despise His law and commandments: so that by hell the Psalmist would mean that blindness of soul which overtakes and enwraps the sinner, that is, the dying.
" As they did not think good," the Apostle says, * [St. Augustin, whatever he may have imagined of the fire that is to purify at the last day (i Cor. iii. 13-15), knew nothing of an intermediate purgatory. Compare A. N. F. vol. viii. pp. 139, 390, for apocryphal opinions and a misleading note. Consult (same series) vol. iii. p. 428, and v. p. 222, notes 1 and 7, with p. 223, note 1. — C] 7 Luke xvi. 8 1 Cor. xv. 56.
i8 [FSALM VI.
" to retain God in " their " knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." ' From this death, and this hell, the soul earnestly prays that she may be kept safe, whilst she strives to turn to God, and feels her difficulties.
7. Wherefore he goes on to say, "I have laboured in my groaning." And as if this availed but litde, he adds, " 1 will wash each night my couch" (ver. 6). That is here called a couch, where the sick and weak soul rests, that is, in bodily gratification and in every worldly pleasure. Which pleasure, whoso endeavours to withdraw himself from it, washes with tears. For he sees that he already condemns carnal lusts; and yet his weakness is held by the pleasure, and willingly lies down therein, from whence none but the soul that is made whole can rise. As for what he says, " each night," he would perhaps have it taken thus: that he who, ready in spirit, perceives some light of truth, and yet, through weakness of the flesh, rests sometime in the pleasure of this world, is compelled to suffer as it were days and nights in an alternation of feeling: as when he says, " With the mind I serve the law of God," he feels as it were day; again when he says, " but with the flesh the law of sin," * he declines into night: until all night passeth away, and that one day comes, of which it is said, " In the morning I will stand by Thee, and will see."3 For then he will stand, but now he lies down, when he is on his couch; which he will wash each night, that with so great abundance of tears he may obtain the most assured remedy from the mercy of God. " I will drench my bed with tears." It is a repetition.4 For when he says, " with tears," he shows with what meaning he said above, "I will wash." For we take " bed " here to be the same as " couch " above. Although, " I will drench," is something more than, " I will wash: " since anything may be washed superficially, but drenching penetrates to the more inward parts; which here signifies weeping to the very bottom of the heart. Now the variety of tenses which he uses; the past, when he said, " I have laboured in my groaning;" and the future, when he said, "I will wash each night my couch; " the future again, "I will drench my bed with tears;" this shows what every man ought to say to himself, when he labours in groaning to no purpose. As if he should say, It hath not profited when I have done this, therefore I will do the other.
8. " Mine eye is disordered by anger " (ver. 7): is it by his own, or God's anger, in which he maketh petition that he might not be reproved, or chastened? But if anger in that • Rom. i. »8.
2 Rom. vii. 35.
* lot. Auguitin was the inventor of what is now called " The Silent Comforter." for the invalid. This Psalm, with the six other Penitential Psalms, he caused to be set up before his dying eyes. See Vita S. A •/. auctort Fouidio, ed. Migne, vol. i. p. 63. — C.J place intimate the day of judgment, how can it be understood now? Is it a beginning of it, that men here suffer pains and torments, and above all the loss of the understanding of the truth; as I have already quoted that which is said, " God gave them over to a reprobate mind "? ' For such is the blindness of the mind. Whosoever is given over thereunto, is shut out from the interior light of God: but not wholly as yet, whilst he is in this life. For there is "outer darkness," 5 which is understood to belong rather to the day of judgment; that he should rather be wholly without God, whosoever whilst there is time refuses correction. Now to be wholly without God, what else is it, but to be in extreme blindness? If indeed God "dwell in inaccessible light," 6 whereinto they enter, to whom it is said, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 7 It is then the beginning of this anger, which in this life every sinner suffers. In fear therefore of the day of judgment, he is in trial and grief; lest he be brought to that, the disastrous commencement of which he experiences now. And therefore he did not say, mine eye is extinguished, but, " mine eye is disordered by anger." But if he mean that his eye is disordered by his own anger, there is no wonder either in this.
For hence perhaps it is said, " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; " 8 because the mind, which, from her own disorder, is not permitted to see God, supposes that the inner sun, that is, the wisdom of God, suffers as it were a setting in her.
