Speaker 1: Psalm one hundred nineteen, Discourse thirty one of Expositions on
Speaker 1: the Book of Psalms, Volume five. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Expositions
Speaker 1: on the Book of Psalms, Volume five by Saint Augustine
Speaker 1: of Hippo, Psalm one hundred nineteen, Discourse thirty one, Verse
Speaker 1: one hundred sixty one. We know what persecutions the Body
Speaker 1: of Christ, that is, the Holy Church, suffered from the
Speaker 1: kings of the Earth. Let us therefore here also recognize
Speaker 1: the words of the Church. Princes have persecuted me without
Speaker 1: a cause, And my heart hath stood in awe of thee.
Speaker 1: For how had the Christians injured the kingdoms of the earth,
Speaker 1: although their king promised them the kingdom of Heaven? How
Speaker 1: I ask had they injured the kingdoms of earth? Did
Speaker 1: their king forbid his soldiers to pay and to render
Speaker 1: due service to the kings of the earth. Saith he
Speaker 1: not to the Jews who were striving to calumniate him,
Speaker 1: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto
Speaker 1: God the things that are gods. Did he not, even
Speaker 1: in his own person, pay tribute from the mouth of
Speaker 1: a fish? Did not his forerunner, when the soldiers of
Speaker 1: this kingdom were seeking what they ought to do for
Speaker 1: their everlasting salvation, instead of replying, loose your belts, throw
Speaker 1: away your arms, desert your king, that ye may wage
Speaker 1: war for the Lord answer, do violence to no man,
Speaker 1: neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages.
Speaker 1: Did not one of his soldiers, his most beloved companion,
Speaker 1: say to his fellow soldiers, the provincials, so to speak
Speaker 1: of Christ, Let every soul be subject under the higher powers,
Speaker 1: and a little lower. He addeth, render to all their
Speaker 1: dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom
Speaker 1: custom fear, to whom fear honor, to whom honor. Owe
Speaker 1: no man any thing but to love one another. Does
Speaker 1: he not enjoin the Church to pray for even kings themselves?
Speaker 1: How then, have the Christians offended against them? What do
Speaker 1: have they not rendered? In? What have Christians not obeyed?
Speaker 1: The monarchs of earth? The kings of the earth therefore
Speaker 1: have persecuted the Christians without a cause. But heed what
Speaker 1: he hath subjoined and my heart hath stood in awe
Speaker 1: of thy word. They too had their threatening words. I banish,
Speaker 1: I proscribe, I slay, I torture with claws, I burn
Speaker 1: with fires, I expose to beasts, I tear the limbs piecemeal.
Speaker 1: But rather of thy word, hath my heart stood in awe.
Speaker 1: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not
Speaker 1: able to kill the soul, But rather fear him would
Speaker 1: is able to destroy both soul and body. In hell.
Speaker 1: My heart hath stood in awe of these words of thine,
Speaker 1: And I have scorned man who persecuteth me, and have
Speaker 1: overcome the devil that would seduce me Verse one hundred
Speaker 1: sixty two. Then follows I am as glad of thy word,
Speaker 1: as one that findeth great spoils by the same words
Speaker 1: he conquered, of which he stood in awe, for its
Speaker 1: spoils are stripped from the conquered, as he was overcome
Speaker 1: and despoiled, of whom it is said in the Gospel,
Speaker 1: no man entereth into the strong man's house to spoil
Speaker 1: his goods, except he first bind the strong man. But
Speaker 1: many spoils were found. When admiring the endurance of the martyrs,
Speaker 1: even the persecutors believed, and they who had ploted to
Speaker 1: injure our king by the injury of his soldiers, were
Speaker 1: gained over by him. In addition, whoever therefore standeth in
Speaker 1: awe the words of God, fearing lest he be overcome
Speaker 1: in the contest, rejoiceth as conqueror in the same words
Speaker 1: Verse one hundred sixty three. For lest we should imagine
Speaker 1: it possible that hatred of God's words might have crept
Speaker 1: in in consequence of this fear, although he had already said,
Speaker 1: I am glad of thy word, which he certainly would
Speaker 1: not say if he hated it. Nevertheless, he added, as
Speaker 1: for iniquity, I hate and abhor it. But Thy law
Speaker 1: have I loved that Awe therefore, of his word did
Speaker 1: not create hatred of those words, but maintained his love unimpaired.
