For in common and earthly ways we remember there is a law in the measures of distance, when at an interval of a thousand paces certain marks of a legal road are set up, when the resting-places for halting are arranged, and when, all the way to the city, suitable intervals of stations are measured out for the refreshment of travelers. But even at that time, when the people crossed on foot out of Egypt through the Red Sea, we remember there was a certain law appointed for them, not by the judgment of human choice, but of the divine, in a pillar of fire and of cloud. For when the people had to make their journey, the pillar of fire went before them by night, and by day the pillar of cloud. But when it had pleased God that the people should be kept a long while in the same camp, the pillar neither of fire was borne forward by night nor of cloud went before by day.
Thus He set this Law. And if we diligently review those stations and encampments of the camp and the conditions of the places which are contained in Exodus, we shall discern in them great wonders of the heavenly journey. On which account the prophet often prayed, saying: 'I will consider the wonders of Thy Law.' But now the prophet prays that he be no longer confined by these laws; for he asks not for a Law, but for the way of the statutes. He knows there is a way of testimonies, when he says: 'In the way of Thy testimonies I have delighted.' He knows there is a way of commandments, when he says: 'In the way of Thy commandments I have run.' He knows there is a way of the Law, when he says that they are blessed who are in the Law of the Lord. He knows there is this way of statutes, concerning which he now prays.
He knows too that there is a way in the prophets, he knows there is a way in the Gospels, he knows there is a way in the apostles, concerning which he has often testified. Therefore he strives through the Law of these things to press onward all the way to that perfect way. For there are many who disapprove of the way of the Law, many who disapprove of the prophets, many of the Gospels, many of the apostles. For we know that some are not in all these ways. But the scribe instructed knows, after the example of the rich householder, to bring forth from his treasures things old and new. This Law of the statutes, then, the prophet desires. For the Law is contained in certain disciplines of a religious heart, and it has confined us within the bounds of its own constitution, which we were to use, lest, going beyond them, we should wander off into mere opinions.
He does not wish, therefore, to go beyond that Law which he prays to be established for him. But into what Law does he pray to be instituted? Namely, that he may search it out. There was a Law of the statutes written by Moses, and this the prophet was exercising by his works; therefore he does not pray that this be established for him — it was already established and was being religiously observed by him — but that Law which he desires to search out. What then does he desire to search out? The end of the Law, of course. And what will be the end of the Law? Let us hear the apostle: 'For the end of the Law is Christ.' But through these ways of the statutes, by which the Law shall have been established, he desires to search out the end of the Law; and not only to search it out, but always to search it out. For he says thus: 'I will seek it out always.'
The office of seeking out would not have sufficed if pursued by will alone, unless it were carried on by him with an untiring continuance of time. In the Proverbs of Solomon we remember it is written: 'To one lacking understanding, who asks with wisdom, wisdom is reckoned.' In which sense this seems to be shown: that he who does not understand, yet questions wisely, is credited with being wise. And so this profits thus far, because the prophet — abiding in the Law, and according to the apostle circumcised on the eighth day, and by race of the tribe of Judah, and by the grace of bodily anointing a chosen king and christ, and by the sacrament of his birth worthy that his son should be Jesus Christ — prays as a stranger to the Law: 'Give me understanding, and I will search Thy Law and keep it with my whole heart.'
Therefore he does not yet keep it, he has not yet searched it out, he does not yet understand it. It is not, then, of that Law in which he was born, was instructed, and worked, that the prophet speaks. Knowing therefore that the first part of prudence is that a man should ask wisely about what he does not understand, so that he may understand what he is ignorant of, on that account he asks that he may receive understanding. But knowing that, once the spirit of understanding is attained, there is need of zeal, he says: 'And I will search Thy Law.' And recognizing that the fruit is in the keeping of the thing discovered, he said: 'And I will keep it.' But understanding that perfect diligence lies in the whole office of the heart, he consummated the entire order of his discourse, saying: 'Give me understanding, and I will search Thy Law and keep it with my whole heart.'
But what, pray, is that which he desires to understand, which he promises to keep with his whole heart? For he remembers that six days not idle are shown in the book of Moses in the working of this world. He knows that the rest of the seventh day is not superfluous. He recalls that in the sacred observance of the month a heavenly festivity is figured as in a mirror. He knows that year in which, after six years' service, the servant is free; in which, after labor, the land rests, its fruits being left to the poor man and to the beasts of the land; in which also all debts are remitted to all the Hebrews. He longs also to search out the laws of the fiftieth year; he wills that in the first month there be a sacred observance from the tenth day up to the fourteenth, and thereafter up to the twenty-first.
