1. In this Psalm, we ought to seek in the whole body of it what we find in the first verse: “Mercy and judgment will I sing unto Thee, O Lord” (ver. 1). Let no man flatter himself that he will never be punished through God’s mercy; for there is judgment also; and let no man who hath been changed for the better dread the Lord’s judgment, seeing that mercy goeth before it. For when men judge, sometimes overcome by mercy, they act against justice; and mercy, but not justice, seemeth to be in them: while sometimes, when they wish to enforce a rigid judgment, they lose mercy. But God neither loseth the severity of judgment in the bounty of mercy, nor in judging with severity loseth the bounty of mercy. Suppose we distinguish these two, mercy and judgment, by time; for possibly, they are not placed in this order without a meaning, so that he said not “judgment and mercy,” but “mercy and judgment:” so that if we distinguish them by succession in time, perhaps we find that the present is the season for mercy, the future for judgment. How is it that the season of mercy cometh first? Consider first how it is with God, that thou also mayest imitate the Father, in so far as He shall permit thee.…“He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Behold mercy. When thou seest the just and the unjust behold the same sun, enjoy the same light, drink from the same founts, satisfied with the same rain, blessed with the same fruits of the earth, inhale this air in the same way, possess equally the world’s goods; think not that God is unjust, who giveth these things equally to the just and the unjust. It is the season of mercy, not as yet of judgment. For unless God spared at first through mercy, He would not find those whom He could crown through judgment. There is therefore a season for mercy, when the long-suffering of God calleth sinners to repentance.

2. Hear the Apostle distinguishing each season, and do thou also distinguish it.…“Thinkest thou,” he saith, “O man, that judgest them that do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” And as if we were to reply, Why do I commit such sins daily, and no evil occurreth unto me? he goeth on to show to him the season of mercy: “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering?” And he did indeed despise them; but the Apostle hath made him anxious. “Not knowing,” he saith, “that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”⁴⁵⁶⁰

4560 Rom. ii. 4.

4561 Rom. ii. 5, 6.

4562 1 Tim. i. 13; 16.

4563 2 Tim. iv. 8.

3. “I will sing to the harp, and will have understanding, in the spotless way. When Thou shalt come unto me” (ver. 2). Except in the spotless way, thou canst neither sing to the harp, nor understand. If thou dost wish to understand, sing in the spotless way, that is, work with cheerfulness before thy God. What is the spotless way? Hear what followeth: “I walked in innocence, in the midst of my house.” This spotless way beginneth from innocence, and it endeth also in innocence. Why seek many words? Be innocent: and thou hast perfected righteousness.…But who is innocent? He who while he hurteth not another, injureth not himself. For he who hurteth himself, is not innocent. Some one saith: Lo, I have not robbed any one, I have not oppressed any one: I will live happily on my own substance, the fruits of my virtuous toil; I wish to have fine banquets, I wish to spend as much as pleaseth me, to drink with those whom I like as much as I please; whom have I robbed, whom have I oppressed, who hath complained of me? He seemeth innocent. But if he corrupt himself, if he overthrow the temple of God within himself, why hope that he will act with mercy toward others, and spare the wretched? Can that man be merciful to others, who unto himself is cruel? The whole of righteousness, therefore, is reduced to the one word, innocence. But the lover of iniquity, hateth his own soul. When he loved iniquity, he fancied he was injuring others. But consider whether he was injuring others: “He who loveth iniquity,” he saith, “hateth his own soul.” ⁴⁵⁶⁴

4564 Ps. xi. 5.

4. “I set no wicked thing before my eyes” (ver. 3).…I did love no wicked thing. And he explaineth this same wicked thing: “I hated them that do unfaithfulness.” Attend, my brethren. If ye walk with Christ in the midst of His house, that is, if either in your heart ye have a good repose, or in the Church herself proceed on a good journey in the way of godliness; ye ought not to hate those unfaithful only who are without, but whomsoever also ye may have found within. Who are the unfaithful? They who hate the law of God; who hear, and do it not, are called unfaithful. Hate the doers of unfaithfulness, repel them from thee. But thou shouldest hate the unfaithful, not men: one man who is unfaithful, hath, ye see, two names, man, and unfaithful: God made him man, he made himself unfaithful; love in him what God made, persecute in him what he made himself. For when thou shalt have persecuted his unfaithfulness, thou killest the work of man, and freest the work of God. “I hated the doers of unfaithfulness.”

5. “The wicked heart hath not cleaved unto me.”…The heart of a man, who wisheth not anything contrary to any that God wisheth, is called straight.…If therefore the righteous heart followeth God, the crooked heart resisteth God. Suppose something untoward happeneth to him, he crieth out, “God, what have I done unto Thee? What sin have I committed?” He wisheth himself to appear just, God unjust. What is so crooked as this? It is not enough that thou art crooked thyself: thou must think thy rule crooked also. Reform thyself, and thou findest Him straight, in departing from whom thou hast made thyself crooked. He doth justly, thou unjustly; and for this reason thou art perverse, since thou callest man just, and God unjust. What man dost thou call just? Thyself. For when thou sayest, “What have I done unto Thee?” thou thinkest thyself just. But let God answer thee: “Thou speakest truth: thou hast done nothing to Me: thou hast done all things unto thyself; for if thou hadst done anything for Me, thou wouldest have done good. For whatever is done well, is done unto Me; because it is done according to My commandment; but whatever of evil is done, is done unto thee, not unto Me; for the wicked man doth nothing except for his own sake, since it is not what I command.” When ye see such men, brethren, reprove them, convince and correct them: and if ye cannot reprove or correct them, consent not to them.

