Selected Comments on the Psalms 1605–1621

"I have sworn and resolved to keep the judgments of your righteousness," etc. He has named the unchangeableness of his purpose an oath.

Of the same. We must inquire what "I have sworn" is doing here. "He made a covenant with his chosen ones." When God made this covenant with his chosen ones, the believer accepted it, and, by accepting his covenant, made as it were oaths between himself and God, so as to establish and keep the judgments of his righteousness. I establish them, he says, in my soul; and when I establish them, there comes about what is said by Solomon in Proverbs: "The thoughts of the righteous are judgments." Those "judgments" are "of the righteousness" of God; and they come about when I have sworn and established them in myself. "To establish" here means to define firmly; and "to swear," to resolve this unchangeably, and to choose with firm assurance to keep the work of the oath inviolate.

"Accept, Lord, the freewill offerings of my mouth, and teach me your judgments," etc. The things we were not commanded to do but do by choice he calls the freewill offerings of our mouth: for example, if I practise virginity, which I was neither commanded nor ordered to do, but choose to do voluntarily as the better course. Accept this, then, Lord. And in other matters of our life we shall find such things in the same way: some we do as servants under orders, and some we do voluntarily.

"My soul is in your hands continually, and I have not forgotten your law," etc. You will inquire how David's soul is in the hands of God continually: whether as in righteousness or as in knowledge. And perhaps the former; for it belongs to angels to see the face of God continually, that is, to contemplate him, but to men to be able to act righteously in deed continually; and this is to be in the hands of God. For righteousness of action in thought belonged to Christ alone, "who committed no sin" (that is, in deed) "and no deceit was found in his mouth" (clearly, in thought, from which the overflowings of the heart proceed). I entrust my soul to you always; I make you its guard and protector and pilot; and for this reason I have not forgotten your law, so that I may not fall away. Everyone who has dedicated himself to God commits his soul into his hands, as he said elsewhere: "For you are my protector, Lord; into your hands I will commit my spirit." But if he divides himself among pleasures and bodily passions and the cares of this life, he does not commit his soul into the hands of God.

Of the same. Aquila renders thus: "My soul is in my palm continually and perpetually, and I have not forgotten your law"; Symmachus: "My soul is in my hands always"; and the Fifth edition like the Seventy.

"Sinners laid a snare for me, and I did not stray from your commandments," etc. Sinners stitch together many and various snares for the righteous: for Joseph, the Egyptian woman and his brothers; for Daniel, those who received authority from Darius. But they did not stray from the commandments of God; therefore they proved stronger than the snares.

"I have inherited your testimonies for ever, for they are the joy of my heart," etc. All who rejoice in the commandments of God and embrace righteous action inherit his testimonies continually, acquiring them as their lot and portion in place of everything in the world, and rejoicing in whatever they suffer for them.

"I have inclined my heart to do your statutes for ever, for the reward," etc. I inclined it, knowing that a reward is stored up, which is the kingdom of God: "What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him."

Of the same. The reward of the statutes is the knowledge of them.

"I have hated the lawless, but I have loved your law," etc. The lawless man, insofar as he is lawless, is hateful; but insofar as he is the image and handiwork of God, he is to be loved. It is in the second sense that we have been commanded to visit those in prison, and it has been laid down that we do good to evildoers. But here he can mean words and laws that David hated.

Of the same. He did not hate lawless men; his life showed that he did not hate lawless men. For he did not hate Absalom, who rose against his father, nor Saul (of whom God said, "I repent that I anointed Saul king"), who plotted against David in various ways, nor any other lawless man. That is why, when he said "the lawless," he did not add "men"; for as a saint he hated what deserves hatred: lawless words, lawless doctrines, such teachings, the disposition by which they sin. That is why he set the beloved law against the lawless words. In this sense we have been commanded to hate father and mother too, that is, to turn away from them when they urge us to impiety or turn us from martyrdom for Christ. For otherwise we have been commanded to love even our enemies. And since God calls us to hate even our own soul, we must likewise hate lawless men, so that we may turn them back by becoming better through not becoming like them.

"Depart from me, you evildoers, and I will search out the commandments of my God," etc. Unless the demons depart from us, we have no strength to do the commandments of God; for it is against these above all that they take their stand, because these become for us the means to the knowledge of God.

"Uphold me according to your saying, and I shall live,"

[Ps 118 LXX / 119, continued] "and do not put me to shame in my expectation," etc. "For affliction produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope, and hope does not put to shame."

Of the same. "According to your saying," that is, according to your promise. For you promised in the law to protect those who keep it. Count me, then, who have this aim, worthy of your providence, so that I may not fail of my hope and be filled with shame. "Saying" here means the promise; that is: Grant me the salvation promised to me.

