Latin original · 38 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:1656–1:1693 (2058 verses in all)
He knows, then, no other joys, nor has he anything else from which to be glad, setting Jerusalem alone before himself as the beginning of joy. And because he is mindful that it must be reached through many infirmities of the body, through many straits of the spirit, through many enticements of stealthily creeping vices, he fears lest anything cleave to him from vices through the nature of the body. For after this he prays to God, saying: 'Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who say, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.' Edom is interpreted 'earthly':
The vices of our earthly body, then—which, because they issue from the nature of the body, are called the sons of Edom—command these Babylonians, that is, the confusions and disturbances of our sense, so as to empty us out of that fulness with which we have been filled. For it is written: 'For of his fulness have we all received.' Whoever is capable of the Lord, he too has been filled from His fulness. But the nature of this sense, turbid and confused through the vices of the body, is such that, if it once draws us into every will and habit of sin, it empties us out of all pursuit of good virtues. These vices, therefore, command these turbid confusions of our sense, so as to empty us out even from the very foundation.
For whoever is holy, he is himself a part of Jerusalem; because from the assembly of the blessed and from the heavenly fellowship of the worthy there will be a Jerusalem, a city of living and precious stones, which these earthly vices strive to empty even to the foundation. And what the foundation is in us, the Apostle teaches, saying: 'Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ.' Every beginning of religion, then, every foundation of our hope, they attempt to empty out, that no memory and recollection of God may abide in us, that no hope of any good may be left. For once the foundation of faith, which is Christ, has been torn out and overthrown, not even the consolation of a pardon to be built up for us through penance will be left.
Now, the captivity of Jerusalem having been recalled, and the exhortation of the children of Edom to empty us out even to the foundation, it follows that the prophet should show in what manner we must guard against these things. And he shows it plainly, leaving us neither helpless nor unskilled, when he says: 'O daughter of Babylon, miserable one: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy recompense which thou hast repaid to us. Blessed shall he be who shall hold and dash thy little ones against the rock.' I would question those who think the spiritual meanings of the psalms to be idle—what here they understand the prophet to have called the daughter of Babylon; and, since above there was a sitting and a weeping upon the rivers of Babylon, why now the daughter of Babylon is miserable?
But because the sense of the reader is lacking in bodily understanding, the spiritual reasoning must be dealt with. For the whole discourse turns back to that unhappy flesh of our confusion and disturbance, which, according to the trustworthiness of the history, was begotten from the fathers of confusion—since all flesh is the daughter of the flesh that came before. For from those who first, with tongues confounded, founded the city of confusion, which is Babylon, the beginnings of all the nations were dispersed. This, then, is the miserable daughter Babylon, that is, the flesh of all. And whoever shall repay it its recompense is blessed—namely, he who shall subject his flesh to the dominion of the soul, and whoever shall subdue it to the spirit.
For she had subjected all those who were unskilled in and ignorant of God to all her pleasures and desires, and, lording it over the captive mind, held command. But when, through the knowledge of God, her vices are put to death—I say not by mere abolition, but by death—when religion, chastity, generosity, sobriety, and charity have consumed impiety, lust, avarice, drunkenness, strife, and hatreds, and the flesh, conquered by all the works of the spirit, does service, then blessed is he who shall repay it its recompense, that is, who exchanges into a dominion of the spirit over it that dominion which she had been accustomed to exercise over the spirit. Nor is the repayer of the recompense alone blessed, but also blessed is he who shall hold and dash thy little ones against the rock.
The vices of the body must not be allowed to grow strong, but must be slain at once in their beginnings. For desires already grown robust are dangerous, and things fully grown are killed only with difficulty. But it is easier to pluck up things breaking forth, to cut out tender shoots, to bend back what is still flexible. Blessed therefore is whoever, at the very outset, first restrains within the bounds of his own patience and virtue the shameful cravings of all desires that arise from the will of the flesh, and then, having dashed them against faith and the fear of God, slays them. For everyone who is transferred from sins to religion will crush and shatter all his sins, dashed against that religion to which he passes over.
