HOMILY 9
HOMILY 9
ON PSALM 75 (76)
IJ] EFORE THE CROSS brought light to the world, before th( IZ"\'\ Lord was seen on earth, 'God' was 'renowned it:
Juda, in Israel: moreover, 'great was his name';l bUi when the Savior came,' 'through all the earth his voice re sounded, and to the ends of tlle world, His message.'2
'In peace is his abode':3 for which the Hebrew has 'ir Salem.' You see, therefore, the literal translation is J erusalemthat is first was called Salem, later Jebus, anc finally Jerusalem. This is that Salem in which Melchisedee was king. We read: 'You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedec.'1i The psalmist did not say according t( the order of Aaron, but Melchisedec.
What is the meaning of, 'You are a priest according to the order of Melchisedec'? Obviously, the reference is to Christ
But why does it say, according to the order of Melchisedec'
Aaron offered victims; he poured out the blood of sacrificia animals. Melchisedec did neither of these; he merely offeree bread and wine; that is why it says, according to the order 0
Melchisedec.
The Hebrew has, 'And there was set up in Salem his tent.
Understand what that means: figuratively speaking, there i no tent of the Lord except where there is peace. Where then
1 Cf. Ps. 75 (76).2.
2 Cf. Ps. 18.5; d. Letter 60.4. PL 22.591-592 (334).
3 Cf. Ps. 75 (76).3.
4 Cf. Letter 73.7. PL 22.680(445); 46.3, PL Hebrew Quej tion on Genesis 14.18. PL 23.1010-1011 (329); 33.18. PL 23.1040 (358).
5 Ps. 109.4.
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is strife and discord, God is not there as Protector. Let us, too, follow the interpretation of the Septuagint. The abode of God is only in a peaceful soul; therefore, let the soul that is without peace know that it is not the dwelling place of God. 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to yoU.'6 Peace is our legacy from the Savior.
'His dwelling is in Sian.' A literal interpretation permits us to say of Jerusalem and Sian, that the temple was there, but in a tropological and anagogical sense, we mean that the dwelling of God is in Sian. Now Sian means stronghold or watchtower;7 hence, where there is in the soul the knowledge of Scripture and its doctrine, that soul is the dwelling place of God.
There he shattered the flashing shafts of the bow.' There.
Where? In Jerusalem and Sian. Jerusalem stands for peace, and Sian, watchtower. Let us consider, then, the nature of this peace and watchtower. We may explain them in two ways: first, as the human soul in which there is the peace of God and contemplation; second, either as certainly the Church or surely
Holy Scripture. There truly is peace, and there, too, the dwelling place and citadel of God. 'There he shattered the flashing shafts of the bow': the fiery darts that the devil shoots.
'Shield and sword, and weapons of war.' Of war: that war mentioned in another psalm: 'Scatter the peoples who delight in war.'8 And now, what follows? 'Sela' which the Septuagint translates as 'diapsalma,'9 and which in Hebrew means 'always.' See, the Lord always shatters the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war.
'Resplendent you come, 0 powerful One, from the everlasting mountains.' We interpret mountains in two ways: in the Old Testament as prophets; in the New, as apostles. Of these mountains Scripture says: 'I lift up my eyes toward the moun6 John 14.27; cf. Letter 13, PL 22.347 (28).
7 Cf. Letter 75.1, PL 22.686 (452); 108.9, PL 22.884 (697).
8 Ps. 67.31.
9 Cf. Commentary on Habacuc 3.3, PL 25.1312 (637-638); Letter 28, PL 22.433-435 (135-1119).
SAINT JEROME
tains, whence shall help come to me?'lO Upon these mountains, too, rested the city of God. 'A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden:ll We were all sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, and the Lord shone upon us from His eternal mountains, that is, from the prophets and the apostles. 'Despoiled are the stout-hearted: This we may say of infidels.
'They sleep their sleep; the hands of all the mighty ones have failed: Truly, this life is a dream, a dream of riches; for when we seem to have them within our grasp, immediately they slip away. Isaia expresses this same thought: 'As when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakens faint and dry,'12 so, indeed, are the riches of this world; while we are reaching out for them they are gone.
'Chariots and steeds lay stilled: Let us examine this verse in its tropological significance. At last Pharao mounted his steeds, sank into sleep, and perished. The Egyptians, too, had steeds, but they perished. That is the reason for the prescription found in the Law13 that no Hebrew should possess a horse. Solomon, you recall, had no horse from Jerusalem or Judea, but bought some from Egypt.14 Horses are always for sale in Egypt. 'Some are strong in chariots; some, in horses; but we are strong in the name of the Lord, our GOd:15 They, in truth, who mounted horses slumbered and perished. Our
Lord has horses, too, and He has shining mountains besides, whereas the devil's mountains are full of darkness.
Now just as there are bright mountains and dark mountains, there are good horses and again bad horses. We have made a few remarks about bad horses; let us say something about good horses. When horsemen came to Eliseus16 to arrest him, and the servant boy went out and saw an army of Assyrians round about the city, Eliseus said: 'Fear not: for there are more
10 Ps. 120.1.
11 Matt. 5.14.
12 Isa. 29.8.
13 Cf. Deut. 17.16.
14 3 Kings 10.28.
15 Ps. 19.8.
16 4 Kings 6.13-17.
