Psalm 15 [MT 16]

Our King in this Psalm speaks in the character of the human nature He assumed, of whom the royal title at the time of His passion was eminently set forth. Now He saith as follows; "Preserve me, O Lord, for in Thee have I hoped" (ver. 1): "I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God, for Thou requirest not my goods" (ver. 2): for with my goods Thou dost not look to be made blessed.

The person of the Lord Savior is represented throughout the entire psalm. The first theme is undertaken from the perspective of his humanity in accordance with his custom. He speaks to the Father, asking to be saved because he has always placed his hope in him. In speaking this way, he does not minimize his own divinity in any way, but shows the nature of his humanity.… In the second theme, he returns thanks to the Father, who by appearing at his right hand, has overcome the iniquity of this age by the strength of his omnipotence. On this basis, he claims that his soul has been freed from hell, and he mentions that after the glory of the resurrection he has been placed among the delights at his right hand.

Let us consider how this psalm teaches us about the tremdendous gift of salvation. In times of suffering, it conveys confidence and promises eternal glory in hope, so that by teaching us that our future will be prosperous we do not fear adversity in the present. This psalm is a heavenly school, a source of learning for life, a lecture hall filled with truth, and without doubt a unique teaching which occupies its students with fruitful meanings rather than with the flattery of empty words.

An inscription of a title, to David himself. In place of this the fifth edition put the Hebrew word itself, "MACTHAM David," which Aquila translated as "of the humble and simple David," and Symmachus as "of the humble and unstained David." And Aquila himself again, in the fifty-fifth psalm and in the rest as far as the fifty-ninth, rendered this very thing so as to say "of the humble and perfect David." From this we understand that one word signifies both "simple" and "unstained" and "perfect," yet in such a way that humility is always set before each of them; for among the Hebrews it is compounded of two whole words, so that, just as we say "almighty" (omnipotens), enclosing two words in one utterance, so also the word MACTHAM in the syllable which is called MAC shows humility without ambiguity, while in the following one which is called THAM it signifies the three things we mentioned above. Now there are six psalms, unless we are mistaken, which are headed by this title: the fifteenth psalm, and the fifty-fifth, and the fifty-sixth, and the fifty-seventh, and the fifty-eighth, and the fifty-ninth. All of these refer to the dispensation and passion of our Lord and Savior; and although in their headings they have among themselves certain things added, or removed, or varied, yet in this one phrase they agree, namely, in "the inscription of a title," which here stands alone by itself only in the fifteenth psalm. For in the remaining five certain historical notices too are prefixed, so that the prophecy concerning the Lord Savior might be shown not only in word but also in deed. And I think there are six psalms containing this mystery and headed with such a title for this reason, that the Savior, crucified for all on the sixth day of the world, dying and rising again, left us this as it were the title of his victory; so that we may inscribe upon our hearts these psalms which are marked with these headings, and press into them the words of God, and that our minds may be mindful of the Lord's death; so that, just as Jacob made a monument for Rachel and it remains to this day, so we may mark in our heart the memorial and remembrance of his passion. Nor indeed let that be thought contrary to our exposition which the Lord commanded in the Law: "You shall not make for yourself a monument, things which the Lord your God hates"; but to the singular number "a monument" he joined a plural of the neuter gender, saying, "things which the Lord your God hates," that is, you shall not do such works as remain for your condemnation forever. For these things the Lord your God hates. If perchance, through our negligence, he who oversows tares should erect such monuments in the land of promise, the clear-sighted ones (dioratikoi), namely the teachers, command the children of Israel to overthrow them and undermine them and banish them from the land that flows with milk and honey. Such a monument Absalom too built for himself, an empty tomb, which remains to this day for the disgrace and testimony of the parricide. Into such a monument Lot's wife too was turned, because she wished to look not at what lay ahead but behind her back. After this it is asked why the Seventy translators wished to translate otherwise than it stands in the Hebrew and in the other editions. This can be understood from many other passages too, but especially from the heading of the ninth psalm. For whereas among the Hebrews it is headed LAMANASSE ALMUTH LABEN, which Symmachus translates "the triumph of the youth of the son," but the fifth edition "the triumph of the flowering youth of the son," the Seventy translators, unwilling to disclose so openly to King Ptolemy and to the Gentiles the passion and resurrection of the Savior, translated "Unto the end, for the hidden things of the son"; and by the very title showing that certain hidden things lay concealed which they were unwilling to translate. So now too, because humility, simplicity, spotlessness, and perfection pointed not to a man (for there is no one who would dare to head himself with such a title) but to the Son of God, therefore they chose to translate "stelographia" (stēlographian), that is, a thing worthy to be marked with an inscription; so that we might understand one thing shut up in the title, and another uttered aloud in the word. Now a title is also placed for brave men upon their tombs in memory of their former courage, and for those who fell for their fatherland, and wherever there are trophies and victories, and where public laws are inscribed. The interpretation of all of which is easier when applied to the person of the Lord Savior.

Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in you; I said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods. If one apostle were to interpret this psalm, if two, the authority even of one and of two would be great. But now (a thing written of no other of the psalms) we have found concerning this in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter, together with the apostles of Christ—when Matthias had already been taken in as one of the twelve in place of Judas—expounding it lifted up his voice, and after many words said: "Men and brethren, let it be permitted to speak boldly to you concerning the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is among us to this very day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath that from the fruit of his loins one would sit upon his throne, foreseeing this he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was neither left in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses." Since then all the apostles alike have referred this psalm to the Lord Savior, we, who wish to be Christians, must surely follow their opinion. And no wonder that he who was equal to God and humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, now speaks with the words of a servant. Hence in the very title he is inscribed as humble and simple and unstained and perfect; because he who needed no one's help humbled himself so far as to entreat the Lord on our behalf, on behalf of the Church, that is, on behalf of his own body. And in very truth it is great humility—for God to pray for men, for the Lord to pray for servants, for the Holy One to pray for sinners: so that he not only says that he himself is clothed and given drink and visited in his servants, but even, when they have prayed and have been heard, confesses that he himself has prayed and been heard. Therefore, taking on a human body, he saw the hostile powers, he saw too the army of the devil, drawn up in a wedge-formation against him, doing battle; and therefore he now says: Preserve me, O Lord; for unless you preserve my body, the Church which hopes in you, they who guard her keep watch in vain.

The words in [this psalm] are sung as if by the person of Christ, who although he is noble as Lord by nature and has under his feet creation as a handmaid, yet he asks to be preserved by the Father as the head of the body of the church.… He made those sanctified by the Spirit a marvel in the land—in his church—teaching them the will of the Father as an angel of mighty counsel. They hastened to hear the preaching, not through blood [sacrifices] or practices of the law to please God, but through praise and bloodless sacrifice. Nor with names that befit their former works did he say, I shall call them, that is, idolaters and polytheists and atheists; but called and holy and pious, and who have a share in the Lord. Because the latter was obedient to the Father to death—which he calls a cup—for this reason he gave him as a portion and inheritance to the Gentiles. And he binds it to him with cords—fetters of spiritual life.… He is on [the Father's] right hand in that we gain through his hands his heavenly Father as helper, and like a rod of power he has supported our weakness. Therefore he also says to him: My flesh will reside in hope. The hope, then, is that his flesh will again assume the soul that was constituted. For his soul was not left in Sheol, nor did his body see the corruption of the grave.… For these things are granted us in him as the head and firstborn of the resurrection and because we have grown rich with his poverty. And again we shall be in unfading delights, which the saints will receive on the day of his manifestation from him who is the Father's right hand.

The psalm is spoken in the person of the Savior but is spoken from the viewpoint of his humanity, as are also many other such statements that we find in the sacred Gospels.… In this psalm also he asks to be protected and is protected by himself: while he asks as a human being, as God he grants the request, his own Father of course being pleased and cooperating.

