A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 118 — Of the Excellence of Virtue Consisting in the Love and Observance of the Commandments of God
138 He shows that the law of God is just, not only by reason of its having been imposed by a just God, but also by reason of its containing the very essence of justice, “Thou hast commanded justice in thy testimonies,” you have prescribed your testimonies, which are the very essence of truth. St. Thomas infers from this, that the law is one that cannot be dispensed in, inasmuch as it contains the very order of justice; just as if one should order that no one should fall into sin, or do any injustice, then the law would admit of no dispensation; for, in no possible case could it be lawful to commit sin, or do an act of injustice.
139 Your law being thus so extremely just, I could not but grieve, and even languish and pine away, through my zeal, at seeing people, even enemies as they were, “forget thy words,” devoid of the slightest regard for your most valuable commandments.
140 He again repeats that the law of God is most just and pure, comparing it to gold tried in the fire; for he says, “Thy word is exceedingly refined,” because God’s law is like gold in a furnace, that comes out as it went in, by reason of its having no dross, no dirt in it; whence it follows that we should have the greatest esteem for it, and, therefore, he adds, “and thy servant hath loved it.”
141 David alludes here to his own brothers, saying, “I am the least among my brethren,” despised by my father and brothers, and yet I have been raised to the throne, and specially honored by God, because “I forget not thy justifications.” See 1 Kings, chap. 16.
142 This is a repetition and an explanation of verse 138, for “the justice of the Lord;” that is, his most just law “is justice forever,” because it is immutable and cannot be dispensed with; and it is also “the truth,” for it has nothing false in it, for its promises, as well as its threats, will most certainly be carried out.
143 The aforesaid reflections on God’s justice cause me, whenever I am in trouble, to console myself by constant meditation on your law. “Trouble and anguish have found me.” Whenever they did lay hold of me, “thy commandments are my meditation;” my only remedy is to meditate, and revel in meditation on thy commandments.
144 He repeats what he said in verses 138 and 142. Thy commandments, by reason of their extreme justice, “are justice forever;” and I, therefore, beg of you to “give me understanding,” that I may fairly comprehend them, and, by observing them, “I shall live;” for, if I do not observe them, I must, of necessity, die.
Coph
145 In the next eight verses the prophet expresses his love for the law of God by an ardent prayer, expressing his feelings in the first and second verses by the pitch of his voice, and in the third and fourth by the unreasonableness of the hour he selected. “I cried with my whole heart,” with all my might, with all my affections; and, therefore, “hear me, O Lord.” For, as we cannot hear one speaking in a subdued tone, and are sure to hear them when they shout, thus God seems to take no notice, as if he did not hear it at all, of a cold, distracted prayer, but is all attention to an ardent, earnest one, as if he could not avoid hearing it. “I will seek thy justifications.” Hear me, that I may diligently inquire into and observe your commandments.
146 This may be understood of the salvation that we have through hope in this world, and of the reality, through glory, in the next. “I cried unto thee,” prayed to you most earnestly, “save me,” through grace, which is the commencement of salvation, “that I may keep thy commandments,” as far as human frailty will allow me; and also, “save me” in life everlasting, “that I may keep thy commandments,” without any fear of breaking them.
147 I anticipated the time of rising, and made great haste to pour forth my prayer before dawn, by reason of the great hope I had in your promises.
148 A repetition of the preceding idea, in which he repeats that he rose long before sunrise, in order, through God’s grace, to meditate on his words.
149 He follows up the prayer he commenced in the morning, when the cares of this world having been set aside, and, in profound silence, he prayed with the greatest attention. “Hear thou my voice,” not according to my merits, but “according to thy usual mercy,”—“and quicken me,” by preserving and increasing the spiritual life you already conferred on me, and, by so perfecting and completing it in the world to come, that it will be impossible ever after to move me, “according to thy judgments” by virtue of which you always carry out what you promise.
150 It is not without reason that I ask to be quickened; for I am pressed by persecutors, who seek to ruin me by constant temptations; and, be they men or demons, “they have drawn nigh to iniquity, but they are gone far off from thy law;” that is, they love iniquity, they cling to it, they seek to persuade others to do the same; as, on the contrary, they hate your law, they eschew it, and seek to make it odious to everyone.
151 Though my persecutors “have gone far off from thy law,” they could not go far from you, because “thou art near” them, by reason of your justice; “and all thy ways are truth;” all your laws, all your judgments are supremely just; thus, they could not possibly escape thy avenging hand. “Thou art near” me too, “O Lord,” through your assistance; “and all thy ways are truth;” you will not allow my persecutors to injure me; for though, perchance, you may give them power over my body, you will give them none over my soul; and all my persecutions will be ultimately turned into a crown of glory.
152 That “all thy ways are truth,” nay, even eternal truth, “I have known from the beginning concerning thy testimonies;” that is to say, from the first moment that I began to look into your commandments, a careful consideration of them led me to the conclusion, “that thou hast founded them forever;” that is, that they are based on eternal truth, and, therefore, clearly immutable, and not to be dispensed in; for it has been already stated that they are immutable, by reason of their having in them the order of justice, and the intention of the legislator.
Resh
153–154 The prophet, in the next octave, again puts up his prayer to God, asking to be delivered from his enemies, be they men or demons, who sought to make him break the law by their temptations. “See my humiliation,” my affliction and trouble, “and deliver me; for I have not forgotten thy law;” that is to say, though I may not observe the law to perfection, still I have not entirely rejected it; nay, I even frequently think and reflect on it, and I am anxious to observe it; and it is, therefore, only right for you to “deliver me,” from the enemies that tempt me, and perfect in me what you have begun through your grace. Therefore, “judge my judgment;” sit in judgment on my cause, “and redeem me,” by your judgment, from the hand of my enemies; “quicken thou me for thy words’ sake,” by virtue of the promise or the law you made in reference to rewarding the good and the bad; “quicken me,” by giving me an additional supply of grace here and glory hereafter.
155 I said, “Quicken me, for I have not forgotten thy law;” because I know that “Salvation is far from sinners, because they have not sought thy justifications.” For, in the first place, demons, who may, to a certain extent, be called sinners, are very far from salvation, it being a thing they never will see; because, instead of “seeking for the justifications” of the Lord, they rather entertained a thorough contempt for them. Other sinners, too, will just be as far from salvation as they were from seeking the law of the Lord, and to them the warning of our Savior, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” will prove not to have been an idle one.
156 However severely you may punish those from whom your “salvation is far,” still, “many are thy mercies;” and I, therefore, pray that “according to thy judgment,” through which you mercifully judge those who show mercy and who have a love for your law, that you “quicken me.”
157 It is not without reason that I ask you to quicken me; for the visible enemies, and the invisible ones who outnumber them, and seek to destroy me, are very numerous, yet, nevertheless, through the help I have had from you, “I have not declined” to one side or the other, “from thy testimonies;” from thy commandments, the only straight and direct road.
158 Here is real love, indeed! The conduct of the transgressors, his persecutors, grieved and afflicted him; not exactly for the injury inflicted on himself, but for the injury thereby offered to God. This he expressed before, when he said, in this very Psalm, “A fainting hath taken hold of me because of the wicked that forsake thy law;” and again, “My zeal hath made me pine away: because my enemies forgot thy words.”
159 When “I beheld the transgressors, I pined away;” and it is, therefore, only just that you, who see that “I have loved thy commandments” should “quicken me in thy mercy.”
160 Your words, whatever you say, spring from truth as their source, their fountain, and, therefore, abound in truth; and “all the judgments of thy justice,” through which the just are rewarded and the wicked are punished, “are forever.”
Sin