God? Far be it; or of Nero, or of Maximian, and of Decius the persecutors? Far be it. But he says this to those who reign in sin, because those who conquer vices and the passions of the soul, and reign in sin, their heart is in the hand of God. Because they have heard all the words of your mouth. Because they have kept your commandments.

And let them sing in the ways of the Lord. The philosophers of this world did not sing in the ways of the Lord, but we sing in the ways of the Lord, that is, in Moses and in Isaiah and in Jeremiah, and from these ways we come to that way which says: I am the way.

PSALM 138

Lord, you have tested me, etc. Your knowledge has become wonderful from me. Symmachus translated this more clearly: Your knowledge passes beyond me, that is, I cannot know your secrets, and my mind cannot enter into the depth of your wisdom.

Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your face? But how can I comprehend the knowledge of you, when all things are in you, and nothing escapes you, and your spirit is everywhere? From this we understand that God is he who is wholly everywhere.

If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend to hell, you are present, etc. No height is higher than you; no depth is deeper than you; the east and the west are contained in your hand.

And I said, Therefore darkness will trample me, and night is light to me in my delights. In the Hebrew the sense is this: And I said, Perhaps darkness will trample me; but on the contrary, night itself was light with you, because nothing can be hidden from you. Symmachus translated this better, saying: And night sits as light around me. But the following verses also signify the same thing.

Because darkness will not be obscured from you, and night will be illuminated as day: as its darkness is, so also is its light. That is, all things that are thought by you to be hidden are so clear that they are more manifest than the light.

You took me from my mother's womb. The Fifth Edition translated it thus: You fashioned me from my mother's womb.

Your eyes saw my imperfect thing. Here he used "imperfect" for "unformed," because God knows even the elements of a human being before they are formed in the womb. As in your book all will be written. And that no one is born without the will of God, lest anyone escape his knowledge.

The days will be formed, and no one in them. Symmachus translated this passage thus: the days in which they were formed, not even one of them is missing. And the sense is: every time of life to which the courses of this life have already been assigned from the beginning runs its course to a fixed end, and there is not one day more or less than you, the founder, willed it to be. According to the Seventy interpreters, however, and to a deeper understanding, the sense is: you form all things in the day, you wish all to be sons of God, but there is no one among men who does not become subject to sin, and through this begins to be a son of night, nor does any of them accomplish things worthy of the light of that day throughout the whole time of his life. Hence the Apostle also says to those who had ceased to be sons of night: But we, brothers, are not sons of night, but sons of God (Thess. v).

PSALM 139.

Deliver me, Lord, from the evil man, etc. The devil cannot deceive us as much through an instrument as through a man: the prophet prays to be freed from this one.

Who have devised iniquities in their heart. He speaks of heretics.

The venom of asps is under their lips. Because they seem to have words of friendship, but they are full of deadly venom.

Beside the path they have set a stumbling block for me. That is, bringing forward testimonies from the Scriptures, which seemed to have some kind of reasoning, they will try to deceive me.

I said to the Lord, You are my God. If you are not holy, you cannot say this verse. To whom sin does not reign, he says this: The Lord is my portion (Ps. 15).

Do not hand me over, Lord, to my sinful desire. The Scripture says: But if anyone has looked at a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5). Therefore the prophet says: Do not hand me over to the devil because of my concupiscence; but it is well for me to judge in deed, and not in thought.

The head of their circuit, the labor of their lips will cover them. Just as a serpent, when it sees someone coming to strike it, makes a circle of its whole body, and hides its head in the middle, where it knows it has its life; so also these heretics, through the discourse of the philosophers, both Aristotle and the rest, seem to hide and as it were protect and defend themselves. But the ecclesiastical man, as with a rod, that is, with the cross, breaks the circle, and finds the hidden head, and strikes it there, that is, brings forward a testimony from the Scriptures.

The upright will dwell with your countenance. What is the countenance of God but Christ? Who did not consider it robbery to be equal with God (Philippians 2).

PSALM 140.

O Lord, I have cried to you, hear me. Moses stood with the people, and Pharaoh was following behind him, and on every side there was distress for him. At that time he wept to God. And immediately God said to him: Why do you cry to me? While he was praying in silence, he was heard. But Scripture does not record that he spoke, only that he wept. And the blood of the martyrs always cries out to the Lord, and is heard. And the Lord spoke to Cain: The blood of your brother cries out to me (Genesis 4). And in the Apocalypse of John, the souls of the righteous under the altar were saying to the Lord: How long, O Lord, will you not defend us (Apocalypse 6)? At the same time let us consider that the souls of the righteous are the altars of the Lord. Attend to the voice of my supplication, when I cry to you. That is, see and consider, O Lord, what I ask: for I do not ask with bodily desire, either for gold, or for any such thing of this kind: but that I may obtain your mercy. Therefore he says, attend, that is, hear diligently, because I ask nothing foreign.

Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight. That is, let my prayer come straight to you, having no stains, or base things, or diabolical thoughts. Now incense is the prayers of the saints. And we know this from the Apocalypse: when the twenty-four elders held censers and said (Ibid. viii): These are the prayers of the saints. The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. The lifting up of my hands. He points to the Lord. And in the lifting up of the hands we see the Creator. But see that he did not say, the stretching out of my hands. For a stretching out is not a lifting up. But someone stretches out both behind the back and to the side, that is, toward vices: just as the Lord says: And when you stretch out your hands to me, I will not hear you (Jeremiah 15). The evening sacrifice, at the eleventh hour, that is, in the Gospel, I lift up my hands. And again the Apostle: Lift up your hands for prayers (1 Timothy 2). And Moses, when he lifted up his hands, Joshua conquered: when he put them down, he was conquered (Exodus 17). If I understand the Scriptures according to history, and according to the letter: Moses has his hands down. If, however, spiritually, he lifts his hands on high.

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Death and life are in the hands of the tongue. And again: Amen I say to you, that for every idle word which you shall have spoken, you shall render an account on the day of judgment (Matt. 12). This, therefore, the Prophet asks, that everything he speaks may not be idle, but holy and worthy of God. And a door of circumstance for my lips. He asks for a door of circumstance, as it were a wall around the whole house, that he may be overcome in nothing. For Jeremiah says: Death has entered through your windows (Jer. 9). But we have five windows, that is, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. If, therefore, I look upon a woman to lust after her, I have already committed adultery with her in my heart (Matt. 5), and death has entered through my window, that is, through sight. If a pipe, or an organ, or a reed, as it were, dissolves me, death has entered through my hearing. But if I touch something soft, and am dissolved by the softness of the body, death has entered through my touch, and so on likewise. Therefore the prophet prays for a door of circumstance, that is, that his whole house may be fortified, so that the adversary may have no way to enter and rule over men. For it is said in the Epistle of Saint Peter: Our adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5). The devil does not quickly fight against someone through great vices, but through small ones, so that he may enter in some way and rule over the man, and afterwards drive him into greater vices.

Not through fornication, not through avarice, but through lesser vices it enters.

Let not my heart decline into words of malice to make excuses for sins. O most wretched human race, who excuse our sins, saying: I was overcome by nature—when it lies in our power both to sin and, with the Lord's help, not to sin. We always excuse ourselves and say: I did not wish to sin; the flesh overcame me. That woman came to me, she sent for me, she touched me, she said that to me, she called me—and for that very thing we ought to have done penance and said: Lord, I have sinned; yet we excuse it and join sins to sins. We all have an equal body, but different labors. God is not a respecter of persons. Do you wish, then, to know that we and the saints have an equal body? The Apostle Paul says: But I see another law fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin (Rom. 7). And again after this: Therefore I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest, preaching to others, I myself be found reprobate (1 Cor. 9). And again: Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death (Rom. 7)? We have, then, different labors. And insofar as each one labors, so much will he also receive as a reward.

And with men who work iniquity. From the common sense it is understood: let not my heart decline with men who work iniquity. And I will not have fellowship with their chosen ones. Just as the Lord has holy chosen ones, so too the devil has his own chosen ones. Understand for me the leaders of the heretics, and you will not doubt concerning their chosen ones. For if he had said "chosen ones" and not, with a distinction, "their," he would have excluded God's chosen ones. "I will have fellowship" is understood in two ways: either I consent, or I become second, that is, unclean. For you know the Scripture calls two things unclean. The Apostle says: That he might confound both (Eph. 2), that is, two men into one new man. Two, the inner and the outer, that is, I will make the unclean holy. And again: Noah in the ark brought in with him the clean by sevens; but the unclean two by two (Gen. 7).

The just man will correct me in mercy, and will rebuke me. Whom the Lord loves, he corrects: but he chastises every son whom he receives (Heb. 12). Blessed is he who is corrected; the Lord will not repay twice for the same thing. Great is the wrath of God when he is not angry with us (Nahum 1). For he reserves us like a calf for slaughter. For to Jerusalem he says: Many are your sins, and many your iniquities; therefore I am not angry with you (Jer. 3), that is, when you were only an adulteress, I was jealous for you as one who loved you: but when you had many lovers, I despised you, and I am not angry with you (Ezek. 16).

Just as a man is jealous for his wife when he loves her; but if he is not jealous, he hates her, and does not follow the words of him who says: I will visit their iniquities with a rod (Ps. 88). And again: And I will not visit their daughters when they have committed fornication (Hos. 4). The just man will correct me in mercy, and will rebuke me. Place here some master, or father, or physician. If a physician sees rotten flesh on the body, and says, What does that have to do with me? know that he is cruel. But if he cuts it away and applies a cautery, he is merciful, because he heals the man. Similarly, a master, if he lets a boy go and does not exact discipline from him, hates him. But if he exacts it, and the physician heals, what is thought to be harshness is clemency. Ahab is reproved by the Lord concerning Naboth (3 Kings 21), when he killed him and took his vineyard and shed the blood of the just man. The prophet Elijah was sent to him, who said: You have killed, and you have possessed; at once, struck in conscience, he bowed his neck and his eyes, and this an impious man, and a king clothed in purple. And afterward Scripture says that, hearing this, he put on sackcloth beneath the purple. And God, seeing it, said: Because Ahab has reverenced me, I will not bring evil upon him. See, therefore, how much the sackcloth availed, and the fasting, and how much a small tear washed away blood. So therefore one ought to be clothed in sackcloth and to fast, in such a way that no one sees. It is understood in two ways: he will correct, either he will reprove, or he will teach.

The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head. My people, those who call you blessed deceive you (Isa. 3). The praise of heretics, and their oil with which they anoint the heads of men, and promise them signs of the heavens, anoints their head. But Scripture reproves everything fat, as it says: And Jacob was cleansed, and was satisfied, and kicked: the beloved grew fat: he was anointed, he was enlarged (Deut. 23, and Jer. 5). But the manna of angels is thin (Exod. 16).

For still, and my prayer in their good pleasures. He says this: They indeed savored it; but I was praying for them, that they might be converted. Their judges were swallowed up joined to the rock. As it says elsewhere: Blessed is he who will hold and dash his little ones against the rock (Ps. 136). But the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 15). But the little ones are the lesser, and small thoughts before they grow. And now the heretics themselves, although through Aristotle and Plato they seem to despise the simplicity of the Church, yet when they come to the Scriptures, they will immediately be swallowed up by the rock, that is, by Christ, and will be converted to him. For swallowing up is said for victory: as the Apostle says: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where is, death, your victory? Where, hell, your sting (1 Cor. 15)? But he calls victory that very swallowing up, which victory he had in swallowing.

