Psalm 116 (Vulgate 114–115)

Part 1

1. Ver. 1. / have loved, since the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. Let the soul that7 is sojourning in absence from the Lord sing thus, let that sheep which had strayed sing thus, let that son who had died and returned to life, who had been lost and was found; let our soul sing thus,6,24, brethren, and most beloved sons. Let us be taught, and let us abide, and let us sing thus with the Saints: / have loved: since the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. Is this a reason for having loved, that the Lord will hear the of my prayer? and do we not rather love, because He heard, or that He may hear? What then meaneth, I have loved, since the Lord will hear? Doth he, because is wont to inflame love, say that he hath loved, since he hath hoped that God will hsteD to the voice of his prayer r

2. Ver. 2, 3. But whence hath he hoped for this? Since, he saith, He hath inclined His ear unto me: and in my days I have called upon Him. I loved, therefore, because He will hear; He will hear, because He hath inclined His ear unto me. But whence knowest thou, 0 human soul, that God hath inclined His ear unto thee, except tffou sayest, / have believed i These three things, therefore, abide, faith, hope, charity: because thou hast believed, thou hast hoped; because thou hast hoped, thou hast loved. If I now seek why the soul believed that God inclined His ear unto it: shall I not be answered, Because He first loved us, and spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. por now shall they call upon Him in Whom they have not believed? saith the Teacher of the Gentiles: and how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? When I perceived all these things done towards me, how should I not believe that the Lord hath inclined his ear unto me? But He hath so commended His love towards us, that Christ died for the ungodly. When therefore the beautiful feet of them that preached peace, that published good tidings, preached these things to me, that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved, I believed that His ear was inclined unto me, and in my days I have called upon Him.

3. And what are thy <^ays, since thou hast said, In my days I have called upon Him? Are they those perchance, which the fulness of time came, and God sent His Son, Who had already said, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee? Thou hast heard from the lips of the preacher who came unto thee with beautiful feet, Behold, now is the accepted lime: behold, now is the day of salvation; and thou hast believed, and in thy days hast called upon the Lord, and said, (ver. 5.) O Lord, deliver my soul. This is indeed true: but I may rather call my days the days of my misery, the days of my mortality, the days according to Adam, full of toil and sweat, the days according to the ancient corruption. For I lying, stuck fast in the deep mire, in another Psalm also have cried out, Behold, Tliou hast made my days old; in these days of mine have I called upon Thee. For my days are different from the days of my Lord. I call those my days, which by my own daring I have made for myself, whereby I have forsaken Him: and, since He reigneth every whe^, and is all powerful, and boldeth all things, I have deserved prison; that is, I have received the darkness of ignorance, and the bonds of mortality. / will call upon Him in these my days; for elsewhere also I cry out, Bring my soul out of prison; and since, in the day of salvation, which He hath given me, He hath aided me; the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners cometh before Him. For in these days of11" mine, (ver. 3.) The snares of death compassed me round about, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: pains that would not have overtaken me, had I not wandered from Thee. But now they have overtaken me; but I found them not, while I was rejoicing in the prosperity of the world, in which the snares of hell deceive the more.

4. Ver. 4 — 6. But after / too found trouble and heaviness, I called upon the Name of the Lord. For trouble and profitable sorrow I did not feel; trouble, wherein He giveth aid, unto Whom it is said, O be Thou our help in trouble: awdPs.60,2. vain is the help of man. For 1 thought I might rejoice and exult in the vain help of man; but when I had heard from my Lord, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall ieMatt.5, comforted: I did not wait until I should lose those temporal blessings in which I rejoiced, and should then mourn: but I gave heed to that very misery of mine which caused me to rejoice in such things, which I both feared to lose, and yet could not retain; I gave beed to it firmly and courageously, and I saw that I was not only agonised by the adversities of this world, but even bound by its good fortune; and thus I found the trouble and heaviness which had escaped me, and called upon the Name of the Lord; (ver. 5.) O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. — O wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me from the body of this death, save the grace24' of God through Jesus Christ our Lord? Let then the holy people of God say, / have found trouble and heaviness, and

