he knows that in every suffering and tribulation He, by whose judgment they come upon us, is to be honored with thanksgivings. He knows that a physician who spares the putrid recesses of wounds is negligent. He remembers that the severity of fathers toward their sons is loving. He chooses to be tested through temptations and proved through patient endurance by God; and in these things which are reckoned adverse he renders thanks. And that this is our understanding, that we should believe the prophet prayed thus, the verse which is subjoined teaches, saying: 'Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge, for I have believed Thy commandments.' Whatever, therefore, God does in His servant is good; for He does it according to His word.
And whatever is according to His will cannot be evil, because for Him who alone is good, the will is inclined to goodness. And so this second verse, as we have said, sets forth the disposition of the prophet, when he prays, saying: 'Teach me both goodness and discipline and knowledge.' He confessed above that goodness had been shown toward him; how, then, does he pray to be taught it, as though not knowing it? — except that then there was rejoicing from the confession of faith, when he believed that whatever befell him was good; but now, through human nature, there is a cause of ignorance, when he prays to be taught. But he wishes to learn that goodness to which discipline is joined. For discipline must needs be the office of severity, rebuking sins and correcting vices.
But the correction of vices brings great advancement in goodness. Good, therefore, is the discipline of severity, but as yet the prophet is ignorant of it. For he wishes to be taught not only goodness and discipline, but also knowledge, showing therein something of his own faith, since he confesses that the goodness and discipline which he does not yet know are nevertheless good for him from God. And concerning knowledge we have observed in very many passages that both the apostle and the prophet numbered it among the gifts of spiritual graces. Therefore, just as he prays to be taught goodness and discipline, so also knowledge, and to be taught it on this account, because he believes the commandments of God — showing that none but the faithful and believing can attain to teaching. And the same sense of the same understanding remains also in the third verse. For he says:
'Before I was humbled, I transgressed; therefore have I kept Thy word.' The tribulation of sufferings does not come upon us before transgressions go before, nor are we humbled through sufferings before, through the iniquity of our sins, we are worthy of sufferings. And so the prophet teaches that his humiliation is the amendment of his transgression; and on this account he knows that whatever is from God is good for him, because he deserved to suffer what he suffered. And he knows that discipline is the amendment of vices. First, therefore, he transgressed; secondly, he was humbled; and through the discipline of his humility it behooves him — lest he sin further — to be taught and to abide in the words of God, since, being now a transgressor humbled and set in the commandments of God, he may abide so as to be able to sin no more. 'Thou art good, O Lord;
and in Thy goodness teach me Thy justifications.' The prophet knows that the justifications of God are good, because He who established them is good. He knows that nothing befalls him except from the justification of God, because he professed first that he had transgressed, and thereafter that he had been humbled. And because he had prayed above that he might be taught goodness and discipline and knowledge, now he prays that he may be taught the justifications of God in goodness, because justification is the work of a righteous thing, which belongs to him, since the justifications which are established in the law contain within themselves the shadow of the heavenly justifications. Then he added: 'The iniquity of the proud is multiplied over me; but I with my whole heart will keep Thy commandments.'
Bearing all things patiently and with equanimity, the prophet was led into the reproach of the proud and the wicked. For if anyone recalls the reproaches of the three kings in the book of Job, he will understand with how great a reproach of the mockers he is exasperated. For when the irreligious behold the servants of God being amended through certain sufferings, they are wont to reproach them thus: 'Where is thy faith? Where is thy hope in God? Where is the power of Him who helps? Where is the mercy of the good God?' Against these there is need of a firm and faithful spirit, intent upon and occupied in the commandments of God, lest, with so many iniquities of the proud multiplied against him, he give way; but let him always say: 'Thou hast dealt kindly with Thy servant, O Lord' — as that glorious and blessed victor over human sufferings said:
'The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' Then follows: 'Their heart is curdled like milk; but I have meditated on Thy law.' He says the heart of the proud is like milk. Milk in appearance and taste is most agreeable; but corrupted by some flaw it is wont to curdle, and, departing from the sweetness of its nature, is spoiled with a useless and bitter taste. So the wicked, before, when they beheld the prophet to be in prosperous circumstances, were friends of his happy fortunes, flattering with the appearance of simplicity, as it were like milk. But when pride and disdain took hold of them at the humility of the holy man, they were curdled hard, and from bland and sweet flatteries were reduced to the bitterness of a vicious and souring taste.
