Exposition of Saint Ambrose of Milan, Bishop, on Psalm 118 of David.
Latin Text from public domain Migne Editors, Patrologiae Cursus Completus.
Translated into English using ChatGPT.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Although the mystical sounds of David the Prophet resound like a trumpet, the greatness of moral teachings is revealed in the Ethics, and the sum of this psalm declares the grace. For while all moral doctrine is sweet, it especially delights the ears with the sweetness of song and the delight of singing, and soothes the soul. And rightfully in many places it spreads the moral sentiments of the psalms like the light of stars, which shine and gleam. But the one hundred and eighteenth psalm, like the sun in full light, he sets in the advanced age of the book; so that neither the semi-full beginnings of the morning, nor the certain decline of the old age of the evening, take away anything from the splendor of perfect brightness. He arranged the Hebrew letters one by one, so that just as the minds of children become accustomed to the first elements of learning, they may also learn the use of living through these elements.
However, he wrote eight verses in each letter, in order to teach both unity (for unity restrains and governs all things, to which all things are subject) and the purification of legitimate sanctification. For the eighth day is the solemn purification according to the Law (Leviticus 12:3-4), because the solemnity of circumcision is decreed to be fulfilled on the eighth day, or because the whole world was polluted by our sins and contaminated during those seven days. But when the day of resurrection comes, we, who have been made alive with the Lord Jesus, rise up and stand, offering the grace of the newness of life. And rightfully we offer living creatures as the firstborn in the likeness of the firstborn Son of God, in purity and simplicity, a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God, not on the fourth or fifth day; lest it be an impure or incomplete sacrifice. But on the eighth day, on which we all, in the resurrection of Christ, are not only revived but also confirmed. Although full purification is immediately achieved in baptism, because the one baptized must understand the reason for the washing itself and the sacrifice, they do not offer a sacrifice until the eighth day, so that, having been informed by the knowledge of the heavenly sacraments, they may offer their sacred duty to the altars not as a novice, but as one capable of reason, when they have become more knowledgeable. Thus, the ignorance of the offerer does not pollute the mystery of the offering.
However, the title of the Psalm is Alleluia; that is, praise God. In these hymns, God is truly praised, in which there is forgiveness of sins. Finally, in the previous psalm, the passion of the Lord is mentioned; which washes away this world, to make worthy peoples who would praise God with a pure mouth. The very elements of the letters, such as all Hebrew names, are not empty and immune to rational interpretation, whose meanings we will unfold in their proper places. The one hundred and eleventh psalm is arranged in Hebrew according to the beginning letters of the verses, and it is entirely ethical; and the one hundred and tenth psalm seems to me to be written in the same way. Finally, it has twenty-two verses, and each verse explains a separate idea. Therefore, it is said to be composed in meter.
Sermon 1. Aleph.
The first letter is called Aleph, whose interpretation is doctrine. Therefore, as an attentive listener, you should assume that the following verses are full of teachings.
2. (Verse 1, 2.) Blessed are the blameless, it says, in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who search his testimonies: they seek him with their whole heart. What a beautiful order, how full of teaching and grace! It did not say first, those who search his testimonies (for it could have been written accordingly), but first: Blessed are the blameless in the way. For life should be sought before doctrine. For a good life, without doctrine, has grace: but doctrine without life has no integrity. For wisdom will not fall into an evil soul. Therefore, it is said: The wicked will seek me, and will not find me (Prov. 1:28); because the eye of the mind is blinded by wickedness, and iniquity obscures itself, it cannot find profound mysteries. Therefore, the first duty of life is to exercise the soldierly virtues, to correct our manners. When we have established these for the proper course, so that correction of offense may exist for the sake of purity, then we may proceed to the pursuit of knowledge in its proper order and manner. Therefore, morals are first, and mystical matters second. In the former, there is life; in the latter, knowledge. So, if you seek perfection, there should be neither life without knowledge nor knowledge without life. Each should support the other. Thus, the Scripture says: 'Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of life, and illuminate yourselves with the light of knowledge' (Hosea X, 12). It does not say 'illuminate first' but rather 'sow first'; nor does it only say 'sow first for righteousness' but also 'reap for the fruit of life.' And in this way, illuminate yourselves with the light of knowledge, so that perfection is not only achieved by planting, but also by receiving the fruits. In the first psalm, he held this order, that he would teach that one should walk in the way first, and then meditate in the Law. For the one who has not walked in the counsel of the wicked, certainly has not departed from the path of piety and justice: and rightly is pronounced blessed for walking in the way; and, day and night, by exercising meditation on the Law, he has the grace of blessedness.