Speaker 1: For the words of God are no other than the
Speaker 1: law of God. Far be it therefore that love perished
Speaker 1: through fear. Where fear is chaste. Thus fathers are at
Speaker 1: once feared and loved by affectionate sons. Thus doth the
Speaker 1: chaste wife at once fear her husband lest she be
Speaker 1: forsaken by him, and loveth him, that she may enjoy
Speaker 1: his love. If then the human father and the human
Speaker 1: husband desire at once to be feared and loved, much
Speaker 1: more doth our Father, who is in heaven, and that
Speaker 1: bridegroom beautiful beyond the sons of men, Not in the flesh,
Speaker 1: but in goodness. For by whom is the law of
Speaker 1: God loved? Save by those by whom God is loved.
Speaker 1: And what that is severe? Hath the Father's law to
Speaker 1: good sons? Is it hard that he chasteneth whom he
Speaker 1: loveth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, But he
Speaker 1: refuseth these judgments receiveth, not the promises. Let the Father's
Speaker 1: judgments therefore be praised even in the scourge, if his
Speaker 1: promises be loved in the reward verse one hundred sixty four.
Speaker 1: Such was assuredly the conduct of the Psalmist, who saith
Speaker 1: seven times a day. Do I praise thee because of
Speaker 1: thy righteous judgments. The words seven times a day signify evermore,
Speaker 1: for this number is wont to be a symbol of universality,
Speaker 1: because after six days of the divine work of creation,
Speaker 1: a seventh of rest was added, and all times roll
Speaker 1: on through a revolving cycle of seven days. For no
Speaker 1: other reason. It was said, a just man falleth seven times,
Speaker 1: and riseth up again. That is the just man, perisheth not,
Speaker 1: though brought low in every way, yet not induced to transgress,
Speaker 1: otherwise he will not be just. For the words falleth
Speaker 1: seven times are employed to express every kind of tribulation,
Speaker 1: whereby man is cast down in the sight of men,
Speaker 1: and the words riseth up again signify that he profit
Speaker 1: death from all these tribulations. The following sentence in this
Speaker 1: passage sufficiently illustrates the foregoing words, for it follows, but
Speaker 1: the wicked shall fall into mischief, not to be deprived
Speaker 1: of strength in any evils. Is therefore the falling seven
Speaker 1: times and the rising again of the just man. Justly
Speaker 1: hath the church then praised God seven times in a
Speaker 1: day for his righteous judgments, Because when it was time
Speaker 1: that judgment should begin at the House of God, she
Speaker 1: did not faint in all her tribulations, but was glorified
Speaker 1: with the crowns of martyrs. Verse one hundred sixty five.
Speaker 1: Great is the peace, he saith that they have who
Speaker 1: love Thy law, and there is no offense to them.
Speaker 1: Doth this mean that the law itself is not an
Speaker 1: offense to them that love it, or that there is
Speaker 1: no offense from any source unto them that love the law.
Speaker 1: But both senses are rightly understood. For he who loveth
Speaker 1: the Law of God honereth in it even what he
Speaker 1: doth not understand, and what seemeth to him to saynd absurd.
Speaker 1: He judgeth rather that he doth not understand, and that
Speaker 1: there is some great meaning hidden. Thus the Law of
Speaker 1: God is not an offense to him, but that he
Speaker 1: may suffer no offense at all. Let him not heed
Speaker 1: men of each holy profession to such a degree is
Speaker 1: to allow his faith to depend upon their conduct, lest
Speaker 1: if some fall whom he highly esteemed, he perished by
Speaker 1: an offense. But let him love the Law of God itself,
Speaker 1: and he shall have much peace and no offense, For
Speaker 1: he is safe in loving that which, although many sin
Speaker 1: in it, doth not itself know sin Verse one hundred
Speaker 1: sixty six. I have waited he saith for thy saving health,
Speaker 1: O Lord, and have loved thy commandments. For what would
Speaker 1: it have profited the righteous of old to have loved
Speaker 1: the commandments of God? Save Christ, who is the saving
Speaker 1: health of God had freed them by the gift of
Speaker 1: whose spirit also they were able to love the commandments
Speaker 1: of God. If therefore they who loved God's commandments waited
Speaker 1: for His saving health, how much more necessary was Jesus,
Speaker 1: that is, the saving health of God, for the salvation
Speaker 1: of those that did not love His commandments. This prophecy
Speaker 1: may suit also the saints of the period since the
Speaker 1: revelation of Grace and the preaching of the Gospel, For
Speaker 1: they that love God's commandments look for Christ, that when
Speaker 1: Christ our life shall appear, we may then appear with
Speaker 1: Him in glory Verses one hundred sixty seven and one
Speaker 1: hundred sixty eight. My soul hath kept thy testimonies, and
Speaker 1: I have loved them exceedingly, Or as some copies read,
Speaker 1: hath loved them. Understanding my soul, the testimonies of God
Speaker 1: are kept while they are not denied. This is the
Speaker 1: office of martyrs, for testimonies are called martyrria in Greek.
