On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 1 part 29/55

But in a deed there may indeed be no love underlying it, when that is done which either terror or shame would not leave undone. But the prophet is weak in nothing. What he loves, he does; and what he does, he practises unfailingly. For the law, because he loves it, he meditates upon every day and without intermission. No other pursuits of occupations steal in, no diverse surges of cares intervene, nor does forgetfulness fall upon him through the interruption of some new knowledge: he is always the same and abides in the same. So great is he himself in the meditation of the law dear to him, as the whole day is in its span of time. And because, as we have mentioned above, the prophet shows in himself the man of the law and the prophets and the gospels, he says in the following verse:

Thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies by Thy commandment, since it is with me. The prophet understands the commandments of God more wisely than his enemies. But what have we and our enemies in common in the precepts of God, seeing that they not only do not hold them even moderately known, but do not even pursue the beginning of coming to know them? And what great thing is it, if the prophet be wiser than his enemies in the commandments of God? For when could they, venerating lifeless stones and either metals or wood, have attained anything of the knowledge of the living and eternal God, so that, compared with these, the prophet should become wiser? But all this error of the impious spurns, recoils from, and shudders at that very name, together with the law and the prophets and the apostles.

But this holy prophet has other true enemies, than whom he is more wisely instructed in the commandments of God. They have the commandment of God in the prophets and in the law, but through their ignorance of will they use none of them. They claim the commandment of the law as their own and hereditary, but of what avail will it now be, set forth in the sign only, to those who have not the Author of the spiritual? What help will the religion of the Sabbath bring to those who know not the God of the Sabbath? What aid will the Paschal lamb and the blood on the doorposts and the feast of unleavened bread furnish to those ignorant of the Lamb of God and the unleavened bread of sincerity and the blood of salvation? They practise the commandments, but they are ignorant of the efficacy of the commandments and of the time. They read the law, but while one reads it and knows it not, the Christian understands it.

He is plainly an enemy of the prophet who lays parricidal hands upon the only-begotten Son of God, and, so far as in him lies, condemns to death the Saviour of the human race and the Bestower of eternity. Before all these, therefore, he is wiser in the commandment of God. And that it might be understood that he had signified these enemies, he added what follows: I have understood above all that teach me, since Thy testimonies are my meditation. Thou hast learned the law, O David, from Moses, and Aaron is thy teacher of all things, Joshua is thy master of the renewed circumcision, Samuel shows in thyself the sacrament of anointing both prophet and king: what is this that thou hast dared to say, that thou hast understood above all that teach thee?

But the earlier verse shows above whom he understands himself to have understood all those that teach, namely above his enemies. And again this verse, which is now the later one, declares who those enemies are, namely all that teach. For they profess to have the keys of the heavens and boast that they are teachers of the law. And since all the testimonies of the law bear witness to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet understands above his teachers, who, meditating upon the testimonies, ever awaits the only-begotten Son of God to come in the flesh. O happy understanding of the disciple! O pitiable ignorance of the teachers! They that teach know not, and they that are taught understand. But the prophet is free from fault: for he shows whence he had obtained his understanding.

For above he said that he had been made by God wiser than his enemies in His commandments. For all understanding is from Him who established him to be wiser. He understands, therefore, above those that teach him. And because it sometimes happens, through diversity, that the disciple be wiser than his master, yet he shows this very thing to be of diligence and study. For he says: I have understood above the elders, since I have sought out Thy commandments. He understands, and understands above the elders, showing the office of doctrine and of his own zeal together with the very antiquity of time, that is, signifying a people prior to himself. In which both things agree, that he be both the more ancient and deem himself to be a teacher.

But above him understands the one who is both taught and younger; and he understands, because he has sought out the commandments of God, which the teacher, while he believes himself to be teaching, is ignorant of. And it follows that he who understands above the elders and teachers should render fruit, namely that he should practise those things which he holds known and perfected. And let us see whether this very thing be in what follows. For he says: From every evil way I have restrained my feet, that I may keep Thy word. This is a perfect utterance and one of the evangelical man, to hold himself back from every way, and, though so many paths of error meet him everywhere, to walk in none of those by which wickedness is approached. But something loftier, I know not what, the prophet signifies therein, when he says: I have restrained my feet.