Following this teaching, Solomon wrote a book of Proverbs, in which he thoroughly expressed the moral part, the natural part in Ecclesiastes, and the mystical part in Song of Songs. Although if you examine carefully, you will find many mystical elements in Proverbs, and the sweetness of morality in Song of Songs. For surely it is mystical: Wisdom has built her house and set up her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beasts, etc. (Prov. IX, 1). And this shines in the Song of Songs, both mystical and moral, in which the sweetness of flatteries and the affection of love are expressed: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; for thy breasts are better than wine, and the odor of thine ointments than all spices (Song of Songs 1:1).
4. Therefore, establish a betrothed virgin for a long time, and burning with just love, who knows by the assertion of many approved works, confirmed by the testimony of beloved witnesses, suspended in desires frequently, no longer enduring delays; who has done all things in order to see the bridegroom: sometimes obtaining her desires, disturbed by the unexpected arrival of the bridegroom, not seeking the beginning of a greeting, not the exchange of words; but immediately demanding what she desired. So thus the holy Church, which was espoused in the beginning of the world in paradise, prefigured in the flood, announced through the Law, called by the prophets, had long awaited the redemption of mankind, the beauty of the Gospel, eagerly hastens for the advent of the beloved, impatiently rushing into His embrace, saying: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth. And being delighted with kisses, she adds: Because your breasts are better than wine.
And to speak more morally, understand to me that flesh, which had been made wet with the venom of the serpent in Adam, which was tainted with the stench of sins, which advanced among the daughters of Zion with a high neck and nods of the eyes, and dragging the hems with her feet, and playing with her own feet, with curls of hair and composed faces, and ribbons and every affected adornment, more disgraceful: nevertheless, having been taught by many prophecies that He would come, who, having excluded the allurements of the serpent, would infuse the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that all flesh would see the salvation of God, all flesh would come to God, having blushed with desire: but fearing that, as before, she would displease as impatient, as lustful, as luxurious, as complaining; and being tormented by the longer than she could endure expectation of the Lord's delayed coming: yet not complaining, nor trespassing, but raising pure hands in every place without anger and dispute, adorning herself in a modest and sober manner, not with twisted hair, or gold, or pearls, or precious clothing; but with those things that grace chastity and good conduct, saying in prayer: Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth; for your breasts are better than wine. Now she eagerly desired to cleave to Christ in the flesh, now she hastened to be espoused; that there might be one spirit, and the flesh might become Christ’s, which before was the harlot’s. Let Him kiss me, she says (let the Word of God kiss us, when the Spirit of knowledge enlightens our sense); and as though despising all her delights and pleasures, longing to cleave to heavenly commandments, she says: For the precepts of Thy oracles are light, given above all the desires of the flesh, and the pleasures of the world. For he had remembered that he, in the person of Eve, had fallen thus before, preferring the pleasure of the body to the heavenly commands. He says: Your name has emptied the ointment (Ibid., 2). That is, the whole world reeked with filthy impurities of various crimes; now everywhere breathes the sweetness of chastity, the ointment of faith, the flower of integrity. And he comes from mortals to the mystical, saying: The King brought me into his chamber; let us rejoice and exult in you, let us love your breasts above wine (Ibid., 3). A kiss is simple, but the secret of the bedroom is complex.
