Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Psatm CXVI. as we have said, is earth ;) the whole therefore of this earth He hath given to the children of men, that by the consideration of it, as far as they can, they may conceive of the Creator, whom with their yet weak hearts they cannot see without that aid to their conception. human soul, that God hath inclined His ear unto thee, except thou sayest, "I have believed"? These three things, therefore, "abide, faith, hope, charity :'?® because thou hast believed, thou hast hoped; because thou hast hoped, thou hast loved. 27. 3. And what are thy days, since thou hast said, "In my days I have called upon Him''? Are they those perchance, in which " the fulness of time came," and "God sent His Son," 7 who had already said, "In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee'"'?® . . . I may rather call my days the days of my misery, the days of my mortality, the days according to Adam, full of toil and sweat, the days according to the ancient corruption. "For I lying, stuck fast in the deep mire,''9 in another Psalm also have cried out, "Behold, Thou hast made my days old ;" '° in these days of mine have I called upon Thee. For my days are different from the days of my Lord. I call those my days, which by my own daring I have made for myself, whereby I have forsaken Him: and, since He reigneth everywhere, and is all-powerful, and holdeth all things, I have deserved prison ; that is, I have received the darkness of ignorance, and the bonds of mortality. . . . Forin these days of mine, "The snares of death compassed me round about, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me" (ver. 3): pains that would not have overtaken me, had I not wandered from Thee. But now they have overtaken me ; but I found them not, while I was rejoicing in the prosperity of the world, in which the snares of hell deceive the more.
12... . But nevertheless since they derive the truth and richness of wisdom, not from man nor through man, but through God Himself, they have received little ones who shall be heaven, that they may know that they are heaven of heaven ; as yet however earth, unto which they say, " I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."' For to those very sons of men whom He made heaven, He who knoweth how to provide for the earth through heaven, hath given earth upon which they work. May they therefore abide, heaven and earth, in their God, who made: them, and let them live from Him, confessing unto Him, and praising Him ; for if they choose to live from themselves, they shall die, as it is written, " From the dead, as though he were not, confession ceaseth."? But, "The dead praise not Thee, O Lord, neither all they that go down into silence" (ver. 17). For the Scripture in another passage proclaimeth, "The sinner, when he cometh into the abyss of wickednesses, scorneth."'3 ' But we, who live, will praise the Lord, from this time forth for evermore " (ver. 18).
PSALM CXVI.4
1. "TI have loved, since the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer" (ver. 1). Let the soul that is sojourning in absence from the Lord sing thus, let that sheep which had strayed sing thus, let that son who had "died and returned to life," who had "been lost and was found ;"'5 let our soul sing thus, brethren, and most beloved sons. Let us be taught, and let us abide, and let us sing thus with the Saints: 'I have loved: since the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer." Is this a reason for having loved, that the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer? and do we not rather love, because He hath heard, or that He may hear? What then meaneth, "I have loved, since the Lord will hear"? Doth he, because hope is wont to inflame love, say that he hath loved, since he hath hoped that God will listen to the voice of his prayer?
4. But after "I too found trouble and heaviness, I called upon the Name of the Lord" (ver. 4). For trouble and profitable sorrow I did not feel; trouble, wherein He giveth aid, unto whom it is said, "O be Thou our help in trouble: and vain is the help of man." '' For I thought I might rejoice and exult in the vain help of man; but when I had heard from my Lord, " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted:"?? I did not wait until I should lose those temporal blessings in which I rejoiced, and should then mourn: but I gave heed to that very misery of mine which caused me to rejoice in such things, which I both feared to lose, and yet could not retain ; I gave heed to it firmly and courageously, and I saw that I was not only agonized by the adversities of this world, but even bound by its good fortune ; and thus " T found the trouble and heaviness" which had escaped me, "and called upon the Name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my
2. But whence hath he hoped for this? Since, he saith, " He hath inclined His ear unto me: and in my days I have called upon Him" (ver.
2). I loved, therefore, because He will hear; He will hear, "because He hath inclined His ear unto me.' But whence knowest thou, O
7 Gal. iv. 4. 10 Ps, xxxix. 5. 8 Isa. xlix. 8. 6 x Cor. xiii. 13. II Ps, Ix, 11. 9 Ps. Ixix. 2. 12 Matt, v. 4.
11Cor. iii. 6. 2 Ecclus. xvii. 26. 3 Prov. xviii. 3, LXX. 4 Lat. CXV. A sermon to the common people. 5 Luke xv. 6, 24.
