EXPOSITIO IN XX PRIMOS PSALMOS

• 751C

« Among our men of Reichenau there occurs an Exposition on seventy-six psalms by Walafrid the abbot, beginning from the first in this manner: All Scripture divinely inspired, of the Old and of the New Testament, unto the imitation of the Mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, etc., the other volume seems to have been lost. » Thus far John Mabillon, volume IV of the Analecta, page 633. Following his authority, I left no effort unspent among our most distinguished men of Reichenau, that they might kindly communicate to me this Exposition of their own Walafrid, a man by far the most celebrated in the ninth century for learning and for virtue, drawn out of the darkness. In which matter I found those learned and diligent men the more indulgent and the readier, the surer the hope they conceived that by that labour of theirs something not inconsiderable would be of service to the Catholic Church. And so they sent to me the entire Exposition of all seventy-six psalms, skilfully and correctly transcribed, the whole business being seen to by the distinguished and most erudite Dom P. Apronian Hueber, prior of Mehrerau, and I had promised 751Dmy friends a speedy edition of it in my Thesaurus. Nor would I ever have changed my mind, had I not, upon a thorough examination of the work, discovered that the kernel and the marrow of Walafrid's commentary had long since been set before the learned in the Glossa ordinaria, which likewise has Walafrid Strabo for its author. Therefore, lest I should be too burdensome to those learned men who, on other grounds, desire me to be not inconsiderably more sparing partiorem in the serving up of theological matters, I determined to insert into my Thesaurus nothing but the exposition of the first twenty psalms, as it were by way of a specimen of the remaining work. But if any erudite men shall observe, from this specimen, a greater difference between Walafrid's exposition of the psalms and the ordinary Gloss upon the same than I have observed, and shall judge that it will be worth the labour if by the same method the explanation of the remaining 752Cpsalms also be published: I shall comply with them in the volumes that follow the more readily, inasmuch as it is the more equitable that so great a labour of the friends of Reichenau, destined for the common advantage and use, should not utterly perish.

VERS. 1, 2.-- Blessed is the man who hath not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly, and hath not stood in the way of sinners: and hath not sat in the chair of pestilence. But in the law of the Lord, etc.

All Scripture of the Old and of the New Testament, divinely inspired, invites the faithful to the imitation of the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, that through imitation we may deserve to come to his likeness. As he himself saith: If any man minister to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister 752Dbe. So the apostle and evangelist John: Dearly beloved, he saith, now we are the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is. Thus therefore this first psalm also teaches believers to follow the author and the bestower of true blessedness, by turning aside from evil and doing good, that they may come to his likeness and may become as a tree planted beside the running waters.

But he turns aside from evil perfectly who neither delights in his heart, nor acts in deed, nor teaches others, that they should 753Ado so. For this is not to go away in the counsel of the ungodly, nor to stand in the way of sinners, nor to sit in the chair of pestilence; but rather to meditate in the law of the Lord, not of necessity but of will, without ceasing, which is what day and night signifies. Or, as Scripture is wont, it sets day for prosperity and night for adversity: so that neither the gladness of temporal things nor the adversity of transitory things may turn the mind of him who follows the Lord away from the meditation of the divine law. And how necessary that is, is shown there also, where the Lord commanded Josue, the minister and confidant of the lawgiver, who had learned the law first and foremost, that he should not forsake the volume of the law, but should meditate in it day and night, that he may direct his way and may understand all the things which it saith.

753BBut if any man asks more openly what the counsel of the ungodly is, [quod si; read quod sit, "what the counsel is"] Scripture speaks of it in manifold ways, and most of all the book which is called of Wisdom, where it saith: The ungodly said within themselves, not thinking aright. [Vulg. Sap 2:1 Dixerunt enim cogitantes apud se non recte, without the word for "the ungodly"] And a little after: Come, and let us enjoy the good things that are, and let us use the creature as in youth, speedily. And again: Let us oppress the poor just man, nor let us reverence the grey hairs of the aged, of long time, etc.

But the way of sinners is that of which the Psalmist elsewhere, after such things, subjoins: This their way is a stumbling-block to them. And the Lord saith: Broad is the way which leadeth to death. But the chair of pestilence [Vulg. Mt 7:13 has perditionem, "perdition", where Migne has "death"] signifies perverse doctrine, which comes about in two ways: either by inviting openly to the wickedness of works, as Solomon shows in the Proverbs, saying: My son, if 753Csinners shall entice thee, consent not to them: if they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares against the innocent without cause, etc. Or by leading into error, as follows there after some things, where he also names this chair a seat, saying: A foolish woman, and clamorous, and full of allurements, and knowing nothing at all, sat at the doors of her house upon a seat. And a little after: Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread more pleasant: which without doubt signify perverse doctrine: for the reprobate follow after all these things so far, and by following them so spurn and execrate the meditation of the divine law, that, according to the Prophet, they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh perfectly, and say to God: Depart from us, and we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

753DThis order, which this first psalm shows, comprehending most fully in brief what evils are to be turned aside from and what goods are to be done, Holy Scripture keeps in many places: as that saying of the blessed apostle James is like to this: Casting away all uncleanness and abundance of malice, with meekness receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls. And again: Resist the devil, and he will fly from you: draw nigh to the Lord, and he will draw nigh to you. Which order also the Church most solemnly keeps in the sacraments of those who are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, that first they renounce the devil and all his pomps or works, and afterwards profess that they believe in God the Father almighty, and in Jesus 754AChrist his Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and the Catholic Church, and the remission of sins; and so are dipped in the saving water and are incorporated into the Church (outside of which, even if a man should have done the things said above, he shall not be able to be saved), and, made members of the tree of life, begin to tend toward its likeness. Which the blessed Paul shows, in agreement with the words that follow, saying: As many of us as are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death: for we are buried together with him by baptism into death, that as Christ rose again from the dead by the glory of the Father: so we also may walk in newness. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also of his resurrection.

VERS. 3.-- And he shall be as, etc. Of this tree 754Bhe spoke concerning himself in the time of his passion: If in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? If the transgressor shall stretch out his hand to this tree and take of its fruit, he shall live for ever. Which also in the Apocalypse he promises to him that overcometh, saying: To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.

But by the running of the waters, understand either the Holy Spirit, as the Evangelist writes that the Lord said: He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Which, expounding it, he subjoins, saying: Now this he said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in him. By whose working was wrought the very incarnation of the Saviour, according to that which the angel Gabriel speaks to Joseph 754Cconcerning the blessed Mother of God, Mary, saying: Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit. Or the utterances of the Scriptures, which foretold the coming of the just one, and the sufferings to be in Christ, and the glories that should follow after, as the same just and justifying Lord speaks to the apostles after his resurrection, saying: These are the words which I spoke to you when I was yet with you: for it is necessary that all things be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. And: Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, that out of them they might take the vital moisture which they should minister to believers, according to that which the Prophet promises them, saying: You shall draw waters with joy out of the fountains of the Saviour. For that the divine utterances 754Dare signified by the name of waters, the same Scripture testifies in many places: of which one is: Words out of the mouth of a man are deep water, and the fountain of wisdom an overflowing torrent.

But the fruit and the leaves of this tree are the things which Jesus began to do and to teach: of whom certain of the disciples were speaking: Who was a man, a prophet, mighty in work and in word before God and all the people.

But that which he says in his time, the Apostle expounded, saying: When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons: which are the fruits of the tree.

And that which he subjoins: and his leaf shall not fall off, signifies the unmoved firmness of his words. So 755Ahe himself saith: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

But concerning the prosperity of his doings the Father also promises through Isaias: My word, which shall go forth out of my mouth, shall not return to me void: but it shall do whatsoever I willed, and shall prosper in those things for which I sent it.

VERS. 4.-- Not so the ungodly, etc. The ungodly are not so, in the manner of those who by imitation so far advance unto the likeness of the tree of life that, by seeing its blessedness and its eternity, they are themselves blessed and eternal, according to that which God promises through Isaias the prophet, saying: For according to the days of the tree shall be the days of my people.

But as dust dry and unfruitful, inasmuch as 755Bthey are strangers to the moisture of the waters spoken of above, they are cast forth from the solidity and the stability of the earth of the present, that is, of the Church, and of that which is to come, into the wind, and being cast forth they stand as food for the serpent, of which it is written: And dust is the serpent's bread. But the wind itself is understood to be the devil, as it is written: The north is a hard wind. And by the name right hand is he called, who in the prophet is also called the spirit of fornication: and by the Apostle he is named the spirit that now worketh in the children of unbelief.

VERS. 5.-- Therefore the ungodly shall not rise, etc. If any difference is here to be taken between the ungodly and sinners, by the ungodly are to be understood those of whom the Lord says: He that believeth not in the Son is already judged. But sinners, to whom the Judge is to say: Depart from 755Cme, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. Who indeed shall rise in judgment, but not in the council of the just, as the Lord threatens certain men through Ezechiel the prophet, saying: They shall not be in the council of my people, that in the writing of the house of Israel they shall not be written, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel. [Vulg. Ezech 13:9 et in scriptura domus Israel non scribentur, "and they shall not be written"; Migne's ut does not construe with the future indicative]

VERS. 6.-- For the Lord hath known, etc. He hath known, that is, he approves, and praising it rewards the doings of the just: as through Solomon he promises that he will say to the Church in the universal judgment: Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. In the gates, namely, in the entrance of the heavenly kingdom: which gates or doors are shut to the foolish virgins, who shall remain among those whose way shall perish. For both what perishes the Lord 755Dsays that he knows not, and what the Lord knows not, perishes: as also to the foolish virgins aforesaid, and to those who shall say: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? etc., the Judge himself says that he will answer. Amen I say to you, I know you not; or: I never knew you.

VERS. 1.-- Why have the gentiles raged, and the peoples meditated vain things, etc. It is a question of rebuking. For the prophet chides the peoples. Why have they raged against the Lord the Saviour, when they had no causes of anger? But he says that they meditated vain things, because they did not accomplish what they wished, namely that Christ should be extinguished.

756AVERS. 2.-- The kings stood up, etc. This is said of the persecutors of the Lord, who are also commemorated in the Acts of the Apostles. But they stood up signifies not presence, but will.

VERS. 3.-- Let us break asunder their bonds, etc. Although it can be taken otherwise also, yet it is more fitly taken from the person of those whom he said had meditated vain things, so that this is let us break asunder their bonds, let us take pains that they bind us not, nor that the Christian religion be laid upon us. But theirs, either of God the Father and of his Christ, or of Christ and of the apostles.

VERS. 4.-- He that dwelleth in the heavens, etc. The sentence is repeated. For in place of that which is, He that dwelleth in the heavens, there is set afterwards: the Lord. In place of that which is, shall laugh at them, there is set afterwards, shall deride them. 756BNone of these things ought to be understood carnally, as though God laughed with cheeks or derided with the nose; but that force is to be taken which he gives to his saints, that, discerning things to come, that is, the name of Christ and his dominion about to spread abroad among those who come after and to lay hold of all nations, they may understand that those men meditated vain things. For this force, by which those things were foreknown, is the laughter of God and the derision. But by the heavens we take holy souls, through whom, since they indeed foreknow what shall come to pass, God will deride and mock.

VERS. 5.-- Then shall he speak, etc. The anger and fury of God must be understood not as a perturbation of his; but as the force by which he most justly takes vengeance, all creation being subject to him for his ministry. Although the anger of God may rightly be understood also as that very darkening of the mind which 756Cfollows upon those who transgress the law of God.

VERS. 6.-- But I am appointed, etc. Some interpret Sion as watching, which we ought to take as the Church, where daily the intention of watching upon the charity of God is raised up. Which is also called a mountain because of its eminence and its firmness.

VERS. 7.-- The Lord said to me, etc. That day may seem to be spoken of in the prophecy on which Jesus Christ was born according to the man. Yet because to-day signifies a present, and in eternity there is neither anything past, as though it had ceased to be, nor future, as though it were not yet, to-day may also be understood, by a most sincere and Catholic faith, of the everlasting generation of the power and the wisdom of God, who is the only-begotten Son.

756DVERS. 8.-- Ask of me, etc. Namely, that the nations may be joined to the Christian name, and so be redeemed from death, that they may be possessed by God.

VERS. 9.-- Thou shalt rule them with a rod, etc. With a rod of iron, in inflexible justice, crushing in them earthly desires and the miry businesses of the old man.

VERS. 10.-- And now, ye kings, etc. And now, that is, now made new: for they are signified as spiritual who judge the earth: for whatever we judge is beneath us: but whatever is beneath the spiritual man is deservedly named earth.

VERS. 11.-- Serve ye the Lord, etc. Most excellently is rejoice subjoined, lest that which was said, serve, should seem to avail unto misery. But again, lest that same thing should incline 757Ainto an outpouring of rashness, there is added, with trembling, that it might avail unto a circumspect wariness.

VERS.12.-- Embrace ye discipline, etc. To understand and to be instructed, this is to embrace discipline. But in that which is said, embrace ye, there is signified sufficiently that there is a certain defence and fortification against all the things which could hurt, unless it were embraced with so great care. But to perish from the just way is a great punishment, which is dreaded by those who have perceived something of the sweetness of justice.

VERS.13.-- When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time, etc. That is, when the vengeance shall come which is prepared for the ungodly and for sinners, it shall not only not touch those who trust in the Lord, but shall even profit them unto that blessedness where is the sum and the heaping up of all good things. But that 757Bwhich is set down: in a short time, I judge to signify this, that it will be something sudden, when sinners reckon it remote and far off in time to come.

VERS. 1.-- A psalm of David, when he fled from the face of his son Absalom.

