Homily 19, on Psalm 89
Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Presbyteri Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos , Anecdota Maredsolana III (Maredsoli, 1897) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin).
A prayer of Moses, the man of God. There are four psalms that are headed with the title "prayer": the sixteenth, and the one that follows it, and the eighty-ninth, and the hundred and first. In the hundred and first it says: "A prayer of the poor man, when he is downcast, and pours out his prayer in the sight of God." This one: A prayer of Moses, the man of God. We read the song of Moses in Exodus, at that time when the people crossed the Red Sea, and when Pharaoh and all his army had been drowned, Miriam and Moses sang. Then we read one in Deuteronomy also, since he had written that song in Deuteronomy. If therefore these psalms and these songs belong to Moses, why are they not found in his own books? So we have already explained how the hundred and first psalm is inscribed, A prayer of the poor man: and it is another who wrote about him, and that poor man who intercedes for us is the Lord, "who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake," and the rest. So too here is Moses, since from the very beginning of the human race he himself wrote the history: for he himself wrote how heaven and earth were made, how man too was made, about the creation of man; and this psalm speaks about the creation of man, what man is, and why he was born. He therefore who in Genesis wrote about the creation of men, is now himself also brought in by the Holy Spirit to discourse on what man is.
Lord, you have been made a refuge for us from generation to generation. He who seeks a refuge, seeks it either from excessive heat and scorching, or because a beast is pursuing him, or because enemies are pursuing him, to kill him. We too, then, are in the heat of this world; and a beast pursues us too, of which we say, "Do not hand over to the beasts a soul that confesses to you"; and enemies pursue us too; and therefore we flee for refuge under your wings. From generation to generation: both in the past, and in the present, and in the future. In another sense, From generation to generation: both in the old people of the Jews, and in our own people of Christians.
Before the mountains were made, and the earth and the world were formed. At this place a heresy creeps in: If he was made a refuge for us before the mountains were made and the earth and the world were formed, then souls existed before the world came to be. For what does Scripture say? Lord, you have been made a refuge for us: from generation, it says, to generation: from the beginning of the world, before the beginning of the world. This is what they say. And do not think, he says, that I am the one saying it. Before the mountains were made, and the earth and the world were formed, you, he says, have been made a refuge for us. But if you were our refuge before the world was made, then souls existed before the world came to be. You divide the sentence wrongly, O heresy. Why do you slander the Holy Spirit? Speak in the way the Holy Spirit spoke. It should therefore be read thus: Lord, you have been made a refuge for us from generation to generation: and the pause is up to this point. Then another fresh beginning: Before the mountains were made, and the earth and the world were formed, from age to age you are God. You are God before the mountains were made, you are God before the earth and the world were formed, from age to age you are God, you always are, you are eternal.
Do not turn man away into humiliation. And you said: Turn back, sons of men. O Lord, that we might dare to ask this, that we might say, Do not turn man away into humiliation, you have given us confidence by saying: "Return to me, sons, as you turn back, and I will heal your afflictions." And you said: Turn back, sons of men. For a thousand years before your eyes are like a single day that has passed by: do not turn man away into humiliation. And a watch in the night. What did he mean to say by this, And a watch in the night? We ought also to know this according to the literal history: the night is divided into four watches. Indeed in the Gospel too it is said: "But in the fourth watch." One watch, then, is three hours: so the night is divided into four watches. Indeed soldiers have these four stations, when they keep guard and relieve one another. See, then, what he says. All of our eternity: that Adam our forefather, who lived nine hundred and thirty years; even that Methuselah, who lived nine hundred and sixty-five years; suppose he had lived a thousand: in comparison with your eternity, what was great is short. For what can be great that has an end? Our thousand years, before we had committed offense, was one day in your sight. Why do I say, one day? one watch of the night. Do not turn man away into humiliation. See what he says: You deigned for our salvation to come down, you poured out your blood for us: do not allow us to perish, and to die in humiliation. You yourself said: "When I have been lifted up, I will draw all to myself." You have been lifted up, and you have lifted us up: do not abandon us, so that we be dragged down.
