Expositions on the Book of Psalms 19
19.0 Psalm XIX PL 36, 164
19.1 Psalm XIX PL 36, 164
1. It is a well-known title; nor does the Lord Jesus Christ say what follows, but it is said of Him.
[vers. 1.] Notus est iste titulus, nec Christus dicit, sed Christo dicit Propheta, figura optandi quae ventura sunt canens.
19.2 PL 36, 164
2. “The heavens tell out the glory of God” (ver. 1). The righteous Evangelists, in whom, as in the heavens, God dwelleth, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the glory wherewith the Son glorified the Father upon earth. “And the firmament showeth forth the works of His hands.” And the firmament showeth forth the deeds of the Lord’s power, that now made heaven by the assurance of the Holy Ghost, which before was earth by fear.
[vers. 2.] Exaudiat te Dominus in die tribulationis: exaudiat te Dominus in die qua dixisti, Pater, clarifica Filium tuum . Protegat te nomen Dei Jacob: ad te enim pertinet populus posterior natu, quia major serviet minori .
19.3 PL 36, 164
3. “Day unto day uttereth word” (ver. 2). To the spiritual the Spirit giveth out the fulness of the unchangeable Wisdom of God, the Word which in the beginning is God with God. “And night unto night announceth knowledge.” And to the fleshly, as to those afar off, the mortality of the flesh, by conveying faith, announceth future knowledge.
[vers. 3.] Mittat tibi auxilium de sancto, et de Sion tueatur te, faciens tibi sanctificatum corpus, Ecclesiam, de speculatione tutam, quae exspectat quando venias a nuptiis.
19.4 PL 36, 164
4. “There is no speech nor language, in which their voices are not heard” (ver. 3). In which the voices of the Evangelists have not been heard, seeing that the Gospel was preached in every tongue.
[vers. 4.] Memor sit omnis sacrificii tui: memores nos faciat omnium injuriarum tuarum et contumeliarum, quas pro nobis pertulisti. Et holocaustum tuum pingue fiat: et crucem, qua totus oblatus es Deo, in laetitiam resurrectionis convertat.
19.5 PL 36, 164
5. “Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (ver. 4).
[vers. 5.] Tribuat tibi Dominus secundum cor tuum: tribuat tibi Dominus, non secundum cor eorum qui putaverunt persequendo delere te posse; sed secundum cor tuum, quo scisti quid utilitatis haberet passio tua. Et omne consilium tuum compleat: et compleat omne consilium tuum, non solum quo animam tuam posuisti pro amicis tuis , ut mortificatum granum copiosius resurgeret ; sed etiam quo caecitas ex parte Israel facta est, ut plenitudo Gentium intraret, et sic omnis Israel salvus fieret .
19.6 PL 36, 164
6. “In the sun hath He set His tabernacle.” Now that He might war against the powers of temporal error, the Lord, being about to send not peace but a sword on earth, in time, or in manifestation, set so to say His military dwelling, that is, the dispensation of His incarnation. “And He as a bridegroom coming forth out of His chamber” (ver. 5). And He, coming forth out of the Virgin’s womb, where God was united to man’s nature as a bridegroom to a bride. “Rejoiced as a giant to run His way.” Rejoiced as One exceeding strong, and surpassing all other men in power incomparable, not to inhabit, but to run His way. For, “He stood not in the way of sinners.”
[vers. 6.] Exsultabimus in salutari tuo: exsultabimus quod tibi mors nihil nocebit; ita enim nec nobis eam nocere posse monstrabis. Et in nomine Dei nostri magnificabimur: et confessio tui nominis non solum non perdet, sed etiam magnificabit nos.
19.7 PL 36, 164
7. “His going forth is from the highest heaven” (ver. 6). From the Father is His going forth, not that in time, but from everlasting, whereby He was born of the Father. “And His meeting is even to the height of heaven.” And in the fulness of the Godhead He meets even to an equality with the Father. “And there is none that may hide himself from His heat.” But whereas, “the Word was even made flesh, and dwelt in us,” assuming our mortality, He permitted no man to excuse himself from the shadow of death; for the heat of the Word penetrated even it.
[vers. 7.] Impleat Dominus omnes petitiones tuas: impleat Dominus non solum petitiones quas habuisti in terra, sed etiam quibus in coelo interpellas pro nobis. Nunc cognovi quoniam salvum fecit Dominus Christum suum; nunc mihi per prophetiam demonstratum est, quoniam resuscitabit Dominus Christum suum. Exaudiet illum de coelo sancto suo: exaudiet illum, non de terra tantum, ubi se petiit clarificari ; verum etiam de coelo, ubi jam ad dexteram Patris interpellans pro nobis , diffudit inde Spiritum sanctum super credentes in se. In potentatibus salus dexterae ejus: potentatus nostri sunt salus favoris ejus, cum etiam de tribulatione dat auxilium, ut quando infirmamur, tunc potentes simus . Nam vana salus hominum , quae non dexterae, sed sinistrae ejus est: hac enim extolluntur in magnam superbiam, quicumque peccantes temporaliter salvi facti sunt.
19.8 PL 36, 165
8. “The law of the Lord is undefiled, converting souls” (ver. 7). The law of the Lord, therefore, is Himself who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it; an undefiled law, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” not oppressing souls with the yoke of bondage, but converting them to imitate Him in liberty. “The testimony of the Lord is sure, giving wisdom to babes.” “The testimony of the Lord is sure;” for, “no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him,” which things have been hidden from the wise and revealed to babes; for, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”
[vers. 8.] Hi in curribus et hi in equis: hi volubili successione temporalium bonorum trahuntur, et hi superbis praeferuntur honoribus, atque in his exsultant. Nos autem in nomine Domini Dei nostri exsultabimus: nos autem spem figentes in aeternis, neque gloriam nostram quaerentes, in nomine Domini Dei nostri exsultabimus.
