Breviarium In Psalmos

Hear, O God, my prayer, and do not despise my supplication: attend to me, and hear me. This threefold supplication is shown for this reason: that man, while remaining in a servile state, sends forth the first from a conscience of holiness. The second, because he knows himself to be righteous, he asks that his obedience not be despised. The third, on account of the weakness of the flesh, he entreats that attention be given to him. By this reasoning understand, O man: that unless you pray with a pure conscience, you will not be heard by God at all.

I am grieved in my exercise. Which I undertook for the life of the world: because exercise is always directed toward useful and necessary things. I am troubled by the voice of the enemy. Who kept reproaching me as a Samaritan and one having a demon, though I was God before the ages. Or the voice of the Church. The Church has two enemies. One openly, and one secretly. She ought to love the one, and hate the other. To love her neighbor, as that saying: Love your enemies: do good to those who hate you (Luke 6): And to despise and hate the other: that is, the devil, who comes secretly through suggestions and delights. And from the tribulation of the sinner. Who was always plotting the snares of tribulations against me. For this reason God brings tribulation upon sinners: either that they may be corrected, or that through them He may correct the good.

For they have turned iniquities against me. The people, surely, turn aside to iniquity, who bring forth a lie against their neighbor. Or the Jews against the Lord, as they said: In Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he casts out demons (Matt. 12): And in their anger they were troublesome to me. Those persecuting me in their envy. And in anger they were troublesome. Troublesome, that is, savage. In anger, the mote; the beam, hatred. Anger disturbs; the beam blinds: as that saying: My eye is troubled because of anger (Ps. 6).

My heart is troubled. According to man, but by divine power it was strengthened. For even an angel, says the Evangelist, coming to him, strengthened him (Luke 22). And the dread of death fell upon me. The fear of the soul, and the trembling of the body. Fear and trembling came upon me. Indeed he himself said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Mark 14). Darknesses have covered me. Darknesses are said to be evil men, who persecute the Church, and who cover it in hatred, because whoever hates his brother is in darkness. And darknesses have covered me: but because I was the light, they did not comprehend me.

And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove? And I will fly away, and rest. Not from another do I seek the highest flight of escaping death, but from myself. I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again: so that I may return from darkness to heavenly things. In the dove, moreover, he designates the spiritual nature, as was shown in baptism. The dove is a simple animal, without gall, and alien from the malice of gall: because it signifies the kiss of charity to the soul: because the Church has two wings, that is, the two precepts of charity: namely, the love of God and of neighbor.

Behold, I have gone far off, flying away. From the Jews. For salvation is far from sinners. And I remained in the wilderness. With the unbelieving nations, which I made to flourish by my coming. Of which another prophet says: Let the desert rejoice and flourish (Isa. 35). Behold, I have gone far off, flying away, and I remained in the wilderness. The dove flees from human conversation, and the saints flee from the company of men, not bodily, but spiritually, that is, in conscience, because they consider how they ought to defend themselves against the suggestions of the devil or of heretics.

I was waiting for him who saved me from faintness of spirit and from the storm. He waits while placed in the body, not only for the salvation of the Father, that he may be snatched from various storms, but also that he may receive vengeance upon his enemies. There follows:

Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues. Someone is often cast down into the water. Therefore let these be submerged as in a flood, and let them be scattered with their tongues divided, as happened in the building of the tower. But why these things happen, he added: For I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city. Iniquity, when they did not believe. Contradiction, when they reproach, contradicting: Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter (Mark 6)? And many other things.

Day and night. That is, at every time. By day, when he was teaching the crowds, and they did not believe. By night, when he was suffering, and they blasphemed him. Therefore their city, that is, Jerusalem, was surrounded and filled in such a manner that its iniquity overflowed above the walls.

And his usury and deceit did not fail from his streets. For all things that were forbidden in the law have grown up to swell the accumulation of sin. For in the law the taking of usury is forbidden (Deut. 23). Usury is to receive more than to give. Whence the prophet says: I have not lent at usury, nor has anyone lent at usury to me (Jer. 15). And, If you wish that which is owed to you to be forgiven, forgive (Matt. 6).

For if my enemy had cursed me, I would surely have endured it, and if he who hated me had spoken great things against me: perhaps I would have hidden myself from him. Here the Lord complains not only of the passion, but also of the betraying disciple. For we read in the Gospels that he hid himself from the Jews (John 8). But from Judas he did not hide himself: rather he even received him to the holy banquet, as follows:

But you, a man of one mind. You who were joined with the other apostles. My leader. Sent with the others to preach. And my acquaintance. Because you had known through the mystery of the law that I was to come. My leader and my acquaintance. The voice of Christ concerning Judas. He calls him of one mind: because he seemed to others as if good. He calls him leader, because in that he betrayed Christ, he was a leader of death. Acquaintance, when he sent them two by two before his face for preaching (Luke 10).

You who together with me took sweet food. You were often refreshed by the commands of life and the will of the Father. For sweet food is to do the will of the Father, as that saying: He who dips his hand with me in the dish will lift up his heel against me (Matt. 26). Or the sweet food is the body and blood of Christ, which he himself received unworthily. We walked in the house of God with one accord. For often he went with the Lord himself in the temple of Solomon with the agreement of preaching.

Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. So that he might show, in a human way, the greater grief of his heart, he therefore foretold, as if in a curse, the things that were to come upon them. Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. This was done concerning Dathan, and Korah, and Abiram, and fire came at once and they died, and the earth swallowed them alive (Num. 16).

Because wickedness is in their dwellings in the midst of them. For indeed in deed as well as in thought, they are full of wickedness.

But I cried to the Lord, and the Lord will save me. Evening, and morning, and noon. In the evening, when he underwent the passion; in the morning, when he rose again; at noon, when every glory of his power had been fulfilled, he ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father.

I will narrate and announce, and he will hear my voice. He will redeem my soul in peace, from those who draw near to me. He narrates, that is: that the Father heard him swiftly; that he snatched him from the tribulations of death; that in peace he freed his soul from the enemies who had drawn near to him to inflict death. Or, I will narrate, as lesser things, and announce, as greater things. He freed my soul in peace. In peace, that is, in himself, as Paul said: He himself is our peace, who has made both one (Eph. 1). From those who draw near to me. They draw near in body, not in life nor in merit. For they were with me among many. Among many, but not among the few. In many, that is, in baptism and in unfeigned faith. They are not among the few, that is, in firm faith, and hope, and charity. Among many believers they were with me, and they did not believe.

God will hear. Me blessing, not them cursing. God will hear: his saints. And he will humble them. That is, the proud. He who is before the ages. The Father, surely, whom they did not recognize as remaining in me: because he is before the ages, and remains forever. He who took a beginning from Mary was begotten before the ages.

For there is no change in them. From evil to good: they are not changed, they are not transferred according to the Gospel from death to life. And they did not fear God. Therefore the cause descended to vengeance, as follows: He stretched out his hand in recompensing. Because when it had been extended to them for help, they did not receive it. They did not fear God: therefore they did not turn aside from evil to good: because they did not know. And he stretched out his hand in recompensing them. He stretched out his hand, as the prophet says: All day long I stretched out my hands to a people that did not believe and contradicted me (Isa. 65): therefore because they did not believe my works and my power. In recompensing them, that is, in vengeance on the day of judgment: especially since I said to Abraham: In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 25), that is, in Christ, and in another place: And I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession (Ps. 2). Christ through the new Testament acquired his inheritance.

They defiled his testament. Because they did not understand the Lord Jesus, promised by the proclamation of holy men. And they were divided from the wrath of his countenance. From spiritual providence, their contemplation was divided: therefore their portion was placed with the unbelievers. After their reproach, the word is directed to Judas, saying: And his heart drew near, so that, filled by the devil, he would betray Christ. They defiled his testament, and they were divided from the wrath of his countenance, that is, the heretics, who wished to defile the testament of God, will be divided on the day of judgment when they receive the sentence of damnation: Go, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matt. 25). And his heart drew near. His will: because what they understand from the Scriptures, they turn to evil, because they do not rightly believe concerning the faith of the Trinity. Whence it is said: There must be heresies, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you (1 Cor. 11).

His words were softened more than oil, and yet they are darts. When he says "they were softened," he speaks of many, though he had previously spoken of one. Understand, then, that the devil is named, and Judas, who made his words smoother than oil when he said, "Hail, Rabbi," and kissed him (Matt. 16). Rejecting such oil, that when placed in tribulations we may seek God's help, God himself taught us by his example, saying:

Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will nourish you. That, brought up by him, you may resist the enemies strongly. You will not give the just man to eternal fluctuation. For if you are just, he does not allow you to be wearied by the waves of the wicked. He who fluctuates is in the sea. By the sea, this world is understood, in which the saints fluctuate.

But you, God, will lead them down into the pit of destruction. That those who were unwilling to drink from the fountain of living water may be plunged into the pit of destruction. Into the pit of destruction: that is, into hell, by just vengeance upon them.

Men of blood and deceit. These are the shedders of the blood of our Redeemer. They shall not halve their days: not only did they not fulfill the days of eternity, but they did not even deserve to reach half of their time. For in a brief span, in the vengeance of the Lord, they were slain by their enemies.

But I will hope in you, Lord. That my days may be found full. And we suppliants pray that, heard by you, Lord, and not smeared with the oil of sin, nourished by you, freed by you from the waves of this world, we may deserve to obtain length of days for good deeds. Amen.

PSALM 55.

Unto the end, for the people who have been made far from the saints: David in the inscription of the title, when the foreigners held him in Geth. In Hebrew it reads thus: For the mute dove of lengths, David, humble and perfect, when the Philistine had held him in Geth. The mute dove, and David humble and perfect, is shown to be Christ in his passion.

Have mercy on me, God, for man has trampled me down: all day long he assailed me and afflicted me. In “man” and “one who wages war” he shows the assault of the devil or of the other spiritual wickednesses, at whose instigation the Lord suffered. But in “day” he indicates the bodily age. Have mercy on me, Lord—as if he were saying: Work mercy in me. For man has trampled me down, that is, Christ was trampled down by the Jews in his passion, and the Church by her persecutors. One man is spoken of for many, and many are spoken of for one. “One”—that is, for the unity of malice. There are two cities in the world: Babylon and Jerusalem. By Babylon are understood the wicked, who persecute the saints; so too Jerusalem, that is, the chosen soul, does not cease to pray for her enemies. All day long he assailed me and afflicted me. “All day long”—the whole time of the struggle.

My enemies have trampled me down. The Jews, certainly. All day long. From the time the flesh was assumed. I will fear from the height of the day. This has two senses. One, as if the Church were saying in her prayer: I will not fear the height of the proud. The other, in affirmation: I will fear the height—that is, the height of the Godhead—because whoever does not fear acts presumptuously. For many waging war against me. They will fear from the height of the day, because they have placed their hopes not in God but in transitory things.

But I will hope in you: in God I will praise my words. Because I trust in his help and protection, as the Lord said: My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me, the Father (John 7). How much more should we, who have received all things from him and have received him, always praise him!

In God I will hope, I will not fear what man may do to me. Strengthened in him, I will not fear the wars that the adversary stirs up against me, because it is said: If they kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul (Matt. 10).

All day long they cursed my words against me. When they said, This is not the prophet, but he deceives the crowd (John 7). All their counsels are for evil. For they have been turned to evil for them: when divine vengeance struck them after the crimes of the Lord's passion. All their counsels are for evil: the Jews against Christ, and sinners against the saints.

They will dwell. Unanimously. And they will hide. The snares of their wickedness. They themselves will watch my heel. That they may be able to supplant me, as they wished: either in the coin of the census (Luke 20): or in the woman caught (John 8). They themselves will watch my heel. The Jews the end of Christ, and sinners the end of the Church: because seven times a day the just man falls, and rises again (Prov. 24). Or, they will watch my heel: as was said concerning that woman, and the serpent (Gen. 3). By the head, the beginning of evil suggestion, and by the heel, the end of life. Or heretics in whatever speech, seek to watch the end.

As they sustained my soul. So that they might accuse me, caught in my words, before princes. You will save them for nothing. For they are saved for nothing, since they are not changed to glory, but are transferred to punishments. You will save them for nothing: because Christ did not do the thing for which he suffered, but the Jews demanded that they might kill him. In wrath you will break the peoples in pieces. Because they were dashed against the rock of offense and the stone of stumbling. After this vengeance the prophet, rejoicing and foreseeing things to come, sings.

