Breviarium In Psalmos

I will love you, O Lord, my strength. Others say, my fortitude, but strength and fortitude are one. This whole psalm, under the person of David, pertains to Christ, who is true fortitude. I will love you, my strength. The voice of Christ. My strength: that is, the divinity; the strength of the man assumed. And the Church is the strength of Christ, who says: I will love you, O Lord. If it is the voice of Christ, since they are one, and one also is the substance of the divinity, because it has been said: One power, one will, one majesty of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: how does he say, I will love you, O Lord? He is called Father because he has a Son, and he is called Son because he has a Father. The Holy Spirit is neither Father nor Son, but the love which the Father has in the Son, and the Son in the Father. Whence the apostle Paul said: Because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5). The Lord is my firmament. The voice of Christ, and the voice of the Church. Firmament, as the prophet says; a tower of strength from the face of the enemy (Ps. 60). And my refuge. The voice of Christ, and the voice of the Church. The refuge of Christ in the Father, and the refuge of the Church in Christ. And my deliverer, in tribulation.

My God, who created me. My helper in necessities. I will hope in him; in him I will place my whole hope.

My protector, who protects or defends me. And the horn of my salvation. The horn of salvation: because he strengthened our weakness. For before the coming of Christ the Church was weakened through sin, but afterward she was strengthened through Christ, as the prophet says: He has raised up a horn of salvation for us (Luke 1). As if he were saying: He has given us a strong kingdom, as that passage: And he has made us a kingdom for God his Father (1 Thess 2). Not, therefore, in that horn of pride, but in the horn of your salvation, I trust to have help. My upholder. Christ was taken up by the Father in his humanity, and the Church is taken up in faith.

Praising, I will call upon the Lord. The righteous praise him: because he delivered them from all evils, for what follows: And I will be saved from my enemies. I have called upon the Lord. Christ called upon God the Father. The Church calls upon Christ. And I will be saved from my enemies: Christ from the Jews, and the Church from the heretics.

The groans of death surrounded me. The voice of Christ, and the voice of the Church. Those who were groaning in hell, who were in hell, surrounded Christ, and the Church likewise. And the torrents of iniquity troubled me. He calls torrents the waters that pass through. A torrent is so called because it comes not from a spring nor from living water, but from rains, or descends from the mountains into the valleys, and goes into the sea. What is signified by the torrents, if not all the nations, which through the mountain of the flesh descend into that sea? Whence it is written: Generation goes and generation comes (Eccles. i): And otherwise. And the torrents of iniquity troubled me. The crowds of the wicked, which swell like torrents in winter, immediately flowing away.

The sorrows of hell surrounded me. On the day of those who slander, which work infernal death. The snares of death came upon me first. The enemies came upon Christ first in his passion, before the vengeance of the cross, with the snares of death, which the adversaries were stretching out against me.

And in my tribulation I called upon the Lord. Humanity called upon divinity, and the Church upon Christ: not with the voice of the mouth, but of the heart. And I cried out to my God, and he heard my voice from his holy temple. The temple is the Lord's body, where humanity was heard by divinity, and the Church likewise by Christ. In the temple, in the holy Church. And another meaning: in my heart, which he sanctified, in which temple he dwells as in a holy place. And my cry entered into his ears in his sight. His ears: that is, the power of hearing. Power is the strength by which the saints pray mightily, because it is written, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

The earth was moved and trembled. According to the history, this happened when Moses received the law on Mount Sinai. The earth trembled, which prefigured the passion of Christ, because in the passion of Christ all the earth trembled, when a new law was given to the Christian people. Otherwise: the earth was moved when they came from unbelief to faith, and for those who believed, earthly things became heaven. The foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved. Here the mountains are understood as the proud. Their foundations are the demons, just as the foundations of the saints are the prophets and apostles. Whence the holy Paul says: Built upon the foundations of the prophets and apostles. The foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, that is, the pride of those who trust in this world. Because God was angry with them.

That is, upon those mountains, or persecutors, scattering the hope of worldly pleasures.

Smoke went up in his anger, etc. Smoke is produced from two things: from fire and water. By smoke, tears are stirred up; by fire, compunction of heart is understood; and by tears, water. Coals were kindled by him. What is signified by coals but the human race of good nature, extinguished through Adam, enlightened at the coming of Christ through baptism or through penitence? Coals are extinguished by water, which is desire; and they are enlightened by grace, which is the Holy Spirit.

He bowed the heavens and came down. This is what he says in another psalm: He came down like rain upon the fleece (Psalm 71), because he offered himself to us as humble, and hidden in the form of a servant, and concealed. Or otherwise: the heavens, the angels, were bowed down when Gabriel came to Mary, and Christ came down and came into the flesh. Or otherwise: the heavens are the holy apostles, or their imitators. They bowed down from on high—that is, from contemplation—so that they might teach the unlearned and the weak in the Church, out of compassion for their neighbors. Or to the married, as the holy Paul says: Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife likewise to her husband (1 Cor 7). And darkness under his feet. It signifies the invisible substance of God, and the hidden things of his judgments. Or otherwise: And darkness under his feet.

Darkness: that is, the depth of the Scriptures, which God gave to his feet, which are his saints: that is, to his Church: because in the understanding of the saints there is the depth of the Scriptures, and Christ presides over them.

And he ascended upon the Cherubim. That is, upon the fullness of knowledge, Christ ascended with his body above all angels and archangels. Cherubim is interpreted as the fullness of knowledge, which is charity: because the fullness of the law is love, that is, charity. Christ ascended upon this, just as in the Gospel the Lord himself says: No one has greater charity than that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15). This Christ did, who gave his life for his friends. And he flew, etc. According to the historical sense, what comes first: he flew upon the wings of the winds: because the wind is swifter than all creatures, and the Lord is swifter than the wind, because he penetrates even to the ends of the earth, and disposes all things sweetly. Because he himself is beyond the wind, therefore he is swifter. And according to the moral sense: he wished the wind to signify the soul. Just as this wind is invisible, so too is the soul. The wind moves the body, and the soul moves the body similarly. But why did he call the soul wind? That is, because God breathed into Adam. Not that God the Father is corporeal: but he breathed then, when he gave the soul, as the prophet says: You, Lord, create every breath (Isaiah 57). Through these things we understand that all souls were created by God.

And he flew: he flew upon the wings of the winds: that is, the powers of holy souls, because Christ is swifter than the wind, and lighter than the soul, and higher than the angels and the saints.

He placed darkness as his hiding place, etc. He called himself a hiding place in the Scriptures. His tabernacle is round about him. Christ in Mary is like a bridegroom in the bridal chamber, and Mary's body is like a tabernacle. He calls them darkness: because his Incarnation, or his Nativity, is obscure to us. Dark water in the clouds of the air. The clouds are the prophets: and the water is their teaching, because the Scriptures of the prophets are obscure. For just as clouds carry rain and water the dry earth, so too the prophets by their teaching water dry hearts.

Before the lightning in his sight the clouds passed away. The lightnings are the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The clouds themselves, namely the prophets, passed over from the Jews to the Gentiles, with the Holy Spirit guiding. Through the lightnings of fire, compunction of heart is understood. Hail, and coals of fire. In the hail, scourges are shown: in the fire, the kindling of charity: by which the hearts of the faithful are moved to know God.

And the Lord thundered from heaven. Through his saints he thundered: as if from heaven, through the hearts of the righteous he proclaimed the gospel. And the Most High gave his voice. Through the evangelists he scattered human malice. The Most High gave his voice: that is, preaching, as the prophet says: The voice of your thunder in the wheel (Ps. 76), that is, their preaching throughout the whole world.

And he sent his arrows, and scattered them. He sent his holy words as arrows, which are preached fully to both the evil and the good. God rewards the good, if they do them; and he crushes the evil, if they hear and do not do them. Whence the holy apostle says: We are indeed to some the odor of life unto life, and to others the odor of death unto death (II Cor. 2). They are the odor of life to those who hear and do; and they are the odor of death to those who hear and do not do. Because the preachers do not know who are predestined; nevertheless they preach with confidence. And he multiplied lightnings, and troubled them. Lightnings: miracles, and the brightness of his power. He troubled them. By those miracles of the apostles they were pierced with compunction, even those who said to Peter: What shall we do, men and brothers? And he said: Do penance: and let each one of you be baptized (Acts 2).

And the fountains of waters appeared. The fountains are the apostles, who drank as it were waters from one fountain. From the one fountain which is Christ, the apostles were satisfied, as he said in the Gospel: Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall not thirst forever (John 4). And otherwise: the fountains of waters are those who through the sacrament of baptism have become for sinners a fountain of living water springing up unto eternal life. And the foundations of the earth were revealed. The prophets and apostles, upon whom the foundations of all the churches are laid. The foundations of the earth were revealed, according to the historical sense, when at the passion the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, and those things which were in the temple appeared. And according to the sense, from the letter to the spiritual sense, because what lay hidden there in figure was laid open to all through the mysteries.

At your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the spirit of your wrath. At your rebuke, O Lord, when you said: Unless the Son shall have set you free, you shall die in your sins (John 8). At the blast of the spirit of your wrath, promising in these things that the kingdom of God was at hand.

He sent from on high and took me, by calling me. And he took me up from the multitude of waters, that is, from the peoples opposing me. Or otherwise: He sent from on high and took me, and took me up from the multitude of waters. God the Father sent his Son, as it is said: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1). The bridegroom sent for the bride; he joined the true bridegroom to the bride, that is, flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary. He took me up from the multitude of waters, that is, from the multitude of the people. The Church has been gathered together. Many waters, many peoples.

He delivered me from my most powerful enemies. God the Father delivered Christ from the Jews, and the Church from the heretics. And from those who hated me, because they were strengthened against me. The Jews hated the Lord, and the heretics the Church. Because they were strengthened against me, as though they could have conquered.

They came before me. As we said above, before the vengeance of the cross. And the Lord became my protector. God the Father protected his Son, and the Son his Church.

He led me out into a broad place. He led the Church out of tribulation, as if out of narrow straits: into a broad place, which is the hope of what is to come, or the reward of eternal life. He made me safe, because he willed me. The voice of the Church: he who willed me, that he might present to himself the Church. Because he willed me. By his own will, and not by my merit, he called me, as the Apostle says: You are saved by grace through faith: and this not of yourselves (Eph. 2).

And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the innocence of my hands he will repay me. But what this righteousness and innocence of his hands is, hear what follows: Because, he says, I have kept, that the ways of God may be kept, and that nothing be thought impiously of him with the heretics.

Because I have kept the ways of the Lord. That is, his commandments. Nor have I acted impiously against my God. So as to turn praise to an idol.

Since all his judgments are in my sight always. There are four judgments of God: two concerning the present, and two concerning the future. In the present, the prosperity of the wicked and the tribulation of the saints. In the future, the reward of the saints and the condemnation of sinners. The Church clings to Christ, because Christ did not commit sin: nor was guile found in his mouth. And the Church clings to Christ, since all his judgments are in my sight always. And I have not cast his righteousnesses away from me. But I have embraced them.

And I will be blameless with him, and I will keep myself from my own iniquity. I will persevere in that innocence in which I was called. And I will keep myself from my own iniquity: that is, I will not turn back to that iniquity in which I was formerly, in my unbelief.

And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the purity of my hands in the sight of his eyes. By eyes is understood the gaze of the Godhead, because he himself beholds whatever a man does in the commandments of God. In the recompense of the blessed, which I contemplate through the height of hope.

With the holy you will be holy, with him who is sanctified by you. And with the innocent man you will be innocent, with him who has not corrupted his life by vices.

And with the elect you will be elect, with him whom you know to have been foreknown. And with the perverse you will be perverted, with the heretic who by understanding badly perverts the divine utterances: as elsewhere the Lord himself speaks to the Jews: If you walk perversely before me, I also will walk perversely against you. With the holy you will be holy. You, O Christ, are holy by nature: whom you have sanctified, by him you are acknowledged, since you are holy. The voice of the prophet to Christ: whom you have made innocent, by him you are acknowledged, that you are innocent: because you harm no one, therefore you are innocent. Whom you have chosen, that he may be elect: by him you are acknowledged to be elect, as Paul said: That I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended (Philippians 3).