The nature of our body carries us into every course of crimes, and the impulse of human lusts forces us into this way. But he who understands above the elders and teachers has restrained himself through doctrine and has called back his feet as they went forth and ran ahead. We must therefore resist and strive against it, so that we may first restrain ourselves from every evil way, and then afterward, if any impulse carry us thither, draw ourselves back: and first we ourselves are to be held in check by our own power, that thereafter we may keep the word of God. But there is need beforehand of one's own restraint, that there may be a keeping of the word of God. For no one will keep the word first, and then be able to restrain himself. For restraint is precisely this, that what was being done be hindered from being done;

but the keeping is then firm, when one, restraining himself from evils, observes good things without intermission. But of what sort the keeping of the word of God ought to be, the following verse teaches. For it follows: From Thy judgments I have not turned aside, because Thou hast laid down a law for me. This, therefore, is the true keeping, to swerve on no side from the judgments of God, nor to turn aside even by a slight departure, but, ever intent and ever unmoved, to abide in that in which he has stood fast. And he does not turn aside, because God has appointed a law for him. Moses indeed had appointed the law; but this same prophet had prayed in another psalm, saying: O Lord, appoint a lawgiver: that the nations may know that they are men. For that law which Moses had written was for us in Christ:

and therefore he understands above those that teach him and above the elders, because he understands the evangelical law, which is contained in the law of Moses. This, therefore, was brought forth through our Lord; this instructed every man in the knowledge of God. And therefore to that word, Appoint a lawgiver over them, he added: that the nations may know that they are men: that is, born of earth and brought into the knowledge of God from the clay. For what before, through ignorance of the law of Moses, they did not know, now they know through our Lord Jesus Christ; and as they acknowledge their own origin, that is, the nature of the body, in the Bringer of the law, so also they await the glory of this new Bringer of the law, having been at their very beginning constituted unto the image and likeness of God.

And the prophet in what follows testifies to the sweetness of this evangelical grace. For he says: How sweet are Thy words to my throat, above honey in my mouth! In the mouth, not also in the throat, is honey sweet. For beyond the region of the mouth there is no sense of bodily tastes. But the words of God are sweet in the throat, flowing down, that is, into the soul and penetrating the inward parts: not pleasing merely in the mouth like food, but sweet there where the seat of knowledge and prudence and sense is. And therefore His words are sweet in the throat and in the mouth.

But as, through sickness and the burning of fevers, it softens those things in the mouth which have become bitter, so the infused words of God soften the bitternesses of our soul and the sad fevers of unwholesome lusts, if only they be not held in the mouth, but swallowed down by the throat. There follows then: From Thy commandments I have understood; therefore I have hated every way of iniquity. The precepts make us understanding, but the precepts fulfilled in fact and deed: that is, that we perform, as far as we are able, those things which are contained in them. Therefore the precepts must be carried out, that we may be understanding. And although the understanding be made perfect by God, yet we must make a beginning, that we may be able to earn perfect understanding.

For to those who do not begin this of themselves, all things are shut up by God. And the prophetic word teaches this very thing through Isaiah, saying: Say not concerning My commandments, that they are of no account: neither hast thou known them, nor believed them, nor from the beginning have I opened thine ears. For I knew that, despising, thou wouldst despise, and that thou wouldst yet be called wicked from the womb. Therefore knowledge is not granted to those who do not desire it. And because God is the searcher of hearts, to those who were about to despise it the ears are made dull and the sense is blunt. But the prophet understands from the precepts of God, having, that is, attained understanding by doing the precepts: and understanding, he hates every way of iniquity.

For all the movements of the various affections are present to human nature, such as those of hatred and of love. But love must be spent upon the loving of good things. Hatred, however, must be taken up from the offence of evils. It is therefore our part, as of a useful instrument, to temper our bodies into fitted and harmonious measures, that we may not love vices, that we may not hate good virtues, that we may fit ourselves fittingly and usefully to each kind. The prophet loves the commandments of God: and he who loves the commandments of God hates the ways of iniquity.

