So even when the righteous person is despised by the sinner, they are not turned away; and when they are harmed, they consider it to be the result of madness, not wickedness, and they desire to bring a remedy to their wound rather than seeking revenge, and they show sympathy and pain not for themselves, but for the one who suffers from a desperate affliction. They say that this one of the brethren suffers and is affected in such a way that they harm me; if they were to recognize me, they would surely honor me and certainly not harm me. For what has been injured by my act, so that it may have the feeling of the one who causes harm? Therefore, since there is no cause for causing harm, there cannot be a fault in the intention. Therefore, if I am just, I am affected because of love, because of affection, because of the harm to the Church, because of the detriment to the body. I can also grieve for this, that even if I have not harmed the one who harms me, and I am not conscious that I have provoked him against me with any injuries, yet I have been the cause of his fall, because he commits a sin by harming the innocent, because I have become the material of his sin.
Therefore, David is grieved, and he grieves because when one member suffers, the other members suffer with it. Therefore, perhaps it is also said: 'The righteous is an accuser at the beginning of his speech' (Prov. XVIII, 17). For even though a righteous person may have something to accuse himself of, and still be righteous (because no one is without sin except for God alone), and even though a sinner may by this very fact be righteous, because he accuses himself, according to the saying: 'Declare your iniquities, that you may be justified'; nevertheless, perhaps it does not seem absurd to some that it should also be said of him that he is righteous who accuses himself for another, even if he has nothing in himself to accuse.
22. So let us consider how the first person of the righteous man David fits into all this. He accused himself when there was no accuser. He confessed his own sin when his heart was struck, because he had numbered the people. He also said to the Lord, 'I have sinned, O Lord, what I have done is wrong; but now, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly' (2 Samuel 24:10). Therefore, although Scripture says that the anger of God was aroused against Israel, to excuse the king's downfall, when he saw the angel causing the destruction of the people, he presented himself to the blow, saying, 'Here I am, I have sinned, and I have done wrong. But what have these sheep done?' Let your hand be upon me, and upon the house of my father (Ibid., 17). Therefore, the righteous accuser accused himself at the beginning of his speech, and acknowledged his sin, and by confessing his own iniquity, he justified himself in himself. Also, when accused of Uriah's death by the prophet, he said: I have sinned against the Lord (II Sam. XII, 13); to which it was replied that his sin was taken away from him by the Lord because of his repentance.
23. Moreover, when Semei cursed him in another place and stoned him with a band of warriors, through whom he could have sought revenge, he bore it patiently, not even returning the insult in word. Indeed, when his general Abessa wanted to take off the head of the one who cursed him, the king said, 'What is it to me and to you, son of Sarvia? What he curses at me, the Lord has commanded him to curse David.' (2 Kings 16:10). Therefore, he first excused his fault and referred the matter to the will of the Lord. In the second place, he turned it back against its merit, so that he indicated not that he had erred, but that he had deserved it. In the third place, he remembered that his curse not only did not harm him, but even benefited him, as it is written: 'And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants: Behold my son, who went out of my seed, seeks my life; how much more so the son of Jemini?' (Ibid., 11) He greatly broke the attack of the avenger. How indeed could he avenge the curse of a stranger for the king's injury, when his own son's parricide remained unavenged? Not indeed as a curse from strangers, nor was it right to weigh the equal punishment of the parricide with a lance. And he added: Do not curse him; for the Lord said to him, until he sees my humility, and the Lord will repay me with good for evil. There is also another just proposal far more perfect and powerful, to intervene for persecutors and excuse sinners: which we read in the Gospel, with the Lord Jesus saying when he was crucified by the unfaithful: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.
Therefore, it is clear from these teachings of heavenly doctrine that a righteous person would prefer to accuse himself rather than defame another. Finally, it is written about Joseph, to whom Mary, the mother of the Lord, was betrothed, that when he saw her with child, being a righteous man, he did not want to expose her (Matthew 1:19); and certainly he had not yet heard any oracle. Thus, not only is a righteous person removed from the cruelty of vengeance, but also from the severity of accusation: and he considers his own forgiveness to be accused of not reporting, rather than to press a foreign crime. But you will say: How did David himself say, 'The righteous will rejoice when he sees the punishment of the wicked' (Psalm 57:11)? It seems to me that he rejoices because he himself has escaped, not because the wicked are punished. Let us seek another purpose of the righteous from what follows.
