Tractates on the Psalms 14.1–51.6

The psalm that has been read is entitled "A psalm of David," because the Holy Spirit spoke these things through him. And this rightly suits the psalm, for nothing in it is directed to another time, nothing is brought out of hidden things, but its whole work concerns the present. So it begins: "Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle, or who will rest on your holy mountain?" It is the simple prayer of one who entreats the Lord and wishes to learn from him what the character, the pursuit, and the will are of one who is to dwell with God and rest in his high and heavenly places. For it belongs to no low mind or ordinary effort to be joined with God and to merit fellowship in his dwelling. So the question asked is answered at once, so that, since it is hard and difficult to obtain these things, it may be understood by what means it is to be attained.

For to what was asked he says: "He who enters without stain and works righteousness," and the rest that follows in the psalm. By such precepts is he formed, by such admonitions instructed, whose journey is toward God, whose ascent is to his height, whose rest is in his eternal things. Every precept has been gathered in brevity, so that it may be committed to memory, cling to the mind, and be kept abroad and at home, in public and private, by day and by night, so that it may be tempered and insisted upon. For this brevity is rich and boundless, gathered from all the precepts and ordinances of the New and Old Testaments, most suitable for children, women, men, and the old. And so that the wealth of this brevity may be the more commended, we shall go through what mystery there is in each word. There is no prophecy here, no obscurity, no figure. There is the voice of one who asks, the goodness of one who answers, the confirmation of one who hears. But in these the force of the words must be considered. For he distinguished thus: dwelling in the tabernacle, rest on the mountain; and dwelling in the tabernacle comes first, rest on the mountain later. So that the difference between dwelling and rest may be understood, the proper sense of mountain and tabernacle must be explained.

The tabernacles that we read existed earlier were light, perishable, withering, woven for a time from leaves, such as we sometimes make to avoid the heat, so that we may escape the burning and heat of the sun under their shade. Such tabernacles were instituted for the people through Moses. But these dried up and fell apart, for they were images, made after a pattern. For God says to Moses: "See that you make everything according to the form I showed you on the mountain." David too, wishing to build a temple, called it a tabernacle, as he says: "I will not give sleep to my eyes until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob." But both the tabernacle of Moses and that of Solomon fell; and afterwards the apostles founded very many tabernacles, and in all parts of the world, wherever it can be reached, even from the islands of the Ocean, they have prepared very many dwellings for God. The Holy Spirit testifies to their glory: "How lovely are your tabernacles, Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord." So the prophet desires not one tabernacle, whether the leafy one through Moses, or the one longed for by David, or the one adorned by Solomon with all human works, but many and innumerable; for although the church is one in the world, yet each city holds its own church; and it is one in all, though there are many, because one is held in many.

The first and greatest step, then, for those ascending to heavenly things is to dwell in this tabernacle and there spend night and day the life of their whole age, removed from the cares of the world and leaving the business of this world behind, as many of the saints never left the tabernacle; as it is written of Joshua son of Nun: "And the young man Joshua did not go out of the tabernacle"; and Anna the prophetess did not depart from the temple, serving with fasting and prayers night and day. After this, rest is to be had on the Lord's mountain; for the way there is for those who set out from here, and there is no way except through this dwelling. So the question about dwelling in the tabernacle had to come first, because from it is the ascent to the mountain; and dwelling, moreover, belongs to time and labour. But rest is not interrupted from outside; it is leisure that is continual, perpetual, free of trouble, remaining in its own state; if disquiet mixes with it, it loses both the nature and the name of leisure.