In the preceding Psalm he enumerated the just deeds that God requires of man; here, however, he shows how he followed justice. The title is this: "The inscription of the title of David himself." And according to the literal sense, it signifies that it was composed specifically about those things which pertain to the person of David. But because David also bore the person of Christ who was to be born from his seed, therefore certain things here are said of David, and certain things of Christ. And therefore Peter, in Acts 2, says: "I foresaw the Lord," etc. He says that it was properly said of the resurrection of Christ, and not of David. And according to this, the Psalm touches upon history in the New Testament, inasmuch as it is said in Jn. 18 that when Christ was crucified, Pilate placed a title above his head: "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews": and this is, as it were, the title of his kingdom. A threefold title was customarily inscribed. Sometimes on someone's tomb: "This is the tomb of so-and-so." Sometimes on a house: "This is the house of so-and-so." Sometimes for a triumph, as was done in Rome: and this title is Christ's, who triumphed through the cross: Col. 2: "Triumphing over them openly in himself, despoiling principalities and powers." It is signified here, therefore, that in this Psalm the kingdom of Christ is specifically treated. Jerome's title is this: "A Psalm of the humble and simple David." And it signifies that in this Psalm the simplicity and humility of David are treated, whether of the individual or of the one prefigured, namely Christ. This Psalm, therefore, is divided into two parts. In the first he shows -- whether speaking on his own behalf or on behalf of Christ -- that he clings to God alone. Second, he commemorates the benefits he has received from God, at "I will bless the Lord who," etc. The first pertains to simplicity, the second to humility. Concerning the first, he does two things. First he shows that he clings to God alone. Second he assigns the reason, at "The Lord is the portion," etc. Concerning the first, he does three things. First he shows how he relates to God. Second, how he relates to the saints of God. Third, how he relates to the enemies of God. The second, at "To the saints." The third, at "Their infirmities are multiplied," etc. He relates to God as one who clings to him alone: and this in two ways -- through hope and faith, at "I said to the Lord." Concerning the first, he proposes two things: namely, the sign of hope, and hope itself. The sign of hope, at "Preserve me, O Lord": as if to say, I do not trust that I can be preserved by myself, but you, O Lord, preserve me, either in himself or in his members: Jn. 17: "Father, keep them in your name, those whom you have given me." And this, "because I have hoped in you." But did Christ hope? It must be said that yes: he hoped indeed for eternal life for others, and for himself the glory of the body. But the glory of the soul he had from the instant of his conception.

Who has ever given him anything, since "from him, and through him and in him" are all things? The fount of life is that highest Good that bestows the substance of life on all, because it has life abiding in itself. It receives from no one as though it were needy; it lavishes goods on all and borrows from others nothing for itself, for it has no need of us. It says, too, in the person of humankind: "You do not need my goods." What is more lovely than to approach him and cling to him? What pleasure can be greater? What else can he desire who sees and tastes freely of this fount of living water? what realms? what powers? what riches? when he sees how pitiable are the conditions of kings, how changeable the status of their power, how short the span of this life, in how great bondage even sovereigns must live, since they live at the will of others and not their own.

"I have said to the Lord, You are my God, for You require not my goods": for with my goods Thou dost not look to be made blessed.

What in any case are my goods, if not what I have been given by you? And how can the one by whom every good is given be in need of any good?

It is man, not God, who benefits from the whole economy of worship.

God does not derive any benefit from our worship, but we do. When he reveals or teaches how he is to be worshiped, he does so in our own highest interest, with absolutely no need of anything for himself. All such sacrifices are symbolic; they are a representation of certain things by which our attention is aroused to study or understand or reflect on the realities represented by them.

All our merits are rooted in the merit of Christ, whether satisfactory for punishment or meritorious of eternal life, because we are worthy neither to be absolved from offense against the highest good, nor to gain the immensity of the eternal reward, which is God, except through the merit of the God-man, to whom we can and ought to say: "All our works you have wrought in us, O Lord." He, I say, is the Lord, to whom the Prophet says: "I said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods."

He points all things back to the one who has freely given them, not to himself who has received what was conferred on him.

But what follows—"I said to the Lord, You are my God"—he directs his speech to the apostles and to the disciples and to us, if indeed we deserve to be disciples, teaching what he has said to the Lord of the universe. What, then, does he say he has spoken to the Lord? "You are my Lord": that is, you who are the Lord of all have become peculiarly mine, that is, the Lord of my own. He was the Lord of all even in the Old Testament, since he had created all things; but he became peculiarly the Lord of the saints, saying: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." As, then, you are theirs, so you are now especially my Lord, because you deign to be the Lord of my own. And the reason why he is his Lord is added: For you have no need of my goods. For God almighty has no need of a man's goods, nor do our virtues contribute to God's advancement, since God receives no increase: but whatever we labor at and strive for, he receives and requires it of us for this reason, that he may restore to us what he has received. For that man too in the Gospel who from one mina had made ten minas not only received back what he had given, but was even granted the other mina, which another could not multiply. It is said also to Job: "What does it profit the Lord, if you make your way blameless?" Other masters, however powerful they may be, cannot yet say to their servants, "We have no need of your works": for indeed they make full use of their service. But God alone is a Lord who needs the service of his servants only for this, that he may have occasion to give more. And at the same time we are taught that if the Savior prays for us (for he did indeed pray also for the apostles in the Gospel, and therefore permitted those whom he had earlier urged to keep watch to sleep), we surely ought all the more to pray for ourselves: because, although we run, yet without him we cannot arrive at our goal, according to the interpretation of Symmachus and of the fifth edition, who said "My good is not apart from you"; so that this translation may be referred to that saying: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guard the city, he keeps watch in vain who guards it."

The abundance of good things, he is saying, comes to me from your grace.

"I said," etc. Here first he sets forth the act of faith. Second he assigns the reason, at "Because you have no need of my goods," etc. The act of faith is to confess God, either in the heart by believing, or outwardly by praising, or by approving with deeds: Rom. 10: "With the heart one believes unto justice, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation"; and therefore, "I said," in heart, mouth, and deed, "you are my God": Gen. 28: "The Lord shall be my God." And therefore it is so because "you have no need of my goods." And this is proper to God: because he is of infinite goodness, and nothing can be added to him, because he is the substantial good extending his goodness to all things like the sun extends its light -- not by participation, but by his very being, illuminating all things. But to any other creature something can be added, even to the saints, and for this reason something accrues to them, and therefore in some way they need us: but God alone does not need our goods: Job 35: "If you act justly, what will you give him, or what will he receive from your hand?" Jerome has: "Because there is no good for us without you": as if to say, from this it is clear that you are my God, because you are goodness, and there is no good for me without you.

"To the saints who are on His earth" [Psalm 16:3]: to the saints who have placed their hope in the land of the living, the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose spiritual conversation is, by the anchor of hope, fixed in that country, which is rightly called God's earth; although as yet in this earth too they be conversant in the flesh. "He has wonderfully fulfilled all My wishes in them." To those saints then He has wonderfully fulfilled all My wishes in their advancement, whereby they have perceived, how both the humanity of My divinity has profited them that I might die, and the divinity of the humanity that I might rise again.

To the saints who are in his land, he made all his wishes wonderful in them. In place of which it is written in the Hebrew: "To the saints who are in the land, and to my exalted ones, is all my will in them." These goods of which you have no need, O Father, my saints do need—the saints in whom I have made all my wishes to be wonderful. But I made my wishes wonderful not outside them, but in them: so that, while each one is corrected, and understands both who he was before and who he has now begun to be, my wonderful wishes may be brought about in them; yet only if, going out from Egypt and crossing the desert, they are able to enter the land of promise, which land is the beginning of the land of the living. Nor is this at once contrary to it—that wonders are said to be done only in the land of God—namely that in the field of Tanis, that is, in Egypt, wonders were done. For there is a great distance between the wonders done by Moses and those done by Jesus. There one flees from Egypt, here one enters into Judea; there lord Pharaoh is avoided, here those who are to serve are taken captive; there frogs and gnats and soot and hail and darkness are employed among the wonders, here command is given to the sun and to the moon; there God goes before the people in a pillar of cloud and of fire, here the Savior himself comes to meet them holding a sword and declaring that he will fight for his army. Do you see how the wonders that were in the land of promise are greater than those done in Egypt or in the desert? But we may understand the land of God as the Church, since to the saints who are in the Church all the wishes of God seem to be wonderful; for to those who are outside the Church nothing seems wonderful which by its own nature is wondrous. Let us therefore be in the land of God, and let us be transformed into the image of the Savior, and he will make all his wishes wonderful in us.

"To the saints." Here he shows how he relates to the saints -- as is also read from the person of Christ. And it should be known that the will of the Father is as the will of Christ, and insofar as he is man, it is to fulfill the will of the Father: Ps. 39: "To do your will, O my God, I have desired": 1 Thess. 4: "This is the will of God, your sanctification": Jn. 6: "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, the Father, that of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up on the last day." Christ, moreover, willed many things: and this for our benefit. But what did he will? To suffer, to die, to rise again, in order to give us life. He says, therefore: God the Father has made all my desires wonderful, that is, has wonderfully fulfilled them, "in them" -- in whom? In them, "in the saints who are in his land," that is, in the Church militant and triumphant. Jerome has it thus: "To the saints who are in the land and to the mighty, all my desire is in them." Another reading has "the strong." And granted that some earthly person might trust in the power of a strong army, David says, "I have hoped in you": Sir. 2: "No one has hoped in the Lord and been confounded." And "my strong ones are your saints," who do great things: Ps. 100: "My eyes are upon the faithful," says Christ, "that they may sit with me." That Christ himself loves the saints is clear: Prov. 8: "I love those who love me."

