Tractates on the Psalms 118.15.1–118.16.17

The teaching of the gospel precept is that we should love our enemies, and owe love not only to those who love us but also to those who hate us. So this profession of the prophet seems to oppose the Lord's commandments, since, while love of enemies is commanded us, he puts forward as a good work that he has hated the wicked.

But the reason of this very saying must be learned from the gospels themselves. For the Lord, who commanded enemies to be loved and decreed that those who curse father or mother are guilty of death, in another place commanded again, saying: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and his mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple." So these seem contrary to one another: that he by whose precept not only hatred toward parents but even cursing alone is worthy of death should himself say again that no one can be his disciple unless he hates father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and his own soul. This is a hard saying and a heavy precept, to impose the necessity of impiety for the completion of religion.

But nothing hard, nothing impious, nothing contrary to earlier precepts is commanded by God. These names most dear to us, father and mother and wife and children, cannot be angry that we are commanded to hate them, since we are commanded to hate even our own soul. For the Lord knows that there are many of such ill-advised love that, when they see their children persevering in the glory of martyrdom, they ask them to yield to the times; they beg them to change their decision and use the feeling of piety toward them, when the old mother and aged father show their pitiable white hair to their son in the very contest of martyrdom, resenting his will; when on the other side the wife stands by, attended by the appealing company of their children, and begs him rather to live for her and for them; when on the other side brothers and sisters plead with the coaxing familiarity of their names; and the soul itself too, long since captured by the allurements of living, creeps by certain silent counsels toward connivance. At this time, then, the Lord commanded us to hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and our very soul. For he closed this same saying thus, after the hatred of all, saying: "And whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." So they are to be held in hatred then, when they do not want us to carry the cross of martyrdom, when they dissuade us by their example from following the Lord. This hatred is honorable and useful, to hate those who try to draw us away from the love of Christ.

So now the prophet seems to have said nothing contrary to the precepts by which we are commanded to love our enemies, when he says: "I have hated the wicked." For he does not hate his enemies, but the wicked, that is, transgressors of the law. The Greek names this with a more proper word, saying παρανόμους, that is, those acting outside the law. But one who hates the transgressors of the law cannot but love that which he hates to see neglected; and therefore he says: "And I have loved your law." It is fitting that one who loves the law should hate those who are enemies of the law.

Then follows: "You are my helper and my upholder, and I hope in your word." We need great help from God in such a great and constant battle of this world. For, according to the apostle, our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and the mighty ones of the world of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. These, then, are the enemies we have; against these God must be prayed to as helper, that he may take us into his keeping. But this prayer ought to be not so much one of fear as of merit. For fear comes from the trembling of our condition, but the prophet hopes in God's word. Hope does not hold present things but future ones. So he hopes for what is contained in God's word, that is, in the prophetic sayings. He hopes either for the rewards of faith in the spiritual life, or for that very coming of our Lord, who is the Word of God. For this hope deserves the aid and help of God. Neither we nor any before us have deserved it otherwise than by having hoped that the Word of God, God, would dwell in the flesh of our nature, or by believing that he has dwelt in it.

But the prophet remembers that there are many things in himself which try to stand against his hope; and therefore he added: "Turn away from me, you malicious, and I will search the commandments of my God." The reason of heavenly teaching advises that this saying be thought to refer to the person of those in whom malice is present. For the prophet, who teaches the nations, who preaches God's word, bids all the malicious turn away from him, because a holy assembly is unfit for workers of malice. And I do not know whom he could except. For malice lies close to all through the will of a changeable nature, and the Lord taught that, though the apostles were already cleansed and holy by the word of faith, malice was not absent from them because of the condition of our common origin, saying: "If then you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children." But it is God's way both to love the evil and to teach the good to goodness, after the pattern of him who rather invites all to himself, saying: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." But the prophet knows that there are many malicious things in the hidden part of the human heart. For according to the Lord's saying, from within come evil thoughts, murders, sexual immorality, thefts, falsehoods, blasphemies. For these are the things that defile a man. Such things, then, opposing his faith, he asks to turn away from him. For they stand against his efforts, they stand against his spiritual progress; and while these thrust themselves on him by the constant familiarity of their counsels, his mind has no room to search God's commandments, because the presence of a malicious man greatly hinders one who wishes to search God's commandments.