I called upon the Name of the Lord: and let the remainder 294 God righteous and merciful, in chastening and receiving. of the heathen hear, who do not as yet call upon the Name the Lord; let them hear and seek, that they may discover trouble and heaviness, and may call upon the Name of the Lord, and be saved. We do not enjoin them to seek for a sorrow they have no cause for, but to discover that which they unwittingly harbour; nor is it our desire concerning them, that those earthly necessaries, which t|gy require while they live in this mortal state, should be wanting to them; but that they may mourn for this, that, having lost that fulness that cometh from heaven, they have deserved to be in want of those earthly blessings which are not permanently to be enjoyed, but which are needful for sustenance. Let them acknowledge and mourn for this misery; He who willed not even that they should be miserable, will make them blessed in their mourning.

5. Or adorn is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. He is gracious, righteous, and merciful. Gracious in the first place, because He hath inclined His ear unto me; and I knew not that the ear of God had approached my lips, till I was aroused by those beautiful feet, that I might call upon the Lord's Name: for who hath called upon Him, save he whom He first called? Hence therefore He is in the first place gracious; but righteous, because He scourgeth; and again, merciful, because He receiveth; for He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth; nor ought it to be so bitter to me that He scourgeth, as sweet that He receiveth. For how should not (ver. 6.) The Lord, who keepeth little ones, scourge those whom, when of mature age, He seeketh to be heirs; what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? — I was in misery^ and He helped me. He helped me, because I was in misery; for the pain which the physician causeth by his knife is not penal, but salutary.

6. Ver. 7. Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath done good to thee: not for thy deservings, or through thy strength; but because the Lord hath done good to thee. (Ver. 8.) Since, he saith, He hath delivered my soul from death. It is wonderful, most beloved brethren, that, after he had said that his soul should turn unto rest, since the Lord had rewarded him; he added, since He hath delivered my soul from death. Did it turn unto rest, Good men seek rest, but not inaction. because it was delivered from death? Is not rest more usually said of death? What is the action of him, whose life is rest, and death disquietude? Such then ought to be the action of the soul, as may tend to a quiet security, not one that may increase restless toil; since He hath delivered it from death, Who, pitying it, said, Come unto Me, all yMat.n, that labou^ and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Meek therefore and humble, following, so to speak, Christ as its path, should the action of the soul be that tendeth towards repose; nevertheless, not slothful and supine; that it may finish its course, as it is written, In quietness make perfect thy works. For, that quietness might not lead to sloth, it is added, make perfect thy works For it is not as it is in this life, where the repose of sleep doth refresh us for action; but a good habit of the soul leadeth to an ever watchful rest.

7. But that God, of Whom it is here said, For the Lord hath done good to me. And why? Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears*, and my feet from falling: bestoweth all things. Whoever feeleth the chain of this flesh, cbaunteth these things as fulfilled in hope towards himself. For it is truly said, J was in misery, and He delivered me; but the Apostle saith this also truly, that we are saved by hope. And that we are delivered from death, is well said to be already fulfilled, so that we may understand the death of unbelievers, of7 whom he saith, Leave the dead to bury their dead: and that in the former Psalm,22, The dead praise not Thee, O Lord, neither all they that ^roPs. down into silence; but we who live will praise the Lord.17'™' A faithful believer may therefore understand that his soul is delivered from this death, for this very reason, that instead of being unbelieving it hath believed; whence the Saviour Himself saith, He that believeth on Me, is passed from death unto life. But the rest is fulfilled in hope in those who have not yet departed from this life. But now when we consider our most dangerous falls, our eyes cease not from tears; but He will then clear our eyes of tears, when He shall save our feet from falling. For there will then be no slipping of our feet as they walk, when there will be no sliding ' of the weak flesh. But now, however firm our path, which is Christ, be; yet since we place flesh, which we are enjoined to subdue, beneath us; in the very work of chasten «» ing and subduing it, it is a great thing not to fall: but not to slip in the flesh, who can attain?