6. In the same Gospel there is also a beautiful passage about morals; as the Lord says: Blind Pharisee, first clean what is inside the cup and dish, so that what is outside may also be clean (Matthew 23:26). For unless each person purifies themselves inside, even if they appear righteous and just on the outside, they will be like whitewashed tombs; they may appear just on the outside, but inside they are foul. Such is doctrine without the innocence of life. But even doctrine itself cannot have reward where it does not have the grace of innocence. For to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my justices? (Psalm XLIX, 16). But let us return to the proposed psalm.
7. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search his testimonies: that seek him with their whole heart. The first verse is moral, the second is mystical. Who says this? Certainly a prophet, who assumed human speech, and says this after the psalm in which the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is described. Where therefore the divine mysteries were revealed and he put on the joy of the Lord's resurrection, and tasted the grace of his passion; he saw the assemblies of the righteous, the people of the redeemed, the salvation of the lost, the resurrection of the dead, the sanctification of the sacraments, and exclaimed, saying: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, that is to say, behold, the cursed earth has begun to have blessedness in Adam; if, however, he does not abandon the law of the Lord: behold, the man who was formerly defiled is now undefiled. How precious it is to keep the commandment of the Lord! How precious it is also to know the mystery of his commandment!
8. But who is without blemish? Not surely the one who walks in any way, but the one who walks in Christ. For He Himself said: I am the way (John 14:6). In this way, whoever walks does not know how to err; if, however, he never departs from this way. There is also the way of the Law; and therefore, while he is without blemish, let him walk in the Law of the Lord: nor let him cease to walk in this way, lest he cease to be without blemish. Let him not turn to the right or the left, nor stagger, nor resist, nor wait; but let him walk forgetting the things above, and desiring those things which are before, let him follow toward the destination, let him hasten to the prize, let him strive all the way to the end; for the end of the Law is Christ. Many want to walk on the way, but not until the end. The Jews do not walk until the end, those who do not walk until Christ. Manichaeus does not walk on the way, who rejects the Law: but true faith walks that both receives the Law, and acknowledges the fullness of the Law.
9. Therefore, if anyone walks in the way, let them examine the testimonies of the Lord. Although they may be mystical, they also have moral implications, for those who examine the testimonies of the Lord can walk in the way more effectively. For example, someone who is consumed by intense adulterous desire, driven by lust, indulging in wickedness, unwilling to resist the desires of their flesh, if they happen to see no one around, they rush into wrongdoing. However, even though they may find a ready opportunity for pleasure, they carefully observe everything, their eyes turned away from justice, concerned about their reputation, they frequently twist things around, feeling shame for their error while not feeling shame for their mistake. And if they happen to recognize someone who witnesses their wrongdoing, shame separates them from their immoderation. And even though they may plot temptations of lust with a servant or common prostitute where there is no risk of being caught, they abandon their intentions out of shame. How much more, then, if someone lifts the eyes of their mind and considers that everything is filled with angels: the air, the earth, the sea, the churches, over which angels preside (for the Lord sends His angels for the defense of those who will inherit the heavenly promises), can they renounce sin having conceived this thought! Where does this crowd of innocents come from, if not from those sinners? The nature of all is the same, but the discipline is different. Circumcision is nothing, and being a Gentile is nothing, but the observance of God's commandments increases the grace of nature itself. The Most High changes deserved things, who says: Darkness is all around me, and the walls cover me: the Most High will not remember my sins (Sirach 23:26).
10. Would you not fear the presence of angels if you believed they were present? Would you not be afraid, I do not say to do, but to speak or even think what is evil, if Divine Scripture had taught you that God is the witness of thoughts, the true witness of secrets, as He Himself says: 'Be my witnesses, and I too am a witness,' says the Lord God, 'and my servant whom I have chosen' (Isaiah 43:10)? Do you fear the presence of a man, but not the presence of God the Father and the Son? But you do not want to believe, nor can you beware: you do not want to hear, when it is read, because God knows the secrets of men, lest you begin to know what you fear, and fear that you may sin. Therefore, listen to the divine Scripture, that you may turn away from the crooked and evil path. Do not be like a blind person with physical eyes, or like a deaf person, who, because he cannot see or hear the present, believes that he alone exists: and in the gathering of many, while he thinks no one is present, he goes on to perpetrate what he believes to be secret; for those who do not see cannot see those who are not seen; likewise, do not estimate with the blind eyes of the mind that you commit a crime without a witness; for you could have avoided the presence of a man. There are more who rebuke than those whom you could have guarded against. You cannot escape your own accuser, whom your own conscience convicts. And if you deny others, you do not deny yourself. And if you argue against man, you confess to God. And if you wish to deny, your own thoughts silence you.
