The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

⁴ Let whatsoever holy men therefore that are suffering pressing from those that have been put afar off from the saints, give heed to this Psalm, let them perceive here themselves, let them speak what here is spoken, that suffer what here is spoken of....Private enmities therefore let no one think of, when about to hear the words of this Psalm: “Know ye that for us the wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against princes and powers, and spiritual things of wickedness,” that is, against the devil and his angels; because even when we suffer men that annoy us, he is instigating, he is inflaming, as it were his vessels he is moving. Let us give heed therefore to two enemies, him whom we see, and him whom we see not; man we see, the devil we see not; man let us love, of the devil beware; for man pray, against the devil pray, and let us say to God, “Have pity on me, O Lord, for man has trodden me down”. Fear not because man has trodden you down: have thou wine, a grape you have become in order that you should be trodden. “All day long warring he has troubled me,” every one that has been put afar off from the saints. But why should not here be understood even the devil himself? Is it because mention is made of “man”? does therefore the Gospel err, because it has said, “A man that is an enemy has done this”? But by a kind of figure may he also be called a man, and yet not be a man. Whether therefore it was him whom he that said these words was beholding, or whether it was the people and each one that was put afar off from holy men, through which kind the devil troubles the people of God, who cleave to holy men, who cleave to the Holy One, who cleave to the King, at the title of which King being indignant they were as though beaten back, and put afar off: let him say, “Have pity on me, O Lord, for man has trodden me down:” and let him faint not in this treading down, knowing Him on whom he is calling, and by whose example he has been made strong. The first cluster in the winefat pressed is Christ. When that cluster by passion was pressed out, there flowed that whence “the cup inebriating is how passing beautiful!” Let His Body likewise say, looking upon its Head, “Have pity on me, O Lord, for man has trodden me down: all day long warring he has troubled me.” “All day long,” at all times. Let no one say to himself, There have been troubles in our fathers' time, in our time there are not. If you suppose yourself not to have troubles, not yet have you begun to be a Christian. And where is the voice of the Apostle, “But even all that will live godly in Christ, persecutions shall suffer.” If therefore you suffer not any persecution for Christ, take heed lest not yet you have begun godly to live in Christ. But when you have begun godly to live in Christ, you have entered into the winepress; make ready yourself for pressings: but be not thou dry, lest from the pressing nothing go forth.

5. “Mine enemies have trodden me down all day long”. They that have been put afar off from holy men, these are mine enemies. All day long: already it has been said, “From the height of the day.” What means, “from the height of the day”? Perchance it is a high thing to understand. And no wonder, because the height of the day it is. For perchance they for this reason have been put afar off from holy men, because they were not able to penetrate the height of the day, whereof the Apostles are twelve shining hours. Therefore they that crucified Him, as if man, in the day have erred. But why have they suffered darkness, so that they should be put afar off from holy men? Because on high the day was shining, Him in the height hidden they knew not. “For if they had known, never the Lord of Glory would they have crucified.”...

6. “For many men that war against me, shall fear”. Shall fear when? When the day shall have passed away, wherein they are high. For for a time high they are, when the time of their height is finished they will fear. “But I in You will hope, O Lord.” He says not, “But I will not fear:” but, “Many men, that war against me, shall fear.” When there shall have come that day of Judgment, then “shall mourn for themselves all the tribes of the earth.” When there shall have appeared the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, then secure shall be all holy men. For that thing shall come which they hoped for, which they longed for, the coming whereof they prayed for: but to those men no place for repentance shall remain, because in that time wherein fruitful might have been repentance, their heart they hardened against a warning Lord. Shall they too raise up a wall against a judging God? The godliness of this man do thou indeed acknowledge, and if in that Body you are, imitate him. When he had said, “Many men, that war against me, shall fear:” he did not continue, “But I will not fear;” lest to his own powers ascribing his not fearing, he too should be amid high temporal things, and through pride temporal he should not deserve to come to rest everlasting: rather he has made you to perceive whence he shall not fear. “But I,” he says, “in you will hope, O Lord:” he has not spoken of his confidence: but of the cause of his confidence. For if I shall not fear, I may also by hardness of heart not fear, for many men by too much pride fear nothing....

7. “In God I will praise my discourses, in God I have hoped: I will not fear what flesh does to me”. Wherefore? Because in God I will praise my discourses. If in yourself you praise your discourses: I say not that you are not to fear; it is impossible that thou have not to fear. For your discourses either false you will have, and therefore your own, because false: or if your discourses shall be true, and you shall deem yourself not to have them from God but of yourself to speak; true they will be, but you will be false: but if you shall have known that you can say nothing true in the wisdom of God, in the faith of the Truth, save that which from Him you have received, of whom is said, “For what have you which you have not received?” Then in God you are praising your discourses, in order that in God you may be praised by the discourses of God....“In God I have hoped, I will not fear what flesh does to me.” Were you not the same that a little before wast saying, “Have pity on me, O Lord, for man has trodden me down; all day long warring he has troubled me”? How therefore here, “I will not fear what flesh does to me”? What shall he do to you? Thou yourself a little before hast said, “Hath trodden me down, has troubled me.” Nothing shall he do, when these things he shall do? He has had regard to the wine which flows from treading, and has made answer, Evidently he has trodden down, evidently has troubled; but what to me shall he do? A grape I was, wine I shall be: “In God I have hoped, I will not fear what flesh does to me.”