Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
THE WORKS OF ST: AUGUSTIN. [PsaLm VIL.
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." 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?
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? 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
17. "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 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
T Rom. viii. 35, 38, 392 [Not so the Vulgate nor St. Jerome, which follow the Greek. He refers to the African (old Italic) Psalters. But see Scrivener, p. 307, 2d ed. —C.] 3 x Cor. xi. 19. 4 2 Cor. ii. 16,
5 Gen. iii. 17. 6 Matt. xi. 28, 30. 7 Ecclus. x. 12.
PsaLm VIIL.] ON THE PSALMS. 27 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." ?
these two the whole creation, which God made and rules, is adorned with a beauty wondrous and known to few. Thus then he says, "I will confess to the Lord according to His_justice,"' as one who saw that darkness was not made by God, but ordered nevertheless. For God said, " Let light be made, and light was made.''® He did not say, Let darkness be made, and darkness was made: and yet He ordered it. And therefore it is said, "God divided between the light, and the darkness : and God called the light day, and the darkness He called night."7 This is the distinction, He made the one and ordered it: but the other He made not, but yet He ordered this too. But now that sins are signified by darkness, so is it seen in the Prophet, who says, "And thy darkness shall be as the noon day:''® and in the Apostle, who says, " He that hateth his brother is in darkness :'' 9 and above all that text, '' Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." '° Not that there is any nature of darkness. For all nature, in so far as it is nature, is compelled to be. Now being belongs to light: not-being to darkness. He then that leaves Him by whom he was made, and inclines to that whence he was made, that is, to nothing, is in this sin endarkened: and yet he does not utterly perish, but he is ordered among the lowest things. Therefore after the Psalmist said, "I will confess unto the Lord:" that we might not understand it of confession of sins, he adds lastly, " And I will sing to the name of the Lord most high." Now singing has relation to joy, but repentance of sins to sadness.
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.
1g. "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, and revealed them to babes."* Likewise in Ecclesiasticus it is said, " Confess to the Lord in all His works: and in confession ye shall say this, All the works of the Lord are exceeding good."'5 Which can be seen in this Psalm, if any one with a pious mind, by the Lord's help, distinguish between the rewards of the righteous and the penalties of the sinners, how that in
20. This Psalm can also be taken in the person of the Lord Man: if only that which is there spoken in humiliation be referred to our weakness, which He bore."
PSALM. VIII.
TO THE END, FOR THE WINE-PRESSES, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF. '?
1. He seems to say nothing of wine-presses in the text of the Psalm of which this is the title. By which it appears, that one and the same thing is often signified in Scripture by many and various similitudes. We may then take winepresses to be Churches, on the same principle by which we understand also by a threshing-floor the Church. For whether in the threshing-floor, or in the wine-press, there is nothing else done but the clearing the produce of its covering; which is necessary, both for its first growth,
6 Gen. i. 3. 7 Gen. i. 4, 5. 8 Isa, lviii. ro. 9 x John it. rr. To Rom. xiil. 12. 11 [On the continuity of the first seven Psalms, see Bishop Wordsworth's Commentary, p. 10, ed. London, 1867. — C. 12 See on Ps. Jxxxiv._ [The octave of Ps. i., and understood by the Fathers of the ascension of Christ. It was probably sung at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. — C.]
2 John viii. 34. 3 Ps, di. 3. 5 Ecclus. xxxix. 14, 15, 16. ORS. 1X 5863 4 Matt. xi. 25.