And because there is need of God's mercy, so that, received into his household, we may be freed from the dominion of these things, the prophet prays, saying: "Uphold me according to your word, and I shall live; and do not put me to shame in my expectation." The prophet waits and hopes: he pursues nothing present, nothing temporary. But there are many who reproach and mock this expectation of our faith, saying such things as: "What profit will fasts, continence, chastity, the loss of inheritances bring? Where is your hope, Christians? Death rules equally over all: it has a common right over the natures of all bodies. Indeed we enjoy all the goods of the world and use our freedom; and in what, after all, do you surpass us by the expectation of hope?" So the prophet prays not to be put to shame in this expectation of his, but to remain confident and receive the fruits of what he awaits. For he knows that he does not yet live, though he lives. For our life, according to the apostle, is hidden in Christ. And therefore he says: "Uphold me according to your word, and I shall live," because he is held by the expectation and hope of that life. For he hopes, he hopes for the kingdom of heaven, he hopes for the kingdom of God, he hopes for spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. In this hope, in which he will not be put to shame, he asks to be upheld and to live.

Then follows: "Help me, and I shall be saved, and I will meditate on your justifications always." Above he had said, "my helper and upholder"; but now he prays for the reality of the names he mentioned, that he who is upholder may uphold, and he who is helper may help. He prays that the help of the helper may not be absent from him. He does not pray not to have malicious men, because faith is proved through patience in sufferings; but he prays to be helped against them, because help must always be prayed for from the Lord. But as in the preceding verse, upheld, he will live, so in this one, helped, he will be saved. For he still has to meet death, still to endure the underworld. He will be saved then, when, transformed from a bodily and earthly nature into spiritual glory, he fears no danger of a hostile enemy, lives among the elect angels, dwells in paradise, and, corruption being swallowed up, becomes immortal from mortal.

But when he says that he will meditate on God's justifications, and meditate always, does he not meditate now, who has hoped in meditation? It can indeed be taken of present work, that as long as he is in the body he always meditates on the justifications; but nonetheless the saying also extends into the future. He knows that in heaven all the angels are in meditation of God. For nothing there is idle, nothing inactive; all the heavenly powers remain in the work of their ministry. And since we shall then live the life of angels, meditation on the justifications can be eternal for us too, after the pattern of those who are always at work.

Then follows: "You have despised all who depart from your justifications, for their thought is wicked." The prophet prays for help and upholding for this reason, lest he too be despised with those who depart from God's justifications. But here this distinction was kept, that it was not said, "You have despised all sinners," but, "You have despised all who depart." For if God despised sinners, he would despise all, because no one is without sin. But he despises those who depart from him, whom they call apostates. Nor does it matter whether one was at some time in God's justifications. For whoever departs is to be despised by God, because it is the completion of remaining that preserves the merit of the one who remains. Departure differs from sin, because for sin pardon is reserved through repentance, but departure condemns itself by the very departure; and it arises when the will of those who are going to depart is wicked.

Then follows: "I have reckoned all sinners transgressors; therefore I have loved your righteous acts." The prophet's word always stretches far and beyond common sense. For we think transgressors are those who abandon the faith they received and the knowledge of God they gained, having promised one thing and now doing another. But here all sinners are reckoned so; no one is excepted; the name is applied generally to all. For there is a law, as it were natural: to do injury to no one, to snatch nothing belonging to another, to abstain from fraud and perjury, not to plot against another's marriage. The apostle too knows this law, saying: "For when the nations, which do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, such men, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts." So those are reckoned transgressors who abandon what they receive from the nature of law. One will convict a thief caught in the act, or an adulterer, or a murderer by the law of nature. But if he himself is engaged in these things, he is a transgressor of the law.

He knows too, when he says "sinners of the earth," that there are others who are sinners of heaven. For let us hear the prodigal son, lost and dead, confessing his sin to his father: "I have sinned," he says, "father, against heaven and before you." Whoever, having been made a partaker of heavenly teaching and spiritual grace, lingers in sin is not a sinner of the earth but of heaven. For our Lord Jesus Christ raised up with himself all who believe in him and seated them in the heavenly places, and whoever departs from them is convicted as a sinner of heaven. So since the prophet reckons sinners of the earth as transgressors because they have transgressed the law of nature by sinning, for this reason he himself loves God's testimonies: because, while there is pardon for departing from the law of nature, departure from the heavenly law is now without pardon.

