Tractates on the Psalms 1.3–2.1

The things placed at the opening of the psalm do not at all suit his person and dignity, and the very things contained in the psalm refute this careless readiness to proclaim it so. For when it is said, "And his will was in the law of the Lord," since the law was given through the Son of God, how will blessedness be ascribed to him because his will was in the law of the Lord, when he himself is the Lord of the law? That the law is his he himself testifies in the seventy-seventh psalm, where he says: "Attend, my people, to my law; incline your ear to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable." And the evangelist Matthew confirms that these words were spoken by him, saying: "Therefore he spoke in parables, that what was said might be fulfilled: I will open my mouth in parables." So the Lord fulfilled his own prophecy in deed, for he spoke in the parables in which he had promised he would speak. And as for the words, "And he will be like a tree that is planted by the streams of waters," in which an advance in blessedness by comparison is expressed, how could that be fitted to his person, as though a planted tree were more blessed than the Son of God, so that he is blessed because at some time, by an advance in blessedness, he attains its likeness? Again, since according to Wisdom and the apostle he is before the ages and before eternal times, and is the firstborn of all creation, and in him and through him all things were created, how is he blessed when he becomes like things that were established by him? For neither does the power of the Creator need comparison with a creature for the perfection of his blessedness, nor does the antiquity of the firstborn admit, in the words "he will be like a tree," the time of a backward comparison. For what will be, through a time still to be awaited, cannot be thought either to have been or to be already in the nature of things. But whatever already is does not need delay of time to begin toward what will be, since it already remains in being by the antiquity of its beginning.

Since, then, these things are understood to be foreign to the divinity of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, the man whom the prophet proclaims blessed here is to be thought of as the one who, by zeal for equity and the perfection of all righteousness, has made himself conformed to that body which the Lord assumed, in which he was born as man. And that it ought to be understood so, the fuller exposition of the psalm will show.

The Holy Spirit took this most beautiful and most worthy opening for beginning the psalms, in order to exhort human weakness, through the hope of blessedness, to the innocent pursuit of religion; to teach the mystery of God made flesh; to promise fellowship in heavenly glory; to announce the punishment of judgment; to show the difference in the resurrection; and to display the providence of God in recompense. With perfect and complete reasoning he began the order of so great a prophecy, so that the hope of the blessed man might draw human weakness to the pursuit of faith; the blessedness of the tree, by comparison, might pledge the blessedness of the hope; the severity announced to the ungodly might restrain insolent ungodliness by fear; the order of condition in the counsels of the saints might distinguish the difference of merit; and the equity established in recognizing the ways of the righteous might show the greatness of God. But let us treat the things themselves and their words.

"Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence; but his will was in the law of the Lord, and in his law he will meditate day and night." The prophet records that the blessed man keeps five kinds of observance: first, not walking in the counsel of the ungodly; second, not standing in the way of sinners; third, not sitting in the chair of pestilence; then setting his will in the law of the Lord; and finally meditating in it day and night. It must be, then, that the ungodly man differs from the sinner, and the sinner from the pestilent, especially since counsel belongs to the ungodly, a way to the sinner, and a chair to the pestilent; and further, since one walks rather than stands in the counsel of the ungodly, but stands rather than walks in the way of the sinner. To understand the reasons for these things, we must discern how far the sinner differs from the ungodly, so that it may be understood why a way is assigned to the sinner and counsel to the ungodly, and then why one stands in the way and walks in the counsel, when human custom decrees that one stands in counsel and walks on a way. Not everyone who is a sinner is also ungodly, but the ungodly man cannot fail to be a sinner. Let us take an example from common experience. Sons can love their fathers even if they are drunkards, lustful, and prodigal; and amid these vices those who are not free of crime are free of impiety. But the impious, even if they excel in the virtues of self-control and frugality, still go beyond every other crime that lies outside impiety when they insult a parent.

According to the example given, then, there is no doubt that the ungodly is distinguished from the sinner. The very nature of common judgment shows that the ungodly are those who disdain to seek the knowledge of God; who with irreligious opinion presume that there is no creator of the world; who say that the world came to its present form and order by chance motions; who, so as to leave no judgment to their creator for a life lived rightly or criminally, want to be born from the necessity of nature and to be dissolved again by the same necessity. All their counsel, then, is fluctuating, uncertain, and wandering, and is carried about in the same things and through the same things without any place of standing; for it holds to no limit of definition. Their argument has not dared to teach a creator of the world. For when you ask why the world exists, and when, and how great it is; and whether the world is for man or man for the world; and why death exists, or how far it reaches, or what kind it is, the counsels of their ungodliness are always tossed about these questions and keep going, finding no place to stand in these counsels.

