Homilies on the Psalms

Homilies on the Psalms

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Homily 71, on Psalm 93 (Alternate Series)

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). Deus ultionum Dominus, Deus ultionum libere egit — "The God of vengeance is the Lord; the God of vengeance has acted freely." Whether you say the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, according to the principle of the Trinity which we set forth in the Gospel, he is both God and Lord. "The God of vengeance has acted freely": he who was despised in his lowliness will afterward take vengeance in his majesty. 2 "Be exalted, you who judge the earth." You judge the earth, because heaven does not deserve to be judged. Listen, heretic, to how the Lord judges the earth. If there is a fall in heaven, why is there not also a judgment in heaven? If souls sinned in heaven, why is the earth alone judged? "Render their recompense to the proud." All sins indeed must be guarded against, because all are contrary to God; but they are so in various ways: proud sins are enemies to God. For "the Lord resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace." The devil is the prince of the proud. "Lest," he says, "puffed up in pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil." For everyone who exalts his own heart is a sharer with the devil, who used to say: "By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding I will remove the boundaries of the nations" — and the rest, which it would be tedious to enumerate, in which the prophet describes the pride of the devil. The other vices earn the mercy of the Lord, because by their humility they are made subject to God: pride alone, which lifts itself up beyond its strength, resists God. The adulterer or the fornicator has not dared to lift his eyes up to heaven; with a downcast spirit he hopes, in supplication, for the mercy of the Lord; but the man whom his conscience makes turn away, it humbles upon the earth, yet it lifts him up to heaven. Pride and the appetite for glory, when they raise a man up, then abase him, because they make God the enemy of his sin.

3 "How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall sinners glory?" The sinner who beseeches God earns pardon; but he who glories in his wickedness is proud: and pride has God for its enemy. This which he says, "how long?" — it is to be understood ἀπὸ κοινοῦ ("in common," carried over), so that we may recognize it thus: "How long shall sinners glory? How long shall they utter and speak iniquity? How long shall they speak, all who work injustice?" Human impatience therefore marvels at the patience of God, and says: I, a sinner, cannot endure sinners; how can you, who are just, bear with them? "How long, O Lord, shall sinners glory?" He did not say, "How long shall sinners sin?" He has a great sin who sins, and moreover glories in his sin. "Shall they utter and speak iniquity?" All sins are cloaked with speech: but pride betrays its iniquity, while it glories in its own wickedness.

4 "Your people, O Lord, they have humbled, and your inheritance they have harassed." Who? The proud. "The widow and the stranger they have slain." The plain sense is clear: but if we should wish to interpret according to the anagogy, every day the proud devil with his satellites oppresses and harasses the humble in the Church. "Saying, The God of Jacob will not see, nor understand." They took the Lord's patience for ignorance. 5 "Understand, you who are foolish among the people; and you fools, at last be wise. Shall he who planted the ear not hear? Shall he who fashioned the eye not consider?" By an argument from nature he rebukes and convicts the sinners. O you who suppose that mortal things do not pertain to the Lord, you who, along with Epicurus, say that God's care is kept apart from human affairs, listen to the argument from nature: because you are little children, I will offer you little examples. He who gave hearing to man, shall he himself not hear? And at the same time, see what he says. He did not repay like with like: for he did not say, "Shall he who planted the ear not himself have an ear?" or "Shall he who fashioned the eye not himself have an eye?" But because in God there are no members, therefore he speaks in such a way that we, as often as we read such things about God as are frequently found in the Scriptures, may understand that an operation is signified, not members. In Solomon we read: "In the hand of the tongue are death and life." Does the tongue then have a hand? But in order that we may come more easily to the understanding of the sense above, we have brought forward this testimony: for by the same reasoning by which you would give the tongue a hand, by that same reasoning you are going to give God all members.

