1 Unto the end, for them that shall be changed; for David.
v.1
VERS. 1.-- *Unto the end.* Adam was changed from the form of God for the worse, etc., *as far as* "to suffer", according to the Greeks. The fourth psalm, which treats more at large of the passion and the resurrection. The cause of the *change* is handled, that is, the passion of Christ. Here Christ speaks, head and body. *Save me.* First he prays to be made safe, because he suffers many things — as touching himself, without cause — but what another had seized, he himself pays. This is the voice of the mustard seed despised, while it is buried in the garden, which grows into a great herb: this seed dark and altogether contemptible. So also Christ, of whom: *We saw him having no beauty nor comeliness,* but nevertheless he took up the face of the earth, being made a great mountain. *Waters even unto my soul.* That is, the crowds, etc., *as far as* beyond which they have not who may do anything to them.
2 Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.
3 I stick fast in the mire of the deep and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.
v.3
VERS. 3.-- *In the mire.* Man was made of the slime of the earth, etc., *as far as* that is, the power of the flesh to escape the passion. *Substance.* Riches are so called, etc., *as far as* that is, I have not found in them what he made. *I am come.* Because willingly. *Into the deep.* The depth of a mad people.
4 I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse, my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.
v.4
VERS. 4.-- *I have laboured.* Long he cried: *Woe to you! Scribes and Pharisees,* so as to be hoarse as touching them, because he was not understood by them. *Crying out,* etc. He labours whose desire is not fulfilled. *My eyes.* Like the eyes of the two who did not know him on the way, in whom that which was within came to be also without, that is, the blindness which was made in the heart was also in the eyes. For they said: *We hoped that he would have redeemed Israel* [AUG]. But he restored hope to them, etc., *as far as* because they would have been lost. *While I hope.* The reason is added: I wait for mercy, I do not entreat power.
5 They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away.
v.5
VERS. 5.-- *They are multiplied.* What before he said figuratively, now he says openly in the fact. *Above the hairs.* For an unlimited number; or, they are more than those which are for adornment. *I have seized.* They willed to seize the Godhead, and lost happiness: Adam seized, presuming, as the devil did, upon Godhead.
6 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from thee:
v.6
VERS. 6.-- *O God, thou knowest.* Because he pays for others, he prays that *they that wait,* the ancients, and *they that seek,* the others, namely the moderns, be not disappointed in him, since he bears such great things so evenly. *Foolishness.* From the members. Or, *that which is foolish of God is wiser than men.* What they mocked in me, who seemed to themselves wise, thou hast known why the mockery came to be, namely, such mockery and death too. *Foolishness.* That they who are ignorant of me who am God, these are they who are changed into wise and just men.
7 Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek thee, O God of Israel.
v.7
VERS. 7.-- *Let them not be ashamed.* He sets forth what things he has paid; here he shows what he had said above concerning the members. *Let them not be ashamed,* that is, let it not be said to them: Where is your Christ? or, let the Church not be pressed so that her sons are ashamed. *That wait.* What the prophets and the just could not see with their eyes. Lest therefore it turn out otherwise than the Holy Spirit foretold through them, there follows: *the God of hosts,* to whom nothing is impossible. *The God of Israel.* That they who are able to behold his Godhead may not be led astray by his carnal infirmity.
8 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
v.8
VERS. 8.-- *Because for thy sake I have borne reproaches.* He gathers into one the many things he endured, to stir up odium against the Jews; *reproach:* he casts out demons in Beelzebub, a wine-bibber, a glutton. *It hath covered.* This is wont to befall those torn in a good cause, who are wont to be made so much the sadder for a time as they know that wicked things are being fabricated against them.
9 I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.
v.9
VERS. 9.-- *A stranger.* Or a guest, who is received into a house for a time; not as a most dear brother, which I was.
10 For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
v.10
VERS. 10.-- *The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.* When with a cord he cast out them that sold. What follows upon this zeal he subjoins: *And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.* Because the Jews, being rebuked, cast their insults upon him like darts, as: *Is not this the son of Joseph? Of them that reproach thee.* When they said: *Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? These are thy gods, O Israel*. Whence he now says that the same insults fall upon himself which they formerly cast as reproaches, that thou mayest see that they did this out of impious custom and not newly. *They are fallen.*. Evils fall upon us when we cannot avoid them: *they are fallen,* therefore, that is, they took effect.
11 And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.
v.11
VERS. 11.-- *And I covered it in fasting,* etc. I chose rather to fast than to take gall and vinegar; that is, the old and the bitter, who do not enter into his body. *And I covered.* I did not exercise power by avenging. *And it became,* which appeared in the spittings, *a reproach.* Of detractors and mockers.
12 And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them.
v.12
VERS. 12.-- *And I put on.* I set flesh before them, against which they might rage, and I hid my Godhead. *Haircloth.* Mortal flesh, that of sin he might condemn sin. *Haircloth,* mournful flesh, as when he wept over Jerusalem, and for Lazarus. *Into a parable.* A mocking one, so that, in cursing anyone, they would say: So may it befall as it did the crucified. Or, because I was teaching them in parables; whence: *To you it is given to know the mystery of the Word of God, but to the rest in parables.* And then they spoke against me.
