The Lord will come and exalt you, that you may possess the land as an inheritance. It is clear that the land is superior, not this earthly valley; but that which is the promise of eternity, in which whoever is established is exalted by the Lord.
But you will see when sinners perish; then indeed there will be a reward for the righteous, when judgment is made about the wicked's merits. However, sinners do not perish in the same way. They perish for you beforehand, if you do not marvel at their power and wealth: if it does not move you when you learn that they abound in honors, children, and friends. For these things are of the world, and the world is subject to worldly malice: and the prince of the world favors those who serve him, according to that: 'All these things I will give you, if you fall down and worship me' (Matth. IV, 9). What do you seek for those things to be given to you, when the very impious one who gives cannot himself abide in them for long? He himself also passes away, so how can the things he has conferred not also pass away? Just maintain a steady mind, hold on to justice, let no one sway you, and you will see that there is nothing impious.
(Verse 35.) Finally, listen to him saying: I saw the wicked one exalted and raised above the cedars of Lebanon. And I passed by, and behold, he was not. I saw him in this age, I saw with the eyes of the body; I also saw him boasting and exalting himself with his words, considering himself to be something, who is nothing. How does he exalt himself? I will set my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High (Isaiah 14:14). He exalts himself so that you may see him exalted like the towering cedars of Lebanon: and they themselves are tall, and they are on the highest mountain. Therefore, those who are exalted are deservedly exalted, and the wicked, who establishes himself on that mountain about which it is written: If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: Be lifted up and thrown into the sea (Matt. XVII, 19). To whom? To the devil, he says, from whom this man was possessed and oppressed, whom you marvel at being healed. Therefore, he has more love in Christ than power in the devil. You see the cedar on the highest mountain exalted; but it is broken by the wind, it is burned by fire, it is dissolved by age: so it is with the rich person in the world. It shines indeed with a certain brilliance of secular grace, like Mount Lebanon. It leans on the power of the world, rejoicing in wealth and riches. Something seems to be to you, before you say: \"I will go over and see\" (Exodus 3:3). For just as Moses passed over material things with his soul and mind, and saw God, so too, if you pass from here, lifting the footprint of your mind to the grace of God, you will see that He is nothing who seemed most powerful to himself in this land. Therefore, God, the Word, says to your soul, says to your mind: Come here from Lebanon, my bride, come here from Lebanon: you will pass over and go through. If you pass over worldly things, you will go through to paradise. Listen to the one passing by, Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom. Listen again to the one passing through: Truly, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
What is: Behold, it was not. In the beginning, indeed, the Word was. And whoever sees the Word, who is a partaker of the Word, indeed he himself is; because the Word of God always is, and the speech which is from Him is not: It is and it is not; but: It is; and it remains in the one who follows God. But whoever does not know the Word, he is not, because he does not adhere to Him who said: I am who I am (Exod. III, 14). But whoever adheres to Him, is one spirit. Wherever the spirit is, there is also life. Therefore Scripture says of God: 'Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist' (Rom. 4:17); this means, he calls the nations that did not exist as his own people; for our ancestors were chosen by God. And elsewhere it is said: 'The Lord knows those who are his' (2 Tim. 2:19); he does not know those who are not his. And Esther says: 'Do not give your scepter to those who do not exist' (Esther 14:11). Therefore, the righteous man says rightly: And I passed by, and behold he was not; that is, I saw him exalted in the world before I considered that the world is nothing. But when I passed above the world in my mind, I saw that he who was before exalted in this world was no longer.
And you, if you are just, pass from present things to those things which are to come, and present things will pass away from you. Heaven and earth will pass away; but my words will not pass away (Matt. XXIV, 35). Therefore, all things pass away for the just. The wicked passes away, similar to vanity, and his days pass like a shadow. Not only do present things pass away from the just; but also when they intend to reach those things which are to come, those present things already pass away. See how present things have passed away from the just. Indeed, in the time of the prophet David, there was the Synagogue, but there was not yet the Church from the Gentiles. And he speaks of the future as if it were present, saying: Bless our God, O nations (Psalm 65:8). Furthermore, he says: God has ascended in jubilation (Psalm 47:6). The times of deceit will pass, not by age, but by mindset. And he celebrated the resurrection of the Lord, which would come many centuries later, with devout faith, saying: Sing to our God, sing; sing to our King, sing (ibid., 7). As though it were of interest to Christ himself and the sacraments of the wedding union of the Church, it leaps and rejoices. It also expressed the reason for the celebration, saying: The Lord has reigned over all the earth (Ibid., 8). Therefore, if we pass by, and those things which are to come seem to have passed by us; just as if you pass by land while sailing, you also see it pass by, and as if it were departing from you. Often sailors, especially in a storm, flee from land; and yet when they flee from it, it seems rather to flee from the sailors. And if you flee from this world, it too will flee from you; if you pass by this earth, it too will pass by you. And you sail in this sea, and in this age you fluctuate; flee the earth, it has rocks, it has stones; as it is written: Cast stones from the path (Isaiah 62:10). If you hasten through this airy abyss to the port of divine will, you will see that all these things have passed by you. For what difference does it make whether they have passed by, or whether you judge that you have passed them by?