But in that he holds and dashes the little ones of the miserable daughter of Babylon, there is shown both the virtue by which he restrains them at their birth, and the faith by which, lest they grow up, he dashes them. 'And he dashes them against the rock': and the rock, according to the Apostle, is Christ. Blessed, therefore, is he who dashes and shatters against Him the little ones of the daughter of Babylon, that is, the still tender vices of the body. To Him, the only-begotten God and our Lord, be glory and praise for ever and ever. Amen. PSALM 137. A Psalm of David. 'I will confess unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: for thou hast heard the words of my mouth,' and the rest. That there is a twofold meaning in confession we have shown in very many places: either of our sin, or of the praise of God.
And that this is so, it is easy to learn from the words of the Gospel. For when the Lord says: 'I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent of the world, and hast revealed them unto babes,' He confesses the praise of God the Father for things revealed to babes which had been unknown to the prudent, teaching that they were therefore hidden from those who seemed prudent, because they had not believed the precepts of the Gospel with the innocence of babes. But truly, where it is said in the same Gospels: 'And they were all baptized in the Jordan, confessing their sins,' there the confession of sins is contained without ambiguity of any other meaning.
Now the greatest and most useful medicine for the diseases of deadly vices lies in the confession of them. But the confession of sin is not, as it were, a declaration of things unknown to others, as when a thief is questioned about a theft, or a murderer about a killing, and confesses; nor is it as though God, who searches hearts and reins, needs your confession for knowledge of yourself—He to whom it is easy to perceive not what has been thought, but what is to be thought. The confession of sin is rather this: that what has been done by you, you confess through the knowledge of sin to be a sin. For no one approaches what he does in doing it except either from the fruit of some delight or from the judgment of a good opinion of it, while he either thinks it right or rejoices in it.
But when, through the teaching of God and the reason of truth, he understands that which he did under the appearance either of usefulness or of pleasure to be a sin, then through the understanding of sin he confesses that which was done by him to be a sin. But no one will thereafter commit with pardon that which he has confessed to be a sin, because the confession of sin is a profession of ceasing. As for the rest, to remain in things understood and confessed—this, being now a long-standing knowledge of sin, loses the pardon of confession. For he cannot confess as newly recognized that which was done by him along with a knowledge of sin. One must therefore cease from sins, after in confession there is a knowledge of sin;
and one must confess, as the prophet taught, with the whole heart, not in part, nor with any operation of sins already known to us still remaining. For what, if someone repenting of theft should increase his money by wicked and shameful gains? He will indeed not be a thief, but he will be a covetous man and a plunderer. Or if someone ceasing from fornication should corrupt himself with too much wine? He will indeed not defile his body, but he will contaminate his soul. And if someone abstaining from killings should persist in being abusive? He will indeed not have a murderous hand, but he will have a murderous tongue. And how shall anyone be able to confess with his whole heart while no small part of sin remains with him?
When, therefore, all vices have been wiped away, there is need of a confession of ceasing, and one must ever pray to God that, in restraining sins and extinguishing their incitements, He may strengthen the wavering endeavours of our will. On which account the prophet, now confident through his confession and prayer, says that he has been placed in the harbour of innocence: 'I will confess unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: for thou hast heard the words of my mouth.' The sense of this understanding is twofold, as we have already said above. For whether he confesses praise to God, because the words of his mouth have been heard, or whether, through the mercy of God, after he had long prayed and been helped, he now confesses with all his sins ceasing—both are fitting to our faith, that we should both praise the Lord and confess sins we have understood.
Then it follows: 'And in the sight of the angels I will sing praise to thee.' The prophet reckons it too little for himself to sing praise only in the presence of men, because men behold only the offices of bodily affairs. For in that he sings praise, he shows the movement of a work that is pleasing to God. He does not, then, desire that those things which are seen in the body should be discerned, but hastens to perform those things which spiritual natures contemplate spiritually. For he knows that he leads his whole life and conduct under the watch of the angels, and that everywhere these aids of the divine ministries stand by all the faithful, as it is written: 'The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.' The Apostle also teaches that the law of Moses was ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator.
