Tractates on the Psalms 118.13.1–118.13.13

This work of the prophet is useful and necessary for us, in that we are taught to perfect knowledge of and obedience to God. He has instructed us in two things most fitting for us: that we should know God, who was unknown, and obey his commandments according to the rule of his decree. For throughout the whole body of this psalm the prophet shapes the man perfect in the law, the prophets, and the gospels, either from his own person or from that of another whom he instructs, who may have the confidence to declare these things of himself. And it is worth observing with what care in words and with what completeness of understanding the prophet strengthens us in each kind of saying.

For he says in the verse of the thirteenth letter: "How I have loved your law, Lord! All the day it is my meditation." It would certainly have been easy to say, "How I have done your law!" But because it is a greater merit to do something out of love than out of fear, therefore he said "How I have loved." For the obedience of love differs greatly from the duty of fear; and the working of necessity does not have the grace of the will. For those things are not enough in themselves for the completion of perfect obedience which, although they fulfil their task, yet, because they are compelled, lack the merit of full grace. So the prophet wants his work to be one of love rather than of terror, and his obedience to be undertaken out of charity, not out of fear. Many fast because they fear to be rebuked by us. Many give something for the use of the needy because they dread having their irreligious and useless greed reproached. Many come to church because they are ashamed to have their absence and negligence censured. But not all love what they do. In love, then, necessity cannot enter, because no one does not want what he loves. But in a deed love can be absent, when that is done which terror or shame forbids one not to have done. But the prophet is weak in nothing. What he loves he does, and what he does he practises unfailingly. For because he loves the law, he meditates on it every day and without ceasing. No other pursuits of business creep in, no different surges of cares intervene, nor does forgetfulness fall upon him through the intrusion of some new knowledge: he is always the same and in the same thing. He is as great in meditating on the law he loves as the whole day is in time.

And because, as we mentioned above, the prophet shows in himself the man of the law, the prophets, and the gospels, he says in the following verse: "You have made me wiser than my enemies by your commandment, for it is mine for ever." The prophet understands God's commandments more wisely than his enemies. But what do we have in common in God's precepts with our enemies, who not only have not even moderately learned them, but do not even pursue the beginning of knowing them? And what great thing is it if the prophet is wiser than his enemies in God's commandments? For when could those who worship lifeless stones and metals or wood have gained anything of the knowledge of the living and eternal God, so that the prophet should be wiser by comparison with them? But all this error of the impious rejects, shrinks from, and abhors that very name together with the law, the prophets, and the apostles.

But this holy prophet has other, real enemies, than whom he was taught more wisely in God's commandments. They have God's commandment in the prophets and in the law, but through the ignorance of their will they use none of it. They claim the commandment of the law as their own and inherited, but what profit now will things established only as a sign be to those who do not have the author of the spiritual meaning? What help will the observance of the Sabbath bring to those who do not know the God of the Sabbath? What aid will the lamb of the Passover and the blood on the doorposts and the feast of unleavened bread give to those who do not know the Lamb of God and the unleavened bread of sincerity and the blood of salvation? They practise the commandments, but they do not know the effect and the time of the commandments. They read the law, but while the Jew reads it without knowing, the Christian understands it. He is plainly the prophet's enemy who laid parricidal hands on the only-begotten Son of God and, as far as was in him, condemned to death the Savior of the human race and the giver of eternal life. Beyond all these, then, he is wiser in God's commandment.

And so that he might be understood to have meant these enemies, he added what follows: "I have understood more than all who teach me, because your testimonies are my meditation." You learned the law from Moses, David, and Aaron is the teacher of all to you; Joshua is master of the repeated circumcision, Samuel showed you in yourself the mystery of anointing both prophet and king: what is this that you dared to say, that you have understood more than all who teach you? But the preceding verse shows above which teachers he understands, that is, above his enemies. And again this, which is now the following verse, declares who the enemies are, that is, all who teach. For they profess to have the keys of the heavens and glory that they are teachers of the law. And since all the testimonies of the law testify to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet understands more than his teachers, since, meditating on his testimonies, he always waits for the only-begotten Son of God who is to come in the flesh. O happy understanding of the disciple! O wretched ignorance of the teachers! Those who teach do not know, and those who are taught understand. But the prophet is free of fault: for he showed from where he had gained his understanding. For above he says that he had been made wiser than his enemies by God in his commandments. For all understanding is from him who made him wiser. So he understands more than those who teach him.

And because it sometimes happens from difference of gifts that a disciple is wiser than his master, he shows that this very thing is a matter of diligence and zeal. For he says: "I have understood more than the elders, because I sought out your commandments." He understands, and understands more than the elders, showing their office of teaching together with the very antiquity of time, that is, signifying the people that was before him. In this both come together, that he is both older and thinks himself a teacher. But he understands more than him who is both taught and younger; and he understands because he has sought out God's commandments, which the teacher, while he thinks he is teaching, does not know.

