Tractates on the Psalms 118.7.1–118.8.19

Every word of God contained in the divine Scriptures calls us into the hope of heavenly goods. And therefore the prophet, confident that he has remained in all of God's precepts, says steadfastly: "Remember your word to your servant." Is God forgetful of his promise? Far be it that any kind of human weakness should be believed to creep into eternal and unwearying power. But the prophet, who believed God's promises, who was held by desire for heavenly things, who hoped for the future with contempt for the present, does not remind God to remember his word; but he prays that God be mindful of his word in him, his servant, that is, that he may be held worthy that God should now deign to be mindful of his word in him, the word in which he gave hope. And hope must not be empty, nor only proclaimed in words, but taught by deeds themselves, so that if ever illnesses, persecutions, losses, bereavements, or insults befall us, we may console ourselves against these present threats and powers by the hope of the eternal promises.

And we are taught for all these things; but the prophet has already gone through them himself, saying: "This has consoled me in my lowliness, for your word has given me life." This refers to the hope which God made him hope for. It consoled him in lowliness, that is, when he is despised, when he is …, when he is harassed with injuries, when he is dishonored with insults, knowing that this is his warfare of present temptations. But amid these wars of his, the hope from the Lord consoles him; and he is given life through God's words. He knows that in these the glory of humility is excellent; he knows that the soul refreshed by God's words holds in itself, as it were, a food of eternity. Living in God's words, he is not moved by the empty glory of the proud. For he knows that his need is richer than their wealth. He knows that his fasts are filled with the heavenly and gospel blessing. He knows that his lowliness is to be rewarded with the glorious prize of honor. And so he added: "The proud acted unjustly to the utmost; but I did not turn aside from your law." Amid the excessive and complete iniquities of the proud, for they acted very unjustly, the prophet turns aside from God's law by no swerving.

But one who does not turn aside from God's law must be mindful of God's judgments. For in every kind of our action the memory of the divine judgment must be implanted and kept in us, so that, when we do anything, with the memory of the judgment residing in us, or rather never departing, our works may serve God's precepts. Blessed will be whoever has done all things not without the memory of the divine judgment. The prophet professes this of himself, saying: "I remembered your judgments from of old, Lord, and was encouraged." These now only "from of old," not also "from age to age," because all God's judgments upon us have been set from the times of this age and world. In these he encouraged himself, that is, amid these whirlwinds of the world and these battles of bodily sufferings, he exhorted his lowliness by the memory of God's judgments to endurance of the evils that assail him.

Then follows: "Faintness of soul has seized me because of sinners who forsake your law." The prophet's own virtues are not enough for him for the hope of life: neither that he had hope in God's word, nor that he consoled himself in that same hope, nor that he is given life by God's word, nor that he does not turn aside from the law, nor that he encourages himself by the memory of the judgments; but he is also wearied with grief at human impiety and is afflicted because of the irreligious impieties of men. For every holy man, when …, has pity not on his own lowliness, but on the one who …: as a father insulted by a mad son, or a physician by a delirious patient, feels grief not from what he has suffered, but because the one whom he wished to be well has, in his madness, done him injury. And when one member suffers anything, as the apostle says, the other members suffer with it. So faintness, in this sense, holds the prophet over sinners who abandon God's law: he is wearied as one who pities and grieves, as though in his own members, on behalf of the wicked and irreligious.

But he himself, as far as he is concerned, remains always intent on God's justifications; and in every place where he dwells, the hymn of confession never leaves his mouth. For he says: "Your justifications were songs to me in the place of my sojourning." By his example he teaches that the songs of the psalms, once received into the ears, are to be retained in the heart and always repeated by the mouth's service. He did not read and hear carelessly, as he himself declares, nor did he read the divine words, as our irreligion does, with eyes busy with something else or uncaring, or receive them with soon-forgetful ears; but they are songs to him, that is, without ceasing. And he teaches that the habit of singing psalms never left him in any place of any kind, when he says, "in the place of my sojourning." For he does not say "in my sojourning," but "in the place of my sojourning," that is, in whatever seat he stayed: understanding that he is a stranger in this world, yet that God's justifications are always songs to him.

But he shows how much God's justifications are songs to him, since he leaves out no time in which he is not occupied in that heavenly work. For he says: "I remembered your name in the night, Lord, and kept your law." He knows that God's name must be remembered by us especially at night. He knows that the keeping of God's law must be held fast by us most of all when desires creep into the mind. When the goads of vices stir the body through food lately taken, then God's name must be remembered, then his law must be kept, establishing modesty, self-control, and the fear of God. He knows that God must be prayed to and entreated especially at this time, as he says in another place: "Every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with tears." The mind must not be relaxed in the dangerous idleness of the night watches, but occupied in prayers, entreaties, and confessions of sins, so that when most opportunity is given to the vices of the body, then above all those vices may be broken by remembering the law.