They will hear my words, because they have been able. The Lord himself says: Because they came to me, they were conquered and delighted in my words, and were converted to me, and are in my Church. Like the fatness of the earth. Everything fat is near the earth. And the soul that sins clings to the earth. For the Lord from the beginning made all things fine. By their own fault, therefore, each one grows fat and is led down to the earth. Let us give an example: as a swelling wound in the body is full and fat, and when the physician comes he cuts it and heals it and makes it thin, and then it is restored to its own nature, as it was created. Therefore he says: Like the fatness of the earth it has burst forth upon the earth, and is saved.

Our bones have been scattered near hell. In the twenty-first psalm he says: All my bones have been scattered. If we understand this according to the letter, it does not stand. For he was crucified only. When you see Arius and Eunomius outside the Church, understand that the bones of the Lord have been scattered near hell. The bone that is strong—these are the greater ones who seem to be something; through their much speaking, and through philosophy, and through contention, they are led astray by heretics.

Keep me from the snare that they have set for me. Always the heretics or the demons stretch out snares for us. For vices are close to virtues. They have set a snare for me in almsgiving, if I stretch out my hand so that men may see: and as though doing good, I fall into vice and into sin. But if I give my tunic to a brother so that another may see, they have set a snare for me. Nets are always stretched out for stags, and snares are placed for them where the hunter has found their tracks. But the stag is taken in the holy man: because he is lofty, and has great horns, and kills serpents. Therefore he says elsewhere: Who made my feet like the feet of stags (Ps. 17). For such a one is said to be of such virtue that by the breath of his nostrils he can draw serpents out of their caves and thus devour them. So these serpents—that is, the demons—place stumbling blocks for us on our very tracks where we walk: in virtues, in almsgiving, so that we may do them before men for the sake of vainglory; in fasting, in prayer, in wearing sackcloth, and to show it to men. For he who is clothed in sackcloth ought to mourn his own sins, not to boast and show it to men. And from the stumbling blocks of those who work iniquity, that is, that I may not stumble.

The sinners shall fall into his net. Above he said, Keep me from the snare that they have set for me, concerning many; now however concerning one: The sinners shall fall into his net. Just as the Lord casts a net and catches a multitude of fish, and has apostles as fishermen gathering and bringing to him those very ones who believe through them, so too the devil has demons subject to him, who both deceive men and bring them to him. I am alone until I pass by. Jeremiah says: I sat alone, for I was filled with bitterness (Jeremiah 15). That is, in penitence, I alone am on guard against these deceits. And Moses says: Passing by, I will see this great vision (Exodus 3). If one has not passed by, that is, all vices, he cannot see the great vision. But the great vision: because the bush was burning and was not consumed: the thorns were burning, that is, sins. By this fire Isaiah also is cleansed: for this is the coal that touched his lips, which was upon the altar (Isaiah 6). The prophet David also remembers this coal: Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals (Psalm 119). This coal is a desolator; it makes a solitude, and purges the sinner.

PSALM 141.

The understanding of David, when he was in the cave, a prayer. This title is prefixed according to history indeed, when David was fleeing from the face of Saul, hidden in a cave in the desert of Engaddi (1 Kings 24). And Saul entered unknowing, as if for his own purpose. But since it has in the title, The understanding of David: we ought to understand the psalm spiritually. Indeed the true David is taken as the Lord, and Saul is understood as the devil. But the cave is in this world: and that the devil does not send anything good into this world, but dung, and whatever is rotten. But this world is understood as the cave, because it does not have perfect light, in comparison to what is to come, but the Lord coming into this world shone like some light. Therefore the Apostle says: Who is the light of his glory (Heb 1). Therefore just as David entered the cave hiding himself from Saul, so too the Lord entered this world and suffered persecution.

With my voice I cried to the Lord: with my voice I pleaded with the Lord. I pour out my prayer in his sight. He speaks all these things in bodily humility, so that he may show himself to be a true man, as we have often said. I declare my tribulation before him: when my spirit fails within me. Neither the present tribulation nor the failing of the spirit hinders him: but he does not cease to cry out continually with the prayer of a spiritual voice. And you have known my paths. The teachings that I teach.

In this way in which I was walking, the proud have hidden snares for me. We have often declared in other psalms that snares of temptations were hidden for him by the Jews in the way of the present life, and in others.

I was considering on the right. That they might be brought from the left to the right. And I saw that there was no one who knew me. God covered in flesh.

Flight perished from me. His flight perished, when he often of his own accord offered himself again to those carried forth by the Jews, and he was not recognized by them. And there is no one who seeks my soul. They take the body to crucify it: but they do not seek the soul, that is, they do not touch it.

I cried to you, O Lord. From the cross. I said, you are my hope. Commending my spirit into your hands (Luke 23). My portion in the land of the living. Among the saints who are transferred into it, as he also said to the thief: Amen I say to you, that today you will be with me in paradise.

Attend to my prayer: because I have been humbled exceedingly. Free me from those who persecute me: because they have grown strong against me, etc. He asks the Father to lead him out from the prison of hell, so that his resurrection may be the honor of the Father's name. He shows by whom this confession is to be confessed, saying: The just await me. The apostles or the other saints, whose expectation I satisfy when I have risen. Until you repay me. That clarity which I had, before the world was made, with you (John 17). And we humbly entreat and ask, that, having received the voice of our cry, you command us, led out from the prison of hell, to be transferred from death to that place where you prepared a bright place and rest for the thief who hung beside you: because to you is honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM CXLII.

A psalm of David, when his son Absalom was pursuing him. This psalm contains the voice of him who for human redemption emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, that he might rescue us from slavery (Philippians 2).

Lord, hear my prayer. Humble words, and full of humility and mercy. Give ear to my supplication in your truth. These are the words of one who is confident. In your truth, that is, in your Christ. I am the way, the life, and the truth (John 14). And hear me in your justice. And in your Christ. That is, I do not trust in myself, but I seek your truth and justice, that it may have mercy on me.

And do not enter into judgment with your servant. Behold, most manifestly he has shown that he awaits the mercy of God, saying: And do not enter into judgment with your servant. Here it is as if someone judges between God and the prophet, just as it is also written in the fiftieth psalm: That you may be justified in your words, and overcome when you are judged. And for this reason God enters into judgment, that he may punish justly. Something of this kind Cyrus also did, king of the Persians and Medes, to the king of the Armenians, when he had broken his friendships. He conquered him and took him captive: and he made his own kinsmen, and his wife, and his sons judge between them: that he might justly either have mercy or punish. For no one living will be justified in your sight. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob: the God of the living, and not of the dead (Luke 20).

Therefore not even the patriarchs themselves will be justified in the sight of God. For the stars are not clean in his sight (Job 25).

Because the enemy has persecuted my soul. This needs no interpretation. There is no doubt that it is the devil: He has humbled my life in the earth. This is what he says: Before, I had wings and I was flying; but now the enemy has persecuted my soul, and he has seized me and bound my feet and hands, just as a bird is caught by a man, so that it seems as though it were dead, because it has no freedom of its wings to fly. So, he says, the enemy has bound me by the consciousness of my sins.

He has placed me in dark places, like the dead of the world. If like the dead of the world, he is not yet dead, because he stands in penitence. But if anyone sins and does not do penance, this one is dead to the world, and not like one dead, but perfectly dead. Therefore the enemy thought this, that I do not do penance for the sins which he himself suggested to me that I should commit. And my spirit has been anxious within me. You, first say your sins, and you will be saved (Isaiah 43). And again: If you have only sighed for your sins, you will be saved (Ezekiel 18). My heart has been troubled within me. Because of my conscience, because I have sinned.

I remembered the days of old. I remembered my former days, when I had confidence; but now it is night for me.

I stretched out my hands to you. Bound by the enemy, I can do nothing else but repent and lift up my hands to you. My soul is like land without water before you. As land without water thirsts and seeks rain, so my soul desires and thirsts for you, its God.

Hear me quickly, Lord: my spirit has failed. My soul has failed, and my flesh has failed: only the spirit remained in me, and even that has failed; but hear me quickly, Lord, and have mercy on me.

Make known to me the way in which I should walk. Make known to me your Christ, who said: I am the way (John 14).

Your good Spirit will lead me into a right land. Here the most impious Arians put a question to us, saying: Good teacher, what good must I do to be saved? He who says: Why do you call me good? No one is good except one God (Luke 18). Therefore if the Son is not good, but the Father is, the Father is greater than the Son. Therefore, according to your understanding, most impious Arian, which is greater: the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Surely you say the Son. Here, then, it says: Your good Spirit will lead me into a right land. Therefore if the Spirit is good, who is lesser, as you say, much more is the Son good, whom you call greater. But in the Gospel it reads thus: And one of the scribes came near, testing him, and said: Good teacher, and he said: Why do you call me good, and do you not confess (Matthew 19)?

As if someone, testing his bishop whom he despises, should say to him, "Bishop," and he should answer, "I am not a bishop to you; depart from me." But have you not read elsewhere: "The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep" (John 10)? And what is better than the Son, who put on flesh for our sake, and suffered, and descending from his majesty, was nine months in the womb of the Virgin in blood, was in the cradle, suffered to grow moment by moment, and to be beaten, and buffeted, and crucified? What is better than this?

PSALM 143.

For the sake of those who do not know the Latin language, although we have said many things from the Gospel, nevertheless we ought also to say certain things from the Psalter, so that when some have been fed, others may not return fasting. But since the psalm is long, and if we wish to linger over each individual verse, the day will pass, we ought briefly to unfold the sense of each point rather than the words.

Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for battle, and my fingers for war. He who interprets briefly attains this end, that he himself have no praise, and yet whatever is in the interpretation, those who have heard may retain it. Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for battle, and my fingers for war. Let us lift up our hands in the holy place without thoughts and disputations; let us lift them up in every place. And when we have lifted up our hands, our prayers to God are weapons against the devil. Who teaches my hands for battle, and my fingers for war. This is our lyre, this is our cithara. On this we sing to the Lord.

My mercy, and my refuge, my upholder and my deliverer. My protector, and in him I have hoped. In so many names God is called. As many benefits, so many names. Who subdues my people under me. This can be said from the person of Christ, that is, from the man he assumed. But it can also be said from the person of the apostles, because it is said: Who subdues my people under me. The holy Father in the monastery says this too, and giving thanks to God he says: Blessed be the Lord my God, who subdues my people under me. For he is not subjected to me; but he is subjected to you. Therefore he serves me, that he may serve you.

Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him: or the son of man, that you regard him? This same thing is also said in the eighth psalm: What is man, that you are mindful of him: or the son of man, that you visit him? Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? Does he speak of the frailty of the body and the human condition? And what does he say? If you look at the flesh, what is man? If you look at the Spirit, man is something great. Let us not despise the flesh, but let us despise the works of the flesh. Let us not despise the flesh, which reigns with Christ in heaven. Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God (I Cor. 15). Not flesh and blood, but the works of the flesh. Flesh and blood will not possess the kingdom of God, and how do they reign in Christ, and how do we sit with Christ in the heavenly places? Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him: or the son of man, that you regard him? He gives thanks to God, and what he says is this: As far as the human condition is concerned, man is nothing. Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, says Ecclesiastes. If all is vanity, then heaven also, then the angels also. If heaven and the angels are vanity: how great a vanity is man! And if the angels are vanity, and heaven is vanity: why then did God create vanity? Vanity in comparison with God: otherwise in itself it is not vanity (Eccles. 1). Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? Great is the happiness of man to know his Creator. In this we differ from the beasts, that we understand our Creator; they do not understand.