Moreover, Elisha too taught most conclusively that human infirmities are defended by the aids of angels, and that in all dangers, if faith remain in us, the defence of the spiritual powers is present. For when the king of Syria was preparing to capture the city of Dothan, in which that same prophet Elisha was, and had appointed by nightly marches his army, which before dawn should besiege the city, the servant of Elisha, having caught sight of the siege, said: 'O my lord, what shall we do?' And Elisha said: 'Fear not: for they that are with us are more than they that are with them.' And Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said: 'Open, O Lord, the eyes of this young man, that he may see.' And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw;
and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots round about Elisha, and they came down to them. So great and so noble a prophet is worthy of the contemplation of spiritual aids by himself alone; but his prayer to God earned even for his servant the sight of the incorporeal beings. In the sight, therefore, of these angels who stand by with aids to men, the prophet sings praise, being about to please the spiritual beings by the spiritual contemplation of spiritual works. But he sings praise not only before the angels, but he will also accomplish that which follows: 'I will worship toward thy holy temple'—not in the temple, lest he should seem to speak in a bodily way after the custom of the Jews, if he were to worship in the temple; but toward the temple, that is, at the temple, being about to worship with spirit and body.
But that each holy person is a temple to God, the Apostle teaches, saying: 'You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.' The dwelling-place, therefore, which from us shall be worthy of God, is a temple to God. At this temple, then, holy to God, he will worship, not without the perfect reason of doctrine, lest through the confusion of an ill-composed prayer an occasion of irreligiousness should lie open to heretics for their pursuits. For he says: 'And I will confess to thy name, upon thy mercy and thy truth.' When he confesses to the name of God, he holds the faith congruous with the Gospels and the Law. For what His name might be, God willed to be known: by the same Gospel and Law the Lord, answering the Sadducees who denied the resurrection of bodies, showed:
'But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' The error, therefore, of the heretics is utterly confuted, who assert one God of the Gospels and another of the Law, since the Lord recalls that which is principal in the Law for the confirmation of the Gospel hope. But there is also another name of God, which we recognize in the Gospels, the Lord saying: 'Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee.' And after many other things it follows: 'I have manifested thy name unto men.' And what that name was, He showed above, saying: 'Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son.'
His name, therefore, he worships, who both according to the Law is the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, and according to the Gospels is the Father of the only-begotten God. He also extinguishes the insolent profession of those who, unmindful of human nature and infirmity, and preaching a merciless God, leave to the sins of the penitent no pardon and no solace: since the teaching of the Law, of the prophets, of the Gospels, of the apostles, exhorts those who have sinned to that penance through which one desists from sins, so that for a hope now despaired of some little solace may be procured through it—so that, though we have lost the blessed and greatest things nearest to God, we may not at least be deprived of those which are second to such things.
He also removes the most foolish rashness of those who contend that the Lord was seen in the flesh with a false and illusory body, so that the Father, with truth counterfeited, would have displayed Him in the guise of false flesh—men who do not recall that, after the resurrection of the body, when the apostles believed they saw a spirit, it was said: 'Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.'
From the confession of these men, therefore, the prophet distinguishes his own confession, holding the order of perfect faith, when in the name he confesses the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob; when in the mercy toward the penitent he confesses the Merciful One; when in the truth he confesses the Word which was made flesh. The cause, too, of confession is taken hence: 'For thou hast magnified thy holy name above all things.' Not to one nation only is the name of God known: above all things it is magnified, and into all does the greatness of its holiness extend. Neither barbarian, nor Scythian, nor slave, nor free, nor woman, nor man, nor any age is set apart: for above all things is the name of God magnified.
Temples have fallen to ruin, images are dumb, the soothsayers fall silent at the intervention of the saints, faith deceives augury: the one name of God is holy among all nations. For it is ever present to His saints who hope in it, and wheresoever it has been invoked, it bestows present help. For he says: 'In whatsoever day I shall call upon thee, hear me.' No righteous man passes any day without fear, nor does a faith ever anxious concerning itself admit the leisure of a secure time. He knows that all his days are full of snares, since the devil and his angels are ever stirring up destruction against him. He knows that that day of the Lord will be hidden, unlooked-for, sudden, after the manner of a thief in the night. Therefore, that God may hear him calling in whatsoever day, he prays.
