4. Give glory to his praise. (Ps 66:2 (65:2)) He directs our whole intention to the praise of God; he leaves us nothing whereby we may be praised. Let us rather glory in him, and rejoice; let us cleave to him, let us be praised in him. You heard when the Apostle was read: See your calling, brethren; that not many wise according to the flesh, not many powerful, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong; and God chose the ignoble things of the world, and the things that are not, as though they were, that the things that are might be brought to nothing (See 1 Cor 1:26-28). What did he wish to say? what did he wish to show? Our Lord God Jesus Christ descended to repair the human race, and to give his grace to all who understand that it is his grace, not their merits; and lest any person glory in the flesh, he chose the weak. For thence Nathanael too was not chosen. For why does it seem to you, that he chose Matthew, a publican sitting at the toll-booth, and did not choose Nathanael, to whom the Lord himself bore witness, saying: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (See John 1:47)? It is understood, then, that this Nathanael was learned in the Law. Not because he was not going to choose the learned: but if he had chosen those first, they would think themselves chosen by the merit of their learning; so their knowledge would be praised, and the praise of the grace of Christ diminished. He bore witness to him as to a good faithful man, in whom there was no guile; but yet he did not take him up among those disciples whom he first chose, the unlearned. And whence do we understand that he was skilled in the Law? When he heard from one of those who had followed the Lord, saying: We have found the Messiah, which is interpreted Christ (See John 1:41), he asked whence; and it was said: From Nazareth: and he: Can anything good be from Nazareth (See John 1:46)? Without doubt, he who understood that something good can be from Nazareth was skilled in the Law, and had well examined the Prophets. I know there is in those words another way of pronouncing; but it is not approved by the more prudent: as if that man seemed to despair, when, hearing, he said: Can anything good be from Nazareth? that is, surely it cannot? So pronouncing it as though he despaired. But there follows there: Come, and see (See John 1:46). These words, that is: Come, and see, can follow either pronunciation. If you say it, as though not believing: Can anything good be from Nazareth? the answer is: Come, and see what you do not believe. Again, if you say it affirming: Something good can be from Nazareth; the answer is: Come, and see how truly good is what I announce from Nazareth; and how rightly you believe, come, and prove it. Yet from this he is thought to have been learned in the Law, because he was not chosen among the disciples by him who first chose the foolish things of the world; though the Lord bore him so great witness, saying: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (See John 1:47). The Lord, then, afterward chose orators too; but they would be proud, if he had not first chosen fishermen: he chose rich men; but they would say they were chosen by the merit of their riches, unless he had first chosen the poor: he chose emperors afterward; but it is better that an emperor, when he comes to Rome, lay aside the diadem and weep at the memorial of a fisherman, than that a fisherman weep at the memorial of an emperor. For God chose the weak things of the world, to confound the strong; and God chose the ignoble things of the world, and the things that are not, as though they were, that the things that are might be brought to nothing. And what follows? The Apostle concluded: That no flesh may glory before God (See 1 Cor 1:29). See how he took glory from us, that he might give glory: he took ours, that he might give his; he took the empty, that he might give the full; he took the tottering, that he might give the solid. How much stronger and firmer, then, is our glory, because it is in God! You ought not, then, to glory in yourself; the truth forbade it: but what the Apostle says, this the truth commanded: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (See 1 Cor 1:31). Give, then, glory to his praise. Do not imitate the Jews, who wished, as it were by their own merits, to attribute to themselves their justifications, and envied the Gentiles coming to the gospel grace, that all sins might be forgiven them; as though those had not what might be forgiven them; now, as it were good laborers, awaiting a reward. And when they were still sick, they thought themselves healthy, and thence were more dangerously sick. For if they had been even more mildly sick, they would not, like frenzied men, have killed the physician. Give glory to his praise.

5. [v. 3] Say to God: How fearful are your works! (Ps 66:3 (65:3)) Why fearful, and not lovable? Hear another voice of the psalm: Serve the Lord in fear, and exult in him with trembling (See Ps 2:11). What does this mean? Hear the voice of the Apostle: With fear, he says, and trembling work out your own salvation. Why, with fear and trembling? He added the cause: For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for his good will (See Phil 2:12-13). If, then, God works in you, by the grace of God you work well, not by your own powers. Therefore if you rejoice, fear too; lest perhaps what was given to the humble be taken from the proud. For, that you may know that this was done from the very pride of the Jews, justifying themselves as it were by the works of the Law, and therefore falling, another psalm says: These in chariots, and these in horses, as it were in their own certain steps and instruments for their own raising up; but we, he says, will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God (See Ps 20:7 (19:8)): These in chariots, and these in horses; but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God. See how those were lifted up in themselves; see how these gloried in God. Therefore what followed? Their feet were bound, and they fell; but we have risen, and are set upright (See Ps 20:8 (19:9)). Hear our Lord himself saying this same thing: I, he says, came; that those who do not see may see; and those who see may become blind (See John 9:39). See in one part goodness; in the other as it were malice. But what is better than he? what more merciful? what more just? Why, then, that those who do not see may see? On account of goodness. Why, and that those who see may become blind? On account of being lifted up. And did they truly see, and were made blind? They did not see, but seemed to themselves to see. For behold, see, brethren: when the Jews themselves said: Are we then blind? the Lord said to them: If you were blind, you would have no sin: but now because you say: We see, your sin remains in you (See John 9:40-41). You came to the physician; you say you see? The eye-salves will cease; you will always remain blind: confess yourself blind, that you may deserve to be enlightened. Attend to the Jews; attend to the Gentiles. Those who do not see may see, he says: therefore I came, that those who see may become blind. The Jews saw our Lord Jesus Christ himself in the flesh; the Gentiles did not see him: behold, those who saw, crucified him; those who did not see, believed. What, then, did you do, O Christ, against the proud? what did you do? We see, because you deigned, and we are your members; we see: you hid God; you set forth a man. Why this? That blindness in part might come upon Israel, and the fullness of the Gentiles might enter (See Rom 11:25). For this you hid God, and set a man before their gaze. They saw, and did not see: they saw what you had taken on, and did not see what you were: they saw the form of a servant, they did not see the form of God; the form of a servant, in which the Father is greater; not the form of God, on account of which you have just now heard: I and the Father are one (See John 10:30). They held what they saw, they crucified what they saw; they insulted him whom they saw, they did not recognize him who lay hidden. Hear the Apostle saying: For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (See 1 Cor 2:8). Therefore you Gentiles who have been called, attend to the branches cut off on account of severity; but yourselves grafted in on account of goodness, and made partakers of the fatness of the olive, not relishing high things; that is, not being proud. For you do not bear the root, he says; but the root you. Rather fear, because you see the natural branches cut off. For the Jews came through the Patriarchs; they were born of the flesh of Abraham. And what does the Apostle say? But you say: The branches were broken, that I might be grafted in. Well; on account of unbelief they were broken. But you, he says, stand by faith; do not relish high things, but fear: for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you (See Rom 11:19-21). Attend, then, to the branches broken, and to yourself grafted in: do not be lifted up over the broken branches; but rather say to God: How fearful are your works! Brethren, if we ought not to be lifted up against the Jews, long ago cut off from the root of the Patriarchs, but rather to fear, and to say to God: How fearful are your works! how much less ought we to be lifted up against the recent wounds of those cut off? The Jews were cut off before, the Gentiles grafted in; from that very grafting the heretics were cut off; but neither against them ought we to be lifted up, lest perhaps he deserve to be cut off, whom it delights to insult the cut off. My brethren, whatever the voice of the bishop has sounded to you, we ask you to beware: whoever you are in the Church, do not insult those who are not within; but rather pray that they too be within. For God is able to graft them in again (See Rom 11:23). Of the Jews themselves the Apostle said this; and it came about in them. The Lord rose again, and many believed: they did not understand when they crucified; yet afterward they believed in him, and so great an offense was forgiven them. The poured-out blood of the Lord was forgiven to murderers, that I may not say killers of God; because if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Now to murderers the poured-out blood of the innocent one was forgiven; and the very blood which through madness they shed, through grace they drank. Say, then, to God: How fearful are your works! Whence fearful? Because blindness in part came upon Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter (See Rom 11:25). O fullness of the Gentiles, say to God: How fearful are your works! and so rejoice as to tremble; do not be lifted up over the cut-off branches. Say to God: How fearful are your works!

6. In the multitude of your power your enemies will lie to you. (Ps 66:3 (65:3)) To this end, he says, your enemies will lie to you, that your power may be great. What is this? Hear more attentively. The power of our Lord Jesus Christ appeared chiefly in the resurrection, whence this psalm received its title. And rising again he appeared to his disciples. He did not appear to his enemies, but to his disciples. Crucified, he appeared to all; rising again, to the faithful: so that even afterward whoever wished might believe, and to the one believing the resurrection might be promised. Many saints did many miracles; none of them, dead, rose again: because even those who were raised up by them, were raised up to die. Let Your Charity attend. The Lord, commending his works, said: Believe the works, if you will not believe me (See John 10:38). And even the past works of the Prophets are commended; and if not the same, yet many the same, many of the same power. The Lord walked upon the sea, and bade Peter too. Was he not there himself, the Lord, when the sea divided itself, that Moses with the people of Israel might cross? The same Lord did those things. He who did these things through his own flesh, he himself did those things through the flesh of his servants. Yet this he did not do through his servants (for he himself did all things), that any of them should be dead, and rise into eternal life. Because, then, the Jews could say, when the Lord did miracles: Moses did these things too, Elijah did them, Elisha did them: they could say these things to themselves, because those men too raised the dead, and did many miracles: therefore, when a sign was sought from him; commending his own sign which was to be in him alone, he said: This wicked and embittering generation seeks a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights; so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (See Matt 12:39-40). How was Jonah in the belly of the whale? Was it not that he might afterward be vomited out alive? Hell was to the Lord what the whale was to Jonah. This sign, proper to himself, he commended; this is the most powerful. It is more powerful to have lived again from the dead, than not to have been dead. The greatness of the Lord's power, according as he was made man, appears in the strength of the resurrection. This the Apostle commends, when he says: Not having my own righteousness which is from the Law; but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is the righteousness from God in faith, to know him, and the power of his resurrection (See Phil 3:9-10). So it is commended in another place too: And although he was crucified of weakness, yet he lives of the power of God (See 2 Cor 13:4). Since, then, this great power of the Lord is understood in the resurrection, whence this psalm received its title; what does it mean: In the multitude of your power your enemies will lie to you, except that you should understand thus: Therefore your enemies will lie to you that you may be crucified; therefore you will be crucified that you may rise again? Their lie, then, will avail to commend your great power. Why are enemies wont to lie? That they may diminish the power of him about whom they lie. To you, he says, it befalls the contrary. For your power would appear less, if they did not lie to you.

