Verses 49–56

The seventh stanza of eight verses is under the letter “zayin”—“olive.”

The olive is the tree from whose fruit oil is pressed—a symbol of God’s mercy and of all that is consoling and healing. Perhaps no single object from the material world is applied in God’s word so frequently and so variously to spiritual realities as oil: now it is the oil of gladness (Ps. 44:8), now of anointing (Ex. 25:6), now of healing (Is. 1:6), now of lighting (Ex. 27:20), now sacrificial oil (Lev. 6:15), now the oil of bread (in bread) (Lev. 8:26), now of piety (Eccl. 7:2), now of peace (in the liturgy: “the mercy of peace”).

In the present stanza, holy David gathers together sayings that express what grieved his soul and from where he drew consolation for it. Now it is the slowness of the fulfillment of God’s promises that troubles him (verse Ps. 118:49), now the humbling circumstances of life (verse Ps. 118:50), now proud enemies and mockers (verses Ps. 118:51–52), now, in general, the multiplication of sin and impiety (verse Ps. 118:53), now life on earth—the place of our sojourning (verse Ps. 118:54). In all these afflictions he seeks and finds consolation only in God and His holy law, striving in every way to maintain the proper relationship with them. This last is expressed in various phrasal forms, but in nearly identical thought, as we shall see (verses Ps. 118:55–56).

Ps. 118:49. Remember Your word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope.

The “words of hope” in which the Prophet had been nourishing consoling expectations were the promises given to him. He asks that they be remembered, evidently because in the present circumstances there was something that did not correspond to the expectations aroused by the Lord’s words, or because he saw ahead of him something that might shatter his hopes, or because he felt at the time a need for consolation and God’s mercy—and since the promises had promised every mercy, he says: “Remember what You have said, and grant at least a small portion of what was promised, because especially now I feel the need of it.” The foundation of such a petition is an unshakeable assurance in the immutability of God’s word.

“Remember…” But can there be forgetfulness in God, as there is in man? There cannot. Why then is “remember” said? This word is often used in Scripture in both the direct and the opposite sense, as for example: why have You forgotten me? (Ps. 41:10), or: why do You forget our poverty? (Ps. 43:25). God Himself says through a prophet that He will forget all the sins of a sinner if the sinner, repenting, turns from them (Ezek. 18:21–22). Forgetfulness in God is not to be understood as it is understood in us humans. When God, beyond human expectation, changes the order of things without changing His counsel, “which endures for ever” (Ps. 32:11), it is said that He “relents.” So too it is said of Him “He forgot” when, apparently, He delays His help, or the fulfillment of His promise, or the due recompense to sinners, or something else—as though it had slipped from His mind—what is hoped for or feared yet does not happen; but God does this through a special providence, not through a failure of memory or a change of will. Thus when one says to Him “remember,” this expresses only the desire of the one praying to receive what was promised, and not as if something were being presented to God as having slipped from His thought. “Remember,” says the Prophet, “Your word to Your servant”; this means: fulfill what You have promised to Your servant; “upon which You have caused me to hope” means: “relying on Your words that expressed a promise, I,” interprets Blessed Augustine, “began to nourish hope.”

St. Hilary sees in this word yet another thought: since God’s promises are conditional—given, that is, on the condition of faithfulness on the part of the one to whom they are given—the Prophet, not trusting in his own ability to fulfill these conditions, asks God to help him in this, so that afterwards He might also fulfill the promise that is subject to such conditions. “The Prophet prays,” he says, “that he may be found worthy for God to deign to remember the word by which He gave him hope.”

What were these words of God to David is specifically indicated in the Word of God. Thus God said to him through the prophet Nathan: “I took you from the sheepfold to be ruler over My people Israel, and I was with you wherever you went, and I cut off all your enemies from before you.” And further: “I will give you rest from all your enemies,” and so on. Hearing such an answer from God, holy David cried out: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have loved me thus far? And this was yet a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; but You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come.” And further: “And now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have spoken this good thing concerning Your servant. And now let it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue before You for ever; for You, O Lord God, have spoken it, and with Your blessing let the house of Your servant be blessed for ever” (2 Sam. 7:8–29). Assured by these words, holy David never ceased to await their fulfillment and, leaning upon the immutability of the word spoken through the prophet, draws near to God with prayer that He would remember the promises, which it is not His custom to forget. “Not out of any proud presumption,” explains St. Ambrose, “does he speak thus, but in the assurance that the true God cannot be false in His words. He speaks as if to say: not by my own seizure did I hope; on the contrary, You Yourself made it so that I began to nourish hope. I am a servant—I await nourishment from my master; I am a soldier—I await my stipend from my king.”

