Expositions on the Book of Psalms
148 THE WORKS)? OF ST... AUGUSTIN. [PsaALmM XLV.
the Prophet says, "' Let us come before" (let us omitted: since in the One are contained all things.
" prevent') '' His face with confession." 5
10. " Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most Mighty" (ver. 3). What is meant by " Thy sword, but "Thy word''? It was by that sword He scattered His enemies; by that sword he divided the son from the father, " the daughter from the mother, the daughter-in-law from the mother-in-law."" We read these words in the Gospel, " Icame not to send peace, but a sword." ® And, "In one house shall five be divided against each other; three against two, and two against three ;"7 i.e. " the father against the son, the daughter against the mother, the daughterin-law against the mother-inlaw." By "what
7. Lo! now then that Word, so uttered, Eternal, the Co-eternal Offspring of the Eternal, will come as "the Bridegroom ;" " Fairer than the children of men" (ver. 2). " Than the children of men."' I ask, why not than the Angels also? Why did he say, "than the children of men," except because He was Man? Lest you should think "the Man Christ ''? to be any ordinary man, he says, "Fairer than the children of men."" Even though Himself " Man," He is " fairer than the children of men ;"' though among the children of men, "fairer than the children of men:" though of the children of men, "fairer than the children of men." "Grace is shed abroad on Thy lips." 'The Law was given by Moses. Grace and Truth camexbyn pesuss Ghrist."" Ay aN
" sword, " but that which Christ brought, was this division wrought? And indeed, my brethren, we see this exemplified daily. Some young man is minded to give himself up to God's service ; his father is opposed to it; they are "divided against each other: " the one promises an earthly inheritance, the other loves an heavenly; the one 'promises one thing, the other prefers another. The father should not think himself wronged: God alone is preferred to him. And yet he is at strife § with the son, who would fain give himself to God's service. But the spiritual sword is mightier to separate them, than the ties of carnal nature tobind them together. This happens also in the case of a mother against her daughter ; still more also in that of a daughter-in-law against a mother-in-law. For sometimes in one house mother-in-law and daughter-in law are found orthodox and heretical respectively. And where that sword is forcibly felt,? we do not dread the repetition of Baptism. Could daughter be divided against mother; and could not daughterin-law be divided against mother-in law? .. . 11. What does he mean to express by the "thigh"? The flesh. Whence those words, "A prince shall not depart from Judah; and a lawgiver from his thighs"?'® Did not Abraham himself (to whom was promised the seed in which "all the nations of the earth were to be blessed''), when he sent his servant to seek and to bring home a wife for his son, being by faith fully persuaded, that in that, so to speak, contemptible seed was contained the great Name ;"! that is, that the Son of God was to come of the seed of Abraham, out of all the
8. There have not been wanting those who preferred understanding all the preceding passage also of the Prophet's own person; and would have even this verse, '' Mine heart hath uttered forth a good word," understood as spoken by the Prophet, supposed to be uttering a hymn. For whoever utters a hymn to God, his heart is, as it were, "uttering forth a good word," just as his heart who blasphemes God, is uttering forth an evil word. So that even by what follows, "I speak of the things which I have made unto the King," he meant to express that man's chief work was but to praise God. To Him it belongs to satisfy thee, by His beauty ; to thee to praise Him with thanksgiving. . B My tongue is 'the pen of a writer writing quickly." There have been persons who have understood the Prophet to have been describing in this manner what he was writing ; and therefore to have compared his tongue to "' the pen of a writer writing quickly:" but that he chose to express himself in the words " writing quickly," to signify, that he was writing of things which were to come " quickly ;"' that " writing quickly " should be understood to be equivalent to " writing things that are quick ;"' i.e. writing things that would not long tarry. For God did not tarry long to manifest Christ. How quickly is that perceived to have rolled by, which is acknowledged to be already past! Call to mind the generations before thee ; thou wilt find that the making of Adam is but a thing of yesterday. So do we read that all things have gone on from the very beginning: + they were therefore done "quickly." The day of Judgment also will be here " quickly." Do thou anticipate its " quick" coming. It is to come "quickly;" do thou become converted yet more "quickly." The Judge's face will appear: but observe thou what
5 Ps. xcv. 2. 7 Luke xii. 52. 9 Recipitur.
6 Matt. x. 34. 8 Litigat. He seems to mean that the Catholic daughter-inlaw who receives the word of Christ is sure not to submit to heretical baptism. [On which compare Cyprian's teaching, A. N. F vol. Vv. pp. 376-385, etc. —C. ] en. xlix. 10, E.V_ '' from between his feet." 11 "Tn illa veluti humilitate sevzz77s esse magnitudinem Nominis." [The promise (Gen. ili. 15) dignified the loins of Isaac wel Xvii. 19) as with the Incarnation in its germ. Hence this mysterious form of oath was an oath by, the Promised Seed (Gal.
iii. 16). St. Paul quotes '' the promises" (not one text only), and honours the Septuagint, which gives what he makes so emphatic in Gen. xii. 7, xv. 18, and xxii. 18. —C.]
1 x Tim. ii. 5. 2 John i. 17. 4 2 Pet. iii. 4. 3 Lit. " my works."