Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
140 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsaALm XLIV, et A a a merc whom wilt thou give that of which: thou hast original cause,' and also from the fact of our suffering much from those who are not "above'') ; this is "the harp." For there rises a sweet strain from that part of us which is " below :"' we " suffer," and we strike the psaltery,? or shall I rather say we sing and we strike the harp... . 6. And again, in order that he may draw the sound from that sounding-board below, he addresses his soul: he says, " Why art thou sorrowful, O my soul, and why dost thou disquiet me?" deprived thyself? Where wilt thou bestow what thou hast denied thyself? How many poor may be filled *° by the breakfast *! we *? have this day given up? Fast in such a way that thou mayest rejoice, that thou hast breakfasted, while another has been eating ; fast on account of thy prayers, that thou mayest be heard in them. For He says in that passage, " Whilst thou art yet speaking I will say, Here I am," ?3 provided thou wilt with cheerful mind "break thy bread to the hungry." For generally this is done by men reluctantly and with murmurs, to rid themselves of the wearisome importunity of the beggar, not to refresh the bowels of him that is needy. But it is 'a cheerful giver" that "God loves." 4 If thou givest thy bread reluctantly, thou hast lost both the bread, and the merit of the action. Do it then from the heart: that He "who seeth in secret," '5 may say, "whilst thou art yet speaking, Here I am." How speedily are the prayers of those received, who work righteousness! And this is man's righteousness in this life, fasting, alms, and prayer. Wouldest thou have thy prayer fly upward to God? Make for it those two wings of alms and fasting. Such may God's "Light" and God's "Truth" find us, that He may find us without cause for fear, when He comes to free us from death, who has already come to undergo death for us. Amen.
(ver. 5). I am in tribulations, in weariness, in mourning, " Why dost thou disquiet me, O my soul?"? Who is the speaker, to whom is he speaking? That it is the soul to which he is speaking, everybody knows: for it is obvious: the appeal is addressed to it directly: '' Why art thou sorrowful, O my soul, and why dost thou disquiet me?" The question is as to the speaker. It is not the flesh addressing the soul, surely, since the flesh cannot speak without the soul. For it is more appropriate for the soul to address the flesh, than forthe flesh to address the soul. ... We perceive then that we have a certain part, in which is " the image of God ;" viz. the mind and reason.* It was that same mind that prayed for "God's Light" and " God's Truth." It is the same mind by which we apprehend$ right and wrong: it is by the same that we discern truth from falsehood. It is this same that we call "understanding ;"" which " understanding,'' indeed, is wanting to the brutes. And this "understanding '' whoever neglects in himself, and holds it in less account than the other parts of his nature, and casts it off, just as if he had it not, is addressed in the Psalm, "' Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding."'® It is our "understanding " then that is addressing our soul. The latter is withered away from tribulations, worn out in anguish,? made "sorrowful" in temptations, fainting in toils. The mind, catching a glimpse of Truth above, would fain rouse her spirits, and she says, " Why art thou sorrowful, O my soul?" . . 7. These expressions, brethren, are safe ones: but yet be watchful in good works. Touch "the psaltery," by obeying the Commandments ; touch the harp, by patiently enduring your sufferings. You have heard from Isaiah, " Break thy bread to the hungry ;''® think not that fasting by itself is sufficient. Fasting chasteneth thine own self: it does not refresh others. "Thy distress will profit thee, if thou affordest comfort? to others. See, thou hast denied thyself; to
PSALM XLIV.%®
1. This Psalm is addressed "to the sons of Korah," as its title shows. Now Korah is equivalent to the word baldness ;'7 and we find in the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified in "the place of a skull." "8 It is clear then that this Psalm is sung to the "sons of His 'Passion.''' Now we have on this point a most certain and most evident testimony from the Apostle Paul; because that at the time when the Church was suffering under the persecutions of the Gentiles, he quoted from hence a verse, to insert by way of consolation, and encouragement to patience. For that which he inserted in his Epistle, is said here: " For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." 19 Let us then hear in this Psalm the voice of the Martyrs; and see how good is the cause which the voice of the Martyrs pleads, saying, " For Thy sake," etc. . . . 2. The title then is not simply ''To the sons of Korah," but, " Hor understanding, to the sons of Korah." 'This is the case also with that Psalm, the first verse of which the Lord Himself
He seems to mean our original from
I Prima nostra causa, Adam.
2 Psallimus. 3 Al. " anguishes." 4 T. Aquin. Prolog ad. I. Il. Per zmaginem Dez significatur (sicut Damascen. dicit), intellectuale, e¢ ardztrio liberum, et per se potestativum.