7. Attend to the very lie of the false witnesses in the Gospel, and see that it is about the resurrection. For when it had been said to the Lord: What sign do you show us, that you do these things? besides what he had said of Jonah, by another likeness he said this same thing, that you may know that this proper sign was chiefly commended: Destroy, he says, this temple; and in three days I will raise it up. And they said: Forty-six years was this temple built; and you in three days will raise it up? And the evangelist, expounding what that was: But this, he says, Jesus said of the temple of his body (See John 2:18-21). Behold, this power of his he said he would demonstrate to men, whence he had given the likeness of the temple, on account of his flesh which was the temple of the divinity hidden within. Whence the Jews saw the temple outside; the deity dwelling within they did not see. From these words of the Lord the false witnesses contrived a lie, which they spoke against him, from those very ones where he commended his future resurrection, speaking of the temple. For the false witnesses said against him, when it was asked of them what they had heard him say: We heard him saying: I will destroy this temple, and after three days I will raise it up (See Matt 26:60-61). After three days I will raise it up, they had heard: I will destroy, they had not heard; but they had heard: Destroy. They changed one word, and a few letters, that they might contrive false testimony. But for whom do you change a word, O human vanity, O human weakness? For an unchangeable Word you change a word! You change your word; surely you do not change the Word of God? Whence elsewhere it is said: And iniquity lied to itself (See Ps 27:12 (26:12)). Why, then, did your enemies lie to you, O Lord, to whom all the earth shouts joyfully? In the multitude of your power your enemies will lie to you. They will say: I will destroy; when you said: Destroy. Why did they say you said: I will destroy; and not say what you said: Destroy? That they might, as it were, defend themselves from the charge of the destroyed temple without cause. For Christ, because he willed it, died: and yet you killed him. Behold, we grant you, O liars; he himself destroyed the temple. For it was said by the Apostle: Who loved me and handed over himself for me (See Gal 2:20). It was said of the Father: Who did not spare his own Son; but handed him over for us all (See Rom 8:32). If, then, the Father handed over the Son, and the Son handed over himself; what did Judas do? The Father, by handing over the Son to death for us, did well: Christ, by handing over himself for us, did well: by handing over his master out of his own avarice, Judas did ill. For what was furnished to us from the suffering of Christ will not be reckoned to the malice of Judas: he will have the reward of malice; Christ the praise of grace. Plainly let him himself have destroyed the temple; let him have destroyed it who said: I have power to lay down my soul; and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me; but I myself lay it down of myself, and take it up again (See John 10:18). Let him himself have destroyed the temple by his grace, by your malice. In the multitude of your power your enemies will lie to you. Behold, they lie, behold, they are believed, behold, you are oppressed, behold, you are crucified, behold, you are insulted, behold, the head is wagged: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (See Matt 27:40). Behold, when you will, you lay down your soul, and your side is struck with a lance, and the Sacraments flow from your side; you are taken down from the wood, you are wrapped in linen cloths, you are placed in the tomb, guards are added lest your disciples take you away; the hour of your resurrection comes, the earth is shaken, the tombs are torn open, you rise hidden, you appear manifest. Where, then, are those liars? where is the false testimony of malevolence? Did not your enemies lie to you in the multitude of your power?

8. Bring forward those guards of the tomb too; let them report what they saw: let them receive money, and let them too lie; let them too say, perverse, admonished by the perverse, let them say, corrupted by the Jews, who in Christ were unwilling to be whole; let them say, let them too lie. What will they say? Say it; let us see: you too will lie in the multitude of the power of the Lord. What will you say? While we were sleeping, his disciples came, and took him away from the tomb (See Matt 28:13). O truly sleeping folly! Either you were awake; and you ought to have prevented it: or you were sleeping; and you did not know what was done. They too were added to the lie of the enemies: the number of liars was increased, that the reward of believers might be increased; because in the multitude of your power your enemies will lie to you. Therefore they lied; in the multitude of your power they lied: you appeared against the liars to the truthful, and you appeared to those truthful ones whom you yourself made truthful.

9. [v. 4] Let the Jews remain in their lies: but to you, because in the multitude of your power they lied, let what follows come to pass: Let all the earth adore you, and play to you; let it play to your name, O Most High. (Ps 66:4 (65:4)) A little before, most humble; now Most High: most humble among the hands of lying enemies; Most High above the summit of praising angels. Let all the earth adore you, and play to you; let it play to your name, O Most High.

10. [v. 5] Come, and see the works of the Lord. (Ps 66:5 (65:5)) O Gentiles, O last nations, leave the lying Jews, come confessing. Come, and see the works of the Lord: terrible in counsels over the sons of men. He too indeed was called Son of man, and truly was made the son of man: the true Son of God in the form of God; the true son of man in the form of a servant: but do not weigh this form of a servant by the condition of others like him; he is terrible in counsels over the sons of men. The sons of men contrived a counsel to crucify Christ; crucified, he blinded those crucifying. What, then, did you do, sons of men, by contriving sharp counsels against your Lord, in whom majesty lay hidden, and weakness appeared? You contrived counsels of destroying, he of blinding and saving; of blinding the proud, of saving the humble: but to this end of blinding the proud themselves, that, blinded, they might be humbled, humbled they might confess, having confessed they might be enlightened. Terrible in counsels over the sons of men. Truly terrible! Behold, blindness in part came upon Israel: behold, the Jews from whom Christ was born are outside: behold, the Gentiles who were against Judea are within in Christ. Terrible in counsels over the sons of men.

11. [v. 6] Therefore what did he do by the terror of his counsel? He turned the sea into dry land. For this follows: Who turns the sea into dry land. (Ps 66:6 (65:6)) The world was a sea; bitter with saltiness, turbulent with storm, raging with the waves of persecutions, it was a sea: certainly the sea was turned into dry land; now the world thirsts for sweet water, which was full of salt. Who did this? Who turns the sea into dry land. Now the soul of all the Gentiles, what does it say? My soul is like a land without water to you (See Ps 143:6 (142:6)). Who turns the sea into dry land. In the river they will cross over on foot. Those very ones who were turned into dry land, when they were before a sea, will cross over the river on foot. What is the river? The river is all the mortality of the age. See the river: some things come and pass, others about to pass succeed. Is it not so in the water of a river, which is born of the earth, and flows? Everyone who is born must yield to one about to be born: and all this order of falling things is a certain river. Into this river let not the greedy soul cast itself, let it not cast itself; let it stand. And how will it cross over the delights of perishing things? Let it believe in Christ, and it will cross over on foot: it crosses over with him as guide, it crosses over on foot. What is it, to cross over on foot? To cross over easily. It does not seek a horse to cross over; pride is not lifted up to cross the river: the humble one crosses over, and crosses over more safely. In the river they will cross over on foot.

12. There we will rejoice in him. (Ps 66:6 (65:6)) O Jews, you glory of your works: lay aside the pride of glorying of yourselves; take the grace of rejoicing in Christ. For there we will rejoice: but not in ourselves: there we will rejoice in him. When will we rejoice? When we have crossed over the river on foot. Eternal life is promised, resurrection is promised; there our flesh will no longer be a river: for it is now a river, when it is mortality. See whether any age stands still. Boys wish to grow; and do not know that the span of their life is diminished by the succeeding years. For years are not added, but subtracted from those growing: as the water of a river certainly approaches, but recedes from the source. And boys wish to grow, that they may be free from the dominion of their elders; behold, they grow, it is done quickly, they reach youth: those who have passed boyhood, let them hold youth if they can; it too passes. Old age succeeds; or let old age be eternal: it is taken away by death. Therefore it is a river of flesh being born. This river of mortality, lest the concupiscence of mortal things overturn it and snatch it away, he easily crosses over who humbly, that is, on foot, crosses over, with him as guide who first crossed over, who drank of the torrent on the way even unto death, therefore he lifted up his head. Crossing over, then, the river on foot, that is, easily crossing over this flowing mortality, there we will rejoice in him. But now in what, except either in him, or in the hope of him? For even if we rejoice now, in hope we rejoice; but then we will rejoice in him. And now in him, but through hope; but then face to face.

13. [v. 7] There we will rejoice in him. In whom? Who has dominion in his power forever. (Ps 66:7 (65:7)) For what power have we? and surely not eternal? If our power were eternal, we would not have slipped, we would not have fallen into sin, we would not have deserved penal mortality. He took on by his will that into which our merit cast us down: Who has dominion in his power forever. Let us become partakers of him, in whose power we shall be strong; but he in his own. We enlightened; he the enlightening light: we, turned away from him, are darkened; he cannot be turned away from himself. By his heat we are kindled; from which withdrawing we had grown cold, drawing near again we are kindled. Let us, then, say to him to keep us in his power, because in him we will rejoice who has dominion in his power forever.

14. But he does not furnish this to the believing Jews alone: because the Jews greatly lifted themselves up, presuming on their own power, afterward they came to know in whose power they were savingly strong, and some of them believed: but it is not enough for Christ; it is much that he gave, he gave a great price, what he gave ought not to avail for the Jews alone. His eyes look upon the Gentiles. (See Ps 66:7 (65:7)) Therefore, His eyes look upon the Gentiles. And what do we do? The Jews will murmur; the Jews will say: What is ours, this is theirs too; to us the Gospel, to them the Gospel; to us the grace of resurrection, and to them the grace of resurrection: it profits us nothing that we received the Law, and lived in the justifications of the Law, and held the precepts of the fathers: this will avail nothing; what is ours is theirs! Let them not quarrel, let them not contend. Let those who embitter not be exalted in themselves. O wretched and decaying flesh, are you not a sinner? What does your tongue cry out? Let the conscience be attended to. For all have sinned, and lack the glory of God. Recognize yourself, human weakness. You received the Law, that you might be a transgressor of the Law too; for you did not hold and fulfill what you received. There came to you from the Law, not the justification which the Law commands, but the transgression which you made. If, then, sin abounded, why do you envy the superabounding grace? Do not embitter, because those who embitter, let them not be exalted. He seems to have cursed, as it were: Those who embitter, let them not be exalted: rather let them be exalted, but not in themselves. Let them be humbled in themselves; let them be exalted in Christ. For he who humbles himself will be exalted; and he who exalts himself will be humbled. Those who embitter, let them not be exalted in themselves.

15. [vv. 8-9] Bless our God, you Gentiles. (Ps 66:8 (65:8)) Behold, those who embitter have been rejected; the reason has been rendered to them: some were converted, some remained proud. Let not those terrify you who envy the Gentiles the gospel grace; now the seed of Abraham has come, in whom all the Gentiles are blessed. Bless him in whom you are blessed; Bless our God, you Gentiles: and make heard the voice of his praise. Do not praise yourselves; but praise him. What is the voice of his praise? That we are his grace, whatever good we are. Who set my soul unto life. Behold the voice of his praise: Who set my soul unto life. Therefore it was in death; it was in death in you. Hence it is that you ought not to have been exalted in yourselves. Behold, it was in death in you: where will it be in life, except in him who said: I am the way, the truth, and the life (See John 14:6)? As to certain believers the Apostle says: You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord (See Eph 5:8). Darkness, then, in you; light in the Lord: so death in you; life in the Lord. Who set my soul unto life. Behold, he set our soul unto life, because we believe in him; he set our soul unto life: but what need is there next, except that we persevere unto the end? And this who will give, except he of whom it was consequently said: And did not give my feet unto being moved (See Ps 66:9 (65:9))? He himself set the soul unto life, he himself rules the feet, lest they totter, lest they be moved, and be given unto being moved; he himself makes us live, he himself to persevere unto the end, that we may live forever. And did not give my feet unto being moved.

16. [vv. 10-12] Why did you say this: And did not give my feet unto being moved? For what did you suffer, or what could you suffer, that your feet should be moved? What? hear what follows. Why did I say, he did not give my feet unto being moved? Because we suffered many things, by which our feet would be moved from the way, unless he himself ruled them, and did not give them unto being moved. What are these things? Because you proved us, O God; you set us afire, as silver is set afire. (Ps 66:10 (65:10)) You did not set us afire as hay, but as silver: by applying fire to us, you did not turn us into ashes, but washed away the dross. You set us afire, as silver is set afire. And see how God rages against those whose soul he set unto life. You led us into the trap: not that, caught, we might die, but that, freed, we might learn by experience. You set tribulations on our back. For, badly upright, we were proud: badly upright, we were bent, that, bent, we might be well set upright. You set tribulations on our back: you set men over our heads. (Ps 66:11-12 (65:11-12)) All these things the Church suffered in various and diverse persecutions; it suffered this individually, it suffers it even now. For there is no one who can say himself free in this life from these temptations. Therefore men too are set over our heads: we bear with those we do not wish, we suffer sometimes as superiors those whom we know to be worse. But if sins be absent, a man is rightly superior; but the more they are present, the more inferior he is. And it is good that we consider ourselves to be sinners, and so bear with those set over our heads; that we too may confess to God that we suffer worthily. For what do you suffer unworthily that he does who is just? You set tribulations on our back: you set men over our heads. God seems to rage, when he does these things: do not fear; because he is a Father, he never so rages as to destroy. When you live badly, if he spares, he is more angry. Altogether these tribulations are the scourges of one correcting, lest there be the sentence of one punishing. You set tribulations on our back: you set men over our heads.