But no mountain of the Lord is on earth, for the whole earth has long been liable to curses through the vices of men: it incurred offence in the works of Adam and the blood of Abel, under Noah it was full of the sins of its inhabitants, and now too all the lofty and high places of the mountains are stained with shrines, temples, and sacrifices. So this mountain is not to be looked for among such things. But as the highest parts of the ground are called mountains, so among heavenly things we must think of the greatest and loftiest under the name of mountain. And what is loftier than Christ? What higher than our God? His mountain is the body he assumed from man, in which he now dwells, lofty and high above every rule and authority and every name. On this mountain is built the city that cannot be hidden, because, as the apostle says, there is no other foundation but Christ. Since, then, those who are Christ's were chosen in Christ's body before the foundation of the world, and the church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the foundation of our building, and the city is built on the mountain, this is the mountain on which it is asked who can rest. In another psalm we read of this same mountain: "Who ascends the mountain of the Lord, or who will stand in his holy place?" And Isaiah will be our witness: "And in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, and they will say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob." And again Paul: "You have come to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God, Jerusalem." If, then, all the hope of our rest is in Christ's body, and rest is to be had on the mountain, we can understand the mountain as nothing other than the body he took from us, before which he was God and in which he is God, and through which he transfigured the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of his glory, provided we too have nailed the vices of our body to his cross so as to rise in his body. To it one climbs after dwelling in the church; in it one rests in the height of the Lord; in it, since we too are the city of God, we shall be joined to the choirs of angels. And there is rest, because there is no pain from weakness, no fear from want, but rest is to be had in those things outside which they lack nothing, as all enjoy their own firmness through the power of eternity.

So to what was asked, "Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle, or who will rest on your holy mountain?", the Holy Spirit answered through the prophet: "He who enters without stain and works righteousness." The answer, then, is that this is one who enters undefiled and lives free of every stain of sin, to whom no filth has clung after the washing of baptism, but who is spotless and shining: his body not polluted with debauchery, his eyes not soiled by theatrical shows, his mind not drunk with wine, his life not the handmaid of money. It is a great thing, then, to abstain from these; but in these there is not at once the rest of a completed journey, for the way has begun in them, not been finished. For there follows: "and works righteousness." The good is not so much to be thought of as to be carried out; and goodwill is not to be begun but fulfilled. For the fruit of willing righteousness here will be that it is done. And in these things the course toward the Lord is useful; but there is more remaining.

For there remains: "He who enters without stain and works righteousness, who speaks truth in his heart." The former things, though great and illustrious, are often common with the pagans, so that they avoid vice and gain a reputation for goodness. But this is the virtue of natural men, not of spiritual ones. For the apostle distinguished the carnal man, the natural man, and the spiritual man: the carnal, who like a beast neglects divine and human things, whose life is the servant of the body, busy with food, sleep, and lust; the natural, who by the judgment of human sense perceives what is fitting and honourable and draws back from all vices on his own mind's authority, judging what is useful and honourable by his own sense, so as to despise money, be sparing with fasts, be free of ambition, resist pleasures, and be venerable for goodness; but he will have use for this only in the present and as a man among men. Of these the teacher of the Gentiles says: "According to the teachings and precepts of men, which have indeed a show of wisdom in superstition and humility of mind, in not sparing the body, not in any honour, for the satisfying of the flesh." But the spiritual man is one who has those former pursuits toward the Lord, and who does what he does through the knowledge of God, understanding and knowing what his will is, understanding and knowing through the revelation and gift of the Holy Spirit the secret of the hidden counsel concealed from the times of the world: what the reason is for God's assuming flesh, what the triumph of the cross, what the power of death, what the working in the power of the resurrection. These things, as the same apostle teaches, "the natural man does not perceive, the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are examined spiritually. But he who is spiritual judges all things, and he himself is judged by no one."

The Holy Spirit, then, knew that the former things, innocence of life and works of righteousness, are common to pagans and heretics. For many of them wear out their bodies with fasts, give proof of self-restraint by distributing their inheritances, and complete their chastity with virginity. But because these things and many like them would abound among them, the Lord spoke thus to the disciples: "Truly I say to you, when the Son of Man comes, do you think he will find faith on the earth?" He knew that virginity, self-restraint, and fasting would be cultivated, and because these do not avail for holiness unless they are fulfilled in Christ, that is, unless they agree with the truth of Christ, the prophet added to what he had said above: "and speaks truth in his heart," showing those former things to be useless unless they are undertaken in the truth of confession. In these things there is a high step for those climbing to the rest of the Lord's mountain, namely in innocence, in works, and in confession; but though we have advanced through many, there are still others remaining.

For many are accustomed to display a glorious appearance of understanding in words and to feign the beauty of will and judgment even by honourable speech, thinking and speaking well of God, but belying their words and sense by their deeds and works. These are the ones who hate what they say and in their very actions are enemies of what they preach. So to truth of heart he added, saying: "who has not practised deceit with his tongue," so that he may not betray in words the truth he perceives, and so that action too may follow the profession of catholic teaching and the judgment of thinking and preaching so; because, according to the apostle's testimony, as one believes in the heart, so confession is made with the mouth unto salvation. So that the ascent to God's rest may be worthy, then, we must live in the truth of words and tongue, so that through the faithfulness of our works the words of our mind are not false.

