HOMILY 59
HOMILY 59
ON PSALM 149
n HE ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY-NINTH PSALM has been read . which begins with the words: 'Sing to the Lord a new song.' The venerable priest has explained that Psalms 95 and 97 have this same introduction. The ninetyfifth psalm is entitled: 'A song for David himself, when the house was built after the captivity:1 and alludes to the house of Christ that is built after ca,ptivity, that is, after repentance for sin. Since, therefore, he has given us an excellent interpretation of the opening verse of our psalm: 'Sing to the Lord a new song'-that it is a new people that sings a new song-let us run quickly through the rest of it.
'Let Israel be glad in their maker.' Let them be glad who discern God, for the meaning here of Israel is 'perceiving
God.' 'Let the children of Sian rejoice in their king.' Children of the Church, children of a new people, let them rejoice in their king, in Christ, who reigns over them. Just listen to how lightly we are striking only the high tones!
'Let them praise his name in choir.'2 Wherever there is a choir many voices blend into one song. In the same way that separate chords produce a single effect, so, too, do separate voices harmonize as one. In other words, when the faithful gather together, they form the Lord's choir. Let them praise His name in choir; where there is dissension, where there is jealousy, there is no choir. 'Let them praise his name in choir, let them sing praise to him with timbrel and I Cf. Ps. 95.1; 96.1, LXX.
2 Cf. Ps. 149.3.
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psaltery.'S May this choir of ours have song; may it have timbrel and psaltery. Let us crucify our bodies for Christ and sing to God with a timbrel of this kind.
'Let them sing praise to him with timbrel and psaltery.'
A timbrel is not made of flesh but of skin, and as long as we are carnal, we are not timbrels. You cannot make a timbrel unless you remove all the flesh and draw the skin tight; a timbrel cannot contract; the membrane must be stretched taut. Let not sin contract us, but justice expand us. We must hasten on over the rest of the psalm. Let them sing praise to Him with timbrel and psaltery. What we sing in choir, let us play on the psaltery. The psaltery is a kind of musical instrument that is quite similar to a harp, but not identical with it. You pluck the strings of a harp downwards, but the psaltery upwards. The common term for psaltery is polyphthongum. So much for that. The prophet, therefore, bids us sing a new song to the Lord, not downwards on the harp, but upwards, on the psaltery.
'For the Lord loves his people, and he exalts the meek to victory.'4 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.'5 If, then, the Gospel says: Blessed are the meek-that is, the patient-for they will possess the earth; and this psalm says: He exalts the meek to victory; and they are the meek who will possess the earth; that being the case, this earth is not downwards, but upwards. What are the words of the psalmist? 'He exalts the meek to victory.' Certainly, if these meek were to be in possession of the earth, that is, downwards, he would not say, God 'exalts.'
'Let the faithful exult in glory.' In what glory? 'Awake, a my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I will wake the dawn.'6
In glory: 'For the Spirit had not yet been given, seeing that Jesus had not yet been glorified,'1 that is, He had not yet 3 Ibid.
4 Cf. Ps. 149.4.
5 Matt. 5.4.
6 Cf. Ps. 107.3.
7 John 7.39.
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been crucified. Scripture says: The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not been glorified, meaning that He had not been crucified. 'Let the faithful exult in glory.' Why am I stressing this point? Because the psalmist says: Let the faithful exult in glory, but I say: let the faithful exult in the cross. 'But as for me, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.'s Behold the prophecy had been fulfilled in the voice of the Apostle. 'Let the faithful exult in glory.'
'Let them sing for joy upon their couches.' 'Every night I flood my bed with weeping; I drench my couch with tears.'9
That is the cry of the sinner, of the penitent, but the words here: 'Let them sing for joy upon their couches,' apply to the saints, to the just. Who of us sings for joy upon his couch?
Who is there who does not struggle with his flesh? When I keep watch over myself upon my couch, I am not singing for joy; I am struggling; I do not sigh for the kingdom of heaven, but I wrestle with the flesh. I drench the fire of lust with my tears, and put it out. That is why the psalmist says: 'Every night I flood my bed with weeping; I drench my couch with my tears.' Tears extinguish the flames of my bed burning with lust. Happy are they of whom it says: 'Let them sing for joy upon their couches.'
'Let the high praises of God be in their throats.' To be sure, he who cries out does not cry out in his throat, but with his lips; I mean, of course, one does not call aloud with the throat but with the lips. How, then, does it say here: 'Let the high praises of God be in their throats'? 'Crying in our hearts, "Abba! Father!" '10 The voice that cries to God does not come from the lips, but from the heart. In fact, the Lord says to Moses: 'Why are you crying out to me?'ll Certainly Moses had not spoken a word.