There are also other counsels of the ungodly, namely of those who have fallen into heresy and are held by the laws of neither the New nor the Old Testament. Their speech, bent always into a ring and circle of error, holding nothing and standing on nothing, is tossed back and forth in the course of undefined opinion. Their ungodliness lies in measuring God not by God's own declaration but by the wish of their own judgment, not knowing that it is no less ungodly to invent God than to deny him. When you ask them with what end of hope and faith they think this, they are confused, disturbed, they dissemble, they wander about and avoid the very end of the argument that is being asked about. Blessed, then, is the man who has not walked in this counsel of the ungodly, that is, who has not admitted even the wish to walk in this counsel, because to have even thought what is ungodly is already a crime.

It follows that one who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly should also not stand in the way of sinners. For there are many who, though separated from ungodliness by confessing God, are not thereby free from sin; they remain in the church but do not keep the church's discipline: the greedy, drunkards, the quarrelsome, the insolent, the proud, hypocrites, liars, robbers. The impulse of our nature drives us to these vices; but it is profitable for us to depart from this way into which we are carried, and not to stand there, but to make a prompt return and leave it. And for this reason blessed is the man who has not stood in the way of sinners, his nature carrying him down into this way, but the devotion of faith bringing him back from it.

The third step in obtaining blessedness is not to sit in the chair of pestilence. The Pharisees sat teaching in the chair of Moses; Pilate too sat on the judgment seat. Whose chair, then, shall we judge the sitting in to be pestilent? Certainly not that of Moses, since the Lord condemned those who sat rather than the sitting in the chair, when he said: "The scribes and Pharisees have sat on the chair of Moses; whatever they tell you, do; but what they do, do not do." The sitting in this chair is not pestilent, since obedience to it is commanded by the Lord's authority. That chair, then, will be pestilent whose contagion Pilate avoids by washing his hands. For ambition for worldly honours corrupts many who are established even in the fear of God, and though subject to the laws of the church they wish to judge by the laws of the forum. And although they bring a religious will with them to the very duties they perform, showing themselves kindly and restrained, they must still be polluted by a kind of pestilent contagion from the affairs in which they are engaged. For the order of public business does not allow them, however much they wish, to remain in the holiness of church law. And though they hold firmly to their religious purpose, yet through the necessity of the seat they have obtained they are compelled, however reluctant their will, now to insult, now to injury, now to punishment; and necessity makes them sharers in that very necessity, as they are infected as if with a diseased plague. And for this reason the prophet calls their chair the chair of pestilence, because by its contagion it infects even the will of a religious mind.

But not having walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence does not yet complete the man's blessedness. For these things can be found even in a man of the world: he may hold that one God is the creator of the world, he may draw back from sins by the pursuit of modest innocence, he may prefer the leisure of a private and quiet life to the dignities of office. But the prophet, now shaping a man perfect for God, whom he sets among the great examples of eternal blessedness, teaches that he will not attain it with ordinary virtues but must be completed by the things that follow in order to be blessed: "But his will was in the law of the Lord." Abstaining from the former things is useless unless purpose is applied to what follows, namely that the will be in the law of the Lord. The prophet does not wait for fear to be present. For fear restrains many within the law, but will establishes few in the law; for it belongs to fear not to dare to neglect what is to be feared, but it belongs to perfect religion to wish to obey what is commanded. And for this reason that man is blessed in whom there is not fear but will in the law of God.

But sometimes something is lacking even to the will, and merely willing does not obtain perfect blessedness unless action follows the will. For there follows: "And in his law he will meditate day and night." Continual and unwearied meditation on the law completes this blessed man. But perhaps the nature of human weakness does not allow it, since we must rest, sleep, and give time to food; and for this reason we might fall from the hope of attaining blessedness by the very necessity of natural things, since at times we must cease from meditation day and night when bodily business intervenes. Similar to this saying is the apostle's: "Pray without ceasing"; as though our nature, whose necessity must be occupied with its own affairs, could pray always without interruption of time. Meditation on the law, then, lies not only in the words of reading but in the devotion of action; not that we should only go over books and writings, but that we should meditate in deeds and actions on what is contained in the Scriptures and books, and that our works by day and night should always exercise the law, as the apostle says: "Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God, whether you eat or drink or do anything else." For in this way it comes about that we pray without ceasing, when through works pleasing to God and always done for his glory the whole life of every holy man becomes prayer; and so, by living according to the law night and day, life itself will be the night and day meditation on the law.