There is another wicked one who appears exalted and elevated above the cedars of Lebanon; but if you pass by, he will not be, nor will you find his place. See to me a Jewish scribe returning the series of the old Scriptures, but not following; you hear that he gives it back with his lips, you wonder how learned he is. You ask what he believes: he answers according to the letter, he goes through the history. He seems to you to be exalted and elevated, if you consider the letter. Pass on to spiritual understanding, because the Law is spiritual; you see that he is nothing, then you say: I saw the wicked one exalted. ...and I passed by, and behold, he was not there; and I searched for him, and the place of him was not found. I searched for him where he should have been, where life is: I did not find him. He was not there, where life was; for he was dead, and therefore the place of him was not found. For what is the place of the dead, who was not, nor ever was? For he was not, who was in the letter; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Therefore, I sought him, that I might find him: he did not present himself, that he might be found; that is, I wanted to convert him: he did not want to present himself to me, that he might be converted. I did what a seeker would do: he fled from that which should have returned. Finally, the soul that desires to be converted, seeks the Word; and when it finds it, it says: I have taken hold of him, and I will not let him go (Song of Solomon 3:4). That is, the Son of God, the Word of God. But the unjust person who refused to be healed, I sought him, and I did not find him; and therefore, do not imitate him.
(V. 37.) Keep innocence, and see equity. Whoever keeps innocence, sees equity; for whoever is pure sees God, whose staff is upright, and upright is his justice; to turn away from those who turn to the pursuit of wickedness. Blessed is innocence, which sees God. Finally, others have added: Keep perfection; for he is perfect who knows no evil, nor does he know deceit. Therefore, it says: Keep perfection; for there are remnants for a peaceful man. Relics are said to be from the body of the dead, from his remains. They are called relics because after the death of a person, they appear to survive; for what remains are preserved for resurrection. Indeed, it is necessary for this corruptible to put on incorruption, and for this mortal to put on immortality. Therefore, relics are more so the hope of resurrection for a person, and the faith of conversion, and the grace of love; since the wicked do not rise to judgment; but the life of the Just is known to God, and is proven by the judgment of the Lord. To this place it beautifully applies, 'According to the election of grace, the remnant has been saved.' (Rom. 11:5).
(Verse 38.) But the unjust will perish together; the remnants of the wicked will be destroyed. The remnants of the righteous are virtues; the remnants of the wicked are wickedness and the sin of treachery. They will be wiped away, so that they will not exist.
The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; not from the world, not from an element. Heaven and earth will pass away. I do not entrust my salvation to heaven; because it too will pass away, for it is said of many heavens: They will perish, but you will remain. I entrust myself only to God, who remains, who can forgive sins; that He may be my protector in times of tribulation, that He may help me and deliver me, and snatch me from the sinners in the time of His judgment, and make me safe, for I have hoped in Him. In Him alone I have hoped; for He does not desire us to serve both Himself and others. He who serves Himself alone is liberated; for to Himself belongs praise, glory, and eternal power, both now and forever, and unto all ages of ages.
On Psalm 38
Preface
About Repentance, I have already written two small books, and I think I should write again. First, because it is useful to ask for the forgiveness of sins daily; then because in those two books there is an exhortation to repentance and progress, if it is done; but now how repentance should be done must be expressed; for it is of no benefit to act, unless it is done as it should be. In this, the holy David proposed for us a model to follow, who seems to me to have tasted sin in order to teach how sin could be wiped away. For indeed, where did medicine arise, if not from a wound? While the earliest ages of humanity teach others what has been beneficial to themselves, and how they have healed their own wounds, they show others; practice has made the art, and illness the teacher. For it is the first and most reliable school of medicine, which experience, not conjecture, has formed. Therefore, those doctors are first called empirics from experience, and the other schools are derived from them, and they have taken some use of their virtue from it. But what is more powerful for encouraging repentance than what the holy prophet David has taught us, to repent of our sins? For who would refuse to humble themselves before God, when even the king himself humbled himself? Or who would doubt to afflict their soul, when such a great prophet has afflicted himself, paying the price of tears for the redemption of sin? And although he has spread the precepts of repentance throughout all his writings (for which of his Psalms is not a remedy for the conscience of a sinner; when elsewhere he shows how he was moved, and elsewhere how he was disturbed, so as not only to show how wounds should be healed, but also how they should be avoided, and teach us by his own example?) But who, however strong, can claim to stand, when he has fallen? Yet in the 37th psalm, he expressed a greater force of inner sorrow and lamentable lamentation.
