Tractates on the Psalms 135.1–135.15

Prophetic speech is not idle, nor does spiritual utterance arise from empty and superfluous causes. For if in prudent men it is especially expected that what they say should be worthy of their gravity and learning, and that all their speech should not be random and wandering but should proceed from rational causes, be useful to the expectation of the hearers and fitting to the authority of the speakers, how much more must we think this of the heavenly oracles, so that whatever is in them is held to be lofty, divine, rational, and perfect. But often, indeed always, it happens through our fault that we neglect what we hear read in the church, our ears and minds wandering far from it, so that through carelessness in listening the dignity of the heavenly sayings grows cheap among us. When during the time of the reading we reckon accounts, conceive anger, think of injuries, recall luxuries, plot acts of sexual immorality, then, occupied with these things, our ears are deaf and our mind dull; and if perhaps something of what is read falls into our ears, yet the mind, buried by the cares of the world, does not feel the force of the sayings; and it will think light the authority of things whose understanding it does not attain.

All that is in the prophetic books holds for humanity the greatest advance in salvation and teaching, and all of it was written for our sake: now to bring us instruction in an innocent life, now to convey knowledge of God, now to give understanding of our origin and nature, now to offer understanding of things to come not by hope only but by reason, now to set forth the causes and origin of this universe, and to stretch human sense, incapable of understanding such great things, by various kinds of teaching so as to grasp knowledge of them. For there was need of certain parts and divisions, through which, gradually, by constant use and exercise, at least an opinion of this understanding, incomprehensible to us, might creep in. There are many prophets, and their sayings are vast and abundant; there are also many psalms, and many and varied things are gathered in each. And although all embrace one and the same form of teaching, yet by different instructions they direct us into the same way of knowledge, not heaping everything into one (for we are incapable of all), but explaining parts by parts, so that through knowing single things progress may be made to many. In this psalm, since the arguments for each point of the same matter are different, this is contained: that we should understand the cause of this universe, that is, why heaven, why earth, why men, why the rest exist, to have proceeded from the goodness and mercy of God, through what is said: "Confess to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is for ever."

And first, in its beginning, "Confess to the Lord," a double sense is brought: either that we should praise God in confession, because he is good, because his mercy is for ever; or that we should confess our sins to him, to be forgiven by him, because he is good and his mercy unfailing. Both suit our nature: that we should praise him for the knowledge of whom we are born, and that we should confess our sins, acknowledging them as sin, to him who is good and merciful for ever. For it is not confession to confess what you have done to God, who is ignorant of nothing, since God does not need this declaration, to whose knowledge nothing is hidden, to whose approach nothing is impassable, to whose power nothing is left over, outside whom there is no place; but confession is the declared knowledge of a thing that was unknown, advancing from the opinion of one judgment to the sentence of another understanding. Someone had formerly thought it useful and pleasant to rob, to kill, to steal, to be proud, to drink, to go with prostitutes; but when he learned that all these are liable to eternal damnation, having learned them he confesses his error. And confession of error is a declaration of ceasing. One must cease, then, from the sin for whose sake the confession of sin has begun. But he is beyond pardon who has learned his sin and does not confess it once learned.

We must always confess, not because we must always sin, so as always to have to confess, but because untiring confession of old and former sin is useful. The Holy Spirit teaches that we must always confess when he says through the prophet: "The righteous man is his own accuser in the first of his speech." The righteous man accuses himself not of present things but of past ones; for from one who is liable to accusation for present things the name of righteous is taken away. And let us hear the apostle Paul reproving himself for past things, when he says: "For I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am." This is that true confession of the righteous man, which commends present righteousness by the consciousness and confession of the past. To this we are also admonished elsewhere through the prophet: "Confess your sins first," he says, "that you may be justified." To this confession, then, we are called in the psalm, "for God is good, for his mercy is for ever," our confession having from this the most earnest faith, because he to whom we confess is both good and does not know how to cease being merciful.

"Confess to the God of gods, for his mercy is for ever." As we are taught in the Gospels by the Lord's answer to the Sadducees, he is not the God of the dead but of the living; through him it was also said: "I said, you are gods, and all sons of the Most High." God does not deign to be the God of the corruptible and the dead, but of those who, to be transformed into heavenly glory, have stripped off the old earthly man and put on the new one who is in heaven, who will be conformed to the body of God's glory. And although the merit of their faith requires that these be made gods, yet the greatest cause is "for his mercy is for ever." He did not need to be called God of gods, but it belongs to his goodness and mercy to make gods, imparting the honor of his name from the disposition of mercy and goodness.