O God, I have declared my life to you. For you are my life, and the life of all the people who are to come to the redemption of the world. Each one ought to declare it through confession, as Paul did when he said: I who was formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and insolent, but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief (1 Tim 1). And again he said: But I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me (Gal 2). You have set my tears in your sight, as also in your promise. Then my enemies will be turned backward. Your promises were that you would turn old tears into new joys, once the enemies were turned behind my back, and that you would endow me together with the other saints with your glory. You have set my tears in your sight: that is, you have heard and seen. As in your promise. God has promised good things to his saints: but nevertheless he says: First confess your iniquities, that you may be justified.

Then my enemies will be turned back. The Church speaks in the mode of desire, that those who run to hell may be turned back to God (Isaiah 43, according to the Septuagint).

On whatever day I call upon you: behold, I have known that you are my God. For in every necessity you, God, stand by: showing mercy to your own. On whatever day I call upon you, that is, either in prosperity or in adversity: And I have known that you are my God. The voice of the Church. Some come to know through the creature of heaven and earth, as the holy Paul says: Through the things that are made, being understood, they are conceived (Romans 1). And others through God, who inspires into their souls: as he said to Thomas: bring your finger here, and put your hand into my side, and know the places of the nails, and do not be unbelieving, but faithful (John 20). And he, made firm in heart, says: My Lord and my God.

In God I will praise the Word, and in the Lord I will praise the speech: in God I will hope, I will not fear what man may do to me. Again the prophet praises that Word, or speech, which was in the beginning with the Father: because hoping in him, he does not fear the threats of the adversary, saying:

In me are your vows, O God, which I will render as praises to you. These are the prophet's vows, that he may celebrate the Lord's praise, as he says elsewhere: Offer to God a sacrifice of praise (Ps. 50). And why he does this, he adds:

For you have delivered my soul from death. The second death, surely. My eyes from tears. That it may no longer be necessary to weep over sins, as that saying: God will wipe away every tear from their eyes on the day of judgment (Rev. 7), because it is said: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5). My feet from falling. That they may no longer slip into sins. My feet, that is, the senses, from falling, because then there will be no evil suggestion, nor tribulation. That I may please before God in the light of the living. The light of the living is Christ, according to that saying: I am the light of the world (John 8). And again: he was the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world (Ibid. 1). As in the Apocalypse concerning that holy city: there was no lamp there, because the Lord God Almighty has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb, by whom the saints, snatched from the darkness of this world, are made glorious (Rev. 21). The prophet prays these things not for himself alone, but also for us. Therefore let us beseech, that with bodily wars suppressed and the temptations of the world overcome, we may merit to please Jesus Christ in that very light. Amen.

PSALM 56.

To the end, destroy not, for David himself, in the inscription of the title, when he fled from the face of Saul king of Israel, into the cave. For David himself, in the inscription of the title, destroy not, that is, do not corrupt the inscription of the title: when Pilate wrote over the Lord's cross in three languages: Jesus king of the Jews. And they said: Do not write king of the Jews: but because he himself said, I am king of the Jews. And Pilate said: What I have written, I have written (John 19). David hidden in the cave, that is, in the lower part of the earth: prefigured the human body, where that majesty was hidden in the body of Christ, as that: I was delivered up, and I did not go out (Ps. 77). And Paul says: For if they had understood, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2).

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me: for in you my soul trusts. By the doubled petition of mercy, he joins his confidence, which he has in the Father, so that he may be heard more easily. For in you my soul trusts. As if one man speaks: but one for many: because it is said: From the ends of the earth I cried to you, O Lord (Ps. 6). And elsewhere: They had one soul and one heart (Acts 2). And in the shadow of your wings I will hope. That is, in the Father's protection. Shade is sought from heat: but by heat persecution or tribulation is understood, and by shadow the protection of the Godhead; where we ought always to flee. But the two wings are the two Testaments, or the two commandments of charity.

Until iniquity passes. The mockery of the wicked. For through these things he teaches us to hope in the protection of spiritual wings. Hence the prophet speaks.

I will cry to the most high God: to God who has done good to me. These are the things that follow after the goods that have been enumerated. Until iniquity passes, that is, the devil with his members, or his attendants. I will cry to the most high God. Christ cried to God the Father, and prayed for false brothers. And the Church prays for her enemies. And to God who has done good to me, that is, who made me from nothing to his own image, and gave me all the good things of this present life, and afterward promised eternal life in the future.

He sent from heaven, and delivered me. He sent his Son from the heavens, that he might snatch man from sin: or the human race from the power of the devil, or from hell. He sent in reproach those who trampled me underfoot. The impious and those bound by sin, who neglected the prophetic word. Or, as elsewhere: He gave the apostles power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy (Luke 10).

God has sent forth his mercy and his truth. Christ is mercy and truth. They are contained in one: neither is without the other. If there had been mercy alone, there would have been license to sin; if truth alone, man could not have endured it. He snatched my soul from the midst of the lion's whelps. The lions are the leaders of the Jews; the whelps, the people subject to them, who cried out, Crucify him. The lion is the devil, according to the Epistle of Peter: Your adversary the devil goes about like a lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter). Therefore the Lord himself is understood as mercy and truth, who, sent by the Father, snatched our souls from the power of demons, who were striving to devour us as the lions of this world; who also now speaks, saying: I slept and was troubled. For he slept in the sleep of the passion when he said: Now is my soul troubled (Psalm 6); because it is said: I slept and was slumbering, and I arose: for the Lord raised me up, according to that saying: I have power to lay down my soul, and power to take it up again (John 10).

The teeth of the sons of men are their weapons, etc. He says that the teeth of enemies are like the weapons of those who attack, whom the Lord shattered by his resurrection.

Be exalted above the heavens, O God, etc. There is no limit to the divine exaltation. But we know nothing of the heavens except what we have seen. For when he says, above the heavens, it exceeds human knowledge. But concerning the glory which is above the earth, that is understood which the Lord himself says elsewhere: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matt. last). Hence again the Lord:

They have prepared a snare for my feet. When they brought deceitful charges against me by questioning. And they have bowed down my soul. In death, but it was not perpetually subject to death. So the Jews wished to bow down Christ: that his name not be named.

They dug a pit before my face, and they themselves fell into it. When after the resurrection they were handed over to their enemies, captured, killed, and scattered.

My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing and chant a psalm to the Lord. The book exults and sings in harmony over the triumph of his death. I will sing, I will proclaim: I will chant a psalm, I will fulfill it in deed.

Arise, my glory; arise, psaltery and harp: I will arise at dawn. For at dawn he rose again, in the morning while darkness was still upon the earth. For thus the psaltery and harp: for this Davidic utterance had sung: arise, psaltery and harp. What do these instruments signify? One belongs to things above, the other to things on earth. What is understood by the psaltery? Christ is understood, as in that passage: Go, tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the dead rise again, the poor are evangelized, and blessed is he who is not scandalized in me—that is, the divinity working through the flesh (Matt. 11). The harp belongs to things on earth, that is, to grow weary, to sleep, to be in need, to hunger, to thirst, and the rest. Otherwise: the psaltery pertains to us—hope, faith, love, patience, goodness, and other such things. By the harp are understood the six works of mercy, which we ought to fulfill: I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, naked, sick, in prison. Likewise the psaltery, that is, to give thanks to God in tribulation; it comes from things above, through him by whom you endure. The harp is persecution and tribulation which you endure in the body. I will arise at dawn. Christ answers the Father. Hence he said above: arise, my glory.

I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord, and I will sing a psalm to you among the nations. Those whom I have called through the prophets or the apostles. I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord, that is, after I have risen. I will sing a psalm to you among the nations, that is, to preach, to fulfill in deed.

For your mercy has been magnified up to the heavens. For by my resurrection all things have been made at peace with you, both those in heaven and those on earth. And your truth up to the clouds. Fulfilling through the prophets what you had foretold to us. The heavens are the saints when they contemplate from on high; the clouds, when they water human hearts by preaching.

Be exalted above the heavens, O God. The prophet says these things concerning the glorious ascension of Christ. And your glory above all the earth. When you pour out the gift of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh. Which you deign also now to bestow upon us, that in all pressures and all tribulations you send your Holy Spirit: by whose help and protection, or defense, protected, we may deserve to be prepared for eternal joys and to be carried over to heavenly rewards. Amen.

PSALM LVII.

Unto the end, destroy not, David, in the inscription of the title. You suggest falsehood; I will not corrupt the truth: what I have written, I have written (John xix). The psalm contains the voice of the Prophet admonishing concerning judgments and justice.

If indeed you speak justice, judge rightly, you sons of men. He teaches that whoever among mortals has used public judgment, if he speaks the truth, should also judge the truth: and let him not set the snare of deception through the blandishments of words, by which he secretly kills the innocent. If indeed you speak justice: judge just things, you sons of men. The Jews spoke just things to Christ, when they said: Master, we know that you are truthful, and in truth you teach the way of God (Matt. xxii). They were not judging just things when they asked for Barabbas, the son of death, and killed Christ, the son of life (John xviii). Or otherwise: Judge just things, that is, you who judge that justice is good, judge rightly, that is, do not do to another what you do not wish done to yourself.

For truly in the heart you work iniquities in the land. In this land which you inhabit, you think evil, while you seem to speak good. Your hands have woven iniquity. For your works, which according to allegory are taken as hands, are filled with iniquity.

Sinners are estranged from the womb. Some understand this of the soul's descent into the body, others of the Jews: that they are estranged from God, from the time that Mary bore the Savior. They have erred from the womb, they have spoken falsehood. God, foreknowing things to come, destroys iniquity itself before it is born. Therefore he says that sinners speak falsehood, and he prophesies that they err and are estranged, just as once concerning Esau, who before he was begotten was cast out from the inheritance of God (Malachi i and Romans ix).

Fury is in them according to the likeness of a serpent. In them, who by anger wish to devour the servants of God in passing, with venomous bites, and neglect repentance. Like the deaf asp, and one stopping its ears, etc.: he speaks of the Devil or his satellites: who, though they harm daily, and especially those to whom we declare the song by invocation of the Lord's name, yet with the passage of their ears blocked, they do not cease to rage. The asp is a kind of serpent. That man who charms, is called a Marsian, and draws them out of darkness into light.

God will shatter their teeth in their mouth; the Lord will break the molars of the lions. In the teeth is signified open persecution, in the molars hidden treachery. God will shatter their teeth in their mouth, so that they cannot tear his servants with wicked bites. The Lord will break the molars of the lions—the snares of evil wickednesses, which are held like the molars of lions for a stronger bite.

They will come to nothing like water running down. For just as running water is either swallowed up by the earth or fails in the sea, so these too are brought to this end, that they perish. Like the water which from the beginning of the world goes in a circle, so is their teaching. Running water, that is a torrent, means water which runs down from the mountains into the valleys. Or as winter waters, when they come, are at once dried up, so these pass away quickly. Whence it is said: He drank from the torrent in the way (Ps. 10). The Lord drank from the torrent in the way, because he received from what is ours. He has bent his bow until they are weakened. By the bow are understood the wrath and threats of God. Whence he said: Unless you are converted—that is, from pride to humility—he has brandished his bow, as Paul heard: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9)? He has bent his bow, the future judgment, until they are weakened—that is, until their snares vanish away.

Like wax that melts, they will be taken away. For just as wax is dissolved by fire, so too will those men be destroyed by the fire of the future judgment. Fire has fallen upon them, the judgment of the dead: And they have not seen the sun. They have not understood Christ the Lord, who is the sun of justice, of whom the wicked will say in the judgment: And the sun of justice has not shone upon us (Wis. 5). Fire has fallen, and they have not seen the sun. Sinners see Christ as fire, the just as the sun of justice. Otherwise: the man who, terrified by the threats of the Scriptures, does penance—to him the true sun is shown through the fire of punishments.

