5. "Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger" (ver. 6). Why yet does he, who we say is perfect, incite God to anger? Must we not see, whether he rather be not perfect, who, when he was being stoned, said, " O Lord, lay not this sin to their charge "?6 Or does the Psalmist pray thus not against men, but against the devil and his angels, whose possession sinners and the ungodly are? He then does not pray against him in wrath, but in mercy, whosoever prays that that possession may be taken from him by that Lord "who justifieth the ungodly." 1 For when the ungodly is justified, from ungodly he is made just, and from being the possession of the devil he passes into the temple of God. And since it is a punishment that a possession, in which one longs to have rule, should be taken away from him: this punishment, that he should cease to possess those whom he now possesses, the Psalmist calls the anger of God against the devil. "Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger." " Arise " (he has used it as "appear"), in words, that is, human and obscure; as though God sleeps, when He is unrecognised and hidden in His secret workings. " Be exalted in the borders of mine enemies." He means by borders the possession itself, in which he wishes that God should be exalted, that is, be honoured and glorified, rather than the devil, while the ungodly are justified and praise God. " And arise, O Lord my God, in the commandment that Thou hast given: " that is, since Thou hast enjoined humility, appear in humility; 1 Gen. iii. 10. * Pi. liii. J. » Rom. ir. 5.
« Pi. i. 4.
and first fulfil what Thou hast enjoined; that men by Thy example overcoming pride may not be possessed of the devil, who against Thy commandments advised to pride, saying, " Eat, and your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods." 8 6. " And the congregation of the people shall surround Thee." This may be understood two ways. For the congregation of the people can be taken, either of them that believe, or of them that persecute, both of which took place in the same humiliation of our Lord: in contempt of which the multitude of them that persecute surrounded Him; concerning which it is said, " Why have the heathen raged, and the people meditated vain things?"' But of them that believe through His humiliation the multitude so surrounded Him, that it could be said with the greatest truth, "blindness in- part is happened unto Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might come in: " 10 and again, " Ask of me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thine inheritance, and the boundaries of the earth for Thy possession." " "And for their sakes return Thou on high: " that is, for the sake of this congregation return Thou on high: which He is understood to have done by His resurrection and ascension into heaven. For being thus glorified He gave the Holy Ghost, which before His exaltation could not be given, as it is written in the Gospel, " for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." " Having then returned on high for the sake of the congregation of the people, He sent the Holy Ghost: by whom the preachers of the Gospel being filled, filled the whole world with Churches.
7. It can be taken also in this sense: " Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger, and be exalted in the borders of mine enemies: " that is, arise in Thine anger, and let not mine enemies understand Thee; so that to " be exalted," should be this, become high, '3 that Thou tnayest not be understood; which has reference to the silence spoken of above. For it is of this exaltation thus said in another Psalm, " And He ascended upon Cherubim, and flew: " and, " He made darkness His secret place." '* In which exaltation, or concealment, when for their sins' desert they shall not understand Thee, who shall crucify Thee, " the congregation " of believers " shall surround Thee." For in His very humiliation He was exalted, that is, was not understood. So that, " And arise, O Lord my God, in the commandment that Thou hast given: " may have reference to this, that is, when Thou showest Thyself, be high or deep that mine enemies may not un- * Gen. iii. 5. 9 Ps. ii. I, 13 Alius. Ita twofold meaning of " capable of being preserved in translation.
10 Rom. xi. 25. high" and "deep" is not Psalm VII] derstand Thee. Now sinners are the enemies of the just man, and the ungodly of the godly man. " And the congregation of the people shall surround Thee: " that is, by this very circumstance, that those who crucify Thee understand Thee not, the Gentiles shall believe on Thee, and so " shall the congregation of the people surround Thee." But what follows, if this be the true meaning, has in it more pain, that it begins already to be perceived, than joy that it is understood. For it follows, " and for their sakes return Thou on high," that is, and for the sake of this congregation of the human race, wherewith the Churches are crowded, return Thou on high, that is, again cease to be understood. What then is, " and for their sakes," but that this congregation too will offend Thee, so that Thou mayest most truly foretell and say, " Thinkest Thou when the Son of man shall come, He will find faith on the earth? " ■ Again, of the false prophets, who are understood to be heretics, He says, " Because of their iniquity the love of many shall wax cold." 2 Since then even in the Churches, that is, in that congregation of peoples and nations, where the Christian name has most widely spread, there shall be so great abundance of sinners, which is already, in great measure, perceived; is not that famine of the word 3 here predicted, which has been threatened by another prophet also? Is it not too for this congregation's sake, who, by their sins, are estranging from themselves the light of truth, that God returns on high, that is, so that faith, pure and cleansed from the corruption of all perverse opinions, is held and received, either not at all, or by the very few of whom it was said, " Blessed is he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved"?4 Not without cause then is it said, " and for the sake of this " congregation " return Thou on high: " that is, again withdraw into the depth of Thy secrecy, even for the sake of this congregation of the peoples, that hath Thy name, and doeth not Thy deeds.
