Expositions on the Book of Psalms
632 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Psatm CXXXVIIL means, that day wherein they willed to overthrow Jerusalem. For how great persecutions hath the Church suffered! How did the children of Edom, that is, carnal men, servants of the devil and his angels, who worshipped stocks and stones, and followed the lusts of the flesh, how did they say, " Extirpate the Christians, destroy the Christians, let not one remain, overthrow them even to the foundation!" Have not these things been said? And when they were said, the persecutors were rejected, the martyrs crowned. ...
Evil desires at their birth. For there are, who have to fight with inveterate lusts. When lust is born, before evil habit giveth it strength against thee, when lust is little, by no means let it gain the strength of evil habit ; when it is little, dash it. But thou fearest, lest though dashed it die not; " Dash it against the Rock ; and that Rock IssCarigty ae 13. Brethren, let not your instruments of music rest in your work: sing one to another songs of Sion. Readily have ye heard; the more readily do what ye have heard, if ye wish not to be willows of Babylon fed by its streams, and bringing no fruit. But sigh for the everlasting Jerusalem: whither your hope goeth before, let your life follow; there we shall be with Christ. Christ now is our Head; now He ruleth us from above; in that city He will fold us to Himself; we shall be equal to the Angels of God. We should not dare to imagine this of ourselves, did not the Truth promise it. This then desire, brethren, this day and night think on. Howsoever the world shine happily on you, presume not, parley not willingly with your lusts. Is it a grown-up enemy? let it be slain upon the Rock. Is it a little enemy? let it be dashed against the Rock. Slay the grown-up ones on the Rock, and dash the little ones against the Rock. Let the Rock conquer. Be built upon the Rock, if ye desire not to be swept away either by the stream, or the winds, or the rain. If ye wish to be armed against temptations in this world, let longing for the everlasting Jerusalem grow and be strengthened in your hearts. Your captivity will pass away, your happiness will come; the last enemy shall be destroyed, and we shall triumph with our King, without death.
11. Then he turneth himself to her, '"O daughter of Babylon, unhappy ;" unhappy in thy very exulting, thy presumption, thine enmity ; "unhappy daughter of Babylon!" (ver. 8). The city is called both Babylon, and daughter of Babylon: just as they speak of ' Jerusalem" and "the daughter of Jerusalem," "Sion" and "the daughter of Sion," "the Church" and "the daughter of the Church." As it succeedeth the other, it is called "daughter ;" as it is preferred before the other, it is called " mother."' There was a former Babylon; did the people remain in it? Because it succeedeth to Babylon, it is called daughter of Babylon. O daughter of Babylon, "unhappy" thou! ...
12. '' Happy shall he be that repayeth thee, as thou hast served us." What repayment meaneth he? Herewith the Psalm closeth, " Happy, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock" (ver. 9). Her he calleth unhappy, but him happy who payeth her as she hath served us. Do we ask, what reward? This is the repayment. For what hath that Babylon done to us? We have already sung in another Psalm, "The words of the wicked have prevailed against us."* For when we were born, the confusion of this world found us, and choked us while yet infants with the empty notions of divers errors. The infant that is born destined to be a citizen of Jerusalem, and in God's predestination already a citizen, but meanwhile a prisoner for a time, when learneth he to love ought, save what his parents have whispered into his ears? They teach him and train him in avarice, robbery, daily lying, the worship of divers idols and dev-
PSALM CXXXVIII3
1. The title of this Psalm is brief and simple, and need not detain us; since we know whose resemblance David wore, and since in him we recognise ourselves also, for we too are members of that Body. The whole title is, "To David himself." Let us see then, what is to David himself. The title of the Psalm is wont to tell us what is treated of within it: but in this, since the title informs us not of this, but tells us only to Whom it is chanted, the first verse tells us what is treated of in the whole Psalm, "I will confess to Thee.'' This confession then let us hear. But first I remind you, that the term confession in Scripture, when we speak of confession to God, is used in two senses, of sin, and of praise. But confession of sin all know, confession of praise few attend to. So well known is confession of sin, that, wherever in Scripture we hear the words, "I will confess to Thee, O Lord," or, ils, the unlawful remedies of enchantments and amulets. What shall one yet an infant do, a tender soul, observing what its elders do, save follow that which it seeth them doing. Babylon then has persecuted us when little, but God hath given us when grown up knowledge of ourselves, that we should not follow the errors of our parents. . . . How shall they repay her? As she hath served us. Let her little ones be choked in turn: yea let her little ones in turn be dashed, and die. What are the little ones of Babylon?