Before your thorns understand the buckthorn. As if living, as if in anger he will swallow them up. Before your sins reach their end, and the thorns of your thoughts swell forth into a tree of sins: God will rebuke you, not angry, but as if angry. For the anger of God is not anger, but correction, and he will rebuke you not as living, but as if living. For those who have the thorns of sins do not deserve to be called living. Before your thorns understood the buckthorn, he speaks these things to the sinning people: the buckthorn is a kind of bramble, most harsh with its prickles, and most pleasing in its flower. Whence it is understood to have a twofold power: of vengeance and of the reward of good things—that is, to the just it offers its flower for adornment, to sinners its thorns for breaking.

Like the living, so in wrath he will swallow them up. Punishment will swiftly swallow them up, because whoever has not believed is already judged (John 3). "The living," that is, the wise of the world who think themselves, through their own wisdom, to be as it were living. But the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. But the wrath of God of which he speaks is just vengeance.

The just man will rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the wicked, because when they are condemned to punishments, these are made glad in rewards. He will wash his hands in the blood of sinners. Because this verse is difficult to understand, I will set forth the very words that those before us have treated; blessed Hilary, bishop and, so to speak, a great sustainer of the Church amid the storms of the world, says thus concerning it: The just man does not wash his hands in the blood of sinners; but since sinners are in blood, because they are guilty of bloodshed, he will keep his hands washed from every guilt of blood. Then the just man washes his hands in the blood of sinners when he sees vengeance exacted upon them, with the saints not procuring it, and then he will rejoice when, after their departure, his works shine forth gloriously.

And man will say, "Surely there is fruit for the righteous." For then will his fruit be, when Christ the Lord has given him a share in the kingdoms of heaven. Surely there is a God who judges them on the earth. Those of whom we spoke above are judged on this earth before the judgment: "Whoever has not believed is already judged." And we, if we do not stop our ears to the commandments of God, if we carry out the counsels of the saints with innocence, if we are not afflicted by the thorns of our own crimes, if we wash our hands free from all blood together with the innocent, the Lord Jesus will honor us with worthy rewards, with which the saints rejoice together with him forever. Amen.

PSALM 58.

Unto the end, do not destroy David, in the inscription of the title: when Saul sent to watch his house in order to kill him. Because this psalm teaches through its title that David was guarded, it declares the mystery of the Lord's passion, saying:

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God, etc. Through these degrees of enmity one ascends even to the shedding of blood. For the Jews were enemies of Jesus Christ our Lord, when they envied him in secret. They rose up against him, when they opposed his commandments. They became workers of iniquity, when they armed their hands for murder. They became men of blood, when they said that the blood of the just man would come upon them and upon their children (Matthew 27).

For behold, they have taken my soul: the strong have rushed upon me, to deliver me over to death.

Neither my iniquity nor my sin, O Lord; without iniquity I ran and I made straight. David could not say these things of himself, who in another psalm knew himself to be full of sins; but of him who, bearing our sins, without any weight of iniquity ran even to the end of bodily death. Without iniquity I ran, and I made straight. And this psalm can be understood in the person of the Lord. For he says: The prince of this world came, and found nothing in me. Or certainly he ran: that is, he came from heaven into the womb, from the womb into the manger, from the manger to the cross, from the cross to the tomb, from the tomb to the underworld, from the underworld he returned victorious to the heavens. And he made straight, not his own senses, but ours, because they were crooked and twisted. Whence the prophet said: And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain.

Arise to meet me. He says this to the Father, by whom he prays in the Gospels to be glorified. And he, as if running to meet him and extending his hand, answered, saying: And I have glorified, and again I will glorify (John 12). He asks that this meeting be extended even to the visitation of the nations, saying: But arise to meet me: that is, make them understand concerning that course which I held, that I am equal to you. Whence he says: From the highest heaven is his going forth, and his meeting even to its highest (Ps 18): that is, God the Father over all spiritual creatures. And see. As if he were saying: that you may make them see: that is, that they may believe me equal to you.

And you. Lord God of hosts, God of Israel: attend to visiting all the nations: do not have mercy on all who work iniquity. So that when the divine visitation regards the just, the penalty of sin may constrain them. And you, Lord God of hosts: that is, of angels and men. God of Israel: that is, God of the souls of those who see God. Christ to the Father: Attend to visiting all the nations, not only in Judea, but also among the nations.

Let them be converted toward evening, and they will suffer hunger like dogs—even to the departure from this life, they will suffer hunger for the word of God, and they are not reproved amid their various evils, so as to repent. And they will go about the city. But they find in it no joy of solemnities or of sacrifices. Or he speaks of those who at the end will believe from among the Jews. For when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved (Rom 11).

Behold, they will speak with their mouth: and a sword is on their lips. Their blasphemies and faithlessness are compared to a sword. For who has heard? For no one of men hears, when these are mocked by the Lord, as follows.

And you, Lord, will mock them—those who hold you in laughter and contempt. You will bring all the nations to nothing—those who do not believe that you have risen. For there are many believers among them, who are not mocked by God. Or, all the nations who worshiped wood and stones: with no merits preceding, God brings them to know the truth.

I will keep my strength for you. That is, I will keep all my virtues for you, not for myself, but for you; because I always refer praises to you in them, not to my own powers. Hence Paul says: If indeed you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? I will keep my strength for you, because, God, you are my protector. He says he keeps that strength, because no one was able to take away his soul, as he himself says: No one will take it away from me, but I have the power to take it up and to take it back again. My God, his mercy will go before me. The mercy of the Father went before him: when the centurion confessed him as God before he saw him risen from the dead. But also many, striking their breasts, were turning back, saying: Truly this was the Son of God.

God has shown me concerning my enemies, do not kill them: lest at some time they forget my people. So that even if they do not believe, they may nevertheless understand that he is God, according to that saying: and all flesh will see the salvation of our God. And do not kill them, lest perhaps they forget your name.

Scatter them in your strength. Do not utterly destroy the Jews: for they have always been called your people, but scatter them throughout the whole world, so that at least thus corrected they may cease to be proud, so that even in this dispersion they may bewail their crime by repenting. And cast them down, my protector, O Lord. The offense of their mouth, the words of their lips. Let them be destroyed in their malice: because of the words by which they denied your Christ, and yet boast that they are children of Abraham. Let them be caught in their pride. That is, let them become humble.

And from cursing and lying they will be proclaimed in their consummation. For they cursed the Lord, when they called him the son of Joseph the carpenter (Matt. 6). They wove lies, when they said that he had a demon (Matt. 9). In the wrath of consummation, and they will not be. That is, they cannot persevere in their malice, but let them be consumed in it.

And they will know that God will rule over Jacob, over the ends of the earth. For there are some who boast that they are descended from the line of Jacob. And over the ends of the earth: that is, over all the nations.

They will be converted at evening, and they will suffer hunger like dogs, and they will go about the city. They themselves will be scattered to eat: but if they have not been satisfied, they will murmur. After the diapsalma, he repeats the sentence by which the enemies will suffer hunger like dogs: while they pursue the letter of the law with carnal circumcision, and sacrifices from the slaughter of cattle. But because they celebrate these things in pilgrimage, and are not spiritually refreshed by them, they murmur against God. Hence the prophet, beholding the mystery of the Lord's resurrection, exults and says:

But I will sing of your strength, O Lord. Because you have conquered death. Or the strength of the divinity: how he conquered the devil, this I will proclaim. And I will exult in your mercy. Because he rose at dawn. In the morning, that is, when he converts in youth. Or in the morning, the beginning of the catholic faith: or in the morning, as I said, the resurrection.

Because you have been made my receiver and my refuge in the day of my tribulation. You received me by the protection of your aid, so that my conscience might not be joined with these.

My helper, I will sing to you: for you are my protector, my God, my mercy. The prophet promises to sing continually to the Lord himself, by whose help he has been aided and upheld. May he also deign to grant us that, fortified by his help, aided by his mercy, glorified in the resurrection, we may deserve to exalt his praises in the holy Church with undefiled minds. Amen.

PSALM 59.

To the end, for those who will be changed, in the inscription of the title, for David himself, for instruction, when he set fire to Mesopotamia of Syria and Syria Sobal, and Joab turned back and struck down Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand. It is asked where this history was written. In the books of Kings, which is read most clearly here (2 Kings 8). But there, in place of the Valley of Salt, the Seventy Interpreters set down the very Hebrew words, gemelah. But because it has not been translated, by those who have no knowledge of the Hebrew language it is unknown what it means.

O God, you have driven us away and destroyed us. This pertains to the Jewish people. When God allowed them to be afflicted, it seemed as though he were driving them away then. And now he seems to drive away the Church when he permits it to be tested through tribulation. For he does not drive away in any other sense, since Saint Paul said: God does not drive away his people, whom he foreknew (Rom 11). Hence also the voice to the prophet Jeremiah says: Go, and destroy, and scatter, and uproot, and build (Jer 1). As if he had said: Destroy vices and sins, and build up virtues. He drives us away and destroys us when we sin. He has mercy and builds us up when we return to him in repentance. You were angry, and you had mercy on us. The anger of God is called just vengeance.

You have shaken the earth. Surely our body. And you have thrown it into confusion. When it brought forth thorns and briers. Heal its contritions, because it has been shaken. For it has been moved away from wickedness, so that it may produce the fruit of holiness.

You have shown your people hard things, that they might seek you more attentively. For you chastise every son whom you receive (Hebr. xii). You have shown your people hard things: that is, tribulation. Whence the holy Paul says: Those who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution (II Tim. iii). You have given us to drink the wine of compunction, so that, confounded in our deeds, there may be compunction for returning to you. By wine is understood the law of the people of God, and that compunction itself is the grace of God.

You have given a sign to those who fear you, that they may flee from the face of the bow, that your beloved may be delivered. You have provided baptism, by which, washed, we might flee from the wrath to come: through which not only sinners, but also your beloved are delivered. Save with your right hand. Save your Christ, who is our salvation. And hear me. When I shall have invoked you. The right hand of the Father is the Son. Save. He speaks of those who will be saved, when your Son shall send me to your right hand in the day of judgment. Whence in another place it says: The right hand of the Lord has done valiantly (Psal. cxvii).

God has spoken in his holy one. The Father is in the God-man, of whom Gabriel says to Mary: What is born of you shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1). Or as the holy Paul says: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5). I will exult and divide Shechem, and I will measure out the valley of tabernacles. Some think Shechem is Samaria; but the valley of tabernacles, this earthly dwelling. Therefore when the Lord comes in the joy of eternal splendor to judge the world, he will divide Samaria and will measure out the valley of tabernacles. Then he will transfer one part to blessedness; but the other part, which he finds unjust, he will punish with the unbelievers.

Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine, and Ephraim is the strength of my head. In Gilead and Manasseh he indicates the whole world subjected to himself. But in Ephraim he marks the figure of the future people, that is, of the Church to be gathered together, on account of the blessing of Jacob, which he poured out upon him. But he calls the Church herself the strength, of which he has been made the head. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine. All these things are said concerning the calling of the nations, whose various virtues must be referred to under the interpretation of the individual names.

Judah is my king. For Christ sprang from the tribe of Judah. For the prince shall not fail from his stock, until the Lord comes, as Jacob said: Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies. You shall rule over your brothers (Gen. 49). Christ is understood through Judah, as in that passage: The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered (Rev. 5). Moab is the pot of my hope. Moab in Genesis received the reproach of cursing (Gen. 19); he who after ten generations is received into the Church of God (Deut. 23). And therefore also the pot of hope, as it were after conversion boiling away the cruelty of sin. For this is the hope of God concerning sinners, that, once their sins are boiled down, they may be converted and live. Hence the prophet Jeremiah says: I saw a heated pot, and its face was from the face of the north (Jer. 1). And elsewhere he says: From the north evils shall burn forth, which are upon the earth (ibid.); that is, tribulations come from the devil upon the earth, which is the Church, just as Paul says: Tribulation produces endurance, but endurance produces proof, but proof produces hope, but hope is not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5).

In Idumea I will stretch out my shoe. He declares that the feet of the apostles are to be directed even into the region of Esau, because in the shoes are the feet, but in the feet the steps of the apostle are understood, according to that saying: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace, who preach good things (Nahum 1 and Rom 10)! Idumea is interpreted as bloody, or earthly. As if he should say: Upon such men as these I will show my shoe, that is, my examples. Foreigners are subject to me. Foreigners: that is, the nations: they are subject to the Church. In the Allophylites, he shows the depravities of foreign nations, who even until the coming of Christ remained in the darkness of ignorance. But now they are subject, that is, humbly listening to the prophecy which announces Christ: through their faith, they see a great light.

