Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:1991–1:2027 (2058 verses in all)
'He shall exalt the horn of His people'—that is, in that age of that blessed city, where the Lord exalts the horn of His people and imparts to it, through the honor of immortality, the incorruption which is signified in the horn. For then it is a new heaven and a new earth, when, these present things being dissolved, those new and eternal things shall succeed. Therefore His confession is above heaven and earth, because the seat of that blessed kingdom is established not in this world, nor in this air, but in the higher places. And because that kingdom is the kingdom of the saints, through which, with the Lord reigning, they shall come to the blessed kingdom of God the Father, the prophet thus concluded the psalm: 'A hymn to all His saints, to the children of Israel, a people drawing near to Him.' This is a hymn of all the saints,
who praise the Lord not, like the rest of kings or princes or judges, out of admiration of His power and confession, but out of joy of the blessedness consummated in themselves and the rejoicing of those who sing: namely, the saints, who are the children of Israel, drawing near to God; not indeed those of whom it is said: 'This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me,' but those who shall deserve to hear: 'The Lord is near unto all them that call upon Him.' To these, therefore, belongs the proper hymn, who shall draw near to God, who through this kingdom of the holy Jerusalem, being nearest to the blessed eternal kingdom, after the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall pass over into the kingdom of God the Father, with the Lord reigning together, the Apostle teaching:
'When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God the Father, when He shall have brought to nought all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. For when all things are subjected under His feet, the last enemy, death, is brought to nought. But when He saith, All things are subjected, it is manifest that He is excepted who subjected all things unto Him. Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.' This, therefore, is the people drawing near to the kingdom of God the Father, being nearest through the kingdom of the Son of God. And so the Lord reigns, being about to deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, not about to be deprived of the power of the kingdom, but about to deliver us, who are His kingdom, to God the Father into the kingdom. The delivering up of the kingdom is our advancement, so that we who
shall be sons in the kingdom may also be in the kingdom of the Father—worthy through this of the Father's kingdom, because we shall be worthy of the kingdom as sons also; then nearest to the Father's kingdom, when we shall be sons in the kingdom—who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. PSALM 149. 'Sing unto the Lord a new song; His praise in the church of the saints,' and the rest. The preceding psalm exhorted all the diversity of created things to the praise of God the Creator; and the order, begun from the heavenly things, ran through all the living things of earth and sea, with every kind also of ages, sexes, and powers admonished to the honor of due confession, so that a pious word of thanksgiving might celebrate the glory of Him who had quickened, strengthened, and adorned them unto life.
After the prophet had, as was fitting, fulfilled the proper duty of his office at the very end of that psalm, having indeed exhorted all things to divine praise, he nevertheless showed that it was a hymn of His saints: namely, of the children of Israel, of a people who should become nearest to God, so that, when the whole universe had praised God out of the sense and rejoicing of its own life, Israel alone, drawing near to Him, might sing a hymn out of the familiarity of divine knowledge and worthiness. After these things we are now incited to sing a new song unto God. And perhaps it might be believed that the preceding psalm had left nothing further of newness and wonder, since, if there be anything in our rejoicing and perception, this very thing has been prescribed to be in the praise.
But our mind is not able to lift itself beyond the heavenly seat; yet the things which are above the heavens are admonished to praise God. Again, the opinion of our understanding cannot extend itself beyond the immensity of the abyss; yet the things which are in these are summoned to the office of praise. Now indeed that very nature of the air is bidden to sing together the glory of so great a praise in hail, snow, crystal, and the spirit of the storm. Then, moreover, the whole of the human race, in kings, in princes, in judges, in every flower of age or maturity of old age, is commanded to sing the praise of God;
because all these things stand fast for themselves in an undisturbed and measured course, and all things flow, ordained by the law of their nature, so that it is not permitted them to depart from that constitution in which they were created. Since, therefore, no knowledge and no praise of knowledge beyond these decrees of divine and heavenly things seems to have been granted to man, let us see to what new song we are now summoned, when it is said: 'Sing unto the Lord a new song.' It is plainly a new song. And the rejoicing of this new song we have already shown even in the preceding psalms, in which a new song is sung:
when the Lord is shown as about to reign among the nations; when His right hand shall save Him unto the glory of the kingdom; when, taking up His soul from hell, He took us up with Himself into kings. This new song, therefore, is proper to His saints. For there follows: 'His praise in the church of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him, and let the children of Sion be joyful over their King. Let them praise His name in the choir; let them sing unto Him with the timbrel and psaltery;' that is, in Him who, according to the new song of the ninety-fifth psalm, shall reign among the nations, and whom, in the following new song, His right hand shall save in His marvelous deeds.
