22. "Thou hast rebuked the proud: and cursed are they that do err from Thy commandments" (ver. 21). For the proud err from the commandments of God. For it is one thing not to fulfil the commandments of God through infirmity or ignorance; another to err from them through pride; as they have done, who have begotten us in our mortal state unto these evils. ...But consider now, after saying, "Thou hast rebuked the proud," he saith not, Cursed are they that have erred from Thy commandments; so that only that sin of the first men shouldcome into the mind; but he saith, "Cursed are they that do err." For it was needful that all might be terrified by that example, that they might not err from the divine commandments, and by loving righteousness in all time, recover in the toil of this world, what we lost in the pleasure of Paradise.
23. "O turn from me shame and rebuke; for I have sought out Thy testimonies" (ver. 22). Testimonies are called in Greek marturia, which word we now use for the Latin word: whence those who on account of their testimony to Christ have been brought low by various sufferings, and have contended unto death for the truth, are not called testes, but by the Greek term Martyrs. Since then ye hear in this term one more familiar and grateful, let us take these words as if it, were said, "O turn from me shame and rebuke; because I have sought out Thy martyrdoms." When the body of Christ speaketh thus, doth it consider it any punishment to hear rebuke and shame from the ungodly and the proud, since it rather reacheth the crown by this means? Why then doth it pray that it should be removed from it as something heavy and insupportable, save because, as I said, it prayeth for its very enemies, to whom it seeth it is destructive, to cast the holy name of Christ as a reproach to Christians. ...For my enemies, whom Thou enjoinest to be loved by me, who more and more die and are lost, when they despise Thy martyrdoms and accuse them in me, will indeed be recalled to life and be found, if they reverence Thymartyrdoms in me. Thus it hath happened: this we see. Behold, martyrdom in the name of Christ, both with men and in this world, is not only not a disgrace, but a great ornament: behold, not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men, "precious is the death of His Saints;" behold, His martyrs are not only not despised, but honoured with great distinctions. ...
24. "Princes also did sit and speak against me: but Thy servant is exercised in Thy statutes" (ver. 23). Thou who desirest to know what sort of exercise this was, understand what he hath added, "For Thy testimonies are my meditation, and Thy statutes are my counsellors" (ver. 24). Remember what I have above instructed you, that testimonies are acts of martyrdom. Remember that among the statutes of the Lord there is none more difficult and more worthy of admiration, than that every man should love his enemies. Thus then the body of Christ was exercised, so that it meditated on the acts of martyrdom that testified of Him, and loved those from whom, while they rebuked and de spised the Church for these very martyrdoms, she suffered persecutions. ...
Daleth.
25. "My soul cleaveth to the pavement: O quicken Thou me according to Thy word" (ver. 25). What meaneth, "My soul cleaveth to the pavement, O quicken Thou me according to Thy word"? ...If we look upon the whole world as one great house, we see that the heavens represent its vaulting, the earth therefore will be its pavement. He wisheth therefore to be rescued from earthly things, and to say with the Apostle, "Our conversation' is in heaven." To cling therefore to earthly things is the soul's death; the contrary of which evil, life is prayed for, when he saith, "O quicken Thou me."
26. ...The body itself also, because it is of the earth, is reasonably understood by the word pavement; since, because it is still corruptible and weigheth down the soul, we justly groan while in it, and say unto God, "O quicken Thou me." For we shall not be without our bodies when we shall be for evermore with the Lord; but then because they will not be corruptible, nor will they weigh down our souls, if we view it strictly, we shall not cleave unto them, but they rather unto us, and we unto God. ...
27. For what he was by himself, he confesseth in the following words: "I have acknowledged my ways, and Thou heardest me" (ver. 26). Some copies indeed read, "Thy ways:" but more, and the best Greek, read "my ways," that is, evil ways. For he seemeth to me to say this; I have confessed my sins, and Thou hast heard me; that is, so that Thou wouldest remit them. "O teach me Thy statutes." I have acknowledged my ways: Thou hast blotted them out: teach me Thine. So teach me, that I may act; not merely that I may know how I ought to act. For as it is said of the Lord, that He knew not sin, and it is understood, that He did no sin; so also he ought truly to be said to know righteousness, who doeth it. This is the prayer of one who is improving. ...
28. Finally he addeth, "Intimate to me the way of Thy righteousness" (ver. 27); or, as some copies have it, "instruct me;" which is expressed more closely from the Greek, "Make me to understand the way of Thy righteousnesses; so shall I be exercised in Thy wondrous things." These higher commandments, which he desireth to understand by edification, he calleth the wondrous things of God. There are then some righteousnesses of God so wondrous, that human weakness may be believed incapable of fulfilling them by those who have not tried. Whence the Psalmist, struggling and wearied with the difficulty of obeying them, saith, "My soul hath slumbered for very heaviness: O stablish Thou me with Thy word!" (ver. 28). What meaneth, hath slumbered? save that he hath cooled in the hope which he had entertained of being able to reach them. But, he addeth, "Stablish Thou me with Thy word:" that I may not by slumbering fall away from those duties which I feel that I have already attained: stablish Thou me therefore in those words of Thine that I already hold, that I may be able to reach unto others through edification.
