Tractates on the Psalms 118.17.1–118.18.9

The nature of human sense is such that it holds as wonderful the things it has learned beforehand. For the judgment of wonder arises from things learned; no one can wonder at what is unknown. These things were mentioned first so that the reason of the prophetic saying might be sought more carefully. For he is thought to have said this against the opinion of general sense: "Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul has searched them." For whereas, according to human custom, one should first search and find, and then wonder at what was found, to him the Lord's testimonies are wonderful beforehand and for that reason worthy of searching. The reason of this perfect and most beautiful saying is this: God's testimonies, that is, the things written before witnesses, even though through the observance of the law they train human weakness to the knowledge and service of God, since chastity, piety, modesty, love, truth, innocence, frugality, and religion are commanded there, and the duty of divine honor is enjoined through certain customs of worship and varieties of sacrifices, in which there is great wonder at the victim offered for sins, the gift given for the redemption of the soul, and the lamb slain in the mystery of the Passover: yet in these more wonder is contained from the hope and teaching of the future. These things, then, are wonderful to this prophet. But because, through present wonder, they are wonderful as patterns of future and eternal goods, he searches them. He does not only inquire, which is a careful seeking of hidden things; but he also searches thoroughly, showing by the added prefix his labor in the more careful seeking. And he does not only search, but searches with his soul, the intent of the soul joined to the duty of the will.

Then follows: "The declaration of your words enlightens and gives understanding to little ones." And this saying too perhaps seems to differ from the habit of our nature. For whereas one must first understand and then use the light of understanding, since the light of understanding gained dispels the night of ignorance, the prophet nevertheless says that the declaration of God's words first enlightens and after enlightenment gives understanding. But we must first learn what God's words are; and then the reason of enlightenment and afterwards of understanding is to be given. God's words are whatever the prophets spoke. For although Moses announced the observance of the law to the Hebrew people in his own words, yet in the book of that same law it is written thus: "And God said to Moses: Speak to the sons of Israel." So the lawgiver used those words which he was commanded to use. Therefore they are God's words, though heard through the service of a human mouth. And that great prophet too, who spoke well by the very judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he had said, "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth," said: "for the Lord has spoken," and after some things that were rebuked with the greatest complaints, he said: "For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things." All these, then, are God's words.

But the declaration of the words is most necessary. For they were proclaimed under the veil of another meaning; they are, according to the apostle, allegorical; they are ambiguous through comparative significations. The Lord is witness that these same things were said thus through Isaiah, reproaching the unbelieving Jews and saying: "Hearing you will hear and not understand." For all things are sealed and are to be unsealed only by spiritual teaching. For these things were said to Daniel, the man of desires: "Go, Daniel, for the words are closed and sealed." Isaiah too says: "This book will be given into the hands of a man who knows letters, and it will be said to him: Read this, and he answers: I cannot read, for it is sealed."

But the declaration of the mystical words is given through the gospels, where the hidden things of the law and the concealed prophetic commandments are opened while the Lord abides in the body. From these, first, faith is learned. For there the things spoken by the prophets are fulfilled by him in deeds and works: when a virgin gives birth, when God is the Word and the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us, when the mute speak, when the deaf hear, when the lame walk, when lepers are cleansed, when the blind see, when the possessed are healed, when the dead rise; this declaration of God's words brightens the darkness of our nature with the light of faith. For then we understand the glory of the resurrection, the power of the judgment, the honor of eternity. And we understand these things as little ones, either reborn into innocence or untaught through ignorance. Of what time and age this declaration of God's words and understanding given to little ones would be, the Lord himself shows in the gospels, saying: "I confess to you, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones." Behold the time of declaration, enlightenment, and understanding. For things hidden until these days are declared, and being declared they enlighten, and enlightening they supply understanding to little ones: and through this understanding they become capable of the Holy Spirit.

