20. This Psalm can also be taken in the person of the Lord Man: if only that which is there spoken in humiliation be referred to our weakness, which He bore. [276]
[200] [See Neale's note on this title. Commentary on the Psalms, vol. i. p. 131.--C.]
[201] 2 Sam. xv. 34-37.
[202] 2 Cor. iii. 16.
[203] Matt. ix. 15.
[204] John xx. 17.
[205] Rom. xi. 25.
[206] Rom. xi. 33, 34.
[207] John xv. 15.
[208] Matt. vi. 3.
[209] It is difficult to preserve in translation the double meaning of dexter as "righthanded" and "favourable." [We find a corresponding ambiguity, however, in "sinister," as an English word.--C.]
[210] 1 Pet. v. 8.
[211] [This Psalm is the first of those which our author calls fugitivi. They are seven, as follows: Psalms xxxiv., lii., liv., lvi., lvii., lix., cxlii.--C.]
[212] Matt. v. 43, 45.
[213] Matt. vi. 6.
[214] Prov. xvi. 32.
[215] Gen. iii. 14.
[216] Gen. iii. 19.
[217] Ps. i. 4.
[218] 1 Cor. i. 31.
[219] Ps. liii. 5.
[220] Ecclus. x. 13, 12.
[221] Acts vii. 60.
[222] Rom. iv. 5.
[223] Gen. iii. 5.
[224] Ps. ii. 1.
[225] Rom. xi. 25.
[226] Ps. ii. 8.
[227] John vii. 39.
[228] Altus. Its twofold meaning of "high" and "deep" is not capable of being preserved in translation.
[229] Ps. xviii. 10, 11.
[230] Luke xviii. 8.
[231] Matt. xxiv. 12.
[232] Amos viii. 11.
[233] Mark xiii. 13.
[234] Luke xviii. 8.
[235] John v. 22.
[236] Matt. ix. 13.
[237] Ps. vi. 4.
[238] Ps. xviii. 28.
[239] John i. 8.
[240] John v. 35.
[241] Al. that which.
[242] Rev. xxii. 11.
[243] 1 John ii. 16.
[244] Ps. vi. 2.
[245] Al. deservedly.
[246] Rom. iv. 5.
[247] Rom. v. 8, 9.
[248] Ps. iv. 7, 6.
[249] Supremæ.
[250] Ps. xvi. 7, 8.
[251] Fortis.
[252] Matt. xvi. 27.
[253] me orgen ep?gon, LXX.
[254] Rom. ii. 5.
[255] Ps. xvii. 13.
[256] [So St. Jerome also understood the Hebrew in his strict version.--C.]
[257] . Song ii. 4, 5
[258] Ps. cxx. 3, 4.
[259] Rom. viii. 35, 38, 39.
[260] [Not so the Vulgate nor St. Jerome, which follow the Greek. He refers to the African (old Italic) Psalters. But see Scrivener, p. 307, 2d ed.--C.]
[261] 1 Cor. xi. 19.
[262] 2 Cor. ii. 16.
[263] Gen. iii. 17.
[264] Matt. xi. 28, 30.
[265] Ecclus. x. 12.
[266] Ps. ix. 16.
[267] John viii. 34.
[268] Ps. iii. 3.
[269] Matt. xi. 25.
[270] Ecclus. xxxix. 14, 15, 16.
[271] Gen. i. 3.
[272] Gen. i. 4, 5.
[273] Isa. lviii. 10.
[274] 1 John ii. 11.
[275] Rom. xiii. 12.
[276] [On the continuity of the first seven Psalms, see Bishop Wordsworth's Commentary, p. 10, ed. London, 1867.--C.]
Psalm VIII.
