Homily 67, on Psalm 89 (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-ninth psalm has been read, whose title is this: A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. It is the beginning of the fourth book, for we ought to know that the psalter is divided into five books. From the first up to the fortieth is the first book; from the fortieth up to the seventy-first is the second book; from the seventy-first up to the eighty-eighth is the third book; from the eighty-eighth up to the hundred and fifth is the fourth book; from the hundred and fifth to the end is the fifth book. And therefore this is the opening of the fourth book: A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. The Hebrews think that not only this psalm, but also the other ten that follow, since they bear no title, were composed by Moses. And for that reason they think that those which are without a title belong to the same author as the one that has a title, because they seem to lie adjacent to the one that is inscribed with a title.
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. If all men were men of God, it would never have been added, A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Do you wish to know that not all men are men of God? "Man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he was compared to the senseless beasts of burden, and was made like unto them." It is a great thing, therefore, to be called men of God or servants of God. For when this is said of someone, it is a token not of lowliness but of dignity; nor is the condition of servitude shown, but the dignity of one who serves well is displayed. A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. By Moses the law was written down, by Moses the nature of the world is shown, by Moses it was told how man was fashioned in the image of God. What, then, is this that he says, A Prayer of Moses, the man of God? Moses indeed writes how man was made; he himself also writes how man fell. Now, therefore, he prays that the one who fell into death may be lifted up to life, and that the one who fell through sin by the devil's doing may again rise through Christ to glory. For this reason, then, Moses makes a prayer to God, and says:
Lord, you have become a refuge for us. A refuge is never spoken of unless there has been persecution: for unless someone else persecutes us, we have no need to flee to another for refuge. Lord, you have become a refuge for us. Since a great swelter of tribulations and heat wearies us, we take refuge under the shadow of your wings. Lord, you have become a refuge for us. Therefore we flee to your help, because a great beast persecutes us; and since we have many adversaries and enemies, be you at least our one refuge. From generation to generation. In this place the serpent hisses. For those who say that souls were made before the world and before they were put into bodies, say this: Lord, you have become a refuge for us from generation to generation, before the mountains were made or the world was formed — that is, before this world was created, you were our refuge — punctuating badly, understanding badly. For we ought to say it thus: Lord, you have become a refuge for us from generation to generation. And the pause of the sentence goes this far. Then, what follows, thus: Before the mountains were made, and the world was formed, from age to age you are God. This, then, is said, not that man's soul existed before the age, but that the Lord God is shown to have always existed and to be before the ages. Finally the following verse too speaks fittingly, And from age to age you are God. From eternity to eternity you abide, having neither beginning nor end.
Turn not man away into lowliness. Moses prays on behalf of man, and what does he say? Do not suffer to perish him whom you fashioned in your image. Turn not man away into lowliness. Consider not the vileness of the body, but the dignity of the soul. Let it suffice us that we once heard, "You are earth, and into earth you shall go," and that because of the consciousness of sin we are brought low. Turn not man away into lowliness. Turn him not away, but turn him back: for you have said through all the prophets, Turn back, you sons of men. Let it suffice that you have sinned: do penance, that you may be able to have salvation. Turn not man away into lowliness. Send your Son, that he may lift the body of our lowliness on high, and, freed from the burdens of the earth, raise it through a new manner of life to heaven.
For a thousand years before your eyes are as yesterday's day, which has passed. Compared to the eternity of God, all the time of man is short: although it seems long to us, yet in comparison with eternity, because it is bounded by an end, it is reckoned as nothing.
And as a watch in the night. The night has four watches, marked off in periods of three hours each, as it is said in the Gospel, "In the fourth watch of the night" Jesus "came to them," which is understood to be about cockcrow. This, then, is what he says: a thousand years with you are to be compared not only to the shortness of a day, but to the span of three hours. Their years shall be counted as nothing. What he says is this: since man from the beginning of the world lived nearly a thousand years, and a thousand years before God are as a watch in the night. Nay, I have said enough: the ages of men are as nothing in comparison with the divine eternity. Do you wish to know more fully how human life is nothing? Hear what follows. In the morning let it pass like grass. As the morning dew passes swiftly, so is the life of men. Our morning is youth. In the morning let it flower and pass. In youth and full age we flowered, but in old age we fall down, and the flower of our strength has withered. For which of us knows how our age passes by? While we scarcely know it, old age steals up on us from behind. In the evening let it fall, harden, and grow dry. Our evening is old age, which, when the flower of youth has been shaken off, is hardened by the manifold horror of diseases. "For all flesh indeed is grass, and its glory is as the flower of grass: it withered and fell; but the word of the Lord abides forever." We still live, and part of us has already perished in old age: though the mind is the same, yet we who feel that we have lost the vigor of our former youth are in a manner become other men.
