The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^4. But after “I too found trouble and heaviness, I called upon the Name of the Lord”. For trouble and profitable sorrow I did not feel; trouble, wherein He gives aid, unto whom it is said, “O be Thou our help in trouble: and vain is the help of man.” For I thought I might rejoice and exult in the vain help of man; but when I had heard from my Lord, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted:” I did not wait until I should lose those temporal blessings in which I rejoiced, and should then mourn: but I gave heed to that very misery of mine which caused me to rejoice in such things, which I both feared to lose, and yet could not retain; I gave heed to it firmly and courageously, and I saw that I was not only agonized by the adversities of this world, but even bound by its good fortune; and thus “I found the trouble and heaviness” which had escaped me, “and called upon the Name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul.” Let then the holy people of God say, “I called upon the Name of the Lord:” and let the remainder of the heathen hear, who do not as yet call upon the Name of the Lord; let them hear and seek, that they may discover trouble and heaviness, and may call upon the Name of the Lord, and be saved....

5. “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful”. He is gracious, righteous, and merciful. Gracious in the first place, because He has inclined His ear unto me; and I knew not that the ear of God had approached my lips, till I was aroused by those beautiful feet, that I might call upon the Lord's Name: for who has called upon Him, save he whom He first called? Hence therefore He is in the first place “gracious;” but “righteous,” because He scourges; and again, “merciful,” because He receives; for “He scourges every son whom He receives;” nor ought it to be so bitter to me that He scourges, as sweet that He receives. For how should not “The Lord, who keeps little ones”, scourge those whom, when of mature age, He seeks to be heirs; “for what son is he whom the father chastens not?” “I was in misery, and He helped me.” He helped me, because I was in misery; for the pain which the physician causes by his knife is not penal, but salutary.

6. “Turn again then unto your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has done good to you”: not for your deservings, or through your strength; but because the Lord has done good to you. “Since,” he says, “He has delivered my soul from death”. It is wonderful, most beloved brethren, that, after he had said that his soul should turn unto rest, since the Lord had rewarded him; he added, since “He has delivered my soul from death.” Did it turn unto rest, because it was delivered from death? Is not rest more usually said of death? What is the action of him whose life is rest, and death disquietude? Such then ought to be the action of the soul, as may tend to a quiet security, not one that may increase restless toil; since He has delivered it from death, who, pitying it, said, “Come unto Me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” etc. Meek therefore and humble, following, so to speak, Christ as its path, should the action of the soul be that tends towards repose; nevertheless, not slothful and supine; that it may finish its course, as it is written, “In quietness make perfect your works.” “You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” Whoever feels the chain of this flesh, chants these things as fulfilled in hope towards himself. For it is truly said, “I was in misery, and He delivered me;” but the Apostle says this also truly, that we are saved by hope. And that we are delivered from death, is well said to be already fulfilled, so that we may understand the death of unbelievers, of whom he says, “Leave the dead to bury their dead.”...He will then clear our eyes of tears, when He shall save our feet from falling. For there will then be no slipping of our feet as they walk, when there will be no sliding of the weak flesh. But now, however firm our path, which is Christ, be; yet since we place flesh, which we are enjoined to subdue, beneath us; in the very work of chastening and subduing it, it is a great thing not to fall: but not to slip in the flesh, who can attain? “I shall please in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living”....We “labour” indeed now, because we are awaiting “the redemption of our body:” but, “when death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality;” then there will be no weeping, because there will be no falling; and no falling, because no corruption. And therefore we shall then no longer labour to please, but we shall be entirely pleasing in the sight of the Lord, in the land of the living.

7....“I believed,” says he, “and therefore did I speak. But I was sorely brought down”. For he suffered many tribulations, for the sake of the word which he faithfully held, faithfully preached; and he was sorely brought down; as they feared who loved the praise of men better than that of God. But what means, “But I”? He should rather say, I believed, and therefore I have spoken, and I was sorely brought down: why did he add, “But I,” save because a man may be sorely brought down by those who oppose the truth, the truth itself cannot, which he believes and speaks? Whence also the Apostle, when he was speaking of his chain, says, “the word of God is not bound.” So this man also, since there is one person of the holy witnesses, that is, of the Martyrs of God, says, “I believed, and therefore will I speak.” “But I;” not that which I believed, not the word which I have delivered; “but I was sorely brought down.”

8. “I said in my trance, All men are liars”. By trance he means fear, which when persecutors threaten, and when the sufferings of torture or death impend, human weakness suffers. For this we understand, because in this Psalm the voice of Martyrs is heard. For trance is used in another sense also, when the mind is not beside itself by fear, but is possessed by some inspiration of revelation. “But I said in my haste, All men are liars.” In consternation he has had regard to his infirmity, and has seen that he ought not to presume on himself; for as far as pertains to the man himself, he is a liar, but by the grace of God he is made true; lest yielding to the pressure of his enemies he might not speak what he had believed, but might deny it; even as it happened to Peter, since he had trusted in himself, and was to be taught that we ought not to trust in man. And if every one ought not to trust in man, surely not in himself; because he is a man. Rightly therefore in his fear did he perceive that every man was a liar; since they also whom no fear robs of their presence of mind, so that they never lie by yielding to the persecutors, are such by the gifts of God, not by their own strength....

9. “What,” he asks, “what reward shall I give unto the Lord, for all the benefits that He has returned unto me?”. He says not, for all the benefits that He has done unto me but “for all the benefits that He has returned unto me.” What deeds then on the man's part had preceded, that all the benefits of God were not said to be given, but returned? What had preceded, on the man's part, save sins? God therefore repays good for evil, while unto Him men repay evil for good; for such was the return of those who said, “This is the heir: come, let us kill him.”