1 The title of the hundrid and foure and fourtithe salm. `The ympne of Dauith. Mi God king, Y schal enhaunse thee; and Y schal blesse thi name in to the world, and in to the world of world.
Jerome · AD 420 Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for the fight. He who interprets briefly gains this: that he himself has no praise, and yet whatever there is in the interpretation, those who have heard retain it. Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for the fight, and my fingers for war.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But because you disregard the interior battle and delight in exterior battles, therefore you do not wish to belong to the new song, where it is said: "He teaches my hands to fight and my fingers to battle." For there is a battle that a man wages against himself, fighting against evil desires, restraining greed, crushing pride, suffocating ambition, slaughtering lust.
2 Bi alle daies Y schal blesse thee; and Y schal herie thi name in to the world, and in to the world of the world.
Jerome · AD 420 My mercy and my refuge, my helper and my deliverer: my protector. With how many names is God called! As many benefits, so many names. Who subdues my people under me. This can be said in the person of Christ, that is, from the assumed man. But it can also be said in the person of the apostles, that which he says: Who subdues my people under me.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 My Mercy and my Refuge, my Upholder and my Deliverer [Psalm 144:2]. Much toils this combatant, having his flesh lusting against his spirit. Keep what you have.
3 The Lord is greet, and worthi to be preisid ful myche; and noon ende is of his greetnesse.
Jerome · AD 420 Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? or the son of man, that you take account of him? This very thing is said also in the eighth psalm. 'What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man, that you visit him?' Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Lord, what is man, that Thou hast become known unto him?" All is included in "that Thou hast become known unto him." "Or the son of man, that Thou valuest him?" Thou valuest him, that is, Thou makest him of such importance, Thou countest him of such price, Thou knowest under what Thou placest him, over what Thou placest him. For valuing is considering the price of a thing.
4 Generacioun and generacioun schal preise thi werkis; and thei schulen pronounse thi power.
Jerome · AD 420 Man is made like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow. Truly our days are like a shadow. I was a little infant, I was a boy, I was a young lad, I was a youth, I was a man, that is, of perfect age, I was of middle age. While I know it not, I am an old man. Death creeps up upon old age. I am changed daily, and I do not perceive that I am nothing.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Man is made like unto vanity: his days pass away like a shadow." What vanity? Time, which passeth on, and floweth by. For this "vanity" is said in comparison of the Truth, which ever abideth, and never faileth: for it too is a work of His Hand, in its degree. "For," as it is written, "God filled the earth with His good things." What is "His"? That accord with Him.
5 Thei schulen speke `the greet doyng of the glorie of thin holynesse; and thei schulen telle thi merueils.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 I consider this to be connected with my present subject. For in his wonder at the knowledge of God the Word coming to people, the psalmist is astonished beyond measure at the love by which he descends from his divinity, and lessens his natural majesty and reckons the human race worthy of bearing him.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Lord, bow Thy heavens, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke." The Body of Christ, the humble David, full of grace, relying on God, fighting in this world, calleth for the help of God. What are "heavens bowed down"? Apostles humbled.
Leo the Great · AD 461 The psalmist is a witness of this matter when he says, "All have gone astray together; they have become worthless." And Christ's prophets, praying for help, said, "Lord, bow down your heavens and descend"; not that he might change the places in which all things are now located but that he might take on the flesh of human weakness for our salvation.
6 And thei schulen seye the vertu of thi ferdful thingis; and thei schulen telle thi greetnesse.
Jerome · AD 420 Flash forth the lightning, and you shall scatter them. See what he says. He did not say, you shall destroy them: but, you shall scatter them.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Flash Thy lightning, and Thou shall scatter them; send forth Thine arrows, and Thou shall confound them." But there are some that conspire, that "gather themselves together against the Lord, and against His Christ." They have come together, they have conspired.
7 Thei schulen bringe forth the mynde of the abundaunce of thi swetnesse; and thei schulen telle with ful out ioiyng thi riytfulnesse.
Jerome · AD 420 Send forth your hand from on high. 'Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Send forth your hand from on high. Lord, bow down your heavens, and descend. This is said to the Son: Bow down your heavens, and descend. And how does he say, Send forth your hand from on high? If he descended, how does he send his hand from on high?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "But you sent down your help from above" and rescued my soul from the depths of this darkness because my mother, your faithful servant, wept to you for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than other mothers shed for the bodily death of a son. For in her faith and in the spirit that she had from you she looked on me as dead.
8 The Lord is a merciful doere, and merciful in wille; paciente, and myche merciful.
Jerome · AD 420 Whose mouth has spoken vanity. They promise themselves knowledge, and they raise up their mouth against their Creator. 'They have set their mouth against heaven.' Whose mouth has spoken vanity. Their knowledge is the knowledge of vanity. And their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Both are condemned, both mouth and hand, both knowledge and works.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "From the hand of strange children." Hear, brethren, among whom we are, among whom we live, from whom we long to be delivered. "Whose mouth has spoken vanity" [Psalm 144:8]. All of you today, if you had not gathered yourselves together to these divine shows of the word of God, and were not at this hour engaged in them, how great vanities would ye be hearing!