9. " I have grown old in all mine enemies." He had only spoken of anger (if it were yet of his own anger that he spoke): but thinking on his other vices, he found that he was entrenched by them all. Which vices, as they belong to the old life and the old man, which we must put off, that we may put on the new man,' it is well said, " I have grown old." But " in all mine enemies," he means, either amidst these vices, or amidst men who will not be converted to God. For these, even if they know them not, even if they bear with them, even if they use the same tables and houses and cities, with no strife arising between them, and in frequent converse together with seeming concord: notwithstanding, by the contrariety of their aims, they are enemies to those who turn unto God. For seeing that the one love and desire this world, the others wish to be freed from this world, who sees not that the first are enemies to the last? For if they can, they draw the others into punishment with them. And it is a great grace, to be conversant daily with their words, and not to depart from the way of God's commandments. For often the mind which is striving to go on to God-ward, * Matt. xxv. 30. 8 Eph. iv. a6.
Psalm VI.]
being rudely handled in the very road, is alarmed; and generally fulfils not its good intent, lest it should offend those with whom it lives, who love and follow after other perishable and transient goods. From such every one that is whole is separated, not in space, but in soul. For the body is contained in space, but the soul's space is her affection.
10. Wherefore after the labour, and groaning, and very frequent showers of tears, since that cannot be ineffectual, which is asked so earnestly of Him, who is the Fountain of all mercies, and it is most truly said, " the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart: " ' after difficulties so great, the pious soul, by which we may also understand the Church, intimating that she has been heard, see what she adds: " Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping" (ver. 8). It is either spoken prophetically, since they will depart, that is, the ungodly will be separated from the righteous, when the day of judgment arrives, or, for this time present. For although both are equally found in the same assemblies, yet on the open floor the wheat is already separated from the chaff, though it be hid among the chaff. They can therefore be associated together, but cannot be carried away by the wind together.
11. " For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping; The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord hath received my prayer" (ver. 9). The frequent repetition of the same sentiments shows not, so to say, the necessities of the narrator, but the warm feeling of his joy. For they that rejoice are wont so to speak, as that it is not enough for them to declare once for all the object of their joy. This is the fruit of that groaning in which there is labour, and those tears with which the couch is washed, and - bed drenched: for, " he that sows in tears, shall reap in joy: " 2 and, " blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."
12. " Let all mine enemies be ashamed and vexed" (ver. 10). He said above, "depart from me all ye: " which can take place, as it has been explained, even in this life: but as to what he says, " let them be ashamed and vexed," I do not see how it can happen, save on that day when the rewards of the righteous and the punishments of the sinners shall be made manifest. For at present so far are the ungodly from being ashamed, that they do not cease to insult us. And for the most part their mockings are of such avail, that they make the weak to be ashamed of the name of Christ. Hence it is said, " Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me before men, of him will I be ashamed before My Father."3 But Ps. xxxiv. 18.
Matt. x. 33; Luke ix. 26.
2 Ps. cxxvi. 5.
now whosoever would fulfil those sublime commands, to disperse, to give to the poor, that his righteousness may endure for ever; 4 and selling all his earthly goods, and spending them on the needy, would follow Christ, saying, " We brought nothing into this world, and truly we can carry nothing out; having food and raiment, let us be therewith content; " 5 incurs the profane raillery of those men, and by those who will not be made whole, is called mad; and often to avoid being so called by desperate men, he fears to do, and puts off that, which the most faithful and powerful of all physicians hath ordered. It is not then at present that these can be ashamed, by whom we have to wish that we be not made ashamed, and so be either called back from our proposed journey, or hindered, or delayed. But the time will come when they shall be ashamed, saying as it is written, " These are they whom we had sometimes in derision, and a parable of reproach: we fools counted their life madness, and their end to be without honour: how are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints? Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of rightousness hath not shined into us, nor the sun risen upon us: we have been filled with the way of wickedness and destruction, and have walked through rugged deserts, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What hath pride profited us, or what hath the vaunting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow." 6 13. But as to what he says, "Let them be turned and confounded," who would not judge it to be a most righteous punishment, that they should have a turning unto confusion, who would not have one unto salvation? After this he added, " exceeding quickly." For when the day of judgment shall have begun to be no longer looked for, when they shall have said, " Peace, then shall sudden destruction come upon them." i Now whensoever it come, that comes very quickly, of whose coming we give up all expectation; and nothing makes the length of this life be felt but the hope of living. For nothing seems more quick, than all that has already passed in it. When then the day of judgment shall come, then will sinners feel how that all the life which passeth away is not long. Nor will that any way possibly seem to them to have come tardily, which shall have come without their desiring, or rather without their believing. Although it can too be taken in this place thus, that inasmuch as God has heard, so to say, her groans, and her long and frequent tears, she may be understood to be freed from her sins, and to have tamed every disordered impulse of carnal affection: J x Tim. vi. 7, 8.
<■ Wisd. v. 3-9.
