(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.


ST. AUGUSTIN

EXPOSITIONS ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

[Translated by the Rev. J. E. Tweed, M.A., chaplain of Christ Church,
Oxford; T. Scratton, Esq., M.A., of Christ Church; the Rev. H.M. Wilkins,
M.A., of Merton College, Oxford; ?the Rev. Charles Marriot, of Oriel
College; ?the Rev. H. Walford, Vice-Principal of St. Edmund's Hall; at
least one anonymous contributor. Abridged from the six volumes of the Oxford
Series by A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D.]

PSALMS 1-30: THE 1ST BOOK OF THE PSALMS


PSALM I.

   1. "Blessed is the man that hath not gone away in the counsel of the
ungodly" (ver. 1). This is to be understood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Lord Man.(1) "Blessed is the man that hath not gone away in the counsel of
the ungodly," as "the man of earth did,"(2) who consented to his wife
deceived by the serpent, to the transgressing the commandment of God. "Nor
stood in the way of sinners." For He came indeed in the way of sinners, by
being born as sinners are; but He "stood" not therein, for that the
enticements of the world held Him not. And hath not sat in the seat of
pestilence." He willed not an earthly kingdom, with pride, which is well
taken for "the seat of pestilence;" for that there is hardly any one who is
free from the love of rule, and craves not human glory. For a "pestilence"
is disease widely spread, and involving all or nearly all. Yet "the seat of
pestilence" may be more appropriately understood of hurtful doctrine;
"whose word spreadeth as a canker."(3) The order too of the words must be
considered: "went away, stood, sat." For he "went away," when he drew back
from God. He "stood," when he took pleasure in sin. He "sat," when,
confirmed in his pride, he could not go back, unless set free by Him, who
neither "hath gone away in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way
of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence.

   2. "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he
meditate by day and by night (ver. 2). The law is not made for a righteous
man," 4 says the Apostle. But it is one thing to be in the law, another
under the law. Whoso is in the law, acteth according to the law; whoso is
under the law, is acted upon according to the law: the one therefore is
free, the other a slave. Again, the law, which is written and imposed upon
the servant, is one thing; the law, which is mentally discerned by him who
needeth not its "letter," is another thing. "He will meditate by day and by
night," is to be understood either as without ceasing; or "by day" in joy,"
by night" in tribulations. For it is said, "Abraham saw my day, and was
glad:"(5) and of tribulation it is said, "my reins also have instructed me,
even unto the night."(6)

   3. "And he shall be like a tree planted hard  by the running streams of
waters" (ver. 3); that is either Very "Wisdom,"(7) which vouchsafed to
assume man's nature for our salvation; that as man He might be "the tree
planted hard by the running streams of waters;" for in this sense  can that
too be taken which is said in another Psalm, "the river of God is full of
water."(8) Or by the Holy Ghost, of whom it is said, "He shall baptize you
in the Holy Ghost;"(9) and again, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me,
and drink;"(10) and again, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that asketh water of thee, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would
have given thee living water, of which whoso drinketh shall never thirst,
but it shall be made in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life."(11) Or, "by the running streams of waters" may be by the sins of the
people, because first the waters are called "peoples" in the
Apocalypse;(12) and again, by "running stream" is not unreasonably
understood "fall," which hath relation to sin. That "tree" then, that is,
our Lord, from the running streams of water, that is, from the sinful
people's drawing them by the way into the roots of His discipline, will
"bring forth fruit," that is, will establish Churches; "in His season,"
that is, after He hath been glorified by His Resurrection and Ascension
into heaven. For then, by the sending of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles,
and by the confirming of their faith in Him, and their mission to the
world, He made the Churches to "bring forth fruit." "His leaf also shall
not fall," that is, His Word shall not be in vain. For, "all flesh is
grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth,
and the flower falleth, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.(1) And
whatsoever He doeth shall prosper" that is, whatsoever that tree shall
bear; which all must be taken of fruit and leaves, that is, deeds and
words.

   4. "The ungodly are not so," they are not so, "but are like the dust
which the wind casteth forth from the face of the earth" (ver. 4). "The
earth" is here to be taken as that stedfastness in God, with a view to
which it is said, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, yea, I have
a goodly heritage."(2) With a view to this it is said, "Wait on the Lord
and keep His ways, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the earth."(3) With a
view to this it is said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth."(4) A comparison too is derived hence, for as this visible earth
supports and contains the outer man, so that earth invisible the inner man.
"From the face of" which "earth the wind casteth forth the ungodly," that
is, pride, in that it puffeth him up. On his guard against which he, who
was inebriated by the richness of the house of the Lord, and drunken of the
torrent stream of its pleasures, saith, "Let not the foot of pride come
against me."(5) From this earth pride cast forth him who said, "I will
place my seat in the north, and I will be like the Most High."(6) From the
face of the earth it cast forth him also who, after that he had consented
and tasted of the forbidden tree that he might be as God, hid himself from
the Face of God.(7) That his earth has reference to the inner man, and that
man(8) is cast forth thence by pride, may be particularly seen in that
which is written, "Why is earth and ashes proud? Because, in his life, he
cast forth his bowels."(9) For, whence he hath been cast forth, he is not
unreasonably said to have cast forth himself.

   5. "Therefore the ungodly rise not in the judgment" (ver. 5):
"therefore," namely, because "as dust they are cast forth from the face of
the earth." And well did he say that this should be taken away from them,
which in their pride they court, namely, that they may judge; so that this
same idea is more clearly expressed in the following sentence, "nor sinners
in the counsel of the righteous." For it is usual for what goes before,(10)
to be thus repeated more clearly. So that by "sinners" should be understood
the "ungodly;" what is before "in the judgment," should be here "in the
counsel of the righteous." Or if indeed the ungodly are one thing, and
sinners another, so that although every ungodly man is a sinner, yet every
sinner is not ungodly; "The ungodly rise not in the judgment," that is,
they shall rise indeed, but not that they should be judged, for they are
already appointed to most certain punishment. But "sinners" do not rise "in
counsel of the just" that is that the may, judge, but peradventure that
they may be judged; so as of these it were said, "The fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, he shall receive a
reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall then suffer loss: but
he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

   6. "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous" (ver. 6). As it is
said, medicine knows health, but knows not disease, and yet disease is
recognised by the art of medicine. In like manner can it be said that "the
Lord knoweth the way of the righteous," but the way of the ungodly He
knoweth not. Not that the Lord is ignorant of anything, and yet He says to
sinners, "I never knew you."(11) "But the way of the ungodly shall perish;"
is the same as if it were said, the way of the ungodly the Lord knoweth
not. But it is expressed more plainly that this should be not to be known
of the Lord, namely, to "perish;" and this to be known of the Lord, namely,
to "abide;" so as that to be should appertain to the knowledge of God, but
to His not knowing not to be. For the Lord saith, "I AM that I AM," and, "I
AM hath sent me."(12)

PSALM II.

   1. "Why do the heathen rage, and the people meditate vain things?"
(ver. 1). "The kings of the earth have stood up, and the rulers taken
counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Christ" (ver. 2). It is
said, "why?" as if it were said, in vain. For what they wished, namely,
Christ's destruction, they accomplished not; for this is spoken of our
Lord's persecutors, of whom also mention is made in the Acts of the
Apostles.(13)

   2. "Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us"
(ver. 3). Although it admits of another acceptation, yet is it more fitly
understood as in the person of those who are said to "meditate vain
things." So that "let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their
yoke from us," may be, let us do our endeavour, that the Christian religion
do not bind us, nor be imposed upon us.

   3. "He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, and the
Lord shall have them in derision" (ver. 4). The sentence is repeated; for
"He who dwelleth in the heavens," is afterwards put, "the Lord;" and for
"shall laugh them to scorn," is afterwards put, "shall have them in
derision." Nothing of this however must be taken in a carnal sort, as if
God either laugheth with cheek, or derideth with nostril; but it is to be
understood of that power which He giveth to His saints, that they seeing
things to come, namely, that the Name and rule of Christ is to pervade
posterity and possess all nations, should understand that those men
"meditate a vain thing." For this power whereby these things are foreknown
is God's "laughter" and "derision." "He that dwelleth in the heavens shall
laugh them to scorn." If by "heavens" we understand holy souls, by these
God, as foreknowing what is to come, will "laugh them to scorn, and have
them in derision."

   4. "Then He shall speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His
sore displeasure" (ver. 5). For showing more clearly how He will "speak
unto them," he added, He will "vex them;" so that "in His wrath," is, "in
His sore displeasure." But by the "wrath and sore displeasure" of the Lord
God must not be understood any mental perturbation; but the might whereby
He most justly avengeth, by the subjection of all creation to His service.
For that is to be observed and remembered which is written in the Wisdom of
Solomon, "But Thou, Lord of power, judgest with tranquillity, and with
great favour orderest us." The "wrath" of God then is an emotion which is
produced in the soul which knoweth the law of God, when it sees this same
law transgressed by the sinner. For by this emotion of righteous souls many
things are avenged. Although the "wrath" of God can be well understood of
that darkening of the mind, which overtakes those who transgress the law of
God.

   5. "Yet am I set by Him as King upon Sion, His holy hill, preaching His
decree" (ver. 6). This is clearly spoken in the Person of the very Lord our
Saviour Christ. But if Sion signify, as some interpret, beholding, we must
not understand it of anything rather than of the Church, where daily is the
desire raised of beholding the bright glory of God, according to that of
the Apostle, "but we with open face beholding the glory of the Lord."(2)
Therefore the meaning of this is, Yet I am set by Him as King over His holy
Church; which for its eminence and stability He calleth a mountain. "Yet I
am set by Him as King." I, that is, whose "bands" they were meditating "to
break asunder," and whose "yoke" to "cast away." "Preaching His decree."
Who doth not see the meaning of this, seeing it is daily practised?

   6. "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten
Thee" (ver. 7)., Although that day may also seem to be prophetically spoken
of, on which Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh; and in eternity
there is nothing past as if it had ceased to be, nor future as if it were
not yet, but present only, since whatever is eternal, always is; yet as
"today" intimates presentiality, a divine interpretation is given to that
expression, "To-day have I begotten Thee," whereby the uncorrupt and
Catholic faith proclaims the eternal generation of the power and Wisdom of
God, who is the Only-begotten Son.

   7. "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance"
(ver. 8). This has at once a temporal sense with reference to the Manhood
which He took on Himself, who offered up Himself as a Sacrifice in the
stead of all sacrifices, who also maketh intercession for us; so that the
words, "ask of Me," may be referred to all this temporal dispensation,
which has been instituted for mankind, namely, that the "nations" should be
joined to the Name of Christ, and so be redeemed from death, and possessed
by God. "I shall give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance," which so
possess them for their salvation, and to bear unto Thee spiritual fruit.
"And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession." The same
repeated, "The uttermost parts of the earth," is put for "the nations;" but
more clearly, that we might understand all the nations. And "Thy
possession" stands for "Thine inheritance."

   8. "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron," with inflexible justice,
and "Thou shall break them like a potter's vessel" (ver. 9); hat is,  "Thou
shalt break" in them earthly lusts, and the filthy doings of the old man,
and whatsoever hath been derived and inured from the sinful clay. "And now
understand, ye kings"  (ver. 10). "And now;" that is, being now renewed,
your covering of clay worn out, that is, the carnal vessels of error which
belong to your past life, "now understand," ye who now are "kings;" that
is, able now to govern all that is servile and brutish in you, able now too
to fight, not as "they who beat the air, but chastening  your bodies, and
bringing them into subjection."(3) "Be instructed, all ye who judge the
earth." This again is a repetition; "Be instructed" is instead of
"understand; and" ye who judge the earth instead of ye kings.  For He
signifies the spiritual by "those who judge the earth." For whatsoever we
judge, is below us; and whatsoever is below the spiritual man, is with good
reason called "the earth;" because it is defiled with earthly corruption.

   9. "Serve the Lord with fear;" lest what is said, "Ye kings and judges
of the earth," turn into pride: "And rejoice with trembling" (ver. 11).
Very excellently is "rejoice" added, lest "serve the Lord with fear" should
seem to tend to misery. But again, lest this same rejoicing should run on
to unrestrained inconsiderateness, there is added "with trembling," that it
might avail for a warning, and for the careful guarding of holiness. It can
also be taken thus, "And now ye kings understand;" that is, And now that I
am set as King, be ye not sad, kings of the earth, as if your excellency
were taken from you, but rather "understand and be instructed." For it is
expedient for you, that ye should be under Him, by whom understanding and
instruction are given you. And this is expedient for you, that ye lord it
not with rashness, but that ye "serve the Lord" of all "with fear," and
"rejoice" in bliss most sure and most pure, with all caution and
carefulness, lest ye fall therefrom into pride.

   10. "Lay hold of discipline,(1) lest at any time the Lord be angry, and
ye perish from the righteous way" (ver. 12). This is the same as,
"understand," and, "be instructed." For to understand and be instructed,
this is to lay hold of discipline. Still in that it is said, "lay hold of,"
it is plainly enough intimated that there is some protection and defence
against all things which might do hurt unless with so great carefulness it
be laid hold of. "Lest at any time the Lord be angry," is expressed with a
doubt, not as regards the vision of the prophet to whom it is certain, but
as regards those who are warned; for they, to whom it is not openly
revealed, are wont to think with doubt of the anger of God. This then they
ought to say to themselves, let us "lay hold of discipline, lest at any
time the Lord be angry, and we perish from the righteous way." Now, how
"the Lord be angry" is to be taken, has been said above. And "ye perish
from the righteous way." This is a great punishment, and dreaded by those
who have had any perception of the sweetness of righteousness; for he who
perisheth from the way of righteousness, in much misery will wander through
the ways of unrighteousness.

   11. "When His anger shall be shortly kindled, blessed are all they who
put their trust in Him;" that is, when the vengeance shall come which is
prepared for the ungodly and for sinners, not only will it not light on
those "who put their trust in" the Lord, but it will even avail for the
foundation and exaltation of a kingdom for them. For he said not, "When His
anger shall be shortly kindled," safe "are all they who put their trust in
Him," as though they should have this only thereby, to be exempt from
punishment; but he said, "blessed ;" in which there is the sum and
accumulation of all good things. Now the meaning of "shortly" I suppose to
be this, that it will be something sudden, whilst sinners will deem it far
off and long to Come,

PSALM III.(2)

A PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN HE FLED FROM THE FACE OF ABESSALON HIS SON.

   1. The words, "I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord will take
me up," lead us to believe that this Psalm is to be understood as in the
Person of Christ; for they sound more applicable to the Passion and
Resurrection of our Lord, than to that history in which David's flight is
described from the face of his rebellious son. And, since it is written of
Christ's disciples, "The sons of the bridegroom fast not as long as the
bridegroom is with them;"(3) it is no wonder if by his undutiful(4) son be
here meant that undutiful(4) disciple who betrayed Him. From whose face
although it may be understood historically that He fled, when on his
departure He withdrew with the rest to the mountain; yet in a spiritual
sense, when the Son of God, that is the Power and Wisdom of God, abandoned
the mind of Judas; when the Devil wholly occupied him; as it is written,
"The Devil entered into his heart,"(5) may it be well understood that
Christ fled from his face; not that Christ gave place to the Devil, but
that on Christ's departure the Devil took possession. Which departure, I
suppose, is called a flight in this Psalm, because of its quickness; which
is indicated also by the word of our Lord, saying, "That thou doest, do
quickly."(5) So even in common conversation we say of anything that does
not come to mind, it has fled from me; and of a man of much learning we
say, nothing flies from him. Wherefore truth fled from the mind of Judas,
when it ceased to enlighten him. But Absalom, as some interpret, in the
Latin tongue signifies, Patris pax, a father's peace. And it may seem
strange, whether in the history of the kings, when Absalom carried on war
against his father; or in the history of the New Testament, when Judas was,
the betrayer of our Lord; how "father's peace" can be understood. But both
in the former place they who read carefully, see that David in that war was
at peace with his son, who even with sore grief lamented his death, saying,
"O Absalom, my son, would God I had died for thee!"(6) And in the history
of the New Testament by that so great and so wonderful forbearance of our
Lord; in that He bore so long with him as if good, when He was not ignorant
of his thoughts; in that He admitted him to the Supper in which He
committed and delivered to His disciples the figure of His Body and Blood;
finally, in that He received the kiss of peace at the very time of His
betrayal; it is easily understood how Christ showed peace to. His betrayer,
although he was laid waste by the intestine war of so abominable a device.
And therefore is Absalom called "father's peace," because his father had
the peace, which he had not.

   2. "O Lord, how are they multiplied that trouble me!" (ver. 1). So
multiplied indeed were they, that one even from the number of His disciples
was not wanting, who was added to the number of His persecutors. "Many rise
up against me; many say unto my soul, There is no salvation for him in his
God" (ver. 2). It is clear that if they had had any idea that He would rise
again, assuredly they would not have slain Him. To this end are those
speeches, "Let Him come down from the cross, if He be the Son of God;" and
again, "He saved others, Himself He cannot save."(1) Therefore, neither
would Judas have betrayed Him, if he had not been of the number of those
who despised Christ, saying, "There is no salvation for Him in His God."

   3. "But Thou, O Lord, art my taker."(2) It is said to God in the nature
of man, for the taking of man is, the Word made Flesh. "My glory." Even He
calls God his glory, whom the Word of God so took, that God became one with
Him. Let the proud learn, who unwillingly hear, when it is said to them,
"For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive
it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?"(3) " And the
lifter up of my head" (ver. 3). I think that this should be here taken of
the human mind, which is not unreasonably called the head of the soul;(4)
which so inhered in, and in a sort coalesced with, the supereminent
excellency of the Word taking man, that it was not laid aside by so great
humiliation of the Passion.

   4. "With my voice have I cried unto the Lord" (ver. 4); that is, not
with the voice of the body, which is drawn out with the sound of the
reverberation of the air; but with the voice of the heart, which to men
speaks not, but with God sounds as a cry. By this voice Susanna was heard;
(5) and with this voice the Lord Himself commanded that prayer should be
made in closets,(6) that is, in the recesses of the heart noiselessly. Nor
would one easily say that prayer is not made with this voice, if no sound
of words is uttered from the body; since even when in silence we pray
within the heart, if thoughts interpose alien from the mind of one praying,
it cannot yet be said, "With my voice have I cried unto the Lord." Nor is
this rightly said, save when the soul alone, taking to itself nothing of
the flesh, and nothing of the aims of the flesh, in prayer, speaks to God,
where He only hears. But even this is called a cry by reason of the
strength of its intention. "And He heard me out of His holy mountain." We
have the Lord Himself called a mountain by the Prophet, as it is written,
"The stone that was cut out without hands grew to the size of a
mountain."(7) But this cannot be taken of His Person, unless peradventure
He would speak thus, out of myself, as of His holy mountain He heard me,
when He dwelt in me, that is, in this very mountain. But it is more plain
and unembarrassed, if we understand that God out of His justice heard. For
it was just that He should raise again from the dead the Innocent who was
slain, and to whom evil had been recompensed for good, and that He should
render to the persecutor a meet reward, who repaid Him evil for good. For
we read, "Thy justice is as the mountains of God."(8)

   5. "I slept, and took rest"(9) (ver. 5). It may be not unsuitably
remarked, that it is expressly said," I," to signify that of His own Will
He underwent death, according to that, "Therefore doth My Father love Me,
because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it
from Me; I have power to lay it  down, and I have power to take it
again."(10) Therefore, saith He, you have not taken Me as though against My
will, and slain Me; but "I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord
will take me up." Scripture contains numberless instances of sleep being
put for death; as the Apostle says, "I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep."(11) Nor need we make any
question why it is added, "took rest," seeing that it has already been
said, "I slept." Repetitions of this kind are usual in Scripture, as we
have pointed out many in the second Psalm. But some copies have, "I slept,
and was cast into a deep sleep."(12) And different copies express it
differently, according to the possible renderings of the Greek words, egw`
de` ekokoimh'thhn kai` hu'pnwsa. Unless perhaps sleeping(13) may be taken
of one dying, but sleep(1) of one dead: so that sleeping may be the
transition into sleep, as awakening is the transition into wakefulness. Let
us not deem these repetitions in the sacred writings empty ornaments of
speech. "I slept, and took rest," is therefore well understood as "I gave
Myself up to My Passion, and death ensued." "And I rose, for the Lord will
take Me up."(2) This is the more to be remarked, how that in one sentence
the Psalmist has used a verb of past and future time. For he has said, both
"I rose," which is the past, and "will take Me up," which is the future;
seeing that assuredly the rising again could not be without that taking up.
But in prophecy the future is well joined to the past, whereby both are
signified. Since things which are prophesied of as yet to come in reference
to time are future; but in reference to the knowledge of those who prophesy
they are already to be viewed as done. Verbs of the present tense are also
mixed in, which shall be treated of in their proper place when they occur.

   6. "I will not fear the thousands of people that surround me" (ver. 6).
It is written in the Gospels how great a multitude stood around Him as He
was suffering, and on the cross. "Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God" (ver.
7). It is not said to God, "Arise," as if asleep or lying down, but it is
usual in holy Scripture to attribute to God what He doeth in us; not indeed
universally, but where it can be done suitably; as when He is said to
speak, when by His gift Prophets speak, and Apostles, or whatsoever
messengers of the truth. Hence that text, "Would you have proof of Christ,
who speaketh in me?"(3) For he doth not say, of Christ, by whose
enlightening or order I speak; but he attributes at once the speaking
itself to Him, by whose gift he spake.

   7. "Since Thou hast smitten all who oppose me without a cause." It is
not to be pointed as if it were one sentence, "Arise, O Lord, save me, O my
God; since Thou hast smitten all who oppose me without a cause." For He did
not therefore save Him, because He smote His enemies; but rather He being
saved, He smote them. Therefore it belongs to what follows, so that the
sense is this; "Since Thou hast smitten all who oppose me without a cause,
Thou hast broken the teeth of the sinners;" that is, thereby hast Thou
broken the teeth of the sinners, since Thou hast smitten all who oppose me.
It is forsooth the punishment of the opposers, whereby. their teeth have
been broken, that is, the words of sinners rending with their cursing the
Son of God, brought to nought, as it were to dust; so that we may
understand "teeth" thus, as words of cursing. Of(4) which teeth the Apostle
speaks, "If ye bite one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of
another."(5) The teeth of sinners can also be taken as the chiefs of
sinners; by whose authority each one is cut off from the fellowship of
godly livers, and as it were incorporated with evil livers. To these teeth
are opposed the Church's teeth, by whose authority believers are cut off
from the error of the Gentiles and divers opinions, and are translated into
that fellowship which is the body of Christ. With these teeth Peter was
told to eat the animals when they bad been killed, that is, by killing in
the Gentiles what they were, and changing them into what he was himself. Of
these teeth too of the Church it is said, "Thy teeth are as a flock of
shorn sheep, coming up from the bath, whereof every one beareth twins, and
there is not one barren among them."(6) These are they who prescribe
rightly, and as they prescribe, live; who do what is written, "Let your
works shine before men, that they may bless your Father which is in
heaven."(7) For moved by their authority, they believe God who speaketh and
worketh through these men; and separated from the world, to which they were
once conformed, they pass over into the members of the Church. And rightly
therefore are they, through whom such things are done, called teeth like to
shorn sheep; for they have laid aside the burdens of earthly cares, and
coming up from the bath, from the washing away of the filth of the world by
the Sacrament of Baptism, every one beareth twins. For they fulfil the two
commandments, of which it is said, "On these two commandments hang all the
Law and the Prophets;"(8) loving God with all their heart, and with all
their soul, and with all their mind, and their neighbour as themselves.
"There is not one barren among them," for much fruit they render unto God.
According to this sense then it is to be thus understood, "Thou hast broken
the teeth of the sinners," that is, Thou hast brought the chiefs of the
sinners to nought, by smiting all who oppose Me without a cause. For the
chiefs according to the Gospel history persecuted Him, whilst the lower
people honoured Him.

   8. "Salvation is of the Lord; and upon Thy people be Thy blessing"
(ver. 8). In one sentence the Psalmist has enjoined men what to believe,
and has prayed for believers. For when it is said, "Salvation is of the
Lord," the words are addressed to men. Nor does it follow, "And upon Thy
people" be" Thy blessing," in such wise as that the whole is spoken to men,
but there is a change into prayer addressed to God Himself, for the very
people to whom it was said, "Salvation is of the Lord." What else r then
doth he say but this? Let no man presume on himself, seeing that it is of
the Lord to save from the death of sin; for, "Wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through
Jesus Christ our Lord."(1) But do Thou, O Lord, bless Thy people, who look
for salvation from Thee.

   9. This Psalm can be taken as in the Person of Christ another way;
which is that whole Christ should speak? I mean by whole, with His body, of
which He is the Head, according to the Apostle, who says, "Ye are the body
of Christ, and the members."(3) He therefore is the Head of this body;
wherefore in another place be saith, "But doing the truth in love, we may
increase in Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, from whom the whole
body is joined together and compacted.(4) In the Prophet then at once, the
Church, and her Head (the Church rounded amidst the storms of persecution
throughout the whole world, which we know already to have come to pass),
speaks, "O Lord, how are they multiplied that trouble me! many rise up
against me;" wishing to exterminate the Christian name. "Many say unto my
soul, There is no salvation for him in his God." For they would not
otherwise hope that they could destroy the Church, branching out so very
far and wide, unless they believed that God had no care thereof. "But Thou,
O Lord, art my taker;" in Christ of course. For into that flesh s the
Church too hath been taken by the Word," who was made flesh, and dwelt in
us;"(6) for that "In heavenly places hath He made us to sit together with
Him."(7) When the Head goes before, the other members will follow; for,
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"(8) Justly then does the
Church say, "Thou art my taker. My glory;" for she doth not attribute her
excellency to herself, seeing that she knoweth by whose grace and mercy she
is what she is. "And the lifter up of my head," of Him, namely, who, "the
First-born from the dead,"(9) ascended up into heaven. "With my voice have
I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me out of His holy mountain." This is
the prayer of all the Saints, the odour of sweetness, which ascends up in
the sight of the Lord. For now the Church is heard out of this mountain,
which is also her head; or, out of that justice of God, by which both His
elect are set free, and their persecutors punished. Let the people of God
also say, "I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord will take me up;
"that they may be joined, and cleave to their Head? For to this people is
it said, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
shall lay hold on thee."(11) Since they are taken out of sinners, of whom
it is said generally," But they that sleep, sleep in the night."(12) Let
them say moreover, "I will not fear the thousands of people that surround
me;" of the heathen verily that compass me about to extinguish everywhere,
if they could, the Christian name. But how should they be feared, when by
the blood of the martyrs in Christ, as by oil, the ardour of love is
inflamed? "Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God." The body can address this to
its own Head. For at His rising the body was saved; who "ascended up on
high, led captivity captive, gave gifts unto men."(13) For this is said by
the Prophet, in the secret purpose of God,(14) until that ripe harvest ,s
which is spoken of in the Gospel, whose salvation is in His Resurrection,
who vouchsafed to die for us, shed out our Lord to  the earth. "Since Thou
hast smitten all who oppose me without a cause, Thou hast broken the teeth
of the sinners." Now while the Church hath rule, the enemies of the
Christian name are smitten with confusion; and, whether their curses or
their chiefs, brought to nought. Believe then, O man, that "salvation is of
the Lord: and," Thou, O Lord, may "Thy blessing" be "upon Thy people."

   10. Each one too of us may say, when a multitude of vices and lusts
leads the resisting mind in the law of sin, "O Lord, how are they
multiplied that trouble me! many rise up against me." And, since despair of
recovery generally creeps in through the accumulation of vices, as though
these same vices were mocking the soul, or even as though the Devil and his
angels through their poisonous suggestions were at work to make us despair,
it is said with great truth, "Many say unto my soul, There is no salvation
for him in his God. But Thou, O Lord, art my taker." For this is our hope,
that He hath vouchsafed to take the nature of man in Christ. "My glory;"
according to that rule, that no one should ascribe ought to himself. "And
the lifter up of my head;" either of Him, who is the Head of us all, or of
the spirit of each several one of us, which is the head of the soul and
body. For "the head of the woman is the man, and the head of the man is
Christ."(16) But the mind is lifted up, when it can be said already, "With
the mind I serve the law of God;" (17) that the rest of man may be reduced
to peaceable submission, when in the resurrection of the flesh "death is
swallowed up in victory."(1) With my voice I have cried unto the Lord;"
with that most inward and intensive voice. "And He heard me out of His holy
mountain;"(2) Him, through whom He hath succoured us, through whose
mediation He heareth us. "I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord
will take me up." Who of the faithful is not able to say this, when he
calls to mind the death of his sins, and the gift of regeneration? "I will
not fear the thousands of people that surround me." Besides those which the
Church universally hath borne and beareth, each one also hath temptations,
by which, when compassed about, he may speak these words, "Arise, O Lord;
save me, O my God:" that is, make me to arise. "Since Thou hast smitten all
who oppose me without a cause:" it is well in God's determinate a purpose
said of the Devil and his angels; who rage not only against the whole body
of Christ, but also against each one in particular. "Thou hast broken the
teeth of the sinners." Each man hath those that revile him, he hath too the
prime authors of vice, who strive to cut him off from the body of Christ.
But "salvation is of the Lord." Pride is to be guarded against, and we must
say, "My soul cleaved after Thee."(4) "And upon Thy people" be "Thy
blessing:" that is, upon each one of us.

PSALM IV.

TO THE END, A PSALM SONG TO(5) DAVID.

   1. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth."(6) For this "end" signifies perfection, not consumption.  Now
it may be a question, whether every Song be a Psalm, or rather every Psalm
a Song; whether there are some Songs which cannot be called Psalms, and
some Psalms which cannot be called Songs. But the Scripture must be
attended to, if haply "Song" do not denote a joyful theme. But those are
called Psalms which are sung to the Psaltery; which the history as a high
mystery declares the Prophet David to have used.(7) Of which matter this is
not the place to discourse; for it requires prolonged inquiry, and much
discussion. Now meanwhile we must look either for the words of the Lord Man
s after the Resurrection, or of man in the Church believing and hoping on
Him.

   2. "When I called, the God of my righteousness heard me" (ver. 1). When
I called, God heard me, the Psalmist says, of whom is my righteousness. "In
tribulation Thou hast enlarged me." Thou hast led me from the straits of
sadness into the broad ways of joy. For, "tribulation and straitness is on
every soul of man that doeth evil."(9) But he who says, "We rejoice in
tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience;" up to that where
he says, "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us;"(10) he hath no straits of heart, they be
heaped on him outwardly by them that persecute him. Now the change of
person, for that from the third person, where he says, "He heard," he
passes at once to the second, where he says, "Thou hast enlarged me;" if it
be not done for the sake of variety and grace, it is strange why the
Psalmist should first wish to declare to men that he had been heard, and
afterwards address Him who heard him. Unless perchance, when he had
declared how he was heard, in this very enlargement of heart he preferred
to speak with God; that he might even in this way show what it is to be
enlarged in heart, that is, to have God already shed abroad in the heart,
with whom he might hold converse interiorly. Which is rightly understood as
spoken in the person of him who, believing on Christ, has been enlightened;
but in that of the very Lord Man, whom the Wisdom of God took, I do not see
how this can be suitable. For He was never deserted by It. But as His very
prayer against trouble is a sign rather of our infirmity, so also of that
sudden enlargement of heart the same Lord may speak for His faithful ones,
whom He has personated also when He said, "I was an hungered, and ye gave
Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink,"(11) and so forth.
Wherefore here also He can say, "Thou hast enlarged me," for one of the
least of His, holding converse with God, whose "love" he has "shed abroad
in his heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us."(12) "Have mercy
upon me and hear my prayer." Why does he again ask, when already he
declared that he had been heard and enlarged? It is for our sakes, of whom
it is said, "But if we hope for that we see not, we wait in patience;"(13)
or is it, that in him who has believed that which is begun may be
perfected?

   3. "O ye sons of men, how long heavy in heart" (ver. 2). Let your(14)
error, says he, have lasted at least up to the coming of the Son of God;
why then any longer are ye heavy in heart? When will ye make an end of
crafty wiles, if now when the truth is present ye make it not? "Why do ye
love vanity, and seek a lie?" Why would ye be blessed by the lowest things?
Truth alone, from which all things are true, maketh blessed. For, "vanity
is of deceivers, and all is vanity."(1) "What profit hath a man of all his
labour, wherewith he laboureth under the sun?" Why then are ye held back by
the love of things temporal? Why follow ye after the last things, as though
the first, which is vanity and a lie? For you would have them abide with
you, which all pass away, as doth a shadow.

   4. "And know ye that the Lord hath magnified his Holy One" (ver. 3).
Whom but Him, whom He raised up from below, and placed in heaven at His
right hand? Therefore doth he chide mankind, that they would turn at length
from the love of this world to Him. But if the addition of the conjunction
(for he says, "and know ye") is to any a difficulty, he may easily observe
in Scripture that this manner of speech is usual in that language, in which
the Prophets spoke. For you often find this beginning, "And" the Lord said
unto him, "And" the word of the Lord came to him. Which joining by a
conjunction, when no sentence has gone before, to which the following one
may be annexed, peradventure admirably conveys to us, that the utterance of
the truth in words is connected with that vision which goes on in the
heart. Although in this place it may be said, that the former sentence,
"Why do ye love vanity, and seek a lie?" is as if it were written, Do not
love vanity, and seek a lie. And being thus read, it follows in the most
direct construction, "and know ye that the Lord hath magnified His Holy
One." But the interposition of the Diapsalma forbids our joining this
sentence with the preceding one. For whether this be a Hebrew word, as some
would have it, which means, so be it; or a Greek word, which marks a pause
in the psalmody (so as that Psalma should be what is sung in psalmody, but
Diapsalma an interval of silence in the psalmody; that as the coupling of
voices in singing is called Sympsalma, so their separation Diapsalma, where
a certain pause of interrupted continuity is marked): whether I say it be
the former, or the latter, or something else, this at least is probable,
that the sense cannot rightly be continued and joined, where the Diapsalma
intervenes.(2)

   5. "The Lord will hear me, when I cry unto Him." I believe that we are
here warned, that with great earnestness of heart, that is, with an inward
and incorporeal cry, we should implore help of God. For as we must give
thanks for enlightenment in this life, so must we pray for rest after this
life. Wherefore in the person, either of the faithful preacher of the
Gospel, or of our Lord Himself, it may be taken, as if it were written, the
Lord will hear you, when you cry unto Him.

   6. "Be ye angry, and sin not" (ver. 4) For the thought occurred, Who is
worthy to be heard? or how shall the sinner not cry in vain unto the Lord?
Therefore, "Be ye angry," saith he, "and sin not." Which may be taken two
ways: either, even if ye be angry, do not sin; that is, even if there arise
an emotion in the soul, which now by reason of the punishment of sin is not
in our power, at least let not the reason and the mind, which is after God
regenerated within, that with the mind we should serve the law of God,
although with the flesh we as yet serve the law of sin? consent thereunto;
or, repent ye, that is, be ye angry with yourselves for your past sins, and
henceforth cease to sin. "What you say in your hearts:" there is
understood, "say ye:" so that the complete sentence is, "What ye say in
your hearts, that say ye;" that is, be ye not the people of whom it is
said, "with their lips they honour Me, but their heart is far from Me.(4)
In your chambers be ye pricked." This is what has been expressed already
"in heart." For this is the chamber, of which our Lord warns us, that we
should pray within, with closed doors.(5) But, "be ye pricked," refers
either to the pain of repentance, that the soul in punishment should prick
itself, that it be not condemned and tormented in God's judgment; or, to
arousing, that we should awake to behold the light of Christ, as if pricks
were made use of. But some say that not, "be ye pricked," but, "be ye
opened," is the better reading; because in the Greek Psalter it is
katanu'ghte, which refers to that enlargement of the heart, in order that
the shedding abroad of love by the Holy Ghost may be received.