Nor does he doubt what he obtains, having been heard on whatsoever day. For it follows: 'Thou wilt multiply me in my soul with thy strength.' Namely, through the great care of God, he himself will be multiplied in the strength of his soul, so that nothing in him may lie open to tribulations, nothing to terrors, but that, when temptations press hard and fear falls upon him, all things may be endured by the multiplied strength of his soul. And because this hope is sure—that the strength of the soul is multiplied by the help of the divine mercy—he acknowledges on that account the confession due to God from all, saying: 'Let all the kings of the earth confess to thee, O Lord: for they have heard all the words of thy mouth. And let them sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord;'
'For the Lord is high, and looketh on the lowly things, and knoweth the high things afar off.' And whom the prophet signifies by the kings of the earth has already been shown in very many psalms. Kings, not of the nations, but of the earth, that is, of each one's own body—each being king when the reign of sin ceases from him. For we have been called into the kingdom of heaven out of the overthrown kingdom of death: for death reigned from Adam unto Moses; and now each one is his own king, according to the Apostle: 'now you reign without us.' The confession of these, therefore, is worthy of God. For they have heard all the words of the mouth of God, and know that they have been appointed kings. And let them not only confess, but also sing in the ways of the Lord, not transgressing the ways of God, but walking in them.
But the ways of God are all the prophets and apostles, each directing everyone by his own way into one way. And that from all men there is a converging into one way, the prophet shows, saying: 'Stand in the ways of the Lord, and ask for the eternal paths of God, and see which is the good way, and walk in it.' For the ways of the Lord are eternal. In these ways of the Lord, therefore, one must sing, and one must join in singing with the hymns of the prophets, because great is the glory of God; for of His magnificence there is no end. For His works testify to the greatness of His glory: heaven, earth, seas, air. Man himself, who, being partaker of reason, has been perfected for the knowledge of these things, so that through these visible things he might behold the invisible glory of God.
(Textual variants of the manuscripts are noted here.) Not only is the glory of God great, but He is also high and looks upon the lowly things. Hence the greatest wonder of His eminent loftiness is this: that He looks upon the lowly things, who is Himself on high. But what lowly things does He look upon? These, surely:
'A contrite and humbled heart God will not despise'; and again: 'And upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and him that trembleth at my words?' But He who, being high, looks upon the lowly things, has in Himself yet another wonder: that He also knows the high things afar off. Proud and insolent thoughts do not escape God: He knows all things, and nothing is impenetrable to His knowledge. God, as it is written, is near to those who are contrite of heart; but He is not mingled with the arrogant, nor is He near to the insolent. To each of us, according to the diversity of faith, He is either near or remote, resting with His spiritual power where it is worthy of Him.
And therefore He knows the high things afar off, because both through their unworthiness He is absent from the insolent, and through His power, however far off, He knows the things that are proud. 'If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, thou wilt quicken me.' This righteous man does not refuse to walk in the midst of tribulations. For he knows that tribulation, according to the Apostle, worketh patience. He knows that gold untested does not please; he knows that a soldier will not be a victor except by war; he knows that untried faith languishes; he knows that, according to the Apostle, one must glory in tribulations. He knows that he is unequal to tribulations without the help of God; and therefore, through God, he is certain of his salvation, and, though he walk in the midst of tribulations, he trusts that through the same God he will be quickened. For he says:
'Against the wrath of my enemies thou hast stretched forth thy hands: and thy right hand hath saved me. The Lord will render recompense for me.' While our enemies are wrathful, the outstretched hand of God protects us. For our enemies bring tribulations, being wrathful against our faith and hope: since our adversary, according to the Apostle, the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. But against the wrath of the enemies, through whom the devil ever works, the hand of the Lord is stretched forth, and His right hand saves those who hope in Him. Power is signified in the right hand; and therefore the Lord, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God, is sometimes named and surnamed the right hand of God, through whom we shall be protected against all enemies in every war of tribulations.
But the prophet preserved the reason of Gospel meekness, by which we are forbidden to return injury to those who persecute us, saying: 'The Lord will render recompense for me.' For to Him is vengeance to be reserved, who commanded that in the slander over a garment even the cloak be given up, who willed that after the injury of one blow the other cheek also be offered, who forbade evil to be returned for evil: since those will gain more of vengeance who have reserved the punishment of a present injury to the eternal Judge. He then concludes with a voice of most faithful hope: 'O Lord, thy mercy is for ever. Forsake not the works of thy hands:'
—so that, because the mercy of God is for ever, stretching out His hand against the wrath of the enemies and protecting His faithful ones with His right hand and rendering recompense on their behalf, He may not forsake the works of His hands, namely man, who says: 'Thy hands have made me,' and the rest. Sometimes the things made by the hand of God are wont to be recalled; but man is always effected by hands, a nobler work being shown upon him by the counting-up of hands. That He may not forsake this man, therefore, he prays, and that He may be an unfailing helper to him through Him and in Him who says: 'Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world!'—our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen. PSALM 138. Unto the end, a Psalm of David.
