On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 1 part 40/55

Putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator. Do we put on anything corporeal, when we are renewed in knowledge? Nothing, I think. But we put on the knowledge of God, the faith of eternity, the sincerity of innocence, the manners of goodness. For these are the garments rather of the soul than of the body, all of which are proper to God. These we put on in the knowledge of the new man, that in every ministry of our soul we may be perfect after the image of the Creator, in the knowledge of goodness and holiness and love. These things have been briefly treated concerning the ears of God, lest He be thought corporeal.

And although these things are as they have been said, yet we remember that there are many spiritual powers, to which belongs the name of angels, or which preside over churches. For according to John there are angels of the churches of Asia. There are also, as Moses testifies, the bounds of the nations set for the sons of Adam according to the number of the angels. There are also, as the Lord teaches, the angels of the little ones who daily behold God. There are, according to Raphael speaking to Tobias, angels standing before the glory of God and bearing up the prayers of those who supplicate to the Lord. This has been recalled by us for this reason: that if perhaps we should wish to understand these to be the eyes or ears or hands or feet of God, we may have the authority of an understanding not improbable, especially since it is written:

For they are ministering spirits, sent forth in ministry for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation. Therefore by their intercession the nature of God has no need, but our weakness does. For they are sent forth for the sake of those who shall inherit salvation: God being ignorant of nothing of what we do, but our weakness being in need of the ministry of spiritual intercession for asking and for meriting. Thereupon it follows: If Thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, who shall stand? The reason of this saying must not be treated carelessly. For he does not say: If Thou wilt mark sins, but: If Thou wilt mark iniquities. For iniquity differs from sin. Will God then not mark sins, and will there be no memory of crimes? There surely will be:

nay rather, each one shall render account of an idle word, and everyone cast into prison shall pay the last farthing. But that iniquity and sin differ, we are taught when it is said: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; and again: I acknowledged my iniquity, and my sin I hid not. For all iniquity is a transgression of the law of God, which is graver than sin. This very thing the Apostle most absolutely distinguished, saying: For those who have sinned in iniquity shall perish in iniquity; but those who have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. Therefore the sin of iniquity already perishes, but the sin of the law shall be judged. And the sin of iniquity is whatever is transgressed outside the law.

such as are the crimes of the Gentiles, which have been condemned along with the very ignorance of the law. But sins under the law do not perish, but must be judged; because, although they are sins, yet they are sins under the law. Therefore, if God should be mindful of iniquities, who shall bear thefts, false testimonies, murders, defilements, perjuries? For these are the crimes which are done in iniquity, that is, outside the law of God, and which are washed away by the sacrament of the new birth. But of these plainly God is now no longer mindful: and why He is not mindful, the prophet shows in the following verse, saying: For with Thee there is propitiation. For there is the only-begotten Son of God, God the Word, our redemption, our peace, in whose blood we have been reconciled to God.

This is He who came to take away the sins of the world; who, fastening to His cross the handwriting of the law, blotted out the decree of the old condemnation. Whether therefore the prophet's prayer shall be thought to be to the Father or to the Son — for both are one, and he who hath seen the Son hath seen also the Father, because the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father; by the likeness of glory the one is glorious in the other: the Son glorious, because He is worthy of fellowship with the Father, the Father glorious, the Father of the Son worthy of His fellowship — rightly may the prophet be believed to have said to whichever thou wilt: For with Thee there is propitiation;

because in the Father, according to the likeness of glory, is the Son, and the Son Himself is for our sins both propitiation and redemption and intercession, not being mindful of our iniquities, because He Himself is their propitiation. But the prophet knows that it is a matter of great peril to sin in iniquity, that is, without law, because the perdition of sin without law is perdition, but of sin under the law is judgment. And therefore he says: For Thy law's sake I have waited for Thee, O Lord. But the law is holy and spiritual, and in it are the words of life, and the end of the law is Christ; and this is shown in the following verse. For he says: My soul hath waited on Thy word.