8. But whether the former exposition of this place, or this last be the more suitable, without prejudice to anyone better, or equal, or as good, it follows very consistently, " the Lord judgeth the people." For whether He returned on high, when, after the resurrection, He ascended into heaven, well does it follow, "The Lord judgeth the people: " for that He will come from thence to judge the quick and the dead. Or whether He return on high, when the understanding of the truth leaves sinful Christians, for that of His coming it has been said, " Thinkest thou the Son of Man on His coming will find faith on the earth? " « " The Lord " then "judgeth the 1 Lulte xviii. 8. * Mark xiii. 13.
3 Matt. xxiv. 13.
5 Amos viii. iz.
people." What Lord, but Jesus Christ? " For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."* Wherefore this soul which prayeth perfectly, see how she fears not the day of judgment, and with a truly secure longing says in her prayer, "Thy kingdom come: judge me," she says, " O Lord, according to my righteousness." In the former Psalm a weak one was entreating, imploring rather the mercy of God, than mentioning any desert of his own: since the Son of God came " to call sinners to repentance." 6 Therefore he had there said, " Save me, O Lord, for Thy mercy's sake; "? that is, not for my desert's sake. But now, since being called he hath held and kept the commandments which he received, he is bold to say, " Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my harmlessness, that is upon me." This is true harmlessness, which harms not even an enemy. Accordingly, well does he require to be judged according to his harmlessness, who could say with truth, " If I have repaid them that recompense me evil." As for what he added, " that is upon me," it can refer not only to harmlessness, but can be understood also with reference to righteousness; that the sense should be this, Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my harmlessness, which righteousness and harmlessness is upon me. By which addition he shows that this very thing, that the soul is righteous and harmless, she has not by herself, but by God who giveth brightness and light. For of this he says in another Psalm, " Thou, O Lord, wilt light my candle." 8 And of John it is said, that " he was not the light, but bore witness of the light." 9 " He was a burning and shining candle." '° That light then, whence souls, as candles, are kindled, shines forth not with borrowed, but with original, brightness, which light is truth itself. It is then so said, "According to my righteousness, and according to my harmlessness, that is upon me," as if a burning and shining candle should say, Judge me according to the flame which is upon me, that is, not that wherewith " I am myself, but that whereby I shine enkindled of thee.
9. " But let the wickedness of sinners be consummated" (ver. 9). He says, "be consummated," be completed, according to that in the Apocalypse, " Let the righteous become more righteous, and let the filthy be filthy still." '2 For the wickedness of those men appears consummate, who crucified the Son of God; but greater is theirs who will not live uprightly, and hate the precepts of truth, for whom the Son of God was crucified. " Let the wickedness of s John v. 22. 8 Ps. xviii. 28. " Al. that which.
1 Ps. vi. 4.
10 John v. 35.
[Psalm VII.
sinners," then he says, " be consummated," that is, arrive at the height of wickedness, that just judgment may be able to come at once. But since it is not only said, " Let the filthy be filthy still; " but it is said also, " Let the righteous become more righteous; " he joins on the words, " And Thou shalt direct the righteous, O God, who searcheth the hearts and reins." How then can the righteous be directed but in secret? when even by means of those things which, in the commencement of the Christian ages, when as yet the saints were oppressed by the persecution of the men of this world, appeared marvellous to men, now that the Christian name has begun to be in such high dignity, hypocrisy, that is pretence, has increased; of those, I mean, who by the Christian profession had rather please men than God. How then is the righteous man directed in so great confusion of pretence, save whilst God searcheth the hearts and reins; seeing all men's thoughts, which are meant by the word heart; and their delights, which are understood by the word reins? For the delight ir things temporal and earthly is rightly ascribed to the reins; for that it is both the lower part of man, and that region where the pleasure of carnal generation dwells, through which man's nature is transferred into this life of care, and deceiving joy, by the succession of the race. God then, searching our heart, and perceiving that it is there where our treasure is, that is, in heaven; searching also the reins, and perceiving that we do not assent to flesh and blood, but delight ourselves in the Lord, directs the righteous man in his inward conscience before Him, where no man seeth, but He alone who perceiveth what each man thinketh, and what delighteth each. For delight is the end of care; because to this end does each man strive by care and thought, that he may attain to his delight. He therefore seeth our cares, who searcheth the heart. He seeth too the ends of cares, that is delights, who narrowly searcheth the reins; that when He shall find that our cares incline neither to the lust of the flesh, nor to the lust of the eyes, nor to the pride of life,' all which pass away as a shadow, but that they are raised upward to the joys of things eternal, which are spoilt by no change, He may direct the righteous, even He, the God who searcheth the hearts and reins. For our works, which we do in deeds and words, may be known unto men; but with what mind they are done, and to what end we would attain by means of them, He alone knoweth, the God who searcheth the hearts and reins.