25. (Verse 54.) Therefore he says: Your justifications were delightful to me in the place of my pilgrimage. With good reason they were not broken by wanderings, they avoided the arrogant, and they were not moved by their prosperous successes. He consoled himself in heavenly judgments, he was troubled by others' sins; because he had delightful justifications of God. For what we hold well, we are accustomed to sing; and what is sung, adheres better to our senses. Let us not pass over in a cursory manner the things we read, so that then, when we read them, we seem to return to their memory; but even when the book is absent from our hands, like living creatures that are proven and considered clean by the Law, even when they are not feeding, they are accustomed to ruminate, bringing forth food hidden within themselves: so too, let us bring forth spiritual sustenance by ruminating on the treasury of our memory and our innermost selves. Let hymns be for us, let songs be for us, let the psalms be our justifications of the Lord. Let us sing with the spirit, let us sing with the mind; lest if we forget, let it be said to each one of us in the time of need: You have rejected my words after you (Ps. 49:17).
Therefore, in order to drive out and eliminate forgetfulness from his holy house, Solomon made true singers for himself, who with their whole spirit would devote themselves to the searching knowledge of divinity; lest the wicked spirit be driven away by the singing of his Church, of which he learned the example of David the saint, by whose singing that evil spirit was cast out, which afflicted the heart of King Saul. The prophets also commanded skilled singers to sing, so that the grace of the Holy Spirit might be infused with sweet delight. (2 Kings 3:14). And in the Gospel, we read that the prodigal son heard music playing in his father's house, which brought joy to the faithful but irritated the unfaithful. (Luke 15:28). Therefore, sweet is the melody that does not weaken the body but strengthens the mind and soul. Therefore, the song is called the Testament of the Lord, because we sing the forgiveness of all sins and the righteousness of the Lord in the Scriptures of the Gospel with the sweet exultation of the mind. The Lord Himself also did not hesitate to say: We have sung to you, and you did not dance (Luke 7:32). He sang to us in the Gospel the forgiveness of sins: the Jews should have raised their minds not with theatrical bodily movement, but with the Holy Spirit. They did not do so, therefore they are reproved.
27. But even the dancing of the body is considered praiseworthy in honor of God. In fact, David danced before the Ark of the Lord and Michal, the daughter of Saul, saw him dancing and playing musical instruments in the presence of the Lord. After he returned home, she said to him, 'How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today! He has exposed himself in the sight of the maidservants of his servants, as one of the rabble might shamelessly expose himself!' David said to Michal in the presence of the Lord, 'It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord's people Israel and Judah. I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.' And Michal, he said, had no son to the daughter of Saul until the day of his death (2 Samuel 6:20 et seq.). It is a clear example, therefore, that even the Prophet who played on the musical instruments and danced before the Ark of the Lord, was justified; and she who criticized him was condemned to barrenness.
28. But it is not enough for someone to have the justifications of God, unless they strip themselves of the earthly servitude of anxieties. Therefore, it is added: In the place of my pilgrimage (Psalm 38:13). It is fitting; for elsewhere it says: I am a stranger in this land (Ephesians 2:19). Hence, the Apostle does not want us to be strangers and foreigners in the house of God and in the calling of faith, but citizens of the saints and members of the household of God. For whoever is a servant of God is an exile from the world; whoever lives in heavenly things is a stranger to earthly things. The Hebrews wandered in this world, not sensing the nature of the fire: they had the songs of God's justice, as they sang a hymn to God in praise of His creatures.