In the morning let it pass like grass, in the morning let it flower and pass away: in the evening let it fall, harden, and wither. O the mysteries of the Scriptures! In the morning let it pass like grass. Our Lord and Savior also speaks in the Gospel about the hay, which springs up in one day and withers in one day. Just as grass that is green and flowers seems in the morning to be, as it were, a flower and green: yet when the sun comes and scorches it, toward evening it wilts, as it were, and falls; so too all our life seems to be, as it were, a flower while it is green, and it withers. Ten years ago you saw a young lad: nothing more beautiful than he, he ran this way and that. If you look at him now, he seems in old age to be, as it were, dead. Though he lives in old age, yet his youth has perished. In the morning let it pass like grass, that is, our youth: for that is the morning. Let it pass like grass, in the morning let it flower and pass away. We flower in youth, we wither in old age. In the evening let it fall, harden, and wither. For we have failed in your anger, and in your wrath we have been troubled. Formerly we used to live nine hundred and thirty years, we had reached up to a thousand: behold, our life has been contracted to a brief span. You have set our iniquities in your sight. Nothing is hidden from you: that is, neither does night hide our sins, nor do shadows envelop them: all things shine bright before you. Our age in the illumination of your countenance. It stands better in the Hebrew: "Our faults in the illumination of your countenance." Whatever we do, whatever we think we are doing in secret, lies open in your eyes. For all our days have failed. Our lifetime has run its course: and while we are unaware, it slips away, we perish; and this very thing that we are speaking is part of death, and we do not understand. Our years will be pondered like a spider. See what he says. Just as a spider casts out its threads, as it were, and runs this way and that, and weaves all day long, and the labor indeed is great, but the result is nothing: so too the life of men runs this way and that. We seek possessions, we prepare riches, we beget sons, we labor, we are raised up to kingdoms, and we do everything: and we do not understand that we are weaving a spider's web. The days of our years in themselves are seventy years. Where are the thousand years? We have been contracted into seventy years: but if more, eighty. But if we live longer, it is no longer life, but death. But if among the powerful, eighty years. For whom will you find to be an eighty-year-old and to be healthy? The Greek saying also says: "Old age is itself a disease." And what is beyond them is toil and sorrow. Whatever is more is not life, but sorrow.
This much we have said for the time being according to the literal history: but now let us speak according to the anagogical sense. And indeed every psalm admits of a figurative interpretation; and I could now run through it verse by verse, and give the spiritual understanding in each: but the hour shuts us out. Let me at least give you in a single verse, as it were, a taste of the spiritual understanding, so that whatever I here leave unspoken, you may consider to have been spoken here. The days of our years in themselves are seventy years. Seventy years are seven decades, and eighty years are eight decades. See, then, how the seventh and the eighth number is proclaimed. And just as we said, You have been made a refuge for us from generation to generation, both in the old and in the new testament: therefore now too he sets down both the seventh and the eighth number. This he says also in Ecclesiastes: "Give a portion to seven, and give a portion to eight." Therefore there are also fifteen Psalms of Degrees, that is, seven and eight: which fifteen together lead us to the kingdom of heaven. And indeed, after the seventh Psalm of Degrees has been completed, what does Scripture call that psalm itself? "A psalm," it says, "of Solomon," who had built the old house. And what does it say? "Unless the Lord builds the house, in vain have they labored who built it." What then does Solomon himself say, who is prefixed in the very title? I built the temple: but unless the eighth number builds, the house is built in vain. We read also in the Gospel according to Matthew: Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst, and the rest, and there are eight beatitudes. Therefore our Lord enclosed the Gospel in the number eight. Indeed nowhere do we find eight beatitudes together except in the Gospel. In the number eight, that is, on the day of the resurrection. The days of our years in themselves are seventy years. Do you wish that I should meanwhile show you that the seventh and the eighth number contain very many mysteries? Let us read Ezekiel, and at one gate it is said: "And let him enter," it says, "through the gate of the east into the temple that is being built." In Ezekiel, in the last part. "And the high priest shall go up," it says, "by seven and eight steps." And could it be that at that gate there were both seven steps, and eight? But see what he says. The eastern gate, from which the light comes. Our Lord and Savior. There is indeed one gate, and no one enters through it except the high priest. And what is said there? "This gate shall always be shut." And it is not opened except to the priest. So therefore both the new and the old testament was always shut: it was not opened except to the Savior. For he is the one "who holds the key, who opens and no one shuts, who shuts and no one opens." So one gate has both seven and eight steps. And in the old testament indeed there are evangelical mysteries, and in the new testament there are mysteries of the law. Hear greater mysteries. At that time when Solomon, that is, our peacemaker who says, "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you": for "he himself is our peace," and "the peace that surpasses all understanding," he himself built a temple to God. And see there what Scripture says. "And there were," it says, "seventy thousand stonecutters, and eighty thousand of those who carried burdens." See the number. The stonecutters who cut the stones, who prepare, as it were, the foundations of the buildings, who lift up the stones from the earth to build in the temple of God, are placed in the seventh number, in the prophets, in the patriarchs. For they, drawing out the human race, as it were, from the earth, prepared them for the temple of the Lord. But these others, that is, the eighty thousand, are the apostolic and evangelical preaching, these who together with the Lord the Savior and Solomon himself carried the heavy sins of the nations. Up to this point the mystery seems to be finished: hear greater mysteries. "And those who were in charge," it says, "of these works and of the temple, were three thousand." There can be none greater, even among those who preside over the works, than those who preach the Trinity. The days of our years in themselves are seventy years. There are many things that might be said, but the hour shuts us out.