6 "He who instructs the nations, shall he not reprove?" This is what he says: he who gave the law, gave it for this purpose, that he might instruct those who hear, or punish those who despise. "He who teaches man knowledge." He did not add, "Shall he himself not have knowledge?" But what did he say? "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." Men marvel at the philosophers and poets who say: "O the cares of men! O how much emptiness there is in things!" Behold, the psalm of David, many ages before, spoke the same sentiment. "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." As long as we are men, we have vain thoughts. "I said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." 7 "Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord, and shall teach him out of your law." You see, then, that the law is to be learned, so that the things which are obscure may be more diligently understood. For the apostle says that "the law is spiritual." And David: "Reveal my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law." This, then, is what he says. "Blessed is the man whom you shall instruct, O Lord, and shall teach him out of your law." Why do you teach him? Render the reasons. "That you may soften it for him from the evil days." Therefore you teach him, so that in the future you may spare him: therefore in the present you rebuke him, so that in the future you may not condemn him. For the judge's sentence is an evil to the one who endures the evils: not that the sentence is evil, but that the one suffering it, while he feels the punishment, feels a just and good sentence as evil. "Until the pit be dug for the sinner." Who is it that digs the pit for the sinner? Let us see what the prophet says elsewhere. "He opened a pit and dug it out, and he fell into the trench which he made." God, therefore, does not make the pit, but the sinner, so that he may fall into it. "The blind," he says, "if he offers guidance to the blind, both fall into the pit."

8 "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand with me against those who work iniquity?" When he says "Who?", he signifies either something rare, or none at all. For the prophet speaks thus in the person of a weak man. "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?" Moses came, and could not make me better: the prophets came, and did not free me from the snares of sinners. Who then will rise up for me? Beautifully did he say "will rise up": as of one sleeping, as of one lying down. "Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord?" "Master, save us, we perish." Who will rise up for me against the multitude of demons? Who will furnish help? "Who will stand with me against those who work iniquity?" Beautifully did he say, "Who will stand with me?" For unless the Lord stand with us, who lay in his passion, unless he rise up who slept in death, we cannot overcome our adversaries. For this reason Stephen, doing battle against the assaults of the Jews, sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. He saw him standing, because he was fighting on behalf of his martyr. "Unless the Lord had helped me." Unless Christ had risen from hell, my soul would have descended to the netherworld.

9 "If I said, My foot has slipped: your mercy, O Lord, was helping me. The confession of weakness quickly earns God's help, and by however much pride gives offense, by that much is he appeased by humility. "If I said, My foot has slipped": if I confess my sins, if I say that my foot has stood on slippery ground, if I do not trust in my own strength, if I acknowledge that I am not, though fallen, strong, at once "your mercy helps me. "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul. This is what he said above: he pursues the same sense, the same intention. "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, your consolations have gladdened my soul. As great a sorrow as you saw in my heart from the groaning of repentance, so great a measure of your mercy will you minister: for the greatness of the sorrow became the material of consolation. "Shall the seat of iniquity cling to you? You who judge righteousness, can you have iniquity for a neighbor? "You who fashion sorrow in a commandment? The commandments of God have the sorrow of repentance; but that sorrow itself is good, because it furnishes the medicine of sinners. For unless with sweat and toil, we shall not do the commandments of God. Let no one, then, suppose that he will be crowned amid delights. "The widow who is in delights, while living, is dead.

10 What the apostle said of one person, let us apply to all: for the apostle's care was not for widows alone, since he stood forth as the teacher of the whole Church. Now, because he did not name the virgin, nor the monk, nor the churchman, ought a man for that reason not to hold himself back from delights? For if the widow is a human being, I think the rest are human beings too: who, on account of the common frailty, can incur through delights that which the widow dreads. Listen, then, to what he says, "You who fashion sorrow in a commandment. For it is commanded us that we fast, it is commanded us that we be sober, that to the one striking our cheek we offer the other, that to the one taking away our tunic we let go our cloak also. All these commandments are not accomplished without toil. "For on account of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways. You see, then, that no one is crowned amid delights. "For narrow and strait is the way that leads to life. For whatever virtues there are, they are not accomplished without difficulty. With immense toil we reach the summits of a mountain: how much more into heaven? This is what is said in the Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. It suffers violence, because that which is not subject by nature is made subject to us through grace: so that from where the angels fell, men may ascend:

11 so that where bodies did not fall, souls together with their bodies may go. Let someone say: How then will these same bodies of ours go into heaven? If Christ reigns, we reign with Christ: what he already possesses, he promises to us after the resurrection. If the firstfruits reign, the remnant also will reign. The flesh which reigns in Christ, why should it not reign in those who believe in Christ? "For when Christ shall appear, then we also shall appear with him in glory. If the flesh is adored by the angels in heaven, why should it not reign in men, who have merited the dignity of the kingdom? It is said elsewhere: "And adore his footstool, for it is holy. Some suppose it was said of the earth, "his footstool": but to me it seems that, in comparison with the divine majesty, the incarnation of the Savior is rightly named a footstool on account of the subjection of its lowliness; but because it is Christ's, it is adored. For nothing is lacking to the divinity: for whatever is οἰκονομία (the dispensation) in Christ is not added to him, but profits us: he is taken up into glory, so that the grace of our future hope may be shown to us, who have reigned with him. To whom is glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily 72, on Psalm 95 (Alternate Series)

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). 2 Before we discuss the Gospel, it seems to us that a few things should be said about the title of the psalm, and after our discussion of the title let us come to a few short verses; so that the understanding which we had spoken of concerning the entrance-hall we may recognize likewise in the whole doorway of the house. This is the title: When the house was being built after the captivity, of David himself. Whose house was being built after the captivity? Which of us, do you think, has been taken captive and, in the storm of captivity, torn down, so that after the captivity he might be built up again? If God has shut up all men under sin, and all things are found in unbelief: wherever there is sin, there is captivity; where there is captivity, there is ruin, and there building is necessary. We ought therefore to consider our houses more carefully, lest perhaps they have collapsed in some part, and need to be built after the captivity; and we must come to their aid with all toil and skill, so that they do not utterly collapse, that there may be fulfilled in us what is written in Exodus: 'Because the midwives feared God, they built themselves houses.' See what it says: Because they feared God, they built houses. Therefore a house cannot be constructed except by the fear of God. If then those women built houses by the fear of God, who had not sinned but rather acted in accord with God's will:

3 what ought we, who have been taken captive, to do? Listen, sinner: we ought indeed to fear God, that we may not sin; but the second plank after shipwreck is repentance. When the house was being built after the captivity. When the house was being built: it did not say, has been built, because repentance has no end. For the righteous man, once dead, leaves repentance behind; but wherever there is sin, the conscience always gnaws. Therefore it is said, was being built, because it is not confined by time: however long you live, there you always run into it. 4 Sing to the Lord a new song. The old man is put off, and the new is raised up: therefore a new song is sung. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. The earth which has turned with its whole mind to the Lord sings out His praises, in the confession of the Lord, with the sweetness of a new voice. We ought not to be forgetful of our promise: we must pass on to the reading of the Gospel, since it is difficult. Let it suffice to have said once, that the psalm is spoken in the person of one repenting: and to this understanding whatever else remains will also be applied.

Homily 73, on Psalm 96 (Alternate Series)

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). The title of the psalm is prescribed thus: "When his land was restored." When it says "was restored," it is shown that it existed before, and afterward did not exist, and again was established. What then is this land of David which was restored? David's land is holy Mary, the mother of the Savior. "Who was made to him of the seed of David according to the flesh." What was promised to David was fulfilled in Mary's virginity and childbearing, where a virgin is begotten of a virgin. And thus was accomplished what is said in the Gospel, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us": so that what had been promised to David might be restored to us through holy Mary.

2 "The Lord has reigned, let the earth rejoice." Let the earth rejoice: let it have one king, which before was held by many. "Let the many islands be glad." It is said in a certain prophet: "Speak to the inhabitants of this island," that is, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. You see, then, that Jerusalem is called an island. Before David's land was restored, therefore, only the one island of Judea rejoiced; but now, David's land having been restored, it is said, "Let the many islands be glad." By the many islands we can mean the various provinces or cities of the believing peoples, or we shall interpret them as the various churches. For just as islands are beaten this way and that by the waves of the sea, so also the churches are indeed beaten by the various storms of temptations, but are not overturned. 3 "Cloud and darkness are round about him." No one doubts that this is of the Lord Savior, round about whom was cloud and darkness — the flesh which he deigned to assume; although he is said to have appeared, in the Gospel of John. "And he appeared to us." He appeared indeed to the apostles, but from the Jews he was concealed. To those he is shown on the mountain, from these he is concealed in the valley of humility: those he builds up with beatitudes, to these he speaks in parables, so that seeing they might not see, because of their unbelief. "Cloud and darkness are round about him." He appeared as he willed, not as his nature demanded. "And he made darkness his hiding place." If God is light, how can light dwell in darkness? There darkness signifies our knowledge and weakness: because we cannot gaze upon his majesty. For if human eyes cannot direct themselves at the rays of this sun which was created, which is our fellow-servant, how much more, in the Sun of Justice, are there darkness and gloom round about him, so that he cannot be understood or seen by us? This is what we read of holy Moses: "And he entered into the darkness of the cloud," that he might see God, whom he could not see without a cloud. This he says also in Isaiah: "The Lord shall come into Egypt on a light cloud," that is, in holy Mary. On a light cloud, because he was not weighed down by human seed.