Who will lead me into the fortified city? Christ the Lord, who turns away impiety from Jacob: he himself will lead us into the city of Jerusalem, in which the saints surround the divine majesty. Or, into the fortified city: that is, into the Church, which is fortified through faith. Or who will lead me even into Idumea? He who above promised to stretch out his shoes, he also commands prophecy, that is, prophetic preaching, to be directed into it.

Have you not, God, rejected us? So that you might recognize the approved. You have rejected us because of our transgression, or the sin of Adam: that is, he destroyed idolatry, or our vices and sins. And you will not go forth, God, in our virtues. Because we are weak through sins.

Give us help from tribulation: because the salvation of man is vain. Let those hear this who place their hopes in the powers of men, or in the splendors of earthly riches: because the salvation of man is vain, and God alone provides timely help for our tribulations.

In God we will do virtue, and he himself will bring to nothing those who trouble us. In him let our virtue be: in him all glory, and he himself will reduce to nothing both the vices that trouble us and the enemies who attack us and try to call us back from the hope of eternity.

PSALM 60.

Unto the end, in hymns, a Psalm of David. It contains the voice of the prophet rejoicing over the blessedness of eternity.

Hear, O God, my deprecation. He confidently asks to be heard, because he knows himself to be holy. Attend to my prayer. As if he were saying: See whether it is just or pure, where you alone hear and see in the heart: as it was said to Moses: Why do you cry out to me (Exod. 14)? Does he speak of a cry of the voice? No: but he cries out with the voice of the heart.

From the ends of the earth I have cried out to you: while my heart was in anguish. Not from the farthest boundaries of the earth, but from the dwelling place of this body, which it desires to be clothed upon, and it cried out from the grief of the inmost heart, that this mortal thing may be swallowed up by life. From the ends: that is, from the four parts of the world: as if one man were crying out. Or the one man is the one Church. On account of unity she is called one. Whence also in the Song of Songs it is said: One is my dove (Cant. 6), that is, the Church spread throughout the whole world. While it was in anguish: that is, on account of the transgression of others. Or my end: while man does not know his own departure. You have exalted me upon a rock: you have led me, because you have become my hope. He says that he has been exalted in Christ, who according to the Apostle is both a stable rock and is named the hope of believers. You have exalted me upon a rock: that is, in yourself, as that saying: But the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10). Peter is from the rock. Whence the Lord said: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church (Matt. 16); and elsewhere: The rivers came, and the winds blew, and they rushed upon that house, and it did not fall; for it was founded upon a firm rock (Matt.

which is Christ. You have led me: that is, into yourself: because you are my leader, you are my wayfarer. Because you have become my hope. The voice of the Church to Christ. As if she were saying: Just as you have risen immortal, so we believe that we shall rise. A tower of strength from the face of the enemy. For this hope, the Lord Christ, has become a tower for us from the face of the devil, or of his wickednesses, so that he may fortify and defend us from his snares. But God the Father has also become for us a tower of strength: exalting us upon the rock, that is, in his Christ. You, O Christ, are a tower of strength, who have conquered the devil, and deigned to suffer for our sake. There are, then, towers of weakness, that is, those who trust in their own strength, as is said in the Gospel: If anyone wishes to build a tower, and does not calculate its cost, and the rest, afterwards those who see it will mock him, saying: This man began to build, and could not finish.

I will dwell in your tabernacle forever. Surely in that tabernacle, where we shall remain without end and continually contemplate God. I shall be protected in the covering of your wings, etc. While I still sojourn in this body, may I be defended by your protection. I shall be protected: that is, defended. In the covering of your wings. Your wings are the two Testaments, by which the Church is protected. Or under the protection of the Godhead.

You have given an inheritance to those who fear your name. That is, you have set it before them in the kingdom of heaven, that they may inherit eternal life.

Days upon the days of the king. To the eternal King: that is, to Christ the Lord, there are eternal days, which are daily added upon days: because no change distinguishes his brightness. You shall add his years even to the day of generation and generation. Therefore the first generation of this king is that by which he is ineffably born of God the Father. The second is that by which he became the firstborn of the dead, which extends even to that generation of the future judgment, of which the Lord says: You who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19). Therefore between these generations of this king, both days and years shall be added, when the elect are gathered and his enemies are supplanted and delivered under his feet: the kingdom to God the Father, with those same saints gathered together, as follows:

He remains forever in the sight of God. For he will remain eternal in those whom he has handed over to God the Father into the kingdom of heaven, and has made co-heirs, and conformed and partakers with himself, now that the dominion of death has been greatly overcome in them. In the sight of God: that is, where there will be no mutability. Who will require his mercy and truth? It is mercy, because he forgives our sins; truth, so that we may sin no more, so that we do not bring sin upon sin. Why does he say "who" here, and for what reason? Because there are few who possess any good and seek God, but they attribute more to their own virtue or their own strength than to the gift of God. Who will require his mercy and truth? His mercy and truth are not required by those who stand in the fullness of God; but neither do they lack anything, according to that oracle of the Savior: in that day you will ask the Father nothing (John 16). Therefore, placing his hope in this fullness, the prophet added:

Thus I will sing to your name, O God, forever and ever. The voice of the Church. I will sing, I will proclaim, and I will fulfill in deed. That I may render my vows from day to day. That I may render my vows: that is, whatever we have promised to God to keep. From day to day: that is, both to praise you always here, and in the future without end. She will sing continually and pay her vows unceasingly, when the corruption of this body has put on incorruption, and this mortal body has put on immortality, and has shone forth (I Cor. 15). May he deign to grant this also to us, that, having been made conformable to his glory and delivered from the corruption of the second death, we may merit to sing to his name in the offering of spiritual vows.

PSALM 61.

Unto the end, for Idithun, a psalm of David. This psalm teaches the full affection of the prophet toward God, saying: Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from him is my salvation. This too can be said by that man who, having abandoned the ravings of vain philosophy and the mire of the error of idolatry, has subjected himself to the Lord with a clean heart.

For he is both my God and my salvation. For he knows the salvation of the world, that Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a man, who passes over from death to life. For from God himself comes my salvation, as Simeon said: For my eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2). And in another place he says: The salvation of my countenance, my God (Ps. 41). My helper, I shall not be moved any more. For he trusts that he is firmly established in him. My helper in the present, my sustainer in eternity. Afterwards he does not fear to fall. He has nowhere further to run except to God. The apostles said to Christ: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us (John 14).

How long will you rush upon a man, slay all of you, as upon a leaning wall and a battered fence? He does not wish to yield to the wicked, who compel the weak and vicious minds of men to incline toward new crimes. You will slay all of you. He who has the will to kill, even if he does not strike, has killed. As upon a leaning wall and a battered fence. Since I have come to suffer the passion, you compel me to die as if unwilling. Otherwise, according to Symmachus' interpretation: The natural sense in you has been overturned, so that although you are created upright, you are carried headlong to ruin.

Nevertheless they thought to repel my price: I ran in thirst. He turns away from such as not only attack sinners but also strive to take honor away from the just. Therefore he runs in holy thirst, because blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt. 5). I ran in thirst. Christ ran from heaven, came into the womb, from the womb into the manger, or other things similar to these. He ran thirsting, he came to the fountain; hungering, he came to the tree. Or he thirsted, that is, on the cross he thirsted for the salvation of the human race. Whence it is said: He drank from the torrent on the way (Ps. 109). And the saints run and thirst: they run, as Paul says: I have finished my course, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4). They thirst, as it is said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. With their mouth they blessed, and with their heart they cursed. With a poisonous mouth they brought forth good things to seduce, while they kept evil things in their hearts.

Nevertheless, my soul will be subject to God: for from him is my salvation. For he himself is my God, and my savior, my helper; I shall not depart; in God is my salvation, my glory, God of my help, and my hope is in God. After the interjection of the Diapsalma, he declares that he has from him both help and glory, who left us examples concerning all these things from the reproach of his passion.

Hope in him, all the congregation of the people. He himself is both help and hope, in whom every heavenly church ought to hope and pray, as follows: Pour out your hearts before him: God is our helper forever. If with weeping we reveal to him the secrets of our hearts, as all the saints do, we shall obtain his helps. For because sinners omit these things, he added:

Nevertheless, vain are the sons of men, lying sons of men in the balances, that they may deceive; they themselves are in vanity for the very same thing. These, under the weighing of justice and the vanity of eloquence, deceive the innocent. Sons of man, sons of Adam, sons of the transgressor. Hence he says: Sons of men, how long with a heavy heart (Ps. iv)? Lying sons of men in the balances. Solomon says: Weight and weight, measure and measure: both are an abomination before God (Prov. xx). And in another place he says: A deceitful balance is an abomination to the Lord, and a just weight is his will (Prov. xi).

Do not hope in iniquity, and do not covet plunder; if riches abound, do not set your heart upon them. For whoever hopes in these things cannot obtain the heavenly kingdom. Hence the Apostle says to Timothy: Command the rich of this world not to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who provides us all things abundantly to enjoy (1 Tim 6).

God has spoken once, two things. In saying "once," he shows the firmness of what has been said; in saying "two," he demonstrates the one author of the New and Old Testaments. God has spoken once, two things; I have heard these. "Once" is not to be referred to a number, but to the firmness of the statement. But what are the two things he heard together? Both that God can do all things, and that in the truth of his judgment he shows mercy. Some say it thus: God spoke once in the Law, and again he commands the same things in the Gospel. I have heard these, because power belongs to God. Through these two Testaments he has come to know the power, mercy, and justice of God, as follows: And to you, Lord, belongs mercy, because you will render to each one according to his works. For he himself received all judgment from the Father (John 5), so that he may prepare damnation for the negligent, mercy for the penitent, and rewards for the just; he who snatches us from the judgment of death, and subjects us to himself as his own foster children, and having made us conformed to his body, may he deign to receive us into perpetual eternity. Because power belongs to God. There was power, because he created all creatures out of nothing. Mercy, in ruling and governing.

There was power in the flood: mercy freed Noah. Because you will render to each according to his works: good things to the good, evil things to the evil. You condemn sinners, you reward the righteous.

PSALM 62.

A psalm of David when he was in the desert of Idumea. David holds the figure of Christ. David is interpreted as strong of hand, or desirable. Idumea is interpreted as bloody, or earthly. The desert, that is, the forsaken place, that is, the Jewish people themselves: or the Gentile, who seem to dwell in blood, or in earthly things. The psalm declares the mystery of the Lord's coming: concerning which the prophet, seeing himself as it were enlightened, exults and says:

God, my God, I watch for you from the light. Although all the saints watch in God day and night, yet this one in his prayer shines resplendent with the full splendor of divine light.

My soul has thirsted for you, how manifoldly my flesh thirsts for you! In a desert land, and pathless, and waterless. He thirsts for God with the affection of both soul and heart, retaining nothing doubtful, nothing adverse within himself: but amid the aridity and solitudes of this world, he desires him with his whole mind, having that ardor with which the righteousness of God is thirsted for. My soul has thirsted for you, how manifoldly my flesh thirsts for you! The soul indeed desires God; but the desired end is reached through the labors of the flesh. Therefore the flesh seeks God manifoldly: because it is afflicted with many injuries. He describes the neediness of the just man, his torments, his vigils, his sickness.

The Lord thirsted for the faith of the Church, and hungered for the salvation of the human race. So too the Church daily thirsts for Christ. Whence it is said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt. 5). The flesh is spoken of in many ways, because the flesh endures more than the soul. Although the soul is tormented within the body by thought, yet the body endures tribulation from without. It wishes to be set free, that is, to lay aside mortality. In a desert land, in a pathless and waterless place. In the desert, where there is no way and no water, the world is understood. It is called a desert because of sinners. Thus I appeared to you in the holy place. Dwelling in this thirst, I shall appear to you as holy. Here the prophet, because of his hope, has set the future in place of the past. That I might see your power and your glory. Christ, surely, who, according to the Apostle, is both the power and the brightness of the Father. Power, because he conquered the devil and set the human race free. He calls it power, because what is weak in God is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1). Thus I appeared to you in the holy place, that is, in holy desire. And your glory, that is, the glory of him who rises from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father.

