Tractates on the Psalms 118.1.1–118.2.11

"Blessed are the spotless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who search his testimonies; with their whole heart they seek him." The order of the sayings must not be neglected; if we do not learn it carefully, we shall not attain even the order of the blessedness that is laid out. For it does not say first, "Blessed are those who search the testimonies of God," but first, "Blessed are the spotless in the way." For the first thing is to enter the way of truth with conduct made firm and formed for the pursuit of innocence out of the common honesty of uprightness; the next is to search the testimonies of God and to come with a purged and cleansed mind to investigate them. Another prophet too was not forgetful of this order, saying: "Sow yourselves for righteousness, and reap yourselves for the fruit of life, and enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge." Enlightenment is not commanded first, but our sowing, so that when we have first sown ourselves, that is, the conduct of our life, in hope of fruit, and then have reaped what was sown, we may then enlighten ourselves with the light of knowledge. This order, then, must be kept: of sowing, reaping, and enlightenment. For many of us hurry to be enlightened before sowing and reaping, although sowing and reaping are a kind of preparation for attaining the light.

This, then, is the first blessedness: that those are blessed who are spotless in the way; but not in a chance way, an uncertain way, a wandering way, but in the way in which one walks in the law of the Lord. For many think they have entered a useful and necessary way; but they will not be spotless in the way, because they do not walk in the law of the Lord. And this way must not only be entered but also travelled to its end. For no one, while he is on the way, has gained what he is heading for by the way. Blessed Paul says: "Not that I have received anything or am already perfect; but I follow on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ." So he was still pressing on; but pressing on forgetting the things that are behind and stretching himself out to those that are ahead. And so he who travels this way is blessed, who, forgetting what is past, stretches out in hope of what is to come. And what the way is, in which each one who walks is blessed, the Lord teaches, saying: "I am the way." Whoever, then, stands firm in his precepts is blessed, while he restrains the vices of the flesh, while he tames the insolence of the mind, while he conquers the hunger of greed, while he shuns the glory of earthly honors. Whoever remains in these things is spotless in the way and walking in the law of the Lord.

The addition by which it is said "in the law of the Lord" is not idle. For there is also a law of sin, of which the blessed apostle says: "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin." So because there was also a law of sin, it was called the law of the Lord. For unless there were also another law outside, the prophetic word would not have said "the law of the Lord" with the addition of what is proper to it.

Then follows the verse of the first letter: "Blessed are those who search his testimonies, and with their whole heart they seek him." In the first verse it says, "who walk in the law of the Lord"; in the second, "who search his testimonies"; in the fourth (since the third completed the second) it speaks of commandments, saying: "You have commanded your commandments to be kept exceedingly"; in the fifth, of justification: "O that my ways may be directed to keep your justifications"; in the sixth again of the effects of the commandments: "I shall not be put to shame when I look to your commandments"; in the seventh, of judgments: "I will confess to you, Lord, in uprightness of heart, in that I have learned your judgments"; in the eighth, of justification: "I will keep your justifications; do not utterly forsake me." If, then, law is one thing, precept another, judgment another, justification another, and testimony another, we must pray to him who established and founded all things for the grace and gift of understanding. All this together is called law; but there is something special in these which holds what is proper to law in itself.

What, then, is the law? A shadow, as the apostle says, of things to come. This is written nowhere of the others, that justification or testimonies or commandments are a shadow of things to come; it is proper to the law alone, as the apostle teaches in many places, that the law is not to be treated according to the understanding of the letter, but that in it, according to spiritual teaching, the shadow of things to come is to be recognized. For he says: "You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain," and adds: "Does God care for cattle? Or were these things said and written for our sake?" And again: "You who read the law, have you not heard? He had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But the one by the slave woman was born according to the flesh; the one by the free woman according to the promise." And because the law is a shadow of things to come, he added: "These things are allegorical; for these are the two covenants." So whatever embraces the shadow of spiritual teachings must be called law: because the law is both spiritual and a shadow of things to come.

The commandment of the Lord is that in which observance and keeping are contained, such as "You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery," and the like. And because these are simple and bright and direct us into the true light by their observance, it was said: "The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes." It would not have been fitting to say this of the law, because the law is holy through the shadow of things to come and converts souls through the knowledge of what is to come; but the commandment enlightens through its observance.