Then follows: "This has been made mine, because I sought out your justifications." This refers to the memory by which he remembered God's name in the nights. And when he says "has been made mine," it means not recurring suddenly or taken up for a time, but always abiding and established within him by a kind of work of faith; and it was made his because he sought out the justifications. So it is useful to search God's justifications without any break in time, because by seeking them out we keep the memory of God perpetually in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Reading the manuscripts of the Psalms, we too used to think that the verse which is the first of the eighth letter, namely, "The Lord is my portion," was contained among the preceding eight verses of the seventh letter, because it was so written in the Latin manuscripts and also in some Greek ones; and the sense certainly seemed more complete that way. But reading the corrected book of the Psalms among the Greeks, we found that this verse is not the last but the first. And so, following this knowledge, we too have undertaken to treat of it here.

For it reads thus: "The Lord is my portion; I said that I would keep your law." Rare is the one who has the confidence to dare to say that God is his portion. One must renounce all things and their world for God to be our portion. If ambition holds us back, if care for money occupies us, if the allurements of lusts take hold of us, if the business of household affairs detains us, God will not be our portion while we are held by the possession of cares and vices.

When Moses was commanded to distribute portions for dwelling among the tribes of the sons of Israel, it was said to him thus about the tribe of Levi: "The sons of Levi shall have no portion nor lot among their brothers, because the Lord God is their part." And again we remember it written: "I the Lord am their part." So the law that was given wanted those who serve God to have no earthly portion, because God was their part.

Peter too, that preacher of the gospel, remembered that he had no portion of human possession, when he answered the one who asked for alms: "Gold and silver I do not have; but what I have, this I give you." What is this, Peter, that you possess? You had renounced all things, saying to your Lord: "Behold, we have left all things and followed you; what will we have?" And he had answered you: "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me will, in the regeneration, sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And he had promised that others who left all things after your example would receive a hundredfold and would then possess life. What is it, then, Peter, that you have? You plainly have something, and I do not dare say that you hold more than a hundredfold; yet I say that you possess beyond any multiplying of reckoning. For you say: "What I have, this I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk." O happy possession, O perfect portion of God! You do not lavish earthly things, but you repay the work of nature and restore the losses of a defective birth. You bid one born lame to walk, and you rouse a man of many years to an unpractised gait. He bestows these riches whose portion is God. Paul too knew the glories of his riches, saying: "But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Such was the apostle's glory, such his portion.

So, in the manner of human inheritances, let us choose the portion which is better and more useful. If in the division of earthly patrimony among coheirs someone strives to get the lot of the more advantageous portion, with how much more eager care shall we choose a share of the heavenly inheritance? The Lord promises a hundredfold, and not for eternity, but in the present. The repayment of eternal goods is immeasurable and infinite; but the measure of present things is confined within the limit of a hundredfold. I am in doubt whether Peter's portion exceeded this hundredfold. Certainly, according to the Lord's precept, what is to be hoped for now in this age when all the things of the age are left behind is the gift of a hundredfold. For God is our portion, who says: "And I will dwell in them." Is it not then the reward of a hundredfold, that God dwells in this little earthly body of ours? But why do I say "dwells"? He himself also says: "And I will walk among them." The faithful heart is a possession open and spacious for God, so that he may dwell and walk in it. But he who dwells, he who walks within, what third thing did he add? "And I will be their God." Behold the portion he has promised us: that we be a dwelling for God, and that while he walks in us he himself be our possession, if we leave the world, if we renounce the stain of earthly possession, if we reject the inheritance of perishable things, if we go out of the world while living. For what merit is there in having left the world when the body is dead and the soul departs and is dissolved? We must do without it by contempt for it. We must not know it, through ignorance of its pleasures. We must die in it while we do not live for it. Paul knows that he no longer lives for himself, saying: "For what I live, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

So the prophet, living not for the world, according to the apostle, says steadfastly and freely: "The Lord is my portion." He kept the measure he kept above when he promised that he would keep God's law. For he is not understood to speak of the law which he carried out bodily, since he confesses rather that he will keep it than that he keeps it.