Then the following saying added this very thing, saying: "I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit, for I longed for your commandments." He certainly did not speak of this mouth of the human body which is closed and opened by the lips. For we draw breath by the service of the nostrils rather than of the mouth. It passes into the body with more labor through the entrance of the mouth, but more easily by the natural course through the service and office of the nostrils. But Scripture is accustomed to speak of a mouth not only of the lips but also of the heart. For when the heart lies open through faith and gapes with desire to drink, the understanding of heavenly teaching is received. This is not the office of the soul but of the heart. For the apostle says: "But the natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit; for they are foolishness to him." And the same teacher of the nations says: "For the law is written not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart." Opening this mouth, then, the prophet drew in the Spirit; for he does not come in of his own accord. He must be sought, must be drawn in, and must be drunk like innocent milk, in the manner of infants. And the prophet opened his mouth because he remembered that it was said to him in a psalm: "Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it," and because he knows that it is written in the law: "Write these things on the breadth of your heart"; for God's preaching is received by the heart, not by the mouth. And according to the gospel preaching, the evil one snatches from the heart the word of God, which delights in the mouth more than honey and the honeycomb. For as we take food through the mouth for the nourishment of the body, so through the heart we receive the food of heavenly teaching to give life to the soul, which will not enter unless it is in some way drawn in by an enlarged and open heart.

Then follows: "Look upon me and have mercy on me, according to the judgment of those who love your name." To what he had said, "Look upon me," he immediately added, "and have mercy on me." For he knows that the Lord also looks for the vengeance and punishment of the impious. For he looked, as it is written, upon the camp of the Egyptians and bound the axles of their chariots. And again: "The Lord looked upon Sodom and Gomorrah." He looks not only for punishment but also for terror, when it is said: "He looks upon the earth and makes it tremble." So the prophet does not pray only this, that God look upon him, but that he look with mercy: and not only with mercy, but according to the judgment of those who love his name.

Mercy indeed comes from God's goodness; but it must be earned by us through zeal for innocence, so that he may look upon us as he looked upon Abraham, upon Isaac, upon Jacob, upon Joseph, upon Job, upon Moses. For he knows that God is accustomed to look to these works of his mercy, when it is said: "The Lord looked from heaven upon the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners and to set free the sons of the slain"; and again: "And he looked upon the sons of the poor and did not despise their prayer." So, according to this judgment of those who fear the Lord, he prays that God look upon him and have mercy: that if he sees him fasting, if he beholds him showing mercy, if he sees him pious and religious in every work, then, according to the judgment of those who love his name, he too may be worthy of God's mercy.

Then follows: "Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me." The prophet indeed walks by his own will in the steps of righteousness, but he knows that dominions of unrighteousness threaten him on every side. Above he had prayed that God would look upon him and have mercy according to those who love his name. He perceives that the fruit of the mercy he asks is this, that his steps be directed, not according to the ways of the world, not according to human glory, not according to the pleasures of the body, but according to God's words. If no hindrance met him anywhere, if adversaries were not present on every side, he would be strengthened by his own powers in what he wished to do. But where there are snares, where there is war, the help of one more powerful is needed, lest all iniquity have dominion over him.

He prays not that it be absent from him, but that it not rule over him. He knows that one comes to glory through temptations. He remembers that Abraham was tempted by the injury of exile, by the fear of losing his wife, and by the grief of sacrificing his son. He knows that Job went through every campaign of temptations. He recalls that Joseph, when he was sold by his brothers, when he was pressed to adultery by his master's wife, when he was kept in prison for punishment, earned the glory of the greatest faith through these temptations of unrighteousness. The prophet fears the dominion of unrighteousness, but does not refuse its temptation. And he remembers that his steps must be directed by the Lord according to his words, lest iniquity, which is going to tempt him, be able to have the power of dominion.