Because your mercy is better than lives. Your mercy grants eternal life. The present life often works death. Your mercy, by which you freed us from the power of the devil. My lips will praise you. Lord. Thus will I bless you in my life. Well does he praise God with his lips in his life, who lives in him: because he knows it is said elsewhere: The dead will not praise you, Lord (Ps. 113). After mercy, praise: here by praying, there by praising. And in your name I will lift up my hands. By the good of a perfect work I will be raised up by you: Christ all day long spread out his hands on the cross to a people that did not believe, and contradicted him. As Paul, in the persons of the saints, lifting up pure hands without anger and disputing (Isa. 65, and 1 Tim. 2). By hands, works are understood.

As with fat and richness let my soul be filled, and with lips of exultation let my mouth praise. Not in the fat and richness of goats or lambs: as was the custom of the ancient burnt offerings; but with a pure heart and a clean mouth let me sing to your name. As that burnt offering was acceptable to you in former times: so let my soul be filled with the richness of the grace of the Holy Spirit. With lips of exultation let my mouth praise. Here prayers, and there praises, and everlasting joy.

Thus I remembered you upon my bed. In the little bed of chastity and holiness I am mindful of you, because I am unmindful of worldly delight. Thus I remembered you. The Church says these things: both in rest and in tribulation, I have not been forgetful of you. In the morning I will meditate on you, because you have been my helper. Worthily they confess him as helper, because through the integrity of faith she delights in his morning resurrection. Would that we too, through the splendor of a pure heart, might merit to delight in him with spiritual joy.

And in the covering of your wings I will exult. She thinks herself to be protected by the protection of heavenly aid; therefore she exults in him. My soul has clung to you; your right hand has received me. Having left the world behind, she testifies that she has been received by the right hand of God, that is, by his saving power.

But they. That is, the enemies. In vain they sought my soul, because they wished to harm it to no purpose. They will enter into the lower parts of the earth. In hell they will be condemned. They will be handed over into the hands of the sword. Into the perpetuity of torments, by which they are to be cut down. They will be the portions of foxes. They are to receive the lot of Herod, who was called a fox by the Lord (Luke 13).

But the king shall rejoice in the Lord. Christ in the Father after the resurrection. And all who hope in him shall be praised. Those who have kept his sacraments once received inviolably. Because the mouth of those speaking iniquity is stopped. The mouth of the Jews and chief priests was shut when the Lord rose again, as the testimony of the truth increased. And let us beseech the Lord: that we, keeping watch in his light and thirsting for him continually, may deserve, by his bounty, to be filled with good works.

PSALM 63.

Unto the end, a psalm of David. The psalm contains the voice of the prophet continually beseeching God: that, with him as protector, he may escape not only his own sins but also the other poisons of the wicked. But we too ought to understand that what is sung in it can be fulfilled in believers.

Hear, O God, my prayer when I entreat: from the fear of the enemy deliver my soul. For the one who believes in God there are many temptations, according to the Apostle: All, he says, who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus suffer persecution (2 Tim 3). Hence we ought to keep watch intently in prayers, so that we may be able to resist vices. From the fear of the enemy: that is, of the devil the persecutor: as that saying: Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell (Matt 10).

You have protected me from the assembly of the malignant, from the multitude of those who work iniquity: because they have sharpened their tongues like a sword. The wicked are malignant, and they sharpen their tongues so that they may blaspheme; but this holy one is not disturbed, because he is protected by God. From the assembly of the malignant: that is, of the Jews, or of the persecutors. They have sharpened their tongues like a sword. In another place he says: Their tongue is a sharp sword (Ps. 56).

They have bent their bow. Their doctrine. A bitter thing. So that by deceitful doctrines they may deceive the little ones of Christ: whether the newly baptized in baptism, or him who as yet does not know the mystery of heavenly doctrine.

Suddenly they will shoot at him, and they will not fear. When the venomous ones shoot at him deceitfully. Suddenly, as if unexpectedly: that is, in ecstasy. And they will not fear: that is, God and his judgment. They have established for themselves a wicked word. They have told stories in order to hide their snares: they have said, who will see them? When they establish themselves in this malice, so as to spread these snares of deception for this untrained one: they do not think that God can know this: from whom nothing hidden lies concealed: who is also able to defend our souls from their arrows with the generous arms of his mercy.

They have searched out iniquities; those who search have failed by their searching. Heretics also search the holy Scriptures, and handling them not spiritually, they bring forth from them empty questions, by which they desire to ensnare us through iniquity and deceit. But prevailing in nothing, they themselves are rather searched out by God and emptied, and are left empty.

A man will draw near to a deep heart, and God will be exalted. If one, drawing near with the wisdom of God to the understanding of a deep heart, distinguishes these things—that is, discerns truth and falsehood—then God will be exalted. Though He is most exalted, nevertheless, when we think rightly of Him, He is lifted up in us.

The arrows of little children have become their wounds. For the righteous who understand, when they see this little child, whom we explained above, infected by this poison of persuasion, when they have raised their voice to correct him, their words will immediately be as wounds to the wicked. And their tongue has been weakened against them. Their speech gains no stability, but their deceit will render them weak.

All who saw them were troubled. Those who recognize themselves entangled in similar error are confounded and troubled. And every man feared. That divine judgment was imminent for him.

And they announced the works of God: and they understood his deeds. For, pricked in heart, they understand and announce the wondrous works of God.

The just man will rejoice in the Lord, and will hope in him. As the impious man dreads because of his faithlessness, so the just man exults in the Lord through the hope of his eternity. And all the upright of heart will be praised. Because they will see God. For blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God (Matt. 5). May he deign to grant us that, free from the arrows of enemies, snatched from the bow of falsehood, we may deserve to be protected by him who grants to all the saints, in hope of salvation, the glory of immortality.

PSALM 64.

Unto the end, a Psalm of David, a Canticle of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and of the people from captivity. This psalm is sung in the person of Christ, and concerning the return from Babylon to Jerusalem, and concerning our return to the heavenly Jerusalem.

To you a hymn is fitting, O God, in Zion: and to you a vow will be rendered in Jerusalem. Not in theaters nor in temples of idols, but to you, almighty one, praise and vow must be rendered continually in Zion, that is, in the Church, as she beholds your glory: or in the heavenly Jerusalem you are worthy to be remembered as an inhabitant. Therefore praise will be rendered to you, because you are God; a vow, because you are the redeemer,

Hear my prayer. Through the Holy Spirit: who intercedes for us with unutterable groanings. To you all flesh will come. As if he were saying: To you every man will be turned.

The words of the wicked. The dogmas of the philosophers, and the follies of the gentiles. They have prevailed over us. When we did not know you, as Jeremiah said: Truly our fathers spoke falsehood and vanity, and it did not profit them (Jer. xvi). And you will be propitious to our impieties. We would have been in error even to the end, unless you had been propitious to us: who bought us with your own blood. So too the apostle Paul says: Who reconciled us to God the Father through the cross (I Cor. v).

Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken up: he will dwell in your courts. God calls all, and spurns no one, but few follow. Therefore he who shows himself worthy of his election dwells together with the holy apostles in eternal tabernacles.

We shall be filled with the good things of your house. That is, of the Church, which abounds with the diverse good things of spiritual gifts. Holy is your temple. That Man in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells, of whom it is said to Mary: And what is born of you shall be called the Son of God (Luke 2), since the Lord, about to take flesh, will dwell in her. Wonderful in equity. Because to the unbelieving Jews, the Lord himself wonderfully revealed the truth.

Hear us, O God of our salvation: the hope of all the ends of the earth and in the sea afar off. The prophet, foreseeing, announced that Christ is the hope of the earth, the sea, and all its ends. But that he asks to be heard by him is understood thus, as if he were saying: Come now, that through you I may merit to be saved.

Preparing the mountains in your strength, girded with power. The Lord himself, the Word made flesh in the man he assumed. Girded with power, he crushed the height of the mountains of diabolical dominion, and prepared them for everlasting fires. Girded, God draws in his garment. For we cannot know the outspread garment of his strength. You who stir up the depth of the sea. The deep boasting of this world, stirring it by apostolic preaching. Who will endure the sound of its waves? For in the overthrow of idols the demons give forth a sound: alluring the pagans, that they may kill the saints of God. But this sound is checked by the power of God.

The nations will be troubled. When they have not been able to prevail against the saints. And the ends of the earth will fear at your signs. By the power of the cross, which was formerly foolishness to them: or they are pricked by these wonders. You will delight in the goings forth of the morning and of the evening. God is delighted by the morning and evening hymns of the Church, through the faithful soul: which, having abandoned the rite of empty superstitions, has praised him devoutly. By the morning, joy: by the evening, sorrow.

You visited the earth. He visited the earth of our body by assuming the substance of flesh. And you made it drunk—not with the wine of luxury, but with the infusion of the Holy Spirit. You multiplied it to enrich it with the riches of diverse graces.

The river of God is filled with waters. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel: He who believes in me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly (John 7). Attend to the evangelist: for he was saying this of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. We, therefore, who have believed, are already the river of God. Let us be filled with water when we are washed in baptism, and if we are worthy to be watered by the Holy Spirit. We are enriched by that same shower of spiritual infusion, when, filled with the fountain of everlasting life, we are irrigated with spiritual gifts. You prepared their food, for so is its preparation. You prepared, I say, O Lord, our food in the communion of your blessed body and blood; which if we draw worthily, we escape the judgment of death. For you are the bread of life coming down from heaven, and restoring life to the world.

You make its streams drunk, multiplying its offspring: in its drops. For the streams flow to us from that river—that is, from the Holy Spirit—which make us drunk with the various gifts of graces: so that to one is given the word of wisdom, to another prophecy, to another healing, to another interpretation, or the remaining gifts, which one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one as he wills (1 Cor 12). Through these kinds of gifts, the churches are multiplied. These at first, indeed, flow down into us like drops, then they become streams. After this they are multiplied in generations, so that they may bear fruit, one a hundredfold, another sixtyfold, another thirtyfold (Matt 13). It will rejoice, sprouting. Surely the earth will rejoice (Isa 58), when this spiritual fruit springs up in it.

You will bless the crown of the year of your kindness. By which you will crown the saints with rewards, and yourself with their hosts. But that the acceptable year is the Lord himself, another prophet recalls: You will bless the crown of his year. The cycle and the seasons of the year ever running in their course he called a crown. Or certainly because in the passion of the Lord victory was taken up from the whole world. And your fields will be filled with richness. The fields—of the law, which brought forth no fruit of pleasantness in the letter—now understood spiritually, are filled with the richness of the gospel teaching.

The beautiful places of the desert will grow fat—that is, the Church, which flows with the divine grace of God. And the hills will be girded with exultation—the martyrs, or the rest of the saints, who, honored by God with immense rewards, will be girded with perpetual joys.

The rams of the sheep have been clothed—the patriarchs, prophets, or apostles, who were the leaders of the sheep of the ecclesiastical flock, translated from death into life: they are clothed with perpetual immortality. And the valleys will abound with grain—the saints of lesser merit will cry out and will not receive a crown; nevertheless they will be nourished with the fruits of eternal life. They will cry out, for they will sing a hymn. All the elect, without distinction, for the gifts of diverse graces, will sing perpetual praises to God in harmony. And that we may be gathered together with their merits, we pray entreating, that we may be joined to their rewards: so that, if we do not deserve to be honored with rewards, or adorned with crowns, at least, having obtained pardon, we may be free from the punishment of eternal judgment. Amen.

PSALM 65.

Unto the end, a Canticle of a Psalm of the resurrection. By "canticle" is understood spiritual understanding; by "psalm," the work of the resurrection, because this psalm pertains to the resurrection of Christ.

Shout with joy to God, all the earth: sing a psalm to his name. In saying "all the earth," he shows that the whole human race is earthly, and ought continually to send up jubilation to God, that it may be rescued from spiritual wickedness. Sing a psalm to his name. Many praise, but do not fulfill in deed. Give glory to his praise: that as you shout to him with voices, so you may glory in him for good deeds; and that men, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is in heaven. Or that saying: Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.

