15. Next, in anticipation of future blessings, of which he speaks as already vouchsafed, he says, "We are satisfied with Thy mercy in the morning" (ver. 14). Prophecy has thus been kindled for us, in the midst of these toils and sorrows of the night, like a lamp in the darkness, until day dawn, and the Day-star arise in our hearts. [4271] For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: then shall the righteous be filled with that blessing for which they hunger and thirst now, [4272] while, walking in faith, they are absent from the Lord. [4273] Hence are the words, "In Thy presence is fulness of joy:" [4274] and, "Early in the morning they shall stand by, and shall look up:" [4275] and as other translators have said it, "We shall be satisfied with Thy mercy in the morning;" then they shall be satisfied. As he says elsewhere, "I shall be satisfied, when Thy glory shall be revealed." [4276] So it is said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us:" and our Lord Himself answereth, "I will manifest Myself to Zion;" [4277] and until this promise is fulfilled, no blessing satisfies us, or ought to do so, lest our longings should be arrested in their course, when they ought to be increased until they gain their objects. "And we rejoiced and were glad all the days of our life." Those days are days without end: they all exist together: it is thus they satisfy us: for they give not way to days succeeding: since there is nothing there which exists not yet because it has not reached us, or ceases to exist because it has passed; all are together: because there is one day only, which remains and passes not away: this is eternity itself. These are the days respecting which it is written, "What man is he that lusteth to live, and would fain see good days?" [4278] These days in another passage are styled years: where unto God it is said, "But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail:" [4279] for these are not years that are accounted for nothing, or days that perish like a shadow: but they are days which have a real existence, the number of which he who thus spoke, "Lord, let me know mine end" (that is, after reaching what term I shall remain unchanged, and have no further blessing to crave), "and the number of my days, what it is" (what is, not what is not): prayed to know. He distinguishes them from the days of this life, of which he speaks as follows, "Behold, Thou hast made my days as it were a span long," [4280] which are not, because they stand not, remain not, but change in quick succession: nor is there a single hour in them in which our being is not such, but that one part of it has already passed, another is about to come, and none remains as it is. But those years and days, in which we too shall never fail, but evermore be refreshed, will never fail. Let our souls long earnestly for those days, let them thirst ardently for them, that there we may be filled, be satisfied, and say what we now say in anticipation, "We have been satisfied," etc. "We have been comforted again now, after the time that Thou hast brought us low, and for the years wherein we have seen evil" (ver. 15).
16. But now in days that are as yet evil, let us speak as follows. "Look upon Thy servants, and upon Thy works" (ver. 16). For Thy servants themselves are Thy works, not only inasmuch as they are men, but as Thy servants, that is, obedient to Thy commands. For we are His workmanship, created not merely in Adam, but in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them: [4281] "for it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure." [4282] "And direct their sons:" that they may be right in heart, for to such God is bountiful; for "God is bountiful to Israel, to those that are right in heart."...
17. "And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us" (ver. 17); whence the words, "O Lord, the light of Thy countenance is marked upon us." [4283] And, "Make Thou straight the works of our hands upon us:" that we may do them not for hope of earthly reward: for then they are not straight, but crooked. In many copies the Psalm goes thus far, but in some there is found an additional verse at the end, as follows, "And make straight the work of our hands." To these words the learned have prefixed a star, called an asterisk, to show that they are found in the Hebrew, or in some other Greek translations, but not in the Septuagint. The meaning of this verse, if we are to expound it, appears to me this, that all our good works are one work of love: for love is the fulfilling of the Law. [4284] For as in the former verse he had said, "And the works of our hands make Thou straight upon us," here he says "work," not works, as if anxious to show, in the last verse, that all our works are one, that is, are directed with a view to one work. For then are works righteous, when they are directed to this one end: "for the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." [4285] There is therefore one work, in which are all, "faith which worketh by love:" [4286] whence our Lord's words in the Gospel, "This is the work of God, that ye believe in Him whom He hath sent." [4287] Since, therefore, in this Psalm, both old and new life, life both mortal and everlasting, years that are counted for nought, and years that have the fulness of loving-kindness and of true joy, that is, the penalty of the first and the reign of the Second Man, are marked so very clearly; I imagine, that the name of Moses, the man of God, became the title of the Psalm, that pious and right-minded readers of the Scriptures might gain an intimation that the Mosaic laws, in which God appears to promise only, or nearly only, earthly rewards for good works, without doubt contains under a veil some such hopes as this Psalm displays. But when any one has passed over to Christ, the veil will be taken away: [4288] and his eyes will be unveiled, that he may consider the wonderful things in the law of God, by the gift of Him, to whom we pray, "Open Thou mine eyes, and I shall see the wondrous things of Thy law. [4289]
[4232] Lat. LXXXIX.
[4233] 1 Cor. x. 11.
[4234] John v. 46.
[4235] Literis. [But see Delitzsch (ed. Clark), vol. iii. p. 48.--C.]
[4236] Fingeretur.
[4237] Ps. cxlviii. 5.
[4238] Gen. ii. 7.
[4239] Exod. iii. 14.
[4240] Ps. cii. 26, 27.
[4241] Matt. vi. 13.
[4242] 1 Cor. i. 31.
[4243] Precem petentis exaudiendo.
[4244] Phil. iii. 13.
[4245] Acts i. 7.
[4246] [Al. "as an herb."--C.]
[4247] Isa. xl. 6, 8.