8. Wherefore since we both are in the flesh, anc^re not in the flesh, (for we are in the flesh in respect of tnat chain which is not as yet loosened, because, to be released and to be with Christ is by far the best; and we are not in the flesh, because we have given the first-fruits of the Spirit unto God, if we are able to say that our conversation is in heaven; and if, as it were, with our head we please God, while with our feet, as it were, with the farthest regions of the soul we perceive the slippery ground we tread upon,) hear how that which is expressed as if it were already accomplished belongeth to hope: He hath delivered, it is said, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling: and yet he saith not, I please; but, / shall please in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living; sufficiently shewing that he doth not as yet please in the sight of the Lord, on that side which is in the land of the dead, that is, in mortal flesh. For they that are in the flesh, cannot please God. Whence the same Apostle goeth on to add, But ye are not in the flesh; which he saith in this sense, that the body indeed is dead because of sin; but the Spirit of life because of righteousness; in respect of which they pleased God, because in respect of the Spirit they were not in the flesh. But who can please a living God, in a dead body? But what saith he? Bui if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Then shall we be in the land of the living, pleasing in the sight of the Lord in every respect, absent from Him in no respect. For whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; and, inasmuch as we are absent from Him, so far we are not in the land of living. But we are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord; wherefore we labour, that9 whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. We labour indeed now, because we are awaiting the redemption of our body: but, when death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption9 and this mortal\£^ immortality; then there will be no weeping, because there will be no falling; and no falling, because no corruption. And ther^re we shall then no longer labour to please, but we shall be entirely pleasing in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living.

Part 2

1. I imagine that what the Apostle saith is very well known to you, holy brethren:for all men have not faith / and that the number of the unbelieving is wont to be the greater, ye are not ignorant: on which account it is said, Lord, who hath believed our report? Among whom wel«.5s,i. numbered those also, of whom the Apostle saith, For allf^^ seek their own. not the things which are Jesus Christ s; who, in another passage he saith, preach the word of God, not in sincerity, but for occasions, not purely, that is, not in a1*17, temper of pure and sincere love. y For they felt one thing, as appeared in their conduct, and preached another, that under a holy name they might please men: for of these again he saith, For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. Yet He alloweth them to preach Christ. For though they rather believed those things which they did, tending unto death: yet they preached those things, which, if others did, believing them, they would be saved; for they preached nothing beside the rule of faith. For these the Apostle doth exclude, in thesQ words, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. They who9" preach falsehood, preach not Christ; for Christ is Truth. **ut °^ *ese men ^e Sa^^ ^at Preacn Christ, but not purely, that is, not with a mind simple and pure, and with sincere faith that worketh by love; for while they were providing for earthly desires, they preached the kingdom of heaven, with falsehood in their hearts, and truth on their tongue. The Apostle therefore, aware that they who believed even by the preaching of Judas were^4euvere(^> alloweth these men in this way: Whether, he saith, in pretence, or in truths Christ is preached. For it was truth which they preached, though they preached not with truth, that is, with a true heart. These now speak what they believe not, and are therefore reprobate; although they may be profitable unto those whom the Lord teacheth, saying, Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works, for they say, and do not. Wherefore, except because they believe not that what they enjoin is profitable? But others there are, who believe and say not what they believe, either from sloth or fear. For although the servant had a talent, yet because he chose not to spend it, he is addressed, by the Lord his judge, Thou wicked and slothful servant. And in another passage of the Gospel it is said, that many would have believed in Him among the chief men of the Jews, but that they did not acknowledge Him, that they might not be expelled from the synagogues; but they also were reproved and censured; the Evangelist goeth on to say, For they loved the praise 0f men more than ^e praise of God. If therefore both they who believe not the truth^which they utter, and they who utter not the truth which they believe, are deservedly reproved; what servant shall he be who may truly be termed faithful, save he to whom it is said, Well done, thou good 8ervant9 since thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord? Such a servant, then, neither speaketh before he believeth, nor is silent when he hath believed: lest he should use his talent so as not to have it himself, or by not using it while he hath it should cease to have it. For thus it is said, For unto him that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Confession of Martyrs amid sore troubles.