Say to God, how terrible are your works, Lord! Namely, that they may not worship the creature, but understand the power of the Creator in these things which we contemplate. How terrible are your works! Terrible is that which you are able to marvel at, and cannot comprehend—that is, concerning the Jewish people, chosen and afterward rejected, and the Gentiles, first condemned and afterward chosen. Or those who seem as if holy, and are reprobate, and of sinners, who seem as if reprobate, and are elect. The judgments of God are hidden: terrible, that is, to be feared. In the multitude of your power, your enemies shall lie to you. When they saw the powers and signs in Egypt, and in the Red Sea.

They lied when they said: All things whatsoever the Lord hath commanded us, we will do (Exod. xxiv). Whence it is said: Iniquity hath lied, and the enemies of the Lord have lied unto him (Psal. xxvi).

Let all the earth adore thee, O God, and sing psalm to thee: let it say a psalm to thy name. Let it adore thee, let it venerate thee: let it sing to thee, not to the creature, which thou hast subjected to its uses. Here he interposes a diapsalma, that he may turn his words to us, saying:

Come, and see the works of the Lord, terrible in his counsels upon the sons of men. He invites the nations, which had long lived in fanatical error, like our fathers once, to the knowledge of God. He who by terrible counsels hath provided for the human race, that knowing the works of the Creator, they might know the maker of the works. Come, and see the works of the Lord: Come, believe, see, understand. The voice of the preachers. How terrible in his counsels upon the sons of men! Terrible, that is, how one is reprobated and another chosen. The Jews are reprobated, and the nations are chosen: as he said in the Gospel: Two in the field: one shall be taken up, and one shall be left. Two grinding: one shall be taken up, and the other shall be left (Matth xxiv). Two in a bed: one shall be taken up, and one shall be left. It is terrible, that while they were created from one mass, some are chosen and others reprobated.

He who turned the sea into dry land: in the river they shall pass over on foot. He teaches us to adore Him who, at the crossing of Israel, both dried up the sea and held back the waves of the Jordan (Exod. xiv). But the Lord Himself, as leader, passed over these things as it were on foot, with the people following. Therefore, just as then these waters, divided by His leadership, opened for the people a way into the land of promise (Jos. iii), so now for us, if we do not pollute our baptism, having been washed through Him, with Him going before us—He in whom we have been reborn—we enter into the region of the living. Or, they shall pass over on foot: the holy preachers walked boldly, preaching, because God prepares a way for them. Whence it is said: Shod your feet in preparation for the Gospel of peace (Ephes. vi). There we shall rejoice in the very same: those who rule in their own strength forever. In the very same, that is, in Christ: because He who here was humbled, He Himself rules in eternity. For just as the dominion of His power is closed by no end, so our joy, by which we shall be made conformable to Him, will remain forever.

His eyes look upon the nations: so that the Jews may be rejected and the Gentiles chosen; as it is said, He who formed the eye, does he not consider? With holy contemplation He looks upon the peoples who will believe, for He is in no way distinguished by bodily members. Those who provoke Him shall not be exalted in themselves—namely the Jews, who, through the bitterness of gall, placing God's glory in the carnal birth from Abraham, are always brought low. The interjection of the diapsalma changes the order of the sayings, so that it passes from prophetic foretelling to apostolic exhortation.

Bless the Lord our God, O nations, and make the voice of His praise to be heard. The apostles preach these things, that the nations may bless God Himself, whom the same apostles call their own, and that they may obey Him in whom they have been reborn through baptism. Hence the prophet speaks again.

Who has set my soul unto life: lest perpetual death consume it. Death has killed death—that is, the death of Christ has killed our death. And He has not given my feet to be moved. But He has established me in the preachings which I brought to the nations. Hence the voice of the martyrs follows.

For you have rejected us, O God; you have tried us with fire, as silver is tried, and you have brought us into a snare, you have placed tribulations on our back: you have set men over our heads. That is, the devil, so that he might be raised up over us, for testing. Or otherwise: he did not speak of angels, nor of saints, but of sinners—that is, you have made sinners to be over us, so that we may endure them with patience. As that saying: Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14).

We have passed through fire and water, and you have brought us out into a place of refreshment. Here he shows the victories of the martyrs, which they merited in various sufferings, and he leads them to true refreshment, that is, to Christ the Lord: through snares, through crosses, through scourges, through fires, and heats, and other diverse punishments, through which they were made an acceptable burnt offering, they came through. Fire devours, water absorbs. Fire is temptation; water is prosperity. Or the fire of the Holy Spirit. You have brought us into refreshment, that is, into eternal blessedness.

I will enter your house with burnt offerings. Here the prophet speaks not of himself alone, but also of those whom he mentioned above, who entered into the house of God: that they might present themselves not only as a living sacrifice to God, but also those who by their example suffered for the name of the Lord: That I may render to you my vows, which my lips have distinguished. What vows did they distinguish, except to join others to themselves in martyrdom? Or the promise, that we may praise God and confess him as creator. My mouth has spoken in my tribulation. For they have spoken, so that no persecution may ever separate them from the love of Christ.

I will offer to you burnt offerings with marrow. The faith of the soul, or the affection of the body, or the body of Christ. The bones are lower than the flesh, and the marrow lower than the bones. With marrow, that is, with the inward parts together with body and soul. With incense. With the acceptable odor of prayer. And rams. The apostles, or the teachers of the churches.

I will offer you oxen. These are they who, casting off the stubbornness of the law, have submitted their necks to the yoke of the Lord, which is sweet. With the goats. These are they who, converted after sin, persevered faithfully in martyrdom. But here all are offered to the Lord through a peace offering: to whom the prophet now, after the diapsalma, directs his speech, saying:

Come, and hear, and I will tell, all you who fear God, how great things he has done for my soul. To him I cried with my mouth, and I exulted under my tongue. You who fear the Lord, draw near and consider how he has established my soul in eternal blessedness: because I ask not only with my mouth, but also in the secret places of a pure heart I have cried to the Lord. To him I cried with my mouth: it is most clearly declared in this place that in the Scriptures "cry" is to be understood not of the voice, but of the heart.

If I have looked upon iniquity in my heart: the Lord will not hear. Therefore my God has heard me: and he has attended to the voice of my prayer. For I have seen the purity of my mind, and therefore I have presumed to ask.

Blessed be the Lord, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Being full of mercy, he has not turned away my supplication from himself, because I was asking for things that were just. For his ears are always open to the prayers of the righteous. But let us humbly beseech the Lord, that he may open his ears to our prayers, and that he himself, granting remission of sins, may snatch us from present troubles, and, having slain our vices, make us a pure holocaust to himself and join us to the companies of the saints. Amen.

PSALM LXVI.

Unto the end, in Hymns, a Psalm of the Song of David. Although this psalm is short, it nevertheless contains the voice of the apostles and prophets, who announced that the Lord had come, or was to come, to the nations.

May God have mercy on us, and bless us. The first petition is that God show mercy; then, blessing. Therefore the blessing that follows mercy should be such that, with carnal dominion crushed, it makes the spirit triumph. Let him not be our judge, but merciful. May God have mercy on us. This is the voice of the apostles, speaking to the people gathered from the nations. You have indeed believed at our voice. Behold, this Church has been gathered in the name of the Lord; therefore we say: May God have mercy on us, and bless us. May he dissolve the first curse in man by his blessing. May he shine his face upon us. Let us not see him sad in our sins, but rejoicing in our virtues. Let us not perceive him as a judge, but as a Father.

May he illuminate his face upon us. What is the face of God? Surely it is his image. For the Apostle also says that the Son is the image of the Father (Rom 2). Therefore let him illuminate us by his image, that is, by his Son, his image; let him illuminate upon us, so that he himself may illuminate us. For the light of the Father is the light of the Son. He who sees the Father sees also the Son. Where there is no distinction between glory and glory, both are glory. The apostles and prophets pray these things, that, illuminated by the face of God, their preaching may become the light of all nations.

That we may know your way on earth, and your salvation among all nations. For so may our preaching prevail, that your way or your salvation, that is, Christ the Lord, may be discerned in those who now savor earthly things and are engaged in the error of the Gentiles. That we may know your way on earth. But this we ask, that you illuminate your face: that is, your image upon us, which was always hidden with you, and as it were in secret and in darkness was among your mysteries: according to that which is written: He set darkness as his hiding place (Ps 17). This we ask, that you illuminate upon us, so that the mystery which was hidden from the generations, according to the Apostle, may be revealed in us (1 Cor 2). But why do we ask all this, why do we desire it? Unless you illuminate your image upon us, we cannot know your way and your knowledge, so that we may have your majesty, which is known in the heavens, also on earth.

That we may know your way on earth. I am, he says, the way, the life, and the truth (John 14). That we may know your way on earth. On earth let us know: Your will be done as in heaven and on earth (Matt 6), so that whom the angels adore in the heavens, humans also may adore on earth. But someone will say: because the way of God was known: For God is known in Judaea: in Israel great is his name. God was known, but the way of God was not known in Judaea. Since, therefore, the way of God the Father was not known among the Jews, for that reason he now says: In all nations your salvation. Not in one people, but in all nations. In all nations your salvation. Where we have in Latin, salvation; in Hebrew, it is called Jesus. Finally, the angel also says this: And you shall call his name Jesus (Luke 2). For he will save his people. In all nations your salvation. Behold, what the apostles prayed for has been fulfilled: In all nations his salvation is known. Wherever human speech can be, there Jesus resounds.

Let the peoples confess to you, O God: let all peoples confess to you. Let the peoples confess to you—the Jews? No: but let all peoples confess. As all nations, so also all peoples. Let the peoples confess to you, O God. What are they to confess? Surely their sins: or at least let them confess that your image is in you. Let them confess you in the Son, let them see you in him, let them adore you in him.

Let the nations be glad and rejoice. Because they have been freed from the captivity of the devil: because those who before were bowed down to adore idols, wood and stones, now with uplifted face look to the heavens. Because you judge the peoples in equity. Wherever there is equity and judgment, there is not joy, but the dread of sinners. And how did he say: God have mercy on us, and bless us, and now he said: Let the nations be glad and rejoice: because you judge the peoples in equity? He seems to be contrary to himself. For if they need mercy, how do they rejoice and exult: because you judge the peoples in equity? For wherever there is mercy, there is no judgment; but where there is judgment and the equity of judgment, mercy is far off. But this is the sense: Let the nations be glad and rejoice. Why, let them be glad? Because you judge the peoples in equity: because you by no means accept the person of one nation, but you are the God of all. The Jews alone do not please you, but the whole world is yours. Let someone say: You do violence to the Scripture, he did not say this in that sense.

Scripture itself explains what it says: For you judge the peoples in equity. Which peoples? And you direct the nations on the earth. The nations that before did not walk with upright foot, you have made to walk in your way. So that we might know your way on the earth, so that we might walk in the way, not in pathless places, and through one way come to you, from whom the Way is born. For we do not go to the Father except through the Son. Let someone say: This is the dogma of the Arians. Therefore one comes to the Father through the Son. This is what I say: that through the image we go to the face; and in the light we see the light, in the Son we see the Father. It is a mystery and a dispensation that speaks. Otherwise, if anyone thinks it blasphemous that we have said the Son is the Way, and that we go through the Way as if to God, let us see what this same Way says: No one comes to me unless my Father has led him to me (John 6). Therefore, just as the Son leads to the Father, so the Father leads to the Son. These are human words. Otherwise both the Son leads to the Father and the Father leads to the Son, and there is one nature and one substance.

Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all peoples confess to you. He had already said this above, and in this little psalm he repeats these two verses again. For he had said above: Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all peoples confess to you; let the nations be glad and exult, and the rest; and now he repeats these verses again, as if the apostles were singing out to all the nations. Often they have fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say (Ps. 128). Often they have fought against me from my youth. See how those men sing out, and the crowd of all nations responds. So too now, when they say at the beginning: Let all peoples confess to you, and when the apostles command and say: Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all peoples confess to you—because they see that those people have fallen silent, therefore they repeat the very same thing and say: Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all peoples confess to you. We have said it once, and you did not hear; we say it again, so that you may sing. But why have we said all this, both once and a second time, that the peoples should confess to God? Why do we say this? Why do we command this? Because you judge the peoples in equity—the Jews, who because of the excess of their malice are taken as the peoples, according to that saying: The peoples have meditated on empty things (Ps. 2). And you direct the nations on the earth. He will direct them in the way of life, once the remission of sins has been given.