To the end, for the wine-presses, a psalm of David himself. [277]
1. He seems to say nothing of wine-presses in the text of the Psalm of which this is the title. By which it appears, that one and the same thing is often signified in Scripture by many and various similitudes. We may then take wine-presses to be Churches, on the same principle by which we understand also by a threshing-floor the Church. For whether in the threshing-floor, or in the wine-press, there is nothing else done but the clearing the produce of its covering; which is necessary, both for its first growth and increase, and arrival at the maturity either of the harvest or the vintage. Of these coverings or supporters then; that is, of chaff, on the threshing-floor, the corn; and of husks, in the presses, the wine is stripped: as in the Churches, from the multitude of worldly men, which is collected together with the good, for whose birth and adaptating to the divine word that multitude was necessary, this is effected, that by spiritual love they be separated through the operation of God's ministers. For now so it is that the good are, for a time, separated from the bad, not in space, but in affection: although they have converse together in the Churches, as far as respects bodily presence. But another time will come, the corn will be stored up apart in the granaries, and the wine in the cellars. "The wheat," saith he, "He will lay up in garners; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable." [278] The same thing may be thus understood in another similitude: the wine He will lay up in cellars, but the husks He will cast forth to cattle: so that by the bellies of the cattle we may be allowed by way of similitude to understand the pains of hell.
2. There is another interpretation concerning the wine-presses, yet still keeping to the meaning of Churches. For even the Divine Word may be understood by the grape: for the Lord even has been called a Cluster of grapes; which they that were sent before by the people of Israel brought from the land of promise hanging on a staff, crucified as it were. [279] Accordingly, when the Divine Word maketh use of, by the necessity of declaring Himself, the sound of the voice, whereby to convey Himself to the ears of the hearers; in the same sound of the voice, as it were in husks, knowledge, like the wine, is enclosed: and so this grape comes into the ears, as into the pressing machines of the wine-pressers. For there the separation is made, that the sound may reach as far as the ear; but knowledge be received in the memory of those that hear, as it were in a sort of vat; whence it passes into discipline of the conversation and habit of mind, as from the vat into the cellar: where if it do not through negligence grow sour, it will acquire soundness by age. For it grew sour among the Jews, and this sour vinegar they gave the Lord to drink. [280] For that wine, which from the produce of the vine of the New Testament the Lord is to drink with His saints in the kingdom of His Father, [281] must needs be most sweet and most sound.
3. "Wine-presses" are also usually taken for martyrdoms, as if when they who have confessed the name of Christ have been trodden down by the blows of persecution, their mortal remains as husks remained on earth, but their souls flowed forth into the rest of a heavenly habitation. Nor yet by this interpretation do we depart from the fruitfulness of the Churches. It is sung then, "for the wine-presses," for the Church's establishment; when our Lord after His resurrection ascended into heaven. For then He sent the Holy Ghost: by whom the disciples being fulfilled preached with confidence the Word of God, that Churches might be collected.
4. Accordingly it is said, "O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the earth!" (ver. 1). I ask, how is His Name wonderful in all the earth? The answer is, "For Thy glory has been raised above the heavens." So that the meaning is this, O Lord, who art our Lord, how do all that inhabit the earth admire Thee! for Thy glory hath been raised from earthly humiliation above the heavens. For hence it appeared who Thou wast that descendedst, when it was by some seen, and by the rest believed, whither it was that Thou ascendedst.
5. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise, because of Thine enemies" (ver. 2). I cannot take babes and sucklings to be any other than those to whom the Apostle says, "As unto babes in Christ I have given you milk to drink, not meat." [282] Who were meant by those who went before the Lord praising Him, of whom the Lord Himself used this testimony, when He answered the Jews who bade Him rebuke them, "Have ye not read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise?" [283] Now with good reason He says not, Thou hast made, but, "Thou hast made perfect praise." For there are in the Churches also those who now no more drink milk, but eat meat: whom the same Apostle points out, saying, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect;" [284] but not by those only are the Churches perfected; for if there were only these, little consideration would be had of the human race. But consideration is had, when they too, who are not as yet capable of the knowledge of things spiritual and eternal, are nourished by the faith of the temporal history, which for our salvation after the Patriarchs and Prophets was administered by the most excellent Power and Wisdom of God, even in the Sacrament of the assumed Manhood, in which there is salvation for every one that believeth; to the end that moved by Its authority each one may obey Its precepts, whereby being purified and "rooted and grounded in love," he may be able to run with Saints, no more now a child in milk, but a young man in meat, "to comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, and depth, to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ." [285]
6. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise, because of Thine enemies." By enemies to this dispensation, which has been wrought through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we ought generally to understand all who forbid belief in things unknown, [286] and promise certain knowledge: [287] as all heretics do, and they who in the superstition of the Gentiles are called philosophers. Not that the promise of knowledge is to be blamed; but because they deem the most healthful and necessary step of faith is to be neglected, by which we must needs ascend to something certain, which nothing but that which is eternal can be. Hence it appears that they do not possess even this knowledge, which in contempt of faith they promise; seeing that they know not so useful and necessary a step thereof. "Out of the mouth," then "of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise," Thou, our Lord, declaring first by the Apostle, "Except ye believe, ye shall not understand;" [288] and saying by His own mouth, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and shall believe." [289] "Because of the enemies:" against whom too that is said, "I confess to Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise, and revealed them unto babes." [290] "From the wise," he saith, not the really wise, but those who deem themselves such. "That Thou mayest destroy the enemy and the defender." Whom but the heretic? [291] For he is both an enemy and a defender, who when he would assault the Christian faith, seems to defend it. Although the philosophers too of this world may be well taken as the enemies and defenders: forasmuch as the Son of God is the Power and Wisdom of God by which every one is enlightened who is made wise by the truth: of which they profess themselves to be lovers, whence too their name of philosophers; and therefore they seem to defend it, while they are its enemies, since they cease not to recommend noxious superstitions, that the elements of this world should be worshipped and revered.
7. "For I shall see Thy heavens, the works of Thy fingers" (ver. 3). We read that the law was written with the finger of God, and given through Moses, His holy servant: by which finger of God many understand the Holy Ghost. [292] Wherefore if, by the fingers of God, we are right in understanding these same ministers filled with the Holy Ghost, by reason of this same Spirit which worketh in them, since by them all holy Scripture has been completed for us; we understand consistently with this, that, in this place, the books of both Testaments are called "the heavens." Now it is said too of Moses himself, by the magicians of king Pharaoh, when they were conquered by him, "This is the finger of God." [293] And what is written, "The heavens shall be rolled up as a book." [294] Although it be said of this æthereal heaven, yet naturally, according to the same image, the heavens of books are named by allegory. "For I shall see," he says, "the heavens, the works of Thy fingers:" that is, I shall discern and understand the Scriptures, which Thou, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, hast written by Thy ministers.
8. Accordingly the heavens named above also may be interpreted as the same books, where he says, "For Thy glory hath been raised above the heavens:" so that the complete meaning should be this, "For Thy glory hath been raised above the heavens;" for Thy glory hath exceeded the declarations of all the Scriptures: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise," that they should begin by belief in the Scriptures, who would arrive at the knowledge of Thy glory: which hath been raised above the Scriptures, in that it passeth by and transcends the announcements of all words and languages. Therefore hath God lowered the Scriptures even to the capacity of babes and sucklings, as it is sung in another Psalm, "And He lowered the heaven, and came down:" [295] and this did He because of the enemies, who through pride of talkativeness, being enemies of the cross of Christ, even when they do speak some truth, still cannot profit babes and sucklings. So is the enemy and defender destroyed, who, whether he seem to defend wisdom, or even the name of Christ, still, from the step of this faith, [296] assaults that truth, which he so readily makes promise of. Whereby too he is convicted of not possessing it; since by assaulting the step thereof, namely faith, he knows not how one should mount up thereto. Hence then is the rash and blind promiser of truth, who is the enemy and defender, destroyed, when the heavens, the works of God's fingers, are seen, that is, when the Scriptures, brought down even to the slowness of babes, are understood; and by means of the lowness of the faith of the history, which was transacted in time, they raise them, well nurtured and strengthened, unto the grand height of the understanding of things eternal, up to those things which they establish. [297] For these heavens, that is, these books, are the works of God's fingers; for by the operation of the Holy Ghost in the Saints they were completed. For they that have regarded their own glory rather than man's salvation, have spoken without the Holy Ghost, in whom are the bowels of the mercy of God.