   7. "Offer the sacrifice of righteousness, and hope in the Lord" (ver.
5). He says the same in another Psalm, "the sacrifice for God is a troubled
spirit."(6) Wherefore that this is the sacrifice of righteousness which is
offered through repentance it is not unreasonably here understood. For what
more righteous, than that each one should be angry with his own sins,
rather than those of others, and that in self-punishment he should
sacrifice himself unto God? Or are righteous works after repentance the
sacrifice of righteousness? For the interposition of Diapsalma(7) not
unreasonably perhaps intimates even a transition from the old life to the
new life: that on the old man being destroyed or weakened by repentance,
the sacrifice of righteousness, according to the regeneration of the new
man, may be offered to God; when the soul now cleansed offers and places
itself on the altar of faith, to be encompassed by heavenly fire, that is,
by the Holy Ghost. So that this may be the meaning, "Offer the sacrifice of
righteousness, and hope in the Lord;" that is, live uprightly, and hope for
the gift of the Holy Ghost, that the truth, in which you have believed, may
shine upon you.

   8. But yet, "hope in the Lord," is as yet expressed without(1)
explanation. Now what is hoped for, but good things? But since each one
would obtain from God that good, which he loves; and they are not easy to
be found who love interior goods, that is, which belong to the inward man,
which alone should be loved, but the rest are to be used for necessity, not
to be enjoyed for pleasure; excellently did he subjoin, when he had said,
"hope in the Lord" (ver. 6), "Many say, Who showeth us good things?" This
is the speech, and this the daily inquiry of all the foolish and
unrighteous; whether of those who long for the peace and quiet of a worldly
life, and from the frowardness of mankind find it not; who even in their
blindness dare to find fault with the order of events, when involved in
their own deservings they deem the times worse than these which are past:
or, of those who doubt and despair of that future life, which is promised
us; who are often saying, Who knows if it's true? or, who ever came from
below, to tell us this? Very exquisitely then, and briefly, he shows (to
those, that is, who have interior sight), what good things are to be
sought; answering their question, who say, "Who showeth us good things?"
"The light of Thy countenance," saith he, "is stamped on us, O Lord." This
light is the whole and true good of man, which is seen not with the eye,
but with the mind. But he says, "stamped on us," as a penny is stamped with
the king's image. For man was made after the image and likeness of God,(2)
which he defaced by sin: therefore it is his true and eternal good, if by a
new birth he be stamped. And I believe this to be the bearing of that which
some understand skilfully; I mean, what the Lord said on seeing Caesar's
tribute money, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God
the things that are God's."(3) As if He had said, In like manner as Caesar
exacts from you the impression of his image, so also does God: that as the
tribute money is rendered to him, so should the soul to God, illumined and
stamped with the light of His countenance. (Ver. 7.)"Thou hast put gladness
into my heart." Gladness then is not to be sought without by them, who,
being still heavy in heart, "love vanity, and seek a lie;" but within,
where the light of God's countenance is stamped. For Christ dwelleth in the
inner man,(4) as the Apostle says; for to Him doth it appertain to see
truth, since He hath said, "I am the truth."(5) And again, when He spake in
the Apostle, saying, "Would you receive a proof of Christ, who speaketh in
me?"(6) He spake not of course from without to him, but in his very heart,
that is, in that chamber where we are to pray.

   9. But men (who doubtless are many) who follow after things temporal,
know not to say aught else, than, "Who showeth us good things?" when the
true and certain good within their very selves they cannot see. Of these
accordingly is most justly said, what he adds next: "From the time of His
corn, of wine, and oil, they have been multiplied." For the addition of
His, is not superfluous. For the corn is God's: inasmuch as He is "the
living bread which came down from heaven."(7) The wine too is God's: for,
"they shall be inebriated," he says, "with the fatness of thine house."(8)
The oil too is God's: of which it is said, "Thou hast fattened my head with
oil." But those many, who say, "Who showeth us good things?" and who see
not that the kingdom of heaven is within them: these, "from the time of His
corn, of wine, and oil, are multiplied." For multiplication does not always
betoken plentifulness, and not, generally, scantiness: when the soul, given
up to temporal pleasures, burns ever with desire, and cannot be satisfied;
and, distracted with manifold and anxious thought, is not permitted to see
the simple good. Such is the soul of which it is said, "For the corruptible
body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the
mind that museth on many things."(10) A soul like this, by the departure
and succession of temporal goods, that is, "from the time of His corn,
wine, and oil," filled with numberless idle fancies, is so multiplied, that
it cannot do that which is commanded, "Think on the Lord in goodness, and
in simplicity of heart seek Him."(11) For this multiplicity is strongly
opposed to that simplicity. And therefore leaving these, who are many,
multiplied, that is, by the desire of things temporal, and who say, "Who
showeth us good things?" which are to be sought not with the eyes without,
but with simplicity of heart within, the faithful man rejoices and says,
"In peace, together, I will sleep, and take rest" (ver. 8). For such men
justly hope for all manner of estrangement of mind from things mortal, and
forgetfulness of this world's miseries; which is beautifully and
prophetically signified under the name of sleep and rest, where the most
perfect peace cannot be interrupted by any tumult. But this is not had now
in this life, but is to be hoped for after this life. This even the words
themselves, which are in the future tense, show us. For it is not said,
either, I have slept, and taken rest; or, I do sleep, and take rest; but,
"I will sleep, and take rest." Then shall "this corruptible put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality; then shall death be
swallowed up in victory."(1) Hence it is said, "But if we hope for that we
see not, we wait in patience."(2)

   10. Wherefore, consistently with this, he adds the last words, and
says, "Since Thou, O Lord, in singleness hast made me dwell in hope." Here
he does not say, wilt make; but, "hast made." In whom then this hope now
is, there will be assuredly that which is hoped for. And well does he say,
"in singleness." For this may refer in opposition to those many, who being
multiplied from the time of His corn, of wine, and oil, say, "Who showeth
us good things?" For this multiplicity perishes, and singleness is observed
among the saints: of whom it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, "and of
the multitude of them that believed, there was one soul, and one heart."(3)
In singleness, then, and simplicity, removed, that is, from the multitude
and crowd of things, that are born and die, we ought to be lovers of
eternity, and unity, if we desire to cleave to the one God and our Lord.

PSALM V.

   1. The title of the Psalm is, "For her who receiveth the inheritance."
The Church then is signified, who receiveth for her inheritance eternal
life through our Lord Jesus Christ; that she may possess God Himself, in
cleaving to whom she may be blessed, according to that, "Blessed are the
meek, for they shall possess the earth."(4) What earth, but that of which
it is said, "Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living"?(5)
And again more clearly, "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of
my cup."(6) And conversely the word Church is said to be God's inheritance
according to that, "Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance."(7) Therefore is God said to be our inheritance, because He
feedeth and sustaineth(8) us: and we are said to be God's inheritance,
because He ordereth and ruleth us. Wherefore it is the voice of the Church
in this Psalm called to her inheritance, that she too may herself become
the inheritance of the Lord.

   2. "Hear my words, O Lord" (ver. 1). Being called she calleth upon the
Lord; that the same Lord being her helper, she may pass through the
wickedness of this world, and attain unto Him. "Understand my cry." The
Psalmist well shows what this cry is; how from within, from the chamber of
the heart, without the body's utterance,(9) it reaches unto God: for the
bodily voice is heard, but the spiritual is understood. Although this too
may be God's hearing, not with carnal ear, but in the omnipresence of His
Majesty.

   3. "Attend Thou to the voice of my supplication;" that is, to that
voice, which he maketh request that God would understand: of which what the
nature is, he hath already intimated, when he said, "Understand my cry.
Attend Thou to the voice of my supplication, my King, and my God" (ver. 2).
Although both the Son is God, and the Father God, and the Father and the
Son together One God; and if asked of the Holy Ghost, we must give no other
answer than that He is God; and when the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Ghost are mentioned together, we must understand nothing else, than One
God; nevertheless Scripture is wont to give the appellation of King to the
Son. According then to that which is said, "By Me man cometh to the
Father,"(10) rightly is it first, "my King;" and then, "my God." And yet
has not the Psalmist said, Attend Ye; but, "Attend Thou." For the Catholic
faith preaches not two or three Gods, but the Very Trinity, One God. Not
that the same Trinity can be together, now the Father, now the Son, now the
Holy Ghost, as Sabellius believed: but that the Father must be none but the
Father, and the Son none but the Son, and the Holy Ghost none but the Holy
Ghost, and this Trinity but One God. Hence when the Apostle had said, "Of
whom are all things, by whom are all things, in whom are all things,"(11)
he is believed to have conveyed an intimation of the Very Trinity; and yet
he did not add, to Them be glory; but, "to Him be glory."

   4. "Because I will pray unto Thee (ver. 3). O Lord, in the morning Thou
wilt hear my voice." What does that, which he said above, "Hear Thou,"
mean, as if he desired to be heard immediately? But now he saith," in the
morning Thou wilt hear;" not, hear Thou: and, "I will pray unto Thee;" not,
I do pray unto Thee: and, as follows, "in the morning I will stand by Thee,
and will see;" not, I do stand by Thee, and do see. Unless perhaps his
former prayer marks the invocation itself: but being in darkness amidst the
storms of this world, he perceives that he does not see what he desires,
and yet does not cease to hope," For hope that is seen, is not hope."(1)
Nevertheless, he understands why he does not see, because the night is not
yet past, that is, the darkness which our sins have merited. He says
therefore, "Because I will pray unto Thee, O Lord;" that is, because Thou
art so mighty to whom I shall make my prayer, "in the morning Thou wilt
hear my voice." Thou art not He, he says, that can be seen by those, from
whose eyes the night of sins is not yet withdrawn: when the night then of
my error is past, and the darkness gone, which by my sins I have brought
upon myself, then "Thou wilt hear my voice." Why then did he say above not,
"Thou wilt hear," but "hear Thou"? Is it that after the Church cried out,
"hear Thou," and was not heard, she perceived what must needs pass away to
enable her to be heard? Or is it that she was heard above, but doth not yet
understand that she was heard, because she doth not yet see by whom she
hath been heard; and what she now says, "In the morning Thou wilt hear,"
she would have thus taken, In the morning I shall understand that I have
been heard? Such is that expression, "Arise, O Lord,"(2) that is, make me
arise. But this latter is taken of Christ's resurrection: but at all events
that Scripture, "The Lord your God proveth you, that He may know whether ye
love Him,(3) cannot be taken in any other sense, than, that ye by Him may
know, and that it  may be made evident to yourselves, what progress ye have
made in His love.

   5. "In the morning I will stand by Thee, and will see" (ver. 3). What
is, "I will stand," but "I will not lie down"? Now what else is, to lie
down, but to take rest on the earth, which is a seeking happiness in
earthly pleasures? "I will stand by," he says, "and will see." We must not
then cleave to things earthly, if we would see God, who is beheld by a
clean heart. "For Thou art not a God who hast pleasure in iniquity. The
malignant man shall not dwell near Thee, nor shall the unrighteous abide
before Thine eyes. Thou hast hated all that work iniquity, Thou wilt
destroy all that speak a lie. The man of blood, and the crafty man, the
Lord  will abominate" (vers. 4-6). Iniquity, malignity,  lying, homicide,
craft, and all the like, are the night of which we speak: on the passing
away  of which, the morning dawns, that God may be seen. He has unfolded
the reason, then, why he will stand by in the morning, and see: "For," he
says, "Thou art not a God who hast pleasure in iniquity." For if He were a
God who had  pleasure in iniquity, He could be seen even by the iniquitous,
so that He would not be seen in the morning, that is, when the night of
iniquity is over.

   6. "The malignant man shall not dwell near Thee:" that is, he shall not
so see, as to cleave to Thee. Hence follows, "Nor shall the unrighteous
abide before Thine eyes." For their eyes, that is, their mind is beaten
back by the light of truth, because of the darkness of their sins; by the
habitual practice of which they are not able to sustain the brightness of
right understanding. Therefore even they who see sometimes, that is, who
understand the truth, are yet still unrighteous, they abide not therein
through love of those things, which turn away from the truth. For they
carry about with them their night, that is, not only the habit, but even
the love, of sinning. But if this night shall pass away, that is, if they
shall cease to sin, and this love and habit thereof be put to flight, the
morning dawns, so that they not only understand, but also cleave to the
truth.

   7. "Thou hast hated all that work iniquity." God's hatred may be
understood from that form of expression, by which every sinner hates the
truth. For it seems that she too hates those, whom she suffers not to abide
in her. Now they do not abide, who cannot bear the truth. "Thou wilt
destroy all that speak a lie." For this is the opposite to truth. But lest
any one should suppose that any substance or nature is opposite to truth,
let him understand that "a lie" has relation to that which is not, not to
that which is. For if that which is be spoken, truth is spoken: but if that
which is not be spoken, it is a lie.(4) Therefore saith he, "Thou wilt
destroy all that speak a lie;" because drawing back from that which is,
they turn aside to that which is not. Many lies indeed seem to be for some
one's safety or advantage, spoken not in malice, but in kindness: such was
that of those midwives in Exodus,(5) who gave a false report to Pharaoh, to
the end that the infants of the children of Israel might not be slain.(6)
But even these are praised not for the fact, but for the disposition shown;
since those who only lie in this way, will attain in time to a freedom from
all lying. For in those that are perfect, not even these lies are found.
For to these it is said, "Let there be in your mouth, yea, yea; nay, nay;
whatsoever is more, is of evil."(7) Nor is it without reason written in
another place, "The mouth that lieth slayeth the soul:"(8) lest any should
imagine that the perfect and spiritual man ought to lie for this temporal
life, in the death of which no soul is slain, neither his own, nor
another's. But since it is one thing to lie, another to conceal the truth
(if indeed it be one thing to say what is false, another not to say what is
true), if haply one does not wish to give a man up even to this visible
death, he should be prepared to conceal what is true, not to say what is
false; so that he may neither give him up, nor yet lie, lest he slay his
own soul for another's body. But if he cannot yet do this, let him at all
events admit only lies of such necessity, that he may attain to be freed
even from these, if they alone remain, and receive the strength of the Holy
Ghost, whereby he may despise all that must be suffered for the truth's
sake. In fine, there are two kinds of lies, in which there is no great
fault,(1) and yet they are not without fault, either when we are in jest,
or when we lie that we may do good. That first kind, in jest, is for this
reason not very hurtful, because there is no deception. For he to whom it
is said knows that it is said for the sake of the jest. But the second kind
is for this reason the more inoffensive, because it carries with it some
kindly intention. And to say truth, that which has no duplicity, cannot
even be called a lie. As if, for example, a sword be intrusted to any one,
and he promises to return it, when he who intrusted it to him shall demand
it: if he chance to require his sword when in a fit of madness, it is clear
it must not be returned then, lest he kill either himself or others, until
soundness of mind be restored to him. Here then is no duplicity, because
he, to whom the sword was intrusted, when he promised that he would return
it at the other's demand, did not imagine that he could require it when in
a fit of madness. But even the Lord concealed the truth, when He said to
the disciples, not yet strong enough, "I have many things to say unto you,
but ye cannot bear them now:"(2) and the Apostle Paul when he said, "I
could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal."(3) Whence
it is clear that it is not blamable, sometimes not to speak what is trite.
But to say what is false is not found to have been allowed to the perfect.

   8. "The man of blood, and the crafty man, the Lord will abominate."
What he said above, "Thou hast hated all that work iniquity, Thou wilt
destroy all that speak a lie," may well seem to be repeated here: so that
one may refer "the man of blood" to "the worker of iniquity," and "the
crafty man" to; the "lie." For it is craft, when one thing is done, another
pretended. He used an apt word too, when he said, "will abominate." For the
disinherited are usually called: abominated. Now this Psalm is, "for her
who receiveth the inheritance;" and she adds the exulting joy of her hope,
in saying, "But I, in the multitude of Thy mercy, will enter into Thine
house" (vet. 7). "In the multitude of mercy:" perhaps he means in the
multitude of perfected and blessed men, of whom that city shall consist, of
which the Church is now in travail, and is bearing few by few. Now that
many men regenerated and perfected, are rightly called the multitude of
God's mercy, who can deny; when it is most truly said, "What is man that
Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him?(4) I
will enter into Thine house:" as a stone into a building, I suppose, is the
meaning. For what else is the house of God than the Temple of God, of which
it is said, "for the temple of God is holy,(5) which temple ye are"? Of
which building He is the cornerstone,(6) whom the Power and Wisdom of God
coeternal with the Father assumed.

   9. "I will worship at Thy holy temple, in Thy fear." "At the temple,"
we understand as, "near" the temple. For he does not say, I will worship
"in" Thy holy temple; but, "I will worship at Thy holy temple." It must be
understood too to be spoken not of perfection, but of progress toward
perfection: so that the words, "I will enter into Thine house," should
signify perfection. But that this may come to a happy issue, "I will"
first, he says, "worship at Thy holy temple." And perhaps on this account
he added, "in Thy fear;" which is a great defence to those that are
advancing toward salvation. But when any one shall have arrived there, in
him comes to pass that which is written, "perfect love casteth out
fear."(7) For they do not fear Him who is now their friend, to whom it is
said, "henceforth I will not call you servants, but friends,"(8) when they
have been brought through to that which was promised.

   10. "O Lord, lead me forth in Thy justice because of mine enemies"
(ver. 8). He has here sufficiently plainly declared that he is on his
onward road, that is, in progress toward perfection, not yet in perfection
itself, when he desires eagerly that he may be led forth. But, "in Thy
justice," not in that which seems so to men. For to return evil for evil
seems justice: but it is not His justice of whom it is said, "He maketh His
sun to rise on the good and on the evil:" for even when God punishes
sinners, He  does not inflict His evil on them, but leaves them to their
own evil. "Behold," the Psalmist says, "he travailed with injustice, he
hath conceived toil, and brought forth iniquity: he hath opened a ditch,
and digged it, and hath fallen into the pit which he wrought: his pains
shall be turned on his own head, and his iniquity shall descend on his own
pate."(1) When then God punishes, He punishes as a judge those that
transgress the law, not by bringing evil upon them from Himself, but
driving them on to that which they have chosen, to fill up the sum of their
misery. But man, when he returns evil for evil, does it with an evil will:
and on this account is himself first evil, when he would punish evil.

   11. "Direct in Thy sight my way." Nothing is clearer, than that he here
sets forth that time, in which he is journeying onward. For this is a way
which is traversed not in any regions of the earth, but in the affections
of the heart. "In Thy sight," he says, "direct my way:" that is, where no
man sees; who are not to be trusted in their praise or blame. For they can
in no wise judge of another man's conscience, wherein the way toward God is
traversed. Hence it is added, "for truth is not in their mouth" (ver. 9).
To whose judgment of course then there is no trusting, and therefore must
we fly within to conscience, and the sight of God. "Their heart is vain."
How then can truth be in their mouth, whose heart is deceived by sin, and
the punishment of sin? Whence men are called back by that voice, "Wherefore
do ye love vanity, and seek a lie?"

   12. "Their throat is an open sepulchre." It may be referred to signify
gluttony, for the sake of which men very often lie by flattery. And
admirably has he said, "an open sepulchre:" for this gluttony is ever
gaping with open mouth, not as sepulchres, which, on the reception of
corpses, are closed up. This also may be understood hereby, that with lying
and blind flattery men draw to themselves those whom they entice to sin;
and as it were devour them, when they turn them to their own way of living.
And when this happens to them, since by sin they die, those by whom they
are led along, are rightly called open sepulchres: for themselves too are
in a manner lifeless, being destitute of the life of truth; and they take
in to themselves dead men, whom having slain by lying words and a vain
heart, they turn unto themselves. "With their own tongues they dealt
craftily:" that is, with evil tongues. For this seems to be signified, when
he says "their own." For the evil have evil tongues, that is, they speak
evil, when they speak craftily. To whom the Lord saith, "How can ye, being
evil, speak good things?"(2)

   13. "Judge them, O God: let them fall from their own thoughts" (ver.
10). It is a prophecy, not a curse. For he does not wish that it should
come to pass; but he perceives what will come to pass. For this happens to
them, not because he appears to have wished for it, but because they are
such as to deserve that it should happen. For so also what he says after
wards, "Let all that hope in Thee rejoice," he says by way of prophecy;
since he perceives that they will rejoice. Likewise is it said
prophetically, "Stir up Thy strength, and come:"(3) for he saw that He
would come. Although the words, "Let them fall from their own thoughts,"
may be taken thus also, that it may rather be believed to be a wish  for
their good by the Psalmist, whilst they fall from their evil thoughts, that
is, that they may no more think evil. But what follows, "drive them out,"
forbids this interpretation. For it can in no wise be taken in a favourable
sense, that one is driven out by God. Wherefore it is understood to be said
prophetically, and not of ill will; when this is said, which must
necessarily happen to such as chose to persevere in those sins, which have
been mentioned. "Let them," therefore, "fall from their own thoughts," is,
let them fall by their self-accusing thoughts, "their own conscience also
bearing witness," as the Apostle says, "and their thoughts accusing or
excusing, in the revelation of the just judgment of God."(4)

   14. "According to the multitude of their ungodlinesses drive them out:"
that is, drive them out far away. For this is "according to the multitude
of their ungodlinesses,"(5) that they should be driven out far away. The
ungodly then are driven out from that inheritance, which is possessed by
knowing and seeing God: as diseased eyes are driven out from the shining of
the light, when what is gladness to others is pain to  them. Therefore
these shall not stand in the morning,(6) and see. And that expression is as
great a punishment, as that which is said, "But for me it is good to cleave
to the Lord,"(7) is a great reward. To this punishment is opposed, "Enter
thou into the joy of Thy Lord;"(8) for similar to this expulsion is, "Cast
him into outer darkness."(9)

   15. "Since they have embittered Thee, O Lord: I am," saith He, "the
Bread which came down from heaven;"(10) again, "Labour for the meat which
wasteth not;"(11) again, "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet."(12) But to
sinners the bread of truth is bitter. Whence they hate the mouth of him
that speaketh the truth. These then have embittered God, who by sin have
fallen into such a state of sickliness, that the food of truth, in which
healthy souls delight, as if it were bitter as gall, they cannot bear.

   16. "And let all rejoice that hope in Thee;" those of course to whose
taste the Lord is sweet. "They will exult for evermore, and Thou wilt
dwell in them" (ver. 11). This will be the exultation for evermore, when
the just become the Temple of God, and He, their Indweller, will be their
joy. "And all that love Thy name shall glory in Thee:" as when what they
love is present for them to enjoy. And well is it said, "in Thee," as if in
possession of the inheritance, of which the title of the Psalm speaks: when
they too are His inheritance, which is intimated by, "Thou wilt dwell in
them." From which good they are kept back, whom God, according to the
multitude of their ungodlinesses, driveth out.

   17. "For Thou wilt bless the just man" (ver. 12). This is blessing, to
glory in God, and to be inhabited by God. Such sanctification is given to
the just. But that they may be justified, a calling goes before: which is
not of  merit, but of the grace of God. "For all have   sinned, and want
the glory of God."(1) "For whom He called, them He also justified; and whom
He, justified, them He also glorified."(2) Since then calling is not of our
merit, but of the goodness and mercy of God, he went on to say, "O Lord, as
with the shield of Thy good will Thou hast crowned us." For God's good will
goes before our good will, to call sinners to repentance. And these are the
arms whereby the enemy is overcome, against whom it is said, "Who will
bring accusation against God's elect?" Again, "if God be for us, who can be
against us? Who spared not His Only Son, but delivered Him up for us
all."(3) "For if, when we were enemies, Christ died for us; much more being
reconciled shall we be saved from wrath through Him."(4) This is that
unconquerable shield, whereby the enemy is driven back, when he suggests
despair of our salvation through the multitude of tribulaions and
temptations.

   18. The whole contents of the Psalm, then, are a prayer that she may be
heard, from the words, "hear my words, O Lord," unto, "my King, and my
God." Then follows a view of those things which hinder the sight of God,
that is, a knowledge that she s is heard, from the words, "because I shall
pray unto Thee, O Lord, in the morning Thou wilt hear my voice," unto, "the
man of blood and the crafty man the Lord will abominate." Thirdly, she
hopes that she, who is to be the house of God, even now begins to draw near
to Him in fear, before that perfection which casteth out fear, from the
words, "but I in the multitude of Thy mercy," unto, "I will worship at Thy
holy temple in Thy fear." Fourthly, as she is progressing and advancing
amongst those very things which she feels to hinder her, she prays that she
may be assisted within, where no man seeth, lest she be turned aside by
evil tongues, for the words, "O Lord, lead me forth in Thy justice because
of my enemies," unto, "with their tongues they dealt craftily." Fifthly, is
a prophecy of what punishment awaits the ungodly, when the just man shall
scarcely be saved; and of what reward the just shall obtain, who, when they
were called, came, and bore all things manfully, till they were brought to
the end, from the words, "judge them, O God," unto the end of the Psalm.

PSALM VI.

TO THE END, IN THE HYMNS OF THE EIGHTH,(6) A PSALM TO DAVID.(7)

   1. "Of the eighth," seems here obscure. For the rest of this title is
more clear. Now it has seemed to some to intimate the day of judgment, that
is, the time of the coming of our Lord, when He will come to judge the
quick and dead. Which coming, it is believed, is to be, after reckoning the
years from Adam, seven thousand years: so as that seven thousand years
should pass as seven days, and afterwards that time arrive as it were the
eighth day. But since it has been said by the Lord, "It is not yours to
know the times, which the Father hath put m His own power:"(8) and, "But of
the day and that hour knoweth no man, no, neither angel, nor Power, neither
the Son, but the Father alone:"(9) and again, that which is written, "that
the day of the Lord cometh as a thief,"(10) shows clearly enough that no
man should arrogate to himself the knowledge of that time, by any
computation of years. For if that day is to come after seven thousand
years, every man could learn its advent by reckoning the years. What comes
then of the Son's even not knowing this? Which of course is said with this
meaning, that men do not learn this by the  Son, not that He by Himself
doth not know it: according to that form of speech, "the Lord your God
trieth you that He may know;"(11) that is, that He may make you know: and,
"arise, O Lord;"(12) that is, make us arise. When therefore the Son is thus
said not to know this day; not because He knoweth it not, but because He
causeth those to know it not, for whom it is not expedient to know it, that
is, He doth not show it to them; what does that strange presumption mean,
which, by a reckoning up of years, expects the day of the Lord as most
certain after seven thousand years?(13)

   2. Be we then willingly ignorant of that which the Lord would not have
us know: and let us inquire what this title, "of the eighth," means. The
day of judgment may indeed, even without any rash computation of years, be
understood by the eighth, for that immediately after the end of this world,
life eternal being attained, the souls of the righteous will not then be
subject unto times: and, since all times have their revolution in a
repetition of those seven days, that per-adventure is called the eighth
day, which will not have this variety. There is another reason, which may
be here not unreasonably accepted, why the judgment should be called the
eighth, because it will take place after two generations, one relating to
the body, the other to the soul, For from Adam unto Moses the human race
lived of the body, that is, according to the flesh: which is called the
outward and the old man,(1) and to which the Old Testament was given, that
it might prefigure the spiritual things to come by operations, albeit
religious, yet carnal. Through this entire season, when men lived according
to the body, "death reigned," as the Apostle saith, "even over those that
had not sinned." Now it reigned "after the similitude of Adam's
transgression,"(2) as the same Apostle saith; for it must be taken of the
period up to Moses, up to which time the works of the law, that is, those
sacraments of carnal observance, held even those bound, for the sake of a
certain mystery, who were subject to the One God. But from the coming of
the Lord, from whom there was a transition from the circumcision of the
flesh to the circumcision of the heart, the call was made, that man should
live according to the soul, that is, according to the inner man, who is
also called the "new man"(3) by reason of the new birth and the renewing of
spiritual conversation. Now it is plain that the number four has relation
to the body, from the four well known elements of which it consists, and
the four qualities of dry, humid, warm, cold. Hence too it is administered
by four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, winter. All this is very well
known. For of the number four relating to the body we have treated
elsewhere somewhat subtilly, but obscurely: which must be avoided in this
discourse, which we would have accommodated to the unlearned. But that the
number three has relation to the mind may be understood from this, that we
are commanded to love God after a threefold manner,(4) with the whole
heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind:(5) of each of which
severally we must treat, not in the Psalms, but in the Gospels: for the
present, for proof of the relation of the number three to the mind, I think
what has been said enough. Those numbers then of the body which have
relation to the old man and the Old Testament, being past and gone, the
numbers too of the soul, which have relation to the new man and the New
Testament, being past and gone, a septenary so to say being passed; because
everything is done in time, four having been distributed to the body, three
to the mind; the eighth will come, the day of judgment:  which assigning to
deserts their due, will transfer at once the saint, not to temporal works,
but to eternal life; but will condemn the ungodly to eternal punishment.

   3. In fear of which comdemnation the Church prays in this Psalm, and
says," Reprove me not, O Lord, in Thine anger" (ver. 1). The Apostle too
mentions the anger of the judgment; "Thou treasurest up unto thyself," he
says, "anger against the day of the anger of the just judgment of God."(6)
In which he would not be reproved, whosoever longs to be healed in this
life. "Nor in Thy rage chasten me." "Chasten," seems rather too mild a
word; for it availeth toward amendment. For for him who is reproved, that
is, accused, it is to be feared lest his end be condemnation. But since
"rage" seems to be more than "anger," it may be a difficulty, why that
which is milder, namely, chastening, is joined to that which is more
severe, namely, rage. But I suppose that one and the same thing is
signified by the two words. For in the Greek thumo`s, which is in the first
verse, means the same as orgh`, which is in the second verse.(7) But when
the Latins themselves too wished to use two distinct words, they looked out
for what was akin to "anger," and "rage"(8) was used. Hence copies vary.
For in some "anger" is found first, and then "rage:" in others, for "rage,"
"indignation" or "choler" is used. But whatever the reading, it is an
emotion of the soul urging to the infliction of punishment. Yet this
emotion must not be attributed to God, as if to a soul, of whom it is said,
"but Thou, O Lord of power, judgest with tranquillity."(9) Now that which
is tranquil, is not disturbed. Disturbance then does not attach to God as
judge: but what is done by His ministers, in that it is done by His laws,
is called His anger. In which anger, the soul, which now prays, would not
only not be reproved, but not even chastened, that is, amended or
instructed. For in the Greek it is, paideu'sh(i)s, that is, instruct. Now
in the day of judgment all are "reproved" that hold not the foundation,
which is Christ. But they are amended, that is, purged, who "upon this
foundation build wood, hay, stubble. For they shall suffer loss, but shall
be saved, as by fire."(10) What then does he pray, who would not be either
reproved or amended in the anger of the   Lord? what else but that he may
be healed? For where sound health is, neither death is to be dreaded, nor
the physician's hand with caustics or the knife.

   4. He proceeds accordingly to say, "Pity me, O Lord, for I am weak:
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled" (ver. 2), that is, the support
of my soul, or strength: for this is the meaning of "bones." The soul
therefore says, that her strength is troubled, when she speaks of bones.
For it is not to be supposed, that the soul has bones, such as we see in
the body. Wherefore, what follows tends to explain it," and my soul is
troubled exceedingly" (ver. 3), lest because he mentioned bones, they
should be understood as of the body. "And Thou, O Lord, how long?" Who does
not see represented here a soul struggling with her diseases; but long kept
back by the physician, that she may be convinced what evils she has plunged
herself into through sin? For what is easily healed, is not much avoided:
but from the difficulty of the healing, there will be the more careful
keeping of recovered health. God then, to whom it is said, "And Thou, O
Lord, how long?" must not be deemed as if cruel: but as a kind convincer of
the soul, what evil she hath procured for herself. For this soul does not
yet pray so perfectly, as that it can be said to her, "Whilst thou art yet
speaking I will say, Behold, here I am."(1) That she may at the same time
also come to know, if they who do turn meet with so great difficulty, how
great punishment is prepared for the ungodly, who will not turn to God: as
it is written in another place, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the sinner and ungodly appear?"(2)

   5. "Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul" (ver. 4). Turning herself she
prays that God too would turn to her: as it is said, "Turn ye unto Me, and
I will turn unto you, saith the Lord."(3) Or is it to be understood
according to that way of speaking, "Turn, O Lord," that is make me turn,
since the soul in this her turning feels difficulty and toil? For our
perfected turning findeth God ready, as says the Prophet, "We shall find
Him ready as the dawn."(4) Since it was not His absence who is everywhere
present, but our turning away that made us lose Him; "He was in this
world," it is said, "and the world was made by Him, and the  world knew Him
not."(5) If, then, He was in this world, and the world knew Him not, our
impurity doth not endure the sight of Him. But whilst we are turning
ourselves, that is, by changing our old life are fashioning our spirit; we
feel it hard and toilsome to be wrested back from the darkness of earthly
lusts, to the serene and quiet and tranquillity of the divine light. And in
such difficulty we say, "Turn, O Lord," that is, help us, that that turning
may be perfected in us, which findeth Thee ready, and offering Thyself for
the fruition of them that love Thee. And hence after he said, "Turn, O
Lord," he added, "and deliver my soul:" cleaving as it were to the
entanglements of this world, and suffering, in the very act of turning,
from the thorns, as it were, of rending and tearing desires. "Make me
whole," he says, "for Thy pity's sake." He knows that it is not of his own
merits that he is healed: for to him sinning, and transgressing a given
command, was just condemnation due. Heal me therefore, he says, not for my
merit's sake, but for Thy pity's sake.

   6. "For in death there is no one that is mindful of Thee" (ver. 5). He
knows too that now is the time for turning unto God: for when this life
shall have passed away, there remaineth but a retribution of our
deserts.(6) "But in hell who shall confess to Thee?"(7) That rich man, of
whom the Lord speaks, who saw Lazarus in rest, but bewailed himself in
torments, confessed in hell, yea so as to wish even to have his brethren
warned, that they might keep themselves from sin, because of the punishment
which is not believed to be in hell. Although  therefore to no purpose, yet
he confessed that those torments had deservedly lighted upon him; since he
even wished his brethren to be instructed, lest they should fall into the
same. What then is, "But in hell who will confess to Thee?" Is hell to be
understood as that place, whither the ungodly will be cast down after the
judgment, when by reason of that deeper darkness they will no more see any
light of God, to whom they may confess aught? For as yet that rich man by
raising his eyes, although a vast gulf lay between, could still see Lazarus
established in rest: by comparing himself with whom, he was driven to a
confession of his own deserts. It may be understood also, as if the
Psalmist calls sin, that is committed in contempt of God's law, death: so
as that we should give the name of death to the sting of death, because it
procures death. "For the sting of death is sin."(8) In which death this is
to be unmindful of God, to despise His law and  commandments: so that by
hell the Psalmist would mean that blindness of soul which overtakes and
enwraps the sinner, that is, the dying. "As they did not think good," the
Apostle says, "to retain God in "their" knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind."(1) From this death, and this hell, the soul earnestly
prays that she may be kept safe, whilst she strives to turn to God, and
feels her difficulties.

