13. " Israel, if thou shalt have heard Me, there shall not be in thee any new god " (ver. 9). A "new god" is one made for the time: but our God is not new, but from eternity to eternity. And our Christ is new, perchance, as Man,s but eternal God. For what before the beginning? And truly, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." 6 And our Christ Himself is the Word made flesh, that He might dwell in us.7 Far be it, then, that there should be in any one a new god. A new god is either a stone or a phantom. He is not, saith one, a stone; I have a silver and a gold one. Justly did he choose to name the very costly things, who said, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold." Great are they, because they are of gold and silver; costly they are, shining they are; but yet, " Eyes they have, and see not! " 8 New are these gods. What newer than a god out of a workshop? Yea, though those now old ones spiders' webs have covered over, they that are not eternal are new. So much for the Pagans.'...
14. For if there be error in thee, Thou wilt not worship a strange god. ' If thou think not of a false god, thou wilt not worship a manufactured god: for " there will not " be in thee any strange god. " For I am." Why wouldest thou adore what is not? " For I am the Lord thy God" (ver. 10). Because " I am I that Am," and indeed " I Am " He saith, I that Am, over every creature: yet to thee what good have I afforded in time? " Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt." Not to that people alone is it said. For we all were brought out of the land of Egypt, we have all passed through the Red Sea; our enemies pursuing us have perished in the water. Let us not be ungrateful to our God; let us not forget God that abideth, and fabricate in ourselves a new god. " I, who led thee out of the land of Egypt," saith God. " Open wide * Isa. v. 3.
s Recensforti Homo, sed sempiteruus Deus. Quoted by Peter Lombard, Serttettces, book iii. dist. r2. — Ben.
9 [He turns to the Arians, Manichaeans, and other heretic^. — C] [Psalm LXXXI.
thy mouth, and I will fill it." Thou sufferest straitness in thyself because of the new god set up in thy heart; break the vain image, cast down from thy conscience the feigned idol: " open wide thy mouth," in confessing, in loving: " and I will fill it," because with me is the fountain of life.
15. " And My people obeyed not My voice " (ver. 11). For He would not speak these things except to His own people. For, " we know that whatsoever things the Law saith, it saith to them that are in the Law." ' " And Israel did not listen to Me." Who? To whom? Israel to Me. O ungrateful soul! Through Me the soul, by Me the soul called, by Me brought back to hope, by Me washed from sins! " And Israel did not listen to Me! " For they are baptized and pass through the Red Sea: but on the way they murmur, gainsay, complain, are stirred with seditions, ungrateful to Him who delivered them from pursuing enemies, who leads through the dry land, through the desert, yet with food and drink, with light by night and shade by day.
16. "And I let them go according to the affections of their heart " (ver. 12). Behold the press: the orifices are open, the lees run. " And I let them go," not according to the healthfulness of My commands; but, according to the affections of their heart: I gave them up to themselves. The Apostle also saith, " God gave them up to the desires of their own hearts."1 " I let them go according to the affection of their heart, they shall go in their own affections." There is what ye shudder at, if at least ye are straining out into the hidden vats of the Lord, if at least ye have conceived a hearty love for His storehouses, there is what ye shudder at. Some stand up for the circus, some for the amphitheatre, some for the booths in the streets, some for the theatres, some for this, some for that, some finally for their " new gods; " " they shall go in their own affections."
1 7. " If My people would have heard Me, if Israel would have walked in My ways " (ver. 13). For perchance that Israel saith, Behold I sin, it is manifest, I go after the affections of my own heart: but what can I do?' The devil doth this. Demons do this. What is the devil? Who are the demons? Certainly thine enemies. " Unto nothing all their enemies I would have brought down; and on them that oppress them I would have sent forth My hand " (ver. 14). But now what have they to do to complain of enemies? Themselves are become the worse enemies. For how? What followeth? Of enemies ye complain, yourselves, what are ye?