Now that the blessedness of this man has been completed, who abstains from the counsels of the ungodly, the ways of sinners, and the chair of pestilence, and willingly meditates on God's law day and night, we must teach how great a fruit of this acquired blessedness will be his. For the wish to be blessed proceeds from the expectation of blessedness itself. There follows: "And he will be like a tree that is planted by the streams of waters, which will give its fruit in its season; and its leaf will not fall." This example of blessedness by comparison may perhaps be thought ridiculous and silly, in which the planting of a tree, streams of waters, the giving of fruit, its season, and a leaf that does not fall are proclaimed. By the standards of men of the world these things will perhaps be thought nothing. But let us see, according to prophetic teaching, how great a glory of blessedness by comparison is placed in these very things and words.

In the book of Genesis, where the lawgiver shows the paradise planted by God, he showed also that every tree beautiful in appearance and good for food was brought forth; he set out that there was also in the middle of paradise the tree of life and the tree of knowing good and evil; and that paradise was watered by a river, which afterwards was divided into four heads. What this tree of life is, the prophet Solomon taught, saying in his exhortation to wisdom: "She is a tree of life to all who embrace her and who lean upon her." This tree, then, is living; not only living, but also rational; rational so far as to give fruits, and to give them not confusedly, not out of season, but in its season. And this tree is planted by the streams of waters, in the possession of the kingdom of God, that is, in paradise, from which the river goes out and is divided into four heads. For he does not say "after the streams of waters" but "by the streams of waters," where the streams of waters first receive their divisions. For there this tree is planted, into which the Lord, who is Wisdom, brings that thief who confessed him as Lord, saying: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." And since we have taught by prophetic authority that Wisdom, who is Christ, is called the tree of life with reference to the mystery of his future taking of a body and his passion, the propriety of this understanding is also to be confirmed from the Gospels. For the Lord himself compared himself to a tree when the Jews had said he cast out demons by Beelzebul: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit." For though casting out demons was the best of fruit, they were saying he was Beelzebul, whose fruits are the worst. Nor did he disdain to teach the power of this blessed tree in himself when, going to the cross, he said: "For if they do these things in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?", signifying by the example of the green wood that nothing in him was liable to the dryness of death.

To this tree, then, that blessed man will become like when, in the manner of the thief brought into paradise, he too is planted by the streams of waters; and he will become that blessed new planting that is not to be uprooted, which the Lord signifies in the Gospels when he complains of a planting not his own, saying: "Every planting that my Father has not planted will be uprooted." This tree, then, will give its fruits. Wherever the divine word signifies something about the fruits of trees, it speaks of them as making fruit rather than giving it, as when it says, "A good tree cannot make bad fruit," and when, in Isaiah, there is the complaint about the vineyard: "I waited for it to make grapes, but it made thorns." But this tree will give its fruits, governed by the judgment and reasoning of giving. For it will give in its season. And in what season? Surely the one of which the blessed apostle says: "That he might make known to you the mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure which he purposed in him, in the dispensation of the fullness of times." This, then, is the time of the dispensation, by which the opportunity both of receiving and of giving is regulated, when it will be its season for those to receive to whom it will give. The delay of time hangs on the fullness of times, for the dispensation of giving the fruit is reserved for the fullness of times. And what fruit will be dispensed here? Surely the one the same apostle mentions, saying: "And he will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory." These are the fruits he will give us, which he has already perfected in the man whom he assumed and who is signified in the tree, whom he transferred into the nature of his immortality when mortality was swallowed up. That blessed man, then, will be like this tree when he stands conformed to his Lord in the glory of God.

And the leaf of this tree will not fall. No wonder its leaves do not fall, whose fruits will be given rather than dropped: not shaken off by ripeness, not struck down by outside force, but measured out by the dispensation of a rational office. And what is signified by the leaves is clear from comparison with bodily things. For we see that the nature of leaves is to burst forth around the fruits to guard them, fortifying the tender beginnings of the fruit as with a rampart. The teaching of God's words, then, which clothes the fruits promised us, is signified by the leaves. For by these words our hopes are shaded, and by their protection they are covered amid the storms of this age. These leaves, then, that is, the words of God, will not fall, for the Lord said: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." For nothing of what has been spoken by God will slip away or fall.