   7. Wherefore he goes on to say, "I have laboured in my groaning." And
as if this availed but little, he adds, "I will wash each night my couch"
(ver. 6). That is here called a couch, where the sick and weak soul rests,
that is, in bodily gratification and in every worldly pleasure. Which
pleasure, whoso endeavours to withdraw himself from it, washes with tears.
For he sees that he already condemns carnal lusts; and yet his weakness is
held by the pleasure, and willingly lies down therein, from whence none but
the soul that is made whole can rise. As for what he says, "each night," he
would perhaps have it taken thus: that he who, ready in spirit, perceives
some light of truth, and yet, through weakness of the flesh, rests sometime
in the pleasure of this world, is compelled to suffer as it were days and
nights in an alternation of feeling: as when he says, "With the mind I
serve the law of God," he feels as it were day; again when he says, "but
with the flesh the law of sin,"(2) he declines into night: until all night
passeth away, and that one day comes, of which it is said, "In the morning
I will stand by Thee, and will see."(3) For then he will stand, but now he
lies down, when he is on his couch; which he will wash each night, that
with so great abundance of tears he may obtain the most  assured remedy
from the mercy of God. "I will drench my bed with tears." It is a
repetition.(4) For when he says, "with tears," he shows with what meaning
he said above, "I will wash." For we take "bed" here to be the same as
"couch" above. Although, "I will drench," is something more than, "I will
wash:" since anything may be washed superficially, but drenching penetrates
to the more inward parts; which here signifies weeping to the very bottom
of the heart. Now the variety of tenses which he uses; the past, when he
said, "I have laboured in my groaning;" and the future, when he said, "I
will wash each night my couch;" the future again, "I will drench my bed
with tears;" this shows what every man ought to say to himself, when he
labours in groaning to no purpose. As if he should say, It hath not
profited when I have done this, therefore I will do the other.

   8. "Mine eye is disordered by anger" (ver. 7): is it by his own, or
God's anger, in which he maketh petition that he might not be reproved, or
chastened? But if anger in that place intimate the day of judgment, how can
it be understood now? Is it a beginning of it, that men here suffer pains
and torments, and above all the loss of the understanding of the truth; as
I have already quoted that which is said, "God gave them over to a
reprobate mind"?(1) For such is the blindness of the mind. Whosoever is
given over thereunto, is shut out from the interior light of God: but not
wholly as yet, whilst he is in this life. For there is "outer darkness,"(5)
which is understood to belong rather to the day of judgment; that he should
rather be wholly without God, whosoever whilst there is time refuses
correction. Now to be wholly without God, what else is it, but to be in
extreme blindness? If indeed God "dwell in inaccessible light,"(6)
whereinto they enter, to whom it is said, "Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord."(7) It is then the beginning of this anger, which in this life every
sinner suffers. In fear therefore of the day of judgment, he is in trial
and grief; lest he be brought to that, the disastrous commencement of which
he experiences now. And therefore he did not say, mine eye is extinguished,
but, "mine eye is disordered by anger." But if he mean that his eye is
disordered by his own anger, there is no wonder either in this. For hence
perhaps it is said, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath;"(8) because
the mind, which, from her own disorder, is not permitted to see God,
supposes that the inner sun, that is, the wisdom of God, suffers as it were
a setting in her.

   9. "I have grown old in all mine enemies." He had only spoken of anger
(if it were yet of his own anger that he spoke): but thinking on his other
vices, he found that he was entrenched by them all. Which vices, as they
belong to the old life and the old man, which we must put off, that we may
put on the new man,(9) it is well said, "I have grown old." But "in all
mine enemies," he means, either amidst these vices, or amidst men who will
not be converted to God. For these, even if they know them not, even if
they bear with them, even if they use the same tables and houses and
cities, with no strife arising between them, and in frequent converse
together with seeming concord: notwithstanding, by the contrariety of their
aims, they are enemies to those who turn unto God. For seeing that the one
love and desire this world, the others wish to be freed from this world,
who sees not that the first are enemies to the last? For if they can, they
draw the others into punishment with them. And it is a great grace, to be
conversant daily with their words, and not to depart from the way of God's
commandments. For often the mind which is striving to go on to God-ward,
being rudely handled in the very road, is alarmed; and generally fulfils
not its good intent, lest it should offend those with whom it lives, who
love and follow after other perishable and transient goods. From such every
one that is whole is separated, not in space, but in soul. For the body is
contained in space, but the soul's space is her affection.

   10. Wherefore after the labour, and groaning, and very frequent showers
of tears, since that cannot be ineffectual, which is asked so earnestly of
Him, who is the Fountain of all mercies, and it is most truly said, "the
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart:"(1) after difficulties
so great, the pious soul, by which we may also understand the Church,
intimating that she has been heard, see what she adds: "Depart from me, all
ye that work iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping"
(ver. 8). It is either spoken prophetically, since they will depart, that
is, the ungodly will be separated from the righteous, when the day of
judgment arrives, or, for this time present. For although both are equally
found in the same assemblies, yet on the open floor the wheat is already
separated from the chaff, though it be hid among the chaff. They can
therefore be associated together, but cannot be carried away by the wind
together.

   11. "For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping; The Lord hath
heard my supplication; the Lord hath received my prayer" (ver. 9). The
frequent repetition of the same sentiments shows not, so to say, the
necessities of the  narrator, but the warm feeling of his joy. For they
that rejoice are wont so to speak, as that it is not enough for them to
declare once for all the object of their joy. This is the fruit of that
groaning in which there is labour, and those tears with which the couch is
washed, and-bed drenched: for, "he that sows in tears, shall reap in
joy:"(2) and, "blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

   12. "Let all mine enemies be ashamed and vexed" (ver. 10). He said
above, "depart from me all ye:" which can take place, as it has been
explained, even in this life: but as to what he says, "let them be ashamed
and vexed," I do not see how it can happen, save on that day when the
rewards of the righteous and the punishments of the sinners shall be made
manifest. For at present so far are the ungodly from being ashamed, that
they do not cease to insult us. And for the most part their mockings are of
such avail, that they make the weak to be ashamed of the name of Christ.
Hence it is said, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me before men, of him will
I be ashamed before My Father."(3) But now whosoever would fulfil those
sublime commands, to disperse, to give to the poor, that his righteousness
may endure for ever;(4) and selling all his earthly goods, and spending
them on the needy, would follow Christ, saying, "We brought nothing into
this world, and truly we can carry nothing out; having food and raiment,
let us be therewith content;"(5) incurs the profane raillery of those men,
and by those who will not be made whole, is called mad; and often to avoid
being so called by desperate men, he fears to do, and puts off that, which
the most faithful and powerful of all physicians hath ordered. It is not
then at present that these can be ashamed, by whom we have to wish that we
be not made ashamed, and so be either called back from our proposed
journey, or hindered, or delayed. But the time will come when they shall be
ashamed, saying as it is written, "These are they whom we had sometimes in
derision, and a parable of reproach: we fools counted their life madness,
and their end to be without honour: how are they numbered among the
children of God, and their lot is among the saints? Therefore have we erred
from the way of truth, and the light of rightousness hath not shined into
us, nor the sun risen upon us: we have been filled with the way of
wickedness and destruction, and have walked through rugged deserts, but the
way of the  Lord we have not known. What hath pride profited us, or what
hath the vaunting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away
like a shadow."(6)

   13. But as to what he says, "Let them be turned and confounded," who
would not judge it to be a most righteous punishment, that they should have
a turning unto confusion, who would not have one unto salvation? After this
he added, "exceeding quickly." For when the day of judgment shall have
begun to be no longer looked for, when they shall have said, "Peace, then
shall sudden destruction come upon them."(7) Now whensoever it come, that
comes very quickly, of whose coming we give up all expectation; and nothing
makes the length of this life be felt but the hope of living. For nothing
seems more quick, than all that has already passed in it. When then the day
of judgment shall come, then will sinners feel how that all the life which
passeth away is not long. Nor will that any way possibly seem to them to
have come tardily, which shall have come without their desiring, or rather
without their believing. Although it can too be taken in this place thus,
that inasmuch as God has heard, so to say, her groans, and her long and
frequent tears, she may be understood to be freed from her sins, and to
have tamed every disordered impulse of carnal affection: as she saith,
"Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the
voice of my weeping:" and when she has had this happy issue, it is no
marvel if she be already so perfect as to pray for her enemies. The words
then, "Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and vexed," may have this meaning;
that they should repent of their sins, which cannot be effected without
confusion and vexation. There is then nothing to hinder us from taking what
follows too in this sense, "let them be turned and ashamed," that is, let
them be turned to God, and be ashamed that they sometime gloried in the
former darkness of their sins; as the Apostle says, "For what glory had ye
sometime in those things of which ye are now ashamed?"(2) But as to what he
added, "exceeding quickly," it must be referred either to the warm
affection of her wish, or to the power of Christ; who converteth to the
faith of the Gospel in such quick time the nations, which in their idols'
cause did persecute the Church.

PSALM VII.

A PSALM TO DAVID HIMSELF, WHICH HE SUNG TO THE LORD, FOR THE WORDS OF
CHUSI, SON OF JEMINI.(2)

   1. Now the story which gave occasion to this prophecy may be easily
recognised in the second book of Kings.(3) For there Chusi, the friend of
king David, went over to the side of Abessalon, his son, who was carrying
on war against his father, for the purpose of discovering and reporting the
designs which he was taking against his father, at the instigation of
Achitophel, who had revolted from David's friendship, and was instructing
by his counsel, to the best of his power, the son against the father. But
since it is not the story itself which is to be the subject of
consideration in this Psalm, from which the prophet hath taken a veil of
mysteries, if we have passed over to Christ, let the veil be taken away.(4)
And first let us inquire into the signification of the very names, what it
means. For there have not been wanting interpreters, who investigating
these same words, not carnally according to the letter, but spiritually,
declare to us that Chusi should be interpreted silence; and Gemini, right-
handed; Achitophel, brother's ruin. Among which interpretations, Judas,
that traitor, again meets us, that Abessalon should bear his image,
according to that interpretation of it as a father's peace; in that his
father was full of thoughts of peace toward him: although he in his guile
had war in his heart, as was treated of in the third Psalm. Now as we find
in the Gospels that the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ are called
sons,(5) so in the same Gospels we find they are called brethren also. For
the Lord on the resurrection saith, "Go and say to My brethren."(6) And the
Apostle calls Him "the first begotten among many brethren." The ruin then
of that disciple, who betrayed Him, is rightly understood to be a brother's
ruin, which we said is the interpretation of Achitophel. Now as to Chusi,
from the interpretation of silence, it is rightly understood that our Lord
contended against that guile in silence, that is, in that most deep secret,
whereby "blindness happened in part to Israel,"(7) when they were
persecuting the Lord, that the fulness of the Gentiles might enter in, and
"so all Israel might be saved." When the Apostle came to this profound
secret and deep silence, he exclaimed, as if struck with a kind of awe of
its very depth, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For
who hath known the wind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?"(8)
Thus that great silence he does not so much discover by explanation, as he
sets forth its greatness in admiration. In this silence the Lord, hiding
the sacrament of His adorable passion, turns the brother's voluntary ruin,
that is, His betrayer's impious wickedness, into the order of His mercy and
providence: that what he with perverse mind wrought for one Man's
destruction, He might by providential overruling dispose for all men's
salvation. The perfect soul then, which is already worthy to know the
secret of God, sings a Psalm unto the Lord, she sings" for the words of
Chusi," because she has attained to know the words of that silence: for
among unbelievers and persecutors there is that silence and secret. But
among His own, to whom it is said," Now I call you no more servants; for
the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends,
for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto
you:(9) among His friends, I say, there is not the silence, but the words
of the silence, that is, the meaning of that silence set forth and
manifested. Which silence, that is, Chusi, is called the son of Gemini,
that is, righthanded. For what was done for the Saints was not to be hidden
from them. And yet He saith," Let not the left hand know what the right
hand doeth."(10) The perfect soul then, to which that secret has been made
known, sings in prophecy "for the words of Chusi," that is, for the
knowledge of that same secret. Which secret God at her fight hand, that is,
favourable(11) and propitious unto her, has wrought. Wherefore this silence
is called the Son of the right hand, which is, "Chusi, the son of Gemini."

   2. "O Lord my God, in Thee have I hoped: save me from all them that
persecute me, and deliver me" (ver. 1). As one to whom, already perfected,
all the war and enmity of vice being overcome, there remaineth no enemy but
the envious devil, he says, "Save me from all them that persecute me, and
deliver me (ver. 2): lest at any time he tear my soul as a lion." The
Apostle says, "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour.'' (1) Therefore when the Psalmist said in the
plural number, "Save me from all them that persecute me:" he afterwards
introduced the singular, saying, "lest at any time he tear my soul as a
lion." For he does not say, lest at any time they tear: he knew what enemy
and violent adversary of the perfect soul remained. "Whilst there be none
to redeem, nor to save:" that is, lest he tear me, whilst Thou redeemest
not, nor savest. For, if God redeem not, nor save, he tears.(2)

   3. And that it might be clear that the already perfect soul, which is
to be on her guard against the most insidious snares of the devil only,
says this, see what follows. "O Lord my God, if I have done this" (ver. 3).
What is it that he calls "this"? Since he does not mention the sin by name,
are we to understand sin generally? If this sense displease us, we may take
that to be meant which follows: as if we had asked,  what is this that you
say, "this"? He answers, "If there be iniquity in my hands." Now then it is
clear that it is said of all sin," If I have repaid them that recompense me
evil" (ver. 4). Which none can say with truth, but the perfect. For so the
Lord says, "Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven; who maketh
His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and raineth on the just and the
unjust."(3) He then who repayeth not them that recompense evil, is perfect.
When therefore the perfect soul prays "for the words of Chusi, the son of
Jemini," that is, for the knowledge of that secret and silence, which the
Lord, favourable to us and merciful, wrought for our salvation, so as to
endure, and with all patience bear, the guiles of this betrayer: as if He
should say to this perfect soul, explaining the design of this secret, For
thee  ungodly and a sinner, that thine iniquities might be washed away by
My blood-shedding, in great   silence and great patience I bore with My
betrayer; wilt not thou imitate me, that thou too mayest not repay evil for
evil? Considering then, and understanding what the Lord has done for him,
and by His example going on to perfection, the Psalmist says, "If I have
repaid them that recompense me evil:" that is, if I have not done what Thou
hast taught me by Thy example: "may I therefore fall by mine enemies
empty." And he says well, not, If I have repaid them that do me evil; but,
who "recompense." For who so recompenseth, had received somewhat already.
Now it is an instance of greater patience, not even to repay him evil, who
after receiving benefits returns evil for good, than if without receiving
any previous benefit he had had a mind to injure. If therefore he says, "I
have repaid them that recompense me evil:" that is, If I have not imitated
Thee in that silence, that is, in Thy patience, which Thou hast wrought for
me, "may I fall by mine enemies empty." For he is an empty boaster, who,
being himself a man, desires to avenge himself on a man; and whilst he
openly seeks to overcome a man, is secretly himself overcome by the devil,
rendered empty by vain and proud joy, because he could not, as it were, be
conquered. The Psalmist knows then where a greater victory may be obtained,
and where "the Father which seeth in secret will reward."(4) Lest then he
repay them that recompense evil, he overcomes his anger rather than another
man, being instructed too by those writings, wherein it is written, "Better
is he that overcometh his anger, than he that taketh a city."(5) "If I have
repaid them that recompense me evil, may I therefore fall by my enemies
empty." He seems to swear by way of execration, which is the heaviest kind
of oath, as when one says, If I have done so and so, may I suffer so and
so. But swearing in a swearer's mouth is one thing, in a prophet's meaning
another. For here he mentions what will really befall men who repay them
that recompense evil; not what, as by an oath, he would imprecate on
himself or any other.

   4. "Let the enemy" therefore "persecute my soul and take it" (ver. 5).
By again naming the enemy in the singular number, he more and more clearly
points out him whom he spoke of above as a lion. For he persecutes the
soul, and if he has deceived it, will take it. For the limit of men's rage
is the destruction of the body; but the soul, after this visible death,
they cannot keep in their power: whereas whatever souls the devil shall
have taken by his persecutions, he will keep. "And let him tread my life
upon the earth:" that is, by treading let him make my life earth, that is
to say, his food. For he is not only called a lion, but a serpent too, to
whom it was said, "Earth shalt thou eat."(6) And to the sinner was it said,
"Earth thou art, and into earth shalt thou go."(1) "And let him bring down
my glory to the dust." This is that dust which "the wind casteth forth from
the face of the earth,"(2) to wit, vain and silly boasting of the proud,
puffed up, not of solid weight, as a cloud of dust carried away by the
wind. Justly then has he here spoken of the glory, which he would not have
brought down to dust. For he would have it solidly established in
conscience before God, where there is no boasting. "He that glorieth,"
saith the Apostle, "let him glory in the Lord."(3) This solidity is brought
down to the dust  if one through pride despising  the secrecy of
conscience, where God only proves a man, desires to glory before men. Hence
comes what the Psalmist elsewhere says, "God shall bruise the bones of them
that please men."(4) Now he that has well learnt or experienced the steps
in overcoming vices, knows that this vice of empty glory is either alone,
or more than all, to be shunned by the perfect. For that by which the soul
first fell, she overcomes the last. "For the beginning of all sin is
pride:" and again, "The beginning of man's pride is to depart from God."(5)

   5. "Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger" (ver. 6). Why yet does he, who we
say is perfect, incite God to anger? Must we not see, whether he rather be
not perfect, who, when he was being stoned, said, "O Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge"?(6) Or does the Psalmist pray thus not against men, but
against the devil and his angels, whose possession sinners and the ungodly
are? He then does not pray against him in wrath, but in mercy, whosoever
prays that that possession may be taken from him by that Lord "who
justifieth the ungodly."(7) For when the ungodly is justified, from ungodly
he is made just, and from being the possession of the devil he passes into
the temple of God. And since it is a punishment that a possession, in which
one longs to have rule, should be taken away from him: this punishment,
that he should cease to possess those whom he now possesses, the Psalmist
calls the anger of God against the devil. "Arise, O Lord; in Thine anger."
"Arise" (he has used it as "appear"), in words, that is, human and obscure;
as though God sleeps, when He is unrecognised and hidden in His secret
workings. "Be exalted in the borders of mine enemies." He means by borders
the possession itself, in which he wishes that God should be exalted, that
is, be honoured and glorified, rather than the devil, while the ungodly are
justified and praise God. "And arise, O Lord my God, in the commandment
that Thou hast given:" that is, since Thou hast enjoined humility, appear
in humility; and first fulfil what Thou hast enjoined; that men by Thy
example overcoming pride may not be possessed of the devil, who against Thy
commandments advised to pride, saying, "Eat, and your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods."(8)

   6. "And the congregation of the people shall surround Thee." This may
be understood two ways. For the congregation of the people can be taken,
either of them that believe, or of them that persecute, both of which took
place in the same humiliation of our Lord: in contempt of which the
multitude of them that persecute surrounded Him; concerning which it is
said, "Why have the heathen raged, and the people meditated vain
things?"(9) But of them that believe through His humiliation the multitude
so surrounded Him, that it could be said with the greatest truth,
"blindness in part is happened unto Israel, that the fulness of the
Gentiles might come in:"(10) and again, "Ask of me, and I will give Thee
the Gentiles for Thine inheritance, and the boundaries of the earth for Thy
possession."(11) "And for their sakes return Thou on high:" that is, for
the sake of this congregation return Thou on high: which He is understood
to have done by His resurrection and ascension into heaven. For being thus
glorified He gave the Holy Ghost, which before His exaltation could not be
given, as it is written in the Gospel, "for the Holy Ghost was not yet
given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."(12) Having then returned
on high for the sake of the congregation of the people, He sent the Holy
Ghost: by whom the preachers of the Gospel being filled, filled the whole
world with Churches.

   7. It can be taken also in this sense: "Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger,
and be exalted in the borders of mine enemies:" that is, arise in Thine
anger, and let not mine enemies understand Thee; so that to "be exalted,"
should be this, become high,(13) that Thou mayest not be understood; which
has reference to the silence spoken of above. For it is of this exaltation
thus said in another Psalm, "And He ascended upon Cherubim, and flew:" and,
"He made darkness His secret place."(14) In which exaltation, or
concealment,  when for their sins' desert they shall not understand Thee,
who shall crucify Thee, "the congregation" of believers "shall surround
Thee." For in His very humiliation He was exalted, that is, was not
understood. So that, "And arise, O Lord my God, in the commandment that
Thou hast given:" may have reference to this, that is, when Thou showest
Thyself, be high or deep that mine enemies may not understand Thee. Now
sinners are the enemies of the just man, and the ungodly of the godly man.
"And the congregation of the people shall surround Thee:" that is, by this
very circumstance, that those who crucify Thee understand Thee not, the
Gentiles shall believe on Thee, and so "shall the congregation of the
people surround Thee." But what follows, if this be the true meaning, has
in it more pain, that it begins already to be perceived, than joy that it
is understood. For it follows, "and for their sakes return Thou on high,"
that is, and for the sake of this congregation of the human race, wherewith
the Churches are crowded, return Thou on high, that is, again cease to be
understood. What then is, "and for their sakes," but that this congregation
too will offend Thee, so that Thou mayest most truly foretell and say,
"Thinkest Thou when the Son of man shall come, He will find faith on the
earth?"(1) Again, of the false prophets, who are understood to be heretics,
He says, Because of their iniquity the love of many shall wax cold."(2)
Since then even in the Churches, that is, in that congregation of peoples
and nations, where the Christian name has most widely spread, there shall
be so great abundance of sinners, which is already, in great measure,
perceived; is not that famine of the word(3) here predicted, which has been
threatened by another prophet also? Is it not too for this congregation's
sake, who, by their sins, are estranging from themselves that light of
truth, that God returns on high, that is, so that faith, pure and cleansed
from the corruption of all perverse opinions, is held and received, either
not at all, or by the very few of whom it was said, "Blessed is he that
shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved"?(4) Not without cause
then is it said, "and for the sake of this" congregation "return Thou on
high:" that is, again withdraw into the depth of Thy secrecy, even for the
sake of this congregation of the peoples, that hath Thy name, and doeth not
Thy deeds.

   8. But whether the former exposition of this place, or this last be the
more suitable, without prejudice to any one better, or equal, or as good,
it follows very consistently, "the Lord judgeth the people." For whether He
returned on high, when, after the resurrection, He ascended into heaven,
well does it follow, "The Lord judgeth the people: "for that He will come
from thence to judge the quick and the dead. Or whether He return on high,
when the understanding of the truth leaves sinful Christians, for that of
His coming it has been said, "Thinkest thou the Son of Man on His coming
will find faith on the earth?"(1) "The Lord" then "judgeth the people."
What Lord, but Jesus Christ? "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the Son."(5) Wherefore this soul which prayeth
perfectly, see how she fears not the day of judgment, and with a truly
secure longing says in her prayer, "Thy kingdom come: judge me," she says,
"O Lord, according to my righteousness." In the former Psalm a weak one was
entreating, imploring rather the mercy of God, than mentioning any desert
of his own: since the Son of God came "to call sinners to
repentance.(6)Therefore he had there said," Save me, O Lord, for Thy
mercy's sake;"(7) that is, not for my desert's sake. But now, since being
called he hath held and kept the commandments which he received, he is bold
to say, "Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to
my harmlessness, that is upon me." This is true harmlessness, which harms
not even an enemy. Accordingly, well does he require to be judged according
to his harmlessness, who could say with truth, "If I have repaid them that
recompense me evil." As for what he added, "that is upon me," it can refer
not only to harmlessness, but can be understood also with reference to
righteousness; that the sense should be this, Judge me, O Lord, according
to my righteousness, and according to my harmlessness, which righteousness
and harmlessness is upon me. By which addition he shows that this very
thing, that the soul is righteous and harmless, she has not by herself, but
by God who giveth brightness and light. For of this he says in another
Psalm, "Thou, O Lord, wilt light my candle."(8) And of John it is said,
that "he was not the light, but bore witness of the light."(9) "He was a
burning and shining candle."(10) That light then, whence souls, as candles,
are kindled, shines forth not with borrowed, but with original, brightness,
which light is truth itself. It is then so said, "According to my
righteousness, and according to my harmlessness, that is upon me," as if a
burning and shining candle should say, Judge me according to the flame
which is upon me, that is, not that wherewith(11) I am myself, but that
whereby I shine enkindled of thee.

   9. "But let the wickedness of sinners be consummated" (ver. 9). He
says, "be consummated," be completed, according to that in the Apocalypse,
"Let the righteous become more righteous, and let the filthy be filthy
still."(2) For the wickedness of those men appears consummate, who
crucified the Son of God; but greater is theirs who will not live
uprightly, and hate the precepts of truth, for whom the Son of God was
crucified. "Let the wickedness of sinners," then he says, "be consummated,"
that is, arrive at the height of wickedness, that just judgment may be able
to come at once. But since it is not only said, "Let the filthy be filthy
still;" but it is said also, "Let the righteous become more righteous;" he
joins on the words, "And Thou shalt direct the righteous, O God, who
searcheth the hearts and reins." How then can the righteous be directed but
in secret? when even by means of those things which, in the commencement of
the Christian ages, when as yet the saints were oppressed by the
persecution of the men of this world, appeared marvellous to men, now that
the Christian name has begun to be in such high dignity, hypocrisy, that is
pretence, has increased; of those, I mean, who by the Christian profession
had rather please men than God. How then is the righteous man directed in
so great confusion of pretence, save whilst God searcheth the hearts and
reins; seeing all men's thoughts, which are meant by the word heart; and
their delights, which are understood by the word reins? For the delight in
things temporal and earthly is rightly ascribed to the reins; for that it
is both the lower part of man, and that region where the pleasure of carnal
generation dwells, through which man's nature is transferred into this life
of care, and deceiving joy, by the succession of the race. God then,
searching our heart, and perceiving that it is there where our treasure is,
that is, in heaven; searching also the reins, and perceiving that we do not
assent to flesh and blood, but delight ourselves in the Lord, directs the
righteous man in his inward conscience before Him, where no man seeth, but
He alone who perceiveth what each man thinketh, and what delighteth each.
For delight is the end of care; because to this end does each man strive by
care and thought, that he may attain to his delight. He therefore seeth our
cares, who searcheth the heart. He seeth too the ends of cares, that is
delights, who narrowly searcheth the reins; that when He shall find that
our cares incline neither to the lust of the flesh, nor to the lust of the
eyes, nor to the pride of life,(1) all which pass away as a shadow, but
that they are raised upward to the joys of things eternal, which are spoilt
by no change, He may direct the righteous, even He, the God who searcheth
the hearts and reins. For our works, which we do in deeds and words, may be
known unto men; but with what mind they are done, and to what end we would
attain by means of them, He alone knoweth, the God who searcheth the hearts
and reins.

   10. "My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright
in heart" (ver. 10). The offices of medicine are twofold, on the curing
infirmity, the other the preserving health. According to the first it was
said in the preceding Psalm, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;"(2)
according to the second it is said in this Psalm, "If there be iniquity in
my hands, if I have repaid them that recompense me evil, may I therefore(3)
fall by my enemies empty." For there the weak prays that he may be
delivered, here one already whole that he may not change for the worse.
According to the one it is there said, "Make me whole for Thy mercy's
sake;" according to this other it is here said," Judge me,  O Lord,
according to my righteousness." For there he asks for a remedy to escape
from disease; but here for protection from falling into disease. According
to the former it is said, "Make me whole, O Lord, according to Thy
mercy:" according to the latter it is said, "My righteous help is from the
Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart." Both the one and the other
maketh men whole; but the former removes them from sickness into health,
the latter preserves them in this health. Therefore there the help is
merciful, because the sinner hath no desert, who as yet longeth to be
justified, "believing on Him who justifieth the ungodly;"(4) but here the
help is righteous, because it is given to one already righteous. Let the
sinner then who said, "I am weak," say in the first place, "Make me whole,
O Lord, for Thy mercy's sake;" and here let the righteous man, who said,
"If I have repaid them that recompense me evil," say, "My righteous help is
from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart." For if he sets forth
the medicine, by which we may be healed when weak, how much more that by
which we may be kept in health. For if "while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us, how much more being now justified shall we be kept whole from
wrath through Him."(5)

   11. "My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright
in heart." God, who searcheth the hearts and reins, directeth the
righteous; but with righteous help maketh He whole the upright in heart. He
doth not as He searcheth the hearts and reins, so make whole the upright in
heart and reins; for the thoughts are both bad in a depraved heart, and
good in an upright heart; but delights which are not good belong to the
reins, for they are more low and earthly; but those that are good not to
the reins, but to the heart itself. Wherefore men cannot be so called
upright in reins, as they are called upright in heart, since where the
thought is, there at once the delight is too; which cannot be, unless when
things divine and eternal are thought of. "Thou hast given," he says, "joy
in my heart," when he had said, "The light of Thy countenance has been
stamped on us, O Lord."(1) For although the phantoms of things temporal,
which the mind falsely pictures to itself, when tossed by vain and mortal
hope, to vain imagination oftentimes bring a delirious and maddened joy;
yet this delight must be attributed not to the heart, but to the reins; for
all these imaginations have been drawn from lower, that is, earthly and
carnal things. Hence it comes, that God, who searcheth he hearts and reins,
and perceiveth in the heart upright thoughts, in the reins no delights,
affordeth righteous help to the upright in heart, where(2) heavenly
delights are coupled with clean thoughts. And therefore when in another
Psalm he had said, "Moreover even to-night my reins have chided me;" he
went on to say as touching help, "I foresaw the Lord alway in my sight, for
He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved."(3) Where he shows that
he suffered suggestions only from the reins, not delights as well; for he
had suffered these, then he would of course be moved. But he said, "The
Lord is on my right hand, that I should not be moved;" and then he adds,
"Wherefore was my heart delighted;" that the reins should have been able to
chide, not delight him. The delight accordingly was produced not in the
reins, but there, where against the chiding of the reins God was foreseen
to be on the right hand, that is, in the heart.

   12. "God the righteous judge, strong(4) (in endurance) and long-
suffering" (yet. 11). What God is judge, but the Lord, who judgeth the
people? He is righteous; who "shall render to every man according to his
works."(5) He is strong (in endurance); who, being most powerful, for our
salvation bore even with ungodly persecutors. He is long-suffering; who did
not immediately, after His resurrection, hurry away to punishment, even
those that persecuted Him, but bore with them, that they might at length
turn from that ungodliness to salvation: and still He beareth with them,
reserving the last penalty for the last judgment, and up to this present
time inviting sinners to repentance. "Not bringing in anger every day."
Perhaps "bringing in anger" is a more significant expression than being
angry (and so we find it in the Greek(6) copies); that the anger, whereby
He punisheth, should not be in Him, but in the minds of those ministers who
obey the commandments of truth through whom orders are given even to the
lower ministries, who are called angels of wrath, to punish sin: whom even
now the punishment of men delights not for justice' sake, in which they
have no pleasure, but for malice' sake. God then doth not "bring in anger
every day," that is, He doth not collect His ministers for vengeance every
day. For now the patience of God inviteth to repentance: but in the last
time, when men "through their hardness and impenitent heart shall have
treasured up for themselves anger in the day of anger, and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God,(7) then He will brandish His sword."    13.
"Unless ye be converted," He says, "He will brandish His sword" (ver. 12).
The Lord Man Himself may be taken to be God's double-edged sword, that is,
His spear, which at His first coming He will not brandish, but hideth as it
were in the sheath of humiliation: but He will brandish it, when at the
second coming to judge the quick and dead, in the manifest splendour of His
glory, He shall flash light on His righteous ones, and terror on the
ungodly. For in other copies, instead of," He shall brandish His sword," it
has been written, "He shall make bright His spear:" by which word I think
the last coming of the Lord's glory most appropriately signified: seeing
that is understood of His person, which another Psalm has, "Deliver, O
Lord, my soul from the ungodly,(8) Thy spear from the enemies of Thine
hand. He hath bent His bow, and made it ready." The tenses of the words
must not be altogether overlooked, how he has spoken of "the sword" in the
future, "He will brandish;" of "the bow" in the past, "He hath bent:" and
these words of the past tense follow after.(9)

   14. "And in it He hath prepared the instruments of death: He hath
wrought His arrows for the burning" (ver. 13). That bow then I would
readily take to be the Holy Scripture, in which by the strength of the New
Testament, as by a sort of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent
and subdued. From thence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or divine
preachings are shot. Which arrows "He has wrought for the burning," arrows,
that is, whereby being stricken they might be inflamed with heavenly love.
For by what other arrows was she stricken, who saith, "Bring me into the
house of wine, place me among perfumes, crowd me among honey, for I have
been wounded with love"?(10) By what other arrows is he kindled, who,
desirous of returning to God, and coming back from wandering, asketh for
help against crafty tongues, and to whom it is said, "What shall be given
thee, or what added to thee against the crafty tongue? Sharp arrows of the
mighty, with devastating coals:"(11) that is, coals, whereby, when thou art
stricken and set on fire, thou mayest burn with so great love of the
kingdom of heaven, as to despise the tongues of all that resist thee, and
would recall thee from thy purpose, and to deride their persecutions,
saying, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
For I am persuaded," he says, "that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor
principality, nor things present, not things to come, nor power, nor
height, nor depth, nor other creature, shall be able to separate me from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."(1) Thus for the
burning hath He wrought His arrows. For in the Greek copies it is found
thus, "He hath wrought His arrows for the burning." But most of the Latin
copies(2) have "burning arrows." But whether the arrows themselves burn, or
make others burn, which of course they cannot do unless they burn
themselves, the sense is complete.

   15. But since he has said that the Lord has prepared not arrows only,
but "instruments of death" too, in the bow, it may be asked, what are
"instruments of death"? Are they, peradventure, heretics? For they too, out
of the same bow, that is, out of the same Scriptures, light upon souls not
to be inflamed with love but destroyed with poison: which does not happen
but after their deserts: wherefore even this dispensation is to be assigned
to the Divine Providence, not that it makes men sinners, but that it orders
them after they have sinned. For through sin reaching them with an ill
purpose, they are forced to understand them ill, that this should be itself
the punishment of sin: by whose death, nevertheless, the sons of the
Catholic Church are, as it were by certain thorns, so to say, aroused from
slumber, and make progress toward the understanding of the holy Scriptures.
"For there must be also heresies, that they which are approved," he says,
"may be made manifest among you:"(3) that is, among men, seeing they are
manifest to God. Or has He haply ordained the same arrows to be at once
instruments of death for the destruction of unbelievers, and wrought them
burning, or for the burning, for the exercising of the faithful? For that
is not false that the Apostle says, "To the one we are the savour of life
unto life, to the other the savour of death unto death; and who is
sufficient for these things?"(4) It is no wonder then if the same Apostles
be both instruments of death in those from whom they suffered persecution,
and fiery arrows to inflame the hearts of believers.