When "all" is said, he prays not only for the people of the Gentiles but also for the Jews, that they too, having been converted, may confess Christ the Son of God. The earth has given its fruit. The earth—holy Mary—from our earth, from our seed, from this clay, from this mud, from Adam. Earth you are, and to earth you shall go. This earth has given its fruit. What was lost in paradise he found in the Son. The earth has given its fruit. First it gave a flower. He says also in the Song of Songs: I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys. So then that flower has become fruit, that we might eat him, that we might eat his flesh. Do you wish to know who this fruit is? A virgin from a virgin, the Lord from a handmaid, God from man, a son from a mother, fruit from the earth. See what the fruit himself says: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it cannot bear much fruit. The earth has given its fruit: it has given the grain of wheat. That grain of wheat fell into the earth and died, and therefore it bears much fruit. It was multiplied in the ear: what had fallen as one rose again in many. For the grain of wheat fell into the earth, and a abundant crop arose. The earth has given its fruit. Therefore let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all peoples confess to you. The earth has given its fruit. Who is this fruit?

May God bless us, our God, may God bless us. God the Father; our God, the Son. For he himself is our God. And you shall call, it says, his name Emmanuel, that is, God with us. May our God bless us—God the Holy Spirit. See the mystery of the Trinity comprised in one verse. The earth has given its fruit. In that fruit, the mystery of the Trinity is contained. May God bless us, our God. He who is God of all by nature has been made properly our God. May God bless us. Let him drive out the old curse. The curse cast us out of paradise; let the blessing lead us back. And let all the ends of the earth fear him. He did not say: Let all the ends of the earth love him. Perfect love, indeed, casts out fear. To fear is for beginners; to love, for the perfect. Whoever still fears is placed at the beginning and does not have perfect and full faith. But whoever loves God, all things will turn out for him unto good. The little sentence seems brief and simple. But let us sift it, and in these simple words we shall find immense mysteries. We shall find within what lies hidden without. But for those who love the Lord, all things work together unto good. Job, a holy man, was tempted; he lost his sons and daughters, his house itself collapsed, he lost everything, he lost all things suddenly; neither father nor master—for nothing remained to him in his body of health except his tongue alone, by which he could blaspheme. See the tempter, the devil.

From the sole of the foot, he says, to the crown of the head he struck him with a most grievous wound, that is, with elephantiasis (Job 1). Then over his whole body worms and putrefaction flowed. He kept only his tongue intact, so that he might be able to blaspheme his Lord. In all these things Job did not sin with his lips. See the greatness of the trial, see the greatness of the virtue. See and consider that the Apostle's sentence is fulfilled: But to those who love the Lord, all things work together for good (Rom 8). At the time when he was losing his possessions, when he was losing his sons, the things that had happened seemed indeed to be against him; but because he loved the Lord, those evils which were brought upon him worked together for his good. Those worms of the body were preparing for him the crown of heaven. Before he was tried, God had never spoken to him; but after he was tried, God came to him and spoke with him familiarly, as a friend with his friend. Let plagues come, let every kind of punishment come, provided that after the plagues Christ comes. We have gone out from the psalm, but not without profit, because we had said: And let all the ends of the earth fear him, and we had said that to fear is the part of little ones, but to love is the part of the perfect, and to prove this we had cited the Apostle: But to those who love the Lord, all things work together for good. And let all the ends of the earth fear him—not Judea alone, but all the ends of the earth.

According to tropology, however, "all the ends of the earth" means not the middle of the earth, not those who are in the middle parts of the earth, but those who are at the end of the earth, who leave the earth and hasten to the heavens. Therefore what the apostles said in the beginning, let us say in the end: May God have mercy on us and bless us; may he illuminate his countenance upon us and have mercy on us; and he will make known his way on earth. When Christ comes manifest in glory, then he will make known to all why he descended with such humility of the flesh. The earth has given its fruit. Mary has brought forth the Savior.

PSALM 67.

Unto the end, a Psalm of a Canticle of David. The Psalm is works; the Canticle is the understanding of the spiritual mind. The sixty-seventh psalm, if it is understood spiritually, is found filled with the sacraments of the Law and the Gospels, which begins thus from the prophetic voice: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered. And this psalm is understood both specifically and generally. Specifically, concerning the Lord himself, that he may rise from the dead and scatter his enemies, that is, the devil and his army, or the Jews. Generally, however, when we are in tribulation and distress, and we say: Arise, why do you sleep, Lord? Arise and help us (Ps. 43). As also the apostles in the little boat rouse the sleeping Lord, saying: Master, save us; we are perishing (Matt. 8). And let those who hate him flee from his face.

He did not say "let them perish," but "let them flee"—those who as sinners cannot stand in God's sight. The prophet, foreseeing this, prays that when he rises up, the dominions of the devil may flee, since even now it must be believed without doubt that at the invocation of his name they cannot stand.

As smoke fails, let them fail. Not so that they are reduced to nothing, but so that they may rest from their sins. As wax melts before the fire. As wax is dissolved and does not lose its nature but grows soft, so let these also not perish, but lay aside their malice, and so be converted to repentance and be saved. So let sinners perish from the face of God. Because sinners are not worthy to see God.

And let the just feast. We who remain in our own righteousness, who have no vices, let us delight in the Lord. Or otherwise: let the punishment of judgment pursue them, so that they fail like the thinness of smoke, and are dissolved like wax before the face of the fire, while the saints feast on heavenly goods. Let them exult in the sight of God, and delight in gladness. It is great confidence to exult in the sight of the Lord. Just as a steward, if he has handled badly and lost the substance entrusted to him by the Lord, fears the Lord's presence, so too he who has dispensed it well exults in the Lord's presence. Let them exult in the sight of God, and delight in gladness: not only over vengeance, but also over eternal blessedness.

Sing to God, make a psalm to his name. "Sing" in Scripture always signifies the theoretical life, that is, to contemplate the mysteries and the meaning of divine Scripture. But "make a psalm" signifies in Scripture the good work: for example, that the hearing should perform its own work. Likewise also the mouth, and the eyes, and the hands, and all the members, if they are in agreement, and thus they strike the psaltery in the virtues. Sing to the giver of eternal gladness, and honor him with your voices. Make a way for him who ascends above the setting: the Lord is his name. He teaches that, with the swellings of sin pressed down, we should prepare for him a level way in our hearts through righteousness: he who, ascending above the setting of death, returned as victor from the underworld. If the sun of iniquity does not set for us, the sun of righteousness cannot rise for us, whose healing is in the heavens.

Rejoice in his sight. For we ought to rejoice in his sight, and not to take delight in the enticements of this world. The fathers of orphans and the judges of widows will be troubled at his face. Those who now call themselves guardians and judges, and on this occasion deceive the property of the needy, will be confounded, when the Most High begins to look upon them.

God in his holy place. In a faithful soul. God always dwells in his holy ones. Wherever there is holiness, there is the dwelling of God. God, who makes those of one manner to dwell in a house. In the Church, in which he pours the spirit of love into those who stand faithfully, who are of one manner and are not changed. Indeed the just man is not changed, because he has once judged to remain in justice. But the sinner is changed. For the fool is changed like the moon (Sirach 27). In the Hebrew, however, it has: The Lord makes monks to dwell in a house: that is, in those in whom sin does not dwell together.

Who brings out the bound in strength. God himself by his power brings out those who are bound by the devil in sins: like that woman in the Gospel, who had been bound by a devil for eighteen years (Luke 13). Likewise those who provoke, who dwell in tombs. God is sweet by nature. But those who bring him to bitterness are sinners, and they make God bitter for themselves. They do not change the nature that is set, but they themselves, as sinners, make God bitter for themselves. Who dwell in tombs. He loosed the strong one bound within his own house, that is, the devil, by whom those bound in sins were held, and he freed those who, given over to idols, had provoked God and lay dead as if in tombs: like that saying in the Gospel: Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, for you are like whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23). Just as the holy man is a temple of God, so the sinner makes himself a tomb.

God, when you went forth in the sight of your people. This is according to the historical sense, when God went before his people as they came out of Egypt (Exod. 14). When he passed through the desert. God does not linger in the desert, but passes through. The earth was moved, for indeed the heavens distilled at the face of the God of Sinai, at the face of the God of Israel. The heavens distilled, that is, manna (Exod. 16). Sinai is interpreted as temptation. Therefore God dwells in those who are tempted and overcome. But in those who live in pleasures, he does not dwell. For indeed the heavens distilled at the face of the God of Sinai, at the face of the God of Israel. Here he designates one author of the new and the old Testament. For he who went before the Israelite people in the desert, the same visited the deserts of the nations in the Gospels. And he through whom the manna then flowed down to this generation at Sinai: the same supplies to the Christian people the manna of his body and blood in the Church.

You will set apart a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance. The holy preaching, which descended through the apostles into the hearts of men with a flowing irrigation. Or he speaks of the law, which was given through Moses. For indeed it was weakened. Either when Paul had within himself the judgment of death; or when Peter denied the Lord three times; or when the rest of the apostles, having left the Lord in his passion, fled (Matt. 5). It was weakened, the law: because no one could fulfill it, except the Lord who said: I did not come to dissolve the law, but to fulfill it. And according to the Apostle: For the impossibility of the law, in that it was weakened, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: that he might redeem those who were under the law (Gal. 4). But you have perfected it: your animals will dwell in it. For your resurrection, turning aside what was tottering, so brought this preaching to perfection: that in it the nations which were previously regarded as irrational animals might dwell. Your animals will dwell in it: that is, in the inheritance. But he called them animals, those who live in God: that is, the saints. Or otherwise: You will set apart a voluntary rain. A voluntary rain, we ought to understand either as the commandments, or as the manna. And it was weakened: but you have perfected it. The law which had been weakened through the transgression of the Jews, when the grace of the Gospel came, was completed.

You have prepared in your sweetness for the poor, O God. The Lord will give the word to those who evangelize with great power. In the Hebrew it has: those who are evangelized: that is, the women who were evangelizing to the apostles: where it is said: Go, tell my brothers, and the rest (Matt. 28). Or it signifies the souls who believed in Christ. According to the Seventy interpreters, however, it is said to the apostles: because the Lord gave them the power of preaching the Gospel. This sweetness of the rain, which surpasses the taste of honey and the honeycomb, flowed down upon the poor, that is, upon the saints of God, which proceeded from the mouth of the apostles, at God's command, with great power.

The King of the powers of the beloved, of the beloved. The powers of the beloved of God: that is, of Christ, are the apostles. The Lord, therefore, who is the King of the powers of the beloved, will give to those who evangelize great power in preaching: so that, once the enemies—the Jews or the demons—are conquered, they may divide the spoils of the Church. The beauty of the house is the Church: whose spoils are reported as divided: that is, when believers, separated from idols, have obtained in her various degrees of ministries: with the beloved of the Father himself distributing, and the Paraclete cooperating. The King of the powers of the beloved. The King is the Father: of the powers: that is, of the saints. Of the beloved, of the Son. Behold my beloved Son, hear him (Matt. 17). Of the beloved. If anyone loves someone, he always has him in his mouth. Therefore the Holy Spirit, on account of the love which he has for the Son, frequently makes mention of him. And to divide the spoils by the beauty of the house.

The apostles themselves divide in the Churches the spoils that they took from the idols.

If you sleep between the middle lots, the wings of the dove are silvered, and its back's hinder parts in the paleness of gold. When you have believed in the two Testaments, you will find the Holy Spirit in both. And although there is beauty even according to the letter, to know what you read, yet all the force of beauty is in the sense. Thus the outward ornament of words is shown in the name of silver; but the more hidden mysteries are contained in the secret gifts of gold. If you sleep between the middle lots: that is, if you rest between the New and the Old Testament, you will find in the two Testaments the grace of the Holy Spirit. The lots are said to be the individual books: that is, Genesis, Exodus, Judges, the Gospels, the Apostle. The wings of the dove are silvered. Silvered signifies the clear word of divine Scripture. And its back's hinder parts in the paleness of gold: that is, in the inner parts, the mysteries are understood spiritually. If even to the consummation of the present life, which is often taken as sleep, you rest between the two Testaments: that is, the New and Old Testament, you will find in these the Holy Spirit, whose wings are silvered in the preachers, answering to the beauty of eloquence. But in the hinder parts, which are called the shoulders, because they cover the breast, the fruit of a good conscience is shown, which after the Gospel has been fulfilled is exchanged into the appearance of gold, that is, into royal honor.