Such is the meaning of these words in the mouth of holy David. But in what sense may we also address them to God? To all of us as well, in the Lord Jesus, promises have been given—not only concerning the future, but also concerning the present. Bringing these promises to mind, therefore, and not seeing their fulfillment in yourself, pray that God would remember them and fulfill them in you; and if the obstacle to their fulfillment lies within you, then ask at the same time that He destroy this obstacle and make you worthy of receiving what has been promised. Thus: forgiveness of all sins has been promised to those who repent; but all-forgiveness brings joy, while you still feel the same anguish and as though hopelessness—pray then that the Lord would speak the promised all-forgiveness into your heart, and that you would feel the joy of it, for Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered (Ps. 31:1). It has been promised that one baptized in water and the Spirit, or washed by the tears of repentance, is spiritually renewed and begins to live a new life—this should happen in you as well; yet you perceive that the deeds of the old man continue to break through with apparently the same force as before—and pray that the Lord would deliver you by His grace from “the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24), and that it would no longer be sin, but God Himself who lives in you. It has been promised that all will be taught of God—not outwardly, through writings, but inwardly, through the writing of God’s words by an invisible finger upon the tablets of the heart—and this should happen in you too; yet you see all things unclearly, and the all-illuminating and life-giving word is never spoken in your heart—and pray that the Lord would at last become for you the light that enlightens every man coming into the world. It has been promised that true worshippers will worship God in spirit—and so you too should worship; yet you see that even your bodily worship is faulty, and there are no beginnings even of spiritual worship—and pray that He Who gives prayer to one who prays (1 Sam. 2:9) would teach you also to draw near to Him in prayer as is fitting. Act likewise with regard to everything else. But in doing this, so that your prayer may not be an empty word, do not forget to fulfill, or to promise to fulfill, what is required of you yourself, so that the meaning of your words may always be this: “Here I am doing, or will do, what lies within my power—remember You also, O Lord, what has been promised by You to those who serve You, and fill my poor soul with Your good things.” When you have thus labored in life, you may say at the end of it with the Apostle: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day (2 Tim. 4:7–8). This is the crown of promises and hopes resting upon the word of the Lord: where I am, there will My servant be also (John 12:26).

Ps. 118:50. This is my comfort in my humiliation, for Your word has given me life.

Earlier the Prophet expressed the thought that there was something in his life not corresponding to God’s promises, and therefore asked that they be remembered; now he states specifically what was troubling him. It was certain humbling, abasing, spirit-crushing circumstances; and amid them he revives his grief-stricken soul with the word of the Lord.

What, then, is this “humbling thing”? It could be the awareness of one’s own moral shortcomings, which one cannot overcome on one’s own; while the “quickening” in this case would be the word of the Lord that whoever thinks humbly of himself shall be exalted, and above all the promise that whoever is grieved by this and cries out to God will always receive gracious renewal: the Lord will send His Spirit, and the shattered moral order within him shall be rebuilt. Thus teaches Blessed Augustine: “One may understand here,” he says, “that humility by which one is humbled through confessing one’s sins and not arrogantly attributing righteousness to oneself. To those who humble themselves in this way is given this consoling word: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ (James 4:6). And the Lord Himself said: ‘whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted’ (Luke 14:11). But,” Blessed Augustine adds, “it is also well to understand here that humbling which comes when someone is brought low by grief sent to break down pride and test patience. The life-giving word for such people is: ‘In your patience possess you your souls,’ and ‘there shall not a hair of your head perish’ (Luke 21:18–19); and again: ‘God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it’ (1 Cor. 10:13). Such assurance was also given by the Lord in the prayer He taught us, commanding us to say in it: ‘Lead us not into temptation.’ If He wished those who pray to say this in prayer, then He surely thereby gave the promise that He will fulfill what is asked.”

Saint Athanasius understands the same thing in the prophet’s words: “this has comforted me in my humiliation.” “This very hope (of which the previous verse spoke), awakened in me by Your word, consoled and calmed me so greatly that whenever some calamity or danger befell me—the threat of death, grave illness, loss of property, persecution, or anything else that people consider grievous—hope was my consolation.”

Saint Ambrose likewise says: “The hope that overshadowed me, through the action of Your word, consoled me and emboldened me to endure the unpleasantness encountered in life. And he hoped thus because he was faithful to the Lord: without this he would have had no hope. This is evident from the holy Apostle Paul. When Paul was acting against the name of the Lord, he had no consolation of hope; but when he began to suffer for His name, he drew consolation from the fount of hope. See how, having become faithful, he encouraged everyone to endurance and good cheer: ‘Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: for Your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Then he adds how all this can be endured: ‘Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us’ (Rom. 8:35–37). Therefore, whoever wishes to conquer adversity—whether it be persecution, or calamity, or death, or grave illness, or a raid of brigands, or the seizure of property, or any other misfortune—will easily conquer all of it if he is filled with consoling hope. Should any such thing arise, it cannot weigh down one who carries in his heart the conviction that ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us’ (Rom. 8:18). He who hopes for something better cannot be crushed by anything of lesser worth.”