17. We passed through fire and water. (Ps 66:12 (65:12)) Fire and water, both are dangerous in this life. Certainly water seems to extinguish fire, and fire seems to dry up water. So are the very temptations too, with which this life abounds. Fire burns, water corrupts: both are to be feared; both the burning of tribulation, and the water of corruption. When affairs are straitened, and there is something that is called unhappiness in this world, it is as it were fire: when affairs are prosperous, and the abundance of the age flows around, it is as it were water. See that the fire does not burn you up, that the water does not corrupt you. Be firm against the fire; you must be baked: like an earthen vessel you are put into the furnace of fire, that what has been formed may be made firm. The vessel, then, now made firm by fire, does not fear water; but a vessel, if it has not been made solid by fire, like clay will be dissolved by water. Do not hasten to the water; pass through the fire to the water, that you may pass through the water too. Therefore in the Sacraments too, both in catechizing, and in exorcizing, fire is first applied. For whence do the unclean spirits very often cry out: I burn, if that is not fire? But after the fire of exorcism, one comes to Baptism; so that from fire to water, from water to refreshment. But what is in the Sacraments, this is in the temptations of this age: the strait of fear comes first, in place of fire; afterward, fear being removed, it is to be feared lest worldly happiness corrupt. But when the fire has not made you crack, and you have not been sunk in the water, but have swum out; through discipline you pass to rest, and passing through fire and water you are led out into refreshment. For of which things there are signs in the Sacrament, those are the realities in that perfection of eternal life. When we have already passed over to that refreshment, dearest brethren, we shall fear no enemy there, no tempter, no envier, no fire, no water; there will be perpetual refreshment there. It is called refreshment on account of rest. For if you say: It is heat, it is true: if you say: Refreshment, it is true. For if you take refreshment badly, it is as though we grow numb there. But we do not grow numb there, but rest: nor, because it is called heat, will we swelter there, but we shall be fervent in spirit. Attend to that very heat in another psalm: Nor is there one who can hide himself from his heat (See Ps 19:6 (18:7)). What does the Apostle too say? Fervent in spirit (See Rom 12:11). Therefore: We passed through fire and water: And you led us out into refreshment.

18. [v. 13] Attend that he was not silent, not only about refreshment, but also about that very desirable fire: I will enter into your house in holocausts. (Ps 66:13 (65:13)) What is a holocaust? Wholly burnt, but by the divine fire. For a sacrifice is called a holocaust when the whole is kindled. Some are parts of sacrifices; the holocaust is another thing: when the whole burns, and the whole is consumed by the divine fire, it is called a holocaust; when a part, a sacrifice. Every holocaust indeed is a sacrifice; but not every sacrifice is a holocaust. Holocausts, then, he promises; the body of Christ speaks, the unity of Christ speaks: I will enter into your house in holocausts. Let your fire consume the whole of me; let nothing of mine remain to me, let the whole be yours. But this will be in the resurrection of the just, when both this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality; then will come to pass what is written: Death has been swallowed up in victory (See 1 Cor 15:54). Victory is as it were a divine fire: when it swallows up even our death, it is a holocaust. There remains nothing mortal in the flesh, there remains nothing blameworthy in the spirit; the whole will be consumed from the mortal life, that it may be consummated in eternal life: those, then, will be holocausts.

19. [v. 14] And what will it be, in holocausts? I will pay you my vows, which my lips have distinguished. (Ps 66:13-14 (65:13-14)) What is the distinction in the vows? This is the distinction, that you accuse yourself, praise him; that you understand yourself the creature, him the creator; yourself darkness, him the enlightener, to whom you may say: You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, you will enlighten my darkness (See Ps 18:28 (17:29)). For when you say, O soul, that of yourself it shines for you, you will not distinguish. If you do not distinguish, you will not pay distinguished vows. Pay distinguished vows; confess yourself changeable, him unchangeable: confess yourself without him to be nothing, but him without you to be perfect; yourself to need him, but him not to need you. Cry to him: I said to the Lord, You are my God, because you have no need of my goods (See Ps 16:2 (15:2)). Now in that God takes you up into a holocaust, he does not grow, he is not increased, he is not made richer, he is not made more furnished: it is better for you, whatever he does of you for you; not for him who does it. If you distinguish these things, you pay your vows to your God, which your lips have distinguished. I will pay you my vows, which my lips have distinguished.

20. [v. 15] And my mouth has spoken in my tribulation. (Ps 66:14 (65:14)) How sweet often is tribulation! how necessary! What did his mouth speak there in his tribulation? Marrow-rich holocausts I will offer you. (Ps 66:15 (65:15)) What is, marrow-rich? Let me hold your love within; it will not be on the surface, in my marrow will be that I love you. For nothing is more inward than our marrow: the bones are more inward than the flesh, the marrow more inward than the bones themselves. Whoever, then, worships God on the surface, wishes rather to please men; but feeling something else within, he does not offer the holocausts of the marrow: but of him whose marrow he inspects, he takes the whole. Marrow-rich holocausts I will offer you, with incense and rams. The rams the leaders of the Church: the whole body of Christ speaks; this is what it offers to God. What is incense? Prayer. With incense and rams? For especially the rams pray for the flocks. I will offer you oxen with goats. We find oxen treading out the grain, and they too are offered to God. The Apostle said it was to be understood of the announcers of the Gospel that which is written: You shall not muzzle the ox treading out the grain. Surely it is not about oxen that God is concerned (See 1 Cor 9:9; Deut 25:4)? Therefore those great rams, those great oxen. What of the rest, who perhaps are conscious of certain sins; who perhaps slipped on the very road, and, wounded, are healed by repentance? Will they too remain, and not pertain to the holocausts? Lest they fear, he added goats too: Marrow-rich holocausts, he says, I will offer you, with incense and rams: I will offer you oxen with goats. By that very joining the goats are saved: of themselves they cannot; joined to the oxen they are accepted. For they made friends of the mammon of iniquity, that those friends might receive them into eternal dwellings. Therefore these goats will not be at the left, because they made themselves friends of the mammon of iniquity. But which goats at the left? Those to whom it will be said: I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat (See Matt 25:42): not those who redeemed their sins by alms.

21. [vv. 16-17] Come, hear, and I will tell, all you who fear God. (Ps 66:16 (65:16)) Let us come, let us hear what he is going to tell. Come, hear, and I will tell. But who: Come and hear? All you who fear God. If you do not fear God, I will not tell. There are none to whom it may be told, where the fear of God is not. Let the fear of God open the ears, that there may be that which enters, and a way by which there enters what I am going to tell. But what is he going to tell? What great things he has done for my soul. Behold, he wishes to tell; but what is he going to tell? Perhaps how far the earth extends, how far the heaven is stretched out, and how many the stars are, and what are the courses of sun and moon? This creation carries out its order: those who too curiously sought it out, were ignorant of its creator. Hear this, take this, O you who fear God, what great things he has done for my soul: if you wish, for yours too. What great things he has done for my soul. To him with my mouth I cried out. And this very thing he says was done for his soul: that with his mouth he cried out to him, he says was done for his soul. Behold, brethren, we were Gentiles, even if not in ourselves, in our parents. And what does the Apostle say? You know, when you were Gentiles, how you went up, led, to speechless images (See 1 Cor 12:2). Let the Church now say: What great things he has done for my soul. To him with my mouth I cried out. As a man I cried out to a stone, I cried out to a deaf piece of wood, I spoke to deaf, dumb images: now the image of God has been turned to its Creator. I who said to a piece of wood, You are my father; and to a stone: You begot me (See Jer 2:27); now say: Our Father, who are in heaven (See Matt 6:9). To him with my mouth I cried out. With my mouth now, not with another's mouth. When I cried out to stones in the vain conduct of paternal tradition, I cried out with another's mouth: when I cried out to the Lord, what he himself gave, what he himself inspired, to him with my mouth I cried out, and I exalted under my tongue. What is, I cried out with my mouth, and I exalted under my tongue. Him I publicly preached, him in secret I confessed. It is too little to exalt God with the tongue; but also under the tongue, that what you certainly speak, this you silently think. To him with my mouth I cried out, and I exalted under my tongue. See how in secret he wishes to be whole who offers marrow-rich holocausts. Do this, brethren, imitate this, that you may say: Come, hear what great things he has done for my soul. For all the things that he recounts, his grace works in our soul. See the other things that he says.

22. [v. 18] If I have looked upon iniquity in my heart, let the Lord not hear me. (Ps 66:18 (65:18)) Consider now, brethren, how easily, how daily men, blushing before men, accuse iniquities: He did wrong, he did basely, he is a wicked man: this perhaps he says on account of men. See whether you do not look upon iniquity in your heart; lest perhaps what you reprehend in another, you think to do, and therefore cry out against him, not because he did it, but because he was found out. Return to yourself; within be a judge to yourself. Behold, in your hidden chamber, in the very inmost vein of the heart, where you alone are, and he who sees, there let iniquity displease you, that you may please God. Do not look upon it, that is, do not love it; but rather despise it, that is, hold it in contempt, and turn away from it. Whatever glad thing it has promised, to entice to sinning; whatever sad thing it has threatened, to drive to doing evil, the whole is nothing, the whole passes; it deserves to be despised, that it may be trodden underfoot; not to be looked upon, that it may be accepted. [For it suggests sometimes through thoughts, or through the words of evil speakers conversing. For evil conversations corrupt good morals: do not look upon them. But it is too little in the face, too little on the tongue: in the heart do not look upon it, that is, do not love it, do not accept it. For to set "looking upon" for "loving" is an everyday thing: first, because of God we say: He looked upon me. What is, He looked upon me? Did he not see you before? Or was he attending above, and was admonished by your prayers, to cast his eyes upon you? He saw you before too; but, He looked upon me, you say: He loved me. And to a man who sees you, and whom you ask to have mercy on you, you say: Look upon me. He sees you; and you say: Look upon me. What is: Look upon me? Love, attend, have mercy on me. Therefore he did not say: If I have looked upon iniquity in my heart, because no iniquity at all is suggested to the human heart. There it is suggested, the suggestion does not cease; but let there be no looking upon. For if you look upon iniquity, you look back, and you incur the sentence of the Lord saying in the Gospel: No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God (See Luke 9:62). What, then, ought I to do? What the Apostle says: Forgetting the things behind, stretching forth to the things that are before (See Phil 3:13). For behind us all our things that have passed are unrighteous. No one comes to Christ from good: all have sinned: by believing they are justified. Perfect righteousness will not be, except in that life; yet for advancement, good morals too are inspired by him, are given by him. Do not, then, count your merits, do not. And if iniquity suggests, do not consent. For what does he say?] If I have looked upon iniquity in my heart, let the Lord not hear me.

23. [v. 19] Therefore God has heard me. (Ps 66:19 (65:19)) Because I did not look upon iniquity in my heart. And he attended to the voice of my prayer.