So since those who search the testimonies of God are blessed, and since law is one thing, commandment another, testimonies another, as we said of the rest, we must learn what these testimonies of God are. The whole book of the law was given under testimonies. For when Moses was about to hand over the book of the covenant, he called heaven and earth to witness. Many things too were set up as testimonies, as when Jacob says: "This hill shall be a testimony to you, and this stone shall be a testimony." And in Joshua it is written: "Bring out twelve stones, that they may be a testimony to your sons." When the leper was cured the Lord said: "Offer your gift for a testimony, as Moses commanded, to them." The apostle, saying much to Timothy by letter, charges him before witnesses: "In the sight of many witnesses I charge you, and in the sight of God who gives life to all things and of Jesus and of the elect angels, that you keep these things." Many, then, and countless are the testimonies of God; if anyone would search them through the knowledge of the law, the prophets, the gospels, and the apostles, he would remain in blessedness, and he would not live as in an empty and solitary world, but would know that he sins only before a witness. For all things are full of divine testimonies; and all this which is thought empty is filled with the angels of God, and there is nothing that a multitude of ministering spirits does not inhabit.

Whoever has gained the knowledge of these through teaching knows that he lives before witnesses. And although human weakness by nature tends to vice, he still shrinks from sinning before a witness; ordinary custom itself teaches us this. For who does not fear before a witness? Who has not chosen secrecy for a crime? Who has not wished for solitude or night for adultery? And even when minds already burning are ready for the crime, the frenzy of raging pleasure is checked by the arrival of a witness, and a sudden interruption has sometimes called back human nature when it was rushing headlong. If, then, a crime already in the mind is delayed by an interruption, what is it fitting for a Christian to do, who knows that on every side he is besieged by the testimonies of so many spiritual powers, not, I say, to his deeds, but to his very will? When we are stirred by the goads of our weakness toward some desire of troubled feeling, do we not fear the choirs of angels standing around us on every side and the world full of heavenly ministries? For if the angels of the little ones see our Father who is in heaven daily, we can fear the testimonies of those whom we know both to stay with us and to stand before God daily. Indeed, we ought also to fear the devil himself, through whom the very incitements of our vices are supplied, and all his witnesses, who goes round the whole extent of this world in a moment of time: to whom it is sweet that we sin, so that he may glory in the testimony of our sins. For this is his own cunning, to incite to sin and to accuse those who sin. For it is said: …

And since these powers remain with us as witnesses along with the rest, it was fitting for the prophet to mention only the holy ones, saying: "Blessed are those who search his testimonies": not, that is, others' testimonies, but those that are God's. The searching of God's testimonies must not be careless; that is why it is said: "With their whole heart they will seek him." Zeal for heavenly teaching is not to be applied in part, but God's testimonies are to be sought with the whole heart, so that, since there are also other things which are not God's, we may search what we learn to be God's with a heart not called away to other business.

"For those who work iniquity have not walked in his ways." In the first verse "way" is mentioned in the singular; in this third verse, many ways. From this we must understand that one arrives at the one way through many ways; and whoever is spotless in it is blessed. Jeremiah testified to the same about many ways and the one way, saying: "Stand in the ways, and ask for the ways of the Lord, and seek which is the good way." So we must stand in many ways, and many must be asked about; and indeed many are the Lord's, and among them we must discern which is the best way. Many are the Lord's commandments, many the prophets, through all of whom one travels into the one way; but in these the workers of iniquity have not walked; for if they had remained in the law, they would have come as far as that best way of the new covenant. There is a way through Moses, through Joshua, through David, through Isaiah, through Jeremiah, through the apostles; and through all these one must come to him who said: "I am the way, and no one goes to the Father" except through me. Something similar must be understood to be said under the name of the pearl. For one must be a merchant of many pearls in order to obtain the one pearl of great price. When pearls are spoken of, it is enough for their honor that they are pearls; but the one pearl that was found is said to be of great price. So too when the many ways are prophesied, it is said that they are both the Lord's and eternal; but when one asks among these ways which is the useful way, the one that was found is proclaimed the best. So, although those ways exist and the pearls are honorable by their very name, we must stand in many ways in order to find the good way, and all the pearls must be sold in order to buy the one of great price that was found.