They are called perverse who decline from uprightness into perversity, like the devil, and Judas, and heretics, and all the proud. As often as God executes just vengeance, they find fault with him, when he chooses the poor and rejects the powerful, when he chooses fishermen, such as Peter, and passes over the noble. This seems perverse to the perverse, as the prophet says: The ways of the Lord are straight (Hos. 14), but your ways are perverse.

For you will save a humble people, which we have said above. And you will bring low the eyes of the proud. For you will save a humble people, one that repents, and you will bring low the eyes of the proud: because those puffed up with pride disdain to repent.

For you illuminate my lamp. What is the lamp but the understanding of the soul? Just as the eyes of the body, if they have no light from an outward lamp, do not see in darkness, so too the understanding of the soul, unless it is illuminated by another, that is, by Christ, does not see: as it says in the Gospel: He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1). Lord my God, enlighten my darkness. That is, the ignorance of the heart. Whence it is written: If the light that is in you is darkness, how great will that darkness itself be (Matt. 6)? And the apostle says: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord (Eph. 5).

For in you I shall be delivered from temptation. The voice of the Church. Unless I am delivered by God, I can do nothing by myself. And in God I shall cross over the wall. The Church calls our sins a wall, which we build up, adding sins to sins. Unless those sins are destroyed by God, we cannot by ourselves pass over to God.

My God, his way is undefiled. The undefiled way: that is, his incarnation, because he was not conceived from a man's seed, but of the Holy Spirit. And otherwise: the perfect faith of the Church is called his undefiled way, by which God comes to us. The words of the Lord are tried by fire. The words of the Lord, his commandments, are pleasing in this God—not that they themselves are tried by fire, or that they had been defiled, but that they make the one who receives them like pure gold, purified through fire. He is the protector of all who hope in him. Those who believe in him. God protects those who fear him with holy fear.

For who is God besides the Lord: or who is God besides our God? Here the Trinity is understood. What he said, "besides the Lord," is understood as God the Father. "Besides our God": the Son: and the third person, that is, the Holy Spirit: because God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, is one God.

God who has girded me with virtue. By similitude, as a man girds his garments, so that they do not hinder his feet, which are the senses: and his hands, which are works. He has girded: that is, so that the folds of desire may be restrained, as I said above, lest they be hindered by desire. Or otherwise: God who has girded me with virtue: the Holy Spirit who arms us against iniquitous powers, according to the Apostle: Put on the armor of God, and the sword of the Holy Spirit, that you may be able to resist the devil (Eph. 6). Let the heretics now be silent, seeing the Trinity expressed here, and let them acknowledge the Son, whom they say is lesser than the Father, foretold first by the prophet, not as prior, but in no way inferior. And he has set my way immaculate. That is, my faith, lest I be violated from it.

Who made my feet like those of deer. Just as deer tread thorns underfoot and leap over the woods, so the saints tread thorns underfoot, that is, sins; they leap over the woods, that is, unbelief; and they ascend all the way to God, that is, to the height of love. Who made my feet like those of deer, for leaping over the hindrances of this world. And he set me upon the high places. The high places are the holy Church: and Christ is above the high places, and the high places above the high places: that is, above the sublime things of the Church. He set me upon the high places, he placed my hope in heavenly things.

Who teaches my hands for battle. My works against the devil, the destroyer. Who teaches my hands for battle, for warring down crimes. And he made my arms like a bronze bow. A bronze bow: that is, intention; the arms, strength: that is, that they not fail in doing good.

You gave me the protection of your salvation. The voice of the Church to Christ. Of salvation: because he himself is our salvation, as it says: Salvation is the Lord's. You gave me the protection of your salvation: lest I be oppressed by evils. And your right hand took me up. The right hand of the Father is Christ. He took me up, the Church, through the incarnation. Your discipline corrected me unto the end. For whom the Lord loves, he rebukes. We therefore are raised up who had first fallen, when we have been struck down by the Lord. And your teaching itself will teach me. It is necessary, while we are here, to be under teaching.

Hence Paul says: Every discipline, he says, in the present does not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow, but afterward it yields a very great fruit for the future (Hebr. xii).

You have enlarged my steps under me. The sense of the Church: under me, under the power of the Church. You have enlarged my steps under me, in the breadth of your charity. And my footsteps have not been weakened. The footsteps, by the example of the Church, have not been weakened by successors: because they have been imprinted on those following me. Hence the voice of Christ after the resurrection.

I will pursue my enemies, and I will overtake them. The Jews certainly, who have been made his enemies unjustly. Or otherwise: I will pursue my enemies, the carnal affections. And I will overtake them, before I am overtaken by them. And I will not turn back until they fail, etc. I will not turn back from fighting against them: or I will not turn back from this intention until they fail, whether from malice, or from depraved thoughts. I will afflict them with many evils, as we read was already done in the time of Titus. Nor will they be able to stand, because they were unjust, and the proud had been raised up. They will fall under my feet, whether that they may adore, or that they may be trampled underfoot.

You have girded me with strength for war, against death, or against its ministers. You have girded me with strength, that is, with courage against the devil, or against the aforementioned vices. You have supplanted those rising up against me beneath me, those who were lifting themselves up above my head.

And you have given my enemies to me as a back. For they did not wish to turn their face to me. And you have given my enemies to me as a back. My enemies give their back when they flee, and when they go after me. And you have scattered those who hate me. All the enemies of the Church, or the vices and sins themselves, God has scattered. And you have scattered those who hate me. For each one has been scattered in his own malice.

They cried out, and there was no one who could save them: to the Lord, and he did not hear them. Because they were unworthy of his hearing. They will cry out. Who will cry out? The impious demons, and the Jews and the heretics will cry out in the future judgment: and there will be no one who can save them: because when God cried out to them through the prophets, or through the rest of the Scriptures, they were unwilling to hear: therefore they will cry out, and there will be no one who will hear them, as Solomon says: I called, and you refused, I stretched out my hand, and there was no one who looked (Prov. i). You despised all my counsel, and you neglected my reproofs. Therefore I also will laugh in your destruction: when what you feared has come upon you. I will mock, when sudden calamity has rushed upon you. Then you will call upon me, and I will not hear.

And I will crush them like dust before the face of the wind. I will crush them, that is, those aforementioned carnal affections I will bring to nothing. And I will crush them like dust before the face of the wind: because, dry and without the rain of mercy, they were cast out and crushed in their pride, and scattered like the dust of the field. Like the mud of the streets I will blot them out, after the manner of muddy mire.

Deliver me from the contradictions of the people, you will establish me as the head of the nations. The voice of Christ to the Father: You will deliver me from the contradictions of the Jewish people, certainly: because when some said, He is truthful, those on the contrary said, No; rather he deceives the crowd. Rescue me from those unbelieving peoples who contradict me. Do you rescue me from the unbelieving Jews, and establish me as their head, that is, of the nations.

The people whom I did not know served me. That is, the nations who did not know me either through faith or through the law will serve me. The people whom I did not know will serve me. For I did not know them when they served idols: now believing, they have become known to me and have served me. With the hearing of the ear he obeyed me. They obeyed me with their ears, because they did not see the wonders, nor my bodily presence. Afterwards they heard and believed. With the preachers instructing them, the Church received a spiritual ear: by which, understanding, she may keep the divine commandments.

The sons of strangers. Isaiah also says the same: Woe to the sinful nation, to the sons of strangers, to a people full of sins (Is. 1). By an ancient word, the Jews were called sons of God; but they were estranged, because they were made sons of the devil. And the same Jews, whose father is the devil: They lied to me, because they did not stand in the truth, just as their father also did not. The sons of strangers have grown old: that is, because they did not receive the coming of the new man, they remained in the old man. And they have limped from their paths. They limp: because they believe the Father, and do not believe the Son. They have one foot, and they do not have the other: hence they limp in the letter of the law. The voice of the church.

The Lord lives. Whom they had shut in the tomb under the placing of seals. And blessed be my God, by God the Father. The Lord lives, and blessed is the Lord my God. Was he not living before? But he says this on account of the incarnation: just as the holy Paul says: Who died for a time from the weakness of the flesh, but lives from the power of God. For he no longer dies, death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom. 6). And may the God of my salvation be exalted. The voice of the Church to Christ: Because Christ was exalted in the Ascension. Or otherwise: May the God of my salvation be exalted: May he always be exalted in me: whose calling is my salvation: lest I think anything base of him.

O God, who give me vengeance, by overthrowing the Jews: or the traitor Judas himself. Or otherwise: O God, who give me vengeance. The voice of the Church to Christ. God gave the Church power to bind and to loose, and to exercise discipline; as Peter and Paul had power, through the Spirit of the Lord: as he said: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy (Lk. 10). And you have subdued peoples under me, under the power of the Church, to rule the unbelieving nations. My deliverer, the Lord, from the angry nations: Christ in his passion from the Jews crying out: Crucify, crucify him; and the Church from the heretics, and the soul from all vices, which he called nations.

And from those rising up against me you will exalt me, that is, from persecutors. From the unjust man you will deliver me, that is, from the devil, as it is said: an enemy man has done this.

Therefore I will confess to you among the peoples, O Lord. The Church says: I will praise you among those who believe. I will sing a psalm to you among the nations: that is, I will praise and I will labor: Therefore I will confess to you among the peoples, O Lord. I will sing a psalm to your name. For I am among these; I will confess to you, Father: and I will sing psalms, the voice of the prophet.

Magnifying the salvation of his own king, Christ the Lord, because he has risen. Or otherwise: the prophet speaks to God the Father: because he brings healing, and salvation through individuals, because he draws souls through preaching, so that there may be salvation for those who believe, who believe unto the salvation of his own king. And showing mercy to his Christ, his David: that is, to his only-begotten. David is interpreted as strong in hand, which is Christ. And to his seed even to the end. His seed, these are his saints. The Lord always shows mercy to his saints without end. And showing mercy to his Christ, David and his seed unto the age, to the mediator himself, Jesus the Lord, and to the ecclesiastical people, who believed through his word. May he himself, the most mighty deliverer, deign to snatch us from this world, and to establish us in faith through the Gospel, because to him be glory and dominion with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, throughout all ages of ages. Amen.

PSALM XVIII.

Unto the end, a psalm of David. The psalm contains the voice of the prophet speaking of Christ. This psalm is sung in the person of Christ through the prophet, and in the person of the Church.

The heavens declare the glory of God, etc. From created things the Creator is consequently known. Otherwise: The heavens declare the glory of God: the earth cannot declare it. According to the history, heaven and earth with their other creatures declare the glory of God, as Paul says: Through the things that are made, being understood, they are seen (Rom. 1): that is, being understood by those who understand, they are seen. This heaven is the firmament. Whence he said: And God placed the firmament in the midst of the waters, that is, heaven (Gen. 1). Otherwise according to the sense: The heavens are the apostles, and what is glory, that is, the work: and what is declare, that is, they announce: because they preach the glory of God. And so that we may know that this is the firmament which is also called heaven in Genesis: And God called the firmament heaven. They announce. Whence also the Lord to the disciples: All things whatsoever I have heard from my Father, I have announced to you (John 15).

Day utters speech unto day, and night shows knowledge unto night. He has set like against like, in that through the order of times we come the more to the knowledge of God. Day utters speech unto day, and night shows knowledge unto night. The day of yesterday announced the day of today, and today's day announces tomorrow's day. According to the sense: the day is Christ. And otherwise, the day is the apostles. As Christ is the day, as he says: I am the light of the world (John 8): so also the apostles are days, as he says: You are the light of the world (Matt 5). And one day has twelve hours. Whence the Lord himself said in the Gospel: Are there not twelve hours of the day (John 11)? By these are understood the twelve apostles. Night unto night. The night is Judas; unto the night of the Jews: he shows knowledge, that is, when he said: Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, hold him fast (Matt 26). Otherwise: the night is the depth of the Scriptures in the prophets, announcing the depth of the Old Testament.

There are no speeches, nor words, whose voices are not heard. There are no speeches—as if he were saying, tongues—nor words, because tongues have many words. Or the diversities of words are understood through words, as if he were saying: There were no utterances at all which the apostles did not receive in the variety of tongues, and therefore there were no tongues at all which did not hear the words of the apostles, when he says: Their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world—that is, into all the islands, or the ends of the world.