David, who is interpreted strong of hand or desirable, signifies our Lord Jesus Christ, whose voice is brought in in this psalm speaking of his passion and his resurrection. But Absalom signifies Judas the betrayer, or the persecuting people. For Judas also was still among the apostles when the Lord said: The children of the bridegroom cannot fast, so long as the bridegroom is with them. [Vulg. Mt 9:15 lugere, "to mourn"; "fast" is Mark's word at Mc 2:19] And of the people he says through Moses 757C: A firstborn son among Israel. [Vulg. Ex 4:22 Filius meus primogenitus Israel, "Israel is my firstborn son"] The Truth therefore fled the mind of Judas, or of the persecuting people, while it did not cease to enlighten them. Or, as the Gospel narrates: These things Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them. But whereas Absalom is interpreted the Father's peace, it is well understood that Christ showed peace to his betrayer, although that man was laid waste by the inward war of so wicked a thought: and toward the persecuting people he stood so appeased that he besought the Father for them, saying: Father, pardon them, for they know not what they do. [Vulg. Lc 23:34 dimitte, "forgive"]

VERS. 2.-- Lord, why are they multiplied, etc. So greatly, namely, are they multiplied, that even out of the number of the disciples there was not wanting one who joined the number of the persecutors.

VERS. 3.-- Many say, etc. It is manifest 757Dthat unless they had despaired of his rising again, they would certainly not have killed him. Therefore neither would Judas have betrayed him, unless he had been of the number of those who despised Christ, saying: There is no salvation for him in his God.

VERS. 4.-- But thou, O Lord, art my protector, etc. He too calls the Lord his glory, whom the Word of God so took up that together with him he became God. But head I think is here to be taken as the human mind itself, which so cleaved to, and in a manner grew together with, the excellent supereminence of the Word taking up the man, that in so great a lowliness of the passion it was not laid down.

These things can also be taken from the person of the Church. For in that man the Church also was taken up by the Word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us. Let therefore 758Athe Church speak together with her head, set amid the storms of persecutions throughout the whole round of the earth: Lord, why are they multiplied, etc., her head being exalted, who as the firstborn from the dead ascended into heaven.

VERS. 5.-- With my voice I have cried to the Lord, etc. Not with the voice of the body, which is put forth with the noise of beaten air, but with the voice of the heart, which is silent to men, but sounds to God as a cry, when the soul alone, drawing nothing of the flesh and nothing of fleshly intentions into the prayer, speaks to the Lord where he alone hears. And this too is called a cry because of the force of the intention itself.

But he says that the Father heard him from the mountain, that is, from his own justice. For it was just that he should raise up 758Bfrom the dead one slain though innocent, and to whom evils were repaid for good things, and should repay worthy things to his persecutors: For we read: Thy justice is as the mountains of God. But the Church also is heard from that same mountain, which is likewise her head, of which the Prophet says: The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains.

VERS. 6.-- I have slept, etc. Not unfittingly may I be noted, to signify that of his own will he underwent death, according to that: Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, and I shall take it again: no man shall take it away from myself. And it is well taken: I have slept and have taken my rest: I gave myself over to the passion, and death followed. To the people of the Church also it is said: Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall touch thee, [Vulg. Eph 5:14 illuminabit te Christus, "Christ shall enlighten thee"] because he was taken up from among sinners. I will not fear 758Cthousands, etc. It is not to a God sleeping, not to a God lying down, that it is said, arise: but it is the manner of the divine Scriptures to attribute to the person of God what he works in us, not indeed everywhere, but where it can fittingly be said: or that he himself be said to speak, when by his gift the several messengers of truth speak.

VERS. 7.-- For thou hast struck all them, etc. They are broken, that is, brought to nothing, the words of sinners tearing and cursing the Son of God. The teeth of sinners can also be taken as the princes of sinners, by whose authority a man is now cut off from the fellowship of those living rightly, and as it were incorporated with those living ill.

VERS. 8.-- O Lord, there is salvation, etc. [Vulg. Ps 3:9 Domini est salus, "salvation is the Lord's"] Let no man therefore presume of himself, since it is the Lord's to save from 758Dthe death of sin. But do thou, O Lord, bless thy people, that hopeth in thee for salvation.

VERS. 2.-- When I called upon him he heard me, etc. O God of my justice, from whom is my justice, thou hast led me from the straits of sadness into the breadth of joys: For tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil. But he who says: We rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us, [Vulg. Rom 5:3 gloriamur, "we glory"] has no straits of the heart, 759Aalthough from without they are heaped upon him by persecutors. But this voice is either of the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection: or of the Church believing and hoping in him: Have mercy on me and hear, etc. The devoted mother says that mercy is to be had upon herself, if for her sons the prayer be heard, since whatever is granted to the members is without doubt bestowed upon the whole body.

VERS. 3.-- Ye sons of men, etc. At the least until the coming of the Son of God will your error have lasted: why then are you further heavy of heart? When will you have an end of deceits, if you have not the presence of the truth? For since the truth alone, out of which all things are true, makes men blessed, why are you detained by the love of temporal things, why do you follow after the last things as though they were the first, which is vanity and a lie? For you desire that to abide 759Bwith you which all passes away as a shadow.

VERS. 4.-- And know ye that, etc. Whom, save him whom he raised up from the dead below and set in heaven at his right hand? The human race therefore is rebuked, that they may at length turn themselves to him from the love of this world; and that, as they rejoice over the illumination in this life, so they may know that they must pray for rest after this life.

VERS. 5.-- Be ye angry and do not, etc. It can be understood in two ways. Either: Even if ye are angry, sin not, that is, even if there arises a motion of the soul which now, because of the punishment of sin, is not in one's power, at least let not reason and the mind consent to it, which within has been regenerated 759Caccording to God, so that with the mind we may serve the law of God, if with the flesh we still serve the law of sin. Or: Do penance, that is, be angry with your own selves for past sins, and cease to sin further.

And that which follows: which you say in your hearts, is a full sentence: what you say in your hearts, say ye, that is, be not the people of which it was said: With the lips they honour me, but their heart is far from me. Chambers, moreover, are the hearts themselves, of which the Lord also warns us that we pray within, the doors being shut. [Vulg. Ps 4:5 in cubilibus vestris, "in your couches"]

VERS. 6.-- Sacrifice ye the sacrifice, etc. He says the same in another psalm: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit. Wherefore it is not absurdly taken here that this is the sacrifice of justice which is made through penance. For what is more just than that each man should be angry rather at his own sins 759Dthan at another's, and, punishing himself, should slay himself to God? Or else the sacrifice of justice is just works after penance.

But many are foolish, who doubt or despair of that very life to come which is promised to us, who often say: Who knoweth whether these things be true, or who hath come back from the dead below to bring word of them?

VERS. 7.-- It is signed upon us, etc. This light is the whole and true good of man, which is beheld not with the eyes but with the mind. But he said it was signed in us, as a penny is signed with the image of the king. For man was made to the likeness and image of God, which by sinning he corrupted. His good therefore is true and eternal, if by being born again he be signed. Therefore it is not 760Awithout that gladness is to be sought, but within, where the light of the countenance of God is signed.

VERS. 8.-- By the fruit of their corn, etc. It is not idle that their own is added; for there is a corn and wine and oil of God also. But these men, given over to temporal pleasures, ever burn with desires and cannot be satisfied: and, stretched out with manifold and toilsome thinking, they are not suffered to see the simple good. The faithful man therefore rejoices and says:

VERS. 9.-- In peace in the selfsame, etc. For rightly is there hoped for by such men an utter estrangement of the mind from mortal things, and a forgetting of the miseries of this world, which is fittingly and prophetically signified by the name of falling asleep and of sleep, where the highest peace can be broken in upon by no tumult. But this 760Bis to be hoped for after this life. Wherefore he fitly adds the last thing, and says:

VERS. 10.-- For thou, O Lord, singularly, etc. Well does he say, singularly: for it can be referred against those many who, multiplied by the fruit of their corn, of their wine and of their oil, say: Who sheweth us good things? For this manifoldness perishes, and singularly is it held in the saints, of whom it is said: And of the multitude of believers there was one soul and heart. [Vulg. Act 4:32 cor unum et anima una, "one heart and one soul"]

VERS. 1.-- Unto the end, for her that obtaineth the truth, a psalm of David. [Vulg. Ps 5:1 pro ea quae haereditatem consequitur, "for her that obtaineth the inheritance"] The Church is understood, which receives the inheritance unto life everlasting through our Lord Jesus Christ, that she may possess God himself, 760Ccleaving to whom she may be blessed, according to that: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. Wherefore it is the voice of the Church called unto the inheritance, and that she herself may become the inheritance of God.

VERS. 2.-- Give ear to my words, etc. Well does he show what that cry is: since indeed the voice of the body is heard, but the spiritual voice is understood.

VERS. 3.-- Hearken to the voice, etc. The Scriptures are wont to call the Son a king. According to that therefore which was said: Through me is the going to the Father, assuredly first my king, and then my God.

VERS. 4, 5.-- For to thee will I pray, O Lord, etc. In the morning I will stand before thee, etc. Thou art not, he says, such a one as could be seen by those from whose eyes the night of sins has not yet departed. My night of error being ended, and the 760Ddarkness departing which by my sins I made for myself, thou wilt hear my voice.

But I will stand, what is it but: I will not lie down? And to lie down is to rest upon the earth, which is to seek blessedness from earthly pleasures. We must not therefore cleave to earthly things, if we wish to see God, who is beheld by the pure.

VERS. 6.-- Neither shall he dwell, etc. That is, they shall not so see him as to cleave to him, because their mind is beaten back by the light of truth on account of the darkness of sins, by the habit of which they cannot bear the brightness of right understanding.

VERS. 7.-- Thou hatest all them that work, etc. He hates those whom he does not suffer to abide in himself: and they do not abide 761Awho have not strength to bear him. But a lie is contrary to truth. Yet lest any man think that some substance or nature is contrary to truth, let him understand that a lie pertains to that which is not, not to that which is. For if that is said which is, the truth is said: but if that is said which is not, it is a lie. Therefore he begins: Thou wilt destroy them that speak a lie, because, departing from that which is, they turn aside to that which is not.

The bloody and deceitful man, etc. Understand the bloody man as him that worketh iniquity, [operantur; read operantem, "him that worketh"] and the deceitful as him that loveth a lie. But the abominated are wont to be called the disinherited. And this psalm is for her that obtaineth the inheritance, who subjoins the exultation of her hope, saying:

761BVERS. 8.-- I will go into the house, etc. I will go into thy house: it is said, I believe, as a stone into a building. 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, which you are. Of which building the corner-stone is he whom the power co-eternal with the Father, and the wisdom of God, took up.

But it must be considered that he did not say: in the temple, but: to the temple: for the holy temple is the body of the Lord and Saviour, which the Church rightly adores: of which he himself said: Destroy this temple. And he adds: in thy fear, which is a great safeguard to those going forward unto salvation.

VERS. 9.-- O Lord, lead me, etc. Nothing is more manifest than that he commends that time in which he advances: 761Cfor this is the journey which is accomplished not by places of the earth, but by the affections of the mind. In thy sight, he says, my way, according to that which is said also in the Lord's prayer: Hallowed be thy name; not that it should be hallowed for us who pray, which is holy of itself; but that we may ask that what is holy by its own nature be hallowed in us also. Therefore now also the Prophet asks that the way of God, which is right of itself, may be made right for himself too.

VERS. 10.-- For there is no truth in their mouth, etc. How can truth be in the mouth of those whose heart is deceived concerning sin and the punishment of sin?

VERS. 11.-- A sepulchre, etc. Flatterers and heretics are called open sepulchres, because, since they themselves are dead by not having the life of truth, into themselves 761Dthey receive the dead, whom they slay with lying words. But in that he says: Judge them, O God, he does not wish that it may come to pass, but discerns what is to come.

Let them fall away, etc. Let them fall away, their own thoughts accusing them, their own conscience: and because they are greatly ungodly, drive them far away from that inheritance which is possessed by understanding and seeing God.

VERS. 12.-- And let them be glad, etc. He himself therefore will be the everlasting exultation, as the just become the temple of God.

And they shall glory, etc. This is the blessing: to glory in God and to be inhabited by God.

VERS. 13.-- O Lord, as with a shield of thy good will, etc. The good will of God goes before our will, that he may call sinners to repentance. And these are the arms 762Aby which the enemy is stormed, against whom it is said: Who shall accuse against the elect of God? And again: For if, when as yet we were enemies, Christ died for us, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved from wrath through him. This most unconquerable shield, by which the enemy is driven away, suggesting despair of salvation by the multitude of tribulations and of temptations.

VERS. 1.-- Unto the end, in songs, for the octave, a psalm of David. The day of judgment can be understood as the eighth, in that eternal life is now received after the end of this world. Then the souls of the just will not be subject to times. And since all times are rolled round by the repetition of the seven days of the just, that day is perhaps said 762Bto be the eighth which will not have this variety, which, rendering to merits what is owed, carries the saints over into eternal life, but condemns the ungodly everlastingly. Fearing which condemnation, the Church prays, saying:

VERS. 2.-- Lord, not in thy fury, etc. In the day of judgment they are rebuked, that is, accused, all who have not the foundation, which is Christ. But they are chastised, that is, purged, who build upon this foundation wood, hay, stubble, and yet shall be saved, so as by fire. But this man prays that in the Lord's anger he may neither be condemned nor amended, but be so perfectly healed here that he may not only not fear death, but may not even have to bear the hand of the physician that burns or cuts. And so he goes on and says:

VERS. 3.-- Have mercy on me, O God, etc. [Vulg. Ps 6:3 Miserere mei, Domine, "Have mercy on me, O Lord"] That is the firmness 762Cof the soul, or its strength: for this is what bones signify. Wherefore what is subjoined belongs to the exposition:

VERS. 4.-- And my soul, etc. Who would not understand a soul struggling with her own diseases, but long put off by the physician, so that she might be convinced into what evils she had flung herself by sinning? For what is easily healed is not much guarded against. But out of the difficulty of the healing there will be a more diligent keeping of the health recovered.

VERS. 5.-- Turn, O Lord, etc. Turning himself, he prays that God also may turn to him, as it is said: Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord.

VERS. 6.-- For there is not, etc. He understands that now is the time of conversion, because, when this life has passed, 762Dnothing remains but the recompense of merits. That too can be understood in this way, that by death he means the sin which is committed when the law of God is despised. In which death, that is, to be unmindful of God, to despise the law and the commandments, so that by hell he has meant the blindness of mind which receives the sinner, that is, the dying man, and wraps him about. From that death and from that hell the soul beseeches that she be kept safe, while she labours at conversion to the Lord and feels the difficulties. Wherefore she weaves on, saying:

VERS. 7.-- I have laboured, etc. A bed is in this place the name given to that in which a sick and feeble mind takes its rest, that is, in the pleasure of the body and in every worldly delight, and he washes it with tears who strives to drag himself 763Aout of it, and is forced to suffer, as it were, days and nights by an alternating affection: so that, 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, he is bent down into night, until all night pass and one day come, of which it is said: in the morning I will stand before thee. And this couch we take to be the same as the bed: although I will water is something more than I will wash: since a thing can be washed on the surface, whereas watering reaches to the inward parts, which signifies weeping that goes to the innermost places of the heart.