But while these were curdled like milk, the prophet nevertheless meditated on the law of God: and he meditated to this end, that he might say what is contained in the following verse. 'It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me.' Although the iniquity of the proud be multiplied and their heart curdled like milk, the prophet nonetheless knows that his humiliation is good for him; he knows that in infirmities he is made perfect. Every suffering is good, all tribulations are good, through which the justifications of God are known: that He may amend by humility those who sin, that He may restrain by severity those who transgress, that He may teach by instruction those who are ignorant. For this reason, therefore, he says that it is good for him that he has been humbled, because through humiliation he learns the justifications of God.
For he transgressed before he was humbled, and humility is good for him, because through it the justification of God is learned. And he concluded: 'The law of Thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.' The wording of this conclusion is not simple. For it would have sufficed, for the prophet's rejoicing, to have said: 'Thy law is good to me.' But when he says 'the law of Thy mouth,' he wished more to be understood. God spoke the law through Moses, He spoke through the prophets; but this is the law of God, not also the law of the mouth of God. But the mouth of God is He who is also the power of God, who is also the wisdom of God, who is also the arm of God, who is also the image of God — namely, God and our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,' saying:
'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,' saying: 'Bless them that persecute you, and pray for them that calumniate you.' This law of the mouth of God the prophet declares to be good for him — and good not with the number of comparison and definition and measure, but 'above thousands of gold and silver.' This is an indefinite expression. When 'thousands' is said, it is because the law of the mouth of God is indefinitely good; but by comparison with things most precious upon earth it signifies the usefulness of those good things which have been established by God. IOD. 'Thy hands have made me and prepared me,' and the rest. It is a common judgment that among all earthly works of God nothing is more useful than man, nothing more comely: because, even though there be some things beautiful and adorned,
they indeed bear witness to the greatness of Him who begot things so beautiful, yet they themselves do not perceive the fruit of their own beauty and adornment and constitution. For we are speaking of those things which are subject to human sight — namely, of the things created on earth and in sea and in air, and mingled among every several kind and nature. These things are beautiful; but what good, in the end, will those things which have been created in the ocean or on land or in heaven or in the air attain, from the fact that they were created such? But in man, whatever there is profits himself. And this alone among earthly creatures is a rational animal, understanding, discerning, established as such;
and of all these kinds which are in him, nothing profits anything else than that he himself may make use both of the other things and of those among which he was born: and that he may make use of them unto knowing and revering Him who is the author and parent of so great goods within him. From this, that great and wonderful saying of Solomon will be understood, which is of this sort: '...and a merciful man; but a faithful man it is a work to find.'
For what is so great, or what is a work of such difficulty, as to find one who remembers that he was made according to the image and likeness of God, who, intent upon the study of the divine oracles, has come to know the nature of his own soul and body and has perceived the origin and nature of each kind, and to what end, finally, this constitution and origin of his tends? And on this account man is something great. For this name, when — the knowledge of the things mentioned above being neglected — he falls into vices, he loses; being now judged unworthy to be called man, as one who was not made according to the image and likeness of God;
but according to the prophetic and evangelical reproaches his name is either a brood of vipers, or a horse, or a mule, or a fox, and the property of his own name — since he has fallen away from his innocence — is taken away. But he who with zealous faith has searched out the teaching and precepts of God, and who through his zeal wishes to be worthy — he who was made according to the image and likeness of God — will himself also be able to speak with the voice of the prophet, saying: 'Thy hands have made me and prepared me.' And in some manuscripts we find it thus written: 'Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments.' And without doubt it is to be reckoned not idle that it was not enough for the prophet to have said:
'Thy hands have made me' was not enough, unless he had added 'fashioned' or 'prepared'; but the prophet, understanding the honor of his condition, wished to signify in this the special dignity of his own origin. First saying: 'Thy hands have made me.' In the creation of the world we have received that all things were effected by a word, when it is said: 'Let there be light,' when it is said: 'Let there be a firmament,' when it is said: 'And let the dry land appear,' when it is said: 'Let the earth bring forth the grass of fodder sowing seed according to its kind,' when it is said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament,' when it is said: 'Let the waters bring forth the creeping things of living souls.' Therefore everything from which, or in which, the body of the whole world exists, takes its origin from a spoken word and subsists in that which it is by the word of God. But of man God spoke thus:
'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.' The nature and origin of man therefore differs from that of the whole creation: and it is properly deliberated and confirmed beforehand concerning him, that he should be made, whereas the rest were bidden to be without any deliberation of counsel. The origin of man therefore has this first dignity, that it was proper to him that deliberation should be made beforehand concerning himself. And in this present prophetic saying too a vast privilege of human origin is contained. For the hands of the Lord did not make the cattle and the water-creatures and the flying things: nowhere have they handed that down. This, therefore, is a distinguished and illustrious thing in man, that he is set apart from the rest by the dignity of the operation. But concerning the establishing of heaven we read thus in a certain place: 'I have made firm the heaven with my hand.'
