Exposition of Psalms 100-150 114.1–118.9

(v. 1) "I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer." Let the soul sing this that is on pilgrimage away from the Lord; let that sheep sing it which had gone astray; let that son sing it who had been dead and has come to life again, was lost and is found. For what is "I have loved, because the Lord will hear," but "I have loved, because I have been placed in this hope, that I believe I shall be heard"? For I do not hope for this in vain. (v. 2) "Because he has inclined his ear to me." Therefore he will hear, because he has inclined his ear to me. Now if we ask from what the soul believed that the Lord had inclined his ear to it, will it not answer, "Because he first loved us, and did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all"? When this was announced to me, how should I not believe that the Lord had inclined his ear to me, anticipating me with such mercy, knocking with such a call? "And in my days I have called upon him": in the days, namely, of my misery, in the days of mortality and transgression, in which I deserted God and deserved prison, that is, the darkness of ignorance, and received the fetters of difficulty. In these days, then, (vv. 3–4) "the pains of death surrounded me; the dangers of hell found me." These would not have found me had I not strayed from you. But I did not find them, that is, I did not notice them. For I loved my deceptions, and rejoicing in the false prosperity of the world I was sinking into the real dangers of hell. But when your grace shone on me, "I found" both the causes of my tribulation and my pain, "and I called upon the name of the Lord." (v. 5) "O Lord, deliver my soul": as if he said, "Both amid the adversities and amid the prosperities of this world I have learned that I am wretched: for the former oppress, the latter deceive. Who, then, will deliver me from the body of this death, but the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord?" "The Lord is merciful and just, and our God will have mercy." Merciful first, because he inclined his ear to me; just, because he makes me recognize why I was being crushed; and merciful again, for this purpose, that he may be called upon and have mercy. (v. 6) "The Lord guards the little ones; I was humbled, and he delivered me." He guards the little ones whom he wishes to be perfect; and those who have fallen into slavery through pride he makes free through humility. (v. 7) "Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done good to you." Return, he says, my soul, because you have the power of returning from him who has done good to you. (v. 8) "For he has rescued my soul from death." A soul has been rescued from death, even while still surrounded by mortal flesh, which from unbelieving has been made believing; and besides that perfect, eternal rest from all labours which is attained when "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," the soul that has been rescued from the death of unbelief has its rest even in this life, and it abstains not from the works of righteousness but from the doing of iniquity. Such a soul, which already lives to the Lord and has died to the world, which, watchfully intent on spiritual effort, rests in the tranquillity, not idle but quiet, of humility and gentleness, holds as already obtained whatever it waits for patiently with undoubting hope. And therefore he adds and says, "my eyes from tears, my feet from falling." These goods belong not to the temporal life but to the eternal; nor can those surrounded by mortal flesh obtain them, so as not to weep, not to groan, and to be struck by no temptation. So the hope of the saints, who, insofar as they are led by the Spirit of God, are no longer in the flesh, rightly rejoices and gives thanks over these things, which have been promised to it by the Truth. Finally, to show that it does not yet have these things but hopes for them, (v. 9) "I will please the Lord," he says, "in the land of the living." He does not, then, please the Lord fully who is still in the land of the mortal; nor can such a one be in the life that sets as he will be in the eternal.

(v. 10) "I believed, therefore I have spoken." Those who do not speak the truth they believe are as reprobate as those who do not believe the truth they speak. Perfect is the faith of this man, who says not only that he believed but that he spoke on that account, because he believed. "But I was greatly humbled." Why did he add "But I," when he could have said, "I spoke and I was humbled"? Unless because a man preaching the truth can be humbled by those who contradict the truth, but not the truth itself, which he who believes speaks out: "I believed, therefore I have spoken." (v. 11) "But I said in my ecstasy, Every man is a liar." Ecstasy is here understood as terror, since it is the voice of the martyrs, trembling as torture or death is at hand, and recognizing that it is not in their own strength to overcome what is inflicted; and that human weakness is therefore found a liar, which, presuming on its own strength, cannot help failing; since the strength of endurance is from God, who gives constancy to the one who does not fear and restores confidence to the one who fears. For he is truthful who says, "But when they hand you over, do not think how or what you will speak; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." But it is also called ecstasy when the mind is carried out of itself not by terror but by some inspiration of revelation. (v. 12) "What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me?" By saying this he professes that something other than he deserved was rendered to him by the Lord, that is, that he received good things for evil ones; and he asks what he himself is to render for the good things, and finds nothing except what the Lord himself has given, and says, (v. 13) "I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord." Who gives this cup but he who says, "Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?" And, giving an example of suffering, he conferred the gift, redeeming the very weakness of his own with his blood, and giving the reward of their imitation, so that … (v. 15) "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." For he bought it with his own blood, which the Lord shed for his servants, so that the servants too might not be afraid to shed theirs for their Lord; though both the Lord's death and the servants' would profit the servants, not the Lord. (v. 16) "O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant and the son of your handmaid." As if he said: Many call themselves martyrs, many profess to be your servants, because they bear your name in vices, heresies, and errors. But since they are outside your church, they are not sons of your handmaid; but I am both your servant and the son of your handmaid. "You have broken my bonds; to you I will offer the sacrifice of praise." You, he says, made me your servant, you made me the son of your handmaid, you who broke the bonds of my captivity; and therefore I owe you the sacrifice of praise, because by your grace I am what I am, and in you I must glory over my glory. (v. 18) "I will pay my vows to the Lord." Whoever thinks well about what he should vow to the Lord and what vows he should pay, let him vow himself, let him pay himself. This is required, this is owed. Let Caesar's image be rendered to Caesar, God's image to God. But as one must see what one offers, so one must also consider where one offers. (v. 19) "In the courts," he says, "of the house of the Lord." And what is the house of the Lord but his people? Therefore there follows, "in the sight of all his people." And what is his people but what he adds, "in the midst of you, O Jerusalem"? And Jerusalem is interpreted "vision of peace." What is offered, then, is pleasing if it is paid from peace and in peace. But those who are not sons of this handmaid have loved war rather than peace.

