14. But because the Greek has, Εἰσελθέτω ἀξίωμά μοῦ, which means: Let my dignity enter; although the writer may have been able to make a mistake, and may have made a petition, which is a supplication: let us also explain this, as best we can. For when you ask a man who is a king, you say that he should consider your honor, let your contemplation of dignity touch him; so that either he may have mercy, if pardon is to be asked for: or he may defer according to the order of dignity. And what shall I say, you ask? As each person enters, they are greeted with respect. Therefore, it is right and proper for someone devoted to God to say: Let my dignity enter before you. And the Christian also has their own dignity, as they serve such a great emperor.
15. There are great and true dignities of faith, there are various honors and orders in Christ: God placed first the apostles, second the prophets, third the teachers in the Church (I Cor. XII, 28). But these are dignities of administrators. There are also private ones, such as piety, justice, sobriety, chastity, discipline. There are also dignities of prayer: if you pray for a widow, if you pray for an orphan, if you pray for the merciful, if you pray for the excessively devout and faithful: if you pray in tribulation, if you pray with sorrow, if you, who are praying, have compassion for the sorrowful one, your prayer enters the grace of God: it enters his house, if the Church prays with you, if the whole people implores; so that the favor of the Lord may incline.
16. But what does he ask? To be liberated, to be freed; because for a long time now he has been fighting against spiritual wickedness, against the temptations of this world; because it is difficult to sustain a long-lasting warfare in this life. Finally, he says further below: Woe is me! that my sojourning is prolonged (Psalm 119:5)! For he groans because he stretches out unceasing vigils with constant labor; and therefore he seeks to be delivered from all his adversaries, and does not desire to have fellowship with earthly men.
17. (Verse 171.) The third verse follows: My lips shall utter a hymn; when You have taught me Your statutes. He has uttered a hymn, who can say: For we are the good odor of Christ unto God (II Cor. II, 15). And he utters well, who has tasted the many and sweet precepts of the Lord. He utters a hymn, who has uttered the Word. Moreover, even David uttered a good word before: My heart has uttered a good word; I tell my works to the King (Psal. XLIV, 2), here he utters a hymn. For he has tasted the good bread, which descended from heaven: the good bread, which if anyone eats, he shall not die forever. The word of God has its feasts: some stronger, such as the Law and the Gospel; others sweeter, such as the Psalms and the Song of Songs. The Church or the pious soul would utter a hymn, to which God the Word would say: Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet (Song of Songs 2:14). It would utter a hymn to which he would say: Your lips, my bride, distill honey; honey and milk are under your tongue (Song of Songs 4:11).
18. But no one can sing a hymn before he has learned the justice of God, and has learned it from the Lord God himself. Therefore, David specifically asks for this, that God may teach him; for he had heard and known in the spirit, 'One is your master' (Matthew 23:10); and therefore he demanded to be made a student by him everywhere, so that he might learn his justifications from him. For how can someone sing when in fear and in the dread of punishment? How can one sing, burdened by the consciousness of their sins, unless they have first obtained forgiveness and are secure? Ultimately, in the later part, you have: How can we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land, in which we are attacked, in which we are captured by the law of sin, in which we lament and mourn the misery of our captivity?
19. And so, eat the food of heavenly Scriptures and eat, so that they may remain with you unto eternal life, and eat daily, so that you do not hunger, eat so that you may be filled, eat so that you may bring forth the abundance of heavenly words. Spiritual feasts are wont not to be harmful but to be beneficial to the satisfied; and thus the Prophet desired to be filled, who says: Let my mouth be filled with praise; that I may sing thy glory (Psalm 78:8). He who sings the glory of God, utters a hymn to the Lord from his heart.
