Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
ON THE. PSALMS. 551
PsALmM CXV.]
future. . . . For though it was so long after the departure of that people from Egypt, and so long before these seasons of the Church, that he sang what I have quoted ; nevertheless, he witnesseth that he is foretelling the future without any question. "According to the days," he saith, "of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things." 'The nations shall see and be confounded." This is what is here said, "The sea saw that, and fled:" for if in this passage, through words of the past tense the future is secretly revealed, as is the case; who would venture to explain the words, '"'shall see and be confounded," of past events? And a little lower down he! alludeth more clearly than light itself to those very enemies of ours, who followed us flying, that they might slay us, that is, oursins, which are overwhelmed and extinguished in Baptism, just as the Egyptians were drowned in the sea, saying, since " He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He is of good will and merciful, He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us, He will drown our iniquities: and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
returneth ; and that the sea of this world, which he had set before his face, when he was gliding on towards it, may become behind him ; and that he may so forget what is behind him, that he may "reach forward to what is before him ;"' 5 which is profitable for him when once con Mente dah. 54% 8. " Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob"
(ver. 7). What meaneth, "at the presence of the Lord," save at the presence of Him who said, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."°® For the earth trembled ; but because it had remained slothful, it was made to tremble, so that it might be more firmly fixed at the presence of the Lord.
g. " Who turned the hard rock into standing waters, and the flint stone into springing wells"'
(ver. 8). For He melted Himself, and what may be called His hardness to water those who believe on Him, that He might in them become "a fountain of water gushing forth unto everlasting life ;'?7 because formerly, when He was not known, He seemed hard. Hence they who said, "This is an hard saying, who can bear it?' ® were confounded, and waited not until He should flow and stream upon them when the Scriptures were revealed. The rock, that hardness, was turned into pools of water, that stone into fountains of waters, when on His resurrection, " He expounded unto them, commencing with Moses and all the prophets, how Christ ought to suffer thus ;"" 9 and sent the Holy Ghost, of whom He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." '°
6. What is it, most beloved? ye who know yourselves to be Israelites according to Abraham's seed, ye who are of the house of Jacob, heirs according to promise, know that even ye have gone forth from Egypt, since ye have renounced this world; that ye have gone forth from a foreign people, since by the confession of piety, ye have separated yourselves from the blasphemies of the Gentiles. For it is not your tongue, but a foreign one, which knoweth not how to praise God, to whom ye sing Allelujah. For "Judah" hath become " His sanctuary" in you; for "he is not a Jew which is one outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and by circumcision of the heart." ? Examine then your hearts, if faith hath circumcised them, if confession hath cleansed them ; in you " Judah " hath become " His sanctuary," in you " Israel'' hath become " His dominion." For " He gave" unto you " the power to become the sons of God.'"3 . 7. But I would not that ye should seek without yourselves, how the Jordan was turned back, I would not ye should augur anything evil. For the Lord chideth those who have "turned" their " back"' unto Him, "and not their face." 4 And whoever forsaketh the source of his being, and turneth away from his Creator; as a river into the sea, he glides into the bitter wickedness of this world. It is therefore good for him that he turn back, and that God whom he had set behind his back, may be before his face as he
PSALM CXV."™
1. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the praise'"' (ver.1). For that grace of the water that gushed from the rock
('now that rock was Christ" '?), was not given on the score of works that had gone before, but of His mercy "that justifieth the ungodly." %3 For " Christ died for sinners," '4 that men might not seek any glory of their own, but in the Lord's Name.
2. "For Thy loving mercy, and for Thy truth's sake" (ver. 2). Observe how often these two qualities, loving mercy and truth, are joined together in the holy Scriptures. For in His loving mercy He called sinners, and in His truth He judgeth those who when called refused to come. "That the heathen may not say, Where is now their God?" For at the last, His loving mercy and truth will shine forth, when " the sign of the Son'of man shall appear
5 Philip. iti. 13. 6 Matt. xxviii. 30. 7 John iv. 14. 8 John vi. 60, 9 Luke ae 26, 27. Io ee Vil. 37. It Lat. CXIII. 12 x Cor. x 13 Rom. iv. 5. 14 Rom. v. 6. [In Sept. and Vale. this Psalm is joined with Ps, cxiv. —C.]
2 Rom. ii. 28, 29. 1 (re. Micah. See vii. 19.—C.]
i 4 Jer. ii. 27. 3 John i. 12.