'Let two-edged swords be in their hands.' They who sing 8 Gal. 6.14; d. Letter 22.27, PL 22.412 (1I0).
9 Ps. 6.7; cf. Letter 108.15, PL 22.891 (706); 122.1, PL 22.1040 (892).
10 Rom. 8.15.
II Exod. 14.15.
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for joy upon their couches-this means the saints surely, perfect men-what else do they have? 'Let two-edged swords be in their hands.' 'Two-edged swords.' The swords of the saints are two-edged. We read in the Apocalypse of Johnwhich, by the way, is read in the churches and is accepted, for it is not held among the Apocrypha but is included in the canonical writings12-as I was saying, it is written there of the Lord Savior: 'Out of his mouth came forth a sharp two-edged sword.'13 Mark well that these saints receive from the mouth of God the two-edged swords that they hold in their hands. The Lord, therefore, gives the sword from His mouth to His disciples; a two-edged sword, namely, the word of His teachings; a two-edged sword, historically and allegorically, the letter and the spirit; a two-edged sword that slays adversaries and at the same time defends His faithful.
'A two-edged sword.' This two-edged sword has two heads: it speaks of the present and of the future world; here, it strikes down adversaries; above, it opens up the kingdom of heaven.
Why do saints carry such swords? 'To execute vengeance on the nations.' a if I could but carry this two-edged sword so that I might be able to execute vengeance upon the nations, that I might be able to slay various heathens, that I might be able to kill Arius, Eunomius, Manichaeus, and destroy every last heresy I But grasp that it says: 'To execute vengeance on the nations.' So that they may be killed? So that they may perish? It does not say that. 'Punishments on the peoples.' Punish the peoples in order to save them, in order to save those whom evil teachers have seduced. It is not possible to liberate them, however, without first putting their teachers in chains, so the next verse continues right along.
'To bind their kings with chains.' Do you want to liberate the nations? Bind up the teachers. 'To bind their kings.'
The psalmist did not call them teachers, but kings, for they 12 Cf. Homily I on Ps. I, p. 3.
) 3 Apoc. 1.16; d. Letter 14.2, PL 22.348 (29).
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hold sway over sin and misery. 'To bind their kings with chains.' Well said, 'with chains'; that the teachers may not have freedom to run about, that they may not mislead the many, but that chained together, they may be forced to stand still. Their nobles with fetters of iron.' Their nobles.' You should hear them say in the presence of heretics: This man is learned; that one performs wonders; this one casts out devils. The saints of the Lord, who carry two-edged swords, swords of two heads-the Old and the New Testamentbind fast those teachers and fetter their feet with iron to prevent them from running. 'Their nobles with fetters of iron.' They fetter but do not kill or destroy them. They chain their hands together and lead their captives to the Church. These chains are made of links of scriptural proof while I join testimony to testimony. These chains are unbreakable because they are not made of single links, but are intertwined back and forth. 'A three-ply cord is not easily broken.'14 Now why is all this done?
'To execute on them the written sentence.' What is the written sentence? That they, who had first rejected the Lord, later return to Him through repentance. The written sentence: that they release their captives; that those whom they had bound, whom they had led in chains from the Church, they may afterwards set free in the Church. 'To execute on them the written sentence.' I shall state this more simply.
'To execute on them the written sentence,' in other words, to judge them according to the manner prescribed in the Sacred Scriptures.
This is the glory of all his faithful.' Certainly, that is not glory where there is gold, silver, gems, garments of silk. The man who possesses the sword of Holy Writ, what else does he need? Mark what it says: This is the glory of all his faithful.' Let us beg the Lord that this glory may be ours; that the sword coming forth from the mouth of our Savior may provide our hands with a weapon, and that we may be able
14 Eccles. 4.12.
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to say: 'Blessed be the Lord, my God, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.'15 The man who carries this long saber has no fear of the sword of the world. He who possesses this weapon is not afraid of the world's. I am telling you something novel. Very often, it is the sword of this world that confers the other sword; frequently, it happens that the one provides us with the other. If we are not afraid of the one, we receive the other. Let us, therefore, give thanks to Him who has that sword, and bless Him forever and ever. Amen.
15 Cf. Ps. 143.1.
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The indices to this volume will be combined with the indices of the second volume of this work which will be published at a later date.