For as it belongs to perfect faith and obedience to love, and to fulfil with the affection of charity that which one does, and to render the necessity of acting a matter of loving will, so also it is a mark of greatness not merely not to do iniquities, but to hate them, since at times fear and terror turn us away from these. But hatred instils in us a judgment of them and an opinion perfect concerning them. Let us therefore love justice, moderation, frugality, mercy; and let us hate brawls and drunkenness, murders, pride, defilements, together with which we must needs also hate the devil. But loving peace, truth, justice, we shall love Him who is peace, justice, and truth, our Lord Jesus, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. NUN.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths, and so forth. The life and understanding of men remains in error, or rather in the night of ignorance, while, infected by the contagion of the flesh, it is held down in the depth of ignorance through the heaviness of the nature with which it is mingled. For when will it know through itself the cause and reason of its own origin? When will it know what the fruit of its life is, what the condition of its hope, what the way of a posterity to be won? For no one is so mad or destitute of sense as to think that he was born into this, when he was nothing, in order that again, after he was born, he might be nothing; since without doubt he remembers that it has proceeded from the goodness of God that he was born, nor does it belong to His goodness that in us this His own gift

gift, whereby we are born, should be destroyed, is not consonant with His goodness. But the prophet, worthy of the knowledge of heavenly things and placed in the light of knowledge by the gift and utterance of God, follows as his guide to living well and innocently Him who is the true light and who enlightens every man. This ignorance of his, therefore, he brings back to right by a certain light set before him, saying: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. He knows that, unless illumined by the word of God, he cannot bear these darknesses of the body and this night of the world. He knows that everywhere there are present stones of stumbling, snares of cords, pits of ditches.

For as one who has gone forth by night carries a lamp before him and looks where he may set his foot, and is watchful with the light at each single step, so each one of us, keeping the word of God within us, uses it as a lamp in all the proceedings of his works; for indeed all heavenly doctrine is our guide unto the way, which is like a lamp in this night, when we either do or think or speak anything, that we may use it in every advance of whatever work. The Lord commands in the gospels that this lamp of His precepts be not hidden idle and useless, saying: For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel. For what use is it if it be covered by a bushel? It spends its use only within that by which it is covered.

He commands, therefore, that it be set upon a lampstand, that is, in the seat of its office. And so let us not hide this doctrine and this word of God received within us, idle and useless as if under a bushel, but let us furnish this light first to ourselves and again, from ourselves, to all the nations. By the following commandment also the Lord admonished this, saying: Let your loins be girded, and burning lamps in your hands. He commands, therefore, that we do nothing in the dark, since everyone acting in sins hates the light and loves the darkness. He wills these our lamps to be always kindled, lest at any time we be left in the night of this world. In the tabernacle of the testimony a lamp is kindled and this burns at every festal season. They know not this which they do.

But let us always have burning lamps in these testimonies of our tabernacles, that is, of our bodies, and let us carry through the festivity of our hope by their light. The apostles also, whom the Lord calls the salt and also the light of the world, by this signification He showed to be also the lamps of the church, saying: The lamp of thy body is thine eye, that is, of the body of the church, for it is one body in Christ, and we are severally members of it. For first, to each one of us the word of God is a lamp to himself; then the apostolic man is a lamp to his whole body, that is, to the church. For not the whole body is either foot or eye or hand.

Therefore if the eyes, the most luminous part of the whole body and for that reason set before the other members, shall be darkness, that is, if the lamp of the apostles shall not burn with that very light placed in the darkness, how great a night of the whole body will remain? John was a lamp of repentance both to the Jews and to the Gentiles, the Lord saying: He was a burning and shining lamp, and ye were willing for an hour to exult in his light. We have therefore the light of doctrine: let us exult in it, not for an hour, but always; nor for a time, but unto eternity. Those blessed virgins and profitable buyers of oil alone, in the light of their lamps, entered the bridal chamber with the bridegroom, while the rest, neglectful and sleeping, were shut out from the entrance of the chamber.