Then follows: "I have entreated your face with my whole heart; have mercy on me according to your word." We remember that Moses prayed to see God, and perhaps this prophet's prayer will be thought akin to his request. But he remembers that it was said by God: "No man shall see my face and live." So does he ask to be granted what he remembers was denied to Moses? But again, although he is earlier than the gospel saying, he still remembers that this blessedness is reserved for faith, because it is said: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." So, since he knows that it was said in the law that no one sees God's face and lives, and does not doubt from the gospel beatitude that all the pure in heart will see God, he spoke the longing of his desire with the tempering of perfect modesty, saying: "I have entreated your face with my whole heart." He knows that it is now impossible for him to see what eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has entered the heart of man. He knows that the glory of God is invisible to fleshly eyes. He remembers that, I do not say before the brightness of angels, the light of human vision is dimmed, but that the eyes of the human body could not bear even the glory of Moses' face.

But let us measure the prophet's desires by human desires. With what anxious expectation people run to the processions of kings, and what joy it is for those who see them when they show themselves to be looked at! What shall we think that man, able to hold the heavenly Spirit, wants? With what burning desire does he long to see God, he who measures that invisible majesty through these brightnesses of angels and this glory of Moses, and knows that even those who are worthy of the sight of God will take glory from the sight of glory, because the mere seeing and the favor of the majesty they contemplate will enlighten them? The holy apostle, understanding this, says: "We all, with unveiled face, awaiting the glory of God, shall be transformed into that same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." And now, because he knows this is impossible for these eyes of the body, he desires it with his whole heart. And since God is his portion, he confidently entreats his face: because, although no man sees God's face and lives, yet all the pure in heart will see God. So he asks this mercy from God, that the blessedness of seeing his face may befall him; and he asks it not without the reason and manner of its being granted.

For he says: "Have mercy on me according to your word." It is the voice of modest faith to entreat God's mercy not according to the awareness of one's sins but according to the words of that same God. He knows that God is also a consuming fire to sinners. For Moses says: "Your God is a consuming fire." He knows that the same God is light to the faithful, of whom the prophet himself also says elsewhere: "You give light wonderfully from the holy mountains." The apostle too distinguishes this way of God's goodness and severity, when he says: "See then the goodness and severity of God: severity toward those who fell, but goodness toward you"; and again: "Otherwise you too will be cut off; and they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in." The prophet awaits God's goodness: "Have mercy on me." For he knows that no one who lives is without sin, and that all who are placed in the flesh need God's mercy. But he is not unmindful of his duty and devotion when he says, "according to your word": that is, that word by which he both announces punishment to sinners and promises the blessedness of eternal life to those who believe in him.

Then follows: "Because I thought on my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies." From what the prophet recalls that he does or has done, he teaches what we too must do. For he thinks on his ways, and having thought on them he turns his foot to God's testimonies. He did nothing that he had not first turned over in thought. He did not move his tongue to its duty, did not put his foot forward to any work he was going to do, did not stretch out his hand to do anything, unless he had first thought about all these things, and only then brought action and effect to what he had thought. So before all things he looked at his ways, and when he found one pleasing and approved, then he set his foot on it: that is, having surveyed all the ways of human action, after he had thought what was useful to him, he turned the foot of faith toward the divine testimonies. For thought can fear nothing sudden, nothing new, nothing unexpected, since by the decision of counsel all things that usually happen are hoped for, determined beforehand, and faced. And this is taught in the following verse.

For after the prophet had thought on his ways and turned his foot to God's testimonies, he speaks freely: "I am prepared and not troubled, to keep your commandments." Whoever is being prepared for something is prepared by long practice for that in which his meditation lies, so that no force of sudden trouble may shake him, careless and unwary, from the resolve of his purpose. So the prophet knows that there are very many stumbling blocks of the world. He knows that there are powers lying in wait for human nature and opposing it. He knows that the ambition for glory is dangerously sweet. He knows that meetings with wanton women are a snare to the eyes of the continent. He knows that shameful desires of the body creep in with the feeling of alluring pleasure. He knows that the other kinds of vices assail by enticing approaches. He knows too that he is subject to the hatred of many irreligious men and must be harassed by the various insults of persecutors for the teaching of God and of piety. So, lest he be troubled when so many and such great snares assail him, he prepared himself against every destruction of faith, saying: "I am prepared and not troubled, to keep your commandments."

The blessed apostle has a counterpart of this preparation of his, saying: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or suffering, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written: For your sake we are put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for slaughter. But in all these we overcome and conquer because of him who loved us." And because he had prepared himself to endure these things, so that he could not be separated from love by them, he added: "For I am confident that neither death nor life, nor angels nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor power nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." No kinds of the things that can happen disturb the apostle, prepared and strengthened by such hope.