But this is narrow and difficult amid the wickedness and vices of the world. For a lie is often necessary, and falsehood is sometimes useful: when we lie to a murderer about someone hiding, or frustrate testimony against someone in danger, or deceive the sick about the difficulty of their cure; and, according to the apostle's teaching, our speech must be seasoned with salt. Therefore the Holy Spirit now tempered the disposition to falsehood by the conditions of lying, saying: "who has not practised deceit with his tongue nor done evil to his neighbour," so that the crime of lying might be counted in harm to another.

But even if what we said above is fulfilled, and he enters innocent and works righteousness, embracing truth in his heart, not deceiving himself in what he says, not bringing evil on his neighbour, he will still not be perfect in these. There is still something in us to be tamed, spat out, and destroyed; and what it is, the same prophet confirms as in the earlier verses, saying: "and has not taken up a reproach against his neighbours." He drives out the vices of insolence and self-confidence and removes that common evil of pride. For what is so empty, so wretched as a man proud toward a man, as one confident in himself? Do we not see many who, in the insolence of wealth, reproached the poor with their need, then lost everything and were in need themselves, and, having scorned others' misery, needed in turn those who would pity them? Many too, through presumption on a long-innocent life, have rolled into crimes, and while reproaching others with their faults, hardly attain themselves to the pardon of repentance. A reproach must not be taken up against neighbours, then; but if anything careless, negligent, insolent, or incontinent is found in them, it must be corrected with the gentleness of amendment, without the bitterness of reproach. Humility sees to this, as does distrust of oneself through fear, which is the strongest guard against self-confidence: that admonition be not insult, amendment not reproach, teaching not abuse. So the Lord in the Gospels condemned the self-confidence of the praying Pharisee, when he stood in the middle and spoke thus: "I thank you, Lord, that I am not like other men, adulterers, greedy, like this tax collector too." But the tax collector was praying apart: "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." To this prayer of his Scripture added: "that the tax collector went out justified rather than the Pharisee." The tax collector obtained God's mercy by confessing his sin; but the Pharisee lost the honour of what he displayed about himself through the insolence of reproach.

But perhaps someone, having attained all these, now believes himself worthy of God's promises, since after innocence, after goodness, after the measure of prudence, he has also been moderated by humility. But more still remain. For as he indicated that sin lies in a lie if the falsehood of the liar procured evil for another, so now, where he decrees that reproaches are not to be taken up against neighbours, he added that account must still be taken of humility itself. What this account is is joined in the verse: "and has not taken up a reproach against his neighbours. The wicked man is brought to nothing in his sight." Humility must not lack constancy, and the freedom of God must be kept by us in the servitude we owe to all, so that we are not terrified by the onset of the powerful nor yield to the will of the malicious. For sometimes we serve kings who demand unjust things with base flattery, and through the weakness of our conscience we flatter the vices of others. So if someone has already broken out into the open profession of iniquity, as the verse explains, "the wicked man is brought to nothing in his sight," such a man must be of no account with us, not of some account, so that he is nothing to us, abolished, done away with. For one who deals with spiritual things and contemplates heavenly ones ought to despise the weight of human wickedness and, with a lofty and high mind, regard a man of such malice as if he were nothing.

But it may be judged that the prophet has raised the greatness of our faith too high against the wicked. But we must see what follows: "The wicked man is brought to nothing in his sight, but he honours those who fear the Lord." As, then, without respect of persons anyone who is wicked ought to be nothing to us, so without respect of persons everyone who fears the Lord is to be honoured. Let us not be moved by whether it is an innocent poor man, a fasting old woman, a faithful slave, or a stranger who trusts in the shelter of the church, but let us revere all with equal judgment, so that our humility in honouring those who fear the Lord may be such as our freedom ought to be in counting the malicious as nothing.

And since at the birth of our regeneration we swear to these mysteries, renouncing the devil, the world, and sins, when we answer those who question us, he decreed that the faith of this confession must be kept to the end, saying: "who swears to his neighbour and does not deceive." For although someone has remained long in God's commandments, yet if at some time he deceives, he no longer remains when he deceives, and former righteousness is lost in the time of unrighteousness. And therefore in the Gospel: "Blessed are those who remain to the end"; therefore in Solomon all praise is sung at the end; because in what has been promised to God there must never be deception.