"Their infirmities have been multiplied" [Psalm 16:4]: their infirmities have been multiplied not for their destruction, but that they might long for the Physician. "Afterwards they made haste." Accordingly after infirmities multiplied they made haste, that they might be healed. "I will not gather together their assemblies by blood." For their assemblies shall not be carnal, nor will I gather them together as one propitiated by the blood of cattle. [Isaiah 1:11-12] "Nor will I be mindful of their names within My lips." But by a spiritual change what they have been shall be forgotten; nor by Me shall they be any more called either sinners, or enemies, or men; but righteous, and My brethren, and sons of God through My peace.

Grace cannot be given to man unless he first acknowledge his blindness, weakness, and malice. And so, there was a time in which blindness prevailed, as in the period before the Law. At a later point, the illuminating Law was given, and yet "their infirmities were multiplied," and there was an opportunity for a greater transgression of the Law. And therefore man had to be convicted of weakness or impotency.

Their infirmities have been multiplied; afterward they made haste. Whose infirmities have been multiplied? Surely those of the saints who above are recorded as being in the land of the Lord. When they were foolish, unbelieving, straying, and serving various desires and pleasures, passing their lives in greed and envy, their infirmities were being multiplied. But when they were washed and were sanctified and, turned to repentance, abandoned their past sins, then they made haste. I have read in the Epistle of Barnabas (if anyone is pleased to accept testimony from it) that God chose apostles who were more wicked than every sin. And surely, if they were more worthless than all sinners, their infirmities were nonetheless being multiplied in them; but see how quickly they afterward withdrew from them. To Peter and to his brother Andrew it is said: "Come and follow me." Likewise to James and John, who leave both their father and the boat and the net. Matthew rises up from the tax-booth, and at once is an apostle. Zacchaeus comes down from the tree, and is holy. Paul, persecuting the Church, suddenly believes, is washed, teaches, is subjected to persecutions, is beheaded. What is swifter than this conversion? The people of the Gentiles too, before they were converted to the Lord and heard through Isaiah, "Drink this first, do it quickly," was in all infirmities—or, as Symmachus translated, "hardships," or, as more fittingly Theodotion and the fifth edition, "idols." But when the cults of idols had been multiplied, believing at the first word of the apostles, it was quickly converted to the Lord. Which indeed Aquila too, translating "diaponēmata" (laborious things), according to his custom signifies as idols. For in the Hebrew it says ASABOTH, the very same word that is placed also there: "The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold." Further, in that he says "proikisamenōn," which the Seventy had rendered "they made haste," he seems to me to show a lofty meaning: namely that the apostles, or the people of the Gentiles, after they were converted to the faith of Christ, and the Lord had forgiven them their sins (for this is what "proikisamenōn" means, that as by a "proikia"—that is, as a free gift—their vices were reversed), their "diaponēmata," that is, their pains, were increased in them, since they knew in how great a sea's waters they had been and from what an abyss they had been freed; according to that which is written in Ecclesiastes: "He who adds knowledge, adds sorrow." And Paul: "I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God." But it can also be discussed otherwise, since "strength is made perfect in weakness"; and when an apostle is weaker, then he is stronger. We too, if we wish to come quickly to the Lord, ought to multiply our infirmities, so that, made weak in the flesh, we may be stronger in the spirit. I will not gather their assemblies out of bloods. Clearly he who speaks is the Savior. For who else could say, "I will not gather their assemblies out of bloods"? But "their"—understand it either of the nations or of the apostles. If of the nations, this will be the meaning: Although they are guilty of blood, and have perpetrated many crimes, yet because after their infirmities they hastened to me, their assemblies will be pure and utterly foreign to blood. If of the apostles, this will be the meaning: They will by no means offer me victims as in the old Law, but there will be the spiritual religion of the New Testament. But according to a higher understanding, this must be said: That the Lord will abhor the man of bloods and the deceitful one; and the blood of the wicked is required from the hand of the watchman who has refused to preach the coming wrath of God; and whoever shall scandalize the least, he will slay him; and those whose hands are full of blood—it is certain that they cannot be gathered into the synagogues of the Lord, who must first be purged by the spirit of burning. As for "the synagogues of the Lord," let us understand either the churches in the present, or, as I think better, the various dwellings with the Father in the heavens, which he will not be able to enter who has been sprinkled with the gore of sins. Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips. The saints, whose infirmities have been multiplied, and whose assemblies I will not gather out of bloods, because they hastened to me—I will by no means call them by their former names, but by new ones: that is, after I have washed them in my fountain, I will not call them, as before, sons of men, but sons of God. Or otherwise: I will change, he says, their names, and out of Simon I will make Peter, because upon his rock my Church is founded; out of the sons of Zebedee, sons of thunder, for I am about to entrust to them the sublime mysteries of my Gospel. And not only to these, but to Abraham too of old and to Sarah were their names changed; nor is it fitting that those whose life is different from their former manner of living should keep the same names. But another will interpret this—"Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips"—thus: I will not name them lightly and as it were in passing, but I will hold them in the depth of my heart, I will keep them in my soul. So that, just as it is said to the unbelieving people, "This people honors me with its lips, but its heart is far from me," so, on the contrary, the Lord names his saints not with the lips only, but holds them with the inmost affection of his mind.

"Their infirmities are multiplied." Here he shows how he relates to the adversaries of God, or to sinners. And first he sets forth their conversion; second, the manner of conversion, at "I will not gather." Concerning the first, he does two things. First he proposes the state of their preceding fault; second he sets forth the state of subsequent grace, at "Afterwards they hastened." He says, therefore, "Their infirmities are multiplied," that is, their diverse sins. Or "infirmities," that is, the penalties consequent upon sin. Lam. 1: "My groans are many." And from this it follows that "afterwards they hastened," that is, they strove to heal their life, in order to redeem the time lost. And they do this notably because "where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more," as it says in Rom. 5. Likewise, after tribulations man runs to God. Hos. 6: "In their tribulation they will rise early to me: come, let us return to the Lord." Ps. 82: "Fill their faces with shame, and they will seek your name, O Lord."

"I will not." Here he sets forth the manner of conversion. And first he shows to what rite they are converted; second, how perfectly, at "Nor will I be mindful," etc. He says, therefore, "They hastened." But how will they be converted? In the Old Law, those who were converted offered various sacrifices. But I will gather from diverse parts to the faith; but not so that they may shed blood: because, as the Apostle says in Heb. 10, "It is impossible that sins be taken away by the blood of bulls or goats." "I will not gather their assemblies from blood offerings," that is, from the rite of the law: but this gathering is from the new blood, that is, of Christ. Heb. 9: "Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many." Heb. 10: "By one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified," etc. Zech. 9: "You also, by the blood of your covenant, have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit in which there is no water," etc. But how perfect will this gathering be? "Because I will not be mindful of their names," which they had in the state of sin, because one was called a fornicator, another a thief. But after conversion, no one should be so named, because such names are blotted out. Or "I will not be mindful" of their sins in the judgment when I shall gather the just: "Come, blessed ones" (Mt. 25). And this "through my lips," or through my preachers. But to them it will be said, "Depart, accursed," etc. Jer. 15: "If you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth." Jerome has: "Their idols are multiplied; those who follow after them -- I will not pour out their libations of blood, nor will I take up their names upon my lips"; as if to say, I worship you, not idols. But their idols are many. Hos. 8: "I have multiplied those who depart from you." Jer. 2: "They have turned their back to me and not their face, nor will I be a partaker of their libations." Deut. 32: "From whose sacrifices they ate the fat, and drank the wine of libations." Nor will I swear by those idols.

"The Lord is the portion of Mine inheritance, and of My cup" [Psalm 16:5]. For together with Me they shall possess the inheritance, the Lord Himself. Let others choose for themselves portions, earthly and temporal, to enjoy: the portion of the Saints is the Lord eternal. Let others drink of deadly pleasures, the portion of My cup is the Lord. In that I say, "Mine," I include the Church: for where the Head is, there is the body also. For into the inheritance will I gather together their assemblies, and by the inebriation of the cup I will forget their old names. "You are He who will restore to Me My inheritance:" that to these too, whom I free, may be known "the glory wherein I was with You before the world was made." [John 17:5] For You will not restore to Me that which I never lost, but You will restore to these, who have lost it, the knowledge of that glory: in whom because I am, You will restore to Me.

[The psalmist is saying] "O Lord, why give me some other inheritance? Whatever you give, it isn't worth much. You be my inheritance; I love you, I love you with all I am, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind I love you. What can it mean to me, anything you give me apart from yourself?" That is to love God freely, to hope in God for God, to hasten to be filled with God, to be satisfied with him. He, after all, is enough for you; apart from him, nothing is enough for you.

The orders are preceded by a certain distinction in the tonsure and crown, by which is understood the cutting away of temporal desires and the elevation of the mind to eternal things, so that the cleric may be shown to be wholly appointed to divine worship; and therefore he says at the reception of the crown: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance.