He also ponders that solemnity of the seventh month, whose memorial is in the trumpets; and the propitiation of the tenth day therein; and after the fifteenth, in the tabernacles, the gladness of eight days — how out of these both the first is holy and the eighth is holy. He knows that the circumcision was first; he knows also that it was performed again through Joshua. He desires the holy unleavened bread; he longs to rejoice at the Passover, concerning which, in the immolation of the lamb itself, it was written: 'It is the Passover of the Lord.' The land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey, he knows to have not yet been truly obtained by the people who were circumcised the second time. Therefore he prays for understanding; understanding these things, he promises to search them out; these he professed he would keep; keeping these with his whole heart. After which there follows:
'Lead me in the path of Thy commandments, for I have desired it.' And in this verse too the force of the discourse is not properly expressed according to the constraint of translation. For that which ours rendered thus, 'in the path,' the Greek spoke thus: 'Lead me in Thy path.' And that which with them is called 'tribos' is understood to be a trodden and frequented path; but with us a 'semita' can be said to be both a path that is trodden and one that is not trodden. Therefore, since the same term has embraced both, let us too understand it thus, and know it to be a path which is trodden. And it must be observed that here he says it is the path not of the Law, but of the commandments. For the way of the Law those had who walked from Moses, after it itself was established.
But the path of the commandments is so called for this reason, because in the commandments of God it has been traversed already from the beginning of the age. For in this path both Abel ran, and Seth held fast, and Enoch pleased God, and Noah merited to be preserved, and Melchizedek was able to bless and received tithes, and Abraham is the friend of God, and Isaac is heir, and Israel is Israel, and out of Judah is the expectation of the nations, and Joseph was set as a testimony, and Job, free from the Law, triumphs over the enemy of the Law, and Moses vindicates, and Joshua as a second Israel circumcises, and Samuel is worthy to be chosen for anointing a king. And now in this path he prays that he too — both anointed, and king, and prophet — may be led. For he knows that his nature is weak, and that he cannot enter upon this path without a guide.
For God is the guide of all who journey by this path. For He is the guide, when it is said: 'Behind, after thy Lord shalt thou walk, and to Him shalt thou cleave'; and again: 'Behind, after Him walk, for He Himself leads thee.' And He leads, when He says: 'He that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me is not worthy of Me.' He leads also, when He first trod the whole path of the evangelical sufferings. If the apostles teach that path, He first taught it; for Wisdom established the friends of God and the prophets. If anything is done justly by us in this matter, He is the prince of our righteousness; for He Himself is righteousness. If for our faith we are scourged unto terror, He offered His back to the scourges. If we are struck with blows unto injury, He received these. If we are set at nought unto reproach, He turned not His face from the spittings.
If unto contumely, He turned not His face from the spittings. In all things He is the guide; but He is the guide of those who love the Law, which the prophet above professed he would keep with his whole heart. For here he does not speak according to the mere letter of speech. When it is said: 'for I have desired it,' it can be referred to the path of the commandments; because in the Greek, where the path is written in the feminine gender, that which he says he desires he pronounces in the masculine gender, saying: 'for I have desired it.' For the Law is named by us in the feminine gender, being called so in Greek, on which account it is uttered by them in the masculine. And when there the path is named in the feminine, that which he desired is referred to that which was mentioned in its own property through the masculine gender. But now there follows:
'Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies, and not unto covetousness.' The prophet has referred all things to the gift of God, whether that a Law of the way of justification be established by the Lord, or that understanding be granted him, or that he be led in the path, or that his heart be inclined unto the testimonies — that is, unto those things which were written under witnesses. For with heaven and earth as witness the Law was delivered. But perhaps, on account of this religious modesty of the prophet, someone will dare to speak impiously thus: 'If,' he says, 'all things are from God, then human ignorance is without fault, since it can obtain nothing except what it has received as given by God.' And first, this is a thing of impiety: to will to suppose that a man does not attain those things which are proper to believers on this account, that they were not granted him by God.
