menu_book Chapter 8

Psalm 56, Part 2 of Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Volume 3. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Volume 3 by St. Augustine of Hippo. Psalm 56, Part 2. Verse 6 These same men shall mark my heel,

For they shall sojourn and hide in such sort, that they may mark where a man slippeth. Intent they are upon the heel, to see when a slip may chance to be made, in order that they may detain the foot for a fall, or trip up the foot for a stumble. Certain that they may find that which they may accuse, and what man so walketh that nowhere he slippeth.

For example, how speedily is a slip made even in tongue? For it is written, whosoever in tongue stumbleth not, the same is a perfect man. What man, I pray, would dare himself to call or deem perfect? Therefore it must needs be that every one slip in tongue. But let them that shall sojourn and shall hide,

carp at all words, seeking somewhere to make snares and naughty false accusations, wherein they are themselves entangled before those whom they strive to entangle, in order that they may themselves be taken and perish, before that they catch other men in order to destroy them. For a man runneth back unto his heart, and thence runneth back to God, and knoweth how to say, In God I will praise my discourses.

For a just man seven times shall fall, and shall rise again, but ungodly men shall be made weak in evil things. Let not, therefore, any one of us fear cunning pursuers, carpers at words, tellers almost of syllables, and breakers of commandments. He is minding what in thee he may convict, in order to believe in Christ, through thee he is not minding. attend thou unto the discourses of him whom thou blamest whether perchance he may teach thee something to thy health

and what he saith shall he be able to teach to my health that hath so slipped in word this very thing perchance he is teaching thee to thy health that thou be not a carper at words but a gatherer of precepts themselves shall mark my heel

as my soul hath undergone I speak of that which I have undergone He was speaking as one experienced, as my soul hath undergone, they shall sojourn and hide. Let my soul undergo all men, men without barking, men within hiding, let it undergo. From without coming, like a river cometh temptation.

On the rock let it find thee, let it strike against, not throw thee down. The house hath been founded upon a rock. Within he is, he shall sojourn and hide. Suppose chaff is near thee, let there come in the treading of oxen,

let there come in the roller of temptations, thou art cleansed, the other is crushed. As my soul hath undergone, verse 7, for nothing thou shalt save them.

He hath taught us even for these very men to pray. However, they shall sojourn and hide, however deceitful they be, however dissemblers and liars in weight they be, Do thou pray for them, and do not say, Shall God amend even such a man, so evil, so perverse?

Do not despair, give heed to him whom thou askest, not him for whom thou askest. The greatest of the disease seest thou, the might of the physician seest thou not. They shall sojourn and hide, as my soul hath undergone. Undergo, pray, and there is done what? For nothing thou shalt save them.

Thou shalt make them safe, so as that nothing to thee it may be, that is, so that no labor to thee it may be. Within men they are despaired of, but thou with the word dost heal. Thou wilt not toil in healing. Though we are astounded in looking on, there is another sense in this verse.

For nothing thou shalt save them. With not any merits of their going before, thou shalt save them. I that before was a blasphemer, he saith, and a persecutor, and injurious. He received letters in order that, wherever he might find Christians, he might bind and lead away. Certain in order that he might bind and lead away, at first he was sojourning and was hiding.

Therefore, of this man not any good merits had gone before. Nay, such things had gone before on account of which he would be condemned Nothing of good he brought in, and saved was he For nothing thou shalt save them They shall not bring to thee he goats, rams, bulls

Not gifts and spices shall they bring thee in thy temple Not anything of the drink offering of a good conscience do they pour thereon All in them is rough, all foul, all to be detested And though they to thee bring nothing whereby they may be saved, for nothing thou shalt save them, that is, with the free gift of thy grace, what had that robber brought to the cross? From the lurking place to the judgment, from the judgment unto the tree, from the tree unto paradise, he believed wherefore he spake.