VERS. 8.-- It is troubled, etc. Because of the Lord's anger he professes that the eye of his heart is troubled. For what is more to be dreaded than that he should be angry who, if he does not have mercy, destroys? And as to what he subjoins, I have grown old among all my enemies, he has found himself hedged about with all 763Bthe vices, which, since they are of the old life and of the old man, of whom we are to be stripped that we may be clothed with the new, it is rightly said: I have grown old. But by in all my enemies he means either among the vices themselves, or among men who will not be converted to God. For these too, even if they know it not, even if they spare, are nevertheless by their contrary purpose enemies to those who turn themselves to God. But because that cannot be void which is so vehemently asked of him who is the fountain of all mercies, and since it is most truly said: the Lord is nigh to them that are of a bruised heart, the devout soul, signifying that after such great difficulties she has been heard (and it is allowed to understand the Church also by her), see what she adds:

VERS. 9.-- Depart from me, etc. Either it is said in prophecy: For they shall depart, that is, the ungodly shall be separated 763Cfrom the just when the day of judgment shall have come: or now, because, even though they are held together alike and in the same little assemblies; yet on the bare threshing-floor the grains are already separated from the chaff, although they lie hidden among the chaff.

The Lord hath heard, etc. The frequent repetition of the same sentence shows not the necessity of one narrating, but the affection of one exulting.

VERS. 10.-- Let them be ashamed, etc. This shall be fulfilled in that day, when the rewards of the just and the punishments of sinners shall have been made manifest. For the ungodly are so far from being ashamed that they do not cease to insult us.

Although this too can be taken here, that now, because God has heard her groaning and so often and so long weeping, she is understood, being set free from her sins, to pray even for her enemies, that they may do penance for their sins 763D(which cannot be done without confusion and disturbance) and be converted to the Lord, and be ashamed that they gloried in the former darkness of their sins. But what he adds: very speedily, is to be referred either to the affection of one desiring, or to the power of Christ, who converted the nations that were persecuting the Church for their idols to the faith of the Gospel with so great a swiftness of times.

Chusi is interpreted Ethiopian, it signifies the devil, or Judas the traitor, or the people of the Jews, who after receiving blessedness were turned to the blackness of sins. Who is also written son of Jemini, that is: son of the right hand; who, although they fell by their own fault, 764Awere nevertheless created good by God in their nature: for these conspired with one consent against Christ and the Church in persecution.

VERS. 1, 2.-- O Lord my God, in thee have I hoped, etc. Lest at any time he seize, etc. The Apostle says: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. And so, when he had spoken in the plural number: save me from all them that persecute me, he afterwards brought in the singular, saying: lest at any time he seize my soul as a lion. For he does not say: lest at any time they seize; as though to one already perfect none resists but the envious devil, every war and hostility of the vices being overcome. But what he subjoins: while there is none to redeem, is to be understood thus, lest he seize, while thou dost not redeem nor save.

764BVERS. 4.-- O Lord my God, etc. What he says: if he hath done this, [Vulg. Ps 7:4 si feci, "if I have done"] he sets out below what it is, when he says: if there be iniquity in my hands.

VERS. 5.-- If I have rendered, etc. He does not say: if I have rendered to them that do, but to them that repaid me evils. For he who repays had already received something. But it is of greater patience not even to pay back evils to him who, having received benefits, rendered evils for us, than if, no benefit having been received, he had wished to do harm. And he well added: let me deservedly fall away empty before my enemies. For he boasts himself emptily who, being himself a man, desires to avenge himself upon a man: and while he openly seeks to overcome a man, he is secretly overcome by the devil, made empty by a vain and proud gladness, in that he could not, as it were, be conquered. Understanding these things therefore, where the greater victory comes to be, 764Che conquers anger rather than a man.

VERS. 6.-- Let the enemy pursue, etc. He names enemy him whom above he called a lion: for he it is that pursues the soul, and if he has deceived it, he lays hold of it, and by trampling makes its life earth, namely his own food. For he was called not only a lion, but also a serpent, to whom it was said: thou shalt eat earth. [Vulg. Gn 3:14 terram comedes, "thou shalt eat earth"] His glory also he brings down into the dust, which the wind casts forth from the face of the earth, which is vain and foolish boasting, like a ball of dust lifted by the wind.

VERS. 7.-- Arise, O Lord, etc. He prays these things not against men, but against the devil and his angels, whose possession sinners and ungodly men are, to whom it is a punishment when this possession is taken away 764Dfrom them, in which they desire to have dominion. This punishment he calls the anger of God against the devil, that he may cease to possess what he possesses. Which possession he called the borders, where he wills God rather to be exalted, that is, honoured and glorified, than the devil, while the ungodly are justified and pass over into the temple of God.

Arise, O Lord my God, etc. Because thou hast commanded humility, appear humble, and do thou first fulfil what thou hast commanded, that they who by thy example overcome pride may not be possessed by the devil.

But the congregation of peoples, that is, the multitude of them that believe through his humility, so surrounded him that it was most truly said: Blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in.

765AVERS. 8.-- And for this, etc. That is, for the sake of this congregation return on high, which he is understood to have done by rising again and by ascending into heaven. And he well continues:

VERS. 9.-- The Lord judgeth the peoples, etc. Because from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. Wherefore this soul, which prays perfectly, see how she does not fear the day of judgment, and truly says with desire in her prayer:

Judge me, O Lord, etc. That is true innocence which hurts not even an enemy. And so he rightly asks to be judged according to the innocence that is his own, who could truly say: if I have rendered to them that repaid me evils. But what he added: upon me, shows this very thing, that the soul is just: And I say, if a burning and shining lamp should say: 765BJudge me according to the flame which is upon me: that is, not according to what I myself am, but according to that whereby I shine, kindled from thee.

VERS. 10.-- Let wickedness be consummated, etc. [Vulg. Ps 7:10 Consumetur nequitia peccatorum, "the wickedness of sinners shall be consumed"] Let it be consummated, he says, let it be brought to completion, that is, let it come through to the height of wickedness, that this judgment may now be able to come. But since it was said not only to the filthy: let him be filthy still; but also: let the just become more just, [Vulg. Apc 22:11 qui justus est, justificetur adhuc, "he that is just, let him be justified still"] he links on and says: thou shalt direct the just, searching the hearts and reins, O God. How then is the just man directed amid so great a confusion of dissembling, unless while God searches the hearts and reins, seeing the thoughts of all, which are signified by the name of the heart, and the delights, which are understood by the name of the reins? Searching therefore our heart, and looking forward, that we do not acquiesce in flesh and blood, 765Cbut are delighted in the Lord, he directs the just in the conscience itself before himself, where no man sees, but he alone who looks upon what each one thinks and what delights each one.

VERS. 11.-- Just help, etc. Just aid is that which is bestowed on one already just. For if he furnishes the medicine by which we are healed when sick, how much more that by which we may be guarded when whole: for if, when we were as yet sinners, Christ died for us, how much more, being now justified, shall we be saved from wrath through him. So it comes to pass that God, searching the hearts and reins, and seeing in the heart right thoughts, in the reins no lower delights, affords just aid to the right of heart, where to clean thoughts the delights of heaven are joined.

765DVERS. 12.-- God is a just judge, etc. Just, who renders to every one according to his works: strong, who, being most mighty, yet bore with ungodly persecutors for our salvation: patient, who did not snatch away to punishment those very men who persecuted him immediately after the resurrection, but bore with them, that they might at some time turn themselves from that ungodliness to salvation. He is not angry every day, because he still bears with them, keeping the last punishment for the last judgment.

VERS. 13, 14.-- Except ye be converted, etc. And in it he hath prepared, etc. Coming at his second advent to judge the living and the dead, the just Judge in the manifest splendour of his brightness shall flash out light for his just ones and terrors for the ungodly. But by the bow he means the holy Scriptures, where 766Aby the strength of the New Testament, as by a kind of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and tamed. Hence the apostles are sent forth as arrows, or the divine proclamations are hurled. Which arrows he hath made ready for them that burn, that they who were struck by them might blaze with divine love. But by vessels of death, either heretics are understood, who out of the same bow, that is, out of the same scriptures, leap upon souls not to be inflamed with charity but to be destroyed with poisons: which does not happen save according to merits: and for this reason this disposition too must be ascribed to the divine Providence. [Providentia; read Providentiae, "to the Providence"] Or the same apostles, because to some they are an odour of life unto life, to others an odour of death unto death.

VERS. 15.-- Behold he hath been in labour, etc. Every wicked man hath conceived sorrow while he lusts after something unlawful: he travails with injustice when by desiring he broods upon it: 766Bhe bringeth forth iniquity; because sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.

VERS. 16.-- He hath opened a pit, etc. This is what is said in another Psalm: the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands.

VERS. 17.-- His sorrow shall be turned, etc. Rightly shall his iniquity be upon himself, since he has of his own accord put himself under his own iniquity: as is also said in another Psalm: my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are become heavy upon me.

VERS. 18.-- I will confess to the Lord, etc. This is not a confession of sins, but of the justice of God, thus we speak: Thou art the true just one, O Lord, when thou both so protectest the just that thou enlightenest them by thyself: and so orderest sinners that they are punished not by thy malice, but by their own.

766CThis psalm too can be understood in the person of the Lord's manhood, if only those things which are there humbly said be referred to our infirmity, which he bore.

Winepresses we may take to be the Churches, by the same reasoning by which we also understand the threshing-floor to be the Church: because whether on the threshing-floor or in the winepress nothing else is done but that the fruits be purged of those defilements which were needful both that they might come to birth, and that they might grow, and might reach the ripeness either of the harvest or of the vintage, as is now done, that the good be for the time separated from the bad not by place, but by affection: although they dwell together in the Churches, so far as bodily presence is concerned. But there will be another time, 766Din which either the grains are set apart into the barns, or the wines into the cellars.

Winepresses are wont to be taken also as martyrdoms, since those who confessed the name of Christ were trodden by the affliction of persecutions, so that their mortal parts remained on the earth like grape-skins: but their souls flowed forth into the rest of the heavenly habitation. The divine Word too can be understood as a grape, when by the necessity of utterance it takes to itself the sound of the voice, whereby it may come through to the ears of the hearers. By the same sound of the voice, as by grape-skins, the understanding is enclosed as wine: and so that grape comes into the ears, as it were into the treading-place of the winepresses. But there a distinction is made, so that the sound avails as far as the ears, while the understanding is received by the memory of those 767Awho hear, as in a kind of place, and passes thence into the discipline of manners and the habit of the mind, as from the vat into the cellars, in which, if negligence has not soured it, it will be made firm by age. For it soured in the Jews, and with this vinegar they gave the Lord to drink.

VERS. 2.-- O Lord, our Lord, etc. As if he were saying openly: O Lord, who art our Lord, how do all that dwell in the earth admire thee, because thy magnificence has been lifted above the heavens out of earthly lowliness! For hence it appeared that thou hadst come down, when thou wast seen by some, and by the rest it was believed that thou hadst ascended.

VERS. 3.-- Out of the mouth of infants, etc. Infants and sucklings can be taken to be those to whom the Apostle says: As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, 767Bnot meat. Which those men signified who went before the Lord praising him, in whom the Lord himself used this testimony. But by enemies of this dispensation, which was wrought through Christ Jesus, and him crucified, we ought generally to understand all who forbid yielding to things unknown [cedere; read credere, "to believe"], and promise a certain knowledge, as all heretics do, and those who in the superstition of the Gentiles are named philosophers. But the devil, the fiercest enemy, can also be understood as the avenger; for to him sinners are delivered unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. But he also possesses for ever all who have not been snatched by divine grace out of his jaws.

VERS. 4.-- For I shall see the heavens, etc. I shall see, 767Che says, the heavens, the works of thy fingers: that is, I shall discern and understand the Scriptures, which thou hast written down through thy ministers, the Holy Spirit working, who is called the finger of God.

Thus therefore the enemy is destroyed, when the Scriptures preached are understood even down to the slowness of infants. But the moon and the stars are founded in the heavens: because both the universal Church, in the signifying of which the moon is often set down, and, place by place, the several Churches, which I judge to be intimated by the name of the stars, have been set in those same scriptures, which we believe to be set down under the name of the heavens.

VERS. 5.-- What is man, etc. It can be asked what difference there is between men and the son of man. For if there were no difference, it would not be set down thus: or the son of man, by 767Ddisjunction. For every son of man is a man, although not every man can be understood as the Son of man. Adam indeed was a man, but not a son of man. But Christ is both man and Son of man. He therefore is called man who bears the image of the earthly man. Of him God is mindful as of one absent. But the Son of man, who bears the image of the heavenly, he visits as one present: and this in the assumption of humanity, God the Word. Whence follows:

VERS. 6.-- Thou hast lessened him, etc. For we have heard and we believe that he was made a little less than the angels through the lowliness of fleshly generation and of the passion. Which is read more magnificently in the Hebrew: Thou shalt lessen him a little less than God: where he is both plainly shown equal to the Father according to 768Athe divinity, and is declared to be about to be less than the Father according to the humanity.

VERS. 7.-- Thou hast subjected all things, etc. He excepts nothing when he says all things. And that it might not be permitted to understand it otherwise, the Apostle thus bids it be believed, when he says: Except him who subjected all things to him. Nor yet does he seem to be adding anything great when he says: Sheep and oxen, etc., unless we understand by sheep and oxen holy souls, either giving the fruit of innocence, or also labouring that the earth may bear fruit, that is, that earthly men may be born again to spiritual richness. These holy souls therefore must be taken to be not of men only, but of angels also, from this, that the Lord says that he left ninety-nine sheep in the mountains, that is, in the higher places, and came down for the sake of one. For concerning the oxen 768Bthe way out is easy, since men themselves are called oxen for no other reason than that by preaching the word of God they imitate the angels. But by the beasts of the field are most fittingly understood men rejoicing in the pleasures of the flesh, where they climb nothing steep, nothing laborious. For the field is the broad way which leads to destruction.

