Exposition of Psalms 100-150 106.1–107.1

(v. 1) "Confess to the Lord, for he is sweet, for his mercy is for ever." He can confess the sweetness of the Lord who has tasted it. For how will he say that something is sweet which he does not know? Let him come, then, to taste, so that he may be able to pour it forth in confession. And "for ever," that is, for eternity, is his mercy, because those on whom he has mercy in this time will be eternal. (vv. 2–3) "Let those say so who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand of their enemies, and gathered from the lands, from the east and the west, from the north and the sea." Israel indeed seems to have been redeemed from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery; but here those are called redeemed who throughout the whole world are set free from the great and wide Egypt as though through the Red Sea, the baptism consecrated by Christ's blood. Let the Christians say, then, who have been called from the whole world, that the Lord is sweet and his mercy is for ever. (vv. 4–8) "They wandered in the wilderness and in dry land; they did not find the way to a city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. And they cried to the Lord when they were in trouble, and he delivered them from their distresses. And he led them by a right way, that they might go to a city to dwell in. Let them confess to the Lord his mercy, and his wonders to the sons of men." These verses are repeated four times in this psalm; and a confession of the Lord's mercies made so often signifies that each of the redeemed, in order to come to perfect peace, is delivered from the dangers of four temptations. The first danger is that man, straying from the truth, lives in the wilderness and error of ignorance, and, lacking the food and drink of wisdom, faints with hunger and thirst. But when, worn out by this labour, he has cried to the Lord, he is led to the way of faith, by which he may begin to go to the city of rest, and may confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. (vv. 9–12) "For he has satisfied the empty soul and filled the hungry soul with good things: those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, fettered in beggary and in iron; because they had embittered the words of God and provoked the counsel of the Most High. And their heart was humbled in labours; they grew weak, and there was no one to help them." As the first temptation was that of error and of hunger, in ignorance of the truth, so, after someone has come to know the way of Christ and begun to know what he must believe and what he must do, he is taken up by the labours of the second temptation: when he wishes to fight against sins as if by his own strength, he finds himself hindered by the difficulties of his desires and unable, because of the fetters, to walk the way he has learned. Let him cry out, then, in this tribulation too, and ask help from the grace of God, so that, the chains of his inability broken, he may receive the power to act rightly. The Lord could certainly anticipate this of his own accord by removing the obstacles, were it not useful for man to experience his weakness and to glory over good works not in himself but in the Lord: so that he may know how to confess to the Lord the mercies of him whose gifts he receives in order to be able to overcome his desires. (vv. 13–17) "And they cried to the Lord when they were in trouble, and he saved them from their distresses. And he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains. Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. For he shattered the gates of bronze and broke the bars of iron. He took them up from the way of their iniquity; for because of their injustices they were humbled." For before they were freed by grace from the dominion of sin, they wished to establish their own righteousness, not knowing the righteousness of God. They were humbled, then, by the experience of their own inability, and found that without God's help they could do nothing. But a third temptation takes them up, which brings on a distaste for the word of God. For very often those whom ignorance and desire did not destroy are killed by starvation and weariness and the languor of distaste; unless, perhaps, there is no danger when there is delight neither in reading nor in prayer. (v. 18) "Their soul abhorred all food, and they drew near to the gates of death." As it is harmful to the body not to be able to take bodily food, so it is dangerous to the soul to be weary of spiritual delights. (vv. 19–20) "And they cried to the Lord when they were in trouble, and he delivered them from their distresses. He sent his word and healed them, and rescued them from their corruption." It is a kind of corruption of the mind when wholesome things and the way of salvation are not loved; so to be delivered from this evil too is a very great good. (vv. 21–22) "Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. And let them offer the sacrifice of praise and proclaim his works with exultation." Not with weariness, not with grief, not with anxiety, but with exultation. But there remains a fourth temptation, which pertains both to those who preside and to those under them: for when the helmsman is pressed by a storm, all who sail with him are threatened by the same danger, and all together are saved in harbour when the storm has calmed. Accordingly there follows: (vv. 23–24) "Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing business on many waters, they have seen the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep." Those, then, whose work it is to govern peoples suffer storms of seditions and dissensions, often arising from the depth of the human heart, which can trouble the ship; and they recognize that God permits these things to happen so that those who are approved may be made more manifest, and that he himself may be called upon by the faithful in their distresses. (vv. 25–27) "He spoke, and the wind of the storm stood." That is, it remained and lasted, so that, troubled, they might pray more earnestly. "And its waves were lifted up. They go up to the heavens and go down to the depths; their soul was melting in their evils. They were troubled and reeled like a drunken man, and all their wisdom was swallowed up." Those who sit at the helm and love the ship faithfully recognize the force of this disturbance. For very often the church is so shaken by such scandals that the hearts of those who preside fail. And what remains but what follows? (vv. 28–31) "And they cried to the Lord when they were in trouble, and he brought them out of their distresses. And he commanded the storm, and it stood still into a breeze, and its waves were silent. And they rejoiced because they were silent, and he led them to the harbour of their desire. Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men." Everywhere, altogether, let them confess to the Lord, not our merits, not our strength, not our wisdom, but his mercies. Let him be loved in every deliverance of ours who has been called upon in every tribulation. (v. 32) "Let them exalt him in the assemblies of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders." Now, then, there is no doubt that all the temptations, tribulations, and deliverances described above take place in the church. What, then, has the Lord done in this church, but to resist the proud and give grace to the humble? He spurned the Jews, who exalted themselves over their descent from Abraham and the oracles of the law; and, the natural branches having been cut off, he grafted the wild olive into the olive, and from all nations chose a spiritual seed for Abraham. (vv. 33–34) "He turned rivers into a desert, and springs of water into thirst, a fruitful land into saltness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it." Because of this proud wickedness grace abandoned the Jews, and their land became barren and deserted. For all prophecy, all sacrifice, all the sacraments ceased there and passed over to the humility of the gentiles. (vv. 35–36) "He turned a desert into pools of water, and a land without water into springs of water. And he made the hungry dwell there." The works of grace are told, which was poured out on nations formerly unclean and deserted and estranged from the worship of the truth. "And they established a city to dwell in." For he who has been justified by faith already holds the heavenly Jerusalem freely. (v. 37) "And they sowed fields and planted vineyards and produced a crop of grain." In this that labourer rejoices who says, "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit." (v. 38) "And he blessed them, and they were greatly multiplied, and their cattle did not diminish." Those in the church are called cattle and flocks who walk in simplicity but are useful: not much learned, but full of faith. So God blessed both the spiritual and the carnal and multiplied them, so that they were not diminished. (v. 39) "And they became few, and were afflicted by the tribulation of evils and sorrows." The catholic church in its chosen ones, foreknown by God, the sons of the promise, the members of Christ's body, is not diminished nor reduced to fewness, because they truly are; or, when they have fallen, they are restored and remain; and they are always many, because nothing perishes from their number. Those, then, who either did not enter into this solidity of the eternal multitude, or, when they seemed to have entered, withdrew from it, have themselves become few, because they have been divided from that manifold unity which remains. For those are never many who tend toward not being. And what is so liable to fewness as what is bound for perdition? (v. 40) "Contempt was poured out upon the princes." Heretics and schismatics are rejected by the church, and are the more despised because they wished to be princes. "And he led them astray in a trackless place, and not in the way." Those who were heading for the city to dwell in were directed and led; but these, deserting the holy city, that is, the catholic church, were permitted to go off through the trackless waste of their error, and were handed over to their own will. For God does not lead astray by the malice of deception, but separates by the truth of judgment. (v. 41) "And he helped the poor man out of beggary." He is poor and a beggar who attributes nothing to himself but expects everything from the mercy of Christ, crying daily before the Lord's door and knocking, that it may be opened to him and his nakedness clothed. "And he made families like sheep." God helped this man as one poor man and one beggar, and multiplied him into families, that is, he extended the one church, the one people, the one sheep, through the breadth of the whole world. (v. 42) "The upright will see and be glad, and all iniquity will stop its mouth." That iniquity which chatters against unity, convicted by the truth, will stop its mouth, having nothing to say. (v. 43) "Who is wise? And he will keep these things, understanding the mercies of the Lord." What will the wise man keep, but to be poor and not rich, that is, not proud, not puffed up? For in keeping these things he will understand the mercies of the Lord: not his own merits, not his own strength, but the mercies of the Lord, who led him into the way and fed him when he was wandering and in want; who loosed and freed him when he was fighting against the difficulty of sins and bound with the chains of anxiety; who refreshed him, languishing with distaste and nearly dying, by sending the sweetness of his word; who led him, endangered amid the shipwrecks of scandals, out of the peril of the sea into the harbour of calm; who, finally, set him among that people where he gives grace to the humble, not in that where he resists the proud; and made him his own, so that, remaining within, he might be multiplied, and not, going outside, be diminished.

Psalm 107 is passed over, because it seems to have been expounded in the last part of Psalm 56 and in Psalm 59. So begins