Then follows this verse: "You have commanded your commandments to be kept exceedingly." We mentioned above that commandments mean one thing and law another. Concerning the law, as I think, the apostle was our witness that it is a shadow of things to come, in which the form of the truth is outlined like a body in its shadow. But a commandment is what is to be fulfilled by observance, such as: "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill." For in it there is no form of a future image; it has the present effect of action: "You have commanded your commandments to be kept exceedingly." Nothing, then, is to be done with a slack or careless mind; we must carry out the care of God's commandments anxiously and earnestly, so that what we do we may carry out for the advance of our faith with reverent care for him for whom we do it. But if we do something with a relaxed will and a thought taken up with other things, the body's duties will indeed be occupied in the doing, but through negligence we shall not attain the merit of devotion.

We now have, after the keeping of commandments, also the observance of justifications. We have already shown above what we think commandments are. But justifications are many, and they are to be balanced in observing each kind of duty; for keeping them we shall be weak by our nature unless we are directed by God. We must therefore be helped and directed by his grace, so that we may attain the order of the justifications commanded. There is a justification laid down for us concerning the Hebrew slave, concerning a son, concerning a father, concerning brothers, concerning faithful men, concerning the leaders of the church, concerning angels, concerning God and our Lord, the only-begotten Word of God. In each kind and name, then, there is a principle of justification; because unless all these are held with equal duties of a devoted will, we shall not hold God's justification. One who is devout toward his father, if he hates his son, has lost the measure of justification. One devout toward his brother, if he hates his slave, has lost the order of God's justification. One devout toward the Lord, if he hates the priest, what observance of justification will he fulfil in the worship of God, while he exercises hatred against the very ministers of justification? And in the very truth of the faith, that is, in the understanding of God the Father and the Lord, through which above all justification will be ready to hand for us, how much we need the grace of God, so that we may think rightly, so that from the authorities of the prophets and the gospels we may hold one and the same thing, and that our opinion and speech may not disagree in one point or another, but that we may direct all God's justifications with an even and equal observance of works and teaching!

When we attain this, then it will be permitted to say what is contained in the following verse: "Then I shall not be put to shame, when I look into all your commandments." For unless we are attentive and occupied in all his commandments, and some are passed over while others are kept at will, we do not hold the order of justification. But if, our ways being directed, our keeping is even and equal toward all, we shall rejoice in the observance of all the commandments, confounded by no forgetfulness or shame.

Then follows this seventh verse: "I will confess to you in the uprightness of my heart, in that I have learned the judgments of your righteousness. I will keep your justifications." All perversity of soul, then, must be cast off, and confession must be made with an upright heart turned aside to no other direction, so that the mind may not fall into the care of the world and wander off from those paths of God's teaching into byways. But the reason for this upright confession is what is contained in the following verse: "in that I have learned the judgments of your righteousness." First, then, he prayed that his ways might be directed to keep the justifications. Second, he added that he would be put to shame in nothing, since he looked into all God's commandments. Third, he promised that he would confess to God in uprightness of his heart because he had learned his judgments, giving praise to God, that is, through the teaching of an upright heart and of what he had learned. But this is the fruit of known righteousness, that God's justifications are kept; and so he added: "I will keep your justifications." For what fruit is there in having learned God's judgments, unless the observance of the justifications follows our knowledge?

But we must remember that, although knowledge is to be granted by God, we must still always pray that he may favor what we wish to keep in keeping his justifications: knowing indeed that we are often forsaken by him for temptations, so that through them our faith may be proved. Nevertheless, as the prophet says, we must pray that he not forsake us entirely; for he says: "Do not utterly forsake me." This is also contained in the order of the Lord's Prayer, when it is said: "Lead us not into temptation" which we cannot bear. The apostle knows that we are forsaken in order to be tested, but he also knows that God knows the measure of our weakness, saying: "God is faithful, who will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able." God, permitting Job to temptation, left power over his soul outside the devil's right, and left the tempter a right only according to the measure of human temptation. So the prophet, conscious of his weakness, prays not to be greatly forsaken: that the Lord may hold up his weakness, like Peter's when he was sinking in the waves, so that, although he is going to leave him to be tested, yet not utterly and greatly, that is, not to the point of danger to his soul and faith.