But even the very constitution of the body seeks its own Maker. Other animals look down at the earth, and where the belly is, there too are their eyes. But our eyes are raised up to heaven, and even if the mind has been blinded, let us still see heaven with eyes unconquered.

Man has been made like unto vanity; his days pass away like a shadow. Truly our days are like a shadow. I was a little infant, I was a boy, I was a youth, I was a young man, I was a man—that is, I was of perfect age, I was of middle age. While I know it not, I am old. Death creeps upon old age. I am changed daily, and I do not fail to feel that I am nothing. We do not stand still in our own state for even a single moment of an hour, but we are always either growing or decaying. Therefore man is changed moment by moment, and while he knows it not, he perishes. I, an old man, remember what I was as a little infant, what I did, how I played, how I ran to and fro hither and thither; now I see myself weighed down by excessive burden. His days pass away like a shadow. Our life seems to be a shadow, and it has no substance. But what has no substance quickly perishes. Since man is therefore so miserable, since he is so weak, what do we pray for from this? What do we ask? What does the prophet say here? What is it that he prays for?

Lord, bow down your heavens and descend. You cannot save that wretchedness of man unless you yourself put it on. Lord, bow down your heavens and descend. Your straying sheep cannot be healed unless it is carried back on your shoulders (Luke 15). Touch the mountains, and they will smoke. Amen, amen I say to you: if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will be able to say to this mountain: Move, and it will be moved (Matthew 17). There it was said of the lunatic, concerning that mountain which could not be moved by them. It is written in Jeremiah: Give glory to the Lord our God, before your feet stumble on the dark mountains (Jeremiah 13). Why have we said all this? Because even now it follows: Touch the mountains, and they will smoke. The mountains that reign: the mountains that are raised up through pride: that say: The rivers are mine, and I have made them. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke. He did not say, They will be set on fire; but, They will smoke. Let the mountains have an indication of punishment: not of brilliance, not of splendor.

Flash forth lightning and scatter them. See what he says. He did not say, "You will destroy them," but, "You will scatter them." We read in Genesis that at the time when they were building the tower, God said: Come, let us descend and confuse their languages, lest they ever have agreement among themselves, but let them be dispersed (Gen. 11). It is for their good.

Send forth your hand from on high. Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Isa. 53)? Send forth your hand from on high. Lord, bow down your heavens and descend. This is said to the Son: Bow down your heavens and descend. And how did he say: Send forth your hand from on high? If he descended, how does he send his hand from on high? But although he is on earth, yet he sends his hand from heaven; for he does not depart from heaven. Deliver me, and free me from many waters. Because you descended, because you bowed down the heavens, and sent forth your hand from on high, and deigned to assume human flesh, and many have believed in you: in place of one water, many waters have begun to be. You may see diverse heresies scattered throughout the whole world. Deliver me, and free me from many waters: and grant me the living fountain. For there is one God, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4). Free me from many waters. For many waters do not beget your sons, but alien sons. Hence it follows: Free me from many waters, and from the hand of alien sons. For those who are born in many waters are not your sons; but they are alien sons.

Their mouth has spoken vanity. They promise themselves knowledge, and they lift up their mouth against their Creator. They have set their mouth in heaven. Their mouth has spoken vanity. Their knowledge is a knowledge of vanity. And their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Both are condemned, both mouth and hands, both knowledge and works. Their mouth has spoken vanity, that is, knowledge. And their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. The right hand, in works. They say they have a right hand: but they are wholly on the left. It is a right hand of iniquity, and not of equity. Whence also to such a left hand it is said: Let the devil stand at his right hand. He who has such a right hand, and a right hand of iniquity, the devil stands at his right hand (Psal. cviii).

O God, I will sing a new song to you. A new man, a new song. O God, I will sing a new song to you. Sing to the Lord a new song (Psal. xcv). How beautifully he did not say, I sing, but, I will sing. He promised it for the future: for in the present he knows there is a struggle, not a song. An army never sings, except when it has conquered. Therefore, since in the present I fight, I have no leisure to sing. When I have conquered, then I will sing: On a ten-stringed psaltery I will sing to you. Then I will stretch out both hands, and I will sing to you on living strings. My prayer is your psaltery.

You who give salvation to kings, etc. To which kings? The heart of the king is in the hand of God (Prov. 21): those who reign in their own body, who subject their body and reduce it to servitude, lest while preaching to others they themselves be found reprobate (2 Cor. 9). These are the kings of whom Wisdom says in Proverbs: He gives the kingdom to kings (Prov. 8).

Deliver me and free me from the hand of the children of strangers. The verses that were spoken above are repeated again. Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand, a right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are like newly planted shoots in their youth. From the hand of the children of strangers. Let us see what kind of sons the heretics have. Whose sons are like newly planted shoots in their youth. From the hand of the children of strangers. Carefully take note of what is said about the heretics.

Their daughters are adorned: decked about as the likeness of a temple, etc. They have called the people blessed to whom these things belong. They said this; what do I say? Blessed is the people whose Lord is God. Therefore we shall briefly discuss each point with your prayers. Whose sons are like newly planted shoots in their youth. Their planting is not old but new. For it is not from the old law, not from the prophets, not from the apostles, but from new teachers. Their daughters are like newly planted shoots in their youth. In their youth: they are always young. Although there are many old heresies, nevertheless they are changed daily, and new ones are discovered daily.

These heresies themselves are new, although they are old: yet since they innovate their teachings daily, they are new. For they are not content with the error of the ancient teachers, but daily they themselves discover new things: their sons are like new plantings in their youth. What is said concerning the Church: concerning those who fear the Lord? Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. What is said concerning them? Their sons are like shoots of olives around your table. Around the table of Christ are those sons: they are not far from the table of Christ. There it does not say daughters but only sons. Otherwise heretics have both daughters and the weaker sex, pleasures, delights. Their daughters are adorned. The speech is adorned, and the meaning is foul. In the holy Scriptures thoughts are always called sons: words, daughters. See therefore what he says: Their thoughts, that is, are new sons. But their words, that is, of the heretics, which they have from worldly wisdom, are adorned: for they have adorned words, a praised discourse. Their daughters are adorned. They seem indeed to be adorned, but because they are daughters and not sons, they have no strength. Adorned as the likeness of a temple. Well did he say, the likeness of a temple. They do not have the true Church, but the likeness of the Church.

Their storehouses are full, belching out from this to that. They are ready to contend. If you hold them to one testimony, they cross over to another. If you hold them in the Scriptures, they flee to Aristotle. If you hold them to Aristotle, they cross over to Plato. Their storehouses are full, belching out from this to that. A storehouse is properly so called because it holds gathered riches. The heretics have storehouses. For they have words prepared in advance with which to contend. But the simple folk of the Church are not so: they have nothing prepared. They open their mouth, and it is filled by the Lord, according to what is said: Open your mouth, and I will fill it (Ps. 80). And, Do not think about what you are to answer them: for your Father will give you in that hour what you are to say (Matt. 10). You see that we do not have storehouses prepared: but our riches are subject to us. Someone says: Give testimony as to how the saints do not have storehouses. Look, he says, at the birds of heaven, that they have neither storehouses nor barns: and your heavenly Father feeds them (Matt. 6). These birds are specifically the monks: they have no storehouses, they have no granaries: but they have the Lord of granaries and storehouses, Christ himself. They have no barns, but the Lord of barns. They have not the riches of the devil, but they have the poverty of Christ. What does the devil say? All these things are mine: if falling down you worship me, I will give them to you (Matt. 3). What does Christ say to his own?

Whoever has not sold all that he possesses and given to the poor cannot be my disciple. That one promises kingdoms and riches in order to kill; this one promises poverty in order to save. We do nothing great if we leave behind what is ours. Christ left the Father, and the kingdoms of heaven for our sake—let no one think I am blaspheming because I said he left the Father. I speak according to the dispensation, according as he is sent; according as it is said: The Father who sent me is greater than I. God is not sent; God is not subjected to servitude; but the dispensation is sent. If God is everywhere, and all things are in God, how is God sent to anything, since God is all things? Christ therefore became poor for our sake. Why have we said all this? Because it has now been read: Their storehouses are full, belching out from this to that. He spoke well: belching out—from excessive fullness. They belch from fullness and perish; we from fasting, that we may be saved.

Their sheep are fertile. They have many children, for the number of heretics is great. Their sheep are fertile. Whence it is also said in the prophet Hosea: Lord, give them (Hosea 9). What will you give them? A barren womb and dry breasts. Of whom is this said? Of the teachers of heretics, who applaud themselves in the number of their disciples. Their sheep are fertile, abounding in their goings out. He did not say in their goings in, but in their goings out. For they do not enter into the Church, but go out from the Church, that is, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us. Abounding in their goings out. Every day they go out from the Church: abounding in their goings out. Of the Church what is said? All the glory of the daughter of the king is within (Psalm 44). Their cattle are fat. Pharaoh also saw in a dream fat cattle (Genesis 41): the people of Israel are lean, the Egyptians fat. For you see that the teachers of heretics do nothing else but devote themselves to riches. They devote themselves to riches, and they despise the poor Christ. Their cattle are fat. He says well, fat cattle: whose God is their belly, and their glory is in their confusion (Philippians 3).

There is no ruin of a wall, nor a passage through. Does it not seem obscure to you, what is said: There is no ruin of a wall, nor a passage through, nor a cry in their streets? You will find it difficult to come upon heretics who are unlearned. For all of them are teachers furnished with worldly knowledge. There is no ruin of a wall, nor a passage through. Whenever they are in disputations, when they begin to dispute with you, their words are so brief, so enclosed by skillful speech, that it is difficult to escape from there. For when they have bound you with their syllogisms, and shut you in, and as it were woven and built up a wall of syllogism against you, you cannot turn back; you cannot pass through; you are held enclosed. There is no ruin of a wall, nor a passage through. And when they have held you there as if enclosed in some circle, then you will not be on the narrow way that leads to life, but on the broad way that leads to death (Matt. 7). Nor a cry in their streets: the cry of Jesus calls us back to himself, and says: Let him who thirsts come and drink (John 7). The cry of Jesus is on the narrow way; in the streets of the heretics it is not.

They have called that people blessed to whom these things belong. Many, not knowing, think such people blessed. But for us, Christian simplicity is the rule: we do not want Platonic eloquence, but apostolic simplicity. That fisherman holds the net, he has muddy feet, and his hands are calloused from work. Blessed is the people whose Lord God is theirs. Blessed is the people who, in place of all riches, have Christ; those others have sons and daughters, storehouses, and ewes with young, fat oxen, sleek and handsome. But we do not have a multitude; yet we know that saying in the Gospel: Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18). Do not fear, little flock, because it has pleased God to dwell in you. Let not the monks say: Behold, such great multitudes, cities are full, the whole world—so no one is saved except those who are in monasteries? Behold such great multitudes—are we then the only ones saved? So when you have thought these things, hear: Do not fear, little flock. It is said in the Gospel that one soul is saved, while two thousand pigs perish (Mark 5). Why do I say all this? Because the soul of one saint is more precious than countless multitudes of sinners. From the whole world he chose twelve apostles; of the twelve, one withdrew: eleven remained. The cross came: ten fled; one remained, Peter—one with one. And that one himself fled, and would that he had fled and not denied.