Let this, then, be our voice too, so that when desires creep in, when sufferings assail, when dangers weary, when tortures torment, we may dare to say: "I am prepared and not troubled, to keep your commandments." Our Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, among his other precepts commands his disciples, saying: "Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." Against trouble, whatever may come from what befalls us, there is need of the firmness of long preparation, so that one may keep God's commandments with strong and firm faith.

Into what condition the prophet had come, and for what cause he was not troubled while he kept God's commandments, he immediately added, saying: "The cords of sinners have wound around me, and I have not forgotten your law." That there are cords of sinners we are taught by Isaiah, who says: "Woe to those who bind their sins like a long rope," in the manner of a rope growing from many tiny strands into a great one, as sins always stretch out like a long rope. There are also the chains of offenses with which human minds are bound, of which it is written in Proverbs: "Each one is bound by the cords of his own sins." For the devil binds us and ties us and entangles us in these cords as snares in every part of life. That he binds we know from the gospels: "But this daughter, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years." He binds, then, with every kind of vice: with the habit of drunkenness, with desires for pleasures, with the guilt of unbelief. But amid these snares of cords, forgetfulness of the law must not be admitted. For we must be prepared so that we may be freed from these snares, if ever they wind around us, by remembering God's law at all times.

And the prophet plainly remembers it, saying: "At midnight I rose to confess to you over the judgments of your justification." He is not idle all night, nor is he kept idle in bed: to confess to God he rises not only at night but at midnight. He remembers that this is the time when the firstborn of the Egyptians were struck by the well-deserved destruction of their impious obstinacy; so at these hours he does not slacken into sleep, lest he be counted with the firstborn of Egypt. At this time of night, when the bridegroom enters, the wise virgins will go in with their lamps; so he keeps watch, lest he deserve to be shut out with the foolish. At this time, while the apostles Paul and Silas were singing psalms, their chains were loosed; so he does not sleep, lest he be bound. Nor does the whole sleep of the night-time hold him, lest forgetfulness of his duty creep upon him in the rest of midnight; for he rises to confess to God. But confession is not always to be referred to sins; it must also be understood in the praises of God. So now he confesses to God over his judgments, praising God, that is, because he has decreed nothing except in the justification of his judgments.

Then follows: "I am a partaker with all who fear you and keep your commandments." We remember that the apostle said: "We have become partakers of Christ." And in the forty-fourth psalm too we remember that certain partakers of God are signified, when it is said: "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows." So, according to the apostle and according to the prophet, there are many partakers of our Lord Jesus Christ. And whoever remains in righteousness is his partaker, because he himself is righteousness; whoever persists in truth will be his partaker, for he himself is the truth; and whoever walks in newness will be his partaker, because he himself is the resurrection. So, although the prophet knows that there are many partakers of God, now by a humble and modest statement about himself, although he remembers that he is a partaker of Christ, since he himself was both made and called an anointed one, he nevertheless confessed himself rather a partaker of all who fear God. And he is a partaker of those who fear God when he suffers with those who suffer, weeps with those who weep, grieves as a member of the same body in the pain of another member. By this fellowship of sufferings, then, he becomes a partaker of those who fear God. But whoever in his insolence disdains one who believes in Christ and is redeemed by Christ is not a partaker of those who fear God, since he is not their companion in sharing their sufferings.

But the prophet did not put this bare and alone when he says, "I am a partaker with all who fear you." Many fear God and yet are disobedient; many fear God and yet are unbelieving, whom the condition of nature subjects to the fear of God, but the perversity of their own will removes from obedience to God. And therefore it would not have been enough for the prophet to say, "I am a partaker with all who fear you," unless he had added, "and who keep your commandments." For the fear that belongs to faith lies only in obedience, and the awe of religion lies in compliance. So he is a partaker of those who prove their fear by keeping God's commandments.

Then follows: "The earth is full of your mercy, Lord; teach me your justifications." The earth is full of God's mercy, though it is defiled, corrupt, irreligious, faithless, and lost. And if anyone dares with impious mouth to accuse the prophet, as though he thought God's mercy were not spread over all the earth, let him recall that the Lord said in the gospels: "Be good, as your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." For God, patient and merciful, while he prefers the repentance of sinners to their death, lavishes his gifts on the just and unjust, granting to each through his patience a long time for repentance.

And because the prophet remembers that this goodness and perfection of God, which is foreshadowed bodily under those justifications of the law, must always be hoped for by him, he says: "Teach me your justifications, Lord." He had read all of them in the law; but because he hoped for the heavenly ones which are foreshadowed in the earthly, he does not need an earthly teacher. For he prays to be taught by him who says: "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." The prophet disdains to have it opened and given to him by a teacher of the law, awaiting as master of heavenly knowledge our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.