[Psalm VII.
as she saith, " Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: " and when she has had this happy issue, it is no marvel if she be already so perfect as to pray for her enemies. The words then, " Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and vexed," may have this meaning; that they should repent of their sins, which cannot be effected without confusion and vexation. There is then nothing to hinder us from taking what follows too in this sense, " let them be turned and ashamed," that is, let them be turned to God, and be ashamed that they sometime gloried in the former darkness of their sins; as the Apostle says, " For what glory had ye sometime in those things of which ye are now ashamed? " ■ But as to what he added, " exceeding quickly," it must be referred either to the warm affection of her wish, or to the power of Christ; who converteth to the faith of the Gospel in such quick time the nations, which in their idols' cause did persecute the Church.
PSALM VII.
A PSALM TO DAVID HIMSELF, WHICH HE SUNG TO THE LORD, FOR THE WORDS OF CHUSI, SON OF JEMINI.2 i. Now the story which gave occasion to this prophecy may be easily recognised in the second book of Kings.3 For there Chusi, the friend of king David, went over to the side of Abessalon, his son, who was carrying on war against his father, for the purpose of discovering and reporting the designs which he was taking against his father, at the instigation of Achitophel, who had revolted from David's friendship, and was instructing by his counsel, to the best of his power, the son against the father. But since it is not the story itself which is to be the subject of consideration in this Psalm, from which the prophet hath taken a veil of mysteries, if we have passed over to Christ, let the veil be taken away.4 And first let us inquire into the signification of the very names, what it means. For there have not been wanting interpreters, who investigating these same words, not carnally according to the letter, but spiritually, declare to us that Chusi should be interpreted silence; and Gemini, righthanded; Achitophel, brother's ruin. Among which interpretations, Judas, that traitor, again meets us, that Abessalon should bear his image, according to that interpretation of it as a father's peace; in that his father was full of thoughts of peace toward him: although he in his guile had war in his heart, as was treated of in the third Psalm. Now as we find in the Gospels that the 1 Rom. vi. ai.
disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ are called sons,5 so in the same Gospels we find they are called brethren also. For the Lord on the resurrection saith, " Go and say to My brethren." 6 And the Apostle calls Him " the first begotten among many brethren." The ruin then of that disciple, who betrayed Him, is rightly understood to be a brother's ruin, which we said is the interpretation of Achitophel. Now as to Chusi, from the interpretation of silence, it is rightly understood that our Lord contended against that guile in silence, that is, in that most deep secret, whereby " blindness happened in part to Israel," i when they were persecuting the Lord, that the fulness of the Gentiles might enter in, and " so all Israel might be saved." When the Apostle came to this profound secret and deep silence, he exclaimed, as if struck with a kind of awe of its very depth, " O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the wind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?"8 Thus that great silence he does not so much discover by explanation, as he sets forth its greatness in admiration. In this silence the Lord, hiding the sacrament of His adorable passion, turns the brother's voluntary ruin, that is, His betrayer's impious wickedness, into the order of His mercy and providence: that what he with perverse mind wrought for one Man's destruction, He might by providential overruling dispose for all men's salvation. The perfect soul then, which is already worthy to know the secret of God, sings a Psalm unto the Lord, she sings " for the words of Chusi," because she has attained to know the words of that silence: for among unbelievers and persecutors there is that silence and secret. But among His own, to whom it is said, " Now I call you no more servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you: ' among His friends, I say, there is not the silence, but the words of the silence, that is, the meaning of that silence set forth and manifested.
Which silence, that is, Chusi, is called the son of Gemini, that is, righthanded. For what was done for the Saints was not to be hidden from them. And yet He saith, " Let not the left hand know what the right hand doeth." IO The perfect soul then, to which that secret has been made known, sings in prophecy " for the words of Chusi," that is, for the knowledge of that same secret. Which secret God at her right hand, that is, favourable " and propitious unto her, has 5 Matt. ix. 15. 6 John xx. 17. 7 Rom. xi. 25.
11 It is difficult to preserve in translation the double meaning of dexter as " righthanded " and " favourable." [We find a corresponding ambiguity, however, in " sinister," as an English word. — C] Psalm VII.]
wrought. Wherefore this silence is called the Son of the right hand, which is, " Chusi, the son of Gemini."
2. " O Lord my God, in Thee have I hoped: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me " (ver. i). As one to whom, already perfected, all the war and enmity of vice being overcome, there remaineth no enemy but the envious devil, he says, " Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me (ver. 2): lest at any time he tear my soul as a lion." The Apostle says, "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." ■ Therefore when the Psalmist said in the plural number, " Save me from all them that persecute me: " he afterwards introduced the singular, saying, " lest at any time he tear my soul as a lion." For he does not say, lest at any time they tear: he knew what enemy and violent adversary of the perfect soul remained. " Whilst there be none to redeem, nor to save: " that is, lest he tear me, whilst Thou redeemest not, nor savest. For, if God redeem not, nor save, he tears.2 3. And that it might be clear that the already perfect soul, which is to be on her guard against the most insidious snares of the devil only, says this, see what follows. " O Lord my God, if I have done this " (ver. 3). What is it that he calls "this"? Since he does not mention the sin by name, are we to understand sin generally? If this sense displease us, we may take that to be meant which follows: as if we had asked, what is this that you say, " this "? He answers, " If there be iniquity in my hands." Now then it is clear that it is said of all sin, " If I have repaid them that recompense me evil" (ver. 4). Which none can say with truth, but the perfect.