Is that element, then, to be equated with the operation of man, when it is recorded that it too was made firm by the hand of God? But although heaven was made by a hand, man nevertheless by hands. The operation of two hands therefore surpasses the office of one hand: and that which is enough for the making-firm does not suffice in the condition of man. But it must be understood why the prophet says that he was made by hands, and not only made, but also fashioned or prepared. The creation of all the other elements was both instituted and effected at that very moment at which it was bidden to subsist, nor does any interval of time distinguish their beginning and their completion;
for the beginning received its consummation in that which it is. But man, since he contains within himself an inner and an outer nature discordant one from the other, and out of two kinds is constituted as a single partaker of reason, was instituted by a twofold beginning. For first it was said: 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness'; then, secondly: 'And God took dust from the earth' and made man. The first work does not have in itself the origin of another nature assumed from elsewhere. Incorporeal is whatever is then begun from the deliberation of counsel: for it is made according to the image of God — not the image of God, because the image of God is the firstborn of all creation; but according to the image, that is, according to the form of the image and the likeness.
The divine and incorporeal was to be established in him, which was then being made according to the image and likeness of God: namely, a certain exemplar in us of the image of God and of the likeness. There is therefore in the rational and incorporeal substance of our soul the primary thing, that it was made according to the image of God. But by how much does the efficacy of the second work differ from the first institution? God took from the earth. For dust is taken up, and the earthy matter is formed into man, or prepared, and by the labor and diligence of the craftsman is refined from one thing into another. The first, therefore, He did not take, but made: the second He did not make as He did the first, but took, and then formed or prepared. And each can rightly be understood, because we find each written:
that He formed unto that which it is, namely, the form of the body; or unto that which is said: 'And He breathed into him the spirit of life, and man was made a living soul.' For this inbreathing, therefore, he was prepared or formed, so that the nature of soul and body might be held together unto perfection by a certain covenant of the inbreathed spirit. The blessed apostle Paul knows that there is in himself a twofold nature, when according to the inner man he delights in the law, and when he sees another law in his members, which leads him captive under the law of sin. What, therefore, is made according to the image of God pertains to the dignity of the mind. But what is formed from the earth is the first beginning of the form of the body. And because God is understood either to have spoken to another, when He says:
'Let us make man'; or the threefold perfection of man made and formed is recognized, since he is both made according to the image of God, and formed from the earth, and by the inbreathing of the spirit is stirred into a living soul — for this reason the prophet testifies that he was made and formed by hands, not by a hand only, because in his constitution it is taught that there was not merely a solitary operation, but one and the same threefold operation. And because the prophet knows that this is exceedingly hidden and abstruse — namely, in what manner he was formed by the hands of God — nevertheless, that he may grasp the full and complete reason of this, he says: 'Give me understanding, and I will learn Thy commandments.' And he speaks these things as though not knowing, and as though not yet having attained understanding he prays that understanding may be given him:
and there dare — I do not say men of the Church, but certain men even of the heathen — to wish to treat of the constitution of human nature: we too dare to boast that we have attained to an upright and perfect life. But we ought to be taught by the example of this prophet, so that we may either confess our ignorance of divine things, or entreat for the understanding of things unknown. And it is best to ask from God through prayer for the knowledge of the heavenly commandments, and to recognize the weakness and poverty of our own intellect. For first, according to the apostle, the gift of graces is the gift of wisdom, the second that of knowledge; and on this account the prophet here too preserved this order, saying: 'Give me understanding, and I will learn Thy commandments.' First he prayed for understanding, and afterward for knowledge.