"Pierce my flesh with your fear; for I have feared your judgments." These are new prayers of the prophet, that his flesh be pierced by the fear of God. But he remembers that those who wish to reign with Christ must suffer with him and die with him. And the Latin translation has expressed this with less force of meaning. For what with us is "pierce," there means to fasten oneself with nails. So we must die, and all the vices of the flesh must be nailed to the Lord's cross. For according to the apostle we die with Christ and are buried with him in baptism. And though the prophet has this in his will, yet he asks to obtain it through God's mercy. For he prays that his flesh be nailed by the fear of God, because he fears God's judgments. He fears the sentence of the eternal judgment, he fears not to be nailed and to die and be buried with Christ, understanding that he will not be a new man unless the old man with his vices and desires is put off.

Both at the beginning of the psalm and often afterwards we have recalled that through the elements, as it were, of the individual letters we are instructed in the teaching of piety, faith, and fear, and, like untrained infancy, trained by the very beginnings of the human voice in the knowledge of speaking, which the teaching of acting follows: this can be understood from the present eight verses of the sixteenth letter. For the prophet teaches all from his own person what it is useful for each to wish, to do, and to profess according to the awareness of his weakness and nature, and also what must be feared, guarded against, and cleansed. Blessed is he who, through God's mercy, is teacher, provider, cleanser, and judge for himself and for all! Certainly it most befits his dignity that he who speaks by the Spirit of God should speak the things that belong to human salvation and life.

For he says thus: "I have done judgment and righteousness; do not hand me over to those who harm me." He does works pleasing to God and, because he does them, prays not to be handed over to those who harm him. The work of deserving is put first, and then the reward of merit is asked for. For first what pleases is done; and then the favor of him who is pleased by the work is prayed for. But we neither work nor please, indeed we offend by impious and irreligious things; and because, being such, we are not heard, we grow angry. But it is worth observing what the things are by doing which the prophet prays not to be handed over to those who harm him.

And all things whatever that one who fears God does are useful and beautiful for him. One who cultivates chastity has brought a glorious and shining light into the soiled flesh of his body. One who takes up contempt of money has kept himself free from earthly dominions. One who loves frugality and thrift has not left the nobility of the heavenly soul captive to drunkenness. But although these are great and splendid, yet, because they are the prophet's own and useful only to him, they are not counted toward this merit.

But what did he do, that he prays not to be handed over to those who harm him? Judgment, namely, and righteousness: doing nothing ill-advised, nothing unjust, but first judgment; for he treats all things with reason, measure, and truth, so that what he does to another he carries out after it has first been weighed and examined, by the decision of counsel. But he does not leave the sentence of judgment to his own counsel alone, but does righteousness together with judgment. This is the greatest work of one who judges with counsel, that what he judges be just. For righteousness is the friend of concord, the bond and foundation of peace, and the working of human reason. These things the prophet did; and while the work is his, yet there is benefit also for those toward whom he did judgment and righteousness.

He asks not to be handed over to those who harm him. For everyone in whom there is a will to sin is empty of God; and where God is not, there the devil is, who, lying in wait and besieging, when he has opportunity of approach, occupies it like an empty house which has been handed over to him because God has deserted it. And the prophet, speaking in the person of all, prays not to be handed over by God. But the apostle already has this power in himself, to hand sinners over to the devil himself, when he writes to the Corinthians about the one who, going beyond every sexual immorality, had taken his father's wife: "But I, absent in body but present in spirit, as though present, have judged him who did this, when you are gathered together with my spirit, with the power of the Lord Jesus, to hand such a one over for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." But though the apostle hands over, he knows that he will hand over in the power of Christ and in his own spirit. And in another letter he says of Phygelus and Hermogenes: "whom I have handed over, that they may learn." For those who are cast out of the body of the church, which is the body of Christ, are handed over to the dominion of the devil as strangers and aliens from God's body.

But the prophet prays not to be handed over to those who harm him. For hostile and dangerous powers are at hand, which disturb the purpose of faith, which wipe out the fear of God, which solicit toward earthly desires and longings, which stir the weak nature of the body into vices by certain goads of enticement. The apostle too knows this multitude of ruling powers, saying: "In which you also once walked, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." So the prophet did judgment and righteousness, and asks not to be handed over to those who harm him, and harm in this way: when they drive into sin, when they puff up with glory, when they kindle anger, when they embitter into hatred, when they entice to lust, when they provoke to greed. But though they hasten to harm by these things, they will not be able to take hold of the innocent unless these have been handed over to them by God's withdrawal.