6. “When the wicked man departed from me, I knew him not” (ver. 4). I approved him not, I praised him not, he pleased me not. For we find the word “to know” occasionally used in Scripture, in the sense of “to be pleased.” For what is hidden from God, brethren? Doth He know the just, and doth He not know the unjust? What dost thou think of, that He doth not know? I say not, what thinkest thou; but what wilt thou ever think, that He will not have seen beforehand? God knoweth all things, then; and yet in the end, that is in judgment after mercy, He saith of some persons: “I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity.”⁴⁵⁶⁵

4565 Matt. vii. 23.

7. “Whoso privily slandered his neighbour, him I persecuted” (ver. 5). Behold the righteous persecutor, not of the man, but of the sin. “With the proud eye, and the insatiable heart, I did not feed.” What meaneth, “I did not feed with”? I did not eat in common with such. Attend, beloved; since ye are about to hear something wonderful. If he did not feed with this man, he did not eat with him; for to feed is to eat; how is it then that we find our Lord Himself eating with the proud? It was not only with those publicans and sinners, for they were humble: for they acknowledged their weakness, and asked for the physician. We find that He ate with the proud Pharisees themselves. A certain proud man had invited Him: it was the same who was displeased because a sinning woman, one of ill repute in the city, approached the feet of our Lord.…That Pharisee was proud: the Lord ate with him; what is it therefore that he saith? “With such an one I did not eat.” How doth He enjoin unto us what He hath not done Himself? He exhorteth us to imitate Himself: we see that He ate with the proud; how doth He forbid us to eat with the proud? We indeed, brethren, for the sake of reproof, abstain from communion with our brethren, and do not eat with them, that they may be reformed? We rather eat with strangers, with Pagans, than with those who hold with us, if we have seen that they live wickedly, that they may be ashamed, and amend; as the Apostle saith, “And if any man obey not our word by this Epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”⁴⁵⁶⁶

4566 2 Thess. iii. 14.

8. The pious heart hath its banquets, the proud heart hath its banquets: for it was on account of the food of the proud heart, that he said, “with an insatiable heart.” How is the proud heart fed? If a man is proud, he is envious: otherwise it cannot be. Pride is the mother of enviousness: it cannot but generate it, and ever coexist with it. Every proud man is, therefore, envious: if envious, he feedeth on the misfortunes of others. Whence the Apostle saith, “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed of one another.”⁴⁵⁶⁷

4567 Gal. v. 15.

4568 Matt. v. 6.

9. And whence wast thou fed? And what pleased thee, when he did not eat with thee? “Mine eyes,” he saith, “were upon such as are faithful in the land, that they might sit with me” (ver. 6). That is, that with Me they might be seated.⁴⁵⁶⁹

4569 Mecum sederent. There was an ambiguity in considerent, as written.

4570 Matt. xix. 28.

4571 1 Cor. vi. 3.

4572 Philip. ii. 21.

10. “The proud man hath not dwelt in the midst of my house” (ver. 7). Understand this of the heart. The proud did not dwell in my heart: no such dwelt in my heart: for he hurried away from me. None but the meek and peaceful dwelt in my heart; the proud dwelt not there, for the unrighteous one dwelleth not in the heart of the righteous. Let the righteous be distant from thee, I know not how many miles and stations:⁴⁵⁷³

4573 Mansionibus.

11. “In the morning I destroyed all the ungodly that were in the land. That I may root out all wicked doers from the city of the Lord” (ver. 8). This is obscure. There are then wicked doers in the city of the Lord, and they at present, seemingly, spared. Why so? Because it is the season of mercy: but that of judgment will come; for the Psalm thus began, “Of mercy and judgment will I sing unto Thee, O Lord.”…

12. He at present spareth, He will then judge. But when will He judge? When night shall have passed away. For this reason He hath said: “In the morning.” When the day shall at last have arrived, night having passed by. Why doth He spare them until the dawn? Because it was night. What meaneth, it was night? Because it was the season for mercy: He was merciful, while the hearts of men were hidden. Thou seest some one living ill; thou endurest him: for thou knowest not of what sort he will prove to be; since it is night; whether he who to-day liveth ill, to-morrow may live well; and whether he who to-day liveth well, to-morrow may be wicked. For it is night, and God endureth all men, since He is of long-suffering: He endureth them, that sinners may be converted unto Him. But they who shall not have reformed themselves in that season of mercy, shall be slain. And wherefore? That they may be scattered abroad ⁴⁵⁷⁴

4574 Oxf. mss. disperdantur, “destroyed,” as below.

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