Saint Ambrose also understands something else by “the humbling thing,” namely, the inner temptations from sin and the devil, with which one must engage in battle in the hope of victory through the power of the Lord’s grace. “In the time of our humiliation,” he says, “our comforter is hope. By the time of humiliation of our soul I mean the time of temptation. Our soul is humbled when it is given over to the tempter for trial by painful hardships, which are unavoidable if one is to stand firm in the struggle and conquer when one feels the assault of the opposing power. In these temptations the soul is quickened by the word of God. It is the life-essence of our soul, by which it is nourished, grows, and is governed. And there is nothing that can so quicken the rational soul as the word of God. To the extent that it is rooted in our soul—when it is, of course, received and tasted—to that same extent the life of the soul opens and unfolds. Conversely, as the word of God diminishes in the soul, so does the life of the soul suffer loss and diminishment. As the bond between soul and body is sustained and quickened by the vital spirit, so by the word of God and the grace of the Spirit is our soul made alive (the bond between it and God, the source of life, is sustained). Therefore we must strive with all our might, leaving all else behind, to gather the words of God and bring them into our ruling faculty (the mind), into our feelings (the heart), into our intentions (the will), and into all our deeds, so that all our activity may accord with the sayings of Scripture, and our actions may not differ at all from the pattern of the heavenly commandments. Then you too will be able to say: ‘Your word has quickened me.’”

Saint Athanasius expresses this final thought as follows: “Nothing gives the rational soul the strength to live its proper life as the word of God does. To the degree that God’s word grows in the human soul, being grasped and received by it, to that same degree grows also that which constitutes life (namely, to live virtuously here) and which will afterward grant eternal life.”

Saint Hilary briefly combines all the foregoing thoughts in these words: “Hope comforted him ‘in humiliation,’ that is, when he was suffering contempt, mockery, and injury, when he was being dishonored with reproaches. Knowing that the struggle with temptations of this kind is inevitable in the present age, he consoled himself in it with hope kindled in him by God Himself, and was quickened by the word of God. From it he drew assurance that the glory in heaven is incomparably greater than the degree of his present abasement for his faithfulness to the will of God. He also knew that the soul filled with the words of God holds within itself a kind of pasture of eternal life. He who is quickened by the word of God is not shaken by the empty glory of the fortunate. He knows that his poverty is richer than their wealth, his abstinence is satisfied by heavenly abundance, and his humility will be rewarded with glorious honor.”

Ps. 118:51. The proud have transgressed the law exceedingly; but I have not declined from Your law.

“He says: the proud transgressed Your law for a long time, but I did not follow their wicked example and lawlessness. Or thus: the proud acted lawlessly in that they mocked me for meditating continually in Your law, but because of their mockery I did not abandon my meditation in Your law. He calls proud those who despise and transgress the Divine law, for such transgressors are generally proud.” So Zigabenus explains this verse.

In the previous verse he pointed, in a vaguely sorrowful way, to the humbling circumstances of life; and now, from within this circle of sorrowful contingencies, he singles out those which proceed from proud despisers of the law—those who revile the law, mock those who observe it, and lead everyone astray from the proper path. These are the ringleaders of every evil, whose company is most painful for those devoted to the law and sincerely, with all their heart, loving it. These are the ones who are transgressors of the law “exceedingly,” that is, not merely breaking the law, but rising up against it, despising it, hating it, and taking arms against it with their wicked words. Against them the prophet armed himself with steadfastness and firmness in faithfulness to the law, not permitting himself not only to transgress it, but even to entertain a thought of anything contrary to it. “According to the law,” he says, “I led my life, guarding the ruling power of my soul (the mind), so as not to harbour in my heart a word of lawlessness”; “for,” Saint Athanasius interprets this passage, “when they transgress the law ‘exceedingly,’ I have not transgressed Your law even in the least.” In this verse the prophet expresses only the firmness of his character, but this firmness did not exclude grief of heart. Where did he find the healing balm for such a wound of the heart? In the remembrance of God’s judgments. Here also is a lesson on how one must act when around us there spread not only transgressors of the law, but also despisers and revilers of it. Let them be! You remain steadfast: you cannot out-argue or out-convince everyone. There is in heaven a Judge of all, Who sees how they rise up against His commandments, and who will know how to render to each their due.