Their sound went forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world—of the apostles, that is, and of the gospels.

In the sun he has set his tabernacle. In the Hebrew it reads thus: He has set his tabernacle in the sun for them, that is, in the heavens. God has set his tabernacle in the sun, and he himself as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber. In the sun—in the womb of the holy virgin Mary. Maria is interpreted as star of the sea. The light of the sun shines more than that of the stars. The sun of justice is the Lord, as the prophet says: The sun of justice shall rise upon you (Malachi 4)—which is Christ. This sun illumined the star, that is, Mary, so that she might be as the sun. Therefore he set his tabernacle in the sun, when he took a body from her womb. And he himself as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber. The bridegroom is the Word of the Father, the bride is human flesh, with which he came forth from the chamber—that is, from the womb of the Virgin.

He rejoiced like a giant to run his course. By the sun, Christ is mystically understood. He rejoiced like a giant to run his course. Here the giant is put for the strength of Christ, in that he himself bound the strong devil and plundered his vessels (which we once were). To run his course: because he had no delays here. How? Here he was born, came to his passion, rose again, and ascended. His going forth is from the highest heaven, and his meeting is even to the highest of it. From the highest heaven, that is, from the Father, which is the principal name: not because he is greater than the Son according to divinity, but on account of the name of the Father. From the highest, that is, from eternity, is his going forth. And his meeting is even to the highest of it. His meeting, in the co-equality of eternity. Because he ascended to the heavens, he sits at the right hand of the Father, where before and always he was with him. And there is no one who hides himself from his heat. For there is no one who does not have the seeds of the understanding of God. Nor is there one who hides himself from his heat. There is no one who does not have something from his heat which he would not have given him from the many divisions of thanksgivings: as Paul said: To one is given the word of wisdom: to another the word of knowledge (1 Cor 12).

The law of the Lord is blameless. The law is Christ himself, who did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5). Blameless: because he had no sin. The law of the Lord is spotless. He who had previously praised God through created things now begins to preach through the gift of the law. Converting souls, from captivity into freedom. The testimony of the Lord is faithful. What testimony? Is it not that he said: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11)? Faithful, because he does not lie. Giving wisdom to little ones—little ones not in understanding, but in humility. Whence it is written: Because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones (Matthew 10).

The judgments of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Judgments, that is, his decrees: Right, because God judges rightly, and by the righteous are they held to be right. Rejoicing the heart, the souls of the saints. The commandment of the Lord is radiant, the new testament. Enlightening the eyes, that is, the eyes of the heart.

The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring forever and ever. Fear together with love: whence he said, Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4). Let him fear not with the fear of hell, or the fear of punishment, but with holy fear: let him so fear as not to lose through negligence the one whom he loves. The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves, not by another, but by themselves. For God deceives no one.

Desirable above gold and the precious stone Much, beloved above all worldly treasures. And sweeter above honey and the honeycomb, because no precious metal can be compared to the judgments or wisdom of God: neither gold nor precious stone, nor what pertains to ornament and clothing: nor honey from which one is fed. By these two things man is clothed and fed: as Paul says: Having food and clothing, let us be content with these (1 Timothy 3). If you shall have been a precious stone and proven like gold, you will deserve to understand the judgments and wisdom of God.

For truly your servant keeps them; in keeping them there is great reward. For what reason does he keep them, except that in keeping them there is great reward? If you keep, says the Lord, my commandments, you will remain in my love (John 15). And what greater reward is there than that one be loved by God?

Who understands his offenses? He who is in offenses, that is, in sins, does not understand the judgments of God, nor his own sins, as long as he is in offenses. Who understands his offenses? This is the third division of praise, by which he teaches that what was impossible under the law—whereby, through transgression of the law, sin had appeared more in the world—was fulfilled by the grace of the Gospel, and that no one can be freed from the filth of his thoughts except through the coming of the Holy Spirit. Who understands his offenses, except God, the searcher of hearts, who also can forgive them? Cleanse me from my hidden sins, and spare your servant from those of others. From hidden sins, that is, from past sins; and from those of others, that is, those which are to come and have not yet come to me. Or otherwise: from hidden sins, that is, from all that are in me; and from those of others, that is, from sins—because the devil held pride in secret and was cast down; afterward he was a stranger to Adam, before Adam himself had sinned. But after he consented to him, they were joined in pride and will, and from one sin the devil made for himself two judgments, so that he might be judged doubly, because he killed both himself and another.

If they have not had dominion over me, then I will be immaculate. If those sins have not had dominion over me, then I will be immaculate. And I will be cleansed from the greatest offense, that is, from pride; because pride is the beginning of every sin.

And they will be as to please, the words of my mouth. Then my words will please you. And the meditation of my heart in your sight always, that is, from the remembrance of humility.

O Lord, my helper and my redeemer. Helper in tribulation and in necessities. And my redeemer: because you have redeemed me with your precious blood. You are the helper of the human race: when you make us draw near to you. You are the redeemer: because by your passion and resurrection you have redeemed us from destruction, you who deign to keep us continually walking in your law: because to you, with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

PSALM XIX.

Unto the end, a psalm of David. The prophet sings this psalm in the person of the Church concerning Christ. The prophet foresaw that Christ would come in the flesh for our redemption, and would pray for his enemies. Hence he said: May he hear.

May the Lord hear you in the day of tribulation. In the day of tribulation, he spoke on the part of the flesh. Some think this psalm was spoken from the voice of the people speaking to Christ, as to both king and priest.

May he send you help from the holy one. To him who had taken the form of a servant, rightly, as to a man, he prays for help. May he send you help from the holy one: that is, from himself, because that divinity was in his very body. And from Sion may he receive you: that is, from the Church itself, Sion, which is both the Church, and he himself is in the Church.

May the Lord be mindful of all your sacrifice. That is, that he may redeem through his passion. Because Christ himself is king, and priest, and victim: because he offered himself in his passion, because he gave his blood for us. May your holocaust be made fat, that is, may it be acceptable to God. A holocaust is wholly burned: because Christ ascended to the cross with body and soul. All your victims, the sacrifice of Christ is, whether what we all offer to him in prayer: or what he himself poured out his blood for all. And the sense is: Do not suffer anyone to perish, since you have died for all, and may the Father fulfill all your will. Whence he says: I will that just as I and you are one, so also these may be one in us. (John xvii).

May the Lord grant you according to your heart—that is, whether on behalf of the humanity of Christ's flesh, or on behalf of His body, which is the Church—he desires that he be heard. And may He confirm all your counsel—that is, the counsel of the Trinity.

We shall rejoice in your salvation. The voice of the Church: in the salvation which you gave by suffering. And in the name of the Lord our God we shall be magnified: not in ourselves, but in Him, because in the Church we are gathered together in your name.

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Up to this point he has spoken of the passion; now of the resurrection, the ascension, and the reward. There are two petitions of Christ when he says: May the Lord hear you, and may He fulfill all your petitions. When Christ said to the Father: Glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had before the world was made (John 17). And elsewhere: Holy Father, keep them in your name whom you have given me, that just as we are one, so they also may be one (Ibid.). Now I have known that the Lord has saved His Christ. Now the prophet speaks with reference to the time when he received the Holy Spirit. Then he knew that God the Father would save His Son.

And he will hear him from his holy heaven—that is, from himself and from the holy Church. In the powers is salvation of his right hand. In the powers of the holy Church, through which salvation was made by Christ, who is his right hand—that is, of God the Father—because the Church has the power of binding and loosing, and of exercising discipline. And the Lord says: Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and all the powers of the enemy (Luke 10). Whence Paul says: What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love (1 Cor 4)? In the powers is salvation of his right hand. In that power by which the victor rose again from the dead.

These in chariots, and these in horses. Chariots and horse are always censured among the Egyptians. Let others believe in idols and demons; let us trust in Christ. Or otherwise: These in chariots, and these in horses. By chariots, the pleasure of the world, or the desire of all worldly things, is designated; because like wheels, which are unstable, so they themselves run about in the mind hither and thither. By horses, the proud, and they themselves are also covetous. But we will call upon the name of the Lord our God: not in those things mentioned above, but in the name of the Lord.

They themselves are bound and have fallen: those who are bound by the ropes of vices and cannot ascend to higher things, but fall, as it is said: And they went backward, and fell (John 18). But we have risen and been lifted up. We have risen from unbelief; we have been lifted up through faith, because we were crooked in sins.

Lord, save the king: and hear us in the day when we call upon you. Save the king: that is, Christ, in the part of the flesh. And hear us. The Church prays that she may be heard in the opportune time. Lord, save the king, and hear us in the day when we call upon you. In the Hebrew it is written thus: Lord, save the king: who may hear us on whatever day we call upon you.

PSALM XX.

Lord, in your strength the king shall rejoice. This is the king for whom also in the previous psalm, according to the form of a servant, salvation is prayed. Christ, king of kings and Lord of lords. And he shall exult exceedingly over your salvation: that is, in this, that you have saved men: your Son, who is the Savior, shall exult.

You have given him the desire of his heart, and you have not deprived him of the will of his lips. For now we are no longer servants, but friends. What he asked for has been fulfilled. Just as he and the Father are one, so we too are one in him. Or otherwise: You have granted him the desire of his soul. The Son of God desired that the human race come to be redeemed. Hence he said: With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I die (Luke 22). And you have not deprived him of the will of his lips. And this is when the Lord said: My peace I give you, my peace I leave you (John 14).

For you have gone before him in the blessings of sweetness. This is from afar, when Melchisedec blessed Abraham (Genesis 14). And thereafter, as many blessings as there were in the patriarchs up to the coming of Christ, Christ was blessed in them. For you have gone before him: that is, he went before him in the blessings of sweetness before he tasted the gall offered by the Jews, because these blessings came to him beforehand. He tasted and would not drink (Matthew 27). He tasted, because he took on our death. He would not drink, because on the third day he rose again. He would not drink: that is, he did not remain in death. You have placed on his head a crown of precious stone. The crown of God: the Church is the congregation gathered from various nations. Of her Paul, in the person of the believers, says: My joy and my crown (Philippians 4).

He asked for life, and you gave it to him. As a man he died, as a man he rose again; for God could not ask for life. Length of days for ever and ever. Let the impious synagogue fall silent. Which of men lives for ever, and for ever and ever? David and Solomon reigned no more than forty years.

Great is his glory in your salvation. What he himself asked in the Gospel has been fulfilled: Father, glorify me with yourself (John 13, 17). Great is his glory in your salvation: as if he were saying, Great is his glory: it is a great thing that man has been taken up to the right hand of God the Father. Glory and great beauty you will place upon him; the glory of the resurrection; the beauty, when on the mountain his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow (Matt 17).

For you will give him a blessing for ever and ever: because every creature blesses him. You will make him glad with joy with your countenance: that is, he will be with you always in the heavens. You will make him glad with joy with your countenance. Then you will make the Son glad with joy, when that multitude of the saints has been gathered together, and the number restored to him. Christ will rejoice for those he has gained, for whom he suffered.

For as king he hopes in the Lord: according to the dispensation of the body, or the man assumed into the Godhead. And in the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Neither the humanity of the Son nor the early Church shall be moved to the end. Up to this point the prophet has spoken in the person of the Church to God the Father concerning the humanity of Christ; now he speaks to the Godhead. Hence he said:

Let your hand be found against all your enemies. Let your enemies find your power, that they may be turned to good. Let the power of God find those who in their lowliness refused to believe in Christ; let it find them in vengeance. Let your right hand find all who hate you. Those who hate themselves he wishes to be converted by the abundant clemency of God, since he even desires to find his own enemies.

You shall set them as a furnace of fire in the time of your countenance: in a good sense, that their sins may be burned up. As a furnace burns within, so their conscience shall burn within, because they did not do good. Lord, in your anger you shall trouble them. And here the clemency of God does not punish but troubles, that they may be converted to repentance. Fire shall devour them, by the Holy Spirit their sins. Fire shall devour in the time of the countenance of God, when he comes to judge the world.

