Tractates on the Psalms 118.5.1–118.6.12

In the first verse of the fifth letter we find an unusual and new prayer of the prophet. For he began thus: "Set for me a law, Lord, the way of your justifications"; but it is hard to follow the reasoning of this verse from the Latin translation. For by the condition of our ordinary speech the force of both the Hebrew and the Greek word could not be expressed so completely. For the Greeks translated: "νομοθέτησόν με, κύριε, τὴν ὁδὸν τῶν δικαιωμάτων σου" ("give me a law, Lord, as the way of your justifications"). For in this verse he prays that a law of justifications be set for him; and what is in the Greek, Latin could not express for the understanding of the same sense. So the prophet prays that the Lord set for him a law for the way of his justifications, that is, that by a law he may understand and know the way of God's justifications. For he does not say only "a law", but asks for a law of the way.

And what, after all, will be the law of the justifications? For in common, earthly roads we remember there is a law in the measures of distance, when certain markers of the road's law are set at intervals of a thousand paces, when resting places are arranged, when intervals between stations suited to the refreshment of travellers are measured out again all the way to the city. But also when the people crossed from Egypt through the Red Sea on foot, we remember there was a certain law set for them, not by the judgment of human choice but of divine, in the pillar of fire and cloud. For when the people had to journey, the pillar of fire went before them at night, and the pillar of cloud by day. But when it pleased God that the people be kept long in the same camp, neither did the pillar of fire move forward by night nor did the pillar of cloud go before them by day. So he set this law. And if we carefully go over those stations and camp sites and the conditions of the places contained in Exodus, we shall see great wonders of the heavenly journey in them. For this reason the prophet often prayed, saying: "I will consider wonders out of your law." But now the prophet does not pray to be held by these laws; for he asks not for a law, but for a law of the way of the justifications.

He knows that there is a way of the testimonies, when he says: "I delighted in the way of your testimonies." He knows there is a way of the commandments, when he says: "I ran in the way of your commandments." He knows there is a way of the law, since blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord. He knows there is this way of the justifications, for which he now prays. He knows too that there is a way in the prophets, a way in the gospels, a way in the apostles, to which he has often borne witness. So he wants by the law of this way to stretch all the way to that perfect way. For there are many who reject the way of the law, many that of the prophets, many that of the gospels, many that of the apostles. For we know that some are not in all these ways. But the learned scribe knows, by the example of the rich householder, how to bring out of the treasures things old and new. This law of the justifications, then, the prophet desires. For the law is contained in certain disciplines of a devout heart, and it has confined us within the bounds of its ordinance, which we are to use, lest by going beyond them we wander off into opinions. So he does not want to go beyond that law which he prays to have set for him.

But into what law does he pray to be instructed? Clearly, so that he may seek it out. There was a law of justifications written through Moses, and the prophet exercised it in works; so he does not pray for this to be set for him, since it was already set and was being devoutly carried out by him, but for the one he wishes to seek out. What, then, does he wish to seek out? The end of the law, clearly. And what will the end of the law be? Let us hear the apostle: "For Christ is the end of the law." But through these ways of the justifications, by which the law was set, he wishes to seek out the end of the law; and not only to seek it out, but always to seek it out. For he says thus: "And I will seek it out always." The duty of seeking out would not have been enough by an act of will, unless it were also carried on by him in an unwearied continuance of time.

We remember it written in the Proverbs of Solomon: "Wisdom will be reckoned to one without understanding who asks for wisdom." In this sense it seems to show that one who does not understand, and asks wisely, is believed to be wise. This, then, leads to this point: the prophet, who remained in the law, who according to the apostle was circumcised on the eighth day, by race of the tribe of Judah, by the grace of bodily anointing both chosen king and anointed, and by the mystery of birth worthy to have Jesus Christ as his son, prays as if a stranger to the law: "Give me understanding, and I will search your law and keep it with my whole heart." So he does not yet keep it, has not yet searched it, does not yet understand. So he is not speaking of that law in which the prophet was born, trained, and worked. Knowing, then, that the first part of prudence is that one ask wisely about what he does not understand, so as to understand what he does not know, he asks to receive understanding; and knowing that once the spirit of understanding is gained there is need of zeal, he says: "And I will search your law." Recognizing that the fruit of labor lies in keeping what has been found, he said: "And I will keep it." And understanding that perfect diligence lies in the duty of the whole heart, he completed the whole order of his speech, saying: "Give me understanding, and I will search your law and keep it with my whole heart."