Over this King, therefore, Israel rejoices and the children of Sion—of that Sion, namely, which is a mother in the heavens, which is the city of the firstborn who are enrolled and of the angels who throng there, and that Israel who is such by the spirit, not the letter, and upon whom is the peace of the apostles. These sons, then, who by receiving and confessing the King have been made sons of God, and these, therefore, who in the body have recognized God with the eyes of the mind, shall rejoice in the choir, singing psalms with timbrel and psaltery. And this music of joy is in the tabernacles of the just, and in the song of symphony is heard the song at the return of the penitent son. But what now would properly be the cause of this new song, after the praise of the creatures and the earlier new songs, he shows by saying:
'because the Lord taketh pleasure in His people; He shall exalt the meek unto salvation. The saints shall exult in glory.' All things indeed pleased God when they were created, as Genesis testifies, saying: 'And God saw that they were good;' but we recognize that His good pleasure is in His people. The creation of man is indeed good, since it obtained its beginning of creation according to the origin and likeness of God; but with the judgment of the immutable God tempering itself according to the change of human will and choice, then—because they had sinned and were doing things to be repented of—He testified that He repented that He had made man. But when those very ones are reformed from sin unto life, the complaint of repentance being driven away, the affection of good pleasure toward them is now shown.
For we have been reconciled through the body and blood of Christ, from enemies into sons unto God, when He had pledged to us the propitiation of the eternal priest by an unrepenting oath, the prophet saying: 'The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' It is well-pleasing, therefore, that it was sworn unrepentingly to Him, by whose reigning after the order of Melchizedek—that is, both King and Priest of the nations—there is first salvation for the meek, then splendor for the saints exulting over their King. But after the glory of the saints it must be understood what follows unto the fullness of the new song: 'They shall rejoice in their beds. The exultations of God shall be in their throat, and two-edged swords in their hands.'
No longer shall the couch be watered with tears, nor, for those living in this body of death, shall the bed be washed every night on account of the necessity and sorrow of sin. For now in their own beds the saints shall rejoice in glory, and on that account the exultations of God are always in their throat. Through the signification of the throat He declares the affection of the inner conscience. But not only is the exultation of God in their throat, but their very hands also shall be armed with two-edged swords. This knowledge of the King grants to the children of Sion, for whom, as they sing psalms in choirs and with timbrels, there is appointed both salvation and glory and joy and exultation and power. For that power is signified in the sword we are admonished both in very many places and in what follows.
For why two-edged swords should be in their hands, the prophet presently taught, saying: 'To execute vengeance upon the nations, rebukes among the peoples; to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with iron manacles; that they may execute upon them the judgment that is written: this honor have all His saints.' This, therefore, is the new song: when the humble of the earth and the troubled in heart are constituted kings over kings; when those esteemed the refuse of the world, and even the offscourings of the nations, are the light of the world and the avengers of the nations. For two-edged swords are in their hands, because to that holy one in the Apocalypse there is a two-edged sword from his mouth, exercising on every side the judgment of power.
For the Lord came also to send a sword upon the earth, and the saints, according to the Apostle, shall judge the world, and in them the world shall be judged. For it is said: 'Do ye not know that ye shall judge angels?' Vengeance, then, is executed through them upon the nations; for God is in us, the God of vengeance. Then rebuke is put forth against the peoples; for He is faithful who says: 'I will reprove thee and set these things before thy face.' But of this reproof this is the outcome: that the kings of the nations and their nobles are bound with manacles and fetters. For, bound hand and foot, according to the Gospels, they are consigned to the outer darkness.
And because there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, the judgment that is written shall be executed—which the law, namely, had prescribed, which the prophets had announced, which all the divine word had testified. This faith, piety, self-restraint, and confession has for its reward, this the contempt of the world's gift receives: to become king of kings—of those whose hatreds have been endured for the name of Christ; that the nobles be bound—those whose chains and prisons have shut us in; a written judgment is held against those whose very swords and power have raged cruelly. Thus all the glory of the saints is from God, when, after these sufferings of life and body, they shall have exercised power.