1 Rom. iii. 19, doing ? Hid facie t Perhaps, What do / do f i.l. What of it is my 18. "The enemies of God have lied unto Him" (ver. 15). Dost thou renounce? I renounce.4 And he returns to what he renounced. In fact, what things dost thou renounce, except bad deeds, diabolical deeds, deeds to be condemned of God, thefts, plunderings, perjuries, manslayings, adulteries, sacrileges, abominable rites, curious arts.5...
19. If therefore all those works " shall not possess the kingdom of God " (yea not the works, but " they that do such things; " 6 for such works there shall be none in the fire: for they shall not, while burning in that fire, be committing theft or adultery; but " they that do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God "); they shall not therefore be on the right hand, with those to whom it shall be said, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom: " because, " they that do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God." If therefore on the right they shall not be, there remaineth not but that they must be on the left. To those on the left what shall He say? " Go ye into eternal fire." Because, " their time shall be for ever."
20. Explain to us, then, saith one, how those that build wood, hay, stubble, on the foundation, do not perish, but " are saved, yet so as by fire"? An obscure question indeed that, but as I am able I tell you briefly. Brethren, there are men altogether despisers of this world, to whom nothing is pleasant that flows in the course of time, they cling not by love to any earthly works, holy, chaste, continent, just, perchance even selling all their goods and distributing to the poor, or " possessing as though they possessed not, and using this world as though not using it." 1 But there are others who cling to things allowed to infirmity with a degree of affection. He robs not another of his estate, but so loves his own, that if he loses it he will be disturbed.
He does not covet another's wife, but so clings to his own, so cohabits with his own, as not therein to keep the measure prescribed in the laws, for the sake of begetting children. He does not take away other men's things, but reclaims his own, and has a law-suit with his brother. For to such it is said, " Now indeed there is altogether a fault among you, because ye have law-suits with each other." 8 But these very suits he orders to be tried in the Church, not to be dragged into court, yet he says they are faults. For a Christian contends for earthly things more than becomes one to whom the kingdom of Heaven is promised. Not the-whole of his heart doth he raise upward, but some part of it he draggeth on the earth...Therefore if thou lovest thy possession, yet dost not for its * He alludes to the form of interrogatory at Baptism.
3 Curiositatibut. Sec Acts xix. 19.
Psalm LXXXII.]
sake commit violence, dost not for its sake bear false witness, dost not for its sake commit manslaughter, dost not for its sake swear falsely, dost not for its sake deny Christ: in that thou wilt not for its sake do these things, thou hast Christ for a foundation. But yet because thou lovest it, and art saddened if thou losest it, upon the foundation thou hast placed, not gold, or silver, or precious stones, but wood, hay, stubble. Saved therefore thou wilt be, when that begins to burn which thou hast built, yet so as by fire. For let no one on this foundation building adulteries, blasphemies, sacrileges, idolatries, perjuries, think he shall be " saved through fire," as though they were the " wood, hay, stubble: " but he that buildeth the love of earthly things on the foundation of the kingdom of Heaven, that is upon Christ, his love of temporal things shall be burned, and himself shall be saved through the right ' foundation.
21..."And He fed them of the fat of wheat, and from the rock with honey He satisfied them " (ver. 1 6). In the wilderness from the rock He brought forth water,2 not honey. " Honey " is wisdom, holding the first place for sweetness among the viands of the heart. How many enemies of the Lord, then, that lie unto the Lord, are fed not only of the fat of wheat, but also from the rock with honey, from the wisdom of Christ? How many are delighted with His word, and with the knowledge of His sacraments, with the unfolding of His parables, how many are delighted, how many applaud with clamour! And this honey is not from any chance person, but " from the rock." But " the Rock was Christ." 3 How many, then, are satisfied with that honey, cry out, and say, It is sweet; say, Nothing better, nothing sweeter could be thought or said! and yet the enemies of the Lord have lied unto Him. I like not to dwell any more on matters of grief; although the Psalm endeth in terror to this purpose, yet from the end of it, I pray you, let us return to the heading: " Exult unto God our Helper." Turned unto God.4 PSALM LXXXII.s i. This Psalm, like others similarly named, was so entitled either from the name of the man who * Possibly alluding to the last verse of Ps. lxxx. Or it may direct them to turn to God and repeat the Psalm. A similar incidental addition occurs at the end of the exposition of Ps. lxii. [After this ceremony (after the word) he adds: " Not lightly have your minds in the name of Christ been occupied with the Divine exhibitions, and raised to earnestness, not only for desiring some things, but also for shunning some things. These are the exhibitions that are useful, healthful, building up, not destroying: yea both destroying and building up, destroying ' new gods,' building up faith in the true and eternal God. Also for to-morrow we invite your love. To-morrow, they have, as we have heard, a sea in the theatre: let us have a harbour in Christ. But since the day after to-morrow, that is, the fourth of the week, we cannot meet at the ' Table of Cypiian,' because it is the festival of the holy Martyrs, to-morrow let us meet at that Table." See p. 391, supra. — C] 5 Lat LXXXI. A Psalm for Asaph himself.