You shall destroy their fruit from the earth: that is, you shall destroy them, or their works, from the holy Church. And fire shall devour them. This is the fire of which the Lord says in the Gospel: I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I will but that it burn (Luke 12)? Of this fire also the two to whom the Savior opened the Scriptures on the way were saying: Was not our heart burning within us on the road, when he opened the Scriptures to us (Ibid. 24)? And their seed from the sons of men. Seed, that is, the sons who were begotten in evil doctrine. From the sons of men: that is, from the fellowship of the good you shall destroy them.

Because they have turned aside evils upon you. The Jews turned aside upon Christ what they ought by just vengeance to receive upon themselves, when they said that he was worthy of death, and it is expedient that one man die rather than that the whole people perish (John 11). They thought out a plan which they could not establish: when they said to Pilate: Lord, we have remembered that that deceiver said while still alive, After the third day I shall rise again. Command therefore that the tomb be guarded until the third day. But he said: You have a guard: go, guard it as you know how. And afterward they set seals, but the dead could not hold the living (Matt. 27). He rose again, which they neither willed nor believed. Then they could not establish the plan which they had thought out.

For you shall set them as a back. This is understood in two ways. A back, because they always desire earthly things; or otherwise, a back, so that they fall backward, or when they look backward. In your remnants you shall prepare their face. Instead of remnants, the Hebrew has in good things. And so this sense is woven together: After the likeness of the saints whom you have preserved for yourself from the whole world, make those also who have been purified by torments to be such that, according to the face of the saints, the face of sinners also begins to be such: that is, that those who were sinners may be such as these who are saints. Or otherwise: In your remnants you shall prepare their face: that is, the prophets, whom their fathers killed. Their remnants are the sons of the Jews who killed the head of the prophets: so that that vengeance which began with the prophets may come upon those who killed the Lord. Otherwise: In your remnants you shall prepare their face: this they will believe at the end through Elijah and Enoch. You shall prepare their face: of those who believe in you, as that: To turn the hearts of the fathers to the sons (Luke 1).

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength. The voice of the Church. Be exalted in your strength: that is, show forth your power and majesty, because formerly you came in humility, but now come in majesty. We will sing and chant your mighty acts, O Lord. We will sing with the heart, chant with the deed: we proclaim your mighty acts.

PSALM XXI.

Unto the end, for the morning assumption, a psalm of David. The morning assumption signifies the sacrament of the Lord's resurrection and ascension to the Father. The Hebrews have this inscription otherwise: For the morning deer, and by a perverse interpretation they think that the whole twenty-first psalm was composed concerning Esther, namely that by her peril and intercession with the king the people of Israel were freed from danger. But we understand no other deer than Christ, who kills the serpents and consumes the poisons, as the context of the whole psalm shows.

O God, my God, look upon me, why have you forsaken me? The Lord made use of this verse while hanging on the cross. From this we perceive that the whole psalm is sung by the Lord placed on the cross. But what it has in the middle, "attend to me," is not found in the Hebrew manuscripts, and the added word declares the Lord's, which also passed over that in the Gospel: as if he were saying, "Why have you forsaken me?" Here the humanity speaks of how it was forsaken in Adam, when he transgressed the commandment. Or in the passion Christ was forsaken as regards the flesh. Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. Far: here the divinity speaks. The words of my sins: because he reckons our sins as his own. For in his salvation there is no sin: but salvation is far from the sinner. Or otherwise: Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. Aquila interpreted this passage thus: Far from my salvation are the words of my groaning: Symmachus, the words of my groanings: the fifth and sixth edition: the words of my cry. And the sense according to the other interpreters is: My groanings and strivings, by which I have always sought to save the people of Israel, have been made far from my salvation, which I desired to bestow on the people: because they themselves were unwilling to receive healing. But according to the seventy interpreters the sense is this: That I pray for salvation, that I complain of being forsaken: I speak not from my own person, but from the people, whose sins I myself took up in my body. Whence I say: Far from my salvation are these words which I pour forth.

For I do not so much seek salvation for myself, who am God, as for the people who need salvation.

I will cry out by day, and you will not hear; and by night, and not to my folly. By day, hanging on the cross, he is not heard by the Father; by night he rises from the dead as victor. Otherwise: he who is not heard in joy is heard in tears. Hence he says: Not to my folly, that is, not in vain did I cry out. And Aquila translated from the Hebrew, saying: And by night, and you will not be silent: that is, you will hear me; you will answer me; you will do what I have prayed. My God, I will cry out by day, and you will not hear, and by night. Christ cried out on the cross and prayed for his own: heard, and not heard. Heard for the predestined, as among the eight thousand, or for those hundred and twenty and five hundred brothers. And not heard: that is, for those who were not predestined. Hence the evangelist said: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matt. 27). Therefore here day is understood for the good, and night for the evil. Or day and night are prosperity and adversity in the Church. The Church is not heard in prosperity, lest she exalt herself, and is not heard in adversity, that she may be cleansed the more. And not to my folly: that is, the Son, coeternal with the Father, knows all things, why he was not heard in the day of his passion, that is, for the sons of death, and for the prosperity and tribulation of his Church.

But you dwell in the holy place: the praise of Israel. The voice of the prophet. You dwell in the holy place, that is, in his own body, or in heaven, or in the Church.

In you our fathers hoped, Lord: they hoped, and you delivered them. The patriarchs and prophets hoped, or the rest: and you delivered them: that is, from Egypt or from Babylon. They were not confounded: because what you promised you fulfilled, that is, the land of promise and long life. Otherwise: in you our fathers hoped, the teachers of the Church. They were not confounded, because you are always their hope.

But I am a worm and not a man. He says this because of the humility of the body he assumed: Isaiah also sounding the same note: Fear not, worm Jacob (Isa. 41). A reproach of men and the outcast of the people. What greater reproach than that of the cross? And the contempt of the people: that is, the mockery of the Jewish people. Why a worm and not a man, when he says in the Gospel: The Son of Man came to redeem what had perished (Luke 19)? Christ is called both worm and man. Worm, as the prophet says: Fear not, worm Jacob; and man, because he was born of Mary, whose birth is likened to a worm: because the worm that is born in wood has no father, only a mother. And Christ was born of Mary without intercourse with a man. God made two dwelling places, heaven and earth. Heaven is the dwelling of angels, and earth the dwelling of worms. God made the worm ascend into heaven, and the angel into earth.

Christ ascended above all the angels through humility, and the devil was cast down to the earth through pride. A reproach of men and an outcast of the people: a reproach, when the Jews said, Be thou his disciple; an outcast, when they cast him out of the city and crucified him.

All who saw me mocked me. This is said in the person of the wicked, just as the Jews themselves said, If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross; or, Hail, king of the Jews. They spoke with their lips, and they shook their head. They spoke with their lips, because what they had in their heart, that they spoke in words. They shook their head: that is, they abandoned the one head which is Christ, and made for themselves many heads of demons.

He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him: let him save him, since he wills him. The voice of the prophet speaks concerning the humanity. He hoped in the Lord: that is, the humanity in the divinity. Let him deliver him: that is, from the Jews. Since he wills him: that is, God the Father willed to have such a Son without sin, through whom he might take away the sins of the world, as the prophet says: He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.

For you are the one who drew me out of the womb. The voice of humanity. You drew me out of the belly: that is, from the womb of holy Mary, or from the synagogue, because he was conceived through the prophecy of the prophets, and in the spiritual sense, as if drawn out from the womb. My hope from my mother's breasts, etc.: that is, Christ did not disdain to suck his mother's breasts: that is, from Mary's breasts. Or the mother's breasts: the law of the synagogue. They are said to have two breasts, because they have the letter and the sense. But they themselves, that is, the Jews, received one breast: that is, because they observe only the letter of the law. You are my God, do not depart from me, in the day of the passion.

For tribulation is near. As he himself said: Rise, let us go: behold, he who will betray me has drawn near (John 14). There is no one to help, neither angel nor man, except you, Father.

Many calves have surrounded me: wanton calves: that is, the Jews, who were wanton and incontinent. Fat bulls have surrounded me. For fat, Symmachus translated fatted. In Hebrew the word Basan is used, which can also be translated as shame: because they have surrounded me. They are called bulls because of their pride: that is, their leaders Annas and Caiaphas, or the rest. Fat, because of the grossness of their malice.

They opened their mouth against me. When they said, Let him be crucified. Like a lion ravening and roaring. That is, when they were devising how they might kill him. Ravening, when they seized him with swords and clubs.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are scattered. So the Jews wished to destroy Christ like water, which is drawn out and scattered and does not return. All my bones are scattered. The bones of Christ are called the apostles; for just as the flesh is strengthened by the bones, so also the body of Christ, which is the Church, is made firm by the apostles or teachers.

My heart is become. The heart of Christ is understood as the Church, before Christ ascended the cross: which seemed to be hard, because few suffered for his name. Hence it is said: Who dies for the just man? Like wax melting. Because after Christ ascended the cross, thereafter all the saints began to endure tribulation for him on account of the hope of the reward of the future gift (Rom. 5). In the midst of my belly. That is, in the midst of the Church. My heart is become like wax melting in the midst of my belly. My wisdom, which was previously not understood, kindled by the fire of the passion grew hot, and was received by the Church.

My strength has dried up like a potsherd. A potsherd is weak before it is put in the fire; after it is put in the fire, it is strengthened. And Christ, after he ascended the gibbet of the cross, strengthened his Church. Therefore he did not dry up like grass so as to fall, but like a potsherd so as to be made firm. And my tongue has clung to my jaws. That is, the tongues of the apostles fell silent at the time of the Passion; although one spoke, yet by denying, not by confessing—that is, Peter. For the disciples, keeping my commandments, speak of me afterward. And they have brought me down into the mire of death. That is, into the incarnation, or into hell, when he led the souls of the saints out from there with himself. And they have brought me down into the mire of death. As the wicked whom the wind has cast out, so they judged that I would fall into death, as if I were unable to rise again.

For many dogs have surrounded me. It is proper to dogs to rejoice with their master and to bark at the thief. Here the Jews are understood as dogs, who barked at Christ and rejoiced with the thief—that is, Barabbas—when they asked for him and killed Christ (John 18): For many dogs have surrounded me, not speaking upright things, but barking wicked things. The council of the malignant has besieged me. The assembly of the Jews. Many dogs. In place of “dogs” the Hebrew has chelabim, which Aquila and Theodotion translated as “hunters.” The council of the malignant has besieged me. The Jews besieged—that is, surrounded—Christ.

They dug my hands and my feet. The past tense is used for the future. They dug, they fixed the nails, and they found great fruit: that is, the salvation of the nations. And they numbered all my bones. Stretched out on the cross, they beheld his limbs.

But they themselves considered, etc. Saying: He saved others: himself he cannot save (Matt. 27).

They divided my garments among them. Giving each soldier his own part. And upon my vesture they cast lots. Discussing the tunic: Let us not rend it: but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be. Or otherwise: They divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots. Which four soldiers did: four parts, and they did not divide the tunic: it signified the unity of the Church, that it should not be rent. The heretics wish to rend it, and they cannot.

But you, O Lord, do not remove your help far from me. The humanity speaks to the divinity: that he may help it in the time of the Passion. But you, O Lord, do not remove your help far from me; but raise me up at once. Look to my defense. Let no part of that devouring hell prevail against me.

Deliver my soul from the sword. Deliver it from the sword, or from the malice of the Jews. Or deliver my soul from that power which strangles by seducing. And from the hand of the dog, my only one. The dogs are the Jews. The only one: that is, the soul of Christ. It is called only, because that soul has no sin, and other souls are cleansed by it. Or the only one is the Church: and from the hand of the dog: from the mouth of hell, which like a dog devours greedily.

Save me from the mouth of the lion. The mouth of the lion is the Jewish people: on account of the strength of their malice. And from the horns of the unicorns, my humility. The unicorn is understood to be that same Jewish people: because it has one horn, that is, one law: whence it scattered all the nations before their transgression. And from the horns of the unicorns, my humility. From the attendants of Satan: through whom men are lifted up singularly in pride. Up to this point he has spoken of the Passion: now he speaks of the resurrection when he says:

I will declare your name to my brothers. The voice of Christ. The brothers are the apostles, after he rose again, as he himself said: Go, tell my brothers to go into Galilee; there they will see me (Matt. 28). In the midst of the Church I will praise you. That is, in the unity of the Church, in the midst of the believing peoples. I will praise you, I will proclaim you.