29. "Take Thou from me the way of iniquity" (ver. 29). And since the law of works hath entered in, that sin might abound; he addeth, "And pity me according to Thy law." By what law, save by the law of faith? Hear the Apostle: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works. Nay: but by the law of faith." This is the law of faith, whereby we believe and pray that it may be granted us through grace; that we may effect that which we cannot fulfil through ourselves; that we may not, ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to stablish our own, fail to submit ourselves unto the righteousness of God.
30. But after he had said, "And pity me according to Thy law;" he mentioneth some of those blessings which he hath already obtained, that he may ask others that he hath not yet gained. For he saith, "I have chosen the way of truth: and Thy judgments I have not forgotten" (ver. 30). "I have stuck unto Thy testimonies: O Lord, confound me not" (ver. 31): may I persevere in striving toward the point whereunto I am running: may I arrive whither I am running! So then "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." He next saith, "I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast widened my heart" (ver. 32). I could not run hadst Thou not widened my heart. The sense of the words, "I have chosen the way of truth, and Thy judgments I have not forgotten: I have stuck unto Thy testimonies," is clearly explained in this verse. For this running is along the way of the commandments of God. And because he doth allege unto the Lord rather His blessings than his own deservings; as if it were said unto him, How hast thou run that way, by choosing, and by not forgetting the judgments of God, and by sticking to His testimonies? Couldest thou do these things by thyself? I could not, he replieth. It is not therefore through my own will, as though it needed no aid of Thine; but because "Thou has widened my heart." The widening of the heart is the delight we take in righteousness. This is the gift of God, the effect of which is, that we are not straitened in His commandments through the fear of punishment, but widened through love, and the delight we have in righteousness. ...
He.
31. In this great Psalm there cometh next in order that which, with the Lord's help, we must consider and treat of. "Set a law for me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes, and I shall seek it alway" (ver. 33). ...
32. Why doth this man still pray for a law to be laid down for him; which, if it had not been laid down for him, he could not have run the way of God's commandments in the breadth of his heart? But since one speaketh who is growing in grace, and who knoweth that it is God's gift that he profiteth in grace; what else doth he pray, when he prayeth that a law may be laid down for him, save that he may profit more and more? As, if thou holdest a full cup, and givest it to a thirsty man; he both exhausts it by drinking it, and prayeth for it by still longing for it. ...
33. But what meaneth, "Evermore"? ...Doth "evermore" mean as long as we live here, because we progress in grace so long; but after this life, he who was in a good course of improvement here, is made perfect there? Here the law of God is examined into, as long as we progress in it, both by knowing it and by loving it: but there its fulness abideth for our enjoyment, not for our examination. Thus also is this spoken, "Seek His face evermore."' Where, evermore, save here? For we shall not there also seek the face of God, when "we shall see face to face."' Or if that which is loved without a change of affection is rightly said to be sought after, and our only object is, that it be not lost, we shall indeed evermore seek the law of God, that is, the truth of God: for in this very Psalm it is said, "And Thy law is the truth." It is now sought, that it may be held fast; it will then be held fast that it may not be lost. ...
34. "Give me understanding, and I shall search Thy law, yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart" (ver. 34). For when each man hath searched the law, and searched its deep things, in which its whole meaning doth consist; he ought indeed to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind; and his neighbour as himself. "For on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." This he seemeth to have promised, when he said, "Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart."
35. But since he hath no power to do even this, save he be aided by Him who commandeth him to do what He commandeth, "Make me," he addeth, "to go in the path of Thy commandments, for therein is my desire" (ver. 35 ). My desire is powerless, unless Thou Thyself makest me to go where I desire. And this is surely the very path, that is, the path of God's commandments, which he had already said that he had run, when his heart was enlarged by the Lord. And this he calleth a "path," because "the way is narrow which leadeth unto life;" and since it is narrow, we cannot run therein save with a heart enlarged. ...
36. He next saith, "Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness" (ver. 36). This then he prayeth, that he may profit in the will itself. ...But the Apostle saith, "Avarice is a root of all evils." But in the Greek, whence these words have been rendered into our tongue, the word used by the Apostle is not pleonecia, which occurs in this passage of the Psalms; but filarguria, by which is signified "love of money." But the Apostle must be understood to have meant genus by species when he used this word, that is, to have meant avarice universally and generally by love of money, which is truly the root of all evils. ...If therefore our heart be not inclined to covetousness, we fear God only for God's sake, so that He is the only reward of our serving Him. Let us love Him in Himself, let us love Him in ourselves, Him in our neighbours whom we love as ourselves, whether they have Him, or in order that they may have Him. ...