   16. Now after this dispensation righteous judgment will come: of which
the Psalmist so speaks, as that we may understand that each man's
punishment is wrought out of his own sin, and his iniquity turned into
vengeance: that we may not suppose that that tranquillity and ineffable
light of God brings forth from Itself the means of punishing sin; but that
it so ordereth sins, that what have been delights to man in sinning, should
be instruments to the Lord avenging. "Behold," he says, "he hath travailed
with injustice." Now what had he conceived, that he should travail with
injustice? "He hath conceived," he says, "toil." Hence then comes that, "In
toil shall thou eat thy bread."(5) Hence too that, "Come unto Me all ye
that toil and are heavy laden; for My yoke is easy, and My burden
light."(6) For toil will never cease, except one love that which cannot be
taken away against his will. For when those things are loved which we can
lose against our wilt, we must needs toil for them most miserably; and to
obtain them, amid the straitnesses of earthly cares, whilst each desires to
snatch them for himself, and to be beforehand with another, or to wrest it
from him, must scheme injustice. Duly then, and quite in order, hath he
travailed with injustice, who has conceived toil. Now he bringeth forth
what, save that with which he hath travailed, although he has not travailed
with that which he conceived? For that is not born, which is not conceived;
but seed is conceived, that which is formed from the seed is born. Toil is
then the seed of iniquity, but sin the conception of toil, that is, that
first sin, to "depart from God."(7) He then hath travailed with injustice,
who hath conceived toil. "And he hath brought forth iniquity." "Iniquity"
is the same as "injustice:" he hath brought forth then that with which he
travailed. What follows next?

   17. "He hath opened a ditch, and digged it" (ver. 15). To open a ditch
is, in earthly matters, that is, as it were in the earth, to prepare
deceit, that another fall therein, whom the unrighteous man wishes to
deceive. Now this ditch is opened when consent is given to the evil
suggestion of earthly lusts: but it is digged when after consent we press
on to actual work of deceit. But how can it be, that iniquity should rather
hurt the righteous man against whom it proceeds, than the unrighteous heart
whence it proceeds? Accordingly, the stealer of money, for instance, while
he desires to inflict painful harm upon another, is himself maimed by the
wound of avarice. Now who, even out of his right mind, sees not how great
is the difference between these men, when one suffers the loss of money,
the other of innocence? "He will fall" then "into the pit which he hath
made." As it is said in another Psalm, "The Lord is known in executing
judgments; the sinner is caught in the works of his own hands."(1)

   18. "His toil shall be turned on his head, and his iniquity shall
descend on his pate "(ver. 16). For he had no mind to escape sin: but was
brought under sin as a slave, so to say, as the Lord saith, "Whosoever
sinneth is a slave."(2) His iniquity then will be upon him, when he is
subject to his iniquity; for he could not say to the Lord, what the
innocent and upright say, "My glory, and the lifter up of my head."(3) He
then will be in such wise below, as that his iniquity may be above, and
descend on him; for that it weigheth him down and burdens him, and suffers
him not to fly back to the rest of the saints. This occurs, when in an ill
regulated man reason is a slave, and lust hath dominion.

   19. "I will confess to the Lord according to His justice" (ver. 17).
This is not the sinner's confession: for he says this, who said above most
truly, "If there be iniquity in my hands:" but it is a confession of God's
justice, in which we speak thus, Verily, O Lord, Thou art just, in that
Thou both so protectest the just, that Thou enlightenest them by Thyself;
and so orderest sinners, that they be punished not by Thine, but by their
own malice. This confession so praises the Lord, that the blasphemies of
the ungodly can avail nothing, who, willing to excuse their evil deeds, are
unwilling to attribute to their own fault that they sin, that is, are
unwilling to attribute their fault to their fault. Accordingly they find
either fortune or fate to accuse, or the devil, to whom He who made us hath
willed that it should be in our power to refuse consent: or they bring in
another nature, which is not of God: wretched waverers, and erring, rather
than confessing to God, that He should pardon them. For it is not fit that
any be pardoned, except he says, I have sinned. He, then, that sees the
deserts of souls so ordered by God, that while each has his own given him,
the fair beauty of the universe is in no part violated, in all things
praises God: and this is not the confession of sinners, but of the
righteous. For it is not the sinner's confession when the Lord says, "I
confess to Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these
things from the wise, and revealed them to babes."(4) Likewise in
Ecclesiasticus it is said, "Confess to the Lord in all His works: and in
confession ye shall say this, All the works of the Lord are exceeding
good."(5) Which can be seen in this Psalm, if any one with a pious mind, by
the Lord's help, distinguish between the rewards of the righteous and the
penalties of the sinners, how that in these two the whole creation, which
God made and rules, is adorned with a beauty wondrous and known to few.
Thus then he says, "I will confess to the Lord according to His justice,"
as one who saw that darkness was not made by God, but ordered nevertheless.
For God said, "Let light be made, and light was made."(6) He did not say,
Let darkness be made, and darkness was made: and yet He ordered it. And
therefore it is said, "God divided between the light, and the darkness: and
God called the light day, and the darkness He called night."(7) This is the
distinction, He made the one and ordered it: but the other He made not, but
yet He ordered this too. But now that sins are signified by darkness, so is
it seen in the Prophet, who says, "And thy darkness shall be as the noon
day:"(8) and in the Apostle, who says, "He that hateth his brother is in
darkness:"(9) and above all that text, "Let us cast off the works of
darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."(10) Not that there is any
nature of darkness. For all nature, in so far as it is nature, is compelled
to be. Now being belongs to light: not-being to darkness. He then that
leaves Him by whom he was made, and inclines to that whence he was made,
that is, to nothing, is in this sin endarkened: and yet he does not utterly
perish, but he is ordered among the lowest things. Therefore after the
Psalmist said, "I will confess unto the Lord:" that we might not understand
it of confession of sins, he adds lastly, "And I will sing to the name of
the Lord most high." Now singing has relation to joy, but repentance of
sins to sadness.

   20. This Psalm can also be taken in the person of the Lord Man: if only
that which is there spoken in humiliation be referred to our weakness,
which He bore.(11)

PSALM VIII.

TO THE END, FOR THE WINE-PRESSES, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF. (12)

   1. He seems to say nothing of wine-presses in the text of the Psalm of
which this is the title. By which it appears, that one and the same thing
is often signified in Scripture by many and various similitudes. We may
then take wine-presses to be Churches, on the same principle by which we
understand also by a threshing-floor the Church. For whether in the
threshing-floor, or in the wine-press, there is nothing else done but the
clearing the produce of its covering; which is necessary, both for its
first growth and increase, and arrival at the maturity either of the
harvest or the vintage. Of these coverings or supporters then; that is, of
chaff, on the threshing-floor, the corn; and of husks, in the presses, the
wine is stripped: as in the Churches, from the multitude of worldly men,
which is collected together with the good, for whose birth and adaptating
to the divine word that multitude was necessary, this is effected, that by
spiritual love they be separated through the operation of God's ministers.
For now so it is that the good are, for a time, separated from the bad, not
in space, but in affection: although they have converse together in the
Churches, as far as respects bodily presence. But another time will come,
the corn will be stored up apart in the granaries, and the wine in the
cellars. "The wheat," saith he, "He will lay up in garners; but the chaff
He will burn with fire unquenchable."(1) The same thing may be thus
understood in another similitude: the wine He will lay up in cellars, but
the husks He will cast forth to cattle: so that by the bellies of the
cattle we may be allowed by way of similitude to understand the pains of
hell.

   2. There is another interpretation concerning the wine-presses, yet
still keeping to the meaning of Churches. For even the Divine Word may be
understood by the grape: for the Lord even has been called a Cluster of
grapes; which they that were sent before by the people of Israel brought
from the land of promise hanging on a staff, crucified as it were.(2)
Accordingly, when the Divine Word maketh use of, by the necessity of
declaring Himself, the sound of the voice, whereby to convey Himself to the
ears of the hearers; in the same sound of the voice, as it were in husks,
knowledge, like the wine, is enclosed: and so this grape comes into the
ears, as into the pressing machines of the wine-pressers. For there the
separation is made, that the sound may reach as far as the ear; but
knowledge be received in the memory of those that hear, as it were in a
sort of vat; whence it passes into discipline of the conversation and habit
of mind, as from the vat into the cellar: where if it do not through
negligence grow sour, it will acquire soundness by age. For it grew sour
among the Jews, and this sour vinegar they gave the Lord to drink.(3) For
that wine, which from the produce of the vine of the New Testament the Lord
is to drink with His saints in the kingdom of His Father.(4) must needs be
most sweet and most sound.

   3. "Wine-presses" are also usually taken for martyrdoms, as if when
they who have confessed the name of Christ have been trodden down by the
blows of persecution, their mortal remains as husks remained on earth, but
their souls flowed forth into the rest of a heavenly habitation. Nor yet by
this interpretation do we depart from the fruitfulness of the Churches. It
is sung then, "for the wine-presses," for the Church's establishment; when
our Lord after His resurrection ascended into heaven. For then He sent the
Holy Ghost: by whom the disciples being fulfilled preached with confidence
the Word of God, that Churches might be collected.

   4. Accordingly it is said," O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name
in all the earth!" (ver. 1). I ask, how is His Name wonderful in all the
earth? The answer is, "For Thy glory has been raised above the heavens." So
that the meaning is this, O Lord, who art our Lord, how do all that inhabit
the earth admire Thee! for Thy glory hath been raised from earthly
humiliation above the heavens. For hence it appeared who Thou wast that
descendedst, when it was by some seen, and by the rest believed, whither it
was that Thou ascendedst.

   5. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect
praise, because of Thine enemies" (ver. 2). I cannot take babes and
sucklings to be any other than those to whom the Apostle says, "As unto
babes in Christ I have given you milk to drink, not meat."(5) Who were
meant by those who went before the Lord praising Him, of whom the Lord
Himself used this testimony, when He answered the Jews who bade Him rebuke
them," Have ye not read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast
made perfect praise?"(6) Now with good reason He says not, Thou hast made,
but," Thou hast made perfect praise." For there are in the Churches also
those who now no more drink milk, but eat meat: whom the same Apostle
points out, saying, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect;"(7) but
not by those only are the Churches perfected; for if there were only these,
little consideration would be had of the human race. But consideration is
had, when they too, who are not as yet capable of the knowledge of things
spiritual and eternal, are nourished by the faith of the temporal history,
which for our salvation after the Patriarchs and Prophets was administered
by the most excellent Power and Wisdom of God, even in the Sacrament of the
assumed Manhood, in which there is salvation for every one that believeth;
to the end that moved by Its authority each one may obey Its precepts,
whereby being purified and "rooted and grounded in love," he may be able to
run with Saints, no more now a child in milk, but a young man in meat, "to
comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, and depth, to know also the
surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ."(8)

   6. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect
praise, because of Thine enemies." By enemies to this dispensation, which
has been wrought through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we ought generally
to understand all who forbid belief in things unknown,(1) and promise
certain knowledge:(2) as all heretics do, and they who in the superstition
of the Gentiles are called philosophers. Not that the promise of knowledge
is to be blamed; but because they deem the most healthful and necessary
step of faith is to be neglected, by which we must needs ascend to
something certain, which nothing but that which is eternal can be. Hence it
appears that they do not possess even this knowledge, which in contempt of
faith they promise; seeing that they know not so useful and necessary a
step thereof. "Out of the mouth," then "of babes and sucklings Thou hast
made perfect praise," Thou, our Lord, declaring first by the Apostle,
"Except ye believe, ye shall not understand;"(3) and saying by His own
mouth," Blessed are they that have not seen, and shall believe."(4)
"Because of the enemies: "against whom too that is said, "I confess to
Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise, and revealed them unto babes."(5) "From the wise," he saith, not
the really wise, but those who deem themselves such. "That Thou mayest
destroy the enemy and the defender." Whom but the heretic?(6) For he is
both an enemy and a defender, who when he would assault the Christian
faith, seems to defend it. Although the philosophers too of this world may
be well taken as the enemies and defenders: forasmuch as the Son of God is
the Power and Wisdom of God by which every one is enlightened who is made
wise by the truth: of which they profess themselves to be lovers, whence
too their name of philosophers; and therefore they seem to defend it, while
they are its enemies, since they cease not to recommend noxious
superstitions, that the elements of this world should be worshipped and
revered.

   7. "For I shall see Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers" (ver. 3). We
read that the law was written with the finger of God, and given through
Moses, His holy servant: by which finger of God many understand the Holy
Ghost.(7) Wherefore if, by the fingers of God, we are right in
understanding these same ministers filled with the Holy Ghost, by reason of
this same Spirit which worketh in them, since by them all holy Scripture
has been completed for us; we understand consistently with this, that, in
this place, the books of both Testaments are called "the heavens." Now it
is said too of Moses himself, by the magicians of king Pharaoh, when they
were conquered by him, "This is the finger of God."(8) And what is
written," The heavens shall be rolled up as a book."(9) Although it be said
of this aethereal heaven, yet naturally, according to the same image, the
heavens of books are named by allegory. "For I shall see," he says, "the
heavens, the works of Thy fingers:" that is, I shall discern and understand
the Scriptures, which Thou, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, hast
written by Thy ministers.

   8. Accordingly the heavens named above also may be interpreted as the
same books, where he says, "For Thy glory hath been raised above the
heavens:" so that the complete meaning should be this, "For Thy glory hath
been raised above the heavens;" for Thy glory hath exceeded the
declarations of all the Scriptures: "Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise," that they should begin by belief
in the Scriptures, who would arrive at the knowledge of Thy glory: which
hath been raised above the Scriptures, in that it passeth by and transcends
the announcements of all words and languages. Therefore hath God lowered
the Scriptures even to the capacity of babes and sucklings, as it is sung
in another Psalm, "And He lowered the heaven, and came down:"(10) and this
did He because of the enemies, who through pride of talkativeness, being
enemies of the cross of Christ, even when they do speak some truth, still
cannot profit babes and sucklings. So is the enemy and defender destroyed,
who, whether he seem to defend wisdom, or even the name of Christ, still,
from the step of this faith,(11) assaults that truth, which he so readily
makes promise of. Whereby too he is convicted of not possessing it; since
by assaulting the step thereof, namely faith, he knows not how one should
mount up thereto. Hence then is the rash and blind promiser of truth, who
is the enemy and defender, destroyed, when the heavens, the works of God's
fingers, are seen, that is, when the Scriptures, brought down even to the
slowness of babes, are understood; and by means of the lowness of the faith
of the history, which was transacted in time, they raise them, well
nurtured and strengthened, unto the grand height of the understanding of
things eternal, up to those things which they establish.(12) For these
heavens, that is, these books, are the works of God's fingers; for by the
operation of the Holy Ghost in the Saints they were completed. For they
that have regarded their own glory rather than man's salvation, have spoken
without the Holy Ghost, in whom are the bowel: of the mercy of God.

   9. "For I shall see the heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which Thou hast ordained." The moon and stars are ordained in
the heavens; since both the Church universal, to signify which the moon is
often put, and Churches in the several places particularly, which I imagine
to be intimated by the name of stars, are established in the same
Scriptures, which we believe to be expressed by the word heavens.(1) But
why the moon justly signifies the Church, will be more seasonably
considered in another Psalm, where it is said, "The sinners have bent their
bow, that they may shoot in the obscure moon the upright in heart."(2)

   10. "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that
Thou visitest him?" (ver. 4). It may be asked, what distinction there is
between man and son of man. For if there were none, it would not be
expressed thus," man, or son of man," disjunctively. For if it were written
thus, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and son of man, that Thou
visitest him?" it might appear to be a repetition of the word "man." But
now when the expression is, "man or son of-man," a distinction is more
clearly intimated. This is certainly to be remembered, that every son of
man is a man; although every man cannot be taken to be a son of man. Adam,
for instance, was a man, but not a son of man. Wherefore we may from hence
consider and distinguish what is the difference in this place between man
and son of man; namely, that they who bear the image of the earthy man, who
is not a son of man, should be signified by the name of men; but that they
who bear the image of the heavenly Man(3) should be rather called sons of
men; for the former again is called the old man(4) and the latter the new;
but the new is born of the old, since spiritual regeneration is begun by a
change of an earthy, and worldly life;(5) and therefore the latter is
called son of man. "Man" then in this place is earthy, but "son of man"
heavenly; and the former is far removed from God, but the latter present
with God; and therefore is He mindful of the former, as in far distance
from Him; but the latter He visiteth, with whom being present He
enlighteneth him with His countenance. For "salvation is far from
sinners;"(6) and, "The light of Thy countenance hath been stamped upon us,
O Lord."(7) So in another Psalm he saith, that men in conjunction with
beasts are made whole together with these beasts, not by any present inward
illumination, but by the multiplication of the mercy of God, whereby His
goodness reacheth even to the lowest things; for the wholeness of carnal
men is carnal, as of the beasts; but separating the sons of men from those
whom being men he joined with cattle, he proclaims that they are made
blessed, after a far more exalted method, by the enlightening of the truth
itself, and by a certain inundation of the fountain of life. For he
speaketh thus: "Men and beasts Thou wilt make whole, O Lord, as Thy mercy
hath been multiplied, O God. But the sons of men shall put their trust in
the covering of Thy wings. They shall be inebriated with the richness of
Thine house, and of the torrent of Thy pleasures Thou shall make them
drink. For with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light shall we see
light. Extend Thy mercy to them that know Thee."(8) Through the
multiplication of mercy then He is mindful of man, as of beasts; for that
multiplied mercy reacheth even to them that are afar off; but He visiteth
the son of man, over whom, placed under the covering of His wings, He
extendeth mercy, and in His light giveth light, and maketh him drink of His
pleasures, and inebriateth him with the richness of His house, to forget
the sorrows and the wanderings of his former conversation. This son of man,
that is, the new man, the repentance of the old man begets with pain and
tears. He, though new, is nevertheless called yet carnal, whilst he is fed
with milk; "I would not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal," says the Apostle. And to show that they were already regenerate,
he says, "As unto babes in Christ, I have given you milk to drink, not
meat." And when he relapses, as often happens, to the old life, he hears in
reproof that he is a man; "Are ye not men," he says, "and walk as men?"(9)

   11. Therefore was the son of man first visited in the person of the
very Lord Man, born of the Virgin Mary. Of whom, by reason of the very
weakness of the flesh, which the Wisdom of God vouchsafed to bear, and the
humiliation of the Passion, it is justly said, "Thou hast lowered Him a
little lower than the Angels" (ver. 5). But that glorifying is added, in
which He rose and ascended up into heaven; "With glory," he says, "and with
honour hast Thou crowned Him; and hast set Him over the works of Thine
hands" (ver. 6). Since even Angels are the works of God's hands, even over
Angels we understand the Only-begotten Son to have been set; whom we hear
and believe, by the humiliation of the carnal generation and passion, to
have been lowered a little lower than the Angels.

   12. "Thou hast put," he says, "all things in subjection under His
feet." When he says, "all things," he excepts nothing. And that he might
not be allowed to understand it otherwise, the Apostle enjoins it to be
believed thus, when he says, "He being excepted which put all things under
Him."(1) And to the Hebrews he uses this very testimony from this Psalm,
when he would have it to be understood that all things are in such sort put
under our Lord Jesus Christ, as that nothing should be excepted.(2) And yet
he does not seem, as it were, to subjoin any great thing, when he says,
"All sheep and oxen, yea, moreover, the beasts of the field, birds of the
air, and the fish of the sea, which walk through the paths of the sea"
(ver. 7). For, leaving the heavenly excellencies and powers, and all the
hosts of Angels, leaving even man himself, he seems to have put under Him
the beasts merely; unless by sheep and oxen we understand holy souls,
either yielding the fruit of innocence, or even working that the earth may
bear fruit, that is, that earthly men may be regenerated unto spiritual
richness. By these holy souls then we ought to understand not those of men
only, but of all Angels too, if we would gather from hence that all things
are put under our Lord Jesus Christ. For there will be no creature that
will not be put under Him, under whom the pre-eminent(3) spirits, that I
may so speak, are put. But whence shall we prove that sheep can be
interpreted even, not of men, but of the blessed spirits of the angelical
creatures on high? May we from the Lord's saying that He had left ninety
and nine sheep in the mountains, that is, in the higher regions, and had
come down for one?(4) For if we take the one lost sheep to be the human
soul in Adam, since Eve even was made out of his side,(5) for the spiritual
handling and consideration of all which things this is not the time, it
remains that, by the ninety and nine left in the mountains, spirits not
human, but angelical, should be meant. For as regards the oxen, this
sentence is easily despatched; since men themselves are for no other reason
called oxen, but because by preaching the Gospel of the word of God they
imitate Angels, as where it is said, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that
treadeth out the corn."(6) How much more easily then do we take the Angels
themselves, the messengers of truth, to be oxen, when Evangelists by the
participation of their title are called oxen? "Thou hast put under"
therefore, he says, "all sheep and oxen," that is, all the holy spiritual
creation; in which we include that of holy men, who are in the Church, in
those wine-presses to wit, which are intimated under the other similitude
of the moon and stars.(7)

  13. "Yea moreover," saith he, "the beasts of the field."(8) The addition
of "moreover" is by no means idle. First, because by beasts of the plain
may be understood both sheep and oxen: so that, if goats are the beasts of
rocky and mountainous regions, sheep may be well taken to be the beasts of
the field. Accordingly had it been written even thus, "all sheep and oxen
and beasts of the field;" it might be reasonably asked what beasts of the
plain meant, since even sheep and oxen could be taken as such. But the
addition of "moreover" besides, obliges us, beyond question, to recognise
some difference or another. But under this word, "moreover," not only
"beasts of the field," but also "birds of the air, and fish of the sea,
which walk through the paths of the sea" (ver. 8), are to be taken in. What
is then this distinction? Call to mind the "wine-presses," holding husks
and wine; and the threshing-floor, containing chaff and corn; and the nets,
in which were enclosed good fish and bad; and the ark of Noah, in which
were both unclean and clean animals:(9) and you will see that the Churches
for a while, now in this time, unto the last time of judgment, contain not
only sheep and oxen, that is, holy laymen and holy ministers, but "moreover
beasts of the field, birds of the air, and birds of the sea, that walk
through the paths of the sea." For the beasts of the field were very fitly
understood, as men rejoicing in the pleasure of the flesh where they mount
up to nothing high, nothing laborious. For the field is also "the broad
way, that leadeth to destruction:"(10) and in a field is Abel slain.(11)
Wherefore there is cause to fear, test one coming down from the mountains
of God's righteousness ("for thy righteousness," he says, "is as the
mountains of God"(12)) making choice of the broad and easy paths of carnal
pleasure, be slain by the devil. See now too "the birds of heaven," the
proud, of whom it is said, "They have set their mouth against the
heaven."(13) See how they are carried on high by the wind, "who say, We
will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own, who is our Lord?"(14) Behold
too the fish of the sea, that is, the curious; who walk through the paths
of the sea, that is, search in the deep after the temporal things of this
world: which, like: paths in the sea, vanish and perish, as quickly as the
water comes together again after it has given room, in their passage, to
ships, or to whatsoever walketh or swimmeth. For he said not merely, who
walk the paths of the sea; but "walk through," he said; showing the very
determined earnestness of those who seek after vain and fleeting things.
Now these three kinds of vice, namely, the pleasure of the flesh, and
pride, and curiosity, include all sins. And they appear to me to be
enumerated by the Apostle John, when he says, "Love not the world; for all
that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life."(1) For through the eyes especially prevails
curiosity. To what the rest indeed belong is clear. And that temptation of
the Lord Man was threefold: by food, that is, by the lust of the flesh,
where it is suggested, "command these stones that they be made bread:"(2)
by vain boasting, where, when stationed on a mountain, all the kingdoms of
this earth are shown Him, and promised if He would worship:(3) by
curiosity, where, from the pinnacle of the temple, He is advised to cast
Himself down, for the sake of trying whether He would be borne up by
Angels.(4) And accordingly after that the enemy could prevail with Him by
none of these temptations, this is said of him, "When the devil had ended
all his temptation."(5) With a reference then to the meaning of the wine-
presses, not only the wine, but the husks too are put under His feet; to
wit, not only sheep and oxen, that is, the holy souls of believers, either
in the laity, or in the ministry; but moreover both beasts of pleasure, and
birds of pride, and fish of curiosity. All which classes of sinners we see
mingled now in the Churches with the good and holy. May He work then in His
Churches, and separate the wine from the husks: let us give heed, that we
be wine, and sheep or oxen; not husks, or beasts of the field, or birds of
heaven, or fish of the sea, which walk through the paths of the sea. Not
that these names can be understood and explained in this way only, but the
explanation of them must be according to the place where they are found.
For elsewhere they have other meanings. And this rule must be kept to in
every allegory, that what is expressed by the similitude should be
considered agreeably to the meaning of the particular place: for this is
the manner of the Lord's and the Apostles' teaching. Let us repeat then the
last verse, which is also put at the beginning of the Psalm, and let us
praise God, saying, "0 Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the
earth!" For fitly, after the matter of the discourse, is the return made to
the heading, whither all that discourse must be referred.

PSALM IX.

   1. The inscription of this Psalm is, "To the end for the hidden things
of the Son, a Psalm of David himself."(6) As to the hidden things of the
Son there may be a question: but since he has not added whose, the very
only-begotten Son of God should be understood. For where a Psalm has been
inscribed of the son of David,(7) "When," he says, "he fled from the face
of Absalom his son;" although his name even was mentioned, and therefore
there could be no obscurity as to whom it was spoken of: yet it is not
merely said, from the face of son Absalom; but "his" is added. But here
both because "his" is not added, and much is said of the Gentiles, it
cannot properly be taken of Absalom.(8) For the war which that abandoned
one waged with his father, no way relates to the Gentiles, since there the
people of Israel only were divided against themselves. This Psalm is then
sung for the hidden things of the only-begotten Son of God.(9) For the Lord
Himself too, when, without addition, He uses the word Son, would have
Himself, the Only-begotten to be understood; as where He says, "If the Son
shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed."(10) For He said not,
the Son of God; but in saying merely, Son, He gives us to understand whose
Son it is. Which form of expression nothing admits of, save His excellency
of whom we so speak, that, though we name Him not, He can be understood.
For so we say, it rains, clears up, thunders, and such like expressions;
and we do not add who does it all; for that the excellency of the doer
spontaneously presents itself to all men's minds, and does not want words.
What then are the hidden things of the Son? By which expression we must
first understand that there are some things of the Son manifest, from which
those are distinguished which are called hidden. Wherefore since we believe
two advents of the Lord, one past, which the Jews understood not: the other
future, which we both hope for; and since the one which the Jews understood
not, profited the Gentiles; "For the hidden things of the Son" is not
unsuitably understood to be spoken of this advent, in which "blindness in
part is happened to Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might come
in."(11)

   For notice of two judgments is conveyed to us throughout the
Scriptures, if any one will give heed to them, one hidden, the other
manifest. The hidden one is passing now, of which the Apostle Peter says,
"The time is come that judgment should begin from the house of the Lord."
(12) The hidden judgment accordingly is the pain, by which now each man is
either exercised to purification, or warned to conversion, or if he despise
the calling and discipline of God, is blinded unto damnation. But the
manifest judgment is that in which the Lord, at His coming, will judge the
quick and the dead, all men confessing that it is He by whom both rewards
shall be assigned to the good, and punishments to the evil. But then that
confession will avail, not to the remedy of evils, but to the accumulation
of damnation. Of these two judgments, the one hidden, the other manifest,
the Lord seems to me to have spoken, where He says, "Whoso believeth on Me
hath passed from death unto life, and shall not come into judgment;[1] into
the manifest judgment, that is. For that which passes from death unto life
by means of some affliction, whereby "He scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth,"[2]is the hidden judgment. "But whoso believeth not," saith He,
"hath been judged already:"[3] that is, by this hidden judgment hath been
already prepared for that manifest one. These two judgments we read of also
in Wisdom, whence it is written, "Therefore unto them, as to children
without the use of reason, Thou didst give a judgment to mock them; But
they that have not been corrected by this judgment have felt a judgment
worthy of God."[4] Whoso then are not corrected by this hidden judgment of
God, shall most worthily be punished by that manifest one. ...

   2. "I will confess unto Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart" (ver. 1). He
doth not, with a whole heart, confess unto God, who doubteth of His
Providence in any particular: but he who sees already the hidden things of
the wisdom of God, how great is Iris invisible reward, who saith, "We
rejoice in tribulations;"[5] and how all torments, which are inflicted on
the body, are either for the exercising of those that are converted to God,
or for warning that they be converted, or for just preparation of the
obdurate unto their last damnation: and so now all things are referred to
the governance of Divine Providence, which fools think done as it were by
chance and at random, and without any Divine ordering. "I will tell all Thy
marvels." He tells all God's marvels, who sees them performed not only
openly on the body, but invisibly indeed too in the soul, but far more
sublimely and excellently. For men earthly, and led wholly by the eye,
marvel more that the dead Lazarus rose again in the body, than that Paul
the persecutor rose again in soul.[6] But since the visible miracle calleth
the soul to the light, but the invisible enlighteneth the soul that comes
when called, he tells all God's marvels, who, by believing the visible,
passes on to the understanding of the invisible.

   3. "I will be glad and exult in Thee" (ver. 2). Not any more in this
world, not in pleasure of bodily dalliance, not in relish of palate and
tongue, not in sweetness of perfumes, not in joyousness of passing sounds,
not in the variously coloured forms of figure, not in vanities of men's
praise, not in wedlock and perishable offspring, not in superfluity of
temporal wealth, not in this world's getting, whether it extend over place
and space, or be prolonged in time's succession: but, "I will be glad and
exult in Thee," namely, in the hidden things of the Son, where "the light
of Thy countenance hath been stamped on us, O Lord:"[7] for, "Thou wilt
hide them," saith he, "in the hiding place of Thy countenance."[8] He then
will be glad and exult in Thee, who tells all Thy marvels. And He will tell
all Thy marvels (since it is now spoken of prophetically), "who came not to
do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him."[9]

   4. For now the Person of the Lord begins to appear speaking in this
Psalm. For it follows, "I will sing to Thy Name, O Most High, in turning
mine enemy behind." His enemy then, where was he turned back? Was it when
it was said to him, "Get thee behind, Satan"?[10] For then he who by
tempting desired to put himself before, was turned behind, by failing in
deceiving Him who was tempted, and by availing nothing against Him. For
earthly men are behind: but the heavenly man is preferred before, although
he came after. For "the first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man
is from heaven, heavenly."[11] But from this stock he came by whom it was
said, "He who cometh after me is preferred before me." [12] And the Apostle
forgets "those things that are behind, and reaches forth unto those things
that are before."[13] The enemy, therefore, was turned behind, after that
he could not deceive the heavenly Man being tempted; and he turned himself
to earthy men, where he can have dominion....For in truth the devil is
turned behind, even in the persecution of the righteous, and he, much more
to their advantage, is a persecutor, than if he went before as a leader and
a prince. We midst sing then to the Name of the Most High in turning the
enemy behind: since we ought to choose rather to fly from him as a
persecutor, than to follow him as a leader. For we have whither we may fly
and hide ourselves in the hidden things of the Son; seeing that "the Lord
hath been made a refuge for us."[14]

   5. "They will be weakened, and perish from Thy face" (ver. 3). Who will
be weakened and perish, but the unrighteous and ungodly? "They will be
weakened," while they shall avail nothing; "and they shall perish," because
the  ungodly will not be; "from the face" of God, that is, from the
knowledge of God, as he perished who said," But now I live not, but Christ
liveth in me."[1] But why will the ungodly "be weakened and perish from thy
face ?" "Because," he saith, "Thou hast made my judgment, and my cause:"
that is, the judgment in which I seemed to be judged, Thou hast made mine;
and the cause in which men condemned me just and innocent, Thou hast made
mine. For such things served[2] Him for our deliverance: as sailors too
call the wind theirs, which they take advantage of for prosperous sailing.

  6. "Thou satest on the throne Who judgest equity" (ver. 4). Whether the
Son say this to the Father, who said also, "Thou couldest have no power
against Me, except it were given thee from above,"[3] referring this very
thing, that the Judge of men was judged for men's advantage, to the
Father's equity and His own hidden things: or whether man say to God, "Thou
satest on the throne Who judgest equity," giving the name of God's throne
to his soul, so that his body may peradventure be the earth, which is
called God's "footstool: "[4] for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto Himself:"[5] or whether the soul of the Church, perfect now and
without spot and wrinkle,[6] worthy, that is, of the hidden things of the
Son, in that "the King hath brought her into His chamber,"[7] say to her
spouse, "Thou satest upon the throne Who judgest equity," in that Thou hast
risen from the dead, and ascended up into heaven, and sittest at the right
hand of the Father: whichsoever, I say, of those opinions, whereunto this
verse may be referred, is preferred, it transgresses not the rule of faith.

  7. "Thou hast rebuked the heathen, and the ungodly hath perished" (ver.
5). We take this to be more suitably said to the Lord Jesus Christ, than
said by Him. For who else hath rebuked the heathen, and the ungodly
perished, save He, who after that He ascended up into heaven, sent the Holy
Ghost, that, filled by Him, the Apostles should preach the word of God with
boldness, and freely reprove men's sins? At which rebuke the ungodly
perished; because the ungodly was justified and was made godly. "Thou hast
effaced their name for the world,[8] and for the world's world. The name of
the ungodly hath been effaced. For they are not called ungodly who believe
in the true God. Now their name is effaced "for the world," that is, as
long as the course of the temporal world endures. "And for the world's
world." What is "the world's world," but that whose image and shadow, as it
were, this world possesses? For the change of seasons succeeding one
another, whilst the moon is on the wane, and again on the increase, whilst
the sun each year returns to his quarter, whilst spring, or summer, or
autumn, or winter passes away only to return, is m some sort an imitation
of eternity. But this world's world is that which abides in immutable
eternity. As a verse in the mind, and a verse in the voice, the former is
understood, the latter heard; and the former fashions the latter; and hence
the former works in art and abides, the latter sounds in the air and passes
away. So the fashion of this changeable world is defined by that world
unchangeable which is called the world's world. And hence the one abides in
the art, that is, in the Wisdom and Power of God: but the other is made to
pass in the governance of creation. If after all it be not a repetition, so
that after it was said "for the world," lest it should be understood of
this world that passeth away, it were added "for the world's world." For in
the Greek copies it is thus, eis to`n aiw^na, kai` eis to`n aiw^na tou^
aiw^nos. Which the Latins have for the most rendered, not, "for the world,
and for the world's world;"[9] but, "for ever, and for the world's
world,"[10] that in the words "for the world's world," the, words "for
ever," should be explained. "The name," then, "of the ungodly Thou hast
effaced for ever," for from henceforth the ungodly shall never be. And if
their name be not prolonged unto this world, much less unto the world's
world."