“Pride in man is a great sin,” says Saint Ambrose. “From it our corruption took its beginning. With this arrow the devil wounded and struck us at the start. If man, deceived by the cunning speech of the serpent, had not desired to be God, and if, content with the limits given him, he had not touched the forbidden, the ruinous inheritance of the fall would never have passed to us. But why do I speak of man? The devil himself, through pride, lost the grace of his nature when he said: ‘I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven… I will be like the Most High’ (Isa. 14:13–14), and fell from the company of the angels. Justly punished for such transgression, he resolved to make man a partaker in it as well and poured his poison into him. What can be worse than such a sin, which had its beginning from rebellion against God! Therefore Scripture says: ‘God resists the proud.’ As an avenger of the disrespect shown to Him, God has undertaken what might be called a special warfare against pride. He speaks as it were thus: ‘The proud man is My enemy; he provokes Me, I must engage him.’ Therefore the prophet says: ‘the proud have transgressed the law exceedingly,’ that is, it is the nature of the proud not only to do wrong, but to do wrong exceedingly. Having shown what force of evil pride contains, it was necessary to teach us how to overcome it. This he does: ‘from Your law,’ he says, ‘I have not declined.’ Thus, only the law of God can squeeze out the juice of pride, teaching the God-fearing and reverent person the circumspection with which he must govern himself. Many—not only those estranged from the faith, but of those who have already tasted sufficiently of the good word of the commandments—are seduced by the successes of the proud, seeing how the breakers of the law, promoters of impiety, haughty despisers of the sincerely believing, who exalt themselves over those who, out of the fear of God and obedience to the heavenly commandments, humble their hearts—seeing how such people abound in this age with riches, fame, honors, and power, and how the heavier the injustices they commit, the more abundantly the worldly advantages flow to them, and how righteous people for the most part suffer want and other misfortunes—seeing all this, they are troubled to the point of mental confusion and incline toward thinking that in this God’s judgment somehow errs, forgetting that central truth, the most evident truth, that the reward for the labors of pleasing God is appointed not in this age but is deferred to the age to come. Yet few take this into account. Even David himself was initially seduced by this, as he writes: ‘Behold, these are sinners, and they prosper in the world’ (enriching themselves in this age), ‘they have retained riches. And I said: then have I justified my heart in vain and washed my hands among the innocent, and been scourged all the day long?’ (Ps. 72:12–13). Not infrequently even among us imperfect ones, some, seeing such things, say: where is God’s providence, where is justice? That proud man abounds, the haughty one grows rich, the ungodly is prosperous and powerful; while that righteous man lies, abandoned by all, in such poverty that he has not even his daily bread, and yet is also subjected to contempt from the ungodly, trampled by the proud. Certainly this is no light temptation, and you will not escape it if you cannot see into the future, if you are not fed more abundantly with heavenly sustenance. David thought before that he knew this truth; but when the temptation came, it turned out he did not know it, and therefore he was agitated and grieved in spirit; and therefore he says: ‘I thought to know this; it is a trouble in my sight, until I go into the sanctuary of God and understand their latter end’ (Ps. 72:16–17). Having seen in the prophetic spirit how the proud, for their great self-exaltation, will be rejected and abased, he says: ‘How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors, they perish at their transgressions, as a dream when one awakes’ (Ps. 72:19–20). Thus he recognized that the successes of the ungodly in this age are a dream, not reality; their advantages appear to them only as long as they sleep. The moment they awake from this sleep, those who saw themselves as satiated will immediately find themselves thirsty, those who saw themselves abundantly fed will find themselves hungry—in a word, from that dream they will carry away nothing solid that could give them rest in reality. Yes, the people of this age sleep a deep sleep… Let them be awake to the world, but to God they sleep; and holy Job, who had previously marveled at their outward show, speaks well of them: ‘they shall be as chaff before the wind, or as dust which the whirlwind carries away,’ they die in bitterness of soul, having tasted nothing and having no good thing (Job 21:18, 25). But the righteous man, bearing the testimony of a good conscience, consoles himself especially with what awaits him at last, knowing that with his departure from this life he will be freed from all hardships and will assuredly receive a reward for his deeds. But this is accessible only to one who can say of himself: ‘from Your law I have not declined’—in whom not only shines the grace of right-doing, but also the purity of a sincere conscience. We do warfare to the Lord according to the law not only by outwardly visible deeds, but also by hidden feelings. The law says: ‘there shall not be a secret word in your heart of iniquity’ (Deut. 15:9), that is, lest you not only fail in deed or let slip a word, seeing the proud in glory, but also that in the secret of your heart you not admit the assault of iniquity when you ponder the judgments of God.”

Let us now briefly set forth what disposition a holy man should have. First, he must keep in mind the heavenly promises; second, he must understand what lot is appointed for those who live, so that, when troubles and sorrows arise, he does not lose heart, but consoles himself with hope drawn from the chain of testimonies of Divine Scripture; third, he must not, like some unbeliever, decline from the law when he sees that proud ungodly people and wrongdoers abound with riches in this present age, but firmly press forward on his path, avoiding fellowship with the proud, lest he also be infected by them, for “every proud-hearted person is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 16:5).

Ps. 118:52. I remembered Your judgments from the beginning, O Lord, and was comforted.