Therefore let us say that the whole human race perished; for because it had perished, the Lord said as He was crucified: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me (Isa. 63). At that time the psalm was fulfilled: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed (Ps. 11). There is none who does good, there is not even one. He who had promised, saying: If I must die, or go to prison, I will not deny you: he denied (Mark 14). Why do I say all this? Because a monk ought not to look to the multitude of sinners, but to the conduct and the fewness of the saints. All Judea was led into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar had come, and so many thousands of men were led captive into Babylon. Jeremiah alone was there who confessed God, and he himself was cast into a pit of mire, and yet the soul of that one man was more precious than that of the whole people (Jer. 15). Do you wish to know what one man can do? Joshua the son of Nun, when the whole earth was inhabited, was alone. To be sure there were countless multitudes, and he was alone. He alone commands the sun and the moon, and it stands still: a man gives the order, and heaven obeys (Josh. 10). Heaven hears him, because he himself was hearing the Lord. Jeremiah was in captivity: there were also many multitudes. And what does he say? I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness (Jer. 15). How were you alone in the city? But he was alone for this reason: because I had as my companion one of my own purpose.

PSALM CXLV.

A praise of David himself. This psalm contains the praise of God from the prophetic voice, just as He Himself, speaking to him, said:

I will exalt You, my God, my King, and I will bless Your name forever and forever and ever. He exalts God because he knows Him equal to the Father; King, because he knows Him the judge of the world.

Every single day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and forever and ever. And for this especially he praises Him: because he hopes to be made conformable to His name: that is, to Christ the Lord, in the age to come.

Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised, and of His greatness there is no end. Because without end He is great, without end to be praised.

Generation. Which faith brought forth. And offspring. Which the passion of Christ procured. They will praise Your works, and they will proclaim Your power. Since either they were made by You, or they are protected by You.

They will speak of the magnificence of Your majesty: and Your holiness. You wish us to be holy, saying: Be holy, for I am holy (Lev. 19, 20). This we also speak to others. And they will tell of Your wonders. Which You work daily in the Church.

They will speak of the power of Your terrible deeds, and they will tell of Your greatness. Power is terrible when He takes vengeance on the wicked, as on Pharaoh. Greatness is when the righteous are raised up, as Israel.

They will pour forth the memory of Your abundant sweetness. Because You deign to cherish them. And they will exult in Your justice. Because You take vengeance on the wicked.

The Lord is merciful and compassionate: patient and very merciful. And holy in all His works: because what has been done in Him is life.

The Lord is sweet to all, and His mercies are over all His works. For by His mercy He makes and protects every work.

Let all Your works confess to You, O Lord, and let Your saints bless You. So that through the saints who bless You continually, You may be understood to be the creator and founder of all things.

They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom. So that it may be desired by all. And they will tell of Your power. So that it may be feared by all.

That they may make known to the children of men Your power, and the glory of the magnificence of Your kingdom. Lest an excuse be offered through ignorance.

Your kingdom. O Lord, the kingdom of all ages. For all ages are rolled on by the dominion of Your kingdom. And Your dominion is in every generation and offspring. The ecclesiastical generation is enlarged into the offspring of the age to come.

The Lord is faithful in all His words. When He has fulfilled all that He spoke through the prophets. And holy in all His works. That just as He is holy, so we who are His works may be made holy in Him.

The Lord lifts up all who fall. Lest they be plunged into eternal ruin. And He raises up all who are cast down. Those whom the sting of bodily pleasure has cast down, if they repent.

The eyes of all hope in You, O Lord, and You give them food in due season. The inner sight of the saints is received in that future time of recompense.

You open Your hand, and You fill every living creature with blessing. Because He endured curses and reproaches for Your name's sake in the world.

The Lord is just in all His ways, and holy in all His works. As has already been said above.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth. What does He Himself say? I am a God near at hand, and not a God far off (Jeremiah 23).

He will do the will of those who fear Him, and He will hear their prayers, and He will save them. While He delivers them, either from the instigation of the devil or from the burning of sin.

The Lord guards those who love Him, and all sinners He will destroy. Those He loves who have preferred His love to worldly loves. But those He destroys who have set the love of the world before love of Him.

My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord. Now, and in the future time of recompense. And let all flesh bless His holy name forever, and unto the age of ages. What He says: All flesh is not to be referred to insensible things, but to the whole body of the Church, which we are, who ought to praise, bless, extol, and proclaim God, through whom we live, through whom we are nourished and exist. To whom with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM 145.

Alleluia. Of Haggai and Zechariah. This psalm, inscribed with the name of two prophets, speaks with the voice of one of them, saying:

Praise, O my soul, the Lord. This psalm has as its title [the names] of Haggai and Zechariah. But we must first know this, that it is not found in the Hebrew, but in the Seventy translators. Let us also speak of the Vulgate edition of Haggai and Zechariah. For here the restoration of Jerusalem is spoken of: The Lord your God, O Zion, has reigned for ever, in generation and generation: it is thought to be said, as it were, concerning the restoration of Jerusalem, which was accomplished under Haggai and Zechariah. Praise, O my soul, the Lord. He did not say, Praise, O body: but, Praise, O soul: not that he condemned the body, but he condemned the works of the flesh. My soul praises the Lord. The soul itself exhorts itself. As if David were to say: Praise, O David, the Lord: so also the soul itself says to itself: Praise, O my soul, the Lord: I will praise the Lord in my life. See what it says: Itself exhorts itself, and itself answers. What does it say? It says to me: Praise, O my soul, the Lord. I myself answer: I will praise the Lord in my life. Now I cannot praise, I am weighed down by sins. Whenever I open my lips to the praises of God, so often the consciousness of sins glues them shut. I will praise the Lord in my life. Well did it say, I will praise: not, I praise. When I shall be with my Lord, then I will praise the Lord in my life: now I am in death, I cannot praise. I will praise the Lord in my life. Our life is Christ.

Let us praise the Lord in life. I will sing to my God as long as I shall be. See what he says: When we do something justly, we are; but when we sin, we cease to be. There are many things that could be said, but the speech hastens to its end.

Do not trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. He says this generally to all: Do not trust in princes. Not in the emperor, not in officials, not in the judges of this world.

Do not trust in princes. Who are the princes? The sons of men. Who are the sons of men? Those in whom there is no salvation.

His spirit shall go forth and return to its own land. But when it has returned to its own land, what will happen? In that day all their thoughts shall perish. All the confidence of princes shall perish, and all their thoughts shall perish. Do not trust in princes. Today he was, tomorrow he is not. Today an army precedes him, and in the evening he lies in the tomb. After such great greatness, such great splendor, no intervals intervene: in that same moment is the working of Christ. In the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. Who are the princes? The sons of men. If they themselves are nothing, what are their sons? His spirit shall go forth. Whose? A man's. His spirit shall go forth. Here he puts spirit for soul. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23). His spirit shall go forth and return to its own land.

The spirit will not return to its own land, for the spirit is not of the earth, but the spirit goes forth, and man will return to his own land. On that day all their thoughts will perish. We ourselves, who are now rulers—how many things do we think and say every day: "Tomorrow I will do that, I will tear down my barns, and again tomorrow I will build them!" It is said to me: "Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" This is said of those who trust in rulers. But what is said of the holy man?

Blessed is he whose helper is the God of Jacob. These men trust in chariots and these in horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord. Those men have many helpers—but they are rulers, but they are men, but they fall. We have one who can save. His hope is in the Lord his God. Let us see what the three youths say in the Babylonian furnace, when King Nebuchadnezzar calls them: "We have no need to answer you concerning this matter. God can indeed deliver us from the burning furnace. But if he does not deliver us, know, O king, that we do not worship the image you have set up." See their faith. "We believe," he says, "that he can deliver." But if perhaps our sins have prevented it, nevertheless we believe even in him who does not will to deliver. For we do not believe in this life, but in the life to come. We do not believe in him so that we may not burn here, but so that through these fires we may not pass over to others.

Burn therefore, prepare the furnace: that ardor, that burning, is our purging. Blessed is he whose God is Jacob's helper. See the meaning of the words. His helper: and he could do no mighty work there, because of their unbelief (Matt. 13). God is our helper. Those who are willing and laboring he delivers, and he labors together with them; those who sleep, and are silent, and are unwilling, he does not deliver. His hope is in the Lord his God. He spoke excellently: hope. And even if in the present he does not deliver, nevertheless the hope is for the future. Who made heaven and earth. This God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them. Compared with heaven, and earth, and sea, we men according to the condition of the flesh are as ants and fleas. He therefore who made heaven and earth, cannot he deliver man whom he made?

Who keeps truth forever. If falsehood oppresses us, let us not be grieved. The Lord keeps truth forever. I know not who has lied against us, and he who lies is believed more than we who speak the truth. We ought not to despair. The Lord keeps truth forever. He spoke beautifully: he keeps. He keeps it, and has it in his treasury: he will render to us what he has preserved. He who keeps truth forever is Christ, the truth. Let us speak the truth, and the truth preserves the truth for us. He does judgment for those who suffer injury. Even if he delays, do not despair. Coming, he will come, and he will save.

He executes judgment for those who suffer wrong. Let this alone be in our conscience, that we suffer justly. Let us hold this in our conscience, that we suffer because of our sins, and we do not do that for which we are accused. He gives food to the hungry. And according to the letter he builds up, and if it is understood simply, he builds up the hearer. Consider the birds of the sky: they neither sow nor reap, and your heavenly Father feeds them. He gives food to the hungry. He gives to the hungry, not to the belching. Therefore let the monk who has nothing receive confidently. Let him who has and is belching not receive. You know that you are hungry; you know that you have nothing; if you are hungry and have nothing, you confer a greater benefit if you receive what is given to you. But if you have and are not hungry, you ought not to take the food of the hungry and receive it while full. Receive what you may put into your belly, not what you may put into a sack; receive a tunic to cover the body, not one to fill chests. He gives food to the hungry. This according to the letter. Let us speak also otherwise: let us hunger for Christ, and he himself gives us the heavenly bread. Give us our daily bread today. Those who say this are hungry. Those who desire bread are hungry. He who says, Give us our daily bread today, certainly speaks as one who is hungry. He gives food to the hungry. Someone drinks, in that he speaks of the heavenly bread from the mysteries. And indeed we receive from this, that truly the flesh of Christ is, and truly the blood of Christ is. Otherwise let us speak also in another way.

The bread of Christ and his flesh is the divine word and heavenly teaching. Whoever receives this bread and is filled—what will happen? What?

The Lord loosens the fettered. If this bread has refreshed our soul—that is, the divine word and heavenly teaching—then at once our feet, which had been bound, are loosened. The Lord loosens the fettered. And Lazarus was bound, and he said: Loose him (John 11). The Lord loosens the fettered. And the daughter of Abraham had been bowed down and bound for eighteen years; she is loosened and looks up to heaven. See what is said there in the Gospel: Behold, he says, there was a certain woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, and she could not, he says, lift up her neck (Luke 13). Because she had a spirit of infirmity, she could not raise her neck upward. The Lord loosens the fettered. These very fetters are also works: since the same sins which seize our necks also bind our feet. Whoever is fettered cannot run. Whoever is fettered cannot run in the race of Christ. For their feet are weighed down by fetters, and pressed to the earth, and fastened to the earth. The Lord loosens the fettered. See the order. He gives food to the hungry. First we hunger; then we receive food. But when we have been filled, our feet, which had been fettered, are loosened. But when they have begun to walk freely, what follows? The Lord enlightens the blind.