"Confess to the Lord of lords, for his mercy is for ever." The apostle taught that many are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, so that this might seem to belong not only to human nature but also to spiritual nature, when he says: "But even if there are those called gods, in heaven and on earth," showing by the meaning of heaven and earth that this name belongs to both natures. The same apostle also signifies God as Lord of lords, when he says: "King of kings and Lord of lords." Lordship over the base and degenerate is unworthy of God. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, as he is God of gods. And whom he means by gods is not doubtful: of them he said, "God stood in the synagogue of gods." And the same apostle plainly shows the kings, saying: "Already without us you reign; and would that you did reign!" Kings are those over whom sin does not reign, who rule their own body, who already have command over this flesh made subject and subdued to them. These, then, are kings, and God is the king of these. These too are lords, who will not be servants of sin: for he who commits sin is the servant of sin. Sin, then, must be ruled, not served. And they are lords who subject these bodies of sin to their rule by subduing their vices and sins. The apostle knew he was lord of his body when he says: "For I subdue my body and bring it into servitude." He who brings into servitude must by a lord's right bring into servitude the one who is to serve. Of such lords, then, God is the Lord, calling them through the hope of eternity to be lords, so that God may be Lord of these lords: and this for no other reason than "for his mercy is for ever," granting us through the kindness of his eternal mercy that, being made lords, we may be worthy to have him as our Lord.

"Who alone has done great wonders." In very many deeds of human works many great and wonderful things have appeared, but whatever was done in them is referred to him whose power did them. Moses did many wonders in Egypt; but the magicians and enchanters bear witness that the finger of God is in those works, as it is written: "So the enchanters said to Pharaoh: This is the finger of God." From this it is shown that the power of God worked through Moses, by whose ministry those things were then done. That too was a great wonder when, at the word of Joshua son of Nun, the sun stood still over Gibeon and the moon over the valley of Aijalon. I do not know what more wonderful could be done than that, at the word of a man, the sun and moon were held back from the law of their course for the delay of one day. But Scripture at once added the author of this power, saying: "There was no day like it before or after, that God should so hear a man: for the Lord fought for Israel." For in that Joshua was heard and God fought for Israel, his power is shown in the deeds, he who both fought and heard.

"Who made the heavens in understanding, for his mercy is for ever." His mercy alone is the cause of making the heavens; for he did not need them to be made. But he who is good made all things so that many might enjoy the riches of his goodness. He made the heavens in understanding, not irrational, nor shapeless, nor confused and disordered. But when he who is infinite set up the region of knowledge of himself, the higher and first heaven being placed with the same reason, he enclosed a certain boundary for the powers that were first begotten to know him. For the creatures to be begotten could not have borne the power of the invisible God unless, by the interposition of a more tempered nature, they inhabited this seat of a dwelling moderated to their weakness. For by the waters raised up he tempered that very nature of the first heaven, which, kindled by the power of the God above, could in no way have been endured by lower natures.

The lower heaven he stretched out not uniform but manifold; calling it all the firmament, he made it solid with a strong firmness for sustaining the upper waters and tempering our air. And therefore prophetic teaching has handed down many heavens, because it was necessary for our nature that this region of the dwelling granted us for the present be tempered by certain stages and advances of rational moderation.

But about the number of the heavens let the rashness of human teaching presume nothing. The apostle understands that he was caught up only as far as the third heaven. He counts many thrones, dominions, powers, principalities, to whom proper seats of fitting habitation must be assigned. But he also signifies that there are other things, knowledge of which he promises for future times, when he says: "and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come." But about the number the apostle taught nothing; and I do not know whether he kept silent or did not know. For he both professed that he knows in part, and yet testifies that when he was caught up to the heavens he heard things that are not to be spoken. It is enough for us to know that there are many heavens, since both the heavens of heavens and the waters that are above the heavens praise the Lord.