2. Ver. 10. Let therefore that good servant, singing Allelujah, that is, offering unto the Lord the sacrifice of praise, from Whom he will hear the words, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord; let him rejoice and say, / believed, and therefore will I speak: that is, I have believed perfectly. For they who refuse to utter what they believe, do not perfectly^elieve: for to this very belief it pertaineth to believe that which is said, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, Him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. For that servant was called faithful, not onlyMat25, because he received, but because he expended and gained more. So also in this passage he saith not, I believed, and I spoke; but he saith, that he spoke, because he believed. For he at the same time believed both what reward he ought to expect for speaking, and what punishment for keeping silence. / believed, saith he, and therefore did I speak. But I was sorely brought down. For he suffered many tribulations, for the sake of the word which he faithfully held, faithfully preached; and he was sorely brought down; as they feared who loved the praifee of men better than that of God. But what meaneth, But I? He should rather say, I believed, and therefore I have spoken, and I was sorely brought down: why did he add, But I, save because a man may be sorely brought down by those who oppose the truth, the truth itself cannot, which he believeth and speaketh? Whence also the Apostle, when he was speaking of his chain, saith, the word of Ood is not bound. So this man also, since there is one person of the holy witnesses, that is, of the Martyrs of God, saith, / believed, and therefore will I speak. But I; not that which I believed, not the word which I have delivered; but I was sorely brought down.

3. Ver. 11. I said in my trance, All men are liars. By trance he meaneth fear, which when persecutors threaten, and when the sufferings of torture or death impend, human weakness suffereth. For this we understand, because in this Psalm the voice of Martyrs is heard. For trance is used in another sense also, when the mind is not beside itself by fear, but is possessed by some inspiration of revelation. But I said in my haste, All men are liars. In consternation he hath had regard to his infirmity, and hath seen that he ought not to presume on himself; for as far as pertaineth the man himself, he is a liar, but by the grace of God he is made true; lest yielding to the pressure of his enemies he might not speak what he had believed, but might deny it; even as it happened to Peter, since he had trusted in himself, and was to be taught that we ought not to trust in man. And if every one ought not to trust in man, su^ly not in himself; because he is a man. Rightly therefore in his fear did he perceive that every man was a liar; since they also whom no fear robs of their presence of mind, so that they never lie by yielding to the persecutors, are such by the gifts of God, not by their own strength. Therefore it is most truly said, Every man is a liar; but God is true, Who said, / have said, ye are Gods, and ye are all the children of the Most Highest. But ye shall die like men: and fall like one of the princes. He consoleth the humble, and filleth them not only with the faith to believe, but with the courage to preach the truth, if they be continually subject to God, and imitate not the devil, one of the princes, who abode not in the truth, and fell. Fd* if all men are liars, so far will they not be liars, as they are not men; since they will be Gods, and the children of the Most Highest.

4. Ver. 12. The most devoted people of faithful witnesses, then, considering this, how the mercy of God doth not abandon human infirmity, in the fear of which infirmity it is said, All men are liars; how it consoleth the meek, and filleth with the spirit of courage the fearful, so that they live again when their heart is nigh dead, and trust not in themselves, but in Him Who raiseth the dead, and maheth the tongues of children eloquent; Who saith, But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you; he then who had said, I said in my haste, All men are liars, considering all these things, and seeing that he was made thankful by the grace of God; What, he asketh, what reward shall I give unto the Lord, for all the benefits that He hath returned unto me? He saith not, for all the benefits that He hath done unto me; but, for all the benefits that He hath returned unto me. What deeds then on the man's part had preceded, that all the benefits of God were not said to be given, but returned? What had preceded, on the man's part, save sins? God therefore repayeth good for evil, whilst unto Him men repay evil for good; for such was the return of those who said, This is the heir: come, let us kill him. ^at21>

5. Ver. 13—15. But this man seeketh what he may return unto the^jord, and findeth not, save out of those things which the Lord Himself returneth. (Ver. 13.) I will receive, he saith, the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. O man, a liar by thy own sin, true by the gift of God, and therefore no longer a man; Who hath given thee the cup of salvation, which when thou takest, and callest upon the Name of the Lord, thou shalt return unto Him a reward for all that He hath returned unto thee? Who, save He Who saith, Are ye able to drink the cup that I shall drink qf? Who hath given unto thee to imitate His sufferings, save He Who hath suffered before for thee? And therefore, (ver. 15.) Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.^ He purchased it by His Blood, which He first shed for the salvation of slaves, that they might not hesitate to shed their blood for the Lord's Name; which, nevertheless, would be profitable for their own interests, not for those of the Lord.

