Tractates on the Psalms 63.1–63.12

The heading of the psalm contains no history. It is simple and issued by the prophetic Spirit; only by being headed "for the end" does it testify that it contains things not of its own time in which it was written. But we must ask in whose person it is spoken, or how it declares itself to be understood; for without doubt it is to be thought spiritual. For since those very psalms which, according to the inscriptions of their titles, are believed to contain events, in very many points disagree with the proper sense of their title, things, and persons, and rather signify the effects of spiritual workings through the mention of names and events, what is to be understood of one in which there is only the simple inscription of the psalm, "for the end," to be understood, except that in it a form of spiritual teaching has been set?

I remember that there are many who think that everything written in the book of Psalms is to be referred to the person of our Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, and that nothing else is contained in them than what is proper to him. This opinion of theirs cannot be blamed. For this whole sense comes from the feeling of a devout mind, and it is free of fault to fit everything with eager zeal to him through whom all things are. For although this is sometimes done unskilfully, yet since everything is referred to him, what is proper to him must be proclaimed truly and faithfully. But we must take care that, while we think everything applies equally to him, through the zealous intent of this assertion very much is not taken away from the dignity of his divinity, the mystery of his taking a body, the power of his works, the force of his passion, and the glory of his resurrection.

A measure must be kept, then, and it must be determined carefully and cautiously what was prophesied of the birth of his divinity, which is his from the Father; when the person of the man he assumed is being treated; where his working, passion, and resurrection are proclaimed; and what suits each time: when the faith of the nations is announced, when the sins of the former people are rebuked, when teaching of the fear of God and instruction in confession are given through the prophet's prayer. For in these the spiritual order of prophecy consists. And if the Lord is proclaimed, the advance of this knowledge is useful for faith. If we are taught to fear and confess him, we are formed for the Lord, we advance, we are gained, so that, as redeemed through his passion, we may likewise please him through the instructions of his teaching.

I understand that there are some things in the present psalm that may seem fitting to the man whom the Lord assumed, where it is said: "They searched out iniquities; those who searched failed in their searching." For perhaps it will be thought that the conspiracy of the Jews is signified in it, when testimonies by which he could be convicted were sought and not found, and all the wits of the searchers failed; then that they were wounded by the arrows of little ones, that is, by the teachings of the apostles, against whom they found no cause for just persecution, and so their tongues failed against them. We do not pass over these things as improbable; but there are some other things in the psalm that hinder the order of this understanding. Yet the discourse of our exposition will not differ far from these.

For we think that the present psalm contains the confession not only of the apostles, who were the first, but of every saint who hopes in the Lord. For we have been placed amid the greatest storms of the world and the most grievous ungodliness of the human race toward God; our faithful and true confession of him is now mocked by philosophy, now attacked by the fury of heretics, now condemned by the pursuits of avarice, now disturbed by the favour of ambition. For hiding from, enduring, avoiding, and refuting all of these, our mind is not sufficient unless instructed by God. With how many and how troublesome stings of disputations does philosophy attack God's providence and his principal and beginningless dominion in the world created by him, granting the name of God now to waters, now to the earth, now to atoms, now to the sky! With what ingenious use of cunning does the heretic falsify the teaching of the faith! With how great danger to his hearers does the avaricious man assert the glory of riches! With how great a ruin of self-control does the advocate of bodily pleasures pursue their joys! And how pestilent is the eloquence of the ambitious in urging toward honour! Against all these, watchful care, all-night prayer, and eternal confession toward God will fight. Because of these destructions of our faith and eternal salvation, then, the prophet will be understood to pray in the psalm in his own person, showing how far it befits us to hope in God.

For he says: "Hear, God, my prayer, when I am afflicted; rescue my soul from fear of the enemy." When the things we mentioned above rush upon us, through which our faith and hope are endangered, let prayer be directed to him who alone can heal them. For there is fear that the surge of enticements creeping in from every side may swallow up the soul, weak by nature and by fellowship with the flesh. For they are present daily and fight with deceitful flatteries, bringing up certain engines of destruction. So we are warned by the teaching of heavenly instruction to give watchful care to faith and always to fear the enemy lying in wait, lest he, placed on the watchtowers, attack our careless security. We must watch, then, in prayer to God and always pray, so that, when the soul begins to be wearied and afflicted by the stings of creeping enticements, God, always prayed to, may hear and rescue us from what we fear. For he says: "Rescue my soul from fear of the enemy." For God is to be prayed to not only when what is feared has rushed upon us (and those things are to be feared which, once they begin to be present, dominate), but always and with tireless prayers, that he may rescue us from fear of those whose domination we fear. For it is written in Proverbs: "When I called, you did not hear; and when I stretched out my words, you did not attend; but you made my counsels void and did not attend to my counsels. And I will laugh at your destruction. It will be, then, that when you call upon me, I will not hear." The prophet, then, though earlier in time, is not ignorant of what would be said later, but, anxious at tribulations always impending and concerned at every fear of the enemy, he prays to God because of what he fears, and entreats that he be with him in tribulation and hear him. For not our fear but our faith merits God's mercy; and there is need of the proof of long preparation for us to deserve to be heard. The prophet, then, remembers that he is freed from all these by prayer, and teaches that his prayer comes not from the domination of what he fears but from fear of domination.