24. [v. 20] Blessed be my God, who has not removed my entreaty, and his mercy from me. (Ps 66:20 (65:20)) He holds the sense from that place, where he says: Come, hear, and I will tell you, all you who fear God, what great things he has done for my soul; and he said the things you heard, and at the end he so concluded: Blessed be my God, who has not removed my entreaty, and his mercy from me. For so this one who speaks has come to the resurrection, where now we too are in hope: nay, we too are; and this is our voice. As long, then, as we are here, let us ask this of God, that he not remove from us our entreaty, and his mercy; that is, that we pray perseveringly, and he perseveringly have mercy. For many grow faint in praying, and in the newness of their conversion pray fervently, afterward faintly, afterward coldly, afterward negligently: as though they become secure. The enemy is watchful: you sleep. The Lord himself commanded in the Gospel; that one ought always to pray, and not to fail (See Luke 18:1). And he gives a likeness of that unjust judge, who neither feared God, nor reverenced man; whom that widow importuned daily that he might hear her: and he yielded out of weariness who was not bent by mercy; and the wicked judge said to himself: Though I neither fear God, nor reverence men; yet on account of the weariness which this widow daily causes me, I will hear her case, and avenge her. And the Lord says: If the wicked judge did this, will not your Father avenge his elect who cry to him day and night? So I say to you; he will execute their judgment quickly. Therefore let us not fail in prayer. What he is going to grant, even if he defers, he does not take away: secure of his promise, let us not fail in praying; and this is from his benefit. Therefore he said: Blessed be my God, who has not removed my entreaty, and his mercy from me. When you see your entreaty not removed from you, be secure, because his mercy is not removed from you.

Exposition of Psalm 66

1. [v. 2] Your Charity remembers that, in the two psalms which have already been treated, we exhorted our soul to bless the Lord, and said with godly song: Bless the Lord, O my soul (See Ps 103:1 (102:1); Ps 104:1 (103:1)). If, then, in those psalms we exhorted our soul to bless the Lord; in this psalm it is rightly said: May God have mercy on us, and bless us. (Ps 67:1 (66:2)) Let our soul bless the Lord, and may God bless us. When God blesses us, we grow; and when we bless the Lord, we grow: both profit us. He is not increased by our blessing, nor diminished by our cursing. He who curses the Lord, is himself diminished; he who blesses the Lord, is himself increased. The blessing of the Lord is first in us, and it is consequent that we too bless the Lord. That is the rain, this the fruit. Therefore there is rendered, as it were the fruit of the farmer, to God watering and cultivating us. Let us sing these things with no barren devotion, no empty voice, but with a true heart. For most openly God the Father was called a farmer. The Apostle says: You are God's tillage, you are God's building (See 1 Cor 3:9). In the visible things of this world, a vine is not a building, and a building is not a vineyard: but we are the vineyard of the Lord, because he cultivates us unto fruit; we are the building of God, because he who cultivates us dwells in us. And what does the same Apostle say? I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. Therefore neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters; but God who gives the increase (See 1 Cor 3:6-7). He, then, gives the increase. Are these perhaps the farmers? For he is called a farmer who plants, who waters: but the Apostle said: I planted, Apollos watered. We ask whence he himself did this? The Apostle answers: Not I, but the grace of God with me (See 1 Cor 15:10). Therefore wherever you turn yourself; whether through the angels, you will find God your farmer; whether through the prophets, he is your farmer; whether through the apostles, recognize the same as your farmer. What, then, are we? Perhaps we are the laborers of that farmer, and this too with strength imparted by him, and grace given by him. He himself, then, both cultivates, and gives the increase. But a man as farmer cultivates the vineyard only so far as to plow, to prune, to apply the other things that pertain to the diligence of farmers: he cannot rain upon his vineyard. But if perhaps he can water it, from whose can he? He himself indeed leads it into a channel, but God fills the fountain. Finally, in his vineyard he cannot give increase to the branches, he cannot form the fruits, he cannot regulate the seeds, he cannot temper the times of bearing. But God who can do all things is our farmer: we are secure. Perhaps someone says: You say that God is our farmer: but I say the Apostles are the farmers, who said: I planted, Apollos watered. If I say it, let no one believe; if Christ says it, woe to him who does not believe. What, then, does the Lord Christ say? I am the vine, you the branches, my Father the farmer (See John 15:5, 1). Let the earth, then, thirst, and utter the voices of its thirst; since it is written: My soul is like a land without water to you (See Ps 143:6 (142:6)). Let our earth, then, ourselves, desiring the rain of God, say: May God have mercy on us, and bless us.

2. May he make his face shine upon us. (Ps 67:1 (66:2)) You were going to ask perhaps what is, bless us. In many ways men wish to be blessed by God: one wishes to be blessed, that he may have a house full of things necessary for this life; another desires to be blessed, that he may obtain health of body without blemish; another wishes to be blessed, if perhaps he is sick, that he may recover health; another, desiring children, and perhaps saddened that they are not born, wishes to be blessed that he may have posterity. And who could count the diverse vows of men desiring to be blessed by the Lord God? But which of us would say that it is not the blessing of God, if either the tillage bear him fruit, or anyone's house abound with plenty of temporal things, or health of body itself be either kept lest it be lost, or, lost, be restored? The fruitfulness too of women, and the chaste vows of those desiring children, to whom do they pertain except to the Lord God? For he who created when it was not, he himself, by the succession of offspring, makes to remain what he founded. God does these things, God gives these things. It is too little for us to say: God does these things, God gives these things; but he alone does, he alone gives. For what if God does these things, but someone not God does these things too? He does them, and he alone does them. And these things are sought in vain either from men, or from demons: and whatever goods the enemies of God receive, they receive from him; and when they ask them from others, when they receive, not knowing it they receive from him. As, when they are punished, and think they are punished by others, not knowing it they are punished by him: so too when they are quickened, filled, saved, freed; even if not knowing it, they attribute it either to men, or to demons, or to angels, they have it only from him, in whose hand is the power of all things. To this end we have said these things, brethren, that whoever even desires these earthly things perhaps, whether for the supplements of necessity, or on account of some weakness, may desire them only from him who is the fountain of all goods, and the creator and re-creator of all things.

3. But there are some gifts which God gives even to his enemies, others which he reserves only for his friends. What are the gifts he gives to his enemies? Those I have enumerated. For not the good alone have houses full of necessary things; or the good alone are either safe, or recover from sickness; or the good alone have children, the good alone money, the good alone the other things suited to this temporal and passing life. The evil too have these things, and sometimes they are lacking to the good: but they are lacking to the evil too, and very often to these more than to those; sometimes they abound to those rather than to these. These temporal things God willed to be mixed; because if he gave them to the good alone, the evil too would think God to be worshiped for the sake of these; again, if he gave them to the evil alone, the weak good would fear to be converted, lest perhaps these things be lacking to them. For there is still a weak soul, less capable of the kingdom of God; God our farmer ought to nourish it. For even the tree which now sustains storms by its strength, when it was born of the earth, was an herb. That farmer, then, knows not only to prune and purge robust trees; but also to hedge the tender ones in their recent rising. Therefore, dearly beloved, as I began to say, if these things were given to the good alone, all would wish to be converted to God for the sake of receiving them: again, if they were given to the evil alone, the weak would fear, lest, when they were converted, they lose what only the evil had. They are given mixed both to the good and to the evil. Again, if they were taken away from the good alone, there would be that same fear of the weak, lest they be converted to God: again, if they were taken away from the evil alone, it would be thought the only punishment by which the evil are struck. Therefore, that he gives these things to the good, he consoles those on pilgrimage: that he gives them to the evil too, he admonishes the good to desire other things, which they do not have in common with the evil. Again, he takes them away from the good when he wills, that they may question themselves about their own powers; and find themselves out, who perhaps lay hidden from themselves, whether they can now say: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord (See Job 1:21). For that soul too blessed the Lord, and rendered fruits, watered by the fattening of blessing. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: he withdrew the things given; but did not withdraw the giver. Every blessed soul, simple, not cleaving to earthly things, nor lying with wings entangled in birdlime, but with the brightness of virtues put forth, on the twin wings of twin love exults into the free air; and sees taken away from itself that which it was treading on, not that on which it was leaning; and says secure: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it is done: blessed be the name of the Lord. He gave, and took away; he who gave, and took away what he gave, remains: let his name be blessed. To this end, then, these things are taken away from the good. But lest perhaps some weak one say: When can I be of so great virtue as holy Job? You marvel at the strength of a tree, because you are just born: this great tree you marvel at, under whose branches and shade you are refreshed, was a twig. But do you fear lest these things be taken from you, when you are such? Attend that they are taken away from the evil too. Why, then, do you defer your conversion? What you, being good, fear to lose, perhaps you, being evil, will lose. If, being good, you have lost them, the consoler who took them away is present: the chest is emptied of gold, the heart is full of faith; outside you are poor, but within you are rich: you carry with you riches which you would not lose, even if you came out naked from shipwreck. What, then, you perhaps, being evil, will lose, why does the loss not find you good, since you see even the evil suffer loss? But those are struck with a greater loss: the house is empty, the conscience emptier. Whatever evil man loses these things, he has not outside what he may hold, nor within where he may rest. He flees from here where he suffered loss, where he boasted of himself before the eyes of men by the display of riches; now he cannot boast of himself in the eyes of men: he does not return within to himself, because he has nothing. He did not imitate the ant; he did not gather for himself grains, when it was summer. What did I say, when it was summer? When there was tranquility of life, when there was prosperity of this age toward him, when he had leisure, when he was called happy by all, that was his summer. He would imitate the ant, if he heard the word of God; he would gather grains, and store them within. The temptation of tribulation had come, the winter of torpor had come upon him, the storm of fear, the cold of sadness, whether it were loss, or some peril of safety, or some bereavement of his own, or some dishonor and humbling; it was winter: the ant returns to what it gathered in summer; and within, in its secret place, where no one sees, it is refreshed by its summer labors. When it was gathering these things for itself in summer, all saw it: when it feeds on these things in winter, no one sees. What is this? See the ant of God: it rises daily, runs to the church of God, prays, hears a reading, sings a hymn, ruminates on what it heard, thinks within itself, stores within the grains gathered from the threshing floor. These very things now being said, those who hear prudently, do this, and they are seen by all to go to church, return from church, hear a sermon, hear a reading, find a book, open and read it: all these things are seen, when they are done. That is the ant wearing the path, carrying and storing in the sight of those who behold. Winter comes sometime; for to whom does it not come? loss befalls, bereavement befalls: others perhaps have mercy as on a wretched man, who do not know what the ant has within to eat, and they say: Wretched is he to whom this befell, or he to whom this befell: what do you think his mind is? how worn down he is! He measures from himself, has compassion from his own powers, and therefore is deceived; because the measure by which he measures himself, he wishes to apply to him whom he does not know. You see a man who has suffered loss, or been humbled, or struck with bereavement: what do you think? This man did some evil, that this should befall him. May my enemies have such a heart, such a mind. You do not know, O man; truly you are an enemy to yourself, who do not gather for yourself in summer what that man gathered. Now within, the ant eats the labors of summer: but you could see it gathering; you cannot see it eating. These things, brethren, as far as the Lord has given, as far as he has deigned to suggest and instill into our weakness and humility, as far as we grasp according to our small measure, we have said, why God gives all these things mixed both to the good and to the evil, and why he takes them away both from the good and from the evil. He has given to you; do not be lifted up: he has taken away from you; do not be broken. Do you fear lest he take away; he can take away from the good and from the evil: it is better, then, that you, being good, lose what is God's, but hold God. So, then, that evil man too; we exhort him: You are going to suffer loss (who is not going to suffer bereavement?); some misfortune will rush in, some calamity from across, from wherever the world is full, examples do not cease: I speak to you in summer, the grains for you to gather are not lacking: attend to the ant, O lazy one; gather in summer while you can; winter will not allow you to gather, but to eat what you have gathered. For how many suffer tribulation in such a way that they have no leisure either to read anything, or to hear anything; nor perhaps are those admitted to them who would console them. The ant remains in its cave; let it see whether it gathered anything in summer, whereby to occupy itself in winter.