20. (Vers. 172.) The fourth verse follows: My tongue will speak your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. Whoever learns the righteousness of God speaks the word of God, and whoever speaks the word of God does not speak idle words. Idle words are to speak the works of men. Therefore the Holy One says (Psalm 16:4) that grace is given to him by the Lord, so that his mouth does not speak the works of men, for it is an idle word: not only idle, but also dangerous, for which we will have to give an account. For every idle word that we speak, we will be held accountable for it (Matthew 12:36). For it is not a trivial matter when you consider the abundant words of God, and the works of God that He made in Genesis, in Exodus, in Leviticus, in Numbers, in Deuteronomy, in Joshua, in the Book of Judges, in the Books of Kings, and in the Books of Ezra. He made them also in the Gospel, and in the Acts of the Apostles. When you neglect these things and speak about worldly matters, and listen to earthly matters, there is a great danger. Close your ears to thorns (Sirach 28:28); would that you also enclose your tongue. But what is worse, your tongue is surrounded by thorns that prick and wound when speaking about worldly things. Therefore, the adversary often pours secular thoughts even onto those who pray. So if we should not listen to others, or to unnecessary things, how much more should we not speak! As the venerable Scripture says to each one of us: Bind your silver and gold; and make a yoke and weight for your mouth (Ibid., 29). Bind your senses with faithful silence: bind your words, impose a yoke on your mouth; lest it boast with an untamed neck of words. Impose a weight, so that we may weigh everything we speak with careful examination. Scripture says these things to you with thorns; unless your heart is contrite and in fear of judgment? These things sting in a healthy way: they stimulate, they do not wound; although wounds can also be useful to a friend.
21. Everything, he says, is the commandment of God's justice; because they are the commandments of justice, and therefore they cannot exist without justice. The commandment of God is that you shall love your God (Deut. VI, 5). Hence Paul says: He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law; for it is written: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word (Rom. XIII, 8 and 9). If every commandment is summed up in this word, which is justice (for what is more just than loving your God and loving your neighbor), surely all of God's commandments are justice. For just as someone who is able to kill his brother, surely does not love him; who commits adultery with his brother's wife, surely does not love his brother; who steals, who covets what belongs to others, surely does not love the person whom he desires to defraud: in the same way, someone who despises his brother arrogantly, who tries to deform him, who feeds off his injuries, is estranged from the fellowship of love.
22. (Verse 173.) The fifth verse follows: Let your hand save me, for I have chosen your commandments. The coming of the Lord seems to be praying, for the hand of God is Christ. We read about the right hand of God, of whom it is said above: The right hand of the Lord has done valiantly; the right hand of the Lord has exalted me (Psalm 118:16). So why did he mention hand here? Perhaps not only because of the diversity of grace, which the writers usually do not omit, but also because of a certain characteristic of hands; that the right hand is mentioned there, where it is written that he exalted him by virtue; here the hand is mentioned, where it should be understood that he saved him by humility? The hand of the Lord can also be understood in this way, as it is said in usage: Great is the hand of that king; that is, a great army, and his hand is lower; so that we understand this also: Let your help and support be made, that you may send your angels, your aid, the support of your power to deliver your people. This is the hand of God, of which it is written: Are they not all ministering spirits, who are sent for service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? (Heb. 1, 14) Therefore, whoever chooses the commandments of God, uses confidence; so that with authority, they may seek divine assistance for themselves.
23. (Verse 174.) The sixth verse follows: I have longed for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my meditation. Some are delighted by the longevity of this life, and they desire to prolong their life until the end of old age. Others are broken by the weakness of illness, of whom no one can say: When I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). They consider themselves blessed if they enjoy the convenience of good health without any hindrance, for they have no infirmity that hinders their salvation. Moreover, no one can say: I have desired Your salvation, Lord; for they seek their own salvation more than the salvation of God, obeying physicians rather than Scriptures. However, the precepts of divine knowledge are contrary to the study of medicine (On Consolation, Distinction 5, Contraria). They revive from fasting, do not allow staying up late, and distract from any intense meditation. Therefore, whoever surrenders themselves to physicians denies themselves. But whoever seeks the salvation of God follows Christ, who is called the salvation of God: seeking not what is of the body, but what is eternal, while being in this body. But whoever seeks the salvation of God meditates day and night in the law. For them, constant meditation is on the divine decrees, and no care for this body is directed towards the pursuit of discipline.
24. (Verse 175.) The seventh verse follows: My soul will live and praise you: and your judgments will help me. Surely it flatters itself with the reward of future life, not with the present; for how can this life be called such, of which it is written: And to the dust of death you have brought me (Psalm 21:16)? How many living are there in hell! Paul himself desired to be delivered from the body of this death, he who truly desired the salvation of God, saying: For I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is much better: but to remain in the flesh is more necessary than voluntary (Philippians 1:23). How then does the soul live, enclosed in the covering of death: or what is the life, which is in the shade? In the region of the shadow of death we are: our life is hidden, not free; for it will be free in the region of the living, in which the righteous assumes the confidence of pleasing; that he may please the Lord in the region of the living (Psalm 114:9). Therefore, there our soul lives, where nothing earthly, nothing weak is adorned, nothing is owed to punishment.
