Expositions on the Book of Psalms
Psatm LXXIV.] ON THE PSALMS. 343
The Commandments are the same, the Sacraments are not the same, the Promises are not the same. Let us see wherefore the commandments are the same ; because according to these we ought to serve God. The Sacraments are not the same, for some Sacraments there are giving Salvation, others promising a Saviour. The Sacraments of the New Testament give Salvation, the Sacraments of the Old Testament did promise a Saviour.' When therefore thou hast now the things promised, why dost thou seek the things promising, having now the Sayiour? ... God through the New Testament hath taken out of the hands of His sons those things which are like the playthings of boys, in order that He might give something more useful to them growing up, on that account must He be supposed not to have given those former things Himself. He gave both Himself. But the Law itself through Moses was given, Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ :? Grace because there is fulfilled through love that which by the letter was being enjoined, Truth because there is being rendered that which was promised. This thing therefore this Asaph hath understood. In a word, all things which to the Jews had been promised have been taken away. Where is their kingdom? Where the Temple? Where the Anointing? Where is Priest? Where are now the Prophetsamong them? From what time there came He that by the Prophets was foretold, in that nation there is now nothing of these things ; now she hath lost things earthly, and not yet doth seek things Heavenly.
overthrown. Of this thing in this Psalm "the understanding of Asaph" doth complain, and in the very plaint the understanding as it were doth distinguish things earthly from things heavenly, doth distinguish the Old Testament from the New Testament: in order that thou mayest see through what things thou art passing, what thou shouldest look for, what to forsake, to what to cleave. Thus then he beginneth. 3. " Wherefore hast Thou repelled us, O God, unto the end?" (ver. 1). 'Hast repelled unto the end," in the person of the congregation which is properly called Synagogue. '' Wherefore hast Thou repelled us, O God, unto the end?" Hecensureth not, but inquireth " wherefore," for what purpose, because of what hast Thou done this? What hast Thou done? "Thou hast repelled us unto the end." What is, "unto the end"? Perchance even unto the end of the world. Hast Thou repelled us unto Christ, who is the End to every one believing ?4 For, "' Wherefore hast Thou repelled us, O God, unto the end?" "Thy spiritS hath been wroth at the sheep of Thy flock.'' Wherefore wast Thou wroth at the sheep of Thy flock, but because to things earthly we were cleaving, and the Shepherd we knew not?
4. '" Remember Thou Thy congregation, which Thou hast possessed from the beginning" (ver.
2). Can this by any means be the voice of the Gentiles? Hath He possessed the Gentiles from the beginning? Nay, but He hath possessed the seed of Abraham, the people of Israel even according to the flesh, born of the Patriarchs our fathers: of whom we have become the sons, not by coming out of their flesh, but by imitating their faith. But those, possessed by God from the beginning, what befell them ? " Remember Thy congregation which Thou hast possessed from the beginning. Thou hast redeemed the rod of Thine inheritance." That same congregation of Thine, being the rod of Thine inheritance, Thou hast redeemed. This same congregation he hath called "the rod of the inheritance."' Let us look back to the first thing that was done, when He willed to possess that same congregation, delivering it from Egypt, what sign He gave to Moses, when Moses said to Him, "What sign shall I give that they may believe me, that Thou hast sent me? And God saith to him, What dost thou bear in thine hand? A rod. Cast it on to the ground," etc. What doth it intimate? For this was not done to no purpose. Let us inquire of the writings of God. To what did the serpent persuade man? To death.? Therefore death is from the serpent. If death is from the serpent, the rod in the ser-
2. Thou shouldest not therefore hold fast to things earthly, although God doth bestow them.
. . . See ye how that in fearing to lose things earthly, the Jews slew the King of Heaven. And what was done to them? They lost even those very things earthly: and in the place where they slew Christ, there they were slain: and when, being unwilling to lose the land, they slew the Giver of life, that same land being slain they lost ; and at that very time when they slew Him, in order that by that very time they might be admonished of the reason wherefore they suffered these things. For when the city of the Jews was overthrown, they were celebrating the Passover, and with many thousands of men the whole nation itself had met together for the celebration of that festival.3 In that place God (through evil men indeed, but yet Himself good ; through unjust men, but Himself just and justly) did so take vengeance upon them, that there were slain many thousands of men, and the city itself was
1 Jorn this use of the word '' Sacrament." —C.] '2 John i. 17. E 3 See Josephus, book vi. c. 9, § 3, whence the whole number of the besieged is stated at 1,197,000, of whom 1,100,000 perished. [The coincidence of the Passover with this day of retribution is noteworthy. On Good Friday accordingly. occurs a prayer for the Jews, in the Anglican Liturgy. —C.]