But what, after all, is this that he wishes to understand, which he also promises to keep with his whole heart? For he remembers that the six days in the work of this world are shown in the book of Moses not to be idle. He knows that the rest of the seventh day is not superfluous. He recalls that in the observance of the months a heavenly festival is figured as in a mirror. He knows that year in which one is free after six years of slavery, in which the land rests after its working, its fruits left to the poor and the beasts of the land, in which all debts are also remitted to all the Hebrews. He longs to search the laws of the fiftieth year too; he wants to know why the observance is from the tenth day of the first month to the fourteenth and then to the twenty-first. He thinks too of that solemnity of the seventh month, whose memorial is in trumpets, and of the atonement of the tenth day in it, and after the fifteenth day of the joy of eight days in tabernacles, how from these both the first day is holy and the eighth is holy. He knows that the first circumcision took place, he knows that it was repeated by Joshua. He desires the holy unleavened bread, he longs to rejoice in the Passover, of which it is written at the sacrifice of the lamb itself: "It is the Lord's Passover." He knows that the land of promise, the land of milk and honey, was not yet truly obtained by the people who were circumcised a second time. For this, then, he prays for understanding; understanding these things he promises to search them; these he has professed he will keep; keeping these with his whole heart …

After which follows: "Lead me in the path of your commandments, because I have wished for it." In this verse too the force of the word is not properly expressed, through the condition of translation. For where ours said "in the path," the Greek speaks thus: ὁδήγησόν με ἐν τρίβῳ. And what with them is called τρίβος is understood as a worn and much-travelled path; but with us a path can be called a path whether it is worn or not worn. So since the word has embraced both under the same name, let us also understand it so, and know that this same path is one that is worn.

And it must be observed that here he speaks of the path not of the law but of the commandments. For the way of the law had people walking in it from Moses, after it was established. But the path of the commandments is so called because it has been travelled in God's commandments from the beginning of the world. For on this path Abel ran, Seth stood firm, Enoch pleased God, Noah deserved to be preserved, Melchizedek was able both to bless and to receive tithes, Abraham is the friend of God, Isaac is heir, Israel is …, from Judah is the expectation of the nations, Joseph was set as a testimony, Job, free of the law, triumphs over the enemy of the law, Moses avenges, Joshua circumcises Israel a second time, and Samuel is chosen as worthy to anoint a king.

And now he, anointed, king, and prophet, prays to be led on this path. For he knows that his nature is weak and that he cannot set out on this path without a guide. For God is the guide of all who travel this path. He is a guide when it is said: "You shall walk behind the Lord your God and cleave to him," and again: "Walk behind him, for he leads you." And he leads when he says: "Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." He leads too in that he first wore down the whole path of the gospel sufferings. If the apostles teach this path, he was first; for Wisdom makes friends of God and prophets. If we do anything justly in this, he is the prince of our righteousness; for he himself is righteousness. If we are scourged to terrify us for the faith, he gave his back to the scourges. If we are slapped to insult us, he received these. If we are put to scorn, he did not turn his face from spitting.

He is the guide in all things; but he is guide to those who love the law, which the prophet professed above that he would keep with his whole heart. For here, according to the wording, what is said, "because I have wished for it," cannot be referred to the path of the commandments; because in the Greek, where "path" is written in the feminine gender, what he says he wished for he expresses in the masculine, saying: ὅτι αὐτὸν ἠθέλησα. For law is named by us in the feminine gender, but in Greek it is masculine, which is why it is expressed by them in the masculine. And while there "path" is named in the feminine, what he wished for is referred to what is mentioned properly in the masculine gender.

But now follows: "Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to profit." The prophet referred everything to God's gift: whether that the law of the way of justification be set by the Lord, or that understanding be granted him, or that he be led on the path, or that his heart be inclined to the testimonies, that is, to the things written before witnesses. For the law was handed down with heaven and earth as witnesses.

