Expositions on the Book of Psalms
PsaLM XLII] ON THE PSALMS. 133
SS eh, RI a Dn Se ee SS SS SS SS SS Se with running like any ordinary animal; run thou "like the hart." What is meant by "like the hart"? Let there be no sloth in thy running ; run with ali thy might: long for the fountain with all thy might. For we find in "the hart" an emblem of swiftness.
shall I come and appear before God?" This too proceeds from that "longing," of which in another place comes that cry, " One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." Wherefore so? "That I may behold"' (he saith) "the beauty of the Lord."* "When shall I come and appear before' the Lord?" 3o2%.
3. But perhaps Scripture meant us to consider in the stag not this point only, but another also. Hear what else there is in the hart. It destroys serpents,' and after the killing of serpents, it is inflamed with thirst yet more violent ; having destroyed serpents, it runs to "the waterbrooks," with thirst more keen than _ before. The serpents are thy vices, destroy the serpents of iniquity; then wilt thou long yet more for "the Fountain of Truth." Perhaps avarice whispers in thine ear some dark counsel, hisses against the word of God, hisses against the commandment of God. And since it is said to thee, "Disregard this or that thing," if thou prefer working iniquity to despising some temporal good, thou choosest to be bitten by a serpent, rather than destroy it. Whilst, therefore, thou art yet indulgent to thy vice, thy covetousness or thy appetite, when am I to find in thee "a longing" such as this, that might make thee run to the water-brooks? . 4. There is another point to be observed in the hart. It is reported of stags. . . that when they either wander in the herds, or when they are swimming to reach some other parts of the earth, that they support the burdens of their heads on each other, in such a manner as that one takes the lead, and others follow, resting their heads upon him, as again others who follow do upon them, and others in succession to the very end of the herd; but the one who took the lead in bearing the burden of their heads, when tired, returns to the rear, and rests himself after his fatigue by supporting his head just as did the others; by thus supporting what is burdensome, each in turn, they both accomplish their journey, and do not abandon each other. Are they not a kind of "harts" that the Apostle addresses, saying, '' Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the Law of Christ'??? ...
6. " My tears have been my meat day and night, while they daily say unto me, Where is thy God?" (ver. 3). My tears (he saith) have been not bitterness, but "my bread." Those very tears were sweet unto me: being athirst for that fountain, inasmuch as I was not as yet able to drink of it, I have eagerly made my tears my meat. For he said not, " My tears became my drink," lest he should seem to have longed for them, as for "the water-brooks:" but, still retaining that thirst wherewith I burn, and by which I am hurried away towards the water-brooks, 'My tears became my meat," whilst I am not yet there.s And assuredly he does but the more thirst for the water-brooks from making his tears his meat. . . . "And they daily say unto me, Where is thy God?" For if a Pagan should say this to me, I cannot retort it upon him, saying, 'Where is thine?" inasmuch as he points with his finger to some stone, and says, "Lo, there is my God!" When I have laughed at the stone, and he who pointed to it has been put to the blush, he raises his eyes from the stone, looks up to heaven, and perhaps says, pointing his finger to the Sun, " Behold there my God! Where, I pray, is your God?" He has found something to point out to the eyes of the flesh ; whereas I, on my part, not that I have not a God to show to him, cannot show him what he has no eyes to see. For he indeed could point out to my bodily eyes his God, the Sun ; but what eyes hath he to which I might point out the Creator of the Sun? ...
7. "I thought on these things, and poured out my soul above myself'"® (ver. 4). When would my soul attain to that object of its search, which is "above my soul," if my soul were not to "pour itself out above itself'? For were it to rest in itself, it would not see anything else beyond itself; and in seeing itself, would not, for all that, see God. Let then my insulting enemies now say, '" Where is thy God?" aye, let them say it! I, so long as I do not "see," so long as my happiness is postponed, make my tears my "bread day and night." Let them
5. "My soul is athirst for the living God" (ver. 2). What I am saying, that "as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so longs my soul after Thee, O God," means this, " My soul is athirst for the living God." For what is it athirst? "When shall I come and appear before God?" This it is for which I am athirst, to "come and to appear before Him." I am athirst in my pilgrimage, in my running; I shall be filled on my arrival. But '" When shall I come?'"' And this, which is soon in the sight of God, is late to our " longing." 3 " When
4 Ps, xxvii. 4. 5 Differor. ; 6 Super me; Vulgate, zx me. Compare Aristotle, 2th. ix. 9: voodmer OTL voovmer: Td 8 aig OaverOat 7H vo Ety, OTL aicbavoueba H voovmev, [ott Td aic OdverOar 7 voeiv] OTL éomev' TO yap Elvar Hv Td aigbaverOa H voeiv, x, T, A. " By the exercise of the powers of sensation and of thought, we become conscious of the exercise of those powers of sensation and of thought, and thereby conscious of our own being, for being is implied in the exercise of the powers of thought and sensation."
I [See p. 67, supra. pei J 2 Gal. vi. 2. 3 Citius Deo, tardum desiderio.