8. "Salvation is of the Lord; and upon Thy people be Thy blessing" (ver. 8). In one sentence the Psalmist has enjoined men what to believe, and has prayed for believers. For when it is said, "Salvation is of the Lord," the words are addressed to men. Nor does it follow, "And upon Thy people" be "Thy blessing," in such wise as that the whole is spoken to men, but there is a change into prayer addressed to God Himself, for the very people to whom it was said, "Salvation is of the Lord." What else then doth he say but this? Let no man presume on himself, seeing that it is of the Lord to save from the death of sin; for, "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord." [63] But do Thou, O Lord, bless Thy people, who look for salvation from Thee.
9. This Psalm can be taken as in the Person of Christ another way; which is that whole Christ should speak. [64] I mean by whole, with His body, of which He is the Head, according to the Apostle, who says, "Ye are the body of Christ, and the members." [65] He therefore is the Head of this body; wherefore in another place he saith, "But doing the truth in love, we may increase in Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, from whom the whole body is joined together and compacted." [66] In the Prophet then at once, the Church, and her Head (the Church founded amidst the storms of persecution throughout the whole world, which we know already to have come to pass), speaks, "O Lord, how are they multiplied that trouble me! many rise up against me;" wishing to exterminate the Christian name. "Many say unto my soul, There is no salvation for him in his God." For they would not otherwise hope that they could destroy the Church, branching out so very far and wide, unless they believed that God had no care thereof. "But Thou, O Lord, art my taker;" in Christ of course. For into that flesh [67] the Church too hath been taken by the Word, "who was made flesh, and dwelt in us;" [68] for that "In heavenly places hath He made us to sit together with Him." [69] When the Head goes before, the other members will follow; for, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" [70] Justly then does the Church say, "Thou art my taker. My glory;" for she doth not attribute her excellency to herself, seeing that she knoweth by whose grace and mercy she is what she is. "And the lifter up of my head," of Him, namely, who, "the First-born from the dead," [71] ascended up into heaven. "With my voice have I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me out of His holy mountain." This is the prayer of all the Saints, the odour of sweetness, which ascends up in the sight of the Lord. For now the Church is heard out of this mountain, which is also her head; or, out of that justice of God, by which both His elect are set free, and their persecutors punished. Let the people of God also say, "I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord will take me up;" that they may be joined, and cleave to their Head. [72] For to this people is it said, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall lay hold on thee." [73] Since they are taken out of sinners, of whom it is said generally, "But they that sleep, sleep in the night." [74] Let them say moreover, "I will not fear the thousands of people that surround me;" of the heathen verily that compass me about to extinguish everywhere, if they could, the Christian name. But how should they be feared, when by the blood of the martyrs in Christ, as by oil, the ardour of love is inflamed? "Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God." The body can address this to its own Head. For at His rising the body was saved; who "ascended up on high, led captivity captive, gave gifts unto men." [75] For this is said by the Prophet, in the secret purpose of God, [76] until that ripe harvest [77] which is spoken of in the Gospel, whose salvation is in His Resurrection, who vouchsafed to die for us, shed out our Lord to the earth. "Since Thou hast smitten all who oppose me without a cause, Thou hast broken the teeth of the sinners." Now while the Church hath rule, the enemies of the Christian name are smitten with confusion; and, whether their curses or their chiefs, brought to nought. Believe then, O man, that "salvation is of the Lord: and," Thou, O Lord, may "Thy blessing" be "upon Thy people."
10. Each one too of us may say, when a multitude of vices and lusts leads the resisting mind in the law of sin, "O Lord, how are they multiplied that trouble me! many rise up against me." And, since despair of recovery generally creeps in through the accumulation of vices, as though these same vices were mocking the soul, or even as though the Devil and his angels through their poisonous suggestions were at work to make us despair, it is said with great truth, "Many say unto my soul, There is no salvation for him in his God. But Thou, O Lord, art my taker." For this is our hope, that He hath vouchsafed to take the nature of man in Christ. "My glory;" according to that rule, that no one should ascribe ought to himself. "And the lifter up of my head;" either of Him, who is the Head of us all, or of the spirit of each several one of us, which is the head of the soul and body. For "the head of the woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ." [78] But the mind is lifted up, when it can be said already, "With the mind I serve the law of God;" [79] that the rest of man may be reduced to peaceable submission, when in the resurrection of the flesh "death is swallowed up in victory." [80] "With my voice I have cried unto the Lord;" with that most inward and intensive voice. "And He heard me out of His holy mountain;" [81] Him, through whom He hath succoured us, through whose mediation He heareth us. "I slept, and took rest; and rose, for the Lord will take me up." Who of the faithful is not able to say this, when he calls to mind the death of his sins, and the gift of regeneration? "I will not fear the thousands of people that surround me." Besides those which the Church universally hath borne and beareth, each one also hath temptations, by which, when compassed about, he may speak these words, "Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God:" that is, make me to arise. "Since Thou hast smitten all who oppose me without a cause:" it is well in God's determinate [82] purpose said of the Devil and his angels; who rage not only against the whole body of Christ, but also against each one in particular. "Thou hast broken the teeth of the sinners." Each man hath those that revile him, he hath too the prime authors of vice, who strive to cut him off from the body of Christ. But "salvation is of the Lord." Pride is to be guarded against, and we must say, "My soul cleaved after Thee." [83] "And upon Thy people" be "Thy blessing:" that is, upon each one of us.
