Homilies on Psalms 36–38 (LXX numbering; Psalms 37–39 in English Bibles) 5.1–5.6

The law, wishing us to open our mouth to the word of God, commanded, saying: “You shall speak of these things,” it says, “sitting in the house, and going on the way, and lying down, and rising up.” And Solomon too in Proverbs sets out something similar in a brief admonition, saying: “Open your mouth to the word of God.” Likewise the prophet now teaches us when he says: “The mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom.” For truly nothing else ought to proceed from the mouth of the righteous but wisdom. So you too, brothers, all of you who are less learned, hearing the prophet’s saying, be zealous and practice bringing forth from your mouth, together with works of righteousness, the word of wisdom. And lest this command seem difficult to you, I will offer you a short word of wisdom. The Apostle says that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. If, then, you always speak of Christ, if you always meditate on his words, if you keep his commands in your mouth, your mouth will worthily meditate wisdom. For the meditation of wisdom is not only this, that someone can teach, or discourse at length in the Church, or refute opponents. That too is a work of wisdom, but one has more of it, another less. In one person the very fact that he believes the wisdom of God is reckoned as wisdom; in another, that he assents to the wise and loves the sayings of the wise is called wisdom; and in some, merely asking about wisdom is reckoned as wisdom. Only take care of this, brothers, that none of you be found not only not speaking or meditating wisdom, but even hating and opposing those who devote themselves to the study of wisdom. For the unlearned are apt to have this very bad vice, among others: they think those who have given themselves to the word and to teaching empty and superfluous, and they embrace their own ignorance rather than the others’ studies and labor; and changing the names, they call those people’s exercises verbosity, and their own unteachableness or ignorance simplicity. Yet he too is excellent who proves his wisdom by his acts and is known to be wise by the uprightness of his life. Blessed, then, is he who opens his mouth to the word of God, and, advancing in age according to Christ, will also advance in wisdom. Certainly, if we cannot advance further in wisdom, let us at least not be reluctant to observe this: to open our mouth more often in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and in prayer and the honor of God. For this too is no small meditation of wisdom, and through it the mouth of the righteous may always be found meditating wisdom. Yet it seems to me not idle that he did not say, “the mouth of the righteous meditates,” which could surely refer to the present time, but said, “will meditate wisdom,” which doubtless looks to the future time; and on this all the other translators but one agree. Perhaps, then, this tense signifies something mystical: that the future hope of the promise, of grace, and of the inheritance will be such that the mouth of the righteous will be filled not with food and drink, nor with delights and pleasures, not by eating banquets but by meditating wisdom. For in the kingdom of God there will no longer be anyone unlearned; no one will remain unteachable, no one will be a stranger to the knowledge of things; we shall all become, if only we merit it, disciples of wisdom. If someone placed here is imbued and instructed in the things he could attain while in the flesh, there he will be enlightened with more perfect teachings, and what was sought here with study and labor will serve as a shortcut to the instruction to come there. But he who here has not yet laid aside the first rudiments, but still speaks as a child and thinks as a child, will there too be taught as a child, so that, becoming at last a man through progress in wisdom, he may lay aside the things of a child. Or does not the law too signify something of this kind, if understood spiritually, when it says: “You shall speak of them sitting at home, and going on the way, and lying down, and rising up”? We can understand it thus: sitting in the house and lying down, when in the Church, which is the house of God, we speak the word of God while placed in this body; going on the way, in that way which says, “I am the way,” we speak the word of God; and rising up, when we have risen from the sleep of death in the resurrection, then we speak the things that are perfect, rising from the sleep of death. So Solomon too says of one who has made wisdom his friend and intimate: “If you sit, you will be without fear, and if you sleep, you will sleep gladly, and you will not fear the terror that comes upon you, nor the onsets of the ungodly rushing upon you.” Let this suffice on what is written, “The mouth of the righteous will meditate wisdom,” to which is added: “And his tongue will speak judgment.”