   8. "The swords of the enemy have failed at the end" (ver. 6). Not
enemies in the plural, but this enemy in the singular. Now what enemy's
swords have failed but the devil's? Now these are understood to be divers
erroneous opinions, whereby as with swords he destroys souls, In overcoming
these swords, and in bringing them to failure, that sword is employed, of
which it is said in the seventh Psalm, "If ye be not converted, He will
brandish His sword."[12] And peradventure this is the end, against which
the swords of the enemy fail; since up to it they are of some avail. Now it
worketh secretly, but in the last judgment it will be brandished openly. By
it the cities are destroyed. For so it follows, "The swords of the enemy
have failed at the end: and Thou hast destroyed the cities." Cities indeed
wherein the devil rules, where crafty and deceitful counsels hold, as it
were, the place of a court, on which supremacy attend as officers and
ministers the services of all the members, the eyes for curiosity, the ears
for lasciviousness,  or for whatsoever else is gladly listened to that
bears on evil, the hands for rapine or any other violence or pollution
soever, and all the other members after this manner serving the tyrannical
supremacy, that is, perverse counsels. Of this city the commonalty, as it
were, are all soft affections and disturbing emotions of the mind, stirring
up daily seditions in a man. So then where a king, where a court, where
ministers, where commonalty are found, there is a city. Now again would
such things be in bad cities, unless they were first in individual men, who
are, as it were, the elements and seeds of cities. These cities He
destroys, when on the prince being shut out thence, of whom it was said,
"The prince of this world" has been "cast out,"[1] these kingdoms are
wasted by the word of truth, evil counsels are laid to sleep, vile
affections tamed, the ministries of the members and senses taken captive,
and transferred to the service of righteousness and good works: that as the
Apostle says, "Sin should no more reign in" our "mortal body,"[2] and so
forth. Then is the soul at peace, and the man is disposed to receive rest
and blessedness. "Their memorial has perished with uproar:" with the
uproar, that is, of the ungodly. But it is said, "with uproar," either
because when ungodliness is overturned, there is uproar made: for none
passeth to the highest place, where there is the deepest silence, but he
who with much uproar shall first have warred with his own vices: or "with
uproar," is said, that the memory of the ungodly should perish in the
perishing even of the very uproar, in which ungodliness riots.

   9. "And the Lord abideth for ever" (ver. 7). "Wherefore" then "have the
heathen raged, and the people imagined vain things against the Lord, and
against His anointed:"[3] for" the Lord abideth for ever. He hath prepared
His seat in judgment, and He shall judge the world in equity." He prepared
His seat when He was judged. For by that patience Man purchased heaven, and
God in Man profited believers. And this is the Son's hidden judgment. But
seeing He is also to come openly and in the sight of all to judge the quick
arid the dead, He hath prepared His seat in the hidden judgment: and He
shall also openly "judge the world in equity:" that is, He shall distribute
gifts proportioned to desert, setting the sheep on His right hand, and the
goats on His left.[4] "He shall judge the people with justice "(ver. 8).
This is the same as was said above, "He shall judge the world in equity."
Not as men judge who see not the heart, by whom very often worse men are
acquitted than are condemned: but "in equity" and "with justice "shall the
Lord judge, "conscience bearing witness, and thoughts accusing, or else
excusing."[5]

   10. "And the Lord hath become a refuge to the poor" (ver. 9).
Whatsoever be the persecutions of that enemy, who hath been turned behind,
what harm shall he do to them whose refuge the Lord hath become? But this
will be, if in this world, in which that one has an office of power, they
shall choose to be poor, by loving nothing which either here leaves a man
while he lives and loves, or is left by him when he dies. For to such a
poor man hath the Lord become a refuge, "an Helper in due season, in
tribulation." Lo, He maketh poor, for "He scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth."[6] For what "an Helper in due season "is, he explained by
adding "in tribulation." For the soul is not turned to God, save when it is
turned away from this world: nor is it more seasonably turned away from
this world, except toils and pains be mingled with its trifling and hurtful
and destructive pleasures.

   11. "And let them who know Thy Name, hope in Thee" (ver. 10), when they
shall have ceased hoping in wealth, and in the other enticements of this
world. For the soul indeed that seeketh where to fix her hope, when she is
torn away from this world, the knowledge of God's Name seasonably receives.
For the mere Name of God hath now been published everywhere: but the
knowledge of the name is, when He is known whose name it is. For the name
is not a name for its own sake, but for that which it signifies. Now it has
been said, "The Lord is His Name."[7] Wherefore whoso willingly submits
himself to God as His servant, hath known this name. "And let them who know
Thy Name hope in Thee" (ver. 10), Again, the Lord saith to Moses, "I am
That I am; and Thou shalt say to the children of Israel, I AM, hath sent
me."[8] "Let them" then "who know Thy Name, hope in Thee;" that they may
not hope in those things which flow by in time's quick revolution, having
nothing but" will be" and "has been." For what in them is future, when it
arrives, straightway becomes the past; it is awaited with eagerness, it is
lost with pain. But in the nature of God nothing will be, as if it were not
yet; or hath been, as if it were no longer: but there is only that which
is, and this is eternity. Let them cease then to hope in and love things
temporal, and let them apply themselves to hope eternal, who know His name
who said, "I am That I am;" and of whom it was said, "I AM hath sent
me."[8] "For Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee, O Lord." Whoso
seek Him, seek no more things transient and perishable; "For no man can
serve two masters."[1]

   12. "Sing to the Lord, who dwelleth in Sion" (ver. 11), is said to
them, whom the Lord forsakes not as  they seek Him. He dwelleth in Sion,
which is interpreted watching, and which beareth the likeness Of the
Church that now is; as Jerusalem beareth the likeness of the Church that is
to come, that is, the city of Saints already enjoying life angelical; for
Jerusalem is by interpretation the vision of peace.[2] Now watching goes
before vision, as this Church goes before that one which is promised, the
city immortal and eternal. But in time it goes before, not in dignity:
because more honourable is that whither we are striving to arrive, than
what we practise, that we may attain to arrive; now we practise watching,
that we may arrive at vision. But again this same Church which now is,
unless the Lord inhabit her, the most earnest watching might run into any
sort of error. And to this Church it was said, "For the temple of God is
holy, which temple ye are:"[3] again," that Christ may dwell in the inner
man in your hearts by faith."[4] It is enjoined us then, that we sing to
the Lord who dwelleth in Sion, that with one accord we praise the Lord, the
Inhabitant of the Church. "Show forth His wonders among the heathen." It
has both been done, and will not cease to be done.

   13. "For requiring their blood He hath remembered" (ver. 12). As if
they, who were sent to preach the Gospel, should make answer to that
injunction which has been mentioned, "Show forth His wonders among the
heathen," and should say, "O Lord, who hath believed our report?"[5] and
again, "For Thy sake we are killed all the day long ;"[6] the Psalmist
suitably goes on to say, That Christians not without great reward of
eternity will die in persecution, "for requiring their blood He hath
remembered." But why did he choose to say, "their blood"? Was it, as if one
of imperfect knowledge and less faith should ask, How will they "show them
forth," seeing that the infidelity of the heathen will rage against them;
and he should be answered, "For requiring their blood He hath remembered,"
that is, the last judgment will come, in which both the glory of the slain
and the punishment of the slayers shall be made manifest? But let no one
suppose "He hath remembered" to be so used, as though forgetfulness can
attach to God; but since the judgment will be after a long interval, it is
used in accordance with the feeling of weak men, who think God hath
forgotten, because He doth not act so speedily as they wish. To such is
said what follows also, "He hath not forgotten the cry of the poor:" that
is, He hath not, as you suppose, forgotten. As if they should on hearing,"
He hath remembered," say, Then He had forgotten; No, "He hath not
forgotten," says the Psalmist, "the cry of the poor."

   14. But I ask, what is that cry of the poor, which God forgetteth not?
Is it that cry, the words whereof are these, "Pity me, O Lord, see my
humiliation at the hands of my enemies "? (ver. 13). Why then did he not
say, Pity "us" O Lord, see our humiliation at the hands of "our" enemies,
as if many poor were crying; but as if one, Pity "me," O Lord? Is it
because One intercedeth for the Saints, "who" first "for our sakes became
poor, though He was rich;"[7] and it is He who saith, "Who exaltest me from
the gates of death (ver. 14), that I may declare all Thy praises in the
gates of the daughter of Sion"? For man is exalted in Him, not that Man
only which He beareth, which is the Head of the Church; but whichsoever one
of us also is among the other members, and is exalted from all depraved
desires; which are the gates of death, for that through them is the road to
death. But the joy in the fruition is at once death itself, when one gains
what he hath in abandoned wilfulness coveted: for "coveting is the root of
all evil: "[8] and therefore is the gate of death, for "the widow that
liveth in pleasures is dead."[9] At which pleasures we arrive through
desires as it were through the gates of death. But all highest purposes are
the gates of the daughter of Sion, through which we come to the vision of
peace in the Holy Church.... Or haply are the gates of death the bodily
senses and eyes, which were opened when the man tasted of the forbidden
tree, [10]... and are the gates of the daughter of Sion the sacraments and
beginnings of faith, which are opened to them that knock, that they may
arrive at the hidden things of the Son?...

   15. Then follows, "I will exult for Thy salvation:'' that is, with
blessedness shall I be holden by Thy salvation, which is our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God. Therefore says the Church, which is
here in affliction and is saved by hope, as long as the hidden judgment of
the Son is, in hope she says," I will exult for Thy salvation:" for now she
is worn down either by the roar of violence around her, or by the errors of
the heathen. "The heathen are fixed in the corruption, which they made"
(ver.

15). Consider ye how punishment is reserved for the sinner, out of his own
works; and how they that have wished to persecute the Church, have been
fixed in that corruption, which they thought to inflict. For they were
desiring to kill the body, whilst they themselves were dying in soul. "In
that snare which they hid, has their foot been taken." The hidden snare is
crafty devising. The foot of the soul is well understood to be its love:
which, when depraved, is called coveting or lust; but when upright, love or
charity.... And the Apostle says, "That being rooted and grounded in love,
ye may be able to take in."[1] The foot then of sinners, that is, their
love, is taken in the snare, which they hide: for when delight shall have
followed on to deceitful dealing, when God shall have delivered them over
to the lust of their heart; that delight at once binds them, that they dare
not tear away their love thence and apply it to profitable objects; for
when they shall make the attempt, they will be pained in heart, as if
desiring to free their foot from a fetter: and giving way trader this pain
they refuse to withdraw from pernicious delights. "In the snare" then
"which they have hid," that is, in deceitful counsel, "their foot hath been
taken," that is, their love, which through deceit attains to that vain joy
whereby pain is purchased.

   16. "The Lord is known executing judgments" (ver. 16). These are God's
judgments. Not from that tranquillity of His blessedness, nor from the
secret places of wisdom, wherein blessed souls are received, is the sword,
or fire, or wild beast, or any such thing brought forth, whereby sinners
maybe tormented: but how are they tormented, and how does the Lord do
judgment? "In the works," he says, "of his own hands hath the sinner been
caught."

   17. Here is interposed, "The song of the diapsalma" (ver. 16): as it
were the hidden joy, as far as we can imagine, of the separation which is
now made, not in place, but in the affections of the heart, between sinners
and the righteous, as of the corn from the chaff, as yet on the floor. And
then follows, "Let the sinners be turned into hell" (ver. 17): that is, let
them be given into their own hands, when they are spared, and let them be
ensnared in deadly delight. "All the nations that forget God." Because
"when they did not think good to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind."[2]

   18. "For there shall not be forgetfulness of the poor man to the end"
(ver. 18); who now seems to be in forgetfulness, when sinners are thought
to flourish in this world's happiness, and the righteous to be in travail:
but "the patience," saith He, "of the poor shall not perish for ever."
Wherefore there is need of patience now to bear with the evil, who are
already separated in will, till they be also separated at the last
judgment.

   19. "Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail" (ver. 19). The future judgment
is prayed for: but before it come, "Let the heathen," saith he, "be judged
in Thy sight:" that is, in secret; which is called in God's sight, with the
knowledge of a few holy and righteous ones. "Place a lawgiver over them, O
Lord." (ver. 20). He seems to me to point out Antichrist: of whom the
Apostle says, "When the man of sin shall be revealed."[3] "Let the heathen
know that they are men." That they who will be set free by the Son of God,
and belong to the Son of Man, and be sons of men, that is, new men, may
serve man, that is, the old man the sinner, "for that they are men."

   20. And because it is believed that he is to arrive at so great a pitch
of empty glory, and he will be permitted to do so great things, both
against all men and against the Saints of God, that then some weak ones
shall indeed think that God cares not for human affairs, the Psalmist
interposing a diapsalma, adds as it were the voice of men groaning and
asking why judgment is deferred.[4]

PSALM X.[5]

   "Why, O Lord," saith he, "hast Thou withdrawn afar off?" (ver. 1). Then
he who thus inquired, as if all on a sudden he understood, or as if he
asked, though he knew, that he might teach, adds, "Thou despisest in due
seasons, in tribulations:" that is, Thou despisest seasonably, and causest
tribulations to inflame men's minds with longing for Thy coming. For that
fountain of life is sweeter to them that have much thirst. Therefore he
hints the reason of the delay, saying, "Whilst the ungodly vaunteth
himself, the poor man is inflamed" (ver. 2). Wondrous it is and true with
what earnestness of good hope the little ones are inflamed unto an upright
living by comparison with sinners. In which mystery it comes to pass, that
even heresies are permitted to exist; not that heretics themselves wish
this, but because Divine Providence worketh this result from their sins,
which both maketh and ordaineth the light; but ordereth only the darkness,
that by comparison therewith the light may be more pleasant, as by
comparison with heretics the discovery of truth is more sweet. For so, by
this comparison, the approved, who are known to God, are made manifest
among men.

   1. "They are taken in their thoughts, which they think:" that is, their
evil thoughts become chains to them. But how become they chains? "For the
sinner is praised," saith he, "in the desires of his soul" (ver. 3). The
tongues of flatterers bind souls in sin. For there is pleasure in doing
those things, in which not only is no reprover feared, but even an approver
heard. "And he that does unrighteous deeds is blessed." Hence "are they
taken in their thoughts, which they think."

   2. "The sinner hath angered the Lord" (ver. 4). Let no one congratulate
the man that prospers in his way, to whose sins no avenger is nigh, and an
approver is by. This is the greater anger of the Lord. For the sinner hath
angered the Lord, that he should suffer these things, that is, should not
suffer the scourging of correction. "The sinner hath angered the Lord:
according to the multitude of His anger He will not search it out." Great
is His anger, when He searcheth not out, when He as it were forgetteth and
marketh not sin, and by fraud and wickedness  man attains to riches and
honours: which will especially be the case in that Antichrist, who will
seem to man blessed to that degree, that he will even be thought God.[1]
But how great this  anger of God is, we are taught by what follows.

   3. "God is not in his sight, his ways are polluted in all time" (ver.
5). He that knows what in the soul gives joy and gladness, knows how great
an ill it is to be abandoned by the light of truth: since a great ill do
men reckon the blindness of their bodily eyes, whereby this light is
withdrawn. How great then the punishment he endures, who through the
prosperous issue of his sins is brought to that pass, that God is not in
his sight, and that his ways are polluted in all time, that is, his
thoughts and counsels are unclean! "Thy judgments are taken away from his
face." For the mind conscious of evil, whilst it seems to itself to suffer
no punishment, believes that God cloth not judge, and so are God's
judgments taken away from its face; while this very thing is great
condemnation. "And he shall have dominion over all his enemies." For so is
it delivered, that he will overcome all kings, and alone obtain the
kingdom; since too according to the Apostle, who preaches concerning him,
"He shall sit in the temple of God, exalting himself above all that is
worshipped and that is called God."[2]

   4. And seeing that being delivered over to the lust of his own heart,
and predestinated to extreme[3] condemnation, he is to come, by wicked
arts, to that vain and empty height and rule; therefore it follows, "For he
hath said in his heart, I shall not move from generation to generation
without evil" (ver. 6): that is, my fame and my name will not pass from
this generation to the generation of posterity, unless by evil arts I
acquire so lofty a principality, that posterity cannot be silent concerning
it. For a mind abandoned and void of good arts, and estranged from the
light of righteousness, by bad arts devises a passage for itself to a fame
so lasting, as is celebrated even in posterity. And they that cannot be
known for good, desire that men should speak of them even for ill, provided
that their name spread far and wide. And this I think is here meant, "I
shall not move from generation to generation without evil." There is too
another interpretation, if a mind vain and full of error supposes that it
cannot come from the mortal generation to the generation of eternity, but
by bad arts: which indeed was also reported of Simon, when he thought that
he would gain heaven by wicked arts, and pass from the human generation to
the generation divine by magic.[4] Where then is the wonder, if that man of
sin too, who is to fill up all the wickedness and ungodliness, which all
false prophets have begun, and to do such" great signs; that, if it were
possible, he should deceive the very elect,"[5] shall say in his heart, "I
shall not move from generation to generation without evil"?

   5. "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness and deceit" (ver. 7).
For it is a great curse to seek heaven by such abominable arts, and to get
together such earnings for acquiring the eternal seat. But of this cursing
his mouth is full. For this desire shall not take effect, but within his
mouth only will avail to destroy him, who dared promise himself such things
with bitterness and deceit, that is, with anger and insidiousness, whereby
he is to bring over the multitude to his side. "Under his tongue is toil
and grief." Nothing is more toilsome than unrighteousness and ungodliness:
upon which toil follows grief; for that the toil is not only without fruit,
but even unto destruction. Which toil and grief refer to that which he hath
said in his heart, "I shall not be moved from generation to generation
without evil." And therefore, "under his tongue," not on his tongue,
because he will devise these things in silence, and to men will speak other
things, that he may appear good and just, and a son of God.

   6. "He lieth in ambush with the rich" (ver. 8). What rich, but those
whom he will load with this world's gifts? And he is therefore said to  lie
in ambush with them, because he will display their false happiness to
deceive men; who,  when with a perverted will they desire to be such as
they, and seek not the good things eternal, will fall into his snares.
"That in the dark he may kill the innocent." "In the dark,"[6] I suppose,
is said, where it is not easily understood what should be sought, or what
avoided. Now to kill the innocent, is of an innocent to make one guilty.

   7. "His eyes look against the poor," for he is chiefly to persecute the
righteous, of whom it is said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven"[1] (ver. 9). "He lieth in wait in a secret place,
as a lion in his den." By a lion in a den, he means one in whom both
violence and deceit will work. For the first persecution of the Church was
violent, when by proscriptions, by torments, by murders, the Christians
were compelled to sacrifice: another persecution is crafty, which is now
conducted by heretics of any kind and false brethren: there remains a
third, which is to come by Antichrist, than which there is nothing more
perilous; for it will be at once violent and crafty. Violence he will exert
in empire, craft in miracles. To the violence, the word "lion" refers; to
craft, the words "in his den." And these are again repeated with a change
of order. "He lieth in wait," he says, "that he may catch the poor;" this
hath reference to craft: but what follows, "To catch the poor whilst he
draweth him," is put to the score of violence. For "draweth" means, he
bringeth him to himself by violence, by whatever tortures he can.

   8. Again, the two which follow are the same "In his snare he will
humble him," is craft (ver. 10). "He shall decline and fall, whilst he
shall have domination over the poor," is violence. For a "snare" naturally
points to "lying in wait:" but domination most openly conveys the idea of
terror. And well does he say, "He will humble him in his snare." For when
he shall begin to do those signs, the more wonderful they shall appear to
men, the more those Saints that shall be then will be despised, and, as it
were, set at nought: he, whom they shall resist by righteousness and
innocence, shall seem to overcome by the marvels that he does. But "he
shall decline and fall, whilst he shall have domination over the poor;"
that is, whilst he shall inflict whatsoever punishments he will upon the
servants of God that resist him.

   9. But how shall he decline, and fall? "For he hath said in his heart,
God hath forgotten; He turneth away His face, that He see not unto the end"
(ver. 11). This is declining, and the most wretched fall, while the mind of
a man prospers as it were in its iniquities, and thinks that it is spared;
when it is being blinded, and kept for an extreme and timely vengeance: of
which the Psalmist now speaks: "Arise, O Lord God, let Thine hand be
exalted" (ver. 12): that is, let Thy power be made manifest. Now he had
said above, "Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail, let the heathen be judged
in Thy sight:"[2] that is, in secret, where God alone seeth. This comes to
pass when the ungodly have arrived at what seems great happiness to men:
over whom is placed a lawgiver, such as they had deserved to have, of whom
it is said," Place a lawgiver over them, O Lord, let the heathen know that
they are men."[3] But now after that hidden punishment and vengeance it is
said, "Arise, O Lord God, let Thine hand be exalted;" not of course in
secret, but now in glory most manifest. "That Thou forget not the poor unto
the end ;" that is, as the ungodly think, who say, "God hath forgotten, He
turneth away His face, that He should not see unto the end." Now they deny
that God seeth unto the end, who say that He careth not for things human
and earthly, for the earth is as it were the end of things; in that it is
the last element, in which men labour in most orderly sort, but they cannot
see the order of their labours, which specially belongs to the hidden
things of the Son. The Church then labouring in such times, like a ship in
great waves and tempests, awaketh the Lord as if He were sleeping, that He
should command the winds, and calm should be restored.[4] He says
therefore, "Arise, O Lord God, let Thine hand be exalted, that Thou forget
not the poor unto the end."

   10. Accordingly understanding now the manifest judgment, and in
exultation at it, they say, "Wherefore hath the ungodly angered God?" (ver.
13); that is, what hath it profiled him to do so great evil? "For he said
in his heart, He will not require it." Then follows, "For Thou seest toil
and considerest anger, to deliver them into Thine hands" (ver. 14). This
sentence looks for distinct explanation, wherein if there shall be error it
becomes obscure. For thus has the ungodly said in his heart, God will not
require it, as though God regarded toil and anger, to deliver them into His
hands; that is, as though He feared toil and anger, and for this reason
would spare them, lest their punishment be too burdensome to Him, or lest
He should be disturbed by the storm of anger: as men generally act,
excusing themselves of vengeance, to avoid toil or anger.

   11. "The poor hath been left unto Thee." For therefore is he poor, that
is, hath despised all the temporal goods of this world, that Thou only
mayest be his hope. "Thou wilt be a helper to the orphan," that is, to him
to whom his father this world, by whom he was born after the flesh, dies,
and who can already say, "The world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto
the world."[5] For of such orphans God becomes the Father. The Lord teaches
us in truth that His disciples   do become orphans, to whom He saith, "Call
no man father on earth."[1] Of which He first Himself gave an example in
saying," Who is my mother, and who my brethren?"[2] Whence some most
mischievous heretics 3 would assert that He had no mother; and they do not
see that it follows from this, if they pay attention to these words, that
neither had His disciples fathers. For as He said, "Who is my mother?" so
He taught them, when He said, "Call no man your father on earth."

   12. "Break the arm of the sinner and of the malicious" (ver. 15); of
him, namely, of whom it was said above, "He shall have dominion over all
his enemies." He called his power then, his arm; to which Christ's power is
opposed, of which it is said, "Arise, O Lord God, let Thine hand be
exalted. His fault shall be required, and he shall not be found because of
it;"[4] that is he shall be judged for his sins, and himself shall perish
because of his sin. After this, what wonder if there follow, "The Lord
shall reign for ever and world without end; ye heathen shall perish out of
His earth"? (ver. 16). He uses heathen for sinners and ungodly.

   13. "The Lord hath heard the longing of the poor"(ver. 17): that
longing wherewith they were burning, when in the straits and tribulations
of this world they desired the day of the Lord. "Thine ear hath heard the
preparation of their heart." This is the preparation of the heart, of which
it is sung in another Psalm, "My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is
prepared:"[5] of which the Apostle says, "But if we hope for what we see
not, we do with patience wait for it."[6] Now, by the ear of God, we ought,
according to a general rule of interpretation, to understand not a bodily
member, but the power whereby He heareth; and so (not to repeat this often)
by whatever members of His are mentioned, which in us are visible and
bodily, must be understood powers of operation. For we must not suppose it
anything bodily, in that[7] the Lord God hears not the sound of the voice,
but the preparation of the heart.

   14. "To judge for the orphan and the humble" (ver. 18): that is, not
for him who is conformed to this world, nor for the proud. For it is one
thing to judge the orphan, another to judge for the orphan. He judges the
orphan even, who condemns him; but he judges for the orphan, who delivers
sentence for him. "That man add not further to magnify himself upon
earth." For they are men, of whom it was  said, "Place a lawgiver over
them, O Lord: let the heathen know that they are men."[8] But he too, who
in this same passage is understood to be placed over them, will be man, of
whom it is now said, "That man add not further to magnify himself upon
earth:" namely, when the Son of Man shall come to judge for the orphan, who
hath put off from himself the old man, and thus, as it were, buried his
father.

   15. After the hidden things then of the Son, of which, in this Psalm,
many things have been said, will come the manifest things of the Son, of
which a little has been now said at the end of the same Psalm. But the
title is given from the former, which here occupy the larger portion.
Indeed, the very day of the Lord's advent may be rightly numbered among the
hidden things of the Son, although the very presence of the Lord itself
will be manifest. For of that day it is said, that no man knoweth it,
neither angels, nor powers, nor the Son of man.[9] What then so hidden, as
that which is said to be hidden even to the Judge Himself, not as regards
knowledge, but disclosure? But concerning the hidden things of the Son,
even if any one would not wish to understand the Son of God, but of David
himself, to whose name the whole Psalter is attributed, for the Psalms we
know are called the Psalms of David, let him give ear to those words in
which it is said to the Lord, "Have mercy on us, O Son of David:"[10] and
so even in this manner let him understand the same Lord Christ, concerning
whose hidden things is the inscription of this Psalm. For so likewise is it
said by the Angel: "God shall give unto Him the throne of His father
David."[11] Nor to this understanding of it is the sentence opposed in
which the same Lord asks of the Jews," If Christ be the Son of David, how
then doth he in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit Thou on my right hand, until I put Thine enemies under Thy feet."[12]
For it was said to the unskilled, who although they looked for Christ's
coming, yet expected Him as man, not as the Power and Wisdom of God. He
teacheth then, in that place, the most true and pure faith, that He is both
the Lord of king David, in that He is the Word in the beginning, God with
God,[13] by which all things were made; and Son, in that He was made to him
of the seed of David according to the flesh. For He doth not say, Christ is
not David's Son, but if ye already hold that He is his Son, learn how He is
his Lord: and do not hold in respect of Christ that He is the Son of Man,
for so is He David's Son;[14] and leave out that He is the Son of God, for
so is He David's Lord. [15]

PSALM XI.(1)

TO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.(2)

   1. This title does not require a fresh consideration: for the meaning
of, "to the end," has already been sufficiently handled.(3) Let us then
look to the text itself of the Psalm, which to me appears to be sung
against the heretics,(4) who, by rehearsing and exaggerating the sins of
many in the Church, as if either all or the majority among themselves were
righteous, strive to turn and snatch us away from the breasts of the one
True Mother Church: affirming that Christ is with them, and warning us as
if with piety and earnestness, that by passing over to them we may go over
to Christ, whom they falsely declare they have. Now it is known that in
prophecy Christ, among the many names in which notice of Him is conveyed in
allegory, is also called a mountain.(5) We must accordingly answer these
people, and say, "I trust in the Lord: how say ye to my soul, Remove into
the mountains as a sparrow?" (ver. 1). I keep to one mountain wherein I
trust, how say ye that I should pass over to you, as if there were many
Christs? Or if through pride you say that you are mountains, I had indeed
need to be a sparrow winged with the powers and commandments of God: but
these very things hinder my flying to these mountains, and placing my trust
in proud men. I have a house where I may rest, in that I trust in the Lord.
For even "the sparrow hath found her a house,"(6) and, "The Lord hath
become a refuge to the poor."(7) Let us say then with all confidence, lest
while we seek Christ among heretics we lose Him, "In the Lord I trust: how
say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow?"

   2. "For, lo, sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared their arrows
in the quiver, that they may in the obscure moon shoot at the upright in
heart" (ver. 2). These be the terrors of those who threaten us as touching
sinners, that we may pass over to them as the righteous. "Lo," they say,
"the sinners have bent the bow:" the Scriptures, I suppose, by carnal
interpretation of which they emit envenomed sentences  from them. "They
have prepared their arrows in the quiver:" the same words, that is, which
they will shoot out on the authority of Scripture, they have prepared in
the secret place of the heart. "That they may in the obscure moon(8) shoot
at the upright in heart:" that when they see, from the Church's light being
obscured by the multitude of the unlearned and the carnal, that they cannot
be convicted, they may corrupt good manners by evil communications.(9) But
against all these terrors we must say, "In the Lord I trust."

   3. Now I remember that I promised to consider in this Psalm with what
suitableness the moon signifies the Church.(10) There are two probable
opinions concerning the moon: but of these which is the true, I suppose it
either impossible or very difficult for a man to decide. For when we ask
whence the moon has her light, some say that it is her own, but that of her
globe half is bright, and half dark: and when she revolves in her own
orbit, that part wherein she is bright gradually turns towards the earth,
so as that it may be seen by us; and that therefore at first her appearance
is as if she were horned. ...According to this opinion the moon in allegory
signifies the Church, because in its spiritual part the Church is bright,
but in its carnal part is dark: and sometimes the spiritual part is seen by
good works, but sometimes it lies hid in the conscience, and is known to
God alone, since in the body alone is it seen by men. ... But according to
the other opinion also the moon is understood to be the Church, because she
has no light of her own, but is lighted by the only-begotten Son of God,
who in many places of holy Scripture is allegorically called the Sun.(11)
Whom certain heretics(12) being  ignorant of, and not able to discern Him,
endeavour to turn away the minds of the simple to this corporeal and
visible sun, which is the common light of the flesh of men and flies, and
some they do pervert, who as long as they cannot behold with the mind the
inner light of truth, will not be content with the simple Catholic faith;
which is the only safety to babes, and by which milk alone they can arrive
in assured strength at the firm support of more solid food. Whichever then
of these two opinions be the true, the moon in allegory is fitly understood
as the Church. Or if in such difficulties as these, troublesome rather than
edifying, there be either no satisfaction or no leisure to exercise the
mind, or if the mind itself be not capable of it, it is sufficient to
regard the moon with ordinary(13) eyes, and not to seek out obscure causes,
but with all men to perceive her increasings and fulnesses and wanings; and
if she wanes to the end that she may be renewed, even to this rude
multitude she sets forth the image of the Church, in which the resurrection
of the dead is believed.

   4. Next we must enquire, what in this Psalm is meant by "the obscure
moon," in which sinners have prepared to shoot at the upright in heart? For
not in one way only may the moon be said to be obscure: for when her
monthly course is finished, and when her brightness is interrupted by a
cloud, and when she is eclipsed at the full, the moon may be called
obscure. It may then be understood first of the persecutors of the Martyrs,
for that they wished in the obscure moon to shoot at the upright in heart;
whether it be yet in the time of the Church's youth, because she had not
yet shone forth in greatness on the earth, and conquered the darkness of
heathen superstitions; or by the tongues of blasphemers and such as defame
the Christian name, when the earth was as it were beclouded, the moon, that
is, the Church, could not be clearly seen; or when by the slaughter of the
Martyrs themselves and so great effusion of blood, as by that eclipse and
obscuration, wherein the moon seems to exhibit a bloody face, the weak were
deterred from the Christian name; in which terror sinners shot out words
crafty and sacrilegious to pervert even the upright in heart. And secondly,
it can be understood of these sinners, whom the Church contains, because at
that time, taking the opportunity of this moon's obscurity, they committed
many crimes, which are now tauntingly objected to us by the heretics,
whereas their founders are said to have been guilty of them.(1) But
howsoever that be which was done in the obscure moon, now that the Catholic
name is spread and celebrated throughout the whole world, what concern of
mine is it to be disturbed by things unknown? For "in the Lord I trust;"
nor do I listen to them that say to my soul, "Remove into the mountains as
a sparrow. For, lo, sinners have bent the bow, that they may in the obscure
moon shoot at the upright in heart." Or if the moon seem even(2) now
obscure to them, because they would make it uncertain which is the Catholic
Church, and they strive to convict her by the sins of those many carnal men
whom she contains; what concern is this to him, who says in truth, "In the
Lord I trust"? By which word every one shows that he is himself wheat, and
endures the chaff with patience unto the time of winnowing.

   5. "In the Lord," therefore, "I trust." Let them fear who trust in man,
and cannot deny that they are of man's party, by whose grey hairs they
swear; and when in conversation it is demanded of them, of what communion
they are, unless they say that they are of his party, they cannot be
recognised. ...Or perhaps you will say that it is written, "Ye shall know
them by their works"?(3) I see indeed marvellous works the daily violences
of the Circumcelliones,(4) with the bishops and presbyters for their
leaders, flying about in every direction, and calling their terrible clubs
"Israels;" which men now living daily see and feel. But for the times of
Macarius,(5) respecting which they raise an invidious cry,(6) most men have
not seen them, and no one sees them now: and any Catholic who saw them
could say, if he wished to be a servant of God, "In the Lord I trust."...

   6. Let the Catholic soul then say, "In the  Lord I trust; how say ye to
my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow? For, lo, the sinners have
bent the bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, that they may
in the obscure moon shoot at the upright in heart:" and from them let her
turn her speech to the Lord and say, "For they have destroyed what Thou
hast perfected"(7) (ver. 3). And this let  her say not against these only,
but against all heretics. For they have all, as far as in them lies,
destroyed the praise which God hath perfected out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings,(8) when they disturb the little ones with vain and I scrupulous
questions, and suffer them not to be nourished with the milk of faith. As
if then it  were said to this soul, why do they say to you, "Remove into
the mountains as a sparrow;" why do they frighten you with sinners, who
"have bent the bow, to shoot in the obscure moon at the upright in heart"?
She answers, Therefore it is they frighten me, "because they have destroyed
what Thou hast perfected." Where but in their conventicles, where they
nourish not with milk, but kill with poison the babes and ignorant of the
interior light. "But  what hath the Just done?"(9) If Macarius, if
Caecilianus, offend you, what hath Christ done to you, who said, "My peace
I give unto you, My peace I leave with you;"(10) which ye with your
abominable dissensions have violated? What hath Christ done to you? who
with such exceeding patience endured His betrayer, as to give to him, as to
the other Apostles, the first Eucharist consecrated(11) with His own hands,
and blessed with His own mouth.(12) What hath Christ done to you? who sent
this same betrayer, whom He called a devil,(13) who before betraying the
Lord could not show good faith even to the Lord's purse,(14) with the other
disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven;(15) that He might show that the
gifts of God come to those that with faith receive them, though he, through
whom they receive them, be such as Judas was.

   7. "The Lord is in His holy temple" (ver. 4), yea in such wise as the
Apostle saith, "For the temple of God is holy, which" temple "ye are."(1)
"Now if any man shall violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy." He
violateth the temple of God, who violateth unity: for he "holdeth not the
head, from which the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth(2) according to the working after the measure
of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of itself in
love."(3) The Lord is in this His holy temple; which consisteth of His many
members, fulfilling each his own separate duties, by love built up into one
building. Which temple he violateth, who for the sake of his own pre-
eminence separateth himself from the Catholic society. "The Lord is in His
holy temple; the Lord, His seat is in heaven." If you take heaven to be the
just man, as you take the earth to be the sinner, to whom it was said,
"Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go;"(4) the words, "The Lord is
in His holy temple" you will understand to be repeated, whilst it is said,
"The Lord, His seat is in heaven."

   8. "His eyes look upon the poor."(5) His to Whom the poor man hath been
left, and Who hath been made a refuge to the poor.(6) And therefore all the
seditions and tumults within these nets,(7) until they be drawn to shore,
concerning which heretics upbraid us to their own ruin and our correction,
are caused by those men, who will not be Christ's poor. But do they turn
away God's eyes from such as would be so? "For His eyes look upon the
poor." Is it to be feared lest, in the crowd of the rich, He may not be
able to see the few poor, whom He brings up in safe keeping in the bosom of
the Catholic Church? "His eyelids question the sons of men." Here by that
rule I would wish to take "the sons of men"(8) of those that from old men
have been regenerated by faith. For these, by certain obscure passages of
Scripture, as it were the closed eyes of God, are exercised that they may
seek: and again, by certain clear passages, as it were the open eyes of
God, are enlightened that they may rejoice. And this frequent closing and
opening in the holy Books are as it were the eyelids of God; which
question, that is, which try the "sons of men;" who are neither wearied
with the obscurity of the matter, but exercised; nor puffed up by
knowledge, but confirmed.

