Exposition of Psalms 100-150 100.1–102.1

(v. 1) "Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord." This psalm is to be understood through its whole body from its first verse, and we are to confess to God that "all his ways are mercy and truth": so that, whatever causes concerning the truth of things press upon our thoughts, we may not be moved to any complaint, but may sing mercy and judgment to the Lord with devout confession. For to resolve all the questions which the foolish wisdom of this world dares to raise against the providence of God, the most unconquerable principle is this, by which it is understood that amid the inequalities of the present life neither is mercy absent from God's justice nor justice from his mercy, until, when temporal things are finished, both become everlasting by a just judgment, when glory receives those on the right and punishment those on the left, according to the quality of their deeds. (v. 2) "I will sing psalms, and I will understand in the spotless way, when you will come to me." In this confession, he says, I shall be of good understanding, and through the spotless way of my conduct I shall perceive you coming to me. For since I cannot be good without you, if what I do is right, I do not doubt that you are in me. "I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house." True innocence is that which harms neither itself nor another. "For he who loves iniquity hates his own soul." One whom guilt constricts, and whom a life of unlawful action accuses, cannot walk about in the breadth of his soul, that is, in the dwelling of his heart. But a devout and unpolluted conscience enjoys free spaces within itself, and since it has the recesses of its own building whole, it does not wander off into desires for what belongs to others. (v. 3) "I did not set before my eyes an evil thing." We have before our eyes the things we love, and the gaze lingers on those in which the mind delights. To turn the eyes away from an evil thing, then, is not to love whatever displeases God. "Those who committed transgressions I hated." Men are to be loved in such a way that their transgressions are hated; for it is one thing to love what they were made, another to hate what they do. (v. 4) "A perverse heart did not cleave to me; the malicious man turning aside from me I did not acknowledge." I gave no consent, he says, to a perverse heart, and the malicious man turning aside from the spotless way I did not acknowledge, that is, I did not approve him, because he was unlike me. (v. 5) "The one who secretly slanders his neighbour, him I pursued." A good persecution, which hunts down not the man but the man's sin. "With the proud eye and the insatiable heart I did not eat." Pride is the tinder of envy, which is never anything but malicious and is never sated with the evils of others. With those, therefore, who delighted in such poison I did not share a meal, because I shuddered at the food of their iniquity, with which they were ceaselessly filled. "For blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, for they shall be filled." (v. 6) "My eyes are upon the faithful of the land, that they may sit together with me." This is the voice of the Lord saying to those who imitate him, "You will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." "He who walked in the spotless way, he ministered to me." To me, he says, not to himself; for many insincere preachers of the gospel minister to themselves, "seeking their own things, not those of Jesus Christ." (v. 7) "He who works pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house." The unjust man has not dwelt in the heart of the righteous, which is his house, because what is unlike always stands far off. "He who speaks unjust things has not prospered before my eyes." The road of the unjust is not straight, and it is far different from that way over which the eyes of the Lord preside and by which he comes to his own. (v. 8) "In the mornings I put to death all the sinners of the land, that I might destroy from the city of the Lord all who work iniquity." The Lord, who speaks in the prophet, announces the day of his judgment; for, in accordance with truth, it was said at the beginning of the psalm, "Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord." For since the time of this age is a time of night, of ignorance, and of tribulation, and it is open to no one to what end each will come, the mercy of God gives room for repentance and acts in various ways, so that the righteous may make progress, the fallen be raised, those who have turned away be converted. But this patience is granted while it is still night. When the day has dawned and all hidden things have been revealed, and the ungodly have been separated from the fellowship of the righteous, the wicked will be spared no longer, but all the sinners of the land will be put to death, in that morning in which it will be declared what each deserves.