And because such a one ought to be instructed in the divine praises, which chiefly consist in the Psalms: therefore the psalmistrate, as a preamble, precedes the other orders.

The inheritance is the contemplation of the present and future ages; the inheritance of Christ is the understanding of God.

He who in his own person is the Lord's portion, or has the Lord for his portion, must so bear himself as to possess the Lord and to be possessed by him. He who possesses the Lord and who says with the prophet, "The Lord is my portion," can hold to nothing beside the Lord. For if he holds to something beside the Lord, the Lord will not be his portion.

The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: it is you who will restore my inheritance to me. Our Savior in the Scriptures is called both high priest and king. High priest, in this: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." King, as in that place: "But I have been established as king by him over Zion, his holy mountain." According, then, to the fact that he is a priest, the Lord is his portion. For it is written in the Law: "To the sons of Levi you shall not give an inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel, for I am their portion, says the Lord." Hence from Jesus they received no portion in the land of Judah, but were dispersed throughout the tribes, that prophecy being fulfilled: "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." But if the Levites had no portion except the Lord, how much more does this one who is high priest, and who dares to say "The Father abiding in me does his works," have the Father as his special and proper portion. But according to the fact that he is king, it is said to him: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession." And note how elegantly the wording is measured in both cases. Of the Father it is said, "You are the portion of my inheritance." "You are," he says, not "you were": for the Son always remained in the Father, and the Father in the Son. But of the nations, "You," he says, "will restore to me my inheritance": for they ceased to be the Lord's inheritance when their infirmities were multiplied, and their assemblies were being gathered out of bloods. Although some think that the lower verse too should be referred to God the Father, so that the meaning is: Because I emptied myself, taking the form of a servant, and came down from my majesty to the earth, restore to me my inheritance; that is, yourself, in whom I always was, and glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. For you will not give me any new possession, but you will restore my inheritance, namely the divinity and nature of God, which I seemed not to have for the reason that I had taken the form of a man. Further, in that he says "and of my cup," it is doubtful to no one that in the Scriptures the cup is sometimes taken for a longed-for drink and joy, as in that place, "How excellent is your inebriating cup," and elsewhere, "I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." So that, just as our Savior is our food and drink (for indeed we feed on his flesh and drink of his blood), so of that man who was assumed by the Savior the food and cup is the Father, that is, the one common divinity with God the Father.

See, my blessed sister, how much you have achieved; see to what a high peak you have attained, how you have found the grace of many benefits in one and the same Christ. He is, indeed, your true Bridegroom, he is also your brother, he is likewise your friend, he is your inheritance, he is your reward, he is God and the Lord. You have in him a Bridegroom to love: "For he is fair in beauty above the sons of men." He is a true brother for you to hold, for by adoption you are the daughter of him whose natural Son Christ is. He is a friend of whom you need not doubt.… You have in him the inheritance that you may embrace, for he is himself the portion of your inheritance. You have in him the reward that you may recognize, for his blood is your redemption. You have in him God by whom you may be ruled, the Lord to fear and honor.

"The Lord." Here he assigns the reason for his clinging to God alone, because he alone is his inheritance; as if to say, I cling to him alone because this is my inheritance. First he says that God is his inheritance. Second he commends it, saying that he is content with it, at "For indeed my inheritance," etc. God himself is our good in which we rejoice: men in this world seek possessions and the use of them, but his possession is God; hence "the Lord is the portion of my inheritance," in the intransitive sense, that is, the inheritance that comes to me as my portion. Some have pleasures of the flesh as their inheritance. Wis. 2: "This is our portion and this is our lot." Others have other delightful things of the world; but God is my lot. Lam. 3: "The Lord is my portion, said my soul." But he is not only my inheritance, but "the portion of my cup," that is, my cup coming to me by lot; because all my delight and drink is God. Ps. 22: "My cup which inebriates, how goodly it is." Or Christ has the faithful as his inheritance; and the portion of this inheritance, namely of the faithful, is God, as has been said: "The Lord is the portion of my cup," because my passion is ordered to God. He also is the giver of this inheritance: "It is you who will restore my inheritance to me," namely of eternal glory. And so Christ speaks from the person of his own, who lost it when the first parent sinned. Or "my inheritance," that is, the glory of the body, which man lost by sinning.

"The lines have fallen to me in glorious places" (ver. 6). The boundaries of my possession have fallen in Thy glory as it were by lot, like as God is the possession of the Priests and Levites. "For Mine inheritance is glorious to Me." "For Mine inheritance is glorious," not to all, but to them that see; in whom because I am, "it is to Me."

According to an ancient custom, an inheritance used to be divided by roping off the lands, so that each person might obtain a portion of land by measurement, allotted by the size of the tract and the status of the individual. In this way, it says in the Old Testament that Moses commanded Joshua to distribute the inheritance of the promised land to the children of Israel through the use of cords. So he now rightly said "cords," because he spoke about the breadth and glory of his inheritance.… The inheritance of Christ is the predestined multitude of the saints.

If the line is measured, how is it written the Gospel of John: "For God gives the Spirit without measure" and "I will pour out my spirit on you." Perhaps by chance it is called "measure" not in terms of knowledge itself but on account of him who receives it, because its receptivity cannot be greater. The rain itself also may exceed the measure, yet it is measured in that vessel in which it is received.

The cords have fallen to me in excellent places: for indeed my inheritance is excellent to me. In place of that one people, I have possessed the whole world as my inheritance; and from the world, not just anyone, but the strong. For this is what "in excellent places" means, which in Greek is said "among the strong": according to that, "The Lord is my strength and my refuge and my deliverer," and in another place, "The Lord is my strength and my praise." If, then, anyone is excellent and strong, he is of the Lord's inheritance. Hence that Theophilus, "friend" or "lover of God," because he was such as to request that a Gospel be written to him, is called "kratistos," that is, excellent, strong: which was more simply translated by the Latins as "most excellent Theophilus." Further, the measuring-cord is used in the division of fields, and wherever possessions are distributed, or a census of earthly revenues is conducted, land is divided, as also in Joshua the son of Nun. An angel holding a measuring-cord is shown to the prophet who is about to build Jerusalem, so that first of all he may measure the extent of the city by reason and order, and thereafter build up what has been measured. And in the canticle of Deuteronomy we read: "The Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel." In the second book of Kingdoms too, when David overcame the Moabites, the Scripture records two cords set apart for putting to death, and two for keeping alive. But what it means that of the Moabites some are set apart for death, others for life, Orpah shows, and Ruth: of whom the one, turned back to the idols and to her ancient homeland, is destined for death; the other, following her mother-in-law—whose name means "sweet"—says, "Your people is my people, and your God is my God." And so we too, if we wish to be of the Lord's inheritance and of his cord, let us be strong and robust, and let us say: "I can do all things in Christ who has strengthened me." Let there be nothing weak in us, nothing feeble, nothing that the heir would not deign to receive. Since indeed Christ glories in his saints, and says: For indeed my inheritance is excellent to me. Do you wish to know that the Savior's inheritance was excellent? Consider Peter, look at Paul, all the apostles and saints, since indeed they believed throughout the whole world, and you will see the inheritance of Christ, and an excellent one. In place of which Aquila translated: "For indeed my inheritance is most beautiful to me." So that it may be that which is said in the Song of Songs: "You are wholly beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in you." And again: "Behold, you are fair, my near one, behold, you are fair, your eyes are doves." You who are fair and strong, when you have become like him of whom it is sung, "In your beauty and your comeliness," you will hear from the Bridegroom: "Forget your people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty."

"Lines have been stretched out for me in splendid places." The rich measure land with a line. Deut. 32: "Jacob is the line of his inheritance." And therefore "portion" is called, as it were, "the line of a cord," that is, my portion falls to me in the best things, because nothing is better than God himself. Jer. 3: "I will give you a desirable land, a splendid inheritance." Second he shows that he is content with it: "For indeed my inheritance is splendid to me"; as if to say, not only is my inheritance splendid in itself, but it is so splendid to me that I would in no way exchange it. Ps. 131: "This is my rest forever and ever: here I will dwell, because I have chosen it."

"I will bless the Lord, who has given Me understanding" [Psalm 16:7]: whereby this inheritance may be seen and possessed. "Yea moreover too even unto night my reins have chastened Me." Yea besides understanding, even unto death, My inferior part, the assumption of flesh, has instructed Me, that I might experience the darkness of mortality, which that understanding has not.

This brief word belongs to David himself, who through the Holy Spirit unfolds to us the very gift of understanding given to us by the Holy Spirit, and he unfolds it to us with respect to the humble gratitude of the recipient and with respect to the liberal diffusion of the giver. The humble gratitude of the recipient is noted when he says: "I will bless the Lord"; the liberal diffusion of the giver is noted when he adds: "Who has bestowed upon me understanding." This gift requires that man be grateful to God, and brings it about that man recognizes himself and the gift and the source of the gift: and by understanding the source of the gift man recognizes himself, and so gives thanks. And then he blesses God and pours back the beauty of the gift upon the very author of the gift, and praises him, and does not assail the giver. Moreover, we dispose ourselves to receive this gift through three things: first, through holiness of life; second, through the docility of meekness; and third, through the captivation of the understanding, so that we may bless the author of this gift.