But the prophet has removed every occasion of this impious excuse. For first, when he prays, he performed the office befitting his infirmity; then he joined the zeal of human devotion to the gifts of God. For when he says: 'Set a Law for me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes,' he showed what belonged to the humility of prayer before God. But when he added: 'and I will seek it always,' he brought forth the office of devotion. And in the rest also he bound them together for himself by a certain interweaving: when he asks to be led in the path, and when he desired that very thing. For first, the things which are from God he set forth with honor; and then, the things which are of man, he added with humility and his own office. He prays therefore that God may bestow. It is from us, then, when we pray, to make the beginning, that the gift may be from Him;
then, since from our beginning the gift is His, it is again from us that it be sought out and obtained and abide. But in that which stands thus: 'Incline my heart unto Thy statutes, and not unto covetousness,' some have translated: 'unto Thy statutes, and not unto avarice.' That which is contained in the codices is, in an ambiguous definition, opportune to both. But we, as is fitting, follow the religious and ancient authority of the Seventy interpreters, while fitting the property of each to our desire from the judgment of the other translators. For when these have said 'unto covetousness,' and those have said 'unto avarice,' by this very thing it will be known how 'covetousness' is here now understood.
For the men of the age call money, silver, gold, and the other instruments of wealth 'utility.' Therefore, when the prophet prays that his heart be inclined unto the testimonies of God and not unto utility, he doubtless turns his heart, inclined unto the testimonies of God, away from those things which by human judgment are esteemed useful. And indeed the verse which follows confirms the sense of our understanding. For he says: 'Turn away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity; in Thy way quicken me,' teaching the vanity of those things which by men are esteemed useful. And it must be asked which eyes, and from what vanity, he prays to be turned away.
He prays, moreover, for the eyes both of the mind and of the body — those, namely, which lie captive at theatrical shows, those which are enslaved to the contests of the circus, those which marvel at the price of garments, those which the splendor of gold and of gems has occupied. Unless, perhaps, the course of the stars is not more pleasing than the course of horses, and unless those divine oracles of human hope do not sing more delightfully than those obscene fables of shameful spectacles; unless, perhaps, the riches laid up of eternity are not more precious to this man than the use of earthly metals, and honor and glory, and unless the appearance of gold shall be more alluring to me than that of man, and of earth, and of light, and of heaven. From their vanities, therefore, he prays that his eyes be turned away, both these of his body and those of his soul; concerning which the blessed apostle teaches, when he says:
'in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God.' And what it is for the eyes to be turned away from vanity need not be sought far off. For there follows: 'and in Thy way I shall live.' For the eyes must be turned aside from vanity, that we may have life in God: not that life which now is, but that which is laid up in the heavens and hidden in Christ. For thus in all this passage the prophet is as one who is to live, and not merely for the present. The eyes therefore must be raised, that by them rather the glory of Christ be beheld than the empty and vain things of this world. For, referring our eyes in the way of God away from vanity, we shall live. Then there follows: 'Establish Thy word to Thy servant in Thy fear.' The prophet knows that by very many the oracles of God are received without awe.
For very many neglect the Scriptures of the heavenly oracle they have heard, as though they were a fable of empty matters, and, though the words of God cannot pass away while heaven and earth pass away, they deride them with great peril of rashness. He knows that the fear of God is the beginning. He knows that in that sevenfold grace of the Spirit, fear is named last, as a kind of firmament of those things which were said above. He prays therefore that the oracles of God be established in himself in the fear of God; because he knows that those oracles will be to us useful, as things that are feared as of God. Then he added: 'Circumcise my reproach, which I have suspected: for Thy judgments are pleasant.' The prophet, set in the body, speaks, and knows that none of the living can be without sin.
He remembers that there is One who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Therefore, when he prays that reproach be circumcised from him, he prays that sin be circumcised, because reproach follows sin. But when he prays that it be circumcised from him, he does not confess it as of something committed and perpetrated, but because he suspects that this dwells in him through the infirmities of his flesh. For he does not say: 'Circumcise the reproach which is in me'; but he says: 'Circumcise my reproach, which I have suspected,' showing the suspicion of reproach out of the consciousness of his own infirmity.
For in the judgments many shall rise again unto reproach; because to those God's judgments are pleasant in whom the reproach of sin shall not remain, he prays that that very suspicion of reproach which is in him be circumcised from him, so that God's judgments may be pleasant to him. And lest he should be thought to have prayed out of the consciousness of a sin committed, he concluded with this liberty the whole prayer which he offers under each set of eight verses: 'Behold, I have desired Thy commandments: in Thy justice quicken me.' He prayed that in the fear of God the oracles of God be established in himself; then, that the suspicion of reproach be circumcised from him; now he shows his longing and desire toward the precepts of God, and prays that he be quickened in the justice of God;
knowing that it is the proper gift of divine equity to quicken him who has both desired the precepts of God, to whom the judgments are pleasant now that the suspicion of reproach is circumcised, and in whom the oracles of God are established in the fear of God. Amen. 'And let Thy mercy come upon me, O Lord, Thy salvation according to Thy word,' and the rest. There are many, according to the apostle, who, following wisdom, have reproved the wisdom of God, on which account God made foolish the wisdom of the world. For what is more foolish than the unbelieving, who, besides that common error of the irreligious, add also this piece of guilt, that they suppose the divine oracles of the Scriptures to lack the reason of perfect teaching?
