The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

1....“With my voice have I cried unto the Lord”. It were enough to say, “with voice:” not for nothing perhaps has “my” been added. For many cry unto the Lord, not with their own voice, but with the voice of their body. Let the “inner man” then, in whom “Christ” has begun to “dwell by faith,” cry unto the Lord, not with the din of his lips, but with the affection of his heart. God hears not, where man hears: unless you cry with the voice of lungs and side and tongue, man hears you not: your thought is your cry to the Lord. “With my voice have I prayed unto the Lord.” What he meant by, “I have cried,” he explained when he said, “I have prayed.” For they too who blaspheme, cry unto the Lord. In the former part he set down his crying, in the latter he explained what it was. As though it were demanded, With what cry have you cried unto the Lord? Unto the Lord, says he, I have prayed. My cry is my prayer, not reviling, not murmuring, not blaspheming.

2. “I will pour out before Him my prayer”. What is, “before Him”? In His sight. What is, in His sight? Where He sees. But where does He not see? For so do we say, 'where He sees,' as though somewhere He sees not. But in this assemblage of bodily substances men too see, animals too see: He sees where man sees not. For your thoughts no man sees, but God sees. There then pour out your prayer, where He alone sees, who rewards. For the Lord Jesus Christ bade you pray in secret: but if you know what “your closet” is, and cleansest it, there you pray to God. “But you,” says He, “when you pray, enter into your closet, and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret, and He who sees in secret shall reward you.” If men are to reward you, pour out your prayer before men: if God is to reward you, pour out your prayer before Him; and close the door, lest the tempter enter. Therefore the Apostle, because it is in our power to shut the door, the door of our hearts, not of our walls, for in it is our “closet,”— because it is in our power to shut this door, says, “neither give place to the devil.” But what is to “shut the door”? This door has as it were two leaves, desire and fear. Either thou desires something earthly, and he enters by this; or you fear something earthly, and he enters by that. Close then the door of fear and desire against the devil, open it to Christ. How do you open these folding doors to Christ? By desiring the kingdom of heaven, by fearing the fire of hell. By desire of this world the devil enters, by desire of eternal life Christ enters; by fear of temporal punishment the devil enters, by fear of everlasting fire Christ enters....

3. “My tribulation I will proclaim in His sight.” There is a repetition, both in the two preceding sentences, and in these which follow: the sentiments are two, but both twice expressed....For, “in His sight,” is the same as “before Him;” “I will proclaim my tribulation,” is the same as, “I will pour out my prayer.” When doest thou this? Being set in the midst of persecution, he says, “while my spirit failed from me”. Wherefore has your spirit failed, O martyr, set in tribulation? That I may not claim my strength as my own, that I may know that Another works in me the goodness I have. And men perhaps have heard that my spirit has failed within me, and have despaired of me, and have said, “we have taken him captive, we have overpowered him;” “and You have known my paths.” They thought me cast down, You saw me standing upright. They who persecuted me and had seized me, thought my feet entangled, “but their feet were entangled, and they fell, but we are risen, and stand upright.” For my eyes are ever unto the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. I have persevered in walking, for “he that shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved.” They thought me overpowered, but I continued walking. Where did I walk? In paths which they saw not, who thought me prisoner, in the paths of Your righteousness, in the paths of Your commandments....For every path is a way, but not every way is a path. Why then are those ways called paths, save because they are narrow? Broad is the way of the wicked, narrow the way of the righteous. That which is “the way” is also “the ways,” just as “the Church” is also “the Churches,” the “heaven” also the “heavens:” they are spoken of in the plural, they are spoken of also in the singular. On account of the unity of the Church it is one Church; “My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother.” On account of the congregation of brethren in various places there are many Churches. “The Churches of Judæa which are in Christ rejoiced,” says Paul, “and they glorified God in me.” Thus he spoke of Churches; and of one Church he thus speaks, “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.”...

4. “In this way, wherein I was walking, they hid a trap for me.” This “way wherein I was walking,” is Christ; there have they laid a trap for me, who persecute me in Christ, for Christ's Name's sake. There then “have they hid for me a trap.” What in me do they hate, what in me do they persecute? That I am a Christian....For the heretics too wish to hide a stumbling-block for us in the Name of Christ, and are themselves deceived. What they think that they put in the way, they put outside the way, for they themselves are outside the way. They cannot set a trap where themselves are not....The Pagan thinks to put a stumbling-block in the way, when he says to me, “You worship a crucified God.” He finds fault with the Cross of Christ, which he understands not. He thinks that he sets in Christ, what he sets near the way. I will not depart from Christ, so shall I not fall from the way into the trap. Let him mock at Christ crucified, let me see the Cross of Christ on the foreheads of kings. What he laughs at, therein am I saved. Nought is prouder than a sick man, who laughs at his own medicine. If he laughed not at it, he would take it, and be healed. The Cross is the sign of humility, but he through excess of pride acknowledges not that whereby may be healed the swelling of his soul. But if I acknowledge, I am walking in the way. So far am I from blushing at the Cross, that in no secret place do I keep the Cross of Christ, but bear it on my forehead. Many sacraments we receive, one in one way another in another: some as you know we receive with the mouth, some we receive over the whole body. But because the forehead is the seat of the blush of shame, He who said, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me before men, of him will I be ashamed before My Father which is in heaven,” set, so to speak, that very ignominy which the Pagans mock at, in the seat of our shame. You hear a man assail a shameless man and say, “He has no forehead.” What is, “He has no forehead”? He has no shame. Let me not have a bare forehead, let the Cross of my Lord cover it....