1 Ps, Ixv. 3.
PsaLm CXXXVIIL] ON THE PSALMS. 633
"we will confess to Thee," forthwith, through habitually understanding in this way, our hands hurry to beating our breast: so entirely are men wont not to understand confession to be of aught, save of sin. But was then our Lord Jesus Christ Himself too a sinner, who saith in the Gospel, "T confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth"?! He goeth on to say what He confesseth, that we might understand His confession to be.of praise, not of sin, "I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." He praised the Father, he praised God, because He despiseth not the humble, but the proud. And such confession ; are we now going to hear, of praise of God, of | thanksgiving. 'With my whole heart." My! whole heart I.lay upon the altar of Thy praise, an whole burnt-offering ? of praise I offer to Thee.
hasten that we may adore. Our heart is pregnant and cometh to the birth, and seeketh where it may bring forth. What is the place where God is to be worshipped? . . . "The Temple of God is holy," saith the Apostle, '" which Temple ye are."® But assuredly, as is manifest, God dwelleth in the Angels. Therefore when our joy, being in spiritual things, not in earthly, taketh up a song ta God, to sing before the Angels, that very assembly of Angels is the Temple of God, we worship toward God's Temple. There is a Church below, there is a Church above also ; the Church below, in all the faithful; the Church above, in all the Angels. But the God of Angels came down to the Church below, and Angels ministered to Him on earth," while He ministered to us; for, "I came not," saith He, "to be ministered unto, but to minister."° .. . The Lord of Angels died for man. Therefore, "T will worship toward Thy holy Temple ;'' I mean, not the temple made with hands, but that which Thou hast made for Thyself.
. . . "I will confess to Thee, O Lord, with my! whole heart: for Thou hast heard the words of my mouth" (ver. 1). What mouth, save my' heart? For there have we the voice which God | heareth, which ear of man knoweth not at all. | We have then a mouth within, there do we; ask, thence do we ask, and if we have prepared | a lodging or an house for God, there do we' speak, there are we heard. "For He is not far, from every one of us, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being." 3 Nought maketh! thee far off from God, save sin only. Cast down the middle wall of sin, and thou art with Him! whom thou askest.
4. "And I will confess to Thy Name in Thy mercy and Thy truth." .. . These also which Thou hast given to me, do I according to my power give to Thee in return: mercy, in aiding others ; truth, in judging. By these God aideth us, by these we win God's favour. Rightly, therefore, " All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth." No other ways are there whereby He can come to us, no other whereby we can
"For Thou hast magnified Thy holy Name over everything." What sort of thanksgiving is this, brethren? He hath magnified His holy Name over Abraham. Of Abraham was born Isaac; over that house God was magnified ; then Jacob ; God was magnified, who said, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then came his twelve sons. The name of the Lord was magnified over Israel. Then came the Virgin Mary. Then Christ our Lord, " dying for our sins, rising again for our justification," 9 filling the faithful with His Holy Spirit, sending forth men to proclaim throughout the Gentiles, "Repent ye," etc.'° Behold, " He hath magnified His holy Name above all things."
i:come to Him.
2. "And before the Angels will I sing unto Thee." Not before men will I sing, but before the Angels. My song is my joy; but my joy in things below is before men, my joy in things above before the Angels. For the wicked knoweth not the joy of the just: "There is no joy, saith my God, to the wicked."4 The wicked | rejoiceth in his tavern, the martyr in his chain. In what did that holy Crispina rejoice, whose festival is kept to-day? She rejoiced when she was being seized, when she was being carried before the judge, when she was being put into prison, when she was being brought forth bound, when she was being lifted up on the scaffold,s when she was being heard, when she was being condemned: in all these things she rejoiced ; | and the wretches thought her wretched, when | she was rejoicing before the Angels.
5. "In what day soever I call upon Thee, do Thou quickly hear me" (ver. 3). Wherefore, "quickly"? Because Thou hast said, " While yet thou art speaking I will say, Lo, here I am." '' Wherefore, "quickly"? Because now I seek not earthly happiness, I have learnt holy longings from the New Testament. I seek not earth, nor earthly abundance, nor temporal health, nor the overthrow of my enemies, nor riches, nor rank: nought of these do I seek:
3. "I will worship toward Thy holy Temple" (ver. 2). What holy Temple? That where we shall dwell, where we shall worship. For we i Confiteor Tibt?. Matt. xi. 25. 2 [He adds: '' A whole:burnt offering is a sacrifice where the whole is burnt, for the Greek word oAov, (holocaustum, Lat.) meaneth ' whole.'" — C.]
8 Matt. xx. 28, It Tsa, lvili. 9. 7 Matt. iv. rr. 6 x Cor. iii. 17. pee
3 Acts xvii. 27, 28. 5 Catasta, 4 Isa, xlviii. 22, lvii. 21.
I 9 Rom. iv. 25.
att. iii. 2,