Speaker 1: But since it profiteth nothing even to be burnt with
Speaker 1: flames without charity, he addeth, and I have loved them exceedingly.
Speaker 1: He had said above, I have loved thy commandments. Then
Speaker 1: in the following verse, I have kept and have loved
Speaker 1: thy testimonies. Further down, I have kept both thy commandments
Speaker 1: and thy testimonies for he saith. I have kept thy
Speaker 1: commandments and thy testimonies, for he who loveth keepeth them
Speaker 1: at the spirit of truth and faithfulness. But generally, while
Speaker 1: the commandments of God are kept, they against whose will
Speaker 1: they are kept become our foes. Then indeed his testimonies
Speaker 1: also must be kept courageously, lest they be denied when
Speaker 1: the enemy persecuteth. After the Psalmist then had declared that
Speaker 1: he had done both these things, he ascribeth unto God
Speaker 1: as having been enabled to do so. By adding, because
Speaker 1: all my ways are in thy sight, he saith. Therefore,
Speaker 1: I have kept thy commandments and thy testimonies, because all
Speaker 1: my ways are in thy sight. As much as to say,
Speaker 1: hast thou turned away thy face from me, I should
Speaker 1: have been confounded, Nor could I keep thy commandments and
Speaker 1: thy testimonies. I have kept them, then, because all my
Speaker 1: ways are in thy sight. With a look favoring and
Speaker 1: aiding man. He meant it to be understood that God
Speaker 1: seeth his ways according to the prayer. Oh hide not
Speaker 1: thou thy face from me, For the face of the
Speaker 1: Lord is also over them that do evil, but so
Speaker 1: that he may blot out the memory of them from
Speaker 1: the earth. Not in this sense, indeed, hath the Psalmists
Speaker 1: send that his ways are seen of him. But as
Speaker 1: the Lord knoweth the ways of the righteous, and as
Speaker 1: he saith unto Moses, I know thee above all. For
Speaker 1: if this did not aid him as he walked, that
Speaker 1: his ways are before God, he would not say that
Speaker 1: he had kept his commandments and testimonies, because all his
Speaker 1: ways were before the Lord. For he knew how to hear,
Speaker 1: serve the Lord in fear and rejoice unto him with reverence,
Speaker 1: take hold on discipline, lest the Lord be angry, and
Speaker 1: so ye perish from the right way. For see, if
Speaker 1: he were in the sight of the Lord, his way
Speaker 1: would not be the right way. For the apostle, paul
Speaker 1: enjoineth this fear in trembling upon those to whom he saith.
Speaker 1: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and
Speaker 1: explaining why he speaketh thus, for it is God he addeth,
Speaker 1: who worketh in you, both to will and to do
Speaker 1: of His good pleasure. For this end, then the ways
Speaker 1: of the writers are before the Lord, that he may
Speaker 1: direct their steps, since these are the ways of which
Speaker 1: it is said in Proverbs, the Lord knoweth the paths
Speaker 1: that are on the right, but they that are on
Speaker 1: the left are perverse. So that we may understand that
Speaker 1: the Lord knoweth them not, because he will say to
Speaker 1: the perverse, I know you not. Moreover, to show the
Speaker 1: fruit of the Lord's knowing, those paths which are on
Speaker 1: the right, that is, those of the righteous, he at
Speaker 1: once addeth, for he will make thy paths straight, and
Speaker 1: will lead thy footsteps in peace. Behold then the reason.
Speaker 1: While the Psalmist also saith, I have kept thy commandments
Speaker 1: and thy testimonies. And as though we ask how he
Speaker 1: was able to keep them, he answereth because all my
Speaker 1: ways are in thy sight, O Lord. End of Psalm
Speaker 1: one hundred nineteen, Discourse thirty one