   9. "The Lord questioneth the righteous and ungodly" (ver. 5). Why then
do we fear lest the ungodly should be any hurt to us, if so be they do with
insincere heart share the sacraments with us, seeing that He "questioneth
the righteous and the ungodly." "But whoso loveth iniquity, hateth his own
soul:" that is, not him who believeth God, and putteth not his hope in man,
but only his own soul doth the lover of iniquity hurt.

   10. "He shall rain snares upon the sinners" (ver. 6). If by clouds are
understood prophets generally, whether good or bad, who are also called
false prophets: false prophets are so ordered by the Lord God, that by them
He may rain snares upon sinners.(9) For no one, but the sinner, falls into
a following of them, whether by way of preparation for the last punishment,
if he shall choose to persevere in sin; or to dissuade from pride, if in
time he shall come to seek God with a more sincere intent. But if by clouds
are understood good and true prophets only; by these too it is clear that
God raineth snares upon sinners, although by them He watereth also the
godly unto fruitfulness. "To some," saith the Apostle, "we are the savour
of life unto life; to some the savour of death unto death."(10) For not
prophets only, but all who with the word of God water souls, may be called
clouds. Who when they are understood amiss, God raineth snares upon
sinners; but when they are understood aright, He maketh the hearts of the
godly and believing fruitful. As, for instance, the passage, "and they two
shall be in one flesh,"(11) if one interpret it with an eye to lust, He
raineth a snare upon the sinner. But if you understand it, as he who says,
"But I speak concerning Christ and the Church,"(12) He raineth a shower on
the fertile soil. Now both are effected by the same cloud, that is, holy
Scripture. Again the Lord says, "Not that which goeth into your mouth
defileth you, but that which cometh out."(13) The sinner hears this, and
makes ready his palate for gluttony: the righteous hears it, and is guarded
against the superstitious distinction in meats. Here then also out of the
same cloud of Scripture, according to the several desert of each, upon the
sinner the rain of snares, upon the righteous the rain of fruitfulness, is
poured.

   11. "Fire and brimstone and the blast of the tempest is the portion of
their cup." This is their punishment and end, by whom the name of God is
blaspbemed; that first they should be wasted by the fire of their own
lusts, then by the ill savour of their evil deeds cast off from the company
of the blessed, at last carried away and overwhelmed suffer penalties
unspeakable. For this is the portion of their cup: as of the righteous,
"Thy cup inebriating how excellent is it! for they shall be inebriated with
the richness of Thine house."(1) Now I suppose a cup is mentioned for this
reason, that we should not suppose that anything is done by God's
providence, even in the very punishments of sinners, beyond moderation and
measure. And therefore as if he were giving a reason why this should be, he
added, "For the Lord is righteous, and hath loved righteousnesses" (ver.
7). The plural not without meaning, but only because he speaks of men, is
as that righteousnesses be understood to be used for righteous men. For  in
many righteous men there seem, so to say, to be righteousnesses, whereas
there is one only righteousness of God whereof they all participate. Like
as when one face looks upon many mirrors, what in it is one only, is by
those many mirrors reflected manifoldly. Wherefore he recurs to the
singular, saying, "His face hath seen equity." Perhaps, "His face hath seen
equity," is as if it were said, Equity hath been seen in His face, that is,
in knowledge of Him. For God's face is the power by which He is made known
to them that are worthy. Or at least, "His face hath seen equity," because
He doth not allow Himself to be known by the evil, but by the good; and
this is equity.

   12. But if any one would understand the moon of the synagogue, let him
refer the Psalm to the Lord's passion, and of the Jews say, "For they have
destroyed what Thou hast perfected;(2) and of the Lord Himself, "But what
hath the Just done?" whom they accused as the destroyer of the Law: whose
precepts, by their corrupt living, and by despising them, and by setting up
their own, they had destroyed, so that the Lord Himself may speak as Man,
as He is wont, saying, "In the Lord I trust; how say ye to my soul, Remove
into the mountains as a sparrow?"(3) by reason, that is, of the fear of
those who desire to apprehend and crucify Him. Since the interpretation is
not unreasonable of sinners wishing to "shoot at the upright in heart,"(4)
that is, those who believed in Christ, "in the obscure moon," that is, the
Synagogue filled with sinners. To this too the words, "The Lord is in His
holy temple; the Lord, His seat is in  heaven,"(5) are suitable; that is,
the Word in Man, s or the very Son of Man who is in heaven.(6) "His eyes
look upon the poor;" either on t Him whom He assumed as God, or for whom
He suffered as Man. "His eyelids question the sons of men." The closing and
opening of the d eyes, which is probably meant by the word eyelids, we may
take to be His death and resurrection, whereby He tried the sons of men His
disciples, terrified at His passion, and gladdened by the resurrection.
"The Lord questioneth the righteous and ungodly,"(7) even now from out of
Heaven governing the Church. "But whoso loveth iniquity, hateth his own
soul." Why it is so, what follows teaches us. For "He shall rain snares
upon the sinners:"(8) which is to be taken according to the exposition
above given, and so on with all the rest to the end of the Psalm.

PSALM XII.(9)

TO THE END, FOR THE EIGHTH, A PSALM OF DAVID.

   1. It has been said on the sixth Psalm,(10) that "the eighth" may be
taken as the day of judgment. "For the eighth" may also be taken "for the
eternal age;" for that after the time present, which is a cycle of seven
days, it shall be given  to the Saints.

   2. "Save me, O Lord, for the holy hath failed;" that is, is not found:
as we speak when we say, Corn fails, or, Money fails. "For the truths have
been minished from among the sons of men" (ver. 1). The truth is one,
whereby holy souls are enlightened: but forasmuch as there are many souls,
there may be said in them to be many truths: as in mirrors there are seen
many reflections from one face.

   3. "He hath talked vanity each man to his neighbour" (ver. 2). By
neighbour we must understand every man: for that there is no one with whom
we should work evil; "and the love of our neighbour worketh no evil."(11)
"Deceitful lips, with a heart and a heart they have spoken evil
things."(12) The repetition, "with a heart and a heart," signifies a double
heart.

   4. "May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips" (ver. 3). He says "all,"
that no one may suppose himself excepted: as the Apostle says, "Upon every
soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek."(13) "The
tongue speaking great things:" the proud tongue.

   5. "Who have said, We will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own,
who is Lord over us?" (ver. 4). Proud hypocrites are meant, putting
confidence in their speech to deceive men, and not submitting themselves to
God.

   6. "Because of the wretchedness of the needy and the sighing of the
poor, now I will arise, saith the Lord"(14) (ver. 5). For so the Lord
Himself in the Gospel pitied His people, because they had no ruler, when
they could well obey. Whence too it is said in the Gospel, "The harvest is
plenteous, but the labourers are few."(1) But this must be taken as spoken
in the person of God the Father, who, because of the needy and the poor,
that is, who in need and poverty were lacking spiritual good things,
vouchsafed to send His own Son. From thence begins His sermon on the mount
to Matthew, where He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven."(2) "I will place in salvation." He does not say
what He would place: but, "in salvation," must be understood as, in Christ;
according to that, "For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."(3) And hence He
is understood to have placed in Him what appertains to the taking away the
wretchedness of the needy, and the comforting the sighing of the poor. "I
will deal confidently in Him:" according to that in the Gospel, "For He
taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes."(4)

   7. "The words of the Lord" are "pure words" (ver. 6). This is in the
person of the Prophet himself, "The words of the Lord" are "pure words." He
says "pure," without the alloy of pretence. For many preach the truth
impurely;(5) for they sell it for the bribe of the advantages of this life.
Of such the Apostle says, that they declared Christ not purely. "Silver
tried by the fire for the earth."(6) These words of the Lord by means of
tribulations approved to sinners. "Purified seven times:" by the fear of
God, by godliness, by knowledge, by might, by counsel, by understanding, by
wisdom.(7) For seven steps also of beatitude there are, which the Lord goes
over, according to Matthew, in the same sermon which He spake on the Mount,
"Blessed" are "the poor in spirit, blessed the meek, blessed they that
mourn, blessed they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, blessed
the merciful, blessed the pure in heart, blessed the peacemakers."(8) Of
which seven sentences, it may be observed how all that long sermon was
spoken. For the eighth where it is said, "Blessed" are "they which suffer
persecution for righteousness' sake,"(9) denotes the fire itself, whereby
the silver is proved seven times. And at the termination of this sermon it
is said, "For He taught them as one having authority, and not as their
scribes."(4) Which refers to that which is said in this Psalm, "I deal
confidently in Him."

   8. "Thou, O Lord, shalt preserve us, and keep us from this generation
to eternity" (ver. 7): here as needy and poor, there as wealthy and rich.

9. "The ungodly walk in a circle round about" (ver. 8): that is, in the
desire of things temporal, which revolves as a wheel in a repeated circle
of seven days; and therefore they do not arrive at the eighth, that is, at
eternity, for which this Psalm is entitled.(10) So too it is said by
Solomon, "For the wise king is the winnower of the ungodly, and he bringeth
on them the wheel of the wicked.--After Thine height Thou hast multiplied
the sons of men."(11) For there is in temporal things too a multiplication,
which turns away from the unity of God. Hence "the corruptible body
weigheth down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle presseth down the mind
that museth upon many things."(12) But the righteous are multiplied "after
the height of God," when "they shall go from strength to strength."13

PSALM XIII. (14)

UNTO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID.

   1. "For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth."(15)
"How long, O Lord, wilt Thou forget me unto the end?" (ver. 1) that is, put
me off as to spiritually understanding Christ, who is the Wisdom of God,
and the true end of all the aim of the soul. "How long dost Thou turn away
Thy face from me?" As God doth not forget, so neither doth He turn His face
away: but Scripture speaks after our manner. Now God is said to turn away
His face, when He doth not give to the soul, which as yet hath not the pure
eye of the mind, the knowledge of Himself.

   2. "How long shall I place counsel in my soul?" (ver. 2). There is no
need of counsel but in adversity. Therefore "How long shall I  place
counsel in my soul?" is as if it were said,

How long shall I be in adversity? Or at least it is an answer, so that the
meaning is this, So long, O Lord, wilt Thou forget me to the end, and so
long turn away Thy face from me, until I shall place counsel in mine own
soul: so that except a man place counsel in his own soul to work mercy
perfectly, God will not direct him to the end, nor give him that full
knowledge of Himself, which is "face to face." "Sorrow in my heart through
the day?" How long shall I have, is understood. And "through the day"
signifies continuance, so that day is taken for time: from which as each
one longs to be free, he has sorrow in his heart, making entreaty to rise
to things eternal, and not endure man's day.

   3. "How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?" either the devil, or
carnal habit.

   4. "Look on me, and hear me, O Lord my God" (ver. 3). "Look on me,"
refers to what was said, "How long" dost "Thou turn away Thy face from me."
"Hear," refers to what was said," How long wilt Thou forget me to the end?
Lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death." The eyes of the heart must
be understood, that they be not closed by the pleasurable eclipse of sin.

   5. "Lest at any time mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him"
(ver. 4). The devil's mockery is to be feared. "They that trouble me will
exult, if I be moved;" the devil and his angels; who exulted not over that
righteous man, Job, when they troubled him; because he was not moved, that
is, did not draw back from the stedfastness of his faith.(1)

   6. "But I have hoped in Thy mercy" (ver. 5). Because this very thing,
that a man be not moved, and that he abide fixed in the Lord, he should not
attribute to self: lest when he glories that he hath not been moved, he be
moved by this very pride. "My heart shall exult in Thy salvation;" in
Christ, in the Wisdom of God. "I will sing(2) to the Lord who hath given me
good things;" spiritual good things, not belonging to man's day. "And I
will chant(3) to the name of the Lord most high" (ver. 6); that is, I give
thanks with joy, and in most due order employ my body, which is the song of
the spiritual soul. But if any distinction is to be marked here, "I will
sing" with the heart, "I will chant" with my works; "to the Lord," that
which He alone seeth, but "to the name of the Lord," that which is known
among men, which is serviceable not for Him, but for us.

PSALM XIV.(4)

TO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. What "to the end" means, must not be too often repeated. "For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;"(5) as
the Apostle saith. We believe on Him, when we begin to enter on the good
road: we shall see Him, when we shall get to the end. And therefore is He
the end.

   2. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (ver. 1). For not
even have certain sacrilegious and abominable philosophers, who entertain
perverse and false notions of God, dared to say, "There is no God."
Therefore it is, hath said "in his heart;" for that no one dares to say it,
even if he has dared to think it. "They are corrupt, and become abominable
in their affections:" that is, whilst they love this world and love not
God; these are the affections which corrupt the soul, and so blind it, that
the fool can even say, "in his heart, There is no God. For as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind."(6) "There is none that doeth goodness, no not up to one." "Up to
one," can be understood either with that one, so that no man be understood:
or besides one, that the Lord Christ may be excepted. As we say, This field
is up to the sea; we do not of course reckon the sea together with the
field. And this is the better interpretation, so that none be understood to
have done goodness up to Christ; for that no man can do goodness, except He
shall have shown it. And that is true; for until a man know the one God, he
cannot do goodness.

   3. "The Lord from heaven looked out upon the sons of men, to see if
there be one understanding, or seeking after God" (ver. 2). It may be
interpreted, upon the Jews; as he may have given them the more honourable
name of the sons of men, by reason of their worship of the One God, in
comparison with the Gentiles; of whom I suppose it was said above, "The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God," etc. Now the Lord looks out,
that He may see, by His holy souls: which is the meaning of, "from heaven."
For by Himself nothing is hid from Him.

   4. "All have gone out of the way, they have together become useless:"
that is, the Jews have become as the Gentiles, who were spoken of above.
"There is none that doeth good, no not up to one" (ver. 3), must be
interpreted as above. "Their throat is an open sepulchre."(7) Either the
voracity of the ever open palate is signified: or allegorically those who
slay, and as it were devour those they have slain, into whom they instil
the disorder of their own conversation. Like to which with the contrary
meaning is that which was said to Peter, "Kill and eat; "a that he should
convert the Gentiles to his own faith and good conversation. "With their
tongues they have dealt craftily." Flattery is the companion of the greedy
and of all bad men. "The poison of asps is under their lips." By "poison,"
he means deceit; and "of asps," because they will not hear the precepts of
the law, as asps "will not hear the voice of the charmer;"(9) which is said
more clearly in another Psalm. "Whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness:" this is, "the poison of asps." "Their feet are Swift to shed
blood." He here shows forth the habit of ill doing. "Destruction and
unhappiness" are "in their ways." For all the ways of evil men are full of
toil and misery. Hence the Lord cries out, "Come unto Me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon you,
and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. For My yoke is easy and
My burden light."(1) "And the way of peace have they not known:" that way,
namely, which the Lord, as I said, mentions, in the easy yoke and light
burden. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." These do not say,
"There is no God;" but yet they do not fear God.

   5. "Shall not all, who work iniquity, know?" (ver. 4). He threatens the
judgment. "Who devour My people as the food of bread:" that  is, daily. For
the food of bread is daily food.  Now they devour the people, who serve
their own ends out of them, not referring their ministry to the glory of
God, and the salvation of those over whom they are.

   6. "They have not called upon the Lord." For he doth not really call
upon Him, who longs for such things as are displeasing to Him. "There they
trembled for fear, where no fear was" (ver. 5): that is, for the loss of
things temporal. For they said, "If we let Him thus alone, all men will
believe on Him; and the Romans will come, and take away both our place and
nation."(2) They feared to lose an earthly kingdom, where no fear was; and
they lost the kingdom of heaven, which they ought to have feared. And this
must be understood of all temporal goods, the loss of which when men fear,
they come not to things eternal.

   7. "For God is in the just generation." It refers to what went before,
so that the sense is, "shall not all they that work iniquity know that the
Lord is in the just generation;"(3) that is, He is not in them who love the
world. For it is unjust to leave the Maker of the worlds, and "serve the
creature more than the Creator."(4) Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor,
for the Lord is his hope" (ver. 6): that is, ye have despised the humble
coining of the Son of God, because ye saw not in Him the pomp of the world:
that they, whom he was calling, should put their hope in God alone, not in
the things that pass away.

   8. "Who will give salvation to Israel out of Sion?" (ver. 7). Who but
He whose humiliation ye have despised? is understood. For He will come in
glory to the judgment of the quick and the dead, and the kingdom of the
just: that, forasmuch as in that humble coming "blindness hath happened in
part unto Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might enter in,"(5) in
that other should happen what follows, "and so all Israel should be saved."
For the Apostle too takes that testimony of Isaiah, where it is said,
"There shall come out of Sion He who shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob:"(6) for the Jews, as it is here, "Who shall give salvation to Israel
out of Sion?" "When the Lord shall turn away the captivity of His people,
Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad."(7) It is a repetition, as
is usual: for I suppose, "Israel shall be glad," is the same as, "Jacob
shall rejoice."

PSALM XV.(8)

A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. Touching this title there is no question. "0 Lord who shall sojourn
in Thy tabernacle?" (ver. 1). Although tabernacle be sometimes used even
for an everlasting habitation: yet when tabernacle is taken in its proper
meaning, it is a thing of war. Hence soldiers are called tent-fellows,(9)
as having their tents together. This sense is assisted by the words, "Who
shall sojourn?" For we war with the devil for a time, and then we need a
tabernacle wherein we may refresh ourselves. Which specially points out the
faith of the temporal Dispensation, which was wrought for us in time
through the Incarnation of the Lord. "And who shall rest in Thy holy
mountain?" Here perhaps he signifies at once the eternal habitation
itself,(10) that we should  understand by "mountain" the supereminence of
the love of Christ in life eternal.(11)

   2. "He who walketh without stain, and worketh righteousness" (ver. 2).
Here he has laid down the proposition; in what follows he sets it forth in
detail.

   3. "Who speaketh the truth in his heart." For some have truth on their
lips, and not in their heart. As if one should deceitfully point out a
road, knowing that there were robbers there, and should say, If you go this
way, you will be safe from robbers; and it should turn out that in fact
there were no robbers found there: he has spoken the truth, but not in his
heart. For he supposed it to be otherwise, and spoke the truth in
ignorance. Therefore it is not enough to speak the truth, unless it be so
also in heart. "Who hath practised no deceit in his tongue" (vet. 3).
Deceit is practised with the tongue, when one thing is professed with the
mouth, another concealed in the breast. "Nor tone evil to his neighhour."
It is well known that by "neighbour," every man should be understood. "And
hath not entertained slander against his neighbour," that is, hath not
readily or rashly given credence to an accuser.

   4. "The malicious one hath been brought to nought in his sight"(1)
(ver. 4). This is perfection, that the malicious one have no force against
a man; and that this be "in his sight;" that is, that he know most surely
that the malicious is not, save when the mind turns itself away from the
eternal and immutable form(2) of her own Creator to the form of the
creature, which was made out of nothing. "But those that fear the Lord, He
glorifieth:" the Lord Himself, that is. Now "the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom."(3) As then the things above belong to the perfect, so
what he is now going to say belongs to beginners.

   5. "Who sweareth unto his neighbour, and deceiveth him not." "Who hath
not given his money upon usury, and hath not taken rewards against the
innocent" (ver. 5). These are no great things: but he who is not able to do
even this, much less able is he to speak the truth in his heart, and to
practise no deceit in his tongue, but as the truth is in the heart, so to
profess and have it in his mouth, "yea, yea; nay, nay;"(4) and to do no
evil to his neighbour, that is, to any man; and to entertain no slander
against his neighbour: all which are the virtues of the perfect, in whose
sight the malicious one hath been brought to nought. Yet he concludes even
these lesser things thus, "Whoso doeth these things shall not be moved for
ever:" that is, he shall attain unto those greater things, wherein is great
and unshaken stability. For even the very tenses are, perhaps not without
cause, so varied, as that in the conclusion above the past tense should be
used, but in this the future. For there it was said, "The malicious one
hath been brought to nought in his sight:"but here, "shall not be moved for
ever."

PSALM XVI. (5)

THE INSCRIPTION OF THE TITLE, OF DAVID HIMSELF.(6)

   1. Our King in this Psalm speaks in the character of the human(7)
nature He assumed, of whom the royal tle at the time of His passion was
eminently set forth.

   2. Now He saith as follows; "Preserve me, O Lord, for in Thee have I
hoped" (ver. 1): "I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou
requirest not my goods" (ver. 2): for with my goods Thou dost not look to
be made blessed.

   3. "To the saints who are on His earth" (ver. 3): to the saints who
have placed their hope in the laud of the living, the citizens of the
heavenly Jerusalem, whose spiritual conversation is, by the anchor of hope,
fixed in that country, which is rightly called God's earth; although as yet
in this earth too they be conversant in the flesh. "He hath wonderfully
fulfilled all My wishes in them." To those saints then He hath wonderfully
fulfilled all My wishes in their advancement, whereby they have perceived,
how both the humanity of My divinity hath profited them that I might die,
and the divinity of the humanity that I might rise again.

   4. "Their infirmities have been multiplied"(8) (ver. 4): their
infirmities have been multiplied not for their destruction, but that they
might long for the Physician. "Afterwards they made haste." Accordingly
after infirmities multiplied they made haste, that they might be healed. "I
will not gather together their assemblies by blood." For their assemblies
shall not be carnal, nor will I gather them together as one propitiated by
the blood of cattle.(9) "Nor will I be mindful of their names within My
lips." But by a spiritual change what they have been shall be forgotten;
nor by Me shall they be any more called either sinners, or enemies, or men;
but righteous, and My brethren, and sons of God through My peace.

   5. "The Lord is the portion of Mine inheritance, and of My cup" (ver.
5). For together with Me they shall possess the inheritance, the Lord
Himself. Let others choose for themselves portions, earthly and temporal,
to enjoy: the portion of the Saints is the Lord eternal. Let others drink
of deadly pleasures, the portion of My cup is the Lord. In that I say,
"Mine," I include the Church: for where the Head is, there is the body
also. For into the inheritance will I gather together their assemblies, and
by the inebriation of the cup I will forget their old names. "Thou art He
who will restore to Me My inheritance:" that to these too, whom I free, may
be known "the glory wherein I was with Thee before the world was made."(10)
For Thou wilt not restore to Me that which I never lost, but Thou wilt
restore to these, who have lost it, the knowledge of that glory: in whom
because I am, Thou wilt restore to Me.

   6. "The lines have fallen to me in glorious places" (ver. 6). The
boundaries of my possession have fallen in Thy glory as it were by lot,
like as God is the possession of the Priests and Levites.(11) "For Mine
inheritance is glorious to Me." "For Mine inheritance is glorious," not to
all, but to them that see; in whom because I am, "it is to Me."

   7. "I will bless the Lord, who hath given Me understanding" (ver. 7):
whereby this inheritance may be seen and possessed. "Yea moreover too even
unto night my reins have chastened Me." Yea besides understanding, even
unto death, My inferior part, the assumption of flesh, hath instructed Me,
that I might experience the darkness of mortality, which that understanding
hath not.

   8. "I foresaw the Lord in My sight always" (ver. 8). But coming into
things that pass away, I removed not Mine eye from Him who abideth ever,
foreseeing this, that to Him I should return after passing through the
things temporal. "For He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved."
For He favoureth Me, that I should abide fixedly in Him.

   9. "Wherefore My heart was glad, and My tongue exulted" (ver. 9).
Wherefore both in My thoughts is gladness, and in my words exultation.
"Moreover too My flesh shall rest in hope." Moreover too My flesh shall not
fail unto destruction, but shall sleep in hope of the resurrection.

   10. "For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell" (ver. 10). For Thou wilt
neither give My soul for a possession to those parts below. "Neither wilt
Thou grant Thine Holy One to see corruption." Neither wilt Thou suffer that
sanctified body, whereby others are to be also sanctified, to see
corruption. "Thou hast made known to Me the paths of life" (ver. 11). Thou
hast made known through Me the paths of humiliation, that(1) men might
return to life, from whence they fell through pride; in whom because I am,
"Thou hast made known to Me." "Thou wilt fill Me with joy with Thy
countenance." Thou wilt fill them with joy, that they should seek nothing
further, when they shall see Thee "face to face;" in whom because I am,
"Thou wilt fill Me." "Pleasure is at Thy right hand even to the end."
Pleasure is in Thy favour and mercy in this life's journey, leading on even
to the end of the glory of Thy countenance.(2)

PSALM XVII. (3)

A PRAYER OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. This prayer must be assigned to the Person of the Lord, with the
addition of the Church, which is His body.

   2. "Hear My righteousness, O God, consider My supplication" (ver. 1).
"Hearken unto My prayer, not in deceitful lips:" not going forth to Thee in
deceitful lips. "Let My judgment from Thy countenance go forth" (ver. 2).
From the enlightening of the knowledge of Thee, let Me judge truth. Or at
least, let My judgment go forth, not in deceitful lips, from Thy
countenance, that is, that I may not in judging utter aught else than I
understand in Thee. "Let Mine eyes see equity:" the eyes, of course,  of
the heart.

   3. "Thou hast proved and visited Mine heart in the night season" (ver.
3). For this Mine heart hath been proved by the visitation of tribulation.
"Thou hast examined Me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in Me."
Now not night only, in that it is wont to disturb, but fire also, in that
it burns, is this tribulation to be called; whereby when I was examined I
was found righteous.

   4. "That My mouth may not speak the works of men" (ver. 4). That
nothing may proceed out of My mouth, but what relates to Thy glory and
praise; not to the works of men, which they do beside Thy will. "Because of
the words of Thy lips."(4) Because of the words of Thy peace, or of Thy
prophets. "I have kept hard ways." I have kept the toilsome ways of human
mortality and suffering.

   5. "To perfect My steps in Thy paths" (ver. 5). That the love of the
Church might be perfected in the strait ways, whereby she arrives at Thy
rest. "That My footsteps be not moved." That the signs of My way, which,
like footsteps, have been imprinted on the Sacraments and Apostolical
writings, be not moved, that they may mark them who would follow Me. Or at
least, that I may still abide fixedly in eternity, after that I have
accomplished the hard ways, and have finished My steps in the straits of
Thy paths.

   6. "I have cried out, for Thou hast heard Me, O God" (ver. 6). With a
free and strong effort have I directed My prayers unto Thee: for that I
might have this power, Thou hast heard Me when praying more weakly.
"Incline Thine ear to Me, and hear My words." Let not Thy hearing forsake
My humiliation.

   7. "Make Thy mercies marvellous" (ver. 7). Let not Thy mercies be
disesteemed, lest they be loved too little.

   8. "Who savest them that hope in Thee from such as resist Thy right
hand:" from such as resist the favour, whereby Thou favourest Me. "Keep Me,
O Lord, as the apple of Thine eye" (ver. 8): which seems very little and
minute: yet by it is the sight of the eye directed, whereby the light is
distinguished from the darkness; as by Christ's humanity, the divinity of
the Judgment s distinguishing between the righteous and sinners. "In the
covering of Thy wings protect Me." In the defence of Thy love and mercy
protect Me. "From the face of the ungodly who have troubled Me" (ver. 9).

    9. "Mine enemies have compassed about My soul;" "they have shut up
their own fat" (ver.10). They have been covered with their own gross joy,
after that their desire hath been satiated with wickedness. "Their mouth
hath spoken pride." And therefore their mouth spoke pride, in saying,
"Hail, King of the Jews,"(1) and other like words.

    10. "Casting Me forth they have now compassed Me about" (ver. 11).
Casting Me forth outside the city, they have now compassed Me about on the
Cross. "Their eyes they have determined to turn down on the earth." The
bent of their heart they have determined to turn down on these earthly
things: deeming Him, who was slain, to endure a mighty evil, and
themselves, that slew Him, none.

   11. "As a lion ready for prey, have they taken Me" (ver. 12). They have
taken Me, like that adversary who "walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour."(2) "And as a lion's whelp dwelling in secret places." And as his
whelp, the people to whom it was said, "Ye are of your father the
devil:"(3) meditating on the snares, whereby they might circumvent and
destroy the just One.

    12. "Arise, O Lord, prevent them, and cast them down" (ver. 13).
Arise, O Lord, Thou whom they suppose to be asleep, and regardless of men's
iniquities; be they blinded before by their own malice, that vengeance may
prevent their deed; and so cast them down.

    13. "Deliver My soul from the ungodly." Deliver My soul, by restoring
Me after the death, which the ungodly have inflicted on Me. "Thy weapon:
from the enemies of Thine hand" (ver. 14). For My soul is Thy weapon, which
Thy hand, that is, Thy eternal Power, hath taken to subdue thereby the
kingdoms of iniquity, and divide the righteous from the ungodly. This
weapon then "deliver from the enemies of Thine hand" that is of Thy Power
that is from Mine enemies. "Destroy them, O Lord, from off the earth,
scatter them in their life." O Lord, destroy them from off the earth, which
they inhabit, scatter them throughout the world in this life, which only
they think their life, who(4) despair of life eternal. "And by Thy hidden
things their belly hath been filled." Now not only this visible punishment
shall overtake them, but also their memory hath been filled with sins,
which as darkness are hidden from the light of Thy truth, that they should
forget God. "They have been filled with swine's flesh." They have been
filled with uncleanness, treading under foot the pearls of God's words.
"And they have left the rest to their babes:" crying out, "This sin be upon
us and upon our children."(5)

   14. "But I shall appear in Thy righteousness in Thy sight" (ver. 15 ).
But I, Who have not appeared to them that, with their filthy and darkened
heart, cannot see the light of wisdom, "I shall appear in Thy righteousness
in Thy sight."

   I shall be satiated, when Thy glory shall be manifested." And when they
have been satiated with their uncleanness, that they could not know Me, I
shall be satiated, when Thy glory shall be manifested, in them that know
Me. In that verse indeed where it is said, "filled with swine's flesh,"
some copies have, "filled with children:" for from the ambiguity of the
Greek(6) a double interpretation has resulted. Now by "children" we
understand works; and as by good children, good works, so by evil, evil.

PSALM XVIII.(7)

TO THE END, FOR THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. That is, for the strong of hand, Christ in His Manhood.(8) "The
words of this song which he spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord
delivered him out of the hands of his enemies, and of the hand of Saul; and
he said, On the day when the Lord delivered him out of the hands of his
enemies and of the hand of Saul:" namely, the king of the Jews, whom they
had demanded for themselves.(9) For as "David" is said to be by
interpretation, strong of hand; so "Saul" is said to be demanding. Now it
is well known, how that People demanded for themselves a king, and received
him for their king, not according to the will of God, but according to
their own will.

   2. Christ, then, and the Church, that is, whole Christ, the Head and
the Body, saith here, "I will love Thee, O Lord, My strength" (ver. 1). I
will love Thee, O Lord, by whom I am strong.(10)

   3. "O Lord, My stay, and My refuge, and My deliverer" (ver. 2). O Lord,
who hast stayed Me, because I sought refuge with Thee: and I sought refuge,
because Thou hast delivered Me. "My God is My helper; and I will hope in
Him." My God, who hast first afforded me the help of Thy call, that I might
be able to hope in Thee. "My defender, and the horn of My salvation, and My
redeemer." My defender, because I have not leant upon Myself, lifting up as
it were the horn of pride against Thee; but have found Thee a horn indeed,
that is, the sure height of salvation: and that I might find it, Thou
redeemedst Me.

   4. "With praise will I call upon the Lord, and I shall be safe from
Mine enemies" (ver. 3). Seeking not My own but the Lord's glory, I will
call upon Him, and there shall be no means whereby the errors of
ungodliness can hurt Me.

   5. "The pains of death," that is, of the flesh, have "compassed Me
about. And the overflowings of ungodliness have troubled Me" (ver. 4).
Ungodly troubles(1)stirred up for a time, like torrents of rain which will
soon subside, have come on to trouble Me.

   6. "The pains of hell compassed Me about" (ver. 5). Among those that
compassed Me about to destroy Me, were pains of envy, which work death, and
lead on to the hell of sin. "The snares of death prevented Me." They
prevented Me, so that they wished to hurt Me first, which shall afterwards
be recompensed unto them. Now they seize unto destruction such men as they
have evilly persuaded by the boast of righteousness: in the name but not in
the reality of which they glory against the Gentiles.

   7. "And in Mine oppression I called upon the Lord, and cried unto My
God. And He heard My voice from His holy temple" (ver. 6). He heard from My
heart, wherein He dwelleth, My voice. "And My cry in His sight entered into
His ears;" and My cry, which I utter, not in the ears of men, but inwardly
before Him Himself, "entered into His ears."

   8. "And the earth was moved and trembled" (ver. 7). When the Son of Man
was thus glorified, sinners were moved and trembled. "And the foundations
of the mountains were troubled." And the hopes of the proud, which were in
this life, were troubled. "And were moved, for God was wroth with them."
That is, that the hope of temporal goods might have now no more
establishment in the hearts of men.

   9. "There went up smoke in His wrath" (ver. 8). The tearful
supplication of penitents went up, when they came to know God's
threatenings against the ungodly. "And fire burneth from His face." And the
ardour of love after repentance burns by the knowledge of Him. "Coals were
kindled from Him." They, who were already dead, abandoned by the fire of
good desire and the light of righteousness, and who remained in coldness
and darkness, re-enkindled and enlightened, have come to life again.

   10. "And He bowed the heaven, and came down" (ver. 9). And He humbled
the just One, that He might descend to men's infirmity. "And darkness under
His feet." And the ungodly, who savour of things earthly, in the darkness
of their own malice, knew not Him: for the earth under His feet is as it
were His footstool.

   11. "And He mounted above the cherubim, and did fly" (ver. 10). And He
was exalted above the fulness of knowledge, that no man should come to Him
but by love: for "love is the fulfilling of the law."(2) And full soon He
showed to His lovers that He is incomprehensible, lest they should suppose
that He is comprehended by corporeal imaginations. "He flew above the wings
of the winds." But that swiftness, whereby He showed Himself to be
incomprehensible, is above the powers of souls, whereon as upon wings they
raise themselves from earthly fears into the air of liberty.

   12. "And hath made darkness His hiding place" (ver. 11). And hath
settled the obscurity of the Sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart
of believers, where He may lie hid, and not abandon them. In this darkness
too, wherein "we yet walk by faith, and not by sight,"(3) as long as "we
hope for what we see not, and with patience wait for it."(4) Round about
Him is His tabernacle." Yet they that believe Him turn to Him and encircle
Him; for that He is in the midst of them, since He is equally the friend of
all, in whom as in a tabernacle He at this time dwells. "Dark water in
clouds of air." Nor let any one on this account, if he understand the
Scripture, imagine that he is already in that light, which will be when we
shall have come out of faith into sight: for in the prophets and in all the
preachers of the word of God there is obscure teaching.

   13. "In respect of the brightness in His sight" (ver. 12): in
comparison with the brightness, which is in the sight of His manifestation.
"His clouds have passed over." The preachers of His word are not now
bounded by the confines of Judaea, but have passed over to the Gentiles.
"Hail and coals of fire." Reproofs are figured,(5) whereby, as by hail, the
hard hearts are bruised: but if a cultivated and genial soil, that is, a
godly mind, receive them, the hail's hardness dissolves into water, that
is, the terror of the lightning-charged,(6) and as it were frozen, reproof
dissolves into satisfying doctrine; and hearts kindled by the fire of love
revive. All these things in His clouds have passed over to the Gentiles.