After which follows: "Redeem me from the slanders of men, and I will keep your precepts." Human temptation is not heavy, as the apostle says: "No temptation has yet taken hold of you except what is human"; but slander is heavy. Slander is either when the name of an evil deed is attached to a good work, or when the poison of inner malice is hidden under a flattering appearance. For it is not the work of open ill will, but deceitful and sly, raging with the working of malice under the appearance of good will. And it is hard to guard against such people, who are enemies under the name of brothers, foes under the name of friends, parricides under the appearance of sons, an inescapable evil under the oneness of spouses. Wicked Cain killed just Abel through the familiarity of a brother. Ham his son mocked Noah, approved by God. Esau made Jacob an exile from his father's house. His wife alone tried to bend Job, the strongest fighter against the devil. What slanders of men deceived this holy prophet himself? How often was he betrayed to Saul? How often was it reported in what places he was staying? Everywhere the snares of slanderers were at hand for him.

The Lord knows that these stumbling blocks of slander at home usually bring the heaviest ruin to faith, saying: "But if your right eye causes you to stumble, and if your right foot or hand causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cut it off from you." He did not say this of the members of our bodies, since neither foot nor hand could cause stumbling; but he commands this of the members most closely joined to us and most necessary, since we are all one body in Christ, lest, while the slanders and stumbling blocks of our household remain with us, some stain of vices should cling to us on the day of judgment. So the prophet promises that if he were redeemed from these, he would keep God's precepts, because these slanders of all those of the household often brought hindrance to faith.

Then follows: "Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your justifications." The face of the Lord is indeed against those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth; but just as God looks for punishment, he looks also for mercy; so too he turns his face to both. But the prophet prays for this face of the Lord for his enlightenment. For from the majesty and face of God, when he deigns to look on us, we receive light, and the face of his mercy turned toward us shines with the grace of spiritual power. Or certainly when he is present on the day of judgment, when he stands visible to us in the glory of the Father's majesty, then he will enlighten us with the light of his face. For as certain metals and gems pour back the brilliance of their nature onto things that are nearest them and lend a rivalling appearance from the nearness of their own, and as Moses from the contemplation of God received the light of glory so that the people could not look upon the honor of his glory: so too the prophet, confessing himself God's servant, prays to be enlightened and, according to the apostle, to be made conformed to God's glory, and to be taught God's justifications, so that they may be seen by him not in part nor through the shadow of the law, but face to face and by spiritual contemplation.

Then he says: "My eyes have passed the outflows of waters, because they did not keep your law." That he was conscious of old sins is taught by the history itself; though he had directed himself to God with his whole heart, yet, because he had himself already written the grief for his sin in an earlier psalm, when he recognized his crime and wept at the rebuke of the prophet Nathan, now too he does not cease to wash away the crime of the old deed with tears of true repentance, saying: "My eyes have passed the outflows of waters": that is, that the fountains of his tears have surpassed the fountains of rivers. For this is the voice of repentance, to pray with tears, to groan with tears, and through this confidence to say: "Every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with tears." This is the pardon of sin, to flow with a fountain of weeping and be drenched with a heavy rain of tears. But with regard to time and with the firmness of a faith now unmoved, he kept the measure of a most temperate saying. For he spoke of the past: "because they did not keep your law." The confession of crime is always in the present, because repentance for sin must not cease; but the end of sin belongs to an earlier time; because true confession of sin is to repent without any break in time, but repentance of sin is to have ceased from what you have understood must be repented of. And for this reason the prophet neither ceases to confess his sin, and confesses the sin as past.

With unwearying and persevering faith it is necessary that our confession be unmovable and unshaken, so that we do not slacken our zeal of devotion, moved by any injury of the times or the pain of persecutions; but if ever diseases afflict us, sufferings and tortures of the body rage, losses weary us, mourning and bereavements afflict us, let us always use this voice which the prophet now uses, saying: "You are just, Lord, and your judgment is just. You have commanded righteousness, your testimonies and your truth exceedingly." For let us remember first that he who is Lord of all is just, and that his judgments are right. For why would he be unjust to his own? Why unjust to those whom he himself begot? The immensity of his goodness does not allow this to be thought of him. He begot us not for injury, he begot us not for the pain of the nature of our origin; if there is anything we suffer, it happens by the judgment of his goodness. He delights that the devil is conquered by the strength of our patience, and he desires that we be proved by mourning, pains, and losses, so that the power of the world may understand that it has no right or dominion over his servants. Whatever he commanded is just, attested, and true, with the increase of an addition: for they are exceedingly true.