The tongue of the righteous man is understood to speak judgment in two ways. Either it is because he speaks everything he says with right judgment, with deliberation and counsel, and nothing from anger, nothing to please people, nothing from sorrow, nothing from fear, each of which usually keeps people from preserving their judgment intact; or else it is because the righteous man always speaks of the future judgment, so that, always admonishing himself and those who hear him about the fear of the judgment to come, the punishments prepared for sinners, and the examination to come, and also about the promises God has prepared for the saints, he may save both himself and those who hear him. In this way it will be fulfilled that “the tongue of the righteous will speak judgment.” But if here too we must observe the inflection of the future tense, since it did not say “speaks” but “will speak,” we can understand something of this kind in it as well. Now, however much we can say or think about God’s judgment, we must know what the Apostle lays down when he says: “How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” But if we can come to that perfection of which he says, “But then face to face,” that is, when the realities themselves become clearer to us; when we begin to know the reason of each of the things that have been done or are being done in this world, with what judgment they were done, and what judgment God uses in each case, by what dispensations of his providence; if anyone is worthy to consider and perceive how “the judgments of God are a great abyss”; when we can receive more fully the grace of that Spirit who searches all things, even the depths of God, then truly and fully, according to the distinction of the prophetic word, the tongue of the righteous will speak the judgments of God. “The law of his God is in his heart.” Not only will the righteous man meditate wisdom with his mouth and speak judgment with his tongue, but he also bears the law of God in his heart. For the law, set like a root in the depth of the heart, sprouts words of righteousness and words of holiness, which the righteous man brings forth from his heart, and not only words but also acts and deeds. The Jews meditate on the law of God almost unceasingly with their mouths and lips, but do not have it fixed in the depth of their hearts, and therefore it is said to them: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” If, then, as we read, we meditate wisdom with our mouth, speak judgment with our tongue, and have the law of God in our hearts, we shall obtain what follows: “And his steps will not be tripped.” I think we remember what we discussed some time ago about steps, and we need to recall what was said, so as to see how some, as they walk, are tripped and their steps are poured out. If you keep it in mind and hold it carefully, you should know that if you meditate the wisdom of God with your mouth, if your tongue speaks judgment, and if the law of God is in your hearts, your steps will never be tripped.

After this it says: “The sinner watches the righteous.” The sinner watches and gazes at the righteous man; he is grievous to him even to behold, and therefore he watches him in order to put him to death. This those people doubtless did against the Savior who killed the prophets and crucified God, and who have persecuted us even now; they watch the people of God, which is Christ’s, that is, the disciples of righteousness, desire to put them to death, and have sought to kill them. But what does the righteous people of God, the disciple of righteousness, say? It uses the word of its Master and says: “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.” This can also be applied, in a time of persecution by the Gentiles, to the holy martyrs and confessors; for the ungodly persecutors watch each of the righteous and seek to put him to death. But lest such an explanation make you careless in a time of peace, remember that the righteous man has a daily persecutor, the devil, and it is he who watches the righteous. For he always lies in wait, and like a roaring lion goes about seeking someone to devour. But if you are full of faith and trust in the Lord, see what is promised to you: “But the Lord will not leave him in his hands” (the sinner’s, that is), “nor condemn him when he is judged.” “When he is judged” he understands in two ways: either when the righteous man is judged by God, or when God himself is judged together with the righteous man. For divine Scripture often teaches that this happens, saying that the Lord himself will come into judgment. When, then, the righteous man is judged together with the Lord, he will not be condemned. And therefore it says: “Wait for the Lord”; that is, if you are afflicted, if you are in distress, if in persecutions, wait for the Lord and keep his way, and turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. For if you wait for the Lord without turning aside, you will obtain what follows: “And he will exalt you,” it says, “to inherit the land.” We have often spoken of the holy land, and of the land which is named as the inheritance of the heavenly promises; and the nature and situation of that land is indicated a little more clearly in this verse. For this earth on which we now live is said to be below, according to what is written: “God is in heaven above, but you are on the earth below.” But that land which is promised as an inheritance to the righteous is promised to be not below but above. Therefore to the one who waits for the Lord and keeps his way the word of promise says: “He will exalt you to inherit the land.” For unless someone is exalted, ascends on high, and becomes heavenly, he cannot obtain the inheritance of that land. Hence I think that, as this dry land on which we live is called the earth of this heaven, that is, of the firmament, being the ground beneath it, so the ground beneath that higher heaven which is called heaven in the proper sense, on which those heavenly inhabitants dwell, and which is, so to speak, the very back of this firmament, is rightly, as I said, called the earth of that heaven: but a good land, a holy land, a broad land, the land of the living, a land flowing with milk and honey. And therefore the divine word now says: “He will exalt you to inherit the land.”

