The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^2. You know that some of the Psalms are entitled, “Songs of Degrees;” and in the Greek it is obvious enough what the word ‡ ναβαθμῶν means. For ‡ ναβαθμοὶ are degrees (or steps) of them that ascend, not of them that descend. The Latin, not being able to express it strictly, expresses it by the general term; and in that it called them “steps,” left it undetermined, whether they were “steps” of persons ascending or descending. But because there is no “speech or language where their voices are not heard among them,” the earlier language explains the one which comes after it: and what was ambiguous in one is made certain in another. Just then as there the singer is some one who is “ascending,” so here is it some one who is “over-leaping.”...Let this Idithun come still to us, let him “over-leap” those whose delight is in things below, and take delight in these things, and let him rejoice in the Word of the Lord; in the delight of the law of the Most High....

3. “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue”....For it is not without reason that the tongue is set in a moist place, but because it is so prone to slip. Perceiving therefore how hard it was for a man to be under the necessity of speaking, and not to say something that he will wish unsaid, and filled with disgust at these sins, he seeks to avoid the like. To this difficulty is he exposed who is seeking to “leap beyond.”...Although I have “leaped beyond” the pleasures of earth, although the fleeting passions for things temporal ensnare me not, though now I despise these things below, and am rising up to better things than these, yet in these very better things the satisfaction of knowledge in the sight of God is enough for me. Of what use is it for me to speak what is to be laid hold of, and to give a handle to cavillers? Therefore, “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I keep my mouth with a bridle.” Wherefore is this? Is it on account of the religious, the thoughtful, the faithful, the holy ones? God forbid! These persons hear in such a manner, as to praise what they approve; but as for what they disapprove, perhaps, among much that they praise they rather excuse than cavil at it; on account of what persons then do you “take heed to your ways,” and place a guard on your lips “that you may not sin with your tongue”? Hear: it is, “While the wicked stands over against me.” It is not “by me” that he takes up his station, but “against me.” Why?...Even the Lord Himself says, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.” And the Apostle, “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.” Yet not as to persons to be despaired of, but as to those who still required to be nourished. For he goes on to say, “As babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto you were not able.” Well, tell it unto us even now. “Neither yet now are you able.” Be not therefore impatient to hear that which as yet you are not capable of; but grow that you may be “able to bear it.” It is thus we address the little one, who yet requires to be fed with kindly milk in the bosom of Mother Church, and to be rendered meet for the “strong meat” of the Lord's Table. But what can I say even of that kind to the sinner, who “takes his stand against me,” who either thinks or pretends himself capable of what he “cannot bear;” so that when I say anything unto him, and he has failed to comprehend it, he should not suppose that it was not he that had failed to comprehend, but I who had broken down. Therefore because of this sinner, who “takes up his stand against me, I keep my mouth as it were with a bridle.”

4. “I became deaf, and was humbled, I held my peace from good”. For this person, who is “leaping beyond,” suffers some difficulty in a certain stage to which he has already attained; and he desires to advance beyond, even from thence, to avoid this difficulty. I was afraid of committing a sin; so that I spoke not; that I imposed on myself the necessity of silence: for I had spoken thus, “I will take heed to my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue.” Whilst I was too much afraid of saying anything wrong, I kept silence from all that is good. For whence could I say good things, except that I heard them? “It is Thou that shall make me to hear of joy and gladness.” And the “friend of the bridegroom stands and hears Him, and rejoices on account of the bridegroom's voice,” not his own. That he may speak true things, he hears what he is to say. For it is he that “speaks a lie,” that “speaks of his own.”...When therefore I had “put a bridle,” as it were, “on my lips;” and constrained myself to silence, because I saw that everywhere speech was dangerous, then, says he, that came to pass upon me, which I did not wish, “I became deaf, and was humbled;” not humbled myself, but was humbled; “and I held my peace even from good.” Whilst afraid of saying any evil, I began to refrain from speaking what is good: and I condemned my determination; for “I was holding my peace even from what is good.”

“And my sorrow was stirred up again”. Inasmuch as I had found in silence a kind of respite from a certain “sorrow,” that had been inflicted upon me by those who cavilled at my words, and found fault with me: and that sorrow that was caused by the cavillers, had ceased indeed; but when “I held my peace even from good, my sorrow was stirred up again.” I began to be more grieved at having refrained from saying what I ought to have said, than I had before been grieved by having said what I ought not. “And my sorrow was stirred up again.”

5. “And while I was musing, the fire burned”....I reflected on the words of my Lord, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, you ought to have put My money to the exchangers, and I at My coming should receive it again with usury.” And that which follows may God avert from those who are His stewards! Bind him hand and foot, and let him be cast into outer darkness; the servant, who was not a waster of his master's goods, so as to destroy them, but was slothful in laying them out to improve them. What ought they to expect, who have wasted them in luxury, if they are condemned who through slothfulness have kept them? “As I was musing, the fire burned.” And as he was in this state of wavering suspense, between speaking and holding his peace, between those who are prepared to cavil and those who are anxious to be instructed,...in this state of suspense, he prays for a better place, a place different from this his present stewardship, in which man is in such difficulty and in such danger, and sighing after a certain “end,” when he was not to be subject to these things, when the Lord is to say to the faithful dispenser, “Enter thou into the joy of your Lord,” he says, “Then spoke I with my tongue.” In this fluctuation, in the midst of these dangers and these difficulties, because, that in consequence of the abundance of offenses “the love of many is waxing cold,” although the law of the Lord inspires delight, in this fluctuation then, (I say), “then spoke I with my tongue.” To whom? Not to the hearer whom I would fain instruct; but to Him who hears and takes heed also, by whom I would fain be instructed myself. “I spoke with my tongue” to Him, from whom I inwardly hear whatever I hear that is good or true.— What did You say?