Homilies 20.1–20.6

Homily 20. A homily on the sixth psalm. When a soldier has done wrong, the defence that heals the grieved king is also the sinner's plea. Since, then, David had sinned, and had provoked God as a soldier provokes his king, and made his Master angry as a slave does, for this reason, asking and entreating as a servant entreats his master, he besought God: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger.” You were angry with me when I sinned; be reconciled now that I have repented. You were wrathful when I went astray; be merciful now that I have turned back. I bring you your own oath, Master, to move you. You said: “I have sworn by myself that I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live.” I beg you, do what you said. Since, then, having gone astray, I have turned back, and having sinned, I have repented; and I did not act shamelessly like Cain. When he was asked, “Where is Abel your brother?”, he said, “I do not know.” I said: “For I know my lawlessness.” “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath,” so that, obtaining your love for mankind, I may become for others too a way of repentance: “I will teach the lawless your ways, and the ungodly will turn back to you.” And why is the psalm also entitled “For the eighth”? “For the end, among the hymns, a psalm of David, for the eighth.” The Old Testament knows the eighth day as circumcision; the New knows it as the resurrection from the dead, in which death is circumcised … of the soul. And about the heirs he said: “All who hope in you will rejoice; they will exult for ever.” And about the disinherited: “The evildoer shall not dwell with you.” When David learned that “the Lord abhors a man of blood and deceit”, and he himself had killed Uriah by deceit, and that “no fornicator or unclean person has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God,” … appearing to those who see him a living monument … the lawlessness … from God, so as not to become disinherited because of his guilt, singing about the eighth day and the resurrection of the dead, he besought: “Since adultery and murder cast me out of the inheritance, Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger.” Do not be angry with me because of Uriah; do not be wrathful with me because of Bathsheba. And why was circumcision on the eighth day? Because for the first seven days the infant wore its swaddling clothes, and then, loosed from them, received circumcision, the sign of the seal of Abraham's faith; so that we too, even if during the week of life we have worn the swaddling clothes of vices, bound by the cords of our own sins, may burst them at the end of life, and, circumcising death at the resurrection as on the eighth day, may embrace the life equal to the angels'. For in the resurrection they do not marry. That is why circumcision was given in the organs of generation. And it was so that Christians might learn afterwards to seal infants with baptism while they still have the swaddling clothes of the womb, even before their visible swaddling clothes, in the circumcision of Christ, of which Paul says: “In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, having been buried with him in baptism, in the circumcision of Christ.” If, then, the circumcision of the Jew was early and quick, and given to the infant right after its swaddling, much more ought the circumcision of Christ through baptism to be given to the infant even more quickly, for its safety: on the one hand, so that, having put on Christ as a breastplate, it may not fear the hostile demons; on the other, so that it may not be betrayed into heresy and become a captive. Understand what I am saying; you know what happens. And again, so that, even if it dies, it may not depart unsealed. And [consider] that because of a heterodox father or mother the infant was baptized and yet not baptized, but buried into heresy: it had not yet set sail on life, and already it was shipwrecked. Before the visible garment, clothe the infant in the royal garment of Christ, so that you may boast that your child, like a king, [was wrapped] in purple …

… [the Jew who was not circumcised] on the eighth day was accursed; the one who is not baptized in grace is a stranger and foreigner to the kingdom of heaven. For the one who said in the law, “… every male who is not circumcised on the eighth day, that soul shall be cut off from the people,” is the same who said with an oath in grace: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “For the end, for the eighth.” Why “for the end”? Because at the beginning he said, “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath,” as though some were asking, “Was he heard, then? Where can we find that he prayed and was heard?” He answers: “For the end.” Read the end of the psalm, and you will find him saying: “Depart from me, all you who work lawlessness, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping; he has attended to my petition.” When? At the end. … “For the end, for the eighth.” And why did the Lord rise on the eighth day? Because the first eight people, in the time of Noah, after the death of the old world, raised up a new world for the race. For when the world, fevered with fornication, had died by sin and been buried in the waters of the flood, then the eight people preserved in the ark raised up the world again by bearing children. And that bearing children is called resurrection, hear from our mother Eve, who said when she bore Seth: “For God has raised up for me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.” And the law: “If anyone,” it says, “dies childless, his brother shall take his wife and raise up seed for his brother”; and this raising up was the renewal of a family that was being quenched and dying out. Since, then, the first resurrection of the race after the flood came about through eight people, for this reason the Lord too was the first to begin the resurrection of the dead on the eighth day, when he stayed in the tomb as Noah stayed in the ark, stopped the flood of impiety, and gave the baptism of regeneration, so that, being buried with him in baptism, we may become sharers in his resurrection. Since, then, the eighth day proclaimed in the law, as with a trumpet, the resurrection of the dead and the requital of each one's works, for this reason David, having sinned against Uriah's [wife], besought, for the eighth day and his own resurrection in rest: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger.” Here I repent and confess, Master; “for in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades who will confess to you?” “For the end, for the eighth, among the hymns, a psalm of David.” And he rightly prayed about the eighth, he who was the eighth son of Jesse and the father of Christ, who rose on the eighth day. “For the end” … “Christ the firstfruits; then those who belong to Christ, at his coming.”