That these leaves of this tree are not useless but bring health to the nations, holy John testifies in the Apocalypse, saying: "And he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, going out from the throne of God and of the Lamb; in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, the tree of life, which bears fruit twelve times, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of that tree are for the healing of the nations." The heavenly mystery is set forth through bodily images in such a way that, although bodily things cannot fulfil the spiritual meaning, they are nevertheless defective by the reasoning of bodies. For it would have been fitting to say that trees, not a tree, were shown on either side of the river. But because the tree of life is everywhere one in the mystery of baptism, supplying the fruits of the apostolic preaching to those who come to it from every side, therefore one tree of life stands on either side of the river. For one Lamb was seen on the throne of God, and one river, and one tree of life: all of which embrace in themselves the mysteries of the taking of a body, of baptism, and of the passion; and its leaves, that is, the words of preaching, impart health to the nations through the teaching of speech that does not fall.

"And all things whatever he does," it says, "will prosper." No longer, as in Adam, will his gift and appointments be thrown into confusion (for he lost the blessedness of the immortality given him by the sin of transgressing the law); but through the redemption of the tree of life, that is, the Lord's passion, when we shall be like the tree of life itself, whatever is done in us is then eternal, and eternal with the sense of blessedness. For all the things that will be done will prosper, not by uncertain change, not in weak nature, when incorruption has swallowed up corruption, eternity weakness, and the form of God the form of earthly flesh. That blessed man, then, will be like this planted tree, which gives these its fruits in its season, being himself also planted in paradise, so that the planting of God may remain not to be uprooted; in him all things done by God will be directed prosperously, with no further change, either of our weakness or of time, to uproot them.

Having shown the perfect blessedness of this man, it followed to show what punishment awaits the ungodly. For there follows: "Not so the ungodly, not so; but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth." No hope of this comparative blessedness is left to the ungodly; instead a wandering state awaits them, crushed, winnowed, scattered, and restless, so that, shaken loose from that firmness of bodily solidity, they are carried off into punishment as the plaything of dust: not dissolved into nothing, so that there may be in them material for punishment, but ground down into what is empty, light, and dry, so that they may be tossed about by the mocking mobility of punishment. The same prophet mentions this punishment in another place too, saying: "I will crush them like dust before the face of the wind; like the mud of the streets I will destroy them." So the comparison is set up for punishment as for blessedness. For as it is no labour for the wind to scatter dust, and as those who walk in the streets hardly feel they have trodden the mud, so it is easy for that infernal punishment to destroy and scatter the ungodly, whom the account of their sins has both dissolved into mud and crushed into dust, yet without leaving them even the substance of firmness, since they are dust and mud and, by being dust and mud, are reserved only in the nature of a substance for punishment.

And since through this change of their firmness, ground into dust, they will not share in the good that will be given the blessed man from the fruit of the tree in its season, he therefore added fittingly: "Therefore the ungodly do not rise in the judgment." It is not annihilation that is announced to those who will indeed be dust, by saying they will not rise; rather, resurrection to judgment is denied them. For they will not lack the sense of punishment by not existing, since what does not subsist for punishment would turn punishment into gain. But they will subsist, because they will be dust. To become dust, whether by drying or by grinding, is not to have lost the nature of subsisting, but to have come to subsist in another nature. By saying that they will not rise to judgment, it is made clear that they have not lost the nature of rising, but have lost the order of rising to judgment. What order of resurrection and judgment is to be understood, the Lord shows in the Gospels, saying: "He who believes in me is not judged; but he who does not believe has already been judged. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into this world, and men loved darkness rather than light."

The words of the Lord's saying trouble the careless readiness of hearers and the incurious ease of readers. For when he says, "He who believes in me will not be judged," he exempted the faithful from judgment; and when he added, "But he who does not believe has already been judged," he did not admit the unbelievers to judgment. If, then, he exempted believers and rejected unbelievers, allowing the lot of judgment to neither, how will he be thought consistent in what he says third: "And this is the judgment, that the light has come into this world, and men loved darkness rather than light"? For no place can be left for judgment if neither unbelievers nor believers are to be judged. So it will seem to careless hearers and incurious readers; but the very force of the words contains in itself the proper sense and understanding of the saying.