And because it is rare to be an observer of these things, and hard to steer an unshaken faith amid these storms of the world and these shipwrecks of human vices, since, if anything adverse happens, complaint against God comes readily: for the greedy man accuses God amid his losses; the bereaved is angry with God with the resentment of his tears; one who is proved by persecutions for the glory of confession reproaches God with injustice. This is the most foolish complaint of all, when through the impatience of impious grief they accuse God of injustice. And therefore the prophet added, saying: "Your zeal has made me waste away, because my enemies have forgotten your words." The prophet is spent with zeal for God over all our vices and crimes. Human nature too has this custom, that if ever we see some opposing the will of those we love, we feel zeal on behalf of the one who is not obeyed. And how great is our grief when we see one of God's people made a servant of the world, a worker of the devil, a vessel of death, and fuel for Gehenna! So whoever sees a Christian reveling in banquets on a fast day is angry with zeal for God. Whoever sees one insolent toward his brothers and ministers is angry with zeal for God. Whoever finds a body already sanctified in Christ dwelling in debauchery is angry with zeal for God.

We have learned that the apostles remembered this zeal, when the Lord entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought with a whip of cords, and that zeal of which it is written: "Zeal for your house has consumed me." For we sometimes make the temple of God either a house of trade or a den of robbers. For the temple of God, according to the apostle, is our bodies, which have been sanctified in Christ. And when we think and do debauchery, murders, thefts, falsehoods, robberies, we make these same bodies a den of robbers; or when we labor in the business of the world and the dealings of trade, then we make the house of God a house of trade, so that what should have been a seat of prayer becomes either a hiding place of robbers or a house of trade. By this zeal, then, the Lord is moved to cast such men out of the temple. Men approved and accepted by God also used this zeal. For Phinehas too, because of this zeal, deserved the covenant of eternal peace. For when the sons of Israel had committed sexual immorality and he had been roused by zeal for God to punish them, then the Lord said: "Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, has turned away my wrath, because he was zealous with my zeal." That holy prophet Elijah, who was caught up in the body to the heavenly dwelling, said: "I have been very zealous, because the sons of Israel have forsaken you and killed your prophets, and I am left alone."

So this zeal holds the prophet too. For he sees the irreligious complaints over loss, the impious weeping of mourning, the profane forgetting of God's law: and therefore those who do these things are his enemies. For religious men can have no bond of friendship with such people, since the irreligious are to be avoided and detested with hatred. For this very thing is taught in another psalm, when it is said: "Those who hate you, Lord, I have hated, and I wasted away over your enemies; I hated them with a perfect hatred." The Lord also said to Abraham: "Whoever curses you will be cursed, and I will be an enemy to your enemies and oppose those who oppose you." If Abraham's enemies are God's enemies, what ought those whom we see to be God's enemies to be to us?

Then he gives the reason why he hates those who have forgotten God's words: for they are not empty, not earthly, not light. For he says: "Your word is exceedingly refined by fire, and your servant has loved it." The Latin translation does not express the proper sense of this word. For what with us is ignitum is written in Greek πεπυρωμένον. And πεπυρωμένον means what has been purified as if smelted by fire. And whatever metals are smelted by fire do not contain in themselves foreign and useless dross; all that remains in them is true and perfect and purged from every contagion of faults, so that God's word testifies in itself to the faith of eternal goods. Hence is what the Lord says in the gospels: "One iota or one stroke will not pass from the law until all these things are done." For all God's words are true and established neither idly nor uselessly; but refined by fire beyond all doubt of superfluous emptiness, and refined exceedingly, lest anything be thought to be there that is not perfect and proper. These, then, his servant loves. He not only does them but also loves them, because the work of love surpasses the work of obedience. For obedience alone is often a matter of terror; but love proceeds only from the will of a devoted mind.