(v. 1) The title of this psalm is: "The prayer of the poor man when he was in anguish, and he pours out his petition in the sight of the Lord." This poor man, then, is Christ, who, taking the form of a servant, clothed himself with our poverty; and since he is "the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," he who is in the lowliness of the body is the same as he who is in the glory of the Father, so that he might carry through the cause of those whose nature he took up. (v. 2) "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to you. Do not turn your face away from me; on whatever day I am in trouble, incline your ear to me." "Hear my prayer" is the same as "and let my cry come to you"; but the doubled petition shows the feeling of the one who asks. And "Do not turn your face away from me" he says on behalf of the lowliness of the members. For when would the Father turn away from the Son, when would God turn away from Christ? And so he asks to be heard on whatever day he is in trouble, because the tender love of the head suffers with every portion of the body, and the labour of all, which varies with places and times, is never without him who has mercy on all. (v. 3) "On whatever day I call upon you, hear me quickly." What is asked with good desire is quickly obtained, and prayers are not put off which ask for what he who is asked himself wills. So the hearing is swift when the prayer itself is first heard; and he who gave the desire to pray does not delay his help. (v. 4) "For my days have vanished like smoke." The days of the first man, whom the second took up, are most fittingly compared to smoke that vanishes as it rises. And since no one is carried over into the newness of Christ except out of the oldness of Adam, the restorer himself groans in those whom he restores. "And my bones are fried as in a frying pan." Those are called bones who are stronger in the body of Christ, by whose firmness the framework of all the members is strengthened; as Paul, the strongest bone, says, "Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?" (v. 5) "My heart is struck like grass and has withered." The whole human race was struck in Adam, from whom the universal offspring comes; and from his wound those who are saved in hope in Christ groan, not without the miseries of the mortality contracted from it. "For I forgot to eat my bread." The first man had received the bread of the word in the law of the commandment; but by taking the forbidden food he forgot the bread by which he lived, and for this reason his heart withered like struck grass. Now, then, let it revive and eat the bread it had forgotten, now that it is in the body of him who says, "I am the living bread who came down from heaven." (v. 6) "By the voice of my groaning my bones have cleaved to my flesh." By the voice of my groaning, he says, not by the voice of the groaning of those over whom I groan because they do not groan rightly, because they desire carnal things, because they covet bodily things. But since there is no lack of stronger members who take care of the weak and do not differ from the feeling of the head, by the voice of my groaning the bones, that is, the stronger parts of the body, are taught to cleave to my flesh, that is, to my weaker ones, as it is written, "We who are strong ought to bear the weakness of the weak." (vv. 7–8) "I have become like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like a night raven in the ruins. I kept watch, and have become like a solitary sparrow on the roof." Every energetic and devoted preacher of the gospel is found comparable to these birds that have been named, according to the character of those to whom he proclaims the word of truth. If he speaks to unbelievers, he is in a wilderness like the pelican, and does not disdain deserted and uncultivated places, because even in such people the Holy Spirit makes himself a dwelling. If he preaches to those who have lost the grace they received, he becomes in a way a night raven in the ruins, not deserting those who fall, so that the well-founded building may recover both its stability and its beauty. But if he exhorts those who, though they seem faithful, are lukewarm and carnal, he becomes a kind of sparrow to those placed under the roof, that is, to those living under the weakness of the flesh, rebuking them and urging them to be on the roof rather than under it, that is, to have the flesh subject to them, not to be subject to it themselves. For "he who is on the roof, let him not come down to take anything from the house"; and, "What you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops." But no one carries out the diligence of these affections more than the Lord Jesus Christ, poor by his own will, who, coming to save sinners, took up the labours and weaknesses of all. For "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," so that the wilderness of the gentiles might receive the knowledge of the truth, and to the blinded Jews, ruined by their own transgression, both light and stability might be given; while he who is the enlightener of darkness says through the apostle, "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." And he, killed by the darkness that he loved, kept watch, that is, rose again; and he became like a solitary sparrow on the roof, that is, in heaven, where until now no one has ascended except him who came down from heaven, who is "the firstfruits of those who sleep" and "the firstborn from the dead." (v. 9) "All day long my enemies reproached me, and those who praised me swore against me." These words signify what was done at the time of the passion. The Lord is reproached that he who saves others cannot rescue himself from punishment; and those who had been false praisers conspired to kill him. (v. 10) "For I ate ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping." The sacrament of the Saviour's mercy is shown, who makes even those his members for whom such medicine is fitting, and joins their cause to his own person; in them he says that he ate ashes like bread and mingled his drink with weeping. Unbelievers count this a reproach, saying that the hope of forgiveness is tinder for sinning. (v. 11) "Because of your anger and your indignation; for having lifted me up you have dashed me down." This is the very anger which Adam deserved and in which we are all born, according to which the apostle says, "We were by nature children of wrath, as the rest also were": not by God's making but by his judgment. And we are called children of wrath by nature because wrath has settled into our very beginnings, so that no human nature except that of our Lord Jesus Christ is free from it. Man was lifted up because he was made rational and in the image of God; he was dashed down because he forgot his dignity, as it is written, "Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to the senseless beasts."