For he says: "You have protected me from the gathering of the wicked, from the multitude of those who work iniquity, who have sharpened their tongues like a sword, they have bent the bow, a bitter thing, to shoot in the dark at the spotless one." The prophet here does not fear weapons of war, nor sword, darts, or the engines of the bow. All his fear is of the tongue; its swords, its spears he fears. From these indeed he is safe by his faith, for he says, "You have protected me from the gathering of the wicked"; but the bow of the murderous tongue is always bent and the edge of the sword is ready in its tongue. Its deadly arrows fly, and there is no doubt what they accomplish: "to shoot in the dark at the spotless one." And the proper sense of the word must be understood. They shoot not at the holy, not at the faithful, not at the just, but at the spotless: the one whose filth and stains of old crimes have been newly washed away through the mystery of baptism, but who is not yet firm in faith, not yet instructed in spiritual teachings, not yet fighting against these weapons of the combative tongue, but simple and tender from the infancy of the new birth. Him, then, without fear of any contradiction, their bow long since bent, they will wound, placed in the dark through ignorance of things. For he says: "Suddenly they will shoot him and will not fear": the simple nature, inexperienced in the newness of the spotless one. This they deceive; for this they stretch hidden snares, boasting in the secret lurking places of their plots.

For there follows: "They have strengthened for themselves an evil word; they have discussed how to hide snares; they have said: Who will see them?" A distinction of time is made between inflicting the wound and the counsel strengthened. For when it is said, "Suddenly they will shoot," the work of future time is taught; but when, "They have strengthened an evil word," the counsel of a will long since strengthened is shown from the past. For destructions against the faith are always ready, and the tricks of pestilent persuasion lie in hidden and deceitful snares, which they think are seen by very few. And therefore it is said: "They hid snares and said: Who will see them?" For if a heretic attempts to pervert the faith, it is incredible with how many tricks he strives to overthrow it; if a philosopher attacks the hope of our eternity, he will marvellously place every good of the present life in the body: both of them searching out, with all the eagerness of their wit, the things by which the institution of heavenly teaching might be undermined.

But what is human perversity against God? What is the craftsman's work's wit against the craftsman? Let them seek the destruction of truth with all the little questions of their argumentation; yet the assertion of falsehood will fail in the destruction of truth; and therefore there follows: "They searched out iniquities; those who searched failed in their searching." The failing of the searchers shows the failing of a superfluous persuasion against God. For what wits will not totter that are bent on contradicting the truth? Let them pry into all the secrets of natural causes and with the obstinate vigour of their studies search the inner workings of the heavenly motions themselves; yet in the very effort of their work they will fail, refuted by spiritual teachings. Those who teach that everything is driven by chance motions will hear from us that the God of eternal power does not abide in chance things but is the creator of the world, unlimited in essence as in power; that he is from no one, but all things from him; that he governs and holds together all these very things. He who proclaims the death of the soul with the body will hear that the soul is not earthly, but arisen from the breath of God and mixed with the elements of the body; and that death is not destruction but its departure from the body. He who denies the resurrection of the flesh will know that its restoration will not be difficult for him to whom its first beginning was easy. Further, he who takes from God the care of human conduct will learn that God is the judge of the eternal kingdom; and that man was created not only to exist (for what use was it to God that man exist?) but, brought forth for the knowledge of God, to hope for advancement for himself from the knowledge of his maker.

Now if the heretic would destroy the faith, he will learn that the Son of God always was, separated from the Father by no interval of time; that he is the Word, the power, the wisdom of God; that he was the maker of the world, he also the founder of man; that he washed away the first crimes of the world by the flood; he gave the law to Moses; he was in the prophets and through them sang those great mysteries of his taking a body and his passion; that, rising in the body, he brought the brightness of spiritual glory into perishable flesh and swallowed up the beginnings of earthly corruption into the nature of his divinity.

Those who search, then, will fail against these things; and through a man instructed in the teaching of God and raising the humility of his heart on high, these proclamations of divine working will be brought forward, so that this pre-eminence of God is praised by the confession of those very ones who hear them. And therefore there follows thus: "They searched out iniquities; those who searched failed in their searching. Man will draw near, and a deep heart, and God will be exalted." For when the failing of the searchers is known and a man of deep heart draws near, the greatness of divine goodness is recognized. And how great will be the advance of spiritual teaching! For who will not magnify God, knowing him as the founder of this world? Who will not fear one he knows as judge? Who will not wish to be reborn into innocence, when forgiveness of sin is granted by the mystery of the new birth? Who, now reborn, would not cease from sin and wish to remain in the innocence of a little child, knowing that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such? This profession of ours weakens the wits of the searchers; these spears of our teaching, which are the arrows of little ones through the beginning of the reborn, wound foolish disputations and ridiculous doctrines about God. The contradiction of a profane tongue cannot oppose these; against the faith of all our discussions and exhortations there is the trembling of those who refuse and the fear of those who hear.

For when the works of God have been announced, then his deeds will begin to be understood, then the righteous will rejoice in them, then all the upright in heart will praise him. And the psalm teaches this very thing thus: "Man will draw near, and a deep heart, and God will be exalted. The arrows of little ones have become their wounds, and their tongues had nothing against them. All who saw them were troubled, and every man feared. And they announced the works of God and understood his deeds. The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and hope in him, and all the upright in heart will be praised." Against the wounding arrows of the little ones the tongue of the adversaries had nothing to say. And those who saw the little ones shooting are troubled and afraid, when they recognize that they are in error, when they acknowledge the day of judgment and the recompense of life lived in the body, when they hear the works of God and understand his deeds. In these is the joy of the saints, in these their firmest hope. For these things those who are upright in heart praise God, knowing that he is the forgiver of sins, the destroyer of death and the conqueror of the devil, the judge of the world, the giver of eternity, our God and Lord, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.