“When sinners perish, you will see it.” Perhaps this will happen first, that the righteous see the sinners and the ungodly condemned. For first punishments and torments are decreed for sinners; and when the righteous have seen these, and recognized the difference between a good life and a bad one, and understood from how many evils they escaped by living well (so that those who are in punishment, seeing them in glory, say, “We fools thought their life madness”), after they have seen how sinners perish, then they themselves will be exalted and lifted on high to inherit the land. Now the word admonishes us and offers comfort on this matter, which quite often strikes the hearts of almost all people. For since we weak ones often see wicked and ungodly people spending their lives in this world in every happiness, flourishing with success, abounding in riches and honors, rejoicing in many children and a numerous household, floating in delights, we are scandalized and say in our hearts: “Where is God’s justice? If things were governed by divine providence, would God allow this wicked and ungodly man to climb to such a height of happiness?” Therefore the divine word now says in the person of the righteous: “I saw the ungodly man not only exalted but super-exalted and lifted up,” not above trees of any kind, but “above the cedars of Lebanon,” so that the tree is very lofty and the place, the mountain, higher than all; “and yet,” seeing all these things, “I passed by,” it says, “and behold, he was not.” What do you think it is that the righteous man passes by, so that this exaltation ceases? If you remember what we said earlier, that Moses passed over to see the great sight, you can now know what it is that the righteous man is said to pass by. When we see the ungodly exalted and swelling into excessive pride, let us too pass, in mind and understanding, from the things that are seen and are temporary, and transfer our thought to the things that are not seen and are eternal. Let us reflect that these exalted things that are seen are temporary and last but a few days. Let us look to the day of judgment, and so we shall perceive in our mind that this man who is super-exalted and lifted up like the cedar of Lebanon will not exist at all on the day of judgment. For one who does not share in him who always is, that is, who said, “I am who I am,” is not even said to be. Thus sinners are not reckoned to exist. Hence the Apostle too said of the calling of the Gentiles: “God chose the things that are not, to destroy the things that are.” And in the book of Esther it is said: “Do not hand over your scepter, Lord, to those who are not.” As long, then, as someone admires the proud in their exaltation, as long as someone flatters sinners and the proud, it is certain that he has not passed by, nor seen the things that are not, but remains in this present state, and therefore admires the present glory in them. But if he passes in the way we described above, that is, if in mind and thought he rises from things present and temporal to things future and everlasting, then he truly says of the one he saw lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon: “I passed by, and behold, he was not”; for heaven itself and earth will pass away. With God all things that are to come are already held as done. Thus he said, “They gave gall for my food,” which was doubtless still to come, and yet was spoken of as already done; “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”: he did not say, “they will give.” So, then, with God things to come are already said to be done. And if you too are an imitator of God and imitate Christ, you do not wait until this exalted man is humbled and extinguished, but within yourself, in your mind and soul, you already see these things passed by, if you yourself pass in thought and mind from the present to the future. Take an example of what we are saying. If you are sailing, you see from the ship lands, promontories, and mountains passing by; not that they are actually moving, but because you are passing by with a favorable wind blowing, they seem to withdraw and be carried along. So in this case too, if, with the Holy Spirit blowing and breathing upon your mind, you sail on a favorable and prosperous course, you pass in thought through all these things that are seen, because they are temporary, and you gaze upon those that are eternal; and you will doubtless say that all these things that are seen already are not, since they will not be in the future either. “I saw the ungodly, then, super-exalted and lifted above the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by, and behold, he was not.” Something further moves me in this place. For I see another ungodly one who is exalted and lifted up above the cedars of Lebanon. When the heretics invent for themselves some other God above God the creator, and are exalted and lifted up in the word of falsehood, denying that God the creator of all is a good God, they are lifted up by their ungodly preaching above the cedars of Lebanon, that is, above the opposing powers, by whose inspiration they have contrived such fictions against God the creator of all; for, understanding the law only according to the letter and not knowing that it is spiritual, they were deceived in their thoughts. If, then, I see these and pass by, they will no longer be. What should I pass by? If I pass by the letter, if I go beyond the surface of the history and come to the spiritual sense, since the law is spiritual; if I explain spiritually all those things in which they err and are deceived, their ungodly and wicked doctrines will no longer be. And so it will be fulfilled that the ungodly man, exalted and lifted up, is no more when I pass by. “And when his place is sought, it is not found.” The place of the ungodly doctrine is the letter of the law, the letter that kills. When, then, we pass from the killing letter to the life-giving spirit, not even the place of the ungodly doctrine can be found, once the letter has been set aside. And how do we seek it? When we dispute against them and inquire together, we seek the place of that doctrine in the letter of the law and of the history, and it is shown that it cannot stand according to the history; when the letter has been removed and rejected, the place of the ungodly doctrine is found nowhere, as we seek and discuss.