You who fear the Lord, praise him. All the saints who fear him with a holy fear praise him. All the seed of Jacob, magnify him. That is, the lesser people, the supplanters of vices, magnify him: surely the seed of Christians, whom the greater shall serve (Gen. 25).

Let all the seed of Israel fear him. That is, all who see God, who, reborn through baptism, see God in mind. For he has not spurned nor despised the supplication of the poor man: mine, who for your sake became poor. Or God has not spurned the Christian peoples, but has heard them.

Nor has he turned his face away from me. But he raised me from the dead. And when I cried out to him, he heard me. Answering: And I have glorified, and I will again glorify (John 12): Christ was heard in his Passion, and the Church in tribulation.

My praise is with you in the great Church. That is, with the Father, as he said: I and the Father are one (John 10). My praise is with you in the great Church, which has been spread through the whole world by faith. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of those who fear him. The vows of Christ are his birth or his passion; the vows of the Church are good works. Or let them offer the mystery of my body and blood together with those who celebrate these things in his fear.

The poor shall eat and be satisfied. The poor are the apostles; they shall eat the body of Christ. They shall praise the Lord who seek him. Through the end and through works, knowing that he is the living bread which came down from heaven (John 6).

Their hearts shall live for ever and ever. The heart is their soul. Without end, because he who has eaten of this bread shall live in spiritual understanding for ever.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and be converted to the Lord. That is, the Lord God has made the Christian people, that it might remember him and turn back from its wicked ways. All the multitude of the nations recognize that they are wrapped in darkness; therefore they draw near to be enlightened.

And all the families of the Gentiles will adore in his sight. And here they adore, and in the future: because according to the Apostle, every knee will be bent (Philippians 2).

For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he will rule over the Gentiles. The kingdom of the devil has fallen, and the kingdom of Christ has come. As he ascended into heaven, all things were made subject to him.

All the rich of the earth have eaten and adored. That is, the apostles or the other saints have eaten the body of Christ, as he said above. The rich of the earth: that is, in faith, and in work, or in virtues: knowing that the Lord is sweet. In his sight all who go down into the earth will fall. They will prostrate, that is, sinners on the day of judgment were in the sight of God. They go down from the pride of the world: that they may adore in the sense of pure humility.

My soul will live for him: and my seed will serve him. The Church, which now no longer lives for itself, but Christ lives in it. Or otherwise: My soul will live for him, and my seed will serve him. The soul of Christ lives for God the Father, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Romans 8). Or the Church will live for Christ. My seed, the sons of the Church, will serve him, the people of believers.

There will be announced to the Lord the generation to come. The prophet says: The generation to come, that is, the people of the Gentiles, who were to come to believe in him before Christ came into the world. Or, the generation to come, that is, on the day of judgment, all its unbroken brightness. The heavens will announce his justice. That is, the apostles or the leaders. His justice. That is, his commandments. To the people who will be born. That is, through the word of preaching. Whom the Lord made. That is, he predestined before the ages. To the people who will be born whom the Lord made. Who, drawing near through faith, has been reborn in Christ through baptism. May he deign to grant us to hold his wounds before our eyes, and with Thomas to touch the print of his nails (John 20): or, making unceasing remembrance of all the humility of his passion, recalling with a sigh that he even penetrated the depths of hell for our sins, may we always do such things in this earthly body, that we may deserve to be joined to him in his kingdom. Amen.

PSALM XXII.

A psalm of David. This psalm contains the voice of the Church praising Christ.

The Lord feeds me, and nothing shall be lacking to me. Of this shepherd Ezekiel also speaks: I will raise up a shepherd, and my servant David shall feed them (Ezek. 34). Or otherwise: The good shepherd, who laid down his life for me (John 10), rules me with fair governance; therefore I lack nothing. Or otherwise: He rules me: the Church speaks with confidence through faith, because before the coming of Christ the devil was ruling the world, but now Christ rules his Church. What we say as The Lord rules me, the Hebrews have as it is written above: The Lord feeds me, and nothing shall be lacking to me. He who has God, and he who clings to God, lacks no good thing, as the prophet says: Nothing is lacking to those who fear him (Ps. 23). In a place of pasture he has settled me there. As if he should say: In the unity of the faith, in the unity of the Church. In a place of pasture he has settled me there: in future blessedness he has set my hope. For the pastures are understood as future blessedness.

He has fed me beside the water of refreshment. He has nourished me by washing through baptism, or by the teaching of the patriarchs and prophets, or of the apostles. He has converted my soul. To the knowledge of himself: that is, the soul of the Church: because previously it had descended to hell through the fault of the first man Adam: but now it has been converted to Christ through faith.

He has led me upon the path of justice: that is, upon the path of the commandments through the narrow way. For his own name's sake; not for my merit.

For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death: through the darknesses of this world: I will not fear evils: since you are with me. Lord, I hold you in my heart. Or otherwise: A shadow is made in two ways, that is, by a body, and by a light. By the body, death is understood: by the shadow, sins and ignorance. And yet, although the Church walks among these things mentioned above, she does not fear: because she has the Lord with her, as he himself said: Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world (Mat. ult.) Therefore the Church does not fear.

Your rod and your staff: they themselves have consoled me. For the Lord chastises whom he loves (Prov 3). By the rod is understood tribulation or the discipline of the father, or the persecution of the Church. And your staff, with which you chastise your spiritual sons. Or by the staff, future support and consolation. They themselves have consoled me. They instructed me by consoling, not afflicted me by putting to death.

You have prepared a table in my sight, etc. So that now I may no longer be fed as a little child on milk, but on solid food: that is, so that I, chewing over the holy Scriptures with a spiritual tooth, may be able to resist the perverse. You have prepared a table in my sight against those who afflict me. The table, that is, the divine Scripture. Just as after labor consolation and refreshment are found at a table, so also the saints through the table, that is, through the divine Scripture, have consolation and refreshment, that is, hope, faith, and charity. Against those who afflict me. The persecutors of the Church, who are demons, Jews, and heretics. Against all these we find consolation in the sacred Scriptures.

You have made my head fat with oil. By the head, that is, the principal part of the mind, the Church is understood. For the mind is called the head: because just as the members are governed by the head, so thoughts are ordered by the mind. By oil, consolation is understood: because just as the body is comforted by oil, so also the mind of the Church is comforted by the consolation of the Scriptures. You have made my head fat with oil: You have gladdened with spiritual gladness my mind, which is the head of the whole body. And my cup, inebriating, how glorious it is. By the cup, the word of God is understood. Inebriating, because through preaching a man is pricked in his mind, when it separates a man, that is, a father from his son: a son from his father: a mother from her daughter, and a daughter from her mother: and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Then it inebriates us, when it does these things. By the cup, measure is understood: because to each one according as he deserves, or is able to receive, so God divides to him, that is, gives. Or mystically you have inebriated me with the cup, that I might deliver over to forgetfulness the delights of my former life.

And your mercy, O Lord, will follow me. The voice of the Church to Christ. God's mercy both precedes and follows. It precedes through faith; it follows in the keeping of God's commandments. All the days of my life. As long as I linger in this body.

And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. The Church here stands as it were in a tabernacle. For just as a tabernacle is moved from place to place, so the Church is transferred from this tabernacle into the house, that is, into eternal or everlasting life, where the saints shall dwell without end. Unto length of days. Days without end. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days: that is, that I may dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem together with all the saints gathered into me through faith.

PSALM XXIII.

A Psalm of David, on the first day of the Sabbath. This psalm contains at times the voice of the prophet speaking concerning the Church.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. When those who savor earthly things have been converted. The earth is the Lord's, that is, the whole world: and the fullness thereof, that is, the inhabitants of this world. Or, the earth is the Lord's, that is, the Church: and the fullness thereof, that is, all the saints. The world of lands, and all who dwell in it. When Jesus is glorified, the faith of all nations becomes one Church.

He founded it upon the seas. By the seas are meant the fluctuations of this world, because from the beginning the fluctuations of the age tread upon and overcome the Church. But he founded, that is, he strengthened, his Church in faith. Upon the waves of this world he made it stand firm, lest it slip away from them. And upon the rivers he prepared it. By rivers are understood the powerful of this world, or the covetous, as Solomon says: All rivers enter into the sea. So too the powerful themselves, though they possess great wealth, are never satisfied. The Church is above these rivers, that it may preach to them and that those who have power may be converted. If they will not hear, he prepared it upon the rivers. He established it above the desires of this world, so that it might be superior, pure without spot or wrinkle.

Who shall ascend into the mountain of David? The voice of the prophet asking: that is, into the heavenly Jerusalem? Who is put for charity. Or the mountain here stands for high righteousness, as in that saying: Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven (Luke 18). Or who shall stand in his holy place? Upon his most high righteousness: as if he were saying, who will persevere? Because many ascend, and do not persevere.

Innocent in hands and clean of heart. Pure in works: because by "hands" works are understood; and clean of heart, that is, clean in words. Or clean of heart, holy in thought. Who has not received his soul in vain. Who has not defiled it with any dregs of sins after baptism. He has not received his soul in vain who does good works. Nor has he sworn deceitfully to his neighbor. He does not swear deceitfully to his neighbor who proclaims what he thinks and fulfills it in deed. For there are many who swear deceitfully to deceive their neighbor, which the Father of lights, God, abhors, as Peter says: You have not lied to men, but to God (Acts 5). Therefore he who has kept himself from these stains,

He shall receive blessing from the Lord: and mercy from God his savior. From Christ, equal to the Father, by whose death he has been saved. Or otherwise: He shall receive blessing from the Lord. Of this man mentioned above he says: He who does not swear deceitfully to his neighbor shall receive blessing from the Lord, when he shall say: Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matt. 25). And mercy from God his savior. He obtains mercy from God who considers himself wretched.

This is the generation of those seeking the Lord. Above he spoke in the singular: This one will receive blessing; now in the plural, because the Church is gathered from many persons, and yet is called one, on account of the unity of faith. This generation, that is, the people of the Christians, which, lying in darkness, sought the true Lord and Savior.

Of those seeking the face of the God of Jacob. That is, the Christian people seeks the face of the God of Jacob. Whence it was said: The greater shall serve the lesser (Gen. 25), because he gave the primacy to the one born later. A diapsalma intervenes, so that the person may change. For the Lord himself, now returning to the heavenly kingdoms, is announced. Therefore, as he ascends with the angels, those who went before or accompanied him cried out to the other princes among them:

Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates. That is, open the heavenly approaches; let the entrance of eternity lie open. Or, Lift up your gates, O princes: the voice of the good angels to the evil angels, whose prince is the devil. Your gates, O princes: that is, desire and fear. He rightly joined desire and fear, because whoever gathers through desire guards through fear and malice, so as not to lose it; and he who has fear, and desire, and malice does not cast the malignant spirit out of himself. And be lifted up, you eternal gates: that is, faith and charity. They are called eternal because from Adam to Christ they lay in the depths, and therefore they are said to be lifted up.

And the King of glory shall enter in: that is, Christ; because through faith and love Christ has entered into the Church. And the King of glory shall enter in: Christ the Lord, possessing a kingdom of immeasurable brightness. Those others also, astonished and struck with stupor of mind, say:

Who is this King of glory? The voice of the greater demons. As if they were saying: We have our king, the devil; who is this King of glory? Who, he says, is this King of glory? He who speaks answers: The Lord strong and mighty. The voice of the good angels. He is strong, who bound your strong prince (Mark 3). Strong, when he took up death; mighty, when he conquered hell. In battle, having despoiled Tartarus, he led back with him a multitude of captives. He cries out again, and says:

Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you eternal gates. Let the heavenly doors be lifted up: let the valves of the eternal dwellings be opened. And the King of glory shall enter in. Because not only after the resurrection did he possess immeasurable brightness: but also that which he had equal with the Father before the world was made. Therefore these, adoring the unique and singular power of such great glory, say:

Who is this King of glory? The answer is given to them: The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Here "hosts" is in the plural. Christ is understood: because he sits above the nine hosts of heaven. Or he says "of hosts": because he is Lord over all the hosts of the devil. Or he is called "of hosts": because the devil held the nine orders of angels under his dominion, whether good or evil. Lift up the gates. The voice of the good angels. Or the voice of the Lord to the good angels. Lift up the gates, that is, because when Adam sinned, the gates of paradise were closed: and a flaming sword was given to the angel Seraphim, that he should guard it. But after Christ came into the world, and wrestled with the devil, he opened hell, and led out the souls of the saints with him: and with the good angels he returned to the heavenly places. Then the gates of paradise, which had been closed before, were opened. Or the eternal gates are called the angels: through whose guardianship we ascend to the heavenly places. They are called "lifted up": because before, all the souls of the saints descended to hell. But after Christ ascended together with his body above all the hosts of heaven, then the angels rejoiced: because he led the souls of the saints there with him. Who is this King of glory? The voice of the angels, who had always been with the Father: as if they were saying: We always see the Father and the Son together: who is this King of glory?