10. " My righteous help is from the Lord, whomaketh whole the upright in heart "(ver. 10). The offices of medicine are twofold, one the curing 1 l John ii. io.
infirmity, the other the preserving health. According to the first it was said in the preceding Psalm, " Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; " 2 according to the second it is said in this Psalm, " If there be iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid them that recompense me evil, may I therefore 3 fall by my enemies empty." For there the weak prays that he may be delivered, here one already whole that he may not change for the worse. According to the one it is there said, " Make me whole for Thy mercy's sake; " according to this other it is here said, " Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness." For there he asks for a remedy to escape from disease; but here for protection from falling into disease. According to the former it is said, '• Make me whole, O Lord, according to Thy mercy: " according to the latter it is said, " My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart." Both the one and the other maketh men whole; but the former re-•noves them from sickness into health, the latter preserves them in this health. Therefore there the help is merciful, because the sinner hath no desert, who as yet longeth to be justified, " believing on Him who justifieth the ungodly; " * but here the help is righteous, because it is given to one already righteous. Let the sinner then who said, " I am weak," say in the first place, " Make me whole, O Lord, for Thy mercy's sake; " and here let the righteous man, who said, " If I have repaid them that recompense me evil," say, " My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart." For if he sets forth the medicine, by which we may be healed when weak, how much more that by which we may be kept in health. For if " while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, how much more being now justified shall we be kept whole from wrath through Him." s ii. "My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart.'" God, who searcheth the hearts and reins, directeth the righteous; but with righteous help maketh He whole the upright in heart. He doth not as He searcheth the hearts and reins, so make whole the upright in heart and reins; for the thoughts are both bad in a depraved heart, and good in an upright heart; but delights which are not good belong to the reins, for they are more low and earthly; but those that are good not to the reins, but to the heart itself. Wherefore men cannot be so called upright in reins, as they are called upright in heart, since where the thought is, there at once the delight is too; which cannot be, unless when things divine and eternal are thought of. " Thou hast given," he says, " joy in my heart," when he had said, " The light of Thy countenance 8,9- 3 At. deservedly.
* Rom. iv. 5.
TSALM VII.]
has been stamped on us, O Lord." ■ For although the phantoms of things temporal, which the mind falsely pictures to itself, when tossed by vain and mortal hope, to vain imaginations oftentimes bring a delirious and maddened joy; yet this delight must be attributed not to the heart, but to the reins; for all these imaginations have been drawn from lower, that is, earthly and carnal things. Hence it comes, that God, who searcheth the hearts and reins, and perceiveth in the heart upright thoughts, in the reins no delights, affordeth righteous help to the upright in heart, where 3heavenly delights are coupled with clean thoughts. And therefore when in another Psalm he had said, " Moreover even to-night my reins have chided me; " he went on to say as touching help, " I foresaw the Lord alway in my sight, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved." 3 Where he shows that he suffered suggestions only from the reins, not delights as well; for he had suffered these, then he would of course be moved. But he said, " The Lord is on my right hand, that I should not be moved; " and then he adds, " Wherefore was my heart delighted; " that the reins should have been able to chide, not delight him. The delight accordingly was produced not in the reins, but there, where against the chiding of the reins God was foreseen to be on the right hand, that is, in the heart.
