The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^13. And who observed and noticed the cause of his groaning? “All my desire is before You”. For it is not before men who cannot see the heart, but it is before You that all my desire is open! Let your desire be before Him; and “the Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you.” For it is your heart's desire that is your prayer; and if your desire continues uninterrupted, your prayer continues also. For not without a meaning did the Apostle say, “Pray without ceasing.” Are we to be “without ceasing” bending the knee, prostrating the body, or lifting up our hands, that he says, “Pray without ceasing”? Or if it is in this sense that we say that we “pray,” this, I believe, we cannot do “without ceasing.” There is another inward kind of prayer without ceasing, which is the desire of the heart. Whatever else you are doing, if you do but long for that Sabbath, you do not cease to pray. If you would never cease to pray, never cease to long after it. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. You will be ceasing to speak, if you cease to long for it. Who are those who have ceased to speak? They of whom it is said, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” The freezing of charity is the silence of the heart; the burning of charity is the cry of the heart. If love continues still you are still lifting up your voice; if you are always lifting up your voice, you are always longing after something; if always longing for something absent, you are calling “the Sabbath rest to remembrance.” And it is important you should understand too before whom the “roaring of your heart” is open. Now then consider what sort of desires those should be, that are before the eyes of God. Should it be the desire for the death of our enemy? A thing which men flatter themselves they lawfully wish for? For sometimes we pray for what we ought not. Let us consider what they flatter themselves they pray for lawfully! For they pray that some person may die, and his inheritance come to them. But let those too, who pray for the death of their enemies, hear the Lord saying, “Pray for your enemies.” Let them not pray for this, that their enemies may die; but rather pray for this, that they may be reclaimed; then will their enemies be dead; for from the time that they are reclaimed, henceforth they will be enemies no longer. “And all my desire is before You.” What if we suppose that our desire is before Him, and that yet that very “groaning” is not before Him? How can that be, since our desire itself finds its expression in “groaning”? Therefore follows, “And my groaning is not hid from You.”

From You indeed it is not hid; but from many men it is hid. The servant of God sometimes seems to be saying in humility, “And my groaning is not hid from You.” Sometimes also he seems to smile. Is then that longing dead in his heart? If however there is the desire within, there is the “groaning” also. It does not always find its way to the ears of man; but it never ceases to sound in the ears of God.

14. “My heart is troubled”. Wherefore is it troubled? “And my courage has failed me.” Generally something comes upon us on a sudden; the “heart is troubled;” the earth quakes; thunder is sent from Heaven; a formidable attack is made upon us, or a horrible sound heard. Perhaps a lion is seen on the road; the “heart is troubled.” Perhaps robbers lie in wait for us; the “heart is troubled:” we are filled with a panic fear; from every quarter something excites anxiety. Wherefore? Because “my courage has failed me.” For what would be feared, did that courage still remain unmoved? Whatever bad tidings were brought, whatever threatened us, whatever sound was heard, whatever were to fall, whatever appeared horrible, would inspire no terror. But whence that trouble? “My courage fails me.” Wherefore has my courage failed me? “The light of my eyes also is gone from me.” Thus Adam also could not see “the light of his eyes.” For the “light of his eyes” was God Himself, whom when he had offended, he fled to the shade, and hid himself among the trees of Paradise. He shrunk in alarm from the face of God: and sought the shelter of the trees; thenceforth among the trees he had no more “the light of his eyes,” at which he had been wont to rejoice....

15. “My lovers;” why should I henceforth speak of my enemies? “My lovers and my neighbours drew near, and stood over against me”. Understand this that he says, “Stood over against me.” For if they stood over against me, they fell against themselves. “My lovers and my neighbours drew near and stood over against me.” Let us now recognise the words of the Head speaking; now let our Head in His Passion begin to dawn upon us. Yet again when the Head begins to speak, do not sever the Body from it. If the Head would not separate itself from the words of the Body, should the Body dare to separate itself from the sufferings of the Head? Do thou suffer in Christ's suffering: for Christ, as it were, sinned in your infirmity. For just now He spoke of your sins, as if speaking in His own Person, and called them His own....To those who wished to be near His exaltation, yet thought not of His humility, He answered and said to them, “Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of?” Those sufferings of the Lord then are our sufferings also: and were each individual to serve God well, to keep faith truly, to render to each their dues, and to conduct himself honestly among men, I should like to see if he does not suffer even that which Christ here details in the account of His Passion. “My lovers and my neighbours drew near, and stood over against me.”

16. “And my neighbours stood afar off.” Who were the “neighbours” that drew near, and who were those who stood afar off? The Jews were “neighbours” because “near kinsmen,” they drew near even when they crucified Him: the Apostles also were His “neighbours;” and they also “stood afar off,” that they might not have to suffer with Him. This may also be understood thus: “My friends,” that is, those who feigned themselves “My friends:” for they feigned themselves His friends, when they said, “We know that Thou teachest the way of God in truth;” when they wished to try Him, whether tribute ought to be paid to Cæsar; when He convinced them out of their own mouth, they wished to seem to be His friends. “But He needed not that any should testify of man, for He Himself knew what was in man;” so that when they spoke unto Him words of friendship, He answered them, “Why do you tempt Me, you hypocrites?” “My friends and my neighbours” then “drew near and stood over against me, and my neighbours stood afar off.” You understand what I said. I called those neighbours who “drew near,” and at the same time “stood afar off.” For they “drew near” in the body, but “stood afar off” in their heart. Who were in the body so near to Him as those who lifted Him on the Cross? Who in heart so as those who blasphemed Him? Hear this sort of distance described by the Prophet Isaiah; observe this nearness and distance at one and the same time. “This people honours Me with their lips:” behold, with their body they draw near; “but their heart is far from Me.” The same persons are at the same time “near” and “afar off” also: with their lips they are near, in heart afar off. However, because the Apostles also stood afar off, through fear, we understand it more simply and properly of them; so that we mean by it, that some drew near, and others stood afar off; since even Peter, who had followed more boldly than the rest, was still so far off, that being questioned and alarmed, he thrice denied the Lord, with whom he had promised to “be ready to die.” Who afterwards that, from being afar off, he might be made to draw near, heard after the resurrection the question, “Lovest thou Me?” and said, “I love You;” and by so saying was brought “near,” even as by denying Him, he had become “far off;” till with the threefold confession of love, he had put away from him his threefold denial. “And my neighbours stood afar off.”