Homily 66, on Psalm 88 (Alternate Series)
Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin).
The eighty-eighth psalm is prefaced with this title: The Understanding of Ethan the Ezrahite. Wherever "understanding" is placed first, what follows is mystical and obscure. Ethan is interpreted as "strong," or "robust"; and Ezrahite as "one helped," or "one who has obtained help." I say this because we are dealing with the literal history. Rightly, therefore, is "understanding" placed first, so that this strong or robust man may obtain help from the Lord, and may be able to recognize the things that follow. But the Ezrahite either took his name from a place, or was of the tribe of Merari. Read the books of Numbers and Leviticus, and there you will find everything more fully.
The Understanding of Ethan. "Understanding" is placed first, so that the reader may be summoned to knowledge. For if the history were plain, and had nothing mystical about it, what need would there be for the reader to be reminded of "understanding" in the title? And so that Ethan, as we have said, "strong" or "robust," and the Ezrahite, "one helped" or "one who has obtained aid," is rightly summoned to understanding, so that he may be able to know the things that are to be said. For it follows in the psalm, The Lord has sworn to David his servant, unto eternity I will prepare your seed. The Jews say that the Lord promised with an oath that from the seed of David there would not fail among them a leader or prince, which even now their patriarchs also say: Behold, to this day the Lord keeps his oath to us. But if they truly think this, how is it that we see them subject to the Roman power, and serving the commands of emperors? But mystically it is promised to us concerning Christ. And I will build up your throne unto generation. Did God, then, lie, in that he promised with an oath and did not do it (since surely what God promised ought to be firm), if indeed to this day we see that this does not stand in the race of the Jews? But here understanding is necessary. Rightly, therefore, does that strong or robust man have necessary understanding as an aid or help, so that he may be able to perceive the mysteries of this psalm. Let us return, then, to the beginning of the psalm.
Your mercies, O Lord, I will sing forever. He did not say "mercy," but "mercies." If there were one sin, there would be need of one mercy: since therefore the sins are many, the mercies too are very many. Your mercies, O Lord, I will sing forever. Since I have obtained mercy forever, I ought to sing forever, because my cause for praising is eternal. He who sings has let go of grief, has let go of fear, and has crossed over to joys, because he has obtained mercy. And what he says is this: Because my sins have been forgiven me through the mercy of God, therefore I will sing his mercy. And when he says "forever," this is the meaning: because you have had mercy on me not for a short time, but forever, I too will praise you forever without ceasing, because you have set me free forever.
From generation to generation I will proclaim your truth with my mouth. O the excellent order of the psalm! He did not begin first from truth, and afterward come to mercy: but first he obtained mercy, and so came to truth, when he had received the forgiveness of sins. For first, while I was a sinner, I did not dare to approach the truth; but when I obtained mercy, now secure I dared to preach the truth. And when he says "from generation to generation," he said it beautifully: for he did not say "in generations and generations," but "from generation to generation." He does not, then, commemorate many generations, but only two, one in the circumcision, the other among the Gentiles: to the one Peter is sent, and to the other Paul is sent. And what I forgot to say at the beginning, I will now say: here the person of the Lord and Savior must be established. From generation to generation I will proclaim your truth with my mouth. He who spoke earlier through the patriarchs and prophets, afterward himself speaks in person, as it is said in the Song of Songs: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth." So then what he says is this: he of whom I spoke through the prophets, from that same source I now also speak through my very self. So that he whom the world could not hear when he thundered, it might hear at least when he wailed as an infant.
For you have said, Mercy shall be built up forever. I myself, who then spoke in the Old Testament through the patriarchs and through the prophets, now myself speak through my own self; for I have not come to loose the commandments of mercy which the law had built up, but to build upon them. As he himself says in the Gospel: "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." What then does Moses say? "Give heed, O heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words from my mouth." Jeremiah too speaks thus: "Thus says the Lord"; and the rest of the prophets speak thus: because what they speak are the words of the Lord, and not their own, and what he says through their mouth, it is as though the Lord had spoken through an instrument. What then is the meaning of what is said, "shall be built up," as if some great house or city were being built? Let us see where else something of this sort is written about building. Let us search in Genesis, what this saying means. "And God took," it says, "a rib from Adam's side, and built it into a woman." See what he said: "he built." For building, as we said above, is not usually spoken of except in the construction of a great house. Since therefore that rib of Adam was fashioned into a woman, according to the apostle's authority, it signifies Christ and the Church; therefore he said, "He built the woman from the rib." We have heard of the first Adam; let us come to the second, and let us see how the Church is built from his side. For the side of the Lord and Savior, hanging on the cross, is pierced by a lance, and from it came forth blood and water. Do you wish to know how the Church is built from water and blood? First through baptism, by water, sins are forgiven, then it is crowned in the blood of martyrdom. Since therefore it is clear that the Church of God is built by mercy, therefore it follows, In the heavens your truth shall be prepared. On earth is mercy, and in heaven is truth. Hear, O heretic, what is said. In the heavens the truth of God shall be prepared. If souls fell down from heaven on account of the sins they had committed, how then is the truth prepared in the heavens? If daily souls are cast down to earth, how does the Lord teach in the Lord's Prayer and say, "Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth"? Do we then ask, on the authority of the Lord and Savior, that just as the soul without a body sinned in heaven, so in the body it might sin on earth; and that the soul which, free and in the heavens, could not keep righteousness, should now, confined by the straits of the body, keep it on earth? A strange thing I see: the soul sinned in heaven, and was thrust down to earth, so that what it lost in heaven, it might find on earth. It sinned without a body: how can it be that with a body it might more easily deserve God? Since indeed "the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."