While the heavenly one discerns, kings shall be made white as snow upon her in Selmon. He calls the saints “kings,” those who fight against their own passions. These saints, then, are divided in the Churches: as Paul among the Gentiles, Peter in the circumcision. The heavenly Lord establishes these, separated from idolatries as we said above, as kings in the beauty of that house. But first they shall be made white as snow in Selmon. This is what he says: although they are holy, yet in this world they are like a shadow, knowing in part. Selmon is interpreted as shadow. When therefore Christ, the heavenly king, has begun in his Church to appoint and divide apostles and princes, they will not have full light, but some part of knowledge: because now we see in part, and prophesy in part (1 Cor 13).

The mountain of God, a fat mountain: a curdled mountain, a fat mountain. This is the mountain to which both in Isaiah and in Micah they exhort one another to go up and ascend (Isa 2; Mic 4). But what he says, “curdled,” agrees with the words of the apostle, who says: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food (1 Cor 3). Or the mountain that in Ezekiel wounds the prince of Tyre (Ezek 26). But he calls the Lord himself the mountain. Why do you suppose, you curdled mountains? He says this to the Jews, who think that Moses and the prophets are like the Savior.

The mountain in which it pleased God to dwell: This is the meaning: You ought not to think that there are many Churches which have the breasts of teachings and can nourish believers with the milk of knowledge. There is one Church, and one Christ, the bridegroom of the Church. For the Holy Spirit will not dwell continually in any other, except in the Savior, as John says: He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining (John 1); he it is who, cut out without hands, has filled the breadth of the whole earth: that is, the man of the Lord. For the Lord will dwell in him forever. In the body which he received from holy Mary, because with it he has been carried up into heaven.

The chariot of God is multiplied by ten thousand. By hyperbole he speaks of the administering powers and the saints, because they are innumerable, as he said in Daniel: A thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him (Dan. 7). And in Ezekiel the Cherubim are described as having four wings, and in the four corners four faces: whose charioteer is God (Ezek. 1 and 10). Now Cherubim is interpreted as fullness of knowledge. The face of the lion signifies the royal—that is, to reign over the passions; the face of the man, the rational; the face of the calf, the active; the face of the eagle, the contemplative—that is, in theory—which exalts us in the virtues. And at the same time let us say: The throne of God is among the saints.

Manifold among ten thousands: For many thousands of chariots of the world conquered those who evangelize Christ throughout the whole world. Thousands of the rejoicing, the Lord is among them. He indicates that divine ministries are here. In Sinai, in the holy place. That is, God is in the saints when they are tempted, and after temptation holiness follows. For it is impossible for anyone, even if he be holy, to pass through this world without temptation, according to Job: The life of man upon earth is a temptation (Job 7).

You ascended on high, you led captivity captive. You ascended into the heavens: you captured us, who were held captive by the devil. He who once descended in Sinai and distributed the law to the people, he himself now in the holy place, that is, in the man he assumed (of whom the angel said to Mary (Luke 1): What is born of you shall be called holy), ascending the heights of the heavens, set free those who were held in the captivity of the devil, and restored them to eternal life, led after him as captives. Thus he also carried up the flesh he assumed, as a captive, to the stars. You received gifts in men. He rightly said, you received. He received from the Father: he received as man, he gives as God: and what he received, he received for men, that he might give. For he himself is full and needs nothing. He gave the gifts of spiritual graces to men, who thereafter came to him through faith.

For even the unbelievers, that the Lord God dwells among them. And to these men—that is, to the people from the Gentiles—Christ has given generously, who did not believe that God could dwell among mortals; and you have saved those who did not believe that it is possible for God to dwell in men, that is, for the Savior to take flesh. Or else he has ministered good things even to those who were without hope that they could dwell in his Church.

Blessed be the Lord day by day. He who makes progress can bless God daily. For what does it profit me if I blessed yesterday and today I cannot bless? Both for former benefits and because now he prepares for us a smooth path for coming to him, he is to be blessed continually. God will make a prosperous way for us, the God of our salvations. Because we are saved by him. God will make a prosperous way for us, the God of our salvations. Be secure, sinner; do not doubt that you can bless God daily. For behold, he says: God will make a prosperous way for us. Therefore God helps us and cooperates with us. Of our salvations. He spoke well in the plural, of salvations, because as many sins as we have committed, so many salvations we have. Diapsalma in Hebrew has sela, that is, always and continually. Therefore God always helps us.

Our God. Because we know no other besides him. God of saving, and the Lord of Lords has the going forth of death. For he is present to save the perishing, because he was born for our redemption. And the going forth of death belongs to the Lord of Lords, because he first opened the way out of death, as the Apostle says: He was made, he says, the firstborn of the dead, since he himself rose from the dead, and made us rise together with him (Col. 1; Rev. 1). Otherwise: the Devil is the entrance of death; but the Lord leads out.

Nevertheless God will shatter the heads of his enemies. Having gone forth from the exits of death, he shatters the heads of the devil and all his powers. You have shattered the heads of the dragon in the water. As many sins as there are, so many heads does the devil have: principalities and powers, which stood out like a head above all, that is, diabolical dominions. The crown of the hair of those walking in their own sins: the summit of the pride of those who, neglecting repentance, persist in sins. For his head is shattered to such an extent that no power remains in him by which he may goad those who sin. The top of the head is the hair, and the hair is the crown. Therefore he says this: that not even the least thing remains in the devil that is not shattered.

The Lord said: I shall bring them back from Basan, I shall bring them back into the depth of the sea. That your foot may be dipped in blood, the tongue of your dogs from your enemies, from him. Basan is interpreted as confusion. From confusion, therefore, God brings us back. This, however, for the reason that he endured the cross, and his foot was bathed in his own blood, while the Jews cried out against him and said: Crucify, crucify him. These Jews were goaded by the enemies of Christ: that is, by demons. But that all this should happen was the will of the Savior himself, who suffered these things to be done. Or else: from the confusion of this world I shall bring back the human race: that is, through my passion and cross, which those men consider foolishness and confusion. I shall bring back Basan, my people. I shall bring them back into the depth of the sea: that is, from the deep vices and sins of this world: from the commotion and waves I shall bring back my people. That your foot may be dipped in blood. Since his own foot was dipped in his own blood. I have trodden the winepress alone, and no man of the nations was with me. And again: Who is this who comes up from Edom? his garments ruddy from Bosor. Edom is interpreted as blood: Bosor, flesh. It signifies our Lord himself crucified. The tongue of your dogs from your enemies, from him. He calls the Jews themselves dogs, as above: who cried out, Crucify, crucify such a one: we have no king but Caesar.

But from the enemies, those swayed by demons, to deny the Savior and blaspheme him. Otherwise: because you came by your own will and suffered, and by your own will were crucified by the Jews. For the foot of the Lord is dipped in blood, when the flesh he assumed, in which the divinity lay hidden, is struck by the lance. Therefore from that very blood the tongue of those also is dipped, who said: Behold his blood upon us, and upon our children (Matt. 27). But after the glorious triumph of the Lord's ascension, by the Lord's vengeance the foot of the enemies also is dipped in their own blood, and the canine rage, that is, of the adversaries, is sated by him.

They have seen your goings, O God, the goings of my God, of my king who is in the holy place. O how wonderfully in this psalm the Old Testament agrees with the sayings of the Gospels! For the journeys of Christ were seen in the crossing of the Red Sea (Exod. 14); they were seen also in the Gospels of our own king, when, lifted up in the holy man, he was carried into the heavens (John 20; Acts 1).

The princes came forward, joined with those singing: in the midst of the young women playing timbrels. And indeed at that crossing of the sea the princes came forward: that is, Moses or the other elders went out first, and they were joined with the young women on the heavenly journey. The princes came forward—the souls of the holy angels, who sang the Lord's praises with their body put to death, saying: Lift up your gates, O princes, for now the conqueror of hell returns (Ps. 24). Therefore of the timbrel-players: because their body has died to sin. And Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron, holding a timbrel in Exodus, went before those singing and said: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously honored (Exod. 15). Otherwise: The princes came forward, joined with those singing in the midst of the young women playing timbrels. The apostles with the churches advanced together with united step. It is rightly testified that they came forward: because the princes of the faith are from the Jews.

In the churches bless the Lord. He has spoken more plainly of those whom he called above timbrel-players. The Lord from the fountains of Israel. Because salvation is from the Jews, and from there the first Church. For from the shadowing of the Law, the Church... Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is kind: according to the multitude of your compassions look upon me. He asks these things according to human weakness, saying: You who redeem others by my passion, look upon me, with mercy going before.

Do not turn your face away from your servant. The voice of Christ to the Father, who took the form of a servant, as the prophet says: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant (Isa. 49). Because I am in trouble, hear me quickly. That I may take back the spirit which I commended into your hands.

Attend to my soul, and deliver it: because of my enemies rescue me. That, when I rise from the dead, they may be confounded: whence Christ said: I have power to lay down my soul (John 10).

You know my reproach, and my confusion, etc., which I endure in the flesh I have taken on.

In your sight are all who trouble me. You see what kind of tribulations they bring upon me, and the mockeries they show. Reproach has my heart looked for, and misery—reproach of the passion, and misery, that is, the insult of the cross.

I waited for one who would grieve with me, etc. No one out of so great a multitude of the wicked either shared my sorrows or came forward as a comforter.

They gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. We read in the Gospels that this has now been fulfilled: when the Lord thirsted on the cross, they offered him vinegar mixed with gall to drink (John 19). And from this and from another testimony it is understood that the psalm must be referred to Christ.

Let their table become before them. The sayings of the Law and the Prophets, at which, gathering often, they used to be refreshed. A snare, and retributions, and a stumbling block: that they may not understand the Lord announced therein. For the Lord also said in the Gospels: Moses accuses you, in whom you hope (John 5). For he wrote of me.

Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see. The divinity hidden beneath fragility. That they may not see. This was what he prayed for, that their table become a snare: namely, that they might not know the sacraments of the law. And let their back be bowed always. That they may serve the Romans always. Or under the burden of the law: which no one could bear according to the letter.

Pour out your wrath upon them, and let the fury of your anger seize them. Let their dwelling place become desolate, etc. All these things were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian. Or this is what he says: Your house shall be left to you desolate (Matt. 23). When Christ departed from Judea, all the powers departed together with him.

Because they persecuted the one whom you struck. Christ speaks these things of himself to the Father, just as we read in another prophet, spoken in the person of the Father: For the sins of the people I struck him (Isa. 53). And again: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered (Zech. 13). For he was struck that we might rise again; he was wounded that we might be healed. But also the blood and water that came out from the wound of his side (John 19) prefigured the type of martyrdom and baptism, through which one goes to heaven. And upon the pain of my wounds they added more. When they persecuted either the Church or the apostles.

Add iniquity upon their iniquity. For just as their not believing in me was reckoned to them as iniquity, so let their persecution of me be added to this iniquity. And let them not enter into your righteousness. Let them not receive the kingdoms of the heavens with the righteous.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous. Here he indicates two books that are written: of the living and of the righteous. Whence it must be noted that that book is of the living in which the prophets and patriarchs were written before the coming of God. Of this book Moses, when the people sinned, said: If you do not forgive them their offense, blot me out of the book which you have written (Exod. 32). But he calls that book of the righteous of which the Lord said to those who followed him by faith: Rejoice and exult, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10). These persecutors, therefore, are both blotted out of the first book and not written in the second.

I am poor and sorrowing. In the Passion. And your salvation, O God, has received me. Rising again. From here now the prophet speaks: I am poor and sorrowing: for when he was rich, he became poor for our sake, and he did not despise his captives. We can use this verse whenever we speak in praise of the martyrs. Some also think this is to be understood of souls, that when enclosed in bodies they were not despised by God.