"Help me, and I shall be saved, and I will meditate on your statutes continually," etc. For even if he said, "You are my helper and my protector," yet he needs unceasing help. For as long as we are here, "I shall be saved" is not yet complete; it will be when we live with the angels of God. For then the meditation on the statutes too will be face to face, not according to the shadow but according to the truth.

"I reckoned all the sinners of the earth as transgressors; therefore I loved your testimonies," etc. We call "transgressors" those who have been taught the word and, after being taught, did not keep it, but fell away and transgressed. But he sees that all have starting points toward goodness, even if they were not taught; so that not only those who fell away after faith are called transgressors, but also those who sin in any way whatever. And the sinners of the earth are men who have sinned on earth. For there are other sinners, of heaven, against whom our wrestling is, "against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"; for having sinned there first, they afterwards do so on earth as well.

"Nail my flesh with the fear of you; for I have been afraid of your judgments," etc. One who is nailed is crucified. I seek, then, the cross, and I ask whether the cross is the fear of God. For the Saviour said: "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." We have often distinguished between fear and love, and have said that the one who loves is more perfect than the one who fears, and that fear is necessary for the introduction. But where "perfect love" comes in, "it casts out fear." Since, then, the righteous man is found nailed by God with fear, I ask whether the one who is crucified fears, being nailed with fear, so that he may put to death his members that are on earth; but when perfect love comes, he is taken down from the cross, is buried, is raised from the dead, so that he may walk in newness of life, no longer according to fear but according to the love that is in Christ Jesus.

"I have done judgment and righteousness; do not hand me over to those who wrong me," etc. How, then, was Job, who did judgment and righteousness, as the Lord himself testified, handed over to those who wronged him? Or else he does not wish his soul to be handed over to them; for the righteous man knows how to despise body and possessions.

"I am your servant; give me understanding, and I shall know your testimonies," etc. No slave of sin is a servant of God; so let the one who serves in every action and thought, doing everything according to his word, say: "I am your servant." Being such a one, the Prophet asks to receive as the wage of his service: "Give me understanding." For there is an understanding given by God, which is stored with God as in a treasury. "For the Spirit of wisdom and understanding," it says, and the other gifts of good things, "will rest upon him."

"It is time to act for the Lord; they have scattered your law," etc. It is the time of achievement for the Lord, namely, to execute vengeance. The lawless have dissolved and set aside your law. Symmachus: "It is time to act for the Lord, for they are scattering your law"; Aquila: "They have annulled."

"Therefore I was directed toward all your commandments; I hated every unjust way," etc. Whoever has not accomplished all the commandments has not hated every unjust way either. And if the one who fears the Lord hates injustice, and this man has not hated it, he does not fear the Lord. And the one who does not fear is not blessed, since "Blessed is the one who fears the Lord." Whoever loves the commandments of God hates all vice as opposed to them. For virtue and vice are incompatible, as are light and darkness, health and sickness.

"Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul has searched them out," etc. Since your testimonies, being great and full of meaning, are wonderful, for this reason I do not attend to them carelessly, but my soul searches them out intently. For when I have contemplated them, I see myself falling far short of the understanding of them, and I apply myself to them a second time; then again, seeing that I am barely at the introduction to them, I intensify the search that lies open to me, until I attain the purest truth of the understanding of them.

"I opened my mouth and drew in breath, for I longed for your commandments," etc. Whoever has opened his heart through the practical life draws in the Holy Spirit, who reveals to him the mysteries of God. The mouth of my soul is the understanding. Having shut this to evil thoughts, I opened it to good ones, and drew in the Spirit of understanding, of grace, and of wisdom.

Of the same. So the wage for the supply of the Spirit is the declaring and the accomplishing of the commandments of God, so that we have only to open our mouth and at once draw the Spirit from heaven.

"Direct my steps according to your saying, and let no lawlessness rule over me," etc. Lawlessness is said to rule over the one who sins in thought, and to rule completely over the one who transgresses in deed. Or perhaps lawlessness rules over those who sin a little, and rules completely over those who sin more.

"My eyes went down into streams of water, because I did not keep your law," etc. Here he figuratively calls temptations in thought waters, from which Solomon turns us away, saying: "Keep away from strange water, and do not drink from a strange fountain."

Of the same. Our eyes go down into the streams of water, the unstable affairs of this life; from there they need to be brought up and to see clearly, so as to discern at last the stable things of the age to come.

Of the same. Symmachus renders thus: "My eyes went down into divisions of waters, over those who do not keep your law."

"Your zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten your words," etc. What zeal did I take up whenever I saw someone who had forgotten your words? Not simply zeal, but piercing and hot, a very burning, if I saw some forgetting your words. Of this zeal the disciples remembered that it was spoken in a psalm in the person of the Lord: "Zeal for your house has consumed me."