19.9 PL 36, 165
9. “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart” (ver. 8). All the statutes of the Lord are right in Him who taught not what He did not; that they who should imitate Him might rejoice in heart, in those things which they should do freely with love, not slavishly with fear. “The commandment of the Lord is lucid, enlightening the eyes.” “The commandment of the Lord is lucid,” with no veil of carnal observances, enlightening the sight of the inner man.
[vers. 9.] Ipsi obligati sunt, et ceciderunt: et ideo ipsi temporalium rerum cupiditate obligati sunt, timentes parcere Domino, ne a Romanis perderent locum ; et irruentes in lapidem offensionis et petram scandali, de spe coelesti ceciderunt: quibus caecitas ex parte Israel facta est, ignorantibus Dei justitiam, et suam volentibus constituere . Nos vero surreximus, et erecti sumus: nos vero ut populus Gentium intraret, de lapidibus excitati filii Abraham qui non sectabamur justitiam, apprehendimus eam , et surreximus; nec viribus nostris, sed per fidem justificati erecti sumus.
19.10 PL 36, 165
10. “The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever” (ver. 9). “The fear of the Lord;” not that distressing fear under the law, dreading exceedingly the withdrawal of temporal goods, by the love of which the soul commits fornication; but that chaste fear wherewith the Church, the more ardently she loves her Spouse, the more carefully does she take heed of offending Him, and therefore, “perfect love casteth” not “out” this “fear,” but it endureth for ever.
[vers. 10.] Domine, salvum fac regem: ut ipse qui nobis praeliandi exemplum passione monstravit, offerat etiam sacrificia nostra, sacerdos excitatus a mortuis, et in coelo constitutus. Et exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus te: quo jam pro nobis offerente, exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus te.
19.11 PL 36, 164
11. “The judgments of the Lord are true, justified together.” The judgments of Him, who “judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son,” are justified in truth unchangeably. For neither in His threatenings nor His promises doth God deceive any man, nor can any withdraw either from the ungodly His punishment, or from the godly His reward. “To be desired more than gold, and much precious stone” (ver. 10). Whether it be “gold and stone itself much,” or “much precious,” or “much to be desired;” still, the judgments of God are to be desired more than the pomp of this world; by desire of which it is brought to pass that the judgments of God are not desired, but feared, or despised, or not believed. But if any be himself gold and precious stone, that he may not be consumed by fire, but received into the treasury of God, more than himself does he desire the judgments of God, whose will he preferreth to his own. “And sweeter than honey and the honey comb.” And whether one be even now honey, who, disenthralled already from the chains of this life, is awaiting the day when he may come up to God’s feast; or whether he be yet as the honey comb, wrapped about with this life as it were with wax, not mixed and become one with it, but filling it, needing some pressure of God’s hand, not oppressing but expressing it, whereby from life temporal it may be strained out into life eternal: to such an one the judgments of God are sweeter than he himself is to himself, for that they are “sweeter than honey and the honey comb.”
19.12 PL 36, 164
12. “For Thy servant keepeth them” (ver. 11). For to him who keepeth them not the day of the Lord is bitter. “In keeping them there is great reward.” Not in any external benefit, but in the thing itself, that God’s judgments are kept, is there great reward; great because one rejoiceth therein.
19.13 PL 36, 164
13. “Who understandeth sins?” (ver. 12.) But what sort of sweetness can there be in sins, where there is no understanding? For who can understand sins, which close the very eye, to which truth is pleasant, to which the judgments of God are desirable and sweet? yea, as darkness closes the eye, so do sins the mind, and suffer it not to see either the light, or itself.
19.14 PL 36, 164
14. “Cleanse me, O Lord, from my secret faults.” From the lusts which lie hid in me, cleanse me, O Lord. “And from the” faults “of others preserve Thy servant” (ver. 13). Let me not be led astray by others. For he is not a prey to the faults of others, who is cleansed from his own. Preserve therefore from the lusts of others, not the proud man, and him who would be his own master, but, Thy servant. “If they get not the dominion over me, then shall I be undefiled.” If neither my own secret sins, nor those of others, get the dominion over me, then shall I be undefiled. For there is no third source of sin, but one’s own secret sin, by which the devil fell, and another’s sin, by which man is seduced, so as by consenting to make it his own. “And I shall be cleansed from the great offence.” What but pride? for there is none greater than apostasy from God, which is “the beginning of the pride of man.” And he shall indeed be undefiled, who is free from this offence also; for this is the last to them who are returning to God, which was the first as they departed from Him.
19.15 PL 36, 164
15. “And the words of my mouth shall be pleasing, and the meditation of my heart is always in Thy sight” (ver. 14). The meditation of my heart is not after the vain glory of pleasing men, for now there is pride no more, but in Thy sight alway, who regardest a pure conscience. “O Lord, my Helper, and my Redeemer” (ver. 15). O Lord, my Helper, in my approach to Thee; for Thou art my Redeemer, that I might set out unto Thee: lest any attributing to his own wisdom his conversion to Thee, or to his own strength his attaining to Thee, should be rather driven back by Thee, who resistest the proud; for he is not cleansed from the great offence, nor pleasing in Thy sight, who redeemest us that we may be converted, and helpest us that we may attain unto Thee.