Thus the hymn of the new song is fulfilled, when, after the reproach of the nations and the torments of kings, they decree the written judgment upon the nations and kings, to whom the Lord Jesus Christ is the only-begotten God and Lord and King, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. PSALM 150. 'Praise the Lord in His saints; praise Him in the firmament of His power.' We have often treated that the book of the psalms is filled with great mysteries of heavenly things: whether when the arrangement of the individual psalms has obtained an order and number contrary to the reckoning of time and of deeds, or when several superscriptions are inscribed otherwise than they are contained in the books of the Hebrews, or when many titles are set before them, though there are none.
Since, therefore, the volume has been arranged with a sense of a loftier understanding beyond the opinion of the letter, it was fitting that this very thing should be concluded with a worthy ending, so that, according to the glorious perfection of our hope, the book of so great a prophet might also stand consummated. For first it was distributed into that number which should be completed from the threefold number of fifty, since neither among the Hebrews is the number connected to each single psalm, and many psalms among them are joined together, whereby this number of the triple fifty is made to agree less.
It belonged, therefore, to this spiritual understanding in the translators, that they should divide this series, heaped up and continued in many places, into a number, so that this order and number of all the psalms, which is in these three fifties, might be able to be completed, and this same status, as it were, of the whole book might exist. For faith—as we have treated in the fiftieth and the hundredth psalm, of which the one, according to the prescriptions of the law, after the sabbath of sabbaths, embraced the confession of sin and the remission thereof; the other, under the fullness of the same number, comprehended not the pardon of sin, but the fruit and office of righteousness.
After these things, in turn, the city of God being now built forever, and all being admonished to His rejoicing and praise, under the power again of the same number, the hope of the saints is consummated, they being now renewed to spiritual glory and nature for all, so that step by step through this one might come to the fellowship of God: when the remission of sins should deserve innocence of life and constancy of judgment, and the innocence of life and constancy of judgment should take up the dignity of spiritual glory. And thus all things—baptism, resurrection, transformation—are contained, since the first fifty of this book regenerates us unto innocence, the following leads us through resurrection to the judgment of innocence, the third establishes us in the nature of the Spirit and in praise.
For after the kings bound with fetters and the nobles bound with manacles and the written judgment of the saints, when in all these the glory had been established, nevertheless this consummation of that very glory followed. The preceding psalm summoned us to the praise of God on account of the magnificence of the created things; but after the hymn of the new song, God is to be praised no longer in His works, but in His saints, whom, after the written judgment, He has placed in the glory of eternity and has now endowed with heavenly honor as unchangeable: whereby He is to be praised in the firmament of His power, because He has brought in the firmament of eternal power, death being swallowed up in the struggle, when incorruption shall have devoured corruption.
And therefore the praise of the firmament of power follows upon the powers, because immortality has consumed death, bestowing that which eye hath not seen, nor heart conceived, nor ear heard. ... in the saints and unto the praise ... of His ... God, according to the Apostle, blessed us before the foundation of the world in the heavenly places with a spiritual blessing; unto the glory of which praise all the offices both of voice and of works incite by the diversity and brightness of their dwellings. Therefore we praise upon the well-sounding cymbals; upon the cymbals of exultation this praise is perfected.
And this is the whole praise found in the saints: that He has driven away from them the corruption of flesh and blood, that they have been refashioned after the image of their Creator, that they have now begun to be conformed to the glory of the body of God, that they are filled unto all the fullness of God, and that, since God is Spirit, it is now not the flesh that shall praise God but the spirit. Specimens of mutilated tractates, or of those falsely ascribed to Hilary. (Compare the preface and the Academic edition, pp. 51 f., 92, 98.) Tractate on Psalm 63, from the Veronese codex. Unto the end, a psalm of David. Hear, O God, my prayer, while I make supplication to Thee: deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy. They have searched out iniquities; the searchers have failed in their searching.