"Your saying is exceedingly refined by fire, and your servant has loved it," etc. The law of God, he says, is without guile, as tried in the fire by the Spirit himself; therefore it has no flattery and no irony, but openly reproves those who sin and stings the negligent. "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Let us too, then, if we are servants of God, love it, never playing dice with it or adulterating it (as Paul hinted), but offering it pure, as we received it from the smelting of the Spirit.

Of the same. The fire-refined saying of God burns wood, hay, and straw, consuming evil habits.

"Your righteousness is righteousness for ever, and your law is truth," etc. Righteousness among men is decreed for a short time. Eternal righteousness is righteousness in the proper sense: whomever you justify, you confirm eternally and justly. That of men is not so, for it is temporary and often mistaken. And your law is truth itself, exceedingly true in all things. Truth and uprightness are understood as in: "You are righteous, Lord, and your judgments are upright."

"Afflictions and hardships have found me; your commandments are my meditation," etc. He says "have found me" as though afflictions and hardships were seeking us out. Or perhaps those who afflict are called afflictions, and those who bring hardships are called hardships; for Scripture is accustomed to name habits in place of those who have them. So in Paul: "Love never fails"; and in Solomon: "Evil counsel has abandoned

the teaching of youth, and forgotten the divine covenant." And Scripture often does the reverse as well, and names the one who is by nature able to receive virtue in place of the virtue. For in Proverbs it says: "The uninstructed hated wisdom," in place of virtue. And Paul: "Do not be shaken from our mind," that is, from such an opinion. In afflictions your commandments were my meditation, comforting me and lightening the pain. For these are joined to the workers of virtue; from their teaching I learn courage and bear painful things nobly. So also Symmachus translated: "Afflictions and hardships overtook me, but your commandments delighted me"; and Aquila thus: "Affliction and distress found me; your commandments are my enjoyment."

"Your testimonies are righteousness for ever; give me understanding, and I shall live," etc. Understanding comes before knowledge, so that the one who has knowledge also has understanding; but the one who has understanding does not necessarily also have knowledge.

"I cried with my whole heart; hear me, Lord; I will seek out your statutes," etc. Whoever loves God with his whole heart cries with his whole heart.

Of the same. The cry is not a loud voice, but the greatness of the things it signifies to God. For the righteous man raises a great voice to God, asking for things heavenly and great. So too righteous Abel speaks, though he has died: "For the voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground"; to show that the righteous man has cried to God with a great voice. And to Moses, pursued by the Egyptians, he says: "Why do you cry to me?"

"I came early, at an untimely hour, and cried out; I hoped in your words," etc. The untimely hour is an intelligible disposition of a habit earnestly pressing on toward knowledge.

"Those who persecute me with lawlessness have drawn near; but they have gone far from your law," etc. We are taught by what is said to know what happens to one who persecutes the righteous: as far as he draws near to persecute the righteous man, so far he goes from the law of God. And as far as he goes from the law, so far he goes from life, because the law is our life.

"You are near, Lord, and all your ways are truth," etc. He himself draws near in this way; but unless we too, as he draws near, exert ourselves to draw near to him, we shall not enjoy his nearness. For this reason sinners are far from God: "Behold, those who put themselves far from you will perish." But the righteous man exerts himself to draw near to God.

Of the same. Righteousness is near to the one who is fitted by nature to act righteously; but it is much nearer to those who have acquired righteousness and knowledge in act.

"From the beginning I knew from your testimonies that

you founded them for ever," etc. Knowledge came to me from the beginning, when I began to worship God, from your testimonies. For, helped by having understood the testimonies handed down, I was enlightened in this way and sped toward knowledge; and I knew that you founded the testimonies for ever. If God has founded the testimonies, the founding has not yet ceased; what is being founded and built up is alive. And what do you build upon it? Ordinances, commandments, statutes, judgments, wisdom, knowledge; and so he completes the building in all good works, words of wisdom, knowledge of understanding. If these are laid in accordance with the foundation, a person has a perfect building of himself, worthy for God to dwell and walk in.

"See my humiliation and deliver me, for I have not forgotten your law," etc. It is blessed to be humbled before God; for James says: "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." When, then, we are humbled in this way, even if we are plotted against by demons, even if we are warred upon by men who hate the virtues, we have God to deliver us, if only we do not forget his law nor grow weary in afflictions.

"Salvation is far from sinners, for they have not sought out your statutes," etc. If the salvation of the rational nature is the knowledge of God, and this comes to be in pure souls, then "Salvation is far from sinners" is rightly said; "for wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil." Where judgment is near, salvation too is near; and where salvation is far, judgment too is far. Why? Because he did not seek out your statutes. For your salvation does not flee from us; we flee from it. "For the Son of Man," the salvation, "came to seek and to save the lost."