VERS. 8.-- The birds of the air, etc. See now also as the birds of the air the proud, of whom it is said: they have set their mouth against heaven: see how high they are borne by the wind, who say: We will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own, who is our Lord? Behold also as the fishes of the sea the curious, who walk through the paths of the sea, that is, they search out in the deep of this world the things of time, which, like paths in the sea, grow worthless 768Cand perish. But he said they walk through, showing the most obstinate zeal of those who seek after empty and fleeting things.

VERS. 10.-- O Lord, our Lord, etc. Fittingly, after the texture of the discourse, there is a return to the head, to which the same discourse, now threshed out, is to be referred.

Concerning the hidden things of the son it can be asked. But since he did not add whose, we must understand the only-begotten Son of God himself. For the Lord himself also, when he sets down the Son without any addition, wills himself, the Only-begotten, to be understood, as in that place where he says: If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. But what the hidden things of the son are, the edition translated from the Hebrew plainly shows, which says: To the conqueror upon the death 768Dof the son. Wherefore in this psalm the hidden things of the son are to be observed, that is, his lowly coming, whereby he profited the Gentiles together with the blindness of the Jews, and the punishment which is now carried on hiddenly, not yet by the condemnation of sinners, but either by the exercising of the converted, or by admonition that they may be converted, or by blindness, that they who have refused to be converted may be made ready for condemnation. For that too which is written in the title: unto the end, for the hidden things of the son, and what the translation from the Hebrew mentioned above sets down, to the conqueror for the death of the son, agrees most fittingly beyond doubt with those things of which Christ is the author, who said: Be of good heart, I have overcome the world, when he triumphed alike over death and over hell. He is also the end, that is, the fulfilment of the law, as he says: I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil. 769ASince indeed he shall bear away the victory over the world, he is the end of the good things to come.

VERS. 2.-- I will confess to thee, O Lord, etc. He confesseth not with his whole heart to God who doubts in anything concerning his providence. But he telleth moreover all the wonders of God, because he sees them wrought not only openly in bodies, but also in souls, invisibly indeed, yet far more sublimely and excellently.

VERS. 3.-- I will be glad and rejoice, etc. Not in this world, where gladness is death-bearing, not in the ambitions of the world, where bitter sins are sweet, but in thee, where secure joy always takes increase.

But I will tell moreover all thy wonders can be understood chiefly in the person of Christ, who says to his disciples: All things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you: 769Bsince indeed the person of the Lord speaking in this psalm now begins to appear. For there follows:

VERS. 4.-- In the turning, etc. For his enemy was turned backward when it was said to him: Go back behind, Satan. For then he who by tempting desired to set himself before him was made to be behind, availing nothing against him. And no one of men goes before him and makes him to be behind, save he who, laying aside the image of the earthly man, shall have borne the image of the heavenly, that is, forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching himself forth to those things that are before. For it will not be absurd to take what is said: My enemy, generally, as the Hebrew edition teaches, which, after it has said: I will sing to thy name, O Most High, immediately brings in: When my enemies shall have fallen backward, and have been overthrown, and have perished before 769Cthy face. Why?

VERS. 5.-- For thou hast made judgment, etc. That is, that judgment in which I was seen to be judged thou hast made mine, and that cause, in which men condemned me being just and innocent, thou hast made mine. For these things served him for our deliverance: as sailors call the wind their own which they use for sailing well.

VERS. 6.-- Thou hast rebuked the nations, etc. We take this to be more fittingly said to the Lord Jesus Christ than said by him. For who else rebuked the nations, and the ungodly one perished, but he who, after he ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, filled with whom the apostles preached the word of God with confidence, and freely reproved the sins of men? By which rebuke the ungodly one perished, because he was 769Djustified. And the name of the ungodly was blotted out. For they are not called ungodly who believe in the true Lord.

VERS. 7.-- The enemy's swords have failed, etc. Whose enemy's, but the devil's, swords have failed, which are understood to be the divers opinions of error, wherewith he as with swords destroys souls? But unto the end, that is, in Christ, who destroyed his cities, when he shut out thence the prince, of whom it is said: The prince of this world was sent forth. [Vulg. Jo 12:31 princeps hujus mundi ejicietur foras, "the prince of this world shall be cast out"]

Their memory hath perished, etc. Either because a noise is made when ungodliness is overthrown, or also because the very noise perishes in which ungodliness makes its tumult.

VERS. 8.-- He hath prepared his throne in judgment, etc. Because he shall come also openly and manifestly to judge the living and 770Athe dead, he has prepared in secret his seat in judgment.

VERS. 9.-- And he likewise openly shall judge the world in equity. That is, restoring things worthy to merits.

VERS. 10.-- And the Lord is become a refuge for the poor, etc. What a helper in due times is, he set forth when he added: in tribulation. For the soul is not converted to the Lord, save when it is turned away from this world. Nor is one seasonably turned away from this world, unless labours and sorrows be mingled with its trifling and hurtful and destructive pleasures.

VERS. 11.-- And let them hope in thee, etc. For the soul that seeks where to fix her hope, when she is torn away from this world, is seasonably received by the knowledge of the name of God: for the very name of God has been published abroad everywhere, 770Bbut there is knowledge of the name when he is known whose the name is.

VERS. 12.-- Play ye to the Lord, etc. It is said to those whom, seeking him, the Lord does not forsake. He himself dwelleth in Sion, which is interpreted watching, and bears the image of the Church which now is, and to which it was said: The temple of the Lord is holy, which you are. [Vulg. 1Cor 3:17 Templum enim Dei sanctum est, "for the temple of God is holy"]

VERS. 13.-- For requiring, etc. As though answer were made by those who were sent to preach among the nations the zeal of God, and it were said: Lord, who hath believed our report? And: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long. Or, as though someone more unskilled and of lesser faith should ask, saying: how shall it be announced, when the unbelief of the nations is about to rage? there fittingly follows, saying: that Christians will die not without a great fruit of eternity 770Cin persecution, for requiring their blood he hath remembered.

VERS. 14.-- Have mercy on me, O Lord, etc. One intercedes for the saints, who first was made poor for us when he was rich, though above he had spoken in the plural number: He hath not forgotten the cry of the poor. And he himself says:

VERS. 15.-- Thou that liftest me up, etc. For in him each one of us among his members is lifted up from all depraved desires, which are the gates of death, because through them men go into death. But the gates of the daughter of Sion are all the best pursuits, through which men come to the vision of peace. In the holy Church the gates also of the daughter of Sion are the sacraments and the beginnings of faith.

VERS. 16.-- I will rejoice in thy salvation, etc. I will rejoice, 770Dthat is, I shall be held in blessedness by thy salvation, which is our Lord Jesus Christ, the power and the wisdom of God. Then it must be observed how punishment is kept for the sinner out of his own works.

In that snare, etc. The hidden snare is a deceitful thought: the foot of the soul is rightly understood to be love, which, when it is depraved, is called desire or lust: but when it is right, love or charity. In a fraudulent counsel therefore their foot was caught, when with love it came through fraud to a vain gladness.

VERS. 17.-- The Lord shall be known, etc. These are the judgments of God, when he renders to every one according to his own work.

VERS. 18.-- Let sinners be turned, etc. That is, 771Alet them be given into their own hands, when they are spared, and let them be ensnared by a death-bearing delight.

VERS. 19.-- For the forgetting shall not be unto the end, etc. They are called the poor who now seem to be as it were in forgetfulness: when the wicked flourish, and those men are troubled. But their patience, wherewith they now bear with the wicked, shall not perish, but shall be rewarded unto the end.

VERS. 20.-- Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened, etc. The judgment to come is implored: and what he says: in thy sight, signifies, in secret before God, few holy and just men understanding it.

VERS. 21.-- Appoint, O Lord, etc. He seems to signify Antichrist, of whom the Apostle says: When the man of sin shall be revealed, so that they who will not be set free by the Son of God, and belong to the Son of man, [Filium homines; read Filium hominis, "the Son of man"] and be sons of men, 771Bthat is, new men, may serve a man, that is, the old sinful man, for they are men. And because he is believed to be about to come to so great a height of empty glory, and so much will be permitted him to do against all men and against the saints of God, that then in truth not a few of the weak will judge that God neglects human affairs: he subjoins as it were with the voice of those groaning and complaining why the judgment is deferred.

VERS. 22.-- Why, O Lord, hast thou retired, etc. That is, thou despisest things seasonable, and makest tribulations to inflame minds with desire of thy coming. For that fountain of life is the more delightful to those who thirst much. And so he intimates the reason of the delay, saying:

VERS. 23.-- Whilst the ungodly man is proud, etc. It is wonderful and true with how great zeal the little ones of good hope are kindled 771Cto live rightly, by comparison with sinners: by which mystery it comes about that heresies too are permitted to be, that the approved, who are known to God, may be made manifest among men. Let them be caught, however, the ungodly, in the counsels, [Vulg. Ps 9:23 comprehenduntur, "they are caught"] because their thoughts become bonds to them. But why?

VERS. 24.-- For the sinner is praised, etc. The tongues of flatterers bind souls fast in sins: for it is a delight to do those things in which not only is no reprover feared, but even a praiser is heard.

VERS. 25.-- The sinner hath provoked the Lord, etc. He is greatly angry while he does not search out, while he as it were forgets, while he does not attend to sins, and the ungodly man comes through frauds and crimes to riches and honours: which shall come to pass chiefly in that Antichrist, who will seem to men so far 771Dblessed that he is even thought to be God. But how great this anger of God is, the words that follow teach.

VERS. 26.-- God is not before his eyes, etc. How great a punishment then does he suffer who by the prosperity of his sins is brought to this, that God is not before his eyes: that is, that he is forsaken by the light of truth, and his ways are defiled at all times, that is, that his thoughts and his counsels are unclean?

Thy judgments are taken away, etc. For a mind evilly conscious to itself, while it seems to itself to suffer no punishment, believes that God does not judge: and so thy judgments, O God, are taken away from before his face; whereas this very thing is a great condemnation. He shall have dominion over all his enemies, because he is handed down as about to overcome all kings, and alone about to obtain the kingdom, 772Awhen also, according to the Apostle, he shall sit in the temple of God; lifting himself up above all that is worshipped and that is called God.

VERS. 27.-- For he said in his heart, etc. That is, my fame and my name shall not pass from this generation into the generation of those that come after, unless by evil arts I obtain so lofty a princedom, of which those that come after cannot be silent. Or certainly he will judge that he will pass over by magical practices from human generation into divine generation.

But it must be known that the Hebrew translation signifies that that condemned man is so to be persuaded by the devil that he thinks that he shall reign for ever without any adversity; which says thus: He speaketh in his heart: I shall not be moved: from generation to generation I shall be without 772Bevil.

VERS. 28.-- Whose mouth is full of cursing, etc. For it is a great cursing to seek after heaven by arts so wicked, and to procure such merits for the seizing of an everlasting seat. But with this his cursing his mouth is full. For this covetousness shall not have its effect, but beneath all his own it will avail only to his own undoing, because he dared to promise this to himself. With bitterness and deceit, that is, with anger and with treacheries, whereby he will turn the multitude to his own part. But what follows: Under his tongue are labour and sorrow, is referred to that which he said in his heart: I shall not be moved, and therefore under his tongue, not upon his tongue, since he will think these things silently, but will speak such things to men that he may 772Cseem good and just and the Son of God.

VERS. 29.-- He sitteth in ambush, etc. With what rich men, save with those whom he will heap up with the gifts of this world? And therefore in ambush with these he is said to sit, since he will make a show of their false happiness for the casting down of men. But in secret I think it was said, where it is not easily understood what is to be sought after and what to be shunned. But the innocent indeed to kill is to make a guilty man out of an innocent one.

VERS. 30.-- His eyes look upon the poor man, etc. For he will chiefly persecute the just, of whom it is said: Blessed are the poor in spirit. A lion moreover in his den he calls him, in whom both violence and guile will be at work. For the first persecution of the Church was violent, 772Dwhen by proscriptions, torments and slaughters Christians were compelled to sacrifice. The second persecution is fraudulent, which is now carried on through heretics of this kind and false brethren. A third remains, to come through Antichrist, than which nothing is more perilous, since it will be both violent and fraudulent. It will have violence in its rule, guile in its miracles. To violence is referred what is said, A lion: to guiles, what is said: in his den. And again these same things are repeated in reversed order: He lieth in wait that he may seize, etc. For ambushes belong to guile, to seize is reckoned to violence. Likewise the things that follow are the same:

VERS. 31.-- In his net he hath humbled, etc. [Vulg. Ps 9:31 In laqueo suo humiliabit eum, "in his net he shall humble him"] For a net well signifies ambushes: but dominion 773Amost fitly intimates terror: whence he says: he will bow down and fall, etc.

VERS. 32.-- For he hath said in his heart, etc. This is the bowing down and the most wretched fall, while the human mind as it were prospers in its own iniquities, and thinks itself spared, when it is blinded, that it may be kept for the last and seasonable vengeance, of which he now already speaks, saying:

VERS. 33.-- Arise, O Lord God, let it be exalted, etc. That is, let thy power be made manifest. For the Church labouring in those times, like a ship among great waves and storms, rouses the Lord as though he slept, that he may command the winds, and calm return. And so now, the judgment being manifest, they that understand and exult say:

773BVERS. 34.-- Wherefore hath the ungodly provoked God, etc. That is, what did it profit to do so great evils? Then follows:

VERS. 35.-- Thou seest, for thou considerest labour, etc. This sense demands a right delivery, in which, if there be an error, it is darkened. For thus the ungodly man said in his heart, God will not require it, as though God considered labour and sorrow, that he may deliver them into his own hands, [Vulg. Ps 9:35 ut tradas eos in manus tuas, "that thou mayest deliver them into thy hands"] that is, as though he feared to labour and to grieve, and therefore spared them, lest their punishment be burdensome to him, or lest he be troubled by the storm of anger: as men for the most part do, dissembling their vengeance lest they labour or grieve.