For the prophetic Spirit, who spoke through David, hearing all things and knowing all things, declares in this place that not only the malignant conspiracy of the Jews, but also the empty knowledge of the philosophers and the perverse obstinacy of the heretics, shall one day fail; and this is shown in this verse when he says: They have searched out iniquities, the searchers have failed in their searching. The devices, therefore, of all wicked men come to nothing, as the prophet shows. For the philosopher of this world assails the sovereignty of God, granting the divine name now to the waters, now to the earth, now to the heavens; while the heretic falsifies the doctrine of the faith. Against all these he fought with ever-watchful care and with unremitting prayer to the Lord. For this reason, therefore, the prophet said:
Hear, O God, my prayer, while I make supplication to Thee. We must therefore be watchful in the prayer of God, so that, when the soul begins to grow weary under afflictions, God, being ever entreated, may hear us and rescue us from the things we fear; for in the following psalm he says: Deliver my soul from the fear of the enemy. For God is not to be prayed to only when the things we dread have come upon us. He is therefore always to be prayed to with untiring petitions, that He may rescue us from the fear of those whose dominion we fear. The prophet, then, not ignorant of what is to come, ever anxious under impending tribulations and troubled by every fear of the enemy, prays to God on account of the things he fears, so that, when he is in tribulation, he may be heard;
for it is not our fear but our faith that wins the mercy of God. And he added: Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant, from the multitude of them that work iniquity, who have whetted their tongues like a sword, they have bent their bow, a bitter thing, that they may shoot in secret at the undefiled. But the bow of the murderous tongue is ever bent, and the sharp point of its sword-like tongue is ready at hand; for its deadly arrows fly, and there is no doubt what they aim to accomplish: for this they seek, to shoot in secret at the undefiled; for the malicious one seeks to slay the undefiled, to whom remission of former crimes has been made through baptism, yet who is not yet instructed in spiritual doctrines;
but he seeks with bent bow, through their ignorance of things, to wound the simple one, tender from the infancy of his new birth. For he says: Suddenly shall they shoot at him, and they shall not fear the nature that is simple and undefiled. For this nature they seek to deceive, for this they stretch out hidden snares, that by lurking ambushes they may slay the innocent. For it follows: They have made firm for themselves an evil word; they have devised to hide snares; they have said: Who shall see them? For of themselves they are ever ready against the faith. And therefore it is said: They have hidden snares and said: Who shall see them? If the heretic attempts to pervert the faith, it is incredible with how many contrivances he strives to overturn it;
if philosophy assails the hope of our eternity, it strangely places all the good of the present life in the body, so that by the power of its own ingenuity the heavenly order might be overthrown. Both sorts of searchers, then, fail, according to the same prophet: The searchers have failed in their searching. But what is human perversity against God? What is the ingenuity of the work against the Maker? Though with all his arguments he displays his cleverness to overthrow the truth, yet the assertion of falsehood shall fail against the truth; and therefore it follows: They have searched out iniquities, the searchers have failed in their searching. Let them search out all the secrets of natural causes; yet in the very intent of their own work they fail, refuted by spiritual doctrines.
For those who teach all things under such pretensions shall hear from us of the God of eternal power. Now if the heretic attempts to destroy the faith, he shall come to know that the Son of God has ever existed, separated by no interval of time from the Father; he shall come to know that He Himself is the power and wisdom of God, the fashioner of man; that He washed away the first crimes of the world by the flood; that He gave the Law to Moses; that He was in the prophets; that through the weakness of the flesh He renewed the glory of the flesh. Those who search shall therefore fail against these truths. After this he says: Man shall draw near, and a deep heart, and God shall be exalted. For by His power the doctrine of God is taught;
and to him whose heart is deep these heralds of the divine operation shall be set forth, so that God is praised by the very confession of those who hear these things. This, then, is the meaning of: Man shall draw near, and a deep heart, and God shall be exalted. For when the failure of the searchers is known and a man of deep heart draws near, the greatness of God is acknowledged; for who will not magnify God, whom he has come to know as the Maker of this world? Who will not fear Him, whom he knows to be the Judge? Who would not desire to be reborn into innocence, when through the new birth he receives the remission of sin? Who, once reborn, would not cease to sin and wish to remain in the innocence of a little child, knowing that of such is the kingdom of heaven?