The prophet indeed performs the bodily offices of the law, namely of sacrifices and holocausts and new moons and sabbaths, all of which are a shadow of things to come: but his soul waited on the word of God. For the law's sake he himself waits, that is, as I said, he bodily performs the offices of the law. But on the word of God his soul waits: namely the coming of the Son of God, who is both the Word of God and God the Word, he awaits with spiritual faith. But how he awaits, he shows, saying: My soul hath hoped in the Lord from the morning watch even until night. Let us recall the tenor of the Gospel comparison, and remember that certain laborers in the vineyard spend the whole day in labor. From the morning watch even until night the prophet hopes: he has no

any time empty; he is the tireless laborer of the whole day. But what at last shall be the reward of hope? Not all men's life spends its day in hope of the Lord; for there are laborers of the third hour, there are of the sixth, there are of the ninth, there are also of the eleventh: and the prophet, who hoped from the morning watch even until night, seems to cut off from us the hope of the Gospel wage. He plainly does not cut it off. For he says: Let Israel hope in the Lord. It is an exhortation to hope without any prefixed limit of time. He indeed, as a perfect laborer, hoped from the morning watch even until night. But every time is free for hope: and the laborers of the eleventh hour shall obtain a wage not of work, but of mercy. For thus he says: Let Israel hope in the Lord:

for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all their iniquities. Good is He in whom hope is placed; and one must hope in Him, because there is mercy, because with Him there is plenteous redemption, because He will redeem all men from their iniquities. It is the eleventh hour, the times of the day are closed: let us all run, let us hasten, lest the night be at hand, lest the hour pass by. We are old, the night of death presses on: shall we not advance at least to the eleventh hour of our life? Blessed indeed is he who, laboring from morning even until night, demands the covenanted penny as though it were a debt;

but, because the Lord is good, because He is merciful, let us hope in Him, that, though laborers of the eleventh hour, we may obtain the penny of the day's labor through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. Lord, my heart is not exalted, neither are mine eyes lifted up. It is a brief psalm, and to be explained by distinction rather than by lengthy treatment, teaching us to humility and meekness. And because in very many other places we have treated somewhat of humility, it is idle to repeat the same things. Certainly we ought to remember that the greatest work of our faith is humility, since the prophet commemorates this as if from the consciousness of a most excellent work, saying: Lord, my heart is not exalted.

For the best sacrifice to God is a contrite heart. Therefore the heart must not be lifted up in prosperity, but must be restrained by the fear of God with humility within the bounds of meekness. Neither are mine eyes lifted up. The Greek has expressed this with another propriety, saying: oude emeteōristhēsan hoi ophthalmoi mou, that is, they have not been raised from one thing to another. But the eyes are to be lifted up, according to the sayings of the prophet: Lift up your eyes and see, who hath shown all these things. And the Lord in the Gospel says: Lift up your eyes and behold the regions, for they are white unto the harvest. Therefore the eyes are to be lifted up; but not again to be lifted up to another thing, so that they may persevere once for all in that to which they were raised. Thereupon it follows:

Neither have I walked in great matters, nor in things too wonderful for me. It is a matter of great peril if we walk in small things and if we do not linger in wonderful things. Great are the words of God, He Himself is wonderful in the highest: and how does the prophet put forward as it were a good work of his own, that he walks not in great and wonderful things? But when he added: above me, he does not walk in those things which among men are believed to be wonderful and great. For David, both prophet and king, was formerly lowly and abject, and not even worthy of his father's banquet; but he pleased God, was anointed king, was inspired to be a prophet. He grows not insolent in his kingdom, is not moved by hatreds: he loves those who persecute him, honors the deaths of his enemies, spares his incestuous and parricidal sons.

As commander he is despised, as father he is wronged, as prophet he is vexed: he prays not for revenge as a prophet, takes not vengeance as a father, exacts not the affront as a commander. In these things, therefore, which are great and wonderful above himself, he walks not. But let us see what follows. If I was not lowly-minded, but exalted my soul. What is this diversity of the prophet? He exalts not the heart: he exalts the soul. He walks not in great and wonderful things above himself: but he is not lowly-minded. He is lofty in soul: and lowly in heart. He is humble in his own things: but he is not humble in mind. For his mind is in heaven, his soul is in the heights.

But the heart, out of which, according to the Gospel, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies, is lowly, subjected to that sweet yoke of meekness. Therefore a measure of humility and of loftiness must be kept, so that we may be humble in heart, but lofty in mind and soul. Thereupon it follows: As one weaned upon his mother, so wilt Thou recompense unto my soul. When Isaac was weaned, we have received that Abraham made a feast, because, being now weaned and near to boyhood's age, he passed beyond that food. The Apostle gives milk to all who are raw in the faith and of a knowledge still infantile in the things of God. Therefore it is the greatest advancement no longer to need milk.