But even that very faith who did give, but he that beside him hung, for nothing thou shalt save them. In anger the peoples thou shalt bring down. Thou art angry, and dost bring down, dost rage and save, dost terrify and call. For what is, in anger the peoples shalt bring down. Thou fillest with tribulations all things, in order that being set in tribulations, men may fly to thee,

lest by pleasures and a wrong security they be seduced. From thee anger is seen, but that of a father. A father is angry with a son, the despiser of his injunctions. Being angry with him, he boxeth him, striketh, pulleth the ear, with hand draggeth, to school leadeth, in anger the peoples thou shalt bring down. How many men have entered, how many men have filled the house of the Lord,

in the anger of him brought down, that is, by tribulations terrified, and with faith filled. For to this end, tribulation stireth up, in order to empty the vessel which is full of wickedness, so as that it may be filled with grace. In anger the peoples thou shalt bring down. Verse 8

Thou teach God? Far be it. Therefore, why saith he, I have told out to thee? Is it perchance because it profiteth thee that I have told out my life? And what doth it profit God? To the advantage of God it doth profit. I have told out to God my life, because that life hath been God's doing. In like manner, as his life Paul the Apostle did tell out, saying, I that before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, he shall tell out his

life, but mercy I have obtained. He hath told out his life, not for himself, but for him, because he hath told it out in such sort, that in him men believe, not for his own advantages, but for the advantages of him. For what sayeth that same Paul? Therefore Christ hath died, and hath risen, in order that he that liveth no more for himself may live, but for him that for all men hath died. If therefore thou livest, and livest not by thyself, because that thou shouldst live, he hath granted, tell out thy life, not for thyself, but for him, not thine own things seeking, not for thyself living, but for him that for all men hath died.

For of certain reprobate men, what sayeth the same apostle? For all men seek their own things, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. If for this reason thou tellest out thy life, in order that it may profit thee, and other men it may not profit, for thyself thou tellest it out, not for God. But if so thou tellest out thy life, in order that other men also thou mayest invite to receive life,

which thou too hast received, thou tellest out thy life to him from whom thou received, and thou shalt have a reward more ample, because even out of that which thou hast received, not ungrateful, thou hast shewn thyself. O God, my life I have told out to thee, thou hast put my tears in thy sight, thou hast hearkened to me imploring thee, as also in thy promise. Because as thou hadst promised this thing, so thou hast done. Thou hast said,

thou wouldst hearken to one weeping. I have believed, I have wept, I have been hearkened unto, I have found thee merciful in promising, true in repaying, as also in thy promise. Verse 9. Turned be mine enemies backward. This thing to these very men is profitable. No ill to these men he is wishing, for to go before they are willing, therefore to be amended they are not willing. Thou warnest thine enemy to live well, that he amend himself, he scorneth, he rejecteth the word.

Behold him that adviseth me, behold him from whom I am to hear the commandments whereby I shall live. To go before thee he willeth, and in going before is not amended. He mindeth not that thy words are not thine. He mindeth not that thy life to God thou tellest out, not to thyself. In going before, therefore, he is not amended. It is a good thing for him that he be turned backward and follow him whom to go before he willed. The Lord to his disciples was speaking of his passion that was to be.

Peter shuddered, and saith, blood hath not revealed this thing, but my Father which is in the heavens. Therefore thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not overcome her, and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. See after what sort he followed up a confession true, godly, full of confidence, because he said, Thou art the Christ, son of

the living God. But immediately, when the Lord beginneth to speak of his passion, he feared lest he should perish by death, whereas we ourselves should perish unless he died. And he saith, Far be it, O Lord, this thing shall not be done. And the Lord, to him, to whom a little before, he had said, Blessed thou art, and upon this rock I will build my church, saith, Go back behind Satan, and offense thou art to me. Why therefore Satan is he, that a little before was blessed,

