Homily 49, on Psalm 137
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).
I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart. As the wounds are, so too is the poultice. For just as the body has various wounds, so too the soul has its passions and its wounds; and against sin we ought to perform a corresponding repentance. If someone confesses for all his sins, that man confesses to the Lord with his whole heart. For example, someone has committed fornication, and he confesses for the fornication: but since he is either greedy, or wrathful, or a slanderer, or a blasphemer, and has very many vices, that man does not confess with his whole heart. But if someone performs repentance for all the vices and passions of his soul, that man can say: I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart. For you have heard all the words of my mouth. This little verse is not found in the Hebrew. But as for what it says, this is the meaning: Therefore I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart — that is, for all my vices and sins, since I have confessed to you not for one vice alone, and you have heard me.
And in the sight of the angels I will sing psalms to you. See the advancement of the penitent, that after confession and repentance he is counted worthy to sing psalms with the angels. But he who sings psalms no longer performs repentance, but gives thanks, and blesses. I will worship toward your holy temple. If this is the temple which now is seen to be deserted, in which one ought to worship: then the Jews ought not to worship, since the temple has been overthrown. But by "temple" he means the holy and heavenly Jerusalem.
Upon your mercy and your truth. Let the sinner hear "mercy," but let the just and proud man hear "truth."
You will multiply strength in my soul. You will multiply: that is, that the soul is subject to many anxieties.
Let all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord. The kings of the earth are those who reign in sin. Therefore let those very ones confess, who reign in sin. For he is not speaking of the kings of this world. For it is written: "The heart of the king is in the hand of God." Do you suppose that the heart of the most impious Julian was in the hand of God? God forbid. Or of Nero, or of the persecutors Maximian and Decius? God forbid. But he is speaking of those who reign in sin, because those who conquer the vices and passions of the soul and reign over sin, their heart is in the hand of God. Because they have heard all the words of your mouth: because they have kept your commandments.
And let them sing in the ways of the Lord. The philosophers of this world did not sing in the ways of the Lord, but we sing in the ways of the Lord, that is, in Moses and Isaiah and Jeremiah: and from these ways we come to that way which says, "I am the way."