Then he who sings, is empty, and he banishes the worries of various thoughts, and separates himself from greed, and not only soothes himself with the voice of his body, but also with the liveliness of his mind. For the same Prophet sang not as if sad with the worry of poverty, but as if free from all bodily passions: I will sing to you, O God, on the harp, O Holy Israel. My lips will rejoice when I sing to you; and my soul, which you have redeemed. (Psalm 70:22-23). Haeclaetus sang joyfully, as if he were being fed by these better meals. For the soul feasted on the nourishment of devout piety. Therefore, not only hymns and psalms, but also the precepts of the Law are meant to be sung by the holy. Indeed, Moses, who received the Law, sang while he crossed the sea on foot, proclaiming the righteous acts of the Lord as the leader of the saved people.
30. (Verse 55.) There remains yet another excellent purpose of the righteous man, that he should always be attentive to the praises of God, not only during the day but also at night. And so he added: I have remembered your name, O Lord, in the night, and I have kept your law. Let us see if he also remembers, who calls the Lord by word, but does not keep the divine commandments. It has been said enough concerning this, that not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will be accepted by Christ, but rather he who has been able to prove his faithful disposition by good works (Matthew 7:21). Therefore, faith, honesty, and innocence prove one's memory. And as he says: I have been mindful of your name, it is complete devotion; for no one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit. Let this name be invoked day and night, so that no time for prayer allows sacred devotion to pass by in vain.
31. Therefore, if students indulge too little in secular studies, how much more should they who desire to know God not be hindered by bodily sleep, except as much as is necessary for nature? David wet his bed with tears every night; he would even rise in the middle of the night to praise the Lord. And do you think the whole night should be assigned to sleep? Then the Lord must be prayed to more, then help must be sought, sin must be avoided, when it seems that solitude is obtained; especially then when darkness surrounds me and walls cover me, considering that the Lord sees all hidden things. So you say: I am surrounded by darkness, who sees me? And whom do I fear, enclosed by walls? Because the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil (Psalms 34:16). Then if you do not see the judge, do you not see yourself? Are you not afraid of the testimony of your conscience? Do you not know that this darkness of night is not a covering, but an incentive to sin? When bodies are consumed by sleep and food, even the strength of the mind is relaxed by sleep, dissolved by sleep: then impure desire creeps in, then the heart is disturbed, the stain of uncleanness is not seen, the purity of chastity is not considered, the glory of modesty is not recognized. It was night when Judas betrayed, when Peter denied.
Therefore, especially during that time, the justifications of God should be repeated in the mind, and the exhortations should be set aside. Let those precepts about chastity not be absent: with the mind occupied by these, one may quench the flame of desire and dampen the ardor of the flesh. Keep this in mind: I will wash my bed every night (Psalm 6:7). For who, devoted to debauchery, wrapped in vice, washes his bed every night? He who commits things to be wept over does not know how to weep; and although he himself is to be lamented, he does not have tears for his own punishment. But he who disciplines his body and is a vigilant governor of himself, and groaning and sorrowing seeks how he may wash away the offense of his previous lapse with tears of penitence, he washes his bed every night. Let us not therefore sleep through the entire night: but let us dedicate the majority of them to reading and prayers.
33. Listen to the voice of the Church seeking Christ even in the nights. In my bed, she said, I sought in the nights the one whom my soul loves (Song of Songs 3:1). Take it according to the letter. She sought in the nights by praying, by begging, even by shedding tears. She sought in the nights, because she made darkness her hiding place, so that we might seek him more earnestly. Therefore, the Church gathered from the nations sought in the prophets, and for this reason believed. Finally, the coming of the Lord the witnesses of the prophets and the evangelists Paul have set. Hence it is written: For night reveals knowledge to night (Ps. XVIII, 3). He sought in the nights, in persecutions and adversities, in tribulations and harsh labors. Night is for all those who do not have perfect security; therefore the Lord says: The night is coming when no one can work (John IX, 4); while I am in this world, I am the light of this world. Therefore let us not work in darkness. For if our works shine, we do not work in darkness, but in light. There are days when Christ is present: there are nights when He denies Himself.