"Wherein does a young man correct his way?" and the rest. In the second letter of the following eight verses the prophet put a question to himself, to which he would answer, saying: "Wherein does a young man correct his way?" These words are spoken in the person of one who asks. Then follows the confession, as of one who answers: "In keeping your words." We must observe, according to the word we had at the beginning, that the true and complete ordinances of the fear of God are contained under these elements of letters, by which we are formed, as it were, for the practice of confessing God through the very rudiments of infancy. So we must understand that the prophet did not speak idly: "Wherein does a young man correct his way?" It is desirable for every age to be brought from the vices of its body to the pursuit of innocence, because amendment, even late, is useful in forgetting vices. But the prophet, shaping a man who will please God, does not wait for him to be trained in God's teaching and the precepts of fear after a long and lasting habit of crimes, but wants the years still untrained in sins and an age still ignorant of crimes to be steeped not only in its pursuits now and then but in its very habit. For it is hard to stop doing what one is used to, hard to be drawn away from what is familiar; habit holds a great bond in itself. And so the best worshipper will be the one whom not only the forgiveness of offenses has made blameless, but whom ignorance of vices itself has kept innocent.

The prophet Jeremiah knew the blessedness of this age, saying: "It is good," he says, "for a young man when he takes up a heavy yoke in his youth; he will sit alone and be silent." He does not wait for years grown cold with old age, or for a habit of vices already dead through age. He wants a soldier for a long battle; he wants as Christ's servant one whom not even the memory of past crimes pollutes. For in those who have believed at a more advanced age there is indeed, by the gift of grace, the forgiveness of what is past; but by nature the memory of what was done is not absent. "It is good," he says, "for a young man to take up a heavy yoke." Years hardened in disobedience bear this burden with difficulty; but a tender age does not feel the trouble of a heavy burden, through the growth of its strength. But having taken up the burden in youth, what will he do? "He will sit alone," he says, "and be silent." Rare is the one in whom the perfection of the fear of God grows with the increase of years; and so he will sit alone, leaving the wanton gatherings of youth and set apart even from the company of old men who have only lately believed; because it does not fit him to say: "Remember not, Lord, the sins of my youth." He will also be silent, thinking silence suited to faith and to youth: not mixed in the tumult of worldly business, but silent through modesty, occupied only with the divine knowledge of the mysteries, and keeping God's words by silent observance in things and deeds.

Then the prophet returns to his own person, so that what he had said above might be known to have been meant of himself, saying: "With my whole heart I have sought you; do not drive me away from your commandments." It does not seem fitting to God's goodness that he should drive anyone away from his commandments; but the addition of words and the force of the expressions are arranged according to the perfect reason of heavenly teaching and have nothing doubtful or contradictory in them. So does he who, as the prophet says, prefers the repentance of sinners to their death, drive anyone away from his commandments? Far be it that this should be thought. Nor did the prophet mean this now, least of all one who had sought God with his whole heart.

But the solution of difficulties must be sought in the very words from which they seem to arise. What the prophet meant is easy to know. We read it written in Jeremiah: "Cursed is he who does the works of the Lord carelessly." We read too in the gospels: "For to everyone who has, it will be given, and he will have abundance; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." So the one who has will abound; but the one who does not have will lack even what he has. The prophet is not subject to the condition of the curse, because he did not do God's works carelessly, seeking him with his whole heart. Then he asks confidently not to be driven from God's commandments, because he seeks him with his whole heart. For according to the gospels, to the one who has it will be given, and from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. So God takes away only from the one who does not have, just as he drives away only the careless. He is so full of goodness that he rewards the one who has with abundance; and so little does he wish anyone not to have, that he takes from the one who does not have even what he has.

He drives away no one, then, except one who resists, rejects no one except the careless. For the prophet put forward this reason why he prayed not to be driven from God's commandments: that he had sought God not in part or with sloth but with his whole heart. From this we understand that the one driven from the commandments is the one who, through great carelessness, has been unworthy to be admitted; and what comes from the fault of the one who does not deserve it lies outside any blame of the one who refuses.

This is the third verse of the second letter: "I have hidden your sayings, that I may not sin against you." We remember that something like this saying is usually read, where it is said: "It is good to hide the mystery of a king." We remember too that Paul hid the sayings of God from the Corinthians, still little ones in faith, when he says: "I gave you milk to drink, not food; for you were not yet able, nor are you able even now." We read too in the gospel that a treasure found in a rich and fruitful field was hidden, and the field bought. We know that pearls must not be thrown before swine, nor what is holy given to dogs. So we understand that we hold in the secret of our heart what, if spread abroad, would incur the guilt of sin. For so he said: "In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I may not sin against you": because, while other sins, according to the differences of things, are committed either against ourselves or against others, they would become sins properly against God when things that were to be stored in the secret of hearts were betrayed to the knowledge of those not fit to receive them.

