The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^62. “You have dealt in sweetness with Your servant: according unto Your word;” or rather, “according unto Your utterance”. The Greek word χρηστότης has been variously rendered by our translators by the words “sweetness” and “goodness.” But since sweetness may exist also in evil, since all unlawful and unclean things afford pleasure, and it may also exist in that carnal pleasure which is permitted; we ought to understand the word “sweetness,” which the Greeks termed χρηστότης, of spiritual blessings: for on this account our translators have preferred to term it “goodness.” I think therefore that nothing else is meant by the words, “You have dealt in sweetness with Your servant,” than this, You have made me feel delight in that which is good. For when that which is good delights, it is a great gift of God. But when the good work which the law commands is done from a fear of punishment, not from a delight in righteousness, when God is dreaded, not loved; it is the act of a slave, not of a freeman.

63. “O learn me sweetness, and understanding, and knowledge,” he says, “for I have believed Your commandments”. He prays these things may be increased and perfected. For they who said, “Lord, increase our faith,” had faith. And as long as we live in this world, these are the words of those who are making progress. But he adds, “understanding,” or, as most copies read, “discipline.” Now the word discipline, for which the Greeks use παιδεία, is employed in Scripture, where instruction through tribulation is to be understood: according to the words, “Whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and scourges every son whom He receives.” In the literature of the Church this is usually called discipline. For this word, παιδεία, is used in the Greek in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the Latin translator says, “No discipline for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous,” etc. He therefore toward whom the Lord deals in sweetness, that is, he in whom He mercifully inspires delight in that which is good, ought to pray instantly, that this gift may be so increased unto him, that he may not only despise all other delights in comparison with it, but also that he may endure any amount of sufferings for its sake. Thus is discipline healthfully added to sweetness. This discipline ought not to be desired, and prayed for, for a small measure of grace and goodness, that is, holy love; but for so great, as may not be extinguished by the weight of the chastening:...so much in fact as to enable him to endure with the utmost patience the discipline. In the third place is mentioned knowledge; since, if knowledge in its greatness outstrips the increase of love, it does not edify, but “puffs up.”...

64. But in that he says, not, Give unto me; but, “O learn me;” how is the sweetness taught, if it be not given? Since many know what does not delight them, and find no sweetness in things of which they have knowledge. For sweetness cannot be learned, unless it please. Also discipline, which signifies the tribulation which chastens, is learned by receiving; that is, not by hearing, or reading, or thinking, but by feeling....

65. He adds, “for I have believed Your commandments,” and herein we may justly enquire, why he said not, I obeyed, rather than, I believed. For commandments are one thing, promises another. We undertake to obey commandments, that we may deserve to receive promises. We therefore believe promises, obey commandments....Teach me therefore sweetness by inspiring charity, teach me discipline by giving patience, teach me knowledge by enlightening my understanding: “for I have believed Your commandments.” I have believed that Thou who art God, and who givest unto man whence You may cause him to do what You command, hast commanded these things.

66. “Before I was humbled, I went wrong; wherefore I have kept Your word”; or, as some have it more closely, “Your utterance,” that is, lest I should be humbled again. This is better referred to that humiliation which took place in Adam, in whom the whole human creature, as it were, being corrupted at the root, as it refused to be subject to truth, “was made subject to vanity.” Which it was profitable to the vessels of mercy to feel, that by throwing down pride, obedience might be loved, and misery perish, never again to return.

67. “Sweet are You, O Lord;” or, as many have it, “Sweet are You, even Thou, O Lord”. Some also, “Sweet are You,” or, “Good are You:” as we have before treated of this word: “and in Your sweetness teach me Your statutes.” He truly desires to do the righteousnesses of God, since he desires to learn them in His sweetness from Him unto whom he has said, “Sweet are You, O Lord.”

68. Next he says, “The iniquity of the proud has been multiplied upon me”: of those, that is, whom it profited not that human nature was humbled after it went wrong. “But I will search Your commandments with my whole heart.” Howsoever, he says, iniquity shall abound, love shall not grow cold in me. He, as it were, says this, who in His sweetness learns the righteousnesses of God. For in proportion as the commandments of Him who aids us are the more sweet, so much the more does he who loves Him search after them, that he may perform them when known, and may learn them by doing them; because they are more perfectly understood when they are performed.

69. “Their heart is curdled as milk”. Whose, save the proud, whose iniquity he has said has been multiplied upon him? But he wishes it to be understood by this word, and in this passage, that their heart has become hard. It is used also in a good sense, and is understood to mean, full of grace: for this word, some have also interpreted “curdled.”...

70. “It is good for me that You have humbled me: that I might learn Your righteousnesses”. He has said something kindred to this above. For by the fruit itself he shows that it was a good thing for him to be humbled; but in the former passage he has stated the cause also, in that he had felt beforehand that humiliation which resulted from his punishment, when he went wrong. But in these words, “Wherefore have I kept Your word:” and again in these, “That I might learn Your righteousnesses:” he seems to me to have signified, that to know these is the same thing as to keep them, to keep them the same thing as to know them. For Christ knew what He reproved; and yet He reproved sin, though it is said of Him that “He knew not sin.” He knew therefore by a kind of knowledge, and again He knew not by a kind of ignorance. Thus also many learn the righteousnesses of God, and learn them not. For they know them in a certain way; and, again do not know them from a kind of ignorance, since they do them not. In this sense the Psalmist therefore is to be understood to have said, “That I might learn Your righteousnesses,” meaning that kind of knowledge whereby they are performed.

71. But that this is not gained, save through love, wherein he who does them has delight, on which account it is said, “In Your sweetness teach me Your righteousnesses:” the following verse shows, wherein he says, “The law of Your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver”: so that love loves the law of God more than avarice loves thousands of gold and silver.