“Keep innocence and look upon equity.” The word of God commands us to keep innocence. The corruption of morals has advanced so far among people that with very many innocence is judged to be foolishness; but Scripture judges it the work of the highest virtue, for it judges innocence to be that which harms no one and injures no one. When, then, it says, “Keep innocence,” this is what it commands us to observe: to injure no one and harm no one. And we achieve this if we always look upon equity with an attentive and watchful mind. Equity in this place I take as truth, as righteousness, as life, which is Christ; for in seeing these we shall see God at the same time. “Keep innocence, then, and look upon equity, for there are remains for the peaceable man.” What are these remains that are reserved for the peaceable man? We usually speak of remains when the spirit is separated from the body: as if the greater part of a person were reckoned in the spirit, the part of the body that is left is called the remains. If, then, we believe the words of the Apostle, who says that the body is sown in corruption, at the time of death, that is, and will rise in incorruption, when the time of the resurrection comes, when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then there will be remains for the peaceable man. And there the remains of the peaceable man will be in peace and in rest. For the Lord says of the peacemakers that they will also be called sons of God; and “Father, I will that where I am, these too may be with me.” The remains of the peaceable man, then, are with Christ. “But the unrighteous will be destroyed together,” that is, all will be destroyed alike, because their one end will be Gehenna. The remains of the ungodly will perish then, when he who has the power gives up both body and soul to destruction in Gehenna. “But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.” The Greek says it better: “But the salvation of the righteous is with the Lord.” It did not say, “The salvation of the righteous is in heaven,” for heaven too passes away; nor “with some creature,” because no creature is immovable or unchangeable; but the salvation of the righteous is with the Lord, who always remains, is always the same, and is always immovable; and nowhere can a person’s salvation be safer than with the Lord. Let him be my place, let him be my house, my dwelling, my rest, my habitation. Indeed holy Scripture announces to us not only the kingdom of heaven but the kingdom of God. As I remember having often said, the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are still advancing; the kingdom of God to those who have already come to the perfect end. Hence now too the salvation of the righteous man is said to be with God, when by the perfection of his life he has merited to come to the Lord himself. “And he is their protector in the time of tribulation.” What is the time of tribulation if not this in which we are, when we walk the narrow and hard way that leads to life? If, that is, we walk the narrow way that leads to life, and not that broad and spacious one which is widened by riches, loosened by luxury, grows soft in the pleasures of the flesh, and loves present glory. The protector of those people is not God but Mammon; but of those who are in tribulation and distress God is the protector, for many are the tribulations of the righteous. For they are troubled as they consider the time of judgment and examine themselves, lest something be found in them that is called to account. Those, then, who are troubled and anxious on this account will have God as their protector in the time of tribulation, in the time of judgment, when the ungodly are handed over to punishment. Then too “the Lord will help them” in the time of tribulation, “and will deliver them and take them away from sinners”: not only from sinful men but also from the opposing powers; or certainly at that time when the soul is separated from the body, and the sinful demons meet it, the adverse powers, the spirits of this air, who want to hold it back and recall it to themselves if they recognize in it anything of their own works and deeds. For the prince of this world and the powers of the air come to each soul as it departs from this world, and search whether they find anything of their own in it. If they find avarice, it belongs to their party; if anger, if luxury, if envy, if they find each of these and things like them, it belongs to their party, and they claim it for themselves, drag it to themselves, and bend it toward the party of sinners. But if someone has imitated him who said, “Behold, the prince of this world will come, and he has nothing in me,” if someone has kept himself so, these sinners do indeed come, and, looking in him for what is theirs and not finding it, they will nevertheless try to twist him violently to their party; but the Lord will deliver him from sinners. And perhaps it is for this reason that we are commanded, with a certain mystery, to ask in prayer too, saying: “But deliver us from evil.” And the reason why the Lord will deliver his righteous ones from sinners, whether at the time of their departure or at the time of judgment, when that day comes which, according to the prophet, is a day of necessity and distress, a day of darkness and destruction, the day of judgment: the reason why they deserve to be delivered he adds, saying, “because they hoped in him.” Those who hope in him, then, he will deliver both from tribulation and from necessity. How one ought to hope, I wish to show you … two masters, so no one can hope in two masters. No one can hope in uncertain riches and in the Lord. No one can hope in princes and in God. No one can hope in the strength of a horse and in him. No one can hope in the world and in God. For unless you hope in God alone, and God sees that your hope is for the eternal age … except in him who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not as though they were, you will not be able to be delivered from sinners. For he alone saves those who hope in him, through Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ages of ages. Amen.