Expositions on the Book of Psalms
THE WORKS OF St AUGUSTIN, [Psatm LXX.
'He is rich, He abounding, He needing nothing.
not risen in His Body: do not thou follow the voices of them. Hear thou the voice of Himself the Shepherd, that was clothed with flesh, in order that He might seek lost flesh. He hath risen again, and He saith, " Handle ye and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have." * He showeth Himself to thee, the voice of Him follow thou. He showeth also the Church, that no one may deceive thee by the name of Church. "It behoved,'"' He saith, "Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day, and that there should be preached repentance and remission of sins through all nations, beginning with Jerusalem."? Thou hast the voice of Thy Shepherd, do not thou follow the voice of strangers:3 and a thief thou shalt not fear, if thou shalt have followed the voice of the Shepherd. But how shalt thou follow? If thou shalt neither have said to any man, as if it were by his own merit, Well, well: nor shalt have heard the same with joy, so that thy head be not made fat with the
Behold my light, behold whence I am illumined; for I cry, "Thou shalt illumine my candle, O Lord." ® What then of thee? "But I am needy and poor." I am like an orphan, my soul is like a widow destitute and desolate : 'help I seek, alway mine infirmity I confess.
There have been forgiven me my sins, now I have begun to follow the commandments of God: still, however, I am needy and poor. Why still needy and poor? Because 'I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind." 9 Why needy and poor? Because, " blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." '° Still I hunger, still I thirst: my fulness hath been put off, not taken away. "O God, aid Thou me." Most suitably also Lazarus is said to be interpreted, "one aided:"' that needy and poor man, that was transported into the bosom of Abraham ; ' and beareth the type of the Church, which ought alway to confess that she hath need of aid. This is true, this is godly. "I have said to the Lord, My God Thou art." Why? " For my goods Thou needest not." "2 He needeth not us, we need Him: therefore He is truly Lord. For thou art not the very true Lord of thy servant: both are men, both needing God. But if thou supposest thy servant to need thee, in order that thou mayest give him bread; thou also needest thy servant, in order that he may aid thy labours. Each one of you doth need the other. Therefore neither of you is truly lord, and neither of you truly servant. Hear thou the true Lord, of whom thou art the true servant: "I have said to the Lord, My God Thou art." Why art Thou Lord? "Because my goods Thou needest not'?? But what of thee? 'But I am needy and poor." Behold the needy and poor: may God feed, may God alleviate, may God aid: "O God," he saith, "aid Thou me."
oil of a sinner.* " Let all them exult and be joyous in Thee, that seek Thee ; and let them say" —let them say what, that exult? "Be the Lord alway magnified!" Let all them say this, that exult and seek Thee. What? "Be the Lord alway magnified ; yea, they that love Thy salvation." Not only, "Be the Lord magnified ;" but also, "alway." . .. A sinner thou art, be He magnified in order that He may call; thou confessest, be He magnified in order that He may forgive: now thou livest justly, be He magnified in order that He may direct: thou perseverest even unto the end, be He magnified in order that He may glorify. "Be the Lord," then, "alway magnified; yea, they love His saving health." For from Him they have salvation, not from themselves. The saving health of the Lord our God, is the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ : whosoever loveth the Saviour, confesseth himself to have been made whole ; whosoever confesseth himself to have been made whole, confesseth himself to have been sick.5 Not their own saving health, as if they could save themselves of themselves: not as it were the saving health of a man, as though by him they could be saved. "Do not," he saith, "confide in princes, and in the sons of men, in whom there is no safety."© Why so? "Of the Lord is safety, and upon Thy people is Thy blessing." 7
8. "My helper and deliverer art Thou; O Lord, delay not." Thou art the helper and deliverer: I need succour, help Thou; entangled I am, deliver Thou. For no one will deliver from entanglings except Thee. 'There stand round about us the nooses of divers cares, on this side and on that we are torn as it were with thorns and brambles, we walk a narrow way, perchance we have stuck fast in the brambles: let us say to God, "Thou art my deliverer." He that showed us the narrow way,'3 hath taught us to follow it. ...
7. Behold, " Be the Lord magnified :" wilt thou never, wilt thou nowhere? In Him was something, in me nothing: but if in Him is whatsoever I am, be He, not I. But thou then what? "But Iam needy and poor" (ver. 5).
g. What is, "delay not'"'? Because many men say, it is a long time till Christ comes. What then: because we say, "delay not," will He {come before He hath determined to come?
t Luke xxiv. 39. 2 Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 3 John x. 5. 4 Ps. cxli. 7 5 Here Oxf. mss. repeat, '' They that love Thy saving health," © Ps, cxlvi. 3. Ps, iii. 8.
9 Rom. vii. 23. 12 Ps, xvi. 2. 8 Ps. xviii. 28. To Matt. v. 6. 11 Luke xvi. 23. i 13 Matt. vii. 14.