This verse serves as a supplement to the previous one. “I remembered, O Lord,” he says, as it were, “Your righteous judgments, manifested by You from the beginning of the world—how You do honor and glorify those who suffer for virtue, and how You do dishonor and put to shame those who are full of happiness together with sin—and by this remembrance I was comforted in my sorrows and afflictions in the face of the proud revilers of Your law.” So Zigabenus interprets this passage. “Bearing in mind,” says Saint Athanasius the Great, “what is rendered to each from age to age and to eternity, by which the righteous man is comforted and remains untroubled; recalling the judgments You did render of old upon the oppressors of the Israelites, I was comforted, knowing that I myself also would not be abandoned in persecution, and that all things happen to people by God’s judgment.” “I brought to mind,” explains Blessed Theodoret, “what happened with Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses—how they were permitted to fall into various temptations, and how You did afterward make them glorious and renowned—and I drew from this sufficient consolation for myself.” “The proud,” writes Saint Ambrose, “by their attacks on the law shook my devotion to the law; but I remembered Your judgments and, comforted by them, returned to my former convictions and resolutions; for if someone, being instructed by the law and persuaded by examples, does not maintain that deep assurance that God’s words are incontrovertibly true, he is in danger of soon declining from the law. But gather the past into your memory, review the chain of ancient events, and you will see that as the sinner does not escape punishment for his wrongdoings, so the righteous man is not deprived of reward for his righteousness. See, there at the very beginning Adam, for transgressing the heavenly commandment, is expelled from the dwelling place of paradise; there Cain is condemned by God’s sentence to pay for his fratricide with groaning and trembling; there Enoch, taken up to heaven for his piety, escapes the sting of death; there Noah, righteous in God’s sight, becomes as the victor over the flood the new progenitor of the human race; there Abraham, for his faith, receives the promise of descendants over all the face of the earth; there Jacob, for his patience, seals the people of believers with the seal of the new name given to him (the name of Israel); there David, for his meekness, is preferred above his older brothers and clothed with royal dignity; there Elijah, for his zeal for God, is taken up by a chariot into the air and dwelling in a new kind of habitation, a heavenly abode. Running through all this in your memory, you will find where to draw consolation and how to strengthen yourself in faithfulness to God’s commandments. For one who keeps the commandments, God’s judgments are sweet, but for one who neglects them they are bitter, for in the shame of sinners he foresees the divine sentence being prepared for himself. He whose conscience is pure is not troubled by anything, applying to himself the consoling declaration: ‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together’ (Rom. 8:17).”

How natural it is for one in grief, especially one suffering injustice, to turn for consolation to the righteous judgment of God—this is proved by everyday experience. What word does a person who has been wronged usually say when it cuts him to the heart? — “God will judge you!” or: “There is a righteous God who sees all!” — and by this he fully eases his grief and calms his heart. On the other hand, nothing so sobers sinners and wrongdoers as the remembrance of God’s judgments and His righteous final court, in which nothing will be hidden and nothing left without recompense. Whoever at least slightly comes to an awareness and feeling of this court immediately lowers the hands raised for iniquity and stops the feet running toward sin. The judgment of God is the constant preacher of repentance, and he who heeds this preaching will not be put to shame. Blessed Augustine notes that the word “was comforted” some understand as “received instruction,” took a lesson.

Saint Ambrose addresses to all the following word: “Who among us is such that he could be comforted by the remembrance of God’s judgments? Even human courts are terrifying to sinners—how much more terrifying, then, must God’s judgments be to them! Look at how it goes in the ordinary course of affairs. The innocent go to court with gladness, and, chafing at the delay, demand a speedier resolution; while the guilty fear and flee from the court, and when they are caught in something, they try with all their might to put off the day of judgment as long as possible—and what a fright seizes them when the hour of it finally comes! Something similar, but on an immeasurable scale, will repeat itself at the judgment of God. Blessed is he who can await this heavenly judgment with joy!”

Ps. 118:53. Grief took hold of me because of the sinners that forsake Your law.

The multiplication of impiety and widespread corruption—here is a new source of sorrow for the prophet! Above, he pointed to the outstanding figures from this circle—the mockers and the assailants; now he describes the whole dense mass of those who sin without the fear of God or fear of His judgment, who, though not attacking, yet by their sight and shamelessness disturb the pious heart. In this verse he speaks only of the grief arising from this, while in the following verse he points to where consolation came to him in such grief.

The grief that seized him at the sight of the multiplication of sin was so powerful that he was close to fainting, as the Greek word and the corresponding Hebrew word indicate. A heart that loves God and neighbor cannot relate to this otherwise, for by sin those who bear the name of God dishonor God Himself, and destroy themselves beyond recovery, if they do not repent. Taking both to heart, the sincerely pious man is tormented. Of righteous Lot the holy Apostle Peter writes: “that righteous man, dwelling among them” (among the lawless Sodomites), “seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” (2 Pet. 2:8). The righteous David experienced the same: “I have seen,” he says, “iniquity and strife in the city. Day and night shall it go round about it upon its walls: iniquity also and sorrow are in the midst of it. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets” (Ps. 54:10–12). Suffering over such a state of mankind, he says: “grief took hold of me.”

