The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

³ Nevertheless, neither then nor now without profit is the voice of him, saying, “Hearken ye, My people, to My law.” Which expression is remarkable in all the Scriptures, how he says not, “hearken thou,” but, “hearken ye.” For of many men a people does consist: to which many that which follows is spoken in the plural number. “Incline ye your ear unto the words of My mouth.” “Hearken ye,” is the same as, “Incline your ear:” and what He says there, “My law,” this He says here in, “the words of My mouth.” For that man does godly hearken to the law of God, and the words of His mouth, whose ear humility does incline: not he whose neck pride does lift up. For whatever is poured in is received on the concave surface of humility, is shaken off from the convexity of swelling. Whence in another place, “Incline,” he says, “your ear, and receive the words of understanding.” We have been therefore sufficiently admonished to receive even this Psalm of this understanding of Asaph, to receive, I say, with inclined ear, that is, with humble piety. And it has not been spoken of as being of Asaph himself, but to Asaph himself. Which thing is evident by the Greek article, and is found in certain Latin copies. These words therefore are of understanding, that is, of intelligence, which has been given to Asaph himself: which we had better understand not as to one man, but as to the congregation of the people of God; whence we ought by no means to alienate ourselves. For although properly we say “Synagogue” of Jews, but “Church” of Christians, because a “Congregation” is wont to be understood as rather of beasts, but a “convocation” as rather of men: yet that too we find called a Church, and it perhaps is more suitable for us to say, “Save us, O Lord, our God, and congregate us from the nations, in order that we may confess to Your Holy Name.” Neither ought we to disdain to be, nay we ought to render ineffable thanks, for that we are, the sheep of His hands, which He foresaw when He was saying, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold, them too I must lead in, that there may be one flock and one Shepherd:” that is to say, by joining the faithful people of the Gentiles with the faithful people of the Israelites, concerning whom He had before said, “I have not been sent but to the sheep which have strayed of the house of Israel.” For also there shall be congregated before Him all nations, and He shall sever them as a shepherd the sheep from the goats. Thus then let us hear that which has been spoken. “Hearken ye, My people, to My law, incline ye your ear unto the words of My mouth:” not as if addressed to Jews, but rather as if addressed to ourselves, or at least as if these words were said as well to ourselves (as to them). For when the Apostle had said, “But not in all them was God well pleased,” thereby showing that there were those too in whom God was well pleased: he has immediately added, “For they were overthrown in the desert:” secondly he has continued, “but these things have been made our figures.”...To us therefore more particularly these words have been sung. Whence in this Psalm among other things there has been said, “That another generation may know, sons who shall be born and shall arise.” Moreover, if that death by serpents, and that destruction by the destroyer, and the slaying by the sword, were figures, as the Apostle evidently does declare, inasmuch as it is manifest that all those things did happen: for he says not, in a figure they were spoken, or, in a figure they were written, but, in a figure, he says, they happened to them: with how much greater diligence of godliness must those punishments be shunned whereof those were the figures? For beyond a doubt as in good things there is much more of good in that which is signified by the figure, than in the figure itself: so also in evil things very far worse are the things which are signified by the figures, while so great are the evil things which as figures do signify. For as the land of promise, whereunto that people was being led, is nothing in comparison with the Kingdom of Heaven, whereunto the Christian people is being led: so also those punishments which were figures, though they were so severe, are nothing in comparison with the punishments which they signify. But those which the Apostle has called figures, the same this Psalm, as far as we are able to judge, calls parables and propositions: not having their end in the fact of their having happened, but in those things whereunto they are referred by a reasonable comparison. Let us therefore hearken unto the law of God— us His people— and let us incline our ear unto the words of His mouth.

4. “I will open,” he says, “in parables My mouth, I will declare propositions from the beginning”. From what beginning he means, is very evident in the words following. For it is not from the beginning, what time the Heaven and earth were made, nor what time mankind was created in the first man: but what time the congregation that was led out of Egypt; in order that the sense may belong to Asaph, which is interpreted a congregation. But O that He that has said, “I will open in parables My mouth,” would also vouchsafe to open our understanding unto them! For if, as He has opened His mouth in parables, He would in like sort open the parables themselves: and as He declares “propositions,” He would declare in like sort the expositions thereof, we should not be here toiling: but now so hidden and closed are all things, that even if we are able by His aid to arrive at anything, whereon we may feed to our health, still we must eat the bread in the sweat of our face; and pay the penalty of the ancient sentence not with the labour of the body only, but also with that of the heart. Let him speak then, and let us hear the parables and propositions.

5. “How great things we have heard, and have known them, and our fathers have told them to us”. The Lord was speaking higher up. For of what other person could these words be thought to be, “Hearken ye, O My people, to My law”? Why is it then that now on a sudden a man is speaking, for here we have the words of a man, “our fathers have told them to us.” Without doubt God, now about to speak by a man's ministry, as the Apostle says, “Will ye to receive proof of Him that is speaking in me, Christ?” in His own person at first willed the words to be uttered, lest a man speaking His words should be despised as a man. For it is thus with the sayings of God which make their way to us through our bodily sense. The Creator moves the subject creature by an invisible working; not so that the substance is changed into anything corporal and temporal, when by means of corporal and temporal signs, whether belonging to the eyes or to the ears, as far as men are able to receive it, He would make His will to be known. For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other natural substance or corporal species; and man to use face, tongue, hand, pen, letters, or any other significants, for the purpose of intimating the secret things of his own mind: in a word, if, though he is a man, he sends human messengers, and he says to one, “Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to his servant, Do this, and he does it;” with how much greater and more effectual power does God, to whom as Lord all things together are subject, use both the same angel and man, in order that He may declare whatsoever pleases Him?...For those things were heard in the Old Testament which are known in the New: heard when they were being prophesied, known when they were being fulfilled. Where a promise is performed, hearing is not deceived. “And our fathers,” Moses and the Prophets, “have told unto us.”