See what he says: If he were speaking of these blind men, he ought to have said: The Lord enlightens the blind. But he did not say this, but according to the Hebrew and Greek truth, what did he say? The Lord makes the blind wise. If he were speaking of these eyes of the flesh, he ought to have said: The Lord enlightens the blind. But now it is said, The Lord makes the blind wise. If, he says, you were blind, you would not have sin. Our heart has been blinded by the darkness of sins. Foolishness and stupidity are darkness not of the eyes but of the character. When, therefore, we who hunger have been refreshed, and our feet have been set free: then the eyes of our heart will begin to see the light that they once lost, and to have wisdom. If a man has been made wise, what follows?

The Lord raises up the fallen. And if you were lying down: be secure, the Lord extends his hand. The Lord loves the just. I see two things: he loves, and he guards. He who loves, loves as his own. But he who guards, guards him who has been placed in danger. The Lord loves the just. Whoever is just and perfect is loved by him. But whoever is a stranger, and has come into the service of the Lord, he is saved.

The Lord guards the strangers: the fatherless and the widow he will take up. And according to the letter it is profitable: the fatherless and the widow he will take up. O martyr, who are held fast, that you may pour out your blood for me: do not be anxious about your sons, do not be anxious about your wife: they have me in place of you. Let us also speak according to the spirit: the fatherless and the widow he will take up. He will take up the fatherless child, who had lost God the Father through sins. And he will take up the widow—the widow, that is, the soul that had lost Christ as her husband. But see what he says: the fatherless and the widow. He did not say, he will guard; he did not say, he will save; but, he will take up: if she returns to the Father, if she returns to her husband. And the way of sinners he will destroy. He did not say, he will destroy sinners; but according to the first psalm, and the way of the wicked shall perish. If the way of the righteous is Christ, the way of sinners is the devil. And the way of sinners he will destroy. Therefore the way of all sinners is the devil; him he destroys; but us he will save, who were walking along it, and have ceased to walk.

The Lord will reign forever. Because the way of sinners has perished, then the Lord will reign forever. He did not say, "forever" in the singular, but "forever" in the plural. As long as the way has not perished, Christ does not reign in us. As long as the way of sinners has not perished, Christ does not reign in us. As long as our feet walk in the way of the devil, Christ does not reign in us. I am angry with my brother without cause: I walk in the way of the devil: Christ does not reign in me. I slander my brother: I walk in the way of the devil: Christ does not reign in me. In whatever sin I walk, I walk in the way of the devil: Christ does not reign in me. My mind is vain and is distracted in various directions. I am in one place, and my mind wanders through the whole world. The world contains angels, contains kings, contains armies, but it does not contain one monk. Why do I say all this? Because of those who wander through the whole world and cannot sit in one place. Your God, O Zion, in generation and generation: Your God, O Zion. We have frequently said that Zion means either a watchtower or the Church, or a soul contemplating God. Your God, O Zion, in generation and generation: in the first generation, of the Jews; in the second, of the Gentiles. In all the Scriptures and in all the psalms, "generation and generation" is said, so that it may signify two peoples. But we can also say it otherwise: The Lord has reigned forever, Your God, O Zion: in this generation and in the generation to come.

Let Christ reign in us, let sin not reign in our body. The heart of the king is in the hand of God (Prov. 21). Let us be kings: let us command our body and subject it, and let our heart be in the hand of God. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 146.

Alleluia. This psalm, in which we praise the builder of the heavenly city, admonishes us, saying:

Praise the Lord, for the psalm is good. This psalm is marked in its title with Alleluia. Those who do not know the Hebrew language, when they see Alleluia placed in the title of the psalms, are accustomed to ask what it means. This psalm, then, has Alleluia not only in the title but also in the opening of the psalm. For where it is said, Praise the Lord, in Hebrew it is said, alleluia. For God among the Hebrews has ten names: he is called sabaoth; he is called saddai; he is called eloim; he is called el; he is also called iao; he is called eser jaja. Among the other names, however, there is one name that is called ia. Now ia is interpreted as invisible. Where, then, it is said "praise," in Hebrew it is said Allelu. Thus here it is said Allelu ia, as if one were to say Allelu sabaoth, Allelu saddai, Allelu eloim; so also now it is said Allelu ia. Finally Theodotion, who is one of the translators, wishing to learn the truth of the interpretation, says. Why have we said all this? So that we may know that in this psalm Alleluia is placed first: Praise the Lord. This is the interpretation.

When we have gone out, it will be considered in our hearts. Otherwise the discourse will be expanded: Praise the Lord, for the psalm is good. He did not say "a good psalm," but absolutely, "the psalm is good," that is, it is a good thing to sing psalms. But to sing psalms not with the voice, but with the heart. How many have a good voice, and because they are sinners, they sing psalms badly. He sings psalms well who sings in his heart, who sings to Christ in his conscience.

Let our praise be pleasant to our God. Let praise be pleasant not with the voice, but with the conscience. Finally, Noah also offered sacrifices, and the Lord smelled a sweet odor (Gen. 8). There are many things that could be said, but we ought briefly to touch on the chief points, so that we may indicate the sense rather than broader words.

The Lord builds Jerusalem, he will gather the dispersions of Israel. How Jerusalem is built, how it is gathered, has already been said. Since, therefore, these two verses have been discussed, and we ought not to build on another's foundation, let us pass to the rest. Let us see, then, how Jerusalem is built. For in the remaining verses the prophetic discourse has described it.

He who heals the contrite of heart. God does not despise a contrite and humbled heart (Ps. 50). And binding up their contritions. You must crush your heart, and the Lord gathers your contritions. That Samaritan who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he saw the wounded man lying on the road, bound up his wounds (Luke 10). This is he of whom it is now also said: And binding up their contritions. This is said of those who do penance. But of those who do not do penance, it is said: There is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages (Isa. 1).

He who numbers the multitude of the stars. What a connection this makes according to the letter! And he binds up their contritions: He who numbers the multitude of the stars? But when he heals the contrite of heart, and binds up their contritions, those who were first contrite and afterward healed, he turns into stars. He who numbers the multitude of the stars. For many were those who sinned; many are those who have been cured. He who numbers the multitude of the stars. He does not number the wounded, but he numbers those who have already been turned into stars. God numbers only those who are worthy of his number. And calling all of them by name. Because he speaks of Lucifer, and of Orion whom we see in the sky. And this indeed can be understood thus: God is wonderful, who made heaven and earth, and all things that are in them. But let us understand it in such a way that what happens daily may profit us. And calling all of them by name.

Do you want to know how stars are made from the contrite? It is written in Genesis: That God brought Abraham out and showed him the stars and said to him: So shall your seed be (Gen. 15). And calling all of them by name. From Abram he calls him Abraham. He was called Abram in Chaldea, and in heaven he is called Abraham. At the time when he was made a star, he is called Abraham (Ibid. 17). He who was formerly Saul is afterward called Paul in heaven (Acts 9). John and James, sons of thunder (Mark 3). Thunder surely is in heaven. So the stars are numbered; the countless saints are numbered, and Christ alone cannot be numbered.

Great is our Lord and great is his power, and of his wisdom there is no number. Great power: Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1). And of his wisdom there is no number. Christ is wisdom. And one wisdom cannot be numbered.

The Lord takes up the meek. What are these stars? The Lord takes up the meek. The meek are turned into stars. But the just shall shine as the stars of heaven (Dan. 12): Daniel speaks. But he humbles sinners down to the earth. See the difference of things. Angels fall to the earth: men go to the heavens. The Lord takes up the meek. Meekness calls to heaven: pride drags down to the earth. But he humbles sinners down to the earth.

Sing to the Lord in confession. David fulfilled this: he who had given us an example of righteousness also gave us an example of penitence. For he taught us how we ought to do penance by doing it himself. See the holy prophet, how not only his righteousness profited us, but also his sin.

Sing to our God on the harp. Let no string of the virtues be broken. Let the whole string of the virtues sound together. Sing to our God on the harp. The harp has many strings: if one is broken, the sound cannot be produced. So too the holy man, however holy he may be, if one virtue is lacking, cannot produce a full-sounding note.

Who covers the heaven with clouds. This heaven that we see cannot be covered with clouds. But there is another heaven, and there are other clouds. And your truth reaches to the clouds (Ps. 35). So the truth of God reaches to those clouds which, when the wind blows, are quickly dissolved? The truth of God is Christ. I am the way, and the life, and the truth (John 14); therefore the truth of Christ is in those clouds which do not have the substance of truth in themselves. Can it then happen that truth is there, where the wind has power to scatter? I will command, he says, the clouds that they rain no rain upon them (Isa. 5), that is, upon the people of the Jews. The clouds are the prophets. The Lord commanded them not to rain rain upon Israel. To us belongs the prophecy: the word has been turned. These clouds, if they collide there, make thunder and lightning. Who covers the heaven with clouds.

If the clouds are the prophets and the apostles, how then is heaven covered by apostles and prophets? Heaven means the divine mysteries. Since, therefore, whatever things are divine mysteries are called heaven, whoever is worthy is protected by the clouds. If anyone is unworthy to receive the sacraments, he cannot be covered by the clouds. Who prepares rain for the earth. Our earth needs rain, and unless it receives rain—that is, the fountain of teachings—it will not bring forth fruit. When the earth has been moistened by such a fountain of teachings, what follows?

Who brings forth grass on the mountains, etc. If he were speaking only of grass, grass surely grows more in the valleys than in the mountains. For wherever there is more abundant rain, there grass grows more. Let waters flow down from the mountains into the valleys, and grass grows more.

And gives the beasts their food. This Scripture which we read, which we expound, which we hold in our hands—the holy mountains are spoken of in the Scriptures (Ps. 35). Abraham is called a mountain; Isaac is called a mountain; Jeremiah is a mountain: the holy prophets are mountains. These mountains have both grain and grass. If you are a man, you receive grain from them; if you are a beast, you receive grass. You will save men and beasts, O Lord. According to your faith you are saved. Who brings forth grass on the mountains, and gives the beasts their food. If you are a man, in the holy Scriptures you receive spiritual understanding; if you are a beast, you receive according to the letter, in the Jewish manner. I see a great thing.

God, who has been praised with such great proclamations, is brought down to baser things, and it is said: And to the young ravens calling upon him. If he were speaking of the birds of heaven, he would rather have named eagles or vultures. And to the young ravens calling upon him. No other bird is named, except the young of ravens, and not the ravens themselves, but the young of ravens. The raven is not saved, but the young that was born from it. We are the young of ravens. For we are born from idolatrous parents. We read in Solomon that the eye which mocks its father and the speech of its mother—let the ravens of the valleys dig it out (Prov. 30). He did not say the young of ravens, but the ravens themselves. For whoever is a raven cannot be saved. The raven is sent out from the ark and does not return (Gen. 8). In the flood it is with the others; after the flood it is cast out into misfortune—that is, at the time when there is calm, it cannot be in God's ark. If at any time there is a flood, the body is in the midst. The calm returns, and the raven flees. Who are these ravens? Who are the young of ravens? I think the ravens of black color, which always pursue the corpses of the dead, which always with the hoarsest voice provoke quarrels, are demons, and whoever has served demons, like the ravens they too receive the color of ravens. Therefore our parents, as we have already said, who served idols and demons, were ravens. For they are found only where there is filth, and foulness, and the corpses of the dead.

