Psalm CXLVII
Or who can number, or measure, or weigh, measure and number and weight themselves, wherein God hath ordered all things? Therefore, “of His understanding is no number.” Let human voices be hushed, human thoughts still: let them not stretch themselves out to incomprehensible things, as though they could comprehend them, but as though they were to partake of them, for partakers we shall be.…Partakers then we shall be: let none doubt it: Scripture saith it. And of what shall we be partakers, as though these were parts in God, as though God were divided into parts? Who then can explain how many become partakers of one single substance? Require not then that which I think ye see cannot fitly be said: but return to the healing of the Saviour, bruise your heart. He will guide it, He will bind it up where it is broken, He will make it perfectly sound; and then those things will not be impossible with us, which now are impossible. For it is good that he confess weakness, who desireth to attain to the divine nature.
10“The Lord taketh up the gentle” (ver. 6). For example; thou understandest not, thou failest to understand, canst not attain: honour God’s Scripture, honour God’s Word, though it be not plain: in reverence wait for understanding. Be not wanton to accuse either the obscurity or seeming contradiction of Scripture. There is nothing in it contradictory: somewhat there is which is obscure, not in order that it may be denied thee, but that it may exercise him that shall afterward receive it. When then it is obscure, that is the Physician’s doing, that thou mayest knock. He willed that thou shouldest be exercised in knocking; He willed it, that He might open to thee when thou knockest. By knocking thou shalt be exercised; exercised, thou shalt be enlarged; enlarged, thou shalt contain what is given. Be not then indignant for that it is shut; be mild, be gentle. Kick not against what is dark, nor say, It were better said, if it were said thus. For how canst thou thus say, or judge how it is expedient it be said? It is said as it is expedient it be said. Let not the sick man seek to amend his remedies: the Physician knoweth how to temper them: believe Him who careth for thee. Therefore what cometh next?…“The Lord taketh up the gentle, but humbleth the sinners even to the ground,” he intended a certain sort of sinners to be understood, from the gentleness mentioned first. By sinners then in this place, we understand the fierce, and those who are not gentle. Wherefore doth He “humble them even to the earth”? They carp at objects of understanding, they shall perceive only things earthly.
11“Begin to the Lord in confession” (ver. 7). Begin with this, if thou wouldest arrive at a clear understanding of the truth. If thou wilt be brought from the road of faith to the profession of the reality, “begin in confession.” First accuse thyself: accuse thyself, praise God. What after confession? Let good works follow. “Sing unto our God upon the harp.” What is, “Upon the harp”? As I have already explained, just like the Psalm upon the psaltery, so also is the “harp:” not with voice only, but with works.
12…“Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth” (ver. 8). Now thou art alarmed, because thou canst not see the heaven: when it hath rained thou shalt gather fruit, and shalt see clear sky. Perhaps our God hath done this. For had we not the obscurity of Scripture as an occasion, we should not say to you those things wherein ye rejoice. This then perhaps is the rain whereat ye rejoice. It would not be possible for it to be expressed to you by our tongue, were it not that God covereth with clouds of figures the heaven of the Scriptures. For this purpose willed He that the words of the Prophets should be obscure, that the servants of God might afterwards have that by interpreting which they might flow over the ears and hearts of men, that they might receive from the clouds of God the fatness of spiritual joy. “Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, and herb for the service of men.” Behold the fruit of the rain. “Who maketh,” saith he, “grass to grow upon the mountains.” Doth it not also grow upon the low ground? Yes, but it is a great thing that it groweth “on the mountains.”…For nothing could be more barren than the hard mountains. “And herb for the service of men.” What “service”? Listen to Paul himself. “And ourselves,” saith he, “your servants for Jesus Christ’s sake.”
He who said, “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things?” yet said, that he was a “servant.” For we are your servants, brethren. Let none of us speak of himself, as though he were greater than you. We shall be greater if we are more humble. “But whosoever will be great among you” (it is the Lord’s saying), “shall be your servant.” Paul the Apostle, indeed, living by his own labour, refused even to receive “the grass of the mountains;” he chose to want; nevertheless, the mountains gave “grass.” Because he chose not to receive, ought the mountains therefore not to give, and so to remain barren? Fruit is due to the rain, food is due to the servant, as the Lord saith, “Eat such things as they give you:” and that they should not think that they gave aught of their own, He added, “for the labourer is worthy of his hire.”
