Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
Psatm CXIX.] ON THE :PSALMS. 577 smaller and the greater in age are wont to be termed younger and elder, although neither of them hath arrived at or approached old age; although if we are concerned to seek in the Gospel the express term, elders, more than whom He understood, we find it when the Scribes and Pharisees said unto Him, " Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread."! Behold the transgression cf the tradition of the elders is objected to Him. But He who was wiser than His elders, let us hear what answer chewing it: but it is sweet to the mouth of the heart, not to the mouth of the flesh.
104. But what mean the words, '' Through Thy commandments I get understanding'? (ver. 104). For the expressions, I have understood Thy commandments: and, "I get understanding through Thy commandments;" are different. Something else then he signifieth that he hath understood from the commandments of God: that is, as far as I can see, he saith, that by obeying God's commandments he hath arrived at the comprehension of those things which he had longed to know. . . . These then are the words of the spiritual members of Christ, "Through Thy commandments I get understanding." For the body of Christ rightly saith these words in those, to whom, while they keep the commandments, a richer knowledge of wisdom is given on account of this very keeping of the commandments.
He made them. 'Why do ye also, He asked, "'transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" 2...
101. But what cometh next, doth not seem to apply to the Head, but to the Body: "I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy words" (ver. 101). For that Head of ours, the Saviour of the Body Himself, could not be borne by carnal lust into any evil way, so that it should be needful for Him to refrain His feet, as though they would go thither of their own accord ; which we do, when we refrain our evil desires, which He had not, that they may not follow evil ways. For thus we are able to keep the word of God, if we "go not after our evil lusts," 3 so that they attain unto the evils desired ; but rather curb them with the spirit which lusteth against the flesh,4 that they may not drag us away, seduced and overthrown, through evil ways.
" Therefore," he addeth, "I hate all evil ways. " For it is needful that the love of righteousness should hate all iniquity: that love, which isso much the stronger, in proportion as the sweetness of a higher wisdom doth inspire it, a wisdom given unto him who obeyeth God, and getteth understanding from His commandments.
Nun.
105. " Thy word isa lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths" (ver. 105). The word "lJantern"' appears in the word "light;" "my feet'' are also repeated in " my paths.'' What then meaneth "Thy Word"?° Is it He who was in the beginning God with God, that is, the Word by whom all things were made? It is not thus. For that Word is a light, but is not a lantern. For a lantern is acreature, not a creator; and it is lighted by participation of an unchangeable light. .. . Forno creature, howsoever rational and intellectual, is lighted by itself, but is lighted by participation of eternal Truth : although sometimes day is spoken of, not meaning the Lord, but that "day which the Lord hath made," 7 and on account of which it is said, ""Come unto Him, and be lightened." ® On account of which participation, inasmuch as the Mediator Himself became Man, He is styled lantern in the Apocalypse.? But this sense is a solitary one; for it cannot be divinely spoken of any of the saints, nor in any wise lawfully said of any, "'The Word was made flesh,' ?° save of the " one Mediator between God and men.''"™ Since therefore the only-begotten Word, coequal with the Father, is styled alight ; and man when enlightened by the Word is also called a light, who is styled also a lantern, as John, as the Apostles; and since no man of these is the Word, and that Word by whom they were enlightened is not a lan-
102. "Ihave not shrunk," he saith, " from Thy judgments: for Thou hast laid down a law for me" (ver.102). He hath stated what made him fear, so that he refrained his feet from every evil way... . Thou, more inward than my inmost self, Thou hast laid down a law within my heart by Thy Spirit, as it were by Thy fingers, that I might not fear it as a slave without love, but might love it with a chaste fear as a son, and fear it with a chaste love.
103. Consider then what followeth: "O how sweet are Thy words unto my throat !" (ver. 103). Or, as it is more literally rendered from the Greek, " Thy utterances, above honey and the honeycomb unto my mouth." This is that sweetness which the Lord giveth, 'So that the earth yield her increase :" 5 that we do good truly in a good spirit, that is, not from the dread of carnal evil, but from the gladness of spiritual good. Some copies indeed do not read "honeycomb:" butthe majority do. Now the open teaching of wisdom is like unto honey ; but that is like the comb which is squeezed from the more recondite mysteries, as if from cells of wax, by the mouth of the teacher, as if he were 2 Matt. xv. 3. 4 Gal. v. 17.
1 Matt. xv. 2. 3 Ecclus. xviii. 30, 5 Ps, Ixxxy. 12.
8 Ps. xxxiv. 5. 6 Johni. x. fom ea 11 y Tim. ii. 5. 9 Rev. xxi. 23. 7 Ps. cxviil. 24. To John i. 14.