Expositions on the Book of Psalms
328 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Psatm LXXII. with a distinction not to be overlooked must that be understood which he saith, " the mountains peace, and the hills justice"? For men excelling in the Church ought to counsel for peace with watchful care; lest for the sake of their own distinctions by acting proudly they make schisms and dissever the bond of union. But let the hills so follow them by imitation and obedience, that they prefer Christ to them: lest being led astray by the empty authority of evil mountains (for they seem to excel), they tear themselves away from the Unity of Christ... . 6. Thus also most pertinently may be understood, "let the mountains bear peace to the people," namely, that we understand the peace to consist in the reconciliation whereby we are reconciled to God: for the mountains receive this for His people. . . . " Let the mountains, therefore, receive peace for the people, and the hills justice : '' so that in this manner, both being at one, there may come to pass that which hath been written, " justice and peace have kissed one another." ? But that which other copies have, "let the mountains receive peace for the people, and let the hills: "' I think must be understood of allsorts of preaching of Gospel peace, whether those that go before, or those that follow after. But in these copies this followeth, 'in justice He shall judge the poor of the people." But those copies are more approved of which have that which we have expounded above, "let the mountains bear peace to the people, and the hills people." For above when he had said, "to judge Thy people in justice and Thy poor in judgment," 5 the same he called the people of God as His poor, that is, only the good and those that belong to the right hand side. But because in this world those for the right and those for the left feed together, who, like lambs and goats at the last are to be put asunder ;° the whole, as it is mingled together, he hath called by the name of the People. And because even here he putteth judgment in a good sense, that is, for the purpose of saving: therefore he saith, " He shall judge the poor of the people," that is, shall sever for salvation those that are poor among the people. '" And He shall humble the false-accuser."'" No false-accuser can be more suitably recognised here than the devil. False accusation in his business. ' Doth Job worship God gratis?"'7 But the Lord Jesus doth humble him, by His grace aiding His own, in order that they may worship God gratis, that is, may take delight in the Lord. He humbled him also thus ; because when in Him the devil, that is, the prince of this world, had found nothing,? he slew Him by the false accusations of the Jews, whom the false-accuser made use of as his vessels, working in the sons of unbelief? ...
8. "And He shall endure to the sun," or, "shall endure with the sun" (ver. 5). For thus some of our writers have thought would be more exactly translated that which in the Greek is oup Tapapevet. But if in Latin it could have been expressed in one word, it must have been expressed by compermanebit: however, because in Latin the word cannot be expressed, in order that the sense at least might be translated, it hath been expressed by, "He shall endure with the sun." For He shall co-endure to the sun is nothing else but, " He shall endure with the sun." But what great matter is it for Him to endure with the sun, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was justice." But some have, "to Thy people ;" some have not to "Thy," but only "to the people."
7. "He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the sons of the poor" (ver. 4). The poor and the sons of the poor seem to me to be the very same, as the same city is Sion and the daughter of Sion. But if it is to be understood with a distinction, the poor we take to be the mountains, but the sons of the poor the hills : for instance, Prophets and Apostles, the poor, but the sons of them, that is, those that profit under their authority, the sons of the poor. But that which hath been said above, " shall judge ;"" and afterwards, "shall save ;"' is as it were a sort of exposition in what manner He shall judge. For to this end He shall judge, that He may save, that is, may sever from those that are to be destroyed and condemned, those to whom He giveth "salvation ready to be revealed at the" last time. For by such men to Him is said, " Destroy not with ungodly men my soul: 3 and, " Judge Thou me, O God, and sever my cause from the nation unholy."* We must observe also that he saith not, He shall made," save that this prophecy hath been sent before for the sake of those who think that the religion of the Christian name up to a particular time in this world will live, and afterwards will be no more?' " He shall endure"' therefore "'with the sun,' so long as the sun riseth and setteth, that is, so long as these times revolve, there shall not be wanting the Church of God, that is, Christ's body on earth. But that which he addeth, "and before the moon, generations of generations:"' he might have expressed by, and before the sun, that is, both with the sun and before the sun: which would have been understood by both with times and before times. That then which goeth before time is eternal: judge the poor people, but, "the poor of the 6 Matt. xxv. 32. 7 Jobi. 9. 9 John xiv. 30. 10 Eph, 11.2. 12 See on Ps. xli. p. 128, note 9.
5 Ps. Ixxii. 2. 8 Ps. xxxvii. 4. 11 John i, 3.
T Ps. Ixxxv. ro. 2x Pet.i.s. 3 Ps. xxvi. . 4 Ps, xliii. x.