To thee is he left, etc. For therefore is he poor, that is, he has despised all the temporal goods of this world, 773Cthat thou alone mayest be his hope. But he called him an orphan whose father, this world, dies to him, by which he was carnally begotten, but who can now say: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world. For to such orphans God becomes a father, to whom he says: Call not to yourselves a father upon earth. [Vulg. Mt 23:9 Et patrem nolite vocare vobis super terram, "and call none your father upon earth"]

VERS. 36.-- Break thou the arm of the sinner, etc. Of him, namely, of whom it was said above: he shall have dominion over all his enemies. The arm therefore he called his power. It shall be sought moreover, his sin, that is, he shall be judged concerning his own sin: and it shall not be found, because he himself shall perish for his own sin.

VERS. 37.-- The Lord shall reign for ever, etc. By the nations he set down sinners and the ungodly.

VERS. 38.-- The desire of the poor, etc. That desire 773Dwherewith they burned, when in the straits and tribulations of this world they longed for the day of the Lord.

But the preparation of the heart is that of which it is sung in another psalm: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: and of which the Apostle also speaks: but if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience. But now we ought by rule to take the ear of God to be not a bodily member, but the power whereby he hears. For it is not lawful to think it bodily, since the Lord God heard not a sounding voice, but the preparation of the heart.

VERS. 39.-- To judge for the fatherless and the humble, etc. It is one thing to judge the fatherless, another to judge for the fatherless. He judgeth 774Athe fatherless even who condemns him: but he judgeth moreover for the fatherless who brings forth sentence on behalf of the fatherless. But men are not only those of whom it was said: Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them, that the nations may know that they are men; but he also who in the same place is understood to be set over them will be a man, of whom it is now said: that man may no more presume to magnify himself upon the earth, when, namely, the Son of man shall have come to judge for the fatherless, who put off the old man, and in this way as it were carried his father out to burial.

This psalm is sung against the heretics, who labour to turn us away from the breasts of our mother the Church, affirming that Christ is with them, [apud ipso; read apud ipsos, "with them"] and as it were 774Bpiously admonishing us that by passing over to them we may migrate into Christ, whom they lie in saying they have. For since Christ was allegorically intimated in prophecy under many names, he was called even a mountain: To these, therefore, answer is to be made thus:

VERS. 2.-- In the Lord I put my trust, how say ye, etc. For one mind do I hold, in which I put my trust, how say ye, that I should pass over to you, as though there were many Christs?

VERS. 3.-- For behold, the sinners, etc. They have stretched the bow, [Vulg. Ps 10:3 intenderunt arcum, "have bent the bow"] the Scriptures, to wit, which, by interpreting them carnally, they use to send forth poisoned sentences. They have prepared arrows in the quiver, the same words, namely, which they hurl by the authority of the Scriptures, so that, when they have perceived, the light of the Church being darkened because of the multitude 774Cof the unskilled and the carnal, that they cannot be convicted, they corrupt good manners by evil communications.

VERS. 4.-- For the things which thou hast perfected they have destroyed, etc. All heretics, so far as in them lies, have destroyed the praise which God has perfected out of the mouth of infants and sucklings, while they harass little ones with vain and scrupulous questions, and do not suffer them to be nourished with the milk of faith. But if heretics or Jews have destroyed the praise or the law of God, Christ, what hath he done, who said: My peace I give unto you: which they have violated by an unspeakable dissension?

VERS. 5.-- The Lord is in his holy temple, etc. So indeed, as the Apostle says: For the temple of God is holy, which you are. In this holy temple of his 774Dthe Lord is, which consists of many members bearing each their own offices, built together in charity into one edifice. The same is understood also as the heaven, in which God reigns, and whence he judges.

His eyes are upon the poor man, etc. For to him the poor man is left, and he it is who is made a refuge for the poor. But by the sons of men understand those regenerated by faith out of the men of old. For these are exercised by certain obscure places of the Scriptures, as by the closed eyes of God, that they may seek: and again by certain manifest places they are enlightened, as by the open eyes of God, that they may rejoice, and this frequent opening and working [operatio; read opertio, "covering"] in the holy books is as it were the eyelids of God, which question, that is, prove the sons of men, who 775Aare neither wearied by the obscurity of things, but exercised, nor puffed up by knowledge, but confirmed.

VERS. 6.-- The Lord questioneth the just and the ungodly, etc. Why then do we fear that the ungodly may in anything hurt us, if perchance they communicate the sacraments with us with a heart that is not sincere, seeing that he questions the just and the ungodly, and the lover of iniquity harms only his own soul?

VERS. 7.-- He shall rain upon sinners, etc. He shall rain, he referred to the words of the preachers flowing down from heaven, which to the pious are showers: but to those who understand ill or do not believe, snares. For those, by understanding well, bring forth fruit in the faith: these, by handling ill, strangle their own souls by the manner of perversity. But this is the punishment 775Band the end of those through whom the name of God is blasphemed, that first they be laid waste by the fire of their own lusts, then be cast out from the assembly of the blessed by the shame of their evil works, and last, seized and drowned, pay unspeakable penalties: for this is the portion of their cup. A cup, however, I think is for this reason proptera so named, that we may not judge anything to be done beyond mode and measure, even in the very punishments of sinners, by the divine providence.

VERS. 8.-- For the Lord is just, etc. Justices are understood to be set down in place of the just. For in many just men there seem to be as it were many justices, though the justice of God is one, of which all partake: just as if one face should look into many mirrors, what is single in it is rendered plurally from those many. But the face 775Cof God is his power, by which he becomes known to the worthy. Or certainly, his countenance hath beheld equity, because he offers himself to be known not to the evil, but to the good. And this is equity.

The octave can be understood as the day of judgment, or certainly it figures the preaching of the Gospel, in which the Jews or the heretics, by transgressing the decalogue of the law, have fallen as it were into the number eleven. Whence the body of the Church, which is of one voice and one heart, prays the Lord that it may be snatched from their condemnation:

VERS. 2.-- Save me, O Lord, for, etc. The holy one hath failed, that is, he is not found, as we speak when we say: the corn hath failed, or the money hath failed. But truth is one, by which 775Dholy souls are illumined. But since souls are many, in them many truths can be spoken of; just as from one face many images appear in mirrors.

VERS. 3.-- They have spoken vain things, every one, etc. By neighbour every man must be understood, because there is no one with whom evil is to be wrought, and the love of one's neighbour worketh no evil. But that he says twice: in heart and heart, signifies a double heart: for he who in his own heart knows that to be true which is true, in a manner lies with another heart, the truth being suppressed, at the instigation of guile.

VERS. 4.-- May the Lord destroy all lips, etc. All, he said, that no one may think himself excepted. But by the tongue that speaketh proud things understand pride.

776AVERS. 5.-- Who have said, Our tongue, etc. Proud hypocrites are signified, placing their hope in their own speech for the deceiving of men, and they are not subject to God.

VERS. 6.-- Because of the misery of the needy, etc. This is to be taken of the person of God the Father, who for the needy and the poor, that is, for those lacking through want and poverty of spiritual goods, sent his Son.

I will set in salvation, etc. In salvation is to be taken as in Christ, according to that word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation; in whom he is understood to have set that which belongs to the taking away of the misery of the needy and to the consoling of the groaning of the poor. But confidently he dealt in him, according to that saying in the Gospel: For he was teaching them as one having power.

776BVERS. 7.-- The words of the Lord, chaste words, etc. Chaste, that is, adulterated by no lie, but, after the manner of silver which is tried, proved by the sevenfold fire of the Holy Spirit. But as to what he says: tried of the earth, the Hebrew edition has put it more plainly, separated from the earth.

VERS. 8.-- Thou, O Lord, wilt preserve us, etc. Here as needy and poor, there as wealthy and rich.

VERS. 9.-- The ungodly walk round about, etc. They walk round about. That is, in the desire of temporal things, which is rolled like a wheel by the repeated circuit of the seven days, and therefore they come not unto the octave, that is, unto eternity, for which this psalm is entitled. But they are multiplied, moreover, the sons of men, [Vulg. Ps 11:9 secundum altitudinem tuam multiplicasti filios hominum, "according to thy height thou hast multiplied the sons of men"] 776Cthat is, the just, according to the height of God, when they go from virtue to virtue.

VERS. 1.-- How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end? etc. That is, thou deferrest me from understanding Christ spiritually, who is the wisdom of God and the right end of every intention of the soul. For God is said to turn away his face while he gives not the knowledge of himself to a soul which has not yet a pure eye of the mind.

VERS. 2.-- How long shall I set counsel in my soul, etc. [Vulg. Ps 12:2 quamdiu ponam consilia in anima mea, "counsels," plural] There is no need of counsel save in adversity, Therefore, how long shall I set counsel in my soul, is so said: how long shall I be in adversity? Or certainly it is an answer, so that this is the sense: So long, O Lord, dost thou forget 776Dme unto the end, and so long dost thou turn away thy face from me, as long as I shall set counsel in my soul, that it may perfectly work mercy. God directs him not unto the end, nor does he afford him the full knowledge of himself, which is face to face. In that also which he subjoins: sorrow in my heart all the day, it is understood: how long shall I set it? But by the day he either signifies continuance, or day is understood for time, from which one desiring to be stripped sets sorrow in his heart, praying to ascend to things eternal and not to suffer the human day.

VERS. 3.-- How long shall the enemy be exalted, etc. This enemy is the devil, or the ungodly people, or carnal habit.

777AVERS. 4.-- But Look thou is referred to that which was said: How long wilt thou forget me unto the end?

VERS. 5.-- Enlighten mine eyes, that I never, etc. He prays that the eyes of his heart be enlightened, lest they be closed by the delightful failing of sin. For the insulting of the devil is to be feared, who by a detestable custom is then made glad, when he shall have known that he possesses those whom he has deceived.

They that trouble me will rejoice, etc. Those that trouble are the devils and his angels, who did not rejoice over the just man Job when they troubled him, because he was not moved, that is, he departed not from the stability of faith. But this very thing, that a man is not moved and remains fixed in the Lord, he ought not to attribute to himself, lest, when he glories that he has not been moved, he be moved by that very pride.

777BVERS. 6.-- My heart shall rejoice in salvation, etc. In thy salvation, that is, in Christ Jesus, who hath bestowed good things upon me that are spiritual, not pertaining to the human day, shall my heart rejoice. Wherefore I will play to the name of the Most High, [Vulg. Ps 12:6 psallam nomini Domini altissimi, "I will play to the name of the Lord most high"] that is, with joy I give thanks and use my body in the most ordered way, which is the song of a spiritual soul. But if some difference is to be considered here, I will sing with the heart, I will play with works, to the Lord, who alone sees: but to the name of the Lord, which is made known among men, which is useful not to him but to us.

Christ is the end of the law. To him we return when we begin to enter the good way: him we shall see, 777Cwhen we have arrived. And therefore he himself is the end, whom the Jews, seeing him come lowly in the flesh he had taken, understood not to be the very one who had been foretold by the prophets. Therefore the psalm thus begins:

VERS. 1.-- The fool hath said in his heart, etc. Which is therefore the graver, because they said it not only with the lips, but in the heart, that a worse unbelief might be joined to an evil wish. This can also be understood of the Gentiles, who, denying divine providence, reckon the world to be governed by chances.

They are corrupt and are become abominable, etc. That is, while they love this world and love not God, these very pursuits are what 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 approve to have God 777Din their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate sense, [Vulg. Rom 1:28 tradidit illos Deus in reprobum sensum, "God delivered them up to a reprobate sense"] that, stained with a most unspeakable unbelief, they might be rendered abominable to the Lord by their own errors. But as to what he says, even to one, it can be understood either as including that one, so that no man is meant; or as except one, so that the Lord Christ is meant, just as we say: that field is even to the sea, and we do not reckon the sea along with it. And this is the better understanding, that no one is understood to have done goodness even to Christ, because no man can do goodness unless he himself shall have granted it. And that one thing is this: that until a man knows the one God, he cannot do good.

VERS. 2.-- The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the sons 778Aof men, etc. It can be understood of the Jews, so that he has called them more honourably the sons of men because of the worship of the one God, in comparison with the Gentiles. But he looketh down, moreover, doth the Lord, that he may see through his holy souls, which is what is signified by that which was said, from heaven. For through himself nothing is hidden from him: unless perhaps it be understood to have been said in this way, that he may see, that is, may make to see: as it was said to Abraham: Now I know that thou fearest God, that is, now I have caused it to be known.

VERS. 3.-- All have gone aside, etc. That is, the Jews became such as the Gentiles also are.

It is an open sepulchre, etc. By an open sepulchre is signified either the voracity of a gaping gullet, or, in allegory, those who slay and, as it were, devour when slain those men to whom they urge the perversity of their own manners. To which 778Bthere is a like thing, on the contrary side, in what was said to Peter, Slay, and eat, [Vulg. Act 10:13 occide, et manduca, "kill, and eat"] that he might convert the Gentiles to his own faith and good manners. But what follows is plain: With their tongues they acted deceitfully. For flattery is the companion of the voracious and of all evil men. But by venom he means guile; and of asps, because they will not hear the words of the charmer. For the Jews are most fitly compared to the asp, who, wretched men, have brought in a death-bearing deafness against the words of salvation.

Whose mouth with cursing, etc. By feet he calls the advances of counsel, by which we are moved from what is begun to the outcomes of things. For in that he said swift, he showed that counsels of moderation were wanting to them. To shed blood, the divine blood, namely, of the Saviour, that for the wicked deed the monstrousness of the action may increase.

778CDestruction and unhappiness in their ways, etc. All the ways of evil men are full of labours and misery. Whence they have not known the way of peace, which says: Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls: for my yoke is gentle, and my burden is light. [Vulg. Mt 11:29-30 Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me… Jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve, "Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me… For my yoke is sweet, and my burden light"]

VERS. 4.-- Shall not all know, etc. To all the ungodly the Lord threatens judgment, saying that in the general retribution they shall know vengeance, who now work malice under liberty. Who devour, he says, my people as the food of bread: that is, daily. For the food of bread is daily, and they devour the people also, because they take their own advantages from it, not directing their ministry to the glory of God and 778Dto the salvation of those over whom they are set.