Then he says: "I am young and despised; I have not forgotten your justifications." The prophet speaks these things in his own person, but they fit the people of our time too. And how far David is believed to have said this of himself is plainly shown. For the prophet Samuel was commanded by God to come to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his sons as king. When he had come there, he bids all Jesse's sons be present. Then he sees the eldest, handsome in appearance, outstanding in bearing and height; but he is warned by this answer: "Do not look at his beauty and his stature, for man does not see as God sees. For man sees the face, but God sees the heart." The second comes, the third comes, all whom Jesse then had present come: but none of those present was found who pleased. But because the prophet Samuel knew that he who had bidden him come was not a liar, and understood that of those present none was loved by God, he said to Jesse: "Have you still another son?" He answered: "I have a little one, whom I left at the pasture." This one, then, was chosen by the Holy Spirit and anointed king; and from being younger and despised he received the glory of both prophet and king.

But these things apply thus to the people which is both younger and was formerly despised. For it was in the vices of the world, it was in the night of ignorance, it was in the wild, rustic, and crumbling house of an earthly body. But this people does not forget God's justifications; this younger people is chosen into the inheritance of the family, the elder people being rejected. For Jacob bought Esau's birthright, which the latter thought useless to himself as one about to die. The younger people knows that these firstfruits of its birth are eternal and cannot be cut off by death. These, then, it does not forget, which the elder both despaired of and sold.

Then he teaches this very thing in the following verse: "Your righteousness is for ever, and your law is truth." The people that came out of Egypt did not think of these righteous acts: for whom the sea dried up, whom the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night served, for whom heaven supplied the morning manna, to whom twenty-seven kingdoms yielded, for whom the Jordan stood dry, for whom the walls of Jericho fell at the shout of the army and the circling of the ark of the covenant. The younger people knows that these righteous acts of God are eternal. Because it knew they were eternal, it bought them by faith; the elder, because it believed itself mortal, sold them by unbelief. For to the younger people the law is truth. For now truly circumcision of the heart is repeated by it, through the law, for life; truly it crosses through the sea of this world into the land promised to it; truly, eternal, it takes the heavenly manna; truly it rejoices, reborn in the Jordan; truly, to be set free by the lamb's blood, it sacrifices the Passover; truly, in the unleavened bread of sincerity, it is purged of the leaven of old malice: for it the law is no longer a shadow but truth.

And this younger people knows that because of this confession of truth it is pressed by many persecutions. For from this come, throughout the whole world, the blessed confessions of the faithful and the holy martyrdoms. From this many were stripped of their inheritances, scattered in exile, chained, beaten, burned, killed; but by a happy and constant meditation on the commandments they conquered all that befell them by the strength of a confirmed faith. And therefore he says: "Tribulation and distress have found me; but your commandments are my meditation." Though battles press, exiles threaten, proscriptions are applied, deaths, I do not say inflicted, but renewed with ingenious punishments, yet this must always be the voice of the faithful man: "Tribulation and distress have found me; but your commandments are my meditation." It will be fitting that meditation on God's commandments never be absent from us, neither when business occupies us nor when forgetfulness creeps in with time. [10] Then he says: "Your testimonies are equity for ever; give me understanding of them, and give me life." He is not content to think and expect that God's testimonies are equitable only for the present: he hopes for their equity for ever, and through the tribulations and distresses above he strives to obtain the things that are eternal. That rich man of the gospel, thinking nothing eternal, exchanged his present happiness for a death of punishment. But poor Lazarus, awaiting God's eternal testimonies, is held in Abraham's bosom and exchanges the misery of a toilsome life for the honor of blessed rest. The prophet prays for understanding of these, the chief gift, that is, among the many gifts of spiritual graces, and through it he prays to be given life. For as he now meditates on God's testimonies and commandments in the present, so he awaits the eternal ones; and as he lives the life of the body, so through the understanding he has received from God he asks to live in eternal glory.