Psalm CXIX
86Lastly, he addeth, “All Thy commandments are truth: they have persecuted me unjustly; O be Thou my help” (ver. 86). And the whole sense dependeth upon the foregoing: “How many are the days of Thy servant: when wilt Thou be avenged of them that persecute me?” For that they may persecute me, they have related to me these pleasant tales; but I have preferred Thy law to them, which on that account hath pleased me more, because all Thy commandments are true; not as in their discourses, where vanity aboundeth. And for this reason “they have persecuted me falsely,” because in me they have persecuted nothing save the truth. Therefore help Thou me, that I may struggle for the truth even unto death; because this is at once Thy commandment, and therefore it is also the truth.
87When the Church acted thus, She suffered what he hath added, “They had almost made an end of me upon earth” (ver. 87): a great slaughter of martyrs having been made, while they confess and preach the truth. But since it is not in vain said, “O help Thou me;” he addeth, “But I forsook not Thy commandments.”
88And that She might persevere unto the end, “O quicken me,” he saith, “after Thy loving mercy: and so shall I keep the testimonies of Thy mouth” (ver. 88); where the Greek hath Μαρτύρια . This was not to be passed over in silence, on account of that sweetest name of Martyrs, who beyond doubt when so great cruelty of the persecutors was raging, that the Church was almost made an end of upon earth, would never have kept the testimonies of God, unless that had been vouchsafed them which is here spoken of, “O quicken me after Thy loving-kindness.” For they were quickened, lest by loving life, they should deny the life, and by denying it, should lose it: and thus they who for life refused to forsake the truth, lived by dying for the truth.
Lamed.
89The man who speaketh in this Psalm, as if he were tired of human mutability, whence this life is full of temptations, among his tribulations, on account of which he had above said, “The wicked have persecuted me;” and, “They have almost made an end of me upon earth” (ver. 89); burning with longings for the heavenly Jerusalem; looked up to the realms above, and said, “O Lord, Thy word endureth for ever in heaven;” that is, among Thy Angels who serve everlastingly in Thine armies, without desertion.
90But the next verse, after heaven, pertaineth consequently to earth. For this is one verse of the eight which relate to this letter. For eight verses are appended to each of these Hebrew letters, until this long Psalm be ended. “Thy truth also remaineth from one generation to the other: Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and it abideth” (ver. 90). Beholding therefore the earth next after heaven with the gaze of a faithful mind, he findeth in it generations which are not in heaven, and saith, “Thy truth remaineth from one generation to the other:” signifying all generations by this expression, from which the Truth of God was never absent in His saints, at one time fewer, at one time more in number, according as the times happened or shall happen to vary; or wishing two particular generations to be understood, one pertaining to the Law and the Prophets, another to the Gospel.…
91“Day continueth according to Thy ordinance” (ver. 91). For all these things are day: “and this is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it:” and “let us walk honestly as in the day.” “For all things serve Thee.” He said all things of some: “all” which belong to this day “serve Thee.” For the ungodly of whom it is said, “I have compared thy mother unto the night,” do not serve Thee.
92He then looketh back towards the source of this earth’s deliverance, which caused it to abide when founded; and addeth, “If my delight had not been in Thy law, I should perchance have perished in my humiliation” (ver. 92). This is the law of faith, not a vain faith, but that which worketh through love. Through this grace is gained, which maketh men courageous in temporal tribulation, that they may not perish in the humiliation of mortality.
93“I will never forget,” he saith, “Thy righteousnesses, for with them Thou hast quickened me” (ver. 93). Behold how it was that he did not perish in his humiliation. For, save God quickeneth, what is man, Who can indeed kill, but cannot quicken himself?
