Tractates on the Psalms 64.1–65.5

Fittingly this psalm, which lies beneath, has followed the preceding one. It too is "for the end" and announces the gathering of the nations who will praise the Lord; and it too will confirm this interpretation of ours.

At its opening, according to his custom, the prophet raises his whole prayer to God. For every action and word of ours must be begun with the confession of God. But the prophet, knowing that many, according to the diversity of their pursuits, linger in superfluous things, requires of us the special and proper honour of God, saying: "A hymn befits you, God, in Sion." Sion is indeed a mountain next to Jerusalem; but we have always taken this mountain and its name, and also the church of the city itself, which is the body of Christ, as so named, since the Lord says in the psalms: "But I have been established as king by him over Sion, his holy mountain." And so that we should not think him established in the kingdom of this hill, it is said in the prophets and also in the Gospels: "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Sion; proclaim, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king comes to you." And the apostle: "But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother." This hymn, then, befits God, which is innocent in the spiritual song of the church in Sion and sweet with the praises of God.

He condemns all kinds of superstitions that are outside the religion of God. For there are many placed in the deepest pit of error who commend the perversity of their teaching by a kind of excellence of empty labour. For we see philosophers shivering with naked bodies; the magi abstain even from the use of marriage; heretics live on a dry food of bread. But what, in the end, is the advance of this idle purpose? All this is empty and ridiculous and, together with the very causes of superstition, pitiable. To God, then, are to be vowed contempt of the body, the keeping of chastity, the endurance of fasting. And therefore he says: "And to you a vow will be paid in Jerusalem." For only the vows of the church's religion are useful. When these are approved both by songs worthy of God and by zeal for the observance set before us in the church, then we shall be worthy that the Holy Spirit should intercede with God for us; for he speaks and teaches through the prophet. And according to the apostle he intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; and therefore it is said here thus: "Hear the prayer"; for "my" does not follow, so that the person of the speaker could be understood. For although many have added it, as if it were lacking, it does not stand in the authentic copies. For the prophet speaks these things not by his own sense but inspired: "Hear the prayer."

It follows that he shows whose prayer is to be heard, and he does not long delay our expectation; for he added: "All flesh will come to you." Scripture designates the whole human race under the name of flesh, as in the law: "And God said, My Spirit will not remain in these men, because they are flesh"; and in the same: "For all flesh had corrupted its way"; and the Lord in the prophet: "And I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh"; and in the Gospel: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt in us." God, then, will hear the prayer of this human race, which was held by the empty teachings of unhappy superstitions, since pagan precepts imbued all of them with the pursuit of ungodliness, proclaiming God in wood, stones, and metals and placing the maker of the world and the parent of our soul within lifeless matter. The nations confess this error, that the eloquence of philosophy held them in error, knowing at last that their old faults and the crimes of their ancient ungodliness must be propitiated to God through Christ. For according to the apostle he is our propitiation; for he says: "Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood"; and again: "He is the propitiation for our sins." All flesh, then, will come to him, saying: "The words of the wicked have prevailed over us, and you will be propitious to our ungodliness."

But what, in the end, is the effect of propitiation? Or what will it profit to have left pagan error and spurned ungodly teaching? He did not hide this, saying: "Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken up, to dwell in your tabernacles." All flesh will come, that is, we are gathered from every race of men; but blessed is whoever has been chosen. For according to the Gospel many are called, but few chosen. And the chosen are those conspicuous in the wedding garment, shining with the pure and whole body of the new birth. So election is not a matter of indiscriminate judgment, but a discrimination made by the choice of merit. Blessed, then, is he whom God has chosen: blessed for this, that he is worthy of election. We ought to know for what this blessed one has been chosen: namely for what follows: "He will dwell in your tabernacles." All perfection of goods is the rest of a heavenly dwelling. The Lord testifies that there are many mansions in heaven, but he prays the Father that the apostles may remain where he himself is, saying: "Father, I will that those whom you have given me may be with me where I am." Of the many mansions, then, he shares with his apostles the one that is his own. The prophet knows how great a blessedness it is to be in the tabernacles of God, saying elsewhere: "My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord." But the hope of heavenly goods is not taken away if not all are chosen to dwell with God. For many mansions are prepared for the different dignity of their inhabitants. But though the dignity is different (for star differs from star in glory), yet all who are held worthy of dwellings, however varied, will obtain the fruit of faith and the honour of heavenly glory.