Then follows: 'They that fear Thee shall see me and be glad, because I have hoped in Thy words.' It is the custom of the impious to be downcast when they behold religious men. For it is inevitable that the drunkard hate the sober, the shameless the continent, the wicked the just, and he cannot bear the presence of any holy person as though it were a burden. But on the contrary, toward a faithful and religious man all those who have the fear of God rejoice even at the sole sight of his bodily contemplation, just as with certain birds and herbs they are healed even of certain diseases. Useful, therefore, is the presence of a holy man to those who fear God, because it is inevitable that they gain some advancement from the contemplation of him.
But the prophet does not think that only this in himself is to be regarded, which is subject to public and common eyes. He wishes his uprightness to be beheld, his righteousness and religion and continence to be discerned. For those who fear God will rejoice not only because they see him, but because they see him hoping in the words of God: and hoping not moderately, nor in the confused error of human opinion, but saying with freedom that which follows: 'I have known, O Lord, that Thy judgments are equity, and in truth Thou hast humbled me.' In other passages we remember that the prophet was wont to speak thus: 'Give me understanding and teach me,' and 'Teach me Thy justifications'; but now he professes, as of things attained, saying: 'I have known, O Lord, that Thy judgments are just.'
But here the discourse is not concerning those eternal judgments, but concerning the present ones. Those eternal judgments are, according to the same prophet, 'like a great deep,' and according to the apostle: 'the judgments of God are unsearchable and inscrutable.' But he knows that in these judgments which now are, whatever is done in him comes to pass from the judgment of God: that all tribulations, all pressures, all the hatreds of persecutions, all the assaults of persecutions are present upon him from the judgment of God upon him, so that through these he may be proved, so that through these he may be amended and, as it were, examined through fire and purged. But there is something — I know not what — greater in knowledge than in the faith of a work: and on this account he did not here believe, but knew, because faith has merit, but has not the merit of a truth already known.
The apostle distinguished that there is very great difference between knowledge and faith, numbering the latter in the later place among the gifts of graces. For he set wisdom first, knowledge second, faith third — because he who believes may be ignorant while he believes; but he who has now come to know cannot, having attained knowledge, disbelieve that which he has known. Therefore the prophet here admits no ambiguity, but rather that he knows the judgments of God to be just, that is, of humiliation and tribulation and contempt and injury and grief. For thus he says: 'I have known, O Lord, that Thy judgments are just, and in truth Thou hast humbled me.'
That not without cause is he subjected to tribulations, not without cause given over to sufferings, not without cause humbled through injuries, but that unto the expiating of the sins of human vices he is subjected by the just and true judgments of God. But because in these sufferings he is engaged by the divine judgment, he entreats for the exhortation of his present humiliations from the mercy of God, because human infirmity is unequal to the endurance of sufferings: 'Let Thy mercy be, that it may exhort me according to Thy word unto Thy servant.' But he remembers that it is good for him to be humbled, good for him to be subjected to sufferings, and that all those things by which he is harassed are for him a purging of earthly vices.
For he does not pray that humility and tribulation may be taken away from him, but that from the mercy of God exhortation may be furnished to him in tribulation, so that, even though afflicted, he may be strengthened by the aid of exhortation. He chooses to do lengthy warfare in these infirmities of his body, he chooses to stand in the contest against the wickednesses of this world. But he hopes for exhortation from the mercy of God, so that, though afflicted, he may be made firm by the help of exhortation. Paul too knows — himself having passed through every kind of temptation — that he makes use of the exhortation of mercy, saying: 'Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all exhortation, who exhorteth us in all our tribulation.'
And the prophet knows that this exhortation is promised to him from that Father and Lord of mercies, who through temptations examines him who believes in Him; and therefore he says: 'according to Thy word unto Thy servant,' that is, according to that promise by which He pledged that He would not forsake those tried in sufferings. For He said in the Gospels: 'When therefore they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaketh in you.' And this indeed pertains to the present time. But the prophet is not unmindful of the future hope, saying: 'Let Thy mercies come upon me, and I shall live: for Thy law is my meditation.'
The infirmity of the corporeal nature has need of the mercies of God. For neither can it attain to that blessed life by its own merit, unless it be advanced by the mercies of Him who is the Father of mercies. The prophet knows that he does not yet live that life which is truly life; for none of us will dare to reckon that which he now lives to be life. For now we are in the body of death, as Paul says: 'Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?', and this same thing is testified by this same prophet thus: 'And Thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.' For our true life is hidden with Christ in God. But neither is this region in which we now act the region of the living: that, however, is the one of which this same prophet here says: 'and in the land of the living.'