wrote it, or from the explanation of that same name, so as to refer in meaning to the Synagogue, which Asaph signifies; especially as this is intimated in the first verse. For it begins, " God stood in the synagogue of gods " (ver. i). Far however be it from us to understand by these Gods the gods of the Gentiles, or idols, or any creature in heaven or earth except men; for a little after this verse the same Psalm relates and explains what Gods it means in whose synagogue God stood, where it says, " I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High: but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." In the synagogue of these children of the Most High, of whom the same Most High said by the mouth of Isaiah, " I have begotten sons and brought them up, but they despised Me," 6 stood God. By the synagogue we understand the people of Israel, because synagogue is the word properly used of them, although they were also called the Church. Our congregation, on the contrary, the Apostles never called synagogue, but always Ecclesia; whether for the sake of the distinction, or because there is some difference between a congregation whence the synagogue has its name, and a convocation whence the Church is called Ecclesia: 7 for the word congregation (or flocking together) is used of cattle, and particularly of that kind properly called " flocks," 8 whereas convocation (or calling together) is more of reasonable creatures, such as men are...I think then that it is clear in what synagogue of gods God stood.
2. The next question is, whether we should understand the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity, " to have stood among the congregation of gods, and in the midst to distinguish the gods; " because Each One is God, and the Trinity itself is One God. It is not indeed easy to make this clear, because it cannot be denied that not a bodily but a spiritual presence of God, agreeable to His nature, exists with created things in a wonderful manner, and one which but a few do understand, and that imperfectly: as to God it is said, " If I shall ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I shall go down into hell, Thou art there also." 9 Hence it is rightly said, that God stands in the congregation of men invisibly, as He fills heaven and earth, which He asserts of Himself by the Prophet's mouth; IO and He is not only said, but is, in a way, known to stand in those things which He hath created, as far as the human mind can conceive, if man also stands and hears Him, and rejoices greatly on account of His voice within. But I think that the Psalm intimates something that took place at a particular time, by God's 6 Isa. i. a.
9 Ps. cxxxix. 8.
7 iKKXytrta from KaAcip, 10 Jer. xxiii. 34.
Grrfes.
IPsalm LXXXII.
standing in the congregation of gods. For that standing by which He fills heaven and earth, neither belongs peculiarly to the synagogue, nor varies from time to time. " God," therefore, " stood in the congregation of gods; " that is, He who said of Himself, " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." ' The cause too is mentioned; " but in the midst, to judge of the gods."...