For Abraham testified even by the joy of the feast that his son had passed over to stronger food, and the Apostle denies bread to those who are carnal and babes in Christ. The prophet therefore prays, because he has not exalted his heart, because he has not walked in his own great and wonderful things, because he has not thought lowly things, but has exalted his soul, that it may be recompensed to his soul as to one weaned upon his mother: namely that he may be worthy of the recompense of the perfect and heavenly and living bread, because through the works above mentioned which he recalled, he has now passed beyond the food of milk. But neither does he pray for this living bread from heaven for himself alone, but exhorts all men to hope for it, saying: Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth and even for evermore.

He shuts up our hope by no end of times, He stretches the faith of our expectation into the immeasurable. We must hope for evermore: through the hope of the present age attaining the hope of the age to come, in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness: how he sware unto the Lord, and vowed a vow to the God of Jacob. All the preceding psalms of degrees indeed lift us up into the advancement of a loftier hope, and through the teaching of faith, hope, confession, humility, prayer, they carry us on high by their steps. But this psalm especially instructs us unto the knowledge of the Son of God, and establishes us in the mystery of the flesh assumed by Him. For it thus began:

Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness. The Jews dare, denying the coming of our Lord, by which in body He restored salvation to the human race, to refer this psalm to David; being, as in the Lord's passion impious, so also in the knowledge of prophecy unskilled; reading and not understanding, possessing and not knowing, venerating and not obeying. For with what pretense of religion they venerate the books of the prophets is known to many. They dare not touch them with the hand when reading; they spread them upon linen, they call them as witnesses to the faith of the sacrament: and this profits to this end, that with the greater crime of irreligion they either despise or dissemble or know not the sayings of those to whom so great honor is owed.

This has been said for this reason, that, whereas in the prophets long after David had departed in body, they have it written thus in Jeremiah: In that day, saith the Lord, I will break the yoke from off their neck, and will burst their bonds, and they shall no more serve others, but they shall serve the Lord their God; and I will raise up unto them David their king; and again: I will raise up unto them David a king, the Orient, the Just, and the king shall reign, and shall understand, and shall execute righteousness and judgment in the earth: in his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely; likewise in Isaiah: And I will raise up over them one shepherd, exalted, and My servant David shall feed them: and he shall be to them a shepherd, and I will be to them for a God, and David a prince in the midst of them;

I the Lord have spoken it, and I will make with David a covenant of peace — they are unwilling to believe what they are taught, nor do they have faith in those to whom they confess that veneration is due. And how shall they be religious who deny authority to religion? David was resting with his fathers, and he himself had known the covenant of the law given through Moses; so long afterward God spoke through the prophets that David was to be raised up — a shepherd, a king, the Orient, the Just, in whose days is the salvation of Israel, with whom God will make a covenant of peace. Therefore this David is not the son of Jesse, in part the writer of the psalms, but David the shepherd for the keeping of his flock: for the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, a king for the glory of the eternal kingdom, to whom it was said:

Rabbi, Thou art the King of Israel; the Just One for judgment: for the Father judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son; the Orient for the light of the world: for He is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into this world; the heir of the covenant of peace for the dignity of the Son: for all things have been given to Me in heaven and in earth, and: My peace I leave with you. Therefore the Jews must needs confess that these things were proclaimed long after the times of David. But this David is He who received the name of His parent according to the origin of the flesh: taking the name of Him from whose lineage He was taking also the body. But all things which are contained in the psalm are diverse both from the deeds of the prophet David, and from the nature of human weakness, and from the times of an age.

And because to Him neither the circumstances, nor the condition, nor the time is fitting, and they agree with that David whom God afterward promised through the prophets, there is no doubt that here also this one, who is an excellent and great prophet, spoke of that David who afterward arose — by the Spirit of God, in the office of a prophet. For he says: Remember, O Lord, David, and all his meekness. He does not say: Remember me, but: Remember, O Lord, David, that he might show another, who was speaking. But all this prayer must needs be thought to be that of the only-begotten Son of God speaking through the prophet, entreating the remembrance of God the Father toward the man whom He was about to assume unto Himself.