“For the end, for the eighth”: both for his own resurrection in glory, and for the raising up of those who have sinned and repented. “Among the hymns”: so that the laments of those who have sinned and repented may pass into hymns. For as the feasts of sinners are changed into mourning and their songs into lament, as God said, “I will turn your feasts into mourning and your songs into lament,” so in turn the laments of the repentant are changed into hymns. “For the end, among the hymns, a psalm of David.” A good deed and the fruit of repentance, both for the prophet and for everyone who is strong of hand: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.” So that each one, having repented and borne fruit for God and for the poor, may say: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger.” Tell me, David: do you refuse rebuke and discipline altogether? It seems you are fleeing blessedness. For that God's rebuke brings blessedness is written in the book of Job: “Blessed is the man whom the Lord has rebuked on earth.” And that being disciplined by the Lord is blessed, you yourself said: “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord.” “I do not flee rebuke, but rebuke with wrath; nor do I turn away from being disciplined, but I fear being disciplined with anger. I know that whom the Lord loves he disciplines. Take wrath away from the rebuke and anger from the discipline; rebuke me as a friend and discipline me as a son.” “Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor discipline me in your anger.” If wrath rebukes me like a judge, at once anger, as the right hand and neighbour of wrath, disciplines me. As in a court the one rebuked by the judge is scourged by the officials, so in the divine judgment the one [rebuked] by … As smoke shows up the weakness of the eye and makes it smart with tears, and the stinging becomes a torment to the eye, so when the wrath of God's anger is kindled, it smokes with rebuke and scourges with anger. Yet the wrath and anger of God are not passions of God, but God's just judgment and requital. “For you are storing up for yourself [wrath] on the day of wrath.” God does not store it up for you; you store it up for yourself. Tell me, David: are you giving orders to God? Are you setting laws and limits to the tongue of the Creator? He answers: I do not speak as one commanding, but … his mercy. O the reverence! The king utters the cries of a scourged slave. Since he besought … as a debtor accountable for the deposit and the loan of soul and body, and not having the capital safe to repay, he besought: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak.” By weakness he means here not the illness of the body, but the self-chosen slackness of faith. That there is a weakness of faith the Apostle says: “Welcome the one who is weak in faith.” And elsewhere: “[Not being weak in faith,] he did not consider his own body as already dead.” Since, then, David, fevered with desire, fell sick in the deed, [he says] that after the fever he sweated tears; for tears became his sweat after the fever.

… and with the sweat of his tears [he washed] his bed: “Every night I will wash my bed; with my tears I will drench my couch.” Then, when he was asked to return what had been deposited with him, his soul and his body, he put forward the weakness of his thoughts in order to obtain mercy, saying: “[Have mercy on] me, Lord, for I am weak.” Make safe, my friend, the deposit and the debt of soul and body. Be eager to repay what you received: either repay better than you received, or at least as you received. You received your soul and your body as a deposit of gold and silver. For if you, when you lend gold, expect it back with interest and … when the capital [alone] is brought back to you, you are indignant and angry … what will God, the lender of soul and body, do? If you bring him the two talents of soul and body with interest and increase, saying, “Lord, you gave me two talents, the body and the soul; see, I have gained two more talents by saving another man, soul and body,” [he will rejoice]. But if you bring him only the capital itself, saying, “See, you have what is yours,” he is indignant and angry. And if you do not even bring him safe the very thing you received, then he hands you over to the torturers until you pay all that is owed. If you fall down and worship him in repentance, saying, “Lord, be patient with me, and I will repay you,” then he counts your confession and repentance as payment of the capital. For if the debtor of ten thousand talents, by calling on God's patience, made his bond void, and if the one who is asked to give account for ten thousand souls, as high priest or teacher, gained God's compassion by his supplication, and his Lord had compassion and forgave him all that was owed, much more will each of us move God by repenting of his sins, praying, confessing and saying: “[Have mercy on] me, Lord, for I am weak.” I am weak and feeble for the repayment of the debt; “have mercy on me, Lord”; do not hand me over to the torturing angels, but hide the lender and show the physician, and in your mercy take me up, who am weak. “Heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled.” He besought the one who had disciplined and scourged him for his sin to become his physician because of his repentance. And that God had disciplined him he himself testifies in the psalm, saying: “The Lord has disciplined me severely, and has not handed me over to death.” And why does God discipline man through disease? Because of disobedience and sins. For no one among men is without sin; and therefore no one is without disease. And that it is God who brings diseases on each man who sins through disobedience, he himself said to Israel through Moses: “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and keep his commandments, every disease that I brought upon