All radiance of intelligence comes from that fountain of intelligence. And although the radiance of intelligence is manifold, understanding is the rule of moral circumspections, the gateway of scientific considerations, and the key of heavenly contemplations; and this is a gift.

I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding: moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me. He who speaks below, "My flesh shall rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption," consistently now too says: I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding, moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me. For he who is Wisdom, how does he receive understanding? But because "Jesus advanced in age and wisdom and grace before God and men," the Son was instructed not so much by the Father as the man was instructed by his own divinity. Hence too, concerning him who flowered from the root of Jesse, there is the prophet's oracle: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding." Which indeed, for beating back the madness of the Arian heresy, Aquila and Theodotion translated better, saying: "I will bless the Lord my counselor"; so that the Father did not so much give the Son wisdom and understanding which he did not have before, as join his own counsel to the Son's judgment. So that, just as in Proverbs Wisdom says that she was a counselor to God when he rejoiced in the completed world, and she rejoiced in herself daily; so also that same Wisdom, in the fact that he assumed a human body, that he died and rose again, shows that he was not without the Father's counsel, but according to that saying, "That I might do your will, my God, I willed it." But this too which follows, "Moreover even until night my reins have instructed me," must be taken thus, that we understand "reins" for hidden thoughts and deep affection, which is properly an idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures. For as far as is in my memory, neither in any of the philosophers nor among the rhetoricians, nor among the poets, nor even among the physicians themselves, who promise a knowledge of the nature of bodies, do I recall ever having read that "reins" are put for the understanding and for deep thought. But Scripture uses this custom, so that when it wishes to indicate something secret and hidden or mystical, it says, "God who searches hearts and reins"; so that, since the heart is secret, the reins are the more secret parts of the heart. In Wisdom too, which is inscribed with the title of Solomon, I have found written: "God is the witness of his reins, and the true beholder of his heart, and the hearer of his tongue." In the book of the Patriarchs too, although it is counted among the apocrypha, I found it thus, that as the gall was created for anger, so the reins for cleverness and for shrewdness. But "panourgia," that is, cleverness, may be taken either in a good or in a bad sense: in a good sense, according to Proverbs, "That he may give," it says, "shrewdness to the innocent, and to the younger boy sense and understanding"; in a bad sense, as in the apostle, "But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his shrewdness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." What he says, then, is this: my instruction and deep thought and the inner affection of the heart was not only with me in the heavenly places, but even while I dwelt in the night of this world and in darkness, it was engaged with me in the man, and instructed me, and was never absent from me, so that whatever the weakness of the flesh could not do, divine thought and power might accomplish. Or at least thus: my reins instructed me, who possess the inner wisdom of divinity, by which I was taught, when the passion was imminent, not to yield to human frailty through the terror of the cross. Moreover, what else does this declare (since the Savior's life is our example) but that he, not only waking but even sleeping, was free from every sin, and remained pure from every phantasm of the flesh: so that the saints too, who desire to be like their Lord and Master, may guard their heart with all watchfulness, and be overcome not only when waking, but not even in sleep—that is, not only by day, but not even by night. This too must be noted, that he said, "Moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me": to show that before night came, or before the Savior himself began to be in the night, he was always instructed by his own wisdom. There is another interpretation: because divine Scripture always speaks of God's powers after the likeness of human limbs—for example, when it says he has feet, eyes, ears, hands, and other things of this kind—that here "reins" should be taken for the places of the seed; so that, just as the beginning of men and the element of human flesh is founded in the seed, so our judgments too, and the beginnings of our thoughts, have their reins: so that, before we handle anything either in deed or in word, silent thought may hold this in its own movement and consider it within itself. So that the meaning is: our Lord and Savior could not sin—not only in deed and word, but not even in thought or in the beginnings of thoughts, which they call "propatheiai" (pre-passions)—he whom the Word of God was daily instructing. Not that God is one and the man another; but so that one and the same Son of Man and Son of God may now, as man, pray, now, as Lord, hear.

"I will bless." Above, the Psalmist set forth the reason why he clings to God alone, namely because God is the portion of his inheritance; here he acknowledges benefits. And first he proposes benefits received; second, benefits to be hoped for, at "Moreover, also my flesh." Concerning the first, he does two things. First he commemorates benefits received; second he shows the joy he has from them, at "Therefore my heart has been glad." He commemorates, therefore, a twofold benefit: one in the attainment of good, another in being preserved against evils. As to the first he says, "I will bless the Lord," etc., that I may understand how splendid is that eternal inheritance. Ps. 118: "Give me understanding, and I will search out," etc. Ps. 31: "I will give you understanding, and I will instruct you." Sir. 51: "To him who gives me wisdom I will give glory." The Lord, moreover, gave man reason for wisdom, but did not totally remove infirmity; but this will be the case in glory. And first he proposes it; second he sets forth the remedy against it, at "I set the Lord before me." Every man has from God, according to reason, the light of the intellect, and the just man is reformed by the light of grace. But the infirmity of the flesh still remains; and therefore he says, "Moreover, even my reins have rebuked me, until the night," that is, my infirmities, namely faults or sins. And this "until the night," that is, until death, "my reins have rebuked me," that is, they have shown me to be blameworthy. Another reading says that because the incentive to lust has its seat in the loins, it thus disturbs by tempting with pleasure. 2 Cor. 12: "Lest the greatness of the revelations," etc. But in Christ there are no infirmities of fault or of infection, because his flesh does not resist his spirit; and therefore it is understood only of punishment. Heb. 4: "Tempted in all things," as to bodily infirmities. But if it is understood of us, it should be said that the man who has the gift of understanding, or grace, should say with the Apostle, Rom. 7: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." Or "reins," that is, the Jews related to him, "until the night," that is, until the passion, or until the passibility of the flesh.

"I foresaw the Lord in My sight always" [Psalm 16:8]. But coming into things that pass away, I removed not My eye from Him who abides ever, foreseeing this, that to Him I should return after passing through the things temporal. "For He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved." For He favours Me, that I should abide fixedly in Him.

If you take a straight look at the leaders of the city, the foremost chief is Christ. In terms of the fight, although the angels and the saints help, yet the principal contender is Christ. Hence, in the Psalm: "I set the Lord ever before me; with Him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed." And again, in the Acts: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

By explaining what he did, he passes on to us the unique remedy through which we can avoid sins. For the person who constantly keeps him in his mental line of sight does not turn toward transgressions in any way.

Do you see the equal worth of the Son with the Father? Sometimes the Son is said to stand or to sit on the right; now they grant the right to the Father, so that you may say that there is one power, that of the Father (the begetter) and that of the begotten (the Son), even if now he is humbled on account of the flesh.

I foresaw the Lord in my sight always: for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. In place of what we read in Latin, "I foresaw," and what in Greek is written "proōrōmēn," it stands better in the Hebrew SEBETHI, which we may render "I set before myself." So that it means: I set the Lord before me always at my right hand, and I could be overthrown by no fraud of my enemies. And at the same time consider that it is in our power to set the Lord before our eyes. He who is just and is like the Savior places God at his right hand, and says, "Because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved." But he places him at the right hand for this reason, that he has before his eyes the one whom he follows as he goes before. But he who is a sinner casts the word of the Lord behind his back, and the Lord becomes for him at the left hand. And when the devil has looked at him on the left of the sinner, he at once moves to the sinner's right, so as to possess the place of God: and that is fulfilled which is written of Judas: "Let the devil stand at his right hand." Why this is put not as in narration but as in prayer belongs to another place to discuss. For the Lord Savior, then, or through the Lord for his saints, God always stands at the right hand. But the just man has no left hand, and wherever he turns, "the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and will deliver them." Do you wish to know that the just man has no left hand? When Moses, in the type of the cross, lifted both his hands to heaven, it is not written, "Aaron was at his right and Hur at his left," but that on this side stood Aaron and on that side Hur. In the book of Judges too, that leader Ehud, whose mystery is manifold and great, who had a sword upon his thigh, and had cut off desires, and had also run through with his blade his very fat and gross adversary, is for that reason written "amphoterodexios," that is, having both hands as a right hand, whom in Latin we may call "ambidextrous." Someone may object: If the just man has no left hand, how is Wisdom written to have both a right hand and a left? A diligent reader will very easily judge how great is the difference between the right hand of Wisdom and the left, when he has noticed what things are said to be in her right and what in her left. For it is said: "Length of eternity and years of life are in her right hand, but in her left hand riches and glory." You see eternal time and perpetual life placed in Wisdom's right hand; but the carnal things which pass away, which flee off while they are thought to be held—that is, riches and glory—placed in her left hand, according to that, that on the day of judgment some will stand at the right, and others at the left: the lambs, that is, and the saints at his right, but the goats and the sinners at his left. But perhaps an inquisitive reader will object this too: how we can assert that God stands at the right of the just man, and the devil at the left of the sinner, when concerning our Lord it is read in Zechariah, "And the devil was standing at his right hand to oppose him." Let him, then, who objects this read also what follows: that when the devil was standing at his right hand, Jesus had filthy garments. Rightly did he who had taken up our sins and was bearing our offenses have the devil at his right hand, not so much for himself as for the filthy garments. And at the same time let him consider that it is not said, "The devil was standing as victor and triumphing," but as still set in the contest and in the battle-line and in doubt—indeed, when he had not yet begun to fight. For it follows, "That he might oppose him." But the devil was opposing him, as we said, because he had filthy garments from our sins. But after he heard, "May the Lord who chose Jerusalem rebuke you," he did not stand at the right, but went behind his back and under his feet, and at once Jesus the great priest receives the ankle-length robe (poderis), and is clothed in white vesture, and, royal dignity being joined to him—that is, Zerubbabel being coupled with him—builds the Church, and constructs the spiritual Jerusalem.