   14. "And the Lord hath thundered from heaven" (ver. 13). And in
confidence of the Gospel the Lord hath sounded forth from the heart of the
just One. "And the Highest gave His voice;" that we might entertain it, and
in the depth of human things, might hear things heavenly.

   15. "And He sent out His arrows, and scattered them" (ver. 14). And He
sent out Evangelists traversing straight paths on the wings of strength,
not in their own power, but His by whom they were sent. And "He scattered
them," to whom they were sent, that to some of them they should be "the
savour of life unto life, to others the savour of death unto death."(1)
"And He multiplied lightnings, and troubled them." And He multiplied
miracles, and troubled them.

   16. "And the fountains of water were seen. And the fountains of water
springing up into everlasting life,"(2) which were made in the preachers,
were seen. "And the foundations of the round world were revealed" (ver.
15). And the Prophets, who were not understood, and upon whom was to be
built the world of believers in the Lord, were revealed. "At Thy chiding, O
Lord:" crying out, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."(3) "At the
blasting of the breath of Thy displeasure;" saying, "Except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish."(4)

   17. "He hath sent down from on high, and hath fetched Me (ver. 16): by
calling out of the Gentiles for an inheritance "a glorious Church, not
having spot, or wrinkle."(5) "He hath taken Me out of the multitude of
waters." He hath taken Me out of the multitude of peoples.

   18. "He hath delivered Me from My strongest enemies" (ver. 17). He hath
delivered Me from Mine enemies, who prevailed to the afflicting and
overturning of this temporal life of Mine. "And from them which hate Me;
for they are too strong for Me:" as long as I am under them knowing not
God.

   19. "They have prevented Me in the day of My affliction" (ver. 18).
They have first injured Me, in the time when I am bearing a mortal and
toilsome body. "And the Lord hath become My stay." And since the stay of
earthly pleasure was disturbed and torn up by the bitterness of misery, the
Lord hath become My stay.

   20. "And hath brought Me forth into a broad place" (ver. 19). And since
I was enduring the straits of the flesh, He brought Me forth into the
spiritual breadth of faith. "He hath delivered Me, because He desired Me."
Before that I desired Him, He delivered Me from My most powerful enemies
(who were envious of Me when I once desired Him), and from them that hated
Me, because I do desire Him.

   21. "And the Lord shall reward Me according to My righteousness" (vet.
20). And the Lord shall reward Me according to the righteousness of My good
will, who first showed mercy, before that I had the good will. "And
according to the cleanness of My hands He will recompense Me." And
according to the cleanness of My deeds He will recompense Me, who hath
given Me to do well by bringing Me forth into the broad place of faith.

   22. "Because I have kept the ways of the Lord" (ver. 21). That the
breadth of good works, that are by faith, and the long-suffering of
perseverance should follow after.

   23. "Nor have I walked impiously apart from My God." "For all His
judgments are(6) in My sight" (ver. 22). "For" with persevering
contemplation I weigh "all His judgments," that is, the rewards of the
righteous, and the punishments of the ungodly, and the scourges of such as
are to be chastened, and the trials of such as are to be proved. "And I
have not cast out His righteousness from Me:" as they do that faint under
their burden of them, and return to their own vomit.

   24. "And I shall be undefiled with Him, and I shall keep Myself from
Mine iniquity" (ver. 23 ).

   25. "And the Lord shall reward Me according to My righteousness (ver.
24). Accordingly not only for the breadth of faith, which worketh by love;
but also for the length of perseverance, will the Lord reward Me according
to My righteousness. "And according to the cleanness of My hands in the
sight of His eyes." Not as men see, but "in the sight of His eyes." For
"the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen
are eternal:"(7) whereto the height of hope appertains.

   26. "With the holy Thou shalt be holy" (ver. 25). There is a hidden
depth also, wherein Thou art known to be holy with the holy, for that Thou
makest holy. "And with the harmless Thou shalt be harmless." For Thou
harmest no man, but each one is bound by the bands of his own sins.(8)

   27. "And with the chosen Thou shalt be chosen." (ver. 26). And by him
whom Thou choosest, Thou art chosen. "And with the froward Thou shalt be
froward." And with the froward Thou seemest froward: for they say, "The way
of the Lord is not right: "(9) and their way is not right.

   28. "For Thou wilt make whole the humble people" (ver. 27). Now this
seems froward to the froward, that Thou wilt make them whole that confess
their sins. "And Thou wilt humble the eyes of the proud." But them that are
"ignorant of God's righteousness, and seek to establish their own,"(10)
Thou wilt humble.

   29. "For thou wilt light My candle, O Lord" (ver. 28). For our light is
not from ourselves; but "Thou wilt light my candle, O Lord. O my God, Thou
wilt enlighten my darkness." For  we through our sins are darkness; but
"Thou, O my God, wilt enlighten my darkness."

   30. "For by Thee shall I be delivered from temptation" (ver. 29). For
not by myself, but by Thee, shall I be delivered from temptation. "And in
my God shall I leap over the wall." And not in myself, but in my God shall
I leap over the wall, which sin has raised between men and the heavenly
Jerusalem.

   31. "My God, His way is undefiled "(ver. 30). My God cometh not unto
men, except they shall have purified the way of faith, whereby He may come
to them; for that" His way is undefiled." "The words of the Lord have been
proved by fire." The words of the Lord are tried by the fire of
tribulation. "He is the Protector of them that hope in Him." And all that
hope not in themselves, but in Him, are not consumed by that same
tribulation. For hope followeth faith.

   32. "For who is God, but the Lord?" (ver. 31) whom we serve. "And who
God, but our God?" And who is God, but the Lord? whom after good service we
sons shall possess as the hoped-for inheritance.

   33. "God, who hath girded me with strength" (ver. 32). God, who hath
girded me that I might be strong, lest the loosely flowing folds of desire
hinder my deeds and steps. "And hath made my way undefiled." And hath made
the way of love, whereby I may come to Him, undefiled, as the way of faith
is undefiled, whereby He comes to me.

   34. "Who hath made my feet perfect like harts' feet" (ver. 33). Who
hath made my love perfect to surmount the thorny and dark entanglements of
this world. "And will set me up on high." And will fix my aim on the
heavenly habitation, that "I may be filled with all the fulness of God."(1)

   35. "Who teacheth my hands for battle" (ver. 34). Who teacheth me to
work for the overthrow of mine enemies, who strive to shut the kingdom of
heaven against us. "And Thou hast made mine arms as a bow of steel." And
Thou hast made my earnest striving after good works unwearied.

   36. "And Thou hast given me the defence of my salvation, and Thy right
hand hath held me up" (ver. 35). And the favour of Thy grace hath held me
up. "And Thy discipline hath directed me to the end." And Thy correction,
not suffering me to wander from the way, hath directed me that whatsoever I
do, I refer to that end, whereby I may cleave to Thee. "And this Thy
discipline, it shall teach me." And that same correction of Thine shall
teach me to attain to that, whereunto it hath directed me.

   37. "Thou hast enlarged my steps under me" (ver. 36). Nor shall the
straits of the flesh hinder me; for Thou hast enlarged my love, working in
gladness even with these mortal things and members which are under me. "And
my footsteps have not been weakened." And either my goings, or the marks
which I have imprinted for the imitation of those that follow, have not
been weakened.

   38. "I will follow up mine enemies, and seize them" (ver. 37). I will
follow up my carnal affections, and will not be seized by them, but will
seize them, so that they may be consumed. "And I will not turn, till they
fail." And from this purpose I will not turn myself to rest, till they fail
who make a tumult about me.

   39. "I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand" (ver. 38):
and they shall not hold out against me. "They shall fall under my feet."
When they are cast down, I will place before me the loves(2) whereby I walk
for evermore.

   40. "And Thou hast girded me with strength to the war" (ver. 39). And
the loose desires of my flesh hast Thou bound up with strength, that in
such a fight I may not be encumbered. "Thou hast supplanted under me them
that rose up against me." Thou hast caused them to be deceived, who
followed upon me, that they should be brought under me, who desired to be
over me.

   41. "And thou hast given mine enemies the back to me" (ver. 40). And
thou hast turned mine enemies, and hast made them to be a back to me, that
is, to follow me. "And Thou hast destroyed them that hate me." But such
other of them as have persisted in hatred, Thou hast destroyed.

   42. "They have cried out, and there was none to save them" (ver. 41).
For who can save them, whom Thou wouldest not save? "To the Lord, and He
did not hear them." Nor did they cry out to any chance one, but to the
Lord: and He did not judge them worthy of being heard, who depart not from
their wickedness.

   43. "And I will beat them as small as dust before the face of the wind"
(ver. 42). And I will beat them small; for dry they are, receiving not the
shower of God's mercy; that borne aloft and puffed up with pride they may
be hurried along from firm and unshaken hope, and as it were from the
earth's solidity and stability. "As the clay of the streets I will destroy
them." In their wanton and loose course along the broad ways of perdition,
which many walk, will I destroy them.

   44. "Thou wilt deliver Me from the contradictions of the people" (ver.
43). Thou wilt deliver Me from the contradictions of them who said, "If we
send Him away, all the world will go after Him."(1)

   45. "Thou shall make Me the head of the Gentiles. A people whom I have
not known have served Me." The people of the Gentiles, whom in bodily
presence I have not visited, have served Me. "At the hearing of the ear
they have obeyed Me" (ver. 44). They have not seen Me with the eye: but,
receiving my preachers, at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed Me.

   46. "The strange children have lied unto Me." Children, not to be
called Mine, but rather strange children, to whom it is rightly said, "Ye
are of your father the devil,"(2) have lied unto Me. "The strange children
have waxen old" (ver. 45). The strange children, to whom for their
renovation I brought the new Testament, have remained in the old man. "And
they have halted from their own paths." And like those that are weak in one
foot, for holding the old they have rejected the new Testament, they have
become halt, even in their old Law, rather following their own traditions,
than God's. For they brought frivolous charges of unwashen hands,(3)
because such were the paths, which themselves had made and worn by long
use, in wandering from the ways of God's commands.

   47. "The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God." "But to be carnally
minded is death:"(4) for "the Lord liveth, and blessed be my God. And let
the God of my salvation be exalted" (ver. 46). And let me not think after
an earthly fashion of the God of my salvation; nor look from Him for this
earthly salvation, but that on high.

   48. "O God, who givest Me vengeance, and subduest the people under Me"
(ver. 47). O God, who avengest Me by subduing the people under Me. "My
Deliverer from My angry enemies:" the Jews crying out, "Crucify Him,
Crucify Him."(5)

   49. "From them that rise up against Me Thou wilt exalt Me" (ver. 48).
From the Jews that rise up against Me in My passion, Thou wilt exalt Me in
My resurrection. "From the unjust man Thou wilt deliver Me." From their
unjust rule Thou wilt deliver Me.

   50. "For this cause will I confess to Thee among the Gentiles, O Lord"
(ver. 49). For this cause shall the Gentiles confess to Thee through Me, O
Lord. "And I will sing unto Thy Name." And Thou shall be more widely known
by My good deeds.

   51. "Magnifying the salvation of His King" (ver. 50). God, who
magnifieth, so as to make wonderful, the salvation, which His Son giveth to
believers.(6) "And showing mercy to His Christ: "God, who showeth mercy to
His Christ: "To David and to His seed for evermore:" to the Deliverer
Himself strong of hand, who hath overcome this world; and to them whom, as
believers in the Gospel, He hath begotten for evermore. What things soever
are spoken in this Psalm which cannot apply to the Lord Himself personally,
that is to the Head of the Church, must be referred to the Church. For
whole Christ speaks here, in whom are all His members.

PSALM XIX.(7)

TO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. It is a well-known title; nor does the Lord Jesus Christ say what
follows, but it is said of Him.

   2. "The heavens tell out the glory of God" (ver. 1). The righteous
Evangelists, in whom, as in the heavens, God dwelleth, set forth the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the glory wherewith the Son glorified the
Father upon earth. "And the firmament showeth forth the works of His
hands." And the firmament showeth forth the deeds of the Lord's power, that
now made heaven by the assurance of the Holy Ghost, which before was earth
by fear.

   3. "Day unto day uttereth word" (ver. 2). To the spiritual the Spirit
giveth out the fulness of the unchangeable Wisdom of God, the Word which in
the beginning is God with God.(8) "And night unto night announceth
knowledge." And to the fleshly, as to those afar off, the mortality of the
flesh, by conveying faith, announceth future knowledge.

   4. "There is no speech nor language, in which their voices are not
heard" (ver. 3). In which the voices of the Evangelists have not been
heard, seeing that the Gospel was preached in every tongue.

   5. "Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the
ends of the world"(9) (ver. 4).

   6. "In the sun hath He set His tabernacle." Now that He might war
against the powers of temporal error, the Lord, being about to send not
peace but a sword on earth,(10) in time, or in manifestation, set so to say
His military dwelling, that is, the dispensation of His incarnation. "And
He as a bridegroom coming forth out of His chamber" (ver. 5). And He,
coming forth out of the Virgin's womb, where God was united to man's nature
as a bridegroom to a bride. "Rejoiced as a giant to run His way." Rejoiced
as One exceeding strong, and surpassing all other men in power
incomparable, not to inhabit, but to run His way. For, "He stood not in the
way of sinners. "(1)

   7. "His going forth is from the highest heaven" (ver. 6). From the
Father is His going forth, not that in time, but from everlasting, whereby
He was born of the Father. "And His meeting is even to the height of
heaven." And in the fulness of the Godhead He meets even to an equality
with the Father.(2) "And there is none that may hide himself from His
heat." But whereas, "the Word was even made flesh, and dwelt in us,"(3)
assuming our mortality, He permitted no man to excuse himself from the
shadow of death; for the heat of the Word penetrated even it.

   8. "The law of the Lord is undefiled, converting souls" (ver. 7). The
law of the Lord, therefore, is Himself who came to fulfil the law, not to
destroy it;(4) an undefiled law, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found
in His mouth,"(5) not oppressing souls with the yoke of bondage, but
converting them to imitate Him in liberty. "The testimony of the Lord is
sure, giving wisdom to babes." "The testimony of the Lord is sure;" for,
"no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him,"(6) which things have been hidden from the wise and revealed to
babes;(7) for, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."
8)

   9. "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart" (ver. 8).
All the statutes of the Lord are right in Him who taught not what He did
not; that they who should imitate Him might rejoice in heart, in those
things which they should do freely with love, not slavishly with fear. "The
commandment of the Lord is lucid, enlightening the eyes." "The commandment
of the Lord is lucid," with no veil of carnal observances, enlightening the
sight of the inner man.

   10. "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever" (ver. 9). "The
fear of the Lord;" not that distressing(9) fear under the law, dreading
exceedingly the withdrawal of temporal goods, by the love of which the soul
commits fornication; but that chaste fear wherewith the Church, the more
ardently she loves her Spouse, the more carefully does she take heed of
offending Him, and therefore, "perfect love casteth" not "out" this"
fear,"(10) but it endureth for ever.

   11. "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified together." The
judgments of Him, who "judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
the Son,"(11) are justified in truth unchangeably. For neither in His
threatenings nor His promises doth God deceive any man, nor can any
withdraw either from the ungodly His punishment, or from the godly His
reward. "To be desired more than gold, and much precious stone" (ver. 10).
Whether it be "gold and stone itself much," or "much precious," or "much to
be desired;" still, the judgments of God are to be desired more than the
pomp of this world; by desire of which it is brought to pass that the
judgments of God are not desired, but feared, or despised, or not believed.
But if any be himself gold and precious stone, that he may not be consumed
by fire, but received into the treasury of God, more than himself does he
desire the judgments of God, whose will he preferreth to his own. "And
sweeter than honey and the honey comb." And whether one be even now honey,
who, disenthralled already from the chains of this life, is awaiting the
day when he may come up to God's feast; or whether he be yet as the honey
comb, wrapped about with this life as it were with wax, not mixed and
become one with it, but filling it, needing some pressure of God's hand,
not oppressing but expressing it, whereby from life temporal it may be
strained out into life eternal: to such an one the judgments of God are
sweeter than he himself is to himself, for that they are "sweeter than
honey and the honey comb."

   12. "For Thy servant keepeth them "(ver. 11). For to him who keepeth
them not the day of the Lord is bitter. "In keeping them there is great
reward." Not in any external benefit, but in the thing itself, that God's
judgments are kept, is there great reward; great because one rejoiceth
therein.

   13. "Who understandeth sins?" (ver. But what sort of sweetness can
there be in sins, where there is no understanding? For who can understand
sins, which close the very eye, to which truth is pleasant, to which the
judgments of God are desirable and sweet? yea, as darkness closes the eye,
so do sins the mind, and suffer it not to see either the light, or itself.

   14. "Cleanse me, O Lord, from my secret faults." From the lusts which
lie hid in me, cleanse me, O Lord. "And from the" faults "of others
preserve Thy servant" (ver. 13). Let me not be led astray by others. For he
is not a prey to the faults of others, who is cleansed from his own.
Preserve therefore from the lusts of others, not the proud man, and him who
would be his own master, but, Thy servant. "If they get not the dominion
over me, then shall I be undefiled." If neither my own secret sins, nor
those of others, get the dominion over me, then shall I be undefiled. For
there is no third source of sin, but one's own secret sin, by which the
devil fell, and another's sin, by which man is seduced, so as by consenting
to make it his own. "And I shall be cleansed from the great offence." What
but pride? for there is none greater than apostasy from God, which is "the
beginning of the pride of man."(1) And he shall indeed be undefiled, who is
free from this offence also; for tiffs is the last to them who are
returning to God, which was the first as they departed from Him.

   15. "And the words of my mouth shall be pleasing, and the meditation of
my heart is always in Thy sight" (ver. 14). The meditation of my heart is
not after the vain glory of pleasing men, for now there is pride no more,
but in Thy sight alway, who regardest a pure conscience "O Lord, my Helper,
and my Redeemer"(2) (ver. 15). O Lord, my Helper, in my approach to Thee;
for Thou art my Redeemer, that I might set out unto Thee: lest any
attributing to his own wisdom his conversion to Thee, or to his own
strength his attaining to Thee, should be rather driven back by Thee, who
resistest the proud; for he is not cleansed from the great offence, nor
pleasing in Thy sight, who redeemest us that we may be converted, and
helpest us that we may attain unto Thee.

PSALM XX.(3)

TO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID.

   1. This is a well-known title; and it is not Christ who speaks; but the
prophet speaks to Christ, under the form of wishing, foretelling things to
come.(4)

   2. "The Lord hear Thee in the day of trouble" (ver. 1). The Lord hear
Thee in the day in which Thou saidst, "Father glorify Thy Son."(5) "The
name of the God of Jacob protect Thee." For to Thee belongeth the younger
people. Since "the eider shall serve the younger."(6)

   3. "Send Thee help from the Holy, and from Sion defend Thee" (ver. 2).
Making for Thee a sanctified Body, the Church, from watching(7) safe, which
waiteth when Thou shalt come from the wedding.

   4. "Be mindful of all Thy sacrifice" (ver. 3). Make us mindful of all
Thy injuries and despiteful treatment, which Thou hast borne for us. "And
be Thy whole burnt offering made fat." And turn the cross, whereon Thou
wast wholly offered up to God, into the joy of the resurrection.

   5. "Diapsalma. The Lord render to Thee according to Thine Heart" (ver.
4). The Lord render to Thee, not according to their heart, who thought by
persecution they could destroy Thee; but according to Thine Heart, wherein
Thou knewest what profit Thy passion would have.(8) "And fulfil all Thy
counsel." "And fulfil all Thy counsel," not only that whereby Thou didst
lay down Thy life for Thy friends,(9) that the corrupted grain might rise
again to more abundance;(10) but that also whereby "blindness in part hath
happened unto Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might enter in, and
so an Israel might be saved."(11)

   6. "We will exult in Thy salvation" (ver. 5). We will exult in that
death will in no wise hurt Thee; for so Thou wilt also show that it cannot
hurt us either. "And in the name of the Lord our God will we be magnified."
And the confession of Thy name shall not only not destroy us, but shall
even magnify us.

   7. "The Lord fulfil all Thy petitions." The Lord fulfil not only the
petitions which Thou madest on earth, but those also whereby Thou
intercedest for us in heaven. "Now have I known that the Lord hath saved
his Christ" (ver. 6). Now hath it been shown to me in prophecy, that the
Lord will raise up His Christ again. "He will hear Him from His holy
heaven." He will hear Him not from earth only, where He prayed to be
glorified;(12) but from heaven also, where interceding for us at the Right
Hand of the Father,(13) He hath from thence shed abroad the Holy Spirit on
them that believe on Him. "In strength is the safety of His right hand."
Our strength is in the safety of His favour, when even out of tribulation
He giveth help, that "when we are weak, then we may be strong."(14) "For
vain is "that "safety of man,"(15) which comes not of His right hand but of
His left: for thereby are they lifted up to great pride, whosoever in their
sins have secured a temporal safety.

   8. "Some in chariots, and some in horses" (ver. 7). Some are drawn away
by the ever moving succession of temporal goods; and some are preferred to
proud honours, and in them exult: "But we will exult in the name of the
Lord our God." But we, fixing our hope on things eternal, and not seeking
our own glory, will exult in the name of the Lord our God.

   9. "They have been bound, and fallen" (ver. 8). And therefore were they
bound by the lust of temporal things, fearing to spare the Lord, lest they
should lose their place by "the Romans:"[1] and rushing violently on the
stone of offence and rock of stumbling, they fell from the heavenly hope:
to whom the blindness in part of Israel hath happened, being ignorant of
God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own.[2] "But we are
risen, and stand upright." But we, that the Gentile people might enter in,
out of the stones raised up as children to Abraham,[3] who followed not
after righteousness, have attained to it, and are risen;[4] and not by our
own strength, but being justified by faith, we stand upright.

   10. "O Lord, save the King:" that He, who in His Passion hath shown us
an example of conflict, should also offer up our sacrifices, the Priest
raised from the dead, and established in heaven. "And hear us in the day
when we shall call on Thee" (ver. 9). And as He now offereth for us, "hear
us in the day when we shall call on Thee."

PSALM XXI.[5]

TO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. The title is a familiar one; the Psalm is of Christ.[6]

   2. "O Lord, the King shall rejoice in Thy strength" (ver. 1). O Lord,
in Thy strength, whereby the Word was made flesh, the Man Christ Jesus
shall rejoice. "And shall exult exceedingly in Thy salvation." And in that,
whereby Thou quckenest all things, shall exult exceedingly.

   3. "Thou hast given Him the desire of His soul" (vet. 2). He desired to
eat the Passover,[7] and to lay down His life when He would, and again when
He would to take it; and Thou hast given it to Him.[8] "And hast not
deprived Him of the good pleasure of His lips." "My peace," saith He, "I
leave with you:"[9] and it was done.

   4. "For Thou hast presented Him with the blessings of sweetness" (ver.
3). Because He had first quaffed the blessing of Thy sweetness, the gall of
our sins did not hurt Him. "Diapsalma. Thou hast set a crown of precious
stone on His Head."[10] At the beginning of His discoursing precious stones
were brought, and compassed Him about;[11] His disciples, from whom the
commencement of His preaching should be made.

   5. "He asked life; and Thou gavest Him:" He asked a resurrection,
saying, "Father, glorify Thy Son;"[12] and Thou gavest it Him, "Length of
days for ever and ever" (ver. 4). The prolonged ages of this world which
the Church was to have, and after them an eternity, world without end.

   6. "His glory is great in Thy salvation" (ver. 5). Great indeed is His
glory in the salvation, whereby Thou hast raised Him up again. "Glory and
great honour shalt Thou lay upon Him." But Thou shalt yet add unto Him
glory and great honour, when Thou shall place Him in heaven at Thy right
hand.

   7. "For Thou shalt give Him blessing for ever and ever." This is the
blessing which Thou shalt give Him for ever and ever: "Thou shall make Him
glad in joy together with Thy countenance" (ver. 6). According to His
manhood, Thou shall make Him glad together with Thy countenance, which He
lifted up to Thee.

   8. "For the King hopeth in the Lord." For the King is not proud, but
humble in heart, he hopeth in the Lord. "And in the mercy of the Most
Highest He shall not be moved" (ver. 7). And in the mercy of the Most
Highest His obedience even unto the death of the Cross shall not disturb
His humility.

   9. "Let Thy hand be found by all Thine enemies." Be Thy power, O King,
when Thou comest to judgment, found by all Thine enemies; who in Thy
humiliation discerned it not. "Let Thy right hand find out all that hate
Thee" (ver. 8). Let the glory, wherein Thou reignest at the right hand of
the Father, find out for punishment in the day of judgment all that hate
Thee; for that now they have not found it.

   10. "Thou shalt make them like a fiery oven:" Thou shalt make them on
fire within, by the consciousness of their ungodliness: "In the time of Thy
countenance:" in the time of Thy manifestation. "The Lord shall trouble
them in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them" (ver. 9). And then,
being troubled by the vengeance of the Lord, after the accusation of their
conscience, they shall be given up to eternal fire, to be devoured.

   11. "Their fruit shalt Thou destroy cut of the earth." Their fruit,
because it is earthly, shalt Thou destroy out of the earth. "And their seed
from the sons of men" (ver. 10). And their works; or, whomsoever they have
seduced, Thou shalt not reckon among the sons of men, whom Thou hast called
into the everlasting inheritance.

   12. "Because they turned evils against Thee." Now this punishment shall
be recompensed to them, because the evils which they supposed to hang over
them by Thy reign, they turned against Thee to Thy death. "They imagined a
device, which they were not able to establish" (ver. 11). They imagined a
device, saying, "It is expedient that one die for all:"[1] which they were
not able to establish, not knowing what they said.

   13. "For Thou shalt set them low." For Thou shalt rank them among those
from whom in degradation and contempt Thou wilt turn away. "In Thy
leavings[2] Thou shalt make ready their countenance" (ver. 12). And in
these things that Thou leavest, that is, in the desires of an earthly
kingdom, Thou shalt make ready their shamelessness for Thy passion.

   14. "Be Thou exalted, O Lord, in Thy strength" (ver. 13). Be Thou,
Lord, whom in humiliation they did not discern, exalted in Thy strength,
which they thought weakness. "We will sing and praise Thy power." In heart
and in deed we will celebrate and make known Thy marvels.

PSALM XXII.[3]

TO THE END, FOR THE TAKING UP OF THE MORNING, A PSALM OF DAVID.[4]

   1. "To the end," for His own resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself speaketh.[5] For in the morning on the first day of the week was
His resurrection, whereby He was taken up, into eternal life, "Over whom
death shall have no more dominion."[6] Now what follows is spoken in the
person of The Crucified. For from the head of this Psalm are the words,
which He cried out, whilst hanging on the Cross, sustaining also the person
of the old man, whose mortality He bare. For our old man was nailed
together with Him to the Cross.[7]

   2. "O God, my God, look upon me, why hast Thou forsaken[8] me far from
my salvation?" (ver. 1). Far removed from my salvation: for" salvation is
far from sinners."[9] "The words of my sins." For these are not the words
of righteousness, but of my sins. For it is the old man nailed to the Cross
that speaks, ignorant even of the reason why God hath forsaken him: or else
it may be thus, The words of my sins are far from my salvation.

   3. "My God, I will cry unto Thee in the daytime, and Thou wilt not hear
(ver. 2). My God, I will cry unto Thee in the prosperous circumstances of
this life, that they be not changed; and Thou wilt not hear, because I
shall cry unto Thee in the words of my sins. "And in the night-season, and
not to my folly." And so in the adversities of this life will I cry to Thee
for prosperity; and in like manner Thou wilt not hear. And this Thou doest
not to my folly, but rather that I may have wisdom to know what Thou
wouldest have me cry for, not with the words of sins out of longing for
life temporal, but with the words of turning to Thee for life eternal.

   4. "But Thou dwellest in the holy place, O Thou praise of Israel" (ver.
3). But Thou dwellest in the holy place, and therefore wilt not hear the
unclean words of sins. The "praise" of him that seeth Thee; not of him who
hath sought his own praise in tasting of the forbidden fruit, that on the
opening of his bodily eyes he should endeavour to hide himself from Thy
sight.

   5. "Our Fathers hoped in Thee." All the righteous, namely, who sought
not their own praise, but Thine. "They hoped in Thee, and Thou deliveredst
them" (ver. 4).

   6. "They cried unto Thee, and were saved." They cried unto Thee, not in
the words of sins, from which salvation is far; and therefore were they
saved. "They hoped in Thee, and were not confounded" (ver. 5). "They hoped
in Thee," and their hope did not deceive them. For they placed it not in
themselves.

   7. "But I am a worm, and no man" (ver. 6). But I, speaking now not in
the person of Adam, but I in My own person, Jesus Christ, was born without
human generation in the flesh, that I might be as man beyond men; that so
at least human pride might deign to imitate My humility. "The scorn of men,
and outcast of the people." In which humility I was made the scorn of men,
so as that it should be said, as a reproachful railing, "Be thou His
disciple: "[10] and that the people despise Me.

   8. "All that saw Me laughed Me to scorn" (ver. 7). All that saw Me
derided Me. "And spoke with the lips, and shook the head."[11] And they
spoke, not with the heart, but with the lips.

   9. For they shook their head in derision, saying, "He trusted in the
Lord let Him deliver Him: "[12] let Him save Him, since He desireth Him"
(ver 8).These were their words; but they were spoken "with the lips."

   10. "Since Thou art He who drew Me out of the womb" (ver. 9). Since
Thou art He who drew Me, not only out of that Virgin womb (for this is the
law of all men's birth, that they be drawn out of the womb), but also out
of the womb of the Jewish nation; by the darkness whereof he is covered,
and not yet born into the light of Christ, whosoever places his salvation
in the carnal observance of the Sabbath, and of circumcision, and the like.
"My hope from My mother's breasts." "My hope," O God, not from the time
when I began to be fed by the milk of the Virgin's breasts; for it was even
before; but from the breasts of the Synagogue, as I have said, out of the
womb, Thou hast drawn Me, that I should not suck in the customs of the
flesh.

   11. "I have been strengthened in Thee from the womb" (ver. 10). It is
the womb of the Synagogue, which did not carry Me, but threw Me out: but I
fell not, for Thou heldest me. "From My mother's womb Thou art My God."
"From My mother's womb: My mother's womb did not cause that, as a babe, I
should be forgetful of Thee.

   12. "Thou art My God," "depart not from Me; for trouble is hard at
hand" (ver. 11). Thou art, therefore, My God, depart not from Me; for
trouble is nigh unto Me; for it is in My body. "For there is none to help."
For who helpeth, if Thou helpest not?

   13. "Many calves came about Me." The multitude of the wanton populace
came about Me. "Fat bulls closed Me in" (ver. 12). And their leaders, glad
at My oppression, "closed Me in."

   14. "They opened their mouth upon Me" (ver. 13). They opened their
mouth upon Me, not out of Thy Scripture, but of their own lusts. "As a
ravening and roaring lion." As a lion, whose ravening is, that I was taken
and led; and whose roaring, "Crucify, Crucify."[1].

   15. "I was poured out like water, and all My bones were scattered"
(ver. 14). "I was poured out like water," when My persecutors fell: and
through fear, the stays of My body, that is, the Church, My disciples were
scattered from Me.[2] "My heart became as melting wax, in the midst of my
belly."  My wisdom, which was written of Me in the sacred books, was, as if
hard and shut up, not understood: but after that the fire of My Passion was
applied, it was, as if melted, manifested, and entertained in the memory of
My Church.

   16. "My strength dried up as a potsherd" (ver. 15). My strength dried
up by My Passion; not as hay, but a potsherd, which is made stronger by
fire. "And My tongue cleaved to My jaws." And they, through whom I was soon
to speak, kept My precepts in their hearts. "And Thou broughtest Me down to
the dust of death." And to the ungodly appointed to death, whom the wind
casteth forth as dust from the face of the earth,[3] Thou broughtest Me
down.

   17. "For many dogs came about Me" (ver. 16). For many came about Me
barking, not for truth, but for custom. "The council of the malignant came
about Me." The council of the malignant besieged Me. [4] "They pierced My
hands and feet." They pierced with nails My hands and feet.

   18. "They numbered distinctly all My bones" (ver. 17). They numbered
distinctly all My bones, while extended on the wood of the Cross. "Yea,
these same regarded, and beheld Me." Yea, these same, that is, unchanged,
regarded-and beheld Me.

   19. "They divided My garments for themselves, and cast the lot upon My
vesture"[5] (ver. 18).

   20. "But Thou, O Lord, withhold not Thy help far from Me" (ver. 19).
But Thou, O Lord, raise Me up again, not as the rest of men, at the end of
the world, but immediately. "Look to My defence." "Look," that they in no
wise hurt Me.

   21. "Deliver My soul from the sword." "Deliver My soul" from the tongue
of dissension. "And My only One from the hand of the dog" (ver. 20). And
from the power of the people, barking after their custom, deliver My
Church.

   22. "Save Me from the lion's mouth:" save Me from the mouth of the
kingdom of this world: "and my humility from the horns of the unicorns "[6]
(ver. 21). And from the loftiness of the proud, exalting themselves to
special pre-eminence, and enduring no partakers, save My humility.

   23. "I will declare Thy name to My brethren"[7] (ver. 22). I will
declare Thy name to the humble,[8] and to My Brethren that love one another
as they have been beloved by Me.[9] "In the midst of the Church will I sing
of Thee." In the midst of the Church will I with rejoicing preach Thee.

   24. "Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him." "Ye that fear the Lord," seek
not your own praise, but "praise Him." "All ye seed of Jacob, magnify Him"
(ver. 23). All ye seed of him whom the elder shall serve, magnify Him.

   25. "Let all the seed of Israel fear Him." Let all who have been born
to a new life, and restored to the vision of God "fear Him." "Since He hath
not despised, nor disregarded the prayer of the poor man" (ver. 24). Since
He hath not despised the prayer, not of him who, crying unto God in the
words of sins was loath to overpass a vain life, but the prayer of the poor
man, not swollen up with transitory pomps. "Nor hath He turned away His
face from Me." As from him who said, I will cry unto Thee, but Thou wilt
not hear. "And when I cried unto Him He heard Me."

   26. "With Thee is My praise" (ver. 25). For I seek not Mine own
praise,[1] for Thou art My praise, who dwellest in the holy place; and,
praise of Israel, Thou hearest The Holy One now beseeching Thee. "In the
great Church I will confess Thee." In the Church of the whole world" I will
confess Thee." "I will offer My vows in the sight of them that fear Him." I
will offer the sacraments of My Body and Blood in the sight of them that
fear Him.

   27. "The poor shall eat, and be filled" (ver. 26). The humble and the
despisers of the world shall eat, and imitate Me. For so they will neither
desire this world's abundance, nor fear its want. "And they shall praise
the Lord, who seek Him." For the praise of the Lord is the pouring out of
that fulness. "Their hearts shall live for ever and ever." For that food is
the food of the heart.

   28. "All the borders of the earth shall remember themselves, and be
turned to the Lord" (ver. 27). They shall remember themselves: for, by the
Gentiles, born in death and bent on outward things, God had been forgotten;
and then shall all the borders of the earth be turned to the Lord. "And all
the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His sight." And all the
kindreds of the nations shall worship in their own consciences.