VERS. 5.-- They have not called upon the Lord, etc. For he does not truly call upon the Lord who desires the things that displease him. The Jews too feared to lose their earthly kingdom, where there was no fear. For they said: If we let him alone so, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come, and take away from us both our nation and our place; [Vulg. Jo 11:48 et tollent nostrum locum, et gentem, "and take away our place, and our nation"] and they lost the kingdom of heaven, for which they ought to have feared. And this is to be understood of all temporal advantages, the loss of which when men fear, they come not to things eternal.

VERS. 6.-- For the Lord is in the generation etc. That which is said, for God is in the just generation, [Vulg. Ps 13:6 Quoniam Dominus in generatione justa est, "For the Lord is in the just generation" — as Migne's own lemma above also reads] is referred to what goes before, so that the sense is: Shall not 779Aall know, they who work iniquity, that God is in the just generation, that is, not in those who love the world. For it is unjust to forsake the founder of the ages and to love the world, and to serve the creature rather than the Creator. You have confounded the counsel of the poor man, etc., that is, you have despised the lowly coming of God, because you saw not in it the pomp of the world, so that those whom he called might place their hope in God alone, not in things that pass away.

VERS. 7.-- Who shall give out of Sion, etc. Who shall give? It is understood: none but he himself, whose lowliness you have despised. For he himself shall come in brightness to the judgment of the living and the dead, and to the kingdom of the just, so that, since by that lowly coming blindness in part is made in Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might come in, [Vulg. Rom 11:25 caecitas ex parte contigit in Israel, donec plenitudo gentium intraret, "blindness in part hath happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in"] by that 779Bother there may be done what follows: and so all Israel should be saved. For the Jews the Apostle also took that testimony of Isaias, where it is said: Let him come out of Sion who shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, [Vulg. Rom 11:26 Veniet ex Sion, qui eripiat, et avertat impietatem a Jacob, "There shall come out of Sion he who shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob"] as it is here set down: Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? But if, as is commonly the case, by out of Jacob the people of the Jews is understood, and by Israel the people of the Gentiles, it must be considered, upon the several grounds, how proper are the words that have been assigned. For he says: Jacob shall rejoice, that is, shall be heaped with unspeakable joy, when he shall have seen what he desired with most ardent hope; Israel shall be glad, who received a medicine he had not hoped for.

VERS. 1.-- Lord, who shall dwell in, etc. Although 779Ca tabernacle is sometimes put even for an everlasting habitation, yet when it is taken in its proper sense, a tabernacle is a thing of war. For it is for a time that we fight with the devil, and then a tabernacle is needed in which we may refresh ourselves, which chiefly signifies the faith of the temporal dispensation, which was wrought for us temporally through the incarnation of the Lord. But the holy mountain signifies that eternal habitation itself. But behold how beautifully the fitting words are distinguished according to the various senses: In the tabernacle, it is said, who shall dwell? of him who still strives in the contest of this world; in the mountain, who shall rest? when now each of the faithful is refreshed, through the labours of this world, by the security of eternal peace.

VERS. 2, 3.-- He that walketh without blemish and worketh 779Djustice. He that speaketh, etc. For some have truth upon the lips, and have it not in the heart; as if someone should deceitfully show a way, knowing there are robbers in it, and should say: If thou goest this way, thou shalt be safe from robbers, and it should happen that in truth they are not found there. Truth that man hath spoken in his heart, [in corde; read sed non in corde, "but not in the heart"] for he thought otherwise, and not knowing it he spoke truth. Therefore it is a small thing to speak truth, unless it be so also in the heart. But guile is wrought in the tongue when one thing is uttered with the mouth and another is read in the breast.

Nor hath he done evil to his neighbour, etc. It is known that by neighbour every man must be understood: against whom he taketh not up a reproach who does not willingly and rashly believe an accuser.

780AVERS. 4.-- He is brought to nothing, etc. This is perfection, that the malignant one avail nothing in a man. And that he may be nothing in his sight, let him know most certainly that the malignant one is not, save when the mind is turned away from its eternal and unchangeable Creator to the appearance of a creature, which was made out of nothing. But he glorifieth them that fear the Lord, he who can say with the Prophet: But to me thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honoured.

He that sweareth to his neighbour and deceiveth not, etc. These things are not great: but he who cannot do even these can much less speak truth in his heart, and not work guile in his tongue, but, as it is in the heart, so utter the truth, and have in his mouth Yea, yea, Nay, nay, and not do evil to his neighbour, that is, to no man; and 780Bnot take up a reproach against his neighbour, which things belong to the perfect, in whose sight the malignant one is brought to nothing. Yet even these lesser things he thus concludes

VERS. 5.-- He that doth these things shall not be moved for ever.

Our King in this psalm speaks in the person of the humanity he assumed, of whom the royal title, inscribed at the time of the passion, shone forth: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. But in this place those are truly understood to be Jews who hold the faith of Christ in the heart unto justice, and confess with the mouth unto salvation.

VERS. 1, 2.-- Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in thee. I said to the Lord: Thou art my God, for 780Cthou hast no need of my goods. For thou dost not look to become blessed by my goods. Which words, if they are to be taken in the person of the Lord, it must be very much noted how most fitly they agree with the title, which in the Hebrew is read thus: of the lowly and simple God, of him namely who said: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart. It must also be observed that he alone is truly Lord who, according to what is here most excellently defined, has no need of the good of his servant. For it is not to God, but to ourselves, that we render service, if we act well.

VERS. 3.-- To the saints who are in his land, etc. To the saints who have placed their hope in the land of the living, citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose spiritual conversation is fixed by the anchor of hope in that fatherland 780Dwhich is rightly named the land of God, although they still dwell in these lands in the flesh, the Father hath made wonderful my wills [Vulg. Ps 15:3 mirificavit omnes voluntates meas in eis, "he hath made wonderful all my wills in them"] in their advancement, whereby they perceived what profited them, both the humanity of my divinity, that I should die, and the divinity of my humanity, that I should rise again.

VERS. 4.-- Their infirmities were multiplied, etc. These infirmities are errors, which, perceiving through the doctrine of the Gospel that they were many within them, they made haste to seek salvation from Christ.

I will not gather their assemblies of blood, etc. Their assemblies therefore shall not be carnal, nor, appeased with the blood of cattle, will I gather them, but by a spiritual change they shall forget 781Awhat they were; nor shall they any more be called by me both sinners and friends [amici; read inimici, "enemies"] and men, but just, and my brethren, and sons of God.

VERS. 5.-- The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, etc. For they shall possess with me as their inheritance the Lord himself. Let others choose for themselves portions to enjoy, earthly and temporal: the portion of the saints is the eternal Lord. Let others drink deadly pleasures: the portion of my cup is the Lord. In that I say, my, I join to myself the Church, because where the head is, there also is the body. For in the inheritance I will gather their assemblies, and through the inebriation of the cup I will forget their old names, that the brightness which I had with thee, O Father, before the world was made may be known also to these whom I set free. For thou wilt restore not to me what I have not lost, but thou wilt restore to those who 781Bhave lost it the knowledge of that brightness, in whom, because I am, thou wilt restore it.

VERS. 6.-- The lines are fallen unto me in goodly places, etc. The bounds of my passion have fallen in thy brightness as by lot, even as God is the possession of the priests and the Levites. But what his goodly inheritance is, he sets forth more plainly in the Hebrew, the turning to the Lord being made, thus: And thou art my beautiful inheritance.

VERS. 7.-- I will bless the Lord who hath given me understanding, etc. For by that understanding this inheritance can be seen and possessed. But beyond understanding, even unto death, the lower part instructed me, my assumption of flesh, that I might experience the darknesses of mortality which that understanding has not.

781CVERS. 8.-- I set the Lord always in my sight, etc. For coming into the things that pass away, I took not my eye from him who ever abides, foreseeing this, that through temporal things accomplished I might run back to him who is always at my right hand, that I may abide steadfastly in him.

VERS. 9.-- Therefore my heart hath been glad, etc. As if he said openly: Therefore both gladness in my thoughts, and exultation in my words. Moreover my flesh also shall not fail unto destruction, but shall sleep in the hope of the resurrection.

VERS. 10.-- For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, etc. For neither wilt thou give my soul to the powers below to be possessed, nor wilt thou suffer the sanctified body, through which others also are to be sanctified, to be corrupted 781D.

Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, etc. Thou hast made known through me the ways of humility, that men might return to life, whence through pride they fell. In which thou wilt fill them with gladness, that they may seek nothing further, when they shall have seen thee face to face, in whom, because I am, thou wilt fill me. Delight is in thy favour and thy propitiation, leading on in the journey of this life even unto the end, the beholding of thy glory.

This is to be assigned to the person of the Lord, the Church being joined to him, which is his body.

VERS. 1.-- Hear, O Lord, my justice, etc. 782AWith the Lord it is certain that justice has its own voice, which knows silent things by the power of its own understanding. For his prayer is perfect whose cause cries out as well as his tongue. Not in deceitful lips, that is, not proceeding to thee in deceitful lips. For he prays well in whose lips there is no guile.

VERS. 2.-- Let my judgment come forth from thy countenance, etc. From the enlightening of thy knowledge may I judge what is true. Or certainly he says from thy countenance according to those things which thou beholdest and knowest in me. But he rightly asked this who knew that he had not the pollution of sin.

VERS. 3.-- Thou hast proved my heart and visited it by night, etc. My heart has been proved by the visitation of tribulation. But that very tribulation, by which I was tried and found just, is to be called not night only, because it is wont to disturb, 782Bbut also fire, because it burns.

VERS. 4.-- That my mouth may not speak the works of men, etc. That nothing else may proceed out of my mouth than that which pertains to thy glory. Not to the works of men, who do beside thy will. Because of the words of thy peace and of thy prophets I have kept the laborious ways of human mortality and of the passion. [Vulg. Ps 16:4 propter verba labiorum tuorum, ego custodivi vias duras, "because of the words of thy lips, I have kept hard ways"]

VERS. 5.-- Perfect thou my goings in thy paths, etc. Let there be perfected the charity of the Church in the narrow journeys by which one comes to thy rest. That the signs of my journey be not moved, [Vulg. Ps 16:5 ut non moveantur vestigia mea, "that my footsteps be not moved"] which as footprints have been impressed upon the sacraments and the apostolic Scriptures, which they may behold and observe who wish to follow me. 782COr certainly, that I may now abide steadfastly in eternity, after that I have accomplished the hard ways and have perfected my goings in the straits of thy paths.

VERS. 6.-- I have cried, for thou hast heard me, etc. He who cries because he is heard is surely acknowledged pure, innocent, and unspotted: for he prayed confidently, because he presumed out of the purity of his conscience that he could be heard. Or certainly it is thus to be understood: I directed to thee a free and strong intention of prayer, because, that I might be able to have this, thou didst hear me praying more weakly. Let not therefore thy hearing forsake my lowliness.

VERS. 7.-- Show forth thy mercies wonderfully, thou who savest them that hope in thee, etc. Let not thy mercies grow cheap, lest they be less loved.

782DVERS. 8.-- From them that resist thy right hand, etc. From them that resist the favour wherewith thou favourest me, keep me as the apple of the eye, which appears small and slight, yet through it is directed the keenness of the light by which light and darkness are distinguished: so through the humanity of Christ the divinity of judgment, discerning between the just and sinners.

Under the shadow of thy wings protect me, etc. That is, under the defence of thy charity and thy mercy protect me.

VERS. 9.-- My enemies have surrounded my soul, etc. His enemies are the Jews, who, surrounding him, sought to snatch away his soul, that is, his temporal life.

783AVERS. 10.-- Who have shut up their own fat. That is, they were covered with their own fat gladness, after that their desire was sated with wickedness. And therefore their mouth hath spoken pride: We have no king but Caesar; and, thou that destroyest the temple, and other such things.

VERS. 11.-- Casting me forth they have now surrounded me, etc. Casting me forth outside the city, they have now surrounded me on the cross, and the intention of their heart they have set to decline to these earthly things, thinking that he who was being slain suffered a great evil.

VERS. 12.-- They have taken me as a lion prepared for the prey, etc. They have taken me, as that adversary going about seeking whom he may devour, and as his whelp, that is, the people to whom it was said: You are of your father 783Bthe devil, devising of the snares whereby he might encompass and destroy the just man.

VERS. 13.-- Arise, O Lord, prevent him and supplant him, etc. Arise, O God, whom the unbelieving people thinks to sleep and not to care for the iniquities of men, before his malice is put in practice, that vengeance may prevent his deed, and so supplant him. But deliver my soul, [Vulg. Ps 16:13 eripe animam meam ab impio, "snatch my soul from the ungodly one"] by raising me from the death which was inflicted upon me by the ungodly. But my soul is thy sword, which thy hand hath taken up, that is, thy eternal power, that through it it may war down the kingdoms of iniquity and divide the just from the ungodly. This therefore deliver from mine enemies.

VERS. 14.-- O Lord, from the few of the earth divide them, etc. Few are the good in comparison with the evil; 783Cbut the Jews have been divided throughout the world from the few who out of them believed, from the Church, which is the land of the living, separated in their life, that is, in this life which alone they think their own, because they despair of the eternal. But not only did this visible punishment follow them, but also out of the sins which as darkness are hidden from the light of the truth of God their memory was filled full, so that they forgot God.

They are filled with children, and they have left their remnants to their little ones; that is, they are filled with the fruits of evil works, and they have left the sins of their unbelief even to their posterity.

VERS. 15.-- But I shall appear in thy justice, etc. [Vulg. Ps 16:15 Ego autem in justitia apparebo conspectui tuo, "But I shall appear in justice to thy sight"] But I, who appeared not to those who with a foul and darkened heart cannot see the light of wisdom, 783Din thy justice shall see thy face, and shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear, as do they who understand me. But it must be diligently noted, and skilfully impressed upon the memory, how clearly the glory of the resurrection of the faithful is declared, according to the Hebrew edition, in these last little verses, in which it is said: I shall see thy face in justice; I shall be filled with thy likeness when I shall have awaked. For since it is agreed that, unless the body of Christ be justified by his grace, it cannot see the face of God, who is the fount of justice, he not only rejoices over so excellent a gift, but moreover trusts with entire certainty that he shall be filled with his likeness when he shall have awaked, that is, risen again. For what else is, I shall be filled with thy likeness when I shall have awaked, 784Abut what the blessed Apostle John says: We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is.

What is that day, on which the body of Christ knew that it was to be rescued out of the hand of all the enemies of his own, if not that day whose glory he plainly set forth at the end of the preceding psalm, saying: I shall be filled, when I shall have awaked, with thy likeness. For when the Church of Christ, in her awaking, that is, in the resurrection, shall have been filled with the likeness of God, then she will rejoice that she has been rescued not only out of the hand of the rest of her enemies, but out of the hand of Saul also, by whom death is signified, over whom in the resurrection the saints shall exult, saying: Where, O death, is thy victory, 784Bwhere, O death, is thy sting? For Saul, who is interpreted asked for, bears the likeness of death, of which Scripture says: God made not death, neither hath he joy in the destruction of the living. And a little after: But the ungodly with their hands and their words called it unto them.

VERS. 2.-- I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, the Lord my firmament, etc. These things Christ and the Church speak, that is, the whole Christ, head and body. I will love thee, O Lord, through whom I am strong, who hast made me firm, I who have fled for refuge to thee: and I fled for refuge because thou hast delivered me.

VERS. 3.-- My God is my helper, and I will hope in him. Thou who first didst furnish me with the help of thy calling, that I might be able to hope in thee. My protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my upholder. My protector, 784Cbecause I presumed not upon myself, as though lifting up against thee the horn of pride, but found thee thyself for a horn, that is, the firm height of salvation: and that I might find it, thou didst uphold me.

VERS. 4.-- Praising I will call upon the Lord, etc. Seeking not my own glory but the Lord's, I will call upon the Lord, and there will be nothing whereby the errors of ungodliness may hurt me.

VERS. 5.-- The sorrows of death compassed me, etc. The sorrows of mortality, that is, of the flesh, compassed me, and unrighteous crowds, stirred up for a time like rain-swollen rivers that would soon fail, wrought to trouble me.

VERS. 6.-- The sorrows of hell compassed me, etc. In those who compassed me about, that they might destroy me, there were 784Dthe sorrows of envy, which work death and lead down to the hell of sin. And they came before me, in that they wished to hurt first, which was afterwards repaid them. And such men take into perdition those to whom they have persuaded evils by their boasting of a justice of which they glory against the Gentiles not in fact but in name.

VERS. 7.-- In my tribulation I called upon the Lord, etc. Out of the temple, that is, out of my heart, in which he dwells, he heard my voice; and my cry, which I have not in the ears of men but within, before himself, entered into his ears.

VERS. 8.-- The earth was moved and trembled, the foundations of the mountains were troubled. When the Son 785Aof man had been glorified, sinners were moved and trembled, and the hopes of the proud, which were in this world, were troubled, so that now the hope of temporal goods might not have firmness in the hearts of men.

VERS. 9.-- There went up a smoke in his wrath, etc. There went up the tearful prayer of the penitent, when they had learned what God was threatening against the ungodly; and the burning of charity, from the knowledge of him, after penitence blazed up; and they who were already dead, forsaken by the fire of good desire and by the light of justice, and had remained cold and dark, being again kindled and enlightened, came to life again.

VERS. 10.-- He bowed the heavens and came down, etc. He formed the apostles by humility, and the ungodly, who savour of things earthly, 785Bknew not the darkness of their own malice.

VERS. 11.-- And he ascended upon the cherubim and flew, etc. He was exalted above the fullness of knowledge, so that no one might come to the Lord save through charity. For charity is the fullness of the law; [Vulg. Rom 13:10 plenitudo ergo legis est dilectio, "love therefore is the fullness of the law"] and swiftly he showed himself to be incomprehensible to those that love him, lest they should think that they could lay hold of him by bodily imaginings. But that swiftness, by which he showed himself to be incomprehensible, is above the powers of souls, by which, as by wings, they lift themselves up from the earth into the airs of liberty.

VERS. 12.-- And he made darkness his covert. He made the obscurity of the sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart of believers, where he himself might lie hid, not 785Cforsaking them. In these darknesses also, where we still walk by faith, not by sight, so long as we hope for that which we see not, and wait for it with patience. Yet they who believe him, being turned to him, go about him, because he is in the midst of them, when he favours all alike, in whom, as in a tabernacle, he dwells at this time. Nor therefore let anyone think that he is already in that light which is to come, when from faith we shall have come to sight, if he understands the Scriptures aright: because in the prophets, and in all the preachers of the divine word, the teaching is obscure in comparison with the brightness which is in the sight of his manifestation. Whence there also follows:

VERS. 13.-- At the brightness in his sight the clouds, etc. His clouds, that is, the preachers of his word, 785Dare no longer contained within the bounds of Judaea, but have passed over to the Gentiles. But the rebukes, by which as by hail hard hearts are beaten, if a mild and pious mind receive them, are dissolved into a satisfying teaching; and when the fire of charity is kindled, hearts revive. All these things have passed over to the Gentiles in his own clouds.

VERS. 14.-- And the Lord thundered from heaven, etc. That in the depth of human affairs heavenly things might be heard.

VERS. 15.-- And he sent forth his arrows, and scattered them, lightnings, etc. And he sent the evangelists, flying over straight paths on the wings of the virtues, not their own but his by whom they were sent, that to some they might be the odour of life unto life, to others the odour of death unto death. He multiplied miracles also, and troubled them.

786AVERS. 16.-- And the fountains of waters appeared, etc. The prophets were revealed, who were not understood, upon whom the round world believing in the Lord might be built. At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the spirit of thy wrath; of him, namely, crying out: The kingdom of God is come nigh upon you; and: Unless you shall have done penance, you shall all die together. [Vulg. Lc 13:5 si poenitentiam non egeritis, omnes similiter peribitis, "you shall all likewise perish"]

VERS. 17.-- He sent from on high and took me, etc. By calling out of the Gentiles into a glorious inheritance a Church not having spot or wrinkle, he took me up out of the multitude of the peoples.

VERS. 18.-- He delivered me from my strongest enemies, etc. He delivered me from my enemies, who prevailed to afflict and to overthrow this temporal life of mine.

786BVERS. 19.-- They prevented me in the day of my affliction, etc. They hurt me first in the time in which I bear a mortal and toilsome body; and because by the bitterness of miseries the firm ground of earthly pleasure has been broken and torn away, the Lord is become my protector.

VERS. 20.-- And he brought me forth into breadth, he saved me, because he willed me. Because I was suffering fleshly straits, he brought me forth into the spiritual breadth of faith, because he willed me, before I willed him.

VERS. 21.-- And the Lord will reward me according to my justice, etc. The Lord will reward me according to the justice of a good will, he who first offered mercy before I had a good will; and according to the cleanness of my deeds, [Vulg. Ps 17:21 secundum puritatem manuum mearum, "according to the cleanness of my hands"] he who 786Cgranted me to do well, by bringing me forth into the breadth of faith.

VERS. 22.-- Because I have kept the ways of the Lord, nor have I done wickedly away from my God. That the long-suffering of perseverance may follow upon the breadth of good works, which are through faith.

VERS. 23.-- For all his judgments are in my sight, etc. That is, both the rewards of the just, and the punishments of the ungodly, and the scourges of those to be corrected, and the temptations of those to be proved, I consider with persevering contemplation. And his justices I have not put away from me, which they do who faint under the burden of them and return to their own vomit.

VERS. 24, 25.-- And I shall be unspotted with him, and I shall keep myself from my iniquity. And the Lord will reward me 786Daccording to my justice, etc. Not only for the breadth of faith, which works through love, but also for the length of perseverance, the Lord rewards me, not what men see, but in the sight of his eyes, since the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal, which belongs to the height of hope.

VERS. 26, 27.-- With the holy thou wilt be holy, and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent; and with the elect thou wilt be elect, and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted. There is also a hidden depth, by which thou art understood to be holy with the holy, because thou sanctifiest, and innocent with the innocent man, because thou hurtest no one, but each man is bound fast with the cords of his own sins: and by him whom thou choosest 787Athou art chosen, and with the perverse thou art seen perverse, since they say: The way of the Lord is not right, and their own way is not right.

VERS. 28.-- For thou wilt save the humble people, etc. This seems perverse to the perverse, that thou savest those who confess their sins, but those who are ignorant of the justice of God, and wish to establish their own, thou humblest.

VERS. 29.-- For thou lightest my lamp, etc. Our light is not from ourselves, but thou lightest my lamp, O Lord: for we by our sins are darkness, but my God will lighten my darkness.

VERS. 30.-- For in thee I shall be delivered from temptation, and in my God I shall go over a wall. Not in myself, but in 787Bthee I shall be delivered from temptation, and not in myself, but in my God I shall go over a wall, which sins have raised up between men and the heavenly Jerusalem.

VERS. 31.-- My God, his way is undefiled, the words of the Lord are tried by fire, etc. My God comes not into men unless they have eaten [manducaverint; read mundaverint, "have cleansed"] the way of faith by which he may come to them, because his way is undefiled. The words also of the Lord by the fire of examination are proved, and all who hope not in themselves but in him are not consumed by that same tribulation; for hope follows faith.

VERS. 32.-- For who is God but the Lord, or who is God but our God? Who is God but the Lord, whom we serve? and who is God but our God, whom, after a good service, hoping as sons we shall possess as an inheritance?

787CVERS. 33.-- God, who hath girded me with strength, and hath made my way unspotted. He hath girded me, that I may be strong, lest the flowing folds of covetousness hinder my works and my steps. And he hath made unspotted the way of charity, by which I may come to him, even as the faith is undefiled by which he came to me.

VERS. 34.-- Who hath perfected my feet as the feet of harts, and setting me upon high places. Who hath perfected my love for the crossing over of the thorny and shadowy entanglements of this world, and fixes my purpose upon the heavenly habitation, that I may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

VERS. 35.-- Who teacheth my hands to battle, etc. Who teacheth me to work for the overcoming of the enemies who strive to shut off from us the heavenly kingdoms. 787DAnd thou hast set the unwearied purpose of my good works.

VERS. 36.-- And thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath upheld me. Thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation, and the favour of thy grace hath upheld me.

And thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end, and thy discipline itself shall teach me. Thy discipline, not suffering me to stray, hath corrected me, that whatsoever I do I may refer it to that end in which one cleaves to thee, and that same discipline of thine will teach me to arrive where it has directed me.

VERS. 37.-- Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, and my footsteps are not weakened. Nor do fleshly straits hinder, since thou hast made broad my charity, which works cheerfully even out of those things which are beneath 788Ame, mortal things and members: and they are not weakened, whether my journeys or the marks which I impressed for those who follow to imitate.

VERS. 38.-- I will pursue my enemies, and I will overtake them, and I will not turn back till they fail. I will pursue my fleshly affections, lest I be overtaken by them, but I will overtake them, that they may be consumed, and from that purpose I will not turn back to rest, till they fail who make a clamour against me.

VERS. 39.-- I will break them, nor shall they be able to stand, they shall fall under my feet. I will break them, nor shall they last against me: I will set before them the upright fears in which I walk unto eternity.

VERS. 40.-- And thou hast girded me with strength unto battle, thou hast supplanted under me them that rose up against me. Thou hast bound tight 788Bthe flowing desires of my flesh with strength, lest in such a fight I should be hindered, and thou hast made those who pursued me to be deceived, so that they became beneath me who desired to be above me.

VERS. 41.-- And thou hast given me the back of my enemies, etc. Thou hast turned my enemies about, and hast made them to be a back to me, that is, that they should follow me, but others of them, who persisted in hatred, thou hast destroyed.

VERS. 42.-- They cried out, nor was there any that should save them unto the Lord, nor did he hear them. For who should save those whom thou wouldst not save? Not to anyone at all, but to the Lord did they cry out, nor did he judge worthy of a hearing those who departed not from their own malice, which is to be understood specially of the Jews, who cry out in their synagogues and are not heard, because they desire an earthly Jerusalem, 788Cnot a heavenly.

VERS. 43.-- And I will break them small as the dust before the face of the wind, etc. And they are dry, not receiving the shower of God's mercy, so that, lifted up with pride, they may be snatched away from a firm and unshaken hope as from the solidity and stability of the earth; as the mire of the streets, because through the broad ways of perdition, which many walk, they run riot and are slippery.

VERS. 44.-- Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people, etc. Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of those who said: If we let him go alive, the world goeth after him. [Vulg. Jo 11:48 si dimittimus eum sic, omnes credent in eum, "if we let him alone thus, all will believe in him"; the second clause answers to Joan. XII, 19 ecce mundus totus post eum abiit, "behold, the whole world is gone after him"]

VERS. 45.-- A people which I knew not, etc. The people of the Gentiles, whom I visited not with bodily presence, hath served me: neither did it see me with its eyes, but receiving 788Dmy preachers in the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me.

VERS. 46.-- The children that are strangers have lied to me, etc. Children not to be called mine, but rather strangers, to whom it was rightly said: You are of your father the devil, they have lied to me: children that are strangers, to whom, that they might be renewed, I brought the New Testament, they remained in the old man, and, as though feeble in one foot (because holding the Old they spat out the New), they were made lame, following even in the old law itself their own traditions rather than God's.

For they brought false charges about unwashed hands, because such were the paths which they themselves had made and had worn smooth by custom, wandering away from the road of the commandments of God.

789AVERS. 47.-- The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, etc. Not after an earthly custom do I judge of the God of my salvation; nor that salvation itself as earthly, but on high concerning him may I hope.

VERS. 48.-- O God, who givest me revenges, etc. O God, who avengest me by subduing peoples under me, my deliverer from my enemies. The Jews, crying out. Crucify him, crucify him!

VERS. 49.-- And thou wilt exalt me from them that rise up against me, etc. From those same who rise up against me suffering, thou wilt exalt me rising again, and from their wicked reign thou wilt deliver me.

VERS. 50.-- Therefore will I confess to thee among the nations, O Lord, etc. Therefore the Gentiles will confess to thee for me, O Lord, and thou wilt become more widely known by my good 789Bworks.