and a rock. For thou savourst not the things which are of God, he saith, but those things which are of man. A little before he savoured the things which are of God, because not flesh and blood hath revealed to thee, but my Father which is in the heavens. When in God he was praising his discourse, not Satan, but Peter, from Petra, but when of himself, and out of human infirmity, carnal love of man, which would be for an impediment to his own salvation,

and that of the rest Satan he is called. Why? Because to go before the Lord he willed, and to the leader heavenly earthly counsel to give. Far be it, O Lord, this thing shall not be done. Thou sayest, Far be it, and thou sayest, O Lord. Surely if Lord he is, in power he doeth, if master he is, he knoweth what he doeth, he knoweth what he teacheth. But thou willest to Verse 9.

1. But of those men, the God peculiarly he is said to be, that love him, that hold him, that possess him, that worship him, as though belonging to his own house, the great family of him are they, redeemed by the great blood of the only Son. How great a thing hath God given to us, that his own we should be, and he should be ours! But in truth, foreigners afar have been put from holy men, sons alien they are. See what of them is said in another psalm,

O Lord, deliver me, he saith, from the hand of alien sons, of whom the mouth has spoken vanity, and the right hand of them is a right hand of iniquity. And see the height of these same, but it is the height of the day that is, pride temporal, of whom their sons, he saith, are as young plants firmly rooted, the daughters of them adorned as the similitude of a temple. The felicity of the present world he is describing,

wherein men erring, and counting it as some great matter, the felicity true and everlasting seek not. Thence therefore these are sons alien, not sons of God, of whom their sons, he saith, are as young plants firmly rooted, their daughters adorned as the similitude of a temple, their garners full, belching forth out of this unto this, their oxen fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings out. There is not falling of wall, nor going over, nor cry in the

streets of them. And what followeth? Blessed they have called the people to whom these things are. But who have called them? Sons alien, of whom the mouth hath spoken vanity. Thou, what sayest thou? Blessed the people of whom the Lord is the God of the same. He hath taken from among them all other things which God giveth, and hath given God himself. For all those things, brethren, of which the sons alien have made mention, God giveth.

But even to aliens he giveth, but even to evil men giveth, but even to blasphemers giveth. He that maketh his son to rise upon good men, and upon evil men, and reigneth upon just men, and upon unjust men. Sometimes these things to good men he giveth, sometimes giveth not, and to evil men sometimes giveth, sometimes giveth not. For good men, however, he keepeth himself, but for evil men, fire everlasting. There is therefore an evil thing which he giveth not to good men, and there is a good thing which he giveth not to evil men.

There are certain middle things, both good things and evil things, which he giveth both to good men and to evil men. Let us therefore love God, brethren, purely and chastely. There is not a chaste heart, if God for reward is worshipeth. How so? Reward of the worship of God shall not we have. We shall have evidently, but it is God himself whom we worship.

Himself for us a reward shall be, because we shall see Him as He is. Observe that a reward thou shalt obtain. To His lovers, our Lord Jesus Christ, saith what? He that loveth me keepeth my commandments, and he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him.

What therefore wilt thou give him? And I will manifest myself to him. If thou lovest not, too little it is. If thou lovest, if thou sighest, if freely thou worshippest him, by whom freely thou hast been bought, for thou hadst not deserved of him that he should redeem thee, if upon consideration of

his benefits towards thee thou sighest, and unquiet hast thy heart with longing for him, do not beside him ask any thing from him. He is himself sufficient for thee. Howsoever covetous thou art, sufficient for thee is God. For Avarice sought to possess the whole earth, and also heaven. More is he that hath made heaven and earth. I will tell you, brethren, in these human alliances consider a chaste heart, of what sort it is towards God. Certainly human

alliances are of such sort, that a man doth not love his wife, that loveth her because of her portion, a woman her husband doth not chastely love, that for these reasons loveth him, because something he hath given, or because much he hath given. Both a rich man is a husband, and one that hath become a poor man is a husband. How many men proscribed by chaste wives have been the more beloved? Proved have been many chaste marriages by the misfortunes of husbands, that the wives

might not be supposed to love any other object more than their husband, not only have they not forsaken, but the more have they obeyed. If therefore a husband of flesh freely is loved, if chastely he is loved, and a wife of flesh freely is loved, if chastely she is loved, in what manner must God be loved, the true and truth-speaking husband of the soul, making fruitful unto the offspring of everlasting life, and not suffering us to be barren? Him,

