Exposition of Psalms 100-150 108.1–109.1

(v. 2) "O God, do not keep silent about my praise, for the mouth of the sinner and of the deceitful man has been opened against me." Anyone who reads the Acts of the Apostles faithfully recognizes that this psalm contains a prophecy of Christ; for there it is plainly shown that what is written here was prophesied of Judas, the betrayer of the Lord: "Let his days be few," and, "Let another take his office of bishop." But if we try to take all the evil things said here of one man, the method of exposition will waver. Everything, then, will be clearer if some things are understood to pertain to every kind of enemy of Christ, among whom Judas holds the first place, and some to Judas himself in particular. So it is the voice of the Lord: "O God, do not keep silent about my praise." And his true and greatest praise is that by which he is proclaimed to be what he is, the only-begotten Son of God. Against him the mouth of the deceitful sinner broke out, when my power was covered by the weakness of the flesh. (v. 3) "They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue": then, certainly, when they praised him with captious flattery as a good teacher. "And they surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without cause." Those who earlier spoke deceitfully afterward raged against me with the voices of open hatred without cause, because they had no ground for enmity except their own iniquity, and with no advantage set before them they were malicious and cruel for nothing. (v. 4) "Instead of loving me, they slandered me." It must not be thought a small thing that he does not say, "Instead of loving me, they killed me," but, "they slandered me." For they killed him precisely because they slandered him, denying the Son of God and saying that he casts out demons by the prince of demons, and, "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to him?" and other such things. By this slander they turned away from him those whose conversion he sought; and this was more harmful than their preparing to kill one who would soon rise again. "But I prayed." He did not say what he prayed; but we understand what he said as he hung on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." How well it is understood that he prayed for his disciples, as he also said before his passion, that their faith might not fail; when, fixed to the wood, he did not use his power but gave an example of patience, lest by destroying his enemies with divine power he should build us up to hurry impatiently to avenge ourselves on those wicked people whom we endure; since it is written, "The patient man is better than the strong." (v. 5) "And they set against me evil for good, and hatred for my love." Although the punishment of the sufferer was voluntary, yet this is the greatest crime of the persecutors, that they returned malice for goodness and hatred for love; and what they are to receive for this ungodliness he begins to prophesy in the form of a wish. God does not desire the punishment of the guilty as though he wished to be glutted with vengeance; but he orders what is just with tranquillity, so that even the wicked may not be out of order. (v. 6) "Set a sinner over him, and let the devil stand at his right hand." Whereas above the complaint was about many, now the psalm speaks of one, and the coming punishment is arranged in the person of one, understood: not because those others will be outside punishment, but because the sentence is rightly pronounced on the head of the crime; and it does not omit from the punishment the partners in ungodliness whom it condemns in their chief. What, then, is "Set a sinner over him," but that the devil may rule over him to whom he has subjected himself, and that he may have at his right hand the one he chose? For to each, whether in good or in evil, that will become the right hand which he prefers to all things. (v. 7) "When he is judged, let him go out condemned, and let his prayer become sin." Judas could not pray through him whom he sold. Prayer not made through Christ not only cannot wipe out sin, but itself becomes sin. (v. 8) "Let his days be few," that is, the days of his apostleship. "And let another take his office of bishop." That this was done as it was prophesied, the Acts of the Apostles tell. (vv. 9–10) "Let his sons be orphans and his wife a widow." When he died, both came about. "Let his sons be carried off wavering, and beg": wavering, uncertain where to go. "Let them be cast out of their dwellings." That is what he had said above, "let them be carried off." (vv. 11–12) "Let the creditor search out all his substance, and let strangers plunder his labours. Let there be no helper for him, nor anyone to have pity on his orphans." That is, let him have neither a helper nor a guardian. (v. 13) "Let his children be for