“Few share such a feeling,” says Saint Ambrose. “Most people grieve when they suffer injury from someone, or loss, or dishonor; but those who are more perfect and stronger in spirit grieve not over their own humiliation, but over the sin of those who humiliate them. An injury has been done to them, yet they sigh over the fall of the other, weeping over themselves as the cause of the offenders’ sin. Such was also the holy Paul: ‘out of much affliction and anguish of heart,’ he wrote to the Corinthians, ‘I wrote to you with many tears.’ But, grieving himself, he does not wish to grieve those who were worthy of reproof: ‘not that you should be grieved,’ he adds, ‘but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly to you’ (2 Cor. 2:4). Clearly he desires that the fallen come to contrition of repentance, assuring them that such contrition will be for him a source of joy: ‘For if I make you sorry,’ he continues, ‘who is he then that makes me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?’ (2 Cor. 2:2). Thus, although he rebukes, it is in order to bring to salvation by causing a certain grief—he condemns in order to absolve—he separates in order to receive more sincerely. Paul is such, among other reasons, because, being learned in the law, he knew the instructive example of the one who said: grief took hold of me because of the sinners. David suffered not because he was despised, not from what he had to endure, but because the law of God was abandoned and despised; he suffered for those who did this, because they were perishing because of it before God. As a good father, when a deranged son scolds him, slanders him, even strikes him, weeps not for himself but for the wretched state of his son; so also a good man, when he sees some sinner doing what is unworthy, even in the presence of an elder, showing no respect for grey hairs and not recognizing in his sinful stupor how improper and dishonorable his behavior is—he grieves over him, sighs over him as over a mortally ill person. As a good physician first offers counsel, then, having undertaken the cure, does not abandon the patient even when the patient, out of impatience, says something unpleasant to him; so the righteous man does not turn away from the sinner, despite the contempt he suffers from him. Even meeting with injuries, he attributes them not to the sinner but to the frenzy of the enemy troubling him, and cares not for his own vindication but for the healing of the soul of one desperately sick in spirit.”

“The source of such care for sinners,” says Saint Hilary, “is love according to God, by virtue of which, when one member suffers, all the others suffer with it.” “Grief took hold,” writes Saint Athanasius, that is, grief over sinners, of whom some sin without ever having known the beginning of the laws, while others, though knowing the law, transgress it. “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26).

Indifference to the flood of impiety and wholesale depravity reveals a weakening of moral and religious feeling. When this occurs, society is in an epidemic condition. When cholera strikes an area, all the inhabitants feel symptoms of cholera to varying degrees; so it is here too: the spreading impiety and depravity touches everyone little by little. One person may not participate in deed, but watches; another may not even watch, but is silent; and very rarely does anyone raise a voice—and even then only in a half-whisper. Such is our unhappy time as well! Yet this does not justify indifference, for to be zealous for the glory of God and for the reign of goodness and light is the duty of all who recognize that in this lies the true good of man, of human societies, and of humanity.

Ps. 118:54. Your statutes were my songs in the place of my pilgrimage.

“Were my songs”—songworthy, that is, they inspired a desire to sing. Whoever is absorbed in something with enthusiasm and with a feeling of pleasure is ready to sing, and does sing if he knows how. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So the prophet too, immersing himself in God’s statutes, receiving them in his heart and being drawn by love for them, sang of them, praised them, and expressed their worth, their divine importance and their binding obligation for all.

Setting these words in relation to the previous verse, we see that there grief was expressed, while here the source of consolation is indicated. He speaks as if saying: “The sin and impiety that multiplied around me cast my soul into grief, while I, immersing myself in Your statutes, warmed my heart with love for them and thus drove away the gloomy disposition within me, and that ruinous influence which the sinfulness surrounding us ordinarily leaves in the soul.” Or thus: “It was sorrowful to see the flood of evil and impiety around me, but I was consoled by Your statutes, meditating on them and intensifying the certainty of their immutability and saving power, in contrast to the ruin brought about by impiety.”

The place of pilgrimage is this present life. The feeling of being “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13) is common to all sincerely God-fearing people. In the prophet it was heightened by the fact that in those around him he saw no agreement with the disposition of his heart. They planned and did one thing, while he did quite another, and was therefore a stranger among them. In him another spirit of life was active, not of this world. Therefore, separating himself from all, he cleaved to what proceeded from that same heavenly realm from which came the life-force that inspired and delighted him with the statutes that had gone forth from God. They breathed upon him the native air of the spiritual Fatherland. And as in springtime, when the awakened new life envelops one who has stepped out into the open field from a stuffy dwelling, a song is involuntarily drawn forth to express the joy of life, so the prophet too sang, when in the statutes the heavenly elements, native to the spirit, enveloped him. By this he also consoled himself and drove away the evil spirit that wafted over him from the sinful world. And in the Church of God, spiritual songs were therefore established by the holy apostles for singing, so that the souls of the assembled pious people might be consoled in various sorrows, and at the same time so that the spirit of the world might be wafted away—which cannot but have a corrupting influence on those living in its midst. One who enters God’s house cannot immediately stand before God: he needs to be sung over, as it were, and when this singing is complete, he needs to be led into sympathy with the spiritual realm. Both are achieved by spiritual singing in churches. Without singing, worship will not be in its proper order.