But the heavenly admonition reaches all the way to perfect completion. For from him whom he has cleansed of every vice he also turns away the desire for money, which holds us back too much, saying: "who has not given his money at interest." This kindness is taught to be deceitful, this humanity fraudulent, this goodwill ruinous. For what is so intolerable as to give a kindness to the needy in such a way that he is in greater need, and to heap up the poor man's misery while you pretend to bring help? If you are a Christian, what reward do you expect from God, when you yourself expect from men not kindnesses but losses? If you are a Christian, why do you set your idle money to earn a return and make your brother's poverty, for whom Christ died, your treasure? If you are a Christian, I do not ask you to give; at least ask back the debt in such a way that you do not plunder, and remember that the one from whom you demand interest is needy and poor, for whose sake Christ willed to be needy and poor. So whether you do injury or kindness to the poor, know that you do it to Christ, because for their sake, though he was God, he deigned to take their need and their name.

But so that the word of this admonition should not be thought harsh, as if under the name of interest he had removed all concern for having, he did not take away the care of acquiring; indeed, he tempered the moderation of accepting a gift, adding to what he had said: "who has not given his money at interest and has not accepted gifts against the innocent." There is a certain custom of gifts that brings honour to the giver, so that it is a very great grief to have one's offering scorned, greater than the loss of having given what was taken. So he forbade those gifts that would work injury to another. For if he had taken away the use of gifts altogether, it would have been enough to say "and does not accept gifts." But because the simple use of gifts comes from reverence either for man or for God, he forbade those gifts that would corrupt the integrity of judgment, that would buy injury to the innocent, that contain in themselves no duty of mutual love. For as with what we offer to God, he does not need it, but through us the duties of due reverence are fulfilled, so he teaches that this account must be kept in gifts: that we accept what is pleasing and useful to those who offer, not what makes us venal, nor what is treacherous to the innocent, nor costly to the givers; taken out of duty rather than greed, offered out of honour rather than fear, received out of love rather than for gain.

"He who does these things will not be moved for ever." Through these, then, is dwelling in the tabernacle, through these rest on the mountain. What remains, therefore, is the keeping of the precepts and the work of the commandments. The psalm must be stored in our inmost parts, written on the heart, sealed in memory, and the treasure of this abundant brevity must be kept with us night and day, so that, having acquired this wealth as provision for eternity and dwelling in the church, we may at last rest in the glory of Christ's body.

The very heading of the psalm demands careful diligence in seeking its understanding. For at its opening is set at once: "For the end, understanding." The psalm is shown to contain things not of its own time, since the title "for the end" is set before it. And since the understanding is at the end, there can be in it the understanding of no other thing more than of the end. And the end, as we have often shown, is that in which all things are concluded, for whose sake the rest exist, to which all the works of hope, of affairs, and of business hasten.

The understanding of the psalm, then, consists in him for whose sake all things are, outside whom there is nothing. And who he is, the heading itself, which is thought to contain history, will show. For it is this: "For the end, understanding, to that David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him: David has come to the house of Abimelech." And so that we may grasp the meaning of the heading more fully, the order of the events themselves must be set out. Doeg was in charge of Saul's mules; he said to Saul: "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob to Abimelech, son of Ahitub; and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him food and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine." When the king heard this, he gave Doeg power over the priests and the city. Then Scripture added: "And Doeg the Edomite went around and struck the priests and killed that day eighty-five, all wearing the ephod; and he overthrew Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword." This is the whole faithful record of events, from which only so much has been taken for the title of the psalm as would satisfy both the mystery of the psalm and the prophetic teaching. For the heading contains only this: "When Doeg came and told Saul and said: David has come to the house of Abimelech." And necessarily this psalm, earlier in time, is placed later in order, after the fiftieth psalm, in which the forgiveness of sins is contained according to the power of that sanctified number, as we taught at the beginning of the Psalms; so that what is headed "for the end, understanding" may be understood when the kinds of mysteries have been completed and perfected on every side.