"He who believes," he says, "is not judged." For what need is there to judge a believer? Judgment arises from doubtful matters, and when doubt is removed, examination by judgment is not required. For this reason not even unbelievers need to be judged, because no doubt remains that they are unbelievers. But having removed judgment from believers and unbelievers, the Lord added the cause of judgment and the persons on whom judgment must be passed. For there are some between the godly and the ungodly who are in the middle, mixed from both, yet belonging properly to neither, because they consist of both: not to be mixed with faith, since some unbelief is woven into them, nor to be counted with unbelief, since they have something of faith. For the fear of God holds many in the church, yet the allurements of the world entice the same people to worldly vices. They pray because they fear; they sin because they will. They call themselves Christians, because the hope of eternity is good; they act as pagans, because present things are pleasant. They do not remain ungodly, because God's name is in honour with them; they are not godly, because they follow things foreign to godliness. And they must love more the things through which they cannot be what they call themselves, the will of their works being stronger than the will expressed in their name. And so the Lord, after saying that believers are not to be judged and unbelievers have already been judged, added: "And this is the judgment, that the light has come into this world, and men loved darkness rather than light." The judgment, then, is upon those, a judgment that has already been carried out on the unbelieving and is not necessary for believers, because they loved darkness more than light; not that they did not also love the light, but that their love inclined more to darkness. For one love is commonly preferred to another by comparison; and hence comes judgment, because, though they loved Christ, they loved darkness more. These, then, will be judged: those who neither will escape judgment like the godly nor have already been judged like the ungodly, on whom judgment falls because of the love they preferred.

The prophet too held the reasoning of this gospel arrangement, saying: "Therefore the ungodly do not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous." To the ungodly he leaves no judgment, because they have already been judged; but to sinners, whom we showed above to be distinguished from the ungodly, he denied the counsel of the righteous, because they are to be judged. For ungodliness makes the former judged beforehand, while sin holds the latter for judgment. So neither is ungodliness, which has already been judged, allowed the judgment of sinners, nor have sinners, who are to be judged, deserved to be in the counsel of the righteous, who will not be judged.

And the order of this difference comes from this: "For the Lord knows," it says, "the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly will perish." Sinners do not come into the counsel of the righteous because the Lord knows the way of the righteous. He knows, not with a knowledge that removes ignorance, but by the favour of acknowledging. For there is no such change of human passions in God that he either knows something or does not know it. The blessed apostle Paul explained in what sense we are known by God, saying: "If anyone among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him know that what I write to you is from the Lord; but if anyone does not know, he is not known." He shows, then, that those are known by God who have known the things of God; to be known when they have known, that is, attaining the favour of acknowledgment through the merit of the religion they have known, so that being known is understood as the advance not of one ignorant but of one known. The Lord showed clearly in Adam and Abraham that he does not know sinners but knows the faithful. For to Adam after his sin it was said: "Where are you, Adam?", not because God did not know that one whom he still had in paradise was in paradise, but because, by being asked where he is, he is shown to be unworthy of God's knowledge through having sinned. Abraham, however, long unknown (for the word of God came to him when he was already seventy), when he had proved himself faithful to the Lord by offering Isaac, is received into divine familiarity with this favour: "Now I know that you fear the Lord your God, and you have not spared your beloved son for my sake." He was certainly not ignorant of Abraham's faith, which he had reckoned to him as righteousness when he believed about the begetting of Isaac; but because he had given a great proof of his fear by offering his son, now he is known, now he is approved, now he is worthy not to be unknown. So God both acknowledges and does not know: Adam the sinner is not known, and Abraham the faithful is acknowledged, worthy to be known by God, who is ignorant of nothing. The way of the righteous, who are not to be judged, is therefore known to God, and for this reason sinners, who are to be judged, are removed from their counsel. But the ungodly will not rise to judgment, because, their way having perished, they have already been judged by him who said: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son," our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

Apostolic authority makes many of us uncertain whether to think this psalm joined to the first, as its conclusion so to speak, or rather to count it as following and second. For in the Acts of the Apostles we are taught, in a speech of blessed Paul, that this one is held to be, and is, the first: "And we bring you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled it for our children by raising up our Lord Jesus, as it is written in the first psalm: You are my Son, today I have begotten you; when he raised him from the dead, never again to return to corruption." On account of this apostolic authority, then, it is believed to be through the error of copyists that this psalm is numbered second in order, since it is known to be the first on the testimony of the teacher of the Gentiles himself. So we must learn the reason why it is to be understood by us as second and was shown by the apostle to be first.