Expositions on the Book of Psalms
82 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. Pe, Te ee An yee ee too dR ye REE DUS rere ee nt eens oe tS
[PsaLM XXXV.
Thou indeed know not anything? Didst Thou not know the hearts of them that charged Thee? Didst Thou not foresee their deceits? Didst Thou not give Thyself into their hands knowingly? Hadst Thou not come that Thou mightest suffer by them? What then knewest Thou not? He knew not sin, and thereby He knew not sin, not by not judging, but by not committing. There are phrases of this kind also in daily use, as when thou sayest of any one, He knoweth not to stand, that is, he doth not stand; and, fieth He any except believing and confessing? "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."! Therefore also that thief, although from His theft led to the judge, and from the judge to the cross, yet on the very cross was justified: with his heart he believed, with his mouth he confessed. For neither to a man unrighteous and not already justified, would the Lord have said, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,' and yet his bones were broken. For when they came to take down the bodies, by reason of the approaching Sabbath, the Lord was found already dead, and His Bones were not broken.3 But of those that yet lived, that they might be taken down, the legs were broken, that so from this pain having died, they might be buried. Were then of the one thief, who persisted in his ungodliness on the cross, the bones broken, and not also of the other who with his heart believed, and with his mouth made confession unto salvation? Where then is that which was said, "The Lord keepeth all his bones ; not one of them shall be broken;"' except that in the Body of the Lord the name of bones is given to all the righteous, the firm in heart, the strong, yielding to no persecutions, no temptations, so as to consent unto evil? ...
He knoweth not to do good, because he doth not good; and, He knoweth not to do ill, because he doth not ill. . . . What knew not Christ so much, as to blaspheme? 'Thereof was He called in question by His persecutors, and because He spake truth, He was judged to have spoken blasphemy.?7 But by whom? By them of whom it followeth, "'They rewarded Me evil for good, and barrenness to My Soul" (ver. 12). I gave unto them fruitfulness, they rewarded Me barrenness ; I gave life, they death; I honour, they dishonour ; I medicine, they wounds ; and in all these which they rewarded Me, was truly barrenness. This barrenness in the tree He cursed, when seeking fruit He found none.® Leaves there were, and fruit there was not: words there were, and deeds there were not. See of words abundance, and of deeds barrenness. "Thou that preachest a man should not steal, stealest : thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, committest adultery." 9 Such were they who charged Christ with things that He knew not.
12. "Which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him; yea, the poor and needy from him that spoileth him." . . . Who that deliverest, but He who is Strong in hand? Even that David shall deliver the poor from him that is too strong for him. For the devil was too strong for thee, and held thee, because he conquered thee, when thou consentedst unto him. But what hath the Strong in hand done? ""No man entereth into a strong man's house, to spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man."'4 By His own Power, most Holy, most Magnificent, hath He bound the devil by pouring forth the weapon to stop the way against him, that He may deliver the poor and needy, to whom there was no helper.S_ For who is thy helper but the Lord to whom thou sayest, "O Lord, My Strength, and My Redeemer." ® If thou wilt presume of thy own strength, thereby wilt thou fall, whereof thou hast presumed: if of another's, he would lord it over thee, not succour thee. He then alone is to be sought Who hath redeemed them, and made them free, and hath given His Blood to purchase them, and of His servants hath made them His Brethren.wenen
14. "But I, when they troubled me, clothed myself with sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer shall return into mine own bosom" (ver. 13)... . Brethren, if for some little space with pious curiosity we lift the veil, and search with the intent eye of the heart the inner part of this Scripture, we find that even this the Lord did. Sackcloth, haply He calleth His mortal flesh. Wherefore Sackcloth? For the likeness of sinful flesh. For the Apostle saith, "God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that through sin He might condemn sin in the flesh: '?'° that is, He clothed His Own Son with sackcloth, that through sackcloth'! He might condemn the goats. Not that there was sin, I say not in the Word of God, but not even in that Holy Soul and Mind of a Man, which the Word and Wisdom of God had so joined to Himself as to be One Person. Nay, nor even in His very Body was any sin, but the likeness of sinful flesh there was in the Lord ; because death is not but by sin,' and surely that Body was mortal. For
13. Let then our Head say, " False witnesses did rise up, they laid to My charge things that I knew not" (ver. rr). But let us say to our Head, Lord, what knewest Thou not? Didst
7 Matt. xxvi. 65. 10 Rom, viii. 3. 3 Lat. de cilicio; 7.e., sackcloth made of goats' hair. xvil. 3 and xxi. 39. —C.] Compare Matt. xxv. 32, 33. 1 Rom. v. 12,
8 Matt. xxi. rg, 9 Rom, ii, 21, 22,
I Rom. x. 10. 2 Luke xxiii. 43. 3 — xix. 33, 4 Matt, xii. 29, 5 Ps. Ixxii, 12, 6 Ps, xix. 14,