6. Ver. 16. Let therefore the slave purchased at so great a price confess his condition, and say, Behold, O Lord, how that I am Thy servant: I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid. He is then bofh bought, and a home-bred slave. Was he bought together with his mother? Or, since he is a home-bred slave, was he stolen for the sin of his running away, and therefore bought, because redeemed? For he is the handmaid's son, because all creation is subject to the Creator, and oweth a most true service to the most true God: which while it yieldeth, it is free, receiving this grace from the Lord, that it may serve Him, not by compulsion, but by free-will. This, therefore, is the son of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above, the free mother of us all. And free indeed from sin she is, but the handmaid of righteousness; to whose sons still pilgrims it is said, Ye haveGa.6, been called unto liberty; and again he maketh them servants, when he saith, but by love serve one another: to whom it is also said, When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free 3 from righteousness. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Let therefore that servant say unto God, Many call themselves martyrs, many Thy servants, because they hold Thy Name in various heresies and errors; but since they are beside Thy Church, they a0 not the children of Thy handmaid. But I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid.

7. Vei\ 17. Thou hast broken my bonds asunder. I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of praise. For I have not found any deserts of mine, since Thou hast broken my bonds asunder; I therefore owe Thee the sacrifice of praise; because, although I will boast that I am Thy servant, and the son of Thy handmaid, I will glory not in myself, but in Thee, my Lord, Who hast broken asunder my bonds, that when I return from my desertion, I may again be bound unto Thee.

8. Ver. 18. Iwillpaymy^vows unto the Lord. What vows wilt thou pay? What victims hast thou vowed? what burnt-offerings, what holocausts? Dost thou refer to what thou hast said a little before, I will receive the cup of salvation, and will call upon the Name of the Lord; and, I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving? and indeed whosoever well considereth what he is vowing to the Lord, and what vows he is paying, let him vow himself, let him pay himself as a vow: this is exacted, this is due. On looking at the coin, the Lord saith, Rentier unto Ccesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's: his own image is rendered unto Caesar: let His image be rendered unto God.

9. Ver. 1 9. But he who remembereth that he is not only the servant of God, but also the son of God's handmaid, seeth where he may pay his vows, being made like unto Christ through the cup of salvation. In the courts, he saith, of the Lord's house. What is the Lord's house, the same is the Lord's handmaid: and what is God's house, save all His people? It therefore followeth, In the sight of all His people. And he now more openly nameth his mother herself. For what else is His people, but what followeth, In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem? For then that which is returned is grateful, if it be returned from peace, and in peace. But they who are not sons of this handmaid, have loved war rather than peace. But that no one may think that by the courts of the Lord's house, and all His people, the Jews are meant, because he closed this Psalm with the words, In^he midst of thee, Jerusalem, in whose name the carnal Israelites glory; hear the following Psalm, which is comprised in four verses.

10. Ver. 1. 0 praise the Lord, all ye heathen: praise Him, all ye nations. These are the courts of the Lord's house, this all His people, this the true Jerusalem. Let those rather listen who have refused to be the children of this city, since they have cut themselves off from the communion of all nations. (Ver. 2.) For His merciful kindness is ever mare and more towards us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. These are those two things, loving-kindness and truth, which in the l J3th Psalm I admonished you should be committed to memory. But the merciful kindness of the Lord is ever more and more towards us, since the furious tongues of hostile nations have yielded to His Name, through which we have been freed: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever, whether in those things which He promised to the righteous, or in those which He hath threatened to the ungodly.