11. The angels were assisting Elisha, whom he saw; and therefore he did not fear the armies of the enemy: but his servant feared, who did not see the angels. His eyes were opened by the grace of God at the voice of the prophet, he saw the host of angels, and believed that they were present, whom before, because he did not see, he thought absent (2 Kings 6:16-17). And you read the prophet, so that you may see, read so that your eyes may be opened: do not let the legion of the enemy frighten you, and do not think that you are besieged, you who are free, who are fortified by spiritual armies, if you do not abandon the prophet. When the prophet speaks to you, because God has said: I fill heaven and earth (Jeremiah XXIII, 24): when the prophet speaks to you, because there are many with us (2 Kings VI, 16), because there are angels around us: lift up the eyes of your mind, and you will see not only angels, but also God, who says to you: Open to me, my sister, my beloved (Song of Solomon V, 2). He knocks at the door and when you are sleeping: yet if you either wake up or respond when called, and open the door of your heart, he will enter. But if you avoid reading the prophetic text, if you do not read it at home, and you do not want to hear it in Church; are you not like one who closes his eyes in order not to see what he can see, or like those who, in anger, cover their eyes with their hands? So you turn away from someone who winks at you, not by forcibly breaking off the connection, but rather by dissimulation. For when you come to Church and profess yourself a Christian, you appear with open eyes, with which you can see. But while pretending not to hear what is read, you close your eyes so that you do not see for yourself, even if you seem to see to others; you also impose on your soul's eyes certain acts of unfaithfulness and intemperance, and voluntarily bring blindness upon your heart, which is even more serious; so that seeing, you do not see, and hearing, you do not hear.
12. Do you think you are alone when you fornicate and do not remember that the eyes of the Lord see the whole world? Do you not hear him saying: Behold the hour comes... that you may be scattered, each one to his own, and leave me alone, but I am not alone, for the Father is with me (John 16:32)? Therefore, the Father is present, the Son of God is present, the ministers are present, the Cherubim and Seraphim are present, who say: Holy, holy, holy: the earth is full of your majesty. For the world is full of holy virtues, because it is full of wickedness. The world is full of remedies, because it is full of traps. Do you think that Christ does not see you in the brothel, whom he sees entering the brothel? Do you think that he does not catch you in adultery, whom he sees pondering adultery? Does he retreat from walls, who observes errors: and does he shun the secret of a crime, who watches the scene of a crime? Do you think that you enter the prostitute's house for the first time when you enter the prostitute's room? You have already entered, when your thoughts entered the prostitute. You have already entered, when you entered with a step of the mind to satisfy the desire for debauchery. You knocked on the doors of the brothel, when you opened the eyes of your mind to the beauty of lusting after a woman. And if you want to hear the truth, how did Christ not see you in the brothel; when he saw you, because by committing adultery in your heart, you made yourself a brothel? Finally, the Lord Jesus himself says: Whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Yet, how is he so religious in opinion, who is so disreputable in crime?
13. But I rest in you, because Jesus does not want to see you, does not want to conquer you, who does not want to accuse you, do not want to see the angels. But the devil sees, who entered with you, indeed who introduced you: his ministers see, who surrounded you, so that you would not see the angels of God: Belial saw, the legion saw, who impelled you; so that no one would recall, so that no one would hold you back. Do not think that the conspiracy of silence gives you assistance, who desires to have a share in your punishment. He desires to see many like himself; and in that he has glory, that he has made many lost. He is the instigator, he is the accuser, he himself entered into Judas, he himself impelled him to betrayal, he himself sent him to the noose. How many will say against him on that day: You have deceived us, you have influenced (Gen. III, 13)! Do you want an example? Take Eve, who said that the author of her transgression was the serpent. But she implicated him, she did not absolve herself. To whom the Lord responds: 'I had not commanded you not to eat from the single tree, which is in the middle of paradise' (ibid., 11). Therefore, the Truth will answer and say to many: 'You have heard the Devil suggesting harmful things, but you were not able to hear me commanding things for your well-being.'