For after the blessedness of him who has been chosen to dwell in God's tabernacles, this follows: "We shall be filled with the good things of your house: your temple is holy, wonderful in equity." With these good things of the house they will be filled, then, because the blessed one will dwell in God's tabernacles. Meanwhile we can consider what the good things of the house are, namely the gifts of the church, which Christ has granted it in manifold fruit, since it too, according to the apostle, is the house of God: "That you may know," he says, "how one ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." This house has fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. With these good things of God's house, then, the faith of believers will be filled, which meanwhile is adorned with the distribution of gifts, as it is written: "To one is given the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing, to another kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues." But there are also other full and perfect gifts of God's house, in no way to be judged by the natures of fleshly senses. The apostle, caught up to the third heaven, knows them and proclaims them, saying: "What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him." With these gifts of God's house, then, we shall be filled. And he teaches the merit for receiving these fruits, saying: "Your temple is holy, wonderful in equity." For the apostle teaches that all the bodies of believers are the temple of God, saying: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him. For the temple of God is holy." This temple of God, then, is God's temple by holiness and righteousness, so that it is filled with the good things of God's house and is wonderful in works of equity and faith. It will also be ready to hand to understand as the house of God the very man assumed by the Son of God, since in him dwells all the fullness of the divinity, and the Father dwells in him by the property of nature; each person being filled with his good things, that is, of power, glory, and eternity, who has kept himself a temple holy to God and wonderful in equity. This, then, is the hope of all: that we be filled with the good things of God's house, that we be his holy and wonderful temple. Blessed indeed are those already chosen by God to dwell in his tabernacles; but it is fitting that we hasten into the fellowship of this blessedness, attaining it by works and prayers.

For this reason there follows thus: "Hear us, God our salvation, hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the sea." This prayer does not suit the Jew. And although this book is of the law, the prophecy is not of one nation. For this hope is of all the ends of the earth; and wherever the temperate zone of this habitable world extends, Christ is in hope for all. Indeed, even the islands of the inner and outer sea rest in the power of this name. For he is the hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the sea. But hope must not be presumed from emptiness, lest it be a presumption of uncertain things rather than an expectation of known ones.

So he teaches in what follows why the hope of all is in him, saying: "Preparing the mountains in your strength, girded with power, and troubling the depth of the sea, the sound of its waves." This saying does not pertain to the nature of earthly mountains; for they have been established, not prepared; and preparation is the beginning of a future work. Then the preparation of the mountains mentioned is in the girding of power and in strength; but the whole earth was ordered to stand forth from nothing, and that thing did not need a girding of power which depended on the ease of commanding. It is useful to know where mountains are mentioned in the Scriptures. For the prophet says: "Hear, all peoples, and let the earth and all who dwell in it attend. And the Lord God will be a witness for you, the Lord God from his holy house. For behold, the Lord will come down from his place and will come down upon the high places of the earth and crush the mountains beneath him, and the valleys will melt like wax before the fire. For the ungodliness of Jacob are all these things, and for the sins of the house of Israel." And again: "The earth was moved and trembled, and the foundations of the mountains were troubled and moved, because God was angry with them. Smoke went up from his anger, and fire will blaze from his face, and coals were kindled by him. And he bowed the heaven and came down, and darkness was under his feet." And in what follows: "He sent arrows and scattered them, and multiplied lightnings and troubled them." In these, as far as the reading teaches, the Holy Spirit through the prophet shows the Lord's descent from heaven, the fear of the earth, and the trembling of the mountains, because the Lord is angry with them, smoke having arisen from his anger and fire thereafter to be kindled from his sight. In the smoke that went up is a matter of past time; but in the fire to be kindled the meaning of the future is contained. Then, so that nothing should be thought said of a dull and immovable nature, arrows sent scatter these mountains and multiplied lightnings trouble them.

By this name of mountains, then, must be understood every towering power which, exalting and lifting itself up against God, has subjected itself to God's anger. God the Word, then, coming down, girding with power the man he had assumed, first pressed down these mountain peaks, that is, he crushed the stubborn pre-eminence of the devil and his followers, whom through this power of the first crushing he prepared for the punishment of eternal judgment. The prophet kept this same reasoning, saying: "Smoke went up from his anger, and fire will blaze from his sight." For the smoke of the fire that will burn envelops them meanwhile, and so in the present psalm it is written thus: "Preparing the mountains in your strength, girded with power." The girding of power is fitted to the body, which needed it. For power is not girded, but the man whom the Lord assumed is girded with power in the strength of God.