4 "Justice and judgment are the correction of his throne." When it says "correction," it is shown that before it was crooked. "Justice and judgment are the correction of his throne." Before the Lord came in the flesh, there was inequality, because God was known only in Judea. He came, and all the earth acknowledged the one and the same Creator whom Judea had known: and the correction of his throne was made. "Fire shall go before him." The Lord is pure, "he dwells holy among the holy": we cannot be joined to him, unless fire first has burned up our vices. "For of what sort each one's work is, fire shall prove." "And it shall inflame his enemies round about." God does not inflame his enemies as enemies, but as friends: for he burns away the vices of his enemies, that out of enemies he may make friends. 5 "His lightnings gave light to the world. This is what is said in Jeremiah: "The Lord who made the world in his wisdom, who brought clouds from the end of the earth, made lightnings into rain. "His lightnings gave light to the world. The philosophers who are accustomed to dispute about the natures of things say that, unless clouds coming against each other are dashed together, fire cannot slip out of them; but when they have been driven, by a certain contest among themselves, into thunders, then lightning slips out of them. Which likeness we can also understand from fired stones. We have said this so that we may more easily see something similar to the mystery of the Savior. We have our own clouds, the prophets and the apostles; whence also elsewhere it is said, "Your truth reaches even to the clouds. If his truth reaches even to the clouds of this air, how is it said elsewhere, "Truth has arisen from the earth"? Therefore what it says is this: "Your truth reaches even to the clouds. It certainly signifies the prophets and apostles: which clouds, unless they have been dashed together among themselves, cannot give their splendor; but if in one course they come to thunder together, lightnings fall in the whole world. Do you wish to know how the saints are called clouds in the Scriptures? It is said in Isaiah: "I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon them. Moses was a cloud, and therefore he spoke: "Let my speech be awaited like rain.

6 The epistles of the apostles are our spiritual rains. For what does Paul say in the epistle to the Hebrews? "For the earth, drinking in the rain that often comes upon it," and the rest. And again: "I planted, Apollos watered. "It saw, and the earth was moved. In the whole world the earth felt the lightning words of the Lord, and was moved — the earth which, before it was moved, was hard, and was not able to receive the word of the Lord. The Lord looked upon it, "who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble. What is this, "makes it tremble"? "Upon whom else shall I rest, except upon the humble and quiet one, who trembles at my words?" 7 "The mountains flowed like wax before his face." By "mountains" he means the lofty powers. Those who before were raised up to heaven through pride, at the coming of the Lord were humbled; and those who were hardened by too great a boasting of vanity, afterward were softened by the heat of divine wisdom.

8 "The heavens announced his justice, and all peoples saw his glory." In these two little verses two things are signified: the heavens announce the justice of the Lord, and all peoples see his glory. For unless someone has become heaven, he cannot announce the justice of the Lord. For if to the sinner it is said, "You are earth, and into earth you shall go," why should it not be said to the just one, "You are heaven, and into heaven you shall go"? For we do not bear the image of the earthly, but the image of the heavenly: since "our citizenship is in the heavens." If anyone, therefore, walks upon the earth, although in the flesh yet not according to the flesh, that one can freely announce the justice of the Lord. For if someone less knowing should suffer a scruple, and say, "What is it that we see the just in this life pressed down by labors and want, and sinners flourishing in riches and every comfort?" — unless the churchman has been instructed in the divine Scriptures, how can he show the justice of God in cases of this kind? But if he labors in the meditation of the law day and night, he will easily answer, that the brief lowliness of the present time is to be compensated afterward by eternal rewards. For it is much better for someone, for the sake of the Lord, in the small span of his life, to endure voluntary poverty, that he may in the future enjoy eternal riches, than here to abound in luxuries, and afterward be tortured with intolerable punishments. "And all peoples saw his glory." Those who before were scandalized at the cross of the Lord, because by themselves they could not recognize him, afterward, when the heavens announced the justice of God, glorify God.