For Jesus now, according to the Apostle, is in the glory of God the Father, and to him bends every knee of things heavenly and earthly and infernal. Therefore the firstborn Son of God, God the Word, already names himself David through the words of the prophet's prayer, taking to himself the name 'man,' who according to the privilege of his own divinity was to be seated together with him in the Father's glory. 'Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness'; for he himself says, 'Because I am meek and lowly of heart.' And there is the Father's testimony concerning him: 'Behold my child, whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall declare judgment to the nations. He shall not strive nor cry out, neither shall anyone hear his voice in the streets.'

He prays, therefore, that the Father would remember all this meekness, by whose moderation of meekness he vowed to God the Father the service of his own humility. 'As he swore,' it says, 'to the Lord, he vowed a vow to the God of Jacob.' The mention of an oath is taken up as a profession of will. And I do not know whether the Only-begotten actually swore; yet certainly he both did and spoke all things in such a way that he seemed to satisfy the religious obligation of an oath.

For when he had spoken certain things to his disciples about his passion, and Peter, as though this were unworthy of the Son of God, had recoiled from it in horror, he received Peter — to whom above he had given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, upon whom he was to build his Church, against which the gates of hell should not prevail, whose loosings or bindings on earth would remain either loosed or bound in heaven — this Peter, then, who was recoiling with such reproach, he met concerning this mystery of the passion with the words: 'Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling-block to me.' So great was his religious devotion to suffering for the salvation of the human race, that he called Peter — the first confessor of the Son of God, the foundation of the Church, the doorkeeper of the heavenly kingdom and, in earthly judgment, the judge of heaven — by the reproachful name of Satan.

Nay more, in that very tumult in which he had offered himself to be given over to the passion, when this same Peter had cut off the ear of the high priest's servant with a sword, he said: 'Put up your sword into its sheath: the cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?' — teaching that it would be impious and profane if he did not fulfill all that he had vowed to the Father for human salvation. And absolutely in this he shows the devout religious observance of his passion, since after the draught of vinegar he was about to yield up his spirit; for when all was accomplished he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up the spirit. For he had run through all the duties of the mystery: and where there is rejoicing at the consummation, there is gladness in the perfection of the work undertaken.

Therefore, since according to this devotion in his deeds all things were so performed that they appear to have been zealously completed for the sake of the religious obligation by which they were sworn, it follows that we should see what it is that this David both swore and vowed: 'If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house, and if I shall go up into the bed of my couch; if I shall give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.' These vows cannot belong to human nature, and the condition of the oath exceeds the weakness of earthly necessity.

He must not approach the tabernacle of his house, he must abstain from the bed of his couch, he must not give sleep to his eyes and eyelids, nor slumber and rest to his temples, until a place is found for the Lord and a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. He would therefore have to stand under the open sky night and day, and never would his body lie down to rest; his eyes, moreover, would toil ever wakeful, and not even to his eyelids would the closing over into slumber be permitted. His temples indeed, which above all in the whole head and body are exposed to the injuries of wakefulness and standing watch, would have no rest; a man is not allowed to swear this concerning himself. Even if he most greatly does not wish it, he will nonetheless violate the condition of this vow by the very necessity of his own nature.

Though the mind keep watch and hold the body at its post, yet, since weakness dominates nature, it is inevitable that a man both fall down and sleep and rest against his will. Furthermore, what place will a man find for God, and in what sort of tabernacle will he contain the incomprehensible and infinite nature? — since God himself spoke concerning himself through the prophet, saying: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what house will you build me, or what is the place of my rest? For my hand made all these things, and all these are mine.' And the prophet was not ignorant of this divine utterance, and he knew that there could be no house of human and earthly workmanship for God, testifying to this very thing in the preceding psalm when he says:

'Unless the Lord build the house, they that build it labor in vain.' Therefore, if neither the nature of man admits the condition of this vow, nor does human labor require a place and tabernacle for God, it must be recognized through the authority of the heavenly Scriptures what this vow is, by whose fulfillment a place for the Lord and a tabernacle for the God of Jacob is found. For our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who fulfilled all the mysteries of human salvation as though under oath, and whom we have shown to be signified by the prophets under the name of David — for him this was the greatest work: to render man, instructed in divine knowledge, worthy to be a dwelling-place of God. And that man is a seat and habitation for God we are thus taught, God himself speaking through the prophet:

'For I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people'; and again: 'and again they shall rejoice, and I will dwell in them.' And the Lord himself in the Gospel says: 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him.' The Apostle likewise says: 'You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.' But God dwells in the minds of the devout not by bodily presence nor by the entrance of a heavier nature, so that, not existing elsewhere, he should abide only there where he has brought himself; but by spiritual power he admits himself into hearts empty of earthly stains, and, after the manner of light, he pours himself in to illuminate minds that lie open at the doors of innocence.