destruction; in one generation let his name be blotted out." That is, that what was begotten of him may beget no more, and may pass away quickly. (v. 14) "Let the iniquity of his fathers come back into remembrance in the sight of the Lord, and let the sin of his mother not be blotted out." If Judas had remained in that to which he was called, neither his own past nor the iniquity of his parents would in any way have pertained to him. But because he did not keep his adoption in God's family, but chose rather the iniquity of the old race, the iniquity of his fathers came back in the sight of the Lord, so that he too would be punished in it, and the sin of his mother was not blotted out in him. (v. 15) "Let them be before the Lord always, and let the memory of them perish from the earth." He said, "Let them be before the Lord," not that they should oppose the Lord, but that they should be in the Lord's sight, so that there may be no forgetting of what they deserve. And let their memory perish in this, that their name may fail, with no generation following. And if it is asked whether it is credible that the miseries of living descendants pertain to the punishment of the dead, setting aside all the debate that arises on this in many forms, we rightly believe that these things which were prophesied through the Holy Spirit came to pass; and even if it can be asserted that the punishment of the living does not torment the dead, yet on the most wicked Judas such a condemnation was pronounced that, amid his own torments, he was made more wretched still by the misery of his own and would always grieve over the destruction of his line. All these things that were said against Judas are also understood to have been prophesied against the people of the Jews: for over them too a sinner has been set, that is, the devil, to whom they subjected themselves; and he stands at their right hand, whom they preferred to the Saviour; and they will be condemned in the judgment, because by persevering in ungodliness they store up wrath for themselves on the day of wrath. "And let his prayer become sin," because it is not made through the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and the priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. "And his days became few," which is to be taken of their kingdom, because it did not last long after the cross of Christ. "And let another take his office of bishop," because they rejected Christ, who had come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Their sons too became orphans; of whom it was said, "But the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness"; and they are rightly understood to have lost God the Father. For "he who does not have the Son," says the Truth, "does not have the Father either." "And his wife a widow." The wife of the kingdom can be understood as the people, which, having lost the kingdom itself, became a widow. "His sons were carried off wavering, and they beg." Wavering in dangers, the sons of that kingdom were conquered; and they are shown to beg because there is no doubt that they live on others' mercy. "Let them be cast out of their dwellings," he says; and so it was done. "Let the creditor search out all his substance," namely, so that their whole life, which is signified by the name "substance," may be examined, and that no forgiveness may be made of any debt, that is, of their sin; because they rejected him in whom alone is the abolition of sins. "And let strangers plunder his labours": let the devil and his angels seize the fruits of the works spent on them. "Let there be no helper for him." For by whom can he be helped who does not have Christ? "Nor anyone to have pity on his orphans": because, having lost God the Father, whose Son they persecuted, they have no one to have pity on them; not for taking up or sustaining temporal life, but for the true life, that is, eternal life. "Let his children be for destruction," certainly eternal destruction. "In one generation let his name be blotted out": because they were generated, not regenerated, therefore in one generation let it be blotted out. "Let the iniquity of his fathers come back into remembrance in the sight of the Lord," so that the Lord may render to the same people, persevering in malice, the iniquity of their fathers also. "Let the sin of his mother not be blotted out": the sin in Jerusalem, which is in slavery with her children, which kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. "Let them be before the Lord always": let their iniquity and sin not be removed from the sight of the Lord, God punishing it for ever. "And let the memory of them perish from the earth." The earth of God, the field of God, is the church of God; from this earth their memory perishes, because, though they were the natural branches, they were broken off because of unbelief.