This confession of ours weakens the devices of the searchers; these darts of doctrine, which are the arrows of little ones, wound their foolish disputations. For when the works of God are proclaimed, His deeds begin to be understood; then the just man shall rejoice in these things, then all the upright in heart shall praise Him. In these things is the joy of the saints, in these their firmest hope. On account of these things they who are upright in heart shall praise God, knowing that there is remission of sins, and that He is the destroyer of death, the vanquisher of the devil, our God and Lord, Christ the Lord of laws, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Tractate on Psalm 132, from the Veronese codex and Vatican 521. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity, because, when they dwell in unity, they are gathered together in the assembly of the Church; when they are called brethren, they are of one accord in the charity of a single will. For we read that this great commandment was given at the very first preaching of the apostles, where it is said: For the heart and soul of all who believed was one. This, therefore, befits the people of God: to be brethren under one Father, to be one under one Spirit, to walk of one mind under one household, to be members of one body under one body. It is pleasant and good for brethren to dwell together in unity. And the prophet sets forth a comparison of this good and pleasant thing, saying: Like the ointment upon the head, which ran down upon the beard of Aaron, which ran down upon the border of his garment.
Aaron's ointment was compounded of fragrances, whereby he was anointed into the priesthood. It pleased God that this consecration should first be given to His priest; and that our Lord too was invisibly anointed above His fellows. This anointing is not earthly; He was anointed not with a horn, as kings were anointed, but with the oil of gladness. Indeed, after this anointing, Aaron was named a Christ according to the Law. Just as this ointment extinguishes the unclean spirits of hearts, wherever it is poured in, so also through the anointing of charity and concord we now breathe forth to God that which is sweet, as the apostle says: We are the sweet savor of Christ. As, then, this ointment was pleasing to God first in Aaron the priest, so it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity.
Now the anointing ran down from the head upon the beard. And the beard is the ornament of manly age. For we ought not to be little children in Christ, except only in that respect of which it was said, that we should be little children in malice, not in understanding. But the apostle says that all the unbelieving are little children, because they are too weak for solid food and still need milk, as the apostle says: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able, nor even now are you able. But of himself he says thus: When I became a man, I put away the things of a child. This ointment, therefore, ran down from the head upon the beard of Aaron, upon the man of consummate faith. And the head of the man, according to the apostle, is Christ. Moses compounded and blended this ointment, but it was God who taught how it was to be compounded and blended.
From the head, then, that is, from Christ, it ran down upon the beard. And it also ran down upon the border of the garment. Now the borders of the garment are those parts which flow down to the feet, so that this body of ointment ran down from the head upon the beard and then to the borders of the garment. For while the borders of the garment and the beard are mentioned, the whole body is shown in these. There is added also the likeness of another comparison, when it is said: And as the dew of Hermon that ran down upon Mount Sion. The dew ran down from Hermon, it ascended to Mount Sion. For these two mountains are divided from each other by a great distance. Nor indeed does nature admit that dew should be seen able to run down from one place to another.
For by Sion, according to the heavenly doctrine, we understand the Church, whether that which now is, or that which shall be, thronged by the company of the saints in the resurrection. But Hermon is a mountain in Phoenicia, whose name interpreted in Hebrew means anathema, for this reason: that the angels, as is reported, lusting after the daughters of men, when they descended from heaven, assembled on this lofty mountain, and there arranged among themselves the desires of their lust. There exists too some book or other on this matter; but this we ought not even to know, since it is not contained in the book of the Law; these things have been mentioned only for this reason, that to this day the nations venerate this mountain with a profane religion. But the dew is from the heavens, and we recall that it is longed for among the gifts of blessings.
Therefore, since the gifts and blessings of God, when first they were consecrated, were good — for God blessed all things — but afterward sins arose, it is pleasing to God that those gifts should return again to their proper seat. For man was blessed; but after that blessing he sinned. And He who prefers the repentance of the sinner rather than his death wills that the dew of His blessing should descend from Mount Hermon upon Sion, that is, that it should pass over from the seat of impiety to the place of sanctification. For in the dew all things grow green again, are nourished, increase, breathe, and spring up. It is therefore good and pleasant that a man, descending from Gentile error, that is, from the profane veneration of Hermon, to Sion, that is, to the home of eternal blessedness, should pass over:
for there the Lord hath commanded the blessing and life for evermore. Beginning of the tractate on Psalm 67, from the Paris codex 1692. Unto the end, a psalm of a canticle of David. Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. This psalm is understood both in a special and in a general sense. In the special sense, it exhorts the Lord Himself to rise from the dead and to destroy His enemies, that is, the devil and his army, or the Jews. But in the general sense, when we are in tribulation and distress and say: Arise, why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Help us! as also the apostles in the little boat, rousing the sleeping Lord, saying: Master, save us, we perish. And let them that hate Him flee before His face.