Even outside the church, nothing can so easily dispel the spirit of the world as the singing of spiritual songs. When its attacks intensify—begin to sing, and it will depart. For this one must have psalms and hymns memorized. Saint Hilary writes: “The prophet, having once received the psalm-songs by hearing, teaches us by his example always to keep them in the heart, so as afterward to repeat them also with the lips, as if performing a service.” “The proud,” says Saint Ambrose, “did not turn him from the law; he found consolation in God’s judgments. And grief over sinners did not consume him; against it he armed himself with singing about God’s statutes. What is kept in the heart is what one usually sings; and what is sung is the more deeply sealed in the feelings. We should not superficially skim through what we read, lest we hold it in mind only during the time of reading and not when there is no book in our hands. Let the statutes of God be for us a hymn, a song, a psalm; let us sing with the spirit, let us sing with the understanding (1 Cor. 14:15), so that, if we forget them in time of need, it not be said to each of us: ‘you have cast My words behind you’ (Ps. 49:17). To drive forgetfulness from the holy house, wise Solomon commanded the singers to sing, and they proclaimed the wondrous works of God (2 Chr. 5:12). In an assembly of those praying to God there must always be those who sing, so that by their singing the unclean spirit may be driven away, just as by the singing of holy David the spirit that tormented Saul was driven away (1 Sam. 16:23). It happened that even the prophets, before prophesying, commanded skilled singers to sing, so as to be disposed to the visitation of the grace of the Spirit by the pleasant sweetness of melody (2 Kings 3:15). Sweet is not that singing which caresses the ear, but that which elevates the spirit and heart; and the New Testament is called a song, for the Lord Himself deigned to say: ‘We have piped to you, and you have not danced’ (Luke 7:32). He sang to us in the Gospel the forgiveness of sins. The Jews should have heeded this—they did not, and earned reproach.”

“But God’s statutes cannot be sung by one who has not detached himself from all earthly cares. Therefore the prophet also added: ‘in the place of my pilgrimage.’ Here—we are pilgrims, but with God—we are His own. Therefore the apostle says that in God’s house, having been called to faith, we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household (Eph. 2:19); and he who is of God’s household already goes forth from the world; he who moves amid heavenly things is a pilgrim on earth; he who sings has set aside all burdensome cares and calculations that oppress the heart. Not as one grieved by care over things beyond reach, but as one free from all bodily needs and passions did the same prophet sing: ‘I will sing to You with the psaltery, O God. My lips shall rejoice when I sing to You; and my soul, which You have redeemed’ (Ps. 70:22–23). Thus he sang in joy, because he was satisfied with better goods. His spirit was nourished with the food of reverence for the Divine—and he sang.”

Ps. 118:55. I have remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Your law.

The last two verses present a general conclusion from what preceded: namely, on what, above all, one should dwell amid all the unpleasantness that brings grief, or what is the all-encompassing law of our life on earth, which is full of sorrows and troubles. This law, in the words of the son of David, can be expressed thus: “Remember God and keep His commandments,” having sought them out, of course, with all the soul, “for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13). This is the content of the present verses.

“I have remembered Your name in the night.” Night here signifies either the ordinary part of the day, or in a figurative sense—the present life in general, or the sorrowful circumstances of life, or the attacks of forgetfulness, insensibility, and the rising up of all manner of bad thoughts, feelings, and passions.

In the first sense the thought would be: at night, when everything around me sank into deep silence, when my soul too was freed from the pressure of external impressions, I remembered Your name, more vividly recognizing that You are the Creator, the Provider, and the merciful and righteous Rewarder, in Whose hand is all—and consequently I too, with my poor soul. Remembering this, I was inspired with a firmer resolve to keep Your law. Or thus: not only at night, but at every other time as well I always remembered Your name; it never left my thoughts amid all the affairs and circumstances of life, and this gave me the convenience of keeping Your law. If I have kept it until now, it is because I remembered You—that You are omnipresent—and recognized, at the same time, how incongruous it is in this awareness to permit anything displeasing to You, not only in words and deeds, but also in thoughts—and I remained always faithful to Your law.

In the second sense one may understand this thus: although unpleasantness, calamities, troubles, and all manner of failures cast gloom over my soul and shook faithfulness to Your law; yet, remembering Your name in this night and recognizing that all is from You and all is ordered for my good, I was calmed and remained faithful to Your law.

Whichever meaning one takes, the prophet’s intent in these words is the same—to impress that the remembrance of God is the source of every consolation and of the full strength of a moral character always faithful to God.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “I have remembered in the night…”

“The company of the saints, always rising at night, both prays and glorifies the God of all. But I think that ‘night’ here refers to the time of temptations, because it brings darkness and overtakes men like the night. It is precisely in this time that it is especially necessary to remember the God of all: this consoles, encourages, and repels hostile thoughts.”