We must consider what follows the preparation of the mountains: "who troubles the depth of the sea, the sound of its waves." He troubles not the sea but the depth of the sea, nor its waves but the sound of the waves. The sea, as the word of prophecy teaches, is named for the world, as it says: "The Lord will bring a terrible and great sword upon the dragon, the crooked serpent, and will slay the dragon that is in the sea." And again: "This great and wide sea; there the dragon will rest, which you formed to mock him." Or more plainly that saying: "I came into the depth of the sea, and the storm sank me." The mountains, then, that is, all the hostile and towering powers, are prepared for the punishment of judgment, and the foundations of the sea are troubled. For the world rested in confidence in these hostile powers, and they lay hidden in the invisible depths of this world. And the sound of the waves is troubled with the depth of the sea. For when the devil is troubled, all the ministries of his terror are troubled; and the very sound of the opposing powers, at which the nations used to tremble, itself trembles. Let us remember the mutterings of soothsayers and the disordered roarings of bacchants, and how sometimes, with the sense of the hearers confused, some uncertain sound came from images of bronze, and finally the whole world resounding with the profane chant of ceremonies; but now, when the Lord Christ is preached, everything is silent, refuted, and afraid, when these gods of temples and nations are subjected to punishment by the power of the faithful, when they are tortured, torn, and burned by the words of believers, and natures invisible and incomprehensible to us are held, punished, and driven out by a word, when the soothsayers are silent, when the temples are mute. Through these things they are already being prepared for judgment. And what does this preparation achieve? It has achieved this: "The nations will be troubled and will fear": seeing, namely, their gods mute and groaning with the cries of their punishment merely at the laying on of our hands. But after the troubling of the nations, some will fear; for the troubling will bring fear. Will all who are troubled also fear? Certainly not all who are troubled will also fear.

Who, then, will fear? "Those who dwell at the ends." Scripture did not add, as it usually does, "the ends of the earth"; for here it was not speaking of the ends of the earth. So the reasoning of the discourse does not allow us to think it was added. For it says: "those who dwell at the ends." Will the nations that are within the bounds not fear, and only the extremities of the lands fear God, the rest in the middle being strangers to fear of him? But an end is not the thing itself but the extremity of the thing; and the extremity is that in which the thing itself fails. Who, then, dwell at the ends? Namely those who, placed in the flesh, neither still act wholly according to the flesh nor yet hold altogether the end of sin through the habit of ceasing from sins; but, wishing to cease and not ceasing entirely, and still dwelling at the end, that is, a kind of nearest failing of sin, of the flesh, they are neither absent from the flesh nor wholly practise the inner things of the flesh. But the apostle, while in the body, is away from the body; the apostle, while in life, nevertheless dies daily; and he lives no longer himself, but Christ lives in him. He went beyond all ends of a doubtful will, and even dwells outside the ends of body and sin, being away from the body while he is in the body, dying daily while he lives, and no longer living himself in himself, but Christ. But the trembling of those who fear comes from the uncertainty of a doubtful dwelling, while, still dwelling at the ends, they fear, not yet entirely passing beyond what they now inhabit, and yet by the will to cease they already dwell at the end of ceasing.

But let us see why those who dwell at the ends will fear and whence fear comes upon them. Nor is this hidden; for there follows: "And those who dwell at the ends will fear at your signs." All fear, then, comes from signs. But what will these signs be? "The goings out of morning, and in the evening you will delight. You have visited the earth and made it drunk; you have multiplied to enrich it. The river of God is filled with water; you have prepared their food, for so is your preparation." From these signs, then, fear arose. For there is a great sign in each of them. For after the preparation of the mountains in the girding of power and the troubling of the depth of the sea and the sound of its waves, the going forth of the church in the morning and the delights of evening hymns are the greatest sign of God's mercy. The day begins in prayers to God, the day is closed with hymns to God, according to what is said: "May my praise be sweet to him"; and again: "The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

This following sign then comes next: "You have visited the earth and made it drunk; you have multiplied to enrich it." This earth we use is not enriched, but enriches by the abundance of its fruits. So the saying will not suit it, which both lacks the sense of being enriched and whose function is to enrich. But God visited the earth, that is, the birth of the human race; and, visited by God, it grows rich with multiplied gifts of graces, as the apostle says: "In everything you have been enriched in him, in every word and knowledge." For we are filled with these goods, and without ceasing to drink we draw daily the gift of heavenly goods, full and drunk with divine abundance. For the enrichment has been shown to be what above was called drunkenness.

And the fruit of this enrichment and drunkenness must be considered. And what it is, in the end, is not kept silent: "The river of God is filled with water; you have prepared their food, for so is your preparation." And about the river there is no room for doubt. For the prophet says: "The rush of the river gladdens the city of God." And the Lord himself says in the Gospels: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give, rivers of living water will flow from his belly, springing up to eternal life." And again: "Whoever believes in me, as Scripture says, rivers will come out of his belly. This he said of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive." This river of God, then, is filled with water. For we are flooded with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and from that fountain of life the river of God, filled with water, is poured into us. We also have food prepared. And what is this food? That, namely, in which we are prepared for fellowship with God through communion of the holy body, to be placed thereafter in the communion of the holy body. For the present psalm signifies this, saying: "You have prepared their food, for so is your preparation": because by that food, though we are saved in the present, we are nevertheless prepared for the future.