(v. 12) "My days have declined like a shadow, and I have withered like grass." I withdrew from the eternal day through sin, and fell into passing days through judgment; and since I have withered like grass, through him who is free among the dead I am being saved in hope. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." (v. 13) "But you, O Lord, endure for ever, and your memorial from generation to generation." Let the eternal one, he says, save the temporal one; for it is not because I have fallen that you have grown old: you who were there to humble me are the same to set me free, and you do not forget your promises. (v. 14) "You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to have mercy on her." What time, if not the one of which it is said, "But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law"? (v. 15) "For your servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they will have pity on her dust." In Zion there are many stones, and very many are dust. In the stones is the joy of the saints, in the dust their pity. From Zion came the holy patriarchs, the holy apostles, and the preachers of the gospel: all these are chosen and tried stones. But the rest, who are not joined to them, are dust, which the wind will drive from the face of the earth, unless they acknowledge themselves and say, "Remember, O Lord, that we are dust." (v. 16) "And the nations will fear your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory." When this foundation has been laid in Zion and this mercy shown to its dust, another wall will come from the nations also, to be fitted to the cornerstone, and the two will be built into one by him who makes both one. (v. 17) "For the Lord has built up Zion, and he will be seen in his glory." The church grows daily into a temple of God, and the whole body is built up from the head himself. And Jesus Christ will appear in his glory when he comes to judge the world, to take some on the right into the kingdom and to thrust others on the left into punishment. (v. 18) "The Lord has regarded the prayer of the humble and has not despised their petition." This is the building of Zion and its structure. So are the living stones set in place: for one comes to the fitted beauty of it only through humility and prayer, through groans and tears; lest, when the house has been finished and dedicated, one who has come by another way should knock in vain. (v. 19) "Let these things be written for another generation, and the people that will be created will praise the Lord." These things are written in the Old Testament by a prophecy that pertains to the generation of the New Testament, that is, to the people that was to be created in Christ, of whom the apostle says, "If then there is any new creation in Christ, the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new. And all things are from God." That is, both the old and the new, since both peoples received justification through one faith. (vv. 20–21) "For he has looked out from his holy height; the Lord looked from heaven upon the earth, to hear the groans of those in fetters, to set free the sons of the slain." When God looked upon the earth, that is, bestowed his mercy on men, the bonds of love were made so strong that the violence of persecution could not overcome them. For by the fear of God the martyrs overcame the fear of the world, and the fetters of faith held them back from going over into transgression; and that labour of perseverance passed into the freedom of glory, so that groans were turned into joys and fetters into crowns. And the sons of the slain, that is, of the martyrs, are also set free, who, inflamed with the same faith and freed from the bonds of worldly desires, can say, "You have broken my bonds; to you I will offer the sacrifice of praise." (v. 22) "That the name of the Lord may be proclaimed in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem." That, when the bonds of sins have been loosed, free love may serve God, and the praise of the Lord be multiplied in Zion, that is, in the watchtower, which is the church, which, not loving the present but looking forward to the future, rejoices in the hope of the promises. (v. 23) "When the peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to serve the Lord." It came about through the blood of the martyrs and the groans of those in fetters that, since those who were in groans and distress were heard, the church has in our times this freedom, in which the peoples of all nations come together into the unity of the faith, and the kingdoms that persecuted Christians have been made subject to the yoke of Christ. (v. 24) "She answered him in the way of her strength." Whether Zion or Jerusalem, which is the church, in which the praise of the Lord is celebrated, she answered him whom she praises by faith, by hope, by love. For to answer his call is to believe and obey and walk in his commandments. "In the way of strength," because it is from him that one perseveres amid all enticements and labours. "Declare to me the fewness of my days." Everything that ends and passes is small; for temporal life is small in comparison with eternity. The church asks that its days be declared to her so that she may know that she will remain until the end of the age, until those days come that can have neither number nor end. (v. 