Psalms 119 · The Lantern

A Canticle in steps. When troubled, I cried out to the Lord, and he heard me.

And as he is Firstborn among brothers and rose from the dead "the firstfruits of them that slept"; so, since it became him "in all things to have the preeminence," therefore he is created "a beginning of ways," that we, walking along it and entering through him who says, "I am the Way" and "the Door" and partaking of the knowledge of the Father, may also hear the words, "Blesse…

And again, in another place, he [David] ascribeth blessedness to the man who feareth God, and he maketh known what good things the fear of God worketh in him that feareth [Him], saying, "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord", and here the fearer of God is accounted blessed.

Wherefore the Psalm reads: Happy are they whose way is blameless. And: Instruct me, O Lord, in the way of Your statutes, etc. In every verse there is a reference to commands, indicated as law, or witnessing, or declarations, or some other equivalent name.

O Lord, free my soul from lips of iniquity and from the deceitful tongue.

What will be given to you, or what will be added to you, for a deceitful tongue?:

the sharp arrows of the powerful, along with the burning coals of desolation.

Woe to me, for my sojourning has been prolonged. I have lived with the inhabitants of Kedar.

My soul has long been a sojourner.

With those who hated peace, I was peaceful. When I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause.

Psalms119