Expositions on the Book of Psalms
PSALMS. 209
PsaLm LV] ON THE where I was, except of my weakness I had been admonished. "Out of all tribulations," therefore, " Thou hast delivered me. And upon mine enemies mine eye hath looked back:" upon those Ziphites "mine eye hath looked back." Yea, their flower I have passed over in loftiness of heart, unto Thee I have come, and thence I have looked back upon them, and have seen that "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: ! as in a certain place is also said, "' I have seen the ungodly man to be exalted and raised up like? the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, and, lo! he was not.''3 Wherefore "he was not'? Because thou hast passed by. What is, " because thou hast passed by"? Because not to no purpose hast thou heard "Lift up thy heart;" because not on earth, where thou wouldest have rotted, thou hast remained ; because thou hast lifted thy soul to God, and thou hast mounted beyond the cedars of Lebanon, and from that elevation hast observed: and "Lo! he was not;" and thou hast sought him, and there hath not been found place for him. No longer is labour before thee ; because thou hast entered into the sanctuary of God, and hast understood for the last things.* So also here thus he concludeth. 'And upon mine enemies mine eye hath looked back." This do ye therefore, brethren, with your souls ; lift up your hearts, sharpen the edge of your mind, learn truly to love God, learn to despise the present world, learn voluntarily to sacrifice the offerings of praise ; to the end that, mounting beyond the flower of the grass, ye may look back upon your enemies. ended ; but the food so that it no longer is, the vesture so that it is perfected. Our end therefore ought to be our perfection, our perfection Christ. For in Him we are made perfect, because of Himself the Head, the Members are we. And he hath been spoken of as "the End of the Law," because without Him no one doth make perfect the Law. When therefore ye hear in the Psalms, "At the end,'"'— for many Psalms are thus superscribed, — be not your thought upon consuming, but upon consummation.
2. "In hymns:" in praises. For whether we are troubled and are straitened, or whether we rejoice and exult, He is to be praised, who both in tribulations doth instruct, and in gladness doth comfort. For the praise of God from the heart and mouth of a Christian man ought not to depart ; not that he may be praising in prosperity, and speaking evil in adversity ; but after the manner that this Psalm doth prescribe, " I will speak good of the Lord in every time, alway the praise of Him is in my mouth." Thou dost rejoice ; acknowledge a Father indulging: thou art troubled; acknowledge a Father chastening. Whether He indulge, or whether He chasten, He is instructing one for whom He is preparing an inheritance.
3. What then is, " Understanding to David himself"? ? David indeed was, as we know, a holy prophet, king of Israel, son of Jesse:7 but because out of his seed there came for our salvation after the flesh the Lord Jesus Christ,' often under that name He is figured, and David instead of Christ is in a figure set down, because of the origin of the Flesh of the Same. For after some sort He is Son of David, after some sort He is the Lord of David ; Son of David after the flesh, Lord of David after the divinity. For if by Him have been made al Fthings,? by Him also David himself hath been made, out of whose seed He came to men. Moreover, when the Lord had questioned the Jews, whose Son they affirmed Christ to be, they made answer, " David's:" where the Lord chides the Jews, when they said that He was the Son of David.'? He saw that they had stayed at the flesh, and had lost sight of the divinity ; and He reproveth them by propounding a question: ' How then doth David himself in spirit call Him Lord, 'The Lord hath said unto my Lord.' . . . If then He in spirit calleth Him Lord, how is He is Son?" ** A question He propounded ; His being Son He denied not. Ye have heard " Lord ;" say ye how He is his "Son:" ye have heard "Son;" say how He is " Lord." This question the Catholic Faith solveth. How " Lord'? Because "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with PSALM LV.5
1. Of this Psalm the title is: " At the end, in hymns, understanding to David himself." What the "end" is, we will briefly call to your recollection, because ye have known it. " For the end of the Law is Christ, for righteousness unto every man believing." ° Be the attention therefore directed unto the End, directed unto Christ. Wherefore is He called the end? Because whatever we do, to Him we refer it, and when to Him we shall have come home, more to ask we shall not have. For there is an end spoken of which doth consume, there is an end spoken of which doth make perfect. In one sense, for instance, we understand it, when we hear, there is ended the food which was in eating; and in another sense we understand it, when we hear, there is ended the vesture which was in weaving: in each case we hear, there is 1 Isa. xl. 6. 2 Oxf. mss. '' above." 3 Ps. xxxvii. 35, 36. 4 Ps, Ixxili, 16, 17. 5 Lat. LIV. From a sermon to the people, wherein he is discoursing of enduring evil men, and disputing against the Donatists.
8 Rom. i. 3. 10 Oxf. mss. add 16 words ending here. 7 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. 9 John i. 3. Il Matt. xxii. 43-45.