[4248] John xxi. 18.
[4249] Sicut aranea meditabantur.
[4250] Rom. v. 12.
[4251] Gen. vii. 20.
[4252] Isa. lix. 6.
[4253] Aliud est in ipsis, aliud in potentatibus.
[4254] St. Augustin seems to refer the word amplius to a period beyond the eighty years. In the English version it clearly applies to the attainment of that age.
[4255] Rom. viii. 23-25.
[4256] Quoniam supervenit super nos mansuetudo, et corripiemur: the equivalent in the Prayer Book is, "so soon passeth it away, and we are gone."
[4257] Heb. xii. 6.
[4258] 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9.
[4259] Ps. x. 3, Lat.
[4260] Matt. x. 28; Ps. lxxiii. 2, 3, 17.
[4261] Isa. liii. 1.
[4262] Ps. lxxiii. 2.
[4263] Hominis sui.
[4264] Al. "on the left."
[4265] Matt. xxv. 33.
[4266] Et compeditos corde in sapientiâ.
[4267] pepaideum?nous, pepedem?nous.
[4268] Ecclus. vi. 24.
[4269] Ps. xiii. 1.
[4270] Deprecor te, et deprecor a te.
[4271] 2 Pet. i. 19.
[4272] Matt. v. 8, 6.
[4273] 2 Cor. v. 6.
[4274] Ps. xvi. 11.
[4275] Ps. v. 3.
[4276] Ps. xvii. 15.
[4277] John xiv. 8, 21.
[4278] Ps. xxxiv. 12.
[4279] Ps. cii. 27.
[4280] Ps. xxxix. 4, 5.
[4281] Eph. ii. 10.
[4282] Philip. ii. 13.
[4283] Ps. iv. 6.
[4284] Rom. xiii. 10.
[4285] 1 Tim. i. 5.
[4286] Gal. v. 6.
[4287] John vi. 29.
[4288] 2 Cor. iii. 15.
[4289] Ps. cxix. 18.
Psalm XCI. [4290]
1. This Psalm is that from which the Devil dared to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ: let us therefore attend to it, that thus armed, we may be enabled to resist the tempter, not presuming in ourselves, but in Him who before us was tempted, that we might not be overcome when tempted. Temptation to Him was not necessary: the temptation of Christ is our learning, but if we listen to His answers to the devil, in order that, when ourselves are tempted, we may answer in like manner, we are then entering through the gate, as ye have heard it read in the Gospel. For what is to enter by the gate? To enter by Christ, who Himself said, "I am the door:" [4291] and to enter through Christ, is to imitate His ways....He urges us to imitate Him in those works which He could not have done had He not been made Man; for how could He endure sufferings, unless He had become a Man? How could He otherwise have died, been crucified, been humbled? Thus then do thou, when thou sufferest the troubles of this world, which the devil, openly by men, or secretly, as in Job's case, inflicts; be courageous, be of long suffering; "thou shalt dwell under the defence of the Most High," as this Psalm expresses it: for if thou depart from the help of the Most High, without strength to aid thyself, thou wilt fall.
2. For many men are brave, when they are enduring persecution from men, and see them openly rage against themselves: imagining they are then imitating the sufferings of Christ, in case men openly persecute them; but if assailed by the hidden attack of the devil, they believe they are not being crowned by Christ. Never fear when thou dost imitate Christ. For when the devil tempted our Lord, there was no man in the wilderness; he tempted Him secretly; but he was conquered, and conquered too when openly attacking Him. This do thou, if thou wishest to enter by the door, when the enemy secretly assails thee, when he asks for a man that he may do him some hurt by bodily troubles, by fever, by sickness, or any other bodily sufferings, like those of Job. He saw not the devil, yet he acknowledged the power of God. He knew that the devil had no power against him, unless from the Almighty Ruler of all things he received that power: the whole glory he gave to God, power to the devil he gave not....
3. He then who so imitates Christ as to endure all the troubles of this world, with his hopes set upon God, that he falls into no snare, is broken down by no panic fears, he it is "who dwelleth under the defence of the Most High, who shall abide under the protection of God" (ver. 1), in the words with which the Psalm, which you have heard and sung, begins. You will recognise the words, so well known, in which the devil tempted our Lord, when we come to them. "He shall say unto the Lord, Thou art my taker up, and my refuge: my God" (ver. 2). Who speaks thus to the Lord? "He who dwelleth under the defence of the Most High:" not under his own defence. Who is this? He dwelleth under the defence of the Most High, who is not proud, like those who ate, that they might become as Gods, and lost the immortality in which they were made. For they chose to dwell under a defence of their own, not under that of the Most High: thus they listened to the suggestions of the serpent, [4292] and despised the precept of God: and discovered at last that what God threatened, not what the devil promised, had come to pass in them.
4. Thus then do thou say also, "In Him will I trust. For He Himself shall deliver me" (ver. 3), not I myself. Observe whether he teaches anything but this, that all our trust be in God, none in man. Whence shall he deliver thee? "From the snare of the hunter, and from a harsh word." Deliverance from the hunter's net is indeed a great blessing: but how is deliverance from a harsh word so? Many have fallen into the hunter's net through a harsh word. What is it that I say? The devil and his angels spread their snares, as hunters do: and those who walk in Christ tread afar from those snares: for he dares not spread his net in Christ: he sets it on the verge of the way, not in the way. Let then thy way be Christ, and thou shalt not fall into the snares of the devil....