In your anger we have failed. Because through our sins we have earned your anger, we have lost in Adam the immortality you had given, from whom sin has been handed down to us, as it were naturally, by hereditary right. And in your fury we have been troubled. Beautifully he said, troubled: for one who is troubled does not perish, but is shaken with terror, so that he may feel the power of him whom by sinning he had scorned, and may flee, humble and submissive, to repentance. And in your fury we have been troubled. Because we have given offense, we are thrown into confusion; but because, believing, we have received your Christ, we are consoled.
You have set our iniquities in your sight. Nothing of our sins has been hidden from you: all the evils we have committed are manifest before you.
Our age in the light of your countenance. All that we live, or that we do, is not hidden from your eyes: the very darkness is not concealed from you.
For all our days have failed. So do the days pass and death draw near, that in a manner, while we know it not, our whole age and life itself is stolen away, scanty as it is. This very thing, which I now speak and you hear, is cut away from a part of our life; and although we believe there to be in it some advancing of the soul, yet because it uses up the span of hours, it is a loss of time and of age. And thus it comes about that where we think we have gain, there rather loss is brought upon us.
Our years shall be pondered like a spider. He could have said nothing more beautiful than to describe human life and all our anxiety and pursuits, in which we run this way and that and lay up wealth, seek riches, build houses, beget children: and see to what a thing they are compared. Our years shall be pondered like a spider. For just as we see the spider draw out its threads on the walls and weave its webs, which are undone by a sudden wind; so every act of our life is scattered by the sudden onset of tribulation or of death. The days of our years in themselves are seventy years. See how gradually human life has been reduced. First in paradise we had received eternity, which we lost through disobedience: afterward the life of the ancients was extended to a thousand years: now, in the dregs of our time, one scarcely reaches seventy.
The days of our years in themselves are seventy years: but if in strength, eighty years: and more than these is labor and sorrow. See what he says, More than these is labor and sorrow. This is what we said above, that where we think there is gain in our life, there we find loss and disadvantage. Where there is increase of years, there is old age: where old age, there diseases: where diseases, there torments: where torment, there the longing for death.
For mildness has come upon us, and we shall be chastened. What is this mildness, through which we are chastened? "Remember, Lord, David and all his mildness." What is this mildness? "Learn that I am mild and humble of heart." Mildness has come upon us. He did not say, the mild one has come, but mildness has come, which is our Lord Jesus Christ; who, just as in another place he is called not wise but wisdom, so here too he is named not mild but mildness itself.
Make your right hand thus known, and those fettered in heart in wisdom. Your right hand, with which you made the world, enlighten the world. "For the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been revealed?" Your right hand, with which you made man, let it itself take up and save the human body. And those fettered in heart in wisdom. It can be understood thus: those who before wandered freely, let them be fettered by your wisdom. For it is better to be well fettered than to have feet ill at liberty; it is better to stand well than to run badly. Just as that colt in the Gospel, which before was free, and unbridled went along over the precipices, afterward, when sat upon by the Lord, is reined in and is taught to walk well: so we pray you, that you make your right hand known to the world, so that the wandering and unstable may be fettered by your wisdom.
Turn back, Lord, how long? Turn back, Lord, and look upon your image: do not show us your back, but your face. Turn back, how long? He who says how long shows that he desires, and cannot bear the delays of his desire.
We have been filled in the morning with your mercy. There are mysteries in what is said in the psalms, and all things are full of figures. Moses prays in the person of the human race, that the Son of God may deign to come to the lands of earth. And because he had said, Make your right hand thus known, now, because he feels himself heard, he adds and says, We have been filled in the morning with your mercy, when your Son on the third day rose again from the dead. And because in the evening he descended for our life into the darkness of death, that he might draw us out to the light of morning, in that hour we come to know the fullness of your mercy. Whence the twenty-first psalm is entitled with this heading: "For the morning taking up." Your mercy indeed always appeared to the saints; but never was it so manifestly and so fully poured out as when the Redeemer of all rose again for the common salvation.
And we have exulted and been delighted. After the joy of the resurrection of our Lord, by which we now believe both that we have been redeemed and that we shall rise again, for the remaining days of our life, rejoicing in this confidence, we exult, and with hymns and spiritual songs we render praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.