14. (Verses 3, 4, 5, 6.) And therefore let us practice righteousness: For those who work iniquity have not walked in His ways. You have commanded Your commandments to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be directed to keep Your statutes! Then I will not be put to shame, when I look into all Your commandments. Not only did He command to keep His commandments, but also to keep them diligently. When did He command this? Indeed, He commanded it to Adam in paradise, to keep the commandments: but perhaps He had not commanded to keep them diligently; and therefore he fell, therefore he was swayed by the voice of his wife, therefore he was deceived by the serpent, thinking that if he deviated from the commandment in any part, he would not completely err: but since he once strayed from the path of the commandments, he completely deserted the way, and left himself naked, stripped of everything. Therefore, the Lord, because the one who was in paradise had fallen, admonished afterwards through the Law, through the Prophets, through the Gospel, through the Apostles, to diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God. Every idle word that you speak, you will give an account for it. Do not be silent: not one iota or one apex passes away from any commandment. Do not deviate from the path. If you are barely safe from a robber while walking on the road, what will you do if he finds you wandering outside the path? May your steps be guided; and in order not to be weak in guiding, pray that the Lord may direct your ways.
15. He desires: Oh, that my paths may be directed! Elsewhere it is said: Waiting, I waited for the Lord, and he heard me ... and he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps (Psalm 39, 2 and 3). So you also pray, that the Lord may direct the steps of your mind, so that you may be able to keep the commandments of the Lord. You will not be confounded, when you look upon all his commandments. For formerly you were confounded in Adam and Eve. Finally, you became naked and you covered yourself with leaves; because you were confounded: you hid yourself from the sight of God; because you were ashamed, so that God said to you: Adam, where are you (Genesis 3, 9)? When he says that to him, he says it to you as well; for in the Latin interpretation, Adam is called man, that is, Homo, where are you? And Adam responded: Because I was afraid, because I was naked, and completely confused in my mind, I did not dare to come into your presence. Therefore, let us not be confused, let us keep the commandments of the Lord, and let us keep them all. For if someone keeps one commandment and transgresses another, it profits them nothing. Someone may refrain from bloodshed, but not from adultery; surely, if convicted in one, they are also punished by secular laws: nor does abstaining from another crime benefit them, if they are caught in another.
16. (Verses 7, 8.) I will praise you, O Lord, with a sincere heart (reveal to me the ways in which you guide) when I learn the judgments of your justice. I will keep your statutes; do not abandon me completely. In this place, he declares his desire to know more fully the mystical realities, in order to enter into the innermost mysteries of heaven, and for the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ to be opened to him. Hence Solomon also says: Draw us after you; let us run in the fragrance of your perfumes. The King led me into his chamber (Song of Songs 1:3). And perhaps that which is said above, 'Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth' (ibid., 1), signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit coming upon, just as the angel said to Mary: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you' (Luke 1:35). But when the King brings her into his chamber, it signifies the time of passion, the piercing of the side, the shedding of blood, the ointment of burial, the mystery of resurrection. So that she receives the kiss as a bride: let the Church be brought into the chamber of Christ, not only as one betrothed, but also as one married; not only entering the marriage chamber, but also having obtained the legitimate keys of union. And so, as it were, she says: My brother, the joining of the drop will rest with me, in the midst of the breasts (Song of Solomon 1:12). And if we seek the chamber, let Him Himself teach us, who says: But you, when you pray, enter into your chamber: and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret (Matthew 6:6). The chamber of the Church is the body of Christ. The King has led her into all the inner mysteries, giving her the keys, in order to open for himself the treasures of the knowledge of the sacraments, to unlock the doors which were closed before, to recognize the grace of the resting one, the sleep of the departed, the power of the resurrection.