Homily 50, on Psalm 139
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).
Snatch me away, O Lord, from the evil man. The devil cannot deceive us so much by himself as he can through the instrument of a man; and it is from this that the prophet prays to be delivered.
Who have devised iniquities in their heart. He is speaking about the heretics.
The venom of asps is under their lips. For they seem to have words of friendship, yet they are full of death-dealing poison.
Beside the path they have set a stumbling-block for me. That is: by bringing forward testimonies from the Scriptures, which seemed to have some semblance of reason, they were trying to deceive me.
I said to the Lord: You are my God. Unless a man is holy, he cannot say this little verse; he who is not reigned over by sin, he it is who says, 'The Lord is my portion.'
Do not hand me over, O Lord, from my desire to the sinner. Scripture says that 'if anyone looks upon a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' So this is what the prophet is saying: Because of my concupiscence, do not hand me over to the devil; rather, it is well for me to be judged in the deed, and not in the thought.
The head of their compassing about, the labor of their own lips shall cover them. Just as a serpent, when it sees someone coming to strike it, makes a coil of its whole body and hides its head in the middle, where it knows its life resides: so too these heretics, by the discourse of the philosophers and of Aristotle and the rest, seem to hide themselves, and as it were to shield and defend themselves. But the man of the Church, as it were with a rod — that is, with the cross — unwinds the coil, and finds the hidden head, and strikes it there; that is, he brings forth a testimony from the Scriptures.
The upright shall dwell with your countenance. And what is the countenance of God, if not Christ? 'Who thought it not robbery to be equal with God.'