And because the flesh feared the passion, I, in that passion, "set the Lord before me," with eyes raised to heaven, not to the world. Providence is the foreseeing of things to happen in the future; but vision or sight is of things present. But if such loins still assail, one should not fear, because one has the help of God ready. And therefore first he sets forth the remembrance of the help, saying, "I set the Lord before me," etc., namely when "my reins rebuked me." Ps. 24: "My eyes are always toward the Lord, because," etc. And this is because "he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved," not to the left. Prov. 3: "The Lord will be at your side, and will keep your foot lest you be caught." Is. 50: "Let us stand together," etc.

We die not by our own choice but by necessity of nature and against our will. However, the Lord, being himself immortal yet having mortal flesh, had power, as God, to separate from his body and to take it back again, when he would.… For it was fitting that the flesh, corruptible as it was, should no longer after its own nature remain mortal, but because of the Word who had put it on, should abide incorruptible. For as he, having come in our body, was conformed to our condition, so we, receiving him, partake of the immortality that is from him.

"Wherefore My heart was glad, and My tongue exulted" [Psalm 16:9]. Wherefore both in My thoughts is gladness, and in my words exultation. "Moreover too My flesh shall rest in hope." Moreover too My flesh shall not fail unto destruction, but shall sleep in hope of the resurrection.

Let us see [Jesus] … in his suffering as man but not suffering as God, and in his dying in the flesh but being greater than death, and in not remaining … in the tomb as we do and not being held fast by the gates of the underworld together with the other dead.… For he rose again, despoiling death and "saying to the prisoners: Come out, to those in darkness: Show yourselves," and he ascended to his Father above in the heavens to a position inaccessible to people, having taken on himself our sins and being the propitiation for them.

Yea, the prophet David also, according to the interpretation of the great Peter, said with foresight of Him, "Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption," while the Apostle Peter thus expounds the saying, that "His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption." For His Godhead, alike before taking flesh and in the flesh and after His Passion, is immutably the same, being at all times what It was by nature, and so continuing for ever. But in the suffering of His human nature the Godhead fulfilled the dispensation for our benefit by severing the soul for a season from the body, yet without being Itself separated from either of those elements to which it was once for all united, and by joining again the elements which had been thus parted, so as to give to all human nature a beginning and an example which it should follow of the resurrection from the dead, that all the corruptible may put on incorruption, and all the mortal may put on immortality, our first-fruits having been transformed to the Divine nature by its union with God … the Lord, reconciling the world to Himself by the Humanity of Christ, apportioned His work of benevolence to men between His soul and His body, willing through His soul and touching them through His body.

Because of this my heart has been glad and my tongue has rejoiced. This that he says, "Because of this," must be joined to what precedes, so that he says the cause of his gladness, or exultation, was this, that he always had God before his eyes, and, with him standing at his right hand, was never moved; and so let the order be: My heart has been glad and my tongue has rejoiced, rendering a hymn to the Father for the salvation of men, because, while I stood and endured the death of the cross, the Lord was set at my right hand. This passage also tells against those who reckon that the members which are set forth in the Scriptures must always be understood bodily. For let them answer how a tongue by itself can rejoice, or how a tongue, as if perceiving and understanding, can have its own gladness. Since indeed he does not say, "the tongue rejoiced," but "my tongue rejoiced." Understand, then, of the tongue as of the other members too, namely that it has all its effects, according to that saying of Solomon: "In the hand of the tongue are death and life." But in place of what is read in the Acts of the Apostles and in the common edition, "My tongue rejoiced," it must be known that in the other editions, and among the Seventy themselves too, it is not "tongue" that is put, but "glory," which in Hebrew is called CHABOD. For "tongue" is called LASON. And I think that, because the glory of the orator is in the praise of his speech, just as the glory of the physician is in the industry of the medical art, and the athlete's glory is his strength, and the glory of the other arts is to fulfill what they know: therefore the tongue, through which what is felt is uttered, has been put for "glory." Or at least the glory of that man who was assumed by Christ must be understood, the one concerning whom it is said elsewhere, "My glory, and the lifter-up of my head." Or his glory must be understood as the apostles, because they glorified him in the whole world: just as we call an ample flock the glory of the shepherd, and learned disciples the glory of the master, and strong armies the glory of the general. Further, as to what John says, "We saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth," and what is written in another place, "Arise, my glory, arise": let us understand that to be the Savior's glory which the apostles saw in the humility of his flesh, so that they gazed with keener eyes not on what appeared, but on what lay hidden in the body.

Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. It is superfluous to wish to treat of those things which have been explained by the apostles. We therefore say these things, which were passed over by them as being, as it were, of lesser importance: that he said, "My flesh shall dwell in hope," for this reason, that the Savior descended to the dead with the hope of rising again at once. And he did not say "shall dwell," or "shall rest," as is read in the Latin manuscripts, but "kataskēnōsei," that is, "shall sojourn," so that the meaning is: It will tarry there a little while, and will see the underworld in passing, and his soul too will not be left in hell. "For I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again." Nor will it be granted by the Father to see corruption. But he said "to see" for "to suffer," according to that idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures: "Who is the man that lives, and shall not see death?" And elsewhere: "He who, though he had not known sin, was made sin for us." And at the same time note that the Lord had both flesh and soul: the flesh which was laid in the tomb, and the soul which descended to the underworld. And as the flesh without the soul was perfect flesh, so also the soul without the flesh was a perfect soul, and lacked no function of its own nature which the human soul is wont to have apart from sin. This is against the new heresy. And at the same time, because some argue variously, from the fact that the Lord entered with the doors shut, that the same flesh did not rise which had died, let them hear what the Lord himself here recalls. Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. Surely, when the Savior had died and suffered, that flesh was laid in the tomb which had also been alive; that flesh, then, also rose again, which had lain lifeless and dead in the tomb. But if the same flesh rose, how do some argue that a certain spiritual and great flesh, and not our own, rose in the Lord? Nor do we say this in such a way as to deny that the body of Christ took on that glory which we believe that we saints too shall receive. For then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. But as, before he suffered, when transformed and glorified on the mountain he had assuredly the same flesh which he had also had down below, though of another glory; so also after the resurrection there was in him flesh of the same nature which had been before the passion, but of a more glorified and more august appearance, that being fulfilled which Paul says: "And so from now on we know no one according to the flesh; and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so." I am compelled in this place to say that word of the apostle: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways!" God the Son, God the Word, so long as he was in the heavens, and men had not so sinned that he himself should descend to them, dwelt simple and uncompounded with the angels, thrones, dominions, and the other powers. But when he descended to men, namely those who were framed of soul and body, he too came compounded, lest the compounded ones should be unable to bear the simple. Again, because souls without bodies were being held in the underworld, souls which in their nature are simple, so, the flesh itself being left behind, it was not God the Word, not the compounded man, but the soul that descended to the underworld: so that, just as each place had need of him, he might so be perceived by the inhabitants of that region. I know that many, since the body of Christ is the Church, and we are its members, according to anagogy (anagōgēn) understand as the flesh of Christ those who are lower, and as the soul those who are more perfect; or at least as the flesh those who follow the literal history, as the soul those who ascend to spiritual understanding.