4. But now because God blesses us, why will he bless us? what blessing does this voice ask: That God may bless us? The blessing which he reserves for his friends, which he gives only to the good. Do not desire as a great thing what the evil too receive: because God is good, he does those things, who makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust. What, then, especially to the good? what especially to the just? May he make his face shine upon us. (Ps 67:1 (66:2)) The face of this sun you make shine upon the good and the evil; make your face shine upon us. The good and the evil see this light with the cattle: but blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. May he make his face shine upon us. There is a twofold understanding; both are to be said. Make your face shine upon us, he says; show us his face. For God does not at some time make his face shine, as though at some time he were without light: but make it shine upon us, that what lay hidden from us may be opened to us, and what was, but was hidden from us, may be revealed upon us, that is, made to shine. Or certainly, make your image shine upon us: that he may have said this: Make your face shine upon us; you have stamped your face upon us, you have made us in your image and likeness, you have made us your coin; but your image ought not to remain in darkness; send the ray of your wisdom, let it drive away our darkness, and let your image shine in us; let us recognize ourselves your image, let us hear what is said in the Song of Songs: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women (See Song 1:8). For it is said to the Church: Unless you know yourself. What is this? Unless you know yourself made in the image of God. O precious soul of the Church, redeemed by the blood of the immaculate Lamb, attend how much you are worth; think what was given for you. Let us, then, say and wish: May he make his face shine upon us. We bear his face: as the faces of emperors are spoken of, truly there is a certain sacred face of God in his image; but the unrighteous do not recognize in themselves the image of God. That the face of God may shine upon them, what ought they to say? You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, you will enlighten my darkness (See Ps 18:28 (17:29)). I am in the darkness of sins; but by the ray of your wisdom let my darkness be dispelled: let your face appear, and if perhaps it appears through me somewhat disfigured, let what was formed by you be reformed by you. May he, then, make his face shine upon us.

5. [v. 3] That we may know on earth your way. (Ps 67:2 (66:3)) On earth, here, in this life, let us know your way. What is, your way? That which leads to you. Let us recognize whither we go, let us recognize by what way we go; both we cannot do in the darkness. You are far from those on pilgrimage; you have stretched out a way for us by which there should be a return to you: Let us recognize on earth your way. What is his way, since this we wished, that we may know on earth your way? We are to seek it, not to learn it through ourselves. We can learn it from the Gospel: I am the way, the Lord says. Christ said: I am the way. But do you fear lest you err? He added: And the truth. Who errs in the truth? He errs who withdraws from the truth. Christ is the truth, Christ is the way: walk. Do you fear lest you die before you arrive? I am the life: I am, he says, the way, and the truth, and the life (See John 14:6). As if to say: Why do you fear? Through me you walk, in me you walk, in me you rest. What, then, does he say: Let us know on earth your way, except, let us know on earth your Christ? But let the psalm itself answer: lest you think that testimony must be brought from other Scriptures which perhaps is lacking here, by repeating it he shows what he said: That we may know on earth your way; and as though you asked: In what earth, what way? Among all the nations your salvation. In what earth do you seek? Hear: Among all the nations. What way do you seek? Hear: Your salvation. Or perhaps Christ is not his salvation? And what is that which that old man Simeon said; that old man, I say, in the Gospel, kept full of years until the infancy of the Word? For that old man received in his hands the infant Word of God. He who deigned to be in the womb, would he disdain to be in the hands of an old man? He in the womb of the virgin, who in the hands of the old man; a weak infant, both within the womb, and in the hands of the old man, to give us firmness, he through whom all things were made; and if all things, then the mother too; he came humble, he came weak, but clothed with a weakness to be changed: because although he was crucified of weakness, yet he lives of the power of God (See 2 Cor 13:4), the Apostle says. He was, then, in the hands of the old man. And what did that old man say? what did he say, rejoicing that he was now to be released from here, seeing held in his hands him by whom and in whom his salvation was held? Now you let your servant depart, O Lord, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation (See Luke 2:29-30). Therefore, May God bless us, and have mercy on us: may he make his face shine upon us, that we may know on earth your way. In what earth? Among all the nations. What way? Your salvation.

6. [v. 4] What follows; because the way of God is known on earth, because among all the nations the salvation of God is known? Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let the peoples confess to you, he says, all of them. (Ps 67:3 (66:4)) A heretic arises, and says: I have peoples in Africa: and another from another part: And I have peoples in Galatia. You in Africa, he in Galatia: I seek him who has them everywhere. Surely at this voice you dared to exult, since you heard: Let the peoples confess to you, O God. Hear the following verse, because it does not speak of a part: Let all the peoples confess to you. Walk in the way with all the nations, walk in the way with all the peoples, O sons of peace, sons of the one Catholic Church; walk in the way, sing as you walk. Travelers do this for solace of their labor. Sing in this way; I beseech you by that very way, sing in this way: sing a new song; let no one there sing old things: sing the love-songs of your homeland; no one old things. A new way, a new traveler, a new song. Hear the Apostle exhorting you to a new song: If, then, anyone be in Christ a new creature, the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new (See 2 Cor 5:17). Sing a new song in the way which you have known on earth. In what earth? Among all the nations. Therefore the new song too does not pertain to a part. He who sings in a part, sings old things: whatever he sings, he sings old things, the old man sings; he is divided, he is carnal. Certainly in so far as he is carnal, in so far he is old, and in so far as he is spiritual, in so far new. See what the Apostle says: I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal. Whence does he prove them carnal? For when one says: I am Paul's; but another: I, Apollos': are you not, he says, carnal (See 1 Cor 3:1, 4)? Therefore in spirit sing a new song in the secure way. As travelers sing, and very often sing by night. All things round about resound fearful, or rather do not resound, but are silent round about; and the more silent they are, the more fearful; yet they sing too who fear robbers. How much more securely do you sing in Christ? This way has no robber, if you, by not forsaking the way, do not fall in with a robber. Sing, I say, secure a new song in the way which you have known on earth, that is, among all the nations. See that the new song itself is not sung with you by one who wished to be in a part. Sing, he says, to the Lord a new song; and there follows: Sing to the Lord, all the earth (See Ps 96:1 (95:1)). Let the peoples confess to you, O God. They have found your way; let them confess. That very singing is confession; confession of your sins, and of the power of God. Confess your iniquity, confess the grace of God; accuse yourself, glorify him; reprehend yourself, praise him: that he too, coming, may find you your own punisher, and show himself to you your savior. For why do you fear to confess, you who have found this way among all the nations? why do you fear to confess, and in your confession to sing a new song with all the earth, in all the earth, in catholic peace? Do you fear to confess to God, lest, having confessed, he condemn you? If, not confessing, you lie hidden, having confessed you will be condemned. You fear to confess, you who, by not confessing, cannot be hidden: you will be condemned silent, who could be freed having confessed. Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all the peoples confess to you.

7. [v. 8] And because this confession does not lead to punishment, it follows, and says: Let the nations be glad and exult. (Ps 67:4 (66:5)) If robbers, having confessed, lament before a man, let the faithful, having confessed, be glad before God. If a man judges, the torturer and fear exact confession from the robber; nay, sometimes fear suppresses confession, pain exacts it: and he who laments in torments, but fears to be killed having confessed, bears the torments as much as he can; and if he is overcome by pain, he brings forth his voice unto death. Nowhere, then, glad, nowhere exulting: before he confesses, the claw plows him; when he has confessed, the executioner leads him condemned: wretched everywhere. But let the nations be glad and exult. Whence? Through that very confession. Why? Because he to whom they confess is good: to this end he exacts confession, that he may free the humble; to this end he condemns the one not confessing, that he may punish the proud. Be sad, then, before you confess; having confessed, exult, now you will be healed. Your conscience had gathered corruption, the abscess had swelled, it tortured you, did not let you rest: the physician applies the fomentations of words, and sometimes he cuts; he applies the medicinal iron in the rebuke of tribulation: do you recognize the physician's hand; confess, let all the corruption go out and flow away in confession: now exult, now be glad; what remains will easily be healed. Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all the peoples confess to you. And because they confess, let the nations be glad and exult; because you judge the peoples in equity. No one deceives you: let the one to be judged rejoice, who feared the one about to judge. For he foresaw, and anticipated his face in confession: but he, when he comes, will judge the peoples in equity. What will the cunning of the accuser avail there, where the witness is the conscience, where you will be present, and your cause, where the judge does not seek a witness? He sent you an advocate: on account of him, and through him confess; plead your cause, and he is the defender of the penitent, and the seeker of pardon for the one confessing, and the judge of the innocent. Can you truly fear your cause, where your advocate will be your judge? Let, then, the nations be glad and exult; because you judge the peoples in equity. But they will be able to fear lest they be judged badly: let them give themselves to be corrected, give themselves to be directed by him who sees those to be judged. Here let them be corrected, and let them not fear when they are judged. See what he says in another psalm: O God, save me in your name, and judge me in your power (See Ps 54:1 (53:3)). What does he say? If you do not first save me in your name, I ought to fear when you judge me in your power: but if you first save me in your name, what shall I fear from the one judging in power, whose salvation went before in the name? So too in this place: Let all the peoples confess to you. And lest you think anything is to be feared in confession: Let the nations, he says, be glad and exult. Why, let them be glad and exult? Because you judge the peoples in equity. No one gives a bribe against us, no one corrupts you, no one deceives you. Therefore be secure. But what of your cause? No one corrupts God; it is manifest: lest perhaps for this reason he be the more to be feared, because he can in no way be corrupted. How, then, are you secure? According to that which has already been said: O God, save me in your name, and judge me in your power. So here too: Let the nations be glad and exult, because you judge the peoples in equity. And lest the unrighteous fear, he added: And the nations on earth you will direct. The nations were crooked, and the nations were tortuous, the nations were perverse; deservedly, on account of their crookedness and distortion and perversity, they feared the judge coming: his hand came, was stretched out mercifully over the peoples; they are directed to walk the right way: what should they fear in the coming judge, who first recognized the corrector? Let them give themselves to his hands; he himself directs the nations on the earth. But the nations being directed, walking in faith, exulting in him, doing good works; and if perhaps any water, since they sail through the sea, enters through the tiniest crevices, through little chinks, into the bilge, by bailing it out through good works, lest by entering more it make a heap, and sink the ship; by bailing daily, by fasting, by praying, by giving alms, by saying with a pure heart: Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (See Matt 6:12): by saying these things, walk secure, and exult in the way, sing in the way. Do not fear the judge; before you were faithful, you found a savior. He sought you, ungodly, to redeem you; will he forsake you, redeemed, to destroy you? And the nations on earth you direct.

8. [vv. 6-7] He exults, rejoices, exhorts, repeats the same verses in exhortation. Let the peoples confess to you, O God; let all the peoples confess to you: the earth has given its fruit. (Ps 67:5-6 (66:6-7)) What fruit? Let all the peoples confess to you. It was earth; it was full of thorns: the hand of the uprooter came, the call of his majesty and mercy came; the earth began to confess, now the earth gives its fruit. Would it give its fruit, unless it were first rained upon? would the earth give its fruit, unless first the mercy of God came from above? Read to me, you say, that, rained upon, the earth gave its fruit. Hear the Lord raining: Repent; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (See Matt 4:17). He rains, and that very rain is thunder; it terrifies: fear the thunderer, and receive the rainer. Behold, after that voice of God thundering and raining; after that voice let us see something from the Gospel itself. Behold, that harlot, having a bad reputation in the city, burst into another's house where she had not been invited by the host, but called by the invited one; not by tongue, but by grace. The sick woman knew she had a place there, where she knew her physician was reclining. She who was a sinner entered; she does not dare to draw near except to the feet: she weeps at the feet, waters them with tears, wipes them with her hair, anoints them with ointment. Why do you marvel? The earth has given its fruit. Therefore this was done, the Lord raining there through his own mouth; the things were done which we read in the Gospel: and, he raining through his clouds, the Apostles being sent, and preaching the truth, the earth gave its fruit more abundantly; and this crop has now filled the whole world.

