Homily 72, on Psalm 95 (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).
Before we discuss the Gospel, it seems to us that a few things should be said about the title of the psalm, and after our discussion of the title let us come to a few short verses; so that the understanding which we had spoken of concerning the entrance-hall we may recognize likewise in the whole doorway of the house. This is the title: When the house was being built after the captivity, of David himself. Whose house was being built after the captivity? Which of us, do you think, has been taken captive and, in the storm of captivity, torn down, so that after the captivity he might be built up again? If God has shut up all men under sin, and all things are found in unbelief: wherever there is sin, there is captivity; where there is captivity, there is ruin, and there building is necessary. We ought therefore to consider our houses more carefully, lest perhaps they have collapsed in some part, and need to be built after the captivity; and we must come to their aid with all toil and skill, so that they do not utterly collapse, that there may be fulfilled in us what is written in Exodus: 'Because the midwives feared God, they built themselves houses.' See what it says: Because they feared God, they built houses. Therefore a house cannot be constructed except by the fear of God. If then those women built houses by the fear of God, who had not sinned but rather acted in accord with God's will: what ought we, who have been taken captive, to do? Listen, sinner: we ought indeed to fear God, that we may not sin; but the second plank after shipwreck is repentance. When the house was being built after the captivity. When the house was being built: it did not say, has been built, because repentance has no end. For the righteous man, once dead, leaves repentance behind; but wherever there is sin, the conscience always gnaws. Therefore it is said, was being built, because it is not confined by time: however long you live, there you always run into it.
Sing to the Lord a new song. The old man is put off, and the new is raised up: therefore a new song is sung. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. The earth which has turned with its whole mind to the Lord sings out His praises, in the confession of the Lord, with the sweetness of a new voice.
We ought not to be forgetful of our promise: we must pass on to the reading of the Gospel, since it is difficult. Let it suffice to have said once, that the psalm is spoken in the person of one repenting: and to this understanding whatever else remains will also be applied.