And because, on account of their impiety, they cannot be capable of the divine sayings, they break forth into contumely against the heavenly things as an excuse for their dullness, saying that there is nothing reasonable in them, nothing perfect; that only those things which are said by themselves are learned and polished with instruction: foolish men, denying to God what they dare to assume for themselves. Nor is it any wonder if they think irreligiously about those things of whose understanding they have not attained on account of their dullness. Yet, although in that discourse which we held above I judge that to those who follow the wisdom of God the perfection of the sayings is known, and that there is therefore nothing which is not consummate and in every part perfect, nevertheless this too may be understood more fully in these verses of the sixth letter.
After the preceding sense he speaks thus: 'and let thy mercy come upon me, O Lord, thy salvation according to thy word.' He therefore first prayed for mercy, then for salvation. For our salvation is from the mercy of God, and this is the gift of his goodness in us; and thence comes the prayer, from whence also the plea of the one entreating begins. Then, lest the prophet should be thought to pray from an uncertain and unhoped-for hope, he first mentions mercy, then salvation, and thirdly he added 'according to thy word,' that he might show this confidence of praying to proceed according to the word of God, that is, from the teaching of the law. After this order of perfect prayer, then, this follows: 'and I shall answer a word to those who reproach me, because I have hoped in thy words.'
Perfect reason keeps the order: 'if,' he says, 'thy mercy and thy salvation come upon me according to thy word, and I shall have obtained mercy from thee, then it will follow from thee, as thou hast promised, that I may answer those who reproach me with folly and the error of hope and this word which I hope in thee.' What then can an irreligious mind reproach against this reply of the prophet? First mercy is prayed for from God, salvation also is expected from God; then God is shown to have promised it through his word. Therefore the impiety of those who reproach is confuted by those who hope in the words of God:
since, when God is preached, the faith of believers hopes from him for both mercy and salvation, and the teaching of our hope is that, being entreated, he may both show mercy and save. Then follows: 'and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, because I have hoped in thy judgments.' Let human insolence receive the teaching of humility and modesty. The prophet first prays that it be granted to him, before he shows that he merits to obtain it. He wishes all things to be begun in himself by the goodness of God; nor yet does he withdraw the cause, for he says: 'and take not the word of truth out of my mouth utterly.' In which he first confesses the majesty of him who must always be entreated; then he added that he does not hope in vain, saying: 'because I have hoped in thy judgments.'
But it is the custom of human temerity to press oneself forward to obtain something, claiming merit before one merits, and to approach him from whom one asks something as though from a debt of duty. But it was not only for modesty's sake that the prophet kept his reasoning; there are also arrangements of words and forces of meaning why he spoke thus: 'and take not the word of truth out of my mouth utterly.' Every function of the mouth serves the sense and motions of the heart. And why the prophet prays that the word of truth be not taken from his mouth, the sequence of that verse teaches. For this was not the prophet's fear, that he should dread the word of truth to be taken from his heart; for he says:
'because I have hoped in thy judgments'; hoping therefore in the judgments of God, he does not fear the word of truth to be taken from himself; but he knows that there are certain sins which take the word of truth from the mouth. For God said to the sinner: 'Why dost thou declare my justifications?' For he did not say, 'Why art thou unmindful of mine?' but he warned him who had remained in sin to abstain from the office of preaching. For he wishes the preacher to be free from crime; he wishes his oracles to be handled with a chaste mouth by a chaste body. Care must therefore be taken lest at any time the utterance of the word of truth be taken from our mouth. Hence is that which the apostle admonishes: 'Neglect not the grace that is in thee,' lest through negligence and sloth we be unworthy of the word of God.
But the prophet does not dare to wish himself made so free from sin as not to remember that there is one alone who did no sin and in whose mouth no guile was found; and therefore he added: 'utterly.' By the modesty, namely, of confession he prays that the word of truth be not taken from him; and by the honour of him who alone is without sin, he demands that it be not taken from him 'utterly,' because he remembers that he is a man, who through the infirmity of nature cannot be without sin. 'And I shall keep thy law always, for ever and ever.' The prophet fears no end of life. For his faith is not confined, but he extends himself into the infinity of ages by the office of keeping the law.