'O Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me,' and the rest. Indeed, every prophetic utterance has proceeded from the impulse of the divine Spirit. And this is not obscure, since we read: 'Thus saith the Lord'; and again: 'Hear the words of the Lord'; and again: 'For the Lord hath spoken'; and in the same place: 'For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things.' Concerning the psalms, moreover, the Lord Himself confirms it in the Gospels, when He says of Himself: 'If David,' He says, 'in the Spirit call Him Lord, how say you that He is his son?'—teaching that David uttered all things in the prophetic Spirit.
But although in this same place He showed that He spoke concerning Himself, when He says that He was called Lord by David in the Spirit, yet He showed still more absolutely that in the psalms the whole mystery of His bodily advent is contained, saying: 'These are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.' It is not, therefore, doubtful that in the psalms it is written concerning Him.
For although very many things in them are such that they ought to be referred to the person of the patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, apostles, and of the first generation as well as of the generation that follows, yet, because all things are in Christ and through Christ, whatever there is in the psalms prophesied under the persons of divers men is wholly concerning Him: because all doctrine, though manifold with diverse kinds of precepts, effects this through the diverse channels—that He Himself should be made known. These things had of necessity to be recalled by us on account of the present psalm, lest perchance we should be thought to have presumed without probable authority, in referring this whole prophecy of his to the person of Christ.
But that principle must be diligently observed, that whatsoever things shall seem fitting and congruous to that man whom He assumed from the womb of the holy Virgin, and in whom He, who was God, willed to be born a man—these should be treated with the due dignity of His heavenly nature, and that we should not adapt the mystery of our salvation, whereby, remaining in the form of God, He received the form of a servant, to the reproach of His immutable and invisible and incorporeal and impassible substance. For that He was man profited us, took nothing from Himself. For He emptied Himself, while remaining in the form of God, so as to be also in the form of man, not so as to cease to be in the form of God. For He Himself says: 'Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also the Son doeth in like manner.'
Did He, then, while remaining in the form of a servant, lose the power and divinity in which He remained in the form of God? For when, in the body of our lowliness, whatsoever things the Father doeth, these He also doeth in like manner, He in nothing degenerates from the power of the paternal divinity through the fellowship of the flesh; nor did that body which was assumed abolish the power of the nature previously abiding, since in that body which was assumed the power of the nature previously abiding operates. And so, if anything infirm be found spoken from His person, it ought to be referred to the man through whom He dwelt among us. For 'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' And it ought to be so referred, because He assumed a man of no alien or feigned nature.
For the Word made flesh dwelt among us: not failing into the vices and infirmities of the flesh through any deficiency in the power of the Word, but as a man born, taking upon himself the infirmities of our nature. Yet the assumption of infirmity did not make him infirm, because it is one thing to be a nature, and another to have assumed a nature. And the accession of the will lies outside the necessity of the race. For he was not a sinner, but he took up sins; nor did he stand forth as infirm, but he bore infirmities. For he himself, according to the prophet, took up our sins and bore our infirmities. And lest it should be supposed that any infirmity befell the impassible and unchangeable divinity, he added: and we accounted him to be in sorrows. He took up infirmities, then, because he is born a man;
and he is thought to grieve, because he suffers: yet he himself is free from griefs, because he is God. And when he dwells among us, and when he takes up our infirmities, and when, having taken up those infirmities, he does not grieve, he cannot but be: he who dwells cannot have departed from himself, he who takes up cannot have ceased to be God, he who does not grieve. And these things indeed have been briefly recalled on account of the present psalm, because it seems at once to have begun from the person of the man, lest, through the fact that he speaks as a man, he should seem to have withdrawn from the glory of the paternal divinity. For he says: Lord, thou hast proved me and known me. The Apostle, when he would instruct us in the teaching of patience and hope, says: