Commentary on the Psalms 14 part 2/2

For just as those who are thirsty do not experience this for one day, or two, or three, but throughout their whole life, since nature leads them to it;

even so that blessed man, and all the saints, were not in compunction for one day only, as are many men, nor for two or three—for that would be nothing to marvel at—but continually and every day they persevered in loving with reverence, and kept intensifying their love.

Which very thing he himself also made manifest when he said:

«My soul thirsted for God, the mighty, the living One,» wishing at once both to state the cause, and desiring to show, for your sake, how one might so love God.

For through what follows he made this plain, saying, «My soul thirsted for God,» and adding, «the living One»;

all but exhorting and crying aloud to all who gape after the affairs of this life:

Why do you rage after bodies? Why do you desire glory? Why do you crave luxury? None of these things abides or lives perpetually, but flows away and passes by, and they are more insubstantial than a shadow, more deceitful than dreams, more perishable than the flowers of spring—some of them being left behind together with the present life, and others dissolving even before the things here below.

Untrustworthy is their possession, uncertain their enjoyment, swift-tilting their change.

But in the case of God nothing of this kind exists; rather, He lives and abides perpetually, admitting neither alteration nor any change whatsoever.

Let us therefore forsake the things that are temporary and fleeting, and love Him who is eternal and everlasting.

For it is not possible for one who loves Him ever to be put to shame;

it is not possible to be left bereft of the one loved.

He who loves riches, whether at the coming of death, or even before death, is stripped bare of the things he yearned for;

and he who is enamored of present glory suffers the very same thing;

and often the beauty of bodies is quenched far more swiftly than the things mentioned, and simply all the things of this life are temporary and fleeting, and before they have even arrived and appeared, they at once leap away.

But the love of spiritual things is entirely the opposite: it flourishes perpetually and blooms, and knows no old age, nor does it undergo decay, nor is it subject to any change or alteration or to the uncertainty of what is to come;

but even here it benefits those who possess it, and encompasses them on every side, and when they have departed hence it does not abandon them, but even journeys away with them and migrates together with them, and makes them brighter than the very luminaries in that day.

Knowing these things, then, the blessed David also continued in loving, and could not bear to keep his love shut up within, but by every means hastened to show to his hearers the fire that held him fast within.

For having said, 'My soul thirsted for God, the mighty, the living,' he added, 'When shall I come and appear before the face of God?' Behold the man on fire;

knowing that when he had departed hence he would see Him, he could bear neither the postponement

nor endure the delay, but here shows us an apostolic mind.

For that one too groaned over the deferring of his departure from hence;

and this man suffered this very same thing.

For this reason he said, 'When shall I come and appear before the face of God?' Now if he had been some private and lowly and humble person, living in poverty, even so it would be a great thing to despise the present life;

but not so great as now, when one who reigns as king and enjoys such luxury, who partakes of such glory, who has won countless victories and conquered in many wars, and who is illustrious and renowned everywhere—for such a one to scorn all these things, both wealth and glory and every luxury, and to stand agape toward the things to come;

this belongs to a great and noble mind, this to a philosophic soul that has taken wing toward the heavenly love.

This man, then, let us also imitate, and let us not marvel at present things, so that we may marvel at the things to come;

or rather, let us marvel at the things to come, so that we may not marvel at present things.

For if we continually dwell in the thoughts concerning those things, and reckon up within ourselves the kingdom of heaven, immortality, the life that has no end, the dance with the angels, the fellowship with Christ, that undefiled glory, the life freed from all pain, and behold that tears, and reproaches, and revilings, and death, and despondencies, and toil, and old age, and disease, and infirmity, and poverty, and slander, and widowhood, and sin, and condemnation, and punishment, and retribution, and whatever else in the present life is grievous and unpleasant—all these have been driven away, and in their place have been brought in, instead of these, peace, gentleness, forbearance, love, joy, glory, honor, splendor, and the other things which no word will be able to set forth—then nothing of present things will lay hold of us, but we too shall be able to say with the Prophet:

'When shall I come and appear before the face of God?' And being so disposed, we shall fall neither into arrogance because of the splendors of life, nor into despondency because of its griefs, and neither envy, nor vainglory, nor any other such thing shall ever lay hold of us.

Let us not, therefore, enter here carelessly, nor sing the responses in a merely perfunctory way, but taking them as a staff, let us go forth.

And each single verse suffices to instill in us much wisdom, both for setting our doctrines aright, and for benefiting our life in the greatest measure;

and if we search out each saying with exactness, we shall reap great good.

For neither poverty, nor lack of leisure, nor sloth ought to be put forward here as an excuse.

For even if you are poor, and because of your poverty are without books, or though you have books but do not enjoy leisure, only keep for me the responses of the psalms, which here you chant in reply not once, nor twice, nor thrice, but many times over, and departing you will receive great consolation.

See, then, how great a treasure this response has opened up for us.

And let no one say to me that before the interpretation he did not know its power.

For even before the interpretation, the response is easily discernible to everyone who hears and is willing to give heed in any measure.

For if you have only trained yourself to say:

'As the deer longs for the springs of waters, so my soul longs for You, O God;'

'my soul thirsted for God, the mighty, the living;'

'when shall I come and appear before the face of God?'—then even before the interpretation you are able to instill in yourself all wisdom.

And not this one only, but every single response will furnish us with the same wealth.

'Blessed is the man who fears the Lord'—and you would be able to see what it is that you say:

not the one who is rich, nor the one who rules, nor the one who is comely, nor the one adorned with strength, nor the one who has splendid houses, nor the one who is in positions of power, nor the one

nurtured in palaces, nor any other such person;

but you will emulate the one who lives in piety, in the love of wisdom, in the fear of God, not only for the sake of the things to come, but also for the sake of the present things themselves.

For here too the one is mightier than the other.

For if ever sickness comes upon him, the man who wears the purple robe derives no benefit for the relief of his infirmity from his bodyguards or from all his pomp; but though kinsmen and forefathers and all be present, and though robes of gold be laid over him and spread beneath him, he lies burning as in a furnace.

But he who lives in godly reverence and fears God, with no father, no servant, no other person present, lifting up his eyes to heaven not many times, but only twice or thrice, quenches that whole furnace.

And one may see this same thing coming to pass in all trials and in all unexpected events: those who live in wealth and splendor are thrown into confusion, while those who live in reverence and true wisdom bear all things without disturbance.

And before all these things, even if no calamity befalls, the conscience of him who fears God is fuller of a purer gladness than the soul of him who is rich.

For the one, even though he enjoys food from without, will be more wretchedly disposed than all who live in famine, reminding himself of his own evils and living together with a wicked conscience;

but the other, even though he lacks necessary food, will be more cheerful than those who enjoy every luxury, being nourished together with good hopes, and day by day awaiting the recompense of his own good deeds.

But that I may not seem to be tiresome by prolonging the discourse, leaving it to the more diligent to choose out each response and to search out the power stored up in it, I will here end my discourse, having exhorted this to your love: not to come in here casually, but as though receiving the responses like pearls, to keep them safe and to meditate on them continually at home, and to speak all these things to friends and to wives;

and whenever a passion troubles you, whenever desire rises up, whenever anger, or whatever other utterly unreasoning passion, to chant these continually as a charm against them;

that both in the present life we may enjoy great calm, and in the life to come may attain the eternal good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.