(Verse 1.) Finally, at the beginning, the title itself reminds us that such precepts are to be formulated; for we read as follows: ‘For a remembrance,’ he says, ‘of the sabbath day, a psalm of David.’ For the definition of penance is full remembrance of sins; so that each person may chastise his sins with the scourge of daily discourse, and condemn the vices committed by himself. For we are taught as follows, with the Lord himself saying: ‘Tell me your iniquities, that you may be justified.’ (Isaiah 43:26). And the Apostle says: 'With the mouth confession is made unto salvation' (Rom. X, 10). But perhaps it may cause perplexity because he did not say the remembrance of sins, but of the Sabbath day, or (as another has it) of Sabbaths (Exod. XX, 8 et seq.). But what is the Sabbath, but the rest of future things, the solace of present things, by which the Law commands men's works to rest and their burdens to be put away? And what are heavier burdens than our sins? Let these be put away on the Sabbath days, that is, in the time of this present life. For in seven days the whole week is concluded, in six days that world was formed, on the seventh day the Lord rested from his work, he who rests in our gentleness, as he himself said: On whom shall I rest, except on the humble and gentle? (Isaiah 66:2) Therefore, free yourself from every Sabbath and lighten the burden of your errors; so that you may deserve to attain the secure rest of that future Sabbath. For if you bear heavy sins here, you will not have rest there. Therefore, free your mind, reject all that burdens and oppresses your conscience, lest your flight be hindered by winter or the Sabbath: this life is one of labor, while the next is one of rest. May the completion of this present age find you lighter, so that burdened by sins you may not be unable to flee. Anticipate, so that you may take the lead. The world flees, he who is not bound by the allurements of the world, who is detached from all its concerns. Flee also the coming wrath, that is, the day of judgment. He who repents will escape; for thus did John the Baptist declare, saying: You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore, produce fruits worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:7-8).
You heard today that John was baptizing in Aenon, near Salim. (John 3:23). Aenon is called the eye of punishments; Salim itself ascending; this is its interpretation. Therefore, whoever chooses to be baptized foresees punishments; and for this reason, he seeks refuge in the sacrament of baptism, so that he may lay down all sin, lest he begin to be subject to punishments. And perhaps it is he who foresees punishments who is baptized with the baptism of repentance; but truly, he who is baptized in Christ looks to the grace. Therefore the baptism of John is the eye of punishments; the baptism of Christ is the eye of graces. Although John was baptizing in Aenon, he was baptizing near the ascending; for this has the interpretation that it is called Salim himself ascending. Therefore he was next to Christ, who announced his coming. For the Son of Man who descended from heaven is also the one who ascended to heaven, in order to fulfill all things. But because such are the heavenly things, so are the heavenly ones; and he ascended to heaven, who, laying aside earthly things, is buried in Christ; so that he may rise again with Christ from the death of sin to the newness of life and the participation in inheritance; so that he may become, as it is written: the heir of God, the co-heir of Christ (Rom. 8:17).
Therefore, true medicine is to do penance: which is rightly preached when the physician comes from heaven, who does not aggravate the wounds, but heals them. A good physician, who taught us how to seek remedies for our earthly body; when the flower of healing herbs sprouted for us, which condemned sin in the flesh. Therefore, flesh became the antidote, which was previously the poison of sin: because it was the temptation of sins. Listen to how the flesh of God becomes an antidote: The Word became flesh (John 1:14); He put His hand into the den of vipers, He expelled the venom, He removed sin; that is, He condemned sin in the flesh.