He knows also that the altar was made by Moses as a copy of the higher altar. He knows also that Aaron the priest was adorned after the likeness of the priest shown on the mount. For God said to Moses: 'Go, make all things according to the pattern which was shown thee on the mount.' He hastens therefore toward those laws of the eternal ages. For since the law is a shadow of what is to come, that body of the true law must necessarily be eternal. But he distinguished the present office from that unwearied continuity of the perpetual office, saying: 'and I shall keep thy law always, for ever and unto the age of the age.' When he says 'always, for ever,' he admits no time of forgetfulness in this life of time. But when he added 'and unto the age of the age,' he knows that through this shadow of the law one ascends to the eternal law.
For he calls it 'age' as it were the time of time, which by a certain vicissitude of this age shall be the age to come. He knows, according to the gospel's rich man and poor Lazarus, that there is a law for the soul taken from the body, by which one is separated from the other by an impenetrable chaos. According to the apostle Paul there is also a law of the resurrection, in which star differs from star in brightness. He knows there are laws of angels: some, the Cherubim standing by, praise God unwearied; others stand before the sight of the God invisible to us as by a law of their proper office. He knows also that the angels of the little ones daily behold God by a certain law.
He knows assuredly that there are eternal laws, and he trusts that he will keep them all in that age, because those things which are established through the shadow he always observes now in this age. 'And I walked at large, because I sought thy commandments.' The prophet is not straitened; and above he had already said: 'I ran in the way of thy precepts, when thou didst enlarge my heart.' He knows that amid the endurance of human tribulations one ought always to be toward God with an open heart. This the apostle himself teaches, saying: 'we are afflicted, but not distressed.' The same apostle knows how to glory in this very breadth of heart concerning himself. To the Corinthians he says: 'you are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in yourselves.' Here too the prophet is open to God, who says: 'and I will dwell in them and walk in them.'
The hearts of sinners, therefore, are narrow, and a polluted mind does not receive God as a guest. For a wide dwelling is needful for the inconceivable God, and therefore the prophet walks at large, because in him is the habitation of God speaking within him. But he teaches the cause of his breadth, saying: 'because I sought out thy commandments.' Let us recall the custom of our nature: as often as, being free for reading, we search the commandments and precepts of God, into how great a breadth the narrownesses of our minds are enlarged, and how open the sense of our humility becomes for divine desires. But through the consciousness of our sins all breadth of soul is constrained for us, and all things are difficult and narrow, when we are unworthy of the habitation of the divine word.
But the prophet, walking at large, ought to be engaged in an office worthy of the breadth attained: and he is plainly so engaged. For it follows: 'and I spoke of thy testimonies before kings and was not confounded.' This is the office of the enlarged heart, that from its abundance of teaching words may proceed; for the prophet speaks constantly, preaching God against the princes of the earth. And indeed the meaning of this is twofold, because according to the Lord's precepts we ought to preach before kings and powers, nor is it right for us to be lawfully terrified by earthly powers, so that, all confusion being rejected, with constant and public faith we may not deny God, who will deny those who deny him.
The saying can also be referred to those of whom the apostle says: 'now you reign without us, and would to God you did reign': that is, as if in the sight of the saints, who indeed are frequently called kings of the earth, the prophet spoke the testimonies of God and was not confounded to offer the institutions of the heavenly teaching through his preaching. But a twofold understanding offers a choice from itself, so that, since it is easy to understand both from the testimonies of the Scriptures, either both meanings may be considered, or that which seems more probable may be chosen. 'And I meditated on thy commandments, which I loved exceedingly.' It befits us, therefore, not only to speak of the testimonies of God, but to retain all the commandments of the law by daily meditation.
Nor is meditation alone useful, unless the law itself, which is in meditation, be loved; nor will it suffice to love with a common love, unless also that which is loved be loved exceedingly. And therefore the prophetic discourse runs through all this order of perfect reason, saying: 'and in thy commandments, which I loved exceedingly.' But neither the meditation of the law nor love itself bestowed will suffice, unless the fruit of works and the efficacy of will follow. Nor did the prophet cease in this; for he says: 'and I lifted up my hands to thy commandments, which I loved greatly.' He raised his hands to the commandments which he loved; not indeed insolent or shameless hands, but hands serving the commandments of humility, insisting on works, performing the precepts of faith.