The word destruction (phthora) has two meanings. [First], it means human sufferings such as hunger, thirst, weariness, piercing with nails, death—that is separation of the soul from the body—and the like. In this sense, we say that the Lord's body was destructible, because he endured all these things freely. Destruction, however, also means the complete dissolution of the body and its reduction to the elements of which it was composed. By many this is more generally called corruption (diaphthora). This the Lord's body did not experience, as the prophet David says [in this psalm].… Therefore, it is impious to say with the insane Julian and Gaianus that before the resurrection the Lord's body was indestructible in the first sense. For, if it was thus incorruptible, then it was not consubstantial with us, and the things such as the hunger, the thirst, the nails, the piercing of the side and death that the gospel says happened did not really happen but only seemed to. But if they only seemed to happen, then the mystery of the incarnation is a hoax and a stage trick; it was in appearance and not in truth that he was made man and in appearance and not in truth that we have been saved. But far be it, and let those who say this have no part in salvation. We, however, have gained and shall obtain the true salvation. Moreover, in the second sense of the word destruction, we confess that the Lord's body was indestructible, that is to say, incorruptible, even as has been handed down to us by the inspired fathers.

"My flesh will rest in hope." The Lord Jesus Christ says these words, whose flesh is the first to rest in hope. Crucified, made the first fruit of the dead and having been taken into heaven after the resurrection, he carried the earthly body with him so that even the heavenly powers were awestruck and terrified seeing the flesh ascending into heaven. Concerning Elijah it was written that he was taken up into heaven; and about Enoch, that he was translated. Now, however, it is said that Jesus ascended into heaven. Let him be offended who so wishes at our word. I, however, guard it will all faith because just as Christ is the first fruit from the dead, so also he is the first to carry his flesh to heaven.

"Therefore my heart has been glad." 1 Sam. 2: "My heart has rejoiced in the Lord." Ps. 63: "The just man shall rejoice in the Lord," etc. "And my tongue has rejoiced," etc., outwardly, when exterior joy breaks forth into vocal praise. Is. 12: "Sing to the Lord, for he has done great things." Ps. 80: "Rejoice in God," etc.

"Moreover." Here he enumerates the benefits to be hoped for. First as to the resurrection of the flesh; second as to the soul, at "You have made known." The first is divided into two. First he sets forth the hope of resurrection; second, the manner, at "Because you will not abandon." He says, therefore: you have given me understanding, and you have stood by me as a man, but "moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope" of resurrection. Ps. 3: "I have slept and taken my rest, and I have risen again." And also my flesh shall have hope in the resurrection. Wis. 3: "Their hope is full of immortality."

Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. [Psalms 16:10] For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

"For You will not leave My soul in hell." For You will neither give My soul for a possession to those parts below. "Neither will You grant Your Holy One to see corruption." Neither will You suffer that sanctified body, whereby others are to be also sanctified, to see corruption.

Who save him who rose on the third day was in a position to say that his flesh rested in hope, that his soul, not left in hell, would swifty return to reanimate his flesh, that his flesh would not undergo corruption as other corpses rot away? Surely, no one can maintain that all of this was verified in David, king and prophet!

'Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption' is treated as a prophecy of His Resurrection in Acts 2:27, and was doubtless so taken by Himself, since we find it so taken in the earliest Christian tradition—that is, by people likely to be closer both to the spirit and to the letter of His words than any scholarship (I do not say 'any sanctity') will bring a modern.

Where are the false statements of the Apollinarians who say that the Lord Christ did not have a rational soul? Here he cries out and gives thanks to the Father because his soul is not abandoned to hell in the normal way, but is glorified by a swift resurrection and has passed to the realms of heaven.

Blessed Peter in the Acts of the Apostles took these words as applied to the Lord.… He did not, however, take the words as though he were undermining their factual basis, but as more applicable to the Lord than to those of whom they were said, especially since it was also in the case of the Lord that the outcome of the events more appropriately brought out these words than in the case of those who live for a while but later are consigned to death—the Israelites themselves, I mean. Nothing therefore prevents either the factual basis being preserved or these words being understood of the Lord.

Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. It is superfluous to wish to treat of those things which have been explained by the apostles. We therefore say these things, which were passed over by them as being, as it were, of lesser importance: that he said, "My flesh shall dwell in hope," for this reason, that the Savior descended to the dead with the hope of rising again at once. And he did not say "shall dwell," or "shall rest," as is read in the Latin manuscripts, but "kataskēnōsei," that is, "shall sojourn," so that the meaning is: It will tarry there a little while, and will see the underworld in passing, and his soul too will not be left in hell. "For I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again." Nor will it be granted by the Father to see corruption. But he said "to see" for "to suffer," according to that idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures: "Who is the man that lives, and shall not see death?" And elsewhere: "He who, though he had not known sin, was made sin for us." And at the same time note that the Lord had both flesh and soul: the flesh which was laid in the tomb, and the soul which descended to the underworld. And as the flesh without the soul was perfect flesh, so also the soul without the flesh was a perfect soul, and lacked no function of its own nature which the human soul is wont to have apart from sin. This is against the new heresy. And at the same time, because some argue variously, from the fact that the Lord entered with the doors shut, that the same flesh did not rise which had died, let them hear what the Lord himself here recalls. Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. Surely, when the Savior had died and suffered, that flesh was laid in the tomb which had also been alive; that flesh, then, also rose again, which had lain lifeless and dead in the tomb. But if the same flesh rose, how do some argue that a certain spiritual and great flesh, and not our own, rose in the Lord? Nor do we say this in such a way as to deny that the body of Christ took on that glory which we believe that we saints too shall receive. For then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. But as, before he suffered, when transformed and glorified on the mountain he had assuredly the same flesh which he had also had down below, though of another glory; so also after the resurrection there was in him flesh of the same nature which had been before the passion, but of a more glorified and more august appearance, that being fulfilled which Paul says: "And so from now on we know no one according to the flesh; and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so." I am compelled in this place to say that word of the apostle: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways!" God the Son, God the Word, so long as he was in the heavens, and men had not so sinned that he himself should descend to them, dwelt simple and uncompounded with the angels, thrones, dominions, and the other powers. But when he descended to men, namely those who were framed of soul and body, he too came compounded, lest the compounded ones should be unable to bear the simple. Again, because souls without bodies were being held in the underworld, souls which in their nature are simple, so, the flesh itself being left behind, it was not God the Word, not the compounded man, but the soul that descended to the underworld: so that, just as each place had need of him, he might so be perceived by the inhabitants of that region. I know that many, since the body of Christ is the Church, and we are its members, according to anagogy (anagōgēn) understand as the flesh of Christ those who are lower, and as the soul those who are more perfect; or at least as the flesh those who follow the literal history, as the soul those who ascend to spiritual understanding.

These three parts were divided at the time of the sufferings. These three parts were reunited at the time of the resurrection. At the time of the sufferings they were divided. In what way? The body in the tomb, the soul in hell, the spirit was given up to the Father. The soul in hell: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."

If, therefore, we have understood what it is to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, that is, to commend it "into the hands of God" (for so we expounded above, setting forth the exposition of the evangelist Luke), if we have understood what it is to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," let us hasten to keep our life such that at our departure we too may be able to cry out with a loud voice and thus to give up the spirit, or to bow the "head" and hand over the "spirit," like Jesus who "bowed his head" and, as it were, resting it upon the bosom of the Father, went forth—the Father who was able to cherish and strengthen it in his bosom. But if you wish to hear what it profited Christ to have cried out with a loud voice and thus to have given up the spirit, that is, to have commended the "spirit" "into the hands" of the Lord and thus to have given it up, or to have bowed the "head" upon the bosom of the Father and to have handed over the "spirit," hear what the prophet says: for "on this account" "he did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he give" him "to see corruption." If, therefore, we too conduct ourselves in such a way that we can commend our spirits into the hands of God, or bow our head upon the bosom of God and thus hand over our spirit, then without doubt he will neither leave our souls in hell nor give us to remain in corruption forever. But he who called him back from the dead after the third day will call us back too at the opportune time; and he who granted him that his flesh should not see "corruption" will grant to us—not indeed that our flesh should not see "corruption," but that it should be freed from corruption at the opportune time—since he indeed "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," but we shall be just if at least at some time we depart from our sins.

So at this place, too, Christ the Lord in human fashion says, "Constantly supported by the divine nature, I am in the midst of my saving passion and find gladness in the hope of resurrection. My soul, you see, will not be abandoned in hades, nor will my flesh suffer natural corruption. I shall achieve a rapid resurrection and return to life, giving all people a glimpse of this path."

This psalm refutes the folly of Arius, of Eunomius and of Apollinaris: the former ones said God the Word assumed a body without a soul, whereas Apollinaris called the body that was assumed ensouled though denying it a rational soul; I do not know where he found his doctrine of these two souls—the divine Scripture nowhere teaches it. Yet the all-Holy Spirit through blessed David made undisguised mention of a soul, thus giving clear refutation of each heresy.