9. [v. 8] See what is said next: May God bless us, our God; may God bless us. (Ps 67:6 (66:7)) May he bless, as I have already said; again and again may he bless, may he multiply by blessing. Let Your Charity attend that the fruit of the earth has already gone before in Jerusalem. For there the Church began: the Holy Spirit came there, and filled the saints gathered into one; miracles were done, they spoke in the tongues of all. They were filled with the Spirit of God, those who were there were converted; fearing, and receiving the divine rain, they gave in confession so great fruit, that they brought all their goods into common, distributing to the poor; that no one might say anything was his own, but all things were common to them, and they had one soul and one heart unto God. For the blood of the Lord which they had shed was forgiven them; it was forgiven, the Lord pardoning, so that now what they had shed they learned even to drink. Great fruit there: the earth gave its fruit, and great fruit, and the best fruit. Should that earth alone give its fruit? May God bless us, our God; may God bless us. Let him still bless; for blessing is wont especially and properly to be understood in multiplication. Let us prove this in Genesis: see the works of God. God made light; and God divided between the light and the darkness: the light he called day, and the darkness he called night. It is not said: He blessed the light. For the same light returns and alternates by days and nights. He called the firmament heaven between the waters and the waters: it is not said: He blessed the heaven. He separated the sea from the dry land, and named both; the dry land, earth, and the gathering of the waters, sea: nor here is it said: God blessed. He came to those things which were to have the seed of fruitfulness, and exist from the waters. For these have the greatest abundance of multiplication; and the Lord blessed them, saying: Increase, and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea; and let the flying things multiply over the earth. So too, when he subjected all things to man, whom he made in his image, it is written: And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the face of the earth (See Gen 1:22, 28). Therefore blessing avails properly for multiplication, and for filling the face of the earth. Hear in this psalm too: May God bless us, our God; may God bless us. And to what end does this blessing avail? And let all the ends of the earth fear him. Therefore, my brethren, God has so abundantly blessed us in the name of Christ, that with his sons he fills the whole face of the earth, adopted as coheirs into his kingdom of his Only-begotten. He begot an only Son, and was unwilling that he be one: he begot an only Son, I say, and was unwilling that he remain one. He made him brothers; even if not by begetting, yet by adopting he made him coheirs. He made him a partaker first of our mortality, that we might believe we could be partakers of his divinity.

10. Let us attend to our price. All things were foretold, all things are presented, the Gospel goes through the whole world: all the labor of the human race in this time bears witness, all the things that were foretold in the Scriptures are fulfilled. As up to this present day all things have come to pass, so the things that remain are to come to pass. Let us fear the day of judgment; the Lord is to come. He who came humble, will come exalted; he who came to be judged, will come to judge. Let us recognize the humble one, that we may not be terrified at the exalted one; let us embrace the humble one, that we may desire the exalted one. For to those who desire him, he will come propitious. They desire him who hold his faith, and do his commandments. For even if we are unwilling, he will come. Let us, then, be willing that he come, who will come even if we are unwilling. How shall we be willing that he come? By living well, by acting well. Let things past not delight us, let things present not hold us; let us not close the ear, as it were with the tail, let us not press the ear to the earth; lest we be retarded by past things from hearing, lest we be entangled by present things from meditating on the future; let us stretch ourselves to the things that are before, let us forget the things behind. And what we now labor for, what we now groan for, what we now sigh for, what we now speak of, what from however small a part we feel, and cannot grasp, we shall grasp, we shall fully enjoy in the resurrection of the just. Our youth will be renewed like the eagle's; only let us grind down our old age on the rock, Christ. Whether those things are true, brethren, which are said of the serpent, or which are said of the eagle, or whether it is rather a report of men than the truth; yet the truth is in the Scriptures, and not without cause did the Scriptures say this: let us do whatever it signifies, and let us not labor over how true it is. Be such that your youth can be renewed like the eagle's. And know that it cannot be renewed, unless your old age has been ground down on the rock: that is, unless by the help of the rock, unless by the help of Christ, you cannot be renewed. Do not, by the sweetness of past life, grow deaf against the word of God: do not be so held and hindered by present things, that you say: I have no leisure to read, I have no leisure to hear. This is to press the ear to the earth. Do not, then, be such: but be such as you find on the contrary, that is, that you forget the things behind, stretch yourself to the things before; that you grind down your old age on the rock. And if any likenesses are given you; if you find them in the Scriptures, believe; if you find them said only by report, do not greatly believe. The thing itself perhaps is so, perhaps it is not so. Do you make progress; let that likeness avail you unto salvation. Do you not wish to do it through that likeness? Do it through another, provided only you do it; and secure await the kingdom of God, lest your prayer quarrel with you. For you, Christian, when you say: Your kingdom come (See Matt 6:10), how do you say: Your kingdom come? Shake out your heart: see; behold: Your kingdom come. It cries to you: I come: do you not fear? We have often said to Your Charity: both to preach the truth is nothing, if the heart dissents from the tongue; and to hear the truth is nothing, if fruit does not follow the hearing. From this place, as it were higher, we speak to you: but how much we are, in fear, under your feet, God knows, who is propitious to the humble; because the voices of those praising do not delight us so much as the devotion of those confessing and the deeds of those who do rightly. And how we are not delighted except by your advancement, but how we are in peril in these praises, let him know who frees us from all perils, and deigns to recognize and crown us with you, saved from every temptation, in his kingdom.

Exposition of Psalm 67

1. [v. 1] The title of this psalm does not seem to call for laborious discussion: for it appears simple and easy. For it runs thus: Unto the end, for David himself, a Psalm of a canticle. (Ps 68:1 (67:1)) But in many psalms we have already admonished what is: Unto the end: since the end of the Law is Christ, unto righteousness for everyone who believes (See Rom 10:4); an end which perfects, not which consumes or destroys. But yet if anyone tries to inquire what is meant by: A Psalm of a canticle; why not either a Psalm, or a Canticle, but both; or what is the difference between a Psalm of a canticle, and a Canticle of a psalm, since the titles of certain psalms are inscribed thus too; he will perhaps find something, which we leave to the more acute and more leisurely. Some before us distinguished between a Canticle and a Psalm; that, since a Canticle is uttered by the mouth, but a Psalm is sung with a visible instrument applied, that is, the psaltery, by the Canticle there might seem to be signified the understanding of the mind, but by the Psalm the works of the body. As in this very sixty-seventh psalm, which we have now undertaken to treat, that which is said: Sing to God, play to his name (See Ps 68:4 (67:5)): some so distinguished it, that: Sing to God, would seem to be said, because the things which the mind does in itself are known to God, are not seen by men; but good works, since they are to be seen by men, that they may glorify our Father who is in heaven, are rightly said: Play to his name, that is, to the spreading abroad of his name, that it may be praised. This distinction somewhere, as far as I recall, I myself followed too. But I remember that we have also read: Play to God; because such things as we do visibly and well, please not only men, but also God. But not all the things that please God can please men too, because they cannot see them. Whence it is a wonder if, as both are read, both Sing to God, and Play to God; so somewhere it can be read: Sing to his name. But if this too is found said in the holy Scriptures, this distinction has been worked out in vain. It also moves me that they are by a general name called rather Psalms than Canticles, so that the Lord said: The things that are written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms about me (See Luke 24:44); and the book itself is called of Psalms, not of Canticles: As it is written, he says, in the book of Psalms (See Acts 1:20); when rather, according to this distinction, they ought to have seemed to be called Canticles; since a Canticle can exist even without a Psalm: but a Psalm cannot exist without a Canticle. For there can be thoughts of the mind, of which there are no bodily works: but there is no good work, of which there is not a thought in the mind. And through this in both cases there are Canticles; not in both cases Psalms: and yet, as I said, they are generally called Psalms, not Canticles; and a book of Psalms, not of Canticles. And if the senses of the sayings are understood and examined, where the title is only of a Psalm, and where only of a Canticle, and where it is inscribed not a Psalm of a Canticle, as in this one, but a Canticle of a Psalm; I do not know whether that distinction can be demonstrated. Accordingly, as we had begun, leaving these things to those who can, and to whom there is leisure to distinguish such things, and to define them by a sure rationale of differences; let us, as far as we are able with the Lord's help, consider and treat the text of this psalm.

2. [v. 2] Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered. (Ps 68:1 (67:2)) It is already done: Christ rose again, who is over all things God blessed forever, and his enemies were scattered among all the nations, the Jews; in that very place where they exercised their enmities, conquered, and thence scattered through all places: and now they hate, but they fear; and in that very fear they do what follows: And let those who hate him flee from his face. For the flight of the mind is fear. For by carnal flight, whither do they flee from the face of him who shows everywhere the effect of his presence? Whither shall I go, says that one, from your spirit, and whither shall I flee from your face (See Ps 139:7 (138:7))? In mind, then, not in body they flee; namely by fearing, not by hiding; nor from that face which they do not see, but from that which they are compelled to see. For his face is called his presence through his Church. Whence to those who were his enemies he said: Henceforth you will see the Son of man coming in the clouds (See Matt 26:64). As he came in his Church, spreading it throughout the whole world, in which his enemies were scattered. But he came in such clouds as those of which he says: I will command my clouds not to rain rain upon it (See Isa 5:6). Let, then, those who hate him flee from his face: let them fear from the presence of his saints and faithful, of whom he says: When you did it to one of these least of mine, you did it to me (See Matt 25:40).

3. [v. 3] As smoke fails, let them fail. (Ps 68:2 (67:3)) For they lifted themselves up from the fires of their hatreds into the swelling of pride; and setting their mouth in heaven, and crying: Crucify, crucify (See Luke 23:21), they mocked him captive, derided him hanging: and whence as victors they swelled, soon, conquered, they vanished. As wax flows from the face of fire, so let the sinners perish from the face of God. Although perhaps in this place he signified those whose hardness is dissolved into the tears of repentance: yet that too can be understood, that he threatens the future judgment; because, when in this age, by lifting themselves up like smoke, that is, by being proud, they have failed, there will come to them in the end the final damnation, that they perish from his face forever, when he has been presented in his brightness, like fire, to the punishment of the ungodly and the light of the just.

4. [v. 4] Finally there follows: And let the just be glad, and exult in the sight of God, and be delighted in gladness. (Ps 68:3 (67:4)) For then they will hear: Come, blessed of my Father; receive the kingdom (See Matt 25:34). Let them be glad, then, who have labored, and exult in the sight of God. For there will be of this exultation no empty boasting, as it were before men; but in the sight of him who without error inspects what he gave. Let them be delighted in gladness: no longer exulting with trembling, as in this age, as long as human life upon earth is a temptation.

5. [vv. 5-6] Then he turns himself to those very ones to whom he gave so great a hope, and addresses and exhorts them while they live here: Sing to God, play to his name. (Ps 68:4 (67:5)) Already here in the exposition of the title we said beforehand what seemed to be. He sings to God who lives to God; he plays to his name who works for his glory. So by singing, so by playing, that is, by so living, by so working: Make a way for him, he says, who ascends over the setting. Make a way for Christ; that through the beautiful feet of those who evangelize, the hearts of believers may be passable for him. For he it is who ascends over the setting: either because the new life of one converting himself to him does not receive him, unless the old life of one renouncing this age has set; or because he ascends over the setting, when by rising again he conquered the fall of the body. For the Lord is his name. Which if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.