Ret Ade yOu 14 2 Cor. ixe7. 17 Caluitinm. 19 Rom. viii. 36.
10 Saginare. 11 Prandium, 13 Isa. lviii. 9 and Ixv. 24, 15 Matt. vi. 6. 16 Lat. XLIII. 18 Matt. xxvii. 33. Calvarie.
S Capimus. 7 Some mss. lamguoribus. 9 Latitudinem.
© Ps, xxxii. 9. 8 Isa, lvili. 7.
PsALM XLIV.] ON THE PoC NS I4I uttered on the Cross: "My God, My God, look wert present with them, in miracles of such a sort that Thy presence was perceived. For when God's presence with us appears by any miracle, do we see His face with our own eyes? No. Itis by the effect of the miracle He intimates to man His presence. In fact, what do all persons say, who express wonder at facts of this description? "I saw God present." " But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance ; because Thou pleasedst in them: " © i.e. didst so deal with them, that Thou wert well-pleasing in them: that whoso considered how they were being dealt with, might say, that '' God is with them of a truth ;" and it is God that moves? them. 4. "What? Was He then other than now He is?" Away with the supposition. For what follows ? upon Me; why hast Thou forsaken Me?"! For "transferring us in a figure"? to what He was saying, and to His own Body (for we are also "His Body," and He is our " Head"), He uttered from the Cross not His own cry, but ours. For God never "forsook" Him: nor did He Himself ever depart from the Father; but it was in behalf of us that He spake this: " My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" For there follows, " Far from My health are the words of My offences:'' and it shows in whose person He said this; for sin could not be foundsin Him...
3. "O God, we have heard with our ears; our fathers have told us the work that Thou didst in their days, and in the days of old" (ver. 1). Wondering wherefore, in these days, He has seemingly forsaken those whom it was His will to exercise in sufferings, they recall the past events which they have heard of from their fathers ; as if they said, It is not of these things that we suffer, that our fathers told us! For in that other Psalm also, He said this, '' Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. But I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and the outcast of the people." 3 They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them; have I then hoped, and hast Thou forsaken me? And have I believed upon Thee in vain? And is it in vain that my name has been written in Thy Book,' and Thy name has been inscribed on me? What our fathers told us was this: "Thou art Thyself * my King and my God." (ver. 4). "Thou art Tuysetr ;"" for Thou art not changed. I see that the times are changed ; but the Creator of times is unchanged. '" Thou art Thyself my King and my God." Thou art wont to guide me: to govern me, to save me. "Thou who commandest salvation unto Jacob." What is, "Thou who commandest"? Even though in Thine own proper Substance and Nature, in which Thou art whatsoever Thou art, Thou wast hid from them; and though Thou didst not converse with the fathers in that which Thou art in Thyself, so that they could see Thee "face to face," yet by any created being whatsoever "Thou commandest salvation unto Israel." For that sight of Thee "face to face"' is reserved for those set free in the Resurrection. And the very "fathers" of the New Testament too, although they saw Thy mysteries revealed, although they preached the secret things so revealed to them, nevertheless said that they themselves saw but "in a glass, darkly,' but that "seeing face to face' is reserved to a future time, when what the Apostle himself speaks of shall have come. "When Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." !° It is against that time then that vision "face to face" is reserved for you, of which John also speaks: "Beloved, we are now the sons of God: and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." '' Although then at that time our fathers saw Thee not as Thou art, "face to face,' although that vision is reserved against the resurrection, yet, even though they were Angels who presented themselves, it is Thou, "Who commandest salvation unto Jacob." Thou art not only present by Thine own Self; " Thy hand destroyed the nations ; and Thou plantedst them: Thou didst weaken the peoples, and cast them out" (ver. 2). That is to say: "Thou didst drive out 'the peoples' from their own land, that Thou mightest bring 'them' in, and plant them; and mightest by Thy mercy stablish their kingdom." 'These are the things that we heard from our fathers. But perhaps it was because they were brave, were men of battle, were invincible, were well-disciplined, and warlike, that they could do these things. Far from it. This is not what our fathers told us ; this is not what is contained in Scripture. But what does it say, but what follows?
" For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them ; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance" (ver. 3). Thy "right hand" is Thy Power: Thine "arm" is Thy Son Himself.s And " the light of Thy countenance." What means this, but that Thou
I Ps, xxii. x. 2 x Cor. iv. 6, 3 Ps, xxii. 4-6. 4 Ps, xl. 7. i F 5 [So Cyprian, A. N, F. vol. v. p. 516; also others Jasszm. C.J
7 6 Complacutsti in ezs. is To Col. ili, 4. 8 "Tues /pse." 9 x Cor. xiii. 12. 11 x John iu, 2.