Therefore, so let us love, so that any other thing besides himself be not loved. And there takes place in us that which we have spoken of, that which we have sung, because even here the voice is ours. In whatsoever day I shall have called upon thee, behold, I have known that my God thou art. This is to call upon God, freely to call upon him.

Furthermore, of certain men hath been said what? Upon the Lord they have not called. the Lord they seemed, as it were, to call unto themselves, and they besought him about inheritances, about increasing money, about lengthening this life, about the rest of temporal things,

and concerning them the scripture saith what? Upon the Lord they have not called. Therefore there followeth what? There they have feared without fear, where there was no fear. What is where there was no fear?

Lest money should be stolen from them, lest anything in their house should be made less. Lastly, lest they should have less of years in this life than they had hoped for themselves. But there have they trembled with fear, where there was no fear. Such men they are, as were those Jews. If we shall have let him live, there will come the Romans, and will take away from us both place and nation. There they have feared a fear,

where there was no fear. Behold, I have known that my God art thou. Great riches of heart, great light of the eye interior, great confidence of security. Behold, I have known that my God art thou. Verse 10. In God I will praise the word, and the Lord I will praise the discourse. Verse 11. In God I have hoped, I will not fear what man doeth unto me. Now this is the very sense which above hath been repeated. Verse 12. In me, O God, are thy vows, which I will render

of praise to thee. Vow ye, and render to the Lord your God. What vow? What render? Perchance those animals which were offered at the altars aforetime. No such thing offer thou. In thyself is what thou mayest vow and render. From the heart's coffer bring forth the incense of praise. From the store of a good conscience bring forth the sacrifice of faith. Whatsoever thing thou bringest forth, kindle with love. In thyself be the vows which thou mayest render of praise to God. Of what praise?

For what hath he granted thee? Verse 13. For thou hast rescued my soul from death. This is that very life which he telleth out to him, O God, my life I have told out to thee. For I was what? Dead. Through myself I was dead. Through thee I am what? Alive.

Therefore in me, O God, are thy vows, which I will render of praise to thee. Behold, I love my God. No one doth tear him from me. That which to him I may give, no one doth tear from me, because in the heart it is shut up.

With reason it is said, with that former confidence, What should man do unto me? Let man rage, let him be permitted to rage, be permitted to accomplish that which he attempteth. What is he to take away? Gold, silver, cattle, menservants, maidservants, estates, houses?

Let him take away all things. Doth he by any means take away the vows which are in me, which I may render of praise to God? The tempter was permitted to tempt a holy man, Job. In one moment of time he took away all things. Whatever of possessions he had had, he carried off, took away inheritance, slew heirs, and this not little by little, but in a crowd, at one blow, at one swoop, so that all things were on as sudden announced.

When all was taken away, alone there remained Job. But in him were vows of praise, which he might render to God. In him evidently there were, the coffer of his holy breast, the thieving devil had not riled. Full he was of that wherefrom he might sacrifice. Hear what he had, hear what he brought forth.