3. " How long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the persons of the ungodly" (ver. 2); as in another place, " How long are ye heavy in heart?"2 Until He shall come who is the light of the heart? I have given a law, ye have resisted stubbornly: I sent Prophets, ye treated them unjustly, or slew them, or connived at those who did so. But if they are not worthy to be even spoken to, who slew the servants of God that were sent to them, ye who were silent when these things were doing, that is, ye who would imitate as if they were innocent those who then were silent, " how long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the persons of the ungodly? " If the Heir comes even now, is He to be slain? Was He not willing for your sake to become as it Were a child under guardians? Did not He for your sake hunger and thirst like one in need? Did He not cry to you, " Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart"?3 Did He not "become poor, when He was rich, that by His poverty we might be made rich"?4 "Give sentence," therefore, " for the fatherless 5 and the poor man, justify the humble and needy" (ver. 3). Not them who for their own sake are rich and proud, but Him who for your sake was humble and poor, believe ye to be righteous: proclaim Him righteous. But they will envy Him, and will not at all spare Him, saying, " This is the Heir, come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours." " Deliver," then, " the poor man, and save the needy from the hands of the ungodly " (ver. 4). This is said that it might be known, that in that nation where Christ was born and put to death, those persons were not guiltless of so great a crime, who being so numerous, that, as the Gospel says, the Jews feared them, and therefore dared not lay hands on Christ, afterwards consented, and permitted Him to be slain by the malicious and envious Jewish rulers: yet if they had so willed, they would still have been feared, so that the hands of the wicked would never have prevailed against Him. For of these it is said elsewhere, " Dumb dogs, they know not how to bark." Of them too is that said, " Lo, how the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart." 6 He perished 1 as far as lay in them who would have Him to perish; for 7 Oxf. mss. "perisheth," " lieth."
3 Matt. xi. 39.
6 Is.i. Ivi. to, Ivii. I.
how could He perish by dying, who in that way rather was seeking again what had perished? If then they are justly blamed and deservedly rebuked, who by their dissembling suffered such a wicked deed to be committed; how must they be blamed, or rather not only blamed, but how severely must they be condemned, who did this of design and malice?
4..To all of them, verily, what follows is most fitly suited: " They did not know nor understand, they walk on in darkness " (ver. 5 ). " For if even they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory: " 8 and those others, if they had known, would never have consented to ask that Barabbas should be freed, and Christ should be crucified. But as the above-mentioned blindness happened in part unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, this blindness of that People having caused the crucifixion of Christ, "all the foundations of the earth shall be moved." So have they been moved, and shall they be moved, until the predestined fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. For at the actual death of the Lord the earth was moved, and the rocks rent.9 And if we understand by the foundations of the earth those who are rich in the abundance of earthly possessions, it was truly foretold that they should be moved, either by wondering that lowliness, poverty, death, should be so loved and honoured in Christ, when it is to their mind great misery; or even in that themselves should love and follow it, and set at nought the vain happiness of this world. So are all the foundations of the earth moved, while they partly admire, and partly are even altered. For as without absurdity we call foundations of heaven those on whom the kingdom of heaven is built up in the persons of saints and faithful; whose first foundation is Christ Himself, born of the Virgin, of whom the Apostle says, " Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus; " '° next the Apostles and Prophets themselves, by whose authority the heavenly place is chosen," that by obeying them we may be builded together with them; whence he says to the Ephesians, " Ye are built upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone." "...But the kingdom of earthly happiness is pride, to oppose which came the lowliness of Christ, rebuking those whom He wished by lowliness to make the children of the Most High, and blaming them: " I said, Ye are gods, ye are all the children of the Most High" (ver. 6). " But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes" (ver. 7). Whether to those He said this, " I said, Ye are gods," and to those 9 Matt, xxvii. 51 " Eph. ii. 20.
*° 1 Cor. iii. 11.
Psalm LXXXIII.]
particularly who are unpredestined to eternal life; and to the other, " But ye shall die like men," etc., "and shall fall like one of the princes," in this way also distinguishing the gods; or whether He blames all together, in order to distinguish the obedient and those who received correction, " I said, Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High: " that is, to all of you I promised celestial happiness, " but ye," through the infirmity of your flesh, " shall die like men," and through haughtiness of soul, " like one of the princes," that is, the devil, shall not be exalted, but " shall fall." As if He said: Though the days of your life are so few, that ye speedily die like men, this avails not to your correction: but like the devil, whose days are many in this world, because he dies not in the flesh, ye are lifted up so that ye fall. For by devilish pride it came to pass that the perverse and blind rulers of the Jews envied the glory of Christ: by this will it came to pass, and still does, that the lowliness of Christ crucified unto death is lightly esteemed in the eyes of them who love the excellence of this world.
