The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^1. Your Love remembers, that in two Psalms, which have been already treated of, we have stirred up our soul to bless the Lord, and with godly chant have said, “Bless thou, O my soul, the Lord.” If therefore we have stirred up our soul in those Psalms to bless the Lord, in this Psalm is well said, “May God have pity on us, and bless us”. Let our soul bless the Lord, and let God bless us. When God blesses us, we grow, and when we bless the Lord, we grow, to us both are profitable. He is not increased by our blessing, nor is He lessened by our cursing. He that curses the Lord, is himself lessened: he that blesses the Lord, is himself increased. First, there is in us the blessing of the Lord, and the consequence is that we also bless the Lord. That is the rain, this the fruit. Therefore there is rendered as it were fruit to God the Husbandman, raining upon and tilling us. Let us chant these words with no barren devotion, with no empty voice, but with true heart. For most evidently God the Father has been called a Husbandman. The Apostle says, “God's husbandry you are, God's building you are.” In things visible of this world, the vine is not a building, and a building is not a vineyard: but we are the vineyard of the Lord, because He tills us for fruit; the building of God we are, since He who tills us, dwells in us. And what says the same Apostle? “I have planted, Apollos has watered, but the increase God has given. Therefore neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but He that gives the increase, even God.” He it is therefore that gives the increase. Are those perchance the husbandmen? For a husbandman he is called that plants, that waters: but the Apostle has said, “I have planted, Apollos has watered.” Do we enquire whence himself has done this? The Apostle makes answer, “Yet not I, but the Grace of God with me.” Therefore wherever thou turn you, whether through Angels, you will find God your Husbandman; whether through Prophets, the Same is your Husbandman; whether through Apostles, the very Same acknowledge to be your Husbandman. What then of us? Perchance we are the labourers of that Husbandman, and this too with powers imparted by Himself, and by Grace granted by Himself....

2. “Lighten His countenance upon us.” You were perchance going to enquire, what is “bless us”? In many ways men would have themselves to be blessed of God: one would have himself to be blessed, so that he may have a house full of the necessary things of this life; another desires himself to be blessed, so that he may obtain soundness of body without flaw; another would have himself to be blessed, if perchance he is sick, so that he may acquire soundness; another longing for sons, and perchance being sorrowful because none are born, would have himself to be blessed so that he may have posterity. And who could number the various wishes of men desiring themselves to be blessed of the Lord God? But which of us would say, that it was no blessing of God, if either husbandry should bring him fruit, or if any man's house should abound in plenty of things temporal, or if the very bodily health be either so maintained that it be not lost, or, if lost, be regained?...

3. “Every soul that is blessed is simple,” not cleaving to things earthly nor with glued wings grovelling, but beaming with the brightness of virtues, on the twin wings of twin love does spring into the free air; and sees how from her is withdrawn that whereon she was treading, not that whereon she was resting, and she says securely, “The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; as it has pleased the Lord, so has been done: be the name of the Lord blessed.”...But let not perchance any weak man say, when shall I be of so great virtue, as was holy Job? The mightiness of the tree you wonder at, because but now you have been born: this great tree, whereat you wonder, under the branches and shade whereof you cool yourself, has been a switch. But do you fear lest there be taken away from you these things, when such you shall have become? Observe that they are taken away from evil men also. Why therefore do you delay conversion? That which you fear when good to lose, perchance if evil you will lose still. If being good you shall have lost them, there is by you the Comforter that has taken them away: the coffer is emptied of gold; the heart is full of faith: without, poor you are, but within, rich you are: your riches with you you carry, which you would not lose, even if naked from shipwreck you should escape. Why does not the loss, that perchance, if evil, you will lose, find you good; forasmuch as you see evil men also suffer loss? But with greater loss they are stricken: empty is the house, more empty the conscience is. Whatsoever evil man shall have lost these things, has nothing to hold by without, has nothing within whereon he may rest. He flees when he has suffered loss from the place where before the eyes of men with the display of riches he used to vaunt himself; now in the eyes of men to vaunt himself he is not able: to himself within he returns not, because he has nothing. He has not imitated the ant, he has not gathered to himself grains, while it was summer. What have I meant by, while it was summer? While he had quietude of life, while he had this world's prosperity, when he had leisure, when happy he was being called by all men, his summer it was. He should have imitated the ant, he should have heard the Word of God, he should have gathered together grains, and he should have stored them within. There had come the trial of tribulation, there had come upon him a winter of numbness, tempest of fear, the cold of sorrow, whether it were loss, or any danger to his safety, or any bereavement of his family; or any dishonour and humiliation; it was winter; the ant falls back upon that which in summer she has gathered together; and within in her secret store, where no man sees, she is recruited by her summer toils. When for herself she was gathering together these stores in summer, all men saw her: when on these she feeds in winter, no one sees. What is this? See the ant of God, he rises day by day, he hastens to the Church of God, he prays, he hears lection, he chants hymn, he digests that which he has heard, with himself he thinks thereon, he stores within grains gathered from the threshing-floor. They that providently hear those very things which even now are being spoken of, do thus, and by all men are seen to go forth to the Church, go back from Church, to hear sermon, to hear lection, to choose a book, open and read it: all these things are seen, when they are done. That ant is treading his path, carrying and storing up in the sight of men seeing him. There comes winter sometime, for to whom comes it not? There chances loss, there chances bereavement: other men pity him perchance as being miserable, who know not what the ant has within to eat, and they say, miserable he whom this has befallen, or what spirits, do you think, has he whom this has befallen? How afflicted is he? He measures by himself, has compassion according to his own strength; and thus he is deceived: because the measure wherewith he measures himself, he would apply to him whom he knows not....O sluggard, gather in summer while you are able; winter will not suffer you to gather, but to eat that which you shall have gathered. For how many men so suffer tribulation, that there is no opportunity either to read anything, or to hear anything, and they obtain no admittance, perchance, to those that would comfort them. The ant has remained in her nest, let her see if she has gathered anything in summer, whereby she may recruit herself in winter.