13…Just now has been read, “Give to every one that asketh of thee;” and in another place Scripture saith, “Let alms sweat in thy hand, till thou findest a righteous man to whom to give it.” One there is who seeketh thee, another thou oughtest to seek. Leave not indeed him who seeketh thee empty, for, “give to every one that asketh of thee;” yet still there is another whom thou oughtest to seek; “find a righteous man to whom to give it.” Ye will never do this, unless ye have somewhat set aside from your substance, each what pleaseth him according to the needs of his family, as a sort of debt to be paid to the treasury. If Christ have not a state of His own, neither hath He a treasury. …Cut off then and prune off some fixed sum either from thy yearly profits or thy daily gains, else thou seemest as it were to give of thy capital, and thy hand must needs hesitate, when thou puttest it forth to that which thou hast not vowed. Cut off some part of thy income; a tenth if thou choosest, though that is but little. For it is said that the Pharisees gave a tenth; “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” And what saith the Lord? “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” He whose righteousness thou oughtest to exceed, giveth a tenth: thou givest not even a thousandth. How wilt thou surpass him whom thou matchest not? “Who prepareth rain for the earth.”
14“And giveth unto the cattle their food” (ver. 9). These are the cattle he meaneth, even God’s flocks. God defraudeth not His flock of their food through men, for whose “service He maketh the grass to grow.” “And to the young of the ravens that call upon Him.” Shall we perchance think this, that the ravens call upon God to give them their food? Think not that the unreasoning creature calls upon God: no creature knows how to call upon God, save the reasonable alone. Consider it as spoken in a figure, lest thou think, as some evil men say, that the souls of men migrate into cattle, dogs, swine, ravens. Give this no place in your hearts or in your faith. The soul of man is made after the image of God: He will not give His image to dog or swine. Who are “the young of the ravens”? The Israelites used to say that they alone were righteous, because to them the Law had been given: all other men of every nation they used to call sinners. And in truth all nations were given up to sin, to idolatry, to the worship of stones and stocks: but did they continue so? Although the ravens themselves, our fathers, did not, yet we, “the young of the ravens,” do call upon God. …For “the young of the ravens,” who seemed to worship the images of their forefathers, have advanced, and turned to God. And now thou hearest “the young of the ravens” calling upon the one God. What then? Sayest thou to “the young of the ravens,” “hast thou left thy father?” Plainly I have, saith he; for he is a raven who calls not upon God. I, “the young of the raven,” do call upon God.
15“In the power of an horse He will not take pleasure” (ver. 10). The power “of an horse” is pride. For the horse seemeth adapted as it were to bear a man aloft, that he may be more uplifted as he goes. And in truth he has a neck which typifieth a sort of pride. Let not men exalt themselves upon their worth, let them not think themselves uplifted by their distinctions; let them beware lest they be thrown by an untamed horse. …“Nor in the tabernacle of a man will He delight.” For the tabernacle of the Lord is the Holy Church spread throughout the whole world. Heretics, separating themselves from the Church’s tabernacles, have set up tabernacles for themselves. For if perchance it be the lot of any, who is good and pious, who confesseth his own weakness, who is “the young of a raven that calleth on God,” not to enjoy worldly distinction, he goeth not out of the Church, he setteth not up for himself a tent outside the Church, wherein God will not delight. But what saith he? “I have chosen to be cast away in the house of God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.”
16But what addeth he? “The Lord will delight in them that fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy” (ver. 11). A robber is feared, and a wild beast is feared, and an unjust and powerful man is much feared. “The Lord will delight in them that hope in His mercy.” Behold, Judas, who betrayed our Lord, feared, but he did not hope in His mercy.…It is well indeed that thou hast feared, but only if thou trustedst in His mercy, whom thou hast feared. He in despair “went and hanged himself.” In such wise then fear the Lord, that thou trust in His mercy.…