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with us than with them.' A little further on in Kings it says:
'Lord, open the eyes of your servant that he may see.' And when his eyes had been opened, he saw chariots and horses.
These were helpmates. You notice what it says, chariots and horses. There were no men on the horses, only chariots and horses, in other words, a multitude of angels. They were the chariots and they were the horses; the charioteer was the Lord.
That is why the prophet Habacuc sings: 'Thy chariots are salvation.'17 This is said to God. 0, if only we, too, were God's horses, and God deigned to ride us! But those other horses slept their long sleep and their charioteers with them.
'The fury of your anger: When was this anger of God?
When the people cried out to Aaron in the desert saying:
'Come, make us a god who will be our leader; as for the man Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has happened to him.'18 You brought them out of the land of Egypt, and right after that they denied You. 'From heaven you made your intervention heard.' You spoke from heaven; all the people heard and trembled and still they did not believe in You. 'The earth feared and was silent.' Israel, however, was neither afraid nor silent.
'For the thought of man shall confess to yoU.'19 This same idea occurs in another psalm: 'Cleanse me from my unknown faults! From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant,'20 from thoughts that estrange You and that are sent secretly by the devil. What follows? 'Let it not rule over me. Then shall
I be blameless.'21 If I do not yield to sinful thoughts, I shall be clean in Your sight. And the next words? 'And I shall be innocent of serious sin.'22 Understand what the psalmist says. If an evil thought does not become deliberate and lead to sinful action, I have been delivered from a serious sin. 'For the 17 Hab. 3.8; cf. Commentary on Habacuc 3.8 PL 25.1317 (644); cf. Letter
66.2, PL 22.639-640 (394).
18 Exod. 32.1.
19 Cf. Ps. 75 (76).11.
20 Ps. 18.13, 14.
21 Ps. 18.14.
22 Ibid.; cf. Letter 130.8, PL 22.1114 (985).
SAINT JEROME
thought of man shall confess to you.' 'No one can be found clean of defilement in the sight of God, no one, however short his days.'23 'The heavens are not clean in the sight of God,'24 and 'with his angels he can find fault.'25 Why do I say all this? If the heavens are not pure and even angels are not flawless, how much more is there evil in the thoughts of men?
Where are they who say: 'Depart from me because I am clean'?26 We know what we suffer day by day, what is in our thoughts, and we blush with shame to reveal them. There are many who have never committed a serious wrong, there are others who have never sinned with their tongue; but on the other hand, there is no one among men who has not sinned in thought. That is why the psalmist says: 'For the thought of man shall confess to you.'
'To the terrible Lord.' To whom? To God. 'Who checks the spirit of princes.'27 When we see persons of power, like emperors, governors, and the potentates of this world, we also may say to God: 'Who checks the spirit of princes.' We can take the spirit here in two ways: either the spirit of the soul or the spirit of pride. Let us, however, explain this verse in a different way altogether. 'Who checks the spirit of princes.' Let us consider the saints as princes. Solomon, for example, was a prince, and the other saints were princeseven the Apostle Judas was a prince-and because they sinned,
God checked their spirit. Let no one, therefore, say: I am a bishop; I am a priest, or a deacon or a monk; I am a prince in this world. God is powerful enough to destroy the spirit of princes. Again, that you may be sure that God curbs the spirit of pride, recall how the good spirit of God departed from Saul and an evil spirit troubled him. Holy Writ says: 'And an evil spirit of God troubled him,'28 a spirit from God. Does
23 Cf. Job 14.4, 5.
24 Cf. Job 15.15.
25 Job 4.18.
26 Cf. Isa. 65.5, LXX; d. Luke 5.8.
27 Cf. Ps. 75 (76).1S.
28 Cf. 1 Kings 16.14, 15.
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God, then, have an evil spirit? Not at all. God had withdrawn so that afterwards an evil spirit might trouble Saul. In that sense, the spirit of God is called evil. Finally, holy David, knowing that God could take away the spirit of princes, entreats Him: 'And your holy spirit take not from me.'29
'Who is terrible to the kings of the earth: This is in the strict sense. On the other hand, God may permit us also to be kings of the earth, 'kings of earth' in order to rule over our own flesh. In this connection the Apostle says: 'Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body:30 In another part of Scripture it is written: The king's heart in the hand of God.'31
Was the heart of Julian, the persecutor, in the hand of God?
The heart of Saul, was it in the hand of God? Was the heart of Manasse in the hand of God? The heart of Achab? Were the hearts of all the impious kings of Juda in the hand of God?
Do you see that this verse does not admit of a literal interpretation? The kings, therefore, are the saints and their hearts are in the hand of the Lord. Let us beg God to make us kings that we may rule over our flesh that it be subject to us. The following words of the Apostle are appropriate here: 'But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.'32 May our soul be in command, our body in subjection; then Christ will come at once to make His abode with us. What does He
Himself say in the New Testament? 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man listens to my voice and opens the door to me, I will come in to him and will sup with him.'33
Every day Christ stands at the door of our hearts; He longs to enter. Let us open wide our hearts to Him; theQ He will come in and be our host and guest;34 He will dwell in us and sup with us.
29 Ps. 50.13.
30 Rom. 6.12.
31 Provo 21.1.
32 1 Cor. 9.27.
33 Apoc. 3.20.
34 Cf. Commentary on Osee 11.3, 4, PL 25.917 (125).