6. Exult in his sight. (Ps 68:4 (67:5)) O you to whom it was said: Sing to God, play to his name, make a way for him who ascends over the setting, also exult in his sight: as it were sad, but always rejoicing. For while you make a way for him, while you prepare the way by which he may come, and possess the nations, you are going to suffer much sadness in the sight of men: but you, not only do not fail, but even exult; not in the sight of men, but in the sight of God. Rejoicing in hope, enduring in tribulation. Exult in his sight. For those who trouble you in the sight of men: They will be troubled at his face, the father of orphans and the judge of widows. (Ps 68:5 (67:6)) For they think those desolate, from whom very often, by the sword of the word of God, both parents are separated from children, and husbands from wives: but the forsaken and widowed have the consolation of the father of orphans and the judge of widows; they have the consolation of him to whom they say: For my father and my mother forsook me; but the Lord took me up (See Ps 27:10 (26:10)): and who have hoped in the Lord, persisting in prayers night and day; at whose face those will be troubled, when they see that they profit nothing, since the whole world has gone after him.

7. [v. 7] For of these orphans and widows, that is, of those forsaken by the fellowship of worldly hope, the Lord builds for himself a temple: of which he consequently says: The Lord, in his holy place. (Ps 68:5 (67:6)) For what his place is he opened, when he said: God who makes those of one kind dwell in a house: of one mind, feeling one thing: this is the holy place of the Lord. For when he had said: The Lord in his holy place: as though we asked in what place, since he is everywhere whole, and no place of bodily spaces contains him, at once he added; lest we seek him apart from ourselves; but rather, dwelling of one kind in a house, let us merit that he too deign to dwell in us. This is the holy place of the Lord, which most men seek, that they may have where, praying, they may be heard. Let them therefore be themselves what they seek; and the things they say in their hearts, that is, in such couches of theirs, let them be pricked, dwelling of one kind in a house, that they may be dwelt in by the Lord of the great house, and be heard within themselves. For there is a great house, in which there are not only golden and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some indeed unto honor, others unto dishonor: but if any cleanse themselves from the vessels of dishonor, they will be of one kind in a house, and the holy place of the Lord. For as in a man's great house, the lord of it does not rest in just any place of it, but in some more secret and more honored place: so God does not dwell in all who are in his house (for he does not dwell in the vessels of dishonor); but his holy place are those whom he makes dwell of one kind, or of one custom, in a house. For what in Greek are called tropoi, can be interpreted in Latin both "kinds" and "customs." Nor does the Greek have: Who makes to dwell; but only, makes to dwell. The Lord, then, in his holy place. What is this place? God himself makes it for himself. For God makes those of one custom dwell in a house: this is his holy place.

8. But that by his grace he builds for himself this place, not by their preceding merits from which he builds it, see what follows: Who leads out those in fetters in strength. (Ps 68:6 (67:7)) For he looses the heavy chains of sins, by which they were hindered from walking in the way of the precepts: but he leads them out in strength, which before his grace they did not have. Likewise the embittering ones who dwell in tombs: that is, in every way dead, occupied in dead works. For these embitter by resisting righteousness: for those in fetters perhaps wish to walk, and cannot; and they pray to God that they may be able, and say to him: From my necessities lead me out (See Ps 25:17 (24:17)). By whom heard, they give thanks, saying: You have burst my bonds (See Ps 116:16 (115:7)). But these embittering ones who dwell in tombs are of that kind which Scripture signifies in another place, saying: From a dead man, as from one who is not, confession perishes (See Sir 17:28). Whence is that: The sinner, when he comes into the depth of evils, despises (See Prov 18:3). For it is one thing to desire, another to assail righteousness; one thing to wish to be freed from evil, another to defend one's own evils rather than confess them: yet both kinds the grace of Christ leads out in strength. By what strength, except that they may strive against sin even unto blood? For from each kind there are made fit those of whom his holy place is constructed; the former being loosed, the latter being raised up. For he, by commanding, loosed the chains of the woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years; and by crying out he overcame the death of Lazarus. He who did these things in bodies, can do more wonderful things in morals, and make those of one kind dwell in a house: leading out those in fetters in strength; likewise the embittering ones who dwell in tombs.

9. [vv. 8-10] O God, when you went out before your people. (Ps 68:7 (67:8)) His going out is understood, when he appears in his works. But he appears not to all, but to those who have known how to behold his works. For I do not now mean those works which are conspicuous to all, the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is in them; but the works by which he leads out those in fetters in strength, likewise the embittering ones who dwell in tombs, and makes them dwell of one custom in a house. So he goes out before his people, that is, before those who understand this grace of his. Finally there follows: When you passed through the desert, the earth was moved. The Gentiles were a desert, who did not know God: it was a desert, where no law had been given by God himself; where no prophets had dwelt, and foretold that the Lord was to come. When, then, you passed through the desert, when you were preached among the Gentiles, the earth was moved, earthly men were stirred to faith. But whence was it moved? For the heavens dropped down from the face of God. Perhaps here someone recalls that time, when in the desert God passed before his people, before the sons of Israel, by day in a column of cloud, by night in the brightness of fire; and thinks this to be what the heavens dropped down from the face of God, since manna rained for his people; and also this to be what follows: Mount Sinai, from the face of the God of Israel, segregating a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance, because on Mount Sinai God spoke to Moses, when he gave the Law: so that the manna is the voluntary rain which God segregated for his inheritance, that is, for his people: because he so fed them alone, not the other nations also: so that what he then says: And it was weakened, may be understood that very inheritance was weakened; since, murmuring, fastidious, they rejected the manna, desiring meats of flesh, and the things they had been accustomed to eat in Egypt. But in these words, if only the property of the letter, not the spiritual sense, is to be sought, it must be shown according to the bodily property, who then were the ones in fetters, and who also the ones dwelling in tombs that were led out in strength. Then if that people, namely that inheritance of God, by rejecting the manna in fastidiousness was weakened, there ought not to follow: But you perfected it; but: But you struck it. For God being offended by those murmurings and fastidiousnesses, a huge plague followed. Finally all those were laid low in the wilderness, nor did any of them, except two, merit to enter the land of promise. Although, even if it is said that that inheritance was perfected in their sons, we ought more freely to hold the spiritual sense. For all those things happened to them in figure; until the day should breathe, and the shadows be removed.

10. Let the Lord, then, open to us as we knock; and let the secrets of his mysteries be laid open, as far as he himself deigns. For that the earth might be moved to faith, when the Gospel passed into the desert of the Gentiles, the heavens dropped down from the face of God. These are the heavens, of which it is sung in another psalm: The heavens declare the glory of God. For of these it is said a little after there: There are no speeches nor words, whose voices are not heard: into all the earth their sound has gone forth, and to the ends of the world their words (See Ps 19:1, 3-4 (18:2, 4-5)). Nor yet is so great glory to be attributed to these heavens, as though from men that grace came into the desert of the Gentiles, that the earth might be moved to faith. For the heavens did not drop down of themselves; but from the face of God, namely dwelling in them, and making them dwell of one custom in a house. For they are also the mountains, of which it is said: I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me. And yet, lest he should seem to have placed his hope in men, he at once added: My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (See Ps 121:1-2 (120:1-2)). For to him it is said in another place: You who enlighten wonderfully, from the eternal mountains (See Ps 76:4 (75:5)): although from the eternal mountains, yet you who enlighten. So here too, the heavens dropped down; but, from the face of God. For they too were saved through faith, and this not of themselves; but it is the gift of God: not of works, lest perhaps anyone be lifted up. For we are his handiwork, who makes those of one kind dwell in a house (See Eph 2:8-10; Ps 68:6 (67:7)).

11. But what is it that follows: Mount Sinai, from the face of the God of Israel (Ps 68:8 (67:9))? Or is "dropped down" to be understood: so that what he called by the name of the heavens, this he wished to be understood also by the name of Mount Sinai; as we said that those are called mountains who are called heavens? Nor in this sense ought it to move us that he says, mount; not, mountains; when there they were called, heavens; not, heaven: because in another psalm too, when it had been said: The heavens declare the glory of God; in the manner of Scripture repeating the same sense in other words, it was subsequently said: And the firmament announces the works of his hands (See Ps 19:1 (18:2)). First it said, heavens; not heaven; and yet afterward not, firmaments; but, firmament. For God called the firmament, heaven (See Gen 1:8), as is written in Genesis. So, then, heavens and heaven, mountains and mount, not something else, but this same thing: as many Churches and one Church, not something else, but this same thing. Why, then, Mount Sinai which begets unto servitude (See Gal 4:24-25), as the Apostle says? Or perhaps the Law itself is to be understood on Mount Sinai, which the heavens dropped down from the face of God, that the earth might be moved? and this is the moving of the earth, when men are troubled, because they cannot fulfill the Law? But if it is so, this is also the voluntary rain, of which he consequently says: Segregating a voluntary rain, O God, for your inheritance; because he did not do so to any nation, and his judgments he did not manifest to them. So God segregated this voluntary rain for his inheritance, in that he gave the Law. And it was weakened: either the Law itself, or the inheritance itself. The Law can be understood as weakened, in that it was not fulfilled: not that it is itself weak, but that it makes the weak by threatening punishment, and not helping by grace. For the Apostle too used that very word, where he says: For what was impossible to the Law, in that it was weakened through the flesh (See Rom 8:3); wishing to signify that it is fulfilled through the spirit: yet he said it itself is weakened, since it cannot be fulfilled by the weak. But that the inheritance itself, that is, the people itself, was weakened, the Law being given to it, is understood without any ambiguity. For the Law entered in, that the offense might abound (See Rom 5:20). But what follows: But you perfected it, is referred to the Law in this way, that according to that it was perfected, that is, fulfilled; which the Lord says in the Gospel: I came not to loose the Law, but to fulfill it (See Matt 5:17). Whence the Apostle too, who had said the Law was weakened through the flesh, because the flesh does not fulfill what is fulfilled through the spirit, that is, through spiritual grace; he himself likewise says: That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (See Rom 8:4). This, then, is: But you perfected it; because the fullness of the Law is love (See Rom 13:10); and the love of God is poured out in our hearts, not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5): this is: But you perfected it, if it is understood to have perfected the Law; but if the inheritance, the understanding is easier. For if for this reason the inheritance of God is said to have been weakened, that is, the people of God weakened by the Law being given, because the Law entered in, that the offense might abound: then what follows: But you perfected it, is understood from that which follows in the Apostle too: But where the offense abounded, grace superabounded (See Rom 5:20). For, the offense abounding, their weaknesses were multiplied; and afterward they hastened: because they groaned, and called upon him, that with his help might be fulfilled what without his command was not fulfilled.