But perhaps through this devout modesty of the prophet someone will dare to speak impiously thus: "If," he says, "all things are from God, then human ignorance is free of blame, since it can obtain nothing except what it has received as given by God." And first, it is an impious will to think that one does not attain what is proper to believers because it has not been granted by God. But the prophet removed every occasion for this impious excuse. For first, when he prays, he performed the duty suited to his weakness; then he joined the efforts of human devotion to God's gifts. For when he says, "Set for me a law, Lord, the way of your justifications," he showed what belongs to the humility of prayer to God. But when he added, "And I will seek it out always," he set forth the duty of devotion. And in the rest too he bound them to one another in a kind of embrace: when he asks to be led on the path, and when he has wished for that very thing. For first he put what is from God, with honor; and then what is man's, with the humility of his duty. He prays, then, that God may grant. So it is from us, when we pray, that the beginning comes, so that the gift may be from him; then, because his gift comes from our beginning, it is again from us that it is sought, obtained, and kept.

Where it reads, "Incline my heart to your justifications and not to profit," some translated: "to your justifications and not to greed." What is contained in the manuscripts suits both, being ambiguous in its meaning. But we, as we ought, follow the devout and ancient authority of the seventy translators, while fitting the proper sense of each to our purpose by the judgment of the other translators. For since these said "to profit" and those said "to greed," from this very fact we shall learn how "profit" is meant here. For men of the world call money, silver, gold, and the other instruments of wealth "profit." So when the prophet prays that his heart be inclined to God's testimonies and not to profit, he undoubtedly turns his heart, inclined to God's testimonies, away from those things that are thought useful by human judgment. And the verse that follows confirms the sense of our understanding.

For he says: "Turn away my eyes, lest they see vanity; give me life in your way," teaching the vanity of things which are thought useful by men. And we must ask which eyes he prays to have turned away, and from what vanity. He prays for the eyes both of the mind and of the body: those, namely, which lie captive at theatrical shows, those which are slaves to the contests of the circus, those which admire costly clothing, those which the splendor of gold and gems has seized. As if the course of the stars were not more pleasing than the course of horses, and as if those divine words of human hope did not sing more delightfully than the obscene tales of shameful spectacles! As if the riches of eternity laid up, honor and glory, were not better than this use of earthly metals, and as if the sight of gold would be more charming to me than that of man and earth and light and heaven! From the vanities of these, then, he prays that his eyes be turned away, both these of his body and those of his soul; of which the blessed apostle teaches when he says: "Their understanding darkened in vanity, alienated from the life of God."

And what it means for the eyes to be turned away from vanity need not be sought far. For there follows: "And in your way I shall live." The eyes must be turned aside from vanity so that we may have life in God: not the life that is now, but the life laid up in heaven and hidden in Christ. For throughout this passage the prophet speaks as one who is to live, and not merely now. So the eyes must be lifted up, by which the glory of Christ may be seen rather than the empty and vain things of this world. For turning our eyes back from vanity, we shall live in the way of God.

Then follows: "Establish your word for your servant in your fear." The prophet knows that the words of God are received by many without fear. For many neglect the Scriptures of the heavenly word when they hear them, as a tale of empty things, and with great danger of rashness they mock the words of God, which cannot pass away even when heaven and earth pass away. He knows that the fear of God is the beginning. He knows that in that grace of the sevenfold Spirit fear is named last, as the foundation of what is said before it. So he prays that God's words be established in him in the fear of God, because he knows that those words will be useful to us if they are feared as God's. Then he added: "Cut away my reproach, which I suspected; for your judgments are pleasant." The prophet speaks as one placed in a body, and he knows that none of the living can be without sin. He remembers that there is one who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. So when he prays that reproach be cut away from him, he prays that sin be cut away, because reproach follows sin. But when he prays for it to be cut away from him, he does not confess it as something committed and done, but because he suspects that it dwells in him through the weaknesses of his flesh. For he does not say, "Cut away the reproach which is in me," but he says, "Cut away my reproach, which I suspected," showing a suspicion of reproach out of awareness of his own weakness. For in the judgments many will rise to reproach; and because the judgments are pleasant to those in whom no reproach of sin will remain, he prays that the very suspicion of reproach which is in him be cut away, so that God's judgments may be pleasant to him.

And lest he be thought to have prayed out of awareness of a sin committed, he concluded the whole prayer which he offers under each group of eight verses with this freedom: "Behold, I have longed for your commandments; in your righteousness give me life." He prayed that God's words be established in him in the fear of God; then that the suspicion of reproach be cut away from him; now he shows his longing and desire for God's precepts, and prays to be given life in God's righteousness, knowing that it is the proper gift of divine equity to give life to one who has desired God's precepts, to whom, with the suspicion of reproach cut away, the judgments are pleasant, and in whom God's words are established in the fear of God. Amen.