The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away. As hath pleased the Lord, so hath been done. Be the name of the Lord blessed. O riches interior, whither thief doth not draw near? God himself had given that whereof he was receiving. He had himself enriched him with that whereof to him he was offering that which he loved. Praise from thee God requireth, thy confession God requireth

But from thy field wilt thou give any thing He hath himself reigned in order that thou mayest have From thy coffer wilt thou give any thing He hath himself put in that which thou art to give What wilt thou give, which from him thou hast not received

For what hast thou which thou hast not received From the heart wilt thou give He too hath given faith, hope, and charity This thou must bring forth, this thou must sacrifice. But evidently, all the other things the enemy is able to take away against thy will,

this to take away he is not able, unless thou be willing. These things a man will lose, even against his will, and wishing to have gold will lose gold, and wishing to have a house will lose house. Faith no one will lose, except him that shall have despised her. In me, O God, are thy vows, which I will render of praise to thee.

Verse 13 Because thou hast rescued my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from slipping, that I may be pleasing before God in the light of the living. With reason he is not pleasing to alien sons that have put afar off from holy men, because they have not the light of the living,

whence they may see that which to God is pleasing. Light of the living is light of the immortal Light of holy men He that is not in darkness is pleasing in the light of the living A man is observed

And the things which belong to him No one knoweth of what sort he is God seeth of what sort he is Sometimes even the devil himself he escapeth Except he tempt, he findeth not

Just as concerning that man of whom just now I have made mention God knew him and bore witness to him The devil knew him not, and therefore had said, Doth Job by any means worship God for naught? See to what a proof the enemy challengeth. There is perfection. See what the enemy throweth out for reproach.

He saw a man serving God, in all things obeying, all things doing well. And because a rich man he was, and his house most prosperous, this thing he throweth out for reproach, that for this reason he worshipeth God, because he had given to him all these things. Doth Job by any means worship God for naught? For this was true light, this was the light of the living, that gratis he should worship God.

God saw in his heart of his servant his gratuitous worship, for that heart was pleasing in the sight of the Lord in the light of the living. The devil's sight he escaped, because in darkness he was. God admitted the tempter, not in order that he might himself know that which he did know, but in order that to us, to be known and imitated, he might set it forth. Admitted was the tempter, he took away everything.

There remained the man, bereft of possessions, bereft of family, bereft of children, full of God. A wife certainly was left. Merciful do ye deem the devil, that he left him a wife. He knew through whom he had deceived Adam. He had left a helpmate for himself, not a comforter for the husband. He therefore, being full of God, in whom vows there were,

which he might render of praise, in order that he might shew, that gratis he did worship God, not because so great things he had received, even with the loss of all things, was a man of such sort, because him that had given all things, he lost not. The Lord hath given, he saith, the Lord hath taken away.

As hath pleased the Lord, so hath been done. Be the name of the Lord blessed. Moreover, with wound, smitten from head, even unto feet, whole, nevertheless within, he made answer to the woman tempting, out of the light of the living, out of the light of his heart,

thou hast spoken as though one of the unwise women, that is, as though one that hath not the light of the living. for the light of the living is wisdom and the darkness of unwise men is folly thou hast spoken as though one of the unwise women my flesh thou seest the light of my heart thou seest not for she then might more have loved her husband if the interior beauty she had known and had beheld the place where he was beautiful before the eyes of god because in him were vows which he might render of praise to god how entirely the enemy had forborne to invade that patrimony how whole was that which he was possessing and that because of which yet more to be possessed he hoped for being to go on from virtues unto virtue

Therefore, brethren, to this end, let all these things serve us, that God gratis we love, in him hope always, neither man nor devil fear, neither the one nor the other doeth anything, except when it is permitted, permitted for no other reason can it be, except because it doth profit us. Let us endure evil men, let us be good men, because even we have been evil. Even as nothing, God shall save men, of whom we dare to despair. Therefore, of no one let us despair, for all men whom we suffer, let us pray. From God, let us never depart.

Our patrimony, let him be. Our hope, let him be. Our safety, let him be. He is himself here a comforter, there a remunerator. everywhere maker alive and of life the giver not of another life but of that whereof hath been said

i am the way and the truth and the life in order that both here in the light of faith and there in the light of sight as it were in the light of the living in the sight of the lord we may be pleasing end of psalm 56 part 2 read by david ronald