"Your compassions are many, Lord; according to your judgment give me life," etc. The mercy of man is upon his neighbour, but the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh. For even the most righteous man needs the mercy of God in the face of God's exact judgment; indeed, even the appearance of having become righteous comes about by the mercy of God. For what has anyone done that is worthy of eternal blessedness? Yet God does nothing without judgment, nor does he give life without it. And the compassions are many, since many are those upon whom they come.

"Many are those who persecute and afflict me; I have not turned aside from your testimonies," etc. "Blessed," he says, "are those persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Of the same. The multitude hints at visible and invisible enemies, whose persecutions and afflictions are of various kinds. Some, feigning friendship, suggest pleasures; others, laying their enmity bare, bring on every kind of temptation. But let us

not turn aside from the testimonies of God, in which he has solemnly testified to us "that through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of heaven."

"I saw the senseless and wasted away, because they did not keep your sayings," etc. "Zeal for your house has consumed me."

"See that I have loved your commandments, Lord; in your mercy give me life," etc. For this too he calls on God, and says to him: I call upon your face. For I am confident that, turning your face toward me to observe me, you will see how I have kept your commandments; for you will find the imprints of good works in me.

"Rulers persecuted me without cause, and my heart feared because of your words," etc. He calls rulers the world-rulers of this darkness. "For the ruler of this world is coming," he says, "and finds nothing in me." And by "world" he means not the system made up of heaven and earth, but those who live a worldly life.

Of the same. The verse has something that belongs to David in particular: that, when he was persecuted by Saul without cause and out of envy, he held back from retaliating through his fear of God. But it reaches also to what is common to all: that there is no other way to escape unharmed from the enemies who are rulers except by being guarded by the fear of God.

"Seven times a day I have praised you for the judgments of your righteousness," etc. As the eighth is a symbol of the age to come, holding the power of the resurrection, so the seventh is a symbol of this world. Perhaps, then, David praised the Lord because he knew the principles of the just judgment of this sensible world.

Of the same. Throughout his life the righteous man, being enlightened, will be in a perfect day, not interrupted by night; and he praises God seven times when he has risen above the world, by passing beyond the world made in six days; when also, having come into the paradise of God and contemplated the principle of God's creation and providence, he confesses the judgments of the righteousness of God, according to which judgments each thing has received its varied creation and providence.

"Great peace have those who love your law, and there is no stumbling for them," etc. If the little ones are made to stumble, the little ones do not love the Lord: "For whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble," he says. But those who love the Lord are not made to stumble. The little ones do not love the Lord; that is why they do not know the principles of what happens, and stumble at it. Peace, not with the invisible enemies, but with God; and there is no stumbling block for them. For the law levels the way of virtue for them, taking away every obstacle of sin. Or it is peace also with those of the same faith, even if they often do not wish to be at peace with them.

"I expected your salvation, Lord, and loved your commandments," etc. Blessed is the one who awaits the salvation of God and also loves his commandments; for he advances into a perfect life, to the peak of blessedness, which was allotted to the apostles themselves, to whom he said: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men waiting for their master."

"Let my petition draw near before you, Lord; according to your saying give me understanding," etc. Through the earlier letters he was journeying toward God, but was not yet near him; but when he has come to the end of the present discourse, and to the last letter among the Hebrews, then he prays that his prayer may draw near to God and reach him. As to drawing near to God, one should know that we have found these differences: the more perfect man draws near to God; but the lesser man, though near him, does not himself draw near to God, but has a prayer that draws near to him. So you will find of Moses: "Moses alone shall draw near to God, but the rest shall not draw near"; but of this man, a prayer that says: "Let my petition draw near," and so on. It is worth contemplating now what the difference between these is. God is not in a place, but is a power unspeakable, unutterable, and invisible. If God is not in a place, and yet it is sometimes possible to draw near to God, clearly we draw near to him by what is invisible in us. And what is invisible in us? "The hidden man of the heart," whom Scripture has named the "inner man." It is this, then, that can draw near to God. And one can draw near through Jesus Christ, especially if we understand Christ to be righteousness, to be truth and wisdom, and resurrection and true light. For without these it is not possible to draw near to God, nor without peace, which guards the heart and the thoughts, and which is Christ. And as far as anyone falls short of these, of righteousness, I mean, and of wisdom, so far is such a man from God.

"Let my request come in before you, Lord; deliver me according to your saying," etc. He asks that his request be such as to come in before the Lord: approved, firm, and blameless. And I shall know whether my request has come in before you if I am delivered by you according to your word and my request and your wisdom. For whoever has risen above all the passions and has gone as far as possible from the vice that makes men useless is delivered by God according to his saying. For "my request" Aquila has said "my petition," and Symmachus "my supplication." He asks, then, for two things: understanding of the sacred sayings, and release and freedom from the evils of this life; which is necessary for us too.