5. And therefore that this vice may be cured, in the person of the Prophet himself it is said, " Arise, O God, and judge the earth " (ver. 8); for the earth swelled high when it crucified Thee: rise from the dead, and judge the earth. " For Thou shalt destroy among all nations." What, but the earth? that is, destroying those who savour of earthly things, or destroying the feeling itself of earthly lust and pride in believers; or separating those who do not believe, as earth to be trodden under foot and to perish. Thus by His members, whose conversation is in heaven, He judges the earth, and destroys it among all nations. But I must not omit to remark, that some copies have, " for Thou shalt inherit among all nations." This too may be understood agreeably to the sense, nor does anything prevent both meanings existing at once. His inheritance takes place by love, which in that He cultivates by His commands and' gracious mercy, He destroys earthly desires.
PSALM LXXXIII.'
1. Of this Psalm the title is, "A song of a Psalm of Asaph." We have already often said what is the interpretation of Asaph, that is, congregation. That man, therefore, who was called Asaph, is named in representation of the congregation of God's people in the titles of many Psalms. But in Greek, congregation is called synagogue, which has come to be held for a kind of proper name for the Jewish people, that it should be called The Synagogue; even as the Christian ' Lat. LXXXII.
' Lat. LXXXII.
people is more usually called The Church, in that it too is congregated.
2. The people of God, then, in this Psalm saith, "O God, who shall be like unto Thee?" (ver. 1). Which I suppose to be more fitly taken of Christ, because, being made in the likeness of men,2 He was thought by those by whom He was despised to be comparable to other men: for He was even " reckoned among the unrighteous," 3 but for this purpose, that He might be judged. But when He shall come to judge, then shall be done what is here said, " O God, who is like unto Thee?" For if the Psalms did not use to speak to the Lord Christ, that too would not be spoken which not one of the faithful can doubt was spoken unto Christ. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." 4 To him therefore also now it is said, "O God, who shall be like unto Thee?" For unto many Thou didst vouchsafe to be likened in Thy humiliation, even so far as to the robbers that were crucified with Thee: but when in glory Thou shalt come, " who shall be like unto Thee?"...
3. " For lo Thine enemies have sounded, and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head " (ver. 2). He seems to me to signify the last days, when these things that are now repressed by fear are to break forth into free utterance, but quite irrational, so that it should rather be called a " sound," than speech or discourse. They will not, therefore, then begin to hate, but " they that hate Thee " will then " lift up the head." And not " heads," but " head; " since they are to come even to that point, that they shall have that head, which " is lifted up above all that is called God, and that is worshipped; " s so that in him especially is to be fulfilled, " He that exalteth himself shall be abased; "6 and when He to whom it is said, " Keep not silence, nor grow mild, O God," shall "slay him with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming."? " Upon Thy people they have malignantly taken counsel " (ver. 3). Or, as other copies have it, " They have cunningly devised counsel, and have devised against Thy saints." In scorn this is said. For how should they be able to hurt the nation or people of God, or His saints, who know how to say, " If God be for us, who shall be against us? " 8 4. " They have said, Come, and let us destroy them from a nation" (ver. 4). He has put the singular number for the plural: as it is said, " Whose is this cattle," even though the question be of a flock, and the meaning " these cattle." Lastly, other copies have " from nations," where 3 Isa. liii. 12. 6 Luke xiv, i < Ps. xlv. 6. 7 2 Thess. ii.
[Psalm LXXXIII.
the translators have rather followed the sense than the word. " Come, and let us destroy them from a nation." This is that sound whereby they " sounded " rather than spake, since they did vainly make a noise with vain sayings. "And let it not be mentioned of the name of Israel any more." This others have expressed more plainly, " and let there not be remembrance of the name of Israel any more." Since, " let it be mentioned of the name " (niemoretur nominis), is an unusual phrase in the Latin language; for it is rather customary to say, " let the name be mentioned " (memoretur nomen); but the sense is the same. For he who said, " let it be mentioned of the name," translated the Greek phrase. But Israel must here be understood in fact of the seed of Abraham, to which the Apostle saith, "Therefore ye are the seed of Abraham, according to the promise heirs." ' Not Israel according to the flesh, of which he saith, " Behold Israel after the flesh."
