The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^8. Since then we have the certainty that these things are to be hereafter, and since we have heard from our fathers that those we spoke of were in time past, what is our state at present? “But now You have cast us off, and put us to shame”. You have “put us to shame” not before our own consciences, but in the sight of men. For there was a time when Christians were persecuted; when in every place they were outcasts, when in every place it used to be said, “He is a Christian!” as if it conveyed an insult and reproach. Where then is He, “our God, our King,” who “commands salvation unto Jacob”? Where is He who did all those works, which “our fathers have told us”? Where is He who is hereafter to do all those things which He revealed unto us by His Spirit? Is He changed? No. These things are done in order to “understanding, for the sons of Korah.” For we ought to “understand” something of the reason, why He has willed we should suffer all these things in the mean time. What “all things”? “But now You have cast us off and put us to shame: and goest not forth, O God, in our powers.” We go forth to meet our enemies, and You go not forth with us. We see them: they are very strong, and we are without strength. Where is that might of Yours? Where Your “right hand,” and Your power? Where the sea dried up, and the Egyptian pursuers overwhelmed with the waves? Where Amalek's resistance subdued by the sign of the Cross? “And You, O God, goest not forth in our powers.”

9. “You have turned us away backward in presence of our enemies”, so that they are, as it were, before; we, behind; they are counted as conquerors, we as conquered. “And they which hate us spoiled for themselves.” What did they “spoil” but ourselves?

10. “You have given us like sheep appointed for meat, and hast scattered us among the nations”. We have been “devoured” by “the nations.” Those persons are meant, who, through their sufferings, have by process of assimilation, becomes part of the “body” of the Gentile world. For the Church mourns over them, as over members of her body, that have been devoured.

11. “You have sold Your people for no price”. For we see whom You have made over; what You have received, we have not seen. “And there was no multitude in their jubilees.” For when the Christians were flying before the pursuit of enemies, who were idolaters, were there then held any congregations and “jubilees” to the honour of God? Were those Hymns chanted in concert from the Churches of God, that are wont to be sung in concert in time of peace, and to be sounded in a sweet accord of the brotherhood in the ears of God?

12. “You made us a reproach to our neighbours; a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us”. “You made us a similitude among the heathen”. What is meant by a “similitude”? It is when men in imprecating a curse make a “similitude” of his name whom they detest. “So may thou die;” “So may thou be punished!” What a number of such reproaches were then uttered! “So may thou be crucified!” Even in the present day there are not wanting enemies of Christ (those very Jews themselves), against whom whenever we defend Christ, they say unto us, “So may thou die as He did.” For they would not have inflicted that kind of death had they not an intense horror of dying by such a death: or had they been able to comprehend what mystery was contained in it. When the ointment is applied to the eyes of the blind man, he does not see the eye-salve in the physician's hand. For the very Cross was made for the benefit even of the persecutors themselves. Hereby they were healed afterwards; and they believed in Him whom they themselves had slain. “You made us a similitude among the heathen; a shaking of the head among the peoples,” a “shaking of the head” by way of insult. “They spoke with their lips, they shook the head.” This they did to the Lord: this to all His Saints also, whom they were able to pursue, to lay hold of, to mock, to betray, to afflict, and to slay.

13. “My shame is continually before me; and the confusion of my face has covered me”. “For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes”: that is to say, from the voice of them that insult over me, and who make it a charge against me that I worship You, that I confess You! And who make it a charge against me that I bear that name by which all charges against me shall be blotted out. “For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes,” that is, of him that speaks against me. “By reason of the enemy and the persecutor.” And what is the “understanding” conveyed here? Those things which are told us of the time past, will not be done in our case: those which are hoped for, as to be hereafter, are not as yet manifest. Those which are past, as the leading out of Your people with great glory from Egypt; its deliverance from its persecutors; the guiding of it through the nations, the placing of it in the kingdom, whence the nations had been expelled. What are those to be hereafter? The leading of the people out of this Egypt of the world, when Christ, our “leader” shall appear in His glory: the placing of the Saints at His right hand; of the wicked at His left; the condemnation of the wicked with the devil to eternal punishment; the receiving of a kingdom from Christ with the Saints to last for ever. These are the things that are yet to be: the former are what are past. In the interval, what is to be our lot? Tribulations! “Why so?” That it may be seen with respect to the soul that worships God, to what extent it worships God; that it may be seen whether it worships Him “freely” from whom it received salvation “freely.”...What have you given unto God? You were wicked, and thou were redeemed! What have you given unto God? What is there that you have not “received” from Him “freely”? With reason is it named “grace,” because it is bestowed (gratis, i.e.) freely. What is required of you then is this, that thou too should worship “Him freely;” not because He gives you things temporal, but because He holds out to you things eternal....

14. “All this has come upon us; yet have we not forgotten You”. What is meant by, “have not forgotten You”? “Neither have we behaved ourselves frowardly in Your covenant.”

“Our heart has not turned back; and You have turned aside our goings out of Your way”. See here is “understanding,” in that “our heart has not gone back;” that we have not “forgotten You, have not behaved frowardly in Your covenant;” placed as we are in great tribulations, and persecutions of the Gentiles. “You have turned aside our goings out of Your way.” Our “goings” were in the pleasures of the world; our “goings” were in the midst of temporal prosperities. You have taken “our goings out of Your way;” and hast shown us how “strait and narrow is the way that leads unto life.” What is meant by, “hast turned aside our goings out of Your way”? It is as if He said, You are placed in the midst of tribulation; you are suffering many things; you have already lost many things that you loved in this life: but I have not abandoned you on the way, the narrow way that I am teaching you. You were seeking “broad ways.” What do I tell you? This is the way we go to everlasting life; by the way ye wish to walk, you are going to death. How “broad and wide is the road that leads to destruction: and” how “many there be that find it! How strait and narrow the way that leads unto life, and” how “few there be” that walk therein! Who are the few? They who patiently endure tribulations, patiently endure temptations; who in all these troubles do not “fall away:” who do not rejoice in the word “for a season” only; and in the time of tribulation fade away, as on the sun's arising; but who have the “root” of “love,” according to what we have lately heard read in the Gospel....