In part according to the flesh they were saying: Lift up the gates. The voice of the prophet concerning the Jews: Lift up the gates, that is, pride, and covetousness, and avarice; because through these three every man was descending to hell. Or, lift up your gates, O princes—for which in the Hebrew is placed: Lift up, O gates, your heads—let them be borne on a straight course. He says that man cannot come to the perfection of purity, and that no one is able to come to the perfection of purity. The eternal gates which he says are to be lifted up are faith, charity, and chastity, because through these three Christ enters the Church. Who is this King of glory? Human frailty answered: Who is this? As if they were saying: This is he whom we crucified, and reviled, and regarded as nothing. They answer: The Lord of hosts, that is, he who died for a time from the weakness of the flesh, but now lives by the power of God. Or he was power when he said to Thomas: Put your finger into the place of the nails, and put your hand into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing (John 26). He is called the Lord of hosts, as Paul says: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8)? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, and the rest. Likewise: Lift up your gates, O princes. The voice of the angels who descended with Christ to hell speaks to those subject to the devil. They show that they are leading their prince bound: Lift up the gates, because their gates are broken, that is, their power was then taken away.

And be lifted up, you eternal gates. And then the eternal gates were lifted up, that is, the souls of the saints from hell. They are called eternal because they will reign with God forever without end. The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory. For "Lord of hosts," in the Hebrew it reads "Lord Sabaoth," which in another place the Seventy translators rendered as "almighty." Rightly is he the Lord of hosts, who for our sake became man: delivered to death, consigned to the darkness of hell: which he graciously undertook, patiently endured, bravely conquered, and wondrously accomplished. He, trampling hell by his own power, returning in triumph to the realms above, ascended with glory to the heavens: he now sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, interceding continually for our sins. Amen.

PSALM 24.

A Psalm of David. The twenty-fourth psalm contains the voice of our Mediator sent to the Father; at times it has the cry of the Church supplicating.

To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. Here the voice of the Church is understood as addressed to Christ. He says, I have lifted up, that is, I have raised on high; because previously the Church lay in the valley of tears, or in the depths, before Christ came into the world. To what did she lift it up? To hope, faith, and charity, through sanctification; because wheat, if it lies in the depths, rots; if it is lifted up on high, it is preserved. So too the soul, if it lies in the rottenness of sins, that is, in the depths, rots and perishes. For if it is lifted up on high in the things mentioned above—hope, faith, and charity—it is preserved by God. Or, To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul through the cross. My God, in you I have trusted: this is the Church's confession: In you I have trusted, not in myself, but in you. I shall not be put to shame: because I have not trusted in man; concerning whom it is said: Cursed is the man who places his hope in man (Jeremiah 17); and: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord (Psalm 35). Let there be no delay of the resurrection, which would produce reproach among believers.

Let my enemies not mock me. Those who had mocked me earlier when I said, "I can destroy the temple, and rebuild it in three days" (Matt. 26). Let my enemies not mock me: that is, those who trust only in man, because once he has failed, their enemies mock them: and the enemies of the Church are demons, heretics, vices, and sins. For all who wait for you: who endure you: they shall not be confounded. Neither here nor in the future: the Apostles, or those who will believe in you through their word.

Let those who act wickedly in vain be confounded. The Prophet speaks not by wishing but by prophesying: let those be confounded in the day of judgment who persevere in their malice even to the end: those who, on top of the crime committed against me, added this, that they secured the tomb with seals. Up to this point the Lord speaks of his Passion: from here the voice of the Church follows, which after the Lord's resurrection prays to be taught.

Show me your ways, Lord, and teach me your paths. Make known to me those ways by which one comes into your kingdom, or your ways—that is, your commandments; make them known, that is, show them to me. Teach me your paths. A path is less than a way; by “path” is understood the narrow and constricted way that leads to life.

Direct me in your truth. The voice of the Church. Direct me, because I am crooked. In your truth—that is, in your Christ; teach me, so that I do nothing perversely. For you are my saving God. For by your resurrection my salvation has been conferred upon me. And I have waited for you all day long. That is, for all time. They saw me waiting for you throughout the whole time of this life. For I had heard through the voices of the prophets that you were to come into the world. But I waited through the light of faith, until you should call me.

Remember your mercies, Lord, etc. In which, in order to redeem us, you became man. Or the Christian people speaks: that he may make them upright out of his mercy; as that passage: Many are your mercies, Lord; and: Your mercies are from of old (Ps. 118); and: You promised your mercies to us from the beginning of the world (Ibid.).

Remember not the sins of my youth and my ignorances, Lord. Those things which I did in adolescence, before I came forth from the house of the wicked father. Or the sins of youth, before baptism; and my ignorances, that is, after baptism.

According to your great mercy be mindful of me, God. That is, not according to merits, but according to your mercy. For your mercy is immense, you who call those things that are not as though they were. Because of your goodness, Lord. Because you provoke sinners to repentance.

Sweet and upright is the Lord. Sweet, because he is the bread of life. Sweet, because he promises future rewards. Upright, because he renders to each one according to his works. For this reason he will give a law to those who go astray in the way. The law of charity: through which, dismissing offenses, we are reconciled to God. To those who go astray in the way, to sinners in this life.

He will direct the meek in judgment. The meek and humble of heart he will direct in judgment, that is, he makes a discernment here in the present between body and soul: so that they may correct one another in the ways of God's commandments. Or that which was written above: The sins of my youth and my ignorances remember not. This man both age excuses and ignorance. Whence we understand that he who sins in adolescence, and does not lack knowledge, does not have pardon. For the servant who knows the will of his lord, and does not do it, will be beaten with many blows (Luke 12).

All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, because that mercy itself is weighed out with equal balances. He will teach the gentle his ways. Mercy and truth: and that they love him with their whole heart, which is the true way. For thus it follows:

All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. Mercy, because he has redeemed us; and truth, because he will judge the ungodly. The Lord is sweet and upright, because God has mercy on the one who confesses himself wretched. To those who seek his testament. He shows mercy to those who seek the new Testament, by which he reconciled us to God the Father through his own blood. And his testimonies: the prophets and apostles, by whose testimonies the Church is gathered.

For your name's sake, Lord, you will be propitious to my sin. Not for my merits, but for your mercy. For it is great. Great is my sin. Great, he says, is the universal sin, which unless God deigns to blot out through baptism, it will not be washed away otherwise.

Who is the man who fears the Lord: he has set a law for him in the way that he has chosen. So that he may be turned toward the things that he has chosen. The Lord declares something similar to this through Moses to the people, saying: Behold, today I have set before your eyes fire and water, good and evil, life and death: choose life, and you shall live (Deut. 30).

His soul shall dwell in good things. If he has chosen life. And his seed shall inherit the land. Through works of righteousness, he shall receive an inheritance in the land of the living. Or: his soul shall dwell in good things, that is, he shall hope in future rewards: and his seed shall possess the land by inheritance. His seed, his works, shall possess the land: that is, eternal life.

The Lord is a firmament to those who fear him. We are weak and feeble: but by him we are exhorted not to be shaken by the waves of this world. And that his testament may be made manifest to them. This is the new Testament. The law which proclaimed him, veiled through the letter, is made manifest in Christ.

My eyes are always on the Lord. The eyes of the heart, with the mind intent on God, of which it is said: The eyes of the wise man are in his head. For he himself will snatch my feet from the snare: that is, my senses from the snare of the devil, by whom I was formerly caught through the pleasures of the world.

Look upon me, and have mercy on me. Look, for help; and have mercy, because I am wretched. Because I am only one and poor. This pertains to Christ: because Christ is the only one without sin, as the prophet says: Who did no sin. Poor for our sake, as Paul says: Who though he was rich, became poor, so that by his poverty we might be rich. Or the only one is the Christian people. But he rightly calls himself the only one, because he is the only-begotten of the Father. He who was born poor in the flesh became the unique price of the world. Because I am only one and poor. Thus also Elijah remained alone: and Jeremiah sat alone and wept, separated from evil men. Hence David also says elsewhere: He makes those of one mind to dwell in a house.

The tribulations of my heart have been multiplied. Through suffering. From my necessities deliver me. My necessities are that I die as a man for men, and therefore that I be rescued by you, so that I may rise again.

See my humility. Through which I took up flesh. And my labor. By which I am subjected to death. Or otherwise. See my humility and my labor. The Church speaks to Christ. Humility, because sinners humiliate her. Labor, in tribulation. And forgive all my offenses. The offenses of the people, which I took upon myself.

Look upon my enemies: the Jews indeed, that they may be confounded. Look upon my enemies, for they have been multiplied. The voice of the Church concerning her persecutors. With unjust hatred they have hated me. Unjust hatred is spoken of in distinction from just hatred. For if they had not hated me, they would certainly not have condemned me to death.

Guard my soul, and deliver me. The Church entreats that she be guarded and delivered from every evil. Let me not be confounded, because I have called upon you. Into your hands I commend my spirit. Let me not be confounded, neither here nor in the future, because I have called upon you.

The innocent and the upright have clung to me—the innocent, who have preserved the purity of life from the beginning of their birth. As the head clings to the neck, and the members are held together in the same body, so too the Church through righteousness has clung to Christ, and her members are held together in the same body. The innocent, that is, the successors of the apostles, or the other saints and upright ones, whose heart was not perverse after strange gods. They have clung to me as I return from the underworld. Because I have waited for you, Lord. I have fulfilled your will, Father.

Deliver me, God of Israel, from all my tribulations. So that death may no longer have dominion over me, as the Apostle says: Know that Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more; death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom. 6). Yet it must be understood that the humility of the prayer is to be referred not to the divinity but to the humility of the assumed flesh. But let us beseech the Lord, that we, living blameless, may deserve to be delivered from the straits of hell. Because I have waited for you, Lord. Deliver me, God of Israel. Israel, that is, of the souls of those who see God. From all distresses, from all my tribulations.

PSALM 25.

Unto the end, a Psalm of David. This psalm bears witness concerning the man and Christ, and contains the voice of the whole Church made perfect in Christ.

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence. That through your judgment there may be mercy for me, since I walk along the path of innocence. It was said above: Judge me, O Lord. The voice of the Church to Christ. Judge me—not that she asks of God the future judgment, but discernment, of which we read in another psalm: Judge me, O God, and discern my cause (Ps. 42): that is, that you may not judge me in the future, as the other sinners are to be judged. For I have walked in my innocence. The Church speaks on her own part. As if she were to say: I am ready to live innocently, because she has harmed no one, nor does the Church desire to harm anyone. I have walked—that is, among sinners, where she dwells even to the end. And hoping in the Lord, I am not weakened. But I am strengthened in faith. I am not weakened—that is, among these sinners: because I hope in you, not in myself.

Prove me, O Lord, and try me. The Church asks to be proved, that she may know herself, and that being proved she may be known by others. As Job was proved, that he might know himself, and others might know him: as those kings did who visited him. Prove me, O Lord, in temptations: and try me, that nothing of sin may remain in me. Burn my reins and my heart. What the reins mean, he signifies in the heart: because your mercy is before my eyes. Thus he asks for judgment, that he may remember mercy. Burn my reins and my heart. Apply the Holy Spirit to my delights and thoughts: who, burning up both, may make me worthy. Burn, that is, with the fire of the Holy Spirit, of which fire he says: I came to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12).

Because your mercy is before my eyes. That I may be reproved by this fire, and not burned up. And I have been well pleased in your truth. In your Christ: that I might please not in my own lie, but in your truth.