12." God the righteous judge, strong 4 (in endurance) and long-suffering " (ver. n). What God is judge, but the Lord, who judgeth the people? He is righteous; who " shall render to every man according to his works." s He is strong (in endurance); who, being most powerful, for our salvation bore even with ungodly persecutors. He is long-suffering; who did not immediately, after His resurrection, hurry away to punishment, even those that persecuted Him, but bore with them, that they might at length turn from that ungodliness to salvation: and still He beareth with them, reserving the last penalty for the last judgment, and up to this present time inviting sinners to repentance. " Not bringing in anger every day." Perhaps " bringing in anger " is a more significant expression than being angry (and so we find it in the Greek6 copies); that the anger, whereby He punisheth, should not be in Him, but in the minds of those ministers who obey the commandments of truth through whom orders are given even to the lower ministries, who are called angels of wrath, to punish sin: whom even now the punishment of men delights not for justice' sake, in which they have no pleasure, but for malice' sake. God then doth not " bring in anger every day," that is, He doth not collect His ministers for vengeance every * Fortis. 5 Matt. xvi. 27.
b IJ.fi ipyTjV indytov, LXX.
3 Ps. J day. For now the patience of God inviteth to repentance: but in the last time, when men " through their hardness and impenitent heart shall have treasured up for themselves anger in the day of anger, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, » then He will brandish His sword."
13. " Unless ye be converted," He says, " He will brandish His sword" (ver. 12). The Lord Man Himself may be taken to be God's doubleedged sword, that is, His spear, which at His first coming He will not brandish, but hideth as it were in the sheath of humiliation: but He will brandish it, when at the second coming to judge the quick and dead, in the manifest splendour of His glory, He shall flash light on His righteous ones, and terror on the ungodly. For in other copies, instead of, " He shall brandish His sword," it has been written, " He shall make bright His spear: " by which word I think the last coming of the Lord's glory most appropriately signified: seeing that is understood of His person, which another Psalm has, " Deliver, O Lord, my soul from the ungodly, 8 Thy spear from the enemies of Thine hand. He hath bent His bow, and made it ready." The tenses of the words must not be altogether overlooked, how he has spoken of "the sword" in the future, " He will brandish; " of " the bow " in the past, " He hath bent: " and these words of the past tense follow after. ' 14. " And in it He hath prepared the instruments of death: He hath wrought His arrows for the burning" (ver. 13). That bow then I would readily take to be the Holy Scripture, in which by the strength of the New Testament, as by a sort of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and subdued. From thence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or divine preachings are shot. Which arrows " He has wrought for the burning," arrows, that is, whereby being stricken they might be inflamed with heavenly love. For by what other arrows was she stricken, who saith, " Bring me into the house of wine, place me among perfumes, crowd me among honey, for I have been wounded with love "? '° By what other arrows is he kindled, who, desirous of returning to God, and coming back from wandering, asketh for help against crafty tongues, and to whom it is said, " What shall be given thee, or what added to thee against the crafty tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with devastating coals: " " that is, coals, whereby, when thou art stricken and set on fire, thou mayest burn with so great love of the kingdom of heaven, as to despise the tongues of all that it.'je'i 9 [So St. Jerome also understood the Hebrew in his strict version. — C] 10 Sol. Song ii. 4, 5, 11 Ps. cxx. 3, 4.
[Psalm VIL resist thee, and would recall thee from thy purpose, and to deride their persecutions, saying, " Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded," he says, " that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ' Thus for the burning hath He wrought His arrows. For in the Greek copies it is found thus, " He hath wrought His arrows for the burning." But most of the Latin copies 2 have " burning arrows." But whether the arrows themselves burn, or make others burn, which of course they cannot do unless they burn themselves, the sense is complete.
15. But since he has said that the Lord has prepared not arrows only, but " instruments of death " too, in the bow, it may be asked, what are " instruments of death "? Are they, peradventure, heretics? For they too, out of the same bow, that is, out of the same Scriptures, light upon souls not to be inflamed with love, but destroyed with poison: which does not happen but after their deserts: wherefore even this dispensation is to be assigned to the Divine Providence, not that it makes men sinners, but that it orders them after they have sinned. For through sin reaching them with an ill purpose, they are forced to understand them ill, that this should be itself the punishment of sin: by whose death, nevertheless, the sons of the Catholic Church are, as it were by certain thorns, so to say, aroused from slumber, and make progress toward the understanding of the holy Scriptures. " For there must be also heresies, that they which are approved," he says, " may be made manifest among you: " 3 that is, among men, seeing they are manifest to God. Or has He haply ordained the same arrows to be at once instruments of death for the destruction of unbelievers, and wrought them burning, or for the burning, for the exercising of the faithful? For that is not false that the Apostle says, "To the one we are the savour of life unto life, to the other the savour of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these things? " 4 It is no wonder then if the same Apostles be both instruments of death in those from whom they suffered persecution, and fiery arrows to inflame the hearts of believers.