For every step of our soul, therefore, let us use the word of God as a lamp, but a lamp ever burning, ever prepared for its office through our prudence. And the word, which is for the feet, that same is also a light for the paths. For to those advancing gently and near home a lamp is needful: but to those entering upon a longer and public journey a light is rather necessary, lest a robber lie in wait, lest the error of an uncertain way meet them. For by increments one advances from lesser to greater, so that to him for whom the word of God is first a lamp to his feet, that same word may become a light on his paths. But a lamp for the feet and a light on the paths ought to furnish useful progress. And let us see whether the prophet has subjoined anything worthy. For he says:

I have sworn and determined to keep the judgments of Thy righteousness. Now he errs not in the night, nor fears to strike his foot against anything. For every oath is a matter of established knowledge, and the religion of swearing is undertaken out of the knowledge of the truth. The prophet therefore swears; nor does he only swear, but also determines, since the bond of an oath is the firmness of things determined. He determines, therefore, swearing to keep the judgments of God. And it is difficult that things determined be uprooted, and it is best to determine things sworn. But he remembers that there is nothing unjust in the judgments of God. For if human judgments are truly esteemed as judgments which are sanctioned by the discretion of a court, much less should there be any doubting now that there is nothing unjust in the judgments of God. We lose our children; we deem this judgment unjust.

Did God unjustly give the devil power over the sons of Job? We grieve over our losses as though they befell us unjustly. Did God without reason permit that perfect man alone to be in want? We are tormented by pains and, with the complaints of our impatience, we reproach against God. Or was he, gnawed by worms, oozing with corruption, pierced with ulcer, by an uncertain counsel? Surely all these things advanced unto the proof of faith and unto a glorious reward. Our infirmity brings it about that we deem that to be evil which we suffer. But it is always the will of God that we be tested by the patience of sufferings: while we, wishing to remain hidden from the proof of faith, disapprove of the justice of the divine judgment.

But he who above had both sworn and determined to keep the judgments of the righteousness of God ought to furnish something worthy of his oath and his resolve in observing the judgments. For it is no light thing which he, having sworn, determined that he would keep. And what that is, the following verse tells. For it says: I have been humbled unto the uttermost, O Lord: quicken me according to Thy word. The only-begotten Son of God, taking to Himself from a virgin a body of our nature, when in His very self He had presented the true and perfect form of humanity, it must be known what He willed to be learned from Him as it were by an example of doctrine. For He says: Come, all ye that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you.

Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls. He, being surely perfect and without sin, alone and one, in whose mouth was no guile, willed that this chief example of doctrine be taken from Him, namely of meekness and humility, through which rest might be found for souls. He knows the infirmity of our nature to be insolent and incapable of prosperous things. Some grow insolent through riches, not knowing that it was said concerning the bestowal of riches: For almsgiving hides sin; and again: He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness abideth for ever;

and that the Lord Himself said to those who had fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, received the stranger into their home, clothed the naked with a garment, visited the sick, consoled him shut up in prison: Come, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Others are swollen with the glory of the world, not knowing that this was the chief utterance of the heavenly blessings: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Others their nobility raises to disdain, not considering that it was said to those who have been reborn in Christ: But ye are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. There are the laws of the world, and other are the gifts of God. When the devil dared to tempt the Lord, he boasts that the world is his own.

But the Lord commands us to die to the world, that we ourselves may live. With the Lord, contempt of riches is opulence; with the Lord, the despising of earthly honour is the kingdom of heavens; with the Lord, humility of heart is the adornment of a noble and royal birth. This, therefore, He willed to be learned from Himself, which is the greatest of all virtues. The apostle also, teaching us unto humility, exhorts us with such words: For have this mind in you which was in Jesus, who, when He was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in habit as a man. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. We have an example of humility from the only-begotten God; but let us see also the reward.

For therefore God exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father. This was the reward of humility, that the body He had assumed should abide in the glory of God the Father, that at His name the knees of things heavenly and earthly and infernal should bend. For abiding in the form of God, He did not deem, by any violence and rapine to Himself, that which He was, namely to be equal to God. For He was in the form of God, and nothing of His glory was lacking to Him in whose form He abode; but He received the form of a servant through humility and was found in habit as a man, humbling Himself even unto death:

and not only unto death, but even unto the death of the cross. He Himself made the heaven by the precept of God, adorned the world by the Father's command into this appearance of so great beauty, created the earth and the things that are in them. But did He on account of those works merit to place the man He had assumed in the glory of the eternal Father? This is the reward of humility, this is the recompense of humility, that, because He who was abiding before in the form of God was thereafter made in the form of a servant, both abiding in the form of God and made in the form of a servant, He might be known, by the confession of things heavenly and earthly and infernal, to be in the glory of God the Father. And the same apostle also, lest that very grace of the divine gifts should make any insolent, says: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto profit.