And in order that this may be more fully considered, let us recapitulate the very chapter of the Apostle. For it is written thus: 'God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit' (Rom. VIII, 3 et 4). Therefore the Son of God came in the likeness of sinful flesh: not of course in the likeness of flesh, who assumed true flesh; but in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, of sinful flesh. For our flesh, the flesh tainted by sin, had been fashioned by deceit and poisoned by the venom of the serpent. Once it became subject to sin, it became the flesh of death, for it was indebted to death. Christ, in his own flesh, assumed the likeness of this condemned and prejudiced flesh. Although he took on the natural substance of this flesh, he did not take on any contamination: he was not conceived in iniquity and born in sin. He was not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; he was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin. What, then, is it? He condemned sin in the flesh, not sin in likeness of flesh, but because our sins Christ received not by use, but by quality: not by fault, but by sacrament of His mercy; and [thereby] He was made sin for us, who Himself did no sin. Indeed, also because He condemned sin in this flesh of sin, that is, in our flesh which is subject and prejudiced by this, teaching how we, being placed in the flesh, should not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit? For to walk according to the flesh is sin; for it lives by luxury, and pleasures, and debaucheries, and carnal desires, those who live according to the wisdom of the flesh; for the wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God: therefore those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Therefore sin condemns from sin those who live according to the spirit, devoting themselves completely to God, and intent on heavenly oracles: for this reason Christ came, so that he might do not his own, that is, the flesh's, will, but God's will. Therefore, if anyone follows Him, in order to do what pleases God and restrain the desires of the flesh, they are an imitator of Christ.
What we have felt, we have expressed. Whoever reads, choose what you will follow. There is no error where there is a simple affection of piety, and every faithful sentiment. Christ condemned sin by taking on the likeness of sinful flesh, in order to abolish the sins of our flesh. He condemned sin in order to crucify our sins in his own flesh; He himself became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him, who were captive to death and prey of the serpent. Therefore, this is an act of mercy, not of judgment. Through this sin, the eternal God absolves us, who did not spare his own Son, but made him sin for us. Then Christ condemned sin in the flesh, which had a certain judgmental power and authoritative censor, hated the vices that he used to love, and detested impurity, which he considered as pleasure. He separates himself from lust, renounces desires, rejects crimes and offenses, repels greed, which effeminates the strength of the flesh. I become an imitator of Christ for you, and I myself condemn sin in the flesh. Thus, I run, he says, not as if uncertainly, thus I fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude; lest when I have preached to others, I myself become reprobate (2 Cor. 9:26-27).
We have not wandered in vain, as I believe; for this also belonged to the healing of mankind. Considering this medicine, God commanded this earth to produce the healing juices of herbs and trees, by which wounds of the flesh could be treated; and in the same way, He filled the series of divine Scriptures with helpful teachings, by which the infirmity of the soul could be healed. Therefore, how serious is it that dumb animals know how to heal themselves and seek healing herbs for their wounds, without rejecting them; and yet human industry does not seek those things, for which even a physician is sent, who could demonstrate the seeds of healing in the ancient Scriptures and introduce new ones as well? How many healthy things, then, are considered harmful in passing? Let's take examples from the earth itself.
The serpent nourishes poison, it has harmful bites, it wounds the flesh; but even in its venom, you will find an antidote if you seek it. Finally, its flesh is burned, from which the theriac is made, by which the power of the poison is accustomed to be dulled, so that it cannot harm. Therefore, it is not the fault of the earth that gives birth to the serpent, but rather the one who does not know how to beware of the serpent. The serpent itself can be beneficial to you if you understand; indeed, if you do not despise the advice of the physician. Learn to imitate him whom you think should be avoided. Be, he says, wise like serpents, and innocent like doves (Matt. X, 16). Preserve your head like a serpent; and if you are torn apart in your whole body, you will revive. Your head is Christ, because he himself is the head of the man: if you keep the faith, even if you are dead like a serpent, you will rise again. Imitate the serpent, who sheds its outer skin, in order to be renewed on the inside: imitate the serpent, who vomits up its venom. Blessed are you if you vomit out your evil thoughts and cast off the poisons of your malice. It is a widely known saying, supported by the authority of writers, that a female snake, hissing at a snake approaching her in the water, agrees to mate; she, concerned for her own safety, promises with the law of her desired sexual encounter that she will use her own body if the snake vomits out its venom; and, once captured, she is ordered to obey, to lay down her weapons, and to insert her own head into its mouth; and when the custom begins to warm up, either by some force of nature or by the heat of passion, the female tightens her mouth around the head and presses the bites of desire with kisses, and thus the snake's head is severed.