Abimelech, by interpretation of the word, signifies "my brother's rule." For what we call "my brother's rule" the Hebrews call Abimelech. When, then, Saul is told, "David has come to the house of Abimelech," David's enemy is told that he has entered the house of his brother's rule. What the house of his brother's rule is, the apostle Peter teaches, saying: "And you, like living stones, are built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood." And below: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy race, a people for possession." Into this spiritual house, then, we are to be built as a royal race, if through the spiritual building of our bodies, made conformed to God, we deserve to be perfected as a royal race. This house of Abimelech, then, that is, the house of the brotherly kingdom, was entered by that true David, holy, king, just, the dayspring, namely when he became man in our body. This house is a brotherly kingdom to him, because in the glory of the same body we are co-heirs of his kingdom, as he himself says: "Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." That those whose royal house he entered are his brothers he testifies through the prophet in the psalm, saying: "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the church I will praise you." So, the forgiveness of sins having been granted according to the preceding psalm, the Word made flesh dwells in us, who are both brothers and a spiritual house and a royal race.

But the ungodly, parricidal, and treacherous people, who is signified in Doeg, betrays to its king, the enemy of David, that he is in the house of Abimelech. This happens when he is handed over to Pilate, when the man is offered to be crucified, when, rejecting their king, they confess Caesar as their king. They betray him as being in the house of Abimelech, but do not understand that, in being in the house of Abimelech, he has entered the house of brotherly rule, that is, the body in which the church of the saints, which is the body of Christ, will reign with him, conformed to him; the house in which he both took the food he longed for (for he longed with desire to eat the Passover) and from which he took away the arms of Goliath, that is, of the devil, for he plundered the spoils of the strong man; after which the apostles were killed and the churches overthrown by this same Doeg, that is, the treacherous people. Hence, then, the title of the psalm, "for the end, understanding," because in Christ, who is David, the dayspring, the just one, the king, eternal and shepherd, is understood the completion of all our hope and the end of the law; who, according to both the title and the order of the psalm, was betrayed in that house of his body which is signified to be the house of brotherly rule.

"Why do you boast in wickedness, you who are mighty, of iniquity all day long?" The prophet's complaint is that he who is mighty in wickedness boasts of iniquity all day long. It is this boasting in iniquity that is rebuked. For there is a glory that is to be sought and confessed and spoken with a kind of feeling of exultant joy; another prophet shows both under the same words, saying: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in the Lord." Having first forbidden the causes of unworthy boasting, he shows in turn the cause of fitting boasting. By this example the blessed apostle knows that he must boast in nothing except in one thing alone, when he says: "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." It is not boasting of this kind that offends, then, but boasting in iniquity, and in iniquity that lasts all day. We remember that "day" is often used for the age or lifetime of a man, as when it is said, "I have not desired the day of man," or again when Abraham longed for the day of the Lord, or when the apostle hands someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, meaning not this day bounded by the rising and setting of the sun, but the day of an appointed time or age. The mighty one in wickedness, then, boasts of iniquity all day long.

But it is plainly understood that the reason for this complaint does not fit the person of Doeg. For what power did a keeper of mules have, one who had been given charge over the animals that carried the king, or who merely reported that David had entered Abimelech's house? Does he boast of iniquity all day long? Rather, under his person is to be understood the people whose whole age was in iniquity, for whom the glory of iniquity itself abounded from the power of wickedness. For it was mighty when, as a slave, it was visited by the Lord; when for its sake Egypt was struck with so many plagues; when in the three days' darkness it did not feel the darkness, since light remained with it; when it left Egypt itself, stripped of silver and every adornment, to its ruin; when, according to the times of day and night, it had the pillar now of cloud, now of fire; when it crossed the Red Sea on foot; when it lived on the food of angels; when it saw the majesty of God descending on the mountain; when it heard the voice of one speaking from the fire; when it overthrew many kingdoms in heavy wars; when it watched the Jordan flow back so as to become dry for it; when it had prophets; when it had priests for the cleansing of sins and the redemption of its soul; when it deserved to obtain its own kingdom. But though it was mighty in all these, it was always mighty in its wickedness: when it longed for the onions and garlic and meat of Egypt; when, from the habit of vices, it preferred ungodly slavery to godly freedom; when it worshipped the calf, cursed Moses, abhorred God, vowed its sons as sacrifices to demons, killed the prophets, and even raised on the cross its God and Lord himself, born as man for its sake and betrayed to the governor. And so, boasting of iniquity in the whole day of its life, though mighty, it remained mighty in wickedness.