There he will praise the Lord, where, having laid aside the weakness of the body, he will begin to be conformed to the glory of the body of Christ. For while we are in sin, how can we fully praise? To the sinner, God said: Why do you declare my justices? (Psalm 49:16). We are placed in the shadow here: we live in the shadow: we praise in the shadow: we cannot fully praise in the shadow. We are in a foreign land: you have heard in the following: How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? (Psalm 136:4).
26. However, the judgments of God assist the saints, as the reward of eternal life is granted through good works. Blessed is he who says: And your judgments will help me. I, being weak and a sinner, fear the judgments of God because of the conscience of my sins: they bring terror to me, they agitate me: they assist the saints. However, they will also assist the sinner, albeit in a different way. The saint will be assisted while being tested: the sinner will be assisted while being humbled, while being chastised; so that he may pay for his double sins: while his work is burned up, so that he himself may be saved, yet as if through fire. For if I am deemed worthy by judgment, I will be deemed worthy to be separated from the companionship of the wicked; since the wicked do not rise up for judgment (Psalms 1:5). And the judgments will help me; because the one who believes in the Lord is not judged. Faith will benefit him, and he will be supported towards forgiveness, even if there has been any offense in his works.
27. (Verse 176.) The last verse follows: I have gone astray like a lost sheep: revive your servant; for I have not forgotten your commandments. The Greek has: Seek your servant, that is, ζῆτησον: and the writer could have been mistaken, in writing ζήσον, which means revive. Both meanings are valid, but the former is more fitting in this context: Seek your servant; for a sheep that has gone astray must be sought by the shepherd, lest it perish. Therefore he says, I have gone astray. Declare your wrongdoing, so that you may be justified (Isaiah 43:26). The fall you admit is a common participation for you and everyone else, because no one is without sin: to deny this is sacrilege; only God is without sin. To confess this to God is a remedy for impunity. 'I have erred,' he says, 'but the one who has erred can return to the way, can be called back to the path.' And he added beautifully: Like a lost sheep; for the one who acknowledges the error does not perish.
28. He said, 'Seek, I pray you, your servant; for I have not forgotten your commandments. Come therefore, O Lord Jesus; seek your servant, seek your weary sheep: come, shepherd, seek like the sheep of Joseph. Your sheep has wandered, while you delay, while you wander in the mountains. Send away your ninety-nine sheep, and come to seek the one that has strayed. Come without dogs, come without hired workers, come without a mercenary, who does not know how to enter through the gate.' Come without an assistant, without a messenger: I have been waiting for you to come for a long time. For I know you will come: Because I have not forgotten your commands. Come not with a rod, but with charity and the gentleness of the spirit.
29. Do not hesitate to leave your ninety-nine sheep in the mountains; because fierce wolves cannot attack them when they are located in the mountains. The serpent harmed once in paradise: it lost its food after Adam was expelled from there; it can no longer harm there. Come to me, who is plagued by the attacks of heavy wolves. Come to me, who is inflicted with the venom of the dreadful ulcer from the serpent, expelled from paradise; because I have strayed from your previous flocks: for you had also placed me there, but the nocturnal wolf turned me away from the sheepfold. Search for me; for I search for you. Seek me, find me, receive me, carry me. You can find whom you seek: deign to receive whom you have found; place on your shoulders whom you have received. It is not a burden to you, but a means of carrying justice. Come therefore, Lord; for although I have strayed, I have not forgotten your commandments: I reserve hope for healing. Come, Lord; for you alone can call back the stray sheep; and those whom you have left behind, you will not grieve; indeed, they will rejoice at the return of the sinner. Come, to bring salvation on earth, joy in heaven.
30. Come therefore, and seek your sheep no longer through servants, no longer through hirelings, but through yourself. Receive me in the flesh, which has fallen in Adam. Receive me not from Sarah, but from Mary; so that the virgin may be incorruptible, but the virgin through grace may be untouched by any stain of sin. Carry me on the cross, which is salvation for wanderers, in which alone there is rest for the weary, in which alone those who die shall live.
However, it can also be said beautifully that it is life-giving, because the one whom virtue has carried on its shoulders cannot die.