Beneath the lower heaven of the higher circle, which he called the firmament, he set the earth below; suspending it in the middle and making it firm, he so ordered its seat of remaining that it might stand balanced and supported by equal measures and weights on every side, so that God, who is infinite, rising above that first circle of the higher heaven, might reach the things that were created with equal distances from all his pouring-through, the Spirit of his power being tempered for the use and nature of living things. For the apostle says: "For in him we live and move and are"; by which it is shown that the earth stands in his Spirit, as in the circuit of a Spirit poured through, since in God we all live and move and are. And that he is poured through and penetrates all things with a tempering Spirit, the prophet teaches, saying: "The Spirit of God has filled the world"; so he is shown within and without, by circuit and by entry, both poured around and poured through.

That the earth is not sunk into one region, the Holy Spirit shows next, saying: "Who made firm the earth upon the water, for his mercy is for ever." The plan of the present treatise and place does not allow us to inquire more deeply. Let it be enough to have learned from prophetic authority that the earth stands with a hanging firmness upon the waters, overshadowed by the covering of a more tempered heaven, by this firmament, which, stretched out like a skin and made solid like smoke, separates the upper and lower waters. Certainly, that it is held hanging over the waters, in this as in everything the cause is "for his mercy is for ever."

In what follows, "Who alone made the great lights, for his mercy is for ever," it is not to be understood that he is believed to have made them apart from his Wisdom and Word and Power, that is, the only-begotten God, our Lord Jesus Christ, since he said in the person of Wisdom: "I was with him, arranging." But he who was arranging was begotten and born from him with whom he arranged. And since the works of the Son are the works of the Father, the Father too works in the Son, through his saying, "The Father who is in me, he does his works," and again, "I do the works of the Father": he alone works in him and through him, working by the one whom he begot.

In the rest, the teaching of showing God's mercy is plain, so that we may know that all things have been accomplished for no other reason than that God is always merciful. The treatise on the previous psalm has covered, so far as we were able to carry it out, what ought to be understood spiritually concerning the affairs of Egypt; and to confirm them this too, said in this psalm, is added: "Who divided the Red Sea into divisions, for his mercy is for ever." The book of Exodus teaches one division of the Red Sea, saying: "And he made the sea dry, and the water was divided"; and how is the Red Sea now divided into divisions? Only, I think, because under the account of deeds an order of spiritual teaching is contained. For escaping from Egypt, which is the figure of the world, and going toward the land of promise, which according to the Gospel the blessed will inherit, we shall pass through the Red Sea, that is, through the turbulent surges and tossing motions of this same world, in which there are many divisions for the journey. For some the way is through fasting, for others through chastity, for others through almsgiving, through faith, through hope, through love. And all these must have different divisions for crossing this sea, all, however, about to cross the journey of the world through these divisions of ways.

The conclusion of the psalm confirms with greater faith that all these things are to be understood of the future, when it says: "In our lowliness the Lord remembered us, for his mercy is for ever; and he redeemed us from the hand of our enemies, for his mercy is for ever; who gives food to all flesh, for his mercy is for ever. Confess to the God of heaven, for his mercy is for ever." For God did not only remember human lowliness when he chose Moses as leader to free the people from Egypt, but he remembered our lowliness more perfectly when, born in a body, he took our very lowliness upon himself, when the glory of the heavenly nature absorbed this lowly and earthly body into itself. Nor did he redeem them from the hand of their enemies then, when he freed them from the rule of the Egyptians (for afterward they were subjected to enemies, and today they are held under the right of another's rule); but he redeemed us when he gave himself for our sins; he redeemed us by his blood, by his passion, by his death, by his resurrection. These are the great prices of our life. "For you were bought," says the apostle, "at a great price": and bought from enemies, from the devil, from his angels, from the son of perdition, from the princes of the air, from the world-rulers, from the enemy death. And he redeemed by giving food to all flesh: "who gives food to all flesh." To all flesh, that is, that has been redeemed, he gives incorruptible, eternal food, of the living bread, the heavenly bread. And in each of these, that he remembers our lowliness, that we have been redeemed, that all the flesh of the redeemed receives food, the cause is "for his mercy is for ever"; for which reason we must confess to him: "Confess to the God of heaven, for his mercy is for ever." That heaven, that earth, that the rest exist, and that very fact that we exist who did not exist, that we will be what we are not, has no other cause than the mercy of God: because he who is good willed us to be born for fellowship in his good things. "For one is good," says our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.