12. There is in these words another sense too, which seems to me more probable. For it is much more fittingly understood that grace itself is the voluntary rain, because it is given freely, with no preceding merits of works. For if grace; then no longer of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace (See Rom 11:6). For I am not worthy, he says, to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God: but by the grace of God I am what I am (See 1 Cor 15:9-10). This is the voluntary rain. For voluntarily he begot us by the word of truth (See Jas 1:18). This is the voluntary rain. Hence elsewhere it is said: With the shield of your good will you have crowned us (See Ps 5:12 (5:13)). This rain, when God passed through the desert, that is, was preached among the Gentiles, the heavens dropped down: yet not of themselves, but from the face of God, since they too by the grace of God are what they are. And therefore Mount Sinai, because he too who labored more than all those, yet not he, but the grace of God with him, that it might drop down more abundantly among the Gentiles, that is, in the desert, where Christ had not been announced, lest he build on another's foundation; he himself, I say, was an Israelite of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin: and he too, then, had been begotten unto servitude, of the earthly Jerusalem which serves with her sons, and therefore he persecuted the Church. For, as he himself reminded us, as then he who was begotten according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit; so also now (See Gal 4:29). But he obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief. We marvel, then, that the heavens dropped down from the face of God: let us marvel more that Mount Sinai, that is, he who first persecuted, a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the Law a Pharisee. But why should we marvel? For not of himself, but, as follows, from the face of the God of Israel; of whom he himself says: And upon the Israel of God (See Gal 6:16); of whom the Lord says: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (See John 1:47). This voluntary rain, then, with no preceding merits of good works, God segregated for his inheritance. And it was weakened. For he recognized that he was not anything through himself; that what he is is to be attributed not to his own powers, but to the grace of God. He recognized what was said: In my weaknesses I will glory (See 2 Cor 12:9). He recognized what was said: Do not relish high things, but fear (See Rom 11:20). He recognized what was said: But to the humble he gives grace (See Jas 4:6). And it was weakened; but you perfected it: because power is made perfect in weakness (See 2 Cor 12:9). Certain codices indeed, both Latin and Greek, do not have, Mount Sinai; but from the face of the God of Sinai, from the face of the God of Israel. That is, the heavens dropped down from the face of God: and as though it were asked of what God; from the face of God, he says, of Sinai, from the face of the God of Israel; that is, from the face of the God who gave the Law to the people of Israel. Why, then, did the heavens drop down from the face of God, from the face of this God, except because thus was fulfilled what was foretold: He who gave the Law will give a blessing (See Ps 84:6-7 (83:7-8))? The Law, by which he may terrify the one presuming on human powers, the blessing, by which he may free the one hoping in God. You, then, perfected, O God, your inheritance; because it was weakened in itself, that it might be perfected by you.

13. [v. 11] Your animals will dwell in it. Yours, (Ps 68:10 (67:11)) not their own; subject to you, not free for themselves; in need toward you, not sufficient for themselves. Finally there follows: You prepared in your sweetness for the needy, O God. In your sweetness, not in his ability. For he is needy, since he was weakened, that he might be perfected: he recognized himself in need, that he might be filled. This is that sweetness of which it is said elsewhere: The Lord will give sweetness, and our earth will give its fruit (See Ps 85:12 (84:13)): that a good work may be done not by fear, but by love; not by dread of punishment, but by delight in righteousness. For that is the true and sound liberty. But the Lord prepared this for the needy, not for the abounding one, to whom that poverty is a reproach; of such it is said elsewhere: A reproach to those who abound, and contempt to the proud (See Ps 123:4 (122:4)). For he called those proud, whom he called those who abound.

14. [v. 12] The Lord will give the word (Ps 68:11 (67:12)): namely, food to his animals which will dwell in it. But what will these animals do, to whom he will give the word? what except what follows? To those evangelizing with much power. By what power, except that strength in which he leads out those in fetters? Perhaps he also here calls power that by which those evangelizing did wondrous signs.

15. [v. 13] Who, then, will give the word to those evangelizing with much power? The King, he says, of the powers of the Beloved. (Ps 68:12 (67:13)) The Father, then, is the king of the powers of the Son. For the Beloved, when it is not stated whose beloved, by antonomasia is understood the only Son. Or is the Son himself the king of his powers; namely of the powers serving him? because to those evangelizing with much power the King of the powers will give the word, of whom it was said: The Lord of powers, he is the King of glory (See Ps 24:10 (23:10)). But that he did not say: King of his powers, but: King of the powers of the Beloved, is a most usual expression in the Scriptures, if anyone takes note: which appears most of all there, where even a proper name is expressed, so that there can be no doubt at all that it is the same one of whom it is spoken. Such as is found in many places in the Pentateuch: And Moses did this and that, as the Lord commanded Moses (See Exod 40:16 etc). It did not say, as is usual in our expressions: And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; but: Moses did as the Lord commanded Moses; as though there were one Moses whom he commanded, and another Moses who did, when it is the same one. Such expressions are found very rarely in the New Testament. Yet from this is that which the Apostle says: Concerning his Son, who was made for him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestined the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification from the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord (See Rom 1:3-4): as though there were one Son of God who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and another Jesus Christ our Lord, when he is one and the same. But in the old books that expression is frequent: and therefore, when it occurs somewhat obscurely, it is to be understood from manifest examples of its kind; as in this place of the psalm which we are treating it was made somewhat obscurely. For if it were said, Jesus Christ, the King of the powers of Jesus Christ, it would be as open as that: Moses did as the Lord commanded Moses: but because it was said: King of the powers of the Beloved, it does not easily occur that he himself is the King of the powers, who is also the Beloved. The King, then, of the powers of the Beloved, can be understood as if it were said, the King of his own powers, because Christ is both the King of the powers, and the same Christ is the Beloved. Although this sense does not have so great necessity that something else cannot be taken: because the Father too can be understood as the King of the powers of his beloved Son, to whom the Beloved himself says: All mine are yours, and yours mine (See John 17:10). But if perhaps it is asked whether God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ can be called King too; I do not know whether anyone would dare to take away this name from him, where the Apostle says: But to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God (See 1 Tim 1:17). For even if this is said of the Trinity itself, there too is God the Father. But if we do not understand carnally: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son (See Ps 72:1 (71:2)); I do not know whether anything else is said than, To your Son. The Father, then, is King too. Whence this little verse of this psalm: The King of the powers of the Beloved, can be understood in either way. So, when he had said: The Lord will give the word to those evangelizing with much power; because that very power is ruled by him, and fights for him by whom it is given, he himself, he says, the Lord who will give the word to those evangelizing with much power, is the King of the powers of the Beloved.

16. Then there follows: Of the Beloved, and of the beauty of the house, to divide spoils. (Ps 68:12 (67:13)) The repetition pertains to commendation: although not all codices have this repetition, and the more diligent mark it beforehand with a star, which marks are called asterisks; by which they wish it to be recognized that those things are not in the translation of the Seventy, but are in the Hebrew, which are marked with such signs. But whether it be repeated, or what is set down be taken as said once, Of the Beloved; thus I think is to be understood what follows, and of the beauty of the house, to divide spoils, as if it were said, Of the Beloved also to divide spoils for the beauty of the house, that is, of the Beloved also for the dividing of spoils. For Christ made the house beautiful, that is, the Church, by dividing spoils to it; as a body is beautiful by the distribution of members. Now spoils are called the things taken from conquered enemies. What this is the Gospel admonishes us, where we read: No one enters the house of the strong one, to plunder his vessels, unless he first bind the strong one (See Matt 12:29). Christ, then, bound the devil with spiritual chains; by overcoming death, and by ascending above the heavens from hell: he bound him by the sacrament of his incarnation, which, finding nothing in him worthy of death, yet was permitted to kill; and so, when he was bound, took away as it were spoils, his vessels. For he was working in the sons of unbelief, whose unbelief he was using for his own will. These vessels the Lord cleansing by the remission of sins, sanctifying these spoils wrested from the enemy prostrate and bound, divided them for the beauty of his house; appointing some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. For as there is one body, and has many members; but all the members of the body, though they be many, are one body: so also Christ. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all powers? do all have gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But all these things one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each his own as he wills (See 1 Cor 12:12, 29-30, 11). And this is the beauty of the house, to which spoils are divided; that its lover, kindled by this beauty, may cry out: O Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house (See Ps 26:8 (25:8)).

17. [v. 14] Now in what follows, he turns to addressing the very members of which the beauty of the house is made, saying: If you sleep among the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove silvered over, and between her shoulders in the greenness of gold. (Ps 68:13 (67:14)) First here the order of the words must be sought, how the sentence is concluded; which certainly hangs, when it is said: If you sleep: then what he says, the wings of a dove silvered over, whether it is to be understood in the singular number, of this dove's wing; or in the plural, these wings. But the Greek excludes the singular number, where this is altogether read set in the plural. But it is still uncertain whether, these wings; or, O you wings, so that he seems to speak to the wings themselves. Whether, then, this sentence is concluded by the words that went before, so that the order is: The Lord will give the word to those evangelizing with much power, if you sleep among the midst of the lots, O you wings of a dove silvered over: or by those which follow, so that the order is: If you sleep among the midst of the lots, the wings of a dove silvered over will be whitened with snow in Zalmon: that is, those very wings will be whitened, if you sleep among the midst of the lots: so that it is understood to be said to those who are divided for the beauty of the house as it were as spoils; that is: If you sleep among the midst of the lots, O you who are divided for the beauty of the house, through the manifestation of the Spirit unto profit, so that to one indeed there is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith, to another kinds of healings in the same Spirit, and the rest: if, then, you sleep among the midst of the lots, then the wings of the dove silvered over will be whitened with snow in Zalmon. It can also be thus: If you, the wings of a dove silvered over, sleep among the midst of the lots, they will be whitened with snow in Zalmon, so that men are understood, who through grace receive remission of sins. Whence also of the Church itself it is said in the Song of Songs: Who is this who ascends whitened (See Song 8:5; 3:6)? For the promise of God is held, who says through the prophet: If your sins are like scarlet, I will whiten them like snow (See Isa 1:18). It can also be thus understood, that in what was said, the wings of a dove silvered over, "you will be" is supplied; so that this is the sense: O you who are divided as it were as spoils for the beauty of the house, if you sleep among the midst of the lots, you will be the wings of a dove silvered over; that is, you will be lifted up to higher things, yet cleaving to the joining of the Church. For I think no other dove is better understood here as silvered over, than that of which it was said: One is my dove (See Song 6:9). But she is silvered over, because she is instructed by the divine eloquences: for the eloquences of the Lord are called in another place silver tried by the fire of the earth, purified sevenfold (See Ps 12:6 (11:7)). It is, then, some great good, to sleep among the midst of the lots: which some wished to be the two Testaments; so that to sleep among the midst of the lots is to rest in the authority of those Testaments; that is, to acquiesce in the testimonies of each Testament, so that when something is brought forward and proved from these, all contention is ended in peaceful quiet. But if it is so, what else do those evangelizing with much power seem to be admonished, except that then the Lord will give them the word that they may be able to evangelize, if they sleep among the midst of the lots? For then the word of truth is given them, if the authority of the two Testaments is not abandoned by them: that they themselves may be both the wings of the dove silvered over, by whose preaching the glory of the Church is borne to heaven.

18. But between the shoulders: it is certainly a part of the body; it is a part around the region of the heart, yet from behind, that is, from the back: which part of that silvered dove he says is in the greenness of gold, that is, in the vigor of wisdom; which vigor I think can be understood no better than as love. But why from the back, and not from the breast? Although I wonder how this word is set in another psalm, where it is said: Between his shoulders he will overshadow you, and under his wings you will hope (See Ps 91:4 (90:4)), since one cannot be overshadowed under the wings, except what is from the breast. And in Latin indeed between the shoulders can perhaps in some way be understood on either side, both before and behind; so that we take the shoulders to be those which have the head in the middle: and in the Hebrew it is perhaps ambiguous, which could be understood this way too; but what is in the Greek signifies only from behind, which is between the shoulders. Is the greenness of gold there, that is, wisdom and love, because there are as it were the roots of the wings; or because there is borne that light burden? For what are even the wings themselves, except the two precepts of love, on which the whole Law and the Prophets hang? What is the light burden itself, except that very love which is fulfilled in these two precepts? For whatever is difficult in a precept, is light to one who loves. Nor is it for any other reason rightly understood to have been said: My burden is light (See Matt 11:30); except because he gives the Holy Spirit, through whom love is poured out in our hearts, that by loving we may do freely what one who does it by fearing does in a servile way: nor is he a friend of the right, when he would prefer, if it could be, that what is right were not commanded.