PsaLM LXXII.] ON THE PSALMS. 329 and that is truly to be held eternal which by no time is changed, as, "in the beginning was the Word." ? But by the moon he hath chosen rather to intimate the waxings and wanings of things mortal. Lastly, when he had said, " before the moon," wishing in a manner to explain for what purpose he inserted the moon, " generations," he saith, 'of generations." As though he were saying, before the moon, that is, before the generations of generations which pass away in the departure and succession of things mortal, like the lunar wanings and waxings. And thus what is better to be understood by His enduring before the moon, than that He taketh precedence of all mortal things by immortality? Which also as followeth may not impertinently be taken, that whereas now, having humbled the falseaccuser, He sitteth at the right hand of the Father, this is to endure with the sun. For the brightness of the eternal glory is understood to be the Son:? as though the Sun were the Father, and the Brightness of Him His Son. But as these things may be spoken of the invisible Substance of the Creator, not as of that visible creation wherein are bodies celestial, of which bright bodies the sun hath the pre-eminence, from which this similitude hath been drawn: just as they are drawn even from things earthly, to wit, stone, lion, lamb, man having two sons, and the like: therefore having humbled the false-accuser, He endureth with the sun: because having vanquished the devil by the Resurrection, He sitteth at the right hand of the Father,3 wheré He dieth no more, and death no longer over Him shall have dominion.* This too is before the moon, as though the First-born from the dead were going before the Church, which is passing on in the departure and succession of mortals. These are "the generations of generations." Or perchance it is because generations are those whereby we are begotten mortally ; but generations of generations those whereby we are begotten again immortally. And such is the Church which He went before, in order that He might endure before the moon, being the First-born of the dead. To be sure, that which is in the Greek yeveos yeveOv, some have interpreted, not " generations," but, "of a generation of generations: '' because yeveas is of ambiguous case in Greek, and whether it be the genitive singular rns yeveds, that is, of the generation, or the accusative plural ras yeveds, that is, the generations, doth not clearly appear, except that deservedly that sense hath been preferred wherein, as though explaining WHAT he had called '" the moon," he added in continuation, "' generations of generations." fleece, and like drops distilling upon the earth" (ver. 6). He hath called to our minds and admonished us, that what was done by Gedeon the Judge, in Christ hath its end. For he asked a sign of the Lord, that a fleece laid on the floor should alone be rained upon, and the floor should be dry; and again, the fleece alone should be dry, and the floor should be rained upon; and so it came to pass.5 Which thing signified, that, being as it were on a floor in the midst of the whole round world, the dry fleece was the former people Israel. The same Christ therefore Himself came down like rain upon a fleece, when yet the floor was dry: whence also He said, "I am not sent but to the sheep which were lost of the house of Israel.'"""® There He chose out a Mother by whom to receive the form of a servant, wherein He was to appear to men: there the disciples, to whom He gave this same injunction, saying, "' Into the way of the nations go ye not away, and into the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not: go ye first to the sheep which are lost of the house of Israel." 7 When He saith, go ye first to them, He showeth also that hereafter, when at length the floor was to be rained upon, they would go to other sheep also, which were not of the old people Israel, concerning whom He saith, 'I have other sheep which are not of this fold, it behoveth Me to bring in them also, that there may be one flock and one Shepherd." 8 Hence also the Apostle: "for I say,'' he saith, "that Christ was a minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers.''9 Thus rain came down upon the fleece, the floor being yet dry. But inasmuch as he continueth, " but that the nations should glorify God for His mercy: " '° that when the time came on, that should be fulfilled which by the Prophet He saith, '""a people whom I have not known hath served Me, in the hearkening of the ear it hath obeyed Me:" '* we now see, that of the grace of Christ the nation of the Jews hath remained dry, and the whole round world through all nations is being rained upon by clouds full of Christian grace. For by another word he hath indicated the same rain, saying, '' drops distill- " ing: no longer upon the fleece, but " upon the earth." For what else is rain but drops distilling? But that the above nation under the name of a fleece is signified, I think is either because they were to be stripped of the authority of teaching, just as a sheep is stripped of its skin ; or because in a secret place He was hiding that same rain, which He willed not should be preached to uncircumcision, that is, be revealed to uncircumcised nations.
10. "There shall arise in His days justice g. " And He shall come down like rain into a 7 Matt. x. 5, 6. 6 Matt. xv. 24. oe om. XV. 9. 5 Judg. vi. 36-38. ; 9 Rom. xv. 8. ohn x. 16. iI $ XVill. 43.
