The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^4. But, when my enemies have been brought to contempt, let not my friend present himself unto me as a good man, so as to bid me repose my hope in himself: for “It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in man”. Nor let any one, who may in a certain sense be styled a good angel, be regarded by myself as one in whom I ought to put my trust: for “no one is good, save God alone;” and when a man or an angel appear to aid us, when they do this of sincere affection, He does it through them, who made them good after their measure. “It is” therefore “better to trust in the Lord, than to put any confidence in princes”. For angels also are called princes, even as we read in Daniel, “Michael, your prince.”

5. “All nations compassed me round about, but in the Name of the Lord have I taken vengeance on them”. “They kept me in on every side, they kept me in, I say, on every side; but in the Name of the Lord have I taken vengeance on them”. He signifies the toils and the victory of the Church; but, as if the question were asked how she could have overcome so great evils, he looks back to the example, and declares what she had first suffered in her Head, by adding what follows, “They kept me in on every side:” and the words, “All nations,” are with reason not repeated here, because this was the act of the Jews alone. There that very religious nation (which is the body of Christ, and in behalf of which was done all that was done in mortal form with immortal power, by that inward divinity, through the outward flesh), suffered from persecutors, of whose race that flesh was assumed and hung upon the cross.

6. “They came about me as bees do a hive, and burned up even as the fire among the thorns: and in the Name of the Lord have I taken vengeance on them”. Here then the order of the words corresponds with the order of events. For we rightly understand that our Lord Himself, the Head of the Church, was surrounded by persecutors, even as bees surround a hive. For the Holy Spirit is speaking with mystic subtlety of what was done by those who knew not what they did. For bees make honey in the hives: while our Lord's persecutors, unconscious as they were, rendered Him sweeter unto us even by His very Passion; so that we may taste and see how sweet is the Lord, “Who died for our sins, and arose for our justification.” But what follows, “and burned up even as the fire among the thorns,” is better understood of His Body, that is, of a people spread abroad, whom all nations compassed about, since it was gathered together from all nations. They consumed this sinful flesh, and the grievous piercings of this mortal life, in the flame of persecution. “Taken vengeance on them:” either because they themselves, that wickedness, which in them persecuted the righteous, having been extinguished, were joined with the people of Christ; or because the rest of them, who have at this time scorned the mercy of Him who calls them, will at the end feel the truth of Him who judges them.

7. “I have been driven on like a heap of sand, so that I was falling, but the Lord upheld me”. For though there were a great multitude of believers, that might be compared to the countless sand, and brought into one communion as into one heap; yet “what is man, save Thou be mindful of Him?” He said not, the multitude of the Gentiles could not surpass the abundance of my host, but, “the Lord,” he says, “has upheld me.” The persecution of the Gentiles succeeded not in pushing forward, to its overthrow, the host of the faithful dwelling together in the unity of the faith.

8. “The Lord is my strength and my praise, and has become my salvation”. Who then fall, when they are pushed, save they who choose to be their own strength and their own praise? For no man falls in the contest, except he whose strength and praise fails. He therefore whose strength and praise is the Lord, falls no more than the Lord falls. And for this reason He has become their salvation; not that He has become anything which He was not before, but because they, when they believed on Him, became what they were not before, and then He began to be salvation unto them when turned towards Him, which He was not to them when turned away from Himself.

9. “The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous”; where they who raged against their bodies thought there was the voice of sorrow and destruction. For they did not know the inward joy of the saints in their future hope. Whence the Apostle also says, “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;” and again, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.”

10. “The right hand of the Lord has brought mighty things to pass”. What mighty things? Says he. “The right hand of the Lord,” he says, “has exalted me.” It is a mighty thing to exalt the humble, to deify the mortal, to bring perfection out of infirmity, glory from subjection, victory from suffering, to give help, to raise from trouble; that the true salvation of God might be laid open to the afflicted, and the salvation of men might remain of no avail to the persecutors. These are great things: but what are you surprised at? Hear what he repeats: “The right hand of the Lord has brought mighty things to pass.”

11. “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord”. But they, while they were dealing havoc and death on every side, thought that the Church of Christ was dying. Behold, he now declares the works of the Lord. Everywhere Christ is the glory of the blessed Martyrs. By being beaten He conquered those who struck Him; by being patient of torments, the tormentors; by loving, those who raged against Him.