   29. "For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule over the nations"
(ver. 28). For the kingdom is the Lord's, not proud men's: and He shall
rule over the nations.

   30. "All the rich of the earth have eaten, and worshipped"[2] (ver.
29). The rich of the earth too have eaten the Body of their Lord's
humiliation, and though they have not, as the poor, been filled even to
imitation, yet they have worshipped. "In His sight shall fall all that
descend to earth." For He alone seeth how all they fall, who abandoning a
heavenly conversation, make choice, on earth, to appear happy to men, who
see not their fall.

   31. "And My Soul shall live to Him." And My Soul, which in the contempt
of this world seems to men as it were to die, shall live, not to itself,
but to Him. "And My seed shall serve Him" (ver. 30). And My deeds, or they
who through Me believe on Him, shall serve Him.

   32. "The generation to come shall be declared to the Lord" (ver. 31).
The generation of the New Testament shall be declared to the honour of the
Lord. "And the heavens shall declare His righteousness." And the
Evangelists shall declare His righteousness. "To a people that shall be
born, whom the Lord hath made." To a people that shall be born to the Lord
through faith.

PSALM XXIII.[3]

A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. The Church speaks to Christ: "The Lord feedeth me, and I shall lack
nothing" (ver. 1 ). The Lord Jesus Christ is my Shepherd, "and I shall lack
nothing."

   2. "In a place of pasture there hath He placed me" (ver. 2). In a place
of fresh pasture, leading me to faith,[4] there hath He placed me to be
nourished. "By the water of refreshing hath He brought me up." By the water
of baptism, whereby they are refreshed who have lost health and strength,
hath He brought me up.

   3. "He hath converted my soul: He hath led me forth in the paths of
righteousness, for His Name's sake" (ver. 3). He hath brought me forth in
the narrow ways, wherein few walk, of His righteousness; not for my merit's
sake, but for His Name's sake.4. "Yea, though I walk in the midst of the
shadow of death" (ver. 4). Yea, though I walk in the midst of this life,
which is the shadow of death.[5] "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with
me." I will fear no evil, for Thou dwellest in my heart by faith: and Thou
art now with me, that after the shadow of death I too may be with Thee.
"Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me." Thy discipline, like a rod
for a flock of sheep, and like a staff for children of some size, and
growing out of the natural into spiritual life, they have not been grievous
to me; rather have they comforted me: because Thou art mindful of me.

   5. "Thou hast prepared a table in my sight, against them that trouble
me" (ver. 5). Now after the rod, whereby, whilst a little one, and living
the natural life, I was brought up among the flock in the pastures; after
that rod, I say, when I began to be under the staff, Thou hast prepared a
table in my sight, that I should no more be fed as a babe with milk,[6] but
being older should take meat, strengthened against them that trouble me.
"Thou hast fattened my head with oil." Thou hast gladdened my mind with
spiritual joy. "And Thy inebriating cup, how excellent is it!" And Thy cup
yielding forgetfulness of former vain delights, how excellent is it !

   6. "And Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:" that is, as
long as I live in this mortal life, not Thine, but mine. "That I may dwell
in the house of the Lord' for length of days" (ver. 6). Now Thy mercy shall
follow me not here only, but also that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.

PSALM XXIV.[2]

A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF, ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK.[3]

   1. A Psalm of David himself, touching the glorifying and resurrection
of the Lord, which took place catty in the morning on the first day of the
week, which is now called the Lord's Day.

   2. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, the compass of
the world, and all they that dwell therein" (ver. 1); when the Lord, being
glorified, is announced for the believing of all nations; and the whole
compass of the world becomes His Church. "He hath founded it above the
seas." He hath most firmly established it above all the waves of this
world, that they should be subdued by it, and should not hurt it. "And hath
prepared it above the rivers" (ver. 2). The rivers flow into the sea, and
men of lust lapse into the world: these also the Church, which, when
worldly lusts have been conquered by the grace of God, hath been prepared
by love for the reception of immortality, subdues.

   3. "Who shall ascend into the mount of the Lord?" Who shall ascend to
the height of the righteousness of the Lord? "Or who shall stand in His
holy place?" (ver. 3). Or who shall abide in that place, whither He shall
ascend,[4] founded above the seas, and prepared above the rivers?

   4. "The innocent of hand, and the pure in heart" (ver. 4). Who then
shall ascend thither, and abide there, but the guiltless in deed, and pure
in thought? "Who hath not received his soul in vain." Who hath not reckoned
his soul among things that pass away, but feeling it to be immortal, hath
longed for an eternity stedfast and unchangeable. "And hath not sworn in
deceit to his neighbour." And therefore without deceit, as things eternal
are simple and undeceiving, hath so behaved himself to his neighbour.

   5. "This man shall receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from the
God of his salvation"[5] (ver. 5).

   6. "This is the generation of them that seek the Lord" (ver. 6). For
thus are they born that seek Him. "Of them that seek the face of the God of
Jacob.[6] Diapsalma." Now they seek the face of God, who gave the pre-
eminence to the younger born.[7]

   7. "'Fake away your gates, ye princes" (ver. 7). All ye, that seek rule
among men, remove, that they hinder not, the entrances which ye have made,
of desire and fear. "And be ye lift up, ye everlasting gates." And be ye
lift up, ye entrances of eternal life, of renunciation of the world, and
conversion to God. "And the King of glory shall come in." And the King, in
whom we may glory without pride, shall come in: who having overcome the
gates of death, and having opened for Himself the heavenly places,
fulfilled that which He said, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the
world."[8]

   8. "Who is this King of glory?" Mortal nature is awe-struck in wonder,
and asks, "Who is this King of glory? " The Lord strong and mighty." He
whom thou didst deem weak and overwhelmed. "The Lord mighty in battle"
(ver. 8). Handle the scars, and thou wilt find them made whole, and human
weakness restored to immortality. The glorifying of the Lord, which was
owing to earth, where It warred with death, hath been paid.

   9. "Take away your gates, ye princes."[9] Let us go hence straightway
into heaven. Again, let the Prophet's trumpet cry aloud, "Take away too, ye
princes of the air, the gates, which ye have in the minds of men who
'worship the host of heaven.'"[10] "And be ye lift up, ye everlasting
gates." And be ye lift up, ye doors of everlasting righteousness, of love,
and chastity, through which the soul loveth the One True God, and goeth not
a-whoring with the many that are called gods. "And the King of glory shall
come in" (ver. 9). "And the King of glory shall come in," that He may at
the right hand of the Father intercede for us.

   10. "Who is this King of glory?" What! dost thou too, prince of the
power of this air,[11] marvel and ask, "Who is this King of glory ?" "The
Lord of powers, He is the King of glory" (ver. 10). Yea, His Body now
quickened, He who was tempted marches above thee; He who was tempted by the
angel, the deceiver, goes above all angels. Let none of you put himself
before us and stop our way, that he may be worshipped as a god by us:
neither principality, nor angel, nor power, separateth us from the love of
Christ.'[12] It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in a
prince;[13] that he who glorieth, should glory in the Lord.[13] These
indeed are powers in the administration of this world, but "the Lord of
powers, He is the King of glory."

PSALM XXV.[1]

TO THE END, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF. [2]

   1. Christ speaks, but in the person of the Church: for what is said has
reference rather to the Christian People turned unto God.

   2. "Unto Thee, O Lord, have I lift up my soul" (ver. 1): with spiritual
longing have I lift up the soul, that was trodden down on the earth with
carnal longings. "O my God, in Thee I trust, I shall not be ashamed" (ver.
2). O my God, from trusting in myself I was brought even to this weakness
of the flesh; and I who on abandoning God wished to be as God, fearing
death from the smallest insect, was in derision ashamed for my pride; now,
therefore, "in Thee I trust, I shall not be ashamed."

   3. "And let not my enemies mock me." And let them not mock me, who by
ensnaring me with serpent-like and secret suggestions, and prompting me
with "Well done, well done," have brought me down to this. "For all that
wait upon Thee shall not be confounded" (ver. 3).

   4. "Let them be confounded who do vain things unrighteously." Let them
be confounded who act unrighteously for the acquiring things that pass
away. "Make Thy ways, O Lord, known to me, and teach me Thy paths" (ver.
4): not those which are broad, and lead the many to destruction;[3] but Thy
paths, narrow, and known to few, teach Thou me.

   5. "In Thy truth guide me:" avoiding error. "And teach me:" for by
myself I know nothing, but falsehood. "For Thou art the God of my
salvation; and for Thee have I waited all the day" (ver. 5). For dismissed
by Thee from Paradise, and having taken my journey into a far country? I
cannot by myself return, unless Thou meetest the wanderer: for my return
hath throughout the whole tract of this world's time waited for Thy mercy.

   6. "Remember Thy compassions, O Lord" (ver. 6). Remember the works of
Thy mercy, O Lord; for men deem of Thee as though Thou hadst forgotten.
"And that Thy mercies are from eternity." And remember this, that Thy
mercies are from eternity. For Thou never wast without them, who hast
subjected even sinful man to vanity indeed, but in hope;[5] and not
deprived him of so many and great consolations of Thy creation.

   7. "Remember not the offences of my youth and of my ignorance" (ver.
7). The offences of my presumptuous boldness and of my ignorance reserve
not for vengeance, but let them be as if forgotten by Thee. "According to
Thy mercy, be mindful of me, O God." Be mindful indeed of me, not according
to the anger of which I am worthy, but according to Thy mercy which is
worthy of Thee. "For Thy goodness, O Lord." Not for my deservings, but for
Thy goodness, O Lord.

   8. "Gracious and upright is the Lord" (ver. 8). The Lord is gracious,
since even sinners and the ungodly He so pitied, as to forgive all that is
past; but the Lord is upright too, who after the mercy of vocation and
pardon, which is of grace without merit, will require merits meet for the
last judgment. "Wherefore He will establish a law for them that fail in the
way." For He hath first bestowed mercy to bring them into the way.

   9. "He will guide the meek in judgment." He will guide the meek, and
will not confound in the judgment those that follow His will, and do not,
in withstanding It, prefer their own. "The gentle He will teach His ways"
(ver. 9). He will teach His ways, not to those that desire to run before,
as if they were better able to rule themselves; but to those who do not
exalt the neck, nor lift the heel, when the easy yoke and the light burden
is laid upon them. [6]

   10. "All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth" (ver. 10). And what
ways will He teach them, but mercy wherein He is placable, and truth
wherein He is incorrupt? Whereof He hath exhibited the one in forgiving
sins, the other in judging deserts. And therefore "all the ways of the
Lord" are the two advents of the Son of God, the one in mercy, the other in
judgment. He then attaineth unto Him holding on His ways, who seeing
himself freed by no deserts of his own, lays pride aside, and henceforward
bewares of the severity of His trial, having experienced the clemency of
His help. "To them that seek His testament and His testimonies." For they
understand the Lord as merciful at His first advent, and as the Judge at
His second, who in meekness and gentleness seek His testament, when with
His Own Blood He redeemed us to a new life; and in the Prophets and
Evangelists, His testimonies.

   11. "For Thy Name's sake, O Lord, Thou wilt be favourable to my sin;
for it is manifold" (ver. 11 ). Thou hast not only forgiven my sins, which
I committed before I believed; but also to my sin, which is manifold, since
even in the way there is no lack of stumbling, Thou wilt be made favourable
by the sacrifice of a troubled spirit.[7]

   12. "Who is the man that feareth the Lord?" from which fear he begins
to come to wisdom. "He shall establish a law for him in the way, which he
hath chosen" (ver. 12). He shall establish a law for him in the way, which
in his freedom he has taken, that he may not sin now with impunity.

   13. "His soul shall dwell in good, and his seed shall, by inheritance,
possess the earth "(ver. 13). And his work shall possess the stable
inheritance of a renewed body.

   14. "The Lord is the stay of them that fear Him" (ver. 14). Fear seems
to belong to the weak, but the Lord is the stay of them that fear Him. And
the Name of the Lord, which hath been glorified throughout the whole world,
is a stay to them that fear Him. "And His testament, that it may be
manifested unto them." And He maketh His testament to be manifested unto
them, for the Gentiles and the bounds of the earth are Christ's
inheritance.

   15. "Mine eyes are ever unto the Lord; for He shall pluck my feet out
of the snare" (ver. 15). Nor would I fear the dangers of earth, while I
look not upon the earth: for He upon whom Look, will pluck my feet out of
the snare.

   16. "Look upon me, and have mercy upon me; for I am single and poor"
(ver. 16). For I am a single people, keeping the lowliness of Thy single
Church, which no schisms or heresies possess.

   17. "The tribulations of my heart have been multiplied" (ver. 17). The
tribulations of my heart have been multiplied by the abounding of iniquity
and the waxing cold of love.[1] "O bring Thou me out of my necessities."
Since I must needs bear this, that by enduring unto the end I may be saved,
bring Thou me out of my necessities.

   18. "See my humility and my travail" (ver. 18). See my humility,
whereby I never, in the boast of righteousness, break off from unity; and
my travail, wherein I bear with the unruly ones that are mingled with me.
"And forgive all my sins." And, propitiated by these sacrifices, forgive
all my sins, not those only of youth and my ignorance before I believed,
but those also which, living now by faith, I commit through infirmity, or
the darkness of this life.

   19. "Consider mine enemies, how they are multiplied" (ver. 19). For not
only without, but even within, in the Church's very communion, they are not
wanting. "And with an unrighteous hate they hate me." And they hate me who
love them.

   20. "Keep my soul, and deliver me." Keep my soul, that I turn not aside
to imitate them; and draw me out from the confusion wherein they are
mingled with me. "Let me not be confounded, for I have put my trust in
Thee" (ver. 20). Let me not be confounded, if haply they rise up against
me: for not in myself, but in Thee have I put my trust.

   21. "The innocent and the upright have cleaved to me, for I have waited
for Thee, O Lord" (ver. 21). The innocent and the upright, not in bodily
presence only, as the evil, are mingled with me, but in the agreement of
the heart in the same innocence and uprightness cleave to me: for I have
not fallen away to imitate the evil; but I have waited for Thee, expecting
the winnowing of Thy last harvest.[2]

   22. "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles" (ver. 22). "Redeem
Thy people, O God," whom Thou hast prepared to see Thee, out of his
troubles, not those only which he bears without, but those also which he
bears within.

PSALM XXVI.[3]

OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. It may be attributed to David himself, not the Mediator, the Man
Christ Jesus, but the whole Church now perfectly established in Christ.

   2. "Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence" (ver. 1).
Judge me, O Lord, for, after the mercy which Thou first showedst[4] me, I
have some desert of my innocence, the way whereof I have kept. "And
trusting in the Lord I shall not be moved." And yet not even so trusting in
myself, but in the Lord, I shall abide in Him.

   3. "Prove me, O Lord, and try me" (ver. 2). Lest, however, any of my
secret sins should be hid from me, prove me, O Lord, and try me, making me
known, not to Thee from whom nothing is hid, but to myself, and to men.
"Burn my reins and my heart." Apply a remedial purgation, as it were fire,
to my pleasures and thoughts. "For Thy mercy is before mine eyes" (ver. 3).
For, that I be not consumed by that fire, not my merits, but Thy mercy,
whereby Thou hast brought me on to such a life, is before my eyes. "And I
have been pleasing in Thy truth." And since my own falsehood hath been
displeasing to me, but Thy truth pleasing, I have myself been pleasing also
with it and in it.

   4. "I have not sat with the council of vanity" (ver. 4). I have not
chosen to give my heart to them who endeavour to provide, what is
impossible, how they may be blessed in the enjoyment of things transitory.
"And I will not enter in with them that work wickedly." And since this is
the very cause of all wickedness, therefore I will not have my conscience
hid, with them that work wickedly.

   5. "I have hated the congregation of evil doers." But to arrive at this
council of vanity, congregations of evil doers are formed, which I have
hated. "And I will not sit with the ungodly" (ver. 5). And, therefore, with
such a council, with the ungodly, I will not sit, that is, I will not place
my consent.[1] "And I will not sit with the ungodly."

   6. "I will wash mine hands amid the innocent" (ver. 6). I will make
clean my works among the innocent: among the innocent will I wash mine
hands, with which I shall embrace Thy glorious gifts.[2] "And I will
compass Thy altar, O Lord."[3]

   7. "That I may hear the voice of Thy praise." That I may learn how to
praise Thee. "And that I may declare all Thy wondrous works" (ver. 7). And
after I have learnt, I may set forth all Thy wondrous works.

   8. "O Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house:" of Thy Church. "And
the place of the habitation of Thy glory" (ver. 8): where Thou dwellest,
and art glorified.

   9. "Destroy not my soul with the ungodly" (ver. 9). Destroy not then,
together with them that hate Thee, my soul, which hath loved the beauty of
Thy house. "And my life with the men of blood." And with them that hate
their neighbour. For Thy house is beautified with the two commandments.[4]

   10. "In whose hands is wickedness." Destroy me not then with the
ungodly and the men of blood, whose works are wicked. "Their right hand is
full of gifts" (ver. 10). And that which was given them to obtain eternal
salvation, they have converted into the receiving this world's gifts,
"supposing that godliness is a trade."[5]

   11. "But I have walked in mine innocence: deliver me, and have mercy on
me" (ver. 11). Let so great a price of my Lord's Blood avail for  my
complete deliverance: and in the dangers of this life let not Thy mercy
leave me.

   12. "My foot hath stood in uprightness." My Love hath not withdrawn
from Thy righteousness. "In the Churches I will bless Thee, O Lord" (ver.
12). I will not hide Thy blessing, O Lord, from those whom Thou hast
called; for next to the love of Thee I join the love of my neighbour.

PSALM XXVII.[6]

OF DAVID HIMSELF, BEFORE HE WAS ANOINTED.[7]

   1. Christ's young soldier speaketh, on his coming to the faith. "The
Lord is my light, and my salvation: whom shall I fear?" (ver. 1). The Lord
will give me both knowledge of Himself, and salvation: who shall take me
from Him? "The Lord is the Protector of my life: of whom shall I be
afraid?" The Lord will repel all the assaults and snares of mine enemy: of
no man shall I be afraid.

   2. "Whilst the guilty approach unto me to eat up my flesh" (ver. 2).
Whilst the guilty come near to recognise and insult me, that they may exalt
themselves above me in my change for the better; that with their reviling
tooth they may consume not me, but rather my fleshly desires. "Mine enemies
who trouble me." Not they only who trouble me, blaming me with a friendly
intent, and wishing to recall me from my purpose, but mine enemies also.
"They became weak, and fell."[8] Whilst then they do this with the desire
of defending their own opinion, they became weak to believe better things,
and began to hate the word of salvation, whereby I do what displeases them.

   3. "If camps stand together against me, my heart will not fear." But if
the multitude of gainsayers conspire to stand together against me, my heart
will not fear, so as to go over to their side. "If war rise up against me,
in this will I trust" (ver. 3). If the persecution of this world arise
against me, in this petition, which I am pondering, will I place my hope.

   4. "One have I asked of the Lord, this will I require." For one
petition have I asked the Lord, this will I require. "That I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (ver. 4). That as long as I
am in this life, no adversities may exclude me from the number of them who
hold the unity and the truth of the Lord's faith throughout the world.
"That I may contemplate the delight of the Lord." With this end, namely,
that persevering in the faith, the delightsome vision may appear to me,
which I may contemplate face to face. "And I shall be protected, His
temple." And death being swallowed up in victory, I shall be clothed with
immortality, being made His temple.[9]

   5. "For He hath hidden me in His tabernacle in the day of my evils"
(ver. 5). For He hath hidden me in the dispensation of His Incarnate Word
in the time of temptations, to which my mortal life is exposed. "He hath
protected me in the secret place of His tabernacle." He hath protected me,
with the heart believing unto righteousness.

   6. "On a rock hath He exalted me." And that what I believed might be
made manifest for salvation, He hath made my confession to be conspicuous
in His own strength. "And now, lo! He hath exalted mine head above mine
enemies" (ver. 6). What doth He reserve for me at the last, when even now
the body is dead because of sin, lo! I feel that my mind serves the law of
God, and is not led captive under the rebellious law of sin? "I have gone
about, and have sacrificed in His tabernacle the sacrifice of rejoicing." I
have considered the circuit of the world, believing on Christ; and in that
for us God was humbled in time, I have praised Him with rejoicing: for with
such sacrifice He is well pleased. "I will sing and give praises to the
Lord." In heart and in deed I will be glad in the Lord.

   7. "Hear my voice, O Lord, wherewith I have cried unto Thee" (ver. 7).
Hear, Lord, my interior voice, which with a strong intention I have
addressed to Thy ears. "Have mercy upon me, and hear me." Have mercy upon
me, and hear me therein.

   8. "My heart hath said to Thee, I have sought Thy countenance" (ver.
8). For I have not exhibited myself to men; but in secret, where Thou alone
hearest, my heart hath said to Thee; I have not sought from Thee aught
without Thee as a reward, but Thy countenance. "Thy countenance, O Lord,
will I seek." In thus search will I perseveringly persist: for not aught
that is common, but Thy countenance, O Lord, will I seek, that I may love
Thee freely, since nothing more precious do I find.

   9. "Turn not away Thy face from me" (ver. 9 ): that I may find what I
seek. "Turn not aside in anger from Thy servant:" lest, while seeking Thee,
I fall in with somewhat else. For what is more grevous than this punishment
to one who loveth and seeketh the truth of Thy countenance? "Be Thou my
Helper." How shall I find it, if Thou help me not? "Leave me not, neither
despise me, O God my Saviour." Scorn not that a mortal dares to seek the
Eternal for Thou, God dost heal the wound of my sin.

   10. "For my father and my mother have left me" (ver. 10). For the
kingdom of this world and the city of this world, of which I was born in
time and mortality, have left me seeking Thee, and despising what they
promised, since they could not give what I seek. "But the Lord took me up."
But the Lord, who can give me Himself, took me up.

   11. "Appoint me a law, O Lord, in Thy way" (ver. 11). For me then who
am setting out toward Thee, and commenting so great a profession, of
arriving at wisdom, from fear, appoint, O Lord, a law in Thy way, lest in
my wandering Thy rule abandon me. "And direct me in the right path because
of mine enemies." And direct me in the right way of its straits. For it is
not enough to begin, since enemies cease not until the end is attained.

   12. "Deliver me not up unto the souls of them that trouble me" (ver.
12). Suffer not them that trouble me to be satiated with my evils. "For
unrighteous witnesses have risen up against me." For there have risen up
against me they that speak falsely of me, to remove and call me back from
Thee, as if I seek glory of men. "And iniquity hath lied unto itself."
Therefore iniquity hath been pleased with its own lie. For me it hath not
moved, to whom because of this there hath been promised a greater reward in
heaven.

   13. "I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living" (ver. 13). And since my Lord hath first suffered these things, if I
too despise the tongues of the dying ("for the mouth that lieth slayeth the
soul"[1]), I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living, where there is no place for falsity.

   14. "Wait on the Lord, quit thyself like a man: and let thy heart be
strong, yea wait on the Lord" (ver. 14). But when shall this be? It is
arduous for a mortal, it is flow to a lover: but listen to the voice, that
deceiveth not, of him that saith, "Wait on the Lord." Endure the burning of
the reins manfully, and the burning of the heart stoutly. Think not that
what thou dost not as yet receive is denied thee. That thou faint not in
despair, see how it is said, "Wait on the Lord."[2]

PSALM XXVIII.[3]

OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. It is the Voice of the Mediator Himself, strong of hand in the
conflict of the Passion. Now what He seems to wish for against His enemies,
is not the wish of malevolence, but the declaration of their punishment; as
in the Gospel,[4] with the dries, in which though He had performed
miracles, yet they had not beloved on Him, He doth not wish in any evil
will what He sixth, but predicteth what is impending over them.

   2. "Unto Thee, O Lord, have I cried;[5] My God, be not silent from me"
(ver. 1). Unto Thee, O Lord, have I cried; My God, separate not the unity
of Thy Word from that which as Man I am. "Lest at any time Thou be silent
form me: and I shall be like them that go down into the pit." For from
this, that the Eternity of Thy Word ceaseth not to unite Itself to Me, it
comes that I am not such a man as the rest of men, who are born into the
deep misery of this world: where, as if Thou art silent, Thy Word is not
recognised. "Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication, whist I pray unto
Thee, whilst I hold up my hands to Thy holy temple "(ver. 2). Whilst I am
crucified for their salvation, who on believing become Thy holy temple.

   3. "Draw not My Soul away with sinners, and destroy me not with them
that work iniquity, with  them that speak peace with their neighbours"
(ver. 3). With them that say unto Me, "We know that Thou art a Master come
from God."[1] "But evil in their hearts." But they speak evil in their
hearts.

   4. "Give unto them according to their works" (ver. 4). Give unto them
according to their works, for this is just. "And according to the malice of
their affections."[2] For aiming at evil, they cannot discover good.
"According to the works of their hands give Thou unto them." Although what
they have done may avail for salvation to others, yet give Thou unto them
according to the works of their wills. "Pay them their recompense."
Because, for the truth which they heard, they wished to recompense deceit;
let their won deceit deceive them.

   5. "For they have not had understanding in the works of the Lord" (ver.
5 ). And whence is it clear that this hath befallen them? From this
forsooth, "for they have not had understanding in the works of the Lord."
This very thing, in truth, hath been, even now, their recompense, that in
Him whom they tempted with malicious intent as a Man, they should not
recognise God, with what design the Father sent Him in the Flesh. "And the
works of His hands." Nor be moved by those visible works, which are laid
out before their very eyes. "Thou shalt destroy them, and not build them
up." Let them do Me no hurt, nay, nor again in their endeavour to raise
engines against My Church, let them aught avail.

   6. "Blessed be the Lord, for He hath heard the voice of My prayer"
(ver. 6).

   7. "The Lord My Helper and My Protector" (ver. 7). The Lord helping Me
in so great sufferings, and protecting Me with immortality in My
resurrection. "In Him hath My Heart trusted, and I have been helped." " And
My Flesh hath flourished again:" that is, and My Flesh hath risen again.
"And of my will I will confess unto Him." Wherefore, the fear of death
being now destroyed, not by the necessity of fear under the Law, but with a
free will with the Law, shall they who believe on Me, confess unto Him; and
because I am in them, I will confess.

   8. " The Lord is the strength of His people" (ver. 8). Not that people
"ignorant of the righteousness of God, and willing to establish their
own."[3] For they thought not themselves strong in themselves: for the Lord
is the strength of His people, struggling in this life's difficulties with
the devil. "And the protector of the salvation of His Christ." That, having
saved them by His Christ after the strength of war, He may protect them at
the last with the immortality of peace.

   9. "Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance (ver. 9). I intercede
therefore, after My Mesh hath flourished again, because Thou hast said,
"Desire of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance;"[4]
" Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance:" for "all Mine are
Thine."[5] "And rule them, and set them up even for even" And rule them in
this temporal life, and raise them from hence into life eternal.

PSALM XXIX.[6]

A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF, OF THE CONSUMMATION OF THE TABERNACLE.

   1. A Psalm of the Mediator Himself, strong of hand, of the perfection
of the Church in this world, where she wars in time against the devil. 5.
The Prophet speaks, "Bring unto the Lord, O ye Sons of God, bring unto the
Lord the young of rams" (ver. 1). Bring unto the Lord yourselves, whom the
Apostles, the leaders of the flocks, have begotten by the Gospel.(7) "Bring
unto the Lord glory and honour" (ver. 2). By your works let the Lord be
glorified and honoured. "Bring unto the Lord glory to His name." Let Him be
made known gloriously throughout the world. "Worship the Lord in His holy
court." Worship the Lord in your heart enlarged and sanctified. For ye are
His regal holy habitation

   3. "The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters" (ver. 3). The Voice of
Christ is upon the people. "The God of majesty hath thundered. "The God of
majesty, from the cloud of the flesh, hath awfully preached repentance. The
Lord is upon many waters." The Lord Jesus Himself, after that He sent forth
His Voice upon the people, and so.

   4. "The Voice of the Lord is in power" (ver. 4). The Voice of the Lord
now in them themselves, making them powerful. "The Voice of the Lord is in
great might." The Voice of the Lord working great things in them.

   5. "The Voice of the Lord breaking the cedars" (ver. 5). The Voice of
the Lord humbling the proud in brokenness of heart. "The Lord shall break
the cedars of Libanus." The Lord by repentance shall break them that are
lifted on high by the splendour of earthly nobility, when to confound them
He shall have "chosen the base things of this world,"[1] in the which to
display His Divinity.

   6. "And shall bruise them as the calf of Libanus" (ver. 6). And when
their proud exaltation hath been cut off, He will lay them low after the
imitation of His Own humility, who like a calf was led to slaughter[2] by
the nobility of this world. "For the kings of the earth stood up, and the
rulers agreed together against the Lord, and against His Christ."[3] "And
the Beloved is as the young of the unicorns." For even He the Beloved, and
the Only One of the Father, "emptied Himself" of His glory; and was made
man,[4] like a child of the Jews, that were "ignorant of God's
righteousness,"[5] and proudly boasting of their own righteousness as
peculiarly theirs.

   7. "The Voice of the Lord cutting short the flame of fire" (ver. 7).
The Voice of the Lord, without any harm to Himself, passing through all the
excited ardour of them that persecute Him, or dividing the furious rage of
His persecutors, so that some should say, "Is not this haply the very
Christ;" others, "Nay; but He deceiveth the people:"[6] and so cutting
short their mad tumult, as to pass some over into His love, and leave
others in their malice.

   8. "The Voice of the Lord moving the wilderness" (ver. 8). The Voice of
the Lord moving to the faith the Gentiles once "without hope, and without
God in the world;"[7] where no prophet, no preacher of God's word, as it
were, no man had dwelt. "And the Lord will move the desert of Cades." And
then the Lord will cause the holy word of His Scriptures to be fully known,
which was abandoned by the Jews who understood it not.

   9. "The Voice of the Lord perfecting the stags"[8] (ver. 9). For the
Voice of the Lord hath first perfected them that overcame and repelled the
envonomed tongues.[9] "And will reveal the woods." And then will He reveal
to them the darknesses of the Divine books, and the shadowy depths of the
mysteries, where they feed with freedom. "And in His temple doth every man
speak of His glory." And in His Church all born again to an eternal hope
praise God, each for His own gift, which He hath received from the Holy
Spirit.

   10. "The Lord inhabiteth the deluge" (ver. 10). The Lord therefore
first inhabiteth the deluge of this world in His Saints,, kept safely in
the Church, as in the ark. "And the Lord shall sit a King for ever." And
afterward He will sit reigning in them for ever.

   11. "The Lord will give strength to His people"(10) (ver. 11). For the
Lord will give strength to His people fighting against the storms and
whirlwinds of this world, for peace in this world He hath not promised
them.[11] "The Lord will bless His people in peace." And the same Lord will
bless His people, affording them peace in Himself; for, saith He, "My peace
I give unto you, My peace I leave with you."[12]

PSALM XXX.[13]

TO THE END, THE PSALM OF THE CANTICLE[14] OF THE DEDICATION OF THE HOUSE,
OF DAVID HIMSELF.

   1. To the end, a Psalm of the joy of the Resurrection, and the change,
the renewing of the body to an immortal state, and not only of the Lord,
but also of the whole Church. For in the former Psalm the tabernacle was
finished, wherein we dwell in the time of war: but now the house is
dedicated, which will abide in peace everlasting.

   2. It is then whole Christ who speaketh. "I will exalt Thee, O Lord,
for Thou hast taken Me up" (ver. 1). I will praise Thy high Majesty, O
Lord, for Thou hast taken Me up. "Thou hast not made Mine enemies to
rejoice over Me." And those, who have so often endeavoured to oppress Me
with various persecutions throughout the world, Thou hast not made to
rejoice over Me.

    3. "O Lord, My God, I have cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed Me
(ver. 2). O Lord, My God, I have cried unto Thee, and I no longer hear
about a body enfeebled and sick by mortality.

   4. "O Lord, Thou hast brought back My Soul from hell, and Thou hast
saved Me from them that go down into the pit" (ver. 3). Thou hast saved Me
from the condition of profound darkness, and the lowest slough of
corruptible flesh.

   5. "Sing to the Lord, O ye saints of His." The prophet seeing these
future things, rejoiceth, and saith, "Sing to the Lord, O ye saints of His.
And make confession of the remembrance of His holiness" (ver. 4). And make
confession to Him, that He hath not forgotten the sanctification, wherewith
He hath sanctified you, although all this intermediate period belong to
your desires.

   6. "For in His indignation is wrath" (ver. 5). For He hath avenged
against you the first sin, for which you have paid by death. "And life in
His will." And life eternal, whereunto you could not return by any strength
of your own, hath He given, because He so would. "In the evening weeping
will tarry." Evening began, when the light of wisdom withdrew from sinful
man, when he was condemned to death: from this evening weeping will tarry,
as long as God's people are, amid labours and temptations, awaiting the day
of the Lord. "And exultation in the morning." Even to the morning, when
there will be the exultation of the resurrection, which hath shone forth by
anticipation in the morning resurrection of the Lord.

   7. "But I said in my abundance, I shall not be moved for ever" (ver.
6). But I, that people which was speaking from the first, said in mine
abundance, suffering now no more any want, "I shall not be moved for ever."

   8. "O Lord, in Thy will Thou hast afforded strength unto my beauty"
(ver. 7). But that this my abundance, O Lord, is not of myself, but that in
Thy will Thou hast afforded strength unto my beauty, I have learnt from
this, "Thou turnedst away Thy Face from me, and I became troubled;" for
Thou hast sometimes turned away Thy Face from the sinner, and I became
troubled, when the illumination of Thy knowledge withdrew from me.

   9. "Unto Thee, O Lord, will I cry, and unto my God will I pray" (ver.
8). And bringing to mind that time of my trouble and misery, and as it were
established therein, I hear the voice of Thy Firs-Begotten, my Head, about
to die for me, and saying "Unto Thee, O Lord, will I cry, and unto My God
will I pray."

   10. "What profit" is there in the shedding of My blood, whilst I go
down to corruption? "Shall dust confess unto Thee?" For if I shall not rise
immediately, and My body shall become corrupt, "shall dust confess unto
Thee?" that is, the crowd of the ungodly, whom I shall justify by My
resurrection? "Or declare Thy truth?" Or for the salvation of the rest
declare Thy truth ?

   11. "The Lord hath heard, and had mercy on Me, the Lord hath become My
helper." Nor did "He suffer His holy One to see corruption "[1] (ver. 10).

   12. "Thou hast turned My mourning into joy to Me" (ver. 11). Whom I,
the Church, having received, the First-Begotten from the dead,[2] now in
the dedication of Thine house, say, "Thou hast turned my mourning into joy
to me. Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness." Thou
hast torn off the veil of my sins, the sadness of my mortality; and hast
girded me with the first robe, with immortal gladness.

   13. "That my glory should sing unto Thee, and I should not be pricked"
(ver. 12). That now, not my humiliation, but my glory should not lament,
but should sing unto Thee, for that now out of humiliation Thou hast
exalted me; and that I should not be pricked with the consciousness of sin,
with the fear of death, with the fear of judgment. "O Lord, my God, I will
confess unto Thee for ever." And this is my glory, O Lord, my God, that I
should confess unto Thee for ever, that I have nothing of myself, but that
all my good is of Thee, who art "God, All in all."[3]


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/VIII, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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