For so the Lord says, " Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven; who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and raineth on the just and the unjust." 3 He then who repayeth not them that recompense evil, is perfect. When therefore the perfect soul prays " for the words of Chusi, the son of Jemini," that is, for the knowledge of that secret and silence, which the Lord, favourable to us and merciful, wrought for our salvation, so as to endure, and with all patience bear, the guiles of this betrayer: as if He should say to this perfect soul, explaining the design of this secret, For thee ungodly and a sinner, that thine iniquities might be washed away by My blood-shedding, in great silence and great patience I bore with My betrayer; wilt not thou imitate me, that thou too mayest not repay evil for evil? Considering 1 1 Pet. v. 8.
2 [This Psalm is the first of those which our author calls fugitivi. They are seven, as follows: Psalms xxxiv., lii., Hv., lvi., lvii., lix., cxlii. — C] 3 Matt. v. 43, 45.
then, and understanding what the Lord has done for him, and by His example going on to perfection, the Psalmist says, " If I have repaid them that recompense me evil: " that is, if I have not done what Thou hast taught me by Thy example: " may I therefore fall by mine enemies empty." And he says well, not, If I have repaid them that do me evil; but, who " recompense." For who so recompenseth, had received somewhat already. Now it is an instance of greater patience, not even to repay him evil, who after receiving benefits returns evil for good, than if without receiving any previous benefit he had had a mind to injure. If therefore he says, " I have repaid them that recompense me evil: " that is, If I have not imitated Thee in that silence, that is, in Thy patience, which Thou hast wrought for me, " may I fall by mine enemies empty." For he is an empty boaster, who, being himself a man, desires to avenge himself on a man; and whilst he openly seeks to overcome a man, is secretly himself overcome by the devil, rendered empty by vain and proud joy, because he could not, as it were, be conquered. The Psalmist knows then where a greater victory may be obtained, and where " the Father which seeth in secret will reward." * Lest then he repay them that recompense evil, he overcomes his anger rather than another man, being instructed too by those writings, wherein it is written, " Better is he that overcometh his anger, than he that taketh a city." 5 " If I have repaid them that recompense me evil, may I therefore fall by my enemies empty." He seems to swear by way of execration, which is the heaviest kind of oath, as when one says, If I have done so and so, may I suffer so and so. But swearing in a swearer's mouth is one thing, in a prophet's meaning another. For here he mentions what will really befall men who repay them that recompense evil; not what, as by an oath, he would imprecate on himself or any other.
4. " Let the enemy " therefore " persecute my soul and take it" (ver. 5). By again naming the enemy in the singular number, he more and more clearly points out him whom he spoke of above as a lion. For he persecutes the soul, and if he has deceived it, will take it. For the limit of men's rage is the destruction of the body; but the soul, after this visible death, they cannot keep in their power: whereas whatever souls the devil shall have taken by his persecutions, he will keep. " And let him tread my life upon the earth: " that is, by treading let him make my life earth, that is to say, his food. For he is not only called a lion, but a serpent too, to whom it was said, " Earth shalt thou eat." 6 And to the sinner was * Malt. vi. 6.
5 Prov. xvi. 32.
6 Gen. lii. 14.
[Psalm VII.
it said, " Earth thou art, and into earth shalt thou go." ' " And let him bring down my glory to the dust." This is that dust which " the wind casteth forth from the face of the earth," * to wit, vain and silly boasting of the proud, puffed up, not of solid weight, as a cloud of dust carried away by the wind. Justly then has he here spoken of the glory, which he would not have brought down to dust. For he would have it solidly established in conscience before God, where there is no boasting. " He that glorieth," saith the Apostle, " let him glory in the Lord." 3 This solidity is brought down to the dust, if one through pride despising the secrecy of conscience, where God only proves a man, desires to glory before men. Hence comes what the Psalmist elsewhere says, " God shall bruise the bones of them that please men."4 Now he that has well learnt or experienced the steps in overcoming vices, knows that this vice of empty glory is either alone, or more than all, to be shunned by the perfect. For that by which the soul first fell, she overcomes the last. " For the beginning of all sin is pride: " and again, " The beginning of man's pride is to depart from God." s