1 John i. 1. 3 Mark xvi. 19. 4 Rom, vi. 9. 2 Heb. i. 3.
330 THE WORKS OF
ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsaLm LXXII. and abundance of peace, until the moon be} taken away" (ver. 7). The expression #/atur some have interpreted by "be taken away," but others by "be exalted," translating one Greek word, which is there used, dvravaipeO7, just as each of them thought good. But they who have said, "be removed," and they who have said, " be taken away," do not so very much differ. For by the expression, "be removed," custom doth teach us that there should be rather implied, that a thing 1s taken away and is no more, than that it is raised to a higher place: but "be taken away"? can be understood in no other way at all, than that a thing is destroyed : that is, it is no more: but by "be exalted," only that it is raised to a higher place. Which indeed when it is put in a bad sense is wont to signify pride: as is the passage, "In thy wisdom be not exalted."* But in a good sense it belongeth to a more exceeding honour, as, for instance, when anything is being raised; as is,
11. "And He shall be Lord from sea even unto sea, and from the river even unto the ends of the round world" (ver. 8) : He to wit concerning whom he had said, "There shall arise in His days justice and abundance of peace, until the moon be exalted."°® If the Church here is properly signified under the term moon, in continuation he showed how widely that same Church He was going to spread abroad, when He added, 'and He shall be Lord from sea even unto sea." For the land is encircled by a great sea which is called the Ocean: from which there floweth in some small part in the midst of the lands, and maketh those seas known to us, which are frequented by ships. Again, in "from sea even unto sea" He hath said, that from any one end of the earth even unto any other end, He would be Lord, whose name and power in the whole world were to be preached and to prevail exceedingly. To which, that there might not be understood in any other manner, " from sea even unto sea:" He immediately added, "and from the river even unto the ends of the round world." Therefore that which He saith in "even unto the ends of the round world," the same He had said before in "' from sea even unto sea." But in that which now He saith, "from the river," He hath evidently expressed that He willed Christ to publish at length His power from that place from whence also He began to choose His disciples, to wit from the river Jordan, where upon the Lord, on His baptism, when the Holy Ghost descended, there sounded a voice from Heaven, "This is My beloved Son." 7 From this place then His doctrine and the authority of the heavenly ministry setting out, is enlarged even unto the ends of the round world, when there is preached the Gospel of the kingdom in the whole world, for a testimony unto all nations: and then shall come the end.8 "Tn the nights exalt ye your hands unto holy places, and bless ye the Lord."? Here then if we have understood the expression, "be removed," what will be, "until the moon be removed," but that it be so dealt with that it be no more? For perchance he willed this also to be perceived, that mortality is to be no longer, "when the last enemy shall be destroyed, death: ''3 so that abundance of peace may be brought down so far as that nothing may withstand the felicity of the blessed from the infirmity of mortality: which will come to pass in that age, of which we have the faithful promise of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, concerning which it is said, "'There. shall arise in His days justice and abundance of peace:" until, death being utterly overcome and destroyed, all mortality be consumed. But if under the term moon, not the mortality of the flesh through which the Church is now passing, but the Church Herself in general hath been signified, which is to endure for everlasting, being delivered from this mortality, thus must be taken the expression, "'There shall arise in
12. "In His presence shall fall down the Ethiopians, and His enemies shall lick the earth" (ver. 9). By the Ethiopians, as by a part the whole, He hath signified all nations, selecting that nation to mention especially by name, which is at the ends of the earth. By "in His presence shall fall down" hath been signified, shall adore Him. And because there were to be schisms in divers quarters of the world, which would be jealous of the Church Catholic spread abroad in the whole round world, and again those same schisms dividing themselves into the names of men, and by loving the men under whose authority they had been rent, opposing themselves to the glory of Christ which is throughout all lands ; so when He had said, "'in His presence shall fall down the Ethi-
His days justice and abundance of peace, until the moon be exalted ;" as though it were said, There shall arise in His days justice, to conquer the contradiction and rebellion of the flesh, and whereby there may be made a peace so increasing and abundant, until the moon be exalted, that is, until the Church be lifted up, through the glory of the Resurrection to reign with Him, who went before Her in this glory, the firstborn of the dead, that He might sit at the right hand of the Father ;+ thus with the sun 5 enduring before the moon, in the place whereunto hereafter was to be exalted the moon also.
2 Ps. cxxxiv. 2. I Ecclus. xxxii. 4; Vulgate, xxxii. 6. i 5 Or, '' abiding." 3 x Cor, xv. 26. 4 Mark xvi. 19.
6 Ps, Ixxii. 7. 7 Matt. iii. 17. 8 Matt. xxiv. 14.