Make known your right hand, and those fettered in heart in wisdom. In some manuscripts it says "the learned," in others it says "the fettered." "Learned" means one thing, "fettered" means another. What then does he say: Make known your right hand? Why so long do you draw back your right hand, O God? "Why do you turn away your hand into your bosom?" it says in another psalm. What is being said is this: We are laid low in sickness, we lie in sins: send forth your right hand, and lift us up. Why so long do you keep your right hand in your bosom? Let your heart pour out your good Word: send forth your right hand, and set us free. Make known to us the mystery which was hidden from the generations. Make known your right hand. What are you stealing away by stealth, O Arius? He did not say, make your right hand: for God was never without his right hand. But what did he say? Your right hand, which always existed, and was in your bosom, make it known. Since we cannot know him remaining in his deity, let him take on manhood, and thus let us understand him. Make known your right hand thus, and those fettered in heart in wisdom: those who have the fetters of wisdom, that is, who are fettered in the heart through your wisdom. Do not let it trouble you that the passage is obscure. The prophets had wisdom: but that very wisdom, as it were, fettered them; they could not fly without Christ. See, then, what he says: Send forth your right hand, that is, your Son, and make him known to us; and let the prophets, who prophesied, as it were, the shadow, begin to preach the Lord more manifestly.
Turn back, O Lord, how long? We have sinned much, you turn away your face, our sins are not worthy to be seen by your eyes, and therefore we pray: Turn back, O Lord, how long? Behold, now so many ages have flowed by: the prophets have always proclaimed to the nations that you would come, and still you have not come. And direct the sons of men. We who are crooked, may we be set straight by you. And direct the sons of men. Well did he say, direct the sons of men. Direct them for this reason, because they are sons of men. For if they were your sons, they would have been set straight. For you yourself said: "I said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and shall fall like one of the princes." And in another place: "Sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart?" And in another place: "My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh." Since they are men, therefore they are flesh. So because we are sons of men, and we have lost the state of being sons of God, and we have become crooked: therefore direct us, so that we may again be made your sons.
And let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. The Apostle also says to the Hebrews that the Lord and Savior is the splendor of the glory of the Father. And let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. This is what is said also in another place: "The light of your countenance has been sealed upon us, O Lord." The sign of the cross is our banner.
This much we have said for the present about the psalter, and I reckon we have lingered longer than we should have. We realize that we have said much more than we ought to have said; but we cannot keep silent about the words of our Lord, we cannot leave a psalm we have begun. Whatever profits the soul is not too much; nothing is enough of what is good, if indeed it is good. Let us therefore ask our Lord and Savior that his splendor may shine forth in our hearts, that it may cast out all our darkness, that it may drive away from our hearts the dark thoughts and those of all sins, that it may illumine our darkness, that the shadows may flee, and that his splendor may dwell in our hearts. The temple of the Lord and the tabernacle and the holy of holies always had a burning lamp, always a lamp was shining in the temple of the Lord. For if the lamp is extinguished, the Lord does not dwell in darkness. Let us therefore say, we too: "Your word, O Lord, is a lamp to our feet."