But we who have been born of ravens do not wait for carcasses, but for dew. For the young of ravens are said to live on dew. For so the philosophers say, that the young of ravens live on dew. Do you wish to know another mystery concerning the ravens? Elijah is interpreted as "God the Lord." Elijah, that is, our Lord and Savior, suffers persecution from the Jews, and is fed by the ravens, that is, by the people of the Gentiles. And to the young ravens calling upon him. If you call upon him, you are a young raven; if you are silent, you are a raven. And to the young ravens calling upon him. We read in the prophet: and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2). Therefore, if we take this simply of ravens, will ravens too then be saved? Answer, Jew, answer, you who follow only the Jewish letter, do you say that these ravens are truly ravens? You do not interpret spiritually, but carnally, for you say that it was written concerning ravens. If therefore it is written concerning the young of ravens, and here it has been said, and to the young ravens calling upon him. And it is written: Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved: therefore the young of ravens too will be saved in the resurrection. We, then, the young of ravens, call upon him and are saved. Finally, the apostle Paul also wrote to the Church of the saints, he wrote to those who call upon the name of the Lord (1 Cor. 1).

He will not take pleasure in the strength of a horse. We promised brevity, and compelled by necessity we have argued at greater length; we have lied, but the lie is most useful. Would that Herod had lied and perjured himself (Matt. 14). And so we promised lesser things, and at your entreaty we have provided greater ones. The hour compels me to be silent; the greatness of the mysteries compels me to speak. He will not take pleasure in the strength of a horse. I hear a horse neighing, and we cannot pass it by. It is written in the psalter: A horse is a vain thing for safety (Ps. 33). And in another place: The horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea (Exod. 15). Israel is also commanded not to rear horses. Finally Solomon, because he brought chariots from Egypt, was overcome by pleasure (Deut. 17; 1 Kings 10). He will not take pleasure in the strength of a horse. The horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea. They have become to me horses raging after females: each one neighed after his neighbor's wife (Jer. 5): Jeremiah speaks. Therefore upon such horses God has no pleasure. We have spoken of the horse: the horse and his rider has he thrown into the sea. We have said who the horses are: let us say who the riders are. I think the horses are sinful men, and the riders are the demons who ride upon them. Whenever, then, we see some brother persecuting and being an enemy, let us know that he is the horse. But the rider is the devil, who has struck us with his lance. The one runs, and the other strikes.

But even the horse itself is led by spurs, is pierced, and rages unwillingly. Nor will he be well-pleased in the legs of a man. See what he says. He did not say, in the head of a man; he did not say, in the hands of a man; but, in the legs, which are the lower parts. Nor in the legs of a man will he be well-pleased. The legs here, just as the thighs, are always taken in the sense of lust. Finally, even in Ezekiel God is seen to be from the loins upward like electrum, from the loins downward like fire (Ezek. 1). If anyone is upward, for him it is golden; if anyone is downward, for him Gehenna is prepared. Nor in the legs of a man is he well-pleased. Let us speak according to the letter. Since he had said, He will not have the will in the strength of a horse, and had described him as it were a warrior man: it seems to me that here, where he said, not in the legs, he is not calling away from the legs, but. We see, therefore, that whatever the legs cover does not please God, but that which is upward. God is not pleased in strength, he is not pleased in the legs of a man, but he is pleased in his fear. Strength does not please, fear pleases. He destroys the warrior, he lifts up the suppliant, he exalts the humble, he casts down the proud.

He is well-pleasing to God upon those who fear him. One fear casts out many fears. It is better to fear one thing, so that you may not fear many, than to fear many things, so that you may not fear one. And in those who hope upon his mercy. They hope not in their own works, but in the mercy of judgment. Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good: for those who hope upon his mercy are healed by salvation alone. To whom be glory for ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM 147.

Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord: praise your God, Sion. We have just now heard the holy prophet proclaiming that because of the transgression of the law the Jewish people has been deserted, and how it is now said: Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord: praise your God, Sion. Then what follows?

For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. Therefore he speaks of this Jerusalem, of this Sion: praise your God, Sion. Why? For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. There are no gates, and how are the bars safe? He has blessed your sons in you. How has he blessed, who said: Your house shall be left to you desolate (Luke 13)?

He who has set your borders as peace. Where is peace set, which was overthrown by war? And with the fat of grain he satisfies you. Does grain have fat? O Jew, answer. Does grain have fat? If therefore grain does not have fat, and you are compelled by necessity to understand spiritually, then according to this verse even outward things must be understood. Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord. Jerusalem, vision of peace. Praise your God, Sion. Sion is interpreted as watchtower. You see therefore what it says. Praise, Jerusalem, the Lord. Wherever there is a vision of peace, wherever there is contemplation of God: there the praise of God takes place. Therefore the Church praises the Lord, when she has begun to believe in him and to have peace, and has begun to see peace, that is, Jerusalem, the vision of peace. You who were formerly a slave of idols have been made a slave of God. Praise therefore your God. But when you have begun already to have knowledge, and to be a watchtower, that is, Sion: praise the Lord, that is, you, Jerusalem, praise; you, Sion, praise: you, the ecclesiastical soul, you, the Church. Let not heretics praise, let not the synagogues praise, but you, praise. Why? Because he has strengthened the bars of your gates. The Lord loves the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. We have said that the gates of Sion are the prophets. Since therefore we know that the gates of Sion are called the prophets: let us see what the bars of the gates are. For the true gates of the Church are the prophets. Without the prophets we cannot enter the Church. Manichaeus wished to enter without gates, and he did not enter.

Marcion does not accept the Old Testament, and without the gates of the Old Testament he could not enter into the Gospel. We therefore receive the prophets as gates, and through the gates we enter. But let us see what the bars of the gates are. Many robbers, many thieves desire to enter through the gates. All who came before me were thieves and robbers (John 10). O that the Lord would grant even to me to be a bar of the gates of Zion! If any of the heretics wished to enter through them into the arrangement of the Gospel, I would stand in the gates and forbid him. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. Give me some ecclesiastical man, learned in the heavenly Scriptures: if he sees Eunomius coming, Arius coming, wishing to take away something from the prophets against us, does he not stand like a bar? Does he not conquer like a bar? For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He spoke well in saying he has strengthened: so that when you see an ecclesiastical man disputing, you should not think that it is he who disputes, but he who strengthens the ecclesiastical man. And with the fat of grain he satisfies you. Unless, he says, the grain of wheat falls, it alone will be saved (John 12). But if it itself falls, it makes many saved. Our Lord, the grain of wheat, fell into the earth, and multiplied us. But that grain of grain is the fattest; it has marrow, it has fat. And with the fat of grain he satisfies you. Blessed is he who understands the fat in this grain. We have read the holy Scriptures.

I consider the body of Jesus to be the Gospel; the holy Scriptures, I consider, are his teaching. And when he says, "Whoever has not eaten my flesh and drunk my blood" (John 6), although this can also be understood in a mystical sense, yet more truly the body of Christ and his blood is the eternal Scripture, and his divine teaching. Whenever we approach the mystery, the one who is faithful understands; if he has fallen into sin, he is in danger. Whenever we hear the word of God—and the word of God, and the flesh of Christ, and his blood are poured into our ears—and we are thinking of something else, into how great a danger we fall! And with the fat of wheat he satisfies you. The divine word is most rich; it has in itself every delight. Whatever you wish is born from the divine word, as the Jews relate: that when they ate the manna, it tasted in their mouth according to each one's desire (Wisdom 16). As if he had said: Whoever ate the manna, if he desired evil things, if a pear, if a grape, if bread, if meat, according to the quality and desire of the one eating, so was the flavor in the manna. So too in the flesh of Christ, which is the word of teaching, that is, the interpretation of the holy Scriptures: just as we wish, so do we receive our food. If you are holy, you find refreshment; if you are a sinner, you find torment. And with the fat of wheat he satisfies you. He does not leave any remnants. He has blessed your children in you. But to as many as received him, he gave them power to become children of God (John 1).

He who has set your borders as peace—we read in another psalm: "And his place has been made in peace" (Psalm 75). "My peace I give to you; my peace I leave to you, not as the world has peace" (John 14); indeed, the world's peace is our war. "My peace I give to you." Have war with the world, and you will have my peace. He who has set your borders as peace. Therefore, whoever is not at peace with his brother, that one is not within the borders of Jerusalem. Let someone say: What am I to do? My brother does not wish to be reconciled to me; am I therefore outside the borders of Jerusalem? "As much as is in you," he says, "having peace with all men" (Romans 12). "With those who hated peace I was peaceable" (Psalm 119). You, have peace, even if another is angry. He has war, and through his war peace is born for you. Do you wish to know how war too is peace? The wretched Judas was coming to the betrayal, and the Lord offered him the kiss of peace (Luke 22); that one by a kiss created war.

He sends forth his word upon the earth. Answer, Jew: if he was speaking of grain, and "with the fat of grain he satisfies you," how does he now say, "He sends forth his word upon the earth"? "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1). This Word is sent into the flesh. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (ibid.). He sends forth his word upon the earth. At that time was fulfilled: "The earth has given its fruit" (Psalm 66). He sends forth his word upon the earth. He speaks of the preaching of the Gospel and of the teaching of the apostles. Then follows: "His word runs swiftly." For "in all the earth" his word has been heard, and "in the whole world" the apostolic teaching. One poor man, and already an old man, preached from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, and "his word runs swiftly." Since, therefore, he had come from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, and his word had run swiftly, then it follows, and that same word which had foretold, from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum, says: "But I desire to go also to Spain." This the apostle Paul says (Romans 15). See the swiftness of the word. He is not content with the east; he desires to run to the west.

He who gives snow like wool: he scatters the mist like ashes, etc. You see how great the difficulty is, how obscure are the things that are said. Before the face of his cold, who shall endure? Whose? Nothing is said. Then it is said:

He sends forth his word, and it will melt them. Of him of whom he had said: He sends forth his word upon the earth. He sends forth his word. Who sends it forth? God the Father. And the Word was with God, and God was the Word. We have spoken of the Father; we have spoken of the Son: we cannot believe in a twofold number unless the Trinity is completed.

His spirit blew, and the waters shall flow. You see that where the Father and the Word of God are, there immediately the Holy Spirit is also. Let us see, then, from the beginning what is said: And with the fat of grain he satisfies you; he sends forth his word upon the earth, his word runs swiftly. What follows suddenly? He who gives snow like wool. The word of the Lord, which runs swiftly, is given as it were as snow, and that snow itself is as it were wool. See the mercy of the Lord. The food of the Lord is turned for us into a garment. John had said of the Lord Savior: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And in another place Isaiah: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter. From that lamb, therefore, and from that sheep, this wool is as it were snow. Isaiah says: If your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Sprinkle me, O Lord, with hyssop and I shall be cleansed: you will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. He who gives snow like wool.