I have appointed a covenant to my chosen ones. Do you wish to know how to this day the Lord appoints his covenant? Let us act well, and we shall deserve to be sharers in the Lord's appointment of the chosen ones. I have sworn to David my servant. Let us see what it is that the Lord swore. This surely, which follows. Unto eternity I will prepare your seed. Come to our aid, O apostle, and interpret this little verse. For what does the apostle say? "He did not say 'in seeds,' but 'in the seed which is Christ.'" This is what is said in the Apocalypse of John: "He who has the key of David, who shuts and no one opens, opens and no one shuts." This key the scribes and Pharisees held in the law, to whom the Lord says in the Gospel: "Woe to you scribes, who hold the key of the kingdom of heaven," and the rest. O Pharisees, who hold the keys of the kingdom, and yet do not believe in Christ, who is the door and gate of the kingdom: to you indeed it is promised, but to us it is delivered: you have the flesh, but we have the spirit: nay rather, because you denied the spirit, you have lost the flesh too along with the spirit.
And I will build up your throne from generation to generation. In two generations, as we have said, the throne of God is set, namely in the circumcision and among the Gentiles.
And the heavens shall confess your wonders, O Lord. This is what is said in the eighteenth psalm: "The heavens declare the glory of God." According to the mystical understanding, he calls the apostles "heavens." For if it is said to the sinner, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall go," why should it not be said to the holy or righteous man, "Heaven you are, and to heaven you shall go"? For of the saints, according to the apostle, "the conversation is in the heavens." And when he says, The heavens shall confess your wonders, it is a sign of the repentance to be preached, which we have received, at the apostles' proclamation, in the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ; and if we follow their admonitions and examples, we too can be called heavens, when we imitate those whose conversation is in the heavens. For the prophet says in another place: "I am a sojourner on earth and a pilgrim, like all my fathers." And this he was saying in Judea, that is, in his own homeland: and how does he say he is a pilgrim? But it is because the saints in the present age are pilgrims on earth, desiring to possess nothing earthly, whose whole possession is in heaven, where one has dwellings, where one has "the city whose maker and founder is God." And therefore the prophet too, who is not of this world, says he is a pilgrim here, and by the will of his mind he hastens to his homeland, that is, to paradise, to the kingdoms of the heavens. Do not say, O heretic, because I have said that paradise is the homeland of the saints, that I am asserting that souls existed before they came here into bodies. Nor do I say this, but I say it according to the apostle, who affirms that we were all, in the transgression of Adam, cast down from paradise through sin. This the apostle says, that Adam fell even in us, who were afterward to be. Therefore now in Christ, that is, the heavenly Adam, we believe, so that we who through the sin of the first Adam fell from paradise, may now through the righteousness of the second Adam return to paradise. The heavens shall confess your wonders, O Lord. What wonders? That you made heaven? Or that you founded the earth? Or that you gathered the seas into one? For what is this that is great in God, for whom to have spoken all things is to have made them? These, then, are the great things in God, the wonders in God, that God became man, that he lay hidden in the womb of a virgin, that born of a virgin he lay in a manger, that he was wounded by men, he who healed the wounds of men, that he was struck with blows, that he was crucified, that he, immortal, suffered to die, and endured so great a punishment unjustly inflicted by men, he who suffers these things so that men might not have to endure punishment. The sun could not bear to see its Lord hanging on the cross, but hid itself, lest it be mingled with the sacrilege of the Jews. The earth too trembled, the rocks are split, all creation is troubled, because its Creator is slain. The veil of the temple is torn, because what had been shut in Judea is opened among all nations; the veil is torn, and the mysteries of the law are shown to the faithful: for to the unbelieving they are covered to this day. For when Moses is read, and the Old Testament is recited by the Jews every Sabbath, according to the apostle "a veil is placed over their heart." For they read the law, but do not understand, because their eyes are darkened that they should not see. For they are like those of whom it is said: "They have eyes and shall not see, they have ears and shall not hear."
For who among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord? The clouds are the prophets, the clouds are the apostles, who pour showers of teachings upon the dry hearts of men. Who shall be like the Lord among the sons of God? All the saints are named with the appellation and title "sons of God," because they are sons by adoption; but the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is alone the Son properly by nature. Of whom it is said, Who among the clouds or among the sons of God shall be like the Lord? That is, who of the angels or of the saints shall be able to be made equal to the Creator in glory or in power, since he himself gives glory to all, so that his praises may be without end: he whom every creature dreads and trembles at, whom the cherubim and seraphim, whom the four living creatures praise without ceasing, whom the dominions and principalities adore, whom all the earth venerates? To whom is glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.