210 THE \WORKS:) OF "ST; AUGUSTIN. [PsaLm LY. be; in order that the tribulation being shared, we may conjoin prayer. "I have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled "
God, and the Word was God." ! Because "' The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."* Because then David in a figure is Christ, but Christ, as we have often reminded your Love, is both Head and Body; neither ought we to speak of ourselves as alien from Christ, of whom we are members, nor to count ourselves as if we were any other thing: because "The two shall be in one flesh.""3 "This is a great Sacrament," saith the Apostle, "but I speak in regard of Christ and the Church." 4 Because then whole Christ is " Head and Body;" when we hear, " Understanding to David himself," understand we ourselves also in David. Let the members of Christ understand, and Christ in His members understand, and the members of Christ in Christ understand : because Head and Members are one Christ. The Head was in heaven, and was saying, " Why dost thou persecute Me?'"'5 We with Him are in heaven through hope, Himself is with us on earth through love. Therefore " understanding to David himself." Be we admonished when we hear, and let the Church understand: for there belongeth to us great diligence to understand in what evil we now are, and from what evil we desire to be delivered, remembering the Prayer of the Lord, where at the end we say, " Deliver us from evil." © Therefore amid many tribulations of this world, this Psalm complaineth somewhat of understanding. He lamenteth not with it, who hath not understanding. But furthermore, dearly beloved, we ought to remember, that after the image of God we have been made, and that not in any other part than in the understanding itself. For in many things by beasts we are surpassed : but when a man knoweth himself to have been made after the image of God,' therein something in himself he acknowledgeth to be more than hath been given to dumb animals. But on consideration of all those things which a man hath, he findeth himself in this thing peculiarly distinguished from a dumb animal, in that he hath himself an understanding. Whence certain men despising in themselves that peculiar and especial thing which from their Maker they had received, the Maker Himself reproveth, saying, "Do not become like horse and mule, in which pa is no understanding." ® . . 4. " Hear Thou, O God, my entreaty, and despise not my prayer: give heed unto me, and hearken unto me" (ver. 1). Of one earnest, anxious, of one set in tribulation, are these words.
How " Son ''?.
(ver. 2). Where made sad, where troubled? "Tn my exercise," he saith. Of evil men, whom he suffereth, he hath made mention, and the same suffering of evil men he hath called his " exercise." Think ye not that without profit there are evil men in this world, and that no good God maketh of them. Every evil man either on this account liveth that he may be corrected, or on this account liveth that through him a good man may be exercised. O that therefore they that do now exercise us would be converted, and together with us be exercised! Nevertheless, so long as they are such as to exercise, let us not hate them: because in that wherein any one of them is evil, whether unto the end he is to persevere, we know not; and ofttimes when to thyself thou seemest to have been hating an enemy, thou hast been hating a brother, and knowest not. The devil and his angels in the holy Scriptures have been manifested to us, that for fire everlasting they have been destined. Of them only must amendment be despaired of. . . . Therefore since this rule of Love for thee is fixed, that imitating the Father thou shouldest love an enemy : for, He saith, "love your enemies: '' 9 in this precept how wouldest thou be exercised, if thou hadst no enemy to suffer? Thou seest then that he profiteth thee somewhat: and let God sparing evil men profit thee, so that thou show mercy: because perchance thou too, if thou art a good man, out of an evil man hast been made a good man: and if God spared not evil men, not even thou wouldest be found to return thanks. May He therefore spare others, that hath spared thee also. For it were not right, when thou hadst passed through, to close up the way of godliness.
5. Whence then doth this man pray, set among evil men, with whose enmities he was being exercised? Why saith he, "I have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled ''? While he is extending his love so as to love enemies, he hath been affected with disgust, being bayed at all around by the enmities of many men, by the frenzy of many, and under a sort of human infirmity he hath sunk. He hath seen himself now begin to be_ pierced through with an evil suggestion of the devil, to bring on hatred against his enemies: wrestling against hatred in order to perfect love herself, in the very fight, and in the wrestling, he hath been troubled. For there is his voice in another Psalm, "' Mine eye hath been troubled, because of anger."' And what followeth there? 'I have waxen old among all mine enemies." 7° As if in storm and waves he were beginning to sink, like
He is praying, suffering many things, from evil yearning to be delivered: it remaineth that we hear in what evil he is, and when he beginneth to speak, let us acknowledge there ourselves to 3 Gen. ii. 24. 2 Johni. r4. y 6 Matt. vi. 13. 5 Acts ix. 4. 8 Ps, xxxii. g.
T Pe hate I.
ph. v. 32. ? Gen. i. 26.
9 Luke vi. 27. 10 Ps, vi. 7.