Therefore, both the soul and the Church say: I have strayed like a lost sheep. But she says: I sought the one whom my soul loves (Song of Solomon 3:1); this is to say: Revive your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments. I sought you, but I cannot find you unless you choose to be found. And indeed, you desire to be found, but you desire to be sought for a long time, to be sought more diligently. Your Church knows this, for you do not want her to seek you while sleeping; you do not want her to investigate you while lying down. Finally, you knock at the door to awaken the sleeping person: you investigate whether the heart is awake while the flesh sleeps. You want to lift up the person lying down, saying: Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead (Ephes. V, 14). You reach out your hand through the cave so that the person may rise; and if they rise slowly, you leave them behind. You want them to seek again and seek from many, and not forget to seek, not forget your words; and if they hold on to them, you offer yourself to be seen, you do not shy away and allow yourself to be held.
When she shall embrace you, she will show her fruits and will teach you that she has not forgotten your commandments, and she will say to you: Come, my brother, let us go out into the field... and at our gates, all the produce of the trees: new and old; my brother, I have kept them for you. (Song of Solomon 7:11 and 13). This is to say: I hold all your commandments of the old and new Testament. Only the Church can say this. No other congregation says it: not the Synagogue, holding only to the letter of the new, or the spirit of the old. The heresy of Manichaeism does not say: I have preserved for you the old things which the Prophets did not receive. It is rightly seen as whitewashed, which shines with the grace of both Testaments.
34. The Bridegroom answered her: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm (Song of Songs 8:6), for you have kept both what is new and what is old for me. You are my seal, you are made in my image and likeness. In you shines the image of righteousness, the image of wisdom, the image of virtue. And since the image of God is in your heart, let it also be in your actions: let the likeness of the Gospel be seen in your deeds, so that you may keep my commandments in your conduct. The image of the Gospel will be in you, if you offer the other cheek to the one who strikes you; if you love your enemy; if you take up your cross and follow me. Therefore, I carried the cross for you, so that you would not hesitate to carry it for yourself.
35. The daughters of Jerusalem heard this, that the Lord Jesus was joining them to His Church; and because they were considering the greatness of the Word, they esteemed themselves unworthy of such a union. Lest perhaps they would not be able to bear the weight of such a bond, they offered excuses, saying: Our sister is young and does not have breasts. For those who want to delay marriage, they are accustomed to make excuses, pretending the weakness of young age, and asserting that she does not have breasts, which signify the time of marriage. This is a common symbol for all virgin women who are about to be married; so that when their breasts begin to develop, they are considered ready for marriage.
Therefore, troubled by the ardor of love that urges the wedding, they say: What shall we do for our sister on the day when she will speak into it? Or, as Symmachus says, when she will speak to it. This is done through the celebration of the betrothal, and it confirms the marriage. Therefore, they say, troubled because the spiritual union is being urged. They cannot excuse themselves from such a great wedding; for there is no one who does not consider the union of the soul and the Spirit, or of Christ and the Church, to be blessed. But because the fullness of the Word or of the Holy Spirit vibrates and shines, and there is nothing that can be equal to them, therefore they desire to differ; so that through that delay either the soul or the Church can be more perfect.
Therefore they say, If it is a wall, let us build dwellings upon it; and if it is a gate, let us carve cedar tablets upon it (ibid., 9). The wall is the soul of the saint. The Church also has its walls, which are already more perfect, as it says: I am a fortified city (Isaiah 27:3). This is the wall that has twelve apostolic gates, through which the entrance into the Church is open to the people of the nations. But the wall, although it encloses the perimeter of the entire city, is then more fortified when it has prepared dwellings, in which the defenders of the city can have a safe place for observing and defending. But because this city is reasonable, and all its hope is in the word of God: not iron, but silver ramparts are required for it, accustomed to repel hostile attacks with heavenly words rather than bodily pleasures. Supported by this defense, shining with this splendor, it is considered more suited for the union with Christ.
And because Christ is the door, who says: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved (John 10:9); and the Church is called the door; because through it the way to salvation is open to the people. Lest it be corrupted by the worms or moths of heretics, the daughters of Jerusalem, or Angels, or the souls of the righteous say: Let us build upon it cedar boards, that is, the good fragrance of sublime faith; for the odor of this material is sweet, which neither worm nor moth can corrupt. Therefore, the use of this material is chosen for raising the roofs and shaping the elements of letters, with which the childhood is imbued with the study of liberal education. Therefore, this material is sublime in grace, light in burden, sweet in fragrance, useful as an instrument of knowledge, and capable of serving eternal cognition.