And therefore he said 'in a wanderer' (as a sojourner), because he does not live in the manner of this present life, but abides in the mercy of God. Yet he hopes for this, because the law of God is his meditation. Let us then give ourselves to the reading of God's word, let us give ourselves to the precepts of God, and let us fulfil the works of our law by our offices; for because of his meditation on the law the prophet hopes, through the mercy of the Lord coming upon him, that he will live. It is not enough for such a man to be anxious only for himself and mindful of himself alone. He must take up a care for the human race, undergo the burden of a public solicitude, and pray for those who are involved in sins and in irreligion. Accordingly, in the verse that follows he teaches us the solicitude of this affection of his, saying:
'Let the proud be confounded, who have wrought iniquity against me.' This is not the speech of a curse, nor does he beg for himself the requital of injury. Far be it that the prophet of the Gospel should transgress the rule of charity, for since the Lord says, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who slander you,' reason does not permit that he should now pray for vengeance upon the proud and the injurious. But because he who ceases from evil blushes at these things, and he who forsakes vices must forsake them for this reason, that he hates them, the prophet prays that those who have been unjustly proud against him may, through the recognition of their vices, blush at the things they have done. For as long as a man sins, he is not confounded in the things wherein he sins, being hardened by the habit and the will to sin.
But when he has ceased from sinning, he makes an end of sin through shame at his sin. He himself, however, is exercised in the commandments of God, by preaching justly and religiously, by not requiting injuries, and by bearing them patiently. For on this account he endured the contradictions and iniquities of the many proud against him. And that in the following verse he meant precisely this which we are treating concerning the confounding of the proud is clearly understood; for there follows: 'Let those be turned to me who fear thee and know thy testimonies.' The prophet therefore wills that those who have begun to fear God be turned to him, so that through his teaching they may blush at their vices and crimes, having come to know the testimonies of God.
Concerning these we have already said much; and being confounded in their former transgressions, let them betake themselves to the instruction and teaching of the prophet, whose conversion from vices and sins is unto piety and modesty. And he concludes after his custom, saying: 'Let my heart be undefiled in thy statutes, that I be not confounded.' He is exercised in the commandments, he meditates on the law, he has known the justice of God's judgments, he beholds those who fear the Lord in his presence, he was made and formed by the hands of God, and yet he does not dare to say that his heart is undefiled. And shall we at times presume to parade our innocence, to boast of abstinence from vices, and to glory that we are pure from sins and iniquities?
But it befits us to learn from the prophet humility and modesty even as we learn faith, since he prays that his heart may be made undefiled. For he knows that from the heart proceed things according to that which is said: 'For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies, and the like.' He therefore begs that this heart be made undefiled, whence so many and so great vices arise as if from a kind of tinder; and he knows the heart is made undefiled in this way, if it abide in the justification of God, and he understands this to be the fruit of the justifications: that abiding in them he be not confounded. For confusion arises from the consciousness of sins and from the reproach of transgressions. Where therefore there shall be no confusion, neither shall there be sin.
But where there shall be no sin, one shall abide in the justifications of God; and the justifications of God will grant that the heart be undefiled. CAPH. 'My soul faileth for thy salvation, and in thy word have I hoped,' and the rest. It is a human thing that, when one cannot obtain what he desires, he is held by a failing of soul through the continual longing of his desire. And this is readily known from the very movements of our affection: into how great a failing of soul we are reduced by the awaiting of those whom we desire. The prophet therefore, whose every expectation is toward God, whose every desire is in His commandments, speaks and says: 'My soul hath failed for thy salvation, and in thy word have I hoped.' He has no other things to occupy his desire, and the longing of the holy man has no leisure for the affairs of the world.
He fainted therefore in his desire for salvation, and he fainted on this account, because he believes in the words of God; for the end of the law is Christ Jesus, and it is He of whom Moses and the prophets wrote. Moreover, the Savior is such by that very name by which Jesus is called; for Jesus in the Hebrew tongue means 'Savior,' and the angel speaking to Joseph teaches this very thing, when he says: 'And thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people.' The cause therefore of his fainting is the desire for the Savior. And the origin of that desire is this, that he hopes in the words of God. For our Savior is Jesus, who was both desired and born. But we must understand what follows upon the fainting of the desiring soul: 'My eyes have failed for thy word;'