The prophet keeps his custom of distinguishing the times of which he speaks. For the earlier discourse was as of the past; things still to be done he recorded as already done by faith and knowledge of things to be done. But to teach that all these belonged to the future, he says: "Make its streams drunk, multiply its generations; in its drops it will rejoice when it springs up." This whole is the speech of one praying and entreating God to fulfil what has been recounted. The earth, once visited, has been made drunk; and how now are its streams made drunk? But we ought to remember that if anyone drinks of the Lord's water, rivers will flow from his belly: so there is need of drinking water so that rivers may flow. And we ourselves are made drunk when we receive the Holy Spirit, who has been called a river. Then, since different streams of graces flow from us, the prophet prays that the Lord make these same drunk: so that, when these have been made drunk and steeped in the gift of the divine bounty, our generations may be multiplied, the good earth, according to the gospel comparison, receiving the seed of the word and growing rich with fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. And for us, reborn through the mystery of baptism, there is the greatest joy when we feel in ourselves certain beginnings of the Holy Spirit, when there comes upon us understanding of mysteries, knowledge of prophecy, the word of wisdom, firmness of hope, the charisms of healing, and dominion over subject demons. For these penetrate us like drops, which, begun little by little, overflow with manifold fruit. In these drops, then, when it springs up, the earth will rejoice. But the drops multiply so as to be streams, and the streams are made drunk so as to be rivers.

It follows that the prophet confirms all our expectation and teaches what consummation the preparation of the mountains, the troubling of the depth of the sea, the visiting of the earth and its being made drunk, and the fullness of the river will have. So he teaches in what follows, saying: "You will bless the crown of the year of your kindness, and your fields will be filled with abundance. The ends of the desert will grow fat; the hills will be girded with exultation. The rams of the flock are clothed, and the valleys will abound with grain; for they will cry out and say a hymn." We have learned of the year of God's kindness from prophetic and apostolic teachings. For it is said in the person of the Lord: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to preach release to captives and sight to the blind, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense": without doubt he declares the year of that eternal and blessed age. For this is the year of the Lord's goodness, in which those unwearied times of kind recompense are to begin. The crown of this year of God will be blessed, the most delightful and sweetest fruit of the earth visited and made drunk. For this is the victory of Christ, when the corruption of our bodies has been driven away and the power of death destroyed. This crown, blessed with the flower of our sanctified earth, is the Lord, glorious with the choir and circle of his saints. Then the fields will be filled with abundance, then the ends of the desert will grow fat, then the hills will be girded with exultation, then the rams of the flock will be clothed. For that is the time of recompense.

But the distinction within the recompense itself must be considered. In the fields, whose use is in cultivation, the works that were done under the law from God's cultivation will obtain abundance. But where the ends of the desert grow fat, the people of the church, which was long a desert, is enriched with the goods of the promise. In the hills girded with exultation the glorious joys of the martyrs are announced; for they are higher than the other lands. And when the rams of the flock are clothed, that eternal and blessed garment of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, who are the leaders of the holy flock, is shown, of which the blessed apostle Paul says: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption"; and again: "In which we do not wish to be stripped but clothed over, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." With this clothing, then, the rams of the flock are clothed, and with this garment of glorious immortality they are dressed.

But although different gifts of recompense have been shown, yet besides these God grants no small hope of his mercy, saying through the prophet: "And the valleys will abound with grain": that is, men of humbler, yet not ungodly, faith and work will obtain the fruit of life. For they will not be filled with abundance like the fields, nor grow fat from the desert, nor be girded with exultation like the mountains, nor be clothed like the rams of the flock, in all of which the gift of boundless glory is shown; but they will abound with grain, that is, they will not lack the substance of living, since through weakness of faith they are lowly and, like valleys, pressed down by the hills rising around them.

And so that the prophetic word should not be thought to signify these fields, these deserts, these hills, these rams, these valleys that lie before our sight, lacking voice and sense, he added: "For they will cry out and say a hymn," singing, that is, the praises of God with tireless and very loud voices for these different rewards of recompense.