9 "Let all be confounded who worship graven images." If the prophet is blessed, being blessed he never knew how to curse; and therefore in that which he says, "Let them be confounded," it is not against them, but for them: for he prays that they may be confounded in their error, and be converted to the true and only God, the Creator. 10 "The daughters of Judea rejoiced because of your judgments, O Lord. What does this sense intend, "The daughters of Judea rejoiced," and not "the sons"? Let us understand first what "Judea" is interpreted to mean: and when we have known the interpretation, let us see what are the daughters of the interpretation. "Judea," then, is interpreted "confession. Whatever soul confesses God is a daughter of Judea. Therefore we call all the souls of believers the daughters of Judea, which rejoice at the judgments of God. For unless the soul has been faithful, it does not rejoice at the judgments of God. "My house has collapsed, I have lost my riches in shipwreck, my son has died to me, my servant has fled and carried off my goods, I who before was rich am now consumed by want": unless I am a daughter of Judea, I do not rejoice in the judgments of God. The soul of blessed Job was a daughter of Judah, which in the losses of household things thus consoled itself, saying: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord: naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked also shall I go" — let there be understood, "into the earth. First, made poor from rich, he lost his substance together with his sons: pressed down alike by want and bereavement, at last he came to the utmost misery, struck with the royal disease and an incurable wound: incurable to men, but curable with God.

11 What human medicine could not heal, patience and faith healed. He sat upon the dunghill, and in his soul he walked about in paradise. With his whole body rotting, his tongue alone was preserved to him — the tongue that was to blaspheme the Lord. See the craft of the ancient enemy. He tore away the substance of the just man by hostile plunder, crushed his sons with ruin, struck the man himself with a grievous wound and the horror of his whole body: he left him nothing except his tongue and his wife, so that the one might tempt and the other blaspheme. The devil was mindful of his former craft, by which he once deceived Adam through the woman: so also he assails this man through his wife, reckoning that he can always deceive men through the woman, not considering that one man was cast down through a woman, and now through a woman the whole world has been saved. Eve comes into your mind, but consider Mary: she cast us out of paradise, this one leads us back to heaven. Let us return to the order of the psalm.

12 "You who love the Lord, hate evil." If the Lord is good... For what do we read? "The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." And again in another parable: "Friend, if I am good, why is your eye evil?" "You who love the Lord, hate evil." Two loves cannot be contrary to each other in one man. Just as there is no consent of Christ with Belial, of justice and iniquity, so it cannot happen that one soul love both good and evil. "You who love the Lord, hate evil": the devil. The love and the hatred of each consists in deed. "For he who loves me will keep my commandments." But concerning the part of the devil, what is said? "But through the envy of the devil death entered into the world; therefore they imitate him who are of his part." Or certainly it is to be understood simply: You who love the things that are good, hate the things that are evil. You cannot love good, unless you hate evil.

13 "The Lord guards the souls of his saints." A most beautiful order: he who loves good and hates evil, what does he deserve from the Lord, except that he be guarded by him? "He will free them from the hand of the sinner." Here a question arises: If the Lord guards the souls of his saints, and frees them from the hand of the sinner, how are the martyrs crushed in persecution? how did the impious Nero, with sentence given, condemn Peter and Paul to death on one day, if the Lord guards the souls of his saints? Attend diligently to what he says. "The Lord guards the souls of his saints": he said "souls," not "bodies." "Do not fear those," he says, "who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear him who can kill both body and soul in Gehenna." How, then, does the Lord guard the souls of his saints? In martyrdom. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." In martyrdom, therefore, blood is poured out, so that the soul may be freed from temptations: so that it may leave the brief life, and migrate to the eternal: so that it may leave persecution, and go to the One who crowns us, our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom is honor and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.