[35] [On the place of this Psalm in the Ordo Psalmorum, see the important principle laid down by Bishop Wordsworth, in his Introduction to the Psalms, p. v.--C.]
[36] Matt. ix. 15.
[37] Impius.
[38] Impius.
[39] John xiii. 27.
[40] John xiii. 27.
[41] 2 Sam. xviii. 33.
[42] Matt. xxvii. 42.
[43] Susceptor.
[44] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
[45] [1 Thess. v. 23. See Tertull. vol. iii. p. 450, A.N.F.; also Irenæus, vol. i. p. 386, ibid.--C.]
[46] Sus. 44.
[47] Matt. vi. 6.
[48] Dan. ii. 34, 35.
[49] Ps. xxxvi. 6. [See Tertullian, p. 364, A.N.F. vol. iii.--C.]
[50] Ego dormivi, et somnum cepi. In the Hebrew, also, I is emphatic.
[51] John x. 17, 18.
[52] 1 Thess. iv. 13.
[53] Dormivi, et soporatus sum.
[54] Dormitio.
[55] Somnus.
[56] [Justin Martyr understands this of Christ and His resurrection. A.N.F. vol. i. p. 175.--C.]
[57] 2 Cor. xiii. 3.
[58] Oxford mss. "De."
[59] Gal. v. 15.
[60] Sol. Song iv. 2, vi. 6.
[61] Matt. v. 16.
[62] Matt. xxii. 40.
[63] Rom. vii. 24, 25.
[64] [On this principle, which rules throughout this commentary, see the author's remark on Ps. xcvi., infra.--C.]
[65] 1 Cor. xii. 27.
[66] Eph. iv. 15, 16.
[67] Homine.
[68] John i. 14.
[69] Eph. ii. 6.
[70] Rom. viii. 35.
[71] Col. i. 18.
[72] [An Easter antiphon in the Western liturgies. Wordsworth, apud loc. Commentary on Psalms, p. 5.--C.]
[73] Eph. v. 14.
[74] 1 Thess. v. 7.
[75] Eph. iv. 8; Ps. lxviii. 18.
[76] Prædestinatione.
[77] Matt. ix. 37.
[78] 1 Cor. xi. 3.
[79] Rom. vii. 25.
[80] 1 Cor. xv. 54.
[81] [Here, for the first time, comes in the word Selah, the Sursum Corda of the Hebrews. Bishop Wordsworth notes the three upliftings which here precede.--C.]
[82] Prædestinatione.
[83] Ps. lxiii. 8. ekollethe, Sept.
Psalm IV.
To the end, a psalm song to [84] David.
1. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." [85] For this "end" signifies perfection, not consumption. Now it may be a question, whether every Song be a Psalm, or rather every Psalm a Song; whether there are some Songs which cannot be called Psalms, and some Psalms which cannot be called Songs. But the Scripture must be attended to, if haply "Song" do not denote a joyful theme. But those are called Psalms which are sung to the Psaltery; which the history as a high mystery declares the Prophet David to have used. [86] Of which matter this is not the place to discourse; for it requires prolonged inquiry, and much discussion. Now meanwhile we must look either for the words of the Lord Man [87] after the Resurrection, or of man in the Church believing and hoping on Him.
2. "When I called, the God of my righteousness heard me" (ver. 1). When I called, God heard me, the Psalmist says, of whom is my righteousness. "In tribulation Thou hast enlarged me." Thou hast led me from the straits of sadness into the broad ways of joy. For, "tribulation and straitness is on every soul of man that doeth evil." [88] But he who says, "We rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience;" up to that where he says, "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us;" [89] he hath no straits of heart, they be heaped on him outwardly by them that persecute him. Now the change of person, for that from the third person, where he says, "He heard," he passes at once to the second, where he says, "Thou hast enlarged me;" if it be not done for the sake of variety and grace, it is strange why the Psalmist should first wish to declare to men that he had been heard, and afterwards address Him who heard him. Unless perchance, when he had declared how he was heard, in this very enlargement of heart he preferred to speak with God; that he might even in this way show what it is to be enlarged in heart, that is, to have God already shed abroad in the heart, with whom he might hold converse interiorly. Which is rightly understood as spoken in the person of him who, believing on Christ, has been enlightened; but in that of the very Lord Man, whom the Wisdom of God took, I do not see how this can be suitable. For He was never deserted by It. But as His very prayer against trouble is a sign rather of our infirmity, so also of that sudden enlargement of heart the same Lord may speak for His faithful ones, whom He has personated also when He said, "I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink," [90] and so forth. Wherefore here also He can say, "Thou hast enlarged me," for one of the least of His, holding converse with God, whose "love" he has "shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." [91] "Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer." Why does he again ask, when already he declared that he had been heard and enlarged? It is for our sakes, of whom it is said, "But if we hope for that we see not, we wait in patience;" [92] or is it, that in him who has believed that which is begun may be perfected?