(v. 16) "Because he did not remember to show mercy." Whether Judas or that people. But it is better taken of the people, which could have remembered, by repenting, that once Christ had been killed it ought at least not to rage against his disciples and members. (v. 17) "For he persecuted the poor and needy man." For the Lord did not disdain to become poor, though he was rich, so that by his poverty we might be made rich. And "needy" can be understood in his saying to the Samaritan woman, "Give me a drink," or in his saying on the cross, "I thirst": these are words as of one in need. "And to put to death the one pierced in heart." Compunction of heart, which properly belongs to those converted from sins, does not suit Christ, who alone was without sin. So in his members who do penance and return to their head with compunction, he too was pierced in heart, because what was done in the body was not apart from the head, in which he suffers persecutors until the end. (v. 18) "And he loved cursing, and it will come upon him." Although Judas too loved cursing, by selling and betraying the very author of blessing, yet that people loved cursing more openly when it said, "His blood be on us and on our children." "And he did not want blessing, and it will be far from him." Judas indeed cast away blessing in Christ; but the people refused it more openly when, to the man given sight who said, "Do you too want to become his disciples?" they answered, "You be his disciple." And blessing was made far from them, because it passed to the gentiles. "And he put on cursing like a garment." Whether Judas or that people. "And it entered like water into his inner parts." So both outside and inside: outside like a garment, inside like water. For he has fallen into the judgment of him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. "And like oil into his bones." It shows that the ungodly man, or people, does evil with pleasure, and delights in iniquity both inside, as with water, and outside, as with oil. This conduct is called a curse because God announces eternal torments to such people. (v. 19) "Let it be to him like the garment with which he is covered." More open is the malice with which the sinner covers himself as with a cloak, and seems covered by the very thing in which he glories even in the eyes of men, not concealing his evil but displaying it. "And like the belt with which he is always girded." He girds himself with cursing, because he undertakes evil not suddenly but by design, and so learns to do harm that he is always ready. (v. 20) "This is the work of those who slander me before the Lord." These are those who slander Christ himself, whom the Law of the Lord and the Prophets foretold. "And who speak evil against my soul": by denying that he could rise again, though he says, "I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again." (v. 21) "And you, O Lord, Lord, act with me." Some have thought that "mercy" should be understood, and some have even added it. But the more correct manuscripts read thus: "And you, O Lord, Lord, act with me, for your name's sake." Hence it is to be understood that the Son said to the Father, "Act with me," because the works of the Father and the Son are the same; which can also be perceived in "mercy." For there follows, "for your mercy is sweet": because we rightly understand that the Father and the Son together show mercy to the vessels of mercy. But "act with me" can also be understood as if he had said, "Help me." For the Father helps the Son insofar as God helps man, because of the form of a servant. For in that form in which he is equal to the Father he does not need to be helped, because the two have one work and an equal and inseparable power. The neediness and poverty belong to the weakness he took up, from which he was crucified. (v. 22) "Deliver me, for I am needy and poor, and my heart is troubled within me": according to what he said as his passion drew near, "My soul is sorrowful even to death." (v. 23) "Like a shadow when it declines I am taken away." In this he signified death itself. For as night comes from a declining shadow, so death comes from mortal flesh. "I am shaken off like locusts." This we now understand more fittingly in his members. For his faithful were shaken off, that is, put to flight by the persecutors; and by the name of locusts he wished to signify either their multitude or that they leapt from place to place. (v. 24) "My knees are weakened through fasting, and my flesh is changed because of oil." Because of oil, that is, because of spiritual grace. For when his flesh had been changed by the glory of the resurrection and he had ascended to the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit to anoint believers; and their steadfastness, which, when their bread, that is, Christ, was taken from them, had been weakened as if by fasting, was made strong by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that it was not overcome in its own afflictions, though it had failed in the Lord's passion. (v. 25) "And I have become a reproach to them": through the death of the cross. For "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us." "They saw me and shook their heads." Because they saw him hanging on the wood, and did not see him rising from the tomb. (v. 26) "Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to your mercy." This too is to be referred both to the head, because of the form of a servant, and to the body, because of his servants. For he could say to the Lord in them too, "Help me and save me," he who had said to Saul in them, "Why are you persecuting me?" And by saying "according to your mercy" he commended free grace. (v. 27) "And let them know that this is your hand, and that you, O Lord, have