For in that he said, unto profit, he taught that it must be used humbly, lest perchance the confidence of spiritual gifts should make anyone insolent, and the grace of God, through the vice of insolence, become idle. And in his own person he himself shows that he too obtained this, of grace, lest through confidence of the many gifts in him he should be lifted up into any swelling, saying: And because of the eminence of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me, lest I be exalted. Even this that vessel of election and teacher of the nations feared, lest beyond the nature of human infirmity, through confidence of the spiritual gifts within him, he should grow proud.

Scripture praises king Hezekiah, that he did what was right and good in the sight of God, but the praise could not endure unto the end. For it is written in the second book of Chronicles: And Hezekiah fell from the loftiness of his heart. When he had raised his heart on high, when he had lifted himself up into pride through confidence in the praise, he lost the grace of his past deeds through the crime of pride. The prophet, therefore, establishing by oath that he would keep the just judgments of God, took up this first work, that he should become humble, and not only humble, but humble exceedingly: teaching, by this addition, the modesty of a humility consummated in himself. And there were in him several causes for pride.

His nobility from Judah provided causes, and in him the power of the royal blessing was first begun. For the family of royal power abode for a while from the tribe of David, from which, according to the flesh, the eternal King arose. He was also most prudent; as it is said: And the hidden things of wisdom Thou hast made manifest to me. He merited even to be a prophet, when it is said: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. He abounded also in the resources of human opulence. For he himself says: Behold, I have gathered out of my poverty so many thousand talents of gold and others of silver and of bronze and of iron, of which there is no reckoning. Hence nobility, hence the power of a king, the confidence of wisdom, hence the merit of a prophet, hence the abundance of resources;

yet they did not raise him up into pride nor lift him into any swelling of disdain. Safely, therefore, he asks, saying: Quicken me according to Thy word, that is, that, as though not yet living, he might merit the life of the eternal according to the word of God, since the modesty of humility would keep him within discipline and doctrine. There follows next: Make the freewill offerings of my mouth well-pleasing, O Lord, and teach me Thy judgments. Worthily does the prophet keep the oath of his resolve. For first he was made humble exceedingly; now in what follows he prays that the freewill offerings of his mouth may be well-pleasing. He is no longer content to be contained by the prescriptions of the law nor merely to be subject to necessity. It had been enjoined that evil be repaid for evil. This David, when Saul with all

the strength of his empire frequently pursued him, and though he had him captured and shut in, not only did he not slay him, but even dismissed him with honour, saying: I will not lay my hand upon him, because he is the Lord's. Him also, when he had learned that he had been slain in war, he wept for and avenged. His son Absalom too seizes the kingdom, gathers an army, pursues his father in parricidal war. But to the soldiers David says: Spare the boy. Upon them indeed necessity was laid to resist, as it belonged to a king; but piety and goodness were present to spare, as it belonged to a prophet. And him dead he bewailed with a father's grief. For these things are voluntary, not legal: and to obey these is an office of liberty rather than of necessity.

The apostle has this voluntary, not also legal, saying: But concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give counsel. Or when he praises the glory of widowhood and continence, he does not now forbid the power of marrying, but proclaims the merit of celibacy. He institutes beyond the law and exhorts beyond the precept, setting things voluntary before things legal. And again he says: Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about women, as the other apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or have I alone and Barnabas no power to forbear working? But we use not this power. The power lies in what is lawful, when the law, sparing our infidelity, does not burden us with grievous things.

But the profession of the will is for him an increase of faith, when in those matters which the law has appointed as our measure we hold ourselves fast by zeal of devotion. Therefore the prophet prays that these voluntary offerings may be pleasing to God, since those things which are done according to the prescript of the law are performed by the very necessity of their service. And he always states the ground of his supplication. For after he had prayed that the voluntary offerings of his mouth might be well-pleasing, he added: 'And teach me thy judgements.' He performs the judgements of the law and, so far as in him lies, he exercises them in deeds and works; but he does not yet understand them. For he knows that the law is spiritual, and he hastens to know that which is contained under the appearance of the present operations; for a man must needs ask to be taught those things which he does not know.