34. Therefore, it is not great if you then give thanks to the Lord when you are in prosperity and success: but if you then adhere to Christ when you are being persecuted, when some storm disturbs you. Have you lost a son? In that sorrow, in that night, in that destitution, remember the Lord your God; so that you may not be ungrateful, as if not heard, and transgress in your affliction. Have you been driven into exile? Remember the Lord your God; so that you may not prefer patriotism that has been forbidden to you over love for God. Having lost one's own resources due to the power of a certain rich person, are you in need of financial aid? Remember the Lord your God, lest the night of poverty take you away from the affection of devotion. For this is the commandment of the Law, that you seek more in the night, when you are heard more by the Lord, and are able to say: In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he answered me and set me in a broad place (Psalm 118:5).
35. But it is not enough to seek superficially for grace, but to insist and put effort into the task. Finally, whether it be the Church or the soul, which sought in the bed, sought in the nights, did not find at first; because perhaps it sought in the bed (Song of Songs 3:2-4): but afterwards, when it rose and went into the city (see that city to which the Lord, about to celebrate the Passover, sent his disciples saying (Matthew 26:18): Go into the city to a certain person), afterwards, as I said, it sought in the market, it found the one it loved, where oil is sold, which they used to buy while waiting for the Bridegroom (Matthew 25:9), where justice, where laws. If the law is spiritual, and the forum is indeed spiritual, where the experts of eternal law debate. That forum is not tumultuous with lawsuits, but glorious with the tribunals of Christ. Where did he seek, you may ask? In the forum: and after he sought in the streets, from which those who were invited to the banquet of the Evangelical fathers were gathered, who did not think it necessary to excuse themselves from such feasts (Luke 14:21). After he sought in the forum and in the streets, he encountered those who go around the city (Song of Solomon 3:3): and only then could he find what he sought, perhaps because in adversity and fear he finds grace more readily. Finally, in the latter passage it says: 'They found me, who go around the city... they took away my cloak' (Song of Songs 5:7). So there was a struggle; but how they did not take away the cloak above, I am struggling to find out, unless it is because she said there: 'Have you seen him whom my soul loves?' (Song of Songs 3:3). She, who was speaking about Christ, did not take off her cloak, and she found the one whom she was seeking.
36. Learn how Christ is sought. Certainly by those who do not seek superficially, but hold on forcefully, just as it says: I held him, and I did not let him go (Ibid., 4), he finds faith, he is compelled by meditation. If we accept good guardians, they are certainly angels. Therefore, whoever has passed through the angels, finds the Word; therefore, there was not much distance when he passed through them and found Jesus. So how then did they take his garment below, unless perhaps because the Church, oppressed by the progress of faith, while being stripped, is loved more by the Lord, abandoning the old man and putting on the new man, which is not covered by clothing, but the secrets of the mind are made clear; or perhaps because she put aside the garment of secular wisdom that is to come to Christ? And Noah took off the cloak after he began to be more perfect.
37. (Verse 56.) Therefore, let us be mindful of the heavenly justifications, so that while we sing them with the secret voice of the mind, we may be mindful in the night of the name of the Lord, and say, as it is written: This has been done to me; for I have sought your justifications; that is, this memory has been made to me, so that I may be mindful even in the night of your name, not being put to sleep by drunkenness, not being dissolved in feasts into sleep, not being occupied by worldly cares; so that forgetfulness of your veneration does not creep upon me: but by daily meditation, chastening the limbs, and exercising the intention of the mind, let this solemn course be made to us by assiduity; so that we may worship the Lord Jesus also in the nights with our whole affection, to whom be glory, praise, perpetuity from ages, and now, and always, and forever and ever. Amen.
Sermon 8. Heth.
The eighth letter Heth, which in Latin is called 'pavor', usually means the fear of saints. Finally, fear fell upon Abraham when he offered a sacrifice full of spiritual mystery (Gen. XV, 12). David himself also says: 'I said in my fear: Every man is a liar' (Psal. CXV, 2). It signifies more the reverence of religion than the weakness of fear, although the fear itself may be holy according to God: For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psal. CX, 10). Therefore, those who fear God are wise; and those who are wise are blessed. For blessed is he whom you instruct, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law (Psalm 94:12). Also, those who fear God are blessed, as the authority of the example exists, for Blessed are all who fear the Lord (Psalm 128:1). Thus, it is concluded that those who fear God are both wise and blessed. Therefore, the fear of the Lord is holy, for it is truly the terror of the saints.