(v. 1) "Praise the Lord, all you nations; praise him, all you peoples." At the end of the preceding psalm, lest the Jews should glory in Jerusalem and Israel according to the flesh too should claim this dignity for itself, it is shown at the beginning of this psalm who are the Israelites and in whom Jerusalem is: namely, all the nations and all the peoples who by imitation of faith have been made sons of Abraham and the spiritual seed of Israel. (v. 2) "For his mercy has been confirmed upon us, and the truth of the Lord remains for ever." The mercy of the Lord has been confirmed upon us when the ravings of hostile nations gave way to his name, by which we have been freed, and those who blasphemed him by denying him praised him by believing. And the truth of the Lord remains for ever, whether in what he has promised to the righteous or in what he has threatened to the ungodly.

(v. 1) "Confess to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is for ever." But here the confession is not that of penitents but of those who praise the Lord, to whom it has been granted by grace to be rescued from darkness and the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God: for this reason alone, because God is good, and has mercy with a mercy that remains for ever. (vv. 2–4) "Let the house of Israel now say, For he is good, for his mercy is for ever. Let the house of Aaron now say, For he is good, for his mercy is for ever." The house of Israel and the house of Aaron are themselves all who fear the Lord, the small, that is, and the great. From them, whether Jews or gentiles, one people has been made, running together into one flock to one shepherd, Jesus Christ; and this fellowship has been made in the grace of him who is good, whose mercy is eternal and has made them eternal. (v. 5) "In tribulation I called upon the Lord, and he heard me in a broad place." He who is in tribulation is in a strait place; but he who is heard is taken up into the infinity of breadth. (v. 6) "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man may do to me." The apostle says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, that is, the wicked man, but against the principalities and rulers of darkness. And what darkness but men subject to the devil? So he does not fear what man may do to him who by God's help overcomes the one who incites that man. (v. 7) "The Lord is my helper, and I will look down on my enemies." Whether they are of wicked men or of wicked angels, he will look down on his enemies whose helper is the Lord. (v. 8) "It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man." Even if a good man or a good angel helps me, he says, I will not trust in them, but in the Lord, who helps me through them. (v. 9) "It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to hope in princes." Princes can be understood both as men and as angels; but hope is to be placed in none of them, for "there is no authority except from God." (vv. 10–12) "All nations surrounded me, and in the name of the Lord I took vengeance on them. Surrounding me they surrounded me, and in the name of the Lord I took vengeance on them. They surrounded me like bees, and they blazed like fire among thorns; and in the name of the Lord, for I took vengeance on them." We understand the Lord himself, the head of the church, surrounded by persecutors as bees surround a honeycomb. But it was mystically signified that the swarming pertained to the persecutors and the honeycomb to the believers. For the ungodly, not knowing what they were doing, made him sweeter by torturing him, so that we may taste and see how sweet the Lord is. And that "they blazed like fire among thorns" is better referred to the whole body of Christ, that is, his people. "All nations surrounded me," because it has been gathered from all nations, and everywhere the fires of persecution blazed against it. But he took vengeance on the persecutors, because, their malice extinguished, they became Christians; or else because all who have been stubbornly unbelieving will feel as judge him whom they spurned when he called. (v. 13) "Pushed, I was overturned so as to fall, and the Lord upheld me." Like a heap of sand I was turned over so as to fall, and the Lord upheld me. The persecution of the nations found nowhere to push the multitude of the faithful gathered into the unity of the faith; and though it turned it over much by harassing it, it could not uproot it and cast it away, because all together believed in him, and he upheld both each and all everywhere. (v. 14) "The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he has become my salvation." Those who wish their strength and their praise to be their own fall. But those whose strength and praise is the Lord no more fall than the Lord falls. And so he has become their salvation, not because he began to be something he was not, but because, having turned to him, they began to have in him the salvation which, turned away, they had not had. (v. 15) "The voice of exultation and salvation is in the tents of the righteous." The cruelty of the persecutors could not deprive the hope of the saints of its inner