The reason is that resurrection requires the union of body and soul; and therefore the soul joined to divinity should not have remained in Hell; but it had to stay there only until the truth of his humanity and true flesh was proven: nor was it fitting for it to be left in Hell, where it had descended to free the saints. Sir. 24: "I will penetrate all the lower parts of the earth, and I will visit all who sleep, and I will enlighten all," etc. Likewise, from the side of the body, because "nor will you give your holy one," that is, my body sanctified by you, "to see corruption," that is, of putrefaction or dissolution, which he did not suffer; but he did suffer the corruption of death.

"You have made known to Me the paths of life." You have made known through Me the paths of humiliation, that men might return to life, from whence they fell through pride; in whom because I am, "You have made known to Me." "You will fill Me with joy with Your countenance." You will fill them with joy, that they should seek nothing further, when they shall see You "face to face;" in whom because I am, "You will fill Me." "Pleasure is at Your right hand even to the end." Pleasure is in Your favour and mercy in this life's journey, leading on even to the end of the glory of Your countenance.

But grace which lifts up is obtained through hope. Therefore "our present light affliction which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory." For the Lord rejoices in the right. "The delights at your right hand forever." At the left are passing riches, glories and consolations. We must indeed adhere to the right. As the Psalm says, "Your right hand upholds me," Lord. Hence the rewards dispose towards the third act of grace.

Scripture enlightens from above by means of divine promises, for its teaching is concerned with things above. Hence the Apostle writes: For we know that if the earthly house in which we dwell be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by human hands, eternal in the heavens. And: "In My Father's house there are many mansions," says the Lord. In the Psalms, it is said: The children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They have their fill of the prime gifts of Your house; from Your delightful stream You give them to drink. For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we see light. And in the Apocalypse: For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them, and will guide them to the fountains of the waters of life. And in a Psalm: The delights at Your right hand forever. And so Scripture offers us the divine promises.

I was learning the far more secret doctrine that _pleasures_ are shafts of the glory as it strikes our sensibility. As it impinges on our will or our understanding, we give it different names—goodness or truth or the like. But its flash upon our senses and mood is pleasure.

But aren't there bad, unlawful pleasures? Certainly there are. But in calling them "bad pleasures" I take it we are using a kind of shorthand. We mean "pleasures snatched by unlawful acts." It is the stealing of the apple that is bad, not the sweetness. The sweetness is still a beam from the glory. That does not palliate the stealing. It makes it worse. There is sacrilege in the theft. We have abused a holy thing.

I have tried, since that moment, to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration... it is possible to "read" as well as to "have" a pleasure. Or not even "as well as." The distinction ought to become, and sometimes is, impossible; to receive it and to recognise its divine source are a single experience. This heavenly fruit is instantly redolent of the orchard where it grew. This sweet air whispers of the country from whence it blows. It is a message. We know we are being touched by a finger of that right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore. There need be no question of thanks or praise as a separate event, something done afterwards. To experience the tiny theophany is itself to adore.

Gratitude exclaims, very properly: "How good of God to give me this." Adoration says: "What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!" One's mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.

He's a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the sea shore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it; at His right hand are "pleasures for evermore". Ugh! I don't think He has the least inkling of that high and austere mystery to which we rise in the Miserific Vision. He's vulgar, Wormwood. He has a bourgeois mind. He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least--sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it's any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side.

To "fill up from full" means to make something more than full, and he who brings more pours into a container that is already full. That joy fills up in such a way that the vessel always remains full. This text also indicates that all the righteous are going to be filled with the joy of the Lord's face in that blessedness, and because it is the Lord who speaks, he testifies that he is able to be filled up among them. But we should consider more carefully what it means when he says here that he will be filled with delights at the right hand of the Father, although he said earlier "for he is at my right hand so that I may not be moved." Without a doubt, in this age after he assumed human flesh, he was whipped, bruised by slaps, and splattered with spittle. Since he was not overcome at all by any of these adversities, the Scripture rightly says that the Lord was always there at his right hand. For he overcame the opposition of the world because he did not depart at all from the contemplation of his Father. But after the glory of the resurrection, he can rightly say that he found delight at the right hand of the Father since by that time the opposition of the world had come to an end, his humanity had become filled by the glorification of his full majesty, and he now reigns united with the Word together with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and forever. "Even to the end" refers to perfection and eternity. His glory remains in his perfection and will not come to an end at any time.

You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with gladness with your countenance: delights are at your right hand unto the end. Because his flesh did not see corruption, and his soul was not left in hell, now after the resurrection, ascending to the heavens as victor, in the person of that man who had risen, he says, "You have made known to me the ways of life": that is, I have learned how men are freed from the underworld, by what means they may attain eternal life. And at the same time consider that he who is the Way and the Life said that he had learned the ways of life, that is, how men may attain to him who said that he is the Way and the Life. And I think that, just as he himself is the Truth, and, speaking to the Jews, "If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," he speaks as it were of another truth; so, since he himself is the Life, he speaks as it were of another life, and since he himself is the Way, he says that other ways were shown to him—or, as it is read in the Hebrew, "the way": namely, that the flesh which he had taken, and in his flesh the whole race of men, might rejoice that those things which belonged to the divinity of the Son were made known to it. For which reason he says that he rejoices, and has exultation with the Father (for this is what "with your countenance" means, according to that, "You will make him glad with joy with your countenance"), and full and perfect gladness and ineffable delight, when he shall sit at the Father's right hand, and shall have fulfilled, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The Son sits at the Father's right hand in the majesty of one reigning; and because he had seen his first martyr Stephen battling against the Jews, he rose from his throne and stood at the Father's right hand, as if he too were fighting for the martyr. This is the delight, this the pleasure at the end of the dispensation, or of the victory: for in place of "end" Aquila and Theodotion and all the editions, except Symmachus and the Seventy, translated "victory"; because he suffered, and rose again, and as victor pierced through to the heavens, for this reason: that he might set man at the right hand of the Lord. It must also be noted that in this place where we read, "You will fill me with gladness," Theodotion said "Seven gladnesses," and "With your countenance is delight at your right hand. To the victor"; and Aquila and Symmachus translated "A fullness of gladnesses with your face," or "in your presence," and the rest. It is asked, then, why Theodotion said "seven" for "fullness." This indeed he will easily know who has at least a small acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue. For the word SABA, as we have also said in the book of Hebrew Questions, signifies four things: fullness and satiety, an oath, and seven. Since, therefore, it is ambiguous, Theodotion, knowing that there are diverse graces of the Spirit with God, thought that, for the fitness of the passage, "seven" ought rather to be translated than "fullness," "satiety," and "oath"; so as to show that with God there are the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord: which are truly the seven full gladnesses—not for others, but for him who has deserved to be delighted forever at the right hand of the Lord. For this reason some suppose that seven heavens were named by the philosophers, and seven wandering stars called. Further, Symmachus, where we read, "Delight is at your right hand unto the end," says, "Strength is at your right hand forever": showing that he who is full of virtues will remain continually with God.

This is certainly said in the person of the Savior at the time of the resurrection. When after his death he returned to the heavenly heights from the lower regions, he began to make known the path of life, which was previously unknown. The path of life was unknown before Christ, since it was still untouched by the foot of anyone who rose from the dead. But when the Lord rose, once the path become known, it become well worn by the soles of many, about whom the Evangelist says: "The bodies of many holy people arose along with him and entered into the holy city." So too, since the Lord said at his own resurrection: "You have made known to me the paths of life," we are also now able to say to the Lord, "You have made known to us the paths of life." For he who showed us the way to life has himself made known to us the paths of life. He made known to me the paths of life when he taught me faith, mercy, righteousness and chastity. By journeying along these, one arrives at salvation. Even though the shadow of death encompasses us at the destruction of our body, still life does not forsake its steps; we walk quickly through the very midst of the decrees of hell by the power of Christ. For this reason, the holy prophet says: "Even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will not fear evils, for you are with me." The Lord says this same thing about the believer even more clearly: "He who believes in me will not die, and although he dies, he will live."

He will be in unceasing joy, having become immune to suffering, to change, to death, even in his human nature. As God, you see, this was always the case, and of course even in his human nature once formed in the womb it was easy to provide him with this. But he allowed the nature he had assumed to travel through the sufferings so as by these means to loose the sway of sin, put a stop to the tyranny of the devil, undo the power of death and provide all people with the basis of a new life. So as man he assumes both incorruption and immortality.

The benefits that pertain to the soul he commemorates when he says, "You have made known." This refers to Christ for his members, and these are the teachings and precepts that are the way to beatitude. Prov. 7: "Keep my commandments, and you shall live"; and therefore he says, "You have made known to me the ways of life." Second he commemorates the benefit: where he says three things. First, the full vision of God: "You shall fill me with joy with your countenance," that is, I shall see your face. 1 Cor. 13: "Now I know in part," that is, imperfectly; "then I shall know face to face." Full joy: Jn. 16: "That your joy may be full": because the delights are unfailing, because "at your right hand even to the end." Is. 51: "Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Prov. 3: "Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand, riches and glory."