Expositions on the Book of Psalms
138 THE: WORKS°OF ST: AUGUSTIN, [Psatm XLIIL it seems to answer, " Wouldest thou not have me disquiet thee, placed as I am here in so great evils ? Wouldest thou have me not disquiet thee, panting as I am after what is good, thirsting and labouring as I am for it?" What should I say, but, because He gave Himself in His mortality to us when mortal. . 3. And since patience is needful in order to endure, until the harvest, a certain distinction without separation,+ if we may so speak (for they are together with us, and therefore not yet separated ; the tares however being still tares, and the corn still corn, and therefore they are already distinct) ; since then a kind of strength 5 is needful, which must be implored of Him who bids us to be strong, and without whose making us strong, we should not be what He bids us to be ; of Him who said, " He that endures unto the end shall be saved,''® lest the soul's powers should be impaired in consequence of her ascribing any strength to herself, he subjoins immediately,
"Hope thou in God; for I will yet confess unto Him" (ver.11). He states the very words of that confession; he repeats the grounds on which he fortifies his hope. " He is the health of my countenance, and my God."
PSALM XLIILI.'
1. This Psalm is a short one; it satisfies the mental cravings of the hearers, without imposing too severe a trial on the hunger of those fasting.? Let our soul feed upon it ; our soul, which he who sings in this Psalm, speaks of as "' cast down ;"' cast down, I suppose, either in consequence of some fast, or rather in consequence of some hunger he was in. For fasting is a voluntary act; being an-hungered is an involuntary thing. That which is an-hungered, is the Church, is the Body of Christ : and that " Man " who is extended throughout the whole world, of which the Head is above, the limbs below: it is His voice which ought by this time to be perfectly known, and perfectly familiar, to us, in all the Psalms; now chanting joyously, now sorrowing ; now rejoicing in hope, now sighing at its actual state, even as if it were our own. We need not then dwell long on pointing out to you, who is the speaker here : let each one of us be a member of Christ's Body ; and he will be speaker here. . 2. "Judge me, O Lord, and separate my cause from the ungodly nation" (ver. 1). I do not dread Thy judgment, because I know Thy mercy.
" For Thou, O God, art my strength : why hast Thou cast me off, and why go I mourning, while the enemy harasseth me?" (ver. 2). I go mourning: the enemy is harassing me with daily temptations: inspiring either some unlawful love, or some ungrounded cause of fear; and the soul that fights against both of them, though not taken prisoner by them, yet being in danger from them, is contracted with sorrow, and says unto God, " Why?"
Let her then ask of Him, and hear "Why?" For she is in the Psalm enquiring the cause of her dejection ; saying, " Why hast Thou cast me off? and why go I mourning?" Let her hear from Isaiah ; let the lesson which has just been read, suggest itself to her. "The spirit shall go forth from me, and every breath have I made. For iniquity have I a little afflicted him; I hid my face from him, and he departed from me sorrowful in the ways of his heart."7 Why then didst thou ask, "Why hast Thou cast me off, and why go I mourning?" Thou hast heard, it was "for iniquity." " Iniquity" is the cause of thy mourning ; let " Righteousness" be the cause of thy rejoicing! Thou wouldest sin ; and yet thou wouldest fain not suffer ; so that it was too little for thee to be thyself unrighteous, without also wishing Him to be unrighteous, in that thou wouldest fain not be punished by Him. Consider a speech of a better kind in another Psalm. "It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, that I might learn Thy righteousnesses.''® By being lifted up, I had learned my own iniquities ; let me by being " humbled," learn "Thy righteousnesses."" "' Why go I mourning, while the enemy harasses me?" 'Thou complainest of the enemy. It is true he does harass thee ; but it was thou didst "give place''? to him. And even now there is a course open to thee; choose the course of prudence ; admit thy King, shut the tyrant out.
" Judge me, O God," he cries. Now, meanwhile, in this state of pilgrimage, Thou dost not yet separate my place, because I am to live together with the "tares" even to the time of the " harvest:"? Thou dost not as yet separate my rain from theirs ; my light from theirs: " separate my cause." Let a difference be made between him who believes in Thee, and him who believes not in Thee. Our infirmity is the same; but our consciences not the same: our sufferings the same; but our longings not the same. "The desire of the ungodly shall perish,' 3 but as to the desire of the righteous, we might well doubt, if He were not "sure"? who promised. The object of our desires is He Himself, who promiseth: He will give us Himself, because He has already given Himself to us ; He will give Himself in His immortality to us then immortal, even t Lat. XLII. 2 Ventribus. a fast-day.
It is noted that this was an afternoon sermon on
4 Ouandam indiscretam discretionem.
5S Fortitudine, att. xxiv. 31. 7 Isa, lvii. 16, 17. 8 Ps, cxix. 71. 9 Eph. iv. 27.
3 Ps, cxii. 14.