25) "Do not call me back in the midst of my days." Let my days not be cut short, he says, before the consummation of the age that you have promised, "until the fullness of the gentiles comes in," and all Israel is saved. "Your years are from generation to generation." From the beginning to the consummation, the various ages have brought forth God's saints, some and then others; and their justification is only in Christ, through whom there is one generation out of all generations, which God makes a partaker of eternity, so that without change he may be "all in all." (vv. 26–28) "In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; and all of them will grow old like a garment, and like a covering you will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail." True eternity and true immortality exist only in the Godhead of the Trinity, for which being is perpetual, and which admits no changeableness through beginning, increase, or decline. But creatures, even those to whom the Creator has given or will give eternity, will not be wholly without end, since for them the very change made for their increase is an end. So the earth which you, Lord, founded, and the heavens, which are the works of your hands, will grow old and perish like a garment and a covering: not so as not to be, but so as to be otherwise, namely by a renewal of substance, not by a failure of nature. But you are the same, and do not pass from one thing into another; for you are he who truly is, and who in your glory can be neither less nor greater; and you grant to the sons of your servants that they may come to your unfailing years. (v. 29) "The sons of your servants will dwell, and their seed will be directed for ever." The sons of God's servants are the sons of the righteous, the sons of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; sons, finally, of the whole church, which is the body of Christ and the mother of all fathers and all sons. These, then, will dwell in the eternity of God's years, and their seed will be directed for ever. And their seed is rightly understood as the work of their righteousness, which ought to go before each one; for that blessedness of eternity does not receive the barren and fruitless.

(v. 1) "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, his holy name." The whole church with its head, which is Christ, is one man, whose proper office is at every time to bless the Lord and to urge itself on to the praise of him whom it loves with all its strength. Its inward parts are the reason of understanding, the hope of faith, the humility of fear, the strength of love, and whatever other affections there are by which the mind is lifted up to wonder at its author. (v. 2) "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his repayments." The repeated exhortation teaches that we must never cease from blessing God. And the blessing will be persevering if no forgetfulness of his repayments ever creeps in. These repayments were not made according to human merits. For condemnation was owed to sinners; but grace was given to the evil, and salvation to the lost. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost," and "he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." He is to be blessed, then, who not only does not punish the wicked, but even returns good for evil and makes them good. (vv. 3–5) "Who is gracious to all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from corruption, who crowns you in compassion and mercy; who satisfies your desire with good things; your youth will be renewed like the eagle's." The enumeration of God's repayments shows by what steps of grace the human soul is saved. "Who is gracious," he says, "to all your iniquities." He does not say, "to all your virtues"; for it would certainly have none unless forgiveness of sins were granted. And lest these rise again, "He heals," he says, "all your diseases." And what are these diseases but evil lusts, carnal desires, and the sicknesses of all vanities? From this corruption the life of the sick is redeemed, because the body of our death became the body of Life itself, so that he might crown us in compassion and mercy, as it is written, "I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have shown mercy"; so that we may understand that the crowns of merits are given by the same mercy through which the merits for the crowns were given. Then is added, "Who satisfies your desire with good things." For by these cures the soul has been brought to good desires, so that, spurning and casting away carnal and earthly things, it longs for spiritual and heavenly ones; for "Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." "Your youth," then, "will be renewed like the eagle's"; that is, you will be changed from oldness into newness and from old age into youth, after the likeness of the eagle, which, laying aside its feathers and changing its beak, grows young into new strength with revived vigour. (v. 6) "The Lord does mercies, and judgment for those who suffer wrong." The Lord knows that in this life his servants are subject to labours and wrongs; but he wants them to be meek and patient; for as he is merciful to deliver, so he is also just to judge. For when he says to all who suffer wrong, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," he who announces punishment