94He next addeth: “I am Thine: O save me, for I have sought Thy righteousnesses” (ver. 94). We must not understand lightly the words, “I am Thine.” For what is not His? Why then is it that the Psalmist hath commended himself unto God somewhat in a more familiar sense, in these words, “I am Thine: O save me;” save because he wished it to be understood that he had desired to be his own only to his harm, which is the first and the greatest evil of disobedience? and as if he should say, I wished to be my own, and I lost myself: “I am Thine,” he saith, “O save me, for I have sought Thy righteousnesses;” not my own inclinations, whereby I was my own, but “Thy righteousnesses,” that I might now be Thine.
95“The ungodly,” he saith, “have awaited me that they might destroy me; but I have understood Thy testimonies” (ver. 95). What meaneth, “that they might destroy me”? Did he then fear that he should perish altogether at the death of his body? God forbid! and what meaneth, “have awaited me,” save that he should consent with them unto iniquity? For then they would destroy him. And he hath said why he hath not perished: “I understood Thy testimonies.” The Greek word, Μαρτύρια , soundeth more familiarly to the ears of the Church. For though they should slay me not consenting unto them, yet while I confessed Thy testimonies (martyria) I should not perish; but they who, that they might destroy me, were waiting till I should consent unto them, tortured me even when I did confess them. Yet he did not leave that which he had understood, looking on it and seeing an end without end, if only he should persevere unto the end.
96Lastly, he next saith, “I have seen an end of all consummation: but Thy commandment is exceeding broad” (ver. 96). For he had entered into the sanctuary of God, and had understood the end. Now “all consummation” appeareth to me in this place to signify, the striving even unto death for the truth, and the endurance of every evil for the true and chief good: the end of which consummation is to excel in the kingdom of Christ, which hath no end; and there to have without death, without pain, and with great honour, life, acquired by the death of this life, and by sorrows and reproaches. But in what he hath added, “Thy commandment is exceeding broad;” I understand only love. For what would it have profited him, whatever death impended over him, in the midst of whatsoever torment, to confess those testimonies, if love were not in the confessor?…Broad therefore is the commandment of charity, that twofold commandment, whereby we are enjoined to love God and our neighbour. But what is broader than that, “on” which “hang all the Law and the Prophets”?
Mem.
97We have frequently admonished you, that love was to be understood by that praiseworthy breadth, by means of which, while we do the commandments of God, we feel no straitness. On this account also after saying above in this great Psalm, “Thy commandment is exceeding broad:” in the following verse he showeth wherefore it is broad: “what love have I unto Thy law, O Lord!” (ver. 97). Love is therefore the breadth of the commandment. For how can it be that what God commandeth to be loved, be loved, and yet the commandment itself be not loved? For this itself is the law; “in all the day,” he saith, “is my study in it.” Behold how I have loved it, that in the whole day my study is in it; or rather, as the Greek hath it, “all the day long,” which more fully expresses the continuance of meditation. Now that is to be understood through all time; which is, for ever. By such love lust is driven out: lust, which repeatedly opposeth our performing the commandments of the law, when “the flesh lusteth against the spirit:” against which the spirit lusting, ought so to love the law of God, that it be its study during the whole day.…
98And he then addeth: “Thou hast made me to understand Thy commandment above mine enemies; for it is ever with me” (ver. 98). For “they have indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,” etc. But the Psalmist, who understandeth the commandment of God above these his enemies, wishes to be found with the Apostle, “not having” his “own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, which is of God;” not that the Law which his enemies read is not of God, but because they do not understand it, like him who understandeth it above his enemies, by clinging to the Stone upon which they stumbled. For “Christ is the end of the law,” etc., “that they may be justified freely through His grace;” not like those who imagine that they obey the law of their own strength, and are therefore, though by God’s law, yet still endeavouring to set up their own righteousness; but as the son of promise, who hungering and athirst after it, by seeking, by asking, by knocking, as it were begs it of the Father, that being adopted he may receive it through His only-begotten Son.…His enemies sought from the same commandment temporal rewards; and therefore it was not unto them for ever, as it was unto this man. For they who have translated “for ever” have rendered better than they who have written “for an age,” since at the end of time there can be no longer a commandment of the law.…