made it." He said "let them know" of those for whom he also prayed while they raged; because among them were also those who afterward believed in him. And the hand of God is Christ, as it is said, "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" This, then, was the hand, and he made it. For "in the beginning was the Word," and "the Word became flesh." (v. 28) "They will curse, and you will bless." Vain, then, is the cursing of the sons of men who love vanity and seek after a lie. But when God blesses, he does what he says. "Let those who rise up against me be confounded." Those who think they are prevailing against me will be confounded when I have been exalted above the heavens and my glory has been poured out over all the earth. "But your servant will rejoice," whether at the right hand of the Father or in his members; now in hope, and afterward for ever. (v. 29) "Let those who slander me be clothed with shame," that is, let them be ashamed to have slandered me. But this can be a good thing for those who are corrected. "And let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak." A diplois is a double cloak, by which a double confusion is announced to the enemies of Christ: that is, inside and outside, namely before God and before men. (v. 30) "I will confess to the Lord greatly with my mouth, and in the midst of many I will praise him." "In the midst of many I will praise him" can be taken of Christ, because he himself is present in the church until the consummation of the age. And he is said to be in the midst to whom the chief honour is given. But if the heart of man is, as it were, his midst, it is most rightly understood that he will praise the Lord in the hearts of many, that is, in the midst of many. For Christ dwells through faith in our hearts. And therefore he says, "with my mouth," that is, with the mouth of my heart, which is the church. (v. 31) "He who stood at the right hand of the poor man, to save my soul from those who persecute it." Of Judas it had been said, "and let the devil stand at his right hand," who wished to increase his riches by selling Christ. But here the Lord stood at the right hand of the poor man, so that his riches might be the Lord himself. And the soul will be saved from its persecutors if it does not consent to them for evil; and one does not consent to them when the Lord stands at the right hand of the poor man, so that he does not succumb to his very poverty, that is, his weakness.

(v. 1) "The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.’" When our Lord Jesus Christ asked the Jews whose son they said the Christ was, and they answered, "David's," he at once replied to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’? If, then, he calls him Lord in the Spirit, how is he his son?" Under this question the Jews were silent; they did not acknowledge, nor did they want to acknowledge, that he was both Lord and son of David; and they preferred to burst with puffed-up silence rather than earn instruction by humble confession. But we, taught by the gospel of the Truth himself, know Jesus Christ to be both David's Lord, according to the words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made"; and David's son, according to the words, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." We know him as David's Lord because, "being in the form of God, he did not think it robbery to be equal with God." And we know him as David's son because "he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." David himself, seeing this in the Spirit, declared it at the beginning of this psalm, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet." And Christ sits at the right hand of the Father after his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. Hence, by the very fact that Christ was the son of David, he was made David's lord. For what was born of the seed of David was so honoured that, though he was his son, he was also his Lord. According to this dispensation the apostle too says of Christ, "Therefore he exalted him from the dead and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father." The Lord sits at the right hand of the Father, and his enemies are made subject under his feet. For everyone who opposes him will be his subject, either by correction or by condemnation. For it is necessary that everyone, whether adopted or conquered, be under his feet, whether by grace or by punishment. (v. 2) "The Lord will send forth the rod of your power from Zion." Zion is the same as Jerusalem, from which it is foretold that the rod of Christ's power is to be sent forth, that is, the kingdom of his might, a kingdom that begins with the Christians and has no end. For as the Word of the Father, of one Godhead and almightiness, he always reigned with the Father. This kingdom, then, which the mediator between God and men, the man Christ, acquires, begins from Jerusalem, because from there the power and authority of the gospel preaching was sent out into the whole world. "Rule in the midst of your enemies." You, he says, son of David and Lord of David, rule in the midst of the pagans, in the midst of the Jews, in the midst of the heretics, and in the midst of false brothers. We see this happen daily, until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled. For blindness has come in part upon Israel, until the fullness of the gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved, and Christ should rule in the midst of his enemies. (v. 3) "With you is the beginning in the day of your power." When they asked the Lord who he was, he answered, "The beginning, who also speak to you": that is, "I who speak to you am the beginning." But the Father too is the beginning, in which beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Since, then, the