37. The next words in the Psalm which we have undertaken to expound are, "O turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity: and quicken Thou me in Thy way" (ver. 37). Vanity and truth are directly contrary to one another. The desires of this world are vanity: but Christ, who freeth us from the world, is truth. He is the way, too, wherein this man wisheth to be quickened, for He is also the life: "I am the way, the truth, and the life," are His own words.
38. ...He prayeth that those eyes wherewith we consider on what account we do what we do, may be turned away that they behold not vanity; that is, that he may not look to vanity, as his motive, when he doeth anything good. In this vanity the first place is held by the love of men's praise, on account of which many great deeds have been wrought by those who are styled great in this world, and who have been much praised in heathen states, seeking glory not with God, but among men, and on account of this living in appearance prudently, courageously, temperately, and righteously; and when they have reached this they have reached their reward: vain men, and vain reward. ...Moreover, if it be a vain thing to do good works for the sake of men's praises, how much more vain for the sake of getting money, or increasing it, or retaining it, and any other temporal advantage, which cometh unto us from without? Since "all things are vanity: what is man's abundance, with all his toil, wherein he laboureth under the sun?" For our temporal welfare itself finally we ought not to do our good works, but rather for the sake of that everlasting welfare which we hope for, where we may enjoy an unchangeable good, which we shall have from God, nay, what God Himself is unto us. For if God's Saints were to do good works for the sake of this temporal welfare, never would the martyrs of Christ achieve a good work of confession in the loss of this same welfare. ...
39. "O stablish Thy word in Thy servant, that I may fear Thee" (ver. 38). And what else is this than, Grant unto me that I may do according to what Thou sayest? For the word of God is not stablished in those who remove it in themselves by acting contrary to it; but it is stablished in those in whom it is immoveable. God therefore stablisheth His word, that they may fear Him, in those unto whom He giveth the spirit of the fear of Him; not that fear of which the Apostle saith, "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;" for "perfect love casteth out" this "fear," but that fear which the Prophet calleth "the spirit of the fear of the Lord;" that fear which "is pure, and endureth for ever;" that fear which feareth to offend Him whom it loveth.
40. "Take away my reproach which I have suspected, for Thy judgments are sweet" (ver. 39). Who is he who suspected his own reproach, and who doth not know his own reproach better than that of his neighbour? For a man may rather suspect another's than his own; since he knoweth not that which he suspecteth; but in each one's own reproach there is not suspicion for him, but knowledge, wherein conscience speaketh. What then mean the words, "the rebuke which I have suspected"? The meaning of them must be derived from the former verse; since as long as a man doth not turn away his eyes lest they behold vanity, he suspecteth in others what is going on in himself; so that he believeth another to worship God, or do good works, from the same motive as himself. For men can see what we do, but with a view to what end we act, is hidden. ...
41. "Behold, I have coveted Thy commandments: O quicken Thou me in Thy righteousness" (ver. 40). Behold, I have coveted to love Thee with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and my neighbour as myself, but, "O quicken Thou me" not in my own, but "in Thy righteousness," that is, fill me with that love which I have longed for. Aid me that I may do that which Thou chargest me: Thyself give what Thou dost command. "O quicken Thou me in Thy righteousness:" for in myself I had that which would cause my death: but I find not save in Thee whence I may live. Christ is Thy righteousness, "Who of God is made unto us wisdom," etc. And in Him I find Thy commandments, which I have coveted, that in Thy righteousness, that is, in Him, Thou mayest quicken me. For the Word Himself is God; and "the Word was made flesh," that He Himself also might be my neighbour.
Vav.
42. "And let Thy loving mercy come also unto us, O Lord" (ver. 41). This sentence seems annexed to the foregoing: for he doth not say, Let it come unto me, but, " And let it come unto me." ...What then doth he here pray for, save that through His loving mercy who commanded, he may perform the commandments which he hath coveted? For he explaineth in some degree what he meant by adding, "even Thy salvation, according to Thy word:" that is, according to Thy promise. Whence the Apostle desireth us to be understood as the children of promise: that we may not imagine that what we are is our own work, but refer the whole to the grace of God. ...Christ Himself is the Salvation of God, so that the whole body of Christ may say, "By the grace of God I am what I am."
43. "And so shall I make answer," he saith, "to them that reproach me with the word" (ver. 42). It is doubtful whether it be "reproach me with a word;" or, "I will answer with a word;" but either signifieth Christ. They to whom Christ crucified is a stumbling-block or foolishness, reproach us with Him; ignorant that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us;" the Word which "was in the beginning," and "was with God, and was God." But although they may not reproach us with the Word which is unknown unto them, because His Divinity is not known unto those by whom His weakness on the Cross is despised; let us nevertheless make answer of the Word, and let us not be terrified or confounded by their reproaches. For "if they had known" the Word, "they would never have crucified the Lord of glory." ...Therefore, when the Psalmist had said, "I will make answer unto them that reproach me with the word:" he at once addeth, "For my trust is in Thy words," which meaneth exactly, in Thy promises.