9 The Lord is swete in alle thingis; and hise merciful doyngis ben on alle hise werkis.
Jerome · AD 420 O God, I will sing to you a new song. A new man, a new song. O God, I will sing to you a new song. 'Sing to the Lord a new song.' How beautifully he did not say, I sing, but, I will sing. In the future he made his promise; for in the present he knows there is a battle, not a song. An army never sings, except when it has conquered.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "I will sing a new song unto You, O God" [Psalm 144:9]. "A new song" is of grace; "a new song" is of the new man; "a new song" is of the New Testament.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 In the mystery of prophetical revelation, Christ is symbolized through harmonious singing "with a ten-stringed lyre," as in the psalm where David learns how to prophesy.
10 Lord, alle thi werkis knouleche to thee; and thi seyntis blesse thee.
Jerome · AD 420 Who gives salvation to kings. To what kings? 'The heart of the king is in the hand of God.' Even of Julian the persecutor, and of Nero, and of Decius? The heart of the king is in the hand of God. Those who reign over their own body, who subject their body and reduce it to servitude, lest, while preaching to others, they themselves be found reprobate.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Who giveth salvation to kings, who redeemeth David His servant" (ver. 10). Ye know who David is; be yourselves David. Whence "redeemeth He David His servant"? Whence redeemeth He Christ? Whence redeemeth He the Body of Christ?
11 Thei schulen seie the glorie of thi rewme; and thei schulen speke thi power.
Jerome · AD 420 Rescue me and free me from the hand of the sons of strangers. The little verses which were spoken above are repeated again. Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are like new plantings established in their youth. From the hand of the sons of strangers. Let us see what sort the sons of the heretics are.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "From" this "sword deliver me" (ver. 11). "And. take me out of the hand of strange children, whose mouth hath spoken vanity:" just as before.
12 That thei make thi power knowun to the sones of men; and the glorie of the greetnesse of thi rewme.
Jerome · AD 420 Their daughters are adorned, decked round about like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses are full, belching forth from this into that. Their sheep are fruitful, abounding in their goings-out: their oxen are fat. There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage, nor outcry in their streets. They called blessed the people who have these things. This they said. What do I say?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Whose sons are like young vines firmly planted in their youth" (ver. 12). He wisheth to recount their happiness. Observe, ye sons of light, sons of peace: observe, ye sons of the Church, members of Christ; observe whom he calleth "strangers," whom he calleth "strange children," whom he calleth "waters of contradiction," whom he calleth a "sword of ill intent." Observe, I besee…
13 Thi rewme is the rewme of alle worldis; and thi lordschipe is in al generacioun and in to generacioun. The Lord is feithful in alle hise wordis; and hooli in alle hise werkis.
Jerome · AD 420 Their sheep are fruitful. They have many sons: for the number of heretics is great. Their sheep are fruitful. Whence it is said also in Hosea the prophet: Lord, give to them. What will you give them? A barren womb and dry breasts. About whom is this said? About the masters of the heretics, who applaud themselves in the number of their disciples.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Their garners are full, bursting out from one store to another: their sheep are fruitful, multiplying in their streets" [Psalm 144:13]. Is not this then happiness? I ask the sons of the kingdom of heaven, I ask the offspring of everlasting resurrection, I ask the body of Christ, the members of Christ, the temple of God.
14 The Lord liftith vp alle that fallen doun; and reisith alle men hurtlid doun.
Jerome · AD 420 There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage. Does it not seem to you to be obscure what is said, There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage, nor outcry in their streets? You will find heretics unschooled with difficulty: for all the heretic masters are equipped with worldly knowledge. They do not have the apostolic net, but the little chains of dialectic.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "their oxen are fat: their hedge is not broken down, nor their road, nor is their crying in their streets" (ver. 14). Is not this then happiness? I ask the sons of the kingdom of heaven, I ask the offspring of everlasting resurrection, I ask the body of Christ, the members of Christ, the temple of God.
15 Lord, the iyen of alle beestis hopen in thee; and thou yyuest the mete of hem in couenable tyme.
Jerome · AD 420 They called blessed the people who have these things. Many, not knowing, think such people blessed. But for us there is Christian simplicity: we do not want Platonic eloquence, but we want the apostolic simplicity of fishermen. This one holds the net, has feet and hands muddied from the work; this one has a calloused hand from the work.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They have called the people blessed who have these things" (ver. 15). O men that speak vanity! They have lost the true right hand, wicked and perverse, they have put on the benefits of God inversely. O wicked ones, O speakers of vanity, O strange children! What was on the left hand, they have set on the right. What dost thou, David? What dost thou, Body of Christ?
16 Thou openest thin hond; and thou fillist ech beeste with blessing.
17 The Lord is iust in alle hise weies; and hooli in alle hise werkis.
18 The Lord is niy to alle that inwardli clepen him; to alle that inwardli clepen him in treuthe.
19 He schal do the wille of hem, that dreden him, and he schal here the biseching of hem; and he schal make hem saaf.
20 The Lord kepith alle men louynge him; and he schal leese alle synners.
21 Mi mouth schal speke the heriyng of the Lord; and ech man blesse his hooli name in to the world, and in to the world of world.