In this fourth verse, which follows, the order of teaching must be observed. The first verse was about the keeping of God's commandments by a young man; the next, that since he had sought God with his whole heart, he should not be driven from God's commandments; then, that he had held the hidden mysteries and secret sacraments of God in the secret of his mind; and now, fourth, he prays that God may show him the justifications; and he prays, putting first the honor of confession, saying: "Blessed are you, Lord; teach me your justifications." We covered something about justifications in an earlier discourse, and it is superfluous to repeat the same things often. It is, then, the greatest and chief labor to attain this knowledge of God's justifications, and the weakness of human nature reaches the knowledge of so many and such great things with difficulty; and therefore he prays to be taught, because it is the gift of divine goodness to temper the inexperience of the human mind to the fitting observance of duties suited to each kind.

Then follows a word about God's judgments as well, in which he says: "With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth." How great is the difference of things and names! First God's commandments are kept from youth, then God is sought with the whole heart, then God's sayings are hidden and the justifications are longed to be learned; now they are proclaimed. But perhaps the prophet will be thought to have forgotten himself and to have been unmindful either of his own sayings or of others'. For in this book of Psalms we read: "Your judgments are like the great deep." The apostle Paul says: "Unsearchable are the judgments of God"; and again the prophet: "For your judgments are great and countless." How then will the prophet dare to say: "With my lips all the judgments of your mouth"? But the prophet has now said nothing against himself, nor against another of the same Spirit. For he does not say, "With my lips I have declared all the judgments," but he says, "all the judgments of your mouth," knowing that there is some difference between the judgments of God and the judgments of God's mouth. When he says, "Your judgments are like the great deep," did he say, "The judgments of your mouth are like the great deep"? But now he says: "I have declared the judgments of your mouth." So those things which could be known through the prophets, or be judgments from God's words, the prophet too did not keep silent: they were proclaimed for this reason, that they might be taught.

After the public and steadfast declaration of the judgment of God's mouth there follows: "I have delighted in the way of your testimonies, as in all riches." The prophet does not fear witnesses, but delights in them; and the awareness of those who watch and observe him is pleasant to him. For the fear of a guilty conscience trembles at every interruption; but where there is the steadfast confidence of an innocent man, the presence of many witnesses is welcome. But the prophet is not pleased with a common kind of joy: he delights as in all riches; not only in riches, but in all riches. There is wealth in gold, in silver, in money, in clothing, in houses, in fields and their vines or olives or crops; but the prophet is made complete by the crop of the Lord's teachings and is rich in the resources of the law and of the prophetic ordinances; and although earlier in time, he is not ignorant of the precepts of the gospels and the apostles. For Paul too knew these riches, speaking to the Corinthians: "I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus: that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and in all knowledge." In these, then, the prophet is rich and in these he delights; he must not be thought to have delighted in the acquiring of wealth, who could not be rich in the Lord except with contempt for the world and poverty in it.

Having delighted in the ways of God's testimonies, he had to do the work of that delight; and there is no doubt that he does it. For he says in the seventh verse: "I will exercise myself in your commandments, and I will consider your ways." So exercise and persistence are needed, so that the practice of necessary things may be retained; because sloth is dangerous and harmful to human minds, and lest a habit of idleness creep in, persistent exercise must be applied. But here too the order of reason is kept. For first one must be exercised in God's commandments, and then his ways are to be considered; because unless the practice of faithful works comes first, the knowledge of teaching will not be grasped. We must first act faithfully in order to attain knowledge. So, following the earlier explanation, we take the ways to be the law, the prophets, all things, and the apostles: which the prophet, exercising himself in God's commandments, considered in order to know them.

He concluded the eightfold number with the verse: "I will meditate on your justifications; I will not forget your words." The prophet does not depart from the order of perfect teaching. He meditates on the justifications, which he prayed to be taught, just as he is exercised in the commandments. For this is the nature of commandments, that they train us for observance and work, such as: "You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery," and the like. These, then, are exercised, because in them there is the practice of action, which strengthens itself for the future through present exercise. But justifications are those by which a Hebrew boy, a slave for six years, becomes free in the seventh year, and a field is to be left fallow after six years of crops, and the other things laid down for the observance of justifications, which hold in themselves a vast meditation on future hope through the effect of present business. And so he meditates on these as he is exercised in the commandments: because exercise retains the practice of a settled habit, while meditation stretches toward what it has not yet obtained, so that through meditation it may attain what it seeks; the meditation on justification achieves this, that forgetfulness of the promises does not creep in.