5. "Since they have imagined with one consent; together against Thee have they disposed a testament" (ver. 5): as though they could be the stronger. In fact, " a testament " is a name given in the Scriptures not only to that which is of no avail till the death of the testators, but every convenant and decree they used to call a testament. For Laban and Jacob made a testament,2 which was certainly to have force between the living; and such cases without number are read in the words of God. Then he begins to make mention of the enemies of Christ, under certain proper names of nations; the interpretation of which names sufficiently indicates what he would have to be understood. For by such names are most suitably figured the enemies of the truth. " Idumsans," for instance, are interpreted either " men of blood," or " of earth." " Ismaelites," are " obedient to themselves," and therefore not to God, but to themselves.
" Moab," " from the father; " which in a bad sense has no better explanation, than by considering it so connected with the actual history, that Lot, a father, by the illicit intercourse procured by his daughter, begat him; since it was from that very circumstance he was so named.3 Good, however, was his father, but as " the Law is good if one use it lawfully," 4 not impurely and unlawfully. " Hagarens," proselytes, that is strangers, by which name also are signified, among the enemies of God's people, not those who become citizens, but those who persevere in a foreign and alien mind, and when an opportunity of doing harm occurs, show themselves. " Gebal," " a vain valley," that is, humble in pretence. "Amon," "an unquiet people," or "a people of sadness." " Amalech," " a people 1 Gal. iii. 39.
' Gen. >U. 36, 37.
licking; " whence elsewhere it is said, " and his enemies shall lick the earth." 5 The "alien race," though by their very name in Latin, they sufficiently show themselves to be aliens, and for this cause of course enemies, yet in the Hebrew are called " Philistines," which is explained, " falling from drink," as of persons made drunken by worldly luxury. " Tyre " in Hebrew is called Sor; which whether it be interpreted straitness or tribulation, must be taken in the case of these enemies of God's people in that sense, of which the Apostle speaks, " Tribulation and straitness on every soul of man that doeth evil." 6 All these are thus enumerated in the Psalms: " The tabernacles of the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal, and Amon, and Amalech, and the Philistines with those who inhabit Tyre."
6. And as if to point out the cause why they are enemies of God's people, he adds, " For Assur came with them." Now Assur is often used figuratively for the devil, " who works in the children of disobedience," 7 as in his own vessels, that they may assail the people of God. "They have holpen the children of Lot," he saith: for all enemies, by the working in them of the devil, their prince, " have holpen the children of Lot," who is explained to mean " one declining." But the apostate angels are well explained as the children of declension, for by declining from truth they swerved to become followers of the devil. These are they of whom the Apostle speaks: " Ye wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." 8 Those invisible 9 enemies are holpen then by unbelieving men, in whom they work in order to assail the people of God.
7. Now let us see what the prophetic spirit prays may fall upon them, rather foretelling than cursing. " Do thou to them," he saith, " as unto Madian and Sisera, as unto Jabin at the brook of Kishon" (ver. 9). "They perished at Endor, they became as the dung of the earth " (ver. 10). All these, the history relates, were subdued and conquered by Israel, which then was the people of God: as was the case also with those whom he next mentions: " Make their princes like Oreb and Zeb, and Zebee and Salmana" (ver. 11). The meaning of these names is as follows: Madian is explained a perverted judgment: Sisera, shutting out of joy: Jabin, wise.10 But in these enemies conquered by God's people is to be understood that wise man of whom the Apostle speaketh, " Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? " " Oreb is dryness, Zeb, wolf, Zebee, a victim, namely of the wolf; s Pi. Ixxii. 9. • Eph. vi. xi. 10 Judg. iv. 7, 8.
6 Rom. ii. 9. 7 Eph. ii. a.
9 Oxf. mss. " and spiritual." " 1 Cor. i. ao.
Psalm LXXXIII.]