Take away, O Lord, my filth; take away whatever is of vice. Grant Your snow and Your purity to Christian minds. Unless You give us the snow of Your cleanliness, we cannot have Your garment. Christ is our garment. If we wish to have the garment of Christ, let us be clean as snow. He scatters the mist like ashes. The Latin translator has rendered "mist" badly. For what is said in Greek, in Hebrew has "frost" ( ). Finally it follows thus: He scatters the frost like ashes. He teaches us, and makes for us a garment like snow, and when He has clothed us with His garment, then He grants us nourishment. He scatters the frost like ashes. See what he says: like ashes. Do you wish to be clean? Do penance. I ate my bread like ashes, and I mixed my drink with weeping (Ps. 101). Do you not see how He scatters His frost like ashes? A great change of things. From ashes snow is made. From penitence, one is made clean.

He sends His crystal like morsels. As bread is broken and made into morsels, so crystal is broken and turned into morsels. Crystal has this nature, like water when it congeals, which we call ice. Between crystal, then, and water there is this difference, which is between water and ice: for water is poured out very widely, whereas crystal is, as it were, compacted in itself and reduced into one form. When water congeals, it makes crystal. Since, therefore, we cannot wholly take in the flesh of the Word, they are broken, so that we may take them in part by part. These things are obscure, and the difficulty of interpretation does not permit us to speak more widely. Before the face of His cold, who shall endure? Whose? Some say of the crystal, others of the Lord. But to me it seems to be said of God. Before the face of His cold, who shall endure? What torments are said in the Holy Scriptures to be prepared for the sinner? Nothing is hotter than Gehenna, and yet it is itself cold. Gehenna is from fire. But if anyone has grown cold from charity, he is sent into the fire of Gehenna. It is written: Because in the last days the charity of many shall grow cold (Matthew 24). Whoever, therefore, has thus grown cold, he is sent into the fire. May the Lord grant us that cold never enter our hearts; we do not sin unless charity has first grown cold. Finally, what does the Apostle say? Fervent in spirit (Romans 12). And our God is a fire (Deuteronomy 4).

If, therefore, our God is a fire, He is a fire for this reason: to cast out the cold of the devil. Aquilo is a most frigid wind, but by name it is called right. Rightly did he say, "it is called." For it has taken a name for itself, though it is on the left. If, then, anyone's soul has grown cold, it is like the Aquilo, a most frigid wind. But when does the heat of charity grow cold in our heart? If one has sinned, if one has grown cold, if one has died. Attend carefully to what I say: If one has grown cold, if one has died. To grow cold is the mark of the dead, to be warm the mark of the living. If, therefore, anyone has grown cold and died, God will send His word and melt him. May the Lord grant that our cold also be melted, that that crystal be dissolved and made soft. He will send His word, and melt them. Give me a sinner whom the Lord does not regard: one who has no heat, but is wholly cold and dead. If he is pricked to compunction by the word of God, and begins to do penance, and his hardest heart is softened, at that time is fulfilled: He will send His word, and melt them. The Father sends; the Word is sent; the Holy Spirit anoints. His spirit blew: fervent in spirit. Cold is not driven out except by the heat of the Holy Spirit. Where are the Eunomians, where the Arians, where the Macedonians, who say that the Holy Spirit is not numbered with the Father and the Son? God the Father sends; the Word is sent; and yet there is no full healing unless the Holy Spirit blows. His spirit blew, and the waters shall flow.

The waters that were formerly hard shall become soft. He who previously could not hear or give justice is now a disciple. But since we have said many things, and the things that follow are clear, let us pray to the Lord that our hardness may be softened and our sins purged, so that we may become like fire: that whatever cold of the devil there is may be cast out of our hearts, and that we may be warmed by the Holy Spirit. For there is also a wicked heat. All are adulterers, their hearts are like an oven (Hosea 7). But that heat is cast out by the heat of the Holy Spirit. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 148.

Alleluia of Haggai and Zechariah. This psalm has two alleluias in its title, and many think this is because psalms are placed in the title. But we ought to know that one alleluia is from the end of the previous psalm, and the other alleluia is the beginning of the following psalm. And we ought to accept this rule and know that all psalms which have alleluia at the beginning also have it at the end. But many think that it is the beginning of another psalm. It is not so, but the psalm that has alleluia at the beginning, that same one also has it at the end. Why did he say all this? So that you may know why two alleluias have been placed before this psalm.

Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the highest places. For the praise of God, human nature alone is not sufficient; let the heavens also be joined. Praise the Lord from the heavens. He did not say, "Praise, you heavens," but "Praise, you who are in the heavens," that is, you who dwell in the heavens, thrones, dominions, powers, seraphim, cherubim, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but in the age to come. Praise the Lord from the heavens. You who are in the heavens, you who are in the highest places, praise him in the highest places. You high ones, praise the Most High. He did not say to the lowly and those set below, "Praise," but "You who are on high."

Praise him, all his angels. Do you see in what rank the angels are? First, thrones are spoken of. Thrones, that is, seats. Let us not think these are chairs on which God sits, but certain powers in the heavenly realms in which God always sits, as it were, in his chariot. Praise him, all his angels. He who is an angel praises; he who is a demon cannot praise. Praise him, all his powers. Because we have summoned the angels to the praises of God, and man cannot know the name of all the powers, I say in a general way: Praise him, all his powers. Up to this point concerning invisible things: praise him, you who are invisible. The human eye cannot behold invisible things. Now he comes to the creatures we perceive with our eyes.

Praise him, sun and moon. See, Gentiles; see, Manichaeans. The sun praises, it is not praised. Praise him, sun and moon. You call the sun God. Behold, after how many things it praises. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the highest places. Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his powers. Your God is placed praising in the fifth degree. Praise him, sun and moon. He did not say "moon and sun," but "sun and moon." What is greater in light, he praises first. See the order of visible things. Praise him, sun; after the sun, the moon; after the moon, all the stars. Not only the morning star, not only the greater stars, but the lesser equally praise the Lord. Let someone say: How do the sun and moon and stars praise God? In that they do not withdraw from their office and service. Their service is the praise of God. You have great honor, human soul. The sun and moon and stars run for you, and serve for you. Angels, thrones, dominions have no need of the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars. For they are above the sun and moon in the heavenly places. For the sun and moon and stars are for our sake; they serve us. The Apostle also says that creation itself groans together and labors in travail for the liberation of the servants of God (Rom 8). But when the children of God have been taken up, creation itself is freed from this service. Let someone say: How does the sun serve, and is freed? How is the moon freed? How are the stars freed?

The sun is set free, lest it see the Jews; neither the Gentiles, nor those blaspheming their Lord. It sees the parricides, it sees the murderers, and yet it serves the command of him who ordered it. For he makes his sun rise upon the just and the unjust (Matthew 5). Praise him, all you stars and light. Someone may say: What is light without the sun, without the stars, without the moon? We can speak of that which shines between night and day, or between day and night, without the sun: although many think it is the very splendor of the sun. He says therefore: Praise him, all you stars and light. So that just as he had spoken of invisible things, Praise him, all his hosts, so also of visible things he says, Praise him, all that shines.

Praise him, you heavens of heavens. We speak of several heavens. Indeed the Apostle says that he was caught up even to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12). See therefore how great is the splendor, that there is a heaven of heaven. And the other things that follow, he spoke of visible things.

Because he himself spoke, and they were made. For God, to command is to do; his command is his crafting. "Because he himself spoke, and they were made," according to what is written in Genesis: "And God said, and God made" (Gen. 1). That is, God the Father spoke; the Son made. Let someone say: "Therefore the one who commands is greater, and the one who is commanded is lesser." The Arians say this, the Eunomians say this, and the Macedonians say this. I answer you according to your own understanding: O heretic, you say that the Father is greater because he commands, and the Son is lesser in that he is commanded by him. If you take this according to human understanding, answer me: which is greater, to command or to do? I say: "Let a house be built," and another builds the house. To speak is nothing great; to do is difficult. Therefore the one who does is greater than the one who orders. But this too is impious; for the Son is not greater than the Father. For just as it is impious to believe this about the Son against the Father, so too it is impious to believe that about the Father against the Son. "Because he himself spoke, and they were made; he himself commanded, and they were created." One nature commands and does. God commands, and God does. The painter commands that the painter paint; and the painter paints what he had ordered to be painted.

He established them for ever, and for ever and ever: he set a command, and it shall not pass away. Great is the honor of man, and great his wretchedness. The sun runs for you, the elements serve you: and you do not know your Creator? He set a command, and it shall not pass away. He set a command for the sun. Behold, through so many years the command of God has never passed away. To such a degree it has not passed away, that its course has been comprehended by human observation. He set a command, and it shall not pass away. He set a command for the moon, that through thirty days it wax and wane. Does it ever change its courses? In heaven the command of God is kept, and on earth it is not kept. He set a command for the sea, that it not go beyond its shores. The ocean comes swelling with waves, and returns into itself, and remembers the command of God. The whole world serves God, and remembers his command, and man alone does not remember. Therefore we say, even in the Lord's Prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6). As the angels in heaven serve you, and creation serves, so let man also serve. O wretched race of men! God descended to you: because you do not wish to ascend to heaven. Is it not enough for you that you do not receive him: but you kill, you crucify, you blaspheme, you scourge? Is it not enough for you that you kill, but you do not even repent that you have killed? He spoke of invisible things: he spoke also of visible things, but of visible heavenly things: now also of the earth. See the order of the one who praises.

First they praise the invisible things, then the visible. And the visible things themselves are divided into two: heavenly and earthly. He has spoken of the heavenly; now he speaks of the earthly.

Praise the Lord from the earth. Since the angels have praised, since heaven has praised, let the earth also praise. Let us see who from the earth are to praise first. Dragons and all the deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storms, which do his word: mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, serpents and birds of feather. After such great things, what is said? After the dragons, after the serpents, after the fire, after the hail, after the beasts and all cattle: O man, who seem great to yourself, it is said of you, and not of the ordinary man, but of those men who are greater among men.

Kings of the earth and all peoples: princes and all judges of the earth. Then what follows?

Young men and maidens, old men with the younger, let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted, and the rest that follows. O how great are the mysteries contained in these things! The heavenly things have praised, the invisible things have praised; now he descends to earthly things, and to the praise of God first dragons and the deeps are stirred up. Where sin abounded, grace did more abound (Rom. 5). You who once were a dragon, who had the poisons of the serpent; O you who once were the deep, and darkness was borne over the deep (Gen. 1). See what he says: where are the dragons, where the poisons, where the deep, where the darkness? Do not despair, therefore. O you who were a dragon, who were dark, and did not dare to praise God: do penance, and you will be converted at once. Although in the Hebrew it does not have "dragons," but has thannim, which is interpreted as "sea monsters." And the sea monsters are said to be of boundless size. Finally, the sea monster itself is said to be in the deeps. Let us therefore speak first according to the letter. See what he says: Praise those things that are in the sea, and praise those things that are outside the sea. Dragons and all the deeps. By synecdoche, from the part to the whole. Then follows: Fire. See the concordant discord of water and fire: together they praise God. Dragons and all the deeps. All things that are born from water are born from fire, that is, from moisture and heat; nor can fire alone generate without moisture, nor moisture without fire. Nothing is so contrary as moisture to heat, and heat to moisture.

