Expositions on the Book of Psalms
PsaALM LXX_] ON THE PSALMS. ait victim led up to His altar. . . . Therefore above this calf my praising shall please Thee, such as hereafter will be, after poverty and sorrow, in the eternal society of Angels, where neither adversary there shall be in battle to be tossed, nor sluggard from earth to be stirred up. "Let the needy see and rejoice" (ver. 32). Let them believe, and in hope be glad. Let them be more needy, in order that they may deserve to be filled: lest while they belch out pride's satiety, there be denied them the bread whereon they may healthily live. "Seek the Lord," ye needy, hunger ye and thirst ;* for He is Himself the living bread that came down from Heaven.? "Seek ye the Lord, and your soul shall live." Ye seek bread, that your flesh may live: the are being built. For Juda is interpreted confession. By confession of humility there are being builded the cities of Juda: in order that there may remain without the proud, who blush to confess. '' For God shall save Sion." What Sion? Hear in the following words: "and the seed of His servants shall possess Her, and they that love His name shall dwell therein" (ver. SO) ete
PSALM LXX.®
1. Thanks to the ' Corn of wheat,''7 because He willed to die and to be multiplied: thanks to the only Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who disdained not to undergo our death, in order that He might make us worthy of His life. Behold Him that was single until He went hence; as He said in another Psalm, "Single I am until I go hence ;"® for He was a single corn of wheat in such sort as that He had in Himself a great fruitfulness of increase; in how many corns imitating the Passion of Him we exult, when we celebrate the nativities of the Martyrs! Many therefore members of Him, under one Head our Saviour Himself, being bound together in the bond of love and peace
Lord seek ye, that your soul may live.3
32. 'For the Lord hath hearkened to the poor" (ver, 33). He hath hearkened to the poor, and He would not have hearkened to the poor, unless they were poor. Wilt thou be hearkened to? Poor be thou: let sorrow cry out from thee, and not fastidiousness. '" And His fettered ones He hath not despised." Being offended at His servants, He hath put them in fetters: but them crying from the fetters He hath not despised. What are these fetters? Mortality, the corruptibleness of the flesh are the fetters wherewith we have been bound. And would ye know the weight of these fetters? Of them is said, 'The body which is corrupted weigheth down the soul."'4 Whenever men in the world will to be rich, for these fetters they are seeking rags. But let the rags of the fetters suffice: seek so much as is necessary for keeping off want, but when thou seekest superfluities, thou longest to load thy fetters. In such a prison then let the fetters abide even alone. "Sufficient for the day be the evil thereof."5 'Let there praise Him heavens and earth, sea and all things creeping in them" (ver. 34). The true riches of this poor man are these, to consider the creation, and to praise the Creator. '"' Let there praise Him heavens and earth, sea and all things creeping therein." And doth this creation alone praise God, when by considering of it God is praised?
(as ye judge it fit that ye know, for ye have often heard), are one man: and of the same, as of one man, the voice is ofttimes heard, in the Psalms, and thus one crieth as though it were all, because all in one are one... . 2. There is then in this Psalm the voice of men troubled, and so indeed of Martyrs amid sufferings in peril, but relying on their own Head. Let us hear them, and speak with them out of sympathy of heart, though it be not with similarity of suffering. For they are already crowned, we are still in peril: not that such sort of persecutions do vex us as have vexed them, but worse perchance in the midsts of all kinds of so great scandals. For our own times do more abound in that woe, which the Lord cried: " Woe to the world because of scandals.''9 And, '' Because iniquity hath abounded, the love of man shall wax cold." '° For not even that holy Lot at Sodom suffered corporal persecution from any one, or had it been told him that he should not dwell there: '! the persecution of him were the evil doings of the Sodomites. Now then that Christ sitteth in Heaven, now that He is glorified, now that necks of kings are made subject to His yoke, and their brows placed beneath His sign, now that not any one remaineth to dare openly to trample upon Christians, still, however, we groan amid instruments and singers, still those enemies of the Martyrs, because with words and
33. Hear thou another thing also: " for God shall save Sion" (ver. 35). He restoreth His Church, the faithful Gentiles He doth incorporate with His Only-Begotten ; He beguileth not them that believe in Him of the reward of His promise. '' For God shall save Sion ; and there shall be builded the cities of Juda." These same are the Churches. Let no one say, when shall it come to pass that there be builded the cities of Juda? Othat thou wouldest acknowledge the Edifice, and be a living stone, that thou mightest enter into Her. Even now the cities of Juda
6 Lat. LXIX. Sermon preached at the celebration of the Martyrs.
7 Preface. John xii. 24. 8 Ps, cxli. ro, LX X.; and Vulgate nearly. 9 Matt. xviii. 7. 10 Matt. xxiv. 12, It Gen. xix. 1g.