Will you not recognize in the nature of the serpent the mystery of faith? That serpent in paradise first provoked the woman to the crime of adultery; but when its venom was poured out into this world, the offspring of that woman, by the deceit of the parent and the many tricks of the serpent, stripped it of its weapons and cut off its head. If the poisons prevail and the sin in which the sting of death is hidden overcomes you, imitate the example of physicians so that the serpent may die for you either early or late. You shall crush its venom and break apart its body, and you shall know that it is to be tempered with healing juices; so that not only will it lose its power and poison, but it will also become a remedy for poison. However, that intelligible serpent dies for you if you die to sin, and your sins die for you. Thus its venom is crushed if your actions cause you remorse: thus its every poison is destroyed if you cover it with good deeds, and temper the committed crime with faithful confession. Listen how the virtue of the dragon itself is crushed. Crush, he says, God will crush Satan under your feet (Rom. 16:20). First crush your heart, where the dragon's lair was; so that he may not find a place to dwell: crush the flesh of the dragon: his flesh is our sins. Therefore, God says to you: The nations feast upon him (Job 40:25). And further, he says: Death goes before him: The flesh of his body cleaves to him (Job 41:13-14). For as the saints, the body and members are of Christ; so the sinners who do not forsake sin, but cleave to sin, are the body of the dragon and its members. Therefore, we feast on the body of Christ; but they feast on the body of the dragon: we feast, who strive to cleave to Christ, daily remission and forgiveness of sins; but they, who daily connect sins to sins, feast on the continuation of wickedness and crimes.
Therefore, crush those meats, and sprinkle over them the bruising of your heart; then pour Jordan's water over all those things. For the descent and ascent of Jordan is, for whoever descends into the sacred font, also ascends, seeking what is above. For he descends into the death of Christ, who is baptized in Christ, and ascends into his resurrection. But if you have already been baptized and have erred, pour the water of tears, not false but true; so that from the depths you may cry out to the Lord your God, and it may be said of you: A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and much wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she was unwilling to be consoled, for they are not (Jeremiah 31:15). Rachel is the Church, in which the people of God are blessed: she weeps for you, she deplores your sins, and she weeps greatly; so that she easily does not accept consolation, just as those who grieve greatly. Therefore, she did not want to be comforted; because who you were, you ceased to be. But with this perseverance of grief and weeping, let her obtain to say: My son was dead, and now he is alive again; he was lost, and now he is found (Luke 15:32). Or perhaps Rachel did not want to be comforted by the children of Judah; because they are not the ones she had certainly conceived in order to exist. And therefore they did not receive consolation, as Herod killed the little children; because they did not believe in the coming of Jesus, fulfilling the measure of their wickedness, so as to kill the little ones and murder the Son of the Virgin. Therefore the Church of the Lord did not want to console the Jews, because they are not (believers); but in Christians who have been gathered from the nations, it feasts and rejoices; because they have become (believers), who were not (before).
Therefore you sent the water of the Jordan, the water of grace; drink this first: you sent the water of tears, the water of repentance; this is the second cup, so that you may first be restored. Drink the water from your vessels, drink the water from your tears, so that you may say: 'And my drink was mingled with weeping' (Psalm 101:10). Your weeping, therefore, is your drink; and your tears, your food. 'My tears have been my bread' (Psalm 41:4), he says. If tears are bread, you have food for the conversion of sin, according to what you read in the Gospel: 'For he to whom more is forgiven, loves more' (Luke 7:47). Where we often see some who were negligent before becoming Christians, after committing some sin, become more diligent and through repentance become perfect. Just as conversion is a remedy for sin, so is a remedy for poison. Listen to this remedy: The righteous at the beginning of speech accuses himself (Prov. XVIII, 17). The poison is sin; the remedy is the accusation of one's own crime: the poison is iniquity; confession is the remedy for the fall. And therefore true remedy from poison exists, if you confess your injustices, so that you may be justified.
But now let us adore the psalm, so that it may teach us how penance should be done. And so it begins:
Commentary
(Vers. 1.) Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; nor chasten me in your wrath. He who repents should be prepared to endure reproaches and suffer injuries; and not be disturbed if someone accuses him of his own sin. For if he himself must accuse himself, why does he not endure others accusing him? And if he should not fear being accused by a man, how much more by his Lord God, to whom we all, even in secret things, sin; since the condemnation of present things, especially the absolution of future things, is from Him. But those who are not condemned in this world, when they are not punished by men. Woe to me! if it is said of me: he has received his reward (Matthew 6:2). If a good deed is condemned by this judgment, how much more does the crime weigh down? For if mercy, thrown about with easy words, is robbed of eternal reward, how much more is the punishment of wickedness deferred by the bitter addition of interest? Therefore, he who repents should offer himself for punishment; so that he may be punished here by the Lord, and not be reserved for eternal torment: nor should he wait for the time, but rather confront divine indignation.