VERS. 51.-- Magnifying the salvations of his king, etc. God magnifies, that he may make lovely the salvations which his Son gives to believers, and he doeth mercy to his Christ, to that same deliverer with a strong hand, who overcame this world, and to those whom, believing, he begot in the Gospel unto eternity.

Whatsoever things have been said in this psalm which cannot properly fit the Lord himself, that is, the head of the Church, are to be referred to the Church. For here the whole Jesus speaks, in whom are all his members.

The title is known, nor does the Lord Jesus Christ 789Csay these things, but these things are said concerning him.

VERS. 2.-- The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the works of his hands. The just evangelists, in whom God dwells as in the heavens, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, or that glory by which the Son glorified the Father upon earth. And the firmament declareth the deeds of the Lord's powers: for the confidence of the Holy Spirit has been made a firmament and a heaven, which before, through fear, was earth.

VERS. 3.-- Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night showeth knowledge. Spirit brings forth to spiritual men the fullness of the unchangeable wisdom of God, which Word in the beginning is God with God, and the mortality of the flesh, by insinuating faith as it were to carnal men set far off, announces the knowledge that is to come.

789DVERS. 4.-- There are no speeches nor languages. Through which the voices of the evangelists were not heard, when the Gospel was preached in all tongues.

VERS. 5, 6.-- Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. He hath set his tabernacle in the sun, etc. The Lord, that he might make war against the kingdoms of temporal errors, being about to send not peace but a sword upon the earth, set in time, or in manifestation, as it were his soldier's dwelling, that is, the dispensation of his incarnation, coming forth from the virginal womb, where the Lord was joined to human nature as a bridegroom to a bride. He hath rejoiced as a giant to run his way, etc. He rejoiced as one most mighty, and going before all other men in incomparable 790Astrength, not to dwell, but to run the way. And:

VERS. 7.-- His going out is from the height of heaven. That is, from the Father, not a temporal equalling, but an eternal, in that he was born of the Father. And his meeting even unto the height thereof, etc. He runs to meet it with the fullness of divinity, even unto equality with the Father. But when the Word was also made flesh, and dwelt among us, taking upon him our mortality, he suffered not any of mortal men to excuse himself out of the shadow of death, and the warmth of the Word penetrated that shadow itself.

VERS. 8.-- The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls, etc. The law of the Lord, that is, he who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it. And the law is unspotted, because he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, 790Bnot pressing souls with the yoke of servitude, but converting them by liberty to the imitation of himself. Whose testimony is faithful, because no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom he shall have willed to reveal him, the things that are hidden from the wise and revealed to little ones, since God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

VERS. 9.-- The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts, etc. All the justices of the Lord in him are right, who taught not what he himself did not do, so that they who should imitate him might rejoice in heart over them, because they would do them freely with charity, not slavishly with fear. Whose commandment is lightsome, that is, without the veil of carnal observances, enlightening the sight of the lower man.

VERS. 10.-- The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for 790Cever and ever, etc. The fear of the Lord is not that penal fear under the law, which shudders at having temporal goods taken away from it, by the love of which the soul is defiled, but the holy fear, by which the Church, the more ardently she loves her bridegroom, the more diligently takes heed not to offend him. And therefore perfected love does not cast this fear out of doors, but it endureth for ever and ever. The judgments also of him who judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son, are truly justified unchangeably. For neither does God, who both threatens and promises, deceive anyone, nor can anyone snatch away either the ungodly from his punishment or the godly from his reward.

VERS. 11.-- Desirable above gold and much precious stone, etc. Whether much be taken of the gold and the stone themselves, or much precious, or much 790Ddesirable, yet the desirable judgments of God are above the pomps of this world, by the desire of which it comes about that the judgments of God are not desired, but feared, or despised, or not believed. But if anyone be himself gold, and a precious stone, so that he is not consumed by fire but taken up into the treasure of God, let him desire the judgments of him whose will he sets before his own more than he desires his own self; and whether anyone be already honey, because, loosed from the bonds of this life, he awaits the day on which he may come to the banquet of God; or be still the honeycomb, so that as it were as wax he is wrapped about by this life, not grown solid with it but filling it, so that he has need of some pressure, not of a hand that crushes but of a hand of God that presses out, by which he shall be left [relinquetur; read eliquetur, "shall be pressed out"] from a temporal life unto eternity: sweeter to him are 791Athe judgments of God than he is to his own self, because above honey and the honeycomb they are sweeter.

VERS. 12.-- For thy servant keepeth them, etc. Therefore, he says, they are so sweet to me, because I keep them: for to him who keeps them not the day of the Lord is bitter. And so not in any advantage placed outside, but in this very thing, that the judgments of God are kept, is there much reward, because there is rejoicing in them.

VERS. 13.-- Who can understand sins? From my hidden things cleanse me, etc. But in sins, what sweetness can there be, where there is no understanding, since who can understand sins? which shut in that very hidden man to whom truth is sweetness, to whom the judgments of God are more desirable and sweeter, and as darkness suffers not the eyes, so sins suffer not the mind either to see the light or to see itself. From 791Bthe hidden things, therefore, my own, he says, cleanse me, O Lord, and lead me not away by alien things. For he is not taken by alien things who is clean from his own. Spare me therefore from alien covetous desires, not the proud man, and one desiring to be in his own power, but thy servant.

VERS. 14.-- If they shall not have had dominion over me, etc. The edition translated from the Hebrew makes the sense of this little verse plainer, where it is read: From the proud also deliver thy servant; if they shall not have had dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted: for by the proud and the alien are understood the malignant spirits, who for the monstrousness of their pride are irrecoverably estranged from God, whose dominion has oppressed the human race through sin. When therefore he had prayed above, saying: From my hidden things cleanse me, he fittingly added straightway: If they shall not have had 791Cdominion over me, then shall I be unspotted: because if those proud and alien spirits shall have obtained no power over us by the desert of sin, then indeed, a swift remission being received, we shall be unspotted. And because pride is the root and kindling of all sin, through which both the devil fell and the first man brought death into the world, also from this greatest sin shall we be cleansed, being delivered from the power of the demons, whose prince is the ruler of the proud, as is read of him: he is king over all the children of pride. But if we read, as it is found in certain codices, if those things shall not have had dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted, this is the sense: if my own hidden things and alien things shall not have had dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted. For there is no third origin of sin besides one's own hidden thing, by which 791Dthe devil fell, and the alien thing, by which man was seduced, so that by consenting he made it his own. And I shall be cleansed, he says, from the greatest sin, that is, from pride: for there is no greater sin than to apostatize from God, which is the beginning of man's pride. And he truly is unspotted who lacks this sin also, because this is the last thing for those returning to the Lord which was the first for those departing.

VERS. 15.-- And the words of my mouth shall be such as may please. etc. The meditation of my heart, not unto the boasting of pleasing men, since now there is no pride, but always in thy sight, who lookest upon a pure conscience.

O Lord, my helper and my Redeemer. O Lord, 792Amy helper of me who strive toward thee, since thou art my Redeemer, that I might strive toward thee, lest anyone, ascribing both to his own wisdom that he is turned to thee, and to his own strength that he comes through to thee, be the rather driven back from thee, who resistest the proud, because he has not been cleansed from the greatest sin, nor has he pleased in thy sight, thou who redeemest that we may be turned, and helpest that we may come through to thee.

The title is known, nor does Christ speak, but the Prophet speaks to Christ, singing, under the figure of wishing, the things that are to come:

VERS. 2.-- May the Lord hear thee in the day of tribulation, may the name of the God of Jacob protect thee, etc. May he hear thee, 792Bthe Lord, in the day in which thou saidst: Father, save me salavifica out of this hour: for to thee belongs the people, born later, because the elder shall serve the younger.

VERS. 3.-- May he send thee help from the Sanctuary, etc. Making for thee a sanctified body, the Church, which awaits thee as from a watchtower, for the time when thou shalt come from the wedding.

VERS. 4.-- May he be mindful of all thy sacrifice, etc. May he make us mindful of all thy injuries and of the reproaches which thou didst bear for us, and may he turn the cross, on which thou wast wholly offered to God in soul and body, into the gladness of the resurrection.

VERS. 5.-- May he give thee according to thy heart, etc. May he give thee not according to the heart of those who thought that by persecuting thee thou couldst be blotted out, but according to thy own 792Cheart, who knewest what profit thy passion held. And may he confirm all thy counsel, not only that by which thou didst lay down thy life for thy friends, that the grain, being mortified, might rise the more plentifully, but also that by which blindness in part is come in Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, and so all Israel might be saved.

VERS. 6.-- We will rejoice in thy salvation, etc. We will rejoice, because death will do thee no harm, for so wilt thou show that it can do no harm to us either. And the confession of thy name will not only not destroy us, but will even magnify magnifibabit us.

VERS. 7.-- May the Lord fulfil all thy petitions, etc. May the Lord fulfil not only the petitions which thou hadst on earth, but also those by which in heaven thou intercedest for us. For now it has been shown to me by prophecy 792Dthat the Lord will raise up his Christ.

May he hear him from his holy heaven, etc. [Vulg. Ps 19:7 Exaudiet illum, "he will hear him"] May he hear him not from earth only, where he asks to be glorified, but also from heaven, where already, interceding at the Father's right hand for us, he has poured out thence the Holy Spirit upon those who believe in him. But our powers are the salvation of his favour, since even out of tribulation he gives help, so that when we are weak, then we are strong. For vain is the salvation of men, which is not his right hand but his left: for behold, they are lifted up in great pride, whosoever, sinning, have been made safe in temporal things.

VERS. 8.-- These in chariots and these in horses, but we 793Awill call upon the name of the Lord our God. These are drawn along by the rolling succession of temporal goods, and these proud ones are carried away by honours, and exult in them. But we, fixing our hope in things eternal, and not seeking our own glory, In the name of the Lord our God we will exult. [Vulg. Ps 19:8 invocabimus, "we will call upon"]

VERS. 9.-- They are bound and have fallen, etc. They by the covetousness of temporal things are bound: fearing to spare the Lord, lest they should lose their place at the hands of the Romans, and rushing upon the stone of stumbling and the rock of scandal, they fell away from the heavenly hope, they to whom blindness in part of Israel is come, being ignorant of the justice of God and willing to establish their own: but we, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, sons of Abraham raised up out of the stones, we who did not follow after justice, have laid hold of 793Bit, and have risen up, and, justified not by our own strength but through faith, we are set upright.

VERS. 10.-- O Lord, save the king, etc. O Lord, save the king, and let him himself, who by his passion showed us the example of doing battle, offer also our sacrifices as a priest raised up from the dead, and, he now offering for us, hear us in the day in which we shall call upon thee.

The title is known: it is sung of Christ.

VERS. 2.-- O Lord, in thy strength the king shall rejoice, etc. O Lord, in thy strength, in that the Word was made flesh, the man Christ Jesus shall rejoice, and over this, that thou quickenest all things, he hath exulted exceedingly.

VERS. 3.-- Thou hast given him the desire of his heart, etc. 793CHe desired to eat the Pasch, and to lay down his life when he would, and to take it again, and thou hast given it to him; my peace, he says, I leave to you, and it was done. [Vulg. Jo 14:27 pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis, "peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you"]

VERS. 4.-- For thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness, etc. Because he had first drunk the blessing of the sweetness that is thine, the gall of our sins did not hurt him, whom, at the beginning of his discourse, precious stones drawing near encompassed, his own disciples, from whom the beginning of his proclamation should be made.

VERS. 5.-- He asked life of thee, and thou hast given him length of days, etc. He asked the resurrection, saying: Father, glorify thy Son: and thou hast given him the long times of this world, which the Church should have, and thereafter eternity for ever and ever.

VERS. 6.-- His glory is great in thy salvation, 793Detc. Great is indeed his glory in the salvation by which thou hast raised him up; but thou wilt yet add to him glory and great beauty [gloria; read gloriam, "glory"] 794Awhen thou shalt set him in heaven at thy right hand.

VERS. 7.-- For thou wilt give him for a blessing, etc. This is the blessing which thou wilt give him for ever and ever: thou wilt make him joyful in gladness with thy countenance, according to the man whom he lifted up to thee.

VERS. 8.-- For the king hopeth in the Lord, etc. For the king is not proud, but, humble in heart, hopeth in the Lord, and in the mercy of the Most High he shall not be troubled, [Vulg. Ps 20:8 non commovebitur, "shall not be moved"] humbling himself and obedient unto the death of the cross.

VERS. 9.-- Let thy hand be found by all thy enemies, etc. May there be found, O king, thy power, when thou shalt come to judge, by all thy enemies, who did not understand it in thy lowliness, and may the brightness by which 794Bthou reignest at the Father's right hand find, on the day of judgment, as men to be punished, those that hate thee, because now they themselves have not found it.

VERS. 10.-- Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire, etc. Thou shalt set them burning within by the conscience of their own ungodliness in the time of thy manifestation: then, troubled by the vengeance of the Lord, after the accusation of conscience they shall be given over to the eternal burning to be devoured.

VERS. 11.-- Thou shalt destroy their fruit from the earth, etc. Their fruit, because it is earthly, thou shalt destroy from the earth, and their works, and whomsoever they have seduced, thou wilt not reckon among the sons of men whom thou hast called unto an everlasting inheritance.

VERS. 12.-- For they have intended evils against thee, etc. 794CThis punishment shall be repaid them, because the evils which they thought hung over them while thou wast reigning they turned back upon thee, to be slain, and they devised counsels, saying: It is expedient that one die for all. [Vulg. Jo 18:14 expedit unum hominem mori pro populo, "it is expedient that one man die for the people"] And: Come, let us kill him, and we have his inheritance. Which therefore they could not establish, not knowing what they had said, nor obtaining what they desired.

VERS. 13.-- For thou wilt place them as a back, etc. Because thou wilt set them in order among those things from which, being set behind and despised, thou wilt turn away, and among those things which thou leavest, that is, the covetous desires of an earthly kingdom, thou wilt prepare for thyself their shamelessness unto the passion.

VERS. 14.-- Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thy strength, etc. O Lord, whom, being lowly, they did not know, be thou exalted in thy strength, which they thought to be weakness. 794DBut we with heart and with work will celebrate, and will make known thy wondrous works.