There are many, as the apostle says, who, following wisdom, have rejected the wisdom of God; for this reason God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. For what is more foolish than the unbelievers, who, besides that common error of the irreligious, add this crime too, that they think the divine words of the Scriptures lack the reason of perfect teaching? And because in their impiety they cannot grasp the divine sayings, to excuse their dullness they break out into insult of heavenly things, saying that there is nothing reasonable in them, nothing perfect, and that only what is said by themselves is learned and polished by teaching: fools who deny wisdom to God and dare to claim it for themselves. Nor is it surprising if they think irreligiously of things whose understanding they do not attain because of their dullness. But although in the discourse we had above I think the perfection of the sayings has been made known to those who follow the wisdom of God, and that there is nothing in it that is not complete and perfect in every part, yet this too may be understood still more fully in these verses of the sixth letter.

For after the preceding thought he speaks thus: "And let your mercy come upon me, Lord, your salvation according to your word." So he first prayed for mercy, then for salvation. For our salvation is from God's mercy, and this gift of his goodness is in us; and so the prayer begins from where the one who prays begins. Then, lest the prophet be thought to pray out of an uncertain and unforeseen hope, he mentions first mercy, then salvation, and third he added "according to your word," to show that this confidence in praying proceeds according to God's word, that is, from the teaching of the law.

After this order of perfect prayer there follows: "And I will answer a word to those who reproach me, because I have hoped in your words." Perfect reason keeps its order: "If," he says, "your mercy comes upon me and your salvation according to your word, and I obtain mercy from you and salvation from you, as you promised, it will follow that I answer those who reproach me with folly and mistaken hope and with this word which I hope for in you." What, then, can an irreligious mind reproach against this answer of the prophet? Mercy is first prayed for from God, salvation too is expected from God; then God is shown to have promised it through his word. So the impiety of those who reproach is shut up by those who hope in God's words: since, whenever God is proclaimed, the faith of believers hopes both for mercy and for salvation from him, and the teaching of our hope is that, when prayed to, he both has mercy and saves.

Then follows: "And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, because I have hoped in your judgments." Let human insolence receive the teaching of humility and modesty. The prophet prays for it to be granted him before showing that he deserves to obtain it. He wants everything in him to be begun by God's goodness; and yet he does not withhold the reason. For he says: "And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth." In this he first confesses the majesty of him who must always be prayed to; then he added that he does not hope from nothing, saying: "because I have hoped in your judgments." But it is the custom of human rashness to thrust forward its merit for obtaining something before it deserves it, and to approach him from whom it asks something as if from an obligation of duty.

But it is not enough for us that the prophet kept only the measure of modesty; there are also arrangements and forces of the words that explain why he said: "And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth." Every duty of the mouth serves the thought and movements of the heart. And why the prophet prays that the word of truth not be taken from his mouth, the sequence of this verse teaches. For this was not the prophet's fear, that he feared the word of truth would be taken from his heart; for he says, "because I have hoped in your judgments." Hoping, then, in God's judgments, he does not fear that the word of truth will be taken from his heart; but he knows that there are certain sins which take the word of truth from the mouth. For God said to the sinner: "Why do you declare my justifications?" For he does not say, "Why are you unmindful of mine?" but he warned one who had remained in sin to abstain from the duty of preaching. For he wants the preacher to be free from crime; he wants his words handled by the chaste mouth of a chaste body. So we must take care that the speaking of the word of truth is never taken from our mouth. Hence comes what the apostle warns: "Do not neglect the gift that is in you," lest through negligence and sloth we become unworthy of the word of God.

But the prophet does not dare to wish to be made so free from sin that he forgets that there is only one who did no sin and in whose mouth no deceit was found; and therefore he added: "utterly." Through the modesty of confession he prays that the word of truth not be taken from him, and out of honor for him who alone is without sin he asks that it not be utterly taken from him, because he remembers that he is a man who through the weakness of nature cannot be without sin.