"Receive your servant for good; let not the proud slander me." The prophet advances in his hope and now climbs a higher step of his prayer. For he who had prayed not to be handed over to those who harm him now asks to be received in the proper condition of a servant, praying for that blessed lordship of God over him with his good reception. And not for a light reason does he pray to be received for good, namely lest the proud slander him. And who are the proud? Surely those whose prince Isaiah heard speaking, for he said: "By the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the bounds of the nations and their strength, and I will shake inhabited cities, and I will take the whole world in my hand like nestlings and carry it off like broken eggs." This is the voice of one who is proud, namely the devil, who also dared to say to our God and Lord Jesus Christ, when he had shown him the glory of earthly kingdoms: "All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me." And that he is not alone, but that many ministers of spiritual wickedness attend him, we are taught by him who says: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels." So he asks to be free from the slander of these proud ones. For they slander, because, while they themselves supply the incitements of sin, they bring against us before God the charge of the sin we have committed through them; for they turn the cause of sin into a crime and sharpen the odium of the crime through slander, as Scripture in the Apocalypse testifies that he is the slanderer.

But even now the prophet stretches himself to higher progress, saying: "My eyes have failed for your salvation and for the word of your righteousness." The eyes fail when the sight, intent on some expectation, labors. So the prophet fixed the eyes of his soul on God's salvation. And what must be understood by "salvation" we have often treated: namely that it is Jesus, who will save his people from their sins. So while others occupy their eyes with worldly desires and strain them toward the pleasures of present things, the prophet is fixed on God's salvation. And lest we think that his bodily eyes failed under this intent contemplation, they fail not only for God's salvation but also for the word of righteousness.

So he confesses that God's words are just. He knows that there are some which, among the ignorant and impious, have the reputation of an unjust word: when Pharaoh's heart is hardened to stubbornness and the obstinacy of an irreligious will is fixed in him; when of two nations still in the womb the elder is to serve the younger, and, though neither deserves anything good, slavery is laid on one and lordship given to the other; when Adam is driven from paradise lest he touch the tree of life. These things men incapable of divine power, goodness, and justice declare unjust, since they cannot understand them. But the eyes of this prophet fail for such a word of righteousness, because he knows that there is nothing unjust in these sayings of God, but that all these words of righteousness are to be fulfilled and understood at the coming of God's salvation. And through this intent expectation, even to the failing of his eyes, he goes on so as to dare to pray for something further.

So, having confessed the word of righteousness, he added this: "Deal with your servant according to your mercy, and teach me your justifications." Perhaps it would be thought an insolent voice that said, "Deal with your servant." For in saying "deal," a presumption of asking is assumed as if from some confidence. But he would not say it shamelessly who had done judgment and righteousness, who had prayed to be received as a servant, whose eyes had failed for God's salvation and the word of righteousness. But not even in these is the prophet insolent. For to that very "deal" he added "with your servant." And because our servitude needs the Lord's mercy for this very purpose, that it may remain in the faith of servitude, he added further, "according to your mercy": because there is need of his compassion that we may remain in this profession of our servitude. For human weakness is feeble by itself for obtaining anything, and this alone belongs to its nature, that it should both wish and begin to join itself to God's household. But it belongs to divine mercy to help those who wish, strengthen those who begin, receive those who approach: from us is the beginning, so that it may complete it.

But what, after all, does he ask God to do with his servant according to his mercy? Surely, to teach him his justifications. He knows that in the justifications Moses was commanded to establish something great and incomprehensible to human understanding is contained. He wants to know, as we have often said, who that Hebrew boy is, bought to serve only six years. He reads these things, but what is read is not at once also understood. He wants to know what that servitude is, what the freedom of the seventh year, what the piercing of the ear with an awl means if he does not want to be free, who that woman of the Hebrew is, what it means that he goes out himself without the woman, then what the second justification, what the third, what the following ones hold of the prefiguring of future mysteries. It is not in human ability to grasp these things: a heavenly teacher is needed, and many merits of our faith are necessary that we may deserve to be taught them.