Having therefore assumed a body, the only-begotten God swears that he will not enter the tabernacle of his house together with his man before him — that is, that he will not return into his heavenly habitation — until he finds for the Lord these places of a devout heart. But neither did he vow that he would ascend the bed of his couch. The couch is the rest of human labors and the refreshment of weary bodies. But in heaven there is ever rest, and because that untiring nature knows no toil, it is ever on the couch, that is, ever in rest. Our Lord, remaining in the form of God, took the form of a servant and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, so that he suffered something more, I know not what, than death.

But he was obedient even unto the death of the cross for this reason only: that he might render us worthy of being God's habitation. He therefore willed to die, who is life, and being untiring virtue he did not refuse to become weak for the habitation of a body, so that, remaining in the form of God, he might take the form of a servant. He therefore went forth out of that couch of his eternal blessedness. And the fortieth psalm is a witness to us, which speaks the whole mystery of the passion in the person of the Lord, saying: 'Thou hast turned all his couch in his infirmity.' When through obedience to the paternal will, from God he becomes man, from powerful weak, from life-giving dead, from the eternal judge of the ages the accused of the cross, then is his couch turned into infirmity.

He vowed, therefore, not to return to that couch of eternal and blessed rest, unless the tabernacle of God were found, but neither before then to give sleep to his eyes. What is this sleep? Surely that of which he says: 'I slept and took my sleep, and I rose up, for the Lord will sustain me.' This is the sleep of death, which he will not give to his eyes before he finds the place of habitation. Of this sleep too the blessed patriarch Jacob makes mention in the blessing of Judah, who was the prince of that nation, saying: 'Judah is a lion's whelp; from the shoot, my son, thou hast lain down and slept as a lion, and as a lion's whelp: who shall rouse him up?'

Both the preceding and the following blessing suits neither the age of Judah nor his deeds, but rather him who is from the shoot of Judah, as from the root of Jesse, who is both the lion's whelp and shall be a son of Jacob. For from this tribe of Judah is Mary, who was the mother of our Lord according to the flesh. This one, then, lying down, slept as a lion. The lion is a terror to all wild beasts and is as it were the master of the other animals: and he alone, through confidence and security, sleeps fearless. He is a terror to all when waking, but he himself is secure in sleep. And for this reason he added, 'Who shall rouse him up?' — because no timidity of external terror disturbs the security of a fearless and all-powerful nature.

Lest, therefore, we should suppose that the impassible substance of the only-begotten God had suffered anything lowly or passible in that death which he underwent, the example of this beast sleeping fearlessly is brought forward for the understanding of an untroubled death: that we might be taught that in that sleep he was beyond the disquiet of human fear — he who, through the virtue of his own kind and nature, could not fear, even while sleeping. And most carefully is this principle preserved, that in the only-begotten God the glory of the eternal God who begets him should be recognized, when it is said: 'as a lion and as a lion's whelp.' For with respect to that whereby he himself subsists from God, he is a lion's whelp; but with respect to that whereby he is a lion, the undifferentiated nobility of the paternal majesty in him is proclaimed. That both may be one, he is a lion;

lest he be one and the same person, he is a lion's whelp. And this same thing the sequence of the psalm also demonstrates. For lest that untiring virtue and impassible nature of the only-begotten God should be thought to be about to slumber in the sleep of death, he referred the whole matter to the office of the body, for which the departure of the immortal soul is death, saying: 'If I shall give sleep to my eyes and slumber to my eyelids and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.' 'Temples,' according to the fidelity of the translation, denies rest not to spans of age but to parts of the head. And these are bodily affections, which long labor and the anxiety of life stir up. But he rested, for whom death is sleep;