joys; nor could the ungodly take away their gladness, [nor] overcome their patience. Hence the apostle too says, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." (v. 16) "The right hand of the Lord has done mightily; the right hand of the Lord has exalted me; the right hand of the Lord has done mightily." It is a great act of power to exalt the humble, to make the mortal divine, to bring perfection out of weakness, glory out of subjection, victory out of suffering. But since man did not exalt himself, man did not perfect himself, man did not give himself glory, man did not conquer, nor was he his own salvation, he repeats the praise of God with most devout confession: "The right hand of the Lord has done mightily." (v. 17) "I shall not die but live, and I shall tell the works of the Lord." It is the voice of the church glorying not in itself but in the Lord. The persecutors thought that God's people would be wiped out; but the church grew, and everywhere Christ is the glory of the martyrs, in whose sufferings the works of the Lord are proclaimed. (v. 18) "The Lord has chastened me sorely, and has not given me over to death." Let the raging of the ungodly not think, then, that it could do anything by its own strength: they would not have this power unless it were given from above. Often the father of a household orders his sons to be corrected by the worst servants, while preparing the inheritance for the former and fetters for the latter. What is this inheritance? Is it of gold and silver, or of jewels, or of estates, or of pleasant farms? See by what gate it is entered, and know what it is. (v. 19) "Open to me the gates of righteousness, and having entered them I will confess to the Lord." Within the gates of righteousness is the voice of confession and exultation. For "those who dwell in the house of the Lord will praise him for ever and ever." (v. 20) "This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will enter through it." This is the gate of that Jerusalem which no uncircumcised and no unrighteous man enters, where it is said, "Outside are the dogs." (v. 21) "I will confess to you, O Lord, for you have heard me and have become my salvation." This confession is of praise: it does not show wounds to the physician, but gives thanks for health received to him who is himself salvation. (v. 22) "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner": so as to create in himself the two into one new man, making peace, and to reconcile both to God in one body, the circumcision, namely, and the uncircumcision. (v. 23) "This was done by the Lord." For although he would not have been the cornerstone unless he had suffered, yet this was not done by those by whom he suffered: for those who were building rejected him, but in what the Lord was secretly building he made the one they rejected the head of the corner. "And it is wonderful in our eyes": in the inner eyes of man, in the eyes of those who believe, hope, and love. (v. 24) "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it": the day on which he gave me salvation, the day on which that Mediator between God and men was made the head of the corner. (v. 25) "O Lord, save me; O Lord, prosper well." Save me, because it is the day of salvation; prosper the journey for those returning from pilgrimage, because you have become our way. (v. 26) "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Cursed is he who comes in his own name, whom those will receive who did not receive the Son of God. "We have blessed you from the house of the Lord." This is the voice of the great to the little: of those great ones, namely, who in their mind touch the Word of God, God, as far as they can in this life, and yet temper their speech for the sake of the little ones. (v. 27) "The Lord is God, and he has shone upon us." That Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has shone upon us; who, being also God, equal to the Father, has made to be understood what he made to be believed. "Appoint a festal day with thronging, up to the horn of the altar." That is, up to the inner house of God, from which we have blessed you; where the heights of the altar are, where the spiritual sacrifice of perpetual praise is, where the eternal priest is and the everlasting altar, to which one must run not lukewarmly nor sluggishly but in thronging, so that of the Son, God, who for our sake became flesh, we may think no longer lowly according to the flesh, in which he deigned to be conformed to us, but loftily according to the Godhead, which is equal to the Father. (v. 28) "You are my God, and I will confess to you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. I will confess to you, O Lord, for you have heard me and have become my salvation." These things will not be said with the noise of words in that house which he urges us to enter; but love clinging to God will itself be the voice of eternal praise. (v. 29) "Confess to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy is for ever." He closes the psalm with the same words with which he began, because from beginning to end the confession of God's praises ought to persevere in us.