13 They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song.
v.13
VERS. 13.-- *They that sat.* They sit in the gate who mingle in the assemblies of men with busy curiosity. He says therefore that his passion was the talk of the Jews, so that none was excepted who was a stranger to speech of this kind; whence Cleophas says: *Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and knowest not,* etc.. *In the gate.* Of the city: where judges are wont to sit to judge causes, that is, in public judgment. As the Scribes and Pharisees having the key of knowledge: but neither entering themselves, nor suffering others to enter. *And they sang against me.* They spoke of me in public assemblies, and at banquets they sang: my mockery was their psaltery. *Who drank wine.* Who are made drunk with temporal pleasure. Or, let them sing to God with approved work who drink spiritual wine.
14 But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
v.14
VERS. 14.-- *But as for me.* Against the aforesaid evils prayer is set on his own part, that we may learn to oppose to wranglings not brawls but prayers. *A time of good pleasure.* Therefore now is *the time of good pleasure* and of reconciliation, through the incarnation, through the blood, through the death; then he sets forth how this time came about: *In the multitude of mercy. In truth.* He set down first concerning *mercy,* now he subjoins concerning *truth,* because *all ways are mercy and truth*: mercy, in forgiving sins; truth, in rendering what was promised.
15 Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
v.15
VERS. 15.-- *That I may not stick fast.* In mind; above he said he was fixed fast in body; and this is said from the infirmity of the members. *Out of the mire,* that is, out of miry desires. *Out of the deep waters.* The Jews are deep in the malignity of their counsel, turbulent with seditions.
16 Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep water swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
v.16
VERS. 16.-- *The deep.* Of sins, which swallows down souls; whence: *The sinner, when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth*. These dangers hang over his members. *Nor let it shut her mouth upon me,* etc. Even if thou hast fallen, the pit does not shut its mouth upon thee if thou dost not shut thy mouth; but confess and say: *Out of the depths he hath cried to thee, O Lord,* and thou shalt escape. It shuts upon him who contemns in the deep, from whom, being dead, as though he were not, confession perishes.
17 Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
v.17
VERS. 17.-- *Hear me, O Lord,* etc. The dangers of men being set forth, he prays with their voice: *Hear me, O Lord, for mercy is kind,* not because I have deserved it. *Kind.* Mercy is sweet to the afflicted, as bread to the hungry. Tribulation comes; God defers to succour, that he may stir up desire, and that the help may be sweet; and when this is done, there is now nothing for which he should defer.
18 And turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.
v.18
VERS. 18.-- *From the child,* etc. any holy one, little, not proud; from whom the discipline of tribulation takes away pride.
19 Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies.
v.19
VERS. 19.-- *Because of my enemies,* etc. That they may be confounded by my deliverance, etc., *as far as* whence Nabuchodonosor himself, being converted, proclaims God. *Because of my enemies.* This unto the open deliverance, that the flesh may rise again, and, ascending, may send the Spirit; whence enemies were converted, to whom it will profit nothing if thou deliver the soul alone.
20 Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.
v.20
VERS. 20.-- *Thou knowest my reproach.* Because why these things are mine, thou knowest; they know not. And because they themselves are in thy sight, not knowing these things they will not be able to be confounded or corrected, unless thou plainly rescue me. And therefore he says: *Because of my enemies.* *Reproach,* or shame, etc., *as far as* but by helping may perfect. *Reverence.* Others [read] ignominy, as the buffets, the scourges, and that he was handed over to Pilate as a guilty man: these things he bore not for his own guilt, but for us, that in such things he might instruct us.
21 In thy sight are all they that afflict me; my heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.
v.21
VERS. 21.-- *In thy sight.* He stirs up odium against them, that they committed so great a crime with God present. *My heart.* Because he endured of his own will, according to that: *With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you.*
v.21
VERS. 21.-- *One that would grieve together with me, and there was none; and one that would comfort me, and I found none.* The disciples were grieved, and the women who wept over him, but not together with him. For they were grieved carnally over the mortal life which was to be changed by death, whereas they ought to have been grieved with him over the rest, who were slaying the physician — which no one then did. VERS.--22.-- *And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.* That I found none at once grieving and comforting, this was to me bitter gall by reason of sorrow. *Vinegar,* etc. That is, sour, because of their oldness. It is read in the Gospel that gall was offered him, but in drink, not in food. Mystically therefore it is said, that is, upon the sweet food which he had taken with his disciples, which is the food of the unity of Christ, they cast gall: which is still done to this day, and the despiser of him that sits in heaven sins more grievously than he who crucified him that walked upon the earth. They give a bitter draught to drink who by living ill make scandal for the Church, as heretics do. The Lord tasted, teaching us also to taste, that is, to bear such men: but he did not drink, because such men cannot be received into his body. Mystically therefore is this foretold, as it was also mystically done in the passion. *And they gave.* This is the consummation of the passion; when he had said: *I thirst,* they offered gall with vinegar, showing by this deed their most bitter manners.