4 Rom. x. 4. 5 Animus. 6 Exod. iv. 1-3. on 7 Gen, iii. x. [See A.N. F. vol. iii. p. 63, note 12. —C.]
THE WORKS:-OF ST. AUGUSTIN: [PsaLm LXXIV.
pent is Christ in death.t Therefore also when by serpents in the desert they were being bitten and being slain, the Lord commanded Moses to exalt a brazen serpent in the desert, and admonish the people that whosoever by a serpent had been bitten, should look thereupon and be made whole. Thus also it was done: thus also men, bitten by serpents, were made whole of the venom by looking upon a serpent To be made whole of a serpent is a great Sacrament. What is it to be made whole of a serpent by looking upon a serpent? It is to be made whole of death by believing in one dead. And nevertheless Moses feared and fled.4 What is it that Moses fled from that serpent? What, brethren, save that which we know to have been done in the Gospel? Christ died and the disciples feared, and withdrew from that hope wherein they had been.S .. . But, at that time some thousands of the Jews themselves, the crucifiers of Christ, believed: and because they had been found at hand, they so believed as that they sold all that they had, and the price of their goods before the feet of the Apostles they laid. Because then this thing was hidden, and the redemption of the rod of God was to be more conspicuous in the Gentiles: he explaineth of what he saith that which he hath said, '"'Thou hast redeemed the rod of Thine inheritance." This he hath said not of the Gentiles in whom it was evident. But of what? "Mount Sion." Yet even Mount Sion can be otherwise understood. 'That one which? Thou hast dwelled in the same." In the place where the People was aforetime, where the Temple was set up, where the Sacrifices were celebrated, where at that time were all those necessary things giving promise of Christ. A promise, when the thing promised is bestowed is now become superfluous. . . . 5. "Lift up Thine hand upon their pride at the end" (ver. 3). As Thou didst repel us at the end, so "lift up Thine hand upon the pride of them at the end." The pride of whom? Of those by whom Jerusalem was overthrown. But by whom was it, but by the kings of the Gentiles? Well was the hand of Him lifted up upon the pride of them at the end: for they too have now known Christ. "For the end of the Law is Christ for righteousness to every one believing." ® How well doth he wish for them! As if angry he is speaking, and he is seeming to speak evil:9 and O that there would come to pass the evil which he speaketh: nay now in the name of Christ that it is coming to pass let us rejoice. Now they holding the sceptre are being made subject to the Word of the Cross: now is coming to pass that which was foretold, " there shall adore Him all the kings of the earth, all nations shall serve Him.' '° Now on the brows of kings more precious is the sign of the Cross, than the jewel of a crown. '" Lift up Thine hand upon the pride of them at the end. How great things hath the enemy of malice wrought in Thy holy places!" In those which were Thy holy places, that is, in the temple, in the priesthood, in all those sacraments which were at that time. In good sooth the enemy at that time wrought. For the Gentiles at that time who did this, were worshipping false Gods, were adoring idols, were serving demons : nevertheless they wrought many evil things on the Saints of God. When could they if they had not been permitted? But when would they have been permitted, unless those holy things, at first promised, were no longer necessary, when He that had promised was Himself holden? Therefore, " how great things hath the enemy of malice wrought in Thy holy places !"'
6. "And all 'they have boasted, that hate Thee" (ver. 4). Observe the servants of demons, the servants of idols: such as at that time the Gentiles were, when they overthrew the temple and city of God, "and they boasted." "In the midst of Thy festival."" Remember what I said, that Jerusalem was overthrown at the time when the very festival was being celebrated: at which festival they crucified the Lord. Gathered together they raged, gathered together they perished. 'They have set signs, their own signs, and they have not known" (ver. 5). They had signs to place there, their standards, their eagles, their own dragons, the Roman signs; or even their statues which at first in the temple they placed; or perchance "their signs" are the things which they heard from the prophets of their demons. "And they have not known." Have not known what? How "thou shouldest have had no power against Me, except it had been given thee from above." "! They knew not how that not on themselves honour was conferred, to afflict, to take, or overthrow the city, but their ungodliness was made as it were the axe of God. They were made the instrument of Him enraged, not so as to be the kingdom of Him pacified. For God doth that which a man also ofttime doth. Sometimes a man in a rage catcheth up a rod lying in the way, perchance any sort of stick, he smiteth therewith his son, and then throweth the stick into the fire and reserveth the inheritance for his son: so sometime God through evil men doth instruct good men, and through the tem-
I [In sin, which is death, The Lamb was made sin (7.e. a serpent) for us. 2 Cor. v. 21. —C.]
umb, xxi. 8; 3 John iil. 14. 4 Exod. iv. 3. 5 Luke xxiv. 21. 6 Acts iv. 34, 35. 7 Oxf. Mss. 7% guo for guem, 8 Rom. x. 4. 9 Or, ' curse."
10 Ps, xxii, 11. 11 John xix, 11.