Father is the beginning and the Son is the beginning, are there two beginnings? Far from it. For as the Father is God and the Son is God, yet the Father and the Son are not two gods but one God, so the Father is the beginning and the Son is the beginning, yet the Father and the Son are not two beginnings but one beginning. "With you," then, "is the beginning in the day of your power," on the day when it will be seen as it is believed. For although, even in the form of a servant, that very taking up of our weakness is not without divine power, since even your weakness is stronger than men, and with the rod of your power you will rule in the midst of your enemies, yet that day will come on which, when all temporal dispensations have been completed and ended, you will manifest yourself to your saints and appear to them in that glory in which you are equal to the Father, so that they may see: "With you is the beginning in the day of your power." "In the splendours of the saints." The present life of the saints, though it flourishes with grace and shines with good conduct, is not in splendour, because it has not yet been released from corruption. But when Christ, the life of the saints, appears, then they too will appear with him in glory. Then "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father," that is, in eternal life. "From the womb before the morning star I begot you." If this was said of that generation by which God the Son was begotten of God the Father, "from the womb" means from what is secret, from what is hidden, from the Father himself, from the substance of the Father. And "before the morning star" he says, that is, before times. For by the morning star, as the brightest star, the part standing for the whole, all the stars are signified, which were made for this purpose, to be for signs and seasons and days and years. What is before the morning star, then, is before the stars; and what is before the stars is before times, and therefore from eternity. But if this was said in the person of the prophet who says, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand," there is no doubt that the birth is signified by which David's Lord is David's son. For David could say, because of the line by which the virgin Mary descended from his stock, "From the womb I begot you," that is, from the virginal womb, from the womb which no male approached, in which there was only the conception of the mother without the seed of a begetter. And "before the morning star" is fittingly said, because the Lord was born before daybreak, as the testimony of the shepherds shows, who were keeping the night watches over their flock. (v. 4) "The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." If we understand the Saviour as born from the Virgin's womb before the morning star, from that point, without doubt, he is a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. For insofar as the Lord is born of the Father, coeternal and equal with the one who begets him, he is not a priest. "The Lord has sworn," that is, he promised with a decree. "And he will not repent," that is, he will not change his counsel, he will not do otherwise, nor will this sentence ever displease him. "You are a priest for ever," that is, your priesthood does not end; nor will your high priesthood be changed, as the order of Aaron ceased. There will be no end of your priesthood, but it will remain for ever "after the order of Melchizedek," that is, according to the mysteries that were declared through him. (v. 5) "The Lord at your right hand has shattered kings in the day of his wrath." The prophet's word is directed to the Lord himself, who said to the Lord, "Sit at my right hand." He himself, he says, O Lord, to whom you swore, "You are a priest for ever," is the Lord at your right hand, who has shattered kings in the day of his wrath: those of whom it was said, "The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." For whoever of such men as hate the Christian name persists in his ungodliness has indeed already been shattered and could not achieve what he wished; but in the day of wrath, that is, in the repayment of God's just judgment, they will be utterly crushed. (v. 6) "He has judged among the nations; he has filled up the ruins." Those who are lifted up in pride and persist in their elation will be destroyed so as not to be built up. For those do not cease to be destroyed who do not cease to be lifted up. But those who fall through humility and prostrate themselves, so as to be under the feet of him to whom the Lord said, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet," will be restored to wholeness; because the Lord did not condemn these ruins but filled them up. This happens in this time, when Christ is working the restoration of the ruins in all nations. "He has shattered heads on the earth, many of them." In this life Christ bows the shattered heads of many, when he makes the proud humble. (v. 7) "He will drink from the torrent on the way; therefore he will lift up his head." As a torrent gathered from rainwater overflows, roars, runs, and by running runs its course, that is, comes to its end, so is this whole course of human mortality. Men are born, live, and die, and as they die others arise, succeed, come, and depart. From this torrent, then, from this passing roar, from this mortality, the son of David, the Lord of David, drank, deigning for our sake to be born and to die; and he drank from the torrent on the way in such a way that he did not stand in the way of sinners. Therefore he will lift up his head, because he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. "Therefore he exalted him from the dead and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."