The title of this psalm differs from that of the previous one in that it has “a song of a psalm,” whereas the previous one was issued as “a psalm of a song.” Otherwise both are headed alike, “To the end.” So, by the account of the inscription of titles that we gave at the beginning, it is clear that this psalm is sung on account of the teachings of spiritual doctrine obtained through the merit of good work. For when the title is “a psalm of a song,” the psalm contains the deeds of good work by way of the proclamation of heavenly knowledge; but when it is “a song of a psalm,” what is shown is a hymn of the spiritual knowledge obtained from obedience in action. A song is the work of the voice; a psalm is produced from the fitting together of an instrument, which they call harmony, and by the craftsman’s skill a fitting, consonant, and pleasing melody is made out of unequal and unlike notes. By this example we too produce, out of the various services of our duty and our knowledge, a work pleasing to God and consonant with itself. The psalms themselves will be our authorities for this understanding: in “a psalm of a song” the proclamation of good work is understood through the teaching of knowledge and understanding, and in “a song of a psalm” the thanksgiving for knowledge obtained through the merit of deeds. For this reason the spirit of prophecy began the present psalm with the teaching of thanksgiving. That the psalm is spoken in the person of the prophets, the matter itself and reason show.

“Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing a psalm to his name; give glory to his praise. Say to God: How terrible are your works! In the greatness of your power your enemies will lie to you.” First, then, he warns that we must shout for joy to God; second, that we must sing psalms to his name; next, that we must give glory to his praise; then that we must say to God, “How terrible are your works!”; and last, that we must confess this: “In the greatness of your power your enemies will lie to you.” But in order to understand the reason and order of a speech arranged in this way, we must first briefly clear up what causes difficulty.

In the Latin manuscripts we read: “Shout for joy (iubilate) to God, all the earth.” As far as the custom of our speech goes, we call iubilum the sound of a shepherd’s or a countryman’s voice, when in lonely places, either answering or calling, the sound of a voice is heard drawn out long and pressed out with effort to carry its meaning. But in the Greek books, which are closest to the Hebrew, the word does not have the same meaning. They read: alalaxate tō theō pasa hē gē; and with them alalagmos, which the Latins render iubilum, means the shout of an army in battle, either in the charge as it tramples the enemy, or as it testifies to the success of victory with a cry of exultation. Where the translation has been adjusted in this way, we shall understand more plainly in another psalm, when it says: “All nations, clap your hands; shout for joy to God with the voice of exultation.” The voice of exultation differs from a iubilum; but by the necessity of translation, since no proper name for the voice of one exulting was found, the voice of one exulting is shown by what is called iubilum.

Set, then, in the battles of this life and in this struggle of our flesh and blood, fighting with spiritual weapons against the devil and his armies, we are told to shout for joy to God with the voice of exultation. And so that the words should not be referred to this lifeless mass of the earth, all of us who were born from the earth in our first parent Adam are shown under a plural number when it is said, “Shout for joy to God, all the earth” (adorent, “let them worship”); for at once both the duty of all and their origin are taught. Every profane hearer, then, must be struck with terror by the words of our confession; we must fight against the devil and his weapons with the sound of our prayers, and the victory of our war must be shown with the voice of exultation. Let someone standing outside the church hear the voice of the people at prayer; let him observe the crowded sound of the hymns, and, amid the offices of the divine sacraments, let him catch the response of devout confession. Every adversary must be struck with terror, war must be waged against the devil, and death must be overcome by faith in the resurrection with such a shout, as has been said, of our exultant voice. He will know that this pleases God and that this is the testimony of our hope: that the public, victorious voices of our exultation resound. The prophet is not unmindful of them, saying in another place: “I went round and offered in his tabernacle a sacrifice of jubilation.” And lest we should think this teaching and practice of jubilation empty, he declares elsewhere: “Blessed is the people that knows jubilation.” It is therefore necessary to our faith, since blessedness lies in the knowledge of it.

For in the order of his admonitions the prophet set first that all the earth should shout for joy to God, and second that it should sing a psalm to his name. We must shout for joy to God, because the service of an exultant voice is owed to him by us. But we must sing psalms to his name because, as a psalm comes through an instrument, so we must please him by the skilled works of our body, which is the instrument of the soul, of its affections, and of all its business. We must therefore act in a way worthy of the name of God, so that, as far as we can, we comply with the words of the Lord, who says: “So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” For the integrity of our life is to be referred to the praise of him for whom we live. This very thing is taught by what follows: “Sing psalms to his name; give glory to his praise”; because from the psaltery of our instrument, that is, from the works of the body serving the soul, glorious praise is offered to God through us, when the nations, seeing our works, glorify our Father who is in heaven. And glory will be given to his praise if we sing psalms worthily to his name by the working of our instrument, that is, our body.