Psalms 140 · The Lantern

The `title of the hundrid and fourtithe salm. `The salm `of Dauith. Lord, Y criede to thee, here thou me; yyue thou tent to my vois, whanne Y schal crye to thee.

Mi preier be dressid as encense in thi siyt; the reisyng of myn hondis be as the euentid sacrifice.

Lord, sette thou a keping to my mouth; and a dore of stonding aboute to my lippis.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

The venom of asps is under their lips. For they seem to have words of friendship, yet they are full of death-dealing poison.

"They have sharpened their tongues like serpents" [Psalm 140:3]. If still thou seekest to make out the man, behold a comparison. In the serpent above all beasts is there cunning and craft to hurt; for therefore does it creep. It hath not even feet, so that its footsteps when it cometh may be heard.

Bowe thou not myn herte in to wordis of malice; to excuse excusingis in synne. With men worchinge wickidnesse; and Y schal not comyne with the chosun men of hem.

A iust man schal repreue me in mersi, and schal blame me; but the oile of a synner make not fat myn heed. For whi and yit my preier is in the wel plesaunt thingis of hem;

Now these demons, if they see all Christians—and especially monks—joyfully laboring and making progress, first attack by attempting to place stumbling blocks in their way. Their "stumbling blocks" are filthy thoughts. But there is no need for us to fear the things they throw at us; through prayer and fasting and faith in the Lord the demons immediately fall.

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.

"The proud have hidden a trap for me" (ver. 5). He hath briefly described the whole body of the devil, when he saith, "the proud." Hence is it that for the most part they call themselves righteous when they are unrighteous. Hence is it that nothing is so grievous to them as to confess their sins. They are men who, being falsely righteous, must needs envy the truly righteous.

for the domesmen of hem ioyned to the stoon weren sopun vp. Here thei my wordis,

for tho weren myyti. As fatnesse is brokun out on the erthe; oure bonys ben scatered niy helle. Lord, Lord,

for myn iyen ben to thee, Y hopide in thee; take thou not awei my soule.

Kepe thou me fro the snare which thei ordeyneden to me; and fro the sclaundris of hem that worchen wickidnesse. Synneris schulen falle in the nett therof;

Y am aloone til Y passe.

Psalms140