Nevertheless, by the will of God, these things which are diverse among themselves are brought into harmony in our birth. Hail, snow, ice, and the spirit of storms, which do his word. There are many things that could be said, and I cannot linger over each one. Hail, snow, ice, and the spirit of storms. All things that we see in the world serve us. Serpents, the deeps, fire, hail, snow, the spirit of storms seem to be without reason: but they serve us. Yesterday there was a storm; it seemed to us to be adverse: there was cold, there was moisture, there were rains. This very thing which for a time seems to us to be adverse is for our good: for it brings forth fruit for us. For see what he says: Those things and those things which do his word. Blush, O man. Serpents, the deeps, snow, rains, the storm do the word of God, and you do not. Mountains and all hills. Mountains are not changed into hills, nor valleys into mountains: they keep their own nature. Fruit-bearing trees, and all cedars. You see a tree as though dry, its leaves lost: when summer comes, it sends forth a bud for you: it brings forth fruit for you. A tree brings forth fruit for you, and you do not bring forth fruit for God. And all cedars. Imitate the cedar. Cedars strive toward the heights: as though they hasten to go to heaven. And do you imitate irrational trees. Beasts and all cattle. They do not change their nature. All things stand in their own order, except man alone, to whom all things are subject. Serpents and winged birds.

Neither do the things that are in heaven come down to earth, but there they serve God. Let someone say: you speak according to the historical sense; you do not speak allegorically. If you speak according to the historical sense, why do the deep, and snow, and hail first praise God, then the fruit-bearing trees and the other irrational creatures, and finally man? Let us read Genesis, and according to the order of creation and of creatures, so shall we see all things praising. For there it is written that first those living things were made which are in the water; then those things were made which are on the earth; then the birds were made, and afterward he made man, one. Therefore, just as it was first made, so it praises the Lord. But there is another meaning: O man, all these things that I have said, for whose sake were they made? Beasts, serpents, fruit-bearing trees, feathered birds: all these praise God in this, that they do not change their nature. Kings of the earth, and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth. Young men and virgins, the old with the younger, let them praise the name of the Lord, because his name alone is exalted. Let every age, every sex, and every power praise him: to whom the Father, having emptied the powers, gave a name that is high: and let no one take back for himself what he uses, but let it be for him from whom it also follows:

His confession is over heaven and earth. Because, according to the Apostle, all things confess to him: not only heavenly and earthly things, but even the things under the earth (Philippians 2). And he has exalted the horn of his people. Of the Church, surely.

A hymn to all his saints, to the children of Israel, to the people drawing near to him. To these is assigned the heavenly hymn, who have been made saints in him: who behold him in mind: who draw near to his faith: whom perverse iniquity does not separate from him: who deigns to hand us over into the kingdom of God the Father, and to make us conformable to the brightness of his body: so that now not with a local and transitory song, but with the perpetual and unchanging hymn of the heavenly station, we may sing with unceasing modulation: because to him is with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM 149.

This psalm has been read, which has at its beginning:

Sing to the Lord a new song. Because both the ninety-fifth psalm and the ninety-seventh have the same beginnings. The ninety-fifth psalm is prefaced with this title: A psalm of David, when the house was being built after the captivity, that is, after repentance, the house of Christ is built. Since, therefore, he said first: Sing to the Lord a new song, and the new people sings a new song, and he blessed: let us run to the rest.

Let Israel rejoice in him who made him. Let him rejoice who sees God with the understanding. For Israel here is interpreted as "seeing God with the understanding." And let the sons of Zion exult in their king. Let the sons of the Church, the sons of the new people, exult in their king, in Christ, who reigns in them. You see how lightly we touch on the highest matters.

Let them praise his name in chorus. Wherever there is a chorus, there diverse voices are gathered into one song. For in what way do diverse voices—that is, when they have been gathered together at once—make the chorus of the Lord?

Let them praise his name in chorus. Where there is dissension, where there is envy, there is no chorus.

Let them praise his name in chorus: let them sing to him on the timbrel and the psaltery. This chorus has a song, and it has a timbrel and a psaltery. Let us crucify our bodies to Christ, and with such a timbrel let us sing to God. Let them sing to him on the timbrel and the psaltery. The timbrel does not have flesh, but skin. And we, as long as we are fleshly, are not a timbrel. It is not a timbrel unless it has no flesh, unless it is stretched out. A timbrel cannot be contracted, but must be extended. And let sins not contract us, but let righteousness dilate us. Let us run through the rest. Let them sing to him on the timbrel and the psaltery. What we say in the chorus, let us say on the psaltery. The psaltery is properly a kind of musical instrument, which is like a cithara. It has a resemblance to the cithara, but it is not a cithara.

Between the psaltery and the cithara there is this difference: the cithara is struck downward, but the psaltery is struck upward, which in the common tongue is called "many-voiced." This, then, is the psaltery. Here, therefore, we are commanded to sing to God in a new song: not downward from the cithara, but upward, that is, on the psaltery.

Because the Lord is well pleased in his people, and he has exalted the meek unto salvation. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth (Matt. 5). If, then, it is said there, "Blessed are the meek," that is, the gentle, "for they shall possess the earth," and here it is said, "he has exalted the meek unto salvation," and these meek shall possess the earth by inheritance—then that earth is not below but above. For what does it say? "He has exalted the meek unto salvation." For if the meek were to possess that earth which is below, he would not say, "he has exalted."

The saints shall exult in glory. In what glory? "Arise, my glory; arise, psaltery and cithara; I will arise at dawn." In what glory? For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7), that is, he was not yet crucified. "The saints shall exult in glory." This, then, is what I say: the saints shall exult in the cross. But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6). Behold, by the voice of the Apostle the prophecy is fulfilled. Let them rejoice in their beds. Every night I will wash my bed; with my tears I will water my couch. That is the sinner's; that is the penitent's.

But what is said here, "They will rejoice in their beds," pertains to the saints, pertains to the righteous. Who among us rejoices in his bed? Who does not struggle against his flesh? When I have kept watch from my couch, I do not rejoice but struggle; I do not sigh for the kingdom of heaven but struggle against the flesh. I water the burning of the flesh with tears and extinguish it. Therefore it is said: "I will wash my bed through every single night; I will water my couch with my tears" (Ps. 6). My couch, which burns with lust, is extinguished by tears. Blessed are those of whom it is said: "They will rejoice in their beds."

"The exultations of God are in their throat." Surely one who cries out does not cry out in his throat but in his lips. And how does he say, "The exultations of God are in their throat"? Crying out in our hearts, "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8). The voice that cries out to God is not of the lips but of the heart. Finally the Lord says to Moses: "Why do you cry out to me?" (Exod. 14). Certainly Moses had said nothing. "And two-edged swords in their hands." This is said of the saints, is said of perfect men—those who exult in their beds—what else do they have? And two-edged swords in their hands. The swords of the saints are two-edged. We read in the Apocalypse of John, which is read and received in the churches (for it is not held among the apocryphal Scriptures but among the ecclesiastical), so it is said there concerning the Lord Savior: "And a sword," he says, "sharp on both sides, was going out from his mouth" (Apoc. 1).

You see, then, that these saints received from the mouth of the Lord those two-edged swords which they hold in their hands? The Lord, therefore, gives swords from his own mouth to his saints—the two-edged sword, that is, the word of his teaching. The two-edged sword, both according to history and according to allegory, both according to the letter and according to the spirit. This two-edged sword has two heads: it speaks both of the present age and of the age to come. Here it slays adversaries, and in heaven it opens the kingdoms of heaven. Why do the saints hold these swords?

To execute vengeance, it says, upon the nations. O that I could hold this two-edged sword, so that I might execute vengeance upon the nations: I could slay the nations; I could slay Arius; I could slay Eunomius; I could slay Manichaeus; I could slay all heresies! And see what it says: To execute vengeance upon the nations. That they be killed and perish? It does not say this. Rebukes among the peoples. He rebukes, that the peoples may be saved—saved, that is, those who have been led astray by evil teachers. But the peoples cannot be set free unless the teachers have been bound. Hence it follows:

To bind their kings in fetters. Do you wish to set the people free? Bind the teachers. To bind their kings. He did not call them teachers, but kings. For they reign in their sins and in their miseries. To bind their kings in fetters. He spoke well when he said "in fetters": so that the teachers would not run about too much, so that they would not deceive many, but would be bound together and stand still. And their nobles in iron manacles. You may see their nobles among the heretics saying: "This man is learned; that man performs signs; this one casts out demons." The saints of the Lord, because they have two-edged swords—that is, swords with two heads, from both the Old and the New Testament—bind those teachers and shackle their feet, so that they cannot run. And their nobles in iron manacles. They bind, they do not slay; they do not kill, but they bind. They bind their hands and lead them captive to the Church with iron chains. These chains are made from nothing other than the testimonies of the Scriptures, while I join testimony to testimony. If you wish these chains not to be broken, let them not be single strands, but woven from both sides; for a threefold cord is not broken. But why is all this done?

That they may execute in them the written judgment. What is the written judgment? That those who first denied God may afterward return to repentance. The written judgment, that they may release their captives, that those whom they had bound, and whom they had led away from the Church, they may afterward loose within the Church. That they may execute in them the written judgment. I speak in simpler words, that is, that they may judge them in the way that has been set out in the Holy Scriptures. This is glory for all his saints. Truly there is no glory where there is gold, where there is silver, where there are gems, where there are silken garments. Whoever has these swords, what else does he need? See what he says: This is glory for all his saints. Let us ask God that we may have this glory: that the sword going forth from the mouth of our Savior may arm our hands. He who has this sword does not fear the sword of the world. I tell you a new thing: frequently the sword of this world has cut down that sword. Frequently it happens that the sword of the world gives us that sword. For if we fear this one, we shall not receive that one. Let us therefore give thanks to him who has this sword, and bless him for ever and ever. Amen.

PSALM 150.

Alleluia. This psalm contains the sacrament of the third fifty, that is: the first fifty regenerates us unto the good of innocence through baptism and repentance; the second comprehends the fruit of innocence after judgment; the third, once the building of the divine city is completed and the hope of all the saints is consummated, exhorts us to eternal rejoicing and praise. For it says:

Praise the Lord in his holy ones. He who, after the judgment has been celebrated, will place them in the glory of eternity. Praise him in the firmament of his power. Because, with every infirmity removed, he has brought upon them the firmament of eternal power.

Praise him in his powers. For in that he mightily consumes death by immortality, he has granted them the glory of unchangeable life: which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man (1 Cor 2). Praise him according to the multitude of his greatness. Because he assigns to the heavenly bodies their mansions, distinguished by manifold honor, as the Lord says: In my Father's house are many mansions (John 14).

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. In that war those who were slain have conquered, the Lord crushing Satan under their feet. Praise him with the psaltery and harp. Because he has granted them either to fulfill the song of the law from heaven, or after the flesh has been made alive (Rom. 16), which is understood as the harp, he has given them life in himself.

Praise him with the timbrel and dance. With the timbrel, because the mortified body is stripped of immortality. With the dance, because it is joined to the angelic choirs. Praise him with strings and organ. Because through abstinence from foods, with their inward parts wrung out and carnal desires conquered, they have been found worthy of the kingdom of God, to sing forth divine praises in harmony.

Praise him with cymbals well sounding; praise him with cymbals well tinkling. This praise is fulfilled in the cymbals well sounding and exulting, because, with the corruption of flesh and blood driven away, conformed to the image of the Creator, filled with all fullness of hope, they shine like the sun in the kingdom of God the Father almighty. Let every spirit praise the Lord. In this kingdom, therefore, not flesh, not blood, not corruption, but man now made wholly spiritual: let him not cease to praise God in the spirit (who is spirit). May he deign to grant us that, having become doers of the law in this world, proven in the struggle of this life, and found faithful, enriched with spiritual fruits, we may deserve to be joined to these who sing in harmony.