(v. 1) "Blessed are the spotless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." They cannot be blessed unless they are spotless. And they are not spotless unless they walk in the way; and the way is nothing but the law of the Lord. Let him who seeks blessedness, then, be spotless in the way, and walk in the law of the Lord, which is the way of the blessed; that is, let him not be idle. (v. 2) "Blessed are those who search out his testimonies; with their whole heart they seek him." Those without doubt walk in the way of the Lord who search out his testimonies. But since many wish to have knowledge without works, he rightly added, "with their whole heart they seek him." For God is rightly sought when he is sought not for the sake of other things but himself through all things. But the blessedness of those who seek the Lord cannot be perfect amid the labours of this life. Yet those are already called blessed who will without doubt be so, because they walk spotless in the way, and, searching out the testimonies of the law of the Lord, seek him with their whole heart. They are blessed, then, in hope, because blessedness has been promised to such. (v. 3) "For those who work iniquity have not walked in his ways." Here it is asked: since iniquity is sin, and those who walk in the ways of the Lord do not work sin, how did those saints walk in the ways of the Lord who say, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"? So they both had sin and walked in the ways of the Lord, according to Paul, who says, "If I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who work it, but the sin that dwells in me." So those who walk in the ways of the Lord do not work sin, and yet they are not without sin, because it is no longer they who work it, but the sin that dwells in them. And they themselves do not work it when they do not lend the consent of their will to unlawful desires. Yet since all the saints living in the flesh truly say, "Forgive us our debts," how is it understood that they walk spotless in the way of the Lord, who must ask forgiveness of sins in daily prayer? Unless because it is true that those walking in the way of the Lord consent to no crimes, and yet are tickled by certain creeping suggestions of carnal thoughts, and for this reason daily forgiveness is necessary for them, so that they may be made spotless; for this very thing also belongs to the way of the Lord, from which he does not depart who always asks to be made spotless. (v. 4) "You have commanded your commandments to be kept exceedingly." "Exceedingly," whether you refer it to the one commanding or to the one keeping, is not to be taken as meaning more than is fitting, but as "very much." For the divine precepts are very much commanded and are to be very much kept. (v. 5) "Would that my ways may be directed to keep your ordinances." You have given, he says, a commandment, and you have ordered it to be kept; but would that you also give help, so that I may be able to do, with your help, what I have learned is to be done, with your teaching. (v. 6) "Then I shall not be put to shame, when I look into all your commandments." When, he says, my ways have been directed by your grace, then I shall not be put to shame by looking into your commandments, since I shall be not a useless hearer but an effective doer. (v. 7) "I will confess to you, O Lord, in uprightness of heart, in that I have learned the judgments of your righteousness." If my road and my course have been directed, I will both proclaim you, Lord, and praise you, and confess that this is your work. (v. 8) "I will keep your ordinances": that is, I will do what you command, if you help me. "Do not utterly forsake me." This is not to be taken as though he wished to be forsaken in some respect; but he asks that he may not be wholly deserted, and rather that divine help may never and nowhere withdraw from him.

(v. 9) "By what does a younger man correct his way? By keeping your words." The question is by what a younger man corrects his way; and the answer is that his correction is this, that he keep the words of God. But it is asked who this younger man is whose correction this is, since many old men too turn to the Lord by an observance of the commandments however late. This younger man, then, is well understood as the new people, renewed by the grace of Christ, which is corrected from the way of old error by keeping the word of faith. (v. 10) "With my whole heart I have sought you; do not drive me away from your commandments." You have brought it about, he says, that I sought you with my whole heart; bring it about that I remain in your commandments. That these may be possible for me, help me, and do not drive me away from them, that is, do not withdraw your help from me. (vv. 11–12) "In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I may not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your ordinances." Why does he still seek to learn the sayings of the Lord, which he has already hidden in his heart? He would certainly not have done this unless he had learned them. Why does he add and say, "teach me your ordinances"? Because he wishes to learn them by doing them and to grasp them with the knowledge of practice, not only to retain them with ease of speech and the recollection of memory. (v. 13) "With my lips I have declared all the judgments of your mouth." I have kept silent about none of your judgments, he says, but have declared absolutely all of them with my lips: those, namely, which you have told me with your mouth, that is, by the preaching of your sayings. (v. 14) "In the way of your testimonies I have delighted, as in all riches." The way of God's testimonies is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In this way, then, he delights as in all riches, who sees that through him many testimonies of divine love toward us have been fulfilled, and does not doubt that what is awaited will be fulfilled. (v. 15) "In your commandments I will exercise myself, and I will consider your ways." "All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth": their fullness is found in Christ, in whom the whole church is exercised in abundant disputations against the enemies of the Christian faith. (v. 16) "In your ordinances I will meditate; I will not forget your words." I will meditate precisely so that I may not forget your words; I will meditate so as not to forget. For the meditation of not forgetting is perseverance in doing; and for this reason he asked for the help of grace, saying, "Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your ordinances," so that what he knew by word he might also fulfil in deed.