1 Matt. v. 6. 4 Wisd, ix. 15, 2 John vi. 33, 51. 3 Isa, lv. 3. 5' Matt. vi. 34.
402 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsaLm LXX, fear." Already such vengeance hath been taken on the enemies of the Martyrs. 'That Saul that persecuted Stephen, he was confounded and feared. He was breathipg out slaughters,® he was seeking some to drag and slay: a voice having been heard from above; "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me,''3 he was confounded and laid low, and he was raised up to obedience, that had been inflamed unto persecuting. This then the Martyrs desire for their enemies, " Let them be confounded and fear." For so long as they are not confounded and fear, they must needs defend their actions: glorious they think themselves, because they hold, because they bind, because they scourge, because they kill, because they dance, because they insult, and because of all these doings they be some time confounded and fear? For if they be confounded, they will also be converted: because converted they cannot be, unless they shall have been confounded and shall have feared. Let us then wish these things to our enemies, let us wish them without fear. Behold I have said, and let me have said it with you, may all that still dance and sing and insult the Martyrs "be confounded and fear:" at last within these walls confounded may they beat their breasts !
steel they have no power, with their own wanton- | ness do persecute them. And O that we were sorrowing for Heathens alone: it would be some sort of comfort, to wait for those that not yet have been signed with the Cross of Christ ; when they should be signed, and when, by His authority attached, they should cease to be mad. We see besides men wearing on their brow the sign of Him, at the same time on that same brow wearing the shamelessness of wantonness, and on the days and celebrations of the Martyrs not exulting but insulting. And amid these things we groan, and this is our persecution, if there is in us the love which saith, '" Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I burn not?"? Not any servant of God, then, is without persecution: and that is a true saying which the Apostle saith, " But even all men that will to live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution."? ...
3. "O God, to my aid make speed" (ver. 1). For need we have for an everlasting aid in this world. But when have we not? Now however being in tribulation, let us especially say, "O God, to my aid make speed." "Let them be confounded and fear that seek my soul." Christ is speaking: whether Head speak or whether Body speak; He is speaking that hath said, "Why persecutest thou Me?"3 He is speaking that hath said, '' Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of Mine, to Me ye have done it.'4 The voice then of this Man is known to be of the whole man, of Head and of Body: that need not often be mentioned, because it is known. 'Be they confounded," he saith, "and fear that seek my soul." In another Psalm He saith, "I was looking unto the right and saw, and there was not one that would know Me: flight hath perished from Me, and there is not one to seek out My soul?'5 There of persecutors He saith, that there was not one to seek out His soul: but here, "Let them be confounded and fear that seek My soul." . .. And where is that which thou hast heard from thy Lord, '' Love ye your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you''?® Behold thou sufferest persecution, and cursest them from whom thou sufferest: how dost thou imitate the Passions of thy Lord that have gone before, hanging on the cross and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."7? To persons saying such things the Martyr replieth and saith, thou hast set before me the Lord, saying, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do: " understand thou my voice also, in order that it may be thine too: for what have I said concerning mine enemies? "Let them be confounded and
4. "Let them be turned away backward and blush that think evil things to me" (ver. 2). At first there was the assault of them persecuting, now there hath remained the malice of them thinking. In fact, there are in the Church distinct seasons of persecutions following one another.' There was made an assault on the Church when kings were persecuting: and because kings had been foretold as to persecute and as to believe, when one had been fulfilled the other was to follow. There came to pass also that which was consequent ; kings believed, peace was given to the Church, the Church began to be set in the highest place of dignity, even on this earth, even in this life: but there is not wanting the roar of persecutors, they have turned their assaults into thoughts. In these thoughts, as in a bottomless pit, the devil hath been bound,?! he roareth and breaketh not forth. For it hath been said concerning these times of the Church, "The sinner shall see, and shall be angry." ??, And shall do what? That which he did at first? Drag, bind, smite? He doeth not this. What then? ' With his teeth he shall gnash, and shall pine away." And with these men the Martyr is, as it were, angry, and yet for these men the Martyr prayeth. For in like manner as he hath wished well to those men
8 Acts vii. 58, ix. x. 9 Oxf. mss. ''and no more defend their doings." to The reading segueve mentioned in Ben, is probably a mistake for segue, which is found at Oxford. Or it is, "' follow them in their succession,"
2 2 Tim. iii. 12. J 3 Acts ix. 4. 5 Ps. cxlii. 4. t 2 Cor. xi. 29.
© Matt. v. 44. 4 Matt. xxv. 40. 7 Luke xxiii. 34.
It Vide Rev. xx. 3. 12 Ps, cxii, 10,