the Egyptians I will not bring upon you; for I am the Lord who heals you.” By saying, “If you listen carefully, I will not bring disease upon you,” he showed that God brings diseases because of disobedience and sins. The Egyptians, since they disobeyed God and would not let Israel go, fell sick under his discipline. And David, since he heard “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder” and disobeyed, was disciplined and fell sick: “My wounds have grown foul and festered,” he says, “because of my folly.” God can heal the one who has been disciplined by men; but the one disciplined by God no man, no angel, but God alone heals and cures. For “if a man sins against a man, they will pray for him to the Lord”; if a magistrate pronounces a sentence of death, the king overturns the sentence; but if the king pronounces it, no one can overturn it. So David begs the Master who scourged him to become his physician. “Heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled.” He means by bones not those of the body, but the strong powers of his thoughts, which were troubled like waves, tossed about by the spirit of fornication. As at sea the beginning and preparation of shipwreck is the troubling of the waves, so in the soul the beginning of adultery, fornication and sin is the muddy troubling of the mind's thought. First the soul is muddied by shameful desires, and so it falls into the shipwreck of fornication. On one side it sees the pleasures of the passions, on the other the threats of God. But as sailors and helmsmen, when they see the sea beginning to be troubled by contrary winds, quickly and without delay make for harbour and escape the danger, while those who stay out are in peril, so you, when you are troubled in your thoughts by the winds of pleasure, run quickly to the harbour of the Church. You hear from the Scriptures and the teachers about chastity and purity: that “God will judge fornicators and adulterers”; that the Apostle [says to the unmarried and the] widows, “It is good for them if they remain as I am”; that “virgins will be brought [to the king]”; that “there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.” And before the fornication, confess to God the stirrings of desire and say: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak,” clothed as I am in the weakness of nature. “Heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled”: the thoughts of my soul, which take me captive to licentiousness and sin; “for the thought of man will confess to you.” That he is not speaking of the bones of the body is shown by what follows; for he adds: “And my soul is greatly troubled.” To show, then, that he was speaking not of bones perceptible to the senses but of thoughts, he passed over the flesh and mentioned the soul: “And my soul is greatly troubled.” So elsewhere he said: “All my bones will say, Lord, Lord, who is like you?” And he was certainly not speaking of the bones of the body, for bones have no mouth or lips. And again: “A sensitive heart is a moth in the bones.” And bones are certainly not eaten by moths; but … of the soul. Since, then, David came to perceive what he had sinned, and endured the torments of conscience, and was scourged by his thoughts as by harsh executioners (for nothing touches the soul like conscience, secretly torturing it), he begs to be healed of the torments in his soul: “Heal me, Lord, for my bones are greatly troubled.” But the troubling did not leap only as far as his thoughts and reflections; it troubled the soul itself and sank it in the deed: “And my soul is greatly troubled.” My soul, the storehouse of the mysteries of God; my soul, the spring of the psalms! Where peace dwelt as in a bridal chamber, there the war of sin danced against me. “And you, Lord, how long?” I was not slow to repent; do not be slow to care for me. You said: “If you turn and groan, then you will be saved.” Since, then, “I am weary with my groaning,” “how long?” I not only groan, but weep and shed tears, and [wash] my bed with tears: “Every night I will wash my bed; with my tears I will drench my couch.” “How long?” He said “how long?”

not as one complaining, but waiting to learn the limit of his trials and the end of his afflictions. For he did not say “how long?” about the forgiveness of his sin. One who had heard, “And the Lord has taken away your sin,” would not say “how long?” in unbelief. And one who had said, “I said, I will confess my lawlessness against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my heart,” would not say “how long?” about the forgiveness of sins. But since he had received the forgiveness of sins, but for many years [was tried] by afflictions and trials … [the medicine] of afflictions for a long time, he begs the physician to take away the very sharp medicines. “And you, Lord, how long?” Your disciple Nathan operated quickly, saying, “And the Lord has taken away your sin.” Since he was not slow, do not you delay as to the sharper afflictions. “And you, Lord, how long?” How long will Absalom make war? How long will the one who came from me be against me? How long … will the camps under my command arm themselves against me with the tyrant? “Turn, Lord, deliver my soul; save me for your mercy's sake.” For to him belong glory, honour and might, now and to the endless ages of ages. Amen.