does not deny help. So the Lord does mercy, and he does judgment. But it belongs to the perfect to wish mercy rather than vengeance even for those who have done them wrong. (v. 7) "He made known his ways to Moses, his wills to the sons of Israel." It is a great and wonderful mystery that the law was given in order that, as sin increased, the proud might be humbled, the humbled might confess, and those who confessed might be healed. These are the hidden ways which he made known to Moses, through whom he gave the law, so that sin might abound and grace might superabound; and the true Israelites understood this grace, and by God's revelation saw what was the reason of his dispensations and what the counsel of the divine wills. (v. 8) "The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and of great mercy." What is so long-suffering, what so abundant, as God, who in mercy rains on the just and the unjust and makes his sun rise on the good and the evil? Despised, he spares; denied, he spares; and he prefers the life of the sinner to his death. For all the length of his patience is a training in repentance and an offer of correction; and none of his works is empty of mercy, since he takes thought for man both by gentleness and by the scourge. (v. 9) "He will not be angry to the end, nor will he be indignant for ever." The divine goodness is angry for this reason, that it may not be angry; and in mercy it applies a temporal severity so as not to bring an eternal punishment. (vv. 10–12) "He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities. For as the height of heaven is above the earth, the Lord has made his mercy strong over those who fear him." As heaven, he says, protects the earth, so God protects those who fear him. "As far as the east is from the west, he has put our sins far from us." This is the power of regeneration, which strips men of sins and clothes them with the gifts of grace, so that the old may set and the truth may rise. For when the state has been changed, innocence is set in the east, and sins remain in the west. (vv. 13–14) "As a father has pity on his sons, so the Lord has had pity on those who fear him; for he knew our frame; remember that we are dust." He who deigned to take on the role of a father does nothing toward his sons except in mercy. He will scourge his adopted children rather than abandon them to be disowned. He himself knows what he made us, from what fall he has re-formed us and into what state, and how much the dust of earthly frailty weakens us. God is asked, then, to remember the human condition, that is, to persevere in having mercy on it: not because he himself forgets, but he brings it about that we do not forget his grace. (v. 15) "Man, his days are like grass; like the flower of the field, so he will flourish." Let man not be proud, whose days are like grass that flourishes a little while and soon withers; but let man not despair, whose weakness is taken up by the power of God. For "the Word became flesh," so that we, who were perishable in Adam, might be eternal in Christ. (vv. 17–18) "But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age upon those who fear him, and his righteousness upon the sons of sons." Eternal joys are promised to those who fear the Lord. And since fear gives birth to obedience, and obedience produces the doing of the commandments, therefore God's righteousness, that is, his repayment, is upon the sons of sons: who are better understood as the offspring of good works than as a progeny of children; for many righteous men are known not to have had children, and not all of those who had them had cause for glory, or not in all of them. "To those who keep his covenant, and remember his commandments to do them." He holds God's commandments in memory who does what God's commandments contain; nor can he be misled by the breadth of the precepts, since on two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets. (v. 19) "The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven, and his kingdom will rule over all." What else is signified but the Lord's descent and ascent, and the session of the man he assumed on the Father's throne? To him every knee bows, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of the Father. (v. 20) "Bless the Lord, all his angels, mighty in strength, doing his word, to hear the voice of his words." Those are mighty in the word who serve the command of the Word, because they are filled with the power of him whom they serve. (v. 21) "Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will." The confession of one who blesses is true when the sound of mouth and heart is the same. But to speak well and live badly is nothing other than to condemn oneself by one's own voice. The Lord is to be blessed, then, above all by works themselves, which the conscience ought so to use that it may glory in them in the Lord. (v. 22) "Bless the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion." As there is no place that is not subject to his dominion, so there is no place in which his blessing ought to cease. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." The psalm is closed with the same verse with which it began, so that we may understand that we ought to persevere in blessing God; and this blessing is truly continued if one lives well without ceasing.