Psatm CXVI.] ON THE PSALMS. S55 soul." Let then the holy people of God say, "I called upon the Name of the Lord:" and let the remainder of the heathen hear, who do not as yet call upon the Name of the Lord; let them hear and seek, that they may discover trouble and heaviness, and may call upon the Name of the Lord, and be saved... . 5. "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ; yea, our God is merciful" (ver. 5.). He is gracious, righteous, and merciful. Gracious in the first place, because He hath inclined His ear unto me; and I knew not that the ear of God had approached my lips, till I was aroused by those beautiful feet, that I might call upon the Lord's Name: for who hath called upon Him, save he whom He first called? Hence therefore He is in the first place " gracious ;" but "righteous," because He scourgeth; and again, " merciful," because He receiveth ; for "' He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth ;" nor ought it to be so bitter to me that He scourgeth, as sweet that He receiveth. For how should not "The Lord, who keepeth little ones " (ver. 6), scourge those whom, when of mature age, He seeketh to be heirs ; "for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?''? "I was in misery, and He helped me." He helped me, because I was in misery ; for the pain which the physician causeth by his knife is not penal, but salutary.
"'T was in misery, and He delivered me;" but the Apostle saith this also truly, that we are saved by hope.* And that we are delivered from death, is well said to be already fulfilled, so that we may understand the death of unbelievers, of whom he saith, "'Leave the dead to bury their dead." 5 . . . He will then clear our eyes of tears, when He shall save our feet from falling. For there will then be no slipping of our feet as they walk, when there will be no sliding of the -weak flesh. But now, however firm our path, which is Christ, be; yet since we place flesh, which we are enjoined to subdue, beneath us ; in the very work of chastening and subduing it, it is a great thing not to fal]: but not to slip in the flesh, who can attain? "TI shall please in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living" (ver. 9g)... . We "labour" indeed now, because we are awaiting "the redemption of our body :''® but, "when death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality ;"' 7 then there will be no weeping, because there will be no falling; and no falling, because no corruption. And therefore we shall then no longer labour to please, but we shall be entirely pleasing in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living.
. . . "I believed," saith he, " and therefore did I speak. But I was sorely brought down" (ver.10). For he suffered many tribulations, for the sake of the word which he faithfully held, faithfully preached ; and he was sorely brought down ; as they feared who loved the praise of men better than that of God. But what meaneth, " But I"? He should rather say, I believed, and therefore I have spoken, and I was sorely brought down: why did he add, " But I," save because a man may be sorely brought down by those who oppose the truth, the truth itself cannot, which he believeth and speaketh? Whence also the Apostle, when he was speaking of his chain, saith, "the word of God is not bound." ® So this man also, since there is one person of the holy witnesses, that is, of the Martyrs of God, saith, "I believed, and therefore will I speak." But ge not that which I believed, not the word hich: I have delivered; "but I was sorely brought down."
6. "Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath done good to thee"' (ver. 7) : not for thy deservings, or through thy strength ; but because the Lord hath done good to thee. 'Since,' he saith, '"' He hath delivered my soul from death" (ver. 8). It is wonderful, most beloved brethren, that, after he had said that his soul should turn unto rest, since the Lord had rewarded him; he added, since " He hath delivered my soul from death." Did it turn unto rest, because it was delivered from death? Is not rest more usually said of death? What is the action of him whose life is rest, and death disquietude? Such then ought to be the action of the soul, as may tend to a quiet security, not one that may increase restless toil ; since He hath delivered it from death, who, pitying it, said, " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," etc.? Meek therefore and humble , following, soto speak, Christ as its path, should the action of the soul be that tendeth towards repose ; nevertheless, not slothful and supine ; that it may finish its course, as it is written, "In quietness make perfect thy works."3 "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling."" Whoever feeleth the chain of this flesh, chanteth these things as fulfilled in hope towards himself. For it is truly said,
8. "I said in my trance, All men are liars" (ver. 11). By trance he meaneth fear, which when persecutors threaten, and when the sufferings of torture or death impend, human weakness suffereth. For this we understand, because in this Psalm the voice of Martyrs is heard. For trance is used in another sense also, when the mind is not beside itself by fear, but is possessed by some inspiration of revelation. "But I said
5 Matt. viii. 22, 6 Rom. viii. 23. 8 2 Tim. ii. 9. 4 Rom. viii. 24. 7 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54.
1 Heb. xii. 6, 7. 2 Matt. xi. 28-30. 3 Ecclus. iii. 19.