I have not sat in the council of vanity. I have not joined myself to those who, against you, my Christ, were holding a vain council. I have not sat in the council of vanity—that is, among those who always think on earthly things; the Church has not sat in their council. And with those who do iniquity I will not go in. I have not set my hidden conscience among them.

I have hated the church of the malignant: of the Jews, or of the heretics. And with the impious I will not sit: I will not enter into a pact with them. And with the impious I will not sit: that is, they have not only thought it in word, but have carried it out in deed.

I will wash my hands among the innocent. In good works I will wash my hands, which before were foul with sins. I will wash my hands—that is, my works. He washes through tears, through baptism and penitence. And I will surround your altar, O Lord. Let me embrace your lofty things, that I may learn to praise you. The altar—that is, faith. I will surround—that is, with good works. Each saint has the Lord's altar within himself: which is faith.

That I may hear the voice of your praise: and declare all your wondrous works. That when I have learned, I may set forth to others that miracle: how you both suffered and rose again for us. And declare all your wondrous works, of your praise: that is, whatever good we do is reckoned to be from God, and whatever evil we do is from ourselves. The praise of God is perfect, and the praise of men is imperfect.

Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place of the habitation of your glory. I have made my mind beautiful, that it might be a dwelling worthy of you: in which, dwelling, you may glorify me with your glory. The house of the Lord is the Church. The priests and the habitation of your glory are those in whom God dwells.

Do not destroy my soul with the impious. With those who through impiety handed over the meek one. And my life with men of blood. Who, lying in wait deceitfully, shed your blood.

In whose hands are iniquities. That is, in their works. Their right hand is filled with gifts. He teaches that gifts must be abstained from: blaming those who receive gifts: who, doing iniquity, reckoned the gain of this impiety to be some profit: just as the traitor Judas himself did. Their right hand is filled with gifts. They have made for themselves a right hand out of the left: because the future life is called the right hand, and the present life the left. They, instead of the right hand, had the left: as is that saying: There is a gift from the tongue, and there is a gift from the hand, and there is a gift from service. From the tongue, praise: that is, human favor.

From the hand, from earthly things. From service, rendered unduly by slaves. But better is what the prophet says: He who shakes his hands free from every gift, this man dwells in the highest places (Isa. 33).

But I have entered in my innocence. The Church speaks on behalf of a portion of the good: through the pursuit of a holy life, from former sins. I have entered, among sinners. Free me. From tribulation. And have mercy on me. Because I am wretched.

For my foot has stood in the right way. My understanding in Christ: because he himself is the way. For my foot, lest I prevail over myself, has stood in the right way: that is, he in whom I have begun to draw near to you through the way of righteousness. In the churches I will bless the Lord. He speaks of the unity of the congregation. In the Church, not in hiding places, but in the assemblies of the peoples, blessing you. I will proclaim that love by which you redeemed me with your blood: washed me in baptism: and, filled with the heavenly bread and the sacred feasts, you restored me to the innocence of a better life.

PSALM 26.

Unto the end, a Psalm of David before he was anointed. David was anointed three times: first, under his father Jesse in Bethlehem (1 Kings 16); second, in Hebron (2 Kings 2); third, when he reigned over all Israel in Jerusalem (2 Kings 5). Ask, therefore, to which anointing this psalm most properly belongs. But it must be known that "before he was anointed" is not found in the Hebrew volumes. Yet of these three anointings, the middle one pertains to this psalm. David holds the figure of Christ, because he too was anointed in baptism, when the Holy Spirit came upon him in the likeness of a dove. David did not receive the kingdom from the first anointing; so neither did Christ according to the flesh receive the kingdom at the time of his passion, but only after he ascended.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? He whom the Lord always enlightens and saves fears to be covered by no darkness. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The voice of the Church to Christ. In all the psalms the words are the Holy Spirit's. As the eyes of the body are enlightened by another light, so also the eyes of our heart are enlightened by the power of faith, that is, by Christ. Whence it is said: Who enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1).

The Lord is the defender of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? For he himself is the faithful protection of the soul; therefore it does not fear the enemy. He himself is both defender and salvation; yet he is called defender and helper: Of whom shall I be afraid? The Church says: Of no one, neither of the devil, nor of the heretic, nor of the persecutor, so long as I have him himself as my defender.

While the harmful draw near against me, to eat my flesh. They draw near, so that, when my former sins are stirred up within me, they may tear my body with rabid tooth. Or, while the harmful draw near against me to eat my flesh, that is, the demons or persecutors. But the flesh, that is, the affections of the flesh: for this is their food. And yet they are given the flesh to eat: that is, the bodies of the saints to persecute. But the saints have consolation from the Lord, as he says in the Gospel: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10).

My enemies who trouble me: they themselves have been weakened and have fallen. Because the Lord is my light: my enemies who trouble me, demons or persecutors: they themselves have been weakened and have fallen. They were weakened then, when Christ took up our humanity.

Though camps stand against me: my heart will not fear. For the Lord is a strong warrior, he himself will fight for me. Though camps stand against me: that is, the strength of demons or persecutors. He calls them camps, according to that passage: They encamped (Num. 33). My heart will not fear. The Church says this, on account of what the Lord said: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age (Matt., last).

Though battle rise up against me, in this I will hope. And though battles be stirred up against me, I am confident in these things: because God, who is my hope, can turn back wicked weapons into the mouths of the enemies. Though battle rise up against me. These battles mentioned above, the battle of demons. I, says the Church, will hope in your aid and your defense.

I have asked one thing of the Lord, this I will seek. Some think that one love, or grace, or certainly one petition is meant, since the Hebrew word ahath, taken absolutely, sounds as "one" in the neuter gender, and is read: I have asked one thing of the Lord, that is, the Lord himself. This I will seek, that is, the Lord himself.

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. In the house of the Lord, in eternal life; because although the Church here is called a house, yet not properly, but by designation. Hence it says: Blessed are they who dwell in your house, O Lord (Ps. LXXXIII).

That I may see the will of the Lord: that is, the love of God: as that: We shall see him as he is (John III), but here through a mirror. I have asked one thing of the Lord, this I will seek. Let us see what the one petition is: That I may dwell, it says, in the house of the Lord all the days of my life: that in this mortal life I may be made a holy temple, in which God may deign to dwell. And that I may visit his temple. That I may become a partaker with those who, placed on earth, lead a heavenly life. And that I may be protected in his holy temple: that is, that I may have protection from the same Lord mentioned above.

Because he hid me in his tabernacle. In which he dwells in me through faith, lest the storms of temptations meet me. The tabernacle of the Godhead is the humanity of Christ. He hid the Church in his tabernacle, because our head is Christ, and we are his members. He hid the Church, therefore, with himself, as it is said: For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3). In the day of evils. Are there evil days? No, but they are called evil in our works, as Paul says: Because the days are evil (Eph. 5). He speaks of these present days. Because although the head is above, the members are still below until the end. Because I think this too is signified, when he was alone on the mountain: the little boat on the sea was tossed by the waves, and therefore they need protection from him (Matt. 8). In the day of evils: in the prosperity of those lying in wait. He protected me in the hidden place of his tabernacle. In the heart of the one believing unto righteousness.

In the rock he exalted me. In Christ he exalted me through faith. The rock is Christ, as Paul says: “But the rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10). “In the rock he exalted me”: in himself, who is the stable rock and the truest foundation. “And now he has exalted my head above my enemies.” “Now,” in the present: “above my enemies,” that is, above those mentioned above, our head has been exalted, which is Christ: above all the enemies of the Church. “And now he has exalted my head above my enemies,” above the carnal impulses, which often humbled me, so that I would not contemplate heavenly things.

I will go about and sacrifice in his tabernacle a victim of jubilation. “I will go about,” that is, I will exercise myself among the creatures of God, considering the world believing in Christ. Because one considers the creatures of God: when someone has looked upon heaven and earth, or the sea with its ornaments, he finds what he may sacrifice to God, that is, praise. “I will go about,” that is, through the four parts of the world I seek out the examples of the saints, and there the praise of God is found. “And I will sacrifice in his tabernacle a victim of outcry.” What he endured for us in humility for a time, I will proclaim rejoicing: because he takes delight in such victims. A “victim of jubilation,” that is, of preaching. A jubilus is that which can comprehend the greatness of the praise of God neither through letters, nor through syllables, nor in words. A victim is so called because it is divided into parts, and its blood is poured out around the altar, and the victim itself is burned outside.

Wine and oil are called a sacrifice, and a half animal; and a holocaust is the whole burnt offering, and a victim is so called before it is slain. Whence Paul says: “A living victim” (Rom 12). I will sing and say a psalm to the Lord. “I will sing” — I will preach; “I will say a psalm” — I will fulfill it in deed; or I will sing spiritual praises in a mind enlarged.

Hear, O Lord, my voice, with which I cried to you: have mercy on me and hear me. For through the cry of the inner man I beseech you to hear me.

To you my heart has spoken, my face has sought you: your face, O Lord, I will seek. Deservedly does the heart of the just seek the face of the living God, because it trusts that it can see him. For “blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5). My face has sought your face — that is, my Church has sought your face, that is, your presence.

Do not turn your face away from me. Elsewhere it says: “Turn your face away from my sins” (Ps 50). And this must be prayed for. But here it says: “Do not turn your face away” — that is, do not abandon me to my own will, as it is said: “God handed them over to a reprobate mind” (Rom 1) — that is, he permitted it. Do not turn aside in anger from your servant. If a servant offends an earthly master, he is in fear and dread; how much more a man, if he offends the heavenly God? Therefore the Church prays this, that he may correct her here and see her — that he may not depart from her in anger, but that she may do those things from which she does not turn aside, and that with a propitious face he may look upon her.

Be my helper, Lord; do not forsake me, nor despise me, God my savior. “Helper” refers to the present. “Be” pertains both to the present and to the future. “Do not forsake me”: neither here nor in the future. “Nor despise me, God my savior.” Our savior is Christ, and the Church asks this, that she not be despised by him: that is, that she not commit that sin by which she is despised by God. “Do not forsake me”: when I crucify my flesh with its vices and desires. “Nor despise me, God my savior”: because even if I am mortal, I seek heavenly things.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me. The father is the devil; the mother is Babylon, or the Gentiles, who were our parents before Christ came into the world. Now our father is God, and our mother the heavenly Jerusalem, as Paul says: “Jerusalem, which is our mother” (Gal 4). “For my father and my mother have forsaken me”: but the Lord has taken me up. I have abandoned the kingdom of the world and the cities of this age which bore me and promised me things that pass away, and having been taken up by you, I have been forsaken by them. “Because my father and my mother have forsaken me.” This can also be taken simply of David, that the youngest among his brothers, despised by his parents, was chosen by God through Samuel. In general, however, the love of parents for their children ends with death; the love of God grows with time.

Appoint a law for me, Lord. A law—your very self, because you yourself are the law. In your way: that is, in your commandments. What are those commandments? That you not turn aside to the right or to the left, and not look back, as that saying: No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven (Luke 9:6). And likewise: Remember Lot's wife (Luke 17). And: Seek the things that are above, not the things that are on the earth. Set a law for me, Lord, in your way: and guide me in the straight path. That I may not turn aside from the right or the left, but following your commandments and walking the royal road, may enter the land of promise. Because of my enemies: carnal impulses, demons, heretical persecutors.

Do not hand me over into the souls of those who persecute me. That their soul may not be sated with the adversities that befall me. For false witnesses have risen up against me: and iniquity has lied to itself. They have risen up against me, speaking a lie: but when I trusted in you, they were destroyed in their own lie. For false witnesses have risen up against me. False witnesses rose up against Christ, when the Jews said: This man said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it (Matthew 26). Or the adversaries speak against the Church. Iniquity has lied to itself: that is, they have lied to themselves, and not to me: because each one's vice returns upon its own author. And iniquity has lied to itself.

Wicked witnesses, in that they lie against others, lie to themselves, while they prepare punishments for themselves, thinking that God does not avenge lies.

I believe to see the good things of the Lord, in the land of the living. The voice of the Church. In the land of the living, because we have our pledge there on high, which is Christ. He received from our land a mortal body, and we have received from him hope and faith, and believing through hope and faith, we shall arrive in the land of the living, in which the saints shall receive the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. Wait for the Lord. That is, until the end of the world, whatever has befallen you, endure it patiently for Christ.