Vers. 57. Finally, after this letter is sent, immediately the person of the righteous speaks, saying: My portion, O Lord: I have said to keep your law. Most codices have this verse, which is the first of the eighth letter, in the last place of the seventh letter: but according to the Hebrews, it is corrected and the Greek book of Psalms teaches us to join this verse to the eighth letter. Then the very order and number of the verses agree in such a way that the eighth letter begins from it.
Portion, he says, is mine, O Lord. How rare on earth is one who can say: My portion is the Lord; how separate from vices, how removed from all the stain of sin, who claims nothing in common with the world, who does not desire the possessions of the flesh, whom lust does not inflame, greed does not provoke, sensuality does not weaken, indulgence does not taint, ambition does not afflict, envy does not torment, and who is not preoccupied with worldly affairs, a true minister of the altar, born for God, not for himself.
For Levi, as the interpretation signifies, signifies himself assumed by me, signifies also himself mine, signifies also assumed only, signifies also assumed by me. Himself is both to me Levi, and to God; how is he both to me a priest, and to God? and to me an advocate and a supplicant to the Lord: offering sacrifice for me, and also offering himself to the Lord. Finally, elsewhere Levi is called an interpretation, for me. Indeed, if he is named Levi by me, he is for me: if he offers on behalf of me, he is for me: if he intervenes on behalf of me, he is for me. But if he is called by the Lord, he is called to me, that is, not subject to others, not a tither, not generous with possessions: he is called to me, that is, as abundant for all these things, I do not seek tithes from him, nor fruits, nor gifts, nor presents, he himself is a gift to me, he is a tribute to me: not generous with his possessions to me, but he himself is my possession, he himself is my fruit, he himself is my census taken by me, or taken by him. This cannot be without divine grace. Just as possession cannot be mine unless I buy it, so Levi cannot be unless he is assumed by the Lord; for when he is assumed, it is rightly said that he is mine. Finally, when it was said to Moses to divide the inhabitations of the Jewish people into individual tribes, and to distribute a portion to each tribe, God exempted the tribe of Levi, saying: The sons of Levi shall have no portion or inheritance among their brethren; for the Lord God is their portion (Deut. X, 9). And elsewhere: I am the Lord, their portion (Num. XVIII, 20).
5. The earthly division of these things is denied: so that they, while not claiming a worldly portion for themselves, may become a heavenly possession; or let them know only to possess this, that is, the service of faith and devotion; much richer than those who spread out the wide spaces of their possessions. However much they may extend their boundaries, the earth fails and the sea contains insane desires, and they pay greater taxes than the fruits are. But truly, this person possessing nothing, serves no one but God, his portion is above the earth, he is not limited by the earth, he is not enclosed by the sea. To whom belongs the portion of God, possessor of all nature. For in the fields, he himself is sufficient, having good fruit, which can never perish: for in houses, the habitation of the Lord is sufficient for him, and the temple of God, than which nothing can be more precious. For what is more precious than God? Or what is lacking to a man who can say: May I not glory, but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world? (Galatians VI, 4) The ruler of this world cannot claim ownership in which he finds nothing of his own.
6. Therefore, the Lord, who came to teach us so that we might become a part of God, said: 'The prince of this world is coming, and he will find nothing in me' (John 14:30). And desiring us to be imitators of himself, he said: 'Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money' (Matthew 10:9). Hence Peter, showing that his portion is in God, not in the world, said: 'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk' (Acts 3:6). This is my portion, this is my inheritance. Christ is my portion. In the name, therefore, of Christ Jesus, arise and walk; that is, in my portion I am rich, in my portion I am mighty: by merit do I presume such fruits of this portion, that salvation and life may be granted: for this is the heritage of the portion which I have chosen for myself. He said this, being lame, and the one who was lame from his mother's womb arose. Therefore, how could Peter feel the losses of his portion, who was repairing the losses of nature?