22 And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
23 Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.
v.23
VERS. 23.-- *Let their table become.* A prophecy against the adversaries. *Let their table become.* The table is Scripture: this the Jews had, while they cherished the commandment of God; after they were fasting from the law, this table was given to the Gentiles before their very eyes, that they might grieve the more bitterly. *A snare.* That they who were binding others by the letter of the law might fall bound in it. *A recompense.* Because it was taken from them and given to the Gentiles. It was a recompense of evils, since, being unwilling to feast at it, they were shut out from it. *A stumbling block.* Because, forsaking the author of peace, they stir up for themselves brawls and depraved works.
24 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.
v.24
VERS. 24.-- *Eyes.* The teachers who go before. *Let them be darkened,* that is, let them lose the light of knowledge. *And their back,* etc. That is, the lesser ones. For when they who go before lose the light of knowledge, those who follow are bowed down to bear the burdens of sins and to seek after earthly things; or, *the back,* the mind of the same. Always this concerns those who do not repent.
25 Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
v.25
VERS. 25.-- *Pour out,* etc. That it may be abundant after the manner of a river. *Let it take hold.* That it may not be permitted to escape.
26 Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.
v.26
VERS. 26.-- *Let their habitation become.* This now in the open, etc., *as far as* in which they grew proud against God. *In their tabernacles.* The temple and the royal palace. To this he applies *to dwell within,* which is done by the affection of a devout mind; to houses, *to dwell,* which is done by bodily abiding.
27 Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.
v.27
VERS. 27.-- *Thou hast smitten.* Not by his own fault: thou hast smitten him by the passion, unto the salvation of the Gentiles; this they fulfilled with a cruel purpose. *And upon the sorrow.* Because it was for their perdition. *They have added.* To inflict death. Or, upon the sorrow of my wounds, that is, of those which the lance and the nails had fixed in me, they added the guards of the sepulchre.
28 Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.
v.28
VERS. 28.-- *Add thou iniquity upon iniquity,* etc.) Their iniquity was that they should kill a man, and upon this God added that they should kill his Son, so that, as the servants sent before, so also the heir himself.
29 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.
v.29
VERS. 29.-- *Let them be blotted out,* etc. Because they think themselves written down, etc., *as far as* and that they shall stand at the right hand. *Out of the book of the living,* etc. The knowledge of God, which predestined and life, those whom he foreknew to be made conformable to the image of his Son. Yet it is not so to be taken, as though God writes anyone in this book whom he afterwards blots out: but according to the hope of those who think themselves written down.
30 But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.
v.30
VERS. 30.-- *I am poor,* etc. Here he sets forth the dispensation of the incarnation and the holiness of his purpose, saying: What is the end of the passion? *Sorrowful.* This according to the head: he sorrows for all: whence: *He himself hath borne our sorrows*, which no other did. Therefore he says:
31 I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.
32 And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.
v.32
VERS. 32.-- *And it shall please.* The praise of a pure heart pleases more than the slaying of cattle. *A young calf.* For sins a young calf was offered, which signified the newness that was to follow; which has its defence in its horns, the guard of its feet in its hoofs (by which it may tread down the rough things of the world); *bringing forth,* because the faithful man is daily increased by the power of God. The calf stirs up the earth with its hoofs; so he who does not contradict, but nevertheless has a base earthly relish, is to be stirred up with hoofs: and upon this calf my praise will be pleasing among the angels, where neither will there be an adversary to be winnowed, nor a sluggard to be stirred up out of the earth.
33 Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.
v.33
VERS. 33.-- *Let them see.* That the offering is now in the mind, not in things, where the poor man is made equal to the rich. And, O ye poor, do this nevertheless with your gaze upon God: *seek ye the Lord.* Or, that you may see, seek God, the food of the mind. *The bound.* He who seeks beyond what is needful loads on fetters; but sufficient for the day is its own evil. *The bound.* Bound by mortality, wherewith the Lord, being offended, put fetters on his servants: but from thence he hears them crying out.
34 For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.
35 Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.
v.35
VERS. 35.-- *Heaven, earth, sea.* According to the letter, that is, the heavenly things, the earthly, and the swimming things: these praise him, while from them the creator is praised. It is the riches of a poor man to see created things, and thence to praise the creator. *Let them praise him,* etc. What before he urged all together, now he urges one by one; or, let the heavenly things, the earthly, the swimming things praise him. And, that he may perfectly include all things, he adds: *All things that are in them:* thus every creature is invited to praise. As if he should say: *Let every knee bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth*. *And all the creeping things in them.* All monstrous kinds, sticking fast in earthly sins.
36 For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.
v.36
VERS. 36.-- *For God will save Sion,* etc. In the hope of the faithful people the building of the Church is brought to its end: whence every creature is urged to praise.
37 And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
v.37
VERS. 37.-- *And they that love his name,* etc. Why go through them one by one? all who love thy name shall dwell there. These are the seed of the servants. For this verse expounds the preceding one.