"And I will keep your law always, for ever and ever." The prophet fears no end of life. For his faith is not shut in, but extends itself into infinite ages in the duty of keeping the law. He knows that the altar made by Moses was a copy of the altar above. He knows that the priest Aaron was clothed after the likeness of the priestly dress shown on the mountain. For God said to Moses: "Go, make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." So he hastens to those laws of the eternal ages. For since the law is a shadow of what is to come, the body of the true law must be eternal. He distinguished the present duty from that unwearying continuance of perpetual duty, saying: "And I will keep your law always, for ever and for ever and ever." When he says "always, for ever," he allowed no time of forgetfulness in this life of time. But when he added "and for ever and ever," he knows that through this shadow of the law one ascends to the eternal age of the law. For he speaks of "the age of the age" as a time of time, because by a kind of succession there will be an age to follow this age.

He knows that, as with the rich man of the gospel and the poor man Lazarus, there is a law for souls freed from the body, by which one is separated from another by an impassable chasm. He knows, as the apostle Paul says, that there is also a law of the resurrection, in which star differs from star in glory. He knows that there are laws of the angels: some, standing by as Cherubim, praise God unweariedly; others stand before the face of God, invisible to us, as by the law of a more proper office. He knows too that the angels of the little ones see God daily by a certain law. He knows that there are certainly eternal laws, and he trusts that he will keep all of them in that age, because he always observes now in this age the things that were established as their shadow.

"And I walked in largeness, because I sought out your commandments." The prophet is not narrow; and above he had already said: "I ran in the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart." He knows that amid the suffering of human tribulations one must always have an open heart toward God. The apostle teaches this very thing, saying: "We are afflicted, but not straitened." The same apostle knows how to glory in this very largeness of heart about himself. To the Corinthians he says: "You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in yourselves." Here too the prophet lies open to God, who says: "And I will dwell in them and walk among them." So the hearts of sinners are narrow, and a polluted mind does not receive God as a guest. For an open dwelling is needed for God, who cannot be contained, and therefore the prophet walks in largeness, because in him is the dwelling of God who speaks in him. He teaches the reason for his largeness, saying: "because I sought out your commandments." Let us recall the habit of our nature: whenever, with time for reading, we search God's commandments and precepts, into how great a largeness the narrowness of our minds is widened, and how open the sense of our lowliness becomes to divine desires. But through awareness of our sins every largeness of mind is narrowed for us, and all things are hard and narrow when we are unworthy of the indwelling of the divine word.

But the prophet, walking in breadth, must be occupied in a duty worthy of the largeness he has gained; and he plainly is. For there follows: "And I spoke of your testimonies in the sight of kings, and I was not put to shame." This is the duty of an enlarged heart, that from it words of teaching should come forth in abundance; for the prophet speaks steadfastly against the princes of the earth, proclaiming God. And this sense has a double meaning: first, that according to the Lord's precepts we must preach before kings and authorities, and that it is not right for us to be terrified by the power of earthly authorities so as not to confess, with all shame cast aside and with steadfast and public faith, the God who will deny those who deny him. The word may also be referred to those of whom the apostle says: "Already you reign without us, and would that you did reign": that is, the prophet spoke God's testimonies as in the sight of the saints, who are certainly often called kings of the earth, and was not ashamed to present the ordinances of heaven by his preaching. This twofold understanding offers a choice: since both can readily be understood from the testimonies of the Scriptures, either both may be thought to be meant, or whichever seems more probable may be chosen.

"And I meditated on your commandments, which I loved exceedingly." So it is fitting for us not only to speak of God's testimonies but to retain all the commandments of the law by daily meditation. Nor is meditation alone useful unless the law itself, which is meditated on, is loved; nor will it suffice to love with an ordinary love, unless what is loved is also loved exceedingly. And therefore the prophetic word runs through this whole order of perfect reason, saying: "and on your commandments, which I loved exceedingly."

But neither meditation on the law nor love itself, however intense, will suffice unless the fruit of works and the carrying out of the will follow. Nor did the prophet stop short in this; for he says: "And I lifted up my hands to your commandments, which I loved greatly." He raised his hands to the commandments which he loved: certainly not insolent or wanton hands, but hands serving the commandments of humility, intent on works, carrying out the precepts of faith. The duty of work must always be intent and never cease through the pretense of careless idleness. The prophet testifies that he remains in this too, saying: "And I was exercised in your justifications." Exercise shows persistence in working. So he teaches that his observance of the precepts is frequent and always intent, toward those heavenly justifications we mentioned above, exercising himself now in the justifications of the present law, which is a shadow of things to come.