We should know that in all the prophet's words there is nothing lowly, nothing common with others, but that what is declared is proper either to himself or to those like him; and under familiar words lies hidden the greatest profession of conscience and faith, as we now understand in what follows. For he says: "I am your servant; give me understanding, and I shall know your testimonies." There is none of us who does not, either in the petition of his prayer or in the habit of common speech, confess that he is God's servant. And what great thing did the prophet do in professing himself a servant, which no one has dared to deny? But the profession of the others is false, which, though it has the necessity of conscience, does not have the truth of confession. This is proper to the prophet, that he professes himself God's servant by fulfilling the service of his condition in every kind of life, whether walking or sitting, waking or sleeping, in food too and in fasts, being hungry or full for God, and at no time withdrawing from the duties of his servitude. Such a one will freely say, "I am your servant." But one who sleeps in debauchery, keeps awake for robberies, travels for gain, rests in luxury, if he says, "I am your servant," professes indeed what he is, but does not do what he is.

But the prophet, although he confesses the condition of his office by his very service, is nevertheless mindful of his weakness; for he asks that understanding be given him. For understanding is laid up in a kind of treasury of spiritual graces, though at times the devil insinuates it into the minds of the imprudent under the error of false opinion. But the prophet asks God for understanding, lest an empty understanding creep upon him, such as that of the nations, of the Jews, of the heretics: and he asks for it in order to know God's testimonies, which were handed down before witnesses, which are reproached as having been neglected and violated before witnesses, which, neglected and scorned, will be avenged at the coming of him for whose sake they were spoken with witnesses.

And the prophet is not ignorant of the time of these testimonies, saying: "It is time for the Lord to act; they have scattered your law." The law was given to the people before witnesses; and when it was scattered and cast away by the Jews, then it was time for the Lord to do the things that were contained in the law. For he promised in the law that he would give salvation to the nations, that he would take to himself the body of a man, who was made according to the image and likeness of God, that when the law was scattered he would give the grace of faith. He recalls this time through the prophet Isaiah, saying: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you." The apostle, interpreter of this saying, writes this: "Behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation": that is, when the law was scattered, the time of the gospel preaching came.

But while they scattered the law, the prophet's work is different. And what it is, we are taught from what follows. For he says: "Therefore I have loved your commandments above gold and topaz." When he says "therefore," he refers it to what he had said, "It is time for the Lord to act," because he knew that it was the time for the Lord to act when they had scattered the law. And he loved the commandments for this reason, because in them was contained the time for the Lord to act. For the whole law testified to the Lord's coming, as he himself says: "If you believed Moses, you would surely believe me also; for he wrote of me." So the prophet loved God's commandments because in them he understood the coming of the Lord's incarnation. And in saying that he loves, he signifies something more. For to do something is less than to love, because what we do is often of necessity, but love is the affection of one's own will.

But that love is perfect which is greatest and which is equalled by no other in comparison with similar things. And he loves God's commandments above gold and topaz. Human error thinks nothing more precious than gold and gems, and these are what have subjected the desires of men to the dominion of their price and honor. By gold, right, honesty, and chastity are for sale; by gems, a supposedly more excellent appearance of the human body is sought, to the insult of nature. And therefore both sexes hold nothing more precious, since men want to be able to do all things by gold, and women think they become more beautiful by gems. And as gold surpasses the other metals, so topaz surpasses other stones. For it is the rarest and most beautiful of all and the largest. It is usually found in a place in the Thebaid called Alabastrane. The writings of secular history also report that it was found on the island of Topazos by its inhabitants, the Arab Troglodytes, and brought as a gift to the mother of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, under whom the Scriptures of the law were translated from Hebrew into Greek. It alone contains in itself the appearance of the other best and most precious gems, and in that one stone a mingling of the most diverse colors is contained. Above this topaz, then, and above gold the prophet loved God's commandments, showing that he was held not by earthly but by heavenly desires.

Having despised the desire for worldly wealth, he cut off from himself every occasion of a perverse and depraved will. For loving God's commandments above gold and topaz, he says: "Therefore I was directed to all your commandments; I hated every wicked way." He is not turned aside, not twisted by earthly desires, but directed to all God's commandments: the things he meets do not seize him. He saw gold; he knew it to be the mud of the earth. He saw gems; he remembered they are pebbles of mountains or sea. He saw a face enticing to lust; he knows that, like the birds of the sky, he must escape from these snares. So he resists the vices grown into his nature and hates every way of iniquity. Therefore he is directed in all the commandments, because he loves them above earthly desires; and he is directed so as not to become a partaker of those to whom it is said: "a crooked and perverse generation." And he hates every way of iniquity, so as to be in him who is the way, namely our Lord, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.