Homily 70, on Psalm 92 (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 title of the present psalm is this: A psalm of praise of David, on the day of the sabbath, when the earth was inhabited. On the sabbath day is our rest, and the inhabiting of the earth is ours. 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' Our earth, therefore, has been inhabited. Let us see, then, what this dwelling accomplishes, and with what praises it is extolled.
The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself. For he hath established the round world, which shall not be moved. These three little verses are spoken by the prophet concerning the Lord and Savior; but the rest that follow are directed to the Lord himself. The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty. The Lord hath reigned, he who before had served. He is clothed with beauty. What does Isaiah say? 'We saw him, and he had no comeliness of his own: a man laid under a stroke, and knowing how to bear infirmity.' The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty. What he says is this: He who before had been an object of horror in the lowliness of the flesh, now shines resplendent in the majesty of the Godhead. For whatever in him is unshapely, let it be reckoned to our condition; but whatever there is of beauty will be fittingly applied to his own majesty. And he hath girded himself. This that he says, he hath girded himself, must signify some mystery. When we are ungirt, our tunic is let down all the way to the feet: unless it has been drawn up by a belt, the whole garment hangs down. So then, we too, because we could not bear the full strength of the Lord, he girded his majesty with flesh. This is what is said in another place: 'Thou shalt not be able to see my face; thou shalt see my back parts.' It is also said of Elijah in the book of Kings that he stood on Mount Sinai in a cleft, and thus saw the Lord passing by. See how, set in the cleft, he is said to have seen the back parts of the Lord and Savior. If the Lord and Savior is interpreted as the rock... 'And Christ,' says the apostle, 'was the rock.' For when we are set in the cleft of the rock, we behold God through the flesh. Why have I said all this? Because we embrace the following verse also with the same exposition: he is clothed with beauty, and hath girded himself. Just as the Lord and Savior is seen through the cleft of the rock, so too through the girdle his majesty is beheld.
For he hath established the round world, which shall not be moved. If we understand this world to have been so established by God that it is disturbed by no commotion ever, how is it said elsewhere, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away'? But if heaven and earth shall pass away, how is it said here, He hath established the round world, which shall not be moved? The οἰκουμένη (oikoumenē) in this place, which in our tongue is rendered 'the inhabited world,' seems to me to be the Church, of which it is said in the Gospel: 'I and my Father will come, and will make our abode with him.' Rightly, therefore, is it called a habitation, which has as its inhabitant the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What, then, we have understood concerning the inhabited world—that is, concerning the round earth established forever—let us understand also concerning our soul. For if we have as our inhabitant the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, our earth shall not be moved forever.
It has been said concerning the Lord's reign and concerning the beauty of his garment, it has been said concerning his strength, it has been said concerning the round world which shall not be moved: now the prophet's speech is directed to the Lord himself, reigning and thundering. And what does he say? Thy throne is prepared; from then thou art, from everlasting. This that he said, He is clothed with strength and hath girded himself, comes down from the lowliness of the flesh: but for the rest, thy kingdom has always been. Thy throne is prepared: always prepared, never beginning. From then. From when? From what time? It has no definition, because it has no beginning either. However often you say, 'from then,' the time never gives out, but you leave it in uncertainty. Because when you say 'then,' it is fitting that you be asked: When? You see, therefore, that the prophetic speech is set down without a definition, since you perceive that it admits of a question. From then thou art, from everlasting. Beautifully he said, thou art; he did not say, from everlasting thou didst begin, but, from everlasting thou art. Thou art who ever art, who saidst to Moses: 'Go, and say to the children of Israel: He who is hath sent me to you.'
The floods have lifted up, O Lord, they have lifted up their voices; from the voices of many waters, wonderful are the surgings of the sea. As many words, so many meanings: as many little verses, so many sacraments. The floods have lifted up their voices. This is what is said in another place: 'The rush of the river maketh glad the city of God.' And in another place: 'The rivers shall clap their hands together.' The floods seem to me to be those which water the whole world, the apostolic and prophetic dignities. The floods have lifted up their voices. Proclaiming the praise and glory of the Lord, announcing his judgments through the whole world. 'Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the round world.' From the voices of many waters. The voices of many waters have furnished us with three mysteries. Let us see what those mysteries are. From the voices of many waters, wonderful are the surgings of the sea, wonderful is the Lord on high: thy testimonies are made exceedingly credible. If we understand the sea mystically as this world... for it is bitter and full of tempests, in which those who sail behold many wonders of the Lord. On account of which he says: Wonderful are the surgings of the sea. For we see many, lifted up by swelling waves, suddenly collapse; but others we see, oppressed by the billows, again raised up to the heights. For nothing in this world is found firm, nothing stable. Where you think there is calm, there is shipwreck: where the appearance of quiet is shown, there the assault of the tempest and the whirlwinds lie hidden; and unless we cry out, 'Master, save us,' we suddenly perish. Wonderful is the Lord on high. Whoever has been able to withstand firmly the billows of this world's sea, dwelling steadfastly upon the rock, he will be able to understand how wonderful is the Lord on high. 'For the exalted one dwells in the exalted places, and the holy one in the holy'; as he also says elsewhere, 'Be ye holy, as I also am holy, the Lord your God.' But the man whom the consciousness of his sins humbles, and who cannot lift up his eyes to heaven together with Jesus, in his sight the Lord is not wonderful on high, but terrible to those beneath.
Thy testimonies are made exceedingly credible. This is what is said in the seventeenth psalm: 'The testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones.' To what little ones? 'Father, I give thee thanks, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent of the world, and hast revealed them to little ones.' Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord. See what he says. Whoever seems to himself to dwell in the house, if he has not holiness, is a stranger to the house, because the house would not have its ornaments. Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord. If, according to the apostle, we are the temple and house of God, then the holiness of our manner of life ought to be the ornament and adornment of the Church; but if sins and vices are caught in us, we are the disgrace and foulness of the Lord's house, not its beauty. Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord. The house of the Lord is the Church. And the Church, according to the mystical understandings, was already prefigured in the flood by the ark, in which the clean animals, at the Lord's command, were multiplied the more. And although, on account of the unclean and the clean, beasts of diverse kinds dwelt there, nevertheless the clean animals became the Lord's house, which by their uneven number already prefigured the sacrifices of virginity: from which Noah, delivered from the perils of the flood, offered to the Lord a worthy holocaust from the clean animals. There are many things that might be said, but the hour shuts us out, and let it suffice to have said a few things concerning the praises of the Lord. To whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.