16. Now after this dispensation righteous judgment will come: of which the Psalmist so 1 Rom. viii. 35, 38. 39. 3 [Not to the Vulgate He refer* to the African (old Italic)' Psalters. But see Scrivener, p.
ot to the Vulgate nor St. Jerome, which follow the Greek.
speaks, as that we may understand that each man's punishment is wrought out of his own sin, and his iniquity turned into vengeance: that we may not suppose that that tranquillity and ineffable light of God brings forth from Itself the means of punishing sin; but that it so ordereth sins, that what have been delights to man in sinning, should be instruments to the Lord avenging. "Behold," he says, "he hath travailed with injustice." Now what had he conceived, that he should travail with injustice? " He hath conceived," he says, " toil." Hence then comes that, " In toil shalt thou eat thy bread." 5 Hence too that, " Come unto Me all ye that toil and are heavy laden; for My yoke is easy, and My burden light." 6 For toil will never cease, except one love that which cannot be taken away against his will. For when those things are loved which we can lose against our will, we must needs toil for them most miserably; and to obtain them, amid the straitnesses of earthly cares, whilst each desires to snatch them for himself, and to be beforehand with another, or to wrest it from him, must scheme injustice. Duly then, and quite in order, hath he travailed with injustice, who has conceived toil. Now he bringeth forth what, save that with which he hath travailed, although he has not travailed with that which he conceived? For that is not born, which is not conceived; but seed is conceived, that which is formed from the seed is born.
Toil is then the seed of iniquity, but sin the conception of toil, that is, that first sin, to "depart from God."7 He then hath travailed with injustice, who hath conceived toil. " And he hath brought forth iniquity." "Iniquity" is the same as " injustice: " he hath brought forth then that with which he travailed. What follows next?
1 7. " He hath opened a ditch, and digged it " (ver. 15). To open a ditch is, in earthly matters, that is, as it were in the earth, to prepare deceit, that another fall therein, whom the unrighteous man wishes to deceive. Now this ditch is opened when consent is given to the evil suggestion of earthly lusts: but it is digged when after consent we press on to actual work of deceit. But how can it be, that iniquity should rather hurt the righteous man against whom it proceeds, than the unrighteous heart whence it proceeds? Accordingly, the stealer of money, for instance, while he desires to inflict painful harm upon another, is himself maimed by the wound of avarice. Now who, even out of his right mind, sees not how great is the difference between these men, when one suffers the loss of money, the other of innocence? " He will fall " then " into the pit which 4 a Cor. ii. 16.
5 Gen. iii. 17.
6 Matt. xi. 28, 30.
7 Ecclus. x. 13.
Psalm VIII.]
he hath made." As it is said in another Psalm, " The Lord is known in executing judgments; the sinner is caught in the works of his own hands." " 18. " His toil shall be turned on his head, and his iniquity shall descend on his pate "(ver. 16). For he had no mind to escape sin: but was brought under sin as a slave, so to say, as the Lord saith, "Whosoever sinneth is a slave."2 His iniquity then will be upon him, when he is subject to his iniquity; for he could not say to the Lord, what the innocent and upright say, " My glory, and the lifter up of my head."3 He then will be in such wise below, as that his iniquity may be above, and descend on him; for that it weigheth him down and burdens him, and suffers him not to fly back to the rest of the saints. This occurs, when in an ill regulated man reason is a slave, and lust hath dominion.
19. " I will confess to the Lord according to His justice" (ver. 17). This is not the sinner's confession: for he says this, who said above most truly, " If there be iniquity in my hands: " but it is a confession of God's justice, in which we speak thus, Verily, O Lord, Thou art just, in that Thou both so protectest the just, that Thou enlightenest them by Thyself; and so orderest sinners, that they be punished not by Thine, but by their own malice. This confession so praises the Lord, that the blasphemies of the ungodly can avail nothing, who, willing to excuse their evil deeds, are unwilling to attribute to their own fault that they sin, that is, are unwilling to attribute their fault to their fault. Accordingly they find either fortune or fate to accuse, or the devil, to whom He who made us hath willed that it should be in our power to refuse consent: or they bring in another nature, which is not of God: wretched waverers, and erring, rather than confessing to God, that He should pardon them. For it is not fit that any be pardoned, except he says, I have sinned. He, then, that sees the deserts of souls so ordered by God, that while each has his own given him, the fair beauty of the universe is in no part violated, in all things praises God: and this is not the confession of sinners, but of the righteous. For it is not the sinner's confession when the Lord says, " I confess to Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise,'