Act manfully. That is, act bravely, as the Angel said to Joshua: Be strong, and be valiant (Joshua 1). And let your heart be strengthened: that is, your soul. And wait for the Lord: that is, endure the Lord. The prophet here exhorts that faithful one who has spoken until now, saying: Wait first, that you may be strengthened by God against the contests of the world. Wait then, that you may be crowned as a victor by the same Lord, because no one shall be crowned unless he has striven lawfully. But let us beseech the Lord, that with him strengthening us, by manfully enduring the storms of worldly waves, we may wait in faith, until he comes to render what he has deigned to promise.

PSALM 27

A psalm for David himself. The psalm has the voice of the Mediator himself, speaking to the Father in the conflict of the Passion. But the things that are wished upon enemies are not of malice, but the reasoning of prophecy foretelling what threatens them for their evils. Or it is the voice of the man assumed into the divinity: Jesus cried out on the cross and said: Eli, Eli.

To you, Lord, I have cried out, my God. That you may glorify me with that glory which I had with you before the world was made: because now I have assumed a man. Do not be silent from me. But speak: because I have eternity equal with you. Do not be silent from me: that is, do not forsake me. And I shall be like those who go down into the pit. That is, into the misery of this life: because if the divinity had withdrawn from him, he would have been like us in misery. If you are silent, I shall be like those who perish: yet if you are silent, you are not known.

Hear the voice of my supplication, while I pray to you. Christ prayed on the cross for the whole world, and for the Jews, and for the apostles. While I lift up my hands to your holy temple. I lift up my hands: that is, I stretched them out on the cross. To the holy temple: that is, I was stretched out for this, that I might prepare a temple for you: that is, the body of the Church. And I shall be likened to those who go down into the pit. The pit signifies hell: namely, the place of those who are held under guard. And elsewhere it is written: Even to the captivity that was in the pit (Exod.

XII): Hear the voice of my supplication, when I cry to you: when I lift up my hands to your holy temple: that is, on the cross for those who will believe, who are to be your temple.

Do not deliver me up together with sinners. Sinners, robbers, among whom he hung, as the prophet says: And he was reckoned among the wicked (Isa. LIII). Do not destroy me with those who work iniquity. That is, on the day of judgment with these robbers, or with other evils. It pertains as much to Christ as to the Church, that I not perish in such a way, undergoing death, as do the workers of iniquity.

With those who speak peace with their neighbor: but evils, etc. The Jews spoke peace with Christ, saying: Master, we know that you are true, and that you have come from God as a master, and you teach the way of God in truth (Matt. XXII). But evils are in their hearts, when they asked him: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not (Mark XII)?

Give them according to their works. Those who do not understand you through your benefits, let them be questioned through torments, so that, doing evil, they may not be able to find your good things. The prophet speaks not by wishing but by foretelling, as if he had said: You are going to give them vengeance on the day of judgment. And according to the wickedness of their devices, etc. Their zeal is to harm me and to stretch out the snares of temptations; therefore it is just that they themselves fail in these very things. Render their recompense to them. For they have rendered evil for good, not understanding you. Because they have not understood the works of the Lord, etc. Let their engines, which are raised up against my Church, prevail nothing.

Blessed is the Lord. The Father. Because he has heard the voice of my supplication. Answering before the passion: And I have glorified, and I will glorify again (John XII).

The Lord is my helper. In the passion. And my protector. In death. And in him my heart has hoped, the Humanity in the Divinity. And I have been helped. In tribulation, that I might rise again.

And my flesh flourished again. The flesh of Christ flourished again in the resurrection. Or, my flesh flourished again: the apostles flourished again, because after their denial they came to faith. My flesh flourished again, coming forth from the tomb incorrupt. And my flesh flourished again. Instead of "flesh," Theodotion translated it "heart." Otherwise: for we have risen with Christ. And concerning the resurrection it is said: Your bones shall spring up like grass (Isa. 66). And with my will I will confess to him. To the Father himself, as that passage: I will confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones (Matt. 11). And the Church to Christ: as that passage: tending the flock, not by constraint, but willingly (1 Pet. 3); and likewise: I will sacrifice to you willingly, and I will confess to your name (Ps. 53). And with my will I will confess to him, not from necessity. I will confess to you through baptism. The Lord is the strength of his people. Of the Christian people. And he is the protector of the salvations of his Christ. Whoever has been baptized in Christ is also himself called Christ. But it must be known that this psalm too, except for one letter, was written in the Hebrew volumes according to the order of the letters. Protector, that is, defender. He is the protector of the salvations of his Christ. He speaks in the plural, because the divinity of Christ guards all his virtues.

Save your people, O Lord. That is, the Christian people. Or, save your people, O Lord, whom I redeemed by my death. And bless your inheritance. Which you gathered in the Church through the mystery of my body and blood. The inheritance of Christ is his Church, of which he said: I will give you the nations for your inheritance (Is.). And rule them, and exalt them forever. Rule them, as if he were saying: You rule them, not the devil, nor sin. And exalt them forever: that is, defend them forever, in eternal life. You, O Lord, rule and raise us up: because we are your people, so that in this life, for those who do what is pleasing to you, we may be exalted from this mortality into immortality, with you transforming us: that is, we may be raised up into heavenly things, to reign with your saints.

PSALM XXVIII.

Unto the end, a Psalm of David, at the completion of the tabernacle. When the ark was brought back from the captivity of the Philistines, on account of which they suffered many evils, it was set down in Shiloh, and David built a tabernacle for it: in which he exhorts the people to offer sacrifices to God (1 Kings 4, 5 and following). David most openly bears the figure of Christ, and the ark the figure of the Church. Just as David brought back the ark from captivity, so too Christ brought back the ark, that is, the holy Church from captivity: that is, from the power of the devil. The Psalm therefore contains the voice of the prophet speaking about the perfection of the Church gathered in this world.

Bring to the Lord, O sons of God, you who through grace have been called into adoption as sons. The voice of Christ admonishes the preachers: Bring preaching, and example, or faith and works. Bring to the Lord the sons of rams. These are the leaders of the flocks whom the apostles begot through the Gospel. The apostles are called rams. Rams have two horns on their head. And the holy apostles had two horns: that is, they preached the two Testaments. The sons of rams are the successors of the apostles, whom they begot through the word of preaching. The completion of the tabernacle, in its spiritual sense, is the perfection of the Church, joined together from Jews and Gentiles, as it is in the present.

Bring to the Lord glory and honor. And by your works let the eternal God be glorified, through word and example. Whence he says: they were glorifying and glorified. They beget sons, as we have said, through preaching, as Paul said: Through the Gospel I begot you (2 Cor 4). This is the glory and honor of God. Bring to the Lord glory to his name. Let his glorious name be made known through you in all things. The name of the Father is the Son; the glory of Christ is the Church. Adore the Lord in his holy court. Enlarge your heart in perfect sanctification, in which God may dwell: that is, in the Church, or in the conscience, where each one ought to adore him.

The voice of the Lord. The preaching of the Lord. Upon the waters. Upon the peoples. As that passage: Many waters, many peoples (Rev 17). Or, the voice of the Lord upon the waters: that is, in Baptism upon Christ, as he says: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt 3). Upon the waters: because the people who were present there heard the voice. Or, upon the waters, as he said to the apostles: Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt, as above). The God of majesty. The God of power. The Lord has thundered over many waters. From the tabernacle of the body he assumed, he preached conversion to the peoples in terrifying fashion, saying: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 3). Just as thunder proceeds from a cloud, so too Christ thundered from a cloud: that is, from his body, when he said: Do penance.

The voice of the Lord in power. Made powerful in those who believe, when he said: Lazarus, come forth (John 11). Or in power, by which he speaks in each of the saints. The voice of the Lord in magnificence. When he is magnified through the works of the saints. Magnificence, spread abroad in the Churches.

The voice of the Lord breaking the cedars. All things lofty and high, or the proud, are called cedars. He will break them either through repentance or on the day of judgment in vengeance. The cedars, that is, every proud person. Behold, the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Breaking the cedars, humbling the proud. It must be understood that the cedar has two meanings, as also the unicorn: that is, if taken in a good sense, it shows the righteous; if in a bad sense, sinners and the proud. And the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He will crush its proud exaltations through repentance, and will shatter them when he chooses the lowly, so that he may crush and confound the strong.

And he will break them in pieces like the calves of Lebanon. Striking their branches and tender shoots with his heels. For this the Hebrew has, and the calf of Lebanon. Pride and wantonness having been cut down, he brings them to the imitation of his own humanity, because he was offered up like a calf. This calf is the fatted calf that was killed, that is, Christ for the salvation of the world. As a calf breaks the tender shoots with its horns, so Christ broke the Jews. Whence he said: Now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees (Matt 3). And the beloved as the son of unicorns. The beloved Son of God was made through the assumption of a body, the son of the Jews, and he crushed those who by singular pride were attempting to raise up their own righteousness. Christ is the son of the Jews, because according to the flesh I was of their stock.

The Jews are called unicorns, on account of the one law that they had, through which they exalted themselves into pride.

The voice of the Lord cutting asunder the flame of fire. John, preaching repentance in the wilderness, was quenching every burning of hell. Cutting asunder, that is, dividing the raging wrath of the persecutors: when some said, This is the Christ, but others said, No; but he seduces the crowd (John 7). He indeed, cutting off this fury, took up believers into his love; but he left the unbelieving. After the flame comes the sound: so too after preaching comes persecution. The voice of the Lord cutting asunder, that is, his help among the persecutors, because he comes to the aid of his saints, cutting asunder the flame: that flame of the idol, where the three youths were. Or daily in each one of us, he cuts asunder the flame of lust through confession and the grace of the Holy Spirit, that is, through the prayer of the priest he makes it cease, as we read that God did through Aaron in the wilderness (Num. 16). The voice of the Lord shaking the wilderness. The soul that had been a wilderness, with vices occupying it beforehand, will be stirred at the words of repentance: so that, when the vices depart from it, it may become habitable for God. The voice of the Lord shaking the wilderness. Stirring to faith the gentile wildernesses, in which no furrow of preaching had been imposed for receiving the word of God. Or the nations that were wildernesses have been turned from unbelief to faith through the word of preaching. And the Lord will shake the wilderness of Kadesh.

Then in this solitude of the world the holy words of the Law will be celebrated, which before were not understood by the Jews, because Cades is interpreted as Holy. Or otherwise: the motion of the moth. Well did he compare them to the moth, because just as the moth eats garments, so their conscience was eating them. It is called the motion of the moth because it stirred them from their depraved conscience to the faith of the Church.

The voice of the Lord preparing the deer. Some take the deer as, so to speak, conquerors of poisonous tongues in the Church. The deer are preachers. He prepared them when he sent them to preach. Deer pass through and trample on thorns or serpents; so too do preachers pass through the poisons of the devil and the thorns of sins, and flee to higher things, that is, to the contemplative life. And he will reveal the dense places. The obscure things of the divine Scriptures or of the heavenly mysteries he made plain through the Holy Spirit. Hence in the Gospel those two to whom he himself appeared were saying: Was not our heart burning within us, while he spoke to us on the way, and opened the Scriptures to us (Luke 24)? And in his temple, that is, in the Church. All will speak glory. They praise together the brightness of God. Or: glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

The Lord makes the flood his dwelling. God does not possess dry land. At the same time attend to the force of the word, that he did not say waters, but flood: so that he might show the abundance of spiritual grace, as in Noah's ark protecting the saints from the waves of this world. And now he dwells in the flood in the joining together through the abundance of the Holy Spirit, through whom sins are wiped away. And the Lord shall sit as king forever. In the Churches or in the saints, who have been made his seat, or the humanity of Christ at the right hand of God the Father. Kings, the saints are called, who rule themselves.

The Lord will give strength to your people. That is, the strength of faith. To his people, the Christian people, fighting against the storms and tempests of this world. And he will bless his people in peace. He will bless the Christian people both here and in the future, when he will say: Come, blessed of my Father (Matt. 25): In peace, in himself, because he himself is our peace, who has made both one (Eph. 2). In himself true peace, Christ the Lord, blesses us, who are the ecclesiastical people.