It follows that one who understands more than the elders and teachers should yield fruit, namely, that he should practise what he holds as known and perfect. And let us see whether this very thing is in what follows. For he says: "I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I may keep your word." This is the perfect voice of a gospel man: to keep himself from every way and, though so many paths of error meet him everywhere, to walk in none of them by which wickedness is approached.

But the prophet means something deeper when he says, "I have kept my feet." The nature of our body carries us into every course of crimes, and the impulse of human desires drives us into this way. But one who understands more than the elders and teachers has, by teaching, restrained himself, and called himself back as he was going out and running ahead. So we must resist and strive, first to keep ourselves from every evil way, then, if any impulse carries us there, to draw ourselves back; and first we must restrain ourselves by our own power, so that afterwards we may keep the word of God. But our own restraint is needed first, so that there may be a keeping of God's word. For no one will keep the word first and then be able to restrain himself. For restraint is precisely this, that what was being done is prevented from being done; but keeping is firm only when one, restraining himself from evil, observes the good without ceasing.

What the keeping of God's word should be, the following verse teaches. For there follows: "I have not turned aside from your judgments, because you have set a law for me." This, then, is true keeping: not to swerve in any direction from God's judgments, nor to turn aside even by a slight departure, but to remain always intent and always unmoved in that in which one has taken one's stand.

He does not turn aside, because God has set a law for him. Moses indeed had set a law; but this same prophet in another psalm had prayed, saying: "Lord, appoint a lawgiver; let the nations know that they are men." For that law which Moses had written was for us in Christ; and therefore he understands more than his teachers and elders, because he understands the gospel law which is contained in the law of Moses. This, then, was given through our Lord; this has trained every man in the knowledge of God. And therefore, to "Appoint a lawgiver over them," he added, "let the nations know that they are men": that is, born of the earth and brought from the clay into the knowledge of God. For what they did not know before through ignorance of the law of Moses, they now know through the law of our Lord Jesus Christ; and as they recognize their origin, that is, the nature of the body, in the giver of the law, so too they await the glory of this new lawgiver, they who in their beginning were already established in the image and likeness of God.

And the prophet testifies to the sweetness of this gospel law in what follows. For he says: "How sweet are your words to my throat, above honey to my mouth!" Honey is sweet in the mouth, not also in the throat. For outside the region of the mouth there is no sense of bodily tastes. But God's words are sweet in the throat, flowing down into the soul and penetrating within: not pleasing only in the mouth like food, but sweet there where there is knowledge, prudence, and sense. And therefore the words are sweet in the throat, as honey is in the mouth. But as honey soothes the bitter things that come to the mouth through sickness and the heat of fevers, so God's words, poured in, soothe the bitterness of our soul and the sad fevers of unwholesome desires, provided they are not held in the mouth but swallowed by the throat.

Then follows: "From your commandments I have understood; therefore I have hated every way of iniquity." The precepts make us understanding, but precepts fulfilled in deed and work: that is, that we should do what is contained in them, as far as we can. So the precepts must be carried out, so that we may be understanding. And although perfect understanding is from God, yet we must begin, so that we may be able to deserve perfect understanding. For to those who do not begin this of themselves, all things are closed by God. And the prophetic word teaches this very thing through Isaiah, who says: "Do not say of my commandments that you knew them; you neither knew nor believed them, nor did I open your ears from the beginning. For I knew that you would utterly despise, and that you would be called wicked even from the womb." So knowledge is not granted to those who do not seek it. And because God is the searcher of hearts, for those who were going to despise it the ears are dulled and the sense blunted. But the prophet understands from God's precepts, having gained understanding by doing the precepts; and understanding, he hates every way of iniquity.

For all the movements of different feelings, such as hatred and love, lie close to human nature. But love must be spent on loving good things, and hatred must be taken up from offense at evil things. It is ours, then, to tune our bodies like a useful instrument to fitting and harmonious measures, so that we do not love vices, so that we do not hate good virtues, so that we fit ourselves to each kind fittingly and usefully. The prophet loves God's commandments; and whoever loves God's commandments hates the ways of iniquity. For as it belongs to the obedience of perfect faith to love, and to fulfil what one does with the feeling of charity, and to fulfil the necessity of acting with the will of one who loves, so too it belongs to great faith not only not to do iniquities but to hate them, since sometimes fear and terror turn us away from them. But hatred of them instils in us a judgment and settled opinion about them. Let us, then, love righteousness, modesty, frugality, mercy; and let us hate quarrels and drunkenness, murders, pride, and sexual immorality, and with them we must also hate the devil. And loving peace, truth, and righteousness, we shall love him who is peace, righteousness, and truth, our Lord Jesus, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.