Blessed Augustine subsumes under this all the sorrows that were mentioned in this stanza of eight verses: “Night,” he says, “is the abasement in which our mortality places us—a night from the proud who transgress the law ‘exceedingly’—a night from grief over sinners who forsake the law of God—and finally, a night from the place of this pilgrimage, until the Lord come and ‘bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God’ (1 Cor. 4:5). In this night man must remember God; ‘he that glories, let him glory in the Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:31); hence it is written: ‘not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory’ (Ps. 113:9), since through this one can be disposed to keep the law not for one’s own sake but for the glory of God, as David did, according to the indication of the present verse. He would not have kept the law, had he, trusting in himself alone to keep it, not remembered the name of God; ‘for our help is in the name of the Lord’ (Ps. 123:8).”

Saint Ambrose says: “It is characteristic of the righteous to direct himself to the praise of God at every time, not only by day but also at night. ‘I have remembered,’ he says—meaning he always remembered, not allowing a single moment of time to pass without prayerful turning to God. If those occupied with secular learning do not indulge in sleep, how much more must those who desire to know God not be hindered in this by bodily sleep, yielding to it only as much as nature requires! David every night wetted his bed with tears, rose at midnight and gave thanks to the Lord; while you think to give the whole night over to deep sleep! It is then most of all that you must pray to the Lord; then most of all ask for His help, most of all fear sin, when it seems to you that you are hidden from all. When darkness surrounds you and walls conceal you, then most forcefully reassert the thought that God sees all, even what is hidden. Do not say: I am covered by darkness—who sees me, and whom should I fear, enclosed and hidden within walls? ‘The face of the Lord is against them that do evil’ (Ps. 33:17). But suppose you see no witness—do you not see yourself? And do you not fear the testimony of your own conscience? Do you not know that the darkness of night is not a safeguard but a kindler of sin? When the body is heated by sleep and food, the wakefulness of the mind is weakened, and its strength is undermined by sleep, and then lust assaults and troubles the heart. And this is the more dangerous because at that time the shame of impurity is not seen, the brightness of blamelessness is not valued, the glory of chastity is not recognized. It was night when Judas betrayed the Lord and Peter denied Him. It is especially at this time that one must remember God, review His statutes, reread His admonitory teachings. Let the commandments of purity not depart from your thought; a mind occupied with them will repel the inflammation of lust and cool the burning of the flesh.”

Ps. 118:56. This was mine, because I kept Your statutes.

In this verse two thoughts may be admitted: the remembrance of God’s name was the reason why I sought out Your statutes; and also: this remembrance “was mine,” was formed and strengthened in my soul because I sought out Your statutes.

In the course of life of those zealous for pleasing God and for salvation, both things actually do occur. A person remembers God—that he depends on Him in all things and that he will one day have to give account to Him for all—and comes to himself; then seeing the disorders in his life, he resolves to correct them and thereafter to devote himself to walking in God’s will. Clearly it is nothing other than the remembrance of God that has caused him to seek out God’s statutes. Thus Blessed Theodoret understands this: “This,” says the prophet, “brought me to the state of gaining the upper hand over myself (of breaking with my former self) and of choosing for myself the acquisition of Your statutes.” Further, one who has sought out such a life cannot get along without remembering God, for every commandment he is to fulfill is God’s commandment, and he is to fulfill them without ceasing, since all our deeds and relationships are encompassed by commandments. Every step reminds him of God, and a life constantly faithful to the commandments indelibly imprints the remembrance of Him in mind and heart. For such a work of forming the remembrance of God he himself voluntarily takes up the task and compels himself to it, in the assurance and from the experienced benefit of this—that with it the fulfilling of the commandments goes more successfully and the passions are overcome more easily and more thoroughly.

Saint Hilary writes: “‘This was mine’ refers to the remembrance by which he remembered the name of God through the nights; and the words ‘was mine’ indicate that it came upon him not by chance, was not received for a time, but was always in him and remained in him, and was forever rooted within him by the power of faith. And it ‘was’ such for him because he sought out the statutes. Through ceaseless seeking of them he reached the point of maintaining unceasing remembrance of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This verse, as noted, together with the previous one, forms the conclusion of this stanza of eight verses, in which the holy prophet, having indicated various sorrows and the sources of consolation within them, finally expresses upon what to settle and to remain more faithfully. He speaks as if saying: having sought to please God by walking in His holy will, abide in the unceasing remembrance of God, having given your entire self to God and expecting from Him assistance in every good deed. From this will come to you unconquerable courage in the struggle with sorrows and unshakeable faithfulness to God’s commandments.

We quote on this subject a few words of Saint Isaac the Syrian:

“A man who doubts that God is a helper in good deeds fears his own shadow and is tormented by hunger in times of plenty and abundance, and amid surrounding calm is filled with storm; but he who hopes in God is firm in his heart, and the sufficiency of his life is evident to all men, and before his enemies is his praise.

The commandments of God are above all the treasures of the world. He who has acquired them finds God within himself. He who always rests in God’s care has obtained God as his steward; he who desires the fulfillment of God’s will shall have the heavenly angels as his guides; he